Another example of Obama's disingenuousness. He says he feels one way on an issue to someone, then says the opposite to someone else. He pumps up former "friends," then drops them in a heartbeat (Wright, Ayers, Rezko). Now he's trying to do the same thing to all of America, according to the Times of London:
Barack Obama lays plans to deaden expectation after election victory
"So...I know I led you all to believe that I was going to change everything, that I was going to make you all rich, that I was going to make your lives easier...but really, you need to be more realistic." I guess it's good to be the Messiah, until you actually have to do something.
Thanks for reading along.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Quick Hitter: Rock The Vote?
How about "Get The Vote Over With"?
Heidi even commented about it today. I think the country is ready for this to be over. Besides, are there REALLY any "undecideds" left? I've known for quite some time how I was going to vote. Pretty much everyone I know has been the same way. Honestly, I don't understand how anyone, at this point, after nearly 2 years of campaigning, can NOT know who they want to be the next President. So if you are still undecided:
Thanks for reading along.
Heidi even commented about it today. I think the country is ready for this to be over. Besides, are there REALLY any "undecideds" left? I've known for quite some time how I was going to vote. Pretty much everyone I know has been the same way. Honestly, I don't understand how anyone, at this point, after nearly 2 years of campaigning, can NOT know who they want to be the next President. So if you are still undecided:
- You like them both so much that you can't decide. NO ONE is THAT positive-minded and optimistic.
- You hate them both so much you don't want to vote for either. While understandable, you know who you consider the lesser of the two evils, so shut up and pick. Or don't bother.
- You are so wishy-washy that you really can't decide. Seriously, it's not that difficult, unless you're one of those people in Florida who couldn't figure out the butterfly ballot, in which case you probably shouldn't be allow to vote. Or drive. Or do anything that requires paying attention, thinking, or caring.
Thanks for reading along.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
In Times Like These...
Since we're facing four years of committed "Democratic" socialism, it will be important to maintain a healthy sense of humor, so we conservatives don't go get our guns (since we do have more of them, after all) and go shoot all the Democrats we can find.
In the spirit of good humor, I offer these immortal words, particularly to the Obamanation:
"Your guilty consciences may force you to vote Democratic, but secretly you yearn for a cold-hearted Republican who'll cut taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king!"
-- Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons
Enjoy, and Obamahu Akbar!
In the spirit of good humor, I offer these immortal words, particularly to the Obamanation:
"Your guilty consciences may force you to vote Democratic, but secretly you yearn for a cold-hearted Republican who'll cut taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king!"
-- Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons
Enjoy, and Obamahu Akbar!
A Little Mid-Day Commentary
First, I want to give an example of what journalism should be. It came from, of all places, a television critic for the Orlando Sentinel, Mr. Hal Boedeker. I would recommend that you read the article first, which you'll find here.
What I found astounding and wonderful about this piece is that Mr. Boedeker a) presented both sides of the discussion coherently, b) presented FACTS from both sides, including relevant examples where possible, and c) did not allow me to ascertain his personal feelings about what he was writing and presenting. He doesn't necessarily defend the WFTV anchorperson in question, nor does he attack her. Remember, critics are paid to provide their opinion; for a piece of wonderfully-objective journalism like this to come from a critic is the ironic icing on the cake. His editor deserves as much congratulations both for running this piece as well as for keeping Mr. Boedeker on staff.
In a world where we expect bias in our reporting, it is a sad commentary on the industry that objective journalism examples such as this one are the exception, not the rule, so much that I would comment on it and even thank the author for it. If you haven't already, you might send along an e-mail letting him know if you like it.
With all the talk about the environment and all the thinking on solutions, one concern that hasn't been mentioned much is going to come up big over the next few years. That concern is clean commercial aviation. Fortunately, there are people thinking about this problem. What no one mentions about the issue is how to tackle it rationally. It's easy to make cars more friendly to the environment; they carry less and all they have to do is turn two wheels to make the car go. Internal-combustion engines are easily replaced (relatively) with electric motors. But how do you replace a jet engine? By design and function, a jet engine requires the explosion only fuel can generate. Unfortunately, nothing yet devised explodes better, and thus provides thrust better, than jet fuel, which is horribly "dirty". So until someone designs a "clean" jet engine, we're stuck with them, or we'll be going back to propeller-driven planes, which are driven by internal-combustion engines (which, again, are easily replaced by electric motors). So we're already going to lose speed because prop planes are always slower than jets.
But how to design an eco-friendly prop plane? Planes can't use any method, like cars can, to "coast" and use that kinetic energy to recharge the batteries. For example, adding any free-spinning props to spin in the airstream, say on the back of the wings or at the end of the fuselage, for this purpose will increase drag and thus increase power needed to maintain flight. So an electric prop plane would probably need a lot more batteries. No problem. But batteries are heavy. Weight, like drag, is a killer of flight of any kind. Just as God gave birds hollow bones to conserve weight and make flight easier, aeronautical engineers look for as many ways as possible to conserve weight in their designs. Batteries would effectively negate those designs, because the power-to-weight ratio of today's batteries is pathetic. Add in the fact that more motors would be needed for a large commercial-sized plane than for a car, and that commercial-sized planes need longer runtime than batteries that can't be recharged en route (like an electric car's can), and that "refueling" (i.e., recharging all of those batteries) would take longer than traditional refueling would, and you've got a loser. So we're losing power, we're losing speed, and we're adding weight, further reducing speed, and this is progress? Why don't we just put the airlines out of business right now?
So traditional electric-car-type designs are a loser. How about nuclear, like the above-linked article talks about? Smallish reactors are already a proven technology, since the Navy's been using them for decades. Nuclear might work pretty well operationally; we're still running propellers, but no refueling would ever be required, just routine powerplant checks, so that would save time between most flights. It would save a lot of weight compared to batteries, though it might be prudent to have a small bank of them, along with emergency coolant tanks (similar to a nuclear sub's emergency venting of the reactor to the sea), as a last-resort failsafe against meltdown. Then there's shielding; all that lead is mighty heavy. So weight is still tricky, but compared to a full fuel load, it might be workable. Workability aside, though, why chance a minor Chernobyl every time a plane goes down? Air travel is still the safest way to travel, statistically, but planes do crash. Crashing even a small nuclear powerplant, unless it's fusion-powered, is just too risky a proposition for me, even if we could make the power and weight right. So I don't think nukes are the answer (for this scenario, anyway).
My bet would be on either fuel cells of some type (which probably means we're still running on much slower propeller-based aircraft), or on some new, revolutionary, as-yet-undeveloped technology . In any case, clean-running airplanes are a pipe dream, at least for the next 20-30 years.
It's been a while since I've seen a less noteworthy World Series than we have today. Philadelphia Phillies vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays? Yawn...at least the playoff races were pretty good this year.
Thanks for reading along today.
What I found astounding and wonderful about this piece is that Mr. Boedeker a) presented both sides of the discussion coherently, b) presented FACTS from both sides, including relevant examples where possible, and c) did not allow me to ascertain his personal feelings about what he was writing and presenting. He doesn't necessarily defend the WFTV anchorperson in question, nor does he attack her. Remember, critics are paid to provide their opinion; for a piece of wonderfully-objective journalism like this to come from a critic is the ironic icing on the cake. His editor deserves as much congratulations both for running this piece as well as for keeping Mr. Boedeker on staff.
In a world where we expect bias in our reporting, it is a sad commentary on the industry that objective journalism examples such as this one are the exception, not the rule, so much that I would comment on it and even thank the author for it. If you haven't already, you might send along an e-mail letting him know if you like it.
With all the talk about the environment and all the thinking on solutions, one concern that hasn't been mentioned much is going to come up big over the next few years. That concern is clean commercial aviation. Fortunately, there are people thinking about this problem. What no one mentions about the issue is how to tackle it rationally. It's easy to make cars more friendly to the environment; they carry less and all they have to do is turn two wheels to make the car go. Internal-combustion engines are easily replaced (relatively) with electric motors. But how do you replace a jet engine? By design and function, a jet engine requires the explosion only fuel can generate. Unfortunately, nothing yet devised explodes better, and thus provides thrust better, than jet fuel, which is horribly "dirty". So until someone designs a "clean" jet engine, we're stuck with them, or we'll be going back to propeller-driven planes, which are driven by internal-combustion engines (which, again, are easily replaced by electric motors). So we're already going to lose speed because prop planes are always slower than jets.
