Farewell, Gainesville

After two years of living in Gainesville, Cherry finally moved back to Melbourne yesterday. She still has a couple of classes yet to take, but they are available online, so she doesn't have to stay in Gainesville for them.


It was certainly an interesting couple of years! Cherry was exceedingly excited when she first got accepted to UF, but had a tough time adjusting to life in Gainesville at a top tier university in her first semester there. She had settled down a bit by her second semester, but she still had some trouble in some of her classes, especially BPI, or Business Processes I.


By her third semester, though, she was a regular pro at UF life. We went to every Gator football game together, with Ed, that season, and what a great season it was!


Cherry was much more in rhythm during her second year in Gainesville. It got off to a bit of a rough start, but she was no longer stressing a lot over school and was able to make some new friends.


It really does seem like just yesterday that we started living apart again, after just living together a few years earlier. We're definitely looking forward to the next phase of our life!

HP Computers - Racist?

I was actually going to post a nice, meaningful post about Cherry moving back from Gainesville and my latest MBA class meeting, but seeing as I haven't gotten my photos in order yet, and Karn showed me this video, I had to share it with you all first. Enjoy!

Jordan's Wedding - Part III: Breaking the Ice

Despite going to bed at after 6AM on Thursday night, Pablo and I were up at about 9:15 AM on Friday morning. You see, we had heard that the complimentary hot breakfast was pretty good, and we had to see for ourselves. Plus, I didn't want to miss out on the new day!

After breakfast, we went back upstairs and woke up the rest of the group. We played some more Street Fighter while the others got freshened up. Before long, we were piled up again in our Rav4 and on our way to Jordan's house to drop off his car (which he had left behind at our hotel the night before).


So, Jordan lives in this nice old neighborhood where everybody owns gobs and gobs of land. Seeing vast expanses of grass makes me want to frolic uncontrollably, like so: Click to see video

Once we got inside the house, we met up with Jordan and his grandmother, Nana, who is looking fantastic at 93 years old! She is also sharp as a tack - despite only having met Paul and George previously, she was able to identify the rest of our party based only on descriptions from Jordan and possibly a few old photos! Plus, she is a Gator fan and talked heartily about how she hoped Tebow would win the Heisman (which, as we all unfortunately expected, didn't happen this year)!


After leaving Jordan's house, we made our way back to Downtown St. Louis. We found parking near the Gateway Arch, undoubtedly the main attraction of the city (though co-worker Neil found himself much more interested in the Anheuser Busch brewery).


Not sure how difficult it would be to get tickets to go up into the Arch, we headed straight there... that is, until us Floridians came across something fascinating that we'd never seen before: a frozen pond! We spent about thirty minutes standing on the pond, breaking the ice (literally), and throwing chunks of ice across the pond before we had our fill of one of the joys of living up north! Click on the links for videos of our playtime!


Stay tuned as we go up into the St. Louis Gateway Arch in Part IV of this miniseries!

Jordan's Wedding - Part II: Going Out on the Town

With our party assembled, the group finally headed out to dinner. Jordan had asked me where we wanted to eat. Having had some experience in the Midwest, I knew the answer to that one - anywhere with huge portions of meat. I could almost endure the ridiculous Midwest winters just for the wonderful meat alone. Almost.


So, we made our way over to McGurk's, a pretty swanky place that served, among other things, great cuts of steak. We met up with Jordan's childhood friend and neighbor, Todd, who turned out to be a really cool dude. We caught up on each others' lives, but perhaps the most interesting story was Paul's shared story of when he came once to visit Jordan and Jordan used his rental car to do a "lawn job" on the neighborhood asshole's lawn, then proceeded to crash it into his sister's car!


After dinner, we dropped Todd's car off at his house, then back to our hotel to have a few beers and otherwise get ready for the night's festivities. Of course, once Todd saw our secret weapon, the Super Nintendo, he had to get in on the action, so we happily obliged.


Finally, we were ready to head out. All seven of us piled into the Rav4 and headed to Downtown St. Louis, where we got a few fantastic shots of the famous Gateway to the West, the St. Louis Arch.


After shopping around for a bar or club, we finally landed at Big Daddy's on "The Landing", the main bar street in downtown St. Louis, where we met up with Jordan's future (now current) brother-in-law and our arch-nemesis for the remainder of the trip, Joe. Jordan had apparently been pressured into bringing the 24-year-old Joe along on our adventures that night, no doubt to chaperon us. We tried to drag it out as long as we could so Joe would get tired and leave on his own. When we left at 2AM, Pablo even put on an Oscar performance as he feigned drunkenness to try to end the night early for him!


