So apparently the internet is nothing but Facebook and Twitter now.  Of course, I refuse to use Facebook, but whatever.

I tell you what.  If China weren't so protective of its internet and the citizens usage thereof, Tencent and the QQ brand would take over the world.  Facebook and mobile-centric social networking is such a gigantic step backwards from feature filled instant messengers.  If Tencent were allowed to and capable of providing ALL of their services globally, Facebook would surely be destroyed.

I'll try to sum up the entire QQ brand here just to put this into perspective.

QQ - Instant messenger with insane amount of features
* QQ Show - A flash based avatar service with stuff you can pay for
* VIP - Pay for privileges like special QQ Show avatars and ability to upload video to QQ Zone.

QQ Mail - Generic email services

QQ Music - Music player with streaming services so that you can essentially play music at will

QQ Zone - Blogging and status updates and access to QQ Games

QQ Games - The branding for the entirety of Tencent made and branded games
* QQ Farm - It's like Farmville but not.  Includes more stuff you can pay for.
** QQ Farm - Gardening part of the game.
** QQ Pasture - Raise animals and such.
** QQ Workshop - Make seeds and animals and backgrounds for your farm and pasture.
** QQ Restaurant - A game where you can use fruits and shit you grow to make food.

QQ Doctor - An antivirus and firewall suite which is essentially a frontend to other programs.

QQ Downloader - Download manager with built in eMule and torrent support.

And probably some other crap I forgot.

That was a horrific way to end what was previously a good season.  The defense played its brains out and the offense played with all of the pride and aptitude of a wet paper bag in a New York City sewer drain.  Doing the math, I determined we must have had no more than 40 plays the entire game.  Pitiful.  But that's what overachieving teams do.  They lose to good teams in dumb ways.

The bright side, this team made it to the playoffs (via division title) with a broken offense.  Obviously, there's some work to do, but it looks bright for the future.


Now then.  About schedule.

A lot of fans of other teams, particularly AFC West teams, like to talk about weak schedule and that.

1) All four teams in a division share 14 of 16 games.
Each division plays against a conference division, a non-conference division, their own division twice, and two conference opponents from the other two divisions that had the same rank.  Perhaps this is substantial as it is two games, but it doesn't reflect the entirety of a schedule.

Furthermore, as it applies to next year's schedule, that means that the "tough" Chief's schedule mostly applies to the other AFC West teams as well.  AFC West plays AFC East and NFC North next year.  That means the extra two games are:
Chiefs -- Steelers, Colts
Chargers -- Ravens, Jaguars
Raiders -- Browns, Texans
Broncos -- Bengals, Titans

Yep.

2) AFC West played against the NFC West.
Unarguably the worst division in the NFL this year, the NFC West managed to rack up wins against every AFC West team except the Chiefs.  If the schedule was so weak, then how come the other AFC West teams didn't fare better?  You can't have it both ways.  Either the schedule wasn't that easy, or the Chiefs are the better team by far.

Worth noting is that the NFC South also played the NFC West.  Perhaps having a punching bag team twice and a punching bag division is why that division was so strong.  "Here, have 6 free wins."


In summary, the season is over.  Here's to hoping next season is even better.

The theme to 2008 was failure.  Everything went wrong that could and the result was a pathetic year which most people were glad to see come to an end.

2009 was more of the same.  Nothing improved.  It was so boring, Kanye West was the highlight.

So what did I learn in 2010?

1) The Serenity Prayer applies to everything in real life
"God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

        --Reinhold Niebuhr"

The world is a fucking mess.  The kind of mess where only profanity can describe the level.  Ask yourself this.  "What can I do to make the world a better place?"  The answer?  Nothing.  You can't do a damn thing.  You can't run for political office to make the world a better place.  You can't make a world changing invention to make the world a better place.  You can't do anything because anything you are allowed to do will accomplish nothing at best.  Really, things are at the point that you really have to sacrifice your own innocence to accomplish anything at all.  Thank you very much globalism and the scum that support it.

What to do?  Ignore everything.  All that political crap that affects your life?  Ignore it.  Don't watch the news on TV.  Don't read the newspaper.  Don't do anything which allows you to be subjected to another person's opinion stated as fact.  Watch some football or play a video game.  A violent video game.  Play some improv on a musical instrument.  Express yourself or just engage in mindless activity.  Avoid any activity in which your brain can develop an understanding of the world as the media wants you to believe it.  Ironically, you could just drink yourself into a relaxing stupor if you can afford it.  Pray for comfort, but never pray for patience.


2) Too many people are trash
Never before have I come to realize how much disrespectful garbage occupies this planet.  There are so many judgmental, self-important, unappreciative, and/or just plain rude people that it's downright pathetic.  The whole thing honestly makes me want to be violent.  That's probably a really bad thing considering that of all of the things I hate about the modern day world, this is the only one that's really tangible.  Unlike the garbage government and all the other fake crap we're subjected to, I could quite easily hunt down some random person that I disagree with on several levels and commit an act of assault.

I don't wonder why so many of the old American ideals are dead.  It's quite obvious that the disrespectful scum I'm talking about have killed them.  What with all this "Happy Holidays"  non-sense and fear of using slurs as insults lest you forever be tarnished in the public eye...ugh.  Now that I think of it, it's little wonder we have such alleged issues as terrorism.  Hopefully, I'll maintain my composure and be better than that, but it's hard not to sympathize with people fighting for their fundamentalist beliefs and core values against an oppressive world of evil.


3)  Good football is awesome, and so are the 2010 Chiefs
It's been so long since I've seen good football that when I watched the Chiefs win at Seattle, I'd almost forgotten what it even looked like.  I just knew that the Chiefs were executing plays that I liked to see on the field.  They're not the hulking offense of slow but sure running that I prefer, nor are they exactly the old time Marty Ball team that I'm used to, but they're effective.  Perhaps the finesse version of that style.  In any event, I appreciate the efforts of the Kansas Chiefs to provide quality entertainment for once.  They'd sucked for so long I actually gave up on them.  But now...they're great.  Matt Cassel gained confidence and became a great QB just like I said he would in the beginning of the season.  They're not 14-2 like I hoped, but oh well.  Can't win em all.