After viewing Vote4Jamarcus.com, I’ve been convinced that Jamarcus Russell is the most deserving of a trip to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl.  His impressive stats of 2 touchdowns, 8 interceptions, 5 lost fumbles, a 46.3 completion percentage, and an overall QB rating of 47.2 (Ryan Leaf’s career QB rating was 50.0) speak for themselves.  Give Raiders fans something to finally cheer for and vote for Jamarcus.

Cedric Benson

The former Texas Longhorns and Chicago Bears running back who was arrested twice on DUI charges and subsequently released from Chicago is now the NFL’s leading rusher as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals.  He currently has 720 rushing yards, 38 more than second place Adrian Peterson.  He is also leading the league in yards per game with 102.9; the only running back to have eclipsed this 100 yard mark.  Benson is currently on pace for 1,646 rushing yards for the season.

Do him and yourself a favor by voting him into the 2009 Pro Bowl.

Who Dey.

Simple, profane, and profound:

Check it out.
Don’t understand why?  Well then give it a click…or a hundred.

Below is a link to a website that has a lot of covers of Michael Jackson’s songs. Included are covers by John Mayer, Fall Out Boy, Amy Winehouse, Charlotte Church, James Morrison, David Cook, and others.

http://www.hypeful.com/2009/06/25/king-of-pop-michael-jackson-dead-at-50/

Now I must begin the arduous task of searching for covers of Billy Mays’ infomercials.

Apparently cats like to get high, too.
Still don’t know if you’re in the friend zone? Check out this chart.
Diddy is left utterly perplexed.
16-year-old toddler defies aging.
See how this kid was able to top LeBron.
Watch this World of Warcraft freakout.

Chris McDougall is an avid long distance runner who recently wrote a book called “Born to Run.” In the book McDougall meets and learns from the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons, who because of their uncommon techniques are able to run hundreds of miles at a time. If you’re at all interested in running, you should definitely check out this book; I know I will at some point this summer.

Anyway, McDougall recently did a very interesting and insightful interview with TIME about the in’s and out’s of ultra distance running. I’ve attached the interview below:

What misconceptions do people have about running?
Anyone can do running. Running should be easy. It should be fun. It should include everyone. It shouldn’t be a punishment for eating cheesecake, which is what we’ve turned it into. There’s this kind of war on running — people keep telling you you’ll get hurt, get injured, that you need orthotics, that you need go to a special running store before you try it. There’s this totally misconceived notion that it’s hard to do, and it’s not.

What is the correct way to run?
Prior to the creation of the modern running shoe, people were taught how to run either by a running coach or by simple feedback from their feet. If something hurt, you would start running differently. You’d never, ever land on your heel on a thinly cushioned shoe, because it hurt. Your heel’s not designed to absorb impact. Running should feel weightless. It should feel like you’re floating in space. It’s basically a series of controlled jumps. Then we started trying to trump nature and come up with something we could sell, and what we’ve created are these monstrosities that allow people to forget about form and running technique and just clump along in whatever kind of sloppy fashion they want.

You spent a lot of time with the Tarahumara, a society of master runners who live in obscurity in Mexico. I’d never heard of them before. How do they manage to still stay so secluded, and what did you do to get them to trust you?
They stay secluded by remaining down in the depths of this vast network of canyons. One reason they haven’t blazed across the competitive circuit is because our kind of running is really stupid and foreign to them. We bust out as fast as we can from gun to tape, and the Tarahumara don’t do that. Humans are built for endurance, not speed. We’re awful sprinters, compared to every other animal. We try to run our races as if they were speed races, but they are not. They’re endurance races. Even a marathon, the way it’s run now, it’s not an endurance contest. But the Tarahumara do two things that are different: they run as a group. Secondly, they alternate between bursts of effort and recovery. That’s what’s brilliant about their running — it’s this really smart, strategic combination of fast and slow.

Running a marathon seems like a big deal, but ultra-runners run hundreds of miles over mountains. How do they do it?
I never saw an ultra-marathon until I was in one. I ran 50 miles with the Tarahumara. My stomach was clenching up like a fist before the race. I received the best advice for running I ever heard: “You’re not going to win, so just relax. If it feels like work, you’re running too hard.” I just wish people would run two miles as if they were running 100 miles, because one thing that you will always see in ultra-races that you will never see in normal marathons are smiles. People are relaxed and enjoying the moment.

