FIWK the NFL: Thanksgiving needs to step up!

The Thanksgiving games need to not suck this year. Last year, the closest game was Dallas beating Oakland 24-7. The year before that, the closest game was a 25 point Dallas victory. The prior year did have an 8 point victory for Green Bay over Detroit, where the game was never closer than 8 points after halftime. I don't think I'm asking too much for theses games to just not suck. You know what game is not going to suck? Chargers-Colts. Even though the Colts are usually the better team, the Chargers always play Peyton Manning pretty tough. Anything can happen this Sunday night. It's a short week, so you're getting a shorter column.

Beer Wednesday: Ichtegem's Grand Cru by Brouwerij Strubbe

I had a really fantastic beer this week. It was called Ichtegem's Grand Cru by Belgian brewer Brouwerij Strubbe (they only have detail on their website for its sister beer), and its style is "Flanders Red Ale". You need to know two things to understand this review: 1) Flanders Red Ales are a sour ale style which can get VERY sour (like, make-your-stomach-hurt-sour); and 2) I can handle a little sourness in beers, but not too much.

Music Tuesdays - Young Blood by the Naked and Famous

This song was in my head so deep it actually became the soundtrack to a dream I had. No joke. What genre or sound is this song? I can't really decide, but I would be somewhat surprised if Scooter didn't like it.

FIWK the NFL: Underdogs galore!

I have competed in many different NFL pools in the last ten years or so and the largest one was about 50 people run by my father-in-law. Of these 50 people, one guy always bought two entries every week; one of all the home teams and one of all the favorites. Overall, he did just ok...but I always beat him. In fact, I don't know if he actually won a single week using either strategy. In the three years I competed (I didn't quit, they stopped running the pool) I never won a week. I could consistently pick 55-60% of games against the spread, but to win a week you usually had to go 14-2, and even then you had to win the tiebreaker (which I lost three times). That's my forte...consistently averaging 55% against the spread. I promise no more, no less. This year I am 78-60 ATS (Odd8483: 1183/25643 = 96 percentile) by following this three step method: 1) Always pick the Chargers. (Not because they have an impressive ATS record...because I'm a complete homer) 2) Click on all the underdogs and take the points. 3) Examine the games and determine if you can find a compelling reason that the favorite will not only win, but cover the spread. Following that formula, here are my picks for the week:

Tech Thursday: Listening TVs!

We've touched upon the television a couple of times in this space - TVs became 3D; TVs & the 4th Wall; TVs becoming Interactive. This 'post' will expand on that last topic - particularly around some of the cool concepts AT&T unveiled today as a part of its "Innovation Showcase".

• Can your TV be voice-activated? Sure - why not?
• Should you be able to see Twitter 'ratings' for a program? Of course!
• How about translation - do you want that? Uh, yes...

Video via Gear Live.