I make it a point to keep this blog focused on stuff related to speculative fiction.  But today I must make an exception.  As some of you may know, I an hardcore NFL fan, and a rabid NY Giants fan.  And I've just learned that my favorite NY Giant, one Michael Strahan, is announcing his retirement tomorrow after 15 years in the NFL.

*SOB*

Those of you familiar with football may believe he was a primadonna and a talker, and may remember how he often got into arguments with management over his contract/$$$.  But when he was on the field he played like no one's business and gave it his absolute all.  I've been a NY Giants fan since 1986 and I've witnessed Mike's entire career, starting with when he came into the league as a rookie in 1993.  He continued that tradition of dominant NY Giants defensive players, which fans became accustomed to during the Bill Parcells era.  He retires with 141 1/2 sacks (fifth all-time), and most all-time on the NY Giants (although Lawrence Taylor holds the unofficial record here, because the NFL didn't track sacks in Taylor's rookie year).  He also holds the record for most sacks in a single season at 22 1/2 (although there is much controversy surrounding that final sack).  He also retires as the active sack leader.  And if this isn't enough, he was also an excellent tackler against the run and quite athletic, making him a complete defensive end as opposed to just a pash-rushing threat.  He was a perennial pro-bowler, and if it wasn't for his leadership of a very young defense, I don't think the Giants woul've pulled off that upset against the New England Patriots in the Superbowl.  He retires with his Superbowl ring (and he played amazing in the Super Bowl), he's going out on top--as a champion and as someone who can still play at a very high level--and he's absolutely a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

But ...

I wish he was coming back for one year.  The Giants have some young excellent defensive ends and/or pass rushers in Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, and Matthias Kiwanuka, which means the defense will continue sacking quarterbacks and causing havoc in the backfield for years to come, but I would've liked for those guys to study under "Michael Sackhan" for one more year, to help bridge the gap between the veterans and core of younger players on the team.

Ultimately they'll be fine, and Michael has earned his retirement.  I wish him well.  Looking ahead, if Bill Parcells will come down in his outrageous demands, I'd like to see if the Giants can work out a trade for Jason Taylor.  Taylor would fit in perfectly with the Giants system, and could help set the Giants up for another Super Bowl run.  But if Parcells continues demanding a 1st rounder, forget it.

Either way, this is a sad day in Dougland, and a sadder one in Giants Land.  At twelve years and counting, Amani Toomer is now the elder statesman of the team.  And since I'm a fan of the old school Giants defense mentality, I think the torch has now been passed to Justin Tuck as my favorite NY Giants player.

Enjoy your retirement, Mike, and I look forward to seeing your infamous gap-toothed smile as a tv commentator for years to come.

Go Big Blue!           

I'm blogging from my new laptop, my birthday present from my parents for my 30th birthday.  It took a while to get this thing going, because it kept offering me updates and downloads and such, and I kept accepting them, because I wanted to get the bulk of this stuff out of the way in one fell swoop.  I still have to transfer some files from my old computer to the new one, but other than a few frills that needed to be added on (like a wireless mouse), this puppy is up and running.

Man, it's great to join the technological race.  My old laptop had weeks left to it before it died.  Literally, I think.  I sometimes had to bang on it because the screen (or color) went fuzzy.  It had no wireless, was slow as molasses, the cursor refused to cooperate for more than twenty minutes at a time, and a couple of keys on the keyboard were becoming noticeably loose.  It was so fragile that I wasn't comfortable taking it on the road.

But now I'm living sexy.  This will make my fiction writing and my blogging go a lot smoother, and I'll save so much time waiting for stuff to load.  And the wireless!  My God the wireless!  A thing of beauty if ever there was one.

And the NY Giants won yesterday!  And other good stuff has happened this month.  I swear, 2008 is kicking serious ass so far . . .or maybe it's being 30!  

Colts 31, Bears 18.  Go Colts!  I can't stand Grossman.

Enough said.

So it's 2007, and this marks my first blog entry this year.  It's rather fitting that my first blog entry should be about the Realms of Fantasy slush since most of this blog deals with this very thing.  And let's be honest, if I wasn't the assistant editor at Realms I probably wouldn't even be keeping a blog.  Anyway, let's get on with it.

