Holiday Bowl

First, congratulations to the Oregon Ducks. They played well and deserved to win the game. They are a good team and I knew going in that it would be a tough contest (and that was all before Dez Bryant got hurt). I hate losing, but the Ducks were classy in victory and certainly earned it.

Now, some analysis and thoughts:

- It was frustrating as an alumni to watch the 'Boys go down ugly in the second half, but you had to admire the heart they showed staying in it with a big part of their offense rendered ineffective.

- It's not that Dez Bryant is OSU's whole offense, but his threat opens up chances for the others to make big plays. As we saw, others can make plays, but when you take him out of the equation it is much easier for a defense to focus on stopping the ground game and Zac Robinson.

- Dez Bryant and Zac Robinson are tough hombres. Both were legitimately injured, but kept coming back. Yes, Bryant eventually was more of a distraction than anything else, but you have to appreciate the heart of a guy who will keep going out there over the middle to catch passes. And to be honest it was a toss-up whether OSU was better off with him in there as a decoy or having someone else in the game who could go full speed. The commentators (more on this in a minute) couldn't even decide which was better.

- It turns out Zac had a separated shoulder, again you have to respect him for staying in there, standing in the pocket, running the ball, etc. He took some monster shots (only one that probably should have garnered a late hit, the rest were all legit). In a division of high profile QBs, he had a great season and should be tough to contain in 2009 (assuming a good ground game and at least one deep threat is available so that the spread attack can work).

- Jesse Palmer is a terrible commentator. Everything he says is so blatantly obvious I find myself just wishing he'd hurry up and finish talking because he's just wasting air-time. I'm not sure if he talks slow or if I just hate the sound of his voice. I really hope he doesn't become an iconic commentator because I cringe when I have to listen to him. Brent Mussberger is about the only commentator that is more irritating to listen to, well Keith Jackson is annoying too - and I'll not bother pointing out how bad Tony Kornheiser is.

- I never enjoyed reading college sports info coming from the Daily Oklahoman when I was in Stillwater, but in those days I didn't need to because information was readily available on campus and from other sources. I (and I'll probably get some criticism for this) can't stand the OU-bias at the Oklahoman. It's understandable, the publisher of the Oklahoman is the name sponsor of OU's football stadium. I'm sure if Boone Pickens had a newspaper it would be printed with orange ink. That said, reading or listening to the Oklahoman's reporting is irritating. Look, I get it that you're "in the tank" (to borrow a phrase from the election this fall often used about some other favorite media outlets of mine - MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS) for OU, so have at it during Bedlam week. But don't just be negative toward the Cowboys all the time, it just makes you an illegitimate news source. Or as Mike Gundy might say, "it's garbage!" I watched a video on the Oklahoman's website this morning with analysis from Qualcomm after the game by 2 Oklahoman reporters. You'd have thought O-State had gotten blown out listening to them. Now I'll grant you that OSU looked bad in the second half, but don't dance on their grave. Your Sooners have a tough game coming up next week, it's a virtue to be merciful to your rivals, you might need some mercy some day too.

- There is an open debate as to which provides more motivation ending a season - a bowl win as a "springboard" to the next season or a loss that provides bitter motivation through the spring and summer. I think both are reasonable points of view and any coaching staff is going to take whatever it has to work with to get their squad ready to go. I hope that out of this loss Gundy and company will prepare the returning Cowboys to be much improved in deficient areas in 2009: defense in general (especially pass defense), power ground game, kick coverage, and delivering a knockout blow.

5 Bad Commercials

I'd like to title this post the 5 worst commercials of the year, but there are 2 problems:
1. I'm sure I've forgotten some that were worse
2. Some of these are reheated from a previous year


Here they are:
5. Any of several sonic listening devices. These things are apparently the key to getting ahead in life, true happiness and so much more. They show people wearing these things in all sorts of situations - on the couch, in bed, at a game, in church, while hunting, unloading groceries....Some highlights:
- The lady shaking her head when she overhears the neighbors marveling over how well she and her husband must be doing because they just got another new car!
- The elderly lady rocking the bluetooth looking device at what appears to be a church built sometime in the early 1900s. That's believable - she's always on the phone and at her age must have a direct line to God to still be alive.
- The guy who can hear the play calls in the huddle at a little league football game.
- The guy wearing at the gym who can overhear the 2 women talking about how cute he is.
- The lady walking along the beach wearing the device who overhears another woman wishing she could look like that.

