How Dare You Doubt Texas

I'm of course referring to all the pundits who expected us to lose. I'll admit that I only had faith up to the last quarter when we weren't scoring for a while because of their solid defense, but when Young started making those crazy passes we all believed again. I knew that we faced worse odds last year and overcame and now we did it again. I watched the game at Moncrief Neuhaus and left immediately afterwards to head back to my car when I saw not only the Tower half lit Burnt Orange but fans going crazy on 21st. When I got to Guadalupe I knew there was no chance of getting home because it was at a complete standstill with 80-90% of the cars honking their carhorns (wearing Burnt Orange as well likely with nowhere to go) and passerbyers screaming and showing Horns in exchange. People were running across the drag with Texas and Longhorn fans, and one lane of Guadalupe was just a parade of fans. Mind you, this was less than 15 minutes after the end of the game. I went to some parties in West Campus with JFo and I've never seen so many people so friendly or so excited in my whole life. Every few minutes you heard "Texas..Fight!" or "OSU..Sucks!" and people were anxious to shake your hand or give you five or hug you. The rest of the night will be uninteresting to you, but some girl did pinch one of my nipples (trust me, it's not what you think or you'd hear more). I would talk about all the fun I had canoeing yesterday afternoon also on Town Lake with the new NSC members, but there's no room for it and it pales in comparison. Man I love Austin!

I'm going to start off my nerd news with this article that mentions a lack of practical courses in top Universities' CS programs. I personally feel that UT seems to have a good balance in letting you get involved with software engineering and understanding the science, but I'll admit that it does tip more towards theory. Nonetheless, I feel that the semantics are easier to acquire later than the underlying concepts. Maybe more CS majors should've been more focused on the Summer of Code than taking summer classes in AI. PC World has a great article, for once, on the most important things that hardware manufacturers don't tell you and is a must-read for those of you interested in buying a new computer anytime soon. The Observer has a pretty good editorial explaining why the Rokr, upon closer examination, isn't what we all had hoped for. This would be a great time for a competitor to step in and dominate. Lastly, Microsoft is really pushing it by deciding to release not two, not three, not four, but seven versions of Windows Vista, presumably to match the Seven Deadly Sins I suppose. It is as unnecessary as it sounds.

There's really not a whole lot to say in the world of movies this weekend. However, the box office stunned us all when it showed The Exorcism of Emily Rose on top with a cool $30.2 million on a pretty random weekend. They've already turned a profit on a movie with no especially notable qualities to it and only lukewarm reviews, which is more than The Island did (and has not made that much money so far). I'm also impressed that Wedding Crashers and March of the Penguins are clinging to the top ten. The only other thing of note is that AICN has a rather positive review of the Wallace & Grommit movie, which looked kind of funny in its previews so hopefully it is funny.

Before I conclude I want to mention that things are getting heated up even more with the video game debate. Political figures like Senator Hillary Clinton are aiming to make it a federal offense to sell rated M games to minors, which seems like trying to kill an ant with a bazooka. California is leading the cross-state upheaval to impose penalties for selling video games to minors with a law that has passed their legislature and is now awaiting and action movie star's approval. My opinion is that we're running a double standard here. Why not jail people for selling rated R DVDs to minors or music with Parental Advisory stickers?

Now for some Unconscious Mutterings, as usual:

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Related::Relatives
   
2. Soothing::Sounds
   
3. Flashback::Flashdance
   
4. Turmoil::Pillaging
   
5. Immense::Large
   
6. Guitar::Classical
   
7. Nonsense::Malarky
   
8. Blame::Scapegoat
   
9. Childlike::Thinking
   
10. Duff::Hilary