Thursday, September 29, 2005

Today it felt like fall and it felt great! What with it turning seasons a couple days ago, the weather today was brisk and breezy with some leaves rustling around. I'm excited. I love the way fall feels. Nice crisp cool air - perfect sleeping weather. Electricity bill starts to drop off, gas bill hasn't climbed yet. Plus, all my clothes are finally the right colors! ;)

I'm glad to see Tom Delay getting blasted. Not because he's a republican. Not because he's in an influential position and on a power trip. More because as a congressional delegate, I've always felt that the "above the law" policy is insane. Why should Ted Kennedy be able to drink and drive, kill people, and then barely even get a slap on the wrist? It's lunacy. So, that being said, I don't even care if Delay did anything wrong, or if he gets convicted. I'm just happy to see someone trying to enforce the law. Delay will probably get to walk on this one too, but on the other hand, when Texas justice in involved, you might as well kiss your ass goodbye. Don't they still hang people there? Dirty dirty Texas...

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

It's only Tuesday, and I've already got 20 hours on the books in this week. Flex80 rules.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Windy, rainy weather makes running errands surprisingly less likely to occur.

Triple T!!! There's a guy in our VA Beach office HR department named Terry Tate! How awesome would that be if it was the same guy?! Every office needs an office linebacker.

Maybe it's just me, but I think Liam Neeson with long hair looks a lot like Kevin Costner. I think it's the nose.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Days like today are why I oppose the 2nd ammendment. I really should know better than to go to Target on a weekend. But I didn't listen to my own advice and went anyway. I got hit by a car in the parking lot (me, physically, not my car), two shopping carts in the store, clotheslined by a couple who weren't paying any attention where they were going and trid to go two directions at teh same time while holdings hands, and hit in the groin by a 5 year old's head who was running around with no supervision while his mother tried to pick out a shampoo. I swear, sometimes I'm just this close to snapping when I go out in public...

Saturday, September 24, 2005

So we lost to VT. We lost bad. Embarassingly bad. 51-7. The margin of victory over us is only one point less than the margin over both Duke and Ohio. At least we scored, I guess. There should be no more doubt however that VT has a definite shot at a National Title this year. I think they can easily win the ACC again if they play like they played today. GT, despite our miserable loss today, still has a decent chance to finish 5-3 in conference (with probable wins over NC State, Duke, Wake, and Clemson, and with probable losses at Miami and at UVA), which would leave us at 7-4 overall (assuming a loss at home to UGA - I hate the idea too, but let's be realistic). This makes us bowl eligible again at least, and places us in the top half of the ACC, perhaps sending us to another Humanitarian Bowl where we'll be able to extend out record of all time winningest bowl team over Nebraska (stupid Huskers...). The season is not lost, despite a miserable loss. Barring a monumental collapse on VT's part down the stretch, our shot at an ACC championship is probably down teh tubes. But if we study film and learn from the numerous mistakes made today, we can still put together a winning season. Maybe even go 8-3. However, should we fail to learn and wind up at 6-5, showing no improvement since Gailey took over, or god forbid under .500, I will, I swear it right here and now, be writing Dave Braine a letter demanding Gailey's resignation. I've said it over and over again, all I want to see is improvement. No improvement = no job. For now, let's just hope that this week was a fluke, that Reggie's absence from practice threw everything off, that VT is just flat out awesome, and that a week from Thursday, we'll annihilate NC State on ESPN Thursday Night.

"Our special teams need work big time after Saturday."

"I think they're going to kill us on special teams (which we struggled with last week), and it will be all we can do to contain them on defense and try to put points on the board any way we can on offense."


*sigh* I hate when I'm right. Our only non-3-and-out drive so far got totally stalled and we had to settle for a field goal...
...which got blocked and returned for a VT touchdown. Then on the ensuing kick, it was downed on the 1/2 yard line. Our special teams blow in comparison to VT's. If we don't get something going before the half, even a big defensive stop, we're going to get totally blown out. Our defense has been on the field way too much and our offense is doing squat. This does not bode well for a QB who barely practiced all week and a defense who is going to exhausted by the end of the third quarter. At least it's cool today, so fatigue due to weather won't be a factor... Go Jackets...

This new divisional ACC alignment is takign some getting used to. I find myself rooting for teams I like, but that may be detrimental to our ACC title hopes if they win. For example, to help GT the most, I want teams in the other division to win over teams in our own divison. Today, NC State is beating UNC, which is good for us, but I just hate NC State so much that I want them to lose anyway. Last week I found myself rooting for hated Clemson because Miami is in our division. It's much different than I thought it was going to be, with a lot of unique quirks I hadn't anticipated. Obviously, the best thing we can do is just to win win win. But in case that isn't quite enough, it helps when other teams in our division lose lose lose to help push us up the standings. Also, I've been thinkign more about our #15 ranking. Yeah, we're 3-0, and a couple rookie players put together a good effort to beat UConn, but teh only big tiem team we've beaten is Auburn (and we don't really kn ow how good they are yet either considering who they've beaten). I just fear that GT hasn't really been tested yet. Our toughest win was at home against UNC (who isn't the easy-win whipping-boy they used to be, but is still not a powerhouse team). I'm afraid of going to Blacksburg today. We have talent, no question. We have a good defense capable of quick adjustments (thanks Mr. Tenuta!). We have a strong stable of running backs. We've got a couple good recievers. But VT has a lot of those things too, including a more mobile (not to mention healthier) QB than Reggie and/or Taylor Bennett. I think they're going to kill us on special teams (which we struggled with last week), and it will be all we can do to contain them on defense and try to put points on the board any way we can on offense. I just really hope it's a good game. Even a loss wouldn't be so bad as long as it's a close game and not a blowout. The only thing really going in our favor is that they struggled at NC State (who seems pretty evenly matched with UNC at the moment), and blew out two awful teams in Duke and Ohio. Hopefully their egos get the better of them and we can explot it. No one at GT is going to be stroking their egos over our sloppy victory against UConn. *crosses fingers* 15 minutes til kickoff! Here goes nothing! Yay college football! Also, GO JACKETS!!!

Friday, September 23, 2005

I meant to post this last night, but I was so excited at 12:30 that I forgot, and then have been too busy so far today to do it. But anyway, Sonja is learning to use the flying saucer!! It's so cute! Last night she got on it and started walking slowly towards me. As the wheel moved out from under her, she just kept coming. Then with the incentive of a Cheerio, she was soon running at a good clip. Not quite full speed, but certainly running along nicely. I'm so proud. =) Now for the next challenge, getting Zoey to learn. I'm hoping that once Sonja will run all by herself (ie, without me offering a treat, or at the very least my hand), Zoey will catch on. Rewards will of course still be given when they run, it'll just be kisses or scratching instead of treats. Yay for Sonja! Step one of her astronaut training is complete! ;)

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Happy first day of fall!

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

I would like to go on record as saying that INXS made a huge mistake last night.

Monday, September 19, 2005

I got home from Atlanta safe and sound. The girls were happy to see me and proceeded to climb all over me. My flight come home was overbooked and I was so very tempted to take the bump. It's a free round trip flight any time in the next year, plus a free hjotel and dinner for the night since the next flight out was 8 am this morning. If there had been a later flight, hands down I would have taken a bump. But I'm not all about getting up at 6 am, flying, and then coming into work. But it would have been nice to spend one more night with Emily. Oh well, she'll be here in like 2.5 weeks! =) As it turns out, I should have volunteered to get bumped. It turns out that I ended up sitting next to the smelliest man alive. He smelled, I kid you not, like shit. This is not hyperbole. He smelled like week-old poop. I spent the first 20 minutes on the plane before we even took off gagging. It was horrible. I have been around a lot of Indians, and I have never had anything to complain about in terms of their odor. I know other people will complain, but it's never bothered me. But this guy? A whole new level of offensiveness molesting my olfactory nerves. Anyway... I'm about 2/3 of the way through my book now. I suspect I'll be done by this time next week. Obviously, I have less time to read during the week (I could read during chinny time if they wouldn't eat my book), but definitely next weekend I've got time. Speaking of which, GT is 3-0 right now, and ranked 15. I think we're ranked a little high still since we've beaten two relatively weak opponents. I mean, a win is a win, but some wins are better than others. Especially with Reggie out against UConn, and likely not being able to play against VT, this weekend is going to be a huge game for us. A win here could catapult us through the rest of the season and give us a good shot at going to the ACC championship. But with experienced Reggie out, I'm worried. Yes, Bennet had a good day for his first start. Yes, Choice had a good day backing up PJ. But VT is just a smidgen better than UConn. Our special teams need work big time after Saturday. We do have a pretty stout defense again (thanks Mr. Tenuta!!), and our offense is improving. It should be a good game, and I'm really looking forward to it. But I'm nervous about putting Bennett up against the VT defense. We'll see what happens though.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Hey! I'm Tiggerific! At least so says the mylar balloon that Emily met me with at the airport last night. I was able to get on the 5:45 flight which was delayed until about 6:20, so at least I got in a couple hours earlier than originally scheduled. But since I couldn't get on the 3:00 flight (which was delayed to 3:30), I got about 1/3 of my new book (thanks Kristin!) read. Michael Slade's books are just so addictive. Once you read the first page, you're hooked.

