Romey's Ramblings

Wide receiver Javon Walker, released by the Denver Broncos on Friday, agreed to a deal with the division-rival Oakland Raiders on Tuesday, a source told ESPN.com’s Michael Smith. The terms of the deal call for Walker to receive a six-year, $55 million contract that includes more than $16 million in guarantees and pays him roughly $27 million over the first three years of the deal.

I bet that this is the look Javon had when he realized that he just sold his soul to the land of obscurity – known as Oakland. Good riddance Javon, good riddance Raidahs – you two were made for each other. Enjoy each other’s misery.

At the start of the 2007 season, I really liked Javon. I really wanted to support him after what happened with Darrett Williams, and was looking forward to him going into the NFL season healthy and eager to see what he could do. I supported him at the start of the season, then when he got hurt really early on in the season. While I did tell my Bronco friends “Man it sucks that he’s hurt”, I never criticized Javon for being hurt. He needed to take care of his business.

However my sympathy for Javon stopped when he slowed back into playing but started complaining about not getting the ball enough and not being a bigger part of the offense. It was obvious he was jealous of the attention Brandon Marshall was getting on the field. I had no idea where this whining came from. What did he expect, that once he was hurt that we’d shelve the offense and say “Oh well, let’s not have anyone else try to step up and score points. We better wait for Javon to come back and save us all”. Javon, you missed the majority of the 2007 season, of course it sucks, but you can’t criticize the Broncos offense for moving on.

As our playoff hopes diminished I had was looking forward to what a healthy Walker could do with Brandon Marshall next season. You could see a Chad Johnson/TJ Who’sYourMama similarity in the offense for next year. All that flushed down the toilet when Javon whined about being in Denver at the end of the season and demanded a trade to another team that would feature him. He tried to apologize a few weeks later, but it was pretty hard to un-ring that bell.

As I said, Walker and the Raiders were made for each other. Let me count the ways this is bad for both of them:

For Javon:

Way to go be a big fish in the small talent pool that is the Raiders. After complaining about not being utilized enough, signing with a team that managed to flush Randy Moss’ talent down the toilet. As soon as Moss busts out of Oakland he becomes arguably the best WR in the NFL for 2007. And this is a good thing for Javon because…
Way to play for a team that has no semblance of being competitive and just taking the money. Granted the Broncos didn’t make the playoffs last year, but at least we contended for playoff spots in December. The only thing the Raiders contend for is a top-3 draft pick.

For the Raiders:

Nothing says “Smart Spending” like throwing $55 million at a guy who has had 2 major knee surgeries in the last 2 years, and hasn’t played a full NFL season in 3 years.
Nothing says “great chemistry” when you combine whiney Walker with malcontents like Jerry Porter, combine that with an essentially Rookie Quarterback and you’re bound to have fireworks on the sidelines.

Well, this will make Raiders games all-the-more interesting. This isn’t Eddie Kennison, but it’s definitely Kennison-esque.

Great 1st Sign – John Lynch returns

March 4, 2008January 28, 2021Jeromey Balderrama

This is a few days old and came out while I was in LA, but I’d be remised if I didn’t mention this:

Image from Denver Post

From ESPN:

John Lynch has accepted a pay cut and will return to the Denver Broncos for a fifth season at free safety after pondering free agency or retirement… [Returning] nearly didn’t happen. Lynch had made his decision to leave, even drafting a letter thanking fans and teammates for his four years in Denver. But when Lynch called Bowlen on Thursday night to inform him of his choice, Bowlen was out for a late dinner.

“And then I woke up thinking, ‘What am I doing?’ I’ve got four kids who are happy here. I’ve found a home here, and I didn’t want to be one of those guys going from team to team. I felt I had earned what I had coming to me, but sometimes you have to step back and look at the big picture. And the big picture to me was: I had to find a way to make this work.”

