Longest IU football post ever written

IU football begins tomorrow, in the annual quest to finally return to a bowl game. I think this year 7-5 and a bowl bid my be in the cards, but I think that almost every year, despite all evidence to the contrary. The difference is that I’m not just hopeful this year. I expect us to get this done. Now, as an IU fan (and thus a hater of the 3rd quarter) I know that a million things can and very well may go wrong before we make a bowl appearance, but this team really should get over that hump.

There’s also the very real feeling that the team is extra motivated to get this done for Hep.

Which brings me to another issue. How can you not feel, as a Hoosier fan, that this program is doomed. We’ve been kicked sqa in tha nuts so many times the dull ache has become a constant mild throbbing at this point, much like I imagine Mitch Kramer ass felt after the seniors caught him after his baseball game. To emphasize this point and drive it home to those of us who may not have been expecting Lucy to pull the ball away, again. The reason we didn’t go to a bowl last year was because of the losses we suffered while Hep was out having his second operation. You get that. What kept us from a bowl game was brain surgery. You can’t get a much more serious raod block thrown in your way.

Except, wait. Just when we’re all getting the feeling like the program is finally moving in the right direction and we’re just a breath away from a modicum of respectability, Hep dies.

As a human being, this is just tragic and heartbraking. No family should have to suffer this kind of hurt.

As an IU football fan, my reaction, was, well that figures. Just when it seems like we’ve made it over the chasm and past the  monsters and orcs and are about to emerge from the mines or Moria,  the fire whip grabs our Gandalf by the ankle and yanks him into darkness (believe it or not, when I started that paragraph I had no idea a Lord of the Rings reference was coming.) I could go on with the analogy about how we need to move on after our leader has fallen and finish the quest, but that’s so lame and geeky I can’t bring myself to do it.

My point is this dude. My concern is that this year we will get it done. We’ll finally return to a bowl game and at the end of the year Bill Lynch will get the head coaching job on a long term basis because of the two sweetest words in the English language, De-Fault.

Coach Lynch may be the right person for this job. He may not, but the last time we had an interim coach who had some success we had to suffer through the Mike Davis Era. I can’t do that again. I’m not that strong.

At the end of this season, regardless of our record, the IU football program and all of the fans deserve an exhaustive coaching search. Bill Lynch should be included in the list of candidates, but the university would be cheating all of us if they don’t go out and try to find the absolute right person for this job and bring them in to continue building this program. Just like they did when they hired Hep.

Why Halo 3 (and usability) is cool

I was telling Jeff about this article on IM the other day, and I felt the need to share. It may help to understand why I think it’d cool if you understand what I do for a living. Long story short (too late), I am and Information Architect, and hold an MS in Human Computer Interaction. The point of all that is that I really get in to how people interact with interfaces. I design them, I test them, and I try to evaluate those tests and their results to improve the interface. That being said, the recent cover article in Wired is basically all about how Bungie and Microsoft are testing the new Halo 3 using user testing proceedures I learned about in grad school and often have occation to use at work.
What’s cool is the subtleness of the design, the problems, and their corrections. In any case, just go check out Halo 3: How Microsoft Labs Invented a New Science of Play over at Wired.

High Tech Calvin Ball

I just saw this article on Gamespot about the new Halo, and one of it’s new modes. This seems really cool. The long and short of it is that you can edit on-line maps on the fly. Say you’ve got 4 guys running around blowing each other up, and you decide right here and now would be a good place to find a rocket launcher, you can go and drop one right there for you to pick up.

Viva la mayhem.

Oh, Ookie did that shit

So Michael Vick is going to plead guilty to this dogfighting mess. Here’s what I’ve learned from this whole thing, and I’ll wager it’s not the same thing you learned.

The maximum sentences for the things Vick, or Ookie, as he is referred to in the indictment, are as follows.

For Dogfighting
1 year in prison
$100,000 fine

For Interestate gambling
5 years in prison
$250,000 fine

That means that as a society, as indicated by the weight we have decided to place on different criminal offenses, we are FAR more offended by gambling than we are by fighting, hanging, and drowning animals.

I gotta say, I find that offensive. He tortured and killed animals and in order to add some meat to the case they needed the gambling charge.

And while I’m railing on gambling in sports. Daryl Strawberry, who has/had a severe drug addiction, which caused him and Dwight Gooden to be imprisoned and booted from baseball, got NUMEROUS chances to come back and give it another shot. Pete Rose gambled, and he’s banned for life.

We are ridiculous. These priorities are so far out of alignment, Riggs wouldn’t be able to pop them back in banging them against a wall.

So, please if you’re going to commit a crime, and I don’t recommend you commit one, you’re better off doing drugs or killing animals, than you are gambling.

Did I win my wager from the first paragraph?

Some see things the way the are and ask why. Others see things…

This photo was taken earlier this evening at the Indiana State Fair.  It was not doctored in anyway.  There is no Photoshop editing, no trick angles, and yes, the product this stand was selling is exactly what is featured on the big yellow sign. (P.S. That big strand of people in the lower portion is, indeed, the line for this fantastic product.)

A great man has died

I know that Jeff is quick to play the "Everything in the world can be tied back to Aaron Spelling" game, but another great behind the scenes television master has died.

Merv Griffin died today at the age of 82. (CNN Story) There aren’t any among us who weren’t sucked into The Wheel of Fortune mania of the 80’s. I remember when my uncle had a friend appear on "The Wheel" and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Sure, I was 11 or something, but still, there it was.

While The Wheel may seem a bit dated and old, Vanna’s graceful maintenance work not withstanding, Merv’s other major achievement is timeless. Yes, that’s right, Jeopardy. This show alone coined the term for innumerable jokes, situation comedies, and pop culture quips. "In the form of a question, please…"

You can always sit down and watch Jeopardy and be challenged and have fun arguing answers and even the categories themselves with anyone. Oh, and if the sheer coolness of Jeopardy isn’t enough, there was even a Golden Girls episode all about it. THAT is cool.

Wow, I’ve been my wife’s husband for too long, I am publicly admitting that a Golden Girls tie in makes anything cooler. Ahh well, so it goes.

God speed Merv, you entertained us well.

Not to crap on his acheivement or anything but…

Barry Bonds just hit 756. I had the game on in the background and I saw it as it happened. For a record as big as this one, I only have one observation to make.

There are iconic images in sports. After Jordan pushed off to hit the winning shot in his last game as a Bull and he held his hand up, making sure he followed through. Kirk Gibson pumping his fist as he hobbled around the bases. That crazy fuck who chases Hank Aaron around the base path patting him on the back when he passed Babe Ruth. What did Barry give us?

He held up both hands above his head as he watched it go. Then, we he knew it was over with his arms still held above his head, he clapped his hands like a seal clapping it’s flippers. Wheeeeee!

The size of this record is in direct proportion to the lameness of that celebration.

What happened to saluting a baseball as it leaves the park?

As I watched the footage of Barry Bonds’ 755th homerun the other night I was struck by Commissioner Bud Selig’s reaction to it. It conjured up this image in my head.

Bud Selig holds the same opinion of Barry Bonds as Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson has of Lt. Daniel Kafee. Barry Bonds, however thinks Bud Selig is a "lousy fucking softball player."   

Not again with this stuff

I was just reading a quote from an IU recruit about his unofficial visit. I hope we get this kid, but let’s try not to lie to or purposely confuse the boy. He said this,

"Another thing I really impressed with was how
well their posts pass when the post is double teamed.  D.J. White is one of
the best players in the country and they had great highlights of him getting
doubled and sometimes tripled and he was able to keep his eyes up and be strong
with the ball and find the open person out on the perimeter."

I guess they didn’t show the highlights from the 12 times a game that he dribbled, with the double team on him, out to the corner and then threw a horrible pass.

I do applaud their efforts. It must have taken days to find enough examples of DJ passing well out of the post to piece together a highlight reel.