4. The Snuggie - Have you seen this? It's a fleece blanket with arm holes. They market it as the perfect item for staying warm on the couch at home and still being able to use your hands, as well as for a ball game (really, you have to see this thing). The best is when they show the family at the ball game all in their Snuggies. The daughter (it's a one-size-fits-all item) has about a foot worth of the arms of this blanket draping beyond her hands when she stands up. But hey, I think they're 2 for $20 if you call today.

3. G. Gordon Liddy's ad for Rosland Capital - this is one of the litany of commercials urging people to buy gold. I have all sorts of issues with these philosophically (among them: they are targeting older people who may be frightened by the current market conditions, gold is a commodity and not a business that can really grow in value long term faster than inflation - because it's real value doesn't change, it's just changing relative to currencies, and while I haven't done the research I'm pretty sure what they are selling includes a nice fee to the seller). Beyond that, the commercial itself is terrible, the acting is bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm far less likely to buy gold or call that number than to go to my dentist and ask for an unnecessary root canal.

2. Christy Lane's Christmas album - This one is a holdover from previous years, but is a classic. I have yet to figure out what her demographic is or why they think that group of people will be more likely to buy if the commercial looks like it was made in the late 70s. It's just bad, trust me.

1. The Lebron James dust throwing commercial. I hate this one most because (Mike, I'm sorry for what I'm about to say, I love you, but I just can't get into the NBA) I don't care for the NBA in general and I'm not a Lebron fan to say for sure. Next Michael Jordan blah, blah, blah...Win some championships (like several) and then let's talk. Mostly I just can't fathom being in a crowd of people, watching him do this before a game and getting all in a frenzy about it. Really, you're getting pumped up because this guy threw dust (or chalk or whatever it is) in the air? Let me remind you, no one plays defense in the NBA until the playoffs and then there are usually a couple of teams that do.

1080p

For months (years really) I've been listening to people (MD, Jon, and Patrick - I'm talking about you) talk about how amazing things look in high definition - especially 1080p, currently the Cadillac of high definition resolutions. But until last week I had not ever really experienced it for myself. And honestly figured it probably wasn't all they were making it out to be.

In April, my wife consented to the purchase of a 1080p capable plasma. We've been enjoying it, but had no 1080 signal sources (the only thing above 480p is CBS HD, which I think is 720p). I knew when we bought it we'd eventually have the higher resolution sources and figured it was worth buying the compatible TV.

Fast forward to last week and we suddenly found ourselves blessed when we opened a really nice Blu-ray player (made by the people who - as I understand it - created the format). Not unlike the night we moved in to this house and we couldn't stop the moving process until we un-crated the new TV, I wasn't about to go to bed that night until I had it hooked up and got to see what 1080p looked like.

Let's just say 1080p is all it's cracked up to be. I was amazed at how good things looked, the clarity is unbelievable. The depth, richness, etc. are all awesome. After checking out the full 1080p experience on a Blu-ray disc (thanks, Brayden) I even dropped a standard DVD in there to see what the 1080i up-convert looked like and was very impressed with that as well.

While I've never been one to rush out and buy the newest thing, judging by the number of movies currently available on Blu-ray I think we're a little ahead of the curve this time thanks to family members who are very generous.

One of these days I'll break down and pay up to get Dish in high definition...maybe.

Guy Day

The following is a re-enactment of a conversation between my wife and I last week:

Brittany: "Ryan, do you care if I go shopping down in Arkansas next Monday with my friend?"

Ryan: [House to myself, no competition for the TV...] "Yes, please go."

So at 9:30 this morning, Starbucks travel mug in hand (really strong breakfast blend weakened by creamer & sweet & low), off she went. "Have fun" I called as she shut the door.

So what did I do? What else, went to Lowe's. She didn't much more than clear the neighborhood before I was on my way. I only bought one thing (and it was a pre-agreed purchase out of Christmas money) - a digital, programmable thermostat for our house. Insert Tim Allen signature grunt.

One phone call to the good people at Hunter Fan Co. and a few wires later and that bad-boy was up and running. They say you can save up to 33% on your energy bills with this thing, but after I got it home I realized how you do that. You just set it at a temperature no wife will allow during the day and then lower than that at night. I'm sure we won't save 33%, but wouldn't be shocked to save 20-25%, but we'll see.

