Bowl Scoreboard: I'm 0-1

The reason I am such a terrible gambler is because I am 100% a 'heart better'.

You degenerates know what I'm talking about, a guy who bets with his head, not with his heart.

My philosophy is that I'm too into sports to look at them analytically for the purpose of making money off of them.

Which explains my monumental tank job for Bowl #1 of the gloriously nauseating 32 game Bowl Season, the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

TCU was favored by 12 1/2 and possesses one of the stingiest defenses in the country. NIU has the top running back in the nation, Garrett Wolfe, but he's like 4'9" and gained all of his yards against scrub MAC competition.

So who do I go with? In case you forgot, here's an excerpt from my prediction: "Wolfe will be the first back to break the century barrier against the Frogs... it may not be enough to defeat the tougher TCU squad, but at least he should help keep the score respectable."

MY PICK: TCU 30-24

Final Score: TCU 37-7

Total Yards by NIU: 60 (-20 rushing)

Total Rush yards for Wolfe: 28 yards on 20 carries

All heart, baby. You see I wanted the Little Runner That Could to defeat the nasty Horned Frogs defense and prevail against all odds in the final game of his career, before he goes on to be a 5th round draft pick and sits on an NFL bench somewhere as a 3rd string kick returner. Therefore I went with my heart and called for a close game.

Missed it by that..............................................................................much.

Now if I was like my buddy Michael, a no-nonsense pure numbers gambler, all I would have done is looked at that number, looked at the feeble teams NIU had played this year (Buffalo, Indiana St., Temple) and taken TCU in a heartbeat.

Funny thing is I always think of this stuff like 5 minutes after the game starts.

Anyway, I'm 0-1 with 31 games to go, and at the very least I will be providing quality comedic material for my readers, which is the most important thing anyway .

MUST-SEE TV

As I was trying to watch that massacre last night my attention diverted to one of my favorite channels on the cable dial, MSNBC. You know, the one with the liberal commentators, To Catch a Predator specials and a bunch of prison documentaries.

By there is a new series that has really caught my eye. It's called Crime & Punishment and it's like a real life Law & Order done by the creator of that series, Dick Wolf.

This show focuses on one actual court case and takes you through the most harrowing parts of the trial, like 9-1-1 tapes and teary witness accounts, from the perspective of the prosecutor.

It makes for truly gripping television, like L&O without the fancy sets, expensive wardrobes and Jerry Orbach.

A couple of other shows off the beaten path that I have gotten into are Mythbusters & Extreme Engineering on Discovery Channel.

Mythbusters is already gaining a cult following due to its wacky hosts and reality-based premise. Two nerdy scientists, Jamie & Adam, who do stunt work for Hollywood set out to disprove common held myths about things in everyday life.

Sounds boring but these guys really get into their work, and some of the stuff they do is pretty awesome, such as putting a ginourmous woofer in a car to see if the decibels would tear the vehicle apart and finding any excuse to blow something to smithereens.

Other stuff are the type of things that make you go hmmm, such as the fact that a raw egg can plug a radiator leak or you actually do save money by turning out the lights whenever you exit a room.

Oh and they also love to do the "Mentos in the Coke bottle" trick quite a lot.

It's silly, it's fun, it's informative and it's entertaining. Meets my criteria for a good show.

Extreme Engineering is hosted by a goofy everyman who travels to all parts of the globe to invade incredible construction sites. Some episodes have included the building of the beautiful new stadium for the NFL's Arizona Cardinals (fact: the mammoth sliding roof panels travel along actual railroad tracks welded atop the structure) and an amazing look at the restoration of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

See how the University of Phoenix Stadium got to look like this on EE

If you like seeing how things work, or finding out just how massive structures like underground tunnels in Kuala Lumpur are made, then this show is for you. And I know what you're thinking but the wife liked it too, so it's not just a guy show. Mainly it is, but not just.

I'll leave with just one other semi-review. I've just started watching the Showtime serial killer drama Dexter. I've been hearing so much about it, especially with the finale garnering awesome ratings for the network that has long been considered the ugly stepsister to bigger, badder HBO, that I decided to cue it up on SHOD (that's Showtime On Demand for the technologically deficient) and start watching from Ep 1.

If you're not familiar with the show it's about a Miami forensic detective named Dexter Morgan who is actually a serial killer himself. But Dexter isn't your run-of-the-mill psycho, he is a vigilante of sorts, slaying those who may elude the long arm of the law but not the dark heart of vengeance.

The title role is played brilliantly by Michael C. Hall, who was in another offbeat cult hit on that badder net, Six Feet Under. Hall was just nominated for a Golden Globe for his role, so I'm sure he will be on the fast track after this show runs its course.

Dexter narrates each episode and makes no bones about being a heartless killing machine with an insatiable thirst for blood. His mementos (all serial killers have them, you know that by now) are blood spots from each victim he keeps on glass slides in a box hidden in his air conditioner.

Other characters include his sister Debra, who is also a cop; his girlfriend Rita, who is basically a front for Dexter to appear "normal"; his boss,Lt. Laguerta, who has the hots for Dex; and a tough sergeant named Doakes who doesn't like Dexter at all and goes out of his way to let him know it.

Also the always-excellent James Remar plays the part of Dexter's dad in flashbacks, a former cop who apparently paved the way for little Dex' life of killing.

It's a very unique show, like a cross between CSI, the movie The Star Chamber with Michael Douglas and Silence of the Lambs. Showtime can get away with a lot more than CBS, so some scenes are horror movie disturbing, but as the wife pointed out they never actually show the killings, just the gruesome after-effects.

I'm only 2 eps in so I can't give a full review. But after I watch the rest of the season in like the next 3 days (ah the beauty of On Demand viewing) I will give a full review of this intriguing show.

Next entry I will have my Bowl Pick #2 for the Pioneer Purevision Las Vegas Bowl.

Get your bookie's phone number handy.