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Boise State @ Reno

Here is something I never thought would happen… Boise State, for a change, refused to bow to ESPN’s wishes to move a game!

Here is the story. Boise State is at Reno Saturday, November 25th, Thanksgiving weekend. ESPN, in their desire to fill time, requested to move the game to Friday night. Well, Boise State usually brings 5,000-7,000 fans to Reno. Being a holiday weekend, and only a few weeks notice, it would be tough for some of those people trying to juggle family events for the holiday and still make it to the game. Hotels and airline nightmares.

Instead, Gene Blaymeier chose to side with the fans, rather than get the additional TV exposure. In order to up the ante, ESPN threatened to not televise this weekend’s game with San Jose State. Which, of course, seems to border on blackmail to me, but what do I know? Instead of buckling, Blaymeier simply said, “fine”.

Bravo, Gene. Well done. I love playing on ESPN as much as the next guy, but at some point you have to draw the line.

Read a good account here.

In other Boise State news, this is interesting. ESPN.com has a couple analysts predicting which teams will be in which bowls. Granted, this is simply all gross speculation, and we really shouldn’t read anything into it, but still. It is fun to read about.

Read it here.

You’ll notice the 2 matchups they have for Boise State (whom both are assuming will be in the BCS in the Fiesta Bowl. First, a matchup with defending national champion Texas Longhorns. Wow, what a game that would be. We would probably be beaten, but on any given day, you never know.

The other matchup is even more intriguing. Boise State vs. Notre Dame. How cool would that be!? Unbelievable! I’ve watched a lot of Notre Dame this year, and I think the matchup would be very very good. They have a great passing game and our pass defense has been challenged this year. Their defense is a little suspect and our offense is very efficient. Boy, I can’t tell you how bad I would like all of the pieces to come together to make that game happen…

Here’s to dreaming.

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Sporting Week Conclusion

Ok, so I dropped the ball blogging about the sports weekend. Here is your conclusion.

Idaho Steelheads vs. Utah Grizzlies – Friday

Opening night for the Steelheads. I absolutely love hockey (yet still can’t get a single NHL game on TV). There is nothing better than a live hockey game, well, except for a live Boise State football game, but I had already had one of those this week.

Being opening night and the ten year anniversary season for the Steelheads, they had a little pre-game on ice celebration. Ol’ JR Simplot was there as he was instrumental in getting the arena built and getting the team there in the first place. Plus, he lives right upstairs, so it was an easy commute for him. Boy, he is OLD. Tough old bastard. Great man, but he certainly looks like a walking skeleton.

Of course, the Governor was there. Risch, in an attempt to appear as ‘one of the people’ was out there in skates and a hockey jersey. Well, isn’t that cute. Until, that is, you realize that he is actually wearing figure skates. Doh. The people in our section got a good laugh when I pointed that out. What a typical politician putz move.

The Steelheads also debuted their new mascot. Aparently, the old mascot Bonk (click ‘what about bonk’) had to go since he looked like the old logo and we can’t have that now, can we? So, they roll out this thing that looks like Yogi Bear. A bear with a stupid looking grin on his face, wearing fishing gear and tackle. Horrible horrible mascot. I’m not an expert, but since our mascot is an ocean going rainbow trout that swims thousands of miles upstream to spawn, do we really want our mascot to be a creature that kills and eats hundreds if not thousands of those animals every year? Really? You guys really thought this through, didn’t you? Why didn’t you just make the new mascot spinning hydroelectric turbine blades and be done with it?

I will say the new logo, uniforms and colors really do look terrific!

All that being said, the game itself was terrific. Tight the whole time. A little extra-curricular activity after the whistle. A fight. Plus, we won on an overtime shootout. One of the most exciting moments in sports. Good time was had by all.

Boise State Basketball vs. Cascade College – Saturday

The final exhibition game of the Broncos was with another powerhouse program from Oregon. Where the previous team at least looked like a college basketball team, these guys looked like my high school team. As a matter of fact, they probably played like my high school team… if not worse.

