Football madness

Okay, I can't help it. The So-called "Bowl Championship Series" has again failed to deliver on its promise of a definitive championship, and the game hasn't even been played yet.

This season has been a crazy mess, but still leaves one question, to my mind, unanswered. Why is the only undefeated team in the nation not playing in the "championship" game?
Yes,yes, I know the official answer. Due to Hawaii's a weak schedule and poor rankings in the polls, Hawaii is not number one or two in the nation.

How can a team's schedule be held as the definition of whether they're a good team or not? The majority of the schedule is guaranteed to be against conference teams. If the non-BCS conferences aren't considered major, your conference opponents don't matter. So, if you aren't in a BCS conference, you're schedule is guaranteed to be considered weaker it would if you were in one.
That leaves two, maybe three non-conference games.

In order to be taken seriously as a non-BCS conference school, you have to schedule against two teams that are considered "major" teams.

1. Choose opponents from BCS conferences.


2. Choose good (hopefully Top-Ten ranked) opponents from those conferences. A number 5 ranked Michigan from the Big 10 would be good. Oh, wait, they aren't even ranked now, at the end of the year. If you can't get them to agree to a game, how about number 14, UCLA. Oops again.

I believe the point has been illustrated, but to make it truly real, add this particular part of reality:

3. Take the previous two steps and expand them to the next 3 years.

If you can do that, you should apply for a job in the athletic department of a Division I-A school.

Hawaii played, and beat, two non-conference teams from Divison I-A teams, in the PAC-10 and MWC, and one Division I-AA team and was still only ranked #10.

Just for a final dose of the craziness, take a look at the Wikipedia entry for the BCS, here. Go ahead, I'll still be here when you're done.
Does it seem to you that the rules section is pretty long? You're right.
Does it seem like the 'controversies' section is as long as the rules section? You're right.
Does it seem like the formula changed every single season? You're right.

The best thing that could happen to college football would be for the NCAA to kill off the BCS. I'd love to see the game start with an official disclaimer from the NCAA stating that "this game is not an NCAA-sanctioned championship game". After all, they're the official organization of college sports, and they don't recognize any Divison I-A football champion. Unfortunately, the BCS will hang around as long as the conferences that run the BCS still get to make money from it for their cash-cow football programs.

They don't seem to care that the cash smells like crap.

Baby pictures - redux

Okay, here are the long-awaited baby pictures from our last ultrasound:








For those who didn't already know, she is a girl. We have a couple of names that we're looking at right now; one is the definite front-runner, and the other is a possible contender. I'll let Tracy blog that if she desires.

Home thoughts

So, over Thanksgiving, I got to demonstrate to Tracy's family just how much of a handyman I am.

• The sink in Tracy's grandmother's kitchen, and the one in the bathroom clogged Thanksgiving day. We spent Thanksgiving night working on them, and I got a hand covered in Drano. I wasn't able to fix the kitchen sink.
  
• Then, Saturday, at Tracy's parent's house, Scott and I replaced the light fixture in the living room, I replaced the one in the bedroom Tracy and I had slept in.
  
• Also Saturday, I connected their satellite decoder box to the dish that was already mounted on the house and made it work.
• Thursday, I rebuilt Tracy's grandmother's computer, reinstalling Windows on it.
  

Between all that, and some conversations with Tracy's parents, I had a few thoughts on things I want to do when I finally own a home:

• Tile Kitchen floor. I'm tired of linoleum/vinyl flooring in kitchens.
• Laminate wood flooring in the Living/Family room(s). I really like it, it cleans up well, and it's easy to install.
• Radiant heat flooring in the bathroom. I hate waking up in the morning, going into the bathroom, and stepping on cold tile. This solves that.
• Tankless water heater. Hot water was a big issue this trip. The pilot on the water heater kept going out, and it was never very hot (though that was just the thermostat) Even our hot water heater is wimpy. We can't both shower in the morning. Plus, they save between 15 and 40% on heating costs since you don't have to keep a tank warm. (And you can't blow them up like Mythbusters did to a regular water heater) They may take a while for the hot water to reach the tap, but that's the same with a regular hot water line, and if you need instant hot water, you can install a mini-heater under the sink!

Sick

I'm sick. About two weeks ago, I got a cold, right? I took a day and a half off work to fight it, and manage to get over it. Unfortunately, since then I've been coughing like crazy. Today I didn't go to work; I went to the doctor, instead. Diagnosis: bronchitis. I get antibiotics and a cough syrup and am told to take it easy for a few days. (Yes, this means I'm gonna take tomorrow off work, too, just to be safe.) I also threw up today; I assume it's from the poor sleep I've had up until today, especially driving from Houston to DFW airport Sunday morning (We arrived at 4:30), and the fact that I ate nothing until 3:00 today, then ate pretzels and Ramen.

Pictures delayed

Unfortunately, the ultrasound pictures are going to be delayed a while longer. Tracy didn't take them into work, and although they're in my Google Docs, they won't copy out correctly. Sorry.

:)

More Maps

For class, we had to draw another map; this time of four states. Unfortunately, the professor wouldn't let us draw the UT,CO,AZ,NM set. I really wanted to, but he said four boxes would be way too easy. Instead, he assigned us four options that involved a lot of convoluted borders, rivers, and and coastlines. I, of course, chose the WI,MN,IA,IL set, and here it is!




We also had to create a black and white map that shows people how to get to our house. This map emphasizes simplicity and clarity, not detail. Neither scale nor direction are accurate beyond left and right or big and small. Distance doesn't matter at all. I also removed the address, because this blog is publicly readable.

So, Joe and I definitely need to start taking more pictures. So yes, this is another pictureless post. Nothing much new is going on, just the same old, same old. We are still dog sitting our friend's dog while they are on their honeymoon, so its been a little crazy. We've had her for 2 weeks now. At least, they wear each other out more.

We find out Nov 15th what we're having, at least if the baby cooperates that is. Welp, that's about it. Maybe I'll have something better to write about next time.

Oh yeah, we did go to a "They Might be Giants" concert which was alot of fun. It was weird because I could feel the music vibrations in my belly. It was such a weird sensation. We didn't get back until 2 in the morning so we were both exhausted the next day.