Alas, our efforts were lost and we ended up taking Joe along for the ride to Eastern St. Louis, which is actually in a very shady part of town, and not even in the state of Missouri at all. East St. Louis is actually in Illinois, where the, shall we say, adult establishments stay open till the wee hours in the morning. Right on cue, however, Joe stymied our plan by keeping Jordan outside in the cold and lecturing about who knows what (Jordan's in-laws are very conservative people) for almost an hour. When Lucas and I went out to just drag Jordan in, Joe grabbed Lucas' shirt, and I backed up my fellow La Manchan by knocking his hand away. Joe took that as a cue to come after me! Now, I'm not normally a violent person by any means, but I have been known to throw down on occasion! Fortunately, Jordan and Todd were able to calm things down a bit before we got trounced by the bouncers at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club!

Unfortunately, by the time Joe finally let Jordan into the club, it was almost closing time. We were able to stay for about 45 minutes and watched a few dancers. Most were of the "meh" category, but there was one that put on an impressively acrobatic show with the spinning wheel and the poles - and much to the rest of our group's amusement, she turned Paul down when he went up to her for a lap dance. And, if that weren't enough, he was shut down yet again when he asked another one after being blown off by the first! That's right folks, we are so lame that even strippers would turn us and our money away!


Stay tuned for Part III!

Boeing 787 First Flight!

Hot news!


The Boeing 787, AKA "Dreamliner", finally made its first flight yesterday after a nearly two year delay. This event was especially significant for my company since we provided the avionics package for it.

Check out the features and the video webcast of the flight here: Boeing 787 Dreamliner First Flight

Ping Pong Prodigy

Yay for YouTube Cop-outs!

Seriously though, this girl is pretty good. Speed, agility, power. All on demonstration in the video. Enjoy!

Jordan's Wedding - Part I: Fellowship of La Mancha

I've been a pretty busy traveler this past year. Earlier in the summer, Cherry and I took a short trip to Key West, then we took another trip a bit further away to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee in early Fall.

A couple of months ago, my good friend and former roommate from UF, Jordan, called me up. I met Jordan in my sophomore year at Florida, the year after I lived at La Mancha. Most of my friends at the time (and even today) were either from another country or of another nationality, so Jordan, with his blond hair and Midwestern background, became affectionately known as the Gringo of the group. Through a series of events, he ended up having to go back home to Missouri to finish his studies, so I hadn't seen him in about eight years. So, I was a bit surprised when he suddenly invited me to his wedding. Jordan lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and the wedding was scheduled to be in mid December, so it wasn't looking too attractive at the time. However, I finally gave in to my emotions and booked my trip.


Former roommate Paul had arrived the day before. Paul was the oldest in our group, and was born in Uruguay, though he also has some Argentine blood in him. Despite his Hispanic background, having traveled a lot in his childhood caused him to essentially lose any semblance of a Spanish accent. Paul moved in with me and Jordan during my junior year at UF, when I moved away from the infamous Royal Village apartment 128 seeking a quieter, less smokey life (which wasn't entirely successful, but an improvement nontheless!). After graduating, he moved to Atlanta, where he currently lives and works. At about 6'5", he is also easily the tallest member of our group, not that that has anything to do with anything!


Jordan and Paul picked up Lucas early on Thursday morning. Lucas is from Argentina, but of Scottish descent. He studied primarily Geology at the University of Florida and fell in love with the beach while he was in Gainesville, joining us several times for trips to St. Augustine. He was roommates with Paul while they were at La Mancha, but currently lives in paradise on Oahu, Hawaii, where he is working on his Ph. D at the University of Hawaii and "working" on research dives and cruises when he isn't surfing. He would later coin the catchphrase of our trip: "Just Show Me the F*cking B*tches!!!"


Meanwhile, also on Thursday morning, I headed out on my way. My bag couldn't fit in the storage bin, so they made me check it all the way through to St. Louis. Unfortunately, before I let them take it away, I neglected to retrieve my coat, so, when I had to freeze my butt off in 18 degree weather in jeans and a T-shirt when I boarded the plane from the tarmac at my layover in Cincinnati! Not long after, I landed in St. Louis, where I met up with former roommate Pablo. Pablo was the first person I talked to when I got to Gainesville, as I met up with him at the bank on campus as we were setting up our bank accounts. That day, he was excited to tell me that he was from Costa Rica, but I was pretty disinterested, and more or less brushed him off! We later found out that we actually lived in the same apartment complex (La Mancha) and became good friends and later roommates in the aforementioned Royal Village apartment 128 thereafter. After graduating, Pablo moved to Philadelphia, making him the northernmost resident among us.

After meeting up with him, Pablo and I picked up the Rav4 that would serve as our group's transportation for the next few days. Hungry as we were, we headed over to Jimmy John's to grab a bite to eat, then set up our "secret weapon", the Super Nintendo, and played Super Street Fighter II while we waited for the rest of the party to arrive.


While we were playing, Jordan, Paul, and Lucas went and picked up former roommate George, who should have arrived the night before to split the cost of the hotel with Paul but couldn't make it due to flight cancellation. George, like me, is an ABC. However, unlike me, he is an American Born Colombian, not an American Born Chinese. He has a tendency to inevitably show up in every photo taken, wherever he is. He currently works in Miami, FL.


And thus begins our story...

Wufoo's Net Promoter Score

The following feature is an "A" paper that I wrote for my Business-to-Business marketing class. In fact, it was my best paper yet - the teacher said it was "flawless". Like Mortal Kombat. Xtreme!

The context is on whether or not a Website can provide a "Delightful Customer Experience". With Karn's help, we found the site Wufoo.com, and I wrote my assignment on it. Wufoo certainly sounds like a pretty cool tool to use, if you need that kind of thing. The paper below will let you know all about it! - Grantis Mantis

As an early adopter of the World Wide Web in the 90s, I was never able to create the web empire I imagined I would when I created my very first website. Contrary to popular belief, not all engineers are great coders, and to this day, my claims on web space remain little more than venues where I express haphazard trains of thought and share photos and other media. While my failure to make it big in web-commerce is likely due to lack of effort, the ability to create online forms for registration, surveys, invitations, and payment without knowing a lick of code could have helped me overcome my lack of software prowess. As this very assignment references, companies today need to have robust websites with all of the aforementioned features. While companies could use their own resources or hire contractors to develop these features for their website, they could save substantially if there were an easy way to create professional looking forms. Startup company Infinity Box’s website, Wufoo.com, provides individuals and companies alike a way to do just that.

Wufoo.com is a website that provides an interface to create online forms for various purposes. Their website is similar in design to many so-called Web 2.0 websites, with clean presentation, bold colors, and easy to read text. Titles and subtitles are shown in a whimsical text to match the site’s whimsical name, which, as the site’s FAQ explains, was derived as a combination of the names of music groups Wu-Tang Clan and Foo Fighters. Just as attractive presentation can help a salesperson close more deals, an aesthetically pleasing website helps to create a better experience for potential customers, and Wufoo.com is, if nothing else, an attractive website:

The presentation of the website also makes it very easy for potential customers to get around and find information. Clear links are presented on the homepage, leading to pages that explain their product, show some examples, and allow potential customers to try it out for free. A variable splash page shows how Wufoo can help enhance websites for individuals, businesses, education, and payment interfaces. Additional links take customers to detailed product features, information about the company, FAQ pages, explanation of pricing, and also a list of prominent clients that use Wufoo.com, a list that includes companies such as Microsoft, Best Buy, Disney, J. Crew, the American Red Cross, Amazon.com, and Ycombinator (the venture capital firm that incubated Infinity Box when they were getting started). Most technically impressive is the site’s interactive tour, which contains videos demonstrating the site’s features.

Payment is safe and easy, as the site is encrypted for security. As previously mentioned, there is a clear link to the pricing information on the homepage, clearly showing the prices for the different levels of service, which is quite competitive considering the alternative of hiring IT to maintain your forms. When you are ready to try the product, clicking on another link takes the customer to a registration form no doubt created using Wufoo.com, where you can either make up to three forms for free or go “all-in” and purchase the service.

If potential customers have any further questions or comments about Wufoo.com, there is a link on the site that launches a pop-up window where the customer can ask questions and provide feedback directly to Infinity Box. Users, potential customers, and fans of the company or site can stay on top of updates via the company’s blog or through Twitter and Flickr. Furthermore, as with any self-respecting Web 2.0 site, Wufoo.com also has a member forum where users can show off their Wufoo.com creations, find tips and advice, or request new or improved features.

