Saturday, December 27, 2014

Christmas 2014



Went to NoVa for Christmas as is customary since, pretty much forever. Traffic going up was pretty good. Coming home (yesterday) not so good.

Christmas was just myself, sister and brother-in-law. A very nice, quiet Holiday.

Christmas Eve dinner was at a Chinese restaurant. Christmas Day at Founding Farmers. Best described as upscale 'comfort food'. A Cracker Barrel for yuppies and trendies. Actually quite good. Nothing new or exciting - basic food you had before done very, very well. I had the fish and chips which came with a 'white beer'. I think it was a wheat beer. Pretty good - even for someone like me who is not a beer fan. The fish was some of the best I've had. The chips - kind of over fried and soggy - but OK.

After Christmas Lunch we went to see The Imitation Game. Excellent film. Highly recommend. Alan Turing was an unsung hero of World War II. He was, of course, brilliant. He also had a serious personality disorder. Add to that he was gay - and in the 1930s - 1950s he had a pretty sad, tormented personal life.

His work formed the basis for modern computers and he is credited with shortening the war by 2 years saving an estimated 14 million lives.

Yesterday back at home, watched the UNCheats Bowl game. They lost badly to Rutgers. The team which beat Georgia Tech and Dook has somehow fallen completely apart. Coach Fedora needs to do some major restructuring and, frankly, he needs to get his players attitudes straightened out by seriously kicking some major ass. There's a lot of guys who I'd kick off that team. No questions asked and no more chances - starting with that Stupidvisor of Morale. Talk about having your team priorities ass-backwards. Even the ESPN studio talking heads were making snarky remarks about UNC's 'Morale Coach' at halftime.

State played the University of Central Florida and pretty much dominated - although from the score we only won by 7 points. Actually, we should have scored at least another 13 points as we shot ourselves in the foot and gave up 1 sure touchdown and 2 sure field goals. All due to understandable mistakes from a very young team.

Over 20 of our guys who have played defense this year are freshmen. A slightly less number played offense. And still, Coach Doren overcame a mid-season slump where we lost to the top 4 ACC teams - as we should have lost to. Clemson, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Louisville - all top 25 teams as well. Plus Boston College - which we could have, and should have, won. We were only really blown out twice - by Clemson and Georgia Tech. We played Florida State and Louisville well enough to win - but just not quite. So - we exceeded possibilities with a very young team. We have a sound coaching staff who are recruiting good solid athletes and students.

Not much else going on. It'll be a weekend of bowl games on TV. Next home basketball game is Tuesday against Cincinnati.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Weekend December 14, 2014 +Addendum(s)

Nothing new. Nada. Zippo.

Works is routine, home life is routine. Let's see, I need to re-set one of the laundry room bi-fold doors. It somehow came out of it's track and I'm having a little bit of difficulty getting it set back correctly. How's that for the most notable thing going on?

Actually, I have been updating my will and updating the beneficiary information on my retirement accounts, 401k, investments accounts and so on. One needs to keep those kinds of things up to date. Plan to get the most recent will witnessed and notarized this coming week.

On the college basketball front - NC State is playing well. The ACC season starts right after Christmas (although we did beat Wake Forest last week).

College basketball season is my favorite time of the year. I truly enjoy watching college ball. I'd watch the Fighting Spuds of Idaho State A&M University of the Happy Valley Potato Conference if they existed and were on TV. Going to State b-ball games is a lot of fun. Even more so with this year's team. They are a blast to watch.

That's about it.

Routine is good.

Addendum

I can't believe I forgot.

Went outside last night at 9:30 to watch the geminids meteor shower. It was excellent. Saw at least two dozen very bright, but short, meteors over a span of about 40 minutes. Best meteor shower I've seen in years.

And, while I'm editing this post . . . Watched 'Almost Famous' again yesterday.

What an excellent movie. Funny, great script and comedy situations, great soundtrack (of course), well developed characters and overall wonderful, spot on acting. A much under-appreciated film.

Addendum Redux

I despise Karl Hess.