immoderate collective

1.To see if Tom Brady will eclipse 2007 Tom Brady with an insane offensive weapon arsenal and Josh McDaniels back at the switches. 

2. To see if Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning

3. To see if Drew Brees can keep the Saints together

4. To watch RGIII try to correct the course of the Redskins, even with the future mortgaged. 

5. To watch Andrew Luck try to make Indianapolis forget about Peyton

6. To see if the Bucs can finally jump to the next level with new defensive and receiver playmakers.

7. To watch the Cam Newton Steve Smith show evolve into its second season greatness a la Breaking Bad.

8. To see if Norv Turner survives a rebuilding season

9. To watch the Russell Wilson show unseat the Tim Tebow show. eh. Forget it. 

10. To watch Alex Smith undercapitalize on one of the most intriguing stable of receivers in the league

11. To see if Randy Moss complains about the truck food in San Francisco

12. To see if the worlds most unlikable QB-WR duo's reunion works out in Chicago

13. Jimmy Graham, Rob Gronkowski, Vernon Davis, and Aaron Hernandez Or as I like to call them, the Monstars. 

14. To watch the Jaguars. Just kidding. 

15. To see if Megatron and Matt can stay healthy enough to make highlight reels and a playoff run

16. To see if the Philadelphia dream team can overcome the expectations and drama and become as scary as they should be

17. To watch the Cowboys capitalize on their expectations with an underrated CB addition (Brandon Carr) and a hyped rookie Safety (Barron)

18. To witness the Houston Texans quietly become an NFL power. 

19. To watch AJ Green, Julio Jones, Demaryious Thomas, Mike Wallace, and Michael Floyd,  force Dez Bryant, Santonio Holmes Randy Moss, Ochocinco, and T.O. to hold an emergency "Is the diva reciever dead?" panel

20.  To watch Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Carlos Rogers and Aldon Smith make you upset every time the Niners get the ball back. 

21. To see Justin Tuck's facemask, Tamba Hali's Visor and braids, and Von Miller's nerd glasses compete for "most defense swag" crown, which Ed Reed and Ray Lewis keep in their joint palace that I just made up in my head.

22. To watch the Bills have another hot start, followed by overly long features on Ryan Fitzpatrick's IQ-driven quarterbacking and the importance of Mario Williams, only to nosedive in October and never be talked about again. 

23. Patrick Peterson's continued apprenticeship of Deion Sanders

24. The boring precision of Aaron Rodgers. This guy has to have the least swag ever, but is admittedly one of the most astonishing QB's I've ever seen. 

25. To see who depresses fans the most out of the Vikings, Browns, and Jaguars

26. To see Ryan Tannehill be touted as a savior, because, what the hell else are the Dolphins gonna do? 

27. To watch Tebow unseat Mark Sanchez and make another improbably heroic run

28. To watch the Giants toil in unexciting mediocrity before they're suddenly in the playoffs at 10-6, and a major threat for the Superbowl. 

29. To see Raiders speedsters Moore, Ford, and Heyward-Bay continuously getting open downfield, only to have old-man Carson noodle the ball 10 yards short of them. 

30. To see if rehab is good enough these days to return Jamaal Charles, Eric Berry, and Tony Moeki to form and make the Chiefs a contender. 

If you decide to read up on the truly fascinating case of Sarah Phillips, ask yourself this question: Why do all internet long-cons involve pictures of skinny white women?

The links below are in chronological order.

Is An ESPN Columnist Scamming People On The Internet?

Sarah Phillips Admits She "Concealed" Her Identity, Made "Poor Choices With Who To Trust"

Sources: Sarah Phillips And Nilesh Prasad Picked Games Together, Scammed People Together, Got Fired From T-Mobile Together

Another Sarah Phillips Scam: "I’m A Writer For ESPN And I Plan To Take Over The World"

Personal branding

I hate this term with a fiery passion. In my mind it's the summation of what is becoming an increasingly dehumanizing modern society. You're no longer a person, but an entity. Instead of an individual, you're a product that should be fine-tuned and mass marketed. You're a soulless vessel of promotion, nothing more.

Facebook. Twitter. Tumblr. (insert any other social media).

These aren't exciting technologies that allow you to connect with people in new and innovative ways. Instead they're tools in which you can market your personal brand and find an audience for whatever it is your trying to sell. (Ultimately though, you're selling yourself.)

And yet, if you want to make even a little income doing something creative, personal branding is inevitable. You have to promote yourself. You have to set aside your dignity, individuality, and self-respect and become a subhuman advertiser.

And that's exactly what I'm here today to do: Promote my personal brand. And to make matters worse, I'm going to ask you to help me do the same.

