Axodys

Sports Illustrated’s Peter King has a great open letter to Saints owner Tom Benson in this week’s Monday Morning Quarterback: “Saints belong in New Orleans”:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/peter_king/09/12/mmqb.week1/index.html.

bq. These people need the Saints. This region needs the Saints, now more than any other time in the 38-year history of the franchise. And the future of this team — and I would say even this incredibly needy region — is in your hands as much as any single person in the United States right now. You want to know what the displaced people in Houston and Dallas and all over America want to hear right now? They want to hear you make a clear, unmistakable declaration that the Saints will stay in New Orleans, no matter what infrastructure hurdles stand in the way over the next few years and no matter how incredibly lucrative it would be for you to move the team. They want to hear you say: “There’s no way on God’s green earth we’re moving this franchise. We will be a part of any reconstruction effort the city of New Orleans plans, and we’ll get through this painful chapter in our lives together. We’ll do it in New Orleans, nowhere else.”

Personally, I couldn’t agree more with Peter’s sentiments and I hope Tom Benson takes his words to heart. As yesterday’s win over Carolina demonstrated the Saints are rapidly becoming America’s team of the moment and I think there’s a lot more goodwill and fans to be gained by doing the right thing and staying put in New Orleans.

Besides the open letter Peter has a ton of interesting tidbits in this weeks MMQB as usual. The one I especially enjoyed was his “review of the Burger King commercial”:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/peter_king/09/12/mmqb.week1/3.html that I “mentioned”:http://axodys.com/2005/09/11/nfl-ad-rundown yesterday:

bq. The funniest commercial in recent NFL history is the Burger King spot with the Burger King guy intercepting Drew Bledsoe, taking it to the house and doing the cocky jig in the end zone. Whoever thought of that one deserves a little extra dough in the paycheck this week.

A couple football related commercials jumped out at me today while I was watching the games. The credit card ad with Tom Brady at dinner with a date and his metaphorical offensive line was amusing the first couple times, but got kind of old by the end of the day. I wonder if the five linemen are actually on the Patriots OL? It’d be cool if they are since that would mean they’re getting in on a little bit of the endorsement money that Tom Brady’s rolling in these days.

The other ad that I actually enjoyed was the Burger King commercial with the King magically integrated into some footage of an actual Bill’s game. Former Bills quarterback Drew Bledsoe throws a pass and it deflects into the air off a receiver’s hands. The King grabs it for an interception and then flys up the field into the endzone for a touchdown. Way better use of their mascot than that “creepy ad”:http://axodys.com/2005/04/13/creepy they were showing not that long ago.

The “Seahawks game”:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/recaps/2005/09/11/1556_recap.html today was a pretty big disappointment. The first half was okay. The Hawks had a 14-13 lead over the Jaguars going into halftime thanks to the inspired efforts of a defense that was handed consistantly poor field position, but it was all downhill from there. The Jaguar defense really took control in the second half and led their team to a 26-14 victory.

In the it’s still early department, San Francisco is now all alone in first place in the NFC West thanks to their upset win over St. Louis and the Seattle and Arizona losses.

I also caught the Sunday Night game on ESPN tonight and thoroughly enjoyed watching Peyton Manning dissect the Ravens’ defense with precision passing and play-calling as he lead the Colts to a “24-7 victory”:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/recaps/2005/09/11/1559_recap.html.

In the heartwarming news department, New Orleans scored an “upset 23-20 victory over Carolina”:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/football/nfl/09/11/bc.fbn.saints.panthers.ap/index.html?cnn=yes which was pretty cool for the people of Louisiana.

I found another “article about General Honore”:http://cnn.com/2005/US/09/11/katrina.hurricane.general.ap/index.html over at “CNN”:http://cnn.com today. Apparently his nickname amongst his troops is “Rajin’ Cajun” which is kind of cool, but some of the little factoids on the good general seem like something out of a quirky movie:

bq. Honore was born at home 57 years ago during a hurricane, his mother and an uncle always told him. He grew up poor in Lakeland, La., northwest of Baton Rouge, with 11 siblings, once winning a 4-H contest with the family’s lone dairy cow, Weasel.

A cow named Weasel? That is too classic. The article also had a couple football related quotes that jumped out at me:

bq. Honore said it was as if he entered a football game to coach in which it was the “end of the first quarter and you’re down 25 to nothing.”

bq. “You can’t win the first quarter in a disaster. It’s impossible to do it. You got to do the best you can. But you better win the next quarter, take care of the evacuees,” he says. “If the first quarter taught us anything, your plan is a plan but it needs to be executed.”

Anyway, just more evidence that General Honore is not only a good leader, but a good guy too.

I watched most of the Michigan - Notre Dame football game today and it was a real gem. The Irish ended up “holding on for the 17-10 upset”:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/football/ncaa/09/10/nd.michigan.ap/index.html after establishing the lead with two first half touchdowns. I’ve never been a Michigan fan and I actually kind of like ND now that they’re an underdog. And they’ve got Charlie Weis going for them as well; I definitely prefer college teams that are offensive minded and do a lot of passing, must be my WSU roots.

The middle game of the ABC tripleheader was a real stinker. Cal beat the heck out of the Huskies in Seattle and won 56-17. I don’t think Coach Willingham could be off to a start that is any worse. I’m starting to think that Idaho might actually be able to take them when they meet later this month. Husky quarterback Isaiah Stanbeck didn’t have too bad of a day behind center with 22-39 for 301 yards and two touchdowns, but he didn’t have enough help and the UW defense was just sickening.

