no-snow depression

I'm generally a fan of Christmas.  I do shy away a little bit, and frown upon the general over-indulgence and over-excitement of those around me, but I like Christmas.  This year however I haven't really warmed up to the idea.  I was gladly turned the holiday switch after thanksgiving buying a tree, putting up lights, and preparing for (hopefully) a great Christmas season.

Then days turned into weeks, Christmas was still weeks away, and I was getting pretty grinchy.  I had to go shopping once or twice and was annoyed by the crowds.  I've been out at night, several times, but I haven't wanted to see any Christmas lights.  Talk of going to Temple Square bored me, and the holidays seemed further away than ever.

Then today happened.  I went outside to my car and my spirits lifted.  SNOW!  It had snowed a light dusting durring the night, and everything seemed Chistmas-y in an instant.  Then as I worked through the morning I kept an eye outside and watched as the snow-flurrys kept coming and coming.  My jubilation at the beautiful weather made me realize, I need snow to make my Christmas complete.

Well if I ever live in Texas then I guess I might just skip Christmas, but for now, I am fully happy to welcome the real winter and the real Christmas.

craving

I'm really feeling the urge to post something, but I don't know what.  I often think of simple ideas to talk about while I'm working and stuff, but I don't remember them for long.  Life lately has been fairly mundane...

Oh wait!  I remember one of the more exciting things of the past week or two.  One night we went out to Cold Stone to get some ice cream.  All day at work I had been thinking about churros and I day-dreamed about churros mixed into ice cream.  So we went to Cold Stone and I quickly glanced at thier mix-in's list.... no churros or any other kind of cinnamon-covered pastry, sigh.  But then I saw this on a sign:

The Churro Carmel Crave.  It was wonderful, toasty churros, gooey carmel, and tasty french vanilla ice cream.  It was a dream come true.

I read a lot of sports articles.  I used to read most of them on ESPN.com, but then they lost Pat Forde. (And since he now supposedly works for Yahoo Sports, I looked him up and finally found The Dash reinvented.)  So I've moved over to Grantland for now, a spin-off from ESPN, writing about sports and pop cluture (ooh, ahh..).

This is a small excerpt from this weeks article that I just happen to love, and I love it a lot because it's so true, and because I love soccer. (I love soccer more than I love football in general, but not as much as I love college football specifically.)

Letter to a Coach

Coach Saban,

First off, let me say you have a fine, fine football team. The running game and the defense are just fantastic. I'll make this quick because you're busy. Tuscaloosa probably has a part of town where Latinos are concentrated. If not Tuscaloosa, then certainly Birmingham. In that part of town there will be a makeshift soccer field, or maybe even a real soccer field. On this field you will find children of all ages for whom kicking a ball is easy, second nature, and who haven't lived lives steeped in American collegiate football lore and therefore wouldn't be super-duper nervous if asked to kick a weird-shaped ball through uprights that to them would seem a gaping target. After you've chosen your boy, explain that he will receive a college education at one of the top 100 state universities in the nation if a few dozen times a year he kicks the weird ball through the uprights for you. There may be a moment of confusion when the boy thinks he has to actually hit one of the uprights with the ball, and then when he realizes he merely has to kick it anywhere between the uprights, both of you will laugh, and laughter knows no borders.

It's true. And speaking of soccer, my own Real Salt Lake lost to the stars of the LA Galaxy last week, which means the Galaxy will be hosting the Houston Dynamo (what's a Dynamo again?) for the MLS cup next Sunday (Nov. 20) I believe it will be broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2 for those interested.  

BCS comps

So I like computers, and I like college football, and college football uses a lot of computers to determine rankings.  It logically follows that I would be very interested in these computers, which is why I have bookmarks to the sites for all six BCS-used computer ranking systems.

In looking ahead to tonights BYU game against TCU, I though I might go see what the computers thought might happen, so....

One computer (Massey Ratings) actually has links for 'predictions' and 'matchups' where you can enter in particular match-ups and see who would win, as well as see predictions for the upcoming games.  It says that TCU has a 78% chance of winning the game, and by a predicted score of 34 to 24.  Maybe not the best chance, but it's the same percentage that said Notre Dame should have beat USC last week, just sayin'. (btw Massey has TCU and BYU ranked 53, and 54)

Moving to more promising news, two computers have BYU ranked higher than TCU.  The Colley Matrix BYU 41, TCU 42 and the Anderson-Hester computer, BYU 41, TCU 45.  Close margins, I know, but still.  (Colley Matrix is 'unbiased' meaning high scores don't matter, and A-H prides themselves on being the best rater of what a team has accomplished to date, not a great predictor)

Then there's the other three computers that have TCU above BYU, but again, by pretty close margins. The Billingsley Report TCU 41, BYU 50, Peter Wolfe TCU 43, BYU 47 and finally the Sagarin Ratings TCU 46, BYU 55.  And finally there is a page on the Massey Ratings site that shows the ranking of teams based on the averages of all the computers (both BCS official and others), there TCU is 33, and BYU is 51.... not boding so well for the cougars in this one.

But really, computers can only take you so far.  They fail to truly predict the outcome of games though they come close.  From a more human perspective, neither team has won any super difficult games, TCU's 'best win' came over #51 SD[iego]SU, while BYU's is over #76 SJ[ose]SU (basically the same team, minus Ronnie Hillman). Their strength of schedule and records are actually pretty similar.  Both have lost to two good teams (ok, so Utah's not so great, but the were better before losing Wynn) and both teams have beaten up on inferior opponents to look good (Idaho St., New Mexico, Portland St.)

If I were a betting man, I might put a few dollars on TCU.  But it is a really, really close call.  I still believe that BYU can win this one, they are an improving team, and this will be the big test for them (since their next three games they will actually be favored to win).

And now it's only 7.5 hrs until kick off.  :-D  I'm excited.

photography

Sometime I just like to post pictures.  For more details about our trip to Moab and Arches National Park, see our family blog post.

Delicate Arch

Alex is in the picture if you look carefully.

Fly

The Balancing Rock

The background is really amazing in this photo... as is my beautiful wife.

a shoe print we followed for almost 6 miles

... talk about blue.

Now that's what I call a taco!

So I recently started a job at Taco Time here in Herriman.  Yes, I am totally serious about that.  Engineering jobs are continuing to be elusive so in the midst of applying to every civil engineering job available I got a part time job at our local Taco Time.




Since starting there I can't really get this video out of my head... if only we made something like that at our store.

The QB debate

So it's been a little over a week since BYU nation began the great QB debate, Jake Heaps or Riley Nelson.  It seems that a large portion of fans think Riley is a much better option than Jake, chanting his name at the Utah State game to get him put in the game.  It seemed quite obvious to me that Riley would start this game against San Jose State.

Really, the only thing Riley adds to the game is his ability to run.  He is just as inconsistent (if not more so) of a passer as Jake Heaps is, throwing two interceptions (almost three) this game.  His running ability though does do a lot for the game, giving the ability to pick up 5+ yards running when his receivers get covered and getting him to move the pocket and give more time for plays to develop and get open receivers.

I think though that the biggest difference is not in these stats, unlike baseball, football is much more of an emotional game.  Think of it this way, Heaps, the sophomore going deep to the freshman Apo.  On the other hand you have Nelson, the junior going deep to the senior Jacobsen.  leadership is everything and the players respect their elders.

I think Riley will continue to start our games.  I think Jake will get time to play in the 3rd and 4th quarters in the games against Idaho State and New Mexico State, (and maybe Idaho). And he will continue to improve and in the future Heaps will be the great BYU quarterback that has been expected of him.

learning

I had a great weekend watching General Conference.  It was truly wonderful.  I may have more to say later, but for now I just wanted to make a small confession:  I don't usually listen to women speakers.  Not that I think they're completely boring or anything, but their talks are usually centered on young women or women in general and I don't feel it really applies to me at all.

However, this conference perhaps the single most meaningful talk to me what this one from Sister Elaine S. Dalton.  And since I loved it so much, here it is.



Isn't lds.org great?  one day after conference and you can embed videos.

fuel rods

Take a look at these two pictures:

Picture I found by searching google images for:
"Nuclear control rods"

Picture I took of a model that
I made using Google Sketchup

You see the similarities right?  I mean sure the second one is a much more basic computer graphic image and covered on the outside, but they are very similar looking objects.  Which is why I have chosen to talk about this today, because they are not similar in function or location.  In fact you might think I'm crazy when I tell you that I think that a chandelier in the Oquirrh Mt. Temple reminds me of a nuclear power plant.

Image from the church news web-site

Look carefully at the chandeliers in this rooms and you might notice the glass-like rods sticking out of the bottom.  It is these chandeliers that I have tried to reproduce in the model I pictured above.  You might think I'm crazy, but the similarities are undeniable.

On a side note, I love the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  I tell people that I got married there because I loved the architecture, which is true, but really I got married there because it is a temple of God, and there I could be sealed with my wife for this life and for all eternity.  It just happens to be the most beautiful temple (imho) in the area.  I love the chances we have to go and worship in the temple again.

Uni-forms

You may not know this, but I love sports uniforms, more to the point I love college football uniforms.  Considering that Nike, Under Armor, and others are spending millions, possibly billions on creating cool, trendy, and stylish uniforms that college recuits will like, it's not a surprise that I (a near-college age male) like them.

Because of my slight obsession with the college uniform scene I found a blog called The Uni-Watch.  It is run by uniform enthusiasts who are quite thorough in their coverage of uniform changes, updates, discrepancies, and specialties.

Through this blog I stumbled upon a very narrowly minded site tracking the Oregon Duck uniform changes (most would say it was the ducks who began this national uniform trend).  I also found The Gridiron Uniform Database, a complete collection of NFL jerseys worn every game for the past several years.

After this years explosion of college football uniform advancements some devoted uni-watchers decided to expand the gridiron database to include college football, and this is the result.

If you notice the second team on this list, Boise State, (the were second at the time of this writing but that could change) who's uniforms were reproduced here by none other than you're truly, me.

I will say, I do believe they are quite the work of art.  And hopefully I'll be able keep up weekly with the new uni-combos they wear and make improvements eventually to those currently 'done.'  (I forgot the name on the back of the first two, oops.)

The Holy War

You might have to em-biggen the video to see it well enough.

Basically I thought it was silly to hear BYU fans say, "We've won 3 of the last 5."
While Ute fans retorted, "We've won 6 of the last 9!"
And really, you can manipulate that statistic to serve your team anyway you want.
(BYU has won 26 of the last 39, including a 18 out of 20 stretch!)

So the only way to truly understand the game and the record of the teams is in a dynamic fashion, charting wins overtime.  I made this graph in Excel and animated it using Visual Basic.  I'll try to get the file uploaded somewhere somehow so you can download it and play with it yourself if you like.

For now, enjoy this upload.  It has some explanatory notations and I've included my analysis afterwards.

What do we learn from this?  

We learn that the series has been VERY close for the past 6 years.  

From 2002-2005 Utah took over (surprisingly the time  when Championship machine Urban Meyer took over and the Utes BCS-Busted the Fiesta Bowl).  

It was pretty even again for a while until the early 90's throughout the 80's and into the 70's (the height of BYU's program under Lavel Edwards) when BYU won 18 out of 20 ('72-'92).  

Ute fans will of course point to thier recent success saying they've won 6 of the past 9, but oh wait, not a single player on their team played for the 2005 team, so really they can only claim more recent history of which BYU has won 3 out of 5 (some BYU players have been on the team for all 3 wins).

So... It's close game, and an AWESOME rivalry.  I'm glad to see that The Holy War has even gotten some national media attention over the past few years, and I hope to never see an end to this great game.

This link should be an excel file, right click to download.

Remember to ENABLE MACROS to have the buttons work properly.

Also, sorry I was too lazy to make a 'reset' button.

Hand signs

So my last post got a little distracted with my slight obsession with those Nike gloves, so back to the point...

Hand signs are cool, not just as a "We just scored so throw your hands up!" way, but also in a passing on the street, simple way to show your team spirit.  However they aren't the easiest thing to have.  Ignoring the new glove-palm salutes, only five teams that I know of have hand signs.  So please, if there are other widespread hand signs let me know about them.

As I drove on the freeway in Salt Lake County (U of U territory) I passed a man with a BYU sticker on his car, and I wished that BYU had a hand sign that I could have flashed, letting him know that I too was a BYU fan.  Alas, the only think I could come up with was a sign language Y, but that's not a BYU tradition, so I didn't

Now, about those teams that do have signs:

Perhaps the most well known sign, Hook 'em Horns:

Then there's the growing in popularity Oregon O:

If I ever attended an Oregon game, I'd buy these.

TCU has it's "Horned Frog" although it looks nothing like a frog (or horns for that matter):

The University of Miami (FL) has their U shape:

probably my 3rd or 4th fav of the gloves

Some would argue that Utah also has one, but there's a debate about the U symbol...

And one I just found out about this past weekend, the ASU pitchfork:

And through my searching I came across of few less-well known others (the Houston Cougar Paw, the Villanova V?) but nobody really cares about those so we'll leave it at that.

Some are cool, others are weird, but hand signs (sadly) are not for every team.

NCAAF Gloves

Quite a bit of hullabaloo has been made recently regarding hand signs in college football. Over the past year or so there have been a flew flags thrown over 'excessive celebration' relating to the using and showing of hand signs after touchdowns.

Most recently, Fox Sports' Mike Pereria complained that the Oregon Ducks should get penalized similarly for their O sign.  Then after further clarification from officials and administrators he recalled his statement, saying that flashing the hand sign was ok to use in a 'non-taunting' fashion.

This is probably a good thing, since more and more teams are getting awesome gloves that make for sweet glove-palm salutes.

Entré Les Photos!

UGA

Oregon State

U of Miami (FL)

Horned Frog (TCU)

TCU

Stanford

Boise St. (probably the best design)

Army

Navy

Michigan State

LSU (totally awesome)

Florida

Florida State

Alabama

Texas

Nebraska (a little over kill with the 2nd pair)

And if you want to see more Nike Pro Combat Unis take a look at these news stories from the first three years of uniform releases.  First Second Third

Apple and Amazon

Two of my very favorite tech companies, that until recently, have held their place in very different parts of the technology world.  Slowly though, over the past two years or so, Amazon has been creepin' in on Apple's turf, and even going beyond in someways.

Amazon started with mp3 sales.  Something they've really promoted with college students.  After I bought some books from Amazon (using my free 1-year amazon student account) I was awarded with $20 towards mp3s at their online store.  I think in all I've recieved about $35 worth of free mp3s from Amazon, showing that they really want me to explore their store, and they often have really good $5 albums (two of which I've bought).

Then this spring the launched their cloud player, a huge step up and above almost any other company's cloud based music services.  (The greatness or lack thereof is still in debate after some server blackout issues).

Amazon also began to offer movie downloads/streaming and soon created an app store for both Android devices and general PC applications (I got the free AirPort Mania, not a bad game).  And now they're poised to strike at the near monopoly Apple has on the tablet market.

Everyone knows that the iPad rocks, and that all the imitators really just don't cut it, especially when they're just as, if not more expensive than the iPad.  This is where Amazon steps in and slashes away at the tablet market

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/02/amazon-kindle-tablet/

With prices to beat the iPad and an online media store (probably bigger than Apple's) the next generation Kindle is likely going to become the next hottest device in America.  I already think the Kindle has some great stuff going for it, and it is only going to get better. 

So now I am faced with a hypothetical dilemma, if I were to stumble upon several hundred dollars to be used in the purchase of a personal media consumption device, which one would I pick?  $499 for the baseline iPad, or $250 for the Kindle, but then you get the rest of the money ($249) to spend on accessories, apps, music, and movies...  That's a tough choice!  You know that if you bought an iPad it would be nearly worthless without at least some money put into useful apps...  It's a tough decision, and luckily not one I have to make anytime soon.

On a strictly media standpoint, Amazon offers media at lower prices, so I might be inclined to go with that.

A new Blog

So we have a new blog.  I will still use this one to voice random opinions, mostly relating to football and other random things.  But the Murray Family Blog, posted on by myself and by beautiful wife.  If you'd like to check it out:

http://smmurray.blogspot.com/

Go there to see about our new house and our recent trip to washington.

overkill

So we bought a new car.  We looked at a dealer, and didn't really find anything we loved, plus the salesmen are so annoying.  We looked at a bunch of private sellers and we found a car that we think we'll love!  Our primary requirement was having good gas milage.  Our new Ford Focus gets 36 highway, and it has a lot of add-ons.  In fact, it's a little overkill, we certainly don't need a 6-disk mp3 capable stereo system... but it's nice.  It has leather seats, cruise control, power locks/windows, and it's orange.

Bank of ***** or why I hate Wells Fargo

(insert your own pluralized inappropriate word into the space above)

Apparently Wells Fargo's Car loan department does not accept a legal contract as proof of residence.  Instead I had to call Rocky Mt. Power and have them fax over my account statement, proving that I do live at my apartment.

Then an hour later they said that Stephanie also had to have different proof of residence (even though they had previously said that her pay-stub would be fine, since it did in fact have her address on it)!  The branch manager was apologetic and helpful in suggesting a credit union where he knew a manager who was really good.  It was actually the Wells Fargo branch manager that called the car loan dept. an inappropriate word that inspired the title to this post.

Because they were so dumb, we had to miss out on the Bees game, which I was ok with at first thinking we would have a new car.. but now I'm just infuriated with the whole process.  Interestingly enough the branch manager and our call seller both suggested the same credit union (UCCU) and said it would be really fast, with low rates, so I will hopefully have a post with our new car's pictures by tomorrow night!

102

I just realized that my last post was officially the 101st post on my blog.  So I guess this is a momentous occasion.  So happy 102nd blog post for me!

slogans

It may well be known that I love BYU sports, and of all college sports, I love football the most.  Sitting in priesthood meeting on Sunday for some reason I felt inspired by the slogans/logos released by BYU in the past several years.  Not only are they football themed, but they are very gospel themed as well.  I collected some samples to show:

Fully invested:  

BYU use - be a fan that is fully invested in supporting the team, be a hard working, undistracted (fan/player/coach).

Gospel use - fully invest yourselves in preparing for salvation, don't casually read the scriptures or pray, but really mean everything you do and make it important.

The Quest (for perfection) - thats a little bit self explanatory for both uses.

Rise Up:
BYU use - Coming back from a less than perfect season, it is now time for the Cougars to rise up, and become a national power again.  (which I totally think they can/will)
Gospel use - "Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?" Psalms 94:16.  Also, from Hymn #324, 
"Rise up o men of God, tread where His feet have trod, as brothers of the Son of Man, Rise up o men of God."


Yes, I do think that Bronco has been doing his very best to influence this team spiritually as well as physically, and I agree that a team that is spiritually healthy will perform better physically (due to the fact that much of the game is mental, and spirituality helps mental focus).



Not to mention the constant reference to the original slogan (the one introduced the very first year Bronco was head coach) "Band of Brothers".  At first when I saw coaches and ball boys wearing that shirt at a recent practice I thought they just had some old stuff, but then I realized that its the same shirt that Bronco wears to half of the games:

And they have it front and center on all of their helmets:

 And this year they made a poster/desktop with the slogan

So, Rise up!  Be fully invested in the quest for eternal salvation through faith, repentance and baptism in the true church headed by Jesus Christ himself, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.