Master of the Ocarina

Today's post commemorates another video game victory in the Life of Yours Truly. Some of you may recall many many months ago that I started playing the Ocarina of Time: Master Quest, the "upgraded" version, so to speak, of the Nintendo 64 classic, which was released as part of a promotional package for the Gamecube. I didn't realize it at the time I started, but technically, Master Quest is actually a more difficult version of the original Ocarina of Time, and not just a direct port of the original. That made me pretty happy, since I really enjoyed Master Quest - Now, in a few months or so, I can play the original Ocarina of Time and not feel like I'm just doing everything over again!

Now, it probably seems like it took me forever to finish Master Quest. In retrospect, it did take me quite a long time. After all, I think the first post about me playing Master Quest was almost nine months ago. Granted, it is a pretty long game in its own right, but nine months is a long time for any game. Part of the reason it took me so long is because of my magnanimous nature in wanting to share experiences with other people that I think might enjoy the same experience. I always put off doing something I want to do in order to do it with someone else. This goes for many things - for example, if there's a movie out that I think Cherrie would enjoy, I would make myself not watch it until I have a chance to watch it with her, or if there's a vacation destination I think would be really nice to go to together, I would put it off until she could go with me. In this case, I had played a part of the game when Ed was visiting over the summer, and he had a pretty good time in helping me figure out some of the puzzles that I was stuck on. As a result, ever since then, I didn't play until Ed would have a chance to play through with me again. That would happen yesterday.

We started at Ganon's Tower yesterday, and were able to fairly efficiently figure our way out through each of the barriers and make it all the way to Ganondorf himself. After getting pummeled by him for a few minutes, I finally figured out that I had to do that same ol' tennis trick to beat him. After beating Ganondorf, we escaped the collapsing tower to face the final boss, the transformed giant Ganon. Very cool. One of the things I love about Ocarina of Time are its larger than life bosses. However, Ganon was fairly easy as well, and we finished the game. I think there is a bug with my rom though, because after the final cutscene, the screen just goes black. No "The End" or credits or anything...

So, that was the end of Master Quest. Somewhat anticlimactic, with the lack of an end credits, but maybe that's what I deserve anyway. I did have to use the save state feature quite often to be as well equipped as I was, and I also had to take a few peeks at the FAQ on IGN for some of the puzzles. Hopefully, I'll be fully prepared for my run at the original Ocarina of Time, though!

Return to Orange Lake

Man, this December is turning out to be a rough one here at Grant's Pad... y'all need to start spreading the word about Grant's Pad. Brighten someone's holidays with the gift of superb blogging!

Anyhow, Cherrie, Ed, and I spent the weekend in Orlando this weekend, thanks again to my dad's friend Subrata, who, for the second consecutive year, couldn't find the time this year to use his holiday at the Orange Lake Resort, where we spent a few days last year. Cherrie and I left the apartment on Friday evening and made our way to the Florida Mall, where I picked up Mario Kart DS, so I can finally check that off on my Wish List! It's an incredible game (I love the tracks, especially the one that looks like it's at a National Park in the mountains somewhere), and I implore anyone I make fairly routine contact with to pick up a Nintendo DS Lite if for no other reason than to play with me over Wi-Fi! Ed ended up playing for more time than I did, however, since I was doing most (read: all) of the real, non-Mario Kart driving around this trip.

While Cherrie and I were at the mall, Shawn and Ed made their way to a Vietnamese eatery to pick up about a dozen and a half sandwiches. Apparently, Shawn's ex-girlfriend, whose name escapes me at this time, introduced them to these excellent sandwiches, which are made with great bread, a number of meats including Cha Shao (叉烧), or Chinese barbecued pork! They also come with a bunch of veggies to top the sandwich off with - basil leaves, white radish, and hot chili peppers! Yum!

That night, when we all finally got to the timeshare unit, we watched Wheel of Life, the Shaolin stage show created to demonstrate and spread interest in Shaolin Kung Fu around the world. The show is pretty good - but I think the shows that we produced with the Meihua Student Association of Martial Arts aren't all that far behind. At least our staged fights, anyway. I'm not so sure about the qigong demonstrations - I don't think I would be able to get lifted up into the air on a few spears...

The next day, Ed, Cherrie, and I made what is likely to be our last trip to Sea World for some time. We sure have made some serious usage of our Silver Passports over the year, but I think I really have enjoyed the park quite a bit. This time around, I decided that it was about time we fed the dolphins ourselves, so I splurged the four bucks (I got a dollar off because of my Silver Passport status! Yeah!) to get three fish to feed to the dolphins. Not entirely too surprisingly, this did cause the dolphins to warm up to us much better than when we were just standing by the pool with no food to offer, and we were able to get some great pics of us right up close and personal with the dolphins! Make sure to check out the Photo Albums to see them all!

Sunday was a much much slower day. Cherrie spent most of the day shopping at the Premier Outlets, while Ed and I watched another Tampa Bay Buccaneer's heartbreaking loss at the timeshare (although they did make a huge comeback effort, forcing overtime despite being down 24-3 late in the third quarter). When Cherrie finally finished shopping, we headed back to Melbourne, where we decided to stop and see the Space Coast Light Festival, a display of probably around a million or so lights set up for the holidays. I hadn't seen one of these in a while, and I thought it would be a good experience fo Cherrie to see one, since we didn't see one last year! I made Ed run around and take pictures of the lights so you all can enjoy them too in the Photo Album - so check it out to make his hard work worthwhile!

So, this weekend's trip to Orange Lake didn't really feature a lot of actual Orange Lake activity, but we plan to go back early this week, so check back for more fun filled action!

Lean and Mean!

In the midst of one of my more unproductive weeks of the year (both in terms of productivity at work and blogging, as evidenced by my low visitation this week), I enrolled into a Lean Associate seminar here at work. What's Lean, you ask? It's exactly what it sounds like - Not Fat. Okay, well I guess that's not really what it is, but basically it's a business/manufacturing philosophy not entirely unlike Six Sigma, which I referenced a few months ago (you know, the one with the Black Belt ranking system). The ultimate goal of Lean Electronics is increase value to the customer by reducing waste and improving overall efficiency. So, in essence, we want to "lose fat", with the figurative "fat" being waste, be it wasted time, effort, and ultimately, money.

So, after a long day that started at a very unappreciated 7AM, I am now officially a certified Lean Electronics Associate! Right off the bat, my group took this to mean that I am now the in-house consultant on streamlining processes, and it looks like I have yet another set of responsibilities for Fiscal Year '07. Good for career, hopefully not too bad for free time!

