Exciting Game

What a fun and exciting game. Only could have been better if we'd won.

The kids played motivated and inspired football. The FSU offensive and defensive lines were the difference in size, talent and the game.

Our kids did everything they could to win. I'm a State fan and 27-year Wolfpack Club member - I could not ask for anything more.

Who Do I Want to Lose +Addendum

I do not like East Carolina University. The school itself is really OK. It's their fans.

I also don't care much for UNC-CH right now. The "flagship" of the North Carolina University System has been shown to be cheaters through and through - in both football and basketball.

So - this weekend - UNC visits ECU in football.

It isn't who I want to pull for - it's who I want to lose more.

The Pie-Rats or UNC-CHeaters. Decisions, decisions. If there was only a way both could lose . . .

State Football

State has won it's first three games - as expected. The first two, which should have been the easiest, we had to come from behind to win. The third, expected to be the most difficult, we totally dominated. So - is State any good this year? I have no idea.

Actually - I'm still pretty sure we're a 6 and 6 team.

However, I would not be shocked if we went 7 and 5 or even - gasp! - 8 and 4. Pleasantly surprised - but not shocked. I would be disappointed at 5 and 7. That really should not happen. I don't think it will.

I see some real signs that the kids have bought in to Coach DD's system and it is already paying off in his second year. Ahead of schedule actually.

DB is coming up this weekend for the Presbyterian College game. We should win easily.

The following week - No. 1 Florida State comes to Raleigh to start the ACC season.

Addendum

State shut out Presbyterian. Next week, it's gonna be tough against Florida State. It could even get ugly. If we just 'stay in the game' and don't get blown out - I'll be very satisfied.

Speaking of getting blown out - since both EZU and UNC-CHeats couldn't lose - a humiliation for one of them was the next best thing. I wasn't surprised ECU won - however - I never would have guessed the Pie-Rats would hang 70 points on Carolina.

Among the articles in today's paper was one about how the various participants handled the after-game emotions. One example perfectly sums up why I dislike UNC's 'better than everyone else' attitude. The article contrasted the ECU euphoria with UNC's players leaving the field with a lot of cursing. Here's a quote:

"They're not better than us." Donnie Miles, a UNC freshman linebacker, was screaming as he walked off the field.

Ahhh, yes Donnie, ECU's football team is better than UNC's. A whole lot better. Seven-hundred-eighty-nine yards of offense better, Seventy points better and Thirty-six first downs better. In fact Donnie, your UNC defense, set three UNC "worst" defensive records. Congratulations.

Donnie Miles' outburst is a perfect example that clearly reflects UNC's sense of self-importance and entitlement.

Labor Day Weekend 2014 +Addendum

Football

The heat and humidity were awful at the game yesterday. I don't know how the kids play in conditions like that.

I stayed hydrated but in the fourth quarter I was starting to feel a little sick - like I could throw up. I didn't say anything about it to anyone - but in retrospect - should have left early.

Had a hard time walking back to the truck after the game. And when I finally got home, I still felt un-well for a couple of hours.

At least half the crowd at the game was gone by the fourth quarter too - due to the heat and the score.

State did pull out the last minute (1:37) victory with a great march down the field and touchdown. It was the only time we led in the game.

Don't know what to think about the team yet. Hard to tell with this game. The first half we looked like NC State of last year. The second half we looked pretty good.

Weekend

Have 2 days left of the 3 day weekend. Absolutely nothing planned.

Addendum

Right after the above post, I went out for breakfast and stopped at Target to pick up a cheese grater.

I've been meaning to get a handle / rotary cheese grater for, gosh, years? I just never think about it when I'm out running errands. So, made a special point to do that this morning.

The one I got has a cap for the open end so you can leave the block of cheese in the tool - cap it - and just put the whole thing in the fridge. It also comes apart very easily for cleaning.

Here's the one I got:

http://www.target.com/p/oxo-softworks-rotary-grater/-/A-13567830#prodSlot=medium_1_6&term=cheese+grater

Wonder how long the link will last?

Football Addendum Note

I feel much better about yesterday's game and the rest of the season after watching Coach Doeren's post game press conference. He answers questions directly and doesn't cop out with coach-speak or bull-poop.

http://www.gopack.com/collegesportslive/?media=462421

There were a lot of comments about conditioning and how that helped our team finish the game while the other team was having problems.

Not said was something about conditioning that I've been thinking and carping about throughout the Tom O'Brien era.

Every year with T'OB we were plagued by seemingly endless injuries. The same thing last year (Doeren's first year and carryover from T'OB's conditioning program). I always felt that we had so many injuries each year that it had to be linked to our strength and conditioning coaches and methods.

This year - Coach D's first full year - with his new strength and condition coaches and regimen, we've had only 1 serious practice injury resulting in a player being out (for probably 3 or 4 games). And - no injuries in our opening game - and all the guys did well. Especially in horrible temperature and humidity conditions.

Clearly T'OB could never figure it out. He was not the coach and leader I had hoped he would be. And frankly, he was mired in his own out of date philosophy and did not possess the intelligence, temperament and ability to adapt and learn.

2014 Football +Addendum

The 2014 College Football season has begun.

Watching Texas A&M at South Carolina - didn't even know I had the SEC network. Wonder if I'm paying extra for that?

Thankfully Johnny Manzel is in the NFL so I can pull for A&M over South Carolina. I do not like the University of SC. They are an ignorant state's version of ECU. You ever visited South Carolina? If you look up Trailer Trash in the dictionary - the entry reads "see South Carolina".