After thoroughly going through the features of Infinity Box’s nifty form-making website, I give Wufoo.com a solid 9 on the NPS scale. The site is intuitive, easy to navigate, attractive, and it provides any information you could want and ample opportunities to ask if you don’t find what you need. An informal survey of ten friends, plus me, resulted in the following splits:

No. Promoters: 7
No. Neutral: 4
No. Detractors: 0

These scores yielded a total combine Net Promoter Score of 63.6% (which is quite good - anything above a 50% is excellent!)

I discussed the scores with each of my survey takers. All agreed that Wufoo.com is an attractive site that is easy to get around and get information about. One immediately recommended it to his fraternity, which is always looking for better ways to collect dues. The most negative feedback came from individuals with experience in web design and IT, who thought that the price was a little high, that the data would be kept on Infinity Box’s own servers (rather than the customer’s server), and that “there are people who could do it better”, no doubt indicating themselves. However, they agreed that for people who have less software or web design experience, Wufoo seemed like an excellent tool that was a good alternative to hiring a full-time IT employee or was handy for anyone wishing to put together a quick and easy website.

Why Gold Medals go to China

The previously aforementioned Kaveh sent me this photo series this afternoon, and as many China related stories do, it got me thinking a bit.

The photos are proof that hard work is the single greatest factor that contributes towards success. Think we've got it tough?

It's an interesting dilemma - these kids sacrifice their childhoods and go through intense pain, and only a select few will ever truly be super successful, but those who make it achieve fame and fortune, as well as pride. Reportedly, many of the "best of the best" in other countries, including the U.S., go through excruciatingly tough regiments as well, though here it is either a choice they or their parents make, rather than their country.

The burning question: is it worth it?

Kaveh's Visit

My good friend and fellow Tri-fectorate member Kaveh came up to visit me this past Monday. He travels quite frequently for his job, and is also in a long distance relationship, so like me, he often drives down to work from his significant other's apartment in Jacksonville early on Monday mornings, and has done so since last year. Realizing that we were both driving early this past Monday morning, he called me and we chatted for about two hours, making the drive go much quicker.

Turns out that Kaveh works just about half an hour from where I live, so he decided to come up an watch Monday Night Football after work. It was his first time in Melbourne, so I took him for a drive down to Historic Downtown Melbourne before we stopped at Duffy's for dinner and to watch the Monday Night game between the Packers and Ravens. Of course, we were more interested in mourning together about the Gators loss this past weekend, so we headed out after finishing our great value dinners (Duffy's apparently has $9.99 entrees on any menu item on Monday nights, including full rack baby rack ribs that were fall-off-the-bone, just how I like them), but not before running into Alex and Neil, who had just gotten off work at 9:30PM!


Of course, I couldn't let Kaveh leave without taking a photo for Grant's Pad with my Canon PowerShot SD1200IS ELPH camera! The picture came out pretty nice, despite how foggy it was!

It was a pretty short visit, but we had a lot of fun and talked and talked and talked about Gator football. Kaveh doesn't live that far away - we should really visit more often!

And it all comes crashing down...

So this is what the Patriots must have felt like in 2007...

32-13, Alabama wins over Florida. It was a good run, but Alabama executed, shredded Florida's vaunted Defense, and prevented Tim Tebow and Co. from making history this season.

The Life of Urban

Surfing around the Gator Boards in the last few days before the showdown between No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Alabama, I came across this incredible article about Florida Head Coach Urban Meyer.

I never knew much about him, especially outside of his coaching life, but this article really dives deep. Read it!

Urban Meyer Article

Mario's Maker

The long article below is an interview with Super Mario creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, conducted by the current president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata. It's a very nice look into just what went on in creating the most famous video game mascot on Earth, even more famous than Mickey Mouse, and also gives us a look at the newest Mario game, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, available for sale today at Grant's Pad Super Store!

Iwata Asks: New Super Mario Bros. Wii


Enjoy!

Grant's Pad Super Store Grand Opening!

Coming to a blog near you, it's the Grant's Pad Super Store! Get all of your Nintendo games, electronic gadgets, Gator Gear, and Kung Fu/Fitness equipment here! Keep an eye out for new products by visiting the store from the Grant's Pad Links in the sidebar!


For those of you asking, yes, I do get kickbacks when you buy from my Amazon Associates store. But if you were planning on getting things like this anyway, please buy from me!

Thanks to Karn for the heads up on this awesome new feature! Visit his store here!