I've just finished organizing the latest batch, and doing the million little things that go along with this.  All told, there are some 316 submissions ranging from 10/17/06-1/03/07.  This is the biggest batch I've had to deal with in a while, so it should keep me busy for the forseeable future.   To those of  you who have been waiting a long time for me to get to your story, and to those who have been waiting a long time for me to pass your story along to Shawna from the last batch (which I did today), I apologize for the wait.  Very unslushmasterlike.  But alas, the holiday season made it difficult for us editors to coordinate our schedules.  So here we are.

It was exhausting organzing this batch, but I didn't mind.  I got home in time to catch the opening day of the NFL playoffs, which I watched while organizing the slush.  No surprise about the Colts winning over the Chiefs, although I was VERY surprised about the way the Colts defense stepped up.  Just finished watching the Seahawks/Cowboys game at about the same time I finished with the slush, and that was a great game with a wild ending, made all the sweeter by the Cowboys choking at the end.  Now I must wait impatiently for tomorrow to root for my NY Giants to beat the dirty Eagles (I hate every team in the NFC East that isn't Big Blue).  I hate the Jets too, but it's pretty cool that both playoff games tomorrow feature a NY team.  Oh, and my official Superbowl prediction is the Chargers over the Bears.

Anyway, good luck to everyone in the slush this time around, and good luck to those going on to the next round.  And good luck to the Giants!

So tomorrow I go to a Yankee game, which means I get to see our new acquisition, Bobby Abreu, in action. Thursday I meet with my friend in NYC for one of our monthly drinking bouts, and after this I must (and will!) sober up in time to meet with my critique group. Then from Friday-Sunday I'll be Atlantic City, celebrating the 30th birthday of one of my best friends.

But wait. There's more. I received a rejection today from Edmund Schubert, the new editor at IGMS. Some of you may remember him as my last interview victim for my monthly Editorial Musings column. And while a rejection is always a rejection, the brilliant bastard did mention that he's willing to take another look at "The Song That Binds" if I tried to develop it more fully. Gee, I wonder what I'll do? Oh, I don't know. Maybe, just maybe I'll try to get this piece up to snuff, so I'll have a shot at being published in a magazine started by one of my favorite authors.

Yeah, I think I'll do that . . .but it doesn't look as though I'll be able to get started until Monday. Then the REAL ACTION JACKSON starts! :)

Today is day 1 of Draft Day in the NFL, that glorious two-day period that happens during that seven month black hole without professional football. I'm a huge NY Giants fan, and they looked all set up to land the top wide receiver with their first round draft pick. Instead, they traded the pick away, moving a few slots down in exchange for more draft picks in the later rounds. The wide receiver went to the team they traded their pick to. "Okay," I said to my pal (a dirty Jets fan), but now they've got some extra picks and they only moved down a few slots. They can still pick up a really good wide receiver. It's a good move."

But did the Giants do this? No. Instead they wasted their pick on a defensive end. The Giants have Michael Strahan (my favorite player) at one end, a future Hall of Famer. They have Osi Umenyora (sp?) at the other end. Both of these guys went to the Pro Bowl last year. They led the league in combined sacks by starting defensive ends. They have Michael Tucker on the bench, a young and upcoming defensive end that should be able to step in when Strahan retires (hopefully not for a few years). Of every position on their team, defensive end was the one the Giants needed to worry about the least. I am so pissed! Now I know how Jet fans feel almost every single year of the draft (although they actually had a good draft this year).

Damn it!

This is a fun time of year if you're a basketball fan. Playoffs start today. I really want to see what Lebron James can do in the postseason. But I probably won't watch too many games. Most players in the NBA have forgotten the concept of team. They're more interested in dunking and making the highlight reel on ESPN. As to the finals, my prediction is a rematch from last last year between the Detroit Pistons and the San Antonio Spurs. These are two teams that remember it's a team sport, and last year's finals match-up between them was excellent. Spurs took it 7. This year I'm picking the Pistons in 6.