I was glad to see that USC beat BYU, soundly on paper, at least. But looking at Leinart, it seems he was too tentative, almost as if he has a point to prove. What could it be? That he is a great QB? I think people acknowledge that. The media is crazy. They put so much pressure that for kids like him it becomes too tough to keep up the hype.
Anyway, the receivers are still a question mark. Once again, Reggie Bush was almost the one-man army for USC. Dwayne Jarrett is the biggest disappointment even though the ESPN guys seemed to think that it was a good game for him. I think he drops more than he catches. Of course, it could be nerves, but then, don’t start comparing him to Mike Williams yet. He was terrible, according to me. He is not dependable, as of yet.
The good thing at the end was Hershel Dennis was rock solid. He was running through the BYU defense like a hot knife through butter. Awesome to see that. I think he’ll be ready for Stanford next week.
The only thing that was good, and dependable, was the defense. Awesome plays, and the turnaround came through a great play on defense towards the end of the first half. Ultimately, it ended up being 2 TDs for USC, making the gap comfortable, but otherwise, I would say that defending the National Championship is going to be tough.
Good thing that LSU lost, but Georgia and Ohio State are probably the next teams to be hyped up as competition, besides the obvious Oklahoma.
On to conference play - Stanford, here we come :-)
Its huge. Especially since he has at least a couple of years left in him, provided the motivation is there. It is probably one of the main reasons why Giants fans go to the games.
Congratulations, Barry. Now take us to the playoffs :-)
Means: Please forgive me for whatever I may have said to you or thought about you, knowingly or unknowingly, which may have caused you hurt or harm.
From jcnc.org:
“Question-19: What is the significance of Paryushana?
Answer-19: Paryushana means to stay closer, to stay closer to the self - to our soul (Ätmä). Paryushana parva consists of eight (Shwetambar tradition) to ten days (Digambar tradition) . During that period, Jains practice various restraints like not eating (fasting) or eating only one meal a day and spend more time spiritually (like listening to Jain gurus, reading religious books, etc.). The last day of thie period is called Samvatsari (annual ceremony of atonement), when people undertake atonement of wrong activities during the previous 12 months. They admit their sins and pray for forgiveness (ksama). Admission of sins and praying for forgiveness are directed towards the spiritual teachers, family members, friends and others regardless of age or sex. Letters are written to the people they know and who were not approachable in person on the Samvatsari day acknowledging the wrong doings and seeking the forgiveness. The aspirant on his part gives forgiveness to all living beings and asks for the same favor from others. This is usually done through the Samvatsari Pratikraman (Pratikraman means to return from sins or faults) and raises the real spirit of universal friendship and goodwill: (Khämemi savvajive savve Jiva khamantu me ! Mitti me savvabhuesu veram majjha na kenai (It means - I forgive to all living beings; may all of them forgive me.I have a friendship with all living beings and hostility towards none). The pratyäkhyäna (renunciation of certain things) aspect is very elaborate during the Paryushana parva. The Samvatsari Pratikraman is considered a highly important practice during the Paryushana parva which is the most important Jain festival.”
Don’t know what lies in front of me. At least I know I won’t be here. I’ll never know if this was a good move or not. On paper it seems like it, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Jaguar has decided not to continue its participation in formula 1.
This is what happens when there is no regulation of budgets. It is a negative spiral down, unless you are lucky and you get a driver cheap, who happens to be a master and brings you up in the rankings.
That happended for Ferrari when Schuey decided to leave a strong team and join an average team for the challenge it posed to him as a driver. But like the Prost team a few years back, Jaguar did not find the magic, and has to give up.
I still think there should be a budget cap, or something similar so that there are more teams that participate. With a budget cap, there ia a good chance we’ll see good drivers driving so-so cars and that will really make the whole season interesting.
Otherwise, we’ll be left with 5-6 teams which can survive and the rest will self-destruct till their parent companies decide to pull out.
So Trulli is not going to finish the season with Renault. That’s a bummer. He is going to go to Toyota next season, and Renault has asked Vill to come in and finish the season for them. Trulli and Alonso are a good team, and it is sad that the team is breaking up so abruptly.
After a long long time I had chocolate milk today. I wondered - what is the best way to make it - put the chocolate powder first, or the milk first, or a combination of the two?
I put the chocolate first today, and there was so much chocolate stuck at the bottom.
On the other hand, if I put chocolate later, I have to make sure it does not become chunky, and dissolves properly.
Is chocolate milk worth the time, to put some milk and then some chocolate, and then some more milk and so on?
Check out this Cricinfo piece, where Bruce Reid says Zaheer is mentally lazy, Agarkar and Nehra have, as everyone knows, 2-3 unplayable balls per over, but 1-2 loose balls also, and more analysis of the Indians bowlers.
Have you been burnt in a meeting by someone much much senior? Today was one of those meetings. So many basic questions, no real answer. I was burnt.
Since I am going to a new project, I am not even sure why I was there and not someone else. Oh well, it will be made up for, in our next meeting, to be scheduled soon.
So I see that Anonymous is choosing to post sometimes with name, sometimes without.
There is nothing to be shy about - just identify yourself, and we can have a conversation. I know potentially who it could be, but it is better that I don’t guess, right?
The minnows are getting crushed and the favorites are winning.
Of course, there are going to be some tough games in groups where there are two good teams out of three. I think Aus/NZ and Ind/Pak will be good.
Wonder if I should go watch Ind/Pak or go to www.willow.tv for $20 subscription. Not really keen, especially given the time at which it starts, but let’s see.
Went back to one of my earlier posts - when hotmail announced 250MB of storage space. When is it going to happen?
Not that I care much - I hardly ever use my hotmail account, but in general, how many promises have we seen from Microsoft that have not been executed?
Wow, Vill joins Sauber. That will definitely show how good he is, and more importantly, how dedicated he is in improving the team.
Obviously he is short-fused, because as soon as he left BAR took off. Can’t believe Sato and Button are that much better than Vill. The feedback from the drivers is important, and I am sure Vill was frustrated at the BAR team and was not feeding back well.
Now, he joins Sauber and once again he has to revive the team. It will be interesting.
Let’s see if Mika comes back too. It will be good times again - in the sense, rivalries will be renewed. And as I have made very clear, I want to see rivalries in formula one, otherwise, it is quite a dull season, except for a race or two.
In order to make it more exciting for people like me, they need to somehow pump up the score. Like for example, for every shot taken, 1 point, and for every goal, 5 points.
If making a shot is a scoring option, then I will be interested, because then, there is something happening pretty much all the time.
Can someone stand up and explain to me why football is so exciting all over the world?
This Thursday, at 8pm on Fox, check out The O.C.: Obsess Completely. It talks about the making of the show; the show’s influence on fashion; its massive fan base; interviews with the cast; a preview of the new season.
I don’t need to see it, but I am sure a lot of you who ask me why I like it so much, will like this one :-)
So after a nice introduction to New Orleans, we were all set for some real sight seeing on Saturday. We booked a combo tour of the Oak Alley Plantation (sugar cane plantation from the 1800’s) and a tourboat swamp tour. We had a choice of either going for the tour boat, or on the airboat. We chose the tourboat, and realized later that it was a good choice because even though the airboat was fast and exciting, it was too noisy for real sightseeing.
Anyway, the bus was going to come pick us up from the hotel between 9 and 9.30am so we decided to go for the continental breakfast and load up on the food in the morning. turns out that the continental breakfast was not as exciting as we thought it would be. There were some croissants that we could eat, but they were really really dry. Had some other stuff, but did not really fill ourselves up.
We went to the nearby gas station and bought some chips and gatorade and water, just in case we need it later on the bus or something. Since it was a long tour (return time estimate was 4.45pm!), we did not want to take a chance.
The bus came on time, and we were the only ones joining the tour from our hotel. In that small van, we were taken to another hotel, where we picked up three other people. From there we stopped at another hotel, where a larger bus was already waiting for us. There, they must have picked up people from other hotels from other parts of the city and brought them to the bus. We boarded that bus, and we were off!
It was about a 45 minute drive to the first stop - the Oak Alley Plantation. It is one of the slave plantations, and one of the many along the banks of the Mississippi river. This one has a huge alley of 300-year old oak trees, 14 on each side. It is quite a breath-taking view and those rich owners of the plantation must have lived a nice life, especially the ladies of the house, who had nothing to do but plan parties, sleep, take care of pets and enjoy life. The plantation and the house were originally a gift (what’s new) from the rich owner for his new bride. There was a tour of the house, where a lady dressed in the old style explained the neat features of the house. Some examples were convex shaped mirrors so that parents can keep an eye on their kids during parties, a special glass container which was of course covered by a napkin, used to trap the flies and other bugs at the dinner table, etc. Very nice house, and very nice plantation.
As we got out, we had a drink called Mint Julep. It is a mint-based lemonade, in short, but very sweet, and has some crushed ice in it. It tasted much like the mojito. But it was very very refreshing to drink it in the heat.
After the tour ended, we had some time to loiter in the area, and maybe go to the gift shop/cafe. So we walked around in ‘the alley’ and also went by the bank of the river. There was a huge river boat docked there, and according to the tour bus driver, we were lucky to see it right there.
In the cafe, I tried the southern style pecan pie. It was ok. Marie Callendar’s makes better pies :-). But to be frank, I don’t think I should have had the pecan pie there, if I really wanted to taste the southern style pecan pie. I think it is better to go somewhere in New Orleans in a nice place, to try it out. But oh well, for me, for now, pecan pies are better at Marie Callendar’s.
We came back to the bus, and started off to go to the swamp. It was another 45 minute drive from there and we finally came to the place. We took the tickets, and waited to board the swamp boat. We thought hard about whether we want to change and go with the airboat, but we decided ultimately not to go to the airboat. We waited quite a while to board the swamp boat. There were so many insects flying around! SO MANY! I was scared, what with the West Nile virus in the news all around and all that. I was just counting the time it was going to take to board the boat. The captain kept doing stuff in the boat, but not let us board. It was a long wait.
Finally, we hopped into the boat. There were about 40 of us in that boat. We started quite slowly, just floating on the waters, he was explaining some of the fisherman village stuff we could see on the banks, as we floated by. In my mind, I was like ‘yea, yea, yea…show me the real stuff’, but I realized it was actually quite a nice boat ride. The water was absolutely still, and the environment seemed very calm. Except of course when a random jet ski would fly by, or of course if another boat or an airboat passes by.
The boat took a lot of turns in and around over there, and finally, there we saw it. An alligator spotting! Everyone rushed to the side of the boat where it was going to show up. Of course, as we went deeper inside, there were more. It was good that we were sitting by the window, and so we were able to get some good pictures. The captain was throwing marshmallows at the alligators, to attract them towards the boat. They seemed like pets, where they come in when the boat comes by, and eat the food and go away. I took many pictures of the alligators, and then, all of a sudden, when there were some relatively larger alligators in the area, the captain stopped the boat.
He said that he thought the alligators had enough of marshmallows and now they wanted chicken. So he brought a bucket of chicken, and he had a long stick to which he attached the chicken. And then he started playing with the alligators, making them jump to get the chicken. It was a great photo opp, and I took it. It was fun to see alligators jump out, and in fact, we even saw competition there, where one of the bigger ones swatted away a smaller one, so that he could have the chicken to himself!
Later on, after we started moving again, the captain stopped the boat once again. And this time he came out wirh a real alligator on the boat! Yea, a real one! But of course, it was a one-footer, which he said we could hold in the palm of our hands. Most of the people in the boat did not want to do it. Then as it was passed around, most of the people held it and got some pictures with it. We did not :-) Too creepy for us.
Anyway, the ride back in the boat was awesome - the really turned it up and went fast. It felt good. The ride was great, and the tour was awesome. Now it was time to drive back :-) We got back quicker than it took us to get there. We got dropped off at the hotel, where we went up and quickly changed, and got ready to go to the French Quarter, some jazz music, the French Market, Cafe Du Monde and the Riverside Moonwalk.
So we took the trolley again, and started walking. We went to Jackson Square, which is a nice little garden/park, and came out at Cafe Du Monde. This place was buzzing. They are famous for their Beignets and cafe au lait. We had to seat ourselves, and luckily we found a nice little table by the window, so we settled there. Since we had no idea how and what to order, we just said 1 order of beignets and 2 cafe au laits. After it came, we were happy that we did not order 2 beignet orders, because one order had three, but we were both not happy with out coffee orders. I did not want milk (d-uh…cafe au what?) because I am lactose intolerant, and my wife wanted de-caf. Anyway, the beignets were awesome and so was the coffee.
From there we started walking towards the French Market. On the way, we stopped at a college/pro sports merchandise store, which had LSU - National Champions merchandise. I went in there, and asked him for USC - National Champions stuff, and he and I started arguing about USC and LSU and the BCS and the whole controversy at the end of last year. I wanted to tell him ‘shut up’ and leave, but I had to be nice. We left as soon as I could say ‘yea, let’s see what happens this year’ :-)
The French Market was almost closing, so we quickly walked around and came back. On the way there, we had seen a nice place for potentially eating dinner at. We decided we had to taste the Cajun/Creole food, so on the walk back, we stopped at the dinner place. There was band playing some cool music, which was nice to hear. All I wanted to hear was ‘What a Wonderful World’, and they did sing it! Without my request :-)
We had Veg Jamabalaya and Moufellatta. Both were nice, and very flavorful. I preferred the Moufellatta, because it was more like a sandwich, and it had a nice salad in the middle, with a lot of olives of different types. Awesome.
Then we went to the Moonwalk, which is a walkway by the riverside. We walked very little, because we were both quite tired from the long day. But we sat by the river and chatted for a bit, and then came back to the trolley station. Took the train back, came home and crashed.
After all, we had a morning flight the next day. It was the end of a nice vacation. I am glad we took it. Just wanted it to go more and not end that quickly. Oh well, next time around :-)
Recently, SPM asked me how come I have not posted anything about Federer crushing Hewitt is what was expected to be a slugfest.
I have been busy, at work and at home. Transitioning out of my current job. I didn’t know I was doing so much work :-)
Anyway, back to the US Open. Federer is obviously the #1 player in the world today. He won the Aus Open and Wimbledon. He beat Agassi in a hostile crowd situation, in five long sets. On the other hand, Hewitt had not lost a set at all in the entire tournament. So even though he has been out of form lately, he had shown some class this tournament, which made everyone think that the finals would be a classic affair.
But it was such an anti-climax. Federer was just too strong. I saw some parts of it, not all. But from whatever I saw, and obviously, from the score at the end, it seemed like it was a non-match. Federer/Agassi should have been the finals. Maybe if it was such a big game, Agassi would have found a way to win it?
Sorry about not posting earlier - have been busy socializing. First it was a dinner at a cuz’s place, and today was dinner with a friend (ex-roommate) visiting from DC.
But USC thumped CSU 49-0 and continued to be #1 in the AP poll. Next week is a tough one at BYU. Let’s see what happens.
Felt great to see the FOX NFL Sunday show (taped it!) this morning. JB, Terry, Howie and Jimmy are the usual selves. It is going to be an awesome season, though I have no favorites. Teams I will be following (in no particular order):
1. The Bengals (Carson Palmer)
2. Minnesota Vikings (my current pick for NFC Champion - Kenechi Udeze)
3. Carolina Panthers (Keary Colbert - and the team I would like to see win the Super Bowl)
4. Atlanta Falcons - Mike Vick and Jim Mora.
After the fumble in the first posssession in the red zone, USC has scored 3 TD’s and have not let CSU do much on offense.
This time it is LenDale White who has scored 3 TD’s. Reggie Bush had a great run (or was it kick return?), but it was negated by a penalty.
But in general, total domination thus far, midway through the second quarter. Fingers crossed, and knoced on wood. Need to win this big, to make all doubters shut up.
Florida State (too much hype) lost to Miami in the last minute of the regulation time, and in over time. I lovvvved watching the last few minutes/overtime.
Kansas State lost. To Fresno State. Another big thing for all those Pac-10 bashers in the Big 12. Boo ya!
Nebraska lost in Lincoln! Another Big-12 loss. Loved it.
Notre Dame won against Michigan, which is good mainly for the coach Willingham.
Georgia almost lost. I would have really LOVED if they had lost. I don’t like that team at all, for no particular reason :-) Maybe because they are in the SEC :-)
My thoughts on the USC in the next post.
Edited: Just saw an update that showed Ohio State won the game against Marshall only because of a long field goal with 0 seconds remaining. Wow. Ohio State does win ugly. Wonder if they are that good, or just plain lucky.
Saw Joey and The Apprentice (partly). Joey was ok, I don’t think it will carry the network. It has some funny moments, but like I had anticipated (and most others), Joey needs the rest of the cast of Friends to be a success. It was their interaction that made the show (Friends) funny. And in that show, there were quite funny Joey moments. So to have a complete show dedicated just to him, may not work.
Joey’s sister is not that funny, and that is where the show’s weak link may be. Let’s see how it develops. At least I am fine now with The O.C. slated for 8pm Thursdays (starting Nov.), I won’t have a tough decision on which one to watch ;-)
The Apprentice is kinda trickly. I was looking forward to the show, but I think they are making it too much of a reality show and too little of the real ‘interview’ show. Which makes it useless for me to watch the show. I watched it last year for the games and tasks, not for the drama. And I think they are going to put more emphasis on the drama. Cross this one out for me too.
So in the must-see TV Thursday, the only thing that may be worth watching may be Will & Grace (not premiered yet for this season).
