True Confessions of a Fanatic

First off, I have to start by mentioning something that most people know about me:  I am a huge fan of the Utah Jazz.  This generally doesn't surprise people, since I grew up in Utah - of course I would have some affinity to the local major league sports franchise.  It's interesting that I never did have the opportunity growing up to follow them as much as I would have liked, but I always followed as closely as I could.  Once again, no surprise.

What generally comes as more of a surprise to people is that I am at least as big of a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  I have been since I was fairly young.  I still remember listlessly watching them get crushed at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX, back when Neal O'Donnell and Kordell Stewart were on the team.  It should therefore come as no surprise that I look on the Cowboys with something between disgust and contempt.  I also remember my then-future father-in-law secretly tuning in to Super Bowl XL every so often to watch his Seahawks (my in-laws are from the northwest) lose to Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward and Jerome Bettis.

My love for the Steelers really stems from my father.  Although he wasn't as big of a sports fan as some other members of his family, he grew up in the Pittsburgh area and so had an affinity for the major-league teams of the steel city.  As an off-shoot of this, I am also a fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Pittsburgh Pirates, although I didn't ever really care enough for baseball or hockey growing up to follow them.  Of course, the Pirates have also been horrendous in recent years, so there wasn't much worth following.

At any rate, I just wanted to take this opportunity to tell everybody who cares to know that, even though I probably won't watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, I will be checking to see who wins.  I have no doubt that Big Ben, Willie Parker, Heath Miller, Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes and that amazing defense will come through for us members of Steeler Nation yet again!

A Step Back in Time?

I found this interesting contraption while I was surfing the web today and thought maybe somebody else might find it as interesting as I did.

Above all else, I find it interesting that, in this day and age, when high-quality digital music is so easy to obtain and enjoy, there are still companies out there that produce "outdated" equipment that can produce such high-quality sounds. Never mind the fact that one of these will set you back about $64,000, or enough money to buy nearly 180 solid days' worth of music on iTunes.

It's Also Official...Kind of...

So...I announced a few weeks ago that I had graduated from Utah State University.  Well, as of today (December 29, 2008) I know that I am also admitted into the University of Utah.  It has only taken twice as long for me to find out as they told me it would.  Also, even though my academic advisor in the College of Engineering at the U has told me I have been admitted, the admissions office still has not "fully processed" my admissions, so I can't access any of the websites in order to add classes, apply for financial aid (if necessary) or do anything else...So yeah...

I guess that waiting for things to process may be one of those things that I have to get used to now that I am going to a much bigger school.  I put together some quick artwork to express my feelings at this very moment:

It's Official...

On December 13, 2008, I walked in the Fall 2008 commencement ceremony at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.  Of course, the commencement exercises do not  make the graduation official - you don't even have to participate in order to graduate.  The ceremony is exactly that - a ceremony.  It is a moment of recognition.  It is 1.5 hours of sitting in a rather ridiculous cap and gown in order to have a 10-second walk up on to a podium to hear your name called aloud and to receive a rather official-looking diploma cover which does not, in fact, contain a diploma.  Where a diploma should be is instead a sheet of paper reminding each and every "graduate" that they haven't officially graduated until they receive an actual diploma in the mail in about 4-6 weeks.

Now that I think about it, the whole graduation ceremony is a rather silly formality.  It's more for the people who want to recognize the graduate's achievements than it is for the graduate's wishing to be recognized for those self-same achievements.  If most of the graduates are anything like me (which I believe they are), they are probably just happy to finally be done with it all.  What makes my attendance even more ridiculous is the fact that I had to drive through the winter's first blizzard in order to arrive just in time to throw a cap and gown on and jump into the sea of graduates on the floor of the arena.

So, regarding the title of this post - my grades are all in now, and not only did I pass all of my classes, but I passed them with flying colors.  So, even though I still have not received my diploma in the mail, I know that I will be receiving one.  That's always a relief!  Now I can start focusing my efforts on the next academic task at hand - getting myself into the University of Utah.  I certainly wouldn't want to give myself a break...

Getting in the spirit...

So what if we don't have a tree yet?  So what if we don't have any presents?  That's not what it's about, right?  Anyways, I am beginning my preparations for Christmas right here, on our blog.  We have gone so far as to put together a list of some of our favorite Christmas songs, both new and old.  I love this time of year!

ATTENTION MOZILLA USERS!

This is probably just the dork in me that wants the world to know this, but I would like all of you Mozilla Users to know that I have fixed the HTML in our blog so that it now functions properly in Mozilla.  I have now accessed our blog in Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla and Google Chrome (my browser of choice) without any problems.  I know what you're thinking - "Why in the world would you have all of those browsers on your computer?"  Well, the truth is even I don't know the answer to that one.  The only two internet browsers that I use on a regular basis are Internet Explorer - for Microsoft-specific sites which Microsoft annoyingly limits in any other browser - and Google Chrome - which has, in the few short months I have used, quickly become my favorite internet browser of all time.  Google Chrome takes all of the good things from Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari and then takes them to the next level, for a quicker, easier surfing experience....And I'm not even getting paid to say this...Shoot.

Well I guess now I've said enough about internet browsers for you all to think I am a dork.  I dare any one of you to estimate the number of things you can't imagine doing without the internet, and then reconsider this thought.