Thermostat installed and lunch eaten it was time to head to the garage. A couple of projects were on tap: Oil change and tire rotation for the Firehawk and one other project we'll get to in a minute.

Oil change was good. When you only drive a few hundred miles per year in a car, the oil comes out about as clean as it went in. I'm pretty sure you could cook with the Mobil 1, 5w-30 that came out of the TA, but I'm not going to try it. This is a yearly Christmas / New Years ritual. Helps me remember to do it once a year. Even with pump gas prices down, Mobil 1 is going for north of $6/quart at Wal-Mart. I'm glad I don't have to do that very often.

The tire rotation included a pleasant surprise - there's more tread left on the OE Firehawk radials than I thought. And they're wearing evenly. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get at least one more rotation (which may come in 2 years if I only drive 500 miles in 2009). By my math that may mean I can get up to 4 more years on these (which would be awesome) - knock on wood.

The downside on the tire rotation was that I'd gotten a few of the lugs on entirely too tight the last time. To save a lengthy explanation I was doing this with a 1/2" ratchet and a 4" extension. I eventually gave up on one of them and got the 4-way out to break it loose. I think I must have put those on before I figured out how to use my torque wrench correctly - or else 2 years had just frozen them on there like no other. Aside from that issue the exchange went smoothly and I can assure you they are on there at 100 ft-lb. now, which should avoid any hernia or over-exertion injuries the next time.

Now, that one other project. And you young guys who are newly married or aren't yet married you need to pay attention to this. Here's how you sell a day like I had to your wife: you wash her car while she's gone. Britt's friend drove, so her car was here all day. By the time she got home it was clean.

If you're going for double bonus points you can do one other thing - make dinner. I had one of my favorite meals in the oven when she came in this evening so she didn't have to cook after a long, hard day of shopping (FYI she was spending money she got for graduation).

The obvious question would be why go to the trouble of making dinner if you've already washed her car? Well, I can think of three possible reasons:
1. You broke something while she was gone (not the case this time for me)
2. You want something (yes, but not my focus in this case)
3. You want to watch football on a week night...tonight and tomorrow (we have a winner)

Back to reality tomorrow. At least OSU plays tomorrow evening.

Guaranteed Lifetime Brake Pads

A couple of years ago (2005) I started hearing a lot of squeaking when I would hit the brakes in the Civic. I decided it was the brake pads. My friend Jude convinced me I could change the pads (I'd never done it before). Turns out there are only pads on the front of the Civic, so a set of lifetime pads was only $20. I could have saved a few dollars, but figured why not if they're going to last forever.

In retrospect, buying the lifetime pads was the right call, but not because they lasted forever. It was the right call because when I replaced them again last week AutoZone refunded my purchase of the new ones - that's the guaranteed part.

Two things learned here:
1. Changing brake pads isn't really hard to do. If you only do it every 3-4 years you have to relearn it, so it takes twice as long as it should, but it's fairly easy.
2. Clearly anyone who would market a "lifetime" brake pad hasn't seen me drive. Truth be told I drive the Civic harder than I do the TA most of the time - then again the TA is barely even awake doing things the Civic can't do wide open.

Speaking of the TA, I noticed a vibration when I drove it yesterday. I think my tire pressures must be down a little from the cold or something, clearly it's a balance issue and I'm just hoping pressure will clear it up. It's not a major issue in that it is only barely noticeable at highway speeds (but gets worse from there). If we were to move to Germany I'd definitely have to get that sorted out in a hurry.

Local Radio DJ - Cool Guy Alert!

Taking some vacation this week I spent a couple of hours wrapping Christmas gifts this morning. There was absolutely nothing on TV, so I figured I'd save some hours on the plasma and listen to the radio instead.

As I was wrapping I started realizing how annoying the DJs on this particular station are - well, the one that was on at this particular time anyway. Now, I'll admit I don't listen to the radio that much, really only in the car and most of my trips are less than 10 minutes in length. Plus I station hop until I find a song I like, I don't listen to DJs, few have anything worth listening to (my opinion).

Before I tell you what bugged me about this guy, let's get some context. This is a DJ on one of Joplin (population 50,000), Missourah's local stations. Okay, that's plenty of context. What drove me nuts was all the effort this guy was making to try to sound cool. I ran across a phrase last week that suits this guy perfectly: he was so cool it hurts. No really, it hurt to listen.

