9 Under 4, Friday Night Lights-ish

That could be my golf score through 4 holes, but unlikely.

Actually it's in reference to the number of children (9) under the age of 4 at James's house for Thanksgiving Dinner in Dallas. LP, Caroline, Anna and I cruised to Big D for the festivities and it was great. Except for the fact that I only felt good for about 2 hours over 4 days, it was fun to see the entire family and it was also cool to see so many little ones running around.

Football-- USC murdered ND and I'm ready to concede that they deserve to be #2. Arkansas lost. Well, that's life in the SEC. If we had cream puff schedules and no conference championship game like in the PAC 10 we'd prolly be in the national championship game much more often.

But enough of that, let's talk REAL football. The kind I got to witness while in Dallas. If you're like me and only read "Friday Night Lights" or seen the movie then you truly are only getting half the story.

James loaded up the boys and we went to Texas Stadium to see the #1 and #2 high school teams in Texas face off in the playoffs. Yes, we went to THE Texas Stadium-- Home of the Dallas Cowboys-- to watch high school football. Kinda shows you the magnitude right there.

This was Southlake Carroll High School (currently ranked #5 in the country by USA Today) versus Euless Trinity (#16 in the country) and it was OFF THE HOOK !! I have never seen such speed, size, accuracy and complex offenses from high school teams. The game also included a few unreal hits that could have made MNF's "Jacked Up!" segment.

The annouced crowd was 46,339 but that was only through half-time. I promise this crowd nearly hit 55,00 by the end. Yes, 55,000 people at a high school game. Craziness.

Next week Southlake Carroll plays Odessa Permian (the school that was written about in FNL) and I'm sure that's gonna be madness. Make sure you listen to the webcast at MojoLand.net

USA Today article covering last week's game

The NFL BCS

Everyone knows how much I love (not) the BCS. Everyone has a playoff system except Divsion 1 football. I also started thinking about if the NFL did a BCS kinda scheme where the top team from the AFC and the top team from the NFC got automatic bids to play in the Superbowl and there were no playoffs.

Here's how that plays out.

Starting in the 1975 season and leading up to Superbowl X, the NFL started seeding teams from the 2 conferences.

That means we have a sample size of 31 Superbowls.

Twenty-four (24) times the #1 seeds have FAILED to meet in the Superbowl and the last time #1 seeds have played was in 1994. That's a total success rate of 23% and 0% over the past 12 years.

Beyond the money-making potential of the playoffs, perhaps the NFL sees that there is no other way to settle matters than a playoff system.

Why can't they do this in college football?

Mike Shula's 'Bammer Record

It's not so bad when you look at it this way...

Career Stats: (as of 11/19/2006)

• # of Winning Seasons: 3 (6-6 is NOT a losing season!!)
• Career Win-Loss: 20-3
• Career Winning Percentage: .870
• Moral Victories : 8-3
• Bowl Record: 1-0
• # of 10 Win Seasons: 1
• 10 Win Season Career Percentage: 25%

(***Note: Not counting games played against Auburn, LSU, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Hawaii or N. Illinois)

A Daddy Day

The girls and I were planning on heading to Dallas this weekend to see her family. Unfortunately, LP's grandmother died so she and Caroline ended up going to West Va. to the funeral. It's really sad to see Memother go but I think she might have been the only one who was not upset over the process. She survived a year with ovarian cancer and got to see a lot of great things. I think she was truly thankful for the time she was given and expressed no regrets over having to go. I hope we all can live lives that leave us with that much integrity in the end.

I had already requested the day off for Friday and since our trip was postponed I should have just gone to work. However, I decided to keep the vacation day as-is and get a few things done.

I always claim I'm lazy and never get anything done, and Friday was no exception. But perhaps my expectations are too high. Here's a rundown of Friday aka A Daddy Day.

1. Brewed a pot of Peet's Holiday Blend. Peet's is tits (defn. 1)...mmmmm and read a few chapters of Matthew.
2. Looked at starting building my computer. Is the power supply dead? Shat. I go the wrong power supply for my motherboard. Email tech support several times. Find out I can buy an adaptor kit to make the MoBo and PSU work together. Whew. This rookie mistake only cost  me $26.
3. Golf lesson with Chuck. Chuck is an awesome teaching pro even though he's a 'Bammer fan. War Eagle Chuck !!
4. Dropped jeans at at the Chi circus to have them repaired.
5. Had lunch at Anna's school. It was their Thanksgiving Feast and it rocked.
6. Lifted weights
7. Tried out FitTV's Namaste Yoga. I'll grade it a 5/10. There are commercial breaks. You really need that in the middle of yoga. Ugh. Then with the remaining 22 minutes of show they have to move so quickly to get t/ the sequences that it's almost not worth it. I'll reserve final judgement 'til I get a few more in.
8. Home Depot
9. Best Buy-- if you're a guy and you have the day off I think you're required to do 6 or 7. I did both thus proving my uber manliness.
10. Pick up Anna from school. She's in the gym playing so I shoot some hoop with her and her friends. I also teach one of her friends to say "War Eagle." Sorry Amy and Armando. Now you know.
11. Head home and cook the quickest dinner in the world. Has anyone else heard of 90 second rice? It's real and it's fast like it claims. Not exceptional on flavor but will get you t/ in a rice fix. Plus, it's got enough sodium that you can salt your driveway in winter.
12. TCBY to get yogurt with Anna
13. Apple Store with Anna. Now this freaks me out. She actually wanted to go more than I did because she loves playing Dora's Animal Adventures Game. I'm really amazed at how well a 3-year-old can operate an Apple. I assume she'll have my job before too long. One-hour later I pull the plug and make her leave. She melts down but that's just part of parenthood, eh.
14. After Anna goes to bed I install the power supply in my computer and get things ready for the build.
15. Watched a special show on FitTV called "BodyBuilders." I'm there dude.

