Chargers sack Ted Cottrell

About fucking time as well.

SAN DIEGO (AP)—Norv Turner, of all people, came up with the San Diego Chargers’ hardest hit in weeks when he fired defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell on Tuesday.

Cottrell was sacked by the head coach in large part because his defense couldn't get to opposing quarterbacks, the most glaring shortcoming for a unit that has had little spark since losing star outside linebacker Shawne Merriman to season-ending knee surgery after the first game.

Cottrell was replaced by inside linebackers coach Ron Rivera, a Super Bowl winner with the Chicago Bears in 1985. Rivera will have the bye week to figure out why the Chargers (3-5) have underperformed.

“Probably the things that we have needed to improve in are the same things that affected us in Week Two and so on,” Turner said. “The same things have been an issue throughout the first eight games, at different times.”

Any kind of week-to-week improvement “hasn’t been there,” Turner said. “We’ve been inconsistent and we’ve had the same things happen to us over and over in terms of teams throwing for a lot of yardage early in games, making big plays in the passing game and keeping the football.”

Cottrell was a sorry-ass fucking piece of shit Defensive Coordinator for San Diego, the worst we've ever had, if you ask me. How this asshole ever took Wade Phillip's brilliant, aggressive 3-4 defense and made a group of football payers who couldn't plug up holes against a pee-wee football team is beyond me. Cottrell was to San Diego's Defense as was that former Nebraska coach the Count hated so much.

Adios, fuckface.

At the end of the day

I may have have come to a kind of realization:


Life is going to suck at times. It's going to fling a pile a shit at your face whenever it gets the chance.



The trick is how you handle it when it eventually does.



You can sit in complete misery, mortified that life just flung a nice steaming pile at your face, or you could just accept it, clean your face off, and fling your own personal artillery right back.



At the end of the day, it's about living with yourself and feeling comfortable with the skin you're in.



I'm not into the party scene; i'm not going to be the guy with the crazy stories of drunken night at a friend's house.



I'm not a black prince charming, or better yet, some Chris Brown hunk. I never will be.



What I am, though, is an alt/indie rock loving, pissed-off, eighteen year-old college student from Southwestern College, trying to find his footing, his crowd, and a job for the holidays.



And I got to learn to quit fighting it and embrace it.



I can continue to wallow in self-pity over what I don't have, or I can just continue to be me and every day give a big-old 'fuck you' to karma, until he pays my ass back (which eventually, he will. Karma always finds a way of doing so).



Someone once to told me the Universe was trying to speak to me, and I had to listen to what It was trying to say.



Maybe this was It was trying to say.

Random Questions: Because I Need To Do One Edition

It's been way too long since I did one of these, so here I go with another segment of Random Questions!

- Speaking as an upcoming first-time voter, let me direct my first question at Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain: Sarah Palin?? As your running mate? As your no.2, God forbid something happens to you, should you take the Oath of Office on January 20? Are you fucking kidding me?? You said she, like you, was a 'maverick.' What I see in her is the cynicism the GOP has been betting on since 2000: prop up a knuckle-dragging foot soldier for the extreme base of the party name (the equivalent of a living, breathing bobble-head doll if you ask me) and dress him or her up as good ol' boy or gal, and, just for good measure, make him or her sound simple and stupid, and the American citizens will lap it up because the candidate reflects their mindset: ignorant, and proud of it! In these rapidly changing and troubling times, we don't need another political we can kick back and have a beer with (or in this case, hunt and shoot animals with a rifle from atop of a helicopter), nor can we afford the same kind of incompetent and clueless leadership the Republican Party offered us with George W. Bush for the last eight years. Senator McCain, the fact that you would even resort to this kind of cynical ploy clearly states that you're not, as your slogan claims, putting "Country First".

- Why are these stupid Saw movies still being made? We got it the first time: a psycho murder takes his victims and puts them into the equivalent of hell - survive Jigsaw's sick and disgusting games, and you live. This isn't scary.....hell, this isn't even entertaining. It's torture pornography (the kind our current Vice President probably has a wet dream about) for people who love to watch poor bastards have their heads ripped off by some bizarre metal contraception. By the way: this similar kind of sociopath murderer has already been done before - his name was Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.

- How can John McCain say, after the Republicans have fucked things up through failed economic policies, dragging America into an unnecessary war in the Middle East, sitting on their asses after Hurricane Katrina passed through New Orleans for weeks on end, and expanding the role of governmental powers after the tragedy of 9/11 (the Patriot Act, the NSA Wiretapping Controversy, Guantanamo Bay) that the answer to our problems is......even less government, fewer taxes, and more deregulation! Earth to John McCain, Reagan's ideals of getting government out of the private sector, letting big business do what they do, and the wealth will overflow to the middle class, hasn't worked! The current economic crisis we're facing should have finally put to rest the trickle-down theory, but here you are parroting the same bullshit. Exactly who are you trying to dupe, John? Here's the video that inspired the random question.