But how to design an eco-friendly prop plane? Planes can't use any method, like cars can, to "coast" and use that kinetic energy to recharge the batteries. For example, adding any free-spinning props to spin in the airstream, say on the back of the wings or at the end of the fuselage, for this purpose will increase drag and thus increase power needed to maintain flight. So an electric prop plane would probably need a lot more batteries. No problem. But batteries are heavy. Weight, like drag, is a killer of flight of any kind. Just as God gave birds hollow bones to conserve weight and make flight easier, aeronautical engineers look for as many ways as possible to conserve weight in their designs. Batteries would effectively negate those designs, because the power-to-weight ratio of today's batteries is pathetic. Add in the fact that more motors would be needed for a large commercial-sized plane than for a car, and that commercial-sized planes need longer runtime than batteries that can't be recharged en route (like an electric car's can), and that "refueling" (i.e., recharging all of those batteries) would take longer than traditional refueling would, and you've got a loser. So we're losing power, we're losing speed, and we're adding weight, further reducing speed, and this is progress? Why don't we just put the airlines out of business right now?
So traditional electric-car-type designs are a loser. How about nuclear, like the above-linked article talks about? Smallish reactors are already a proven technology, since the Navy's been using them for decades. Nuclear might work pretty well operationally; we're still running propellers, but no refueling would ever be required, just routine powerplant checks, so that would save time between most flights. It would save a lot of weight compared to batteries, though it might be prudent to have a small bank of them, along with emergency coolant tanks (similar to a nuclear sub's emergency venting of the reactor to the sea), as a last-resort failsafe against meltdown. Then there's shielding; all that lead is mighty heavy. So weight is still tricky, but compared to a full fuel load, it might be workable. Workability aside, though, why chance a minor Chernobyl every time a plane goes down? Air travel is still the safest way to travel, statistically, but planes do crash. Crashing even a small nuclear powerplant, unless it's fusion-powered, is just too risky a proposition for me, even if we could make the power and weight right. So I don't think nukes are the answer (for this scenario, anyway).
My bet would be on either fuel cells of some type (which probably means we're still running on much slower propeller-based aircraft), or on some new, revolutionary, as-yet-undeveloped technology . In any case, clean-running airplanes are a pipe dream, at least for the next 20-30 years.
It's been a while since I've seen a less noteworthy World Series than we have today. Philadelphia Phillies vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays? Yawn...at least the playoff races were pretty good this year.
Thanks for reading along today.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Thoughts For A Cold Day
I will never own an iPhone. If I am given one, I will sell it.
(DISCLAIMER: I'm about to reveal things about myself and my past that might sound...arrogant. I am not telling you these things to brag, but merely to make a point. Notice that I haven't mentioned any of these things before now, in four and a half years of blogging...and I probably won't mention them again.)
I got to thinking the other day...I have a similar pedigree to a lot of these liberal jerkwads. I tested at an IQ of 120 when I was about 9 years old. I graduated top 10 percent of my high school class and could probably have done better if I had actually worked hard. I got a 1370 on my SAT (old style scoring) and a 30 on my ACT. I got accepted to the University of Chicago (yes, Mr. Obama's old employer) and went there for my freshman year of college. (I only transferred out because I sought balance in my life, and I would have had none while there, with studying the 12-16 hours a day required to make the grades I wanted.) This also means I spent a year living in Hyde Park. I lived 12 years in Denver. I have travelled quite a bit, to most of the country's largest cities, which I have listed before. I've been to Mexico twice and Canada twice. I have been exposed to the most blatant and egregious propaganda that the Left can muster. I seen a lot of things and known a lot of people. What I'm saying is, I'm as "worldly" as many of these other people and would normally have every reason to be a moonbat, just like them.
Yet...somehow...I am conservative. And it doesn't bother me at all. I think I have two things that I owe for my beliefs: church and science. Strange as that sounds, I believe it is true. Church...well, that's self-explanatory. But science taught me to be rational, seek proof for things in this life, and be skeptical and realistic. Mix what church put in and what science put in, and you have a personality that has a conservative basis for thought and depends on experience and proof for actions, rather than emotion or "feel". (I was given the Myers-Briggs test immediately after I graduated college. If you know Myers-Briggs, I'm an INTP. Another explanation of that here. If you read the explanations, you'll see how it jibes perfectly with what I'm talking about.) Long-time readers and those of you who dig through the archives know that I put a lot of thought into my personal beliefs.
The point is, my background and credentials are as good as (or better than) theirs. So I think I'm going to start treating them the way they treat us, with contempt or pity. "Tsk, tsk...you have such foolish, misguided beliefs; I would expect more from someone so intelligent." That should be fun. :-)
So Heroes is back on and going strong. I wish they wouldn't drag their feet on the storylines, though. And when are they going to turn Hiro into the hardcore, sword-carrying bad-a** we saw in the "future" episodes from the first season? One thing I DO know...Mr. Petrelli is going down. I just hope Peter gets his powers back.
So I asked Heidi...if it really started raining shoes, would there actually be women running all over the street picking them up and throwing them in their cars?
OU's defense is broken. Giving up as many points as we've given up the past three weeks is NOT Oklahoma football. The good news is, we have two weeks to figure it out, against Nebraska and Texas A&M, before we finish with the rough two-game stretch against Texas Tech, then at OSU. The bad news is, it might not matter. We still need Texas to lose at least once (and preferably twice), and we need Penn State and Alabama to each lose once. Oh, and it would be nice if Florida and USC each lost again, too. I think this year is a bridge too far, though; OU had its destiny in its own hands and blew it yet again. Well, maybe we'll make the BCS this year. Personally, I'd like to see us play USC. Unfortunately, the current projections have us playing...Boise State? Yeah, like I'm going to watch THAT again. If we make it, the BCS guys better come up with something decent. An Obama victory in 10 days would already make me want to secede from the Union...if college football gets screwed up, too, there won't be anything left.
We made a lot of progress on the house this weekend. We got a lot of boxes unpacked and we got the entire formal living room all set up. Once we're further along, I'll put up some pics of the place. The best news for me: I'm making real progress in the garage, where I was able to organize some tools and now I almost have room to work on the Mustang! WOO HOO! It also really helped in my progress to break out of this funk I've been in. It's good to see we're slowly turning our house into a home.
That's it for tonight. Thanks for reading along.
(DISCLAIMER: I'm about to reveal things about myself and my past that might sound...arrogant. I am not telling you these things to brag, but merely to make a point. Notice that I haven't mentioned any of these things before now, in four and a half years of blogging...and I probably won't mention them again.)
I got to thinking the other day...I have a similar pedigree to a lot of these liberal jerkwads. I tested at an IQ of 120 when I was about 9 years old. I graduated top 10 percent of my high school class and could probably have done better if I had actually worked hard. I got a 1370 on my SAT (old style scoring) and a 30 on my ACT. I got accepted to the University of Chicago (yes, Mr. Obama's old employer) and went there for my freshman year of college. (I only transferred out because I sought balance in my life, and I would have had none while there, with studying the 12-16 hours a day required to make the grades I wanted.) This also means I spent a year living in Hyde Park. I lived 12 years in Denver. I have travelled quite a bit, to most of the country's largest cities, which I have listed before. I've been to Mexico twice and Canada twice. I have been exposed to the most blatant and egregious propaganda that the Left can muster. I seen a lot of things and known a lot of people. What I'm saying is, I'm as "worldly" as many of these other people and would normally have every reason to be a moonbat, just like them.
Yet...somehow...I am conservative. And it doesn't bother me at all. I think I have two things that I owe for my beliefs: church and science. Strange as that sounds, I believe it is true. Church...well, that's self-explanatory. But science taught me to be rational, seek proof for things in this life, and be skeptical and realistic. Mix what church put in and what science put in, and you have a personality that has a conservative basis for thought and depends on experience and proof for actions, rather than emotion or "feel". (I was given the Myers-Briggs test immediately after I graduated college. If you know Myers-Briggs, I'm an INTP. Another explanation of that here. If you read the explanations, you'll see how it jibes perfectly with what I'm talking about.) Long-time readers and those of you who dig through the archives know that I put a lot of thought into my personal beliefs.
The point is, my background and credentials are as good as (or better than) theirs. So I think I'm going to start treating them the way they treat us, with contempt or pity. "Tsk, tsk...you have such foolish, misguided beliefs; I would expect more from someone so intelligent." That should be fun. :-)
So Heroes is back on and going strong. I wish they wouldn't drag their feet on the storylines, though. And when are they going to turn Hiro into the hardcore, sword-carrying bad-a** we saw in the "future" episodes from the first season? One thing I DO know...Mr. Petrelli is going down. I just hope Peter gets his powers back.
