The Final Four

Final 4 is on this weekend! George Mason vs Florida and LSU vs UCLA. Should be two great games. I think Florida has a better chance of winning, but I will be rooting hard for the George Mason Patriots. So awesome to see a mid-major team doing so well. Go Patriots!!

As far as the other game, I will be rooting for LSU because they aren't from Cali lol.

Watch the games on Saturday, you won't be dissapointed.

Poem 2

A dumb emo poem I wrote a while ago. "Just remember kids: It's down the road not across the street." Anyways lol, you can also read this at poetry.com:

Guilt

Night is falling.
Bats are flitting overhead.
The sky is bright orange.
But slowly fading to black.
I stand outside.
Alone.
And think about my day.
The light reflects my heart.
Dark.
I am loaded with guilt.
For what I have done.
Tomorrow I will try harder.
Tomorrow will be a better day.

Michael F Schaffer
Copyright ©2006 Michael Schaffer

Keyshawn Johnson

There are rumors floating around the NFL that Keyshawn Johnson, loudmouth wide receiver most recently of the Dallas Cowboys, is interviewing with my New York Football Giants this week. Now his attitude problems aside, KJ is a good player. But the Giants already have a receiver with an attitude on the field; one Plaxico Burress.

Now Buress has been suprisingly well behaved so far in his Giants career, but Giants fans I'm sure remember that temper tantrum he threw on the sideline at the end of the season when he thought he wasn't getting enough catches. Put Keyshawn opposite him and there are just not enough pass receptions to go around.

Not to mention the fact that the Giants already have a very good second recevier in Amani Toomer. He's a reliable target who has kind of been ignored since Burress came to town. I remember one play where Amani was running wide open, unopposed toward the endzone, and Manning with his seemingly one track line of site threads it in to Plaxico for a short gain. While I'm glad that Eli and Burress seem to have a pretty good QB/WR connection, it seems to be coming at Toomer's expense.

If the Giants do sign Johnson it will be interesting and definately give the New York sportswriters an infinite number of sound bites and side stories, but overall I don't see it working. They will both be whining about not getting enough catches, Toomer will be a reliable number three not getting any catches and overall the team will be worse off. But I guess we will find what happens...

Cya next time.

Poem

Here is a poem I wrote a few years ago. It won an International Poetry Association Award. You can view it on poetry.com as well. It was inspired from movies and stories about the Vietnam War:

War

Dying, screaming in despair
People bleeding, I don't care
Death surrounds me, living hell
Am I dead too, I cannnot tell

Murder, violence, chaos, fear
Tortured cries are all I hear
The more they die the more I see
The only one I trust is me

Rotting corpses, blood and gore
Nothing else exists but war
How long will this horror spread
Till all are broken, maimed and dead

Eyes burned out, skin peeled away
Earth grows sicker every day
This carnage sears into my brain
I feel myself going insane

Michael F Schaffer
Copyright ©2006 Michael Schaffer

Another one.

Another dumb story from the old page. This looks to be about it from what I had saved. So many more things on there that are gone...oh well. Here it is:

Jan 2004
One night I was working at my pizza delivery job in Albany. It was dark and pretty cold. I was driving down Western Avenue toward downtown. As I got closer to a Stewarts convienence store on my left I could see that there were about 3-4 cop cars around it with lights flashing and cops everywhere. I rolled up to the red light next to the store and saw guys being pushed up against the wall and being cuffed.

All of a sudden a guy sprints across the street from behind a building and runs right in front of me. I was the only car stopped at the light. I watched him run across the street and noticed he was wearing all black. And he was wearing a ski mask. He stopped right in front of my car and stared at me. I was staring back at him and noticed he was holding a gun too. I was like oh crap and started ducking down behind the steering wheel. But then one of the cops yelled and started running toward him. So he took off into the lot on the other side of the street and the cops chased after him.

The light turned green and I drove off cause I was in a rush to make the delivery, else I woulda talked to the cop. Not that I coulda told him anything about the guy.

