Super Bowl 42

Roman numerals are stupid.

Well, maybe not. But they seem kinda pretentious when affixed to the end of the title of a sporting event.

Anyway, I just watched a recording of the Super Bowl. I was doing more important things at the time of the game; in fact, my first knowledge of the victory was when I got home late at night and my mom said "Well, it was a good outcome." I couldn't really believe me ears. So yeah, I was totally thrilled. And I'm just glad the Patriots made it as far as they did without a loss, because the taste of this defeat is almost infinitely sweeter because of it. Back to the recording: it was a good game. Obviously, "The Play" was pretty unbelievably cool. But just in general, the quality of play on the part of the Giants...yeah, there were some dropped balls, and a couple of blown coverages. But for the most part, the Giants played lights-out. I don't know what that means, but it's a common enough phrase. The Patriots, on the other hand, with the exception of Wes Welker and maybe the Patriots' secondary, were flat almost the entire game. Tom Brady had a particularly poor game; I know this was partly because of a lack of support from his offensive line (that is to say, total dominance on the part of the Giants' defensive front), but honestly, he missed waaaay too many passes - some of them easy - and did not look at all like "the best player in the game", and all of the other superlatives heaped upon him before and during the game.
The coverage of the game itself was reasonable, but frankly pretty boring. I was thankful that it wasn't too over-the-top, but honestly, why did it seem like the announcers didn't even realize how important the outcome of the game was, at least in the world that is the NFL? Still, underproduction is better than overproduction, and though very few insightful comments were made (my heart did, however, skip a beat when the analyst pointed out the delayed rush from Kawika Mitchell - in my opinion, the sweetest play of the game - with about 7:45 left in the first half), at least I didn't have to listen to a trillion references to how the Patriots were the best team ever in the history of the so-far-explored quadrant of our universe.

I'm sorry that last year's game wasn't better, though naturally its outcome was even more fun than this year. But I'm quite thorough in my dislike of the Patriots, and there really couldn't ever be a better "second-best" outcome to a Super Bowl.

_____ ______ ______ ______

I would just like to say...that I can't say...the things that I would like to be saying right now.

In any case, Tennessee just finished losing to California, 45 to 31. It would've been closer had it not been for 3 really bad pass interference calls by the horrible Pac-10 refs, but we still would've lost. Our offense just needs some polishing, but our defense...we can't tackle worth beans. And "Worth beans", at least as far as I know, are easy to tackle.

So, I am starting a cruel, bloodthirsty, and all-around disturbing tradition for this year of college football. I am going to start the all-season Dead Vols Squad. You make it onto this team by committing multiple bad mistakes throughout a game, or simply making one horrible, game-destroying mistake. I reserve the right to select anywhere from 0 to 99 players per game; I will kill those, and only those players who merit death during a particular game. I will NOT resurrect players later in the season, no matter how amazingly they may play on the television, because as far as I am concerned, they are no longer really alive. And yes, there will be a trendy 3-letter abbreviation for the team - DVS. With that said, I unreservedly take the life of #7, Jerod Mayo, whose inability to tackle, pursue, or even use his brain in a useful or helpful way during tonight's miserable loss has earned him the first spot on my 2007 College Football DVS. Jerod Mayo - R.I.P. Not.

On slightly more pleasant notes, Chris Brown showed potential this evening, and Erik Ainge was mostly amazing. Wendy and I were thinking about how cool it would be if Peyton Manning could play quarterback for the Vols, but Erik Ainge isn't bad himself. If our defense showed as much poise (not to mention talent) as he did this evening, we would've destroyed those silly Bears.

It's past my bedtime. Tonight's game did not help to improve what has been a mostly lousy, worthless week (as far as I am concerned). Mayhap this week will be better, but...I doubt it. Goodnight.

Colts 29, Bears 17

Not only am I happy that we won, but I'd like to mention that my prediction was Colts 32, Bears 21. Not only was I within one point of the spread, but if the Colts had kicked that field goal on fourth down instead of running it to be safe, I would've nailed the Colts' score. And it's not easy to score *exactly* 32 points in football. =) And for a few minutes there, when it was 22 to 14, if Chicago had just scored a touchdown instead of a field goal....it would have NAILED it. Eh. Can't win them all. Well, *I* can't. But the Colts sure did.

