In the recent day, I have been faced with some unforeseen circumstances that have turned my life upside down. After much soul searching, prayer, and consultation with the staff and players, I have decided that my time as head coach of the UAB Blazers has come to an end. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to lead my alma mater to three consecutive top ten finishes, three consecutive conference titles, and one national title, as well as having coached so many fine athletes, including one Heisman finalist and one Heisman winner. As I go west, like so many other pioneers before me, to assume the head coaching position for the New Mexico Lobos I will remember these past three seasons as a high point in my life. I wish my successor luck in the coming season, and wish to tell my players, my family, that I will miss them and will continue to be their biggest fan. Thank you, and God bless.

I'd like to take a moment to congratulate Every Day Should Be Saturday on celebrating one year of blogicity. During the soul sucking 1000 movies fiasco Orson routinely offered encouragement and links (seriously, if it weren't for EDSBS and google searches for "lil' kim vomiting" and "hillbilly hotties" a possible total of 3 people might have read this blog) while Stranko came through with stacks of movie recs, many of which are still waiting patiently in my Netflix queue for me to get over my post-traumatic stress (and obsessive need to watch all the episodes of Scrubs, Entourage, The Shield, and Rescue Me available on DVD) so I can watch new movies again. So congratulations guys, and thanks for providing me with countless laughs and hours wasted.

P.S. Orson, I'm pretty sure you can't ship liquids through the mail.

I can't find the post where he said it, but I recall Orson taking it upon himself to break the second heismandment when NCAA 2006 came out. I'm not sure if he ever did or not, but if he didn't, he can rest assured it's now been taken care of. J. Arnold just won the Heisman as a sophomore (at non-traditional power UAB and not during a national championship run, no less), so take that.













Does this mean I'm going to Heisman hell?

- Note to self: Sports talk is your friend. That Ray Price CD you saw on your shelf and thought "hey, haven't listened to that in a while!" is not.

- If I had felt like it I might have said something about the Super Bowl Sunday night or Monday morning, but I was just glad for a Steelers victory and wasn't in the mood to comment on the officiating or the suddenly conservative Pittsburgh game plan. And since I'm kind of late to the game now there's nothing I can say that hasn't been said about a million times over.
















There's a "Nicole Loves Troy" joke in here somewhere, I'm just too lazy to find it...

- Undeclared isn't all that funny. I got the first disc from Netflix over the weekend and thought the first few episodes were pretty good so I made a brief return to the compulsive spender days and bought the whole set instead of waiting for the rest of the discs to show up. Not a good idea. For one thing, the fourth disc is all bonus material so I was quite disappointed when I put it in the player only to find that there weren't any more episodes. I could have definitely waited on Netflix for that. And secondly, it's just not that funny. I get the feeling Apatow was going for another Freaks and Geeks but Fox made him drop the drama and focus on the comedy, not really getting that the comedy can only carry a show so far, it's the drama that keeps people watching. Seinfeld is the only recent comedy I can think of that was able to carry on solely on laughs. Look at Friends; it had the Ross and Rachel "will they get together/are they going to break up/are they going to get back together" storyline through the entire run of the show. Without that (and the subsequent Monica/Chandler romance) it probably wouldn't have lasted so long, no matter how funny it was. So anyway, if you want to rent Undeclared, fine, it's got a few laughs, but don't waste your money by buying it like I did.

- The Office is my reason to breathe. Seriously. I loved the BBC series when I watched those, but I can't get over how funny the American one is. Maybe it's just the ethnocentrist in me, but I've watched the American 1st season four times in one week while I've tried to watch the BBC one again and can't get past the first episode. To prove just how sad I am, I got incredibly excited last night when they showed a commercial for it during Scrubs and then completely crashed when I realized yesterday was only Tuesday and it would be two more days before I got another fix.

- Possibly good news: Newsradio's 3rd Season is scheduled for release on Feb. 28th. I say it's possibly good because the first two seasons were scheduled for release last February and then were mysteriously held for a few more months the week before they were supposed to ship. I thought the release had been cancelled until I stumbled over it in Target one night and then did a little dance in the DVD aisle. So fingers crossed.

Well, it might be depressing, but at least's it's creatively so...

1.Choose a band / artist and answer ONLY in lyrics of THEIR songs:
Bruce Springsteen

2. Are you male or female:
Mr. I ain’t a boy, no I’m a man
(Promised Land)

3. Describe yourself:
What I got I have earned
What I'm not baby I have learned
(Because the Night)

4. How do some people feel about you:
Now a life of leisure and a pirate's treasure
Don't make much for tragedy
But it's a sad man my friend who's living in his own skin
And can't stand the company
(Better Days)

5. How do you feel about yourself:
I ain’t nothing but tired
Man I’m just tired and bored with myself
(Dancing in the Dark)

6. Describe your ex boyfriend / girlfriend:
The tough now they get going, when the going gets tough
But for you my best was never good enough
(My Best Was Never Good Enough)

7. Describe current boyfriend / girlfriend *or lack thereof*:
You’re walking tough, baby but you’re walking blind
To the ties that bind
(The Ties that Bind)

and

The road is dark
and it's a thin thin line
But I want you to know
I'll walk it for you any time
Maybe your other boyfriends
couldn't pass the test
Well if you're rough and ready for love
Honey I'm tougher than the rest
(Tougher Than the Rest)

8. Describe where you want to be:
There’s a rocker’s special on tonight
so meet me on down ‘neath the neon lights
I wanna be where the bands are
(Where the Bands Are)

9. Describe how you live:
I done my best to live the right way
I get up every morning and go to work each day
(Promised Land)

10. Describe how you love:
Now some may wanna die young man, young and gloriously
Get it straight now mister, hey buddy that ain't me
'Cause I got something on my mind
That sets me straight and walkin' proud
And I want all the time, all that heaven will allow
(All That Heaven Will Allow)

11. What would you ask for if you had just one wish:
For one kiss, darling I swear everything I would give
Cause you're a walking, talking reason to live
(Crush on You)

12. Share a few words of wisdom:
Badlands, you gotta live it everyday
Let the broken hearts stand
As the price you've gotta pay
Keep pushing till it's understood
And these badlands start treating us good
(Badlands)

I deleted the "am I doomed to walk the earth alone?" post because, well, it was just pathetic and I was embrassed every time I saw it. Yes, the biggest and best part of my life is gone and, while that's incredibly upsetting, it doesn't mean that I should blog about how miserable I am. I'm not that guy. At least not anymore. I don't know how long it will be before I start updating regularly again. I've really tried to think of things to write, but nothing is coming to me. At least nothing fit for publishing.