Ok, it is time to update. I am not sure why I haven't updated in a while... I guess it is because school is finally in full swing. Last time I updated was the first day of the second week of school, and now we are done with the third week. The next time that we get a holiday is President's day. Not that I am saying that I don't like my classes, because I really do, and I really like most of my teachers. Math is a breeze and the teacher's voice sounds like some famous actor... like Ben Stiller or something. Both CS classes are pretty nice, and cover very different topics. Core is ok... but at least I have found that I really don't need to read the readings that are assigned, because we are never quizzed on them. Physics was pretty easy for a while, but I think that I am going to have to start paying attention in my classes a little bit more. I have noticed that I have not been understanding the concepts as well in classes where I have my laptop out. Also last semester, both of the classes where I generally had my laptop out during the whole class were the classes that I got B's in. The classes that I didn't were the ones that I got A's in. I think I am going to start taking notes on paper. The laptop is good, but it offers to many ways to get off task, and I think it will have to stay away during class.

One other class that I am thoroughly enjoying is the workout class that I am taking. It is really good because not only do I have a teacher who can give me pointers, and get me on a good workout program, but I am also forced to go at least twice a week. It is an easy credit (as long as I show up, I pass) and I am starting to notice that I am in better shape! I think I am going to have to take a course like this every semester.

I don't know if any of you will notice, but this is the first weekend since September where there isn't a football game on. That’s right, 30 out of 32 teams are done for the season, and the Eagles and the Patriots get an extra week off to prepare for the Super Bowl. I understand why there is the extra week (they have to get their families down to Jacksonville, and still stay focused on the game and prepare to play the best football of their life), but I want it now. Sigh. Oh, with my predictions being right last week (I predicted the Patriots and the Eagles), that brings my post season prediction record to 5-5, exactly 50%. If I get the Super bowl right (which I have 6 out of the past 7 years), then I will be over 50%. As much as I would love for the Eagles to knock off the Patriots so that I don't have to hear about how good the Patriots are, or see how good they are in the Super Bowl, I really think that the Patriots are going to win. After seeing them dismantle two of the best offenses in the AFC (the Indianapolis Colts and the Pittsburg Steelers), I am not sure that the game will really even be that good. I am hoping that with the extra week to prepare, that they will be very evenly matched teams, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Our hall got to go to a hockey game (Spokane Chiefs vs Tri City Americans) last weekend along with the rest of the reshalls. It was a really good game, and it looked like it was going to be a blowout because towards the end it was 4-1, but those American's didn't give up. They scored three points, one with 5 seconds left in the game. The crowd was actually counting down the seconds until the end of the game when they scored. It was pretty funny when the whole crowd went silent trying to figure out what was going on. In the end it was a tie because no one scored in the overtime period, but it was a good time anyway. It was buck night, so all of the food was really cheap, but we got in a line where the lady, Phyllis, was going as slow as she could. Sigh... missed a lot of the game because of her :@.

Of course, one thing to look forward to is the commercials that go on every year. While they don't release them before the game, you can see commercials of years past at www.superbowl-ads.com. Good stuff. Go to www.budweiser.com to see a really good one that they can't show during the Super Bowl for obvious reasons. It is really, REALLY good.

Ok, this has been a long enough post. Maybe I will get up early and try to enjoy this unusually good weather that we are having. Last week we hit a record high of 56 degrees! Tomorrow is only supposed to be 45 degrees, but that is still pretty good for a January. I guess winter is already over... oh well... no sweat off of my back.

The playoffs never cease to amaze me. In week one of the playoffs, homefield advantage didn't seem to matter because only 1/4 teams with homefield advantage won. This week, every team with homefield advantage won. Not only that, but there was only one game that was even close! So with this weekend, I have gone a pitiful 3-5 in my predictions. Oh well, here is my last stab at going .500.