Eagles vs Pats

Another post from the old blog. I wrote it the week before the Eagles v Patriots Superbowl 2 years ago:

First off let me say I am a NY Giants fan. So I am supposed to hatethe Philadelphia Eagles. But I'm rooting for the Eagles to win the Super Bowl. Why? For a couple reasons.

First, the Patriots are from Boston. Ya, I know they are the "NewEngland" Patriots, but basically they are from Boston. I don't like Boston teams. The Red Sox completely embarressed my beloved yankees and won the World Series. They always seem to beat the Jets. Boston is becoming the new city of champions.I don't want a Boston team to win another championship ever! I hate Boston teams.

Secondly enough is enough. The Pats have won the last 2 out of 3 Superbowls including last year. Time to get some new blood. I'm nottaking anything away from them, they certainly fight their way there.But lets have someone else win this year.

Thirdly, I'm a big Donovan McNabb fan. I liked him when he was atSyracuse and I've been following his NFL carreer. I get to watch himevery time the Eagles play my Giants (although lately he's been destroying them). But he's a likable guy, seems to be a decent guy and he's a great player. And he's come so close the last couple years.I want to see Donovan win the Superbowl.

With that said, realistically I will be amazed if the Pats don't win.Tom Brady is amazing. I got to see the guy play at the Syracuse Domewhen he was in college playing for Michigan (I also a U of M fan), andI knew he was going to be a great NFL quarterback.

And the funny thing is, people keep picking against them. "Oh, they have a depleted secondary, oh their due for a loss, yadda yadda yadda.Face it, all the do is win. Brady and his boys have never lost a playoff game. Ever. And their is no reason to think they won't win thisone. NOt to mention the coach Bill Bellicheck who seems to have a playfor every situation.

So I say go Ealges, but I'm picking the Patriots. The only good thing about them losing will be the look on TO's face after the loss. I'llbet he won't be mouthing off after this game. Although with that dude,who knows.

Albany makes a statement!

ESPN.COM Article: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=264000016

A 23 point underdog at game time, UAlbany led at half time!!! Uconn was completely stunned. What a game! Even though the lost by only 11, UConn had to give it everything they had just to beat the Danes. 7 years in D1, first year winning their conference, and we get this awesome game from Albany's basketball team.

It was a tremendous effort, a great game and I have high hopes for next year. Congrats to my college University at Albany for a magical season!

Hey, it could happen.

In the big game this Friday night between the University
at Albany and UConn, Albany is a 22 1/2 point underdog!
And if you think that's bad, get this. The Vegas odds on
the game are 10,000 to 1 against Albany! No that's not a
typo. 10,000 to 1.

You better believe I'm putting 20 bucks on Albany in
this game. I'm sure Albany will lose and I'll be out 20
bucks and say oh well. But just think if the impossible
were to happen and they won. I would get $200,000.00!!!

I know it's ridiculous to even entertaining the idea
that Albany will win, but hey, 10,000 to 1 is alot
better odds that the lottery lol. GO DANES!

Another story.

Another one of the posts from the old defunct blog:

Oct 04
It was lunch time so I went to Key Bank in Schenectady to deposit my pay check. It was a chilly fall day but nice and sunny. I went into the bank and walked toward the little maze of rope that leads up to the register. As I was walking toward the front an old lady who I hadn't noticed (she was standing at the very back of the line) yelled, "I'm in front, your in back. I'm in front, your in back." So I laughed to myself, said sorry and moved behind her in line. She was dressed in typical old lady gear: old lady shoes, hankerchief on her head, big sunglasses, coat, big purse, umbrella (even though it was sunny). She looked to be in her 70s.

I was waiting there about 30 seconds when she turns around and said, "This city is going to hell! I just had me scarf stolen. Stolen right off me by some black!." I said nothing but tried to look sympathetic. As she was saying this a middle aged black man is walking up in line behind me. I was thinking oh boy, this could get ugly. I got a look at the guy, he had graying hair, kinda ratty clothes and trenchcoat which were probably nice at one time. He looked kinda glazed over, I'm pretty sure he was on something. Then the old lady turns again and says, "Those blacks are overrunning the country, those blacks are everywhere! We need to kick them all out! Where do they come from anyway?". I was at a loss on what to do so I said, "Who?" She said, "The blacks of course, who do you think I'm talking about. They are a plauge." I just looked at her and said nothing, so she turned away. All the while this black guy is standing right behind me, so I made a show of shaking my head in disgust at her."

