Mythbusters, Grant's Pad Edition

You'll never guess what I saw on the highway this weekend... gasoline for just 1.79 per gallon! It's like traveling back in time or something. The 90's called; they want their gas prices back kind of stuff. Incredible, isn't it?


With the decline in the gas prices, it became economically feasible to try a little experiment. I filled up my Scion tC with real, premium, 93 octane rating gasoline from the Chevron station on the way back from Gainesville. Driving to and from work, and back to the station, I managed to get about 27 miles per gallon, pretty respectable city mileage considering I usually get around the 24-25 MPG range with the regular old stuff. But, was the stellar gas mileage real, or was it skewed by me driving extra careful and coasting a lot? We could only find out if we did it again.

I filled up again, this time on the way to Gainesville, so we could try the same test, but for highway mileage. After about 310 highway miles (to and back from Gainesville), I logged an impressive 32.4 MPG. For reference, on my last trip to Gainesville this past weekend, I managed to secure a 30.7 MPG on the highway on the regular grade stuff.

So, is it worth it to put premium gas in your regular gasoline vehicle? Not really. Yes, I did manage to squeeze out almost two more miles per gallon, but in order for it to be economically worthwhile, we estimated that we would actually need closer to five MPG more than the baseline. So, you're still really just giving the evil gas companies more money.


In other news, the Gators had a bye week this Saturday. Oh wait, actually they played somebody! They played the Citadel in the last home game of the season, and we were actually there for the whole thing (can't miss the last game of the season, right?). Not only was it the last of the season, it was the last home game in which Mr. 2 Bits would lead his famous 2 Bits cheer, which he has done nearly without interruption for the last sixty years. That's 6-0. As in, 1940s. The Gators gave him and the seniors on the team (it was also Senior Day at UF) a grand farewell, racking up 705 yards of offense and 70 points on their hapless FCS (that's Division I-AA for those of you who haven't figured it out yet) victim. Tim Tebow and the vast majority of the first team was done playing by halftime, having accumulated nearly 500 yards of offense at that point already, and John Brantley and the backups scored a few more times after the half. Many seniors got a lot of love - Louis Murphy reeled in a TD pass, Kestahn Moore racked up 50 yards and two TDs, and, in an interesting "Elephant" formation, oft-injured defensive tackle Javier Estopinan scored on a one-yard touchdown run!


While we played Tecmo bowl with the Citadel, Oklahoma was laying the lumber on formerly-undefeated-and-riding-high-at-number-2 Texas Tech, blowing Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree out to the tune of 65-21. That rout propelled them all the way up to number 3 in the BCS rankings, ahead of Florida (number 4) but behind number 1 Alabama and number 2 Texas, who had beaten Oklahoma in their head-to-head confrontation about one month ago. It would suck monumentally if the BCS championship was a re-match between UT and OU, so the Gators need to get their act together and string together blowouts of both FSU and Alabama in the coming weeks!

Danny's Visit

My friend Danny from school came to visit this past week. I met Danny through Karn, a name that has popped up a few times on Grant's Pad. During college, I mostly hung out with a different crowd than the one that Danny and Karn did - they were all about getting together at people's houses to play cards and video games, while I mostly ran about town going clubbing several nights a week with the likes of CASA and the Tri-fectorate. However, since graduating and getting married and settled down, the partying has cooled down and most of my free time is spent working, working out, and playing video games or browser games, such as the oft-mentioned Conquer Club rendition of Risk, often with Danny and Karn.

So, with that out of the way, Danny came to visit on Thursday, as he had a job interview near my home on Friday and wasn't able to find any good hotel deals. To make his visit entertaining, I took him out to the parking lot and gave him a beginner kung fu class before it got pitch black at, like, 5:45 or so. Off-topic rant alert: this whole daylight savings time thing is a little backwards to me. Why wouldn't you try to "save more daylight" in the winter when there's less daylight to begin with? I know that daylight savings first came about to help out the farmers during the summer and fall harvests, but these days, I'd like it to be light out for most of my waking hours all year round! Ben Franklin should have been smart enough to realize that, you'd think...

Anyway, after kung fu practice, we washed up and had dinner at the Island Pasta Company, and then headed home and played a lot of Mario Kart, in a big effort on my part to add to my group of Karters. We actually did manage to get a few races going with Nick and Chris, who must have been happy to have some fresh meat to not lose to, since I usually dominate them so bad that they don't even want to play any more! After they signed off, we kept playing a few games online to try to up my online rankings, but finally went to sleep at around midnight so that he could get to his interview the next day.

Hopefully, playing Mario Kart all night relieved some of the pressures for Danny's interview and helped him do well!

Amazing Woman

The woman in this video has an extreme handicap, but has moved on with her life and adapted in amazing ways!

Woah.

