That’s My Story

Boy was I wrong.
I thought it would be fun to have a fantasy football league. So eight of us signed up at ESPN with a small amount of difficulty and awaited the beginning of the season.
And it all went downhill from there.
I am the league manager. Not because I really wanted to be but because I took the time to set-up the league.
Before week one I was already being accused of “rigging” the game by Kris. Yet this league owner cannot pinpoint exactly what is wrong with the set-up. My husband was trying to be sneaky and stack his team with QBs since they score more points. He didn’t realize that you could only have one QB per active team.
Then came game one and a small Steelers party at our house. While most everyone was rooting for Mendenhall in overtime, Seth was yelling for him to stop short of the goal line. Jeff Reed is his kicker and he wanted the extra fantasy points.
Kris is still accusing me of rigging the game.
My dad is 0-3. And he is as horrible as a loser as he is a winner. Every week he whines. I should have played him … I should have dropped him. I just hope he wins at some point. Preferably before I have to play him.
At breakfast last Sunday he informed me that he looked up the Houston Chronicle to see what local sports writers were saying about one of his players. He also started listening to the Sirius fantasy football channel. And yet he still loses.
This week was especially hard for my dad because he lost to my co-worker Katie who, in all honesty, has no clue about fantasy football.
Katie cannot remember her login information. It took her a few weeks to remember Brett Farve was her QB. She forgot to make any adjustments before the draft.
Kris thinks the game is rigged.
Last Sunday I was sleeping when by phone went off. Seth secured his fantasy victory with Brandon Marshall. All week he has declared Marshall is his favorite player. (Don’t worry paper towel abuser, he will come back around).
At least there is Larry. He will probably win the entire league since his bench scores more points than my active roster. When I pointed out to him that he handed me my first loss this week he was surprised — he had thought I won.
Kris continues to accuse me of rigging the game.
But the icing on the cake is when I told Seth I was writing this blog today he changed our nice lunch conversation to “waivers went off. I wonder who I got in waivers.”
So at the end of the day my dad is still losing, Seth’s alliances depend on his fantasy roster, “Team Tap Out” still thinks it is rigged, Larry is still dominating and Katie is has no clue what is going on.
Oh I forgot about the Daniels couple. I am not sure if they even remember they are in the league.
And yes Kris is still accusing me of rigging the game.
So now I need to figure out what to do about my injured group of RBs and figure out if I should still hang on to Reggie Bush just in case he comes back this season. If I release him someone may pick him up and hold him. But with a broken leg will he even be 100 percent?
I’ll admit I am a bit of a monster too.
(I welcome any comments, suggestions and criticism at michelleg@dailyamerican.com)

10. Details about your “private” life.

9. Anything if you  have been hitting the bottle a few too many times.

8. Your complete address and telephone number. If someone wants it send a message, do not do a wall post.

7. Fights with your significant other or friends. Stick with nasty text messages.

6. The results of every silly Facebook quiz you decided to take. A few are ok but some people post everything. It is a bit overkill.

5. Negative things about your boss when he is one of your “friends.”

4. Stories about friends that are supposed to be private.

3. Overkill PDAs. Sweet comments are nice but don’t gush.

2. Your every movement. Updates are good, but no one needs to know what you are doing at every second of every day.

1 . Photos of your second marriage when you are still married to your first wife. For more on this visit dailyamerican.com/articles/2010/08/05/recent_news/recent255.txt

I will be the first to admit that I often check out celebrity news websites. But some “celebrities” have no business on legitimate news sites.
These “celebrities” include the parade of mistresses associated with cheating Hollywood.
I read several newspaper website daily. While I won’t name the site I couldn’t help but notice the headline “Blush ‘Bombshell.’”
For a second I thought “no, it can’t be.” I unwilling clicked on the link and to my disappointment saw a photo of the woman who resembles a “dirt bang’s binder from 7th grade metal shop” (Thanks Tina Fey for letting me borrow that joke).
Apparently Michelle “Bombshell” McGee is going to be stripping at a club in Pittsburgh. Why is this tattooed stripper famous? Oh that’s right she was too dumb to realize Jesse James was married to one of my favorite actresses Sandra Bullock. It’s called Google.
So basically because she is a (insert derogatory remark about character here) she gets not just an interview but a question and answer session with the publication. I typically am fond of the work this reporter does. He has covered some real news, such as the Cyril Wecht fraud trial.
Here is an intelligent except:
Q: Tell readers why they should come out and see you at Blush.
A: It’s going to be hot, hello. Boobies and a strip club. How can you go wrong with that? Boobs, tattoos and booze. That’s all you need.
When news sources printing smut like this it legitimizes these “celebrities’” place in the world. Or I can use my less mature argument — Michelle McGee just looks gross and I should not be subjected to see her in a bikini when I go to a news website.
Her 15 minutes has to be up already.