THIRD ROUND
Atlanta vs Philidelphia - Philidelphia
New England vs Pittsburg - New England

SUPERBOWL
Philidelphia vs New England - New England

This weekend, a group of us from McCoy went to Pullman to watch the movie "White Noise", and while I am not too wild about scary movies, this movie rocked! It is about a guy named John Rivers, whose wife dies and then communicates back to him through broadcast static. The plot was one of the best horror plots that I have seen in a while, and it was scary as hell. While it is a little bit predicable because you know when big things are about to happen, what scary movie isn't like that. There were times when I felt like yelling at the main character to stop being a moron and turn around. But all in all I would say that it is an excellent movie: 5/5 (and that is rare for me!)

Last night Danielle came in and said that she could go a month without talking to Chris or me. That included telephone, email, instant messaging, written commuication and verbal communication. She was so sure of herself that she put her iPod down as a bet. I was starting to decide how long I thought she could go (I was thinking an hour) when she backed out of the deal. I didn't even have time to bet Chris money yet! Shesh. But then she decided to do it again. I was scaling my bet back to 15-30 minutes when she backed out again. Fine... no bet I guess. So she said "I will see you tomorrow" and left. That was at 10:54. She was back by 11:00. So much for "tomorrow". Oh well.

This weekend summed up in one word is "Wow". You may or may not know that I am planning on going on a mission trip over Spring Break. It will be in Juarez, Mexico where I will serve and minister to the poor, and live like the poor (which means we have to use outhouses, I only get two showers during the week, and we get simple food... but I guess that part of it won't be an adjustment after college). I talked Kacy into going as well, so we decided to do a fund raiser at our church, where we would ask people to help us to get to our goal, which was $350 per person or $700. After procrastinating to the last weekend of the semester, we decided to do it. The amazing thing was that we raised $748 in the first mass alone. We could have stopped there but we decided to hit the other three masses to raise extra money for the other people going on the trip, and for the people down in Mexico. In the end, we raised about $2300 in all four masses. That’s right... $2300! I honestly could not believe how generous people are to a good cause. Even if there isn't God, the people that church brings together are truly amazing, and I consider it an amazing blessing. God is real. God is amazing. Thank you God.

I was told by Danielle that I talk about Football too much, and that I should counter balance it with other things a little bit more. Ok. For Christmas, I told my mom that I would spend an entire day with her, doing whatever she wanted to do. I would even break down and do yoga again. So last week she chose Monday, and of course the first thing that we did was shopping. And then after that we went shopping some more. And more. And more. I mean... wow... women love to shop. I couldn't believe how many women were out shopping while their husbands were working and making money, and this is only a few weeks after Christmas. It was boooooooooooooooooooooring. Fortunately I got out of yoga because we were just a little too late because we dropped off some flowers to Danielle, because my mom is worried about Danielle. I do too, especially now but that is another story that I am not going to post here.

Anyway, now it is football time. I thought that Green Bay would have no trouble with Minnesota, but they did. Minnesota came out and scored first and showed what a great football team looks like, but it only lasted about 5 minutes. If Green Bay had been on their game, then this game would have been no sweat... but it was. This game reminded me of the Philadelphia game where Green Bay got slaughtered. There is no excuse for the way they played, and they will have the whole off season to think about it. Oh well... Brett Favre isn't talking about retirement, so we should have another great year with him.

Another game that I couldn't believe was the New York Jets beating the San Diego Chargers. Drew Brees of the Chargers has been having an awesome year, while the Jets have been having a mediocre end of season. That one boggles my mind.

I thought that Denver would lose, but not that badly. Payton Manning is a great QB, and I guess he just shell shocked the defense of the Broncos. It will be interesting to see how Payton fairs for the rest of the postseason.

And the Rams beat the Seahawks. The Seahawks have been mediocre all year, and the only reason that the Ram's have lost so many games is because Marc Bulger got injured, and their backup quarterback is well beyond his prime... if he ever did have a prime. I think the Rams will fair well in the post season if Bulger stays healthy.

Here is my updated playoff bracket, and there will be some good games this weekend. So far I am 2/4 games.

SECOND ROUND

New York Jets vs Pittsburg - Pittsburg
St. Louis vs Atlanta - St. Louis
Minnesota vs Philadelphia - Minnesota
Indianapolis vs New England - Indianapolis

THIRD ROUND
Minnesota vs St. Louis - St. Louis
Indianapolis vs Pittsburg - Indianapolis

SUPER BOWL
St. Louis vs Indianapolis - Indianapolis

Get ready for some football!

