In case you've forgotten how bizarre of a place I live in, it's Mutton Busting, an event that takes place during Kansas City's major annual attraction (a rodeo of course) that features small children in hockey helmets riding on sheep until they let go. Everything's up to date in Kansas City...

Everyone always laughs at my irrational fear of flying. "It's much safer than driving," they say. That may be true, but how many times have you ever had to drive around in circles for 3 hours because your wheels got stuck sideways and when you stopped the car there was a good chance you'd die?

The worst part of this story is that not only did the passengers have to sit on a plane for 3 excruciating hours wondering whether they'd survive a landing, but they had to watch CNN's rampant fearmongering about it the entire time. From the same production company that brought us "Katrina will cause widespread fuel shortages, everyone go fill up your tanks now!" came "This plane full of people is going to explode!" So much for the flight attendants trying to maintain control of the plane. "Everything will be fine people, stay calm...good lord there's Greta van Susteren babbling about a computer model of a plane bursting into flames, everybody panic!"

I can just see if one of our famous disaster movies came true what CNN would say. "Giant asteroid heading towards Earth...Only hope is Ben Affleck...We're Screwed!" "Large green lizard lizard attacks Tokyo...Carl Everett still doesn't believe in dinosaurs...Everybody run through the streets pointing and shouting!" "Giant volcano rises up in the middle of Los Angeles...Oh who are we kidding, this is too ridiculous even for us"

And now for a quick round of NFL picks...

ATL at BUF: They just lost to Seattle and Michael Vick is hurt. What do you think? BUF

CIN at CHI: Bengals, meet a real defense. Upset special. CHI

TB at GB: I can pick up a game on Lucas every week just by picking against the Packers. TB

CLE at IND: Could this be the game Peyton Manning finally gets on track? It sure looks that way. IND

TEN at STL: A matchup of the two most consistently overrated teams. STL

CAR at MIA: Carolina didn't actually play very well last week, the Pats just made constant mistakes. Mini upset-special. MIA

NO at MIN: I will continue to pick against Minnesota as long as Daunte Culpepper continues to look like he belongs in a high school game. NO

JAX at NYJ: The Jets may have won last week, but Pennington still looks awful. JAX

OAK at PHI: In the battle of loudmouth receivers, the team that actually has a defense will win. PHI

DAL at SF: Remember when this would have been considered an NFC championship preview? So long ago... DAL

AZ at SEA: OK, ok, I get it, Arizona is terrible. SEA

NE at PIT: I just can't bring myself to pick against them, no matter how bad they looked last week. NE

NYG at SD: Don't let those records fool you, just look at the schedules. SD

KC at DEN: I have no idea, but the Chiefs can't really be this good can they? DEN

Today I got to ride in a Segway, and it was every bit as nerdy but fun as you would imagine. There is a Segway store in the Plaza next to our apartment complex, and the store offers tours of the Plaza. I got one for Eileen for Christmas last year, but we waited until today to do it because the weather was perfect (and in fact probably won't be this perfect again for 2 or 3 years).

The Segways are remarkably durable for something that is basically trying to constantly balance you with gyroscopes. We were able to go over pretty significant bumps and rough road without any problems. It was difficult to start and stop at first, but even I was able to get the hang of it pretty quickly and I'm unable to rollerblade on surfaces other than carpet. When they first came out, the ads said that you would eventually move without even trying, like if you just thought about moving forward you would subconsiously lean enough for it to move you forward. I could definitely see this being the case. If you're as big a fan of unnecessary technology as I am, I highly recommend a test drive. Although the $4500 price tag to purchase a Segway is still a little steep.

Now on to the NFL picks...

