Yes, two football posts in the same day! Excitement is building for sure (or I’m just trying to get in all the ideas I’ve had for a while before I go on vacation).

As I mentioned in my last post, if you aren’t used to following me on Twitter during the football season, you might be in for a rather interesting surprise. In all honesty, when I tweet during a football game you are pretty much getting online what you would if you were sitting next to me in person: a drunken fan making way too many jokes and using far too much profanity.

While I’m sure that is pretty par for the Twitter course, there are also a handful of fun hashtags that I love to use as well. For those not up on the Twitter lingo, here’s the quick lesson: a hashtag is written like “#NDFB”, and that becomes a clickable search to see anyone else tweeting with said hashtag. Think of it as a quick community search. However, some of my creations and those of others aren’t too well known or are used for pure humor. To prevent head-scratching (and hopefully further use of these awesome hashtags), I figured this post would be a good primer (and I believe the NDAlumni account did something similar…with a lot less profanity and hate…so uh…mine is more fun!).

So without further ado, here is some of what you might see throughout this football season in no particular order:

#NDFB – AKA Norte Dame Football. Twitter needs character saving and this is only five and therefore it wins. I do believe HerLoyalSons attempted to push this last year and if they didn’t, I’ll say they did anyways. This will pretty much be on the end of all ND tweets in and out of the game. Love it, use it, band together ND Nation.

#Cannon – I can’t claim credit for this amazing nickname; however, NDEddieMac deserves to have his genius shared. Cannon is none other than Michael Floyd, whose explosive plays can be compared too…well, being shot out of a Cannon. With Tate gone this season, I expect to see this hashtag appear in jubilation with regularity throughout the season.

#Cannon4Heisman / #Floyd4Heisman – Both are self explanatory. Both are appropriate. Spread the word folks.

#DIAF – This one is more common for anger in general. Stands for “Die in a Fire”. Expect this to be used in the general direction of many referees, Lee Corso, and Mark May.

#Kiffykins – Nickname for the head son of a bitch coach at Southern Cal, Lane Kiffin. Often used in conjunction with his many secondary violations or other circus acts he is sure to preform this year.

#FUSC / #FSouthernCal – Should be self-explanatory. Suggested to use #FSouthernCal when possible as the Trojans seem to hate being called Southern Cal. I know that 140 character limit can be harsh, which is why #FUSC works as well. If at all possible, use both for maximum hatred. May also be used in conjunction with #DIAF and #Kiffykins to send hatred levels even higher.

#CheatOn / #CheatForever – “Fight On” and “Win Forever” are now replaced by these more appropriate slogans for Southern Cal.

#MuckFichigan – Self-explanatory if you are good with anagrams or dyslexic.

#NDFBIsDeterminedToKillMe – This one I can claim credit for creating. Since ND decided that every game past Nevada was going to be a damned heart attack until the end last season, this came into existence. In fact, it’s been extended to pretty much any sports team I follow. This better not ever become trending…

Non-ND Related Hashtags:

#WarEagle – I’m watching an Auburn game. Hey, my sister goes there, get off me.

#GigEm – I’m watching a Texas A&M game. That’s the Texas school that I’ll cheer for.

#SawEmOff – Anti-Longhorn hashtag. Likely will be used in conjunction with me calling Texas “TU” instead of “UT”. It’s an Aggie thing.

That’s what I can think off of the top of my head. I’m sure we will be creating some more fun hashtags of hilarity and hate throughout the season as well as making many ridiculous ones using the name of Dayne Crist. If I left something out or you have your own hashtag genius that you wish to share, play along in the comments section.

The first three football weekends I will be traveling (twice at the games, once on a vacation), so I’m not sure how many tweets I will squeeze in come gametime. However, believe me, I will indeed be very active on the Twitter-front!

