The Friday Variety Plate

It’s time for the Friday Variety Plate, a column of things I’m thinking about, a few recommendations and avoidances as well as an opportunity to give mention to some worthy things as well. As Friday is a getaway day, there’s nothing too serious here. Just the random things that don’t deserve 900 words or fireworks. I’ll also give my prediction for the Oakland Raiders games that are coming up over the weekend while its in season, and offer you my fantasy football team lineup with absolutely no context. Enough. Let’s go:

• I’ve got one short story and a whole mess of artwork in The Undead That Saved Christmas. It’s for a great cause and could end up going better than 275 pages when all is said and done. That said, the book is being created to help foster kids at Hugs Foster Family Agency. Lyle Perez-Tinics has headed this up and has done a great job wrangling the artwork and stories into something that should make a nice stocking stuffer. When it becomes available, I’ll pass you a link. For now, you can go like the fan page on facebook, which is linked above.
• I’ll be taking a cruise to Egypt this winter. However, I’m not a fan of boats. This video posted on LiveMotion.com isn’t giving me any further encouragement about being on a boat. Watch for the woman slamming face-first into the background post at high velocity around 0:47.
• My friend, Sagar Pathak, is an amazing photographer. He recently got a flight in a U-2 aircraft. You can see the video blog of the account of his flight here. Photos and printed matter are on his blog, horizontalrain.com
• My friend Adam Slade has a book, “A Reaper’s Tale,” and it’s great. I haven’t written my review to spurn his sales along yet, but my instant summary would be this: brilliant and fun. And I’ll write as much here and on Amazon in the coming week. If your a fan of humor, horror and even a bit of gangland-style hijinx, but mostly good writing and fun, buy Adam’s book. Adam’s blog, Editing Hat, is also good to pop in and get updates on his writing, which you can learn from and enjoy.
• I read Savage Chickens every day. You should, too. It’s laugh-out-loud funny.
• I’ll be in Budapest, Hungary, this week. Been there?

My prediction for the Raiders game

The first game of the season holds promise for every team. However, there’s a mighty bandwagon rolling into Tennessee and the Titans want to yank its wheels off. Jason Campbell is banged up. So is Michael Bush. Still, there’s a lot of new enthusiasm in Oakland for what Al Davis did with personnel. The makings of a great team were found in the four games of 2009 with Bruce Gradkowski starting at quarterback. The assets are there. The defense is there. So, the matter of what offensive weapons will show up. Thankfully, at NO point will Jamarcus Russell enter the game. Chris Johnson is the best running back in the league. New year. New hopes. So, right out of the gate, I have nothing to lose if I take the homer card here and just choose my team to win. I’d have nothing to base my analysis on, other than Campbell hurt, Bush hurt and the potential fallout of the offensive guys not syncing up with one another. So, I’ll go homer with the call and do more analysis next week: Raiders 27 Titans 20.

Who I’m starting on my fantasy football team

Peyton Manning, Ray Rice, Ryan Mathews, Bernard Berrian (Nothin’), Marquis Colston (Nothin’), Wes Welker, Tony Gonzales, Mason Crosby, the 49ers.

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