John, you and your family aren’t the only ones happy. Denver’s full of fans that are happy you’re coming back and kicking ass for another year. Aside from Shannon Sharpe, Lynch is my favorite Bronco and by far my most favorite active player. Not only is he an amazing player on the field, but a real class act off the field and one of the best guys in all of football. Best of all, I won’t need to get a new jersey.

See the resemblance? 2008 we’re bouncing back!

Liturgical Dancing is lame

March 4, 2008August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

I offered a response to my friend Andie’s immediate reaction to LA Congress on her blog when she stated:

Liturgical dance stupid

**UPDATE** Inspired by the comments, I’d like to amend my previous statement. Agreed, liturgical dance is not in and of itself stupid. The liturgical dance at Congress was farcical, but even then the thought in the back of my head was, “I’m sure they get a lot out of this, but I just find it distracting”. Thusly, I clarify my position and apologize for making a statement that didn’t accurately reflect my position in the first place.

In response I wrote:

I completely agree with your amended position on Liturgical Dance, as well as pretty much agree with your original position of Liturgical Dance. I think people look at their talents and think about how they can serve at Mass. You have people who are good readers, they’re Lectors. You have people who are good musicians, they’re in the choir (and yes I’m fortunate that they extend to accepting drummers). You have people who are good at being ushers, and they’re ushers. Then you have the dancers, which want to find some way to use their talents so someone created Liturgical Dance to give them something to do and they feel a sense of fulfillment by dancing, even though it’s pretty much distracting and lame at the same time.

Not all Liturgical Dancing is bad. When used sparingly, it can greatly enhance a liturgy – like when during the Mass Liturgical Dancers are setting the Alter during Preparation of the Gifts. However, most of the time it’s just overblown and basically has the dancers taking advantage of a captive audience. The worst is “interpretive dancing” during the reflective song after Eucharist. The other part when it was completely out of hand at Congress was when it was used for the readings during the Opening Ceremony. The dancer freaking picked up the Word and started dancing around with it, making me wonder “if the dancer has it, what are the readers reading?!?”. I basically lost my attention and stopped listening to the readings.

Sorry dancers.Â What I say may be harsh, and God bless you for trying, but I have to be honest here.Â Just ask the people around me that listen to me groan whenever a dancer starts up in the middle of Mass.

Linux plane interface

March 2, 2008August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

While traveling to LA on Thursday, we took a connecting Delta flight from Salt Lake City over to LAX. On the plane there were these screens in the back of the seats. A veteran of Frontier and the DirectTV system they have on the plane, this was nothing new. However the screens activated and I saw something I found hilarious. This may be something that many may have seen, but this was definitely new to me. I took a picture with my Treo, forgive the mirrored reflection of me and my hand:

If you can’t make it out, it’s booting to Linux, which for some reason I find humorous.

After the system finally booted up it revealed not only a Dish Network TV interface, but also some other interactive options including steaming music and in-flight multi-player gaming. This was a potentially pretty cool system – potentially because this was dog slow and buggy like none other. The touch-screen interface was quite delayed and when I changed between menus it reverted to some static, watered-down display. It was almost like it was having video card troubles. After we tried to access a menu option it took a few minutes to launch whatever content we selected.

Bethany and I ended up playing in-flight poker with another passenger, except he was sitting right next to us. When you have three people playing Texas Hold-Em sitting next to each other, it takes the suspense out of the game. Nonetheless it occupied us for almost an hour and definitely made the flight seem shorter.

The system was definitely buggy, but there was definitely a lot of potential there. If they can iron out the interface and response issues (besides the fact that it rebooted 5 times during the flight) this could be something pretty cool for passengers.

Firefox: Even Cardinals Use It!

March 2, 2008August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

Things have unfortunately been far too crazy here at LA Congress to permit me to do any kind of blogging, but I intend to offer reflections when I get home Sunday. In the meantime I wanted to offer this gem:

I took this picture of LA Cardinal Roger Mahony taking part in an a live chat, in which he was using Firefox. My picture isn’t the best quality, but loyal Firefox users can make this out:

Do you need any more reason to stick with IE? Even Cardinals are using Firefox.