Tate Casey Autograph!

Behold! My first autographed photo from a Gator football player!

As previously mentioned, in the tailgating activity prior to this past weekend's beat-down of FSU, Cherry and I ran into Tate Casey, former tight end for what seemed like ages at UF (in fact, he was at UF for about six years). He came in right around when former Gator Great tight end Ben Troupe, AKA "The Hurdler" for his memorable hurdles over defenders when he had the ball in his hands, had gone and left for the NFL. He was a dual sport athlete at Florida, also playing baseball in his time here, similar to another UF player today, Riley Cooper. But perhaps what he is most known for is catching Tim Tebow's first career touchdown pass, the famous "Jump Pass" that arguably started the Tebow Legend!


Unfortunately, I was too star-stunned to remember to take a photo with him...

I Am the Champion!

The Front Page of my CBSSports fantasy page today:


Some of you might remember my first encounter with Fantasy Football - it did not end well.

That performance would not be repeated this year, where me and several people at work played in a college Fantasy Football League. I actually didn't get a chance to do my draft live (I was in the Smokey Mountains with Cherry), but it turned out okay as I got two of the best running backs in our league in Mark Ingram of Alabama and Montario Hardesty of Tennessee. But, I couldn't have won the Championship Game against Alex had it not been for my all-star quarterback, none other than Tim Tebow of the Florida Gators himself, who powered his way to 47 points, leading the way to my 157-143 victory:


Looking forward to next season already!

End of an Era!

It all went by so fast! It seemed like just the other day, Tim Tebow threw his first touchdown pass at LSU on the now legendary "Jump Pass". Today, November 28, 2009, was the 2009 edition of the annual matchup between the Florida Gators and the FSU Seminoles, but perhaps more importantly, it was the last game in the Swamp for the winningest senior class in SEC history, a class led by the likes of WR David Nelson, Athlete Brandon James, linebackers Ryan Stamper and Brandon Spikes, and of course Superman himself, Tim Tebow. This special class had racked up a record of 46-6 over the last four years entering the game tonight, more than any SEC team before it, including the great Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida teams before it.

Cherry and I would start the afternoon scoping out the tailgating scene around campus. Most of the year, we'd stayed in the library until about an hour before the game because we had a lot of homework to do. This week was not really that much different, but who could pass up the last home game of the season?

We quickly ran into Ray, one of the early members of the Meihua Student Association of Martial Arts. While chatting with him, we noticed that it was time for the traditional Gator Walk, where all the players walked into the stadium. We rushed over to try to get a glimpse of the players, but that's about all we got - we couldn't really even get a good shot of any of the players, although we heard the ruckus when Tebow went up the stairs into the stadium.

After all the players made their way in the stadium, Cherry and I continued our quest around campus for free Gator memorabilia. First on our list was getting eye black to wear for the game, which was to be the "theme" of the game, in honor of Tebow's tradition of wearing eye black displaying select bible verses. We immediately became much better football players as a result!


We continued down the street, observing some pretty cool (and abhorrently expensive) street art and also got to sample all sorts of weird drinks and tailgate food. We managed to pick up a few cool posters and I got to meet former UF Tight End Tate Casey, who signed a photo for me! I'll try to post it when I get it scanned in.


When we eventually made our way into the Swamp, along with a record 90,905 other fans about thirty minutes before kickoff, we observed a pretty interesting pre-game show. Much to our surprise and to some fans' dismay, FSU's marching band took the field before "the Pride of the Sunshine". It wasn't an act of disrespect - in fact, the producers of the game planned for both bands to play the National Anthem, making one huge band of probably over 600 musicians!


Next up was the send off for the UF seniors, starting with Michael Guilford, who passed away a few years ago in a motorcycle accident and would have been part of this year's senior class, when with the practice squad and backup seniors. Of course, the biggest standing ovation was saved for a tearful Tim Tebow, but it was really something to see all of the seniors run out of the tunnel, one by one, one last time! Make sure to checkout my Facebook Album to see pics of each senior running into the Swamp!


Finally, kickoff ensued. The game was somewhat predictably a blowout, a fitting end for Tebow's career at the Swamp as he accounted for over 300 yards of offense and five TDs in roughly three quarters, helped in part by fellow senior and roommate Riley Cooper and stud junior tight end Aaron Hernandez, who had a highlight reel-busting catch and run in the second quarter. Tebow yielded the field to John Brantley about halfway through the fourth quarter, after scoring his 2nd rushing touchdown of the night in a spectacular flood of camera flashes (that was much prettier than the actual touchdown run itself)!

