TransGriot's NFL Picks-Week 17

Happy New Year TransGriot readers!  

This is the last weekend of the NFL regular season and the season long prognostication competition I've had with Michael Watts of the Michael's Rant blog as we picked the results of 2011 NFL games. 

It's been a fun but up and down season in which we both have had a taste of the lead during different stretches of the season.  

My biggest one was two games and I got more than a little concerned when he opened up a four game advantage on me with two weeks to go. 

I thought it was over, but I did write this comment when I made my NFL Week 16 predictions:

Upset Sunday was ugly to me last week and with only two weeks left in the regular season probably not going to catch Mr. Watts unless he collapses like his fave football team does.

That loud coughing sound you heard from the direction of the DFW area is Mr. Watts.  His Cowboys lost and I erased a four game deficit thanks to a clutch 12-4 run through my picks while he picked a great time (for me) to have an 8-8 week.  

Translation: we're tied, so it all comes down to this week's games as to who wins this inaugural competition.   

So let's get to the final week of the NFL season.   Y'all know how I roll.  Team to the left is the one I'm selecting with the home team in bold print.    Mike's picks are here.
This it it.  The bragging rights are on the line for the 2011 season.  May the best prognosticator win.

Week 16 record 12-4
TransGriot Season record 152-88

Week 17

Sunday, January 1

Noon Games

New Orleans over Carolina

San Francisco over St. Louis

Jacksonville over Indianapolis

Houston over Tennessee

Green Bay over Detroit 

Philadelphia over Washington

New England over Buffalo

Chicago over Minnesota

NY Jets over Miami 

Sunday Afternoon Games

Denver over Kansas City
Atlanta over Tampa Bay  

Seattle over Arizona

San Diego over Oakland 
Baltimore over Cincinnati

Pittsburgh over Cleveland
 

 Sunday Night Game
NY Giants over Dallas

Bigotry Wrapped In Prayer Is Still Bigotry

This picture says it all doesn't it?  

Bigotry wrapped in prayer is still bigotry no matter how much you.try to wrap in in the flag, come up with specious 'love the sinner but hate the sin' spin lines that don't appear as a single scripture anywhere in the Bible, or try to come up with some jacked up 'Hate Thy Neighbor' conservadoctrine to mask your power grab.

While you're saying prayers to get 2012 off to a spiritually cleansing good start, why don't you faith-based transphobes and homophobes say some prayers asking God to forgive you for bearing false witness against your fellow human beings in the 2K11?

Ponder that on your way to Sunday services this morning, faith-based haters

Oh yeah, have a blessed day and a blessed new year.. 

2011 UH Cougar Watch- Fighting For Respect In Dallas

Being a University of Houston football player, student or alum is a constant battle for respect against the constant sneers of t-shirt wearing Longhorn and Aggie fans.  At times we feel we don't even get it from the hometown media who cover our team.

When UH was agonizingly close to becoming a BCS buster and reeling off 12 straight wins the detractors were sipping hateraid from 55 gallon drums as the Cougars rose to Number 6 in the polls and the BCS rankings before falling in a painful nationally televised 49-28 C-USA title game loss at home to Southern Mississippi.

The players aren't happy about what transpired in the last game they played and are looking for redemption respect and to change some minds about the UH football program.

“We want to show everybody that we can play with the best,” senior receiver Tyron Carrier said in a Chronicle interview. “The first thing people say is ‘Y’all don’t play anybody.’ Well now we’ve got somebody. We want to show everybody what we can do with this spread offense and the type of skilled players we have.”

They are in Dallas at the Ticket City Bowl with a chance for redemption against a number 20 ranked 9-3 Penn State squad that tied for the eighth toughest schedule in the country with Alabama, one of the teams they played, and is a member of the automatic AQ qualifying Big Ten..