The final score was 103-51. This team had less than 20 points on the board with 17 minutes to go in the game. I think the score at that point was something like 70-19. Unbelievable. I don’t know if you can learn anything about yourself when you play a high school junior varsity team like that. Hell, we looked like the friggin Harlem Globetrotters. Only without the bucket of confetti.

Well, perhaps we did not look exactly like the Globetrotters… you see, we had a number of breakaways in this game. On at least three separate occasions, dunks were attempted, and failed miserably. It was quite embarrassing. When you’re all alone on a fast break, you try to throw it down and get stuffed by the rim, that is a bad thing. In fact, one guy, the freshman Anthony Thomas got rim-checked TWICE. Coach, do your team a bit of a favor… set aside some practice time for some dunk training. These guys need it.

Steelehads vs Grizzlies – Sunday

Sunday finished off with a 4pm face off with the Steelies. This game didn’t have much in the way of physicality and was played really clean. Idaho had the lead after scoring in the second period and had the shutout until about 4 minutes left in the game. The goalie Silverthorn played really well, and saved our bacon more than once. Idaho won with a final of 4-1 and finished off a clean sweep of the visiting Utah Grizzlies.

They also polished off a perfect 5-0 for the home teams in my sporting weekend. Three total blow outs (one really fun, 2 not so much). An overtime shootout win and a solid domination to wrap it up. You might be thinking that I might be a little burnt out on sports. Of course, you would be wrong. All I can think is why can’t all weeks be like that?

Game on!

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Boise State Basketball vs. Western Oregon – Thursday

Ok… this game wasn’t close. It wasn’t even close to close. Granted, it was only an exhibition, but this was ridiculous. Final score of 103-62 and it was worse than that. Western Oregon looked like a bad high school team. I mean, they turned the ball over on their first 5 possessions. Shot 34% for the game. Ugh. Just ugly basketball.

Broncos did some nice things. Hit some 3’s. Got some solid, back to the basket, legitimate post play. That was nice to see. Been a while since we’ve had anyone inside who could do the work. This Matt Nelson kid is the real deal.

Crowd was pathetic. Again, it was an exhibition on a week night and was the day after a big football game, but seriously… there had to be 1,500 people there. Quiet. No students except for a group of about 20 who were there making noise. Hopefully once the regular season rolls around, we’ll have a few more people showing up. See the pics. (sorry for the quality, cell phone camera)

Boise State v. Western Oregon Boise State v. Western Oregon

However, to paraphrase and misquote Hamlet, the play’s not the thing. This game marked the first time since d-day that I was in the same building with the ex and all of the ex-laws (that sorta sounds like some superheroes). Well, not counting 30,000 seat Bronco Stadium. I really didn’t know what to expect. I mean, its a basketball arena. My new seats are across the court from them all, so I can’t help but see them when the play is in the near end of the court. It was tough seeing her… it was tough seeing everyone. It is easy to feel singled out when you see them all together in the exact same ways you were a part of not long ago. Dredges up a lot of memories. The problem is I don’t have any animosity towards them. Her included. I guess I should, but I don’t. Frankly, I guess you could say that I do miss and still care about them and hope they are all doing well. God, that sounds like a total wuss-out position, but what can I tell you? I really am a sensitive guy. *shrug*

However, this doesn’t mean I really want to interact with any of them. One thing is painfully clear. Unless I take extreme measures, there is absolutely no way I’m going to make it through the season without coming in contact with one or more of them. Impossible. I guess I’ll just jump off that bridge when I get to it.
Oh well… such is life on the outside.

At least tonight is hockey. None of them will be there. Let’s drop the puck, it’s time to go!

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Touchdown Slam Dunk Slap Shot

Now this is my kind of week.

For those of you keeping score at home that is 5 straight days of live sporting events. You have read about my somewhat unhealthy compulsion to watch sports, but this week is like nirvana. Or perhaps, nerd-vana if you will. I will post my accounts/opinions of each event after, so watch this space.

Boise State vs. Fresno State

I always love when Fresno comes to town. For a few reasons. a.) It’s always a big game, ESPN almost always shows up to broadcast the game. Big game atmosphere is always fun. And b.) We always win. And usually win big. Nothing is more fun than a big game, except winning a big game in blowout fashion. Last night was no exception. (one of my all time favorite games was a Fresno game)

Even with Fresno mired with a 1-6 start, they still have a ton of talent. I wasn’t near as nervous for this game as I have been for say Hawaii or Oregon State. I’ve seen them play on ESPN a couple times this year, and they always seem to shoot themselves in the foot… and they did it again last night.

Boise State pretty much dominated the game, and won 45-21. The game wasn’t even that close. Fresno scored on a kickoff return for touchdown and interception return for touchdown. Take away those 2 plays, they had just over 200 yards in total offense and one TD. Domination baby.

Almost more impressive that the game on the blue was the fans in the stands. The sports marketing for Boise State had an ambitious plan for the ESPN television cameras. People sitting in even numbered sections were to wear blue, odd sections, orange. I didn’t think they could pull it off. Especially with the cold weather. If you tried it in September when people could wear t-shirts, then I could see it working, but when its 30 degrees out, not everyone has the proper colored cold weather gear.

How wrong I was. I stopped by the mall to get a new turtleneck before the game, and I saw many many people buying Bronco gear and they were all talking about which section they were in and getting the right color. I thought to myself, maybe it will be better than I think. I got to the stadium early, like I always do, and as people started filling in, I could distinctly tell what color each section was wearing. Hmmm… maybe we’ll pull this off. Once the stadium was full, the effect was amazing! I could not believe how well it worked, and it really looked cool. I just want to say well done to all the Bronco fans out there. This town has come a long ways in the past 5 or 6 years. I love to see the people with the painted faces, or wacky hats, or signs or whatever. The energy in that building is immense. Coach Pete has even said that it feels more like 70,000 than 30,000.

BSU v. Fresno BSU v. Fresno

All in all it was a very fun game, despite the frosty temperatures. A big thank you to whoever it was who developed those chemical hand warmers.

More later.

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Into the lion’s den, for reals this time

I survived.

For the second time this season, I was venturing into enemy territory. But unlike last time, this was much more interesting. Here is the play by play.

Jess and I got on the road 10:30 on Friday morning. Very uneventful drive. We stopped at Tamarack since neither of us had ever been there. It was very beautiful with the trees changing colors and all. Construction was in HIGH gear. You could not look in any direction and not see full on construction. It was amazing. Pretty much all of Valley County was under construction. I saw more dump trucks, semi loads of lumber, earth movers and the like everywhere. Somehow, we were always behind one of these rigs on the highway. Unbelievable.

Tamarack

We finally made our arrival in the particularly fragrant metropolis of Lewiston-Clarkston. We had to stay in Clarkston due to our late entry into the hotel room sweepstakes for the weekend. Not only were there 2000 bronco fans in the area, but Oregon was visiting Washington State and the thousands of fans the O brought. In our hotel, ye olde Motel 6 had a bunch of Ducks staying there. It actually worked out pretty well staying in Clarkston, other than the smell, that is. Room was far cheaper and the restaurants weren’t super crazy like they were in Moscow.

After check-in, we head on up to Moscow. Jess wanted to put her old campus on display, show me the greek houses, stroll the campus a bit, visit the bookstore. There were a lot of people buying up the merch in the bookstore. It really reminded me of the Blue and Orange store in the mall here on a gameday. Being surrounded by Vandals and their gear didn’t bother me except for one item. They are selling a t-shirt with a soft focus Tiger Beat style headshot of Coach Erickson. This thing is disturbing on many levels. It looks like they pulled this bad boy right out of the Scott Baio silk-screen collection circa 1982. I love Coach Pete as much as the next guy, but I have to think this sort of thing wouldn’t happen here. I can’t even rationally discus it, so I will just move on.

But, Jess was able to stock up to her heart’s delight and we left to go find dinner. We found a little italian joint that was a cross between Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill. Good food. We then headed back ‘home’ and relaxed as we had a big day coming up.

Saturday morning brought game day. We hit Albertsons for tailgating supplies and were on the road. We made it to the Kibbie Dome parking lot about 4 hours to game time. We decided to make a quick loop around the dome to absorb a little atmosphere. We got more than a few odd looks and questions about harmony due to the fact that I was in all orange, and she in her black and gold. And apart from the partially eaten sausage that was lobbed our way, no major incidents happened.

Tailgating

Tailgating was fun. There were a few other Broncos in our area of the parking lot, but we were vastly outnumbered. Jess had a number of friends stop by our spot for a few beers and whatnot, of course, all Vandals. There were the usual collections of anti-Boise State t-shirts (“Boise is not a state”… ho ho ho… hi-lairious. You think that one up all on your own?), not to mention the random “Who do we hate? Boise State!” chants from the large collection of students down the row from us. My comment was, “Personally, I hate Fresno State…”.

See, there is a secret to survival in a hostile environment like that. It is very simple. I like to call it the “Don’t be a Dick” principle. Basically, if you’re not a douche, you’ll probably be ok. I can discuss the game rationally. I know what Idaho has done this season and maintain a conversation about the game beyond, “nuh-uh… YOU suck!” I like to think that I left the various Idaho fans I had spoken to with a positive feeling on Bronco fans. A little self deprecation always helps.

So after a few hours of libations, and becoming properly lubricated, we head into the game. This was the first time I have ever been into the potato barn… er… Kibbie Dome. Jess, this may hurt to hear, but I gotta be truthful… It sucks. Horrible. First of all, indoor football is an abomination that needs to be stricken from the earth. That said, this place is gloomy as hell, especially when all the fans were in black. It was an absolutely glorious autumn day outside. (see the Wazzu v. Oregon game 7 miles away), but we were stuck in the dark, stuffy dome. A perfect waste. The only positive was that the 14,000 Idaho fans could really make some noise in that place. You get some good reverb in there. Of course, on the flip side, the 2,000 Boise State fans could really make some loud noises as well.

Temple of Gloom

The strangest thing happened at this game. I was at the game, but I would be hard pressed to describe what actually happened on the field. It is the weirdest sensation. I don’t know how it happened. My guess is that it had something to do with all of the following factors…

  • Fermented barley and hops intake. Yeah, we had more than a few leading up to game time, but nothing strange there. I’ve certainly done that before.
  • The horrific Kibbie Dome itself (see above)
  • Our seats, being general admission, were… shall we say… less than optimal. We were seated about 5 yards deep in the endzone, second row from the field. Now, you might think, “wow! That close to the field! Great!”, and were this any other sport, you might be correct. But in football it sucks. We were also basically sitting under the video replay board and couldn’t even see that very well. When the play was not within 30 yards of us, I couldn’t tell what was happening. A 6 yard gain looks exactly like a 4 yard loss at that angle. Ugh, sucked. I didn’t know who caught Zabransky’s 2nd touchdown pass until Sunday in the newspaper.
  • Game presentation deficiencies. There were no stats provided. No other scores of the day provided. Audio was terrible, and you couldn’t hear the PA announcer with any regularity.

Basically when I walked out of that game I knew a couple things. a.) Boise State won. b.) Final score of 42-26. c.) Zabransky didn’t play particularly well. and d.) I had a piece of pizza in the 2nd quarter. Thats it. That is all I knew. When we got back to the hotel room after dinner (Zany’s in Lewiston) I turned on ESPN College Gameday Final. They mentioned that Ian Johnson had 183 yards and 4 touchdowns. I was absolutely shocked. I had no idea. I was so totally confused. I was pretty sure I was at the game, but apparently not. Maybe I somehow ended up at the wrong game? Maybe I was caught in a space-time vortex through which reality was jumbled?

So, essentially, what I’m telling you is this… I was at the game, yes. I had a good time. What happened? I have no idea. I have the game recorded and will watch it to try to figure it out.

I do have to say this… We were driving most of the day sunday. Got home late afternoon. My plan was to have a little dinner and watch the Sunday night NFL game. Only, there WAS NO SUNDAY NIGHT NFL GAME. Goddamn World Series. Don’t they get it? No one cares about the World Series, except those in Detroit and St. Louis. Even the gimmicky ESPN college game totally sucked.

Anyway, eight straight. Boise State takes the overall lead back in the series (18-17-1). We are in the drivers seat for the 5th straight WAC championship. Fresno brings their 1-6 record to town next for a national TV tilt.

I still need to make plans for a trip to Reno…

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Boise State v. New Mexico State Thoughts

BoiseStateSo, here are my thoughts regarding the Boise State at New Mexico State game that was on ESPN HD last night.

First, I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I absolutely adore HD. As strange as it sounds, but when you see a picture like that, you really do feel like you are there. I always thought that was a total cliche, and I suppose it still is, but dammit, it’s true. It really is remarkable. I would love to have a 65″ HD plasma TV to see if that is even more immersive. Maybe someday…

Of course, there are downsides to HD. For some god awful reason, ESPN kept showing us sideline shots of NMSU’s head coach Hal Mumme. My first thought was, “Nick Nolte has a brother who is a D-1 coach?”. Then I noticed something else. For those of who who didn’t catch the game, this guy wears a towel around his neck. Like a big white ‘Addidas’ bath towel. Now, you might think this is just a little quirk like when Jerry Tarkanian would chew on a towel on the bench. Not exactly. See, coach Mumme spends the games BLOWING HIS NOSE INTO THIS TOWEL. And judging by the number of times that ESPN caught this on camera (at least a dozen times. Thank you Mr. Director), he must do it about 300 times a game. Hal… one word… Claritin… it’s not expensive. I swear to god, that towel must have weighed twice as much when the game was over simply in snot accumulation. Very disgusting. Even worse, is he would playfully swat players on the backside with it when they would come off the field. Gee, thanks coach… can I have a handshake instead?

I have issue with the fans as well. They have a team that is leading the nation in passing. High powered offense. They have a national TV network coming into your house to showcase your team, the only college game at the time in the whole nation. They have a top 20 conference rival coming to town. It was a beautiful night of 68 degrees at game time. How many people show up? 16,782. That is pathetic. If you can’t get people excited for that game and come to the stadium, you might as well pack it in. Give up. I have a hard time believing that there is ANYTHING happening in the sprawling metropolis of Las Cruces NM on a Sunday night more important than that game. I know this because Boise is twice the size and there is nothing going on here Sunday nights. Hell, even the competing NFL game was a dog (Oakland is PAH-THETIC). That place seats over 30,000 and you barely get it half full? Not to mention, that many many left at half time (at least that’s what it appeared on TV). NMSU, your sports marketing department either sucks, or the entire city of Las Cruces has in fact died and been replaced with undead zombie versions who don’t give a damn about football.

Finally, the game itself. Boise State won, which is obviously the goal. But when you stop playing for 2 quarters that’s not good. If it would have been against a different opponent, we could have lost by 20. First quarter, we were up 21-0. That was solid. Then we quit for a quarter and a half. C’mon boys… I know you were playing in a mausoleum in front of zombies, but you need to bring your own energy. I think when we got up big, we kinda relaxed and let them back in the game. Really, the two bad turnovers in that time really should have been 2 more touchdowns for us the way we were moving the ball. So, that could have been 35 to 0 and NMSU might have rolled over again.

But, it was a win. And a win is a win. And I will take a win be it by 1 point or 70 points. So long as I don’t have to touch Coach Mumme’s snot rag.

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In the lion’s den

I’m finally getting around to it, but here is the recap of our adventure last week in Utah.

George and I made the call long ago that we were going to travel down to Salt Lake City for the Boise State vs. University of Utah football game. Perparations were made and tickets bought.

Utah is the easiset away game there is for us as far as travel goes. Just hop on the freeway and in a few hours you’re there. Specifically, 4.5 hours. Living in the west, we’re used to having NOTHING close. Those of you back east don’t realize the distances involved out here. There are no D1 schools closer than Utah and Utah State and they’re 5 hours away. My buddy John lives south of Atlanta, and has about a dozen HUGE schools within 5 hours drive.

So, the plan was to rent some sort of luxury car for a cushy drive down. Since its so close, we’re down and back all in one day, piece of cake.

We rented a Chrysler 300 for the trip. I have to say, I liked it. Then again, I drive a 11 year old car, so at this point, anything less than a couple years old is a serious upgrade. Amazing how far cars have come in that time.

George showed up at the door just after 5 am. We were on the road at 5:30. All things being equal, we might have gotten a little too early a start. But, we made terrific time. Took us right at 4 and a half hours to get down there. I thought we would see a whole caravan of Bronco fans heading down there, but I think we were actually leading that vanguard, so we didn’t see many. However, once we got to Salt Lake City, there was orange EVERYWHERE. Apparently, some 8,000 to 10,000 Boise State fans made the trip down. I believe it.

We found a parking place on campus before 11am, and had a couple hours to kill before game time. So, George had never been downtown (ye olde Temple Square) so we hopped the light rail and rode down there.

We immediately knew something was amis. As we approach the temple, we hear some sort of preaching being played over loud speakers. The whole place was literally crawling with hundreds of guys in shirts and ties and women in skirts. It was downright creepy. We decided to boogie after a short 4 minute visit. Overwhelming. The only saving grace was there was a guy in a kilt playing the bagpipes on the corner. It helped push back the incidious feeling.

George, being the history nerd that he is, said he felt like Saladin. I had to agree.

It got worse. We went into the nearby mall food court to get some food before the game. In said food court, were multiple big screen tv’s also showing some sort of preaching thing. We were well and truly bugged out. (Note, it wasn’t until later that we found out the LDS national conference was happening… at least that helps put everything into context).

Leaving the smiling horde behind us, we head to the game. For those of you who haven’t heard the result, Boise State went in there and took Utah out behind the woodshed for a 36-3 whipping. We were 5.5 point UNDERDOGS in this game. Utah scored the first 3 points of the game (well, after our first three points)… then never scored again. It was quite amusing. Our fans 8,000 fans were louder than their 37,000.

I have to say, when you go into someone else’s house and they’re booing their own team and leaving the game early, you know you’ve really humiliated them.

The downside was our seats in the stadium were in full sun for the whole game. I got absolutely torched. Somehow, I didn’t think about bringing sun screen. The lesson is, as always, I’m a moron.

We were back on the road home at 5pm. Again, I thought we would see a bunch of broncos on the road, but we didn’t. We must have been ahead of everyone. And, just like the trip down, we got home in exactly 4.5 hours.

It was a long day, but was sure worth it. It was ever so amusing to read the columnists from Salt Lake absolutely KILLING their team the next week. Hillarious. That loss of theirs was so bad, the headline of the Associate Press article of their win over TCU mentioned it:Utah shakes off Boise State blowout, steamrolls TCU

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Cell Hell Averted

Silver RazrGot the new phone on Monday! Have pretty much been playing with it ever since. God, I am such a nerd. Of course, I haven’t read the manual yet. If I can’t figure it out, then maybe I will, but more than likely I won’t.

Even worse, is I can connect this bad boy to the PC and have all kinds of fun. New pictures and wallpapers… emails and IM’s… ringtones… you name it. My new ring is the ‘slowing down’ ring of the main character in the movie Crank. None of you probably have any clue what I’m talking about, but trust me, its very cool. Is it sad that stuff like this makes me excited? Is there any better smell than that of new electronics? God I’m sick.

In other news, Boise State just got a verbal commitment from a high school quarterback who threw 66 touchdowns as a junior. WOW. In 4 games as a senior this year, he already has 20 touchdowns. I don’t know about you, this is almost as exciting as the new cell phone. Eat that Cody Hawkins, with your measly 42 touchdowns as a senior…

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Couple things

Just a couple random things I’ve come across here…

First, Segway has announced a recall of 23,000 scooters for a software malfunction. Now, I understand recalls… shit happens. But what astounded me was that they have sold TWENTY THREE THOUSAND of those damn things! How in the hell did that happen?! I mean, in the right applications, they make sense. Large warehouses, private security patrols, etc. But 23,000? Really? Wow. I’ve still never seen one live.

This past weekend there was a mini controversy in college football. Oklahoma was playing at Oregon (they of the hideous uniforms) and Oklahoma got jobbed at the end of the game by a shitty call. Not only did they get robbed by a shitty call, they got doubly robbed because the shitty call in question was reviewed by video replay, AND UPHELD! Not only did these refs blow it on the field, they blew it in video review as well. Now, these refs have been suspended by the league (they were Pac-10 refs) for a game and an official appology has been issued.

Now, I know Oklahoma’s pain. 3 years ago, Boise State was in the same situation at Oregon State. Boise State fans remember this. Minute and a half left. Boise down by 2. OSU ball at the Bronco 22. 4th and 1. Oregon State gets the first down, they can kill the clock. They don’t, we have a chance to get into field goal range to win. Well, they run a quarterback sneak and their quarterback extends the ball in front of him. A defender pushes the ball back into his helmet and he dropps it. OSU falls on it 5 yards behind the line of scrimage! Boise State ball with a chance to win! Ohhh… I’m sorry… the refs said the quarterback’s forward momentum was stopped and he had the first down… despite the fact that not a single defender had a hand on him. No replay at this point. Oregon State retains possesion. First down. Game over. What did we get for our trouble? An official appology. “Gee… sorry we screwed your chance to win. Our bad.” I wonder if it was the same crew that screwed Oklahoma over as well.

Beware home refs in the Pac-10. If there is any doubt, you won’t get the call. Ever.

Of course, now, Oklahoma is whining and crying saying that the game shouldn’t count in the standings, blah blah blah. Listen OU. Everyone gets screwed by bad calls. There is nothing you can do. Crying about it just makes it worse. You lost. It sucks, but move on. There is no other option.

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CableOne Comes Through

Well, they pulled it off. The impossible. Boise State v. Wyoming is now going to be on digital cable. What an amazing turn of events. I was resigned to not seeing the game at all and living with the radio call.
The good thing is that CableOne is not going to increase rates just for adding this one channel. If I had to pay more per month to watch one game, when the other 364 days of the year this channel will be showing the Colorado State diving team or something, I might be less enthusiastic.

So, the party is at my apartment. Get there early, cause there sure ain’t much seating. There ain’t much food either… ok… NO food… so if you want something, bring it with, plus a little something for the host, huh?

In other news, someone is walking around the office today whistling ‘Jingle Bells’. If I find them, I will strangle them to death with my bare hands. There is no other option.

Speaking of my office, it is actually quiet in here today. See, that large open staging area I’ve mentioned in past posts (where they’ve alternately stored crap and had product faires) has been holding all of the printers being moved in and moved out of the entire site. They have been doing this big printer roll out program latetly, taking all of the personal printers off peoples’ desks and replacing them with the big multi-function laserjets a couple for each team. Well, guess where they were storing all of said printers… 20 feet from my cube.

Well, this week, they had piles and piles of personal printers. Then, for some reason, they removed the walls surrounding their operation which knocked down a little of the noise. From my cube door, I could see clear across the expanse of printers, as well as hear every conversation, every crash, every scrape, everything. My personal favorite was the guy who was pulling the toner cartridges from the printers and literally tossing them into a big container. Just a lovely amout of noise, to which this guy was oblivious that less than 5 yards away were people actually trying to do office business. It was so bad, I had to eject at 10am and spend the day working from home.

Fortunately, today, all is gone. No printers. No workers. No distractions. It’s nice. Of course, a guy came by my cube asking if we had wireless network connection in the building because his team is moving in. I ask him what team that was, and he said it was the PET team (whatever the hell that means) but then threw in this little gem, “Hope you’re prepared, its going to be noisy.”

Oh goody… I can’t wait.