In other news, Cherrie (as she's requested that we now spell it) and I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed Curse of the Black Pearl, the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie that came out in 2003. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I've added it to my list of favorite movies in my Facebook profile. My expectations for Dead Man's Chest, however, were not very high, despite its record breaking opening this past summer. I'd heard bad things about it, and frankly, I was a little turned off at the thought of all the supernatural things going on in the sequel. However, after watching it, I thought it wasn't all that bad at all! It didn't surpass the original, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it would be, and now I'm really looking forward to At World's End, the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Apparently, Johnny Depp is pretty excited about it too - in an interview, he stated how he would be happy to reprise his role as Captain Jack Sparrow even if they got to Pirates of the Caribbean 7. Oh, and Cherrie read on Wikipedia that Depp even got a tattoo featuring sparrow with the name "Jack" written above it. So yeah, that kind of tipped me off too.

Not much else to write about today - we're going to Orange Lake again this weekend and for part of the upcoming week though, so stay tuned!

One last thing - I saw this awesome little ASCII art of my favorite handheld while messing around the Nintendo forums:

[=[_]=]
[+[_]::]

You know you love it.

SEC Champions Wallpaper

It's been more than a week, but GatorCountry hasn't provided us with a bad ass SEC Champion wallpaper yet. So instead, I'll bring you this one, from the St. Petersburg Times:


And, while we're posting wallpapers, here's an inspirational poster for all you Meeechigan fans out there!


In case you're having a hard time reading the fine print, here's what it says:

"Defeat. For Every Winner, There Are Dozens Of Losers. Odds Are You're One Of Them."

Another Shuttle Night Launch Photo

The photo below was taken by one of my co-workers, Rick, who's really into astronomy. He was the same guy who took the pictures of Saturn a few months ago. This one was just taken at the Hilton, so probably there wasn't as much preparation for it, but his photos came out way better than mine, so I figured it merited a post all of its own! Enjoy!

Space Shuttle Night Launch!

Man, I just realized that the Tom Brady Mancrush post below was the landmark 200th post here at Grant's Pad... that kind of sucks!

But anyway, a couple of days ago, on Pearl Harbor day, a space shuttle launch was scheduled. It was to be the first night launch in four years, and the first since the Columbia disaster. The launch itself was scheduled for 9:35, but for some reason, the launch clock read 41 minutes at around 7:45 in the evening. It took me a while to figure out, but eventually my coworker Shawn cleared it up for me - apparently, the launch clock used at NASA has these pre-determined stoppages at key moments, like T -9 minutes, for example, to do final checks. Good to know.

So Cherry and I decided to drive up to Satellite Beach to see the launch with Shawn at around 9:25. We stuck around in around 60 degree weather (which is pretty cold, by Floridian standards). It was cold enough for Cherry to break out her snowsuit, but Shawn, who is from Ohio, came out in shorts. We waited and waited, until it was about 9:50, and Shawn decided to give up and go home. Cherry and I, who drove about 20 minutes to get to Satellite, waited it out a few more minutes, but finally, we gave up and went home as well.

On getting home, we found out that the launch had been delayed due to weather and was rescheduled for December 9th (tonight). Again, Cherry put on the snowsuit and we headed out to Satellite Beach, where Shawn and his shorts and Nick and his roommate Chris met up with us to view the launch. Check out the photos from the launch in the Photo Album or the little photo flipper in the sidebar! Some of them are really cool, like the one below, caused by my wobbly picture taking. "Commander, have you been drinking again?"

Tom Brady Mancrush Tribute

In the wake of the UF-Michigan controversy, this might lighten things up a bit. This is one of the funniest things I have ever seen on Youtube...





Some favorite lyrics:

• Your cleft chin makes me such a fool, Your eyes captivate, And though you have good protection, Won't you just throw me your ball?
• Brady, you're my QB in tight pants and I love you, You're the starter in my fantasy league for two, Brady, there's so many ways I want to catch your passes, Won't you throw me something softly down the field
• I'm a tight end but I hope one day to be your wide receiver, How I long for you to hit me in the slot, Forever, let there be two-a-days when we can play together, Let me hear you call your audible in my ear
• Brady, your balls are the only balls I need, and my endzone is where I want you to be cause Brady, there's a touchdown I want you to throw, You're the qb of my life, you're my Brady

Some of the comments are pretty, uh, classic too:

• msterliz123 (1 month ago):
  It's not that I have a man crush on Tom Brady, I just wanna run my fingers through his hair and rock him to sleep
• erikmelvin86 (2 days ago):
  You know, Brady's one of those guys who's so good looking that even a straight man would have trouble saying no if asked to pleasure him in the locker room...

Pretty creepy...

Banged Up

So, more than one month stands between today and January 8th, the date of the NCAA BCS National Championship Game. That kind of sucks, in a way. It means I don't get to see any Gator games for more than a whole month!

On the other hand, it's good because we will get to heal up some of our injured players. It's pretty astonishing how many players we have that are banged up. Tailback DeShawn Wynn, who would have had a great year if it had not been for all the injuries, is still nursing that shoulder that by now (after two years of repeatedly injuring it) must be pretty close to mush. Defensive lineman Ray MacDonald hyperextended his arm against Arkansas and had to sit out for the rest of that game. Starting strong safety Tony Joiner got rolled up, and one of our offensive linemen (Drew Miller, I think?) also got rolled up. Yeah, so the Gators could definitely use this time to freshen up.

Speaking of being banged up, I'm a little banged up myself these days. I twisted my calf a bit making a hard cut on a kick return over the Thanksgiving break and also might have taken a hit to the ribs at some point. I don't really remember taking the hit, but I've been feeling pretty sore around there for the past two weeks. Of course, I had to go and play some more tackle football this past Sunday because it was just so much fun the previous weekend. Nick and I were supposed to go to the park to toss the ball around. I ended up getting to the park a bit earlier than he did, and saw a bunch of kids playing tackle football. One of the kids invited me to join in, and so I did.

I was still a little sore, but the kids were mostly little (around 13 or 14 I guess). Except for one 13-year old who was probably around 5'7", 220 pounds and the black kid Josh that invited me to play, they were all pretty small, so we weren't going to do a lot of hitting. Josh claimed to play varsity for Satellite High, which I think isn't really that good. Still, I remember the varsity players at my high school were pretty athletic. Josh had a pretty good arm, and for being 15 or 16, he had decent size too - probably around 5'8", 170 pounds. He isn't as strong as I am though - he said he benched around 200 pounds, but I am almost a decade older than he is too.