What did running those 50 miles feel like?
Most of the miles were a total blast. You start before dawn, so it’s dark outside, and you’re all huddled for warmth at the start. As you’re running, the sun comes up. It’s just brilliant. Every moment, every mile brought a vivid sensation. When you allow yourself to ease into the run, as if you’re easing into a hot bath, the sensations come to you gradually. You feel your body warming up. You feel yourself hitting a stride. Nothing ever feels forced. It feels soothing and fun. The only crunch time was the last 10 miles or so — they were a little hard. I thought there was going to be more water, but they ran out. One man, Barefoot Ted, was drinking his urine at one point.

About drinking your own urine — you talk in the book about people who hallucinate while running or become disoriented and exhausted. You say running is really easy, but obviously ultra-running is an extreme sport. It’s very hard, and people go through a lot. Why do you think people push themselves that hard?
A really smart scientist, Dr. Dennis Bramble at the University of Utah, said to me, “Recreation has its reasons.” It’s an instinct we have inside of us. We push ourselves that far because we’re hard-wired to want to remind ourselves that we can do it.

What exactly is the Running Man theory?
The theory is that humans evolved as running-pack animals, that they only way we got food was by running our prey to death. The human brain exploded in size about 2 million years ago, expanding from a peanut to the melon we have now. That could’ve only happened if humans were eating animal carcasses. But the first weapon only appeared 200,000 years ago, so for 1,800,000 years we were somehow acquiring dead animals without having a weapon to kill them. So the theory is that we ran animals to death.

What do you say to people who say, “Oh, I don’t like running.”
I say, Go for a run. Or let’s play some Ultimate Frisbee. Almost every sport involves running. You will not find a 4-year-old on this planet who does not like to run. Why? Because they haven’t been told it’s a workout.

Why are runners not as famous as other athletes?
There’s no money in it. To get on a bike and look like Lance Armstrong, you’re going to drop $8,000 or more. If you’re an ultra-runner, you buy one pair of shoes. Tony Krupicka, one of the greatest young ultra-runners, has worn the same pair of crappy, cross-country flats for the past six years. It’s actually one of the big debates in ultra-racing right now: some of the top competitors want there to be prize money, but the second money gets into it, the sport is ruined. Right now, there’s a certain sense of amateurism and purity to the sport. I was crewing for ultra-runner Jen Shelton during one race, and she was gunning to win, but she ate a jalapeño pizza and pitcher of beer five hours before the start, so at mile 40, she blew up and was retching on the course. When she lifted her head up, she realized that two of the guys she had been competing with were standing there waiting for her. She was 40 miles out in the woods alone, and they wanted to make sure she was O.K. They took her to an aid station, and once she was cared for, they took off [for] the finish line. You get a sense of real camaraderie out there because ultimately it’s about everyone pulling together.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1902027,00.html

So, many people have asked me to explain my religious beliefs and how I came upon these beliefs…well it’s a long story and I’ve never really had the motivation to rationally and logically write out my reasoning. However, I just stumbled upon someone else’s blog in which the blogger was explaining why he lost his religion. While there are a few disparities, this is about as close as you can come to my own reasoning without literally taking the words out of my mouth. If you don’t agree with any of the points, feel free to leave a comment; I’m always up for a good discussion!

Anyway, the original post can be found here, but I’ve attached most of it below:

I was planning to write up a detailed story about my Christian life and the recent rejection of my faith. But my goal is not to build a case to prove I believed in God or to demonstrate how good of a Christian I was. I did truly believe in God for most of my life and worshiped and prayed to him daily. I believed he was at work in my life at all times and using me to touch other people’s lives.

So you might be wondering what changed.

The change was a culmination of things that I could no longer ignore. Faith is belief in the unseen and unprovable, but still requires a foundation for that faith. With the countless religions of the world, I began to question why the god of the Bible is more believable than all other gods worshiped on earth. With the mountain of evidence staring me in the face, my faith began to die.