The final score was 37-10, and the Gators had commanding advantages in all statistical categories - most notably in third down conversions as the Gators converted over 75% of their third downs!

So thus ends the Tebow era of Gator Football History in the Swamp. Of course, Tim Tebow still has two more games to play before he completes his college career. I will be sure not to miss them!

New Furniture!

My furniture came in today! It was a really close fit, both my loveseat and the TV console stick out a bit on the beveled walls, but overall it is pretty sweet!

Please excuse the footstool in the second pic...

Look What We Bought!

This weekend was a bit of a change of pace for us. The Gators were playing an away game, so Cherry took the opportunity to come down to Melbourne and have her teeth cleaned. As a result, I got very little (read: none at all) work done over the weekend!

Instead, on Saturday morning (or as close to morning as we ever really get up and go out) we went furniture shopping. See, we've been in this new house for over two years now, and we haven't bought any new furniture since we moved in. Instead, we've used an old couch that my parents' friends donated to us when we first moved to Melbourne up until now. Or at least until my new furniture arrives!

After shopping around for about two and a half hours, we finally were able to haggle our way down to an acceptable price on the living room set shown here:


However, we didn't stop there. We figured, since we'd gone through so much pain already, we might as well get an entertainment center too. As you might recall from about a month or so ago, we also recently bought a 50-inch plasma TV, which looks something like a Katamari Prince because it's sitting on my skinny little stand that used to hold my 32-inch CRT that I brought with me to college nine or so years ago!

After we did our splurging, we decided to save a bit and watched the UF-South Carolina game at home. Truth be told, we probably got a better picture that way than we could have hoped for at a sports bar! Florida won 24-14 in yet another uninspiring offensive showing, although for a moment there it looked as though Florida might bust it wide open when Tebow's first pass attempt of the day was a 63-yd touchdown pass to Riley Cooper! But, alas, the play of the game turned out to be a 53-yd interception return by defensive end Justin Trattou. That's right, a defensive end. However, his play was "Justin" time, because South Carolina was driving and about to take the lead!

It's good to be 10-0!

Veterans Day!

Today was Veteran's Day, and even though I work for a government contractor, we in fact still had to go to work today. I actually worked quite a bit, though I got off to a bit of a late start.

However, Veteran's Day did not go unnoticed at work, either. It turns out that many of the folks who work with me once served in the U.S. Armed Forces, and the Social Committee put together several "science fair" style exhibit boards showing pictures and information of some of our own veterans. Some highlights include a former scout sniper and current bad-ass technician who toured in Desert Storm, a mechanical engineer who met with former President Bill Clinton when he was serving in the Marines, a tech writer who served as an instructor in the military, and an nice HR lady who flew fighter jets as a Captain in the Air Force!

Seeing those exhibits in the cafeteria put those seemingly ordinary folks up to a whole other level of respect for us, and it's not just because we now know that they can kill us from over 1000 yards with ease!

Free Cars! Or something...

Karn sent me an interesting link today, which you can find on his blog here: http://blog.jessikarn.com/car-payment. It spins the concept of investing with time on your side by appealing to a desire that any red blooded American has - the desire for new wheels. However, it really is mainly a tutorial on how investing your money rather than blowing it on monthly payments makes you richer. And the richer you are, the better, more expensive cars you can buy without constantly being in debt! Watch the video here: http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/lms/drive_free/player.cfm

UF 27 - Vanderbilt 3

If I'm not mistaken, the first Gator game I ever watched in person was UF vs. Vanderbilt in the 1999 season. I don't remember the score, but I am pretty sure we won because according to the record books, we haven't lost to Vanderbilt since something like 1988, though we've had a few close calls. One especially memorable close call was when Jay Cutler took us down to the wire, forcing us into three overtimes in 2005. Of course, Jay would later be selected to the Pro Bowl in just his second season in the NFL a few years later.

Saturday's game would have nothing of the sort. Vanderbilt came into the game with just two wins on the season, while the Gators were on their way to 19 wins in a row and 9-0 for 2009. Iowa had dropped its first game earlier in the afternoon, leaving just six undefeated teams in the Bowl Championship subdivision (formerly Division I-A).

