office life is tiring. well, not actually tiring, but it's also not as restful as sitting on one's couch and waiting for jeopardy to come on.

so, tuesday marks day six as someone's employee or, rather, an independent contractor. today, i told my supervisor that there's no way this project will be done by the deadline (next tuesday). her response? "keep plugging away." basically, "of course it won't be done in time. we've been putting it off for a year. duh."

i also broke, perhaps [and lamely] a personal record by having some sort of social interaction five straight days. that's probably not a personal record, because i went over to my friends' houses every day in elementary school, but it sure was a streak.

thursday: watching gurs lock his keys in his car, or, rather, the aftermath
friday: eating shrimp and drinking beer with coach and friends
saturday: watching others consume vegan meatloaf in milwaukee; admiring KISS action figures
sunday: fiesta! with j and friends
monday: 24 with stumpy

that's five days, and no overlap. and that's just too much.

upcoming schedule looks light, which i could benefit from. there may be a richard buckner sighting on friday night, and there are semi-solid trivia plans for thursday. next week, black rebel motorcycle club, always worth it, i think.

hermetic existence? what hermetic existence? now sleep.

- - - - - - - -

never good to focus too much on your espn viewing, because sportscenter is an embarrassment. however, friday morning, during the opinion-based "cold hard facts" segment, mark schlereth and darren woodson were "debating" the best super bowl performances at each of six positions. each ex-player got 20 or so seconds to answer each question, fitting in friendly "insults" and "whoa! we agreed" statements. point is, the word "unbelievable" was used in eight of the 12 descriptions. and that, friends, is unbelievable.

let's talk office life.

it's boring. but, i guess that was to be expected. [and, yes, it was boring within the first hour or so, but that was also to be expected.]

a rough summary of what i'm doing:

"basically, we want you to do in the next two weeks what we [a staff or four or five at the time, i think] have been putting off for a year." this was actually, roughly, said to me within the first ten minutes i sat down.

the good:
- i'll be getting paid, and pretty well
- there is something to do during the day
- it's neat to see evanston, in a way
- i've got a fantastic office, with a skyline view
- there's a lot of work to do, so i stay busy
- my current boss hasn't had a bi-weekly explosion yet. i'm hoping for one.
- with something to do, i've gotten motivated, waking up early to use the treadmill two straight days. that's gotta be worth something. i'll likely sleep friday morning.
- because i'm a temp, nothing's actually expected of me. 15 minutes late? ehhh, flexible hours. we're cool.

the bad:
- it's boring
- human resources is boring
- i don't really know what i'm doing
- i'm supposed to write about the company's dental plan and employee policies; i know nothing about the company, so i think i'm supposed to look at other sources and then, you know, "make it up"
- my several-hundred page document will likely never be read
- i don't do a real good job of keeping up on northwestern u. message boards during the day
- it'll probably take longer than two weeks, which is long. but this also means i'll probably make more money than expected.

- - - - - - - - -

speaking of northwestern u. message boards, nu's OT win over purdue tonight was some of the most fun i've ever had watching the cats. they were fun to watch, they were hitting most of their shots, and mo made more great plays than stupid ones.

reasons for down-the-line optimism:
both freshman guards show great promise. craig moore is already a great shooter [although i don't know if he'll develop a completely well-rounded game], and sterling williams shows fantastic defensive instincts and a knack for getting to the basket. and he's not as dumb as mohamed.

well, probably no other reasons for optimism. but moore's three-pointer in the final second was awesome. not more exciting than jenkins' three against iowa last year [i had a personal stake in that one], but more exciting to jitim's five-point possession against minnesota at home in 2002. [i think i remember him making a three, getting fouled, missing the free throw, then scoring a deuce in the scramble - in the final 45 seconds of the game - to beat the gophs, who had rick rickert. but i may have made that up.]

actually, NU's got some taller players coming in next year and, depending on their development, could have a starting lineup of 6-4 (moore), 6-4 (williams), 6-5/7 (GBS'er Jeff Ryan), 6-8 (freshman Coble) and 6-8 (cote). i somehow think cote and scott can be an adequate combination, but that's because i'm fringe-retarded. still, a fun win.

10-8 with 10 games remaining, then the tournament. assuming a one-and-done in the big ten tourney [no guarantee, but a strong possibility based on the conference's strength], that means a 5-5 finish for a potential NIT berth.

Should-wins:
IPFW, home
Minnesota, home [team's fallen apart]

Won't-wins:
at Illinois
at Ohio State

That means they'd need three among the following:
at Indiana
Michigan State
Iowa
Wisconsin
at Penn State
Ohio State

The most likely wins here are Iowa, at Penn State, and ... and ... I don't see it.

4-6 requires two wins in the Big Ten tourney, which is severely unlikely.

I guess Wisconsin is the next-most winnable, then Michigan State. But, not likely.

- - - - - - - -

Slightly more interesting to a few readers, I think the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album is tremendous. Go find "The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth" and "In This Home On Ice" and "Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood" and "Is This Love?" now. [You're already four months late, like I was.]

I find it to be curiously back-loaded, but generally fantastic.

- - - - - - - -

The Bob Pollard album was 11.99 at Dr. Wax in Evanston, which made it neat to be back in Evanston, in its own way.

There are some fantastic songs there, and "single" "I'm a Strong Lion" is 1:08 in length, which makes it cool. It really is sort of sad that he's so irrelevant at this point that Pitchfork didn't review it until [at least] the third day of release. Do we really like the Arctic Monkeys and Jenny Lewis more than him? I guess.

Long, boring, but done.

so i've got an actual [short-term] job, thanks to the generosity of the bullshot family. starting tomorrow, two weeks or so, pretty good money it seems, and i have no actual idea what i'll be doing. yes, i was told what i'd be doing but, no, i didn't understand.

i do know, however, that i'll be wearing slacks of some sort, and a shirt with buttons. and probably not a plaid shirt. i've worn - with the exception of the long-sleeved tony danza shirt and a long-sleeved solid black shirt that crept up from the back of the closet - one of my four plaid shirts every day for each of the past, well, four months. this will be a change, then.

what this means:

- i'll have to actually wake up sort of with my alarm, which is a shame.

- i can't make dinner on tuesday night, which was my latest task.

- most importantly, i need to shave. it's been a month. so long, in fact, that i have what can be called "actual facial hair," and perhaps even a "beard." although i'm not comfortable claiming a beard. there is significant neck-beard growth, however, so shaving will be painful. i'll probably shave once tonight and once in the morning and, hopefully, that'll do it.

anyway, while i don't know if it'll help me become a productive member of society or anything, it is nice to, you know, have something to do. and it'll be nice to have, you know, some sort of cash flow.

so, i've tried to be hyper-helpful since i've been "back," and i think i'm doing a fairly good job. i don't think that my mom has emptied the dishwasher in the last ten days or so (although i'm probably overstating), and i've been good about, uh, helping out before and after dinner. but, then again, i also do nothing all day.

best example of this came friday night, about 1:30, when i made the decision to shovel the driveway. i got about two-thirds done but, sadly, could not get my dad's car up the driveway and into the garage. but still, a productive undertaking that was at least somewhat appreciated. and the background music came from the clientele, which was awesome.

and, yes, the goal here is to feel like i'm accomplishing something.

- - - - - - - - - - -

robert pollard's from a compound eye comes out officially on tuesday. reviews have been generally favorable, and i'm pretty freakin' excited to hear it. i've not yet ordered it, so the plan is to call around, find prices, and then probably go to amazon anyway. on tuesday, which means i'll get it the following week. oh well.

i made my first "no cash flow"-related decision tonight, electing not to go to tomorrow's colin meloy concert. i'll enjoy watching 24 with my mom just as much, although my sister would have made good company. but i saw her over the weekend, anyway.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

as i look at the nfl conference semi-finals and finals, i believe i went 1-for-6 in my picks. (the only game i picked right was seattle over washington.) this is why i don't gamble. i think i would have taken the over on roethlisberger's passing yardage today, however.

i was surprised to learn - today - that i think the seattle seahawks are really, really good. i was stunned - stunned - at the way they so efficiently shut down delhomme-to-smith.

i'm also excited at the possibility of a trip to detroit. when else will a team i'm interested play in a super bowl in a city within a five-hour drive? most likely, never.

at this stage, the goal is to be productive [defined as "doing something - anything - that makes one feel like one has done more than sit around all day] in some way everyday.

a rundown of this week:
monday: addressed cellphone issue, greatly improving reception
tuesday: made several follow-up calls; laundry
wednedsay: sent out two more resumes
thursday: sent out another resume; turned away from blood donation due to low blood pressure; destroyed the competition at trivia night
friday: gave blood; received actual callback from wednesday resume

it's very difficult to come up with something to do. i mean, very difficult. i've been pretty good about doing the dishes, which is something, and i've really kept up on my jeopardy viewing.

it should be noted that the beating gurs, foges, bullshot and i gave to the arlington heights competition was remarkable on thursday night. andrew jackson. ivory. godaddy.com. it was fan-tastic. we had a community college bowl champion on our side. woof.

- - - - - -

mike vanderjagt is now my favorite kicker, although i've only seen highlights of his david letterman appearance.

can the cats defeat the illini? probably not, although that doesn't mean i won't be watching. the michigan game was excruciatingly painful, almost like emergency appendectomy surgery without an anesthesia.

in the haste of my sunday post, i forgot to tie up a loose end regarding last week's situation. thanks to nemo and flax for their thoughts.

here was the response:

[number two] -

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. Out and about most of the
day Friday, "hustling," trying to find a gig...

[Three or four small talk sentences reflecting my knowledge of office goings-on.]

Anyway, some of us "underlings" did have an occasional pool during the fall, guessing when you'd get back in the office after leaving from work. Nothing big, really, just a diversion from the monotony of the work day (you've seen The Office, I hope?).

Stay well, and I'll keep you posted on any moves.
[rud]

- - - - - - - - - -

i'd like to write briefly about my friend susan. i met susan at a wedding in june, at which point she was referred to here as gurs-ette, i believe. in july, susan brought gurs to appleton for grilling, minor league baseball, and beating the crap out of gurs during on-field oversize boxing. for this, she gave me a highly-appropriate gift. [in fact, archival posts refer to her as uber-chick susan at this point.] i wasn't sure why i received said gift, but i happily accepted and quickly devoured. during the fall, susan was highly-supportive of my softball-playing and, more importantly, the highly-detailed posts that followed. in my post-softball "exuberance," she also accepted extended rambling phone calls. since then, i've seen susan during the october nu-michigan weekend, where i was drunk, and the mid-december gurs holiday weekend, during which i was extremely drunk. since the holidays, i've seen her several times, including two arlington heights trivia nights and sunday's highly-successful nfl rud-vent. she's also a good talker. tonight's three-minute apology became a 33-minute exchange of high school swimming stories and possible employers. she's on the case.

so, what i'm saying is, her gripe for getting no more than a gurs-association is warranted. [would you want to be associated with somebody whose "new and improved" blog has gone unupdated since late october? i wouldn't either.]

generally, as you've noticed, real names aren't used here.

for instance,
rico is rico
unstadt is unstadt
gurs is gurs
nemo is nemo
wej is wej
the boy is the boy
flax is flax

therefore, susan now officially needs a redhothalos name.

please vote.
no explanation will be given for these names.

s
suflo
flo
bull
shot
bullshot
anflo
koolaid
kool-aid
cubsanon
tyson
evander
zab
double-bagel
wilson
phillips
prince
frisco
ah-ha
catwoman
catgirl
gursette
the only female that will willingly talk to rud, particularly when sober
toftwwttrpws

write-in votes accepted. feel free to vote multiple times.

*this vote is not considered binding, and the author will feel free to use ladygurs if said author feels that it is artistically justified. this clause makes the author an ass.

- - - - - - - -

nobody likes those nbc "the more you know" psa's. everybody liked then when conan, andy and max would make them.

but anyway, the despicable donald trump did a fantastic one today. i watched it intently.

"SMOKING SUCKS.
the air right out of your lungs.
and you're going to need them for the rest of your life.
don't smoke. it kills."

it was cool to hear such a terse opening sentence. reminded me of Homer's "If I could say a few words... I'd be a better public speaker."

thoughts on the bears, quick-hit style, three of them:

- the most obvious play on fourth and one is the "sneak and spike," which is to say, sexy rexy takes the snap, dives forward for the first down, kills the clock on first down, and the bears reset. how the club could not have coached him this way (or how he could have forgotten it at this point) angers me to no end. or, rather, frustrates me.

- steve smith is great. the only offensive threat carolina has. i mean, awesome. fantastic. why, then, on second-and-20, was [by my count] fourth string cornerback chris thompson lined up on him on what would eventually be the decisive play of the game? i know azumah was injured. but vasher sure was around, and its inexcusable that he's not lined up on the best player on the field. on a related note, where the hell was chris harris? on another related note, i love peanut tillman, and i've often said "he'll be a pro bowl strong safety in four or five or six years, when he loses a step. he sure can tackle." i think, based on this performance, peanut tillman should probably be a strong safety tomorrow. to get burned on the second play from scrimmage, and to lose that battle near the goal line on the deep throw, and to commit at least one [maybe more] first half contact or interference penalty...ugh. 11 catches, 215 yards. ugh.

- if a team gets a break the size of the gigantic break the bears got on the [correctly called] facemask-plus-fumble thomas jones play and still don't win, they probably don't deserve to win.

and i'm done.

notes on the pittsburgh game, briefly:

- awesome. one of the most entertaining football games i've ever seen, partially because of the david-and-goliath factor, partially because of The Bus, partially because of the wild finish, partially because of the ridiculousness of that terribly botched non-penalty call on the false start/offsides play on pittsburgh's fourth-and-one attempt and partially because of bill cowher's bulging neck veins.

- that polamalu interception was the worst botched call in the history of football. but, of course, polamalu should have stayed on the ground, because only bad stood to happen if he made an ego-boosting interception return.

notes on 24:

- i'm so hooked, it's ridiculous. [you may recall that, this time last year, i watched the entirety of season one over the course of one weekend.] i love the way that charles logan's pigheadedness and stupidity is completely reflective of our current president. i'm expecting a "mission accomplished" speech at some point this season. i also, possibly, hooked a friend tonight.

- - - - - -

rewarding nature of the day:

last sunday, i invited gurs over for the game. or he invited me and i suggested we move to the burbs to watch hdtv. gurs asked if the ladygurs could come. sounded like a plan, and i knew that, if mentioned to the mom-unit, far too much food would be a net result. and good times.

friday, high school bud wej called, asking what i was doing. i told him. "can i come?" he asks. "sure," i say. saturday, he calls and ask if he can bring a friend that i fringe-know. "no problem."

so i mention this to the mother, who knew about gurs and wej, and set the number at five. [one would bow out after some frantic texting on saturday night.]

anyway, gurs arrived at 1145, lady gurs at about 1. wej and friend at about 2. and it was a blast. the boy and the dad were alongside, the beer was cold. my dad had a fantastic early-afternoon reaction to the buger king commercials featuring king-as-steve young ["i love the king!," his reaction no more than 1.2 seconds into the spot]. the boy showed off his grape-mouth-catching skill.

and the mom, well, she made lots and lots of food. gigantic crock pot of chili. dogs, brats, polishes. shrimp. chips and dip. grapes awesomely separated into four-to-ten stem bundles. wow.

a good time had by all, i think. wej-friend left mid-third quarter of the bears. gurs and pal left right after football. and wej got sucked into 24, which was awesome.

- - - - - - -

monday's plans include taking my phone into the local verizon place to see about, you know, getting it to work in the burbs, as well as calling temp agencies and hitting up former chicago "weak" contacts about high-paying, low-commitment, off-hours work. [the goal is to be able to "work the phones" during the day.] there's also an afternoon bulls game. my mom doesn't think there are any nighttime janitorial positions in her district, which is a shame.

tuesday's plans include "working the phones," as eight resumes have gone out in the past week. six are owed calls.

- - - - - - - -

and, now, i'm really tired, so i'm going to bed. friday, i ditched what i'm sure was a fantastic treem party in the interests of creating a newly-tailored resume in the interest of getting it out saturday afternoon. that meant 4 a.m. sleepy and 9 a.m. wakeup. saturday involved drinking a lot with recently-returned fogelmania, which resulted in 4 a.m. bedtime and 9 a.m. wakeup. today, drowsy, but made it through, and had a blast.

my first ever 'we need an update' comment. wow!

things going on here:

- my older brother just got engaged, which is exciting.

- my younger brother is playing lots of video games. he goes back to school next week.

- my sister is finishing her move into the city on saturday. she'll start classes at the art institute sometime the next week. hippie.

i have been alternating between productive and non-productive days, although i'm coming off a streak of back-to-back non-productive days. mostly my fault when this happens. in fact, three straight non-productive days, with wednesday's lack of productivity involving at least an oil change.

but, then again, there's only so much one can do, i guess. my mom said as much to me after dinner, when i was guiltily admitting to waking up at [yes] noon. "it's not like you've got anything you need to do anyway, right?" to which i said something to the effect of "don't say that." you know, because i don't need the seed planted.

however, as mentioned earlier, the first two days of the week were quite productive. three more resumes/cds out to teams on monday afternoon, which is worth something, and three more packages out to the local sports stations on tuesday. i spoke with a national network that broadcasts out of the 'burbs on monday, to the sports director. "hey, i've been doing minor league baseball play-by-play for the past four years and i'm back in the area for the time being...i was looking to stay sharp and keep on doing some work." "do you have any tape of yourself doing update work?" "not anymore, although i did some in college. all i've got is my play-by-play from the last few years." "send it in, and i'll give you a call next week, and we'll get you to do some mock updates." "what kind of positions would you have?" "oh, probably some fill-in shifts, anything from a couple a day to several in a week to a few in a month." which could be at least some semblance of a job, i guess. we'll see, but that's positive.

- - -

also, it's now been three weeks since i've shaved. i look ridiculous, being that there's no actual real facial hair there. but there's something. maybe i'll shave soon or, more likely, i'll simply begin to shape it.

- - - - - -

thoughts on this, please:

a boss (number two) of mine took exceedingly long lunches, particularly during the fall months. one day, several coworkers and i decided to make guesses as to when he would return, and watched in amusement/amazement as he didn't return for a full 3:26 when, bear in mind, we're supposed to take an hour. inevitably, this became an office pool, among anywhere from three to six of the underlings. pretty hilarious, really, to realize that the man averaged 2:48 per lunch when, again, bear in mind, we're supposed to take an hour.

today, i get this email:

Subject: How Are You Doing?
[Me],

Just wondering how things are going for you. As you’re probably aware, [replacement] has started and is doing fine.

[Number one] mentioned something to me the other day I wanted to follow-up on. It involved my work day, early afternoons in particular and a “pool”. Does any part of this make sense or do you know anything about this? I’m just looking for a little background and trying to figure the purpose of it all.

I’d appreciate a quick response so I can move forward.

Thanks,
[number two]

The question is, what's the proper respone to that email? I didn't give a response today, but I will Monday. Lemme know.

Ri-dic-u-lous.

Only one disappointment over the most entertaining high-stakes college football game I've ever seen: We're pretty much guaranteed to not have any big ticket sporting event as interesting and exciting as this one this year. But at least we had a fantastic, fantastic one last night.

Going into the game last night, I "sort of" wanted Texas to win. The underdog thing. The USC overhype thing. The "tired of Leinart [although not Bush] and Pete Carroll" thing.

But I hadn't really watched Texas all that much, seing only the beginning of the Missouri-Texas game this October and pieces, I think, of the Big 12 Championship Game. And last year's Rose Bowl, although that was viewed in the awful company of the boy [good] and his boring roommate [bad], so I didn't get to see much of it. So, fact is, I didn't realize how great Vince Young was.

By four minutes into the game, I was glued to the TV and cheering for Young, mostly because he's that fun to watch. I don't actually believe he's an NFL quarterback, but I do believe he's the best college quarterback I've ever seen. Or, at least, that was the best game I've ever seen by a college quarterback.

A few football-related things about the game:

- The fact that USC's players were so poorly coached that they used a timeout after the touchdown reflects very poorly on Pete Carroll.
- The fact that Pete Carroll had Reggie Bush on the bench for fourth-and-2 in the fourth quarter speaks reflects very poorly on Pete Carroll.
- The fact that Pete Carroll had Reggie Bush on the bench for fourth-and-1 in the first quarter reflects very poorly on Pete Carroll.
- The fact that USC went for fourth-and-1 in the first quarter with a 7-0 lead and an imminent lead reflects very poorly on Pete Carroll.
- Brandon Hancock's dropped pass on second-and-7 was a bigger play than the ensuing missed fourth down with two minutes less. (I don't like Brandon Hancock. He came off as a tool in his first-person story about his early enrollment and first spring practice experience in Sports Illustrated in, I think, 2002.) The fact that USC was passing to their reserve fullback on second-and-7 while only needing to run down the clock reflects very poorly on offensive coordinators Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin. Also, on Pete Carroll.
- The fact that Reggie Bush had only 13 carries reflects very poorly on both the offensive coordinators and also on Pete Carroll. Bush had had fewer than 13 carries only four times this season, all in blowouts of 27 or more points. [That is, he didn't play much in any of their second halves.]

- Texas' secondary is awesome. That interception was one of the finest plays I've ever seen.

Also, I don't like Matt Leinart, and I'm happy to see him lose. Very happy, in fact. I guess it was a nice story that he played the "just happy to be in college, why would I leave this" game this year but, really, it was also a self-serving thing.

Stay in college, and he:
1) Builds his own legend, as he's surrounded by some of the best offensive talent ever
2) Perhaps wins a second Heisman trophy, for the same reason
3) Probably wins a third national championship, for the same reason
4) Enjoys BMOC status and his pick of the best looking college girls (and Hollywood types) for another year

Leave college, and he:
1) Winds up with the San Francisco 49ers. Not good.

And yes, the fawning over him was absolutely obnoxious.

But, anyway, I felt good over the bad thoughts I had had about him when I saw the postgame interview with him. "I still believe we're the better team, they just got the best of us today," he had the gall to say after the game. Gracious? Nope, whiny.

- - - - - -

Regarding the telecast:

Keith Jackson is an institution, but a few glaring mistakes were too huge to ignore. "I think John David Booty's being told to warm up." "Why didn't any time run off the clock? [on that two-point conversion.]" He missed a call on a field goal, calling it good when it was clearly wide right. And he suggested that a timeout was called when, in actuality, it was the end of the third quarter. And he regularly used the phrase "times out," rather than "timeouts."

I don't think Keith should be forced to retire. But I do think he should retire gracefully. To many he's college football, but, to me, he was distracting.

I'd rather have a well-called broadcast (think Brad Nessler or Mike Tirico or, if Bob Davie's not there, Ron Franklin) without all the fantastic colloquialisms. (I believe Jackson, at one point, uttered "he's all hamstrings and leather," which doesn't make sense to me but sounds awesome.) However, I'd rather Brent Musberger went away. Now. Ewww. And I'm not interested in Brady Quinn's sister either, dammit.

- - - - -

Regarding my recent espn-related post, petenemo checked in with this article, written by people far smarter than me.

- - - - -

Talked to a prospective employer today, and didn't even get told to shove off and quite calling. That's a step forward.

a few late-coming comments about the state of espn:

- they spent actual 'analyst' time discussing a) whether 2005 USC is the best college football team of all time and b) dissecting potential matchups against the greatest teams of all time. it's one thing to have an online poll and promote it on the website [although i don't really see the point in that, either], but it's completely another to pretend like it's happening for real. and sentences like "this USC offensive line is a lot bigger than the 1988 Notre Dame defensive line" [duh] are just ridiculous.

- sunday morning's gameday gave a "best of brett favre sound bites" segment; lots of grunts and groans and yelps. and then chris berman came back with a face that looked like he had just inhaled a whole bunch of nitrous. i guess he was sad, but excited.

- i timed it on friday night. the two-minute drill took 4 1/2 minutes. berman is excruciating.

- tuesday morning quarterback made an interesting point about how the true impact of monday night football's move to espn is the fact that marks the end for nfl primetime on espn. [apparently nbc's sunday night contract gives them exclusive sunday night highlight rights.] i don't really remember 1986, so i can't vouch for its actual importance as a show, but it's an interesting bit of analysis.

the point is, sportscenter is an unwatchable mess of people yelling while masquerading as analysts; the only actual news is now provided by the crawl, i think, and those are so stat-laden that you have to wait 20 minutes if you miss a score, and then they're inevitably in a commercial. when i'm going to sleep on the couch at 2:30 a.m. [still can't walk in my bedroom; lots of crap there], i choose the same eight videos on vh-1 over sportscenter. or college football replays on espn. sadly, college football replays are done now.

sadly, there's no alternative; the comcast people are awful, and fox doesn't really have a show, i don't think. so i get my news from the tribune, and that's mostly it.

- - - - - -

espn radio in chicago, in conjunction with the bulls, has been running this commercial.

rough synopsis:
nappy-looking white dude climbs into a car that's not his, with intent of stealing the radio. he happens to turn on the radio, and hears an exciting segment of bulls basketball. he stops working his magic so as to not miss a play. fade-out guy, display espn radio logo.

the theme is supposed to be something like "it's so exciting you won't want to miss it - ever," but it looks more like "bulls basketball: the choice of car stereo thieves" to me. odd choice. and, it turns out, a lineup of 12 role players with no discernable role (except ben gordon, whose role is to chuck up - and miss - shots from all angles) doesn't make a playoff contender. they miss eddy - just his presence - more than i imagined, and i don't understand how tyson's disappeared so much. i no longer believe he can be an 8-14-3 blocks guy in 25 minutes a game as a championship-level sixth man. he certainly isn't an nba starting center, although we all knew that.

- - - - - -

first impressions of first impressions of earth, the new strokes album: i like it. it's interesting. new sounds, but still the same old julian voice.

the band is just so tight, and the guitar interplay is fantastic.

i can't really name any standouts at this point, although "ask me anything" almost sounds like the high llamas (you've never listened to them, and i listened to the one disc of theirs i own for about one runthrough...blippy and fun) but very good, with odd pauses and keyboard-y flourishes thrown in as julian sings "i've got nothing to say" and closer "red light," very 12:51-y. the only thing that strikes me as ultra-dislikeable is the end of "ize of the world," which ends with the lyric "cities to vaporize," except it's performed as "cities, to vaaaaaape-o------------------" and then everything cuts off. the only effect is that i feel like my disc is broken, and then the next cut starts.

outside of the regrettable "all black and some vertical gray and white lines, plus one red stripe" cover, the packaging is tremendous, with a different lyric page for each song.

of course, nobody cares about the strokes anymore, and they only did for about six months. but at least they outlasted the vines and the hives and the white stripes (wait...). oh well, i think they're good.

i thought i had interesting things to write, but i don't. i bought the hold steady's separation sunday for the boy for christmas, and i've been playing it to death. it's dumb fun, but it's quite catchy. i don't give a damn about your little hoodrat friends.

epic-level conversation with jenny sunday night. we'll see her soon, i swear.

gurs for irish-bucks and half of the west virginia game today. more to come in the near future, it would seem.

holidays are over, and now we're returning to normality at home. i think i'm helping pull down decorations tuesday. how will it go? i have no idea, but i'm fringe-excited to find out.

i think i'm also making rud wings, probably mostly for myself, for the national championship game wednesday. the game should be fantastic; the wings the same.

i just saw jason mraz perform on conan. god, he sucks. i hope that's not the concert nemo decides to go to.

- - - - - - -

reaction from the sun bowl, four days late, and, really, interesting to nobody [and the reaction hasn't changed since friday]:

the most frustrating thing is that a school like northwestern should be able to recruit a kicker. there are high school kickers out there, and most of them are probably smart. [the logic: kickers aren't big, and they're not athletic, so they should be smart, right?] and there have got to be better kickers out there than the people that northwestern has been running out there. because the kicking game left five points on the field [missed field goal, two missed pat's], plus three more points from the decision to not kick at the end of the first half, and also lost 45 yards in the punting game. and that's inexcusable. [as is the lame justification from randy: "i was switching kickers, and i didn't know if villareal was warm yet." check the tape. howells didn't know the change was being made...he was trotting out for an attempt to end the half.]

related, somewhat. with six or seven minutes left, down 11, facing fourth down at the 23, baz was intercepted. wasn't that ripe for the "speedball" play [they've got two versions, used one against wisconsin and one against illinois in 2003]? or, perhaps, just a 40 yard field goal? or, you know, anything but an interception?

not related to the kicking game, really, are the late-game kick returns. "live by the sword, die by the sword," basically. [i think r-dub said that, actually.] those are fluky, and the UCLA kid made two great plays. he didn't let the ball come to him, he attacked it, and he reaped the benefits. [although, on both plays, he shouldn't have scored; better to flop inside the ten and run down the clock, although two return TD's, 88 yards, makes an impressive stat line.]

baz made some bad throws. he wasn't actually on his game. he gets a funny, confused look when a receiver drops a not-very-good throw.

the running game generated 168 yards, 149 from the backs. but every time sutton touched the ball, it seems, i or my viewing partners said, "man. he is tough to tackle." this means that the line didn't do a particularly good job.

70 pass attempts is far too many. obviously, a lot of this came from fourth quarter comeback mode, when the run was all-but abandoned. but there were 28 first-half passes, and much of these, of course, came with the lead. [this could be related to the run, but it's also related to a tendency shown in mid-season and beyond, except for the illinois game, i think.]

defensively...
36 points in a lot. 310 rushing yards is a whole lot. ugh.

i don't know enough about football, except in extreme [i.e. john shoop] cases, to ever say "fire the coordinator!" however, i think that greg colby's defensive schemes must be seriously flawed.

cofield's a fantastic talent. mcgarigle, roach, as well. herschel [the safety] also, i think. even before making the INT, mims had become a presence of sort. i think cole might be pretty good, actually. i don't think the performance of the defense is commensurate with the skill, effort or athleticism of the defense, and i think that reflects on the scheme. for that reason, i think colby should be canned.

so, yes, a frustrating game. but not an anger-inducing game. although i don't think i've ever been angry by a game. frustrated, sad, but not angry. [closest would be that 49-0 game against penn state in 2002, or perhaps the 60-6 game against iowa that season. 2002 was miserable, but it's the reason baz was good enough for this season.]

best part of the game: dig the game report. page one. dig the name of the line judge, if you're an nfl fan. combust due to joy. [other nugget: "time of game: 4:15"]

it was, on the whole, a fantastically exciting season. they were, for about four weeks in october, the most exciting offensive team in the country. baz and/or sutton received major national coverage for about three weeks running. somebody, i swear, picked NU to be ohio state. more, i think, picked them to beat michigan. they spent a few weeks in the top 25. they were on TV for all but one game. [all but two?] seven big ten games were nationally televised.

randy walker continued to be a fantastic salesman for the program, accepting every halftime and postgame interview with a friendly smile and a positive attitude. tyrell sutton proved to be the nation's best freshman. peterman and lane show great growth potential. bacher, seems to me, will be able to hold his own next year. rees may be back to anchor the center position, and strief is the only lineman lost. outside cofield, the d-line is back. roach and kadela are great, and, somebody, simpson maybe, can partially fill in for mcgarigle. [or kadela could move inside...i think he'd be great, and arrington could be a stud on the outside. didja see arrington's hit on kick/punt coverage? woof!] cole-battle [if back]-dious should be okay on the corners, and brendan smith was fantastic this season.

point is, despite the loss of two four-year starters at the most crucial position on the offense and the most crucial position on the defense, i think the outlook for 2006 is better than it was for 2005. [think i'm crazy? check: iowa, 2004.

a brief glance at the 2006 schedule shows four winnable non-conference games, and i only wish two were against bcs-conference teams. [it should be noted that all four are lose-able.] nevada was a bowl team this year, and miami (oh) could have been. there's nothing (except a win) to gain by playing new hampshire. EMU is dangerous, although they'll categorize the NU game as a "loss," not a "maybe." as always, the conference schedule is unforgiving, as NU misses only indiana and minnesota.

i do love being a northwestern fan, and i look forward to another fun-filled season starting next august. three bowls in six years! no wins, but still, three bowls! neat, isn't it?