Tweet like a champion today! #HolyCornyHellICantBelieveIJustSaidThat

Folks, it is that time again to do a general catch-up post!  I figured now would be a good time to do this because to be honest, I really don’t have much to say about ND’s game this past Saturday against Boston College, nor do I really have much to say on a preview against Washington State to justify an entire post.  However, if that is what you came here for, feel free to skip down to the end of the post for a ND quick-hit.

There are several other things to catch up on that are of interest to me.  The Cowboys played surprisingly well this week, the Stars season is well underway, the Mavs have kicked off their season, the Evil Empire is in the World Series against the City of Brotherly Shove, and Microsoft released a little something called Windows 7.  That’s quite a bit to run through, so let’s just get to it.

Dallas Cowboys

You may (or likely may not) remember that I have been writing for DallasProSports.com on both a fantasy panel as well as doing a weekly article on the “Romo Friendly” offense.

Save for Twitter, I have been doing a really awful job at promoting my work. I assure you though, that I have indeed been writing my opinions on the offense.  So you can check out all my opinions on the offense there; in fact, writing those articles has been the reason I haven’t bothered to say much on the ‘Boys in this space.  I will be sure to actually remember to post here when my articles go up.

Beyond the offense though, I will say the defense is, thankfully, improving from the looks of things.  Ware finally seems to be getting back into the swing of things, and the secondary looked like it could actually defend something as well last week.  This trend must continue because what we all should have learned from the past couple of years is that a Cowboys team 100% reliant on Romo and the offense to bail the team out flat out doesn’t work.

Dallas Mavericks

I went from being extremely excited about the new pickups of Shawn Marion and Drew Gooden to being extremely concerned after their defeat to Washington in the first game of the season.  The main reason being that I saw absolutely nothing different from the Mavs in that game than I did last season.

It was the same old, same old: play small and jack up threes when we trail.  Also, defense is optional.

I’m hoping that won’t be the same story for the whole season.  I do believe the Mavs have improved their team this year, but until our overall attitude of how to play changes (i.e. DRIVE THE FREAKIN’ LANE!), we will continue to struggle.

Dallas Stars

Well, what a difference a coach does make.  While I’m not going to say we are Cup bound, Stars hockey is a hell of a lot more fun to watch this season.  We have a lot of young kids and a very wide open style of play, meaning far more scoring than I can ever remember seeing.

I wish I could actually give more hockey insight than that, but beyond knowing the rules of the game, I am pretty much only able to give “Hockey for Dummies” type commentary.

One thing to watch this season though is the play of Marty Turco.  Last season he took a lot of abuse from fans and media about his play severely declining.  I do believe Marty is one of the better goaltenders in the NHL, but the season he had last year simply can’t be repeated if we want to be a solid playoff team — you need your goalie to be a wall.

Last year Turco turned in 2.83 GAA (goals against average), and thus far he is sitting at 2.26 GAA (just as a reference, two seasons ago, Marty finished at 2.32 GAA).  Much better to say the least thus far.  Hopefully last season will prove to be the exception and not the first warning of a declining Turco.

World Series

I’m going to be very quick on this one: I hate the Yankees.  I can’t believe A-Rod is actually hitting clutch in October.  Seeing Teixiera playing in the World Series is making me sick.

Go Phillies!

Windows 7

Hey, remember those few times I actually wrote about technology in here?  Yeah me too.  It’s really been a while.  Mostly that is due to the fact it is football season and it takes far too much of my attention span as far as writing goes.

However, I must say at least a little something on Windows 7 (as I’m not sure if I’ll actually spin out a full-blown post during football season).  First off, it is nothing like Vista.

Let me repeat that another way: We have a new Windows Operating System that doesn’t completely suck like Vista.

The first thing that popped out to me was the amount of resources the system was using at idle.  Vista was very infamous for sucking the life out of RAM (memory) and processor power by just having the so-called “great” Vista features active like Aero and Index Searching.  Windows 7 has removed whatever was severely bloating Vista as very little strain is being placed on the system in comparison.

