I've been tagged...

This is fun, sort of. It's kind of like those gay quizzes you used to get ALL THE TIME that ask you to name all kinds of weird stuff about yourself. By the way, I like one pillow.

Anyways, this is the fourth pic in my fourth folder of pics. To explain it Stephanie and I bought a new Nikon camera and were wanting to try it out. Steph has this big kick for shadows so she took this early morning shot of our cat Boo-Boo (our other cat is Yogi). I find it a little interesting and hope you do to.

You are now supposed to tag someone but I don't know anyone who blogs so I will tag Will Shelton to put something up on his SESB blog.

One thing I don't like

Right now Alabama tops the BCS rankings followed by Texas Tech, Texas, and Florida respectively. If the situation creates itself and Texas Tech and Texas somehow lose again while Florida and Alabama win out in the regular season, the #1 and #2 teams at the end of the regular season won't play each other.

The way I understand it IF that were the case then Florida would play Alabama in the SEC Championship. Someone has to lose that game thus dropping one of the teams. The only way I could see it playing out is Alabama loses to a #2 Florida and SOMEHOW ends up #2 behind Florida.

Anyways, what I don't like is that some teams are being penalized for playing in their conference championship.

Playoff anyone?

Obama

The one thing I don't like about Obama is it doesn't take him very long to change what he says.

-During the primaries he was going to get our troops out of Iraq in 6 months, after he won the primary he admitted it would take more like 12 - 18 months, which is what Hillary Clinton said all along

-Last night it didn't take him 30 minutes to mention that in order to accomplish all that he said he would, it would take 8 years, not 4! Surely it will take 8 years to accomplish ALL that he said but I am anxious to see how much he accomplishes in the first 4.

Be careful America, what Obama calls rhetoric, most of us call lying.

I was a little impressed

I watched the press conference over the Internet and was a little impressed...

Phil cares more than I think he gives off on the field. While watching games I sometimes wonder if he is connected to reality or not. It's probably just a personality difference between he and I but I sometimes have wondered if he can see the scoreboard; or if the score even matters.

A lot of people on our local news are angry with Mike Hamilton. He's in a catch-22 situation if there's ever been one. One thing though, I don't hear people complaining that Bruce Pearl isn't forever committed to the Vols.

The fact of the matter is we live in a day where coaches are bought. It was nice to have a coach who had been here for so long and was so dedicated to the program but it's rude to ask your fans to pay $70? $80 a ticket and not at least give them a show.

I understand that Phil was angry yesterday and very upset. I understand that Mike Hamilton is on his hit-list-napkin. But I feel that he tried to take the focus off of the obvious; you're just not winning, when you should be. No, it's not about Saturday mornings when you're in the kids homes. And while I love watching these kids play I am more worried about the fans. It's the fans that pay big money for tickets and some pay quite big to keep season tickets. Family of mine has dropped 10K at times to keep their seats. Some of these players aren't committed to TN; Jamal Lewis, Kelly Washington? Some of these players don't get to see the field as much as they should have; Joey Matthews, Jim Bob Cooter?

There is no reason to think that our next coach won't commit to UT. I think it's a very attractive job. Right now the only reason I see someone leaving would be to coach at their Alma-mater.

But like I started out by saying, after seeing the press conference I wish Phil the best in life. If he wants to be a part of UT football then I hope he takes the opportunity to stick around. It's not that he isn't valuable to UT, it's just that his days of coaching are probably over.

It's been a better Monday

I got the news today in an 11:12 AM email from my wife:

Phillip Fulmer to part ways with the Vols.

Let's clap Phil off the field, shall we?

And who should replace him? Well, after reading an article that I was linked to through SESB, it should be Will Muschamp.

I am sure there are a lot of great coaches out there but after reading this man's track record I think it has to be him. I know a couple of people who have played for UT or still do. They have all told me the players still 'want' to play for Fulmer. But, actions speak louder than words. Every comment I have read about this guy says that his players respect him immensely. This is what UT needs, a coach to bring the fire back to Neyland Stadium.

A guy this morning said that we should keep Fulmer one more year because our recruits coming in are exceptional. From the news reports I've read, our recruiting classes are always good but our talent seems to wain. I've always felt this was a coaching issue. So why keep Fulmer one more year so he can ruin our next recruits?

But, while my criticism of Fulmer is coming close to it's end I will still say this. The University of Tennessee has a big opportunity right now. This job is very attractive. Top ten recruiting classes, 107,000 people, recent national championship, revive the program, etc.

WE NEED TO MAKE SURE WE GET THE RIGHT PERSON! There is no point in getting someone to walk away from their job unless you are going to better the situation. And while I realize the situation could get worse almost anything is better than this year...

It's been a good weekend

You would think a 27 to 6 loss would put me in a bad mood; not at all. You might think that "improving" to 3-6 (1-5) would make me cringe; guess again.

Ladies and gentlemen we are one step closer to reading Fulmer Fired in our sports section headlines and I couldn't be happier. If you don't agree then go back to your DVR of Saturday night's game and find the 12 year old holding the Fire Fulmer sign in the stands. That's right, it appears that a 12 year old traveled to Columbus, South Carolina (obviously someone took him) WITH a fire Fulmer sign. It's getting sad...

Also, I got my Magnum P.I. season 1 DVDs in. I love that show. My plan is to watch it from front to back this winter.

Most of all though, I am happy to have my Red Alert 3. My friends and I used to set up local lan parties at my house and play Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge for hours and hours. In fact, I still hold the trifecta title over my friend Robbie. My friends and I played a couple of times last night, which was a blast. The internet gameplay has improved much for this version. If you don't have a copy I suggest you go out and get one, but check the minimum PC requirements because it can be a memory hog.

Hope your weekend was as good as mine!

Tennessee Vs Alabama

This weekend Tennessee plays Alabama in football. For 7.5 seasons now I have been asking for Fulmer to be fired. I haven't officially asked anyone who could accomplish this, nor would any of those people listen to me, but I haven't been pleased with the situation since the national championship.

Most would say our championship just spoiled me. I don't think this is the case because I was just as surprised to see that season unfold as most other people should have been. I am not saying we weren't good enough to win it nor we didn't deserve it, I just think that several "miracles" had to happen to even get us to the game. Thus I was nothing but pleased to win that championship.

Since then we have gotten worse and worse. A lot of people think that Casey Clausen was a great college quarterback. I find it hard to give someone this kind of a credential when they throw too many screen passes(pad stats), win more on the road then at home, and win 1 in 4 bowl games.

Even after Clausen left we still had too many problems so exit Randy Sanders and bring back Cutcliffe. Well, that worked out well.....so bring in a new offensive coordinator. I understand that Fulmer has to get to know Clausen before he will get full control of the offense but I find it very frustrating that we bring in someone new who is supposed to be more explosive and we seem to be running the same offense as before. Could this be because Fulmer is in control?

Now Clausen deserves his fair share of criticism. There is no excuse when one abandons the run against UCLA when they were gaining 7 yards per carry. I think that game could have and should have turned out differently.

It was obvious when Fulmer was given the chance at a contract extension that too many people were satisfied with last season. I was happy to see us make it that far but it felt more like our championship season where the cards had to fall just right. We spend too much money on stadiums, parking, coaches, recruiting, etc. not to control our own destiny every year. We are not the type of school that should need the cards to fall just right; we should be the dealer and the deck should be stacked in our favor. When your fans are paying $70 a ticket for big SEC games there are no excuses why you aren't winning. It's not fair to ask your fans to wait and see what happens. At this level you are expected to win. I am not asking for SEC titles every year. I am not asking for national championships every year. What I want, what I expect is to be in the hunt, the discussion, year in and year out.

So finally to my point. While I want UT to win every Saturday, or greedy Sun/Mon they play, tomorrow night I want UT to lose and lose big to Alabama. To answer my critics, I want change more than I want a win. As I type this we are 3-4 (1-3 Conf) and sit at the bottom of the SEC East and all I can think about is how I saw this coming 7.5 seasons ago. I am getting tired of "now that we can't win the SEC we need to beat Alabama to save our season" because I don't want it to get so bad that we have to beat Vanderbilt to "save" our season. I dont' know a great deal about football but I have seen what I felt was too obvious:

Our offense was weak and predictable. We ran and ran up the middle too much. We passed and passed short too much. We didn't pass over the middle enough. We didn't utilize our TE enough. But we kept winning! How?!? DEFENSE. Our defense has traditionally been good enough to keep us in the close games and help us blow out the easier ones.

So now I have the answer to the question I asked so many years ago. What happens when our defense isn't as good as it has been and the offensive line isn't as good?

This election year I vote change and I hope the rest of you vote with me!

Television

Somehow when I am with my friends the conversation always turns to television; especially since fall TV started back up recently. While thinking more about it I have formed a rather cynical opinion.

All TV seems to be some sort of copy. This may be obvious to a lot of you but I started thinking about how many of the shows I love are just like the old shows I used to watch. For instance, if you like any of the CSIs then you might like an old show called Murder She Wrote. Like Knight Rider? Well, check our Knight Rider then. And of course, the old Knight Rider is the better of the two.

There are a few shows that seems to have a new grip on what a television show can be. Lost is one of them. Even though Lost seems to have weakened in the past year I think it is one of the most unique shows I've ever seen. The first 2 or 3 seasons were incredibly gripping. Not knowing who or what was out there was very fascinating. Another show I like is called the Fringe, which from what I understand is written by some of the same people from Lost. And guess what, it's a lot like Lost.

One show I like less and less is Heroes. After Monday's(10.20) episode I like this season a little better but I still feel like it is getting very weak overall. When so many people have so many powers it's amazing that it takes so much crap for anything to get done. I don't know what Peter does stay invisible, paint anything he is about to do, and just control everyone's mind when he is around. How his dad stole his abilities just makes me laugh.

One thing that I think is hurting TV while also helping it is the DVD. I love to watch shows on DVD because there is no wait but how long do you think it will take before they put commercials on those blessed discs. There are already commercials to watch when you go to Hulu.com, which is another complaint itself. Some would argue that putting shows out on DVD increases your fan base, which it just might. I just know that I got into Lost on DVD and now that I have to wait for weaker episodes makes me not as much of a fan anymore.

Here is my DVR list (inlcuding shows yet to premiere):

Monday - Heroes and My Own Worst Enemy and CSI: Miami

Tuesday - The Fringe

Wednesday - Kight Rider and Reno 911

Thursday - Smallville and The Office and Lost

Friday - Battlestar Galactica

UPDATE: I just watched The Fringe for this week and the main character tried to kill her step-father because he would get drunk and beat her mother. As I mentioned before this show was created by the same people who brought us Lost. Does this character sound like Kate to anyone else? Really original...

What got me started...

This is what got me started on the whole blog thing. I have recently gotten into photography; my wife and I just purchased a nice camera. Thus, I have been outside taking photos left and right. I use Picasa (now version 3) to organize my photos. You also get up to 1GB free space online for other people to view your photos. I am going to try to add a link to my web albums once I am done with this post. This is my dog ranger. He just turned 1 year old when I turned 28. He is a totally awesome dog. He is incredibly loyal and has excellent behavior. He is one of those dogs that will ignore the treat on his nose until you tell him to eat it. Hopefully you will see more of Ranger soon.

To begin...

I've avoided the blog thing for awhile now. I've always said it is rather ridiculous, however it does serve some good purposes. I pretty consistently read a friend's blog, The Southeastern Sports Blog. He does quite a nice job. A friend of his helps with it but I don't know his friend. I also keep up with a girl I used to teach with at The Boudreaux's. I use her blog to keep up with her son Ethan who just this summer turned 1 year old.

I plan to post a lot of different stuff on this blog. I would like to it to serve as a place for personal reflection, political commentary, tech-geek-speak, and photo sharing. Now that life is getting up in the years I think it would be nice to have a blog so my friends can keep up in their free time.