The game was pretty fun - most of the kids were afraid to get hit by me or get run over by me, so I had a field day scoring on short, dump-off passes. One of my favorite plays of the day was when I caught a short pass, made a double-move, then burned Josh, who claimed to have a 4.6 40-yard dash, for the score. I was also able to defend quite number of passes thrown to Josh, so either I have better than 4.6 speed, or he doesn't! He was a pretty good tackler though. Probably better than me. He was able to get out of my tackle several times, but he hit me really hard once.

Which brings me back to the being banged up. That hit gave me a pretty good headache for the remainder of the day, and all that running around and juking really aggravated that right calf, which is still pinching even as I type. And it's been like two days! I don't know how those athletes do it!

Still, lots and lots of fun.

Gator All-Americans

It's somewhat old news, but I haven't mentioned it before. For the first time since 2003, UF players were selected as All-Americans (not counting Freshman All-Americans)! The two players to garner the honor this year were the aforementioned Ryan Smith, a graduate student transfer from Utah who leads the Gators, and the SEC, in interceptions this year, and the incomparable Reggie "Freakin'" Nelson, the "Eraser" himself, the monster free safety who has terrorized wideouts all year long and is candidate for the Thorpe Award, this year. Smith and Nelson were 3rd team and 1st team All-Americans, respectively!

In addition, freshmen Brandon James and Percy Harvin were selected as Freshmen All-Americans. We've got a great team going into the National Championship, and it looks like we're gonna have a bright future as well!

Last, but not least, I heard a funny story yesterday when my buddy Kaveh called. He told me that one of his classmates from business school knew a hot black girl who once dated Chris Leak. Apparently, that girl dumped Chris for a baseball player, and that Chris was "weird" and never wanted to do anything fun, like go out and party. I can kinda imagine that - Leak really seems like a quiet guy who likes to play by himself. Even in that picture from the end of the SEC Championship game, poor Chris is buried behind Dallas Baker. Still, getting dumped for a baseball player's gotta burn a bit! Maybe that's what caused all those bad games he's had!

Gators to Glendale!

It's official! The Gators are officially Number 2 in the BCS rankings and on their way to face Ohio State for the first time ever. And, what better venue to do it in than in the National Championship Game in Glendale, Arizona?



With the 13-9 loss by USC to UCLA and the Gators' solid victory against Arkansas, Florida was able to just barely leapfrog Michigan (to the disgust of quite a few Michigan fans, like the ones who write MichiganZone.blogspot.com. While I usually thoroughly enjoy reading that blog and am a supporter of Michigan on most days of the year, I have to say: "Poo on you, Michigan!"

I'm not going to sit here and rant (much). Florida's offense, while shaky, has been just as prolific (thanks to explosive plays) as Michigan's. Our defense is stellar, holding two of the top running backs in the country to less than 140 yards combined on Saturday - two running backs who combined for 300 rushing yards a week ago against the then number 2 LSU defense. I think we match up fairly well, albeit very interestingly, against Ohio State, and deserve the chance we got. Besides, we've never played them before, and it would be great to finally settle things on the field!

We've got four weeks and change to prepare for the biggest Gator game this century. Let's go out with a BANG, Gators!!

FLORIDA GATORS: 2006 SEC CHAMPIONS

38-28, Florida Gators win the 2006 SEC Championship over the Arkansas Razorbacks/Pigs/Hogs!

This was one of the craziest games I have ever seen (although I have to say, I've said that about at least 3 or 4 games this season - see the South Carolina game, for example). The Gators came out guns blazing, stuffing the vaunted Darren McFadden/Felix Jones rushing offense and scoring 17 points in the first half, started by a 33-yard field goal by Chris Hetlund - his longest of the season - on his birthday! The next touchdown was on a short field caused by a blocked punt, and Chris Leak rushed it in from nine yards out. Shortly after, Chris Leak tossed a 37-yard touchdown to Percy Harvin, making the score 17-0, before Casey Dick completed a long touchdown pass to Marcus Monk to make the score 17-7 at halftime. The long pass vaulted Chris Leak to the top of Florida's record books for Career Passing yards, who now has over 11,000!

The second half started abysmally for Florida. Leak was had two crucial interceptions - one returned for a touchdown, as Arkansas stormed back with 14 unanswered points, including a touchdown pass by Darren McFadden, to make the score 21-17. On fourth and long, the Gators ran a fake punt, pitching to Jemalle Cornelius, who kept the drive alive for another set of downs. That set of downs was wasted, however, and Florida was forced to punt again. This time, Eric Wilbur boomed the punt all the way inside the 10-yard line, where the kick returner, a freshman named Fish, muffed it. Freshman defensive back Wondy Pierre-Louis recovered the muffed punt for a TD to make it 24-21!

Arkansas wasn't done yet, though. They would drive down the field and score another touchdown on a double pass by their wideout to retake the lead 28-24. We quickly responded by intercepting the ball and scoring on our own trick play - a reverse pass by Andre Caldwell to tight end Tate Casey to take the lead 31-28. The great Percy Harvin would end all scoring with a 37-yard counter run to make the final score 38-28, and Utah transfer Ryan Smith's eighth interception on the season allowed the Gators to eat up all but four seconds on the clock to win the game!

A few thoughts:

• Percy Harvin was absolutely amazing in this game, and all season for that matter! I can't wait to see what he will be like with a few years under his belt!
  
• Cornelius Ingram was also solid. He should have gotten way more looks in this season.
  
• How good is Ryan Smith? I simply can't believe he was on the bench his sophomore season. His replacement must be friggin' phenomenal, because he has been as good a corner as I've ever seen at Florida!
  
• Five players threw touchdown passes in this game, and only two of them were by quarterbacks!
  
• It's great to see Chris Leak finally get his ring!
  
• The unthinkable happened earlier today. The Number 2 USC Trojans were upset by unranked UCLA. So much for the awesome Trojans, who were defeated by an unranked team for the second time this year!
  
• The SEC Championship victory, coupled with the upset of USC, could vault Florida into the BCS National Championship game against Ohio State! Here's to hoping for the best!

China 2002, Part VIII: Dating

Wow, it's already December! At the beginning of the year, I noted how it was a bit of a chore coming back to work after a long break. I believe I was referring to the whole "getting back into the groove" effort and trying to remember what it was you were doing prior to the break. Well, this week, as you know from the previous post, follows another somewhat long break in the form of the Thanksgiving break. While the break itself wasn't nearly as long as the wonderful winter break that we get every year, it is still a fairly long break, and coming back to work this week has been just as hard. The week has seemed to just drag on forever, and heck, it's still not over yet! Usually, weeks that drag on and on are victims of having little work to do. This week, however, there actually is quite a bit of work to do. Still, the week drags.