So what does that mean?  In short, quicker performance for just about anything that you want to do.  Initial startups are quicker, opening programs takes far less time, etc.

The other great touches that I’ve encountered so far are the, dare I say, intuitive additions to Windows 7.  The new taskbar helps decrease what is usually extreme clutter on the desktop and allows you to get to you want even quicker than alt-tabbing.  Programs/windows open, now group to an icon on the desktop.  Say you have five Word documents open and three Windows Explorer windows open, along with whatever you are looking at on the web.  Well, simply hovering over say the Word icon will open up a small window dubbed “Aero Peek” that will show small window previews of all five documents along with their titles, allowing you to quickly and easily select the one you want to view instead of jamming on alt+tab until you finally highlight the right document you want, or trying to remember the exact window/document name from the old taskbar groupings in XP/Vista.

There are even shortcuts that use window positioning to automatically maximize, minimize, and compare windows.  Want to compare two open windows?  Drag one to the left side of the screen and it pops into place, filling the left side.  Then drag the other window to the right side of the screen, and it fills the other remaining 50% of the screen.  Want to minimize all the junk on your screen and just focus on one window?  Shake the window you want and away goes everything else.

I’m not used to Windows working like this at all — it is almost as if they stole some Apple programmers.

Granted, I haven’t had too much time to really run into many problems yet, but it is something I am keeping an eye on.  Compared to Vista though, this is a freakin’ walk in the park.

Notre Dame Football

Now for the ND football talk!

The game against Boston College was just more typical Irish football this season: play to the level of your opponent and decide the game at the end.  Also, give all of ND Nation a freakin’ heart attack while doing so.

Clausen and the offense played very well.  BC’s game plan was the same as last season: cover the deep play, give up the short passes.  This time around, Clausen did a superb job taking exactly what BC would give him and not force the ball downfield needlessly.  While it made for a very low scoring game, it was the right way to attack them.  Credit both Clausen and Weis for this one folks.

Defense though — oh dear Lord…what has happened?  Getting a lot of tunrovers was very nice, as was actually hitting the opposing QB for a change, but the secondary still looks awful.  Harrison Smith looked lost anytime he was dropped back as a safety, and even had coverage issues when he was lined up at LB.  The rest of the secondary (save for McCarthy) isn’t exactly making major plays on a consistent basis either.

However, the best positive note on defense: Mantei Te’o — see ball, see player with ball, hit player with ball, wash, rinse, repeat.

Final note on BC: can we punt?  Seriously, I don’t think we got a punt past 35 yards.  That is flat out AWFUL, especially since this punters are on scholarship.  This isn’t like Mike Leech pulled someone out of the stands after a punting competition.  Yeesh.

Now to preview the Washington State game…

…

…uh…yeah I got nothing.  Honestly, I don’t even care if they are trying to dip into the ND kryptonite and starting a freshmen QB.  They are awful — end of story.  This game shouldn’t be close.  Crist should be starting in the second half and Sharpley should be the QB as time winds down.

Now will this likely happen?  Your idea is as good as mine.

Seriously, how in the world do I preview games for a team that seems to take a sick pleasure in torturing its loyal fans?  It boggles the mind.

This game should be an obvious blowout on paper.  Therefore, let’s expect the game to go down the wire yet again right?

However, I will not be watching this game live.  It will sitting at home on my DVR as I will be attending a wedding of a good friend of mine (PS: you know you are a great friend if I go to your wedding on a day I had tickets to go watch ND play — in Texas no less!).  So Saturday night, I will be throwing myself into a black hole (that may or may not include an open bar) and pretending my phone and the Internet do not exist as I want to experience the heart attack first-hand.

So if you were looking forward to any commentary via Twitter on the game, apologies, there will be none.  Nor will there be a prompt post on my postgame thoughts as well.

…oh man, prompt posts in this blog…that’s a good one…

GO IRISH! BEAT COUGARS!