Here's the deal, dude. You live in Joplin. This IS the southwestern outpost of the Midwest, but it's still definitely the Midwest (I can explain as needed on that point). Given the demographic makeup of this area I could make a guess that you are about as pasty in complexion as I am. What does this mean? It means that the start value (think Olympic figure skating) on your coolness coefficient is very, very low. There's no shame in not being cool, we are in fact out of high school now (in case you missed that fact, sorry to disappoint you). Some of us (myself included) just weren't intended to be cool. Just be who God made you to be, stop trying to be someone else.

Something not so text heavy

My wife took one look at my posts yesterday and said, "you need some pictures." Needless to say she didn't read my thoughts - and for the most part she's probably heard me say all those things here at home anyway.

My reply to her was that I didn't have any real way to get access to pictures, so she sent me some of my nephew - Jarod. He was 17 months old on December 7th. As you will see, we (I'm taking partial credit here since it seems to be going well, first OU shirt I see him in and I'm blaming his parents entirely) have taken seriously Proverbs 22:6 - Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it - in trying to get him off to the right start in life.










Picture 1: This one is from the summer. My mom is in the background. This was in the days before Jarod learned to request to see himself immediately after you snap his picture. I think it's something in his rider. So far he hasn't objected to any we've taken.

Picture 2: Not really sure what he was doing. I think this one was taken at our house when everyone came up for Britt's party. He entertained everyone not completely enthralled in the LSU-Florida football game.

Picture 3: Howdy Partner. This one was taken when we were cleaning out the garage at my grandparents house. We discovered this hat - a little big, but actually a nice felt hat - and the lanterns he is playing with.

Picture 4: Not sure where he's going, but he's off to somewhere.

Pay To Play

The other big story of the week has been the revelation of the pay to play scheme the governor of Illinois was running in his effort to capitalize on the opportunity to pick a replacement for Barack Obama in the US Senate. I don't know that much about Illinois politics, don't care to, but had the sense that Chicago was a really dirty city in this regard. I guess now we know. By the way, Chicago isn't the capital of Illinois, but that is where the sitting governor operates from. That's odd to me.

I suspect there is more of this type of thing that goes on than we realize, but it's probably less reckless and covered up better. That doesn't make it anymore acceptable, but perhaps speaks to how pervasive it is in the Chicago machine - clearly the governor was very brazen in this and thought he was above the law in this regard.

While there's no tie to the president-elect at this point, I find it disconcerting that someone with so little experience or track record has risen through that system to take the highest office in the land. We'll see if Barack Obama is any different than the people who have surrounded him for the last several years.

Auto Industry Meltdown

With High School football over for the year, OSU's football team in bowl prep for another 18 days, and Daytona nearly 2 months away I'm without my typical post topics. That's not to suggest nothing is going on that gets me fired up, but not the things I typically write about.

This week we've watched as Congress wrestled with the decision to "rescue" the big 3 automakers or not. A previous post should give you a solid idea where I'm at on this. I want to reiterate, I don't want any of the hundreds of thousands of people whose livelihood is tied to these three companies and their subsidiaries, affiliates, and vendors to lose their job.

The key on this deal is the role that unionized labor will play. At present, the UAW is refusing to rework their contract in any meaningful way. Let me be clear. Without a massive reduction (probably 30-40%) in what the US automakers pay their unionized workers, they cannot succeed long term. Their business model is insolvent and will fail until this massively out-of-balance element is adjusted to a reasonable level. What this means is that to give them money now may avoid a liquidation or chapter 11 filing, but won't fix the underlying problem and we'll face this same issue again.

Ultimately, whether it's Congress (the opposite of progress as the lame joke says) or the Treasury or the Bush Administration someone is going to keep these three companies from going bankrupt. And when they do, organized labor wins again.

I'll come right out and say it, labor unions - the ones that operate like the UAW - are parasitic in nature. They feed off other entities and will ultimately destroy that other entity if not destroyed themselves first. When will we have enough collective spine to break the unions and start fixing problems?

I also want to address one thing I keep hearing. Some people are upset that the automakers are being forced to come up with a plan to get back on track before getting funding, but the financial institutions weren't forced to do this. Two things: 1. You're right, the financial institutions should have been forced to this too (or just allowed to fail). 2. But here's the difference, the financial institutions have the ability to be financially viable long-term if they can correct the current issues. As explained above, the auto industry does not. Any money we give to Detroit might as well have been put in a barrel and burned.