Category: Stuff (Page 49 of 65)

I know I don’t really have fans, but it makes me feel good to at least say it.

1. List your five favorite beverages.
Chocolate Milkshakes
Quik Milk
Water (making a strong comeback for me)
Dr. Pepper
Vanilla Coke

2. List your five favorite websites.
Favorite as in most visited or just the ones I enjoy the most? Anyway, here’s a stab.
Mississippi Sports Talk
Site Point Forums
Invision Board
Bulldog Blitz
Youth Specialties Forums

3. List your five favorite snack foods.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (raw, baby!)
Sunflower Seeds
Pistachios

4. List your five favorite board and/or card games.
Bull Spit (*ahem*)
Monopoly
Cranium
Hearts
Spades
Spoons

5. List your five favorite computer and/or game system games.
NCAA Football (EA Sports)
Civilization
Sim City
Medal of Honor
Metal Gear

Seems everyone around here is sick. Maybe not everyone, but too many people. Then I hear of people dying in other states from the flu. Kids. Five of them died in Colorado so far. It’s crazy. And now everyone’s cramming into malls and WalMarts across the land.

I’ve never gotten a flu shot, but someone suggested that I get one for my daughter. But I think the health clinics and all may be out by now. Not sure. She actually was a little sick a week or so ago. We wondered if she had Fifth’s Disease or something. Her cheeks looked like tomatoes they were so red and puffy/swollen. But they went away and she never complained really. But it looked a little scary. But it didn’t slow her down any when we put up the Christmas tree! She was so excited! That’s what she kept telling me, “Daddy, I’m So Excited!!” It was funny. She got up the next morning and would go and stand at the base of the tree, looking up, and say, “Wow….”

But she’s not into Santa Clause (she calls him Ho Ho). She’s scared of him. People will ask her, “Is Santa Clause going to bring you some presents?” She’ll respond with a matter of fact, “Nope.” “He’s not?” people will ask. She’ll just say, “No, Daddy will bring me presents.” She’s seen a Santa Clause in malls and stores…wants nothing to do with him.

No doubt that the world of college football needs to have a playoff system.

Tell me how in the world a team gets beat in it’s conference championship game by four touchdowns and still gets to play in the National Championship game ranked number one by the BCS rankings (Oklahmoa).

Tell me how a team wins their last game pretty handily, moves from #2 in the country to #1 in both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll, but they fall from #2 to #3 in the BCS rankings, and don’t get to play for the national title game? (Southern Cal)

It’s all a crock of you know what. I’m happy that LSU looks like they get to play for the title. But Oklahoma should be playing in the Rose (or lower) this year. Time for a playoff system. Take the top 8 teams and do a small tourney. Yes, teams #9 and below will still whine. But so what. Even if it isn’t perfect, it’s better than what we’re looking at now.

Here are some various quotes from ESPN.com articles:

Chad Lavalais, LSU DT: I can’t speak for the rest of the team. I can’t speak for anybody else. But if we don’t play in the Sugar Bowl — heck yeah, I’ll be p*ssed… There’s no way a team that doesn’t win its conference should play for the title. Nebraska did that a few years ago — and how did that turn out?

We’d line up and I’d tell them [Georgia]– ‘Man, you guys are getting way too predictable I’ll bet this is gonna be a screen.’ And you’d see it on their faces — ‘Uh-Oh.’ Then they started throwing fade routes and that’s when we knew we had them. They were just looking for a prayer

Sean Jones, Georgia player: Do I think they’re worthy of playing for the national championship? Absolutely — we aren’t exactly a bunch of slouches. And they stuck it to us.

Will Poole, USC CB: Whatever happens, happens. I feel like we deserve to be there (New Orleans). Personally, I would be disappointed. There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s a computer. It’s not people.”

Coach Carroll, USC: We lost a darn game [On Sept. 27, USC lost at California, 34-31, in triple overtime] If we hadn’t lost a game, we’d be already in. We left the door open for some issue. That’s why I’ve been able to handle this. I’ve felt like that the whole way through. I’m still p*ssed we lost a game.

Carroll: We have everything you want for a national championship game. You have a big, exciting offense and a tough defense. I’m not taking anything away from LSU. If we go, we are going to go and let it rip.

Another ESPN Article trying to explain it all.

You never realize how dependent you are on something til you lose it.

I lost my cell phone a couple of weekends ago. No clue where it is. I got service reinstated on an older phone, but it’s a dinosaur. But the service agreement was up so now I’m in the market for a new phone. I visited LetsTalk.com and saw some great deals on cell phones with service agreements. I’m thinking I’ll just get a new phone, new plan, and just be out a few dollars for a connection fee. But they have some really good deals. I visited the local Cingular store and the phones there are lots more. At LetsTalk.com you can get them for free…or even get $$ back after rebates on some phones.

I want a “cool” one, you know. But not trendy. Any suggestions?

Sly Croom was introduced as the new Head Coach for Mississippi State University this afternoon. I must admit that he wasn’t my first choice, but I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve heard about him and impressed with Croom himself after viewing the press conference. I was (and still am a touch) concerned about his being out of college coaching for the past 17 years. But I think he’ll be able to jump back into it fairly easily. I think lots depends on the staff that he assembles.

These next two months are critical as far as recruiting goes. I’m very interested to see how it all turns out.

LSU is getting a raw deal, Steve. I’m not going to jump on any Tiger Bandwagon. But I have been hoping for LSU success for the past few weeks. I really wish you guys would get a shot at the Big Game, but it just doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

I watched the game last night.