The Gators took care of business last night, waxing Vanderbilt 42-14, as Tebow stiff-armed his way to another five TD effort. More importantly, however, was the fall of previously unbeaten Penn State to Iowa in a last second field goal. That loss dropped Penn State to number 7 in the AP poll and virtually eliminated any chance of Penn State playing for this year's National Championship Game in Miami. Replacing them at number three is the Gators, who have three more games left before facing current number 1 Alabama! If we take care of all our business, we could very well see ourselves back in the National Championship for the second time in just three years!

I was supposed to still be in class today, but with the late game last night, I couldn't get enough sleep so I am skipping my first class ever in the OEM program. I'll have to call Stephanie later on to catch up on all that I missed. The time I wasn't in class hasn't gone completely to waste, however, as I used some of it to work on my marketing project, and perhaps more importantly, my MBA application. The application date really kind of crept up on me - I didn't realize that many people have already applied!

Part of the problem might have been how much time I've been spending playing Animal Crossing: Wild World on DS. Animal Crossing is a really unusual game. It is one of Nintendo's first "non-game" offerings, as there is no real point to the game. You just walk around in your village, finding bugs, fishing, digging up fossils, planting and cutting down flowers and trees, and buying and selling furniture and clothing to your heart's content. What makes the game really cool for me, however, is your interaction with your animal neighbors. Each and every one of your neighbors has their own personality and tastes in furniture and clothing, and they have a real, live relationship with you, remembering previous conversations with you. You can even visit friends' villages over the wi-fi connection, and see and visit their neighbors as well. Visiting their neighbors in turn causes them to remember you and talk to your friend about you when you're not around. To cap all that off, your own neighbors move in and out of your village, and sometimes even show up in your friend's villages, complete with their memories of you! It's awesome... if a just a little bit creepy!


Keen regular readers might have noticed the new photo format. No longer will I mess around with alternating photos from the left side of the column to the right. Nope. Just straight shooting from here on out. Right down the middle. Just like that. Two reasons for this - one, Blogger's photo application seems to have changed and made it subsequently quite difficult to work with, and two, the photos actually look pretty nice all big and stuff. It might take a little while to get used to, but I'm sure we will get along just fine!

Hamster On a Piano (Eating Popcorn)

No further explanation necessary... just watch!

Vote!

A little late, but I was busy this morning doing it, so you should too!

Smaaaack down!

What a glorious day Saturday was for the Gators. Not only did we exact revenge on Georgia for last year's "Gator Stomp", we did it in style. First things first, we let Knowshon Moreno know early and often that he would not be rumbling for 188 yards again this year, and held him to a net 60 yards and a costly fumble that was converted into an easy touchdown. Next, we punished Matthew Stafford just about every time he dropped back to pass, inflicting a sprained ankle, numb throwing arm, and cuts under his arms, while picking off three passes, two of which were converted into yet more easy touchdowns. Third, we scored. A lot. 49 points a lot - three Tebow rushing touchdowns, one Percy Harvin rushing touchdown, one Percy Harvin touchdown reception, one Louis Murphy touchdown reception, and one Deonte Thompson touchdown reception, courtesy of John Brantley. Lastly, we limited Georgia to a measly 10 points.

Several Gator players took it upon themselves to make the game particularly painful for the Bulldogs. Linebacker Brandon Spikes put on a hilarious show of drama by rolling around in faux pain after Knowshon Moreno pushed him at the end of a play. "Retard" Chris Rainey fielded a kickoff late in the fourth quarter, strolled a few steps, and proceeded to take a knee as Georgia's gunners approached, only to launch into a furious return for nearly 30 yards! Even Coach Urban Meyer got into the action, calling two time outs with just 40 seconds left on the clock while leading 49-10 to "let Emmanuel Moody get some more carries". Yeah, ok!

However, another game, far away in another state, was far closer and yet meant a lot to the future of the Gators. Texas Tech, perennial destroyer of mid-major teams that has never had the stuff to play "real" ball in the Big 12, upset Number 1 Texas in Lubbock, Texas. The Red Raiders stormed out to a large lead early in the game, only to let Colt McCoy claw back into the game and take a one-point lead with just 90 seconds left in the game. At this point in the game, Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell and mad scientist head coach executed the ballsiest and most efficient two-minute offense I have ever seen, as they marched over 60 yards with quick passes and scored the go-ahead touchdown on a fade route leaving just one second on the clock - without using a time out!!! Simply amazing.

Texas's loss dropped them to fourth in the BCS rankings. Alabama replaced them, with Texas Tech and Penn State following them. Florida climbed to number 5, but many analysts have us winning out against number 1 Alabama and playing against Penn State because of Texas Tech's difficult Big 12 slate. Let's hope the Gators don't let the beat-down of Georgia get to their heads, because they've still got a lot of football left to go if they want to go to the Big Show!