Well it is 2005 now... hem. I said it is 2005... ok... that is what I thought. This year is just like last year, and I have come to that conclusion so forcefully that I did nothing on New Year's Eve. Literally, I just watched TV until midnight and then went to bed. I felt like I should have been out partying or something, but I decided that I really didn't care that much.

At least I did make a resolution that I think is worthwhile and important. When I was deciding on what my resolution should be, I thought of what is truly important in my life now, and in the future. That is my relationship with God, so I made my resolution “To make my life honor God more this year than last”. In November, I had decided that I would go on a mission trip to Mexico over Spring Break, but I figured that I could do a little bit more (but I wasn't sure what), so I shelved the idea for the time being. Later, I was looking on the web for an internship for next summer and going to all of the typical tech companies like Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Micron and the such when I stumbled on a company called Disciple Makers. After reading a little into it I realized that it is exactly what I was looking for. It would be a programming job where they expect almost nothing out of me (that was one of my concerns because the other companies that I was looking at seemed like they were asking for more skills than I could offer at this point), it would be a paid internship, I would be surrounded by a Christian environment, and I would get a chance to spread Christianity. I couldn't believe it... it is exactly what I wanted, so we will see how that pans out.

As with Christine, my pseudo-girlfriend, I think that I have lost interest with her. I liked her for a while, even though on our first date she talked about all of the other boyfriends that she has had in the past year, but as time wore on I started to realize that she was just jumping from boyfriend to boyfriend and that I was just another stepping stone. Yeah... I really didn't ever think that it would work out but I at least thought the journey would be fun. Oh well... no broken hearts. But after I made the decision to move on from her (sometime between Christmas and New Year's Day, I started to realize that my "Wait for them to come to me" strategy wasn't going to work. But who could I go for? It seems like everyone else gets girls so easily (like Kevin and Kacy), but I never find that girl. I started to notice that, and realized how many people are single well into their forties (which scared me... I don't want to be single THAT long). But I also realized that people like one of my hick neighbors could get married, so I still do stand a chance. Also, there are a lot of unattractive geeks out there who get great looking girls so I have a chance right?

I don't like the idea of blind dating because I did that twice with prom dates and didn't like either of them. So how? Corey mentioned the same thing on his blog so I guess I am not alone, not like I ever thought I was. Sigh.

Maybe I could find a girl that likes football, because then I would have something to talk about. Actually, I am starting to feel a little bit down so it is time to talk football to cheer me back up. What better way than to talk about Green Bay being in the playoffs, and finally knowing who is in and out. If you look back at my play off predictions from a few weeks ago, you will notice that I am wrong on only two teams. Denver got in instead of Jacksonville, and St. Louis got in instead of Carolina. Also, Minnesota sucked it up beyond belief so the seeds were a little different, which changes the games a bit. Also, after seeing how teams reacted this week, I have a new playoff bracket.

FIRST ROUND

Pittsburg - Bye
New England - Bye
Philadelphia - Bye
Atlanta - Bye
New York Jets vs. San Diego - San Diego
Denver vs. Indianapolis - Indianapolis
Minnesota vs. Green Bay - Green Bay
St Louis vs. Seattle - St Louis

SECOND ROUND

San Diego vs. Pittsburg - Pittsburg
Indianapolis vs. New England - Indianapolis
Green Bay vs. Philadelphia - Green Bay
St Louis vs. Atlanta - St Louis

THIRD ROUND

Indianapolis vs. Pittsburg - Pittsburg
St Louis vs. Green Bay - Green Bay

SUPER BOWL

Green Bay vs. Pittsburg - Pittsburg

Slight adjustments, but Green Bay still loses. Other good news is that BSU went to the Liberty Bowl and made it a very good game. Everyone was saying that it would be a shootout, and it was down to the last second. The 44-40 score was a record score in a Liberty Bowl game, and BSU got so close to winning, but fell short. At least they have something to build off of for next year though.

Anyway, Maybe I should go to bed now since I told my mom I would go shopping with her tomorrow. Sigh.