As a result, I don't really have much journal material to write. I'm not sure you guys would want to read about what I'm doing at work (nor do I think I would be allowed to write about some of the stuff anyway), and non-work life is not particularly exciting at the moment. So, I've decided to take us back to my China 2002 Flashback series! Today's topic, our dating lives in Xi'an! Enjoy!

June, 2002. Kir-Wei and myself had gotten to know Candy and Cherry quite well, respectively. Both girls were in Kir-Wei's group in our first visit to the English Salon. One day, Kir-Wei was studying, or something, with Candy when Cherry called, asking to chat with Kir-Wei. As Kir-Wei was occupied, I decided to make a move, and Cherry and I went on our first date that night to downtown Xi'an. Over the next few weeks, Kir-Wei got very close to Candy (as evidenced one morning in class by a rather large hickey!) and I got close to Cherry (as evidenced by the lack of my appearances at group functions and staying out late at night). We went on a number of dates to the City Walls, around Shaanxi Normal University, late night ice cream and snacking around the town, and her college, 西安翻译学院, or Xi'an Translator's College, as well.

I've mentioned before in my other college flashback posts that I dated a lot in school, and my reputation among the other students in Xi'an was something of a player, though really, that's an exaggeration. If you want to see a player, see my boys Chris and Kaveh, the other members of the Tri-fectorate! Me, I enjoyed company, and was fairly proficient at obtaining digits and getting dates, but I wouldn't really consider myself to be a player. However, with both Kir-Wei and I hanging out regularly with Candy and Cherry, we weren't doing much to shed that label.

I have to admit, Kir-Wei was more capable than me. Candy really liked him a lot, as she would later even go with us on our vacation to the south. However, Cherry, as she often reminds me to this day, didn't really like me much when we first met. She says that I looked like a thug, and that the humble, book-smart kind of guy was more her type. I suppose there is some truth to her stereotype - after having dyed my hair red, not only was I often mistaken as a Korean tourist, but I looked so thug that I was actually stopped at her school by security to make sure that I wasn't there to stir up trouble! Little did she know at the time that my own academic achievements probably exceeded the vast majority of the bespectacled, academic types that she liked!

Eventually, the days came when Candy, and shortly afterwards, Cherry, had to leave Xi'an. Kir-Wei was pretty lonely for a while, but we would later meet up with her again during our vacation. He and Candy would eventually make a trip to Beijing after the rest of us had returned to Xi'an, and they both came back to Xi'an for much of the rest of our stay there, somewhat to my dismay (since I was kind of a perpetual third wheel). However, Kir-Wei is one of my best friends (not to mention the most regular visitor of Grant's Pad), so I tried to be a good sport!

When Cherry left, however, I didn't know when I would see her again. She didn't want to come with us on our trip, and left me with a farewell letter and a small pendant to remember her by. During our trip to the South, I tried to contact her many times, but on the one time that I could have crossed paths with her, I decided to continue with my friends to the rest of the trip. Eventually, she told me that her phone number had changed and gave me her home address, but I wasn't able to call her for a long time. Eventually, I wrote a letter to her, mostly in English, except for the introduction that I was able to piece together with my lousy command of written Chinese, and sent it to her in Shanghai, hoping that she would call me, but somewhat expecting that it was over...

Almost every day, I waited for her to call me. Towards the end of our stay in Xi'an, we were forced to move because of some math symposium that was going to be held in the hotel that we stayed at. As I had not yet heard from Cherry, I was pretty disappointed. However, our move was delayed, and once again I was given a little more hope! Miraculously, on the very last day before we actually moved to the International Student dorm of the nearby 外语学院, or Foreign Languages College (Candy's college), Cherry finally called. She had gotten my letter, which I had addressed incorrectly. By chance, her grandfather had walked past the pile of undelivered letters and saw on addressed to Cherry in horrifically poor Chinese penmanship. Cherry had read the letter and was so moved that she immediately called me after reading it and gave me her new phone number.

Of course, her new number was a pre-paid phone, and wouldn't you know it, she had run out of minutes before that call ended. It wouldn't be until Kir-Wei, Eric, and I were in Beijing on the last leg of the China 2002 trip that I was able to talk to her again. We kept in touch and I visited her in China several times over the next few years, getting to know one another better, and the rest, as they say, is history!

So, that's the story of how Cherry and I met, and the most important reason (among many many other wonderful ones) that my trip to China in 2002 has such a special place in my heart! From her initial dislike of me to the letter that finally brought us back together - it had ups and downs, but ends happily ever after, like my own personal fairy tale!

I'm Back!

Wow, can't believe it's been a week since the last post!

Lot's of stuff has happened though. On Wednesday night, Cherry and I headed to Boca to meet with the rest of my family to get ready for our annual Thanksgiving Weekend camping trip. This time, the location was Collier-Seminole State Park in Naples. Usually, we go with a bunch of people from the South Florida Chinese Culture Association, the association that my parents were once officers of, but apparently, there was some sort of mix-up this year and no trip was planned, so this year, we went with this Buddhist community service group. At first, Ed and I were worried that this would mean no meat for the duration of the trip, but we were pleased to find out that they indeed had a big turkey for the carnivores who decided to go with them!

The trip itself was rather featureless. Aside from a 3.5 mile trail and a short lunch trip to nearby Marcos Island, Ed and I spent most of our time playing football. One of the other kids we knew, Will, helped us find a bunch of kids to make up a team, and we ran into a group of Filipino kids from the University of Miami to play against. The first night, it was already pretty dark when we started playing, so we were able to keep it close in a 7-on-7 two-hand-touch game, losing only 2-1 when it got too dark to play.

Ed and I were, however, not content with that performance and decided that we were held back because we couldn't run effectively in a touch game. So, the next day, after lunch, we got the teams back together to play tackle football! The problem was, the average age and weight of our team was about 14 and 120 pounds, and the averages for their team was about 20 and 160 pounds. Even so, Ed and I were able to stop their running game for the most part with our superior strength and tackling technique, and Ed proved to be a great downhill runner, often dragging four or five bodies with him after gashing them for fifteen yards, using his 207-pound frame. I was also able to make a few good cuts and also proved to be no cupcake to bring down. Still, we couldn't really stop their passing game, and our own passing game was pretty atrocious, and we were torched 8-3, with one passing and one rushing TD for me, and one bomb TD for Ed.

