WOW! What a deal for the Chargers. An absolutely amazing day for the Chargers. Eli Manning has now been traded to the New York Giants (good riddance) and Philip Rivers goes to San Diego. The Chargers also get the 3rd round pick this year from the New York Giants. On top of that, next year, the Chargers get the 1st and 5th round picks from the New York Giants. This way the Chargers now don't have to deal with the aforementioned brat, Eli Manning, get a great QB in Philip Rivers and get three additional players over the next two years. Great stuff.

Eli Manning is a spoiled brat. That's just about all there is to it. Over the past week, word got out that Eli didn't want to go to the San Diego Chargers as the first round pick and he would rather sit out the season than play for the Chargers. So the Chargers have been working hard to trade their pick, find someone else to take, but when push came to shove, nothing happened and Eli Manning has now gone as the #1 pick to the Chargers.

He's stated that he now hopes to get traded and reiterated his standing that he would not play for them. This guy was a good QB at Ole Miss, but he is not a concensus pick as the best QB in the draft and all he is doing now is making a living off the "Manning" name. After being picked, he's just acted like a brat who didn't get his way and therefore isn't going to go along with the Chargers.

What this guy doesn't realize is that this is how it has always worked. If you want to be known as the best player in college football, you have to realize that you are going to go #1 in the draft, and by going #1 in the draft, you are going to go to the worst team in the league. However, poor little Eli didn't want to go to the Chargers so he's making a big fuss over it, which is wholly uncalled for.

I hope the Chargers trade him away. I hope he has a horrible NFL career. He deserves nothing after his actions over the past week. Maybe if he doesn't need the money he would have made this year, maybe he doesn't need to play at all. Go live off of Peyton's millions. Be a spoiled brat somewhere other than Southern California.

It's been hard trying to get used to the "real world." I've been getting up around 6am every day, returning around 5:30 to 6:00pm and then repeating the next day. Training in Long Beach was the main cause for the early wakings (stupid Caltrans has a carpool lane closed somewhere around the 605 on the 91 in both directions as they replace the center divider) as traffic is not too pretty going each direction on the 91. The drive takes about an hour and since I had to be there at 8:30am for the whole week (and you can't be late for training - well you can...but what kind of impression would that make?), I left my house around 7am. Luckily, throughout the week we consistently were let out at 4:45 or earlier, so I could hit the freeway home and miss some traffic, but it was always horrible until about a mile past the 605 (because of the transition and the aforementioned carpool lane closure).

But basically, it's just been hell on my schedule. Wednesday night I went to bed at 10:30, Thursday night at 10:00...that's just not right. Prior to that, I consistently went to sleep around 2-3 am. Trying to shift your whole schedule that far up just doesn't work well. This weekend I want to sleep in, but I fear that if I do, I will be dead on Monday, my first day of real work, so I'm still debating what time I need to get up tomorrow (I'm already tired enough to go to sleep right now, but with a Lakers game on, I can't go to bed...).

Speaking of having a real job, I am now a teller at Farmers & Merchants bank here in Orange county (didn't get the closest branch to my house, but it's the 2nd closest, so I can't complain much). Before getting the job, all I really knew about F&M is that they had a friendly atmosphere because my best friend had an account there for years (he recently moved to WaMu though). He liked it there, but with only 18 branches, it's not easy at times to find an ATM without a fee. But now that I've been there a month, I know just about everything about the bank. Founded November 23, 1907, there are currently 18 branches throughout Los Angeles and Orange county, with three new branches opening up this year. I know the board members, I know the mission statement, and I know more about banking regulations (Reg E, CC, BSA, BPA, etc.) than I really care to know. However, the people at F&M are great to work with (from what I've seen thus far). It's a very tight-knit community as they promote from within and with about 500 employees, it seems as if everyone knows everyone else.

On top of that, the bank president, Ken Walker visits the branches quite often (along with his son - also on the board of the bank), so it's just a pretty cool community within the bank. I'm looking forward to starting on Monday (even though I hate working these 8 hour days) - but a consistent paycheck and some good income is a welcome change from the hourly rates at shuttles (though I am paid less) and the fluctuating hours available each week.

Just wondering how the Michael Moore apologists can justify his call for more American bloodshed just so he can prove his point - just so he can be right...

I'm sorry, but the majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let that maybe -- just maybe -- God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end.

This guy doesn't care about anything else other than selling his books, movies, and other propaganda. As long as he's right and the Bush administration is wrong, he'll be happy. I'm all for freedom of speech, but advocating the death of more Americans in order to prove a point crosses the line completely. And I like how he twists one little event to try and portray our current occupation as some sort of indefinite occupation - like we're making this the new "U.S.Middle East" or something.

The funniest story my guys tell me is how when they fly into Baghdad, they don't have to show a passport or go through immigration. Why not? Because they have not traveled from a foreign country -- they're coming from America TO America, a place that is ours, a new American territory called Iraq.

Maybe they didn't have to show passports because the whole airport is currently controlled by the United States - it's not because this is a "new American territory." At any point when the airport is turned over to the Iraqis, the UN, whoever - I guarantee you passports will be required if you fly into Iraq. But right now, we're still in the middle of a war, and if Michael Moore can't see the difference there, well...I'd say he'd need to get his head examined - but we already know that's the case.

URL: Michael Moore.com : Mike's Message