As a college student I studied the media coverage of the Natalee Holloway case — a beautiful young girl who went missing on her graduation trip to Aruba.
So needless to say, I have always followed her case.
When five years to the day Holloway went missing the prime suspect Joran van der Sloot “allegedly” killed another woman in Peru I was shocked.
Needless to say I started following news reports very closely again.
One news report that completely disgusted me was one where Van der Sloot apparently boasted about numerous marriage offers he has received.
According to an Associated Press report the jackass has received numerous marriage offers while confined to a Peru prison. He is quoted as saying “One of them even wants me to get her pregnant.”
I don’t think I will ever understand why a woman would write a man, who “allegedly” killed two woman, a letter proposing marriage.
While every other thing that comes out of Joran’s mouth is a lie I believe he is getting these offers. Jail house pen pals are fairly common despite what horrendous crime someone commits.
My first wish is that these woman who write to tool boxes like Joran would receive the mental health treatment they need. But if they are not suffering from an illness, then they need to get a clue.
There are plenty of nice, single, not murderers out there to choose from. So write one of them a letter.

There are several Internet rumors that someone is trying to sell photos of the late Gary Coleman taken hours before he died and after he was taken off life support.
Apparently the seller is asking a five-figure price for the photos. Some sites say it is his ex-wife Shannon Price behind the morbid sale. Another site said three of the four photos have been sold to a tabloid and will hit newsstands later this week.
Whoever took the photos of the Diff’rent Strokes star in his last hours, hooked up to ventilators, must have had this sale scheme in mind. A photo session was organized to snap the pics while Coleman took his last breathes and after the life-support was stopped. To me it is completely disrespectful to even consider selling these photos, described as graphic. While I am sure one of those junk publications will print these sad photos but I urge people to boycott the publication for printing them.
It is bad enough that someone tried to sell them but the fact that a buyer was found just makes it worse.
Coleman died May 28 at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center after suffering a brain hemorrhage following a fall at his home. The former child star rose to the top and then toppled down. He had a tormented life — please don’t torment him in death.

I am going to take a break from my typical blog topics to talk about something a bit more serious than Steeler woes and mistresses.
May 18 is the primary and for some people in Pennsylvania there is a pretty important race. I am not going to sit here and tell you who should receive your vote I just ask that you at least vote.
When I turned 18 I was pumped to be able to vote, but my interest started much before that.
When I was young, my parents took me to the polls when they would vote, even letting me pull the lever once or twice. I can remember people handing stuff out as we entered the Waterford fire hall — my favorite was former state Rep. Jess Stairs’ maple candy.
As I got older I discovered an interest in the political process and the love of politics stuck.
But I realize now that I may be an exception.
The biggest misconception is that one person’s vote doesn’t really matter. Now I am horrendous at math, but try and stick with me on this one.
In Somerset County, officials are expecting a 25 percent voter turnout which will equate to about 11,463 voters. If you assume that there is an equal number of voters for each party then there are about 5,731 people casting a ballot in each party.
So let’s say that there is an underdog candidate. If everyone who stays home and believes “they’re vote doesn’t count” casts a ballot for the underdog, they would win. (even a math dimwit can figure that one out.)
Maybe the people who stay home are upset because there is not a candidate they want to support. If all of those people wrote someone in, instead of voting for the person on the ballot, the write-in candidate would win.
Elections often come down to a few hundred people. I’ll admit that sometimes I have voted for the lesser of two evils, but at least I made my voice heard about the direction I believe things should go.
So I urge people to really consider voting in Tuesday’s Primary. Educate yourself on the candidates. And education doesn’t mean watching 500 political ads that play between your favorite shows. Research what candidates actually say and actually stand for.
One of my friends considers his political view as “Does it matter ?? Really they are all liars.” And often, he is unfortunately correct.
But politicians have been born out of grassroots efforts for change. If you don’t like your choices start groups of like-minded individuals to try and get new people with fresh ideas elected.
I realize that my writing will fall on proverbial deaf ears to the people that have no interest in politics. But like one vote can make a difference if one person decided to cast a vote Tuesday then it worked.
These people make decisions that impact our daily lives and they should be held accountable. It doesn’t matter what any poll says because the one that really counts is Tuesday.
In Monday’s Daily American. I will have a story that outlines all the contested races in Somerset County. Please take the time to cast a vote. Because it really does matter.
And I promise, next week I will get off my soapbox and talking about something a bit lighter.