Day 33: Back in Phili with a new look

Yup, thats me. I decided to put my head hair in a race with my facial hair to see which grows the fastest.

Day 31: Back in DC

I was just in DC a couple weeks ago but didn't really post anything about it. It just so happens that my cousin's girlfriend moved to DC this last week and he was going to see her. So, with car still on the sidelines I hopped aboard with him and made it back here in the afternoon. I was put immediately to work rearranging some furniture, which I didn't mind. She had already let me stay at her place for a couple nights.

I had made plans to go out to this country western bar with two of my college fraternity brothers Chris and Ryan, pictured to the right. I actually befriended some UT longhorn people and cajoled one girl to give the Aggies Gig' em thumbs up while I did the opposite.

Day 29: Deep in the Forest of Valley Forge

Right now I reside near the very top of a "mountain" (anything with enough elevation to cause a broken leg if dropped from the peak is considered a mountain in Houston. Seriously, you can step on a water cooler and see the entire city) in Valley Forge Pennsylvania. This is where Washington moved his troops during the revolutionary war for the winter to get them ready to fight the British who had over taken Philadelphia, about 30 miles to the east.

I am staying with my cousin's Godparents who have been exceptionally welcoming. Every night (its been 3 now) they have fixed me breakfast lunch and dinner with dessert. In return I provided them with my exceptional raking ability as well as some useless gardening tips.

Tomorrow I think I am going to be heading back to DC with my cousin whom is seeing his girlfriend. Speaking of DC, it was cherry blossom season when I went last week and much of the city was covered by all these beautiful blossoms.

Below is my first attempt at one of those articles that I promised I would write.

BCS vs Playoffs: Why is there so much emphasis on one game?

I’ve never really understood the uproar in Division I College football about the need for a playoff system. It seems as though every sports pundit out there is overwhelmingly in favor of a playoff system. Yes, every other sporting league crowns their champion using a form of a playoff system, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a playoff is the optimal strategy for choosing a champion. A playoff doesn’t guarantee a “true” champion nor necessarily add excitement. In fact, a playoff in college football can detract from both areas.

There are 110 or so teams in Division 1 College football and if there were a playoff only one team would be able to win the championship. The system in place right now allows for multiple champions while a playoff, of course does not. Does anyone else think it completely sucks that there can only be one champion out of all 110 teams? Our society and media coverage seem to be focused on crowing champions and basically making kings out of our superstars (Can I be the next Andre Ware). Why can’t multiple teams have the chance to call themselves champions? Is it really that horrible that there is not a single champion? The top division in high school football in the state of Texas crowns two champions every year. Nobody seems to complain about this.

Football is a game of very high variance and incredible randomness in each and every game. Many games are decided by a couple very fluky plays. Take for instance, last year’s SEC championship game that matched up the eventual champion Florida vs. Arkansas. The game was pretty even except for one huge, terrible mistake on special teams by one of the return men for Arkansas. He called for a fair catch while backing up in his own end zone, something most junior high players don’t do. He fumbled and Florida pounced on it for an easy seven points. If the return guy has a heart attack and falls dead instead of trying to catch the punt then Arkansas might win. The point I am trying to make is that no one game should determine a champion. Also, we put way too much emphasis on championship games. Games can go either way with one person having an enormous impact. Why must we always award this randomness to one team? It really is OK to have multiple champions.

Was UT really so much more deserving of the title two years ago over USC? They were just one play away from being “losers”. I wonder how Vince Young would have been perceived if he was brought down just before the goal line on UT’s final possession that won them the game. Would he have still come out early to the NFL and still have been picked at the same spot? I remember so many people calling in on talk shows right after the game saying how little of an impact Reggie Bush had on the game. He only had almost 200 total yards and a touchdown for that game. Actually, if he doesn’t try his ‘And one’ street ball going full speed lateral in the second quarter then USC probably wins.

A playoff will one day produce a winner with two or even three losses. There has never been a champion with 2 losses in the history of college football. I can’t imagine all the hysteria that will ensue when a three loss team takes down the national title. Not that I believe this to be a bad thing but I’m sure most everyone else will.

Basically, I don’t see too much wrong with the system in place. There will never be a way to crown a true champion so why not let there be many.

Road Trip Potpouri

Here are a couple videos of me. The first one is me at a golf range letting off some steam after finding out what happened to my car.

The second is me singing in my car to the song "Simple Man". Ive never heard myself sing on camera and I always thought I was bad. It turns out I was wrong and I am just worse.

Day 27: My car is near busto in Phili

And so as it was foretold many moons ago by its predecesors, that one day the blue Saturn SL with no power steering will eventually run no mo on the road and go busto. It was a beautiful brilliant Friday afternoon and I had just picked up my brother from the airport. The weather had finally turned around as it was about 75 degees outside without a hint of the horrid constant drizzle I had in DC just a couple days ago. We headed into the old town immediately after I picked him up to go see where the forefathers of this country laid the framework for us today. The streets of downtown Phili are ridiculously tiny, so much so that they don't even have those little cross walk lights. Phili is pretty much the birthplace of our country. Independence hall is where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed. The liberty bell was directly across the street so we decided to go by there as well. Apparently it has cracked about 3 or 4 times getting recasted every time.

On the way back from downtown my brother noticed a strange smell inside my car and since I am no stranger to odd smells I ignored it and kept on going. Less than five minutes later I was on the shoulder unable to get out of first gear. My clutch had completely shut down and was loose like it had fallen asleep. I made it to metered parking area where I could keep it for the night. I actually leave the car here for the next couple days because we had planned to go Altantic City the next morning.

AC was similar to Tunica (the last place I went to gamble) in that there seems to be extreme poverty except for the mammoth casinos that dot the boardwalk. All three of us went immediately to play poker at the Trump Taj Mahal. There was actually only 2 spots available at the table and since we all wanted to play together I offered 25 bucks for the first person to leave. I instantly got action on my proposition, payed the man in chips and was instantly down for my session. We ended up degenerating it up until about 5 a.m. My cousin claimed to put down 15 whiskey cokes in the 12 or so straight hours that we were there. Since it was so late and the cheapest hotel in town was 250 dollars we decided to pay 5 dollars to sleep in the parking lot in our car.

We came back Sunday afternoon where I had to wait 4 hours for AAA to come get me. It is now at a local mechanic shop where I will get the verdic tomorrow morning.

Day 23: Philadelphia

I am alive and fully functioning, except for possibly my liver which has gone through a few rough outings the past week. I just drove in to Philadelphia yesterday and staying with my cousin Chris whom I just saw in Birmingham a couple weeks ago. I have full albums of pictures that will hopefully be updated soon as well as some candid video of myself singing in the car. Its truly amazing how someone, a human no less, can produce such a spectacular cacophony of sound whilst trying so hard to sing proper.

One other random road trip moment: On my way to Memphis from Ft. Worth I heard this R&B song by a group of chicks (possibly Beyonce). The main chorus in the song goes something like "Run away girl, Run away girl ..." Since I am 25 I am hard of hearing and believe I say "what?" during conversation more than most 80 year old men, I thought the song was saying "Winnebago, Winnebago" . I thought what a perfect song for my road trip. I then started listening to the other words of the song and finally put it together that they were not indeed singing about a motor home.

Go ahead and say "Run away girl" fast and see what happens. Dont babies turn their r's into w's.

One more thing. There is a website called googlefight.com where you can match up two phrases to see which one has more hits (yes you can do it yourself but its more fun this way and there is a little video of two stick figures fighting it out). Well tonight I think we are going to use it to play a drinking game or to make degen prop bets. Out.