I, Shane › Shane Adams’ personal weblog

So Brooke went home tonight on American Idol. The fact that she stuck around as long as she did is a feat unto itself. After forgetting the words on Andrew Lloyd Webber night, I thought she was done for sure.

Other than David Cook, she is the only one who I could see myself actually paying for her music. She was kind and sweet and you could tell that she did not once take the opportunity on American Idol for granted.

I, for one, am tired of David Archuleta. Look, the kid is good, but I am starting to doubt his sincerity. I also think it’s kind of unfair that he got to sing Neil Diamond’s two most memorable hits (the only other argument that could be made is perhaps “I’m a Believer”, which Brooke sang). I’m sure that the others chose their songs for a reason, but it seems an awful lot like the producers are trying to skew the votes in the young dude’s favor (the Taylor Hicks effect).

And Jason Castro. You have made it very far in this competition without very LITTLE range. Now flash that smile at the camera one more time and stumble into just a little more money as you make it further. Same for you, Syeshia. You’re no Fantasia. You’re no Jennifer Hudson even. Lakeisha from last season had a better personality and your creepy baby laugh…it’s a good thing that you’re not doing that anymore because you’re lucky to still be around.

If David Cook does not win this competition, it’s rigged. I don’t know if he’s as good as Daughtry, but he’s better than the rest of those fools left by a landslide. America, you should seriously seek therapy if you stop voting for him. If he doesn’t win, America got it wrong (like two years ago when Taylor Hicks won).

When I was growing up, my mom made homemade granola - the same recipe that my grandmother made for my dad when he was growing up. A couple months ago, my wife did something awesome…she started carrying on the legacy of my mom and grandmother by making me the same granola.

It must be said that I absolutely love this granola, mostly because it is half oats, half a combination of slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, pecans and other nutty awesomeness. Add some sesame seeds, honey, a little canola oil, cinnamon and a little love…GENIUS.

I love that my wife does this for me. She took it upon herself to learn the recipe, added a couple ingredients to make it even healthier without changing the taste…VOILA! Fiber-regularity in a sweet, tasty, nutty snack. It also tastes really good with yogurt.

This is just another reason why my wife is better than yours.

So the coverage is probably better over at Arrowhead Pride, but I thought I’d give my thoughts. Earlier in the week, I predicted:

• Offensive line: 3-4 players
• Wide receiver: 2 players
• Corner/Safety: 2-3 players
• Running Backs: 2 players (1 fullback, 1 running back)
• Defensive line: 2-3 players
• Quarterback: 1 player (perhaps Michigan’s Chad Henne in a later round, if he falls)

The Chiefs ended up taking:

Offensive line: 3 players (counting the final TE as a lineman, since he looks to be the second coming of Jason Dunn)

Receivers: 3 players (2 receivers, 1 TE)

Corner/Safety: 3 players (2 corners, 1 safety)

Running Backs: 1 player

Defensive line: 2 players (although most significant was #5 overall Glenn Dorsey, who looks like a beast)

Quarterback: 0 players (not a massive surprise because all the good guys were gone and they have that Thigpen kid as well)

I didn’t expect the Chiefs to pick 2 tight ends. It seems that Carl Peterson can’t stay away from them. I’m assuming that they are a “best athlete at the pick” type of thing, but we’ll see.

When I saw the breakdown today (I didn’t watch all 8 hours of the draft today, what with church and all), I wasn’t all too thrilled, but as I look closer, it seems like Carl and Herm did the best they could - the best of the last several drafts for sure. Here are my quick-hit thoughts of all the picks.

Rd 1 / Pick 5 - Glenn Dorsey, DT, LSU

The belle of the ball. Beast. Will compliment Tank Tyler and free up Tamba Hali to run freely. I foresee the Chiefs moving Turk McBride to the edge for some games next season as a possible Jared Allen replacement.

1 / 15 - Branden Albert, OG, Virginia

I hope Albert turns out to be the stud tackle that everyone thinks he’s going to be. Even if he ends up being the next Will Shields, that’s a big win for us.

2 / 4 (35) - Brandon Flowers, CB, Virginia Tech

The best part of his ESPN.com overview: “he plays far bigger than his size indicates and faster than his 40 time suggest.” We need a stud corner to replace the crappy age we have out there now.