Friday, September 16, 2005

Bummer. I just got an email reminder about Rollins' spoken word tour at Sonar tonight. *sigh* Oh well. Spending time with Emily is way better than spending time with a funny, angry, shirtless, tattooed, brilliant Henry Rollins, no matter how much I admire him. I can do without the angry and tattooed part, as long as the other three apply to Emily. ;) And of course it's no secret how much I not only admire, but also adore, her.

I've been bad at blogging recently too. Work has been insane. So much for that whole "slowing down" thing. Oh well. I'm taking today off and trying to fly standby on an earlier flight to Atlanta. I figure I deserve it. I hope the girls dont miss me too much when I'm gone. Tommy and Steph are going to check in on them this weekend, so I'm sure they'll be fine; they're in very capable hands. There's bound to besome tasty food in store for me this weekend, as well as a home football game that we should win (I've just jinxed us, in case me being there wasn't enough of one...). I'm excited. Then it's only 3 weeks until Emily wil be up here for Kristin and Rich's wedding. Then hopefully we'll see each other in November sometime, and then it's graduation! I think the next 3 months are going to go by pretty quickly. =)

Monday, September 12, 2005

Work got shut down today because of a power outage in the building (I suspect as a result of the construction across the street). So I came home at 4:30 and took a nap. Now it's dinner time and chinchilla time. Boo for not getting everything done at work today that I needed to, but hooray for naps! =)

Sunday, September 11, 2005

I understand that banks are not open on Sundays. I understand they close early on (every day cause bankers are lazy as crap) Saturdays. However, if you, as my bank, send me a letter that requires me to call you to take care of something, you need to specify what your hours are. I can never make it to teh bank during their open hours, that's why ATMs are great and why I do most of my banking online. However, I can't close an account online and transfer funds into another account at the same bank, for some retarded reason. So I have to call BOA. Their letter give me an 800 number. And I've been so swamped at work I just haven't had time to do it. So I tried to call today. Wow! I can actually get a bank person on teh phone on a Sunday! My exhuberance proved premature however as he explained that their CD department is only open Monday through Friday. That would have been a nice thing to note in your letter. Also, why do you only give me 7 calendar days to take action instead of 7 workdays since you're not open on weekends? This is strike two Bank of America... One more and me and my money are going to Wachovia. I'll do it, I swear!

Hooray for all new shows on Fox tonight! New Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad. And this War at Home show that I'm not thrilled about. I'd rather have Arrested Development back on after the Simpsons. Oh well. Leave it to Fox to ruin a good thing...

