Why do you always do this to me, Mizzou?

Every year, you get me excited for the season, get me pumped up and believing, truly believing this year, at last, is our year. You drag me on 14 hour car trips to see you get pummeled. You let freaking KANSAS drive the field with under 2 minutes to go and let them score an uncontested touchdown. You get my hopes back up, we still have :27 left and two timeouts, this can happen, we only need a field goal. :11 left, we complete a pass then spike the ball... wait, why in the hell did we spike it when we had two timeouts... OK whatever it doesn't matter just need a 5-10 yard pass to get in field goal range, wait, no, we dropped the most crucial pass of the game. And Mizzou, why oh why did you bring me on this emotional rollercoaster just to crash and burn just when the end was in sight? Why, Mizzou, WHYYYY???? You always get my hopes up and then never come through for me.. I'm not gonna fall into this trap again.

So, Oklahoma next week for the Big 12 Championship.

Let's go boys. We can do this. MIZ ZOU RAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Election Day

Well I am off to vote soon. It will be nice to not have to see or hear a political ad every commercial break on tv or radio after today.

In other news, my neighbor bought a bb gun yesterday. He then proceeded to use one of our chairs on the porch, prop a flattened cardboard box up on it, pin a target he drew on computer paper to the cardboard, then shoot at it for the greater part of an hour. I think the trailer park behind us is starting to rub off on him.

DISCLAIMER: the above was supposed to be an attempt at humor, and I know that not every person in a trailer park is a redneck. Just the majority.

Anyway, this Saturday is the last game at Faurot Field this year. The last game there ever for the likes of Chase Daniel, Chase Coffman, William Moore, and the other seniors on this team. Their class has been phenomenally successful at MU and in large part helped to put Mizzou football on the map. It should be a great game; November night game, Senior Night, Blackout Game, etc. all make for a wonderful atmosphere.

Another interesting fact: the seniors on this football team have taken turns wearing the number 25 during different games throughout the season in honor of Aaron O'Neil, who collapsed and died during a voluntary workout in 2005. He would have been a senior this year, and his family will be on the field during the senior presentations on Saturday. I think these guys have done him a great honor.

That's all for now. Peace

Uncle Again

Well this weekend was another good one. The Tigers finally righted themselves and destroyed the Colorado Buffaloes 58-0. While it was good to shut out the Buffs, it just lent more evidence to the existing stigma that the Tigers can destroy the lesser teams in college football, but when it comes time to play the big boys, they fall apart. The home upset by the Oklahoma State Cowboys was not a fluke, they were the better team. Still, the Tigers have come a long way from the old days where now the fans, and especially the team, is expecting to win EVERY game. GP has this program going in the right direction, and the big wins will come.

Even more importantly, though, my sister had her baby at 8:54 on Sunday morning. I drove back to visit for the day, and the little guy sure is a cutie. I'm excited to have another nephew around, I'll get to enjoy all the things about having another little baby all over again. It's gonna be a great Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season!

I drove 14 hours for this?

So this weekend I made the trip down to Austin, Texas to see my Missouri Tigers play the Longhorns. I went with two of my friends here who are from Texas, and it was a really fun road trip. Except for the fact that Missouri got rolled 56-31. Oh well, it just shows we still have a little bit to go before we are really in the top echelon of college football. We'll get there though, Pinkel has this team moving in the right direction and, while I don't agree with some of his play-calling, he has the overall program up and running. It makes me happy. I can take consistently good seasons with a few bad losses as long as the program as a whole is moving upward. At least we're losing to teams we're supposed to lose to and beating teams we're supposed to be beating.

So now it's back to school activities. We are officially past the half way point in the semester. % more weeks till Thanksgiving break and 8 more weeks till the semester is over. It's been flying by. I try to soak it all in because I love every minute of it and I know I'll wish I had more time when I graduate.

Anywho, just a short update now, I'll be back later
--The Comeback Kid

Back to the Grind

After a fun weekend with my family, it's back to work. I went to my cousin's wedding this weekend and had a good time. I haven't seen my mom's side of the family in a long time, so it was good to reconnect with them. I hope that I will be able to go out there more frequently in the future.

The low point of the weekend, by far, was Mizzou losing to Oklahoma State on Saturday night. Oklahoma did get beat by Texas, which is good for us. We play Texas on Saturday and if we come out of Austin with a win it will go a long way to get us back into National Title consideration. I think we are certainly capable of doing it, but whether we will or not is (obviously) yet to be seen. I don't even wanna talk about the loss on Saturday night, I'm still trying to recover. Bottom line is we choked. Credit to (I'm a MAN) Mike Gundy and his Cowboys, they were no question the better team on Saturday. That's why the game is played, boys and girls. Mizzou wins that game 8 or 9 times out of 10. Oh well, on to Texas.

So today I got out of class at 12:15, and it was nice to come back and have lunch, relax and then get started on some homework. I'm in the middle of another relaxing period, just started some laundry and considering going to Wal-Mart.

Our draft for our fantasy basketball league is tomorrow night so that should be exciting. I'm not a big follower of NBA basketball but it's a group of my friends so it should be fun if nothing else. Also a good distraction from studying. That's ALWAYS a plus.

In one week, arguably the most anticipated video game for Xbox 360 comes out. It's called Fable 2, and basically you are the hero of the world of Albion and you save the world from bad guys. OK, horrible summary of the game but it's not out yet so I can't really say. All I know is the original Fable, for Xbox, was a ton of fun. I guess I'm just a video game nerd. Whatever, I'm okay with it.

My sister is due to have her baby son on the 21st. I'm definitely excited for him to come! Having another baby around will make the drive back to St. Charles a lot shorter and much more attractive to me. One of my roommates is going back this weekend, but I'm not sure I will or not because I have a test on Monday for a class I should be doing better in. I guess I'll decide later.

Alright I'm on to do some math homework. Wish me luck! Talk to you later

---The Comeback Kid

Great Weekend

This has been a brilliant weekend. The movie on Friday night, the 52-17 (should've been 52-10 except for garbage time TD by Nubs) demolishing of Nebraska at their own stadium, then a visit from my sister and her fiance and my nephew today. We went to Harpo's, which had good food and was nice to just sit there and talk for a while with them. It was really good to see the little man there. He is getting so big! Everytime I see him he is bigger and you can just see him starting to figure out the world. He is definitely a special little guy. It's going to be a lot of fun to be part of his life and help him grow into a good person. I'm looking forward to teaching him all the stuff the weird, funny uncle teaches kids. Along these same lines, my other sister is due to have her baby boy at the end of this month. The holidays are going to be a lot of fun this year. I'm soo excited!!

It was good Harpo's was sorta empty today, I can see it being a great place to go and watch a Tigers game but if it woulda been crowded today the visit would have been a lot less enjoyable.

Thank goodness that last week is over. It was for sure a stressful one. It's been nice to able to really relax and enjoy this weekend as much as possible. I still have a few little homework things to do, but such is life. You are never truly finished with everything you have to do.

In one of my classes, we are reading "The Happiness Hypothