2004 December

There’s No Hope For Me

Half-Life 2 Review

I’ve posted my review on Half-Life 2, only the best PC game to ever come out. This year has been a mighty good one for PC gamers, as we’ve been flooded with excellent titles to play. Off the top of my head: City of Heroes, Rome: Total War, Far Cry, FlatOut, Sid Meier’s Pirates! (arrrrr, me hearties!), and Half-Life 2.

I’m expecting 2005 to be an even better year; at the top of my list is the sequel to Morrowind, called Oblivion. The graphics in that game is going to be mind-blowing judging by early screenshots.

Yes, it’s a good time to be a PC gamer.

Urban Meyer To Coach Florida Gators?

I’ve been a fan of the Florida Gators college football team for as long as I can remember. My dad used to take me to the games down in Gainesville, and we’d pick up cajun boiled peanuts from one of the numerous vendors along the way, and eat them at the game. For so many years, Steve Spurrier coached the Gators to amazing wins after wins, and boy were they amazing.

Spurrier is a man who is offense-minded. He had an uncanny knack of exploiting a quarterback’s talents, and making the opposing team furious. Tennessee would boo him not only because they thought he’d coach them since he is from TN, but because they couldn’t beat him for so long. Spurrier was aggressive, he’d score in the 4th quarter even if they were up by 42 points. He loved trying trick plays, and throwing caution to the win. This is why Florida Gator fans loved him so much, he loved to win and he made it entertaining.

So you can imagine how disappointed I was when he left to coach the Washington Redskins, and how hopeful I was when he quit, and how excited I was at the prospect of him coming back to the Gators when rumors popped up that he was in the hunt for a college coaching job. However he went with South Carolina. Bummer!

Hope isn’t lost, fortunately. Although Spurrier would’ve been nice, on hindsight I figure it may have not been good. It’s like an ex-girlfriend who wants to get back together with you. Sure, she knows all your buttons, knows how to push them, and you like her, but the excitement isn’t there like it was the first time you met her. So we may have a new coach in Urban Meyer, who coached at Utah.

This is a guy who, like Spurrier, understands the importance of a high-powered offense, and is innovative with his playbook. Now that is exciting, and I’m thinking this will be a really great coach for the Gators. I like his style after reading and watching some of his handiwork, and from this Gators fan, he gets two big thumbs up from me. Maybe the glory days of the Florida Gators aren’t gone after all.

Life Experiences

I’ve seen a mother cry
I’ve lived on the streets
I’ve lost a best friend
I’ve learned a new language
I’ve played the best game ever
I’ve held my breath for 3 minutes
I’ve jumped off a roof
I’ve been through 3 hurricanes in 1 month
I’ve seen a dead rat
I’ve dreamed of being born
I’ve jumped on a waterbed
I’ve danced to Vanilla Ice’s rap
I’ve seen the Pacific and Atlantic oceans
I’ve watched Korean films
I’ve held twins siblings in my arms
I’ve only been in 1 fight
I’ve eaten sushi and liked it
I’ve skipped an Algebra class for a whole year
I’ve been teaching myself how to cook good food
I’ve built my own computer from scratch
I’ve had my shoelaces taken away
I’ve had a gun fired next to my head
I’ve tripped on acid during a concert
I’ve won an iPod for free
I’ve been kicked in the nuts for no reason

I’ve asked all the right questions at the wrong time
I’ve saved my own life many times
I’ve discovered experience is nice to have

Rock and Roll!

My dad spent $900 for 2 V.I.P. tickets to see The Eagles on their Farewell Tour in Jacksonville, FL this coming March. We’ll get to meet the band, be given merchandise for them to sign, have backstage passes, and be guaranteed to have a seat in the first 10 rows. Am I excited? Oh man, am I ever. The Eagles are one of the greatest rock bands, undoubtably so. Three of the guys have had successful solo careers (Don Henley, Joe Walsh, and Glenn Frey), but put 4 of them together (don’t forget the talented Timothy Schmit), it’s just rock heaven. I’m not sure what I’ll say to the guys, but I’ll be sure to tell them that even us younger guys appreciate their musical genius. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a great band before they retire.

Speaking of rock, I’ve been getting into the indie rock stuff, especially from Death Cab for Cutie, which is a great musical outfit. I always shrugged indie rock off before, thinking it’s a bit too much emo for me, but I always pride myself on having an open mind and an expansive musical taste, so I’m glad I tried them out. I always thought that the older I get, the harder it would be to find good music I’d like, but I’m glad to report it is the total opposite. I’m finding a lot of great music, from rockabilly, jazz, to indie rock. Music is life.

Go Go Gadget Skates!

While talking to Erik from Kartooner.com, he reminded me of a cartoon I used to watch a lot as a kid growing up - Inspector Gadget. How can you not like a bumbling detective, those sexy pig-tails on Penny (yea, I had a crush on her as a kid), and the smartest dog on the planet, Brain?

To this day we still don’t have a nifty computer book that Penny depended on, and mankind still can’t utter under their breath, “Go go gadget teleporter” when the wife is nagging you. Erik has an excellent post about Inspector Gadget in case you’re not familiar with it.

An Ode To Cantaloupe

I’m only making this post because Cindy got worried that I wasn’t posting anymore and emailed me and asked if I’m dead or something.

So yea, I’m not dead.