@Randem

There’s a great little piece on Dumb Little Man this morning about making money productive.

Productivity in this mindset is first cutting stuff out of our life (effectiveness), then finding ways of getting better value for money (efficiency). And since we cut the non-productive stuff out of our budget, we have money extra to go for better value for money deals, even when they require more money!

It’s a short, quick read, but it’s a good reminder to spend wisely.

The Titans win over New Orleans gives me one more good pick, leaving me at 9-for-16 this week, and putting my running total at 27-for-48 (56%). Vince Young didn’t put up a statistically good game, but he didn’t throw four interceptions, which killed the night for Drew Brees. And with Reggie Bush running for 15 yards on 7 carries, I think there’s no doubt left in my mind who should have won the Heisman Trophy and been the number one draft pick.

With a 3.5 game lead and only 6 games left to play, the Chicago Cubs would have to have a meltdown of chaotic proportions to lose their division. Not that it isn’t possible…

Popular opinion among Cubs fans — myself included — is that they’re always great, or at least close to it, so it might come as a surprise (it did to me) that this will be only the fourth time that the Cubs finish in first place since the Billy Goat curse in 1945.

From 1876-1945, the Cubs were one of the dominant franchises in baseball. During that period of 69 years they posted an incredible 51 winning seasons, finishing in first place 16 times, appearing in 10 World Series and winning two of them.

That was before October 6, 1945. Game four of the World Series against the Tigers, and the Cubs led the series 2-1. “Billy Goat” Sianis bought two tickets to the game, one for him and one for his pet goat, Murphy. Wrigley denied the goat entrance and Sianis cursed the team.

In the 61 years since the Curse of the Billy Goat, they have had only 15 winning seasons, and finished in first place only 3 times. They have neither won nor even appeared in the World Series. They haven’t even won a Pennant.

This year, they’re staring at first place. The bullpen is looking good and the big bats have finally woken up. And with Lou Piniella at the helm, the team occasionally even looks like they know what they’re doing.

Over the years, the Sianis family has claimed the curse lifted. Will this be their year?

I couldn’t have been more right about my assessment of Arizona and Baltimore, although it turned out to be Kurt Warner, not Matt Leinart, who almost won it for them.

Brett Favre is off to an incredible start, and I’m excited for him and the Packers, in what will probably be his last year in the NFL, but their 3-0 record is against some questionable teams. Still, in a division full of questionable teams, they don’t need to be great to get to the playoffs.

The past two weeks have restored my faith in Chucky. It’s great to see my Buccaneers rolling over their opponents, and doing it with Tampa-style defensive strength. Strong defense has become an identity for the Bucs, and it’s good to see that isn’t getting lost under the offensive mind of Jon Gruden.

The Lions look more like the team we thought they were, before Kitna’s grit gave people hope for something more. I suppose McNabb has answered his critics this week, but I’m not impressed until he does it against a good team.

Thomas Jones had a big day for the Jets, whose win over Miami was far closer than I thought it should have been. I don’t foresee either of these teams making the playoffs.

I’d say the Texans put up a good fight against the defending champions, who don’t look like the unstoppable machine they’ve looked like in the past few years. After a close game with Tennessee last week, this week’s game should be reason enough to make Indy fans worry.

I have said for the past two weeks that Oakland would not win until they let Culpepper play. Sure enough, he played the second half and led the Raiders to a victory. I suppose rookie coach Kiffin is going to have to make his coaching mistakes and learn everything the hard way (just like he did with the field goal in Denver).

Washington had a chance to tie the game, with a minute on the clock and the ball at the 3 yard line, but they looked utterly disorganized and failed to get a play call in. Come on, Joe Gibbs, you should know the importance of the 2-minute game plan! To make matters worse, they shot themselves in the foot with a penalty and a couple of terrible play calls, practically handing the win to the Giants.