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I hate it when I get emails that have no subject line.

We (as in, "they" + "I") played Mao this evening. At the Boyces, and it was entertaining, for the most part. Nick Slater kept talking =), and the newer players kept getting frustrated when they didn't have a 7 to play. That's just the way it goes.

This past week was the first week of my 6th semester as a college kid. It was mostly OK, except that Databases is holed up in a corner of the Academic IV building which is so remote that they have SIGNS throughout the third floor saying "Room 320 is *this* way". When they have signs telling adults how to find a room....it can't be good. Oh, and SCI 100 is going to be half-miserable, because the instructor....well. It's hard to explain.

Today, my dad and I washed the Rebel, since the State of Maryland has decreed "that the ground shall be covered in a sublime shade of 'orange-yellow road salt' for the duration of Winter [even if it makes the road just as slippery to have 2 inches of salt as it would to have an inch of ice], to brighten the otherwise dreary vistas for the common Man/Woman/Child". It was *freezing* cold outside, and as such, the water was not about to fail in its duty to freeze almost immediately upon contact with the car. I can tell you that, no matter how dirty your car is, it's not necessary to use soap to clean the thin film of ice that has only moments before formed on your car. It's already clean - really it is. Just leave it alone.

Oh, and last night, we (they and I) went to Dunkin' Donuts, where we skipped the Dunkin' part, and mostly skipped the Donuts part (except for Kathryn), and got not-so-fancy fancy coffee milkshake things.

And today Kay went to a Mary Kay partay.

Eek. This is really scary, but it has to be done. My prediction for the game tomorrow (and if you don't know what game is on tomorrow.....that's probably just as well)..........

Colts 32

Bears 21

Ack.

I am alive.

I already wrote this post, with lots of lovely, flowery language and everything. Then Ubuntu had a minor stroke, and convinced itself that I was so in love with the spacebar that I had put a brick on it and left the scene. Not only did this ruin my post, but it also somehow froze Firefox, destroyed my internet connection, and initiated a game of "Launch The Shutdown Menu, Then Instantaneously Press The Cancel Button, Over And Over Again." I know this is what the game is called, because I tried to intercept and press "Log out", but the computer just pointed and laughed. When I checked the system log after a hard reset, I found messages from the kernel taunting me and revealing that it spent all yesterday practicing the game so it would be ready for today - Gameday.

Therefore, I neglect to reproduce my post, instead consigning it's glorious words to oblivion. I leave you with the following list of the salient points of the original post.

• Unlike the writer of the post on Suzanne's blog, I am alive now.
• This morning was the first since getting back from New Zealand that I woke up before 10:30. AM.
• I really enjoyed being with the people which were present at the Lorts' last night.
• I have a week of break left.
• In that week, I have one major project to do, and hopefully a ski day on Thursday.
• The Colts finally won the AFC Championship, beating the Patriots 38-34, and are going to the Super Bowl.
• I hope I didn't leave anything out.
  

Good evening, all.

Rotten day

Ohio State did win, 42-39, and it was a great game.

However, I spent part of the day working on my car, the end result of which was absolutely NO progress - the car is in every respect exactly the same car as it was this morning. What a colossal waste of time and frustrating.

On the other hand, Kay was over for ~3 hours, and that was lots of fun. Thanks for coming over, Kay.

The Game

In other news, Tennessee won today, beating Vanderbilt 39-10. That sets up our regular season finale with Kentucky as a game which, if won, will mean a quality bowl game for my Volunteers. I will be in attendance in Knoxville this coming weekend, Lord willing.

But the topic of this post is the Ohio State-Michigan game, which is about to start. Since this is the biggest regular-season game in recent memory, I have to make a prediction. Though I realize that Michigan's defense is great, I think Troy Smith will be too much for them. The Buckeyes win this one, 31-24. I'll report back once the game is over.

Curds and why...

You'd better believe these people when they say the Colts and the Bears won't play in the Super Bowl. They's exsperts.






And the article? Another gem: