Category: News

Brett Favre

Posted on by Todd Osborne

For those of you not in Wisconsin, you may not realize that something is happening that is tearing us apart. We are bordering on total civil war here, pitting brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, and Packer fan against Packer fan. Brett Favre wants to come out of retirement and play for the Packers again, or be released from his contract so he can play elsewhere.

The problem is that Aaron Rodgers has already been chosen to replace Favre as the quarterback of the Packers, and we drafted a new kid to eventually take over for Rodgers. The Packers have said they accepted Brett’s retirement and “have moved on”, they don’t have a place for him on the team, unless he wants to be a backup QB. Brett never signed retirement papers and if he wants to come back, the Packers must take him back or release him to play for another team, possibly the Vikings or even the Bears.

Now I can see everyone’s side of this story. The Packers had to make a decision to move the team forward without Brett, and have done just that. Now he wants to come back and there is no room for him on the team. Brett claims that he was forced to make a retirement decision immediately following last season, and takes responsibility for the bad decision to retire early.

Now, for my take on this whole thing, and I think I am in the minority with my choice here as there seems to be a lot of bad blood going around. I say take Brett back, as the starting quarterback, and let him play. I base this on many factors:

  1. Brett deserves it. He was always a solid player, quite possibly the best quarterback that ever played the game.
  2. He is a good guy. This is something seriously lacking in the NFL. He has good morals, is very giving to his community, charities and other civic organizations.
  3. He gave the Packers a Superbowl title.
  4. He is a staple here in Wisconsin. We watched his kids grow up, his wife battle cancer, and the death of his father. He is a much-beloved son of Wisconsin.
  5. He’s a really bad actor, remember “Something About Mary”? We don’t have to worry about him not giving 100% because he is tired from filming a movie.
  6. Aaron Rodgers is a whiny bitch. He is fragile and cannot take a hit. Hell, that would actually be a vote for bringing Brett back as the backup quarterback, Rodgers ain’t gonna make it through the first game without sitting down with a pinky finger injury. Brett plays through broken bones, concussions, etc. Aaron is still young, can learn a lot still from Brett, he just needs to chill out and keep his whiny mouth shut. Dude, I have seen Brett Favre play, Brett is a friend of mine, and Aaron Rodgers, you are no Brett Favre 🙂
  7. Brett has, at best, 3 seasons left in him. The younger quarterbacks can use this time to learn from the master. They should welcome this, not complain about it.
  8. Everyone in Wisconsin loved Brett for many, many years. Do we really want him to leave with all of this bad blood between him and the Packers fans? I don’t.
  9. This one is simple. Who is likely to get the Packers to the Superbowl? Brett, and only Brett. We made it to the final 4 last year. Yeah, I know we lost that game because Brett made a stupid bonehead pass, but give him a break. I mean seriously, the Giants went on to beat possibly the best team ever in football, they deserved it.
  10. Just thinking about how much it would suck to see Brett in a Vikings or Bears uniform makes me want to puke. Seriously, I am thinking about barfing just writing this 🙂

Ok, so I guess that’s my Top 10 List. Everyone screwed up here, we just need to admit that. Brett made a bad choice to retire early. The Packers have to take some responsibility here to since they pressured him to make that decision too soon after the season ended. Brett Favre is a Packer through and through, the best quarterback the NFL has ever seen, he is the Number 1 Adopted Son of Wisconsin, a very good and decent man, a wonderful father and husband.

Regardless of what happens, I will forever be a Packer AND Favre fan. I will remember Brett for the many fine years he gave us, and the great joy he gave me watching him on and off the field, not for how it all ended. If he ends up playing for the Bears or Vikings I will cheer loudly for them, as long as they aren’t playing my Packers 🙂 It will take a long time for Aaron Rodgers to make me believe in him, but I will give him a fair shake too.

Prove me wrong kid, prove that you are ready to take over for a legend. Or better yet, sit your pansy ass down on the bench for another couple of seasons and soak up whatever knowledge you can from the master.

It Only Took 13 Years…

Posted on by Todd Osborne

Hard to believe that an accomplished computer programmer with a flare for writing and speaking his mind managed to somehow take 13+ years to create a blog. Well I was busy, yes, since 1995.

I have always thought I preferred to maintain my own web site (www.toddtown.com) and that whatever I wanted to say I would say there. Why not? Doing that means I have complete control over the look and feel, content, programming language, servers, etc. True, I have all of those things, but it’s a real pain in the ass. Oh let me count the ways…

Hosting your own web site means you have to have and maintain the hardware (server) required to do it. I have plenty of machines around that are capable of hosting a simple site like ToddTown, so that is not really a problem. In fact, ToddTown.com runs in a virtual machine (VMWare Server) on the same computer that hosts my Windows Media Center, as well as a bunch of other stuff. It is a very powerful Intel Quad Core computer that I built myself and is more than up for the task. Other than doing 300MB downloaded updates from Microsoft every Tuesday for Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Server 2003 (in the virtual machine), this is pretty easy. Yeah, I know this is odd, combining a Media Center with an Internet Server, but it works well and I get the most bang for my buck doing it this way.

Charter Communications; Other than Experian, TransUnion and EquiFax, I doubt there is any other company out there that I hate as much as Charter. To host your own web site (and email server), they make you pony up for their ‘business class’ Internet. This is basically a way of getting a static IP address that allows inbound connections, which allows you to easily host web and email servers. You get a little bandwidth, much less than residential customers get, for $120 per month with basic cable TV service, and are committed to 3-year contracts. The ‘business class’ service is no more reliable than residential, with at least 2-3 hours a month of downtime. This is okay for a lightweight personal web site, but I sure could not see hosting a real business site using Charter. Charter has no clue about reliable Internet connections. Hell, they only provide a single DNS server, no backup, so when they are doing maintenance on it, I cannot even get out to the Internet. Of course our phone (AT&T) is also done through this connection, so when Charter is down, so is our phone. The small amount of bandwidth I get easily gets bogged down, which can make phone call quality sporadic as well.

We are planning to move this summer into a real house, one that we own. I am not planning to take Charter with me. I will either go DSL, or if that is not a option, I will have to keep Charter, but will only pay for residential Internet service. I plan to get DirecTV for television, which I have not had for years, but miss. Look, I don’t give a rats ass about the fight between the NFL Network and Charter, they are both greedy assholes in my book, but I am tired of missing Green Bay Packers games because those two cannot work out their differences.

Damn, I knew that would happen. I start talking about one thing and end in a rant about something totally different. Well, that’s what you can expect on my blog. The next battleground here is going to be about credit scores and credit reporting agencies, and the education I have (involuntarily) received in the last several weeks.