If Lovie Smith doesn’t wise up, he’s going to get escorted out of the building in the middle of the night the same way the Tony Dungy did in Tampa. Getting rid of Thomas Jones and featuring Cedric Benson was a horrible choice. Jones ran for 110 yards on 25 carries yesterday, while Benson posted a measly 46 yards on 16 attempts. Ah, but that mistake only compounds the much bigger mistake of staying committed to Wrecks Grossman when you’ve got Brian “son of Bob” Griese, sitting on the bench. For that matter, let me just point out that I’ve watched these Bears run up win after win behind third-stringer Kyle Orton, who may not have any flare at all but may possibly be the safest of the three Chicago QBs. In spite of the Bears’ defensive meltdown in the second half, one can’t help getting excited about Adam Archuletta’s contribution to an already championship-caliber defense. Keep your eyes on #20, I have a feeling you’re going to see a lot of him this year.

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.” -Virginia Woolf

One word. Fine. It packs quite a punch. I don’t like it when someone tells me, “fine.” In fact, I’d say I hate it.

When someone tells me something is “fine”, the one thing of which I am certain is that the something in question is not fine — it’s not even good, or okay. It can safely be said, then, that the person saying “fine” is not being completely honest. In fact, they’re being downright inauthentic.

I, like all humans, rely on authenticity. I trust people who I “believe,” and we distrust those who I do not. When someone is not being authentic, not being straightforward, I am aware — even if only on a subconscious level — that they are holding something back from me, and true to my human nature, I question what that is why they need to keep it from me.

And so it goes, then, that when a person says, “fine,” it is understood that only ill will follow. In a single word, they have communicated to me that they do not agree with what I’ve said, in fact they likely disagree strongly, but that rather than express their disagreement honestly they are going to accept the thing the point with which they disagree.

The implications are huge. It is clear that the person has misgivings about the point, but it is unclear what those misgivings are. In basically agreeing to something with which they don’t actually agree at all, is this person putting me in danger? Are they allowing me to make a bad decision? Or, is the unspoken disagreement more personal in nature? Maybe it’s actually a good decision but one that will have some negative effect on this other person.

The bottom line is that I don’t really know. The prudent thing to do, of course, is to ask the person to explain their misgivings so that, at the very least, I can make an informed decision. But the damage of the word “fine” can’t be undone. Even if, upon being asked, this person explains their reservations, I will still be left with the feeling that I cannot rely on this person to be honest, or authentic, or to give me information that might be pertinent to my decisions.

If I about to step into a snake-infested pit unaware, I want to have someone by my side who will warn me of the danger… not someone who gives me a smug look and says, “fine.”

Arizona at Baltimore:
It’s hard to get a good read on these two teams. It seems like Arizona is a team on the rise while Baltimore is in decline, and they’re just passing each other in mid-stream. The outcome of this game will say a lot about both teams. I don’t have the faith in the Cardinals just yet, and Steve McNair is expected to start, so I’m picking the Ravens.

San Diego at Green Bay:
Logic dictates that the Chargers are the better, and more talented team, and the past few years hold that up. However, it would be silly to pick a 1-1 visiting team to fly 2000 miles and roll over a 2-0 home team — especially Brett Favre’s home team. Gotta go with the Packers.

St. Louis at Tampa Bay:
After the show my Buccaneers put on, I don’t feel bad at all about expecting them to make a tough stand at home against the Rams.

San Francisco at Pittsburgh:
The 49ers are on their way up out of the gutter, but they’re not good enough to beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh.

Detroit at Philadelphia:
In a classic case of victim mentality, Donovan McNabb is playing the race card and blaming his troubles on black quarterbacks receiving greater scrutiny than their white counterparts. If you don’t stand up and take responsibility for yourself your teammates will not respect you, and they certainly won’t look to you as their leader and have faith in you to pull them to a victory. And even if the bruising Eagles defense knocks Kitna out cold, he’ll still make a miracle comeback and lead the Lions to victory.

Miami at New York Jets:
The only good thing about this matchup is that once it’s over, one of these teams will finally have a win. I think it will be the Jets, but I don’t much care.