DET at CHI: The Lions have long since ended their awful streak of losses on the road, and the Bears are definitely a horrible team, but where the Bears have a great defense and a bad offense, the Lions have a mediocre defense and a quarterback primed for a miserable game. CHI

MIN at CIN: So yeah, everything I said about Randy Moss last week...umm...perhaps the Vikings do need him. CIN

BAL at TEN: This has all the makings of one of those games where the Ravens offense gains about 30 total yards but the defense scores 2 touchdowns on turnovers and they win anyway. BAL

JAX at IND: This has all the makings of a 38-30 game. IND

SF at PHI: Hold your horses, Niners fans. Last week was not the rebirth of the glory years with Roger Craig and Joe Montana and Jerry Rice running that play where you could gain 12 yards and a first down every time even if the computer guessed your play correctly. It was simply the reality that is Mike Martz's final year of being the target of so many jokes. PHI

BUF at TB: In a defensive battle, always pick the home team... TB

NE at CAR: ...Unless the visiting team is the 2-time defending Super Bowl Champions. NE

PIT at HOU: I'm telling you, the Steelers aren't all that good this year. And I will continue to pick against them until I am vindicated. Upset special. HOU

STL at AZ: After last week's debacle, I'm quite sure the Rams will finish last in a terrible terrible division. AZ

ATL at SEA: The Falcons didn't impress me much last week, but the Seahawks haven't impressed me in the 10 years I've been watching football. ATL

SD at DEN: No, Broncos fans, that was not a dream last week. You really got your asses handed to you by Gus Frerotte. SD

CLE at GB: Brett Favre has one or two great games left in him. I'm thinking he wastes one of them this week against the hapless Browns. GB

MIA at NYJ: Now this is an intriguing game. Chad Pennington played last week like he was holding a water tube instead of a football, while the Dolphins shocked the world by...well...winning. The Jets have got pride though, don't they? NYJ

KC at OAK: This is another good one. The Chiefs looked inspired last week, but I wonder how much of that was an improved defense and how much of it was Chad Pennington's inability to retain possession of the football. OAK

NYG at NO: So I'm rooting for the Saints to win because it would be a good story, and I'm rooting for the Giants to lose because I can't stand Eli Manning and his ridiculous demand to be drafted by them instead of San Diego. This is a win-win game for me. NO

WAS at DAL: And then there is the actual Monday night game. Not nearly as entertaining. How do 2 teams that didn't even smell the playoffs last year get a Monday night game? DAL

The music industry drives me crazy. No this isn't another rant about how much I hate [insert here: mp3s/Meg White's drumming/indie rock], but rather a frustration.

In the last year or so, it has become fashionable for bands to release DVDs of live concerts. There's nothing wrong with this, in fact, I applaud it. Now I can buy a (cheap, used) DVD and rip the audio to CDR to get an awesome sounding soundboard recording. The question is, why is this the route that record labels are taking to release live music?

Recording a good quality live DVD is expensive. You need to hire a camera crew and equipment, plus the equipment to record the audio from the board. Then you have to pay to get the audio mixed and synched with the video, which also has to be edited. Then you have to pay to have the cover art designed and the DVDs pressed and released. In this age of pay-by-the-song digital music downloads, this process seems unnecessary.

About now (if you're still reading), you've just dropped the drink you were holding. Am I actually supporting crappy compressed audio? Not exactly, but I am supporting the iTunes economic model. Most bands already record their own shows from the board for their own use, so why not release these recordings on iTunes? You avoid having to pay the video crew, the covert art designers, and the promotional and pressing costs. You can even do an endaround past the record label altogether and make more money per song than you would otherwise. You could release every show you play for very little cost per show (just the cost to do a reasonable audio mix) and make money from something you normally wouldn't.

Let's face it, I would never buy an iPod even if they make it small enough to fit on the head of a pin and add a color screen and a 20 terabyte flash drive. But if I could download a gigantic library of live shows on iTunes you'd better believe that I'd think about it. On one hand I'd be getting crappy compressed audio, but on the other hand I'd be avoiding the personal conversations, dropouts, and cut songs that are standard on many audience DAT recordings.

Maybe it won't work and wouldn't be as successful as I think it would, but why hasn't this even been attempted yet? Pearl Jam tried it with CDs, but they had the added cost of pressing CDs and the consumer had the added cost of purchasing them from Pearl Jam's website and paying shipping costs. Now it looks like they're running their own download application where you can purchase the shows and even print covert art. This is nice, but it requires running a custom Java application and therefore is missing the huge market that already runs iTunes.

