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!