Holy shit, you guys

Amazon Prime has the entire series of Farscape!  I will never have another productive day.

So anyway

1. I am getting old.  My wasted youth haunts me as much as the spectre of future frailty and degeneration.
2. I can't run far enough or fast enough to get any cardio benefit because of my fucking knee.  I've tried 3 different styles of shoes.  I've done months of rehab, stretching and strengthening my core, hips, and thighs.  I've worn a knee brace.  All for naught.  At almost exactly 2.5 miles I start to feel a dull knife slipping into the side of my knee, in and out with each stride.  Sucks my balls.
3. Gray chest hair.  I mean, gray beard is one thing, but gray chest hair?  You have that shit and you are officially Not Young.
4. Read the Hunger Games in one sitting last night.  Poor decision as I finished around 3 a.m.  It was an interesting premise, but in the end, not that great a book.  It's a few notches above fucking Twilight but way below something like Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series.
5. If you have called me in the last few days and haven't heard back it's not my usual ass-hattery.  My phone won't hold a charge more than 4-5 hours these days.  I've ordered a replacement battery hoping to get at least another 6 months out of this phone.
6. I use Linux almost exclusively at home now.  I've even managed to finagle all the needed access to the hospital network from my Linux desktop.  Having said that, I have to say I'm pretty intrigued by Windows 8.  It looks cool, unique, and functional.  If it's not a tremendous resource hog or security risk, I'll probably upgrade to it when I upgrade the computer.
7. If I do that I'll almost certainly also go with a Windows 8 phone when I upgrade.  I'd like to have as seamless a system as possible.  If there are a lot more Ice Cream Sandwich Android phones by the time I do this I'd probably consider it.
8. I don't really have anything against the iPhone or iOS ecosystem, but I'd rather not get invested in the most expensive hardware options.  Also the few places I've been have seemed to find it easier to provide remote access to non-Apple devices.  Maybe that's different at non-academic institutions.
9. I'm giving up college football and taking up  a more useful obsession.  Right now I'm leaning towards urban gardening.  M-star's very concerned I'm going to be hanging old milk jugs all over the place when we move into a house.
10. M-star's great-aunt just died.  Her dad has prostate cancer.  My grandmother is on death's door.  Apparently my grandfather is growing more seriously demented.  Fuck this shit.

Been struggling

Given my pending entry into the legitimate professional world I've been struggling with the notion of killing this thing off.  The world isn't likely to miss it or anything and it would be smart to limit the chances of anyone finding the offensive things I've written here and blacklisting me professionally.

Having said that, I'm not going to do the smart thing.  (Kind of like choosing to move to fucking Michigan for fellowship instead of taking the better opportunity to stay in Texas.)  Instead I've simply taken a few steps to further dissociate my personal accounts from the blog.

So, with that out of the way, let's talk about college football!!!11!!

Texas's 2012 Recruiting Class:


QB: Connor Brewer and Jalen Overstreet -- neither is ready to play immediately and if Ash develops and Texas gets the right guy next year, these guys may never play a down at QB for the Horns.  Overstreet looks like a comic book character.  Brewer looks like a suburban doucher with a smoking hot sister.  Neither looks like the second coming of VY (Brewer looks more like the second coming of Applewhite), though after a redshirt year either could probably be a serviceable D1 QB.
Grade: B

RB: Jonathan Gray and Daje Johnson -- HOMERUN.  Gray is the best back Texas has signed since Jamaal Charles and he's probably a better overall player than Charles.  Also, no speech impediment.  Daje Johnson is a bit of a midget but has sub-4.4 speed, fantastic quickness, and surprising toughness running through arm tackles at the high school level.  DJ Monroe with the ability to learn the playbook, imo.
Grade: A++

WR: Cayleb Jones, Marcus Johnson, and Kendall Sanders -- classic possession receiver in the Michael Irvin/Keyshawn Johnson mold; smooth outside receiver who has good size, good speed, good hands, and good polish running routes (though great at none of these); and electric athlete who could kill it from the slot (or dominate at CB like he did in his All Star game).  These guys form a cohesive group in which each player complements the others.  Individually only Sanders is probably a homerun, but taken as a collective they are stellar.
Grade: B+

OL: Camrhon Hughes, Kennedy Estelle, Curtis Riser, and Donald Hawkins -- I don't know shit about what separates a good high school lineman from a schlub, but I know all of these guys are fucking huge.  Hawkins dwarfs most of the Texas OL from 2008 - 2011.  Clearly a change in philosophy with regard to recruiting this position.
Grade: A

TE: nobody -- Texas reached out to a guy in California who was supposed to be a stud, but he has a Greek last name, so he can't be that great an athlete.  Honestly, I'm pretty sure Hercules was the last Greek that did shit at the elite level.  Caleb Bluiett was recruited as a DE but could move to TE if needed.  He's a guy who would bring DJ Grant's pre-injuries athleticism together with the size (but hopefully not the study habits) of Dominique Jones.  Need to get a stud or two next year fo shizzle.
Grade: D

DT: Malcom Brown, Brandon Moore, Alex Norman, Paul Boyette -- Brown is Tommie Harris in Burn Orange.  Moore is a guy who played for Nick Saban as a true freshman at Bama (actually recorded some tackles against Texas in the Rose Bowl), so, you know, he's probably a'ight.  Norman and Boyette seem like JAGs.  Norman used to weigh 60 pounds more than his current listed weight.  Dude has no neck at his current weight.  I bet he looked like a damn frightened turtle at 330+.
Grade: A

DE: Toshiro Davis, Hassan Ridgeway, Bryce Cottrell, Caleb Bluiett -- Speed, power, slightly less speed, slightly less power.  Davis is the guy they stole from LSU at the last minute.  Pure speed rusher who could be a Brian Orakpo starter kit.  Ridgeway is a monster who was probably never challenged at the high school level.  He could grow into a DT.  Cottrell is possibly just a warm body, but he was stolen from Oregon a few days before signing day, and, well, fuck Oregon, that's why.  Bluiett is an athletic guy with good size.  I could see him growing into a Tim Crowder.
Grade: A+

LB: Peter Jinkens, Tim Cole, Dalton Santos, Alex De La Torre (no relation to Coach Joey) -- I'll be honest, this group is full of reaches.  Jinkens brings a lot of speed to the OLB position, but he's not the biggest guy and probably never will be.  If he can cover he'd be a badass strong safety, but I'm not sure about his future as a LB.  Cole is just a guy whose best attribute may have been his influence with teammate Malcom Brown.  Santos is a thick white guy with a bit of a gut and a reportedly Bosworthian attitude.  Thick white dudes in the middle of the defense don't tend to work out well for Texas in the Mack Brown era.  ADLT (yes, that's apparently what he answers to) is a coach's son.  He's a potential fullback candidate, so I guess there's that.
Grade: C

CB: Bryson Echols, Orlando Thomas, Kevin Vaccaro -- This is a weird group.  On paper Echols is not an elite CB prospect, but he reportedly showed well against stud WRs at his All Star game.  Thomas is an elite athlete from the home of RGIII who has never played DB.  As long as Akina's around I have faith in those types of projects.  Vaccaro junior (pronounced yoon-yer) is small and slow and his older brother would stay for his senior year if Mack gave him a scholarship.  Worth it?  I don't know.  I've never been as impressed with Vaccaro as lots of other people.  Diggs and Byndom have that shit on lock for the next couple of years anyway.  2013 class needs to hit big on CBs.
Grade: B

S: Adrian Colbert -- Blazing speed.  Hits like a truck.  Overcame a broken back after getting run over by a literal truck as a kid.  I don't know why anyone let this kid play football when he's apparently an elite track athlete anyway, but if he's going to play I'd rather he play for Texas.  Mack stole him from Baylor, which I am torn about.  I mean, I want Baylor to do well, but at the same time, I think Art Briles is a dick.
Grade: A

Overall grade: B+ to A-
The upgrades along the line of scrimmage combined with the stud athletes at the skill positions (other than QB) of the last two classes augur for a national championship in 2013/2014.

I haven't kept up with Baylor's class in anywhere near the same level of detail, but I do think they signed a better class than Texas A&M (or really any in-state school not named UT).  The Ags only signed two or three real difference makers -- Thomas Johnson at WR, Trey Williams at RB, Devante Harris at DB.  None of their offensive or defensive linemen are anything to write home about.  Meanwhile, Baylor signed a tier-one DE (Javonte Magee), a tier-one OL (Tre-Von Armstead), and two stud WRs (Corey Coleman and Kiante Griffin).  Thomas Johnson and Trey Williams are probably the best players overall, but Baylor got the upgrade in the trenches that will push them further up the ladder down the road.

That's all I have to say about that.  Well, that and fuck Michigan.

P.S. If you want to keep up with the nonsense on here but are frustrated by my sporadic posting, hit up the RSS.

say hello to the New Year, same as the old year

1. Started the year off alone and cold when M* and the kids rolled out to Chicago, leaving me to walk the streets of Ann Arbor in a delightful bit of weather called "wintry mix" that we don't have in Texas. Wintry mix is when every form of cold and wet happens at once. Usually windy, too.

2. Six months of dealing with bullshit at U of M. Hope I make it. I was asked to cover for someone last minute due to exceedingly poor planning on the parts of several people. When I emailed the HNIC asking for details about this new duty that I'd never performed before (e.g., how long should I plan for this to take, what do I actually do, and so forth) and gave the reason for asking (i.e., my other duties didn't stop for this and I need to plan my busy day) the response I got was "We are all busy. You will know how to do it after you do it." Wow. Fuck this place.

3. It was 48 degrees this evening. I'm being cheated of my one chance at a legit winter.

4. If anyone who reads this is ever applying for a state medical license and hears from someone that using FCVS is a good idea because it will make things smoother, please know that this is completely false. Those fuckers are ruining my career right now.

5. House hunting is fun over the internet, but I'm sure to get fucked in the end. I'm not real good at "life."

6. My neighbors above me are fucking right now. Their rhythm sucks.

7. My prediction for Texas's final record was pretty spot on. I even predicted them winning the Holiday Bowl, albeit I was way off on the opponent and Oregon would have murderized this team.

8. Vegas is paying 30:1 on Texas to win it all next year. If I had $10k to lose I'd take that bet. The schedule sets up nicely with only KSU, OU, and WVU likely to cause major problems.

9. Looking at #7 I was also pretty right about Baylor, though a retarded monkey could have picked up the things I said about them. Crashing back to earth next year though.

10. Texas just lost their best WR recruit, Thomas Johnson, who will probably end up at Oregon. He's a big time player, but when you can have a lot of success with Nate Jones as your primary WR, you've proven that elite WRs aren't one of the biggest keys for a successful team. Hell, Matt Millen proved that with the Detroit Lions. Well, I suppose he proved a corrollary, which is that the presence of elite WRs does little to nothing to overcome deficiencies in other positions on the field.

11. Shit, meant to stop at 10.

happy holidays, from Pepper

1. While it definitely sucked to be in this shithole on Christmas without getting to see our families, I have to admit I had a pretty kickass day just hanging with the kids.

2. Trimmed the beard the other day and the counter looked like somebody poured salt and pepper all over it. By the time I get back to Texas I'll be bald and gray. I even saw a gray pube the other day.

3. Totally unrelated to the above, I'm sure, but my dedication to getting in better shape is going strong after a 2-3 week hiatus for a bitching respiratory virus. Fitness goals for the next six months:
- running twice a week with at least one of those being a 10k or better distance
- 20 wide grip pullups (I'm done at 9 currently)
- 100 pushups (I'm at 30 now)

4. I haven't really been running much because of the weather and fear of the right knee pain returning. I have been walking like I'm the Pepper of Ann Arbor. I walk the three miles from the hospital to my apartment pretty regularly. If this fabled winter ever truly picks up I might have to give that up.

5. I sometimes forget that my 3 year old son is not, yet, a Pepper-level urban walker. The other day we walked to the laundromat together. It's a mile and a half. Each way. And it was 34 degrees. Little dude only made me carry him the last half-mile or so. He's a trooper.

6. A trooper who still pisses the bed at night. Come on!

7. My daughter won Christmas from Santa and us, but the boy really got some cool shit from everybody else. My favorite was the stomp-rocket, his was the twin-engine airplane that drops a life raft out of the bomb bay doors. He sleeps with it.

8. I cashed in as well. New Balance Road Minimus 10 shoes, badass graphic novels, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, badass music, and some resistance bands I've already put to use.

9. Because the Minimus shoes are so different from anything I've worn before I'm not sure if they're the right size. Might be a little small. I need to try and hit up a shoe store in town to try on the next size higher just to see. I haven't worn the new shoes outside yet, so I should still be able to return them if need be.

10. Fuck New Year's Eve.

thoughts

1. The only thing receding worse than the Michigan economy is my hairline. Fuck it's going fast.

2. I've recently been playing guitar a lot more. Here are songs I've either learned or re-learned in the last few weeks:
-- Top Gun theme song
-- Tomorrow (from Annie, as played by Rivers Cuomo)
-- opening lick to China Grove
-- opening riff to Wish You Were Here
-- Dueling Banjos
-- Scooby Doo theme song (apparently the Matthew Sweet version?)
-- sort of kind of Someone Like You by Adele (I screw up the picking when it changes from one part to another)

3. That's really it.

Time Flies When Shit Sucks

Long time no post. Let's get to it.

1. Here's a picture of me at work:


2. Here's a movie someone made about me at work:


3. They even made TV show about me.


4. I've probably made my point.

5. Moving on.

6. UT football season went as well as could be expected given the injuries on offense. They beat K-State and Mizzou with healthy RBs and Shipley. Or if they didn't start a QB with Angelman syndrome. Defense was great against bad teams and bad against good teams. They matched up well against an Aggie team that was without two NFL RBs, so that performance looks better than it was. They never really put together a complete game against a decent team.

7. I do think the future is bright, though. If the RBs stay healthy next year, David Ash learns which color his teammates are wearing, and Case McCoy dies in a fire, the offense should get good enough. Think Bama 2009. The defense upgrades through Gideon's graduation and probably gives up 2-3 explosive plays less because of it. If Vaccaro stays the secondary will be as good as any since 2006. Linebackers should suffer little drop-off with Cobbs (better athlete than Acho), Edmond (better MLB than Keenan this year),and Hicks (played dumb this year and needs to get that fixed). D-line replaces Kheeston Randall with a juco who's probably better than he was and rocks out.

8. Seriously, I hate my workplace.

9. Missing Christmas in Texas is going to blow.

10. My boss mentioned that I seemed unhappy lately and wanted to know if there was anything she could do. How about you not fucking LIE about the details of this program? How about you not lure me here with your lies so I traumatize the shit out of my son by taking him away from all the people that love him? How about I not see how sad he is every day and then go to work at a job that is NOTHING like it was promised to be? How about I not be fucking trapped with literally no option for leaving this program early that would allow me to provide for my family? Fucking slag.