So I asked Heidi...if it really started raining shoes, would there actually be women running all over the street picking them up and throwing them in their cars?
OU's defense is broken. Giving up as many points as we've given up the past three weeks is NOT Oklahoma football. The good news is, we have two weeks to figure it out, against Nebraska and Texas A&M, before we finish with the rough two-game stretch against Texas Tech, then at OSU. The bad news is, it might not matter. We still need Texas to lose at least once (and preferably twice), and we need Penn State and Alabama to each lose once. Oh, and it would be nice if Florida and USC each lost again, too. I think this year is a bridge too far, though; OU had its destiny in its own hands and blew it yet again. Well, maybe we'll make the BCS this year. Personally, I'd like to see us play USC. Unfortunately, the current projections have us playing...Boise State? Yeah, like I'm going to watch THAT again. If we make it, the BCS guys better come up with something decent. An Obama victory in 10 days would already make me want to secede from the Union...if college football gets screwed up, too, there won't be anything left.
We made a lot of progress on the house this weekend. We got a lot of boxes unpacked and we got the entire formal living room all set up. Once we're further along, I'll put up some pics of the place. The best news for me: I'm making real progress in the garage, where I was able to organize some tools and now I almost have room to work on the Mustang! WOO HOO! It also really helped in my progress to break out of this funk I've been in. It's good to see we're slowly turning our house into a home.
That's it for tonight. Thanks for reading along.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
So, That Was Fun
I'm back off of hiatus. It was longish for me, I guess, but there was quite a bit happening for me, mostly with my mental state. I have been having a difficult time adjusting to being back in Oklahoma. It doesn't have to do with Oklahoma, really. It really just has to do with me. I wrote Heidi an e-mail a week or so ago in which I detailed my concerns. Everyone would think that, because I'm back here now, where I've wanted to be for so long, everything would just be wonderful and peachy and terrific. It hasn't been that way for me, though, and it's mostly of my own making. Despite accomplishing one of my big life goals (getting back to Oklahoma), I've still been very negative, very pessimistic about pretty much everything. Heidi has taken that really hard, too, and that's only made things worse for both of us. The best way to illustrate my concerns is to reproduce some of the e-mail (and my apologies to you, sweetheart, for revealing our secret communications...I have removed some of the mushier parts):
I hope that gives you all an idea of the struggles I'm facing. I mean, seriously...if you're a long-time reader and you haven't noticed the negative tone the blog has taken the past several months, you must be blind. Just compare what it's been to what it was before, say, this past March. Go back to 2005 or 2006 (it's all right there in the archives) and see how happy I was. I really am afraid of what I have become, and that I can't be really happy now. I am struggling so much with all of this, and I don't want to be miserable for the rest of my life. I don't want to drive my wife away or let my kids see me as a bitter, ruined man. I don't want to be a bitter, ruined man. I just don't know how to fix it. I'm not one of those people who can just believe that things are good. I am not one of those people who just knows God is there, regardless of what happens. My mind always gets in the way. I have gone so long just waiting for the next stomach-punch that I've become cynical.
People need faith, trust, and hope to survive and stay happy. I haven't had much of those particular character traits lately. Please, wherever you are, pray for me. We're mostly out of the woods in terms of a lot of our troubles, but I need thoughts and prayers to get through this. Please pray that God will send me the reassurance from Him that I need so desperately.
Thanks for reading along.
I wanted to write to you and say that I love you, first of all. But I
also wanted to tell you that I am afraid. I know you think that I am
unhappy here, but that's not really right. We've been talking about it
quite a bit, of course, but the truth of the matter is that I am
afraid, not unhappy. I am afraid that I have been tainted by living
away from Oklahoma too long...there are things here that, even though
I am from here, I am having to readjust to after 12 years away. I
spent so long in Colorado's culture, that there are things here that
don't feel right like they used to. I still love it here, it's still
my home, but I obviously will have to readjust to being here. I just
don't want it to take me another 12 years, and I am afraid because
this place sometimes seems strange now, even to me, a native.
I am afraid that all of the adversity we had over the past year has
beaten me down too much for me to recover and be fully positive and
happy again. I'm afraid that my spirit is broken and can't be fixed.
Remember how I was after I first moved out from the house with Lisa? I
was happy and positive and I knew good things were coming. This time,
after so much adversity, I don't feel that charge, that positive move,
that adjustment. And I don't know how to get it back. My passion never
seems to be positive passion any more; it now seems to be just anger,
and despite all my attempts to tell myself that anger is not
constructive, I just seem to get angry. You know how there are people
who get beaten down by life and never recover? I am afraid that I have
become one of those people, and I don't know how to fix it.
I am afraid that even though I pay it lip service and I pray at meals
and I'm always asking God to help me trust Him, I have truly lost my
faith that He has a plan for me and for us.
I am afraid that, because I have so much to do here, I won't be able
to keep up with the things from Colorado that have to be finished,
like getting a good schedule with the kids. I think I've somewhat
given up on the idea that Katie and Connor will be able to move down
here at all...I just think there is too much there, too much of a
chasm to bridge. Besides, neither of them seems all that interested,
and that scares me, too.
I'm afraid that our financial situation will never be resolved, and
we'll be those people who have to work until they die. I don't want it
to be like that for us, but it sure doesn't feel like we're ever going
to be able to get in a good financial spot. I thought we would be OK
after the move, because I set so much aside and I fully believed we
would be OK. But instead, again, something comes up to completely
smash those plans and any hope we might have. I'm planning for the
extra money we'll have at the beginning of December, but I'm afraid
something else major will come up to take all of that away...yet
again. I'm tired of being broke all the time, but despite my best
efforts, there just doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it.
I am afraid that there is still too much out of my control and I won't
be able to reorganize my life. I said last week, both to you and in my
blog post, that I have to get my life reorganized? With all of these
things that I can't keep pinned down, and with so many other people
still forcing things on me, I don't feel like I can do anything for
myself. For example, the Blackberry thing. It's not just about having
a stupid Blackberry...it's about being forced by someone else to keep
and maintain a tool that does nothing for me. I've been working with
it the past week or so, since I got it, to try and figure out how to
use it to help me. But it's so clunky and inefficient. (If they had
just let me get a Treo....in fact, I'm still considering just going
out and buying a Day Planner and just being done with it. At least
those are relatively cheap.) But again, I don't even have much control
over how I organize my own life, and that scares me, because we both
know how scatter-brained I am already. You say I'm distracted, but
let's face it; since I got rid of the Treo, my ability to remember
things and to keep my life organized has gone down the toilet. Until
that can be fixed or handled in some way, I'm going to be like this.
When we were talking about how you feel last night, and how you
believe that you can't make people you care about happy, it's not that
you are not able to...it's just that there are all of these things in
front of me. I can't just let go of these things...that's why you've
seen me dabbling with tai chi again recently. I need something to calm
me, to try and let go of this stuff, and all my tools and the stuff
for the cars are all packed still so I don't even have my old refuge
of working on the cars (besides, working on the cars takes money and
we don't have much of that). So it really isn't you...there's not
anything anyone can do until some of these things start to get cleared
up, and I just don't know how long that's going to be. Even with this
move, that should have made me blissfully happy, there is still so much
pounding against us that must be resolved or fixed or handled.
I hope that gives you all an idea of the struggles I'm facing. I mean, seriously...if you're a long-time reader and you haven't noticed the negative tone the blog has taken the past several months, you must be blind. Just compare what it's been to what it was before, say, this past March. Go back to 2005 or 2006 (it's all right there in the archives) and see how happy I was. I really am afraid of what I have become, and that I can't be really happy now. I am struggling so much with all of this, and I don't want to be miserable for the rest of my life. I don't want to drive my wife away or let my kids see me as a bitter, ruined man. I don't want to be a bitter, ruined man. I just don't know how to fix it. I'm not one of those people who can just believe that things are good. I am not one of those people who just knows God is there, regardless of what happens. My mind always gets in the way. I have gone so long just waiting for the next stomach-punch that I've become cynical.
People need faith, trust, and hope to survive and stay happy. I haven't had much of those particular character traits lately. Please, wherever you are, pray for me. We're mostly out of the woods in terms of a lot of our troubles, but I need thoughts and prayers to get through this. Please pray that God will send me the reassurance from Him that I need so desperately.
Thanks for reading along.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
On Temporary Hiatus
I'm putting the Daily Okie on hiatus for a little while. I had been getting pretty good about posting more regularly, but some things are happening right now and I need to pay a little less attention to the blog. I'm not sure how long this will be. To all my loyal readers, who have followed me for so long (no, I haven't forgotten the three of you), I'm sorry about this. I don't believe this will be permanent, so feel free to check in every once in a while and see if I've started back up.
Monday, October 13, 2008
The Reasons For The Loss
(DISCLAIMER: This ENTIRE post is about football, and specifically Sooner football. If you're not interested, check back another time.)
So I'm still hurting from Saturday's loss. It's a lot like it was last year when we lost to Colorado...at least this year, I'm in the majority here in OKC and I don't have to spend the entire year hearing from classless Texas fans, like I had to spend a great deal of last year hearing it from classless CU fans.
Whether you know this about me or not, I'm a background guy. A troubleshooter. A technician. An analyst. I'm the guy in the background who doesn't necessarily create the world or build the world, but who keeps the world running after it has been built. That's what most of my career has been, that's how I am at home, and that's what I am today. I look at negative situations and immediately try to figure out what broke and how to fix it. So with that in mind, in the aftermath of Saturday's game I thought about what broke. (I'm not sure, really, how to fix any of these, though...I'm not a coach.)
1. OU had several opportunities to put the game away in the first half and did not do so. This is partially a credit to Texas and their spunk, but it's mostly a knock on OU. Giving up the big kick return for a touchdown. Getting defensive stops but not when they needed them most (like, after a touchdown drive). Stupid offsides penalties that gave Texas first downs. (I'll get into some of the other penalties further down.) If OU had taken a full two-touchdown lead in the first half when they had a chance, if they had gotten a key defensive stop IMMEDIATELY after a touchdown drive, if they had held serve that ONE time on kick coverage, OU would most likely have taken the wind out of Texas's sails and would probably have been able to either roll to a blowout or at least hang on for a close win. Instead, OU just let Texas hang around, and that allowed Texas to believe they could win it. Texas played behind nearly the ENTIRE game, yet won by 10 points.
2. Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson overthought his offensive calls. There was only one drive...ONE DRIVE...where he really worked to keep the OU offense in a very quick tempo, and that was the most impressive drive by either team all day. In fact, if OU had maintained that pace on half of their drives, they probably would've put Texas away by the second quarter, as they've done with every other team they've played. What made that drive special is that OU's coaches made the calls, didn't audible, and forced Texas to really work to get up to the line and be in position to run the play. You can work the no-huddle two ways: a) make your call quickly, get up to the line quickly, and snap it quickly, counting on the speed to keep the defense off-balance and giving them no time to adjust or make a counter-call to stop what you're doing, or b) get to the line, wait for the defense to line up, then call your play, with possibly another audible to adjust slightly to what the defense shows as they set up. OU spent most of the game in the second mode, allowing Texas (who was looking and hoping for this very thing) to re-align and adjust every time OU got set. That one second-quarter drive in which OU went to the first mode, they made it look like OU was playing a bunch of high school kids. Texas never adjusted properly during that drive, and the result was an easy touchdown. Instead, Wilson spent the entire game getting OU to the line quickly, but then trying to figure out the best play every time, when a merely good play every time, as OU got during their quick-tempo drive, would have sufficed and most likely would've been much more effective over the course of the entire game.
3. Because OU let Texas stay in the game, and because OU did not maintain the quick-tempo no-huddle that had brought so much success earlier in the season and earlier in the game, OU completely lost the game when Ryan Reynolds went down. Now, Ryan is a great player, and he has done a wonderful job as a leader of the defense, getting everyone set up and going. But he also is one of those injury-plagued stars. Some kids are just star-crossed, and Reynolds seems to be one of those kids. He had just suffered his third season-ending knee injury in as many seasons. After the first two, you would think that OU would have had a solid plan for a backup for him, not knowing, but perhaps expecting that something like this might happen. That way, when it DID happen, there was someone ready and waiting to step in quickly and easily. Instead, defensive coordinator Brent Venables left EVERYTHING on Reynolds's shoulders, and when he went down, the strength in the defensive middle, along with the leadership Reynolds provided on the field, completely disappeared, leaving OU's defense in shambles. After Reynolds went down, OU was completely unable to stop Texas, who already had a full head of steam, all the momentum, and a great deal of confidence in knowing that they had managed to stick around for so long.
These things, more than anything else, triggered OU's defeat. Let's take a look at some red herrings that will get a lot of talk, but that really didn't amount to much (and I will explain why).
1. OU's inability to run the ball effectively -- true, this was bad. But notice that Texas also was completely unable to run the ball effectively until the fourth quarter (and even the huge Ogbonnaya 62-yard scamper on Texas's last TD drive succeeded only because of a blatant hold on an OU linebacker that wasn't called...more on that in a moment). This game was, for all intents and purposes, a duel between two of this season's most incredible quarterbacks. The running game didn't matter for either team, so to say that OU lost because they couldn't get the running game going, while technically true, wasn't as big a factor as it might at first seem. The same could be said for Texas: "If Texas had gotten their running game going early on, with Colt McCoy playing the way he did, they would've beaten OU into a bloody pulp."
2. Officiating gaffes (and there were many) -- There were some HORRIBLE calls in this game, both ways. I remarked to my dad that it's a terrible shame that when you have the #1 team in the country playing against the #5 team in the country, in a game with huge implications not only in the conference race but also the national championship race, and one of the nation's biggest rivalry games to boot, you know both teams are going to bring their A game. You would expect that the officials would understand the game situation and would be able to do the same. Instead, the officials blew call after call, making horrible calls at some times, and horrible non-calls at other times. Two ridiculous roughing-the-passer flags that, seriously, weren't there. A questionable roughing-the-punter call against Texas. The botched interception-in-the-endzone call...interpretation or not, the ground should only be allowed to cause an incompletion if it is the FIRST contact with the ground that a receiver makes. (That should be obvious and logical. If a receiver grabs the ball, has control, and gets a foot down (or in Lamont Robinson's case, TWO feet down), let him have the catch. Robinson obviously had control of the ball in his midsection, took two steps, then fell to the ground, dislodging the ball.) Calling super-light pass interference penalties at some points, then losing the flag on calls that were much worse. Rampant holding all game, including on the "defining" run by Ogbonnaya in the fourth quarter, in which a Texas lineman had two hands on an OU linebacker's jersey...completely from behind, which is the definition and interpretation of holding (I speak both as a trained football official as well as a long-time fan and observer...check the replays from the endzone camera that ABC showed after the run and it will stick out like a sore thumb). Even the replay booth blew it on several occasions, refusing to review calls that should have been reviewed.
Now all that being said, the officials were pretty bad both ways, and this was one of the most mediocre games I've seen by a Big 12 officiating crew, who are usually pretty good. The curious lack of consistency by this game's officials, though lamentable, didn't really make the difference...though it certainly might have. In any case, it certainly would have been a better game if it had.
3. Bob Stoops fake-punt call in the third quarter -- I'm glad I haven't heard this one rehashed over and over, and it might not have made a difference if it had succeeded. However, I thought the call itself, the time and situation in which it was made, and the execution that came up a mere yard short of the goal, was excellent. Stoops is a gambler, always has been. The only unfortunate thing about his gambles over the past few years is that they haven't succeeded nearly as often as they used to. A Stoops gamble used to be not much of one, as OU nearly always made those gambles succeed. Over the past couple of years, it hasn't been that way, and this is just another example of that unfortunate fact. Of course, if OU had made the first down, win or lose, everyone would have chalked it up as an incredibly gutsy call and a awesome execution by OU's much-maligned special teams. And come on...did anyone believe that Mike Knall could run that fast??? Holy cow, put that guy in the backfield!!
Now, to the really sad point to me, and it was immediately obvious as soon as the game was in the bag for Texas. Sure, OU is in a bad spot to play for the Big 12 championship, let alone the National Championship. Worse, though, is the story for Sam Bradford, who put up incredible numbers and played his guts out for his team, with numbers as good as or better than Colt McCoy's numbers. He will be forgotten now in the Heisman run, at least for a while. You heard it already by ABC's coverage crew late in the fourth quarter...the inevitable human-interest crap that gets spun up by those guys with one player. Colt McCoy is such a great guy...one of the best you'll meet...Colt McCoy was the story of this game...what an incredible game by this gritty player...blah, blah, blah. Don't get me wrong, McCoy had an incredible game and was definitely the difference for Texas. However, there were TWO incredible quarterbacks out there who played their games-of-the-year, and let's NOT forget that. Bradford showed he deserves at least a similar treatment, even for a moment and even in a losing effort. Someone could have said, "And before we give everything to Texas, let's say what an incredibly impressive game Bradford had, throwing for 5 touchdowns and nearly 400 yards and completing 72% of his passes. He deserves better than he got." Then move on to the Tex-ASS kissing.
My one consolation in all of this, is that Texas will choke down the stretch. Just two years ago, after OU had lost its only Big 12 game to Texas, Texas thoughtfully lost its last two games to let OU move back to the top of the Big 12 South. Texas has a brutal schedule this year, especially over the next month or so, and they will either emerge completely unscathed, in which they deserve to play not only for the conference but for the NC...or they will most likely have one or even two losses. If they do, OU will have the opportunity to get back in it, but they can't have any more down games. They better get up for Kansas this weekend.
Thanks for reading along.
So I'm still hurting from Saturday's loss. It's a lot like it was last year when we lost to Colorado...at least this year, I'm in the majority here in OKC and I don't have to spend the entire year hearing from classless Texas fans, like I had to spend a great deal of last year hearing it from classless CU fans.
Whether you know this about me or not, I'm a background guy. A troubleshooter. A technician. An analyst. I'm the guy in the background who doesn't necessarily create the world or build the world, but who keeps the world running after it has been built. That's what most of my career has been, that's how I am at home, and that's what I am today. I look at negative situations and immediately try to figure out what broke and how to fix it. So with that in mind, in the aftermath of Saturday's game I thought about what broke. (I'm not sure, really, how to fix any of these, though...I'm not a coach.)
1. OU had several opportunities to put the game away in the first half and did not do so. This is partially a credit to Texas and their spunk, but it's mostly a knock on OU. Giving up the big kick return for a touchdown. Getting defensive stops but not when they needed them most (like, after a touchdown drive). Stupid offsides penalties that gave Texas first downs. (I'll get into some of the other penalties further down.) If OU had taken a full two-touchdown lead in the first half when they had a chance, if they had gotten a key defensive stop IMMEDIATELY after a touchdown drive, if they had held serve that ONE time on kick coverage, OU would most likely have taken the wind out of Texas's sails and would probably have been able to either roll to a blowout or at least hang on for a close win. Instead, OU just let Texas hang around, and that allowed Texas to believe they could win it. Texas played behind nearly the ENTIRE game, yet won by 10 points.
2. Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson overthought his offensive calls. There was only one drive...ONE DRIVE...where he really worked to keep the OU offense in a very quick tempo, and that was the most impressive drive by either team all day. In fact, if OU had maintained that pace on half of their drives, they probably would've put Texas away by the second quarter, as they've done with every other team they've played. What made that drive special is that OU's coaches made the calls, didn't audible, and forced Texas to really work to get up to the line and be in position to run the play. You can work the no-huddle two ways: a) make your call quickly, get up to the line quickly, and snap it quickly, counting on the speed to keep the defense off-balance and giving them no time to adjust or make a counter-call to stop what you're doing, or b) get to the line, wait for the defense to line up, then call your play, with possibly another audible to adjust slightly to what the defense shows as they set up. OU spent most of the game in the second mode, allowing Texas (who was looking and hoping for this very thing) to re-align and adjust every time OU got set. That one second-quarter drive in which OU went to the first mode, they made it look like OU was playing a bunch of high school kids. Texas never adjusted properly during that drive, and the result was an easy touchdown. Instead, Wilson spent the entire game getting OU to the line quickly, but then trying to figure out the best play every time, when a merely good play every time, as OU got during their quick-tempo drive, would have sufficed and most likely would've been much more effective over the course of the entire game.
3. Because OU let Texas stay in the game, and because OU did not maintain the quick-tempo no-huddle that had brought so much success earlier in the season and earlier in the game, OU completely lost the game when Ryan Reynolds went down. Now, Ryan is a great player, and he has done a wonderful job as a leader of the defense, getting everyone set up and going. But he also is one of those injury-plagued stars. Some kids are just star-crossed, and Reynolds seems to be one of those kids. He had just suffered his third season-ending knee injury in as many seasons. After the first two, you would think that OU would have had a solid plan for a backup for him, not knowing, but perhaps expecting that something like this might happen. That way, when it DID happen, there was someone ready and waiting to step in quickly and easily. Instead, defensive coordinator Brent Venables left EVERYTHING on Reynolds's shoulders, and when he went down, the strength in the defensive middle, along with the leadership Reynolds provided on the field, completely disappeared, leaving OU's defense in shambles. After Reynolds went down, OU was completely unable to stop Texas, who already had a full head of steam, all the momentum, and a great deal of confidence in knowing that they had managed to stick around for so long.
These things, more than anything else, triggered OU's defeat. Let's take a look at some red herrings that will get a lot of talk, but that really didn't amount to much (and I will explain why).
1. OU's inability to run the ball effectively -- true, this was bad. But notice that Texas also was completely unable to run the ball effectively until the fourth quarter (and even the huge Ogbonnaya 62-yard scamper on Texas's last TD drive succeeded only because of a blatant hold on an OU linebacker that wasn't called...more on that in a moment). This game was, for all intents and purposes, a duel between two of this season's most incredible quarterbacks. The running game didn't matter for either team, so to say that OU lost because they couldn't get the running game going, while technically true, wasn't as big a factor as it might at first seem. The same could be said for Texas: "If Texas had gotten their running game going early on, with Colt McCoy playing the way he did, they would've beaten OU into a bloody pulp."
2. Officiating gaffes (and there were many) -- There were some HORRIBLE calls in this game, both ways. I remarked to my dad that it's a terrible shame that when you have the #1 team in the country playing against the #5 team in the country, in a game with huge implications not only in the conference race but also the national championship race, and one of the nation's biggest rivalry games to boot, you know both teams are going to bring their A game. You would expect that the officials would understand the game situation and would be able to do the same. Instead, the officials blew call after call, making horrible calls at some times, and horrible non-calls at other times. Two ridiculous roughing-the-passer flags that, seriously, weren't there. A questionable roughing-the-punter call against Texas. The botched interception-in-the-endzone call...interpretation or not, the ground should only be allowed to cause an incompletion if it is the FIRST contact with the ground that a receiver makes. (That should be obvious and logical. If a receiver grabs the ball, has control, and gets a foot down (or in Lamont Robinson's case, TWO feet down), let him have the catch. Robinson obviously had control of the ball in his midsection, took two steps, then fell to the ground, dislodging the ball.) Calling super-light pass interference penalties at some points, then losing the flag on calls that were much worse. Rampant holding all game, including on the "defining" run by Ogbonnaya in the fourth quarter, in which a Texas lineman had two hands on an OU linebacker's jersey...completely from behind, which is the definition and interpretation of holding (I speak both as a trained football official as well as a long-time fan and observer...check the replays from the endzone camera that ABC showed after the run and it will stick out like a sore thumb). Even the replay booth blew it on several occasions, refusing to review calls that should have been reviewed.
Now all that being said, the officials were pretty bad both ways, and this was one of the most mediocre games I've seen by a Big 12 officiating crew, who are usually pretty good. The curious lack of consistency by this game's officials, though lamentable, didn't really make the difference...though it certainly might have. In any case, it certainly would have been a better game if it had.
3. Bob Stoops fake-punt call in the third quarter -- I'm glad I haven't heard this one rehashed over and over, and it might not have made a difference if it had succeeded. However, I thought the call itself, the time and situation in which it was made, and the execution that came up a mere yard short of the goal, was excellent. Stoops is a gambler, always has been. The only unfortunate thing about his gambles over the past few years is that they haven't succeeded nearly as often as they used to. A Stoops gamble used to be not much of one, as OU nearly always made those gambles succeed. Over the past couple of years, it hasn't been that way, and this is just another example of that unfortunate fact. Of course, if OU had made the first down, win or lose, everyone would have chalked it up as an incredibly gutsy call and a awesome execution by OU's much-maligned special teams. And come on...did anyone believe that Mike Knall could run that fast??? Holy cow, put that guy in the backfield!!