Then the guy taps me on the shoulder so I turn around. He looks at me all glazed over and yells, "THE ENGLISH COMMANDMENT!" I was like, "I'm sorry?". He says,"You know it's hard living in a big mansion when you don't know where your next meal is coming from. It's really really hard, people don't realize that. THE ENGLISH COMMANDMENT, THE ENGLISH COMMANDMENT!" I was thinking, man can this get any wierder. Then he started muttering to himself and kind rocking back and forth. Keep in mind I'm right in between these two nut jobs. Then the old lady goes up to the register, sets her umbrella on the counter, turns to the black guy and says, "This is MY umbrella so don't steal this too." He looks at her and says, "The English Commandment". Thankfully then it was my turn to go up to the other register.

I go there and the lady at the counter is looking at me like, this is unbelievable. Meanwhile, the whole time the black guys is rambling on about the english commandment and how hard it is to live in mansions with no food, and the old lady is telling the other woman at the counter what a scourge blacks are while she does her best to ignore her. Just as I'm finishing up my biz the black guy yells out, "Can I exchange dollars for euros here? I need to get home!". The lady at the counter says, "I'm sorry, no." The guy gets this puzzled look on his face, thinks for a few seconds and yells "THE ENGLISH COMMANDMENT!" At that I almost burst out laughing the whole thing is so ridiculous.

As I'm leaving the old lady gets her stuff done about the same time, turns to the black guy and says, "Well you didn't steal this but I'm sure you'll steak something else." He just keeps rocking back and forth staring at her with glazed eyes and says nothing. She starts muttering under her breath about black people again. I was done, so I gave the lady at the counter a thank you and got out of there. Crazy.

They are not all gone

Good news. Well kind of. I saved some of the stuff from the old blog so luckily I didn't lose everything. Some of it will never be recovered. I will start posting the stuff I salvaged from the old page. Beginning with this true story:

December 2004

My boss sent me down to Philly with a vanload of metal parts so we could finish a store. The deadline was the next day and there was nobody else avaliable so he sent me. Ooo boy. I had just gotten back from NJ the same day so I was already tired but whatever, it had to be done. So I got in around 10pm, got a hotel room and showed up at 7 am the next day (Tues).

I stayed there all day doing misc jobs, cutting metal, tearing down walls, etc. Around 1 pm the foreman Steve asked if he could borrow the rental van to go get some tile since he was having problems with his truck. I was like sure, no problem (he's the boss) and he takes off. About half an hour later I was eating lunch when my boss back in Albany calls and says that Steve has been in an accident is looking for me.

I met up with Steve and he was frantic. "Dude, some guy backed into me at the tile store. The accident was totally his fault, but my license is suspended."I was like oh gee you gotta be kidding me. This is a mess. Then he says, "You gotta tell the cop you were driving, nothing will happen to you it was the other guys fault." I told him no way am I doing that, if for no other reason than the insurance hike I would get. He kept pleading with me and we jumped in the van to head back to the accident.

As were driving there I find out that the van was only registered to be driven in the state of NY and only by my boss. So now I'm really worried and Steve is going on about how he dosen't want to go to jail, please tell the cop I was driving, he cant afford a lawyer, blah blah blah. Now I know I'm not going to get in trouble for this idiot but I don't want to see him go to jail either.

We get to the tile store and Steve and I get out of the car. The cop is furious because Steve left the scene of the accident. He starting ranting about that and asked who was driving the vehicle because whoever it was was in big trouble. Steve immediatley tells him it was me. The cop says "Give me your license and registration." I just stood there and said nothing, then went to the car and got the rental form and handed it to the cop. He says, "This van is only registered to be driven in NY by D my boss. Are you D?" I say no. Steve meanwhile is yammering on, we didn't know, Mike was driving, blah blah. The cop is getting madder and madder at me and I'm getting really pissed at Steve.

