Are You Ready For Some Football?

I am.

But are we going to have a season this year?

Am I going to win my Fantasy Football League again this year?

More importantly, who's up for starting a blogger's fantasy league??  That is, if we have a season...

According to NBC sports the lockout is almost over, but I'm still not convinced.  Both sides are still taking hard stances, and both sides need to get over themselves and be less greedy.  I would like to see the minimum yearly salary raised to $600k a year, and the maximum yearly salary lowered down to $3 million a year.  This would still be grossly overpaid, but cut personnel costs down 65%.  Then, owners would be able to pay non-player personnel more livable wages, cut overall ticket prices drastically, and still let them make insane profits.

We are almost getting into preseason time.  How are teams supposed to shake off the rust?  Granted, I'm a Panthers fan and we have a LOT of rust to shake off, but I'd still like to see them play 16 games (even if they end up losing 15 of them...)

Bring on the football.  My Sundays are boring.

Dear Netflix: OH NO YOU DI'INT!!!

Like over 24 million of you, I have Netflix and have enjoyed it for over 2 years.  I love the DVD's but primarily use the streaming feature.  Being able to watch movies, television shows, and obscure B-movie boob-fests make me smile.

I watch Doctor Who.  I watch Bebe's Kids.  SNL.  Comedy routines.  All the old 007 movies.  All thanks to Netflix.

Now, I'm shopping around.  Netflix has pissed me off.

Like the other 24+ million, I recently received an email regarding a change to their pricing structure.  This is either the 2nd or 3rd change to their program since the beginning of the year, and this is the straw that broke this camel's back:

$1 a month price hike?  That I can understand.  $2?  Pushing it, but ok.  Service is good, and the variety makes up for the higher price.

$5 a month?  An extra $60 a year?  I'm sorry, for that extra price I better get something else for my money.  Something 'above and beyond' like a hand job or a free puppy.  (or puppies that give happy endings?  too far?)

In my opinion, this is pure greed.  The change is going into effect on September 1st, so at this point I'm looking at August 31 as my last day with my current Netflix plan.  Will I go to streaming only?  Reduce down to only 1 DVD at a time?  Or will I just give them the goodbye finger, and move to blockbuster?  Hulu?

Time will tell.  All I know right now is the blowback from consumers is getting fierce.  Twitter was buzzing all night Tuesday night, and bloggers (including yours truly) are foaming at the mouth.

Bad move, Netflix.  Bad move.  I hope you see a mass exodus, and I hope your competition comes out with a smokin "FUCK YOU" deal.  I'll be laughing as I take my business elsewhere.  For me, I'll be marking 8/31 on my calendar as "Byebye Netflix Day."