So yes, Florida would essentially have its way with this year's edition of Florida vs. Vanderbilt. However, despite what Urban said after the game about "nothing ho-hum about being 9-0", there's no denying that the game itself was pretty undramatic. The Gators struggled to execute on offense and Tim Tebow was sacked several times yet again. However, the defense and special teams were stellar once again, holding Vanderbilt to under 200 yards and only a field goal.

The most exciting part about the game for us arguably was our fantastic seats. When I first saw that we were in Row 51 in Section 27, way in the northeast corner of the stadium, I thought we had horrible seats. However, I would later find out that these seats were right on the edge of the balcony that sports the famous "Work 'Em Silly, Gators!" sign! Purportedly, Kaveh and his girlfriend Trista had seats right over the tunnel where the Gators come out onto the field, and Chris was able to join us at the game late in the fourth quarter, relinquishing his nosebleed seats that he got courtesy of my MBA ticket contact.


But wait! That's not all that was exciting at the game after all! A couple of Gator heroes, specifically Louis Murphy and Percy Harvin, had the weekend off this past Saturday and were on the sidelines. From our great seats, we couldn't really see them that well, but we could see the television screens in the skyboxes that were showing them being interviewed! I wish I would have been watching the game on TV so I could have gotten to see that interview!

All semi-kidding aside, it really is great to be 9-0 on the season, particularly because I don't think I've ever been part of a 9-0 season. Plus, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally became the last team to win a game in the 2009 season, as rookie quarterback Josh Freeman made his first start and led his team to the first win of the season with 3 touchdowns against the Green Bay Packers! If the Bucs can turn their offense on, surely the Gators can!

Double Daylight Savings Time?

Daylight savings time is a pretty curious phenomenon. I don't know much about its history other than that Ben Franklin first came up with the idea of having it and that it was not implemented until after World War I, and I might not even have known that had it not been for Riley showing up Ben Gates in National Treasure.


However, today, daylight savings time has very little purpose. Most of the country is, in fact, not in subsistence farming anymore. However, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be daylight savings time. In fact, I think there should be even more daylight savings time. That's right, I think that we should move time forward yet another hour in November, so that we get more sunlight during the already short days of winter!

I mean, there's not a whole lot that sucks more than coming home from work only to find it too dark outside to do anything outside, like mowing the lawn, washing the car, or practicing Kung Fu outside. To add insult to injury, I would love to do said outdoor activities in the fall and winter months of Florida specifically because of the cooler weather outside. As I have oft mentioned in the past, working out outside in the winter is so much better than working out when its blistering hot and muggy.

But no, we move time back, making it even darker at 6PM!

It's time, America! The heck with tradition. We were able to move time forward once, we should be able to do it again! Let's hear it for Double Daylight Savings Time and flourish in more sun soaked glory during the winter!

Cool Gator Tire Shred

Cherry and I noticed this curious piece of tire on the way to the library this morning. Looks like a little gator - pretty fitting considering the whooping we put on Georgia yesterday afternoon!

Good to have you back, Mr. Tebow

Maybe we Gator fans just need to bitch more, or maybe the Gators just got tired of sucking, because yesterday, Tebow and Company looked a lot like their old selves again finally. Georgia's newfangled black helmets did not do much to stop Tebow from tossing two TDs, including a very nice one-handed grab by roommate Riley Cooper, and rushing for two more, fittingly breaking Georgia great Herschel Walker's long-standing SEC career rushing TD record and extending his own record to 51. The vaunted Gator D also did its part - although they surrendered two passing touchdowns, they held the Bulldogs to under 300 yards of total offense and forced four turnovers, including two interceptions returned for touchdowns!

Everything seemed to work right for the Gators yesterday. We had very few penalties (despite a very chippy game). Brandon James was finally allowed to actually run a few punts. Chas Henry showed us yet again why he is such a highly touted punter as he boomed punts of 61 yards and placed a bunch of punts inside the 10-yd line. Even Caleb Sturgis was on fire, making good on all of his field goal attempts, especially on his career long 56-yd field goal that would have been good from at least 60!

With the victory over Georgia and South Carolina's loss to what appears to be an increasingly strong Tennessee team, the Gators have clinched a spot in the SEC title game! Let's hope we can keep the momentum rolling, because if we can regain our mid-season form from last year, it will be pretty tough for anyone to stop us!

The image below pretty much sums up our feelings after the game!

Scion No. 1 in Reliability!

Per Consumer Reports, and apparently over the last two years, at least! I knew I made a good decision =P. Click the pic to make it legible: