Sunday, October 29, 2006

Sadly, no one was here to witness, but when Tech went up 21-0 last night, I was confident UT would find a way to win. Colt McCoy really came into his own, leading the team to victory by just loading them up on his shoulders. He's not Vince yet, but he's got poise I haven't seen in a freshman since Major. I think he's 1 or 2 behind the UT record for single-season TDs - sorry, Vince and Weak Imitation of a Texas QB, your shared record appears to be dust.

Hehe, we're watching the Cowboys game and I was telling Wife about the confusion when OU safety Roy Williams would cover UT receiver Roy Williams. Since Chris Simms (the aforementioned Weak Imitation) was our QB, it was even money which one would catch it. And she replies "That's why you name your kid JerMichael" (referring to current UT tight end JerMichael Finley). No idea what this portends for our kids, but she's also mentioned naming a daughter Connecticut. Oh well I'll just make sure she's on epidurals or whatever so I get to fill out the birth certificate.

On a note of achievement, I finally finished Rise of the West! Conclusion was interesting, as the Soviet Union appeared to be a robust competitor to the US, so his perspective was that the systems would gradually compromise towards each other like the French Revolution and Europe's Old Regime did. I wonder if it would've if not for Vietnam, which discredited government enough to bring Reagan and the conservative movement to the fore.

Next book up is Christ Plays In Ten Thousand Places, sent to me by Ugandan missionary Spencer. The writing style, self-described as conversational, is easy to follow so far, but I'm pretty early in the book. I'm hoping for continued literary goodness.
posted by Unknown 10:13 PM | 0 comments

Friday, October 27, 2006

It's finally time for daylight savings. Got into the office at 8AM (have already heard 3 people ask me what I'm doing here so early, and the one who usually makes that joke is on vacation), and the sun was just coming up over the building next to us, so the office had the sunlight on the ceiling, but not down to the desk level. It's a pretty cool effect, but it's also weird to have sunrise at 8AM. Oh well, most importantly, I get an extra hour of sleep Sunday night. :-)

Finished Far Horizons - it lived up to its potential all the way through and gave me several series to dig into for future reading. For now, though, I'm on the last stretch of Rise of the West - it's taken me 4 months, but I'll settle for that as it's 800 pages and I've read a lot in between chapters. It's interesting to read about the impact of the democratic revolution in the world, but only the French one. The author's American, but focuses on the French revolution as Western civilization was more immediately and violently impacted by it than our little Tea Party. He ends his analysis at World War I, assuming (probably correctly) that his viewpoint in the 1960s doesn't allow enough perspective to analyze post-WWI history. Any suggestions for a good overview of any of the time since then?

Going to try to research candidates this weekend for the 11/7 election (mm, eeprulS). Will try to post thoughts next week as reminders for myself and anyone else who's interested.
posted by Unknown 9:10 AM | 1 comments

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

As the last in my taking-a-break-from-the-history-book interruptions (less than 100 pages to go!), I'm reading Far Horizons. It's an interesting concept - take big modern-day sci-fi writers, and ask them to write a new short story/novella in the world they're best known for. The stories are good, and it identifies new series for me to read in the future. Good combo.

This weekend we're going to Indiana for Wife's big family reunion. It's outdoors at a state park all day Sunday. Of course it's supposed to snow Thursday. Now anyone who knows me knows I like it cold, but when the reassurance is "It will just be frozen sleet by Sunday," well I'm a little worried. We'll see what happens. Fortunately, while also somewhat polar, Wife is a cold wimp long before I complain. :-)
posted by Unknown 5:06 PM | 4 comments

Monday, October 09, 2006

Gold's Gym is on my list with SBC/at&t. I'm used to slimy sales pitches, I'm used to cheeriness, I'm used to "buyer-friendly" pricing schemes, but this was insane. You had to answer demeaning questions about your goals and your commitments to even find out the membership plans and cost. I expect lesser service for cheaper, but I don't expect to be insulted. Needless to say, I've told them this. :-)

On the bright side, I've finally found people I want to be Texas Governor less than the 4 debaters from Friday night.
posted by Unknown 10:25 PM | 1 comments

Saturday, October 07, 2006

2 years in a row crushing OU. Life is always good.
posted by Unknown 11:53 PM | 1 comments

Wow. Watching the debates tonight proved to me that anyone in Texas can dream of being Governor. And I mean anyone. A lifeless robot, a motivated but incomprehensible musician, a politician so slick snakes wouldn't turn their back on him, and a grandmother who believes imitating and calling out the snake is her best quality to express. I looked around the room, and saw eight people I'd rather have as governor. I suppose I'll have to find someone to vote for. I feel sorry for ideological conservatives though - Perry's just as liberal as Bell, he just wants to give handouts to corporations rather than the down-and-out. Kinky's probably the only real conservative, and he plans to declare martial law in border counties so he can send in National Guard troops to secure the border. Yep, martial law - this isn't taken out of context - he confirmed it.

Yee. Haw.
posted by Unknown 1:33 AM | 0 comments