Today's Chuck Norris Fact:
If at first you don't succeed, you're not Chuck Norris.
I've obviously spent too much time lately being introspective, and I need a nice light, musings-type post, the kind you've all come to know and love (well, all three of you). My life is still super-crazy right now. In fact, let's count the ways:
1. Heidi's grandma is in the ICU in a hospital up in Loveland, recovering from surgery. Her chances are fair of making it through.
2. I'm looking for a new job, and I actually have a line on one, but I haven't heard anything since the interview last Friday morning, and I'm getting concerned.
3. Heidi's still pregnant, and growing by the day (this is good and bad).
4. I'm still broke and my credit is fully extended (and I just found out it's even worse...my FICO score is currently 557 because one of the mortgages on the my-ex-wife-is-responsible-for-the-payments-but-it's-still-on-my-credit-until-the-refi house was paid 30 days late by the former ball-and-chain).
5. Despite the fact that the hearing was December 6th, I still haven't heard a darn thing about the ruling from the judge, and here it is two weeks later. I don't get any financial relief from the oppressive child support I've been paying until we get the ruling handed down. (I hope it's all retroactive.)
6. I'm not teaching, which is bad because I lose an extra $1000 in after-tax income (but on the positive side I DO get Monday through Wednesday night back every week).
7. I've done ZERO Christmas shopping (see Item 5 above...I need to know what I have to pay so I can put the rest towards some gifts).
8. I'm ultra-busy with my consulting day-job, and I don't like hardly any of the work I'm doing. (I'm learning that consultants can be even less choosy than beggars.) Oh, and we're down to only two engineers through the end of the year.
9. I have to finish planning and finalizing our trip to Oklahoma the first week of January.
10. Heidi's working a part-time job, and I don't like that much. (Again, see Item 5 above.)
11. For some extra cash, I'm writing two 5- or 6-page information security training documents for a security organization I'm part of. One is on database security vulnerabilities and mitigation, the other on change control processes and procedures. I told them I get them done by the end of the year, and I haven't gotten much done on either one yet. (They sound boring, but I'm actually looking forward to doing both of them. I need to get off my lazy butt and get them done...SOON.)
So, all that being said, let's talk the normal stuff, just for a little fun. It will be like getting a massage or relaxing in a nice hot tub...sort of.
This coming Thursday night, December 21st, Oregon is playing BYU in the Who-Gives-A-Crap Bowl. Actually it's the Las Vegas Bowl, but it's about the same thing. While being taunted by Oregon fans immediately after the end of The Game back in September, I told them, "Enjoy it now, because this game will be your season highlight after you end up in the Nowhere Bowl." Sometimes it's really nice to see your predictions come true. Wish I had the same kind of ability with lottery numbers.
Personally, now that strength of schedule no longer matters for OU, I hope BYU kicks them...REALLY hard. I'd like to see something on the order of 63-10, BYU. I bet lots of my fellow Sooner fans feel the same way.
A while back I put up a list of my favorite sounds. I've got a new one to add, one that was brought up to me just the other night while I watched the Colorado Avalanche play at the Chicago Blackhawks. This one dates from my time as a freshman at the University of Chicago. While there, I fell in love with hockey, and especially Blackhawks hockey. The 'Hawks have this great thing they do when they score. They blow this huge, real-life foghorn inside the arena. It's loud, and it's AWESOME! Lots of teams and arenas have bought their own foghorns, trying to emulate the classic sound, but the Blackhawks horn has a unique sound that none of the others I've heard can really duplicate. Maybe it's tuning or acoustics, but it's just perfect. It's great in person, but it's even awesome on TV or radio, as I was reminded the other night. I told Heidi all about it, and she even got to hear it. On the radio it's great, because it gets mixed in with the play-by-play, so it ends up going something like this:
"Smith passes to Larmer on the wing...Larmer carries into the zone...passes to Roenick in the slot...he deaks...he shoots...HE SCORES!!!!"
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!
The Blackhawks were really good while I was in school there. In fact, that was the last year they were in the Stanley Cup Finals, so they were VERY good, which meant we all got to hear the horn a lot. Because of how it represents my love of hockey and the Blackhawks, as well as how it brings to mind my first time away from home on my own in college, that horn is one of my all-time favorite sounds.
Boy, is illegal immigration continuing to be THE hot-button topic these days? We sure need to find a solution. I don't know if I have one, but bitching and moaning because the ICE conducts huge raids just a few weeks before Christmas is NOT the solution. If you come here illegally, you take your chances. If you get busted, shut up and deal with it. I mean, seriously, does your country suck so bad that you couldn't have tried to maybe do the civic thing and build up your homeland, rather than completely dissing it and leaving it behind forever? Maybe the Federales kill you when you get deported. Even worse, all the Latinos, whether legal or illegal, expect us to just accept them and let them do things their own way.
The fact that so many illegals expect us all to speak Spanish and look the other way as they steal the identities of honest, decent, LEGAL citizens so that they can continue to stay here illegally, just infuriates me to no end. We need a hardcore solution, and we need it soon. If we don't get one, we might end up with open warfare or vigilantism. Those aren't good solutions, either.
OU will win against Boise State. I have no doubt about that. And as much as the media don't want to talk about it, and as much as the Boise State fans expect us to give them props and respect, and as much as the OU coaches and players pay serious lip service to how good Boise State is, this game is a complete no-win for OU. They get no opportunity to go against quality talent (I mean, sure, Boise State is great in its conference, but they play in the WAC). If OU wins, they get no credit because everyone expects them to win. If they lose, even by a single point, the media hammer will come down EXTREMELY hard on them. There are still media members kicking us repeatedly (and gleefully) after the 55-19 loss to USC a couple of years back. Those people look for excuses to kick us. This game gives them too many opportunities. Sorry, Boise State fans, but win or lose, we really get nothing for this game except a lot of money. And you don't really have much chance, to be honest. Your only hope is that we don't take you seriously.
We're supposed to get 1-2 feet of snow in Denver starting early tomorrow morning. Joy of joys. Back to "colorful Colorado". One of these days Denver will learn how to roll up the streets when this kind of crap hits. But no...tomorrow we'll all be expected to drive to work in 18 inches of snow. I guess I shouldn't be surprised; Denver's traffic sucks even when times are good, because people here can't seem to plan their infrastructure well. If you can't even plan logically, how can you be expected to deal with something like snow logically?
I know security has been paramount after 9/11. But seriously, who the hell thought it was a good idea to not let Troy Smith take his Heisman Trophy on the plane with him? Who on Earth is going to use it as a weapon? Even if you're a young Muslim with nothing to lose and a bunch of virgins to gain by hijacking and crashing a plane, would you even consider attacking someone like Troy Smith? He's twice the size of most of those nutballs, at least the ones I've seen on the terrorist videos. He plays football and is used to hitting people on a regular basis. He is in top physical shape. I think I'd see him with that trophy, and I'd probably leave him alone. In fact, I might even think about hijacking a different flight.
Did someone think he might secretly be a deep plant for Osama bin Laden, and he was going to hide explosives in it to blow up the plane?
This episode shows how ineffectual our security measures really are. Like the common legislative fallacy, we fight OBJECTS, not BEHAVIORS. That will be our downfall, and probably sooner than we would like.
My boy is kicking and moving around like CRAZY! The other night I put my hand on Heidi's tummy, and he must've punched and kicked my hand 7 or 8 times. And HARD, too...I can tell Owen's going to be quite a handful. He already loves my voice; Heidi says he gets more active when I'm talking, and that many times my voice wakes him up and gets him going. I'm really looking forward to him popping out.
It's getting very late here, and I'm quite tired. I hope you all enjoyed a "normal" post again. Thanks for reading along.
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