On the other hand the “Texas - Ohio State game”:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/football/ncaa/09/10/texas.ohiostate.ap/index.html was a really, really good one up in Columbus with the Longhorns winning 25-22. Texas quarterback Vince Young was as impressive as advertised, but the Ohio State linebacking corps was pretty impressive in their own right. Big, strong and surprisingly fast for their size, they did a great job of pounding on Young all game long.

Well, if tonight’s “WSU Nevada football game”:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/boxscores/2005/09/09/33315_boxscore.html had taken place back during my Rally Squad days I would have had to do a total of 266 pushups over a 3.5 hour span! I couldn’t have done it then and I certainly couldn’t do that many now. I think 35-42 point games were usually enough to do me in back in those days. 105 pushups across 3.5 hours was doable, but 147 was pretty taxing and made for some very soar arms. Notre Dame’s Leprechaun can probably relate, especially now that they’ve got Charlie Weiss at the helm of their offense.

Going into the game Nevada’s “Pistol” variant on Urban Meyer’s spread shotgun option offense had me intrigued, but the gaping talent disparity between the two teams didn’t allow Nevada to ever get rolling in a meaningful way. WSU looked a lot better on offense this week and definitely have some very good talent and depth at the skill positions. WSU’s backup running back had some really nice runs during the fourth quarter and ended up with over 100 yards himself.

Today I’ve finally reached the the technologically significant age of 32, a number that instantly brings to mind computer terms like 32-bit processor, 32-bit graphics and 32-bit operating system. Never mind the fact you really only need six bits to express the number 32 and that 64-bit is all the rage these days. 32 is still pretty cool in my book because of its association with so many computer related things during my life to date.

The first birthday that I remember feeling was numerically special was my 8th birthday. Back in those days I didn’t know enough about computers to realize that was the number of bits in a byte, I was more excited about it because my birthday was September 8th and I was going to be 8. I was totally into space and astronauts at the time so we had a special space-themed party. My mom made me a rocket shaped cake (with USA on the side!) and we even had a special room that simulated the surface of the moon.

The moon simulation room wasn’t particularly fancy, but I thought it was cool at the time. We turned out the lights except for some strategically placed Christmas lights for effect and put sheets down on the floor over balloons and/or pillows (my memory is hazy on this one) to create a cratered surface. Then we placed several aluminum foil wrapped “meteors” around the room in various craters. Each of my guests got to go back and get pick out one “meteor” which contained a toy of some kind like a small space-themed Lego kit.

A few years after my 8th birthday I remember thinking age 10 was pretty cool because it meant I was one decade old. But since then I don’t think I’ve really felt like a particular age was all that cool. I mean the usual teenage milestones (13, 16 and 18) were sort of significant, but as a teenager I don’t remember deriving the same kind of numerical pleasure out of my actual age. I definitely don’t really remember what I did for any of my birthdays like I do for age 8. It’s funny how the mind works in that regard.

Apple just introduced the new “iPod Nano”:http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/ and it’s even smaller and thinner than the iPod Mini! The Nano features a color screen, digital photograph storage support, and a more iPod-like design with the traditional shiny silver backing, but a choice of black or white plastic. Storage starts at 2GB for $200, but 4GB models are also available for $50 more. The nano also appears to be the replacement for the mini since there no longer seems to be a mini specific page on the “Apple website”:http://apple.com.

Apple has put together an appealing new iPod here and a very worthy successor to the iPod mini. My guess is that the black 4GB model will be the most popular and by early next year the 4GB model will be going for $200. It will also be interesting to see if the pricing on currently available iPod minis come down as stores try to clear inventory.

From a techy perspective it will also be interesting to see if the new Nano supports audio recording via third party add-ons. That’s one feature I definitely wish the Mini had available.

UW’s Burke Museum has an interesting “online birthstone collection”:http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/collections/geology/birthstones/ up that “Gena Schwam”:http://www.livejournal.com/users/ggirl/ put together.

bq. *The lure of birthstones*
The basic human need to own and wear materials we deem “sacred” or special is what drives us to collect rocks and minerals. Perhaps this explains the lure of birthstones; how powerful it is to have our month of birth represented by a beautiful natural gemstone. We can own and display our special stone and feel embraced by its beauty.

I didn’t realize that jade was an alternate “birthstone for people born in August”:http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/collections/geology/birthstones/aug.php (peridot is the primary). That makes the jade earrings that I bought at the Smithsonian for Mary’s birthday back in August of 1999 all the more fitting.

I was watching Eawyn, our 11 month old daughter, in my office tonight while Mary was doing some work in the kitchen and a funny thing happened. I was sitting at my desk doing some surfing when Eawyn puttered over to my chair and handed me a small piece of paper roughly 3″x5″. Eawyn really likes to share and show things to us which we enjoy quite a bit. More often than not we just end up handing the objects back to her after taking a moment to inspect them (which may be why she continues to do it). This time around inspiration struck and I decided to fold a small paper airplane and see how she reacted.

I explained what I was doing and she watched me curiously for a while without trying to grab the paper out of my hands. After 20 seconds or so she started to get a little distracted by something else on the floor nearby, but I was able to restore her attention without too much trouble. I did a quick ready, set, go and launched the paper airplane into the air. It flew a few feet and then did an impressive nose dive into the floor. Eawyn loved it and began giggling loudly.

I decided to move back into a corner to give the plane more room to operate and I added a countdown since Eawyn is fascinated by numbers. 3..2..1.. the plane travelled a little further before heading into a steep nose dive and landing with a satisfying smack. Eawyn giggled even harder. I repeated the process a few times and it was long before she was tracking down the errant planes and returning them to me for another launch and giggle-inspiring crash landing. It’s really amazing how much fun you can have with an 11 month old doing simple things like making a paper airplane, throwing it and watching it crash.