Buffalo at New England:
Buffalo has got nothing, and New England presently looks unstoppable. The Patriots will trample the Bills.

Minnesota at Kansas City:
My formula tells me to go with the home team here, but I can’t help noticing that the Chiefs have yet to score more than 10 points, while the Vikings have yet to score less than 17.

Indianapolis at Houston:
Okay, okay, I know I’m going to sound crazy here… but this is a matchup of 2-0 teams, and I’ve got to give the advantage to the home team. Call me stupid, but I’m calling the Texans to win over the Colts.

Cincinnati at Seattle:
Seattle has way more defense than the Browns. I doubt that Carson Palmer is going to throw for 400 yards on the road against the Seahawks. And I can’t see the Bengals defense stopping Shaun Alexander.

Cleveland at Oakland:
It all comes down to who starts at quarterback for Oakland. Daunte Culpepper would rise up and give the Raiders their first win, but since I believe they’ll stick with McCown, I think Derek Anderson will have another big day for the Browns.

Jacksonville at Denver:
The Jaguars have been lacking some fire without Leftwich, even though I think they made the right choice at quarterback. I think the Broncos have more will to win.

New York Giants at Washington:
The Giants defense looks pretty weak, while Washington is playing — and winning — steady football, minimizing miscues. The 2-0 Redskins will hand New York their third loss, more or less ending the Giants season before it ever got a chance to get started.

Carolina at Atlanta:
Joey Harrington has thrown more TD passes to opposing teams than he has to his own. The Falcons picked up a talented quarterback in Byron Leftwich — in my mind, better than Michael Vick — but one who is injury prone. Still, Leftwich doesn’t matter until they let him play, which I don’t see happening for a few more weeks. Even though they look like they’re in trouble, the Panthers have what it takes to shred the Falcons.

Dallas at Chicago:
In Chicago’s one loss, they only allowed their opponent a hard-earned 14 points, whereas Dallas has allowed scores of 20 and 35 to their opponents in their two wins. Sorry, Cowboys, but wins over the Dolphins and the Giants don’t mean anything when you’re coming to Chicago and going up against da Bears defense — even with Rex Grossman on your side.

Tennessee at New Orleans:
Vince Young versus Reggie Bush. I don’t care about the teams or the records. Vince Young should have been the first pick in the draft. Instead the 0-2 Saints took Bush who has produced nothing in the last two weeks, while Young is leading the Titans like a long-time veteran. This is a great matchup for Monday Night Football.

I just caught wind of this in a passing conversation yesterday and decided to look it up and see what truth there was to it. Turns out, there is an Amero, meant to do for North America what the Euro did for Europe.

From what I can tell, it’s just an idea. There is a movement of supporters behind it, but it’s not official yet.

They do already have currency that you can buy, even if it never becomes legal tender, it will still be something interesting to show people.

I’ve been going on and on a lot lately about paying attention to the lessons around you. There’s a saying “when the student is ready, the master will appear” and I’m starting to see that the master appears over and over and over, in the books you read, on the tv shows you watch, in the conversations you have.

Funny, then, that one theme which has come up a lot recently is the difference between reaction and response. How fitting then that Steve Pavlina would have written an entry called Reaction vs Response on his personal development blog yesterday.

Just as interesting is the fact that they topic of authenticity is another one of those things that has been coming up a lot, and while reading Steve’s blog, he had a link in there to another entry, simply called Authenticity.

CheapShooter.com has a new article documenting the seven deadly sins of Myspace photos, which gives details and examples of the offensive photo technique and explains what’s wrong with it.

I know why you do it. From that extreme of angle, people can’t tell from your Myspace profile picture that your nose is that big or your acne is that bad. But taking your profile picture from that angle just alerts us that something is wrong. Even if we can’t see it, we know there is something that you are trying to hide. Taking a Myspace profile picture like that isn’t fooling us - it’s just making us suspicious.

I saw a joke going around by email that had a similar theme, but it was just for humor’s sake. I like this one, because it’s actually written by a photographer for a photography blog.