Duke vs. Army – September 25

I think there should be a constitutional amendment that bans college football games from being scheduled in daytime hours in the Southeast in the month of September. I guess I can dream, but fat chance of that happening as TV basically dictates to these institutions of higher learning when they will play. So we had the absurdity of this game (kickoff at 3:00 PM) being played in Durham, NC under sunny skies and 96 degrees Fahrenheit. Great football weather! All because ESPN-U decided to televise this thing.

Guilty Internet Pleasures – DontEvenReply.com

“There are 5,000 great people for every jerk on Usenet.  But that still is a lot of jerks.  Proceed with caution and eyes wide open.”  - Don Rittner

Dictionary.com defines the word authenticate as a verb meaning “to establish as valid or genuine”. Back in the old days of the Web in the mid 90s, the mechanisms for authentication were pretty crude and easy to compromise. With so much money to be made though in e-commerce, it was only a matter of time before those issues were solved.

So it wasn’t long before protocols like Secure Sockets and technologies such as public key-private key encryption were embedded in Web Clients and Web Servers. Nowadays, one doesn’t think twice about logging into a bank’s web application, assured that the https in the front of that URL means that the other end of that connection really is one’s bank and not some scam artist.

Yahtzee

Memory is a weird thing. A couple of months ago, I had (yet another) senior moment. I went grocery shopping for some ingredients for a pasta meal. While in the store, I definitively recall picking up and examining a loaf of garlic bread, before deciding on a loaf of Italian bread.

That night, I prepared the pasta and partook of that Italian bread. So far, so good. The next evening, I didn’t feel like cooking again, so I was going to do the leftover deal. Inexplicably, I went looking for the garlic bread, even going so far as to ask Joe, Jr whether I had maybe left it in the trunk of the car. WTF? “Dad, we had Italian bread last night and the rest of it is currently in the bread box.” Oh yeah - shit!

On the other hand, I have no problem recalling vividly details from events and experiences that occurred 35 years ago. Prompted by some spam email that I received regarding online board games, I thought back to the old days playing the dice game of Yahtzee.

Duke vs. Alabama – September 18

This was a really big deal for Duke with (then) #1 coming to town. We all expected to get shellacked (particularly after the defensive performance at Wake) and we weren’t disappointed. It was truly a men-against-boys deal. One of those games where the disparity in athleticism is just so great that you just hope nobody gets seriously injured. Alabama could have named the score in the 62-13 rout.

I was quite proud of the picture I took to the right, showing one of the Tide offensive lineman in a blatant hold  (as if they needed any help from the officials). Every once in a blue moon,I get lucky with a nice shot.

Public parking lots were open 6 1/2 hours before kickoff rather than the normal 4 hours to accommodate the throng of Alabama fans attending the game. We arrived at about 9:10 AM for the 3:30 kick and the Chemistry Lot was already 2/3 fill. Kind of interesting to tailgate for that long. Definitely want to pace yourself and I was able to cook two full courses of chicken, hot dogs, and burgers.

Maybe We Should Try Something a Little Simpler?

Watching the trick play (which I blogged about here) that the Texas middle school football team pulled off led me to recall an episode at one of our Thanksgiving day touch football games held at my brother Rich’s house in Virginia in the late-1990s.

My family has spent a number of Thanksgiving holidays as guests at Rich and Lora’s place. If they ever call in the tab on all the free food and drink I have consumed over the years, I am thinking that I might need to obtain a second mortgage.

Trickeration

This video was captured at a middle school football game in Corpus Christi, TX. Pretty interesting concept. Certainly has the surprise element covered. Hopefully Driscoll saved this play for a really critical juncture in a really big game, because chances are their future opponents won’t fall for it. Hell, since it went viral, I doubt any team anywhere falls for this again.

Couple of observations upon a more detailed viewing:

• The quarterback for Driscoll is really stout, but looks surprisingly quick. Wonder if JaMarcus Russell looked like that in middle school?
• I love the way the quarterback and the Driscoll head coach play up the confusion factor before the snap. Look at the opposing linebackers relax.
• The center (#76) for Driscoll is huge. I can’t believe that kid is in middle school. He looks to be 225 or  250 pounds (at least).
• Props to that little cornerback (#19) on the opposing team who was playing through the whistle (unlike the rest of his teammates).
• But no good deed goes unpunished. Check out the stiff-arm that the hefty quarterback gives #19 at around the 11 yard line. Get off of me!
• Then #19 puts on a good show and dives at the quarterback when he is already seven yards into the end zone. Good hustle!
• The obligatory chest bump with #81 leads to Lil JaMarcus on his ass. It is all about leverage.
• The Driscoll center finally arrives in the end zone for the celebration – better late than never.
• That is one very nicely maintained field for a middle school.

Calling Nick Saban's Wife

In this post, I relayed a story told to me from an Alabama fan regarding quality  control that Nick Saban’s wife Terry had undertaken on statues produced honoring her husband.

I am thinking that the University at Texas in Austin is wishing they had a Terry Saban right about now. Seems that UT contracted an Asian company to produce a series of statues honoring Longhorn greats in all sports. The results are comically bad. It is almost a textbook parody on racial stereotypes, poor craftsmanship, and cheap production. For an example, refer to the statue of Vince Young (or Al Jolson in black face) to the right.

To get the full breadth of the Longhorn fan base’s disgust at these products, I encourage you to read this entire thread from ShaggyBevo.com. This is the funniest thread on a sports message board that I have ever encountered.

Of course the inevitable Photoshop geeks kick it in and take it to a whole other level. Check out these Photoshop renditions of the terrified Colt McCoy statue. Awesome.

I especially enjoyed the posts discussing plans around destruction of these blights:

Let's give it a few weeks/months for the hoopla to die down, then get 4-5 guys with huge pickups with brush guards and go to town. I can get at least 2 pickups down there, along with some sledgehammers. I'm thinking 5-10 minutes tops.

Finally, just to keep everything in perspective, this post:

Top 3 Worst People in the World:

1. Pontius Pilate
2. Whoever approved these motherf***ing statues
3. Hitler

Guilty Internet Pleasures – Awkward Family Photos

"The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it." - William Gibson

You may already be aware of Awkward Family Photos. This website provides a collection of awkward, weird, and/or disturbing family photographs sent in from contributors, with comment threads for each photograph. The website owners sort through the contributions and publish the interesting ones. The concept is simple but so universal and that is why it works – very well.
Most everyone has at least a couple of embarrassing and awkward photos in their personal legacy. Prior to the advent of digital photography and scanners as well as the power of the internets, these could be safely tucked away in the old shoebox – available to only close family members. Now with the potent combination of technology and the apparently insatiable desire for folks to attain attention whoredom, those photographs get thrown out in front of the world for all to see. Is the Internet great or what?