Well, with the football regular season over

I have this to say: This year was wholly unfulfilling, and has left me pissed off at missed opportunities.

I am highly grateful for that. Because being pissed off at missed opportunities is much, much better than the prior years where the year ended, we sucked, and I didn't give a rat's patoot. I'm much happier to be pissed off that we got whooped by USC than I was in, say, '03 when I had 4 tickets to the USC game and decided it wasn't worth the effort to go, and was proved right.

Now, it's on to the bowls. And everyone and his brother has said that ND is going to the Sugar Bowl, to face the SEC champ. But here's the thing: I'm not so sure ND won't go to the Rose, which everyone and his brother has said Michigan is going to go to. And I'm certain ND will not face Michigan. Because we already have. I have an odd feeling like the Rose, knowing that UM has been there most years since 2000, may decide to take ND, which hasn't been in the Rose since 19-dickety-six(we had to say dickety then, since the Kaiser had stolen our word 20), will be the more interesting team with a more interested fan base (Michigan folk have spent half of their new year's eve's this century in LA, they're looking for a new place to go, whereas ND has been here and there and everywhere but LA for a bowl...). So, with that said, I'm kind of thinking it'll be ND vs. the SEC champ (maybe second place) in the Rose, and UM vs. another SEC team in the Sugar.

Of course, I'm not that bright, so if you're smart, don't use this to be making your travel plans.

Coincidence? Maybe...

It seems that on about Thursday, I added a link to Sheldoncomics.com (a very amusing comic- read it). A day later, I see that one of my very few hits is from someone tracking back the links to the sheldoncomics.com site. In my description of the comic, I make mention of the fact that Sheldon is a billionaire. a day or two later, all of the sudden, after at least a year without being mentioned(I've been reading, you should too), billionaire Sheldon's multibillion dollar software company makes a re-appearance in the strip.

Seems convenient... (Dave, if you're reading this, keep up the good work. I still remember when Sheldon was merely a young lad weeping for the republic in Bridget's)

Well... ND lost. By 20. That doesn't piss me off

What pisses me off is that I knew we had lost by 20 before USC even touched the ball. The first play was nice, but then it was followed up with several ill conceived and worse executed plays that left us in 4th and 9. In field goal range, if we had a kicker, which we don't, so we went for it, and predictably failed. And that was when it was over. And because it was over so soon, I couldn't even enjoy the good things, like Quinn running for 60 freakin yards one play (Really... that actually happened). And I was just hacked off that I knew nothing was going to work. And worse... I didn't even bother to watch much of the game. I lost interest. And causing me to lose interest is the true failing of the team tonight, and angers me more than nearly anything else they could have done.

meh... at least they're not the Lions.

Will you freakin candyasses get off the field

and let the actual ND team play?

Goddammit, I don't think my TV's going to survive the night at this rate.

One more day...

and pee-wee Peet Carol, whose last name is a girl's name, will meet his doom. Maybe. But there will be a ton of talk about "USC hasn't lost at home in 5 years" and "Pete Carroll is undefeated in November" during the game. Guarantee you, some variation on those two things will be said 50 times. Unless Musberger is doing the broadcast. Then it'll be 500. And, after spending quite a bit of last week's UM-tOSU game practically begging for a rematch, they will bill tomorrow's game as a play-in for both teams to Glendale. Why? Because they think we're stupid. Both of those statements are simply geared to make the game you're watching seem more important to the national championship, and thus more interesting.

On to other things, like the Heisman. I'm not going to say Brady Quinn should win it. But I will say that Troy Smith should not. Smith played one great game this year, that coming against UM. Other than that, Ohio State has had a far superior team to every team they faced with the possible exception of Texas, and I'm not even sure that's an exception. When I've seen the Buckeyes, defenses haven't been able to get close to Smith. And still, against some crappy teams (e.g., Illinois, aka "the traveling bye week of the big ten"), they've played close games due to crappy offensive performance. So, to say that Smith is the most outstanding player in football when he can't even really RUTS a crappy team, is a bit of a stretch. And that's before I get into the fact that he's a damn cheater who took money from boosters, and knew damn well he was taking money from boosters, and if I were king of football, would not even be playing. After all, we have rules here. Am I the only one that gives a shit about the rules?

Well, it appears that Sparty has made his decision

Rumor has it the DC of the Cleveland Browns will soon be announced as the new MSU head coach.

Good luck buddy. And SPARTY ON, DOOD!

That said, it's now time to move on to more important subjects, which I shall elaborate on tomorrow night, but for now will sum up merely with the following sentiment:

I absolutely loathe the University of Southern California.

(PS- You chose a mascot with no balls. Does that accurately represent your team? My informants say yes.)

OK, the DORKS won tonight

Good job DORKS. And for your efforts, you will likely be rated as a worse team than the team you beat tonight, and the team they beat last week. Sorry, but that's just the idiocy of the polls. Also, I will say that it was clear at halftime that you guys had won. It's odd to say that about a team that's behind by more than a TD at the half, and which didn't just score, and which hasn't injured any key players on the other team, but the Knights were clearly going to win the game when halftime started. It's a combination of momentum, emotion, and the fact that the crowd was making the game into a "big time football game". when you have a game that's a BTFG, you have to bet on the home team if the crowd is into it. And those guys were. From about 5 minutes left in the second quarter, I think Loiusville had about -197 yards in offense over the course of the rest of the game (I have to look it up to verify the exact number).

Anyway, good job DORKS, and when the time comes, don't bitch about getting screwed out of the championship game, just beat whomever they set you up against in the bowl game, and do so badly, and insure a split title between the AP and Coaches' polls.

At this point, I'd just like to make a note about my psychotic boss (though, for a change, this is not about his psychosis...)

Have any of you ever worked for a guy who delegated stuff that should not be delegated? Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about: A couple days ago, I was at a meeting in the morning, and got back to the office about 1 in the afternoon. I found on my seat a hand-written note telling me to go to a website, download about five 4-6 page .pdf files, and print and staple them, and give them back to my boss. Now, the first sign of inefficiency is that it took him an entire page to convey this message. The second sign of inefficiency is that to write that amount clearly took about 3 minutes, which is about 2 minutes longer than it actually took me to do the tasks assigned. Fuckin moron. Then, today, he took about 3 minutes to explain to me that he wanted me to send a 1 fucking sentence e-mail to a guy, and copy him on it. This took all of 12 seconds to actually do.

Goddammit, I need a new job.

"In America, your game shows reward knowledge...

Here in Japan, we punish ignorance."