Last weekend I was thinking UMiss would beat us by 50+. But then my faulty optimism gland released too much of it into my system again and I began to believe it wouldn’t be so bad. I expected UMiss to win, but I actually thought we might have a chance. MSU could play the spoiler and pull it off. Stupid optimism. Maybe I’ll learn one day. But at least it wasn’t 50+. It was only 31-0.

But now Sherrill is gone, and we’ll supposedly name a new coach in the next week. Some thought it was already going to be done. But my excitement over that is done for. I think just about anybody named will be both lauded and criticized. No matter who it is, this much is true. He has a heck of a job on his hands. The last two years Miss State has only won three games. That was worse than pitiful. But this year, this was the year we brought it out of the pits of despair. But alas, we only win two games. TWO FREAKING GAMES.!! Sheesh.

At least we still have basketball and baseball.

The other day I was home for lunch. I had finished eating and while my wife was cleaning the dishes in the kitchen, I was checking on some important things on the computer…probably managing our banking account or checking some stock investments…or checking the latest rumors on who MSU’s new coach will be (c’mon, Steve! sign it. sign it!). My daughter had walked outside and could hear her calling for us. My wife was in the kitchen, but the door was open to the side porch where my daughter was, and I figured she’d be able to handle whatever situation my daughter was calling us for.

Then my wife started calling for me. Not a “hurry up” tone, so I didn’t rush, but saw through the window as I made my way out there that my daughter was looking off of the porch into the flower bed down below. I got out there and realized there was a problem. She had stuck her head through the railing…and couldn’t get it back through.

My daughter was starting to consider panicing. Not there yet, but on the verge. My wife was going to wait til the little one paniced first. You know, proper order of things, but she was just one step behind.

So I jumped down into the flowerbed and my daughter’s head was level with my belly. So I tried to push her head back through. Not going to happen easily. So I twist it slightly to the side and try again. No progress there either. She starts to get a little more closer to panic when she feels the iron bars squeezing her head when I attempted to fit her back through. So then the options start going through my head. I ask her, “Did you have to push hard to get your head through?” She nods. “Did it hurt?” She nods.

So I think, She’s pretty tough. She can endure the return trip back through can’t she? I test the waters (bars) again and realize that it’s gonna hurt, and I’m baffled at how she fit through there in the first place. I can hear the edge in her voice, “Get me out. Get me out, Daddy! Daddy, get me out! Daaadeeee!” Not panicy, but a few seconds away. Do we have a hack saw handy? How quickly could we get through a bar? Would it bend away or would I need to cut it in two places? My lunch hour is almost over. This sure is happening at an inopportune time. I wonder if I slop her head with dishwashing liquid if it will just slide back on through?

All those thoughts and others were going through my head. Then I remember reading that for most people, if you can get your head all the way through something, then you can fit the rest of your body. DING! DING! DING! DING! So I say, “Hey, here we go,” and twist her slightly, turn her shoulders straight up and down, and she slides right through.

There. I’m the hero in her eyes now. Being a dad isn’t so hard…is it?

I know it seems I make empty promises. How many times have I told you that I’m going to be consistent and regular with some posts. But then I go into a “stale blog” period and most stuff disappears from my front page because I’ve not posted in nearly two weeks worth.

Well I get an email today from a guy telling me he’s putting a link to my blog in his blog’s sidebar. His blog is called The Happy Husband and looks to be interesting. I’m going to spend a little time checking it out. But here’s an except from a post of his where he comments on my blog:

StateDog is a more traditional-format blog, serving as a place for blogger Blake to write about whatever comes into his head. I don’t usually care much for sites like this as they usually seem to be directed at close friends and family members. But Blake often has something worth sharing with the world, sometimes even about marriage and family issues.

So maybe there is some hope that there are more than 4 readers out there! The holidays look to be busy, but if I’m smart (am I?) then I’d know that means more blogging material.

See you in a little while…

The weekend’s been busy so far. I guess the holiday season is upon us.

We went to some soccer games last night to see some of the kids from the youth group play. We left early enough for my wife to get to tape her new favorite television show. We (she) also did some prep work for some paiting we need to do. We got back, watched television a little, then went to bed.

I got up and went to the church to get some stuff done for tomorrow’s Lunch/Fundraiser. Then back home to paint, now watching football. LSU is beating UMiss by 3 (17-14) and I’m hoping they can hold on. That’s so bad of me, huh? Not really.

We’re about to go to a high school beauty review in a few minutes. We’ll see how that goes. I’m afraid it might run a little late. But tomorrow will be a busy day too.

A few years ago I started going to a message board on a newspaper’s website. It had mainly regional high school sports stuff. But there ended up being quite a few people on there. I followed it a little. But before long it was overrun with immature people slamming on each other and putting each other down and saying how big and bad they were. It got really tiring. And I didn’t like the board software.

And an idea was planted…

I learned of some different software packages that would be able to run online message boards. I did my research, decided on one, and took the plunge just when the high schools were about to let out for the summer. It grew slowly over the summer then increased as the school year got underway. I had “success” that first year I guess. People seemed pleased and enjoyed being able to post on high school sports w/o all the “other junk”.

This past summer was down again. But to be expected. But this football season has been incredible. I remember when I was happy to get 15 posts in a day. Last week we had over 530 in one day alone. That’s not normal, but we’re averaging close to 400 a day for the past week or two. And of course this extra traffic and activity translates in a little higher costs too. So now I have to find a way to try and break even. It’s not just a cheap little hobby anymore.

More to come later on my thoughts on ways to make a buck off of it.