Aside from football, we watched a bunch of movies at night. I know, that sounds kind of weird, but the organizers set up a projector in the social area of the campsite, and held a number of activities there. On the first night, we saw Fearless and Ice Age 2, and on the second night, there was a group event where little kids performed. Ed and I decided to perform a few forms to offset the rather little-kid oriented performances. After the performances, there was some karaoke, and then, we watched Jackie Chan's new movie, The Myth, which was a great, fun movie. Not to mention it had a really hot Indian chick in it! Seriously, though, check it out if you can.

We headed back to Boca on Saturday morning, all-importantly getting back right before the second half of Florida at Florida State began. The score was still 0-0 at that point, but shortly afterwards, Andre "Bubba" Caldwell reeled in a bubble screen and dashed his way 66 yards into the endzone for the first score! Early in the second quarter, Percy Harvin ran a long 40+ yard draw from the QB position, making the score 14-0 at halftime. Later in the game, however, both Harvin and DeShawn Wynn went down witht injuries, and the Seminoles crept back into the game, tying it up at 14 at the end of the third quarter. With the running game completely nullified, Chris Leak put the game on his shoulders, completing 7-8 (including a few third downs after FSU stopped Tim Tebow, an incredible feat in its own right) and hitting Dallas Baker for a 26-yard score to finalize scoring at 21-14! Now, the Gators are 11-1 for the regular season, ranked number 4 in the BCS, and await Arkansas for the SEC Championship Game this weekend in the Georgia Dome!

That night, my dad, Melinda, Ed, Cherry, and I watched another Chinese movie, 天下无贼, or A World Without Thieves, starring Andy Lau and a bunch of other famous stars, according to Cherry. It was one of the best Chinese films I've seen in a while, excluding kung fu flicks like Fearless and The Myth. This one was another fairly low production cost film, complete with cheap dance-like fight scenes. It's about a pair of high-society thieves who are struggling with their consciences. They run into a country bumpkin with a funny accent who is oblivious to the world of thieves and believes that all people are good. He is determined to personally carry his hard earned 60,000 yuan back to his home on a train infested with an organized and deadly thief gang, which Andy Lau and his girlfriend are unaffiliated with. Throughout the course of the movie, Andy Lau and his girlfriend decide to help protect the kid from the other thieves, which proves to be a very costly move. For a movie that takes place almost entirely on a train, it manages to keep you on the edge for the length of the film. Make sure you check this one out too!

And that was the weekend! I should be putting up the photo album from the camping trip soon, so keep an eye out for it!

The Best Electronics In Life Are Free!

I've been a dues-paying member of IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, for several years now. I say that with an emphasis on dues-paying. The first year I joined, I was still an undergraduate at the University of Florida, and they were offering free membership for students. That, plus the allure of free pizza and, to a lesser extent, the networking benefits of the largest association of electrical engineers in the world, led me to sign up for that free term of membership.

Well, time went by, and soon, my free membership was off. As I was still a recent grad/graduate student, IEEE continued to offer discounted membership dues, starting at 50% off for a total of about sixty dollars per term. Eventually, that wore off too and the dues started breaking into triple digits. At the time, being in IEEE was pretty cool. It made me feel like a real professional. I mean, I even had a membership card with my name on it! It was just like when I became a member of the Burger King Kids Club back in the early 90's! But triple digits? Daaaaaaang!

Regardless, I continued to be a member, and when I started working, I joined IEEE GOLD, or Graduates Of the Last Decade, which is kind of like a social group for IEEE, which is then further divided into chapters in different regions, just as the rest of IEEE is. I only attened one IEEE GOLD event, and that was the free kick-off dinner at Carabba's where I ran into Ken, a guy I sat next to during my graduation commencement in 2005. Shortly after, I decided to stop paying triple digit dues to IEEE, especially since I wasn't even reading the cool Spectrum magazine as much any more.

But I've continued to receive e-mails and what-not from IEEE GOLD, and that's a good thing too! Because a few weeks ago, GOLD held a little contest online to celebrate their 10th Anniversary. Basically, you had to fill in a bunch of blanks in a short essay about the history of IEEE GOLD. Now, normally, I would have had to shuffle through pages and pages of IEEE history and membership documentation to fill in those blanks, but for this contest, each blank had a little clue attached to it. Most of the clues were little games, such as wordsearches, crossword puzzles, and Sudoku puzzles! I thought to myself, "Hey, I like Sudoku!" In addition, the prizes were cool things too, like MP3 players, Flash drives, and IEEE T-Shirts. Again, I thought to myself, "Hey, I like MP3 players, Flash drives, and (to a lesser extent) IEEE T-Shirts!" And thus, I completed the worksheets and turned in my entry.

Much to my surprise, a few weeks later, I received an e-mail saying that I was the Grand Prize winner of the IEEE GOLD 10th Anniversary Contest for my region! The Grand Prize was a 40 GB Creative Zen Touch MP3 player! Now, my regulars know that I have a 512 MB iPod Shuffle that I was able to commandeer from my brother Ed. While I've enjoyed the iPod Shuffle, 40 GB completely obliterates 512 MB, and the advertised 24-hour battery life is incredible! And best of all, it's FREE! That is, unless you count those hundreds of dollars of dues I've paid to IEEE...

I've since received the MP3 player, and it's taken some time to get used to the new software, since it takes some massaging to get it to recognize files with Chinese filenames. I've put every song on both of my computers on it already, and I still have almost 33 GB left! That's almost every one of the CDs I bought while I was in China, plus all of the MP3s I had on the computer before, as well as the ones that were preloaded in the player. All of that, and it only just scraped the surface. And to think I trudged through mountains carrying all those CDs and my bulky CD player in a sling pack while I was in China! Man, these new electronics are so cool.

Can't Spell BCS Without "BS"

Well, it's going to be another one of those post-weekend posts. Long, rambling, and plenty o' college football action!

Saturday morning, Cherry and I got haircuts in the morning, in hopes that we would be able to make it to Beef O'Brady's in time for the Gator game against Div. I-AA Western Carolina, which was scheduled for a noon kickoff. We were able to get our cuts done in time and scrambled to the restaurant only to find out that this game was so insignificant that not even a sports pub had it on! So, we went home and I listened to the game on online radio broadcast.