Now, to the really sad point to me, and it was immediately obvious as soon as the game was in the bag for Texas. Sure, OU is in a bad spot to play for the Big 12 championship, let alone the National Championship. Worse, though, is the story for Sam Bradford, who put up incredible numbers and played his guts out for his team, with numbers as good as or better than Colt McCoy's numbers. He will be forgotten now in the Heisman run, at least for a while. You heard it already by ABC's coverage crew late in the fourth quarter...the inevitable human-interest crap that gets spun up by those guys with one player. Colt McCoy is such a great guy...one of the best you'll meet...Colt McCoy was the story of this game...what an incredible game by this gritty player...blah, blah, blah. Don't get me wrong, McCoy had an incredible game and was definitely the difference for Texas. However, there were TWO incredible quarterbacks out there who played their games-of-the-year, and let's NOT forget that. Bradford showed he deserves at least a similar treatment, even for a moment and even in a losing effort. Someone could have said, "And before we give everything to Texas, let's say what an incredibly impressive game Bradford had, throwing for 5 touchdowns and nearly 400 yards and completing 72% of his passes. He deserves better than he got." Then move on to the Tex-ASS kissing.
My one consolation in all of this, is that Texas will choke down the stretch. Just two years ago, after OU had lost its only Big 12 game to Texas, Texas thoughtfully lost its last two games to let OU move back to the top of the Big 12 South. Texas has a brutal schedule this year, especially over the next month or so, and they will either emerge completely unscathed, in which they deserve to play not only for the conference but for the NC...or they will most likely have one or even two losses. If they do, OU will have the opportunity to get back in it, but they can't have any more down games. They better get up for Kansas this weekend.
Thanks for reading along.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Some Other Ways, and Some Updates
(DISCLAIMER: The first section of this post talks about football again..sort of. I'm sorry I have been remiss in providing this warning to those of you who don't care for the game...I'll try to be more diligent in the future.)
I thought of another way that college football is better than pro...team names. Purdue has the Boilermakers. Demon Deacons apparently come from Wake Forest. OU is the Sooners. Texas is obviously the Longhorns (no link, though...what week is this?). Horned Frogs. Gamecocks. Buckeyes. Fighting Irish. Seminoles. Gators. Crimson Tide. Badgers. Nittany Lions. Ducks. Aggies. All of these names represent something about the culture, history, or environment of their respective schools and immediate regions. The fans and alumni take pride in their school's designation. It's part of their tradition, and it connects them to their school and their home. Granted, the mascot/team name isn't always so colorful or evocative, but it's much more common in the college ranks than anywhere else.
On the other hand, I am pretty sure there hasn't been a bear within 20 miles of Chicago in probably 150-200 years. Bengals are only found in two places in Cincinnati: the football stadium and the zoo. Cleveland sort of approaches the history angle with the Browns (named for Paul Brown, their first head coach), but even that is somewhat weak...it would be like OU as the "Oklahoma Harts". Atlanta has falcons but Georgia isn't really known for them...perhaps the "Atlanta Crackers" or "Atlanta Mint Juleps" would have been more apropos. St. Louis had Cardinals (and still does, in baseball), but now those are in Arizona; instead, St. Louis is known for its...Rams who came from LA? If they were to follow the line properly, they'd be the "St. Louis Arches". Yet no one seems to have thought of that. Hmmm.
(END DISCLAIMER SECTION)
I wish Viagra had never been invented. Even if I needed Viagra, I would STILL wish that, if only so that I would never have to see or hear one of those stupid "Viva Viagra!" commercials ever again. They're on about the same level as those ridiculous Just For Men "Summer of Life" commercials. Sigh...it will be interesting to see how Madison Avenue panders to my generation when we hit our 50s and 60s.
With so much going on, I have been remiss in other ways, too, like providing updates about very important news. Heidi and I had originally agreed to not find out the gender of our new arrival. Well, she went to the doctor the week before the big move, and we found out anyway...and...
(drum roll, please...)
IT'S A GIRL!!!
Yes, that's right, our last one will be a girl. So we will have achieved a very nice symmetry for us. It's also interesting that I have two girls. My first was a girl and my last will be a girl. Both will have been born in Oklahoma. All of our middle children will be boys, and all of them will be Colorado natives. In any case, we will be welcoming Julianna Alyse Mallow into the world on or around February 9th, 2009. Hooray!!!
I am trying to get my head back on straight, with everything that's been going on. I've been in something of a bad mood since the weekend of the Big Move, mostly because there's still so much to be done and I have been so stressed out. I have decided that there are three things that I need to get more of now, going forward, so that things can finally begin to settle down:
1. Organization -- I was dependent on my Palm/Treo for years to help me keep track of appointments, contacts, finances, and everything. When we moved to Verizon last December, I lost that ability because we didn't have enough money for me to get a new Treo. So I've been somewhat disorganized since then. I have a new Blackberry through work, and even though I don't particularly like them much, I'm going to try to get it all together and see if it will work for me, in reorganizing my life. A big part of this effort is in getting my study unpacked and organized at the new house; that will essentially be my focal point for the things I have to accomplish, my "Sanctum Sanctorum," if you will.
2. Resolution -- there are still a lot of things that need to be nailed down with the move, including the situation with Katie and Connor, car tag transfers, insurance, finances (still up in the air after the turmoil of the move), driver's licenses, unpacking and organizing our stuff, etc., etc. As more of these niggling issues get resolved, my stress level will go down. I at least finally got the tags for the Mustang yesterday, which is very good news.
3. Routine -- The turmoil of losing my job, finding the job in OKC, and preparing for and executing the Big Move have all worked together to throw any vestiges of routine I might have had before completely out of whack. I like variety, but I also crave some type of routine; I really can't just fly by the seat of my pants every day, and I've been doing that pretty much since early August. As I get reorganized and as I get issues resolved, the routine will begin to kick in again. I especially need the routine I have of working on the cars, which I've mentioned before, helps me relieve a lot of stress. There is sometimes a great deal to be said for escaping into mindlessness, and routine and distractions can provide that escape.
I did get another nice jolt of home-juice the other night, when we had a weather bulletin break in during commercial time because of some severe storms that came through. That was wonderful.
Thanks for reading along...see y'all again soon.
I thought of another way that college football is better than pro...team names. Purdue has the Boilermakers. Demon Deacons apparently come from Wake Forest. OU is the Sooners. Texas is obviously the Longhorns (no link, though...what week is this?). Horned Frogs. Gamecocks. Buckeyes. Fighting Irish. Seminoles. Gators. Crimson Tide. Badgers. Nittany Lions. Ducks. Aggies. All of these names represent something about the culture, history, or environment of their respective schools and immediate regions. The fans and alumni take pride in their school's designation. It's part of their tradition, and it connects them to their school and their home. Granted, the mascot/team name isn't always so colorful or evocative, but it's much more common in the college ranks than anywhere else.
On the other hand, I am pretty sure there hasn't been a bear within 20 miles of Chicago in probably 150-200 years. Bengals are only found in two places in Cincinnati: the football stadium and the zoo. Cleveland sort of approaches the history angle with the Browns (named for Paul Brown, their first head coach), but even that is somewhat weak...it would be like OU as the "Oklahoma Harts". Atlanta has falcons but Georgia isn't really known for them...perhaps the "Atlanta Crackers" or "Atlanta Mint Juleps" would have been more apropos. St. Louis had Cardinals (and still does, in baseball), but now those are in Arizona; instead, St. Louis is known for its...Rams who came from LA? If they were to follow the line properly, they'd be the "St. Louis Arches". Yet no one seems to have thought of that. Hmmm.
(END DISCLAIMER SECTION)
I wish Viagra had never been invented. Even if I needed Viagra, I would STILL wish that, if only so that I would never have to see or hear one of those stupid "Viva Viagra!" commercials ever again. They're on about the same level as those ridiculous Just For Men "Summer of Life" commercials. Sigh...it will be interesting to see how Madison Avenue panders to my generation when we hit our 50s and 60s.
With so much going on, I have been remiss in other ways, too, like providing updates about very important news. Heidi and I had originally agreed to not find out the gender of our new arrival. Well, she went to the doctor the week before the big move, and we found out anyway...and...
(drum roll, please...)
IT'S A GIRL!!!
Yes, that's right, our last one will be a girl. So we will have achieved a very nice symmetry for us. It's also interesting that I have two girls. My first was a girl and my last will be a girl. Both will have been born in Oklahoma. All of our middle children will be boys, and all of them will be Colorado natives. In any case, we will be welcoming Julianna Alyse Mallow into the world on or around February 9th, 2009. Hooray!!!
I am trying to get my head back on straight, with everything that's been going on. I've been in something of a bad mood since the weekend of the Big Move, mostly because there's still so much to be done and I have been so stressed out. I have decided that there are three things that I need to get more of now, going forward, so that things can finally begin to settle down:
1. Organization -- I was dependent on my Palm/Treo for years to help me keep track of appointments, contacts, finances, and everything. When we moved to Verizon last December, I lost that ability because we didn't have enough money for me to get a new Treo. So I've been somewhat disorganized since then. I have a new Blackberry through work, and even though I don't particularly like them much, I'm going to try to get it all together and see if it will work for me, in reorganizing my life. A big part of this effort is in getting my study unpacked and organized at the new house; that will essentially be my focal point for the things I have to accomplish, my "Sanctum Sanctorum," if you will.
2. Resolution -- there are still a lot of things that need to be nailed down with the move, including the situation with Katie and Connor, car tag transfers, insurance, finances (still up in the air after the turmoil of the move), driver's licenses, unpacking and organizing our stuff, etc., etc. As more of these niggling issues get resolved, my stress level will go down. I at least finally got the tags for the Mustang yesterday, which is very good news.
3. Routine -- The turmoil of losing my job, finding the job in OKC, and preparing for and executing the Big Move have all worked together to throw any vestiges of routine I might have had before completely out of whack. I like variety, but I also crave some type of routine; I really can't just fly by the seat of my pants every day, and I've been doing that pretty much since early August. As I get reorganized and as I get issues resolved, the routine will begin to kick in again. I especially need the routine I have of working on the cars, which I've mentioned before, helps me relieve a lot of stress. There is sometimes a great deal to be said for escaping into mindlessness, and routine and distractions can provide that escape.
I did get another nice jolt of home-juice the other night, when we had a weather bulletin break in during commercial time because of some severe storms that came through. That was wonderful.
Thanks for reading along...see y'all again soon.
Monday, October 06, 2008
College vs. Pro
In honor of this special week, I will be focusing quite a bit on the Sooners and college football in general.
Just about everyone who knows me knows that I love college football. I am a Sooner and I feel just like that OU player who said a while back, "Every day I wake up a Sooner." But though I love the Sooners most of all, I love college football in general. Its greatness manifests itself in so many ways. First and foremost, if the NFL is the news anchor with his/her flat, normal "American" accent, college football is the people interviewed by the roving reporter. The anchor reads from a teleprompter and wears make-up and a perfectly-pressed outfit. The anchor is always perfect, even when he/she makes mistakes. It's a little creepy, as though some animatronic robot were reciting the news to you like those telephone voices you hear all the time these days. All anchors report the same stories, assuming that we all care about the same things. In the same way, the NFL is the same stuff over and over, with no real change except in who might be up or down, reflecting the broadest possible spread over the entire country. It is hyped in crazy ways yet still lacking, much like Katie Couric. It is so heavily-rehearsed that it is rare to see a true upset or memorable game. (Seriously, the last great NFL game I can remember was the first Super Bowl win by John Elway against the Packers in '97. Now THAT was a great game...but eleven years?) Its audience enjoys the spectacle, but it's nothing more than a pastime, just another hobby before heading back to fixing the sink or out to the garage to do a little work on the '78 Trans Am. Oh, and maybe they check their fantasy team on Sunday night and Monday night. In fact, outlaw fantasy football and shut off the massive NFL hype machine, and pro football just can't stand on its own.
How many times can you see the same kinds of plays run by the same kinds of players running the same kind of offense, against the same kind of defense, for three-and-a-half hours? Everyone thought Buddy Ryan was a kook because he ran a defense that no one else ran. And everyone runs the West Coast offense. College football, on the other hand, has the wishbone, or the spread, or the spread option, or the run-and-gun, or the fun-and-gun, or the West Coast, or pistol, or whatever the flavor of the day is. Defenses run the 4-3 or the 3-4 or the 4-2-5 or some combination of all of these. College football has trick plays that actually work. As much as I hate to mention it, would you ever see Boise State's Statue-of-Liberty play in overtime against OU used by the Chicago Bears to pick off the Vikings in the playoffs? How about the Jets pulling off a massive win against the Patriots on a last-second, lateral-the-ball-37-times play a la Cal-Stanford?
If pro football is plain-vanilla American, college football reflects the culture and ideals of the various regions of the country. Just look at Big Ten vs. SEC vs. Big 12 vs. Pac-10 vs. ACC vs. Big East. They all have their unique historical tendencies, their cultural high and low points, their moments of glory and their moments of agony. The game inspires true loyalty and passion from its followers, and it represents all of the REAL America, not just those who live in the cities and have enough dough-re-mi to support a pro team. In a country already becoming far too removed from its original rural-agrarian roots, with its elites who joke about "Flyover America" and refer to "soccer moms" (Just another indicator of how out-of-touch those people are...why not "football moms" or "baseball moms" or "basketball moms" or even Sarah Palin's "hockey moms"?? There are a lot more of those, I bet.), college football is still the primary concern of the common folk during fall weekends. And not just for their school's games...it's their conference's games, and their rivals'/enemies' games. College football has variety, it has cultural clashes as well as physical ones. (Look for the "Northern football vs. Southern football" e-mail to see what I am talking about.) It has real traditions, some of which have been going on at their respective schools for 50 years or more. Traditions that the entire school, its students, alumni, and fans, all rally around and yes, even cry about. I still get teary-eyed watching some of OU's great moments, especially if I experienced them in person as a little kid. This isn't to say that the pros don't have traditions and special moments and history, but name one to me. I lived in Broncoland, the Land of Elway for 12 years, and aside from the Ring of Fame and having "Mile High" attached to the stadium name, I can't think of any really special tradition stuff they had. No pro team has an environment as daunting as Texas A&M and their Twelfth Man. No pro team has anything like Florida State's Chief Osceola and his flaming lance at midfield. No pro team has anything that comes close to the Red River Rivalry, or the Michigan-Ohio State game, or the annual Iron Bowl between 'Bama and Auburn. No pro team has anything like Howard's Rock or Touchdown Jesus.
Oh, and don't forget that college football is what started it all. It wasn't like baseball, that had city teams playing each other so that the move to paying players was a relatively simple one. There's still great fondness for the Ivy League in college football, even if they haven't had a prayer of competing with the big boys, because the Ivy League gave us the game.
Even its players are a completely different breed. They don't play for money. They play for pride, for love of the game, just to play for their school (in many cases, their home). Ninety-nine percent of them won't be going to play in the NFL; they'll move on after their eligibility is done and become insurance salesmen or stock brokers or IT workers or grad students or whatever. Some folks, including the wonderful analyst-journalists over at College Football News, try to bring this point out as much as possible, since college is also universally seen (thanks again to the hype machine) as the minor leagues for the NFL. They play through pain, they play as hard as they can, they play and don't cry. Pro players have something of a reputation of whining and complaining, despite the tremendous amounts of money they make. I don't begrudge them the money, since their careers are typically much shorter than in other industries. I DO resent their need to constantly complain about the fact that they get to make lots of money playing a game for a living. You don't hear that from college players. They're people just like us, and they're just glad to be there.
I think I've made my basic point, so that's enough on the subject for now. Thanks for reading along.
Just about everyone who knows me knows that I love college football. I am a Sooner and I feel just like that OU player who said a while back, "Every day I wake up a Sooner." But though I love the Sooners most of all, I love college football in general. Its greatness manifests itself in so many ways. First and foremost, if the NFL is the news anchor with his/her flat, normal "American" accent, college football is the people interviewed by the roving reporter. The anchor reads from a teleprompter and wears make-up and a perfectly-pressed outfit. The anchor is always perfect, even when he/she makes mistakes. It's a little creepy, as though some animatronic robot were reciting the news to you like those telephone voices you hear all the time these days. All anchors report the same stories, assuming that we all care about the same things. In the same way, the NFL is the same stuff over and over, with no real change except in who might be up or down, reflecting the broadest possible spread over the entire country. It is hyped in crazy ways yet still lacking, much like Katie Couric. It is so heavily-rehearsed that it is rare to see a true upset or memorable game. (Seriously, the last great NFL game I can remember was the first Super Bowl win by John Elway against the Packers in '97. Now THAT was a great game...but eleven years?) Its audience enjoys the spectacle, but it's nothing more than a pastime, just another hobby before heading back to fixing the sink or out to the garage to do a little work on the '78 Trans Am. Oh, and maybe they check their fantasy team on Sunday night and Monday night. In fact, outlaw fantasy football and shut off the massive NFL hype machine, and pro football just can't stand on its own.