All that being said however, I've been thinking about how a new ranking system could be implemented. I'm not saying it's better than teh current system, or shoudl be used to determine any kind of offical champion. Just an experiment I'm thinking about trying this season. This season will be kind of a guinea pig, and it it sort of works out, I might start trying to get my rankings published somewhere besides my own website. Here's what I'm thinking:
Preseason rankings will be based on the final rankings from the previous season with adjustments made to account for natural player turnover. Take the final AP and ESPN poll rankings. Every team gets 5 points per vote in each poll. Teams receiving no votes get no points. Then for every starter that isn't returning, subtract one point. If a player from your team wins the Heisman and comes back, add 5 points, if they leave, subtract 5 points. If there is a head coach change, subtract 10 points. Adjust every team's score by the same number of points so that the last place team has zero total. This order is the preseason ranking of all Div I-A teams. In future seasons, preseason rankings will use previous year's Bever Rankings instead of the AP and ESPN, but for this year, I gotta start somewhere...
Weekly rankings will adjust the previous week's rankings using the following criteria (select all that apply):
If you lose...
...to a team ranked 20 or more places higher than you, lose 1 point
...to a team ranked 10-19 places higher than you, lose 2 points
...by a margin of 7 or less to a team ranked 10 or more places higher than you, gain 1 point
...to a team ranked between 9 places above and 9 places below you, lose 3 points
...to a team ranked 10-19 places below you, lose 4 points
...to a team ranked 20 or more places below you, lose 5 points
If you win...
...gain 5 points
...over a team ranked 10 or more places higher than you, gain 5 points
...by a margin of 7 or less over a team ranked 10 or more places lower than you, lose 2 points
If the total points...
...are less than 20, both teams lose 5 points (poor offense)
...are more than 60, both teams lose 5 points (poor defense)
Final rankings are adjusted for the following acheivements:
Most number of points scored over the season - gain 5 points
Most number of points scored in a single game - gain 1 point
Highest margin of victory in a game - gain 1 point
Fewest points allowed over the season - gain 5 points
Most yards gained over the season - gain 5 points
Fewest yards allowed over the season - gain 5 points

I'm sure I'm missing something important in there. And I haven't done the math yet to see if any of that is even close to working out. It rewards teams who did well the previous year, but adjusts for the fact that the best teams often lose the most players to the pros, and any time a coach leaves, it's turbluent. The idea of the win/loss points is to reward teams more for beating teams better than them and not reward them as much for beating up on weakling teams. It also rewards teams who didn't win, but played a close game against a much better opponent. If I get bored in the next week or so, I might try to put together some preliminary numbers and see what happens. I mean, if even simulated monkeys can rank college football as well as or better than the BCS committe can, there's no reason I can't make up my own numer system that works just as well (or poorly).

********More football commentator rant********
I'm sick of the football commentators talking about the BCS picture and the national title hopes of teams. It's the second week of the season!! Are you insane?? Ohio State losing to Texas (which made me happy, by the way) doesn't disqualify OSU from playing in the Rose Bowl. Michigan losing to *shudder* Notre Dame doesn't mean Michigan has no shot at a national title. It means they lost. That's it. This early in the season, a game like this means less than at teh end of the season. People will look back at these games and blame a loss on early season jitters when December rolls around. I'm just happy I got to watch some hard fought games today and some late comebacks and exciting football. Shut the hell up about the national title picture. Playing a tough team early in the season is a good way to immediately figure out what needs work in the program, much more so than playing creampuff I-AA (and even div II) schools. For example, I think opening our season at Auburn last week gave the team a lot of things to work on that seemed to pay off today against UNC. Much much more so than when we opened against Furman last year. Let's just get over this "everything is so crucial" kick and get back to telling me who's playing well this week and who got upset and so forth. The words BCS and National Title and Rose Bowl should not be uttered again until after Haloween

Saturday, September 10, 2005

It's time for an SAT prep question!

Basketball Commentators:Duke::Football Commentators:_______

Give up? It's Notre Dame. That's right. The entire collective of ESPN/ABC announcers are currently having an orgasm over the fact that they beat a horrible (defending big east champ) Pitt team last week (Who lost to Ohio last night in over time. Seriously, Ohio. I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't watched it.) and is now up on Michigan. Who cares? Michigan will bounce back to win and leaveeveryoen else dissapointed. Good. Now I just need Texas to steamroll the buckeyes so maybe Lee Corso's buckeye-headgear-wearing Freddie Krueger face will explode. I really should just watch college football on mute.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Like most things Hollywood, even the funny things are just a copy of something else less successful and lesser known that can be easily exploited for box office reciepts with big-name actors. I'll bet the original was just as good...

"I sure as hell am not staying at work until 6:30 on a Friday again." - Adam, in a conversation with Emily last night.