While it wasn't nearly as good as watching the game, I have to say that it is better than following the play-by-play livecast, which is what I used to do for games that weren't televised. You can kind of hear the crowd, and Mick Hubert's announcing is amusing. The game was incredibly short, almost as though the players and coaches wanted to get it over with before the 3:30 No.1 Ohio State vs. No.2 Michigan kickoff, but basically, the No. 3 Gators rolled 62-0, posting the second shutout of the season. Most of the starters only played for about a quarter, with Chris Leak posting 100 passing yards and a touchdown and DeShawn Wynn rumbling for 32 yards on just four carries and 2 touchdowns, including the leaping touchdown featured in the photo.

The freshman basically took over for the rest of the game, which was billed as Senior Day, since it was the last game the seniors would play in the Swamp, with Tim Tebow throwing for 200 yards and two touchdowns, as well as adding two rushing touchdowns. Freshman Jarrod Fayson also lined up at quarterback several times, each time rushing for big gaines, finishing with 77 yards and a touchdown on just seven carries. Brandon James set a school record with 155 punt return yards (including a 77 yard touchdown that finally wasn't negated by a penalty!), freshman receiver Riley Cooper grabbed three passes for three touchdowns, and the second string defense held the Western Carolina Catamounts to just 59 yards of total offense - three fewer yards than the Gators had points!

Despite the dominating performance by the Gators this past Saturday, the Big Game of the weekend was none other than "The Game" itself - Ohio State vs. Michigan. It was the first time in history that OSU and Michigan would play each other ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation. The game was a high scoring affair, with OSU pulling out a close 42-39 win, despite turning the ball over the the Wolverines three times. If it were a Big East team, like, say, West Virginia or Louisville, it would have been tagged as a game with crappy defense, but since it was OSU and Michigan, the media billed it as a Great, Exciting game!

That night, another big game with title game aspirations was also played. The USC Trojans beat the California Golden Bears in what seemed like an early upset, but Cal was unable to preserve their lead and eventually gave way to the No. 4 Trojans.

All of which would have been okay, except for the fact that on the very next day, the top four teams in the BCS rankings looked like this:

1. Ohio State (agree, they did beat No. 2 Michigan)


2. Michigan (what??? They, uh, just lost. And they don't fall at all in the rankings?)


3. USC (double what??? They lost to an unranked Oregon State just two weeks ago, and now they jump...)


4. Florida

So, not only does USC jump a team that didn't lose, but in fact, steamrolled their opponent (albeit a very inferior one), but as it stands, the BCS believes that the national championship game should be an OSU-Michigan rematch! What kind of crap is that??

But hey, what gives. I seem to have locked up another Fantasy Football victory, bringing my record to 4-7, which, interestingly, keeps me in position to compete in the playoffs. To celebrate, I bring you www.tonyhomo.com, a spoof blog by recently demoted NFL quarterback, Drew Bledsoe. For those of you who don't follow the NFL, Drew Bledsoe is one of the leaders in Career Passing Yards (something like 7th). He was the starting QB when the Patriots went to the Super Bowl in the early part of the century, got hurt, and was backed up by some 7th round draft pick, a guy named Tom Brady, who went on to win that Super Bowl and two more. Bledsoe eventually went on to start at Dallas until about a month ago, when he was replaced by undrafted Tony Romo. This blog reflects on all of Drew's thoughts on his new status! Enjoy!

New and Improved Grant's Pad

I'm not sure how many of you have looked at my profile before, but if you have, you might know that I've been running Grant's Pad for a whole year now (even though the first post didn't appear until December). If you've been here regularly throughout the year, you might also know that I try to add cool little features from time to time, to make it more worth your while to come and visit Grant's Pad. Well, today is the day Grant's Pad gets a total makeover!

The folks at Blogger have recently released their new version of Blogger, which at this point in time simply goes by the descriptive name, "Blogger in Beta". As with most beta software, it had a few bugs in it, and as a result, it took me a long time to switch over to the new platform. But I decided to switch to Blogger in Beta yesterday, and I like it quite a lot. The interface is a breeze to use, and it's now easier than ever to add and edit so-called "Page Elements". In the past, it was a pain in the butt to change those little lists and stuff because I would have to actually, you know, edit HTML!!! I know, I know, it's horrifying. But that's how it was. For every change that you saw on Grant's Pad, I had to entrench myself in the jibberish HTML code. But I did it anyway. For you.

But now, with the new Blogger in Beta, each list, set of links, radio station, clock, photo-flipper, and what have you, can be dragged and dropped where I want to put it. Plus, since each element is self contained, I can change the look of the blog in a snap without having to go back and put each and every element back in - Blogger remembers all of the blood, tears, and toil I put in and preserves the element, allowing me to change my template whenever I want!

So, in celebration and anticipation of the first anniversary of Grant's Pad, I've not only changed the look of the blog, but I've added some more features as well. I know that some of you come to Grant's Pad each day to see if I've posted any funny jokes or videos. Others of you come here to get your daily fix of Gator sports news. Others come to soak in my vast knowledge of kung fu and fitness. And still others come to Grant's Pad to actually just read about the Life of Grant. Well, now, every post has labels attached to it, which lets you find other posts that have similar content. For example, this post is labeled "New Features" and "Journal", since they are about new features on Grant's Pad as well as some noteworthy occurance in my life (in this case, giving Grant's Pad this major upgrade). So, those of you looking for just the jokes can go to the list of labels, click on "Jokes", and voila! All posts with jokes appear at your service!

I've also revamped my profile a little bit, separating my "Vital Stats" and "Quotes" from the "About Me" section. Lastly, I've added my little "Wishlist" of things that I would really, really like to have. Granted, most of these things I will probably just get myself sometime in the future, but don't feel obligated to not get me any of those things!

So, Welcome to the New and Improved Grant's Pad! Comment and let me know what you think of the new look and new features!

Go Emmitt!

Last night was a great victory for a great Gator - Emmitt Smith, UF tailback from 1987 to 1989 the NFL's all time leader in rushing yards and rushing TDs, winner of an NFL and Super Bowl MVP awards as a Dallas Cowboy, became the first NFL legend to be the Dancing with the Stars Champion, upsetting the favored Mario Lopez of "Saved By The Bell" fame. Cherry and I voted for Emmitt ten times by e-mail (we couldn't get through on the phone), proudly supporting the Gator Great.

Truth be told, I did think Mario Lopez was the better dancer of the two, although Emmitt was quite good as well. I think Cheryl Burke, his professional dance partner and also the partner of last year's Dancing With The Stars Champion, Drew Lachey, did a great job transforming a football hero with essentially no dancing experience into such a good ballroom dancer. Somehow, I had a feeling that Mario already had some dancing experience, being Latin and all. Additionally, as Cherry pointed out several times, I have to think that Mario's very, shall we say, unprofessional relationship with his hot teacher/partner probably turned a lot of potential voters against him. Although I suppose the opposite could be true as well - many people might have given him votes for creating some drama that wouldn't have been there without their off-the-dance-floor antics.

