I don't know if it's just me, or is everyone else also sick of hearing about Katrina in conjunction with the Saints win this past Sunday? I keep hearing media people saying over and over again how this win takes a little bit of the sting out of Katrina. How we deserve this win because of Katrina. Katrina, Katrina, Katrina. Sheddap!!!

You know what? This is about football. It's all about football, totally 100% football, nothing else but football. How does a hurricane have anything to do with football? Granted hurricanes have rescheduled and/or relocated football games in the past. The NFL can't very well play a football game while a hurricane is going on, but the crossing of lines between football, politics, and natural disasters ends there.

The real reason why everyone in New Orleans is in pandemonium over this win is because this marks the end of a 42 year losing streak. When the franchise opened in 1967, their first season record was 3-11. That is very bad. They continued in that way for many years and didn't have their first winning season until more than 20 years later in 1987. Still, the Saints never could quite get over the hump. They disappointed fans year after year starting a season well and finishing poorly. My first ten years of life taught me to never get my hopes up with this football team. They always let you down in the end.

This year, The Saints fought their way to victory through a spectacular season. They lost their last three regular season games, but still went all the way to the Super Bowl ending in a resounding 14 point victory over the Indianapolis Colts. This town loves its football team -- a lot. Many of the fans have supported their team come Hell or high water, and in some cases it was the high water. That doesn't necessarily mean Katrina because New Orleans has flooded countless times, has had many hurricanes, and will have all that in the future. This is about the Saints FINALLY after 42 YEARS winning the Super Bowl.

You know much as I love The Twin Cities Ghostbusters, I really hope their team loses tomorrow. The Vikings have historically been undefeated against the Saints in the playoffs. 1987, the Saints have finally made it into the playoffs after a 12-3 season. The fans are swept up in Saints delirium. Along come the Vikings in the first round of play off games and crush the Saints 44-10. The first Saints milestone is reduced to rubble by the Minnesota Vikings.

Come 2001, after a disappointing season with Mike Ditka as head coach, first year head coach Jim Haslett leads the Saints in their first playoff victory ever. The Saints then travel to the Metrodome and are again crushed by the Vikings 34-16. Milestone number 2 again reduced to rubble by the Vikings. Jim Haslett complained about the unprecedented noise level in the stadium saying he thought it was exacerbated by speakers located behind the Saints sideline bench. No one could hear anything.

Well, this year the Saints will play the Vikings at the Super Dome. As far as the noise level goes, it's pay back time, bitches. If the Vikings defeat the Saints again this time, New Orleans may want to reconsider purple as a Mardi Gras theme color.

Visit my fundraising page and make a pledge to help fight blood cancers. I
will be running the Mardi Gras Marathon in February to raise money for
the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. http://mch.mardigras.llsevent.org/ryanburke1978

I have just returned from my recent trek into Army training misery. I spent the last two weeks in the front leaning rest at the original home of George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry. The same George Custer who was famously defeated by Crazy Horse at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876. I do not think Custer was a racist or an evil man of any sort for participating in the Indian Wars. He was simply a soldier following orders. Many Hollywood films have depicted Custer as being somewhat of a sissy. I would like to point out that Custer did not surrender in his Last Stand. He continued to fight and had the men in his charge continue to fight until their means of resistance was exhausted. Custer's body was found with two bullet holes -- one in the temple and one in the chest. He probably had no ammunition left or the bullet wounds would have been in other locations such as in his face as he peeked over the mounded bodies of dead horses to return fire. Custer was famous for taking personal risks to rally his troops during battle. Doesn't sound like a sissy at all if you ask me.

Ft. Meade is located in the historic town of Sturgis, South Dakota, home of the Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Armoured cavalry began to replace horse cavalry shortly after the first World War. Horses were replaced with armoured cars, tanks, and motorcycles. Ft. Meade, originally home to the 7th Cavalry, was being replaced with motorcycles. This may have given rise to the idea by the Jackpine Gypsies to hold the first Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The rally has been held annually for 69 years, except for two years during World War II. The event started on Agust 14, 1938 and is held every year during the first full week of August. I got to see some setup taking place, during my training stint and the beginning of my break from enlisted service and transistion to becoming an officer, from the bus as we were transported to a park in the Black Hills for training in Land Navigation.