3 / 10 (73) - Jamaal Charles, RB, Texas

Backup plan in case Larry Johnson doesn’t recover from his foot thing? Maybe. Charles was a good player on a decent Texas team. He’s no Ricky Williams or Priest Holmes, but he could be decent enough to take more of the load off Larry.

3 / 13 (76) - Brad Cottam, TE, Tennessee

This guy is big. 6′ 7″ 270 lbs. He sounds better than Kris Wilson.

3 / 19 (82) - Dajuan Morgan, S, NC State

I suppose the Chiefs need some depth at safety, but this guy will sit behind Pollard and Page. Special teams, here he comes.

4 / 6 (105) - William Franklin, WR, Missouri

As much as I hate the Chiefs drafting players from Missouri, their receivers are good. And we need depth at receiver. I hoped that we would take one earlier.

5 / 5 (140) - Brandon Carr, CB, Grand Valley St.

A corner from a no-name school. This guy is going to be Carl’s gem of the draft.

6 / 4 (170) - Barry Richardson, OT, Clemson

I don’t like that the line on this guy was “not mean enough”, but tackles…hey, we need lots. Maybe Herm can put some mean into him.

6 / 16 (182) - Kevin Robinson, WR, Utah St.

Yay. Another receiver that won’t make the team.

7 / 3 (210) - Brian Johnson, DE, Gardner Webb

This guy gets props for going to “Gardner Webb”, which is just south of Olathe. No wait, that’s Gardner.

7 / 32 (239) - Mike Merritt, TE, Central Florida

He’s listed as a tight end, but they’re saying that he’s probably more of a guard or a 3rd tackle type guy. “Very slow and lacks athleticism.” Sounds like they drafted me.

There are too many guys on the second day that we’ll need to see in pre-season to properly evaluate. What should be noted is that KCChiefs.com is one of the worst team sites in the NFL. Stuff is hard to find, the user experience sucks, and it just looks like it came straight out of Penn Valley Community College Web Design 101…FROM 1995.

KC firm VML…you should be ASHAMED at the horror that is your nested tables and excessive use of…what is that? REALPLAYER? The Chiefs took a step backwards when they abandoned the Happy Cog design that Zeldman did for them. I suppose that’s par for the course and just another example of where the front office’s heads are at.

Alli and I went simple tonight - a couple movies from Blockbuster, some frozen pizza, sodas from Quik Trip. I was hoping to celebrate low cholesterol tonight, but we decided to take it easy. I picked up two movies on the way home, Dedication with Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore and Into the Wild with Emile Hirsch and a slew of other actors.

We started the evening with Dedication, a completely off-beat romance about Henry, a messed up children’s author (Crudup), and his new illustrator, Lucy (Moore). The two are forced to work together and dealing with Henry turns to be challenging because he’s…well…he’s crazy. To put it into perspective - when he gets anxious, he lays on the ground and puts heavy books on his chest to ground himself.

I really enjoyed it. It was really funny and well-acted. Billy Crudup is one of my favorites and he is absolutely terrific. It’s not a typical romantic comedy and was definitely worth the rental.

Into the Wild is a movie I’ve been wanting to see since it came out, but never got around to it. Wow. I was really blown away by it. It was so beautifully filmed, mostly due to the amazing scenery. The scenery is kind of the point. Emile Hirsch plays a restless college graduate looking to find himself by getting lost in the wild. Allen recommended this movie a while back (perhaps when it originally came out) and I’ve heard nothing but good things about it.

It’s a terrific story, particularly amazing since it’s based on a true one, captured in the book by Jon Krakauer. I think that the best advice of the move can be found about 2/3 of the way through it, “When you have a dream within reach, you just reach out and grab it.” Great advice. I’d recommend that movie for sure.

Appetizer
Name something you would categorize as weird.

My dog. More funny than anything, but he can be very weird. He ate a couch once and has color dilutional alopecia. He’s still way awesomer than your dog.

Soup
What color was the last piece of food you ate?

Red - A red LifeSaver. Is that food?

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy being alone?

4. I enjoy my alone time, but I thrive around people, particularly my wife.

Main Course
Fill in the blank: I will _________ vote for ___________ in _______.

Never…Hillary Clinton…this or any other life time.

Dessert
Describe your sleeping habits.

