Kung Fu, Weight Training, Parenting, Engineering, Video Games, Football, Music, Travelogues, Cars, Commentaries, Reviews, and so much more! Great taste, less filling, and good for the body and mind.
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...
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:
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!
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!
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!
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!
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
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!
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!
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!
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!