NC State Football

It's going to be another long football season for Pack fans. Not as bad as last year - but nothing to write home about either.

We expect to win our first 4 warm up games - although no team we play should be taken for granted. After we start 4 - 0 it will likely be a struggle to win 2 ACC games to become bowl eligible.

Something like 70% of our players are freshmen and sophomores. I expect us to be 'in' all our games - but experience (or lack of) will have an effect.

Rebuilding takes time. Those freshmen and sophomores will become juniors and seniors making up 70% of the team in 2 years. So the future is indeed bright.

And who knows, we may surprise ourselves and exceed expectations this year.

Either way - I enjoy watching college football and going to the games.

And - college basketball (which I like best of all) is right around the corner.

Picking up Chip and Weeble Saturday morning for the noon-thirty game. I'm going to fix up some country ham biscuits first thing Saturday and have OJ and Champagne for mimosas. That ought to make a nice little pre-game tailgate.

Addendum

Enjoyed watching SC get totally drubbed by A&M.

Switched over to the Wake Forest at UL-Monroe game (UL-Monroe quarterback is an NC State transfer). A contest of "who is the worst team in this game?"

Wake Forest could easily go 0 - 12 this year.

And we lost to WF last year!? Jeebus . . . .

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Work

I've been working at NC A&T for the last two weeks - commuting each day. That makes for very long and tiring days. I'm glad to be done there (mostly).

Last Thursday, happened upon a deer that was lying next to one of the academic buildings (Marteena Hall). It looked healthy but wasn't moving - except to turn its head to watch us. We called Campus Security and Guilford County Animal Control arrived shortly after our call.

When GCAC tried to net the deer - it got up and took off. You could then see its right rear leg was completely broken at the hip. They chased it down and took it away to be euthanized.

I hate to see animals suffer. Fortunately the whole episode took all of 20 to 30 minutes. Security and GCAC arrived quickly after our call and knew exactly what they were doing.

We were guessing the deer had been hit by a car. It would have suffered a slow starvation death if we had not seen it.

NCSU Football

Tickets have arrived.

The Wolfpack Club is building a new indoor practice facility which is taking up a huge portion of the parking at the stadium. The WPC has been sending out emails warning folks that there would be a major reshuffling of parking assignments. Well, turns out, they have renumbered the spaces and tightened them up (at least they look closer together). However, we seem to be in pretty much the exact same space as last year. The folks that sit behind us were parked 2 rows from us. They've been moved all the way out of the stadium and to a remote lot (the Trinity Lot). Per the WPC they were going to reassign everyone according to their club ranking - so I guess we've been pretty much where we were supposed to be.

Still rebuilding, we're going to have a pretty sad season. I'm expecting 6 and 6 - which sounds bleak - but will be a big step up from last year's 3 and 9.

It takes time. Looking for improvement. Especially on defense.

Home

Not much else to report. Weekend was pretty routine. Mowed the grass for the first time in 3 weeks - it's been raining the last 3 weekends and this is the first dry one. The grass had gotten way out of control.

My neighbor brought over a ton of grape tomatoes from his garden (and some cucumber and hot peppers). I sauteed the tomatoes with some onion and mushroom for a light sauce for pasta. Plus a little garlic, basal and oregano and dropped in a couple of the peppers - whole, not chopped. It was yummy. I love fresh food.

Sunday July 20, 2014

I've promised myself to post once a week to keep my writing skills up and to keep this blog active.

Unfortunately, there's really nothing much worth posting about.

Work has been absolutely routine this week.

Code Class

I've been taking the Building Inspection Level 1 Class that started the beginning of June. It runs to the end of July. It's held on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6 PM to 9 PM. I will also need to take the Building Inspection Law and Administration Class. Then I'll take the State exam.

The course is going well and I'm learning a lot. I understand the exam is along the lines of how quickly one can find rule references in a short amount of time. Supposedly there is about a minute and a half to answer each question. I'm looking forward to getting done with the class and taking the test.

Then the Level II and Level III classes and exams follow.

NCSU Football

The ACC Football Kick Off starts today. It's the annual coaches and press and ACC officials get together.

State went 3 and 9 last year. It was a dreadful season. Our, less than mediocre, quarterback got injured in the first game - along with a ton of other injuries. And the season went downhill from there.

The only place left to go is up. I'm hoping for a 6 and 6 record. Honestly, we could very likely end up between 4 and 8 and 5 and 7. Anything 6 and 6 or better will be a dramatic improvement.

We really did have a bad to mediocre team. Former Coach O'Brien really let us down.

Still, I'm looking forward to going to the games. It's a fun time to hang out with Chip, Weeble and Nuke.

NCSU Basketball

There was a short article in the newspaper last week about basketball. Odds and ends - an interview with Coach Gott.

One thing that came out was about BeeJay Anya. As a freshman Anya showed up last year way overweight from when he was recruited (recruited at 275). In Section 129, we affectionately refer to him as Yum Yum. He huffed and puffed his way up and down the court - and still lit up the place with slam dunks and some super blocks. Even with all his weight, you could tell he's one heck of a player and that's why Gott recruited him.

Anyway - Gott pointed out that Yum Yum was 340 (at least) last year. He is now down to around 320. And has a target to be around 280 when the season starts.

This kid has the potential to be a monster basketball player. With a year's experience and dropping almost 80 pounds - look to hear a lot about him once the basketball season starts.

Ship Clock

Had to take Dad's ship clock to the shop a while back. Got it back this week. Can't recite what was wrong with it but was told it was just a broken part due to age. I know what that's like.

Runs great.