Coming Attractions: Movies of 2009

With the 2008 movie season winding down, as a public service announcement, here's my preview list of the movies to see, to skip, and to make your own judgment on in 2009:

The Essentials:
Watchmen (March 6) - At the top of my list of must-see movies of 2009 is Zack Snyder's Watchmen, based on the celebrated graphic novel by Alan Moore. I absolutely adored the comic book and the complex psychological profiles on Rorschach, The Comedian, and Dr. Manhattan, and I can't wait to see if Snyder can do the book justice. Smart money's that he probably can't, but there are a few things going for him: a.) the trailer looks fantastic and b.) Snyder made the insanely cool 300, what strange and marvelous fun this could be to watch him try.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 19) - As fans of the phenomenon that is the Harry Potter books and movies, I was disappointed that our favorite boy wizard was put on hiatus until July of next year, but that doesn't mean i'm less than excited to see what dark magic will be brought to the table. Keep your eye on young Hero-Finnes Tiffin, the nephew of Ralph Finnes, who plays the young Tom Riddle, who gives me the creeps after watching the trailer of him as a younger Voldemort. And Alan Rickman will finally get his due in this movie as Snape. If you've read book Six, you'll understand why.

Ashecliffe (October 2) - Fresh off his 2006 long-overdue Directing Oscar for The Departed, Martin Scorsese reunites with Leonardo DiCaprio on an adaptation of the 2003 novel "Shutter Island" by Dennis Lehane. Don't know much about the movie or the book, and frankly, I don't care. It's frickin' Scorsese. Expect nothing less than fucking magic from him.

Worth mentioning: Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson returns to the director's chair in The Lovely Bones (October 9), a film adaptation of a novel of the same name by Alice Sebold; Spike Jonze's long-awaited adaptation of the beloved children's story, Where The Wild Things Are (October 16); and Wes Anderson's first entry into both an animation and a family movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox (November 6).

The Wild-Cards:
Angels and Demons (May 15) - One one hand, I enjoyed Ron Howard's adaptation of Dan Brown's worldwide hit novel, The DaVinci Code and it didn't fully deserve a lot of the negative criticism it received. On the other hand, do I really sit through another two-and-a-half-hour rehash of Indiana Jones meets long-winded religious psychobabble as part of my summer at the movies?

G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra (August 7) - I what you're thinking: this has 'fucking horrible' written all over it. The man behind the director's chair is Steven Sommers, the man behind the awful Van Helsing, and it's based off another popular toy franchise. Yet the casting choices says otherwise. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (an underrated talent) who was stellar in last year's The Lookout and the always reliable Dennis Quaid give me reason to believe this won't be a horrible piece of shit.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (June 26) - I loved the first Transformers movie. Coincidentally, it's one of the few things hack director Michael Bay hasn't managed to completely fuck up (previous semi-watchable Bay affairs include The Rock, Bad Boys, and the first half of The Island). Somehow, I don't think Bay's gonna continue his streak of producing a decent, watchable movie. That, and he's already dipped his feet into sequel territory and failed miserably (Bad Boys 2, anyone?).

More Unknowns: The fourth entry in the Terminator franchise, Terminator: Salvation (May 22). Sure Christian Bale's playing John Connor, but McG's (The awful Charlie's Angels and its piss-poor sequel, Full Throttle) directing it; Fast And Furious (June 12) - Do we really need another one of these movies? Sad thing is that i'll probably shill money to this latest installment becasue I love fast cars and sexy women driving them. Damn, this franchise knows it's audience down to a 'T'; A Christmas Carrol (November 6) - Jim Carrey as Mr. Scrooge?! Either this will bomb, or this will be a return of Carrey's golden days as a comedic actor.

The Godawful:
Hanna Montana: The Movie (April 10) - No, i'm not joking. They're actually going to make a full-length motion picture based off the rubbish TV series. So if you have a daughter that is in love with Miley Cyrus, be prepared to mark down April 10 as the day you enter the gates of teeny-bopper hell.

Dragonball (April 4) - When I heard that 20th Century Fox was planning to make a film version of the popular anime series, I damn-near wet myself. Then, they released the production pics, then the trailer. The people who made this suck-fest, and the actors who decided to partake in it, should be ashamed of themselves.

Friday the 13th (February 13) - Haven't we seen enough of this crap already? Look, I love Jason Voorchees as much as the next person, but the American Horror movie's track record since the mid 90's just plain sucks. I'm willing to bet this updated version of the mass murderer from Camp Crystal Lake will suck like the rest.

The Pink Panther 2 (February 6) - Can someone please explain to me just what the hell happened to Steve Martin that he's stuck insulting the great Peter Sellers' iconic role as the clueless French inspector Jacques Clouseau for a paycheck?

It's official: Sarah Palin scares the living shit out of me

Out of all the gaffs, the cringe-inducing interviews, and the revelation that she's a certifiable Jesus freak, if there's a final consensus on why this woman should not be anywhere near the Vice-Presidency, let alone, the Oval Office, it's her comments during the VP debate about the role of being the Vice-President.

I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are.

Uh, Sarah? Few things:
1.) the Constitution doesn't say that.
From Section 3 of the Constitution:
"The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate shall choose their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States."
2.) Exactly how is wanting to change the Constitution to allow the Vice President more executive power the kind of change leadership Americans are looking for? We've just endured eight years of a Vice President who's acted as if he's above the law or the duties described in the Constitution!

This country doesn't need another four years of a power-hungry ambition mentality running amok in D.C....especially in the Office of the Vice Presidency.