Record labels (and movie studios) love to whine when people stop buying their stuff as much as they used to, but they are very slow to innovate. Somebody needs to jump on this.

Lucas is lucky that I'm in a giving mood, since he submitted his pick well after the start of the game but I am giving it to him anyway since no one in their right mind would have picked the Raiders to win last night. Here are the rest of this week's picks:

HOU at BUF: Of all the great AFC teams, these are definitely not two of them. Buffalo is starting a for-all-intents-and-purposes rookie at QB, and Houston is still playing like an expansion team years later. BUF

CIN at CLE: Is Trent Dilfer better than Jeff Garcia? Probably, but there's a reason you haven't heard his name mentioned in the past 3 years. CIN

NYJ at KC: Everyone loves the Jets, even though their running back may in fact fossilize on the field during this game and they no longer have LaMont Jordan to back him up. Meanwhile, the Chiefs may have gotten a little better on defense over the offseason but they've gotten even thinner at wide receiver, if that's possible. KC

DEN at MIA: The Dolphins should take a lesson from the Broncos: ditch your problem running back before the season starts, lest he cause problems during the season. DEN

TB at MIN: Al Michaels and John Madden couldn't understand why the Vikings would be better without having a player who quit on the team and once ran down a traffic cop in his car. Perhaps at this point Madden only understands random circles and the word "BOOM!" MIN

TEN at PIT: Count me among those who think that Roethlisberger will take a step backwards this year. The parallels to Brady ended when he lost in the playoffs last year, and the sidearmed release is going to catch up to him at some point. TEN

CHI at WAS: You've got to be kidding me. It's the first week of football, I'm all excited for the season to start, and they give me this? I might as well watch hockey. WAS

NO at CAR: New Orleans is the ultimate wild card this year. This is a team that's had the talent to compete but had no drive (or coaching) to win games. Well now they have the ultimate motivation, but they also are basically playing every game on the road. They won't be tired yet though, and the Panthers have been way overhyped. NO

SEA at JAX: So will the Seahawks be 8-8, 7-9 or 9-7 this year? It's inevitable. SEA

GB at DET: This is an interesting matchup. A team with a great quarterback and basically nobody else against a team with a great supporting cast and a cover-your-eyes awful quarterback. DET

AZ at NYG: Normally I like to go against the talking heads that overhype the team that ends up going 5-11, but I think this will be one of those 5 wins for the improved-but-still-terrible Cardinals. AZ

DAL at SD: Even though the Cowboys aren't as hateable as they used to be, when half of the team was on drugs, it's still nice to see Bill Parcells fail. SD

STL at SF: This game will be closer than people think. Show me one area where the Rams are better this season (and don't even say running back, since we all know Mike Martz could have Walter Payton back there and he'd get 5 carries a game). STL

IND at BAL: Explain this to me. The Colts set offensive records last year in the regular season, then the Pats put on a clinic for the rest of the league on how to beat them in the playoffs. The league has had all offseason to watch the film from that game and perfect their playbooks accordingly, yet the Colts are the favorites to eclipse last year's offensive output and win the Super Bowl? Well at least they're the favorites to beat the sorry Baltimore O. IND

PHI at ATL: In case you missed it, Terrell Owens is playing in this game. PHI

I'm throwing down the gauntlet again for Brian and Lucas to take me on in NFL picks. To kick off the fun, I'll do Thursday night's pick right now.

OAK at NE: In case you were hiding in a cave in Afghanistan since last February, the Raiders signed Randy Moss (and career backup LaMont Jordan). It's amazing how quickly the national media could slam on the brakes and do a complete u-turn on QB Kerry Collins. Instead of a constant loser, all of a sudden he has a "cannon arm". Instead of having no running game or defense to speak of, all of sudden the Raiders are a chic Super Bowl pick. Keep this in mind in say October when the Raiders start losing, Moss does something bizarre, and the defense still sucks. NE