Football, Why Must You Taunt Me So?!?

It has been a very sad two weeks of football in the Wisconsin Adventures household. The week before last, there was the flattening of the Aggies by Miami, the embarrassment of Tennessee by Florida, and the Packers' loss to the stupid Cowboys. (And Wisconsin had an off week.)

Last week, it was the Aggies beating a strong contender for Worst Div I Team in the Nation by a mere four points, Tennessee not managing to overcome a lackluster Auburn thanks to their incompetent quarterback, Wisconsin going from 19-0 at the end of the first half to 27-25 at the end of the second, and the Packers' loss to the stupid Buccaneers. We've decided that football hates us.

On that note, I guess it's time for me to predict how the Aggie's Big XII slate will turn out. (Siiiiiiiigh.)Here's the thing: A&M has a really bad team this year. Like, really bad. Don't get me wrong, there have been some little flashes of hope--over the first three games, the Ags seemed to improve with every outing (not so much with the Army game, for which there was no excuse for us not winning by at least a couple touchdowns. I mean, we're bad. But Army is awwwwfffuuulllll. It's very distressing). And it seems like Jerrod Johnson will be pretty good eventually. He has the ability to make things happen, and once the things-he-makes-happen no longer include nasty rookie mistakes, he could be a very good leader for this team. Finally, I am not a person who thinks that we made a horrible, horrible mistake in hiring Mike Sherman. As ever, one must cut a first-year coach slack.

That being said, if we don't improve by leaps and bounds next year, fire him. Fire him fire him fire him fire him. (No more waiting around for five years for a coach to miraculously get better!)

Because here's the thing: "improving by leaps and bounds next year" will mean getting bowl-eligible. I don't know if we're going to win another game this year.

I keep reading the Big XII blogger on ESPN, and he keeps hammering home how great a year this is for the conference. Probably the best ever! he seems to say. It's like the Big XII threw a party and everyone's invited . . . except Texas A&M.

I don't think we're going to beat Baylor, is what I'm saying. This is in part because Baylor is better than usual (they hired a coach who could make them better in his first year . . . siiiigh.) Like everybody else.

We may beat Iowa State. It's at Iowa State, but it's not like home field advantage has really been an advantage for the Ags, so what the hey.

There is also always the possibility that we'll pull an upset. You know how there's always somebody who gets beaten by some terrible team you would never in a million years think could beat them? We could be that terrible team! (The nice thing about this scenario is that Texas Tech usually manages one of these stunning losses. Wouldn't it be great if it were to the Aggies? You know, "great" relatively speaking?)

So, uh, yeah maybe one more win. Or two? Two would be good, I guess. Obviously more good than one.

On the other hand, I could be totally wrong. After all, there are dozens of cheesy movies where the hero team starts out frighteningly awful and ends up winning The Big Game. That happens in real life, too, right?

Right?

(Interesting side note: when Google Image-searched "Aggie football Sherman" the third picture was a link to this blog! And strangely, it was to the picture of my hand from this post. Weird!) Click here to read more . . .

TIM GUNNNNNNNNNNN!

Man, I love Tim Gunn. Also, I'm starting to love Craig Ferguson. I've only recently started watching a significant amount of late night television (the 'sband likes it), and I've just decided that Craig Ferguson is the funniest late night host there is.

So when Craig interviewed Tim last night, it was a perfect storm. And hilarious!

Disclaimer: I don't know how long this will stay up on YouTube. Forgive me if this becomes a big box with a little X in it soon.
Click here to read more . . .

Yes, I Am the Highly Suggestible Type

Sometimes, ads work on me. Like the time I saw a Reach toothbrush commercial, and it pointed out that all dentist's tools are bent at the very same angle as their toothbrushes, and I was like, "That's TRUE!" and the next time I bought a toothbrush, it was a Reach. Also, that Dyson vacuum cleaner guy consistently convinces me that he's a vacuum cleaner genius. Lucky for me I'm not going to buy a vacuum anytime soon.