How many times can you see the same kinds of plays run by the same kinds of players running the same kind of offense, against the same kind of defense, for three-and-a-half hours? Everyone thought Buddy Ryan was a kook because he ran a defense that no one else ran. And everyone runs the West Coast offense. College football, on the other hand, has the wishbone, or the spread, or the spread option, or the run-and-gun, or the fun-and-gun, or the West Coast, or pistol, or whatever the flavor of the day is. Defenses run the 4-3 or the 3-4 or the 4-2-5 or some combination of all of these. College football has trick plays that actually work. As much as I hate to mention it, would you ever see Boise State's Statue-of-Liberty play in overtime against OU used by the Chicago Bears to pick off the Vikings in the playoffs? How about the Jets pulling off a massive win against the Patriots on a last-second, lateral-the-ball-37-times play a la Cal-Stanford?
If pro football is plain-vanilla American, college football reflects the culture and ideals of the various regions of the country. Just look at Big Ten vs. SEC vs. Big 12 vs. Pac-10 vs. ACC vs. Big East. They all have their unique historical tendencies, their cultural high and low points, their moments of glory and their moments of agony. The game inspires true loyalty and passion from its followers, and it represents all of the REAL America, not just those who live in the cities and have enough dough-re-mi to support a pro team. In a country already becoming far too removed from its original rural-agrarian roots, with its elites who joke about "Flyover America" and refer to "soccer moms" (Just another indicator of how out-of-touch those people are...why not "football moms" or "baseball moms" or "basketball moms" or even Sarah Palin's "hockey moms"?? There are a lot more of those, I bet.), college football is still the primary concern of the common folk during fall weekends. And not just for their school's games...it's their conference's games, and their rivals'/enemies' games. College football has variety, it has cultural clashes as well as physical ones. (Look for the "Northern football vs. Southern football" e-mail to see what I am talking about.) It has real traditions, some of which have been going on at their respective schools for 50 years or more. Traditions that the entire school, its students, alumni, and fans, all rally around and yes, even cry about. I still get teary-eyed watching some of OU's great moments, especially if I experienced them in person as a little kid. This isn't to say that the pros don't have traditions and special moments and history, but name one to me. I lived in Broncoland, the Land of Elway for 12 years, and aside from the Ring of Fame and having "Mile High" attached to the stadium name, I can't think of any really special tradition stuff they had. No pro team has an environment as daunting as Texas A&M and their Twelfth Man. No pro team has anything like Florida State's Chief Osceola and his flaming lance at midfield. No pro team has anything that comes close to the Red River Rivalry, or the Michigan-Ohio State game, or the annual Iron Bowl between 'Bama and Auburn. No pro team has anything like Howard's Rock or Touchdown Jesus.
Oh, and don't forget that college football is what started it all. It wasn't like baseball, that had city teams playing each other so that the move to paying players was a relatively simple one. There's still great fondness for the Ivy League in college football, even if they haven't had a prayer of competing with the big boys, because the Ivy League gave us the game.
Even its players are a completely different breed. They don't play for money. They play for pride, for love of the game, just to play for their school (in many cases, their home). Ninety-nine percent of them won't be going to play in the NFL; they'll move on after their eligibility is done and become insurance salesmen or stock brokers or IT workers or grad students or whatever. Some folks, including the wonderful analyst-journalists over at College Football News, try to bring this point out as much as possible, since college is also universally seen (thanks again to the hype machine) as the minor leagues for the NFL. They play through pain, they play as hard as they can, they play and don't cry. Pro players have something of a reputation of whining and complaining, despite the tremendous amounts of money they make. I don't begrudge them the money, since their careers are typically much shorter than in other industries. I DO resent their need to constantly complain about the fact that they get to make lots of money playing a game for a living. You don't hear that from college players. They're people just like us, and they're just glad to be there.
I think I've made my basic point, so that's enough on the subject for now. Thanks for reading along.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Fatigue
So the move is done. There are still a few remaining details to work out, and ALL of the unpacking to do, but it's done. We're all here. I still have to work out the details of getting Katie and Connor here...there's quite a battle left there, I'm afraid. Their mom won't agree, of course...mostly out of spite, I'm afraid. Lisa just does things her own way. One day, I'll never have to speak to her again, and as unfortunate as it is for me to say it, I look forward to that day.
How many decisions have you made in life that you regretted? I don't have many, but I do have one or two that I would probably take back, if I could...
I've been very tired lately. I think all the stress of the move, plus all the extreme mental and physical activity involved in performing the move, plus the financial stresses involved for us before, during, and after the move, have all combined to weigh on me pretty heavily. I am very glad to be home, though. I draw such energy from this place...I always have. It was never more evident than when I would come home to visit while I lived in Colorado. Right after I got home, I could feel the energy...I need more of it, though. There's still so much to do right now, but God willing, things will calm down soon.
One final point: to any who were offended by my last post, I am sorry you were offended. However, I am not sorry for my opinions. My opinions are what they are. I dealt with living in Colorado with as much patience as I could muster. I will admit, I received opportunities for my career that I might not have received elsewhere. There are some things about Colorado I will miss. I am not sorry to have left, though...that was always the plan. Anyone who knew me for any length of time also knew that I had no plan to stay in Colorado any longer than necessary. The only reason I stayed as long as I did was for Katie and Connor. When Colorado couldn't even provide me a job that wouldn't either wreck my career or severely disrupt my finances, when I could no longer provide for my family there, it no longer made much sense for me to stay. I never had any ties there, nor even liked living there much, even when times were good. All that I needed to stay was a job, and I couldn't get one...I tried and failed in that regard. So it was time to move on. I was bitter about my continued residence there but I don't live there any more. Soon I probably won't even talk about it any more, and eventually I won't even think about it.
Now, all that being said, my opinions are mine alone. I might express them to others...loudly...but I do not expect others to agree with them or espouse them. I do not poison minds, I do not brainwash...that's not how I live my life. I can't and won't muzzle what I think for the sake of others who might believe differently, ESPECIALLY in a place such as this. I have nowhere else to express openly how I really feel, and sometimes I don't even put down everything I'm thinking or feeling here, for the sake of others who might read it. My last post was, frankly, VERY mild and noninflammatory compared to some things I have thought, felt, and said about Colorado and my time there. Be happy that it was.
In the meantime, I am still regularly receiving questions about why I left Colorado for a place like Oklahoma, because there are very few who seem to be able to fathom it. All I can say is, Oklahoma is my home. If I couldn't stay in Colorado and continue to do my duty, it was the only place I would have gone. Anyone should be able to understand that.
Thanks for reading along.
How many decisions have you made in life that you regretted? I don't have many, but I do have one or two that I would probably take back, if I could...
I've been very tired lately. I think all the stress of the move, plus all the extreme mental and physical activity involved in performing the move, plus the financial stresses involved for us before, during, and after the move, have all combined to weigh on me pretty heavily. I am very glad to be home, though. I draw such energy from this place...I always have. It was never more evident than when I would come home to visit while I lived in Colorado. Right after I got home, I could feel the energy...I need more of it, though. There's still so much to do right now, but God willing, things will calm down soon.
One final point: to any who were offended by my last post, I am sorry you were offended. However, I am not sorry for my opinions. My opinions are what they are. I dealt with living in Colorado with as much patience as I could muster. I will admit, I received opportunities for my career that I might not have received elsewhere. There are some things about Colorado I will miss. I am not sorry to have left, though...that was always the plan. Anyone who knew me for any length of time also knew that I had no plan to stay in Colorado any longer than necessary. The only reason I stayed as long as I did was for Katie and Connor. When Colorado couldn't even provide me a job that wouldn't either wreck my career or severely disrupt my finances, when I could no longer provide for my family there, it no longer made much sense for me to stay. I never had any ties there, nor even liked living there much, even when times were good. All that I needed to stay was a job, and I couldn't get one...I tried and failed in that regard. So it was time to move on. I was bitter about my continued residence there but I don't live there any more. Soon I probably won't even talk about it any more, and eventually I won't even think about it.
Now, all that being said, my opinions are mine alone. I might express them to others...loudly...but I do not expect others to agree with them or espouse them. I do not poison minds, I do not brainwash...that's not how I live my life. I can't and won't muzzle what I think for the sake of others who might believe differently, ESPECIALLY in a place such as this. I have nowhere else to express openly how I really feel, and sometimes I don't even put down everything I'm thinking or feeling here, for the sake of others who might read it. My last post was, frankly, VERY mild and noninflammatory compared to some things I have thought, felt, and said about Colorado and my time there. Be happy that it was.
In the meantime, I am still regularly receiving questions about why I left Colorado for a place like Oklahoma, because there are very few who seem to be able to fathom it. All I can say is, Oklahoma is my home. If I couldn't stay in Colorado and continue to do my duty, it was the only place I would have gone. Anyone should be able to understand that.
Thanks for reading along.
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