Hindsight Really IS 20-20

I remember at the time when Ryan Perrilloux reneged on his commitment to Texas to go to LSU, the Burnt Orange Nation was up in arms.

It turns out that was the best move for the Longhorns given his troubles at LSU.

But hey, when you're a gifted athlete, especially a prized quarterback, you get as many chances as you can, as long as someone's willing to put up with a certain amount of pain in order to rent your services.

Here's hoping this kid will finally get his act together. If he screws this opportunity up, he shouldn't be paid to play football. Earn a regular man's wages instead of having everything handed to him.

It's Only a Month Away...

Football season, that is.

I believe this speaks for all my fellow Longhorns...


We've almost made it through those seven months without pigskin. At least now we have the camps beginning and the blogs going. Check out Tim Griffin's Big XII blog on ESPN.com. He's got a good assortment of original pieces and links.

Coincidence?

I think not.

On the same day I began riding my bike to work, this article came out about an incline in road rage in Portland, Oregon. As more riders hit the road in the bike-friendly town, there has been an escalation in accidents and violence between the groups as new cyclists hit the road either uninformed or ignorant of the rules of the road.

I made it safely to both work and home, but there is definitely room for improvement.

It's a great workout and it helps save on gas money.

Links Part Deux

ESPN.com has been running an interesting feature all week ranking each program in Division 1-A basketball for "prestige". Texas ranked 18th. Today they unveiled the Top 10, with no real surprise with Duke at Number 1. They took it back only to the '84-'85 season since that was when the Field of 64 was started and the 3-point line introduced the following year. Check back here to see how Sportsnation has things.

Slate Magazine had an interesting article on Presidential pardons. They wondered if Bush would use his power to preemptively pardon someone. What choice will he make? Since Bush has been more than obvious about his belief and trust in the Creator, his pardons will, and should, be under more scrutiny than, say, William Jefferson Clinton, et al. His integrity is on the line. Will he be a relativist, or will he stand firm under the pressure. My advice to the President? The leftists have already painted you as on of the worst Presidents in history with the unpopular war on terror; stand out for something.

That's Why They Pay Me The Big Bucks

During football and basketball seasons, my old crew and I from UT shoot emails about what's happening. I was cleaning out my Inbox tonight when I ran across this gem.

First, you have to check out this link and see where Texas ended up and who it matched up with in the Sweet 16.

Next, you need to read my email from March of 2007 after the 'Horns were shellacked by USC.

Oh, what to say...I know most of you guys will shoot me down as a pessimist. But before you do, just let my arguments ruminate a little bit.

Augustin needs a little more seasoning. I wonder if he was just spent playing 30 minutes a game at the pace of college ball. He kinda went all White Chocolate Jason Williams on us the last few games.

Abrams never met a shot he didn't like. Like Antoine Walker, only shorter and a little more handsome.

We don't have a legitimate big man who can dominate inside and make opponents respect the middle.

Our youth really, really killed us on Saturday. Thankfully, they'll get better with time. However, I'm not sure that Rick Barnes is the man that can take us to the next level. Sure we went to the final four back in 2003, but that team was loaded.

Mack Brown recruited well enough to put the pieces around Vince Young to the point where even he and Greg Davis couldn't screw up winning a national champtionship. The Longhorn men went basically seven deep this year with the starting five being four fish and a sophomore. Even freaking Duke was deeper than we were! And they were bounced in the first round.

So let's be real for a moment. We should all know what we're getting from a Rick Barnes-coached team at this point.
1. We cannot defend the 3-pointer, even if we play the 2-3 zone.
2. We turn the ball over too much. DJ Augustin only had a 2:1 assist:turnover ratio. Mike Conley Jr, a fellow frosh at Ohio State had a 3:1 ratio.
3. We are never blowout proof. This was something raised on ESPN this year that really caught my eye. Take a look at A&M, UCLA and other programs that were higher-seeded than us. They never got wupped.
4. Especially in our losses, we don't get to the free throw line. We only had 16 attempts against USC. Unacceptable! We only had 9 FTA against Kansas on 3/3. And when we do get to the line, although this year was slightly anomolous, we can't knock 'em down.
Just take a look at our boxscore from K-State and you'll see points 1,2 & 4.

So even if Durant stays around, which he'd be a fool to do, we won't scratch the potential of what this team could do. Sure we'd make the Sweet 16 next year, but would we really make much noise beyond that? I don't think so. If it gets a favorable draw it could even make the Elite 8, but I think the Final Four is too much to ask from Rick Barnes. One of the Sports Guy's readers likened him to Art Shell, just standing there with a blank expression on his face while the game goes on without him. He doesn't seem to have that much fire.

And maybe I'm just bitter because it could've been so much better. I had them getting by UNC but losing to Georgetown in my bracket. But if you listen to what I'm saying and think back all these years that we've had Barnes, I think you'll see that there ain't much more than we're getting from the guy. I don't care if he landed Durant AND Oden. We still wouldn't have made the Final Four.

I know I got a little carried away with that last statement, but MAN IT'S GREAT TO BE RIGHT!

Links

This article is an interesting read. I clicked on because of the perspective of what black people think about Jesse Jackson. I know I've covered him in this space before, but now his people are growing perhaps even more tired of his act than I am. In the piece he is called an "old fool" who is "an increasingly irrelevant, former big shot...who does not seem to realize that the times have passed him by." Can Barack Obama overcome all odds to win the White House? Regardless of the outcome, this can be nothing but good for our country. Young minorities, whether black, Hispanic or Asian, will feel impowered and driven to new heights. It's one thing for all little kids to say they want to be the President some day. Now, much more of our population has a role model for those dreams.

It's almost been a year since this article was published, but it remains relevant. It reminds us of the consequences of relativism and the thinking that all religions are basically the same. While the Word tells us that, as much as it is in our power to live at peace with all men, Colossians 2:8 instructs us to "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." I am reminded of The Chronicles of Narnia, where the Ape and the Calormenes get to calling the Donkey 'Tashlan', a mix of Tash and Aslan. Those who did so paid with their lives the penalty for blaspheming the I AM. Exodus 20:7 warns us "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name."

Love him or hate him, Brett Favre is one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history. Maybe not Top 5, or even Top 10, but Top 15. Depending on your viewpoint, he held the Packers hostage most of the last four years as he drug out his decision on retirement, even holding news conferences to tell us he hadn't made a decision yet. But he's forgiven because he hasn't missed a game in I don't know how long, even after his dad passed away and there were other family issues. I can't say I blame the Packers brass for giving him the cold shoulder. The only problem is that, unfortunately for Ted Thompson, Favre has become a demigod to the cheeseheads, reaching a stature that is almost above the Pack. My only question is, when they induct him in the Hall of Fame, will they do the typical bust, or will they having a bronzed butt with John Madden's lips on a cheek? Zing!

It's pretty cool watching our new building go up. The change was amazing from the time we left for our trip on June 9th and when we made it back on July 6th. Now when we tell people it's at 360 and 183, they'll know exactly what we're talking about. We won't have to say it's close to the Arboretum or across from the Gateway shopping center (centre if you're from across the pond). God is good!

Olympics

It's cool enough that they're starting on 8.8.08.

It's even cooler that it's happening in Beijing. Why? Because the word Beijing has three dotted letters in succession. It looks cooler than Fiji because the letters are in the middle.

It's the simple things in life.

Welcome Back Cotter!

I was gone for three weeks, so I had the expectation that most of my work would be done for me so I didn't have to deal with the whole "R is only gone for a few days, let's just leave everything for him to do when he gets back" thing. Boy was I wrong. Honestly, there was an extenuating circumstance, namely that our active ingredient we manufacture was going through process validation, which meant three successive, successful batches. All of those were released during my time gone. So I didn't have to deal with that and the circus our lab becomes during the release testing. But when I got back I had, quite literally, 100 tests in my various queues. That is, in a word, unprecedented.

Knowing I had a lot of work ahead of me, and since the girls were up at 5AM, I went in an hour early and stayed a little past 5 even though our CEO had let us off two hours early. I went in for three hours on Saturday, even though it was a holiday weekend, and took some work home.

This proved to be invaluable and made last week much more manageable than it would've been otherwise. So, work has been good, although it was quite overwhelming at first.