It's also at the Cotton Bowl, a stadium with a mixed 2-2 record in Cougar football history.   In their previous wins in the stadium UH top five  football squads under Bill Yeoman knocked off number 5 ranked and unbeaten Maryland 30-21 in the 1977 Cotton Bowl to complete their successful run through their first SWC season and finish ranked number four in the nation.  In the 1980 Cotton Bowl the number 6 Cougars beat top five ranked Nebraska on a 6 yard Elston to Herring TD pass with 12 seconds to go for a 17-14 win and the number 5 ranking to conclude the season..

In 1979 number 9 ranked UH lost a heartbreaking 35-34 Cotton Bowl 'Ice Bowl' game to number 10 Notre Dame.  After building a 34-12 lead, a sick Joe Montana came off the bench to make the Cougars ill by leading a furious fourth quarter comeback over the last 7:32 of the quarter for the Fighting Irish victory.

In the 1985 Cotton Bowl an unranked UH fell 45-28 to number 8 ranked Doug Flutie led Boston College.

That was then, this is 2012.  Judging by what Tyron Carrier had to say, the Cougars are determined to erase the bad memories of that C-USA title game loss. 

“We said it amongst ourselves the whole season,” Carrier continued. “They were waiting for us to fall. As soon as we failed, we dropped from top 10 to (out of the top 15). We just want to show everybody that we can really play. It just so happened that we had an off game. We don’t plan on ending the season like that.” 

“I think it’s extremely important,” said coach Tony Levine. “We got to as high as No. 6 in the country and there were still people out there that were skeptics whether it was the schedule or the conference. I think having drawn an opponent like Penn State, the tradition is as good as any in the country. The season they’ve had, the success they’ve had, it’s a great stage for us to go out and show that the 12 wins were not the fluke but the one loss was the fluke. Our kids are looking forward to that.”

The game kicks off at 11 AM CST on Monday.   I'm hoping they have a better result in this game than the one back on December 1.

Moni's 2012 New Year's Resolutions

The first day of a new year means a chance to take a hard solid look at how your life is transpiring and make some adjustments and changes.  It's also the day that my make my resolution and try to have 100% compliance in terms of meeting them by January 1, 2013.

Well, it's that time again.   Time to continue my tradition of posting my New Year's Resolutions on the blog for all my readers to see and help keep me on the path to being 100% compliant in meeting the goals I set.

Here are my resolutions for 2012

1.  I will make it a point of emphasis to go out more often.

2. Will do a better job of making time to hang out with friends and family.  

3. Will read ten novels from my favorite writers before the end of the year.

4. Will meet and get to know five new transpeople in the Houston area before the end of the year.

5. Will meet and get to know five new transpeople internationally before the end of the year.

6.  Will take a trip to either New Orleans, Dallas or both cities before the end of this year.

7. Will continue to speak truth to power inside and outside the rainbow community in pursuit of trans human rights.

8. Will attend at least one major rainbow community event this year.

9.  Want to grow TransGriot to where I have a 50% return hit rate by January 1, 2013 (currently at 44%)

10. Will ensure that I stay near the 185 pounds I'm currently at

11. Will make more time for fiction writing..

12. Will block out more 'me time' days this year.

.

Happy New Year 2012 -Happy TransGriot Blogiversary!

It's 2012.. Happy New Year TransGriot readers!   

Today also happens to be TransGriot blogiversary in which on this date six years ago my first post went up on my then fledgling blog. 

Six years later I have over 3.2 million hits and counting on this blog, over 5000 posts, a worldwide following, multiple nominations and awards for what I write here and the love, respect and admiration of my blogging peers and people inside and outside the trans community.

But without you loyal readers stopping by on a regular basis, spending your valuable web surfing time reading the posts I compile here and recommending them to your friends and associates, I wouldn't have achieved it as quickly as I have. 

Yes, I have mad writing skills and talent.  A lot of hard work has gone into building this blog and is a major  part of my formula for success here, but you readers are the most important piece of it.   

You can bet that I'll have a lot to say about what's going on in 2012 inside and outside the trans community here in the States and around the world.

Will I write more than 1563 posts like I did last year?   Well, considering it's a critical election year in the United States and the Summer Olympics are just two of the major events happening in 2012, maybe.

Happy New Year!