Anyway, Congratulations Emmitt!

Blocked Field Goal Video

My colleague Ryan, who has been to every game home game this year, and probably every home gome for the past six years, said that the last blocked field goal that finalized the 17-16 score over South Carolina this past Saturday was the loudest he'd ever heard at the Swamp. After watching this video, I believe it!

OMG! Post on SUNDAY?

I'm as surprised as the next guy, but hey, I've got some time. My Fantasy Football team is getting completely obliterated, the Bucs aren't playing until tomorrow night, and the Steelers aren't playing until later in the afternoon.

This week has been pretty productive for me. I got quite a few things done, even in the absence of my mentor figure, Mark, who was in Cedar Rapids all week. Midway through the week, I looked up my vacation hours for the year and found out that I was fast approaching 120 hours, which is the unofficial maximum for the year. Unofficial, because, as I would later find out, the actual rule is that you can only carry up to 120 hours into the next fiscal year, which meant that I actually could have just left my vacation hours alone until next September or so.

Still, I figured, it was as good a time as any to go ahead and take a day off. After all, it was Veteran's Day Weekend, and seeing as I had the hours to burn, I took the day off and Cherry and I went to Sea World.

We got to Sea World really late. Like 1 PM. My idea was that we would sleep in, leave for Sea World a little later, and stay until the night shows were over. Last time we went, we were too tired to see the night shows, so I thought that if we slept in a little, we would have the energy this time to stay later. What I didn't take into consideration was the fact that this time, we went on a Friday, and Sea World was only open until 6 PM. In fact, there weren't any night shows this time! Even with the early closing time, since it was a weekday, so to speak, there were virtually no lines at the few rides, and we were able to get into all the shows we wanted to see, as well as a few exhibits. I got to touch the dolphins again - this time, I was able to tough the belly side of the dolphin, which was really smooth and soft! If you recall, the last time I touched a dolphin, it was on the head, which was not so smooth and not so soft...

On to College Football News... You might recall that I referred to last Saturday as Survival Saturday, as Ohio State, Michigan, and of course my own Gators all survived close wins in games to somewhat inferior opponents. Well, this Saturday, the Gators survived yet another scare, winning by only one point against the Ole Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier, and his South Carolina Gamecocks. The Gators moved the ball fairly well all day, with senior running back DeShawn Wynn averaging 7 yards per carry for 90 yards on the day, but so did the Gamecocks, who demonstrated that The Visor still had his offensive genius after all these years. The Gators were behind for most of the game. Chris Hetlund, our ailing kicker, missed his seventh of 10 field goal tries in the first quarter, and we fell behind 7-0 soon after.

By the fourth quarter, we were down 16-10, but it easily could have been 20-7, had we not blocked a field goal and an extra point, courtesy of Ray MacDonald and Jarvis Moss and a (finally) successful field goal by Hetlund. That blocked extra point would prove to be the game when Chris Leak drove us down the field using his legs and Tim Tebow rumbled 20 or so yards for the final touchdown. Hetlund made his PAT, making the score 17-16 with 3 minutes left. I was thinking, "Man, 3 minutes for the Ole Ball Coach is too much!", and they moved down the field, positioning for a 47-yard field goal attempt right in the middle of the field with 8 seconds left to go. Miraculously, Jarvis Moss, the same young man who had blocked South Carolina's PAT earlier in the fourth quarter, added to his 6'6 body with a huge jump to block the field goal, winning the game for the Gators! When he blocked that kick, I pumped my fist so hard that I hit myself in the jewels! But it was worth it!

That victory, coupled with a loss by No. 3 Louisville (who had defeated former No. 3 West Virginia) to undefeated Rutgers, a 37-15 drubbing of No. 5 Auburn by unranked Georgia, a 45-42 loss by No. 4 Texas to unranked Kansas State, and a loss by No. 8 California to unranked Arizona, elevated the Gators to number 3 in both the AP and coaches polls! With No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Michigan playing each other next week, all the chips have fallen the Gators' way in our quest for a second National Championship! Go Gators!

Differences between Football in the North and Football in the South

So, I come in this morning, and one of the first things I see in my Google Desktop Sidebar Webclips is the following blog entry:

Differences Between Football in the North and Football in the South

Granted, most of the examples are made with Alabama and Auburn, but I think we Gators can relate to many of these facts as well.

I personally like the "Bear Bryant in Heaven" ones!

Those and the "Dammit you slow sumbitch - tackle him and break his legs!" ones...

Meihua SAMA's Mid Autumn Demonstration

This isn't really a YouTube cop-out... really, it isn't.

It's the newest demonstration by the Meihua Student Association of Martial Arts at UF. The "theme" is obviously based on the many lei-tai, or challenge stage, scenes in Jet Li's Fearless.



The show isn't bad by any means. It does lack some energy, as some of the performers were a bit on the slow side, but it does have a quite a few well-choreographed moments, and a couple of great acrobatic moves as well! Keep an eye out for the Flash Kick!

Survival Saturday

This college football season really has shaped up to be a good one. We had Separation Saturday a few weeks ago, and we've seen things that you just don't see in College Football. Things like both ThugU (Miami) and FSU both being unranked and with four or more losses. Things like Wake Forest being 7-1 and Louisville being 8-0. Things like nine, that's right nine teams in the SEC who could be bowl eligible, as a result of Kentucky's first winning season in who knows how many years. Speaking of Kentucky, things like both Kentucky and Vanderbilt beating Georgia.

So yeah, it's a crazy season. This Saturday saw the aforementioned Georgia loss to Kentucky and Mississippi State (3-7 for the season) beat Alabama. Those upsets were both shocking and largely unwelcome for most Gators, since they probably hurt our Strength of Schedule. Saturday also saw LSU upset Tennessee in a gut-wrenching game that came down to the final 9 seconds of the game, when JaMarcus Russell completed his third touchdown pass to a receiver that actually intercepted the pass intended for his teammate! As for the Gators, Chris Leak uncharacteristically throws three interceptions, but runs for two touchdowns and throws for one in yet another close victory over Vanderbilt. The victory, coupled with Tennessee's loss to LSU, clinched the SEC east for the University of Florida. That's right, Florida is going to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta for the first time since 2000!

