So Brad had a rule that whenever he got confused in his work, and things didn’t make sense anymore, it was time to go to lunch. After the lunch conversation got confusing, and things didn’t make sense anymore, it was time to go back to work.
The pre-season coaches’ poll is out, and for the first time, Steve Spurrier did not vote for Duke. Allegedly, it’s because he was asked not to do so in order to protect the almighty integrity of the poll. I’ll pause and wait for you to stop laughing.
I just sent off an e-mail containing the elegant construction “Oh no [pronoun] di’n't!” and was stopped by the spell checker. Now, I can only imagine the cringing you are doing reading that dead, beaten horse of a catch phrase, but when I was presented with the options of “Ignore,” “Ignore All,” or “Add” I had to think for a moment. After all, I’m pretty sure that “di’n't” is the clearest way of expressing the non-word I intended, so in the future I might want my spell-checker to recognize it. On the other hand, it’s absolutely not a word so I really can’t see adding it. Therefore, I suggest a feature for those of us with grammatical neuroses — “Ignore Always.” That way, we don’t have to validate a word in any way when the spell checker runs. Of course, not using such words is unthinkable…
Tonight the talented and handsome Duke Blue Devils take on the thuggish and not-good-looking Tar Heels from the school down the road. ESPN is hyping the game even more than usual for the #2 vs. #3 matchup. Though historically these teams haven’t needed top rankings to play amazing games against each other, I got to wondering how often they have faced off with such lofty admirations from the press.
In the last 30 years, Duke-UNC have played 30 games with both teams in the AP top 10, 9 with both teams in the top 5, and 4 with higher rankings than today (twice 1 vs. 3 and twice 1 vs. 2). Anyone who has taken part in attending these games can attest to the fact that you might as well throw the rankings out, but it’s remarkable how often this rivalry game has also been a big part of the national picture.
This is the only game I ever painted any part of myself for. I’m sure my fellow bloggers have similar fond memories.
No, not Riley Skinner, but rather I have had trouble resisting posting about this Forbe’s piece ranking college “champion factories.” While I don’t think that anyone wants their alma mater to be considered a factory of any sort, since they decided to rank Michigan number one I simply can’t resist.
The folks over at TheFutonCritic.com compile a list every year of the 50 best individual television episodes of the year. I always find it very close to my own ranking, although I don’t watch many of the shows they rank. Today, they completed their recap of 2007. (NOTE: Under each entry is a sentence that contains major spoilers! If you just want a list, I’ll put it after the jump.)
I still say that the last ten minutes of the latest season of Battlestar Galactica is one of my favorite moments in television all-time, but since they gave the show its #1 spot last year, I suppose I can’t be too upset with them putting it at #2, especially considering who it lost out to. One big surprise: I figured #15 would be much higher than it ended up.
At any rate, the most interesting thing to me is that Michigan State and San Jose State’s coaches thought that Missouri was a mere #12. Former Michigan savior Les Miles put them at #11.
Coaches poll results have only been public since the 2004 season, when several coaches ranked California, Berkeley bizarrely low in what was construed as an effort to get in Texas into the Rose Bowl. Of course, nothing was as embarrassing as the mess back in 2001 which ultimately led to Nebraska getting owned by Miami in the only Rose Bowl without the Big Ten or Pac Ten since WWII.
So #1 Missouri and #2 West Virginia both lost yesterday, making the selection of the two teams who get to play for the BCS national championship uncertain at best. In the moments before BCS chaos comes to a crescendo, I think it’s time we take a break and think back to simpler times before we had twelve top five teams lose to unranked teams in a single season. I give you, the King of all stormtroopers:
I know I can’t do any more of these without adding a “stormtrooper” tag, which is a path I don’t want to go down, but Elvis Trooper really makes me happy.
The vast multitude of pictures of Elvis Trooper at comic conventions with girls dressed so sluttily that The Onion, at least, would have you believe they are only there for the self-esteem boost, is a bit depressing in it’s monotony. Still, I’d probably get my picture taken with Elvis Stormtrooper myself, and I wouldn’t blame him for only keeping the ones with scantily-clad women. At least not much…
Saturday night’s Michigan game was a blast — tied late into the fourth quarter. Illinois matched each Michigan turnover with several mind-numbingly bad penalties. All three of Michigan’s glamor offense players were injured for some or all of the game, though fortunately not superstar offensive tackle Jake Long. Both teams used two quarterbacks. Ultimately one of the wide receivers tossed the go-ahead touchdown pass. However, the highlight was that not only did I get to hear a commentor say “now we have a football game” about two-and-a-half hours in, but while discussing how University of South Florida (then #2 in both polls) had lost and Boston College (#3) had not played, a commentator actually said that BC would “slide into the 2 hole”. Given that Ann mostly watches football for the homo-eroticism, I thought that was absolutely classic.
Another classic that I observed briefly on ESPN was an Auburn kick return during the LSU game. After receiving, dropping, and recovering the kick, the return man turned his back to the oncoming LSU players and was joined by four teammates, two to either side. After swapping the ball, all five players ran in different directions. Unfortunately, I could only find what has to be the world’s worst Youtube video ever to show the play. Not only is the fumble edited out (Auburn fan?) but the actual yardage gained as a result isn’t shown. Assuming he got past the 25 yard line, I would think this would become a standard way to return the ball.
My boss is a Google addict (Googaholic?). He never keeps references to web pages he’s visited, no bookmarks, favorites, or anything like that. His philosophy seems to be that if you want to find somewhere you’ve been, just ask Google how to get there. This includes his own academic web page. Whenever he wants to go there, he simply puts his last name into Google.
For years his page would come up 6th on Google’s list. A while back it failed to show up at all. Why is his page suddenly demoted out of existence? This was the state of things for several months until recently his page is back at 6th place. It’s already a little strange, but here is where the fun really starts. If I search his name on Google on the computer in my office, he comes up 2nd. If my office mate searches, he comes up 5th. If I search again, but with a different browser, he comes up 6th.
As far as we can tell, Google is giving different results based on what browser you are using, or possibly browser/OS combination. I wonder what deep meaningful reason they have for this, or maybe they just like messing around with us.
A couple of quick-shots as you watch your favorite baseball team fall further and further from contention. (So this is what it feels like, Joe?)
Posted by brianbunton 
Posted by jwambaugh 
Posted by brianbunton 
No, not Riley Skinner, but rather I have had trouble resisting posting about 
The folks over at 
I’m not sure what I find more interesting: knowing 