I'm a liar. A dirty rotten liar. I didn't know it at the time of course. So I guess technically when I said that I wasn't lying. But I have made a retroactive liar out of myself at the very least. Despite my inistence to the contrary, 6:30 came and went and I was still at work. *sigh* At 7 pm I finally was able to walk out of the X-08 locked door and into my relative freedom. Of course, after working 19.5 hours in the last two days (and 37 total hours this week - yes, nearly a 40 hour week in 4 days), the only freedom I want right now is the freedom so sit on the couch and do nothing until the end of the UNC@GT football game tomorrow. So much for going to BB&B tonight, or trying to do anything productive at all for that matter.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Nothing makes me happier than still being at work at going on 8:30... *sigh*

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Wow, when did it become almost 5:00? Today has just disappeared.

In other news, work is finally slowing down a bit. And Sonja and Zoey's flying saucer showed up today! I'm excited to find a place in their cage for it and watch as they try to figure out how to use it. Also, I get to see Emily in 9 days! Yay for everything! =)

I'm reasonably certain that the AP poll voters are on crack. They've got us ranked at 17 after our win over Auburn. We played well, yes, but not great, and Auburn played sloppy. 17, huh? We're better than Oklahoma, BC, Notre Dame, UVA, Wisconsin, Bowling Green, and TCU? Really? Okay... I hate to see how far we fall after our first loss... The sound of everyone jumping off the bandwagon is going to be deafening. On a related topic, Auburn is never going to play us again. We beat them two years ago in our home opener and ruined their national title hopes. This year we beat them in their own stadium. Two years in a row we dealt them a humbling loss to open the season. Tuberville is going to strike GT from the Auburn schedule, at least as a season opener, I can practically guarantee it, which is really too bad. Auburn is a great rivarly for us, and I'd hate to see it go up in flames again because Coach Tubby is a sore loser.

Monday, September 05, 2005

It's eerie how much the band formation looks like a swastika when they make the letters FSU on the field...

Saturday, September 03, 2005

I was looking forward to the Boise State @ UGA game today. But Jared "Z! ...for Zabransky!" Zabransky is making it very difficult. He was so awesome all last season and especially in their loss to Louisville in the Liberty Bowl. He and Stefan Lefoors were duking it out for maximum yardage and longest single passing play the whoel game. But now his first 2 passes were INTs, he's thrown 2 more very near INTs, another INT just now, and he's got abyssmal passing numbers. He's gained the most offensive yards by running the ball of any other single player on the team. That's just not right. Where's the BSU I loved so much last year? Dan Hawkins yoda pep talk obviously didn't work. *sigh* Maybe our game against Auburn will be better. Maybe Reggie will have improved and our awesome running back corps won't all be hurt in the first game. Maybe our defense will gel tonight instead of 3 games down the road. If the Broncos pulls out a win in Athens, I don't even care abotu all that. As long as UGA loses to the blue-field boys from Boise, we can lose to the Tigers and I wouldn't care, as long as it's not a humiliating loss (a shutout, a margin higher than 30, or just a lot of stupid mental mistakes that blow good opportunites).

Kristin rocks! =)

Thursday, September 01, 2005

As of close of business yesterday (when payroll updates things), I have just over 16 days of vacation available! And that's not couting my 4 remaining scheduled holdays (labor day, 2 days at thanksgiving, and christmas) or the hours of leave I'll accrue over the next 4 months (in the ballpark of 7 more days). Now I won't feel at all bad about using some of that leave time for when I was sick this week. =) Time to go home to my leftover porkchop and celebrate the amount of time off I have and the fact that I got everything done today that I needed to do.

Oh my god, how is it not Friday yet?? I know I thought yesterday was Thursday, which contributes to the confusion, and I took half a day off on Monday, so I'm all kinds of messed up. And then next Monday is a day off, so why am I craving so bad for it to be Friday already? I have a ton of work to do, yes, but it has to be done before I leave today anyway. So tomorrow should be a breeze compared to the last couple days. Grrr... Today, why aren't you Friday?!?!

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  • I'm Rev. Adam
  • From Oakton, Virginia, United States
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