Last fall, I finally moved past guilt and admitted to myself that I no longer believe in Jesus or the god of the Bible. Surprisingly it was a relief. Not because I wanted to run wild and sin freely, but because I no longer felt the weight a Christian carries. The weight of guilt, unworthiness and fear of god’s judgement. I continue to spend my days striving to be a good husband, father and son. I help others in need around me as often as I can. The big difference is I do these things today because it brings me joy, not because I believe it brings an imaginary god joy.

For those wondering, here is a condensed “Top 20 List” of the things that led to my rejection of Christianity.

1. God is wrathful, jealous, hateful, and kills nations of people like it is a bodily function. He is certainly not just or “holy” in nature.
2. The act of throwing people into infinite torture and punishment for not believing a Jewish guy from 2,000 years ago was God’s son, or unknowingly worshiping the wrong god, is extremely cruel and sadistic.
3. The statements, “God works in mysterious ways,” or “It will all make sense in heaven,” are little more than irrational cop outs. This God allows horrible atrocities to be committed against innocent men, women and children every day.
4. Bloody animal and human sacrifices are illogical demands by a divine god as payment for petty wrong doings. These actions are no different than the rituals of archaic pagan religions. Not to mention the bizarre ritual of symbolically drinking human blood and eating human flesh.
5. If God loves us and wants us to know and believe in him, why be so completely invisible? What is the purpose of being so illusive to those who believe and worship him?
6. God never manifests himself or performs miracles as he regularly did for the Israelites in Old Testament stories.
7. Prayers are never answered. Certainly not in the way Jesus described. Prayer has absolutely no affect on the world around us.
8. Jesus did not fulfill major Old Testament prophesies or even fulfill his own promises and predictions.
9. The authors of much of the Bible are unknown. And of these unknown authors, the men who wrote the gospels likely never even met Jesus considering they were written 40-70 years after his death. A far cry from reliable testimony.
10. The Bible is repeatedly contradictory with itself, reality, and the laws of morality. Couldn’t God inspire a less poorly written book?
11. The Bible is open to interpretation. Everyone interprets it in the way that suits them best or serves their purposes.
12. Throughout history, Christians have justified horrific actions by the Bible and its teaching.
13. The Bible promotes hate and persecution against women, homosexuals and those who worship other gods or no god at all.
14. According to the Bible, nearly 70% percent of the people in the world will burn in hell because they don’t believe Jesus was the son of God.
15. The only reason I was a Christian was because I was indoctrinated into the religion as a child as a result of the culture and region of the world in which I was born.
16. Christianity has no more rational or factual foundation than any other religion on earth that I openly reject.
17. The Christian church is disjointed and can’t even agree with one another.
18. Christians are not at all ethically or morally different from non-Christians.
19. Today, powerful church leaders steal, lie and molest young children. The church repeatedly attempts to cover up these atrocities, only to reluctantly apologize as a last resort.
20. It is absolutely irrational to continue to believe archaic teaching with the amount of knowledge we’ve gained through science and technology. The Bible reads like a book of primitive folklore, not divinely inspired insight into our true reason for existence.

http://thebeattitude.com/2009/05/28/losing-my-religion-why-i-walked-away-from-christianity/

Being that I’m now out of college for the summer, I have a lot more free time to surf the internet.  Because of this I’ve decided to start compiling a list of some of the top content I have found over the past week from some of my favorite websites.  I will try to do this weekly.  Anyway, here is the first edition:

FMyLife.com:  Today, I brought some cupcakes to my class for my birthday, like all the cool kids do. When it came time to sing happy birthday, the entire class said “happy birthday to” then forgot my name. Except my teacher. She said Steve. My name’s Jeff. FML

MyLifeIsAverage.com:  Today, I had to choose between a strawberry flavored Dum Dum and a mystery flavored Dum Dum. I decided to be adventurous and choose the mystery flavor; it was strawberry flavored. MLIA

Digg:  Check out the reviews of this t-shirt on Amazon.com.

YouTube: 

CollegeHumor:  Video of the most arrogant Call of Duty: World at War kill ever.

Fail Blog:

Awkward Family Photos: