It's been a long while since I last wrote... that's because I've been away on vacation! Where did we go, you ask? Well, we had a couple of choices presented to us last month: A) a cruise to Mexico, South America, and the Western Caribbean, and B) a road trip to the Capital of our country, Washington DC. Actually, I came up with choice B, which was the choice we ultimately took. While it might not seem quite as glamorous as a cruise, loyal readers such as yourself will remember that we recently took a cruise in winter of 2006. The fact is, we hadn't taken a long family road trip since Cherrie first moved here in 2005, and I haven't been to Washington DC since I was probably not even a teenager!
Over the next few weeks (starting after today, since I'm dead tired), I'll be updating Grant's Pad with our travelogue of the last 10 days or so. By then, we'll have photos available to chronicle, including a very special "Nintendo DS on Location" series!
Stay tuned!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Awesome Football Education Blog
Last week, while browsing the awesome football blog Every Day Should Be Saturday, I clicked on a link that eventually lead me to Smart Football - Analysis and Strategy by Chris. This incredible archive of football knowledge goes into great detail about many of the popular offenses that are scorching defenses today, as well as some tips on how to defend said offenses. I learned more about football in the few hours of flipping through that blog than I probably ever knew. The intricacies of how to maneuver your blocking ends and offensive lineman in order to outnumber your defense really make football seem more like a chess match than ever before - there's a real science to it! It also goes into the history of Urban Meyer's spread offense that he uses at Florida, as well as why some schools, such as Auburn and Michigan, have not successfully implemented similar spread offenses. It's also much better written than this particular post - you can see my obvious noviceness in football philosophy showing in this post - there will be none of that at SmartFootball.blogspot.com! It's made such an impact that I've added it to my links in the sidebar! Check it out!
Finally, as an additional bonus, a video I found on Smart Football featuring all 51 of Tim Tebow's regular season touchdowns last year:
Finally, as an additional bonus, a video I found on Smart Football featuring all 51 of Tim Tebow's regular season touchdowns last year:
Monday, December 08, 2008
End of the Semester! Yay!
Had an interesting episode today on the drive back to Melbourne. I was driving about 72 MPH or so in a 65 MPH zone (which happened to be very close behind a 70 MPH zone) when I was surprisingly pulled over. I thought to myself, "7 MPH? Really?" Turns out the officer saw me slightly speeding, then looked up my license plate number which was associated with a "red Toyota". Apparently, the officer thought I was riding hot. In case you don't remember or weren't here when I first started showing off my car, here's what it looks like:
More like a purple Scion, right? To his credit though, the "official" name of the color of my car is in fact Sizzling Crimson Mica, which would certainly indicate that it is red, and Scion is, after all, an offspring brand of Toyota. Plus, he didn't give me a ticket or anything, so I'm not a grand theft felon just yet...
Anyhow, on with the usual material. Suddenly, I'm a bit at a lost as to what I should be doing. This past Saturday was my last true, sit-in class with UF's OEM Class of 2009. Usually, the Sunday immediately after marks the beginning of the next semester, but since I'm signed up to do the MBA program, I'm actually off until the end of January, so, for more than a month, I have no more assignments to worry about!
In addition to not having any class, there's also not going to be any Gator Football for one month either. Seeing as today is December 8th, and we won't play again till January 8th, anyone who follows college football knows what that means - the Gators are in the National Championship Game! Right after class on Saturday, Cherrie and I headed over to the hotel where my end-of-semester reception was being held in hopes of being able to catch the 2008 SEC Championship Game against Alabama, the first conference championship game to feature teams ranked number 2 and 1, respectively, in the AP poll. When we finally got our TV, we watched the hard fought game and Tebow and company's spectacular 4th quarter comeback (incidentally, Tebow's only 4th quarter comeback in his starting career - he had lost the previous 4 games in which we were behind in the final period). The 31-20 win by the Gators was just enough to propel UF over Texas in the BCS rankings, matching us with Oklahoma and their record breaking offense for the National Championship in Miami! And, we did it all with Percy Harvin standing on the sideline!
However, with no Gator Football for the month, what should I be watching? Guess I'll be playing some more Wii and DS for the next few weeks!
More like a purple Scion, right? To his credit though, the "official" name of the color of my car is in fact Sizzling Crimson Mica, which would certainly indicate that it is red, and Scion is, after all, an offspring brand of Toyota. Plus, he didn't give me a ticket or anything, so I'm not a grand theft felon just yet...
Anyhow, on with the usual material. Suddenly, I'm a bit at a lost as to what I should be doing. This past Saturday was my last true, sit-in class with UF's OEM Class of 2009. Usually, the Sunday immediately after marks the beginning of the next semester, but since I'm signed up to do the MBA program, I'm actually off until the end of January, so, for more than a month, I have no more assignments to worry about!