I am also apparently susceptible to songs in commercials. Well, if they're good. I have now purchased two songs on iTunes because I liked them so much on ads: the one for that very lightweight Mac (actually, come to think of it, I bought the singer's entire album) and, now, the McRib song. You know--the McRib song:



I'm pretty pleased with it.


*Note: the title is a quote from The Simpsons. Homer starts getting involved with a cult, and Lisa tells him, "Be careful Dad. You're the highly suggestible type." And the title is his answer. My opinion: it's funny every time! Click here to read more . . .

Hmmm . . .

Looking at my Google News just now, I saw these headlines:

FOXNews: Why some feminists hate Sarah Palin
Wall Street Journal: Why feminists hate Sarah Palin

and I found the dichotomy from the two different sources interesting.

Someday, I'd like to write a blog entry about the whole Sarah Palin deal, but right now I should be doing real work. However, since I just got an email with this link in it, I'll put that in here too.

"Alaska Women Reject Palin" Rally is Huge Click here to read more . . .

Thoughts on Childrearing from an Interested Observer

Neal and I went to Chili's tonight (mmm . . . Chili's) and, as is not unusual, we got to see some Parenting in Action (babies love Chili's, you know). I worry sometimes about how I'll know the right way to discipline children, but I do know when I see the wrong way out in public. As annoying as it is when a parent lets their children run around, misbehaving all over the place without saying anything, I think it's even worse when the parent constantly berates, bullies, and orders around their children. After all, this usually has the same result as doing nothing, because if you yell at a kid all the time, the kid stops thinking it means anything. We sat next to a threating-without-results family tonight--both when we were waiting to be seated and then again after we were seated, because we're just that lucky--and it just kept reminding me of a poem that my parents had taped to the refrigerator. It always made good sense to me, even when I was one of the children in question. (And, of course, when I think of examples of good parenting, I think of my parents. Thanks, Mom and Dad!)

Here it is:

If a child lives with criticism,
he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility,
he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule,
he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame,
he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance,
he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement,
he learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise,
he learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness,
he learns justice.
If a child lives with security,
he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval,
he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
He learns to find love in the world. Click here to read more . . .

Reporting Live from a Gas Station of Sadness Just Outside of Grumpytown

When I posted my report from Grumpytown on Saturday immediately after the Aggies' ignominious loss to Arkansas State, I anticipated that I would get up the next day and feel more optimistic. That didn't happen.

I am of two minds about the outlook for the rest of A&M's season, but it's not optimism vs. pessism. No; on the one hand there's gloom and on the other there's doom.

Gloom: It's possible that this game was a fluke. You know, last year Alabama went 6-6 (which I would be fine with for the Ags) but they dropped a game to Louisiana-Monroe in the middle of the season. Maybe this is like that, but at the beginning of the season?

Doom: This is unlikely. It's far more plausible that we dropped the second-easiest game on our schedule because we're worse than 11 of the teams that we're going to play.

Gloom: But Ark State did scare Texas last year. They were within a touchdown, and that was with some sort of questionable call giving the 'sips a break.

Doom: And yet, they're still the second-worst team we're going to play.

Gloom: Well, a lot of the problem was just Aggies making (tons of) mistakes, so maybe those can be fixed?

Doom: Or we're just bad at playing football.

Gloom: It is just one game.

Doom: Which might be comforting, was this basketball.

Gloom: In any event, you don't give up on a coach after one game. . . . Even if you don't see a reason not to give up on the current season.

Doom: Yeah, but remember the athletic department giving Fran all that time to prove he was good? And how well that worked out?

Gloom: Don't be silly. Sherman is not Fran.

Doom: What if Sherman is worse than Fran?!? Fran managed to beat Arkansas State!

Gloom: He's not. Surely . . . surely he's not.

Doom: Maybe you're right.

Gloom: You know, it's always possible that the boys will work out the kinks; they'll get more used to the real system; those freshmen on the O-line will have a fast learning curve; and Jorvorskie will get healthy and boost our offense. And in that case . . . we'll probably scrape together four or five wins, right?

Doom: Or none of those will happen. In that case, we beat Army. And nobody else. Even Baylor. Click here to read more . . .