So, I guess I got a few things done.

Borrowing a Prayer from Zack

Dear God,

Please, please, please help Notre Dame beat the evil USC this weekend.

Southern California is a campus of sun-bathing fornicators and devil worshippers.

Notre Dame is very Godly and worships your name. They are nice people and have faith like a child.

Pete Carroll mocks you with his "devil horns" signs (see below).

Charlie Weiss obviously spends so much time worshippig you he doesn't even have enough time to exercise.

God, if you can't help Notre Dame win can you at least make sure they cover the 7.5 point spread?

Amen.

 

Charlie Weiss-- a Godly man

 

Pete Carroll-- Loves Satan and, worse yet, supports the BCS

Just To Be Sure We Don't Offend Anyone

Pics of the New Me

So I mentioned that I've been lifting weights again and also been hitting the tanning bed.

Why?

Well, duh. The chicks dig it. You prolly won't recognize me since I've gotten so ripped up. I also may have overdone it in the tanning bed but look at the adoration from the ladies.

Michigan - Ohio State: Threat Level Buckeye

Sweet information if you're a Michigan fan planning to travel to Columbus, OH this weekend.

Some pics to keep you occupied:

A Few Million Years Explained in 70 Seconds

Not sure why all the controversy over teaching evolution in school's. SouthPark's Mrs. Garrison does it in about 1:10.

Enjoy.

Crazy Uncle Bob At It Again

Imagine this. Bobby Knight hit another player the last night.

I think I hate Bobby Knight more than I hate Wal-Mart. At least in a fix I'll go into Wal-Mart. I'd never buy anything from Bobby-Mart if such a thing existed.

In honor of collegiate athletics' biggest CS'er, here's the SportsCenter Top 10 Bobby Knight quotes.

Ouch

Well, too bad for Atlanta I reckon.

Thanks travisSherman for this Monday morning morsel:

Atlanta officials don't want Arkansas at the SEC championship game, because Arkansas fans will come over with a white t-shirt and a $20 dollar bill and won't change either of them.

Ouch

Well, too bad for Atlanta I reckon.

Thanks travisSherman for this Monday morning morsel:

Atlanta officials don't want Arkansas at the SEC championship game, because Arkansas fans will come over with a white t-shirt and a $20 dollar bill and won't change either of them.

I'll Find Some Tiger to Cheer For

Auburn may have let me down but my high school made it past the 1st round of the playoffs with a blowout over Chilton County.

They are #1 in the state and undefeated for the season.

Fakking it up in the Lake City.

Read On

You Load 16 lb. and What Do You Get? Monday Thoughts...

Total weight gain since I stopped riding 3 months ago and started a new weight lifting program... 16 lb. Let's only take credit for a few pounds of actual good mass, the rest is just urgly. But it's nice to actually do some upper body work. Cycling focuses on getting rid of any strength outside of the legs-- any weight other than that is considered dead weight. So I like having a little musculature on the upper end-- I can now do tasks that normal people can like pick up my kids, carry a sack of groceries without risk of dislocating my shoulder. I can also wear kick ass shirts like this. I put my order in today.

And speaking of urgly. At 7 weeks of age, Caroline has attended her first Auburn game. She was pretty pissed when I took Zack to the AU-Florida game, but she was only 3 weeks old and not even strong enough to hold her own beer. I don't have time for that kind of babysitting.

Much like Anna's first game (98 degree with a 28-0 loss to Southern Cal), Caroline's was equally bad. Rain, cold and another blowup. I'll be sure to let the coaching staff know before I bring another newborn Zyriek to their first Auburn. Auburn might be better off forfeiting as opposed to actually playing on those occassions.

But this is Iron Bowl Week. Regardless of the defeat from last weekend you have to be fired up for this week. I guess I rehased a bunch of famous Iron Bowls in a blog from last year. Newest memory: for some stupid reason I actually dated someone at Bammer while I was in colleg Pre-LP. We had to break up Iron Bowl week and end things permanently. Seriously, do you think that relationship would have stood a chance? Could you see that marriage working out? A marriage between a Muslim Jihadist and the Pope would have been more civil.

Geez, 3 hours and work and I've gotten much less accomplished than I had hoped for. I need coffee. I'm having the "Mundays" pretty hard today and no coffee to serve as antidote.