I can’t sleep on my stomach…maybe it’s too big or whatever…I just can’t do it. We share our bed with a 90-lb. mutt who likes to stretch out, so sometimes sleeping means contorting your body around something that smells like corn chips.

See also: Logtar

When I undertook the task of raising enough money to buy a cow from Heifer International, one of the added benefits of all the do-gooding was going to be that eating less red meat was good for my rapidly increasing cholesterol (weighing in a year ago at 197).

So I thought.

Today, after my physical and subsequent lab testing I found that 4 months of eating no red meat actually managed to INCREASE my cholesterol by 6 points, bringing it over that dreaded 200 mark and bringing my doctor to prescribe Lipitor, made famous by the creepy Jarvik artificial heart guy.

I’m not thrilled about the news in the least.

After 4 full months of not eating red meat, I was expecting my doctor to say, “You’re doing great. Your cholesterol is no longer a problem.”

Not so much.

After talking it out with Alli, I’m pretty sure I know why this is: I lead a sedentary lifestyle. My life consists of getting up, showering, driving a half-hour to work, sitting at a desk all day, driving a half-hour home, and sitting all night. Occasionally (when it’s nice out), I’ll take the dog for a walk, but that’s not happening nearly enough.

In talking with my doctor, I found that I need to lose about 55 pounds to get into the “normal” range for my BMI. I’m a tall, big guy, but 55 pounds is still a lot of weight. It’s daunting, for sure. But now I know that diet alone is not going to cure my health problems. (Let it be stated that I consider myself in “okay” shape. I couldn’t run a marathon or anything, but I grew up an athlete, so the muscles are still there.)

Whatever my circumstances, something has to change. Maybe this latest bit of news will be the kick in the pants I need to work harder.

So, the NFL Draft really snuck up on me this year. Now that the Jared Allen deal is done, we can take a look at where the Chiefs need help. The Chiefs own a league-high 13 picks in the draft this weekend, including 6 in the first 3 rounds (#5 and #17 in 1st round, a second round pick, and 3 3rd round picks).

For a team that is “going young” you have to see this as a good thing. Unfortunately for Kansas City fans, we’ve been burned by the Junior Siaviis and Sylvester Morrises of the past years and so every draft is approached with less than high hopes.

Let’s take a look at the Chiefs’ biggest needs:

Offensive line

This is a no-brainer. Our offensive line is abysmal. The hope is that Damion McIntosh will get healthy this year and resume his tackle position, but I get the feeling he’d rather be on the right side. As much as they’d like to though, the Chiefs can’t afford to have a guy like Will Svitek still manning Brodie Croyle’s weak side. I forsee the Chiefs going with a left tackle with their #5 pick, probably Ryan Clady of Boise State (even though he allegedly only got a 14 on the Wonderlic test). The #17 pick they acquired from Minnesota does give them some flexibility though. They could go with Matt Ryan, the QB from Boston College that everyone loves, and then hope one of the other projected 1st round offensive lineman falls into their laps at 17 (maybe Vanderbilt’s Chris Williams or Pitt’s Jeff Otah). I still think that they’ll go with either Clady or Virginia guard Branden Albert, whom many are saying is going to be a tackle in the NFL. I’d also see them picking up a couple more folks in later rounds, maybe

Cornerback

Face it - Ty Law and Patrick Surtain are bad. They used to be good, but they aren’t anymore. They are slow, they rarely make plays and they cannot compensate for the youth that the Chiefs have at safety. We need a shutdown corner to replace Ty Law so Bennie Sapp can finally enter the starting lineup in Surtain’s place, putting Surtain into the nickelback position. I’m starting to wonder whether Kansas’ Aqib Talib could fall to 17, since most have him as a top 3 corner in the draft. I imagine there are those that think his reefer tokeage might be a problem. Keeping him close to his dealer friends at KU might cause issues. But it would be fun to have a hometown guy to root for. There are several corners in the draft. I think that if the Chiefs don’t take Ryan in the first round, they’ll go lineman and corner with their #5 and #17.

