The World Needs More Ninjas

Category

Leigh Ann’s Curse on the Illini is Broken

When I moved to Illinois in the fall 2001, the Illini, led by QB Kurt Kittner (who evidently retired from football after winning the World Bowl MVP and is doing real estate and color commentary for Illini radio), when 10-1 before losing to LSU in a BCS bowl.
Then, Leigh Ann moved to Champaign.
June 2002, while [...]

The Unbearable Joy of Taxes

Ah, the opportunity to reflect on how craptacular our tax system is. Because of my stipend in grad school, there was no withholding, so we had to send in quarterly estimated taxes. Our Illinois state tax was always pretty close (last year it was only a $37 refund…that’s about as good as you [...]

National Championship Post Mortem

It’s never a good sign when your team climaxes 16 seconds into the game like the Buckeyes did with Ted Ginn’s kickoff return. Never in a million years would I have guessed the football team would lose to Florida by more points (27) than the basketball team lost to Florida a couple of weeks [...]

On My Mind

Some of the things I’ll miss most about Champaign (other than friends, of course): the Central time zone (man, that extra hour is nice for sporting events), Curtis Orchard (pretty much the idyllic midwest experience), four way stops on four lane roads (never seen them elsewhere), my window-office at work (even though it’s shared, it’ll [...]

This and That

Will there be a rematch after #1 Ohio State beat #2 Michigan last weekend? I don’t think it will happen provided either USC or Florida (and possibly Arkansas) wins out. The result eliminates Notre Dame’s title hopes because there’s no way they can let a team that lost by 21 to Michigan at [...]

Here’s to You, Mr. Robinson

On behalf of 5′9 guys everywhere, I’d like to give a big shout out to Nate Robinson for his block on 7′5 center Yao Ming. It’s a thing of beauty.

What Happened to the Buckeyes?

That’s what we were wondering after going to see the Buckeyes and Illini play. In case you missed it, the Buckeyes made it out of Champaign with a 17-10 victory. The only answer we could come up with was that Ohio State was trying to avoid injury and limiting their play calling to [...]

Thoughts on College Football

An eclectic mix of thoughts as Leigh Ann and I get ready to head to Memorial Stadium to watch the number one Buckeyes take on the non-so-number-one Illini this Saturday with my mom and some friends. Last time we saw the Buckeyes play here, they won the National Championship (2002)…hopefully history repeats this year [...]

Pigskin Pick’Em

OK, after a few busy weekends, let’s try to pick some college football games again and see how I do.

Illinois at Penn St.: (Line is Penn St. by 18.5) The Illini seem to have done better on the road. But, the Illini are just in shambles. Do I give them the line or [...]

Illini Madness

Last night, we went to Illini Madness, Illinois basketball’s annual kick-off event. It was kind of sad not to see Dee Brown there since he’s been around pretty much my whole time at UIUC (he’s with the Utah Jazz now). Unfortunately, there were no surprise appearances by Dee or Deron Williams or Luther [...]

Ethan Albright vs. John Madden

This is quite possibly the funniest thing that I’ve read all year. It’s a fictitious letter by Redskins long-snapper Ethan Albright to John Madden concerning the fact that Albright is the lowest overall rated player in the Madden 07 video game.

I have received the impression that you feel that I am lacking in the [...]

The Illini Get Screwed

Well, Midnight Madness was bittersweet tonight (photos to come shortly). There was definitely a lot more spirit than the football homecoming pep rally last week and we got to see Jeremy Piven (a.k.a. Ari Gold from Entourage) judge the Illini’s slam dunk contest. But the biggest news of the day is undoubtedly that [...]

Your 80s Moment of Zen

As we were watching the Ohio State-Iowa game, it came to the mine and a friend’s attention that Leigh Ann didn’t know who Jim McMahon was. As one might expect, the conversation quickly digressed to the Bears’ Super Bowl Shuffle.
That led us to this gem on YouTube. Wow. All the cheesiness of [...]

Five Thoughts on the Weekend in College Football

I’m Slightly Better than Random in Picking Games: How’d my picks do? I went 6-4…slightly better than the 5-5 you would expect if you just picked a winner at random.

OSU did about as I predicted against Cincy even if they were a little sluggish (and, surprisingly, they did when by exactly 30). [...]

Weekend Pickoff

So, tomorrow’s college football brings us seven games between Top 25 teams, which is the most in one day since like 1993. I’m going to try my hand at picking the games so everyone can tell me how dumb my picks were after the fact. I’ll do those seven games along with Ohio [...]

Your Moment of Illini Zen

The Illini never even crossed midfield in their loss to Rutgers and their only highlight was a punt by their backup punter.
It’s time to come to grips with the fact that they’re going to lose to my mother and brother’s alma mater, Ohio University (note the conspicuous lack of the word “State” in between “Ohio” [...]

Six Thoughts from This Week in College Football

Ohio State is clearly number one: Their defense is still suspect, but the national champ now seems poised to be one of these five: OSU, USC, Notre Dame (though, I still think they’re over-hyped), West Virginia, and Auburn. There’s definitely no team as strong as 2004 USC or 2002 Miami in the bunch. [...]

Stifler Is in the US Open Final

Roddick’s in the US Open final against (gulp!) Roger Federer. Separated at birth?
Andy Roddick

Stifler from American Pie

 

Ultimate Frisbee: The Sport for Smart People

Don’t you love it when you find that something you do anyway has some previously unknown positive aspects? Like when you start eating carrots and strawberries when your little and then find out later in life that these foods that you liked for taste are actually good for you.
Well, a new scientific study claims [...]

Five Thoughts on the Weekend in College Football

Biggest Shock: The trendy pick is Division I-AA Montana State beating Colorado 19-10 in Dan Hawkins coaching debut (how the value of the domain FireDanHawkins.com just increased). But, I have to go with Kansas State beating Division I-AA Illinois State by one (24-23) when they stopped a two point conversion! To put this [...]