The training lasted two weeks and was only the first phase in a year's worth of training to take place between this year and next at the conclusion of which I will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. At the end of our last training day, we were bused to Mt. Rushmoore and participated in a pinning ceremony of three officer candidates from Washington who were pinned as second lietenants in front of that famous national monument. Their colonel had flown in specifically for the event. They had completed their final phase just as I had completed my first and were commissioned right there in front of four of our greatest presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt. One candidate was pinned by his father, whom I assume is former or retired military, who then rendered the first salute to his newly commissioned son. What an honor to be commissioned in one of the most famous national monuments and have your father render that first salute. With a supportive military background like that, I have no doubt that man will grow to become a great leader. For me, this journey towards commissioning has just begun. The road will be long and it will be arduous.

I'm going to be out of communication for a while. I'm shipping out to an Army training school for the next few weeks. I won't have my cell phone or computer, and nor will I have access to a phone or a computer. I won't be able to respond to any PMs, emails, or phone calls until the conclusion of the training.

I bought a proton pack from doorwaystoadventure on eBay. I paid $900 plus $100 for shipping. It came in broken. The seller at first offered $200 back to me and I could tape it back together, but it was insured against damages through FedEx. That's part of my $100 shipping charge. I called FedEx to file a damage claim and they sent a delivery person out to pick up the broken merchandise and bring it to their claims center for inspection. I chatted with the FedEx delivery guy for a good ten minutes about damage claims as he helped me tape up the original package and he took it away.

The next day, another FedEx delivery guy showed up at the house to pick up the package, but I had my wife tell him it had already been taken away. About a week later I got a letter from a FedEx claims agent denying my claim for refusal to present the merchandise for inspection. Didn't they just take it away? I was livid. So, I took my call tag receipt from the first driver and put the tracking code in at FedEx.com. The signature confirmation was from my seller. The package was at his house. FedEx inspected nothing and simply returned the package to the sender. So, I called FedEx and navigated through the beaureacratic BS until I got the claims agent on the phone who had denied my claim. I also shot an email to the seller with my cell number asking him to call me.

The claims agent said that customer service must have issued the first call tag, but they made a mistake. It should have been for damage claim, but instead just returned the merchandise. The merchandise would have to be picked up from the seller for an inspection before any damages would even be assessed. At this point, it was out of my hands. FedEx could do nothing without word from the seller.

I sent another email to the seller asking him to call me, then I began the process of submission under the PayPal Buyer Protection Program by filing a claim through PayPal. Almost immediately after I got off the phone with PayPal, I got a call from the seller. The seller said when the package arrived at his house, he assumed an inspection had been done, so he discarded the packaging (needed for the damage claim) and the broken parts (also needed for the damage claim) and that he no longer had the merchandise. He said I would NOT be getting any refund from him or his PayPal because he had no return policy. (His listing simply had no policy on returns -- not a no return policy.) He said he had just drafted a handwritten letter waiving his claim to the damages at FedEx and wanted me to drop the PayPal claim. I just said, "Uh huh." I wasn't dropping anything.

A few days later, PayPal ruled in my favor and returned my full $1000 from the seller. I first found out about the closed case from a livid email from the seller saying I'd screwed him. He said he received a bill from FedEx for the return shipping. Well, if you're reading this dude, you shouldn't be getting billed anything from FedEx because that call tag was supposed to have been to bring the merchandise in for an inspection -- not to your house. I'd call billing and dispute that. Also, the damage claim is still open. FedEx did receive your waiver giving me the claim. I called that claims agent back at FedEx. He said they were not going to honor your waiver. So, you still own the claim at FedEx. You can at least recover $900, which likely won't be leaving you in the hole. And, if you are telling the truth about not having the merchandise any longer, I did take pictures of the damage and I emailed those to that claims agent. He said that an adjustment can likely be made in light of FedEx's mistake if you call and speak to him.