In addition to not having any class, there's also not going to be any Gator Football for one month either. Seeing as today is December 8th, and we won't play again till January 8th, anyone who follows college football knows what that means - the Gators are in the National Championship Game! Right after class on Saturday, Cherrie and I headed over to the hotel where my end-of-semester reception was being held in hopes of being able to catch the 2008 SEC Championship Game against Alabama, the first conference championship game to feature teams ranked number 2 and 1, respectively, in the AP poll. When we finally got our TV, we watched the hard fought game and Tebow and company's spectacular 4th quarter comeback (incidentally, Tebow's only 4th quarter comeback in his starting career - he had lost the previous 4 games in which we were behind in the final period). The 31-20 win by the Gators was just enough to propel UF over Texas in the BCS rankings, matching us with Oklahoma and their record breaking offense for the National Championship in Miami! And, we did it all with Percy Harvin standing on the sideline!
However, with no Gator Football for the month, what should I be watching? Guess I'll be playing some more Wii and DS for the next few weeks!
Friday, December 05, 2008
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Thanksgiving Weekend 2008
Nothing particularly special this weekend - just headed back to Boca for some time with the family... we hadn't gotten together since returning from China in the summer, believe it or not!
Ed and Cherrie got to our house on Wednesday evening, and we proceeded to my parents house that same night, getting in at about 10 PM, much too late to do anything besides eat a bit. The next day, Dad brought home a shiny new, Cobalt Blue two-tone DS Lite, in preparation for any future road trips we might have so we can get 4-player DS action anytime, anywhere! It's sooper sexy, featuring mica sparkles, much like my car paint... just Cobalt Blue instead of, what was it? Sizzling Crimson Mica.
Ed and Cherrie got to our house on Wednesday evening, and we proceeded to my parents house that same night, getting in at about 10 PM, much too late to do anything besides eat a bit. The next day, Dad brought home a shiny new, Cobalt Blue two-tone DS Lite, in preparation for any future road trips we might have so we can get 4-player DS action anytime, anywhere! It's sooper sexy, featuring mica sparkles, much like my car paint... just Cobalt Blue instead of, what was it? Sizzling Crimson Mica.
After ogling the new member of our DS family (for those keeping count, there are 4 of them now, all different colors. Ed has the most unique one, the midnight Blue straight from Asia!), we headed out for our Thanksgiving meal at Super Buffet! They actually did have turkey there, and it wasn't half bad at that, so stop your sniggering!
After lunch, we stopped by the beach for about an hour before heading to Super Wal-Mart to try to get some screen protectors for the new DS Lite. We weren't able to find the coveted Hori brand screen protectors, so we postponed that effort and instead got a NERF case to protect its sexy exterior. On the way out, we stopped at one of those DVD vending machines and picked up Tropic Thunder to watch that evening.
At first, I wasn't overly excited about Tropic Thunder. But then, I found out that the black dude on the cover was actually Robert Downy Jr. of recent Iron Man fame, and that piqued my curiosity. If you haven't seen it, Downy Jr.'s performance as the "Dude playing another dude disguised as another dude" is unbelievable, and Tom Cruise's cameos are also something that you shouldn't miss if you get the chance. Basically, the movie is about a couple of high profile actors (mixed in with a hip-hop star and a comedy star) attempting to make the best Vietnam War movie ever, I won't ruin it for everyone, but go see this movie!
Black Friday is usually a day reserved for shopping to try to get kickass deals on big ticket items, but we usually sleep in too late to do anything of the sort. Instead, we took a small trip to Jungle Island in Miami, a zoo park featuring mostly parrots. I think the park used to be called Parrot Jungle, but it has since collected a variety of other more exotic animals, such as all kinds of different tigers, a 20-foot, 3000 pound "Crocasaurus", and a rare Liger, which is the hybrid offspring of a lion and a tiger. Ligers are the real kings of big cats, as they are usually about the size of their lion fathers and tiger mothers combined - a stark opposite compared with dwarf Tigons, which have tiger fathers and lion mothers. Unfortunately, we could only see the head of the Liger, which spent most of the day hiding in the shade.
That evening, we went to an awesome Chinese restaurant (one where you can actually order complete multi-dish meals to share with everyone), and then went home to see Iron Man with the rest of the family.
Saturday was a typical, slow, weekend day, with the exception of the massacre of the FSU Seminoles at the hands of Tebow and the mighty Gators in torrential rain. The Gators won 45-15, the largest point production by UF ever in Tallahassee, but Percy Harvin was injured in the rout and now considered "questionable" for this Saturday's showdown with Alabama in Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game. I'm hoping Harvin will be able to at least be out there as a decoy - he draws at least two defenders no matter what!
We closed Saturday night with yet another movie - this time, we watched Cold Mountain, with Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, and Renee Zellwegger. I've always been a fan of Civil War movies, and this one didn't disappoint. I'm not a big fan of any of the lead actors, but they did a good job with their roles, especially Zellwegger. In all, it was a great look at the South during the waning years of the American Civil War.
Some last great news before signing off this time - I got my acceptance call from the University of Florida's MBA program today! W00t!
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