Lord... Please Save Us

On the news last night.

Crip walking in Memphis

Buh Bye... Buh Bye... Au Revoir... Buh Bye

Nice plane huh?

You'll never see it... EVER. Why? 'Cause America kicks ass, PHUCK YEAH !!

Instead you'll see this baby soaring all over Asia and India.

FedEx cancelled its order on 20 AirBus A380's and opted for 30 Boeing 777's after AirBus was headed towards its 4th production delay on the massive 380.

The move is gonna cause FedEx to spend an additional $500 million on the plane purchase but apparently the market they're penetrating in Asia and India is so lucrative they can't afford to dick around and wait on the Frenchies to deliver the planes.

Plus, my company is owned by Boeing in a step-child sort of way. So this is a good day for Boeing and a good day for FedEx.

AirBus, you brought your "C" game and just got collar tackled at the goal line beatches.

Please Hurry Up and Lose It

Never thought I'd wish for my stuff to disappear but here's a good case for it.

Everyone knows my horrible luck with electronics-- digital cameras, video cameras, headphones, iPods. Man, I just flat out kill the stuff.

Now my luck has extended to bikes.

I had a cracked bike frame. It is to be fixed under warranty. I want to praise folks when it's due but I'm also wanting to punish those who do wrong...

NEVER BUY A HIGH END BIKE FROM CERVELO!!!

Their service is HORRIBLE. They make a good product, but pray you never rely on them to have to service those products. So 4 months after initiating a warranty repair request I finally get the go ahead to send my bike back to Canada for them to POSSIBLY REPAIR IT. It's under warranty, it broke by no fault of my own-- it's a replacement issue. End of story.

Anywho, I ship the frame back to Canada. 18 days later and no tracking update from FredEx.com. I call and they politely inform me that the box got lost after it hit the sorting facility 10 miles from my office.

That part sucked but FedEx has been awesome to deal with. Customer service has been great. I only wish they'd step up their web design efforts and graduate beyond the bland looking site. Hey, but nothing beats this ass backwards work of art.

Currently my lost shipment is being searched for to see if it'll turn up.

I surely hope not as getting my stuff replaced on FedEx's nickel will be a lost easier than dealing with Cervelo.

My only regret is that Zack may not get his phat ass bonus check at year's end. But that's his fault-- he needs to train those hub monkeys a little better on not losing stuff.

It'll All Be Over in a Few Hours

Time is short these days but life is awesome. Can't imagine life without 4 girls running around the house (that's 3 human females and one crazed female canine).

Gotta Rock the Vote tonight. Big items on the ballot are regarding gay marriage, freezing property taxes for Senior Citizens and the Fork/Corker debacle. Thank God that will be over soon... unless the loser decides to file 500 lawsuits a la Al Gore. Ahhh, Al Gore. He gave us the internet and a hyper-litigious election process. Thanks Al. The tip's on the counter.

Don't get me wrong. Despite my conservative nature I vote in a very moderate fashion, oftentimes leaning towards the liberal end. My policy is not to vote for folks I think are morons. Pretty simple philosophy.

And speaking of idiots, more Fords on the ballot today. Let's get this straight... in Memphis, if you vote for a Ford you're either black or an idiot. And that's neither a racist nor an idiotist statement. People tend to "support their own" in Memphis. It seems with the elected officials in Memphis people base their voting preferences on the color of skin they happen to have in common with the candidate. Freakin' brilliant strategy voters. I can't figure out why we have such issues in Memphis.

Hold on. I'm getting a few phone calls for Q and A.

Caller: I'm from Binghampton and I'm voting for Harold Ford, Jr. Why do you say I'm an idiot?

Gary Z: You're not an idiot. You're black.

 

Caller: Hey deckhead. I'm from Cordova, TN and Ford is my man. I'm not black. Ha !! I just thwarted your hypothesis.

Gary Z: No, you didn't. You're just an idiot.

Everyone enjoy the last waning moments of Ford vs. Corker-- pics of college girl-on-girl action, horrid mud-slinging and the most money spent on an election race in the history of the state of TN.

You Got 12 Minutes to Spare?

I guess I did today. Why didn't I see this when I was in school? Damn, I could have scored with all the foxy ladies if I had instruction like this.

Click Clack... Tommy T. Style

Worked for JC, Not for GZ So Much

If you want to see Christ in action on a daily basis go check my homeeez site-- ZackPerry.com. It's truly awesome to see the transformation in his life.

And I can tell how much better I feel hanging out with folks like Zack and my wife. See, one thing that's always troubled me about cycling is that it's very much a community dominated by people living apart from Jesus. And when I'm around those folks my behavior and talk really takes a turn for the worse. And man do I EVER get polluted, geez.

So JC could hang out with the hookers, thieves and dopeheads and do his work. I get in with those groups and I'm all crazed-- I start dranking malt liquor, playing dominoes and rolling dice-- BABY NEEDS SOME NEW SHOES... YOW !!!!

I have to make better choices about who I align myself with because some of the folks I've associated with are about as damaging spiritually as walking into the "smoker's room" at the airport is physically.