Finally the cop yells at me, "Give me your license now!" The old Italian guy who hit the van says, "This kid wasn't driving, it was the other guy. This isn't his fault." Steve says, "No no, the kid was driving, not me." Just looking out for myself, not caring at all that he's getting me in big trouble. I'm starting to get reall mad at this guy. The cop is just yelling now, "What is going on, give me your license!"

I've had it. This guys Steve dosn't give a crap about me and is trying to send me to jail to save his own butt. The old guy is looking at me shaking his head like "don't let this guy do this to you." So I look at Steve and say "I'm not going to jail for you. I've had it." I turn to the cop and say,"Sir, I wasn't driving, he was. This other guy knows it. I didn't speak up at first because I didn't want to get my friend in trouble because I just found out his license is suspended. I drove the van down from NY. I'm an employee of the company, I didn't know anything about the registration. I'm sorry for all this trouble. Here is my license."

Now the cop is livid. He jumps out of the car, cuffs both of us, stand us against the wall and says, "That's it, your both going to jail." He gets Steves ID and gets back in the car. I am furious at Steve now. Were standing there in silence as the cop talks on his radio and checks our IDs. Steve says, "You ok?" I glared back at him and say, "I don't feel like going to jail today." He starts talking, it's not your fault, you'll get off with nothing, don't worry. I'm like, he said we are going to jail! He's furious. You screwed me over! Just shut up!"

Then the old guy in the other car comes over and says to me, "I see what's going on here. It's not right, you did nothing wrong. I'll talk to the cop." The cop comes out and starts yelling, "You guys are in big trouble, I don't like being jerked around, you'll be spending time in jail." The old guy says, "Sir let me talk to you for a minute." So he and the cop talk in a low voice for a few minutes. Every so often the cop raises his voice and says something like, "Ya, but they lied to me."

Then finally he comes over and says, "The only reason I'm letting you two go is becuase this gentleman spoke up for you and because it's the holidays. If I ever see either of you again, I'm arresting both of you." Then I say, "Excuse me officer, may I say something?" He snaps, "What?" I say, "Sir I didn't speak up right away but I never lied to you at all. I was just very confused as to what to do but in the end I told you the truth." He just glared at me, then comes over, uncuffs us and says, "Your both free to go."

Steve is nearly shaking with relief and thanks the officer profusely. The old guys looks at him and says in his Italian accent, "never lie to a cop." I shake his hand and tell him thanks for speaking up. He says, "It's ok." We jump in the van and drive away.

Now Steve is trying to be my best friend. He's saying stuff like, we were so lucky, thank the Lord, we didn't even get a ticket, just talking nervously as fast as he can. I just told him to be quiet, I don't want to hear him talk. He's like hey man everything worked out, I'll buy you lunch, just talking and talking. When we got back I just stared at him disgustedly while he talked away.

The next day I showed up at the site. He was very buddy buddy with me when he saw me, but went out of his way to avoid me.

So in the end it worked out, nothing happened and I didn't go to jail even though I never did anything to begin with.

Steve has since been fired for drug abuse and been admitted to a rehab clinic.

First post.

Hi and welcome to my new blog. I will be adding to,
tweaking and improving this as time goes on.

My old blog was part of my Myspace page.
That has been deleted for reasons known to
some of you reading this. As unhappy as I was about the
events surrounding that, I was
even more unhappy when I realized that I lost
all the posts in my blog along with it (since
it was part of my Myspace account). Several
years worth of writings and stories down the
dumper. I am going to do a little more checking
around to see if they are stored anywhere or
if I can get them back, but they are most
likely gone forever.

That being said, I am going to try to do a
better job of updating this blog regularly. I
am really going to try to keep up with the
sports stuff in particular.

On another note, congrats to my Alma Mater the University at
Albany, NY for winning the America East
Conference Tournament, and earning their first
NCAA Hoops Tournament birth in the school's
history last Saturday. The bad part is that now
they get to play #1 ranked UConn in the first round .
Oh well, GO DANES!!! lol.

Game time is Friday March 17th - 7:25 PM Eastern on CBS.

Cya next time.