I have to say that I wasn't very happy with the Gators' win over Vandy. I guess you can say I'm getting a little spoiled, but the last three Gator games just haven't convinced me, or anyone for that matter, that UF is a national championship caliber team. On the other hand, however, none of the powerhouses had a solid victory this weekend, unless you count Louisville's victory over West Virginia. Ohio State, who has looked nothing short of flawless until this past Saturday, had to hang on in a 17-10 win over the Fighting Zooks of Illinois! And Michigan, who has looked as dominating as anyone, was only able to survive 34-26 against perennial opening weekend fodder Ball State, despite gaining over 350 yards on the ground.

So, I guess it was a scare for most of the big teams in the NCAA, I'll just shut up and be happy that the Gators are Going to Hot-Lanta baby!

Another Great Wallpaper from GatorCountry

Although the victory last weekend over Georgia was rather lackluster, it still tacked on another win for the Gators in the series. Although Georgia still leads the overall series, the Gators are now 14 of 16 since 1990 over Georgia.

I read a funny quote by the Ol' Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier, from a while back. It went something like this:

At the time, Georgia still had the advantage in the overall record by wins. A reporter asked Steve Spurrier after a big victory over the Bulldogs whether or not Steve would continue coaching at Florida long enough to see Florida pass his longtime nemesis (Georgia was arguably Steve Spurrier's most hated team) in the series. The Ol' Ball Coach replied, "I don't know, I mean, fifteen years is a long time!"

Classic Spurrier.


In somewhat related football news, #3 West Virginia fell to #5 Louisville last night, leaving only 3 unbeatens in the top 5 of the BCS. It's not official yet, but their loss was one thing the Gators needed in their quest to the National Championship! Come back next week to find out where we stand!

Another Glorious Victory!

I usually don't post in back to back days, as my regular readers know by now. But yesterday marked an event so pivotal in my life that I couldn't simply not acknowledge it in Grant's Pad.

Last night, I went to places and accomplished something that men only dream of. I traversed grass plains, harsh deserts, stormy seas, blisteringly cold icelands, lands ruled by giants, the great and powerful sky, impossibly confusing mazes, and finally, fantastic castles. That's right, yesterday, November 1, 2006, after nearly seventeen years of trying, I finally defeated Bowser in Super Mario Bros. 3!

I stick to my guns in saying that Super Mario Bros. 3 is the hardest Mario game I have played thus far (although I haven't played Super Mario Bros. Lost Levels or Super Mario Bros. 2 yet). However, all I know is that I had to use the Save State feature countless times, sometimes even during levels, so I wouldn't have to start over every time, and that if I hadn't used the Save State feature, I would have easily gone through the 47 lives that I had accumulated in the past two months using the Save State feature. In other words, I would not have made it through the Pipe Maze, much less the tank levels in Bowser's Castle. Heck, even with the Save State, I still had to skip one level with a Jugem's Cloud and fly through another level using the P-Wing!

Regardless, I can cross off yet one more thing on my List of Things To Do before... well, you know. Another Glorious Victory for me!

Top 10 Worst Company URLs

Hey! It's been a while since I used the "Blog This" button. Karn sent me the link below to the 10 worst Company URLs. You would think that the PR departments of these companies would have noticed how atrocious their web addresses sounded...

nextwebgen.com » Top 10 Worst Company URLs

Enjoy!

Happy Halloween

I don't really have anything special to say today, but how can there not be a Grant's Pad post on a holiday?

We recently had a crisis involving tin-whisker growth on tin plated components at work, and so I decided not to wear a costume today, in attempts to be serious. However, there were free cookies all day, and some people at the company did come in costume - one of my coworkers came as George W. Bush, and some of the older ladies came in disturbingly raunchy outfits... Yipe!

For those of you who didn't know (and it should be all of you, since Grant's Pad wasn't around in Halloween of last year), I did come to work in costume last year. I brought back the Goku costume from my college days, seen in the picture to the left. That year, we actually went back to Boca for the actual holiday and Cherry, Melinda, and I went trick or treating in the neighborhood! It had been ages since I'd been trick or treating, and I must say it's quite different from going to the clubs on Halloween night to check out all the sexy costumes the fine young things come out in.

This year, since we are staying here in Melbourne and don't have the excuse of taking the little sister out to trick or treat, we went ahead and bought some candy to hand out. The only problem is, I don't know how many kids I should expect. I only bought a few bags of candy, but I still fear it might have been too much. No harm done though, I am a sweet tooth myself, and will gladly eat any left over!

Now for some Gator Football News, as you've all come to expect on posts following weekends! The Gators survived a scare in Jacksonville at the game-formerly-known-as-the-World's-Largest-Outdoor-Cocktail-Party against Georgia. We came out smoking, scoring on our first drive for the fourth time this year, going into halftime with a 14-0 lead, with Andre "Bubba" Caldwell scoring both TDs - one on a reverse, and the other on a 40-yard pass from Chris Leak. After the first kickoff after halftime, our incredible defense forced a Georgia fumble and recovered it for a touchdown to make it 21-0. That was all the scoring that we would do, and fortunately, it was all we would need, as Georgia stormed back strong to score 14 unanswered points. The game should have been a blowout, but we had a 66-yd punt return by the little guy Brandon James (who is officially listed at 5'7 but they say he is closer to 5'5) negated by one of 10 penalties by the Gators. The penalties really are ridiculous - UF is the most penalized of all 119 teams in Division 1-A football! In addition, Chris Hetlund missed two field goals, making him 1 of 7 for the year. It's really incredible that we haven't lost any more games than we have...

The big news for the Gators was actually the result of another game - the University of Southern California, or USC West, lost their first regular season game after winning 27 or something like that straight. Their loss busted open the race for number 2 in the country, since one of number 1 Ohio State and number 2 Michigan will lose when they play each other at the end of the season. More importantly, the USC loss bumped UF up to number 4, which puts us in prime position to take the number 2 spot if we can manage to win out the rest of the season! Go Gators!

Geniuses At Work

It seems my theory from yesterday's post is a bit flawed. Grant's Pad got very little visitation yesterday, despite my stat padding. My only explanation is that visits are also related to the quality of the posts, meaning I can't just post for the sake of posting and hope to get a mass influx of visitors.

In hopes of rectifying the problem, today's post will have some higher quality material. My dad, who is an electrical engineer like myself, only with a Ph. D degree from a top 10 engineering school (as opposed to my own M.S. degree from a top... 30 or so engineering school), sent me the images below. Nerds like us will enjoy them thoroughly, while people who don't "get" them are probably the same people who actually worked the problems as shown in the pictures...

Enjoy!