Wide Receiver

Dwayne Bowe was a rousing success. The dude is amazing. With the departure of Eddie Kennison, it would be great to have another option besides Bowe and Tony Gonzalez. I’d love to see Bobby Sippio get more snaps, but a team that is in rebuilding mode is going to go young. Jeff Webb is a strong 3rd receiver, but I think that we need a viable #2 option, preferably someone with some serious wheels. The draft is pretty weak with star receivers this year (not like last year, which had Calvin Johnson and Dwayne Bowe), but it’s possible that the Chiefs could get someone like Eddie Royal from Virginia Tech to fill that slot.

Other positions

The Chiefs need depth at the above positions more than anything, but they also need a viable fullback. I loved Boomer Grigsby’s fire, but he’s gone. The Chiefs have 2 fullbacks on the roster that I’ve never heard of, so I look for them to try and get a mid-round blocking back, perhaps on day two. The Chiefs could also use some depth on the defensive line. Tank Tyler has been a good pick, but needs to keep his weight down. Turk McBride hasn’t been great, but I look for those two to have better seasons after being in the league for a year. Tamba Hali will have a breakout year and I think that (Chiefs Defensive Line Coach) Tim Krumrie may move him to the strong side where Allen was, although he probably is stronger at the weak side since he does not possess the physical strength that Allen did - he was more of a speed rusher. Past that, we’ll see.

Breakdown

Here’s how I see the Chiefs 13 picks breaking down:

• Offensive line: 3-4 players
• Wide receiver: 2 players
• Corner/Safety: 2-3 players
• Running Backs: 2 players (1 fullback, 1 running back)
• Defensive line: 2-3 players
• Quarterback: 1 player (perhaps Michigan’s Chad Henne in a later round, if he falls)

So there are my thoughts. What are yours? I love watching the draft. I’m signing up for text alerts today.

The Kansas City Star is reporting that gas consumption is down throughout the region (and across the nation).

High gas prices across the nation are causing people to drive less and less because the result of higher fuel prices is that people must conserve money to make sure they can pay for more necessary things like food and shelter.

I know I’m not the first person to say, this, but I’m going to say it anyway.

Higher gas prices are a good thing.

The United States consumes more fuel than every other nation on the planet. It makes sense that we should probably pay less for it since we use more, right? This is true. However, we’ve grown accustomed to such low gas prices that any spike at the pump results in us crying foul and calling for boycotts of Shell and any other oil company that sells gas.

And while it’s true that oil companies like ExxonMobil and BP have made more money in the last several years than ever, I still don’t think we pay enough for gas.

Boycotting specific gas stations really doesn’t hurt anyone but the gas station owner, who operates on a very very slim margin. Out of the $3.34 per gallon (the price at the Quik Trip I pass on my way to work), the gas station actually profits a very small percentage, with the majority going to the oil company and the refineries to pay for the crude and the cost of refining it.

Oil companies are making huge profits because we still have yet to temper our consumption of oil. High gas prices have not done anything to the way that we live our lives. I still drive my SUV from Olathe to Fairway by myself every day, filling up once per week for $60+ each time.

Maybe when gas reaches $4 per gallon, I’ll actually get serious about taking the bus because it will finally be worth the huge hassle (we’re talking about 2 transfers and about a 2-hour commute to go 20 miles) to actually ride it. I imagine there are others out there who think the same way.

That’s why higher gas prices are a good thing. Maybe they will finally encourage us who consume more oil than any other nation (although China’s nipping at our heels) to change the way we think and put pressure on those who can do something about it to actually…do something about it.

I still believe that the American people have a say. It’s one of the reasons why I support Barack Obama. He’s someone who I believe will take the voice of the people under consideration when developing legislation. The issue is that people don’t care enough about it right now to really do something about it. We can’t rely on corporations like oil companies and car companies to magically do the right thing. They are going to do what is most profitable because they are still profit-based companies. They don’t owe you lower gas prices. It’s up to you to stand up and say, “If that’s how you’re gonna play it, then I’ll just change my lifestyle entirely.”

This is the only way we’re actually going to get viable alternative fuels and good mass transit in bigger cities - by actually telling people that they suck.

This isn’t an Earth Day post, but was inspired by a discussion I heard on the radio on the way into work. The host was outraged by the high gas prices and brought in an expert who basically said, TOUGH. And I agree. It’s time for people to get used to $4 per gallon gas because it’s not coming down anytime soon. Hopefully, it will inspire some folks to do something about it.

(And to those of you who are going to suggest that I get a different car, the answer is no. This one’s paid for.)