There is a God, Texas Rules!

Note: This is really Wednesday's post, but delayed for obvious reasons.
Not to say that I didn't believe in God before, but when you see a game like that you know that miracles do happen. I'm not saying that because they were a better team (I think we were dead even almost), but because of what I saw in that game. I wish I could see the scene in Austin right now, and I cannot express how happy and relieved I am by that win. Not only did we win, but we fought hard and earned our place like we earned that win against Ohio State and against Michigan last year. There's no way we would've made it without this man to the right here. Vince Young showed us the best football game I've ever seen, and ABC even showed (in the first quarter) his yardage versus the entire USC team, and it was like 30 yards more. Even after eight injuries during the game (including poor Terrell Brown), he managed to pull the team together, and that's why he got that MVP award. Even then, Matt Leinart had the nerve to say this:

"I still think we're a better football team, they just made the plays in the end."

What a bastard. Mack, Vince, and Michael (Huff) all gave props to USC, and this is how Leinart, who consistently trailed Young in completions and yardage, responds? Maybe if he knew how to run the ball he'd actually be more of an asset to his team. LenDale White is who impressed me most from the Trojans though as Reggie Bush had an off night (usually, he's much better, trust me). Back to my initial point though, I think there were quite a few plays that we almost didn't make (like the illegal lateral pass), and it was a miracle that we managed to put them together, especially that final touchdown with 0:19 left on the clock. On any given day, either team could win. This was our day, and this was our season. The first national championship title in 35 years, the first Big 12 championship title in 9 years, the first team to beat USC's 34 game (and two-championship) winning streak, the first team from Texas to beat USC, and the most yardage by a QB in a national championship game ever. For all you haters out there: it was not a fluke; we won fair and square (there was a wrong call that counted against us, so we were even with bad calls). And to everyone, including pundits, who were kissing USC's ass: suck it. Sorry, I'm too hardcore of a fan to not say that. I always had faith.

I'm actually kind of tired now so I'll try to get through the rest of my post kind of quickly. I'm sure that many of you were watching the game in HD, but in 2009 we'll all be forced to! Fortune put up a good article about the side effects of the forced switch, and while I agree with the idea I think it should've been an industry-wide move rather than governmental. Things are still moving forward for the next-generation of DVDs as Toshiba announces the availability of HD DVD and Blu-ray media by the middle of this year (Sony is gunning for the summer). You can also see their planned player at Engadget's dedicated coverage for CES, which I'll highlight more of as it progresses. We also now know that Microsoft is, in fact, planning to offer external HD-DVD drives for the Xbox 360 later this year. Was it really so hard for them to say that? You may remember that they reneged on such claims just last month. Lastly, Apple is on track to build an iPod that can communicate with radios and stereos (RDS enabled ones at least) right out of the box. This just brings them one step closer to a WiFi iPod, which I'm sure they'll eventually make.

The big movie news today is that Ocean's 12 is getting a sequel, though it may actually be better than Ocean's 12, which almost everyone can agree was not as good as the original. I'm not sure where they really want to go with it, but then again, the ending of that second one was rather forgettable so I can't remember where it left off. The only other movie item I wanted to talk about was the release of the teaser for Pan's Labyrinth, which is so creepy that I actually recommend that you turn your volume down a bit before viewing it.

Now for the Wednesday Mind Hump:

1. What's your favorite dish and/or drink that's made in a blender?
I'll go with Pina Colada because they're just so easy to drink!

2. What's the strangest thing you've ever put in a blender, or ever seen put in a blender?
I don't really know. Sorry! I haven't seen anything all that weird shoved in it.

3. What kind of day are you having? A chop day (everything's kind of slow and boring so far), a puree day (everything's fast and exciting), a turned-off day (nothing particularly interesting is going on) or a don't-take-the-lid-off! day (everything's a huge sticky mess)?
I'd say that it's pretty on-and-off good, ending very well of course with that win. I made some conceptual progress on my program, but in the end I still had issues inserting into a hash map.