As some of you may know, I'm currently trying to become a full-time writer. I'm doing this because I have no interest in working any type of job for which I'm qualified, or even ones I'm not qualified to do. Well that's not really the case. The fact of the matter is I've always loved writing and am finally going to stop being a coward and actually try to make a living doing what I love.

A few days ago I signed on to be the Senior Contributing Editor of a new music site: The Beat Geek. (Follow us on twitter @The_Beat_Geek!!!) The site is very much in it's infancy and several kinks are still being worked at.

What I'd like from you is to go to the site, read through some of the material that's up and if you like it, help me promote it. Send it out to the twitterverse, your friends on Facebook, whatever. Spread the work like small pox in the Sudan. But please only do so if you actually like the content.

Also, if you'd like to contribute to the site, I can absolutely make that happen. Such contributes would be unpaid for now, but if the site starts making money that'll change. Or if you don't want to contribute but have some good ideas for features, albums or tracks to review, blog gimmicks, etc, let me know. Any and all advice is more than welcome. 

If you've made it to the end of this post thank you for your time and for allowing me this shameless bit of self-promotion.

So I get to hang out with Governor Michael Dukakis this weekend! Actually, he's giving his state of the union address (not sure why he does that since I don't think he's actually in charge of any states anymore) in San Diego this Saturday!! I get 5 min to talk about Traveling Stories and my story of starting a 501c3 nonprofit! I'm stoked ... and super nervous! How do I get this room of people to connect and write me checks?!!? :)

In my prep for my speech I came across this article. It has some great lines ... I've bolded some of my favorites! I think you'll enjoy it ... and if you have any tips on for my speech let me know!! :) 

A World Without Books by Miguel Syjuco

The novelist Colm Toibin once recounted a story about observing a Cantonese man sitting on a Kowloon footpath reading a book. The man’s face was stern with concentration, his finger tracing the line being read. At times the man’s expression would screw up in frustration at his progress. Finally, the reader looked up at the sky, his face beaming. Whether from a sudden joyous facility with the act of reading, or revelation from what was written, or delight at how the story resolved, it doesn’t matter. What mattered is he was in possession of something deliciously private – a connection between him and the writer, between the real world and that world inscribed upon the pages.

What would the world be like without books? What a depressing and absurd idea. Scenes like that man reading belie the notion that modern advances pose a threat to reading as we know it.

There’s always talk that the latest technology signals the demise of the book. Decades ago, radio was what would do it. Then came TV. And now the Internet. The machines change, but the act has stayed the same. The simplest form of technology prevails – pages printed into a sheaf and bound between covers. There’s something reassuring about such simplicity. Especially when it lets us delve into the complexities of life.

Literature is the story of ourselves, the record of who we are, where we came from, and where we’re going. Non-fiction illuminates the world for us and fiction explains what non-fiction cannot. Through books we first travel. In those wanderings we become best acquainted with humanity through the characters we come to know more intimately than anyone else – whether we love, loathe, fear, or fawn over them.

The narrator in Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet helps me comprehend my faults and aspirations. Holden Caulfield and Harry Potter make me feel less alone. King Lear, Hannibal Lecter and Boromir are cautionary tales for who we could become if we’re not careful. Reading is our deepest connection to what makes us human, and part of a larger society.

In that, books are a comfort. When I was a boy with thick glasses and braces on my buckteeth, books were my safe haven. Generations have likewise found solace in the written world, safety in feeling less alone amongst the crowds. Aren’t we loneliest, after all, when surrounded by others? But books aren’t bomb shelters, they’re bridges – through their pages we’re brought out into society, and one can posit that someone who reads is prepared for the world on a deeper level than someone who doesn’t.

Though reading a book connects one with humanity, it is also the last truly private act in a world that’s become too public. As nourishment for the mind, it’s slow food in a world given over to fast food. Blogs, text messages, e-books, and the like bring topicality, portability, instant gratification, much as newspapers and magazines do.

However important such forms are, they endure only as long as the stuff they’re printed on. The comforts of books: they defy time, break borders, and repudiate mortality.

And there are the unquantifiable pleasures that books alone offer: The scent, the sound, the tactile sensation of what is a cerebral, silent, disembodied task. The sharing of a volume by lending it to a friend. The adventure of leaving a book to be found by a stranger, who will in turn partake in that private journey before passing it on again. The grandeur of a civilisation evidenced through its libraries.

It is important that we work to give every person the opportunity to enjoy books as shelters, sustenance, and roads forward. Literacy and library programmes are important goals for developed and developing nations alike. To imagine a world without books is to imagine a world without thought. A world without feeling, compassion, history, or voice.

Miguel Syjuco, from the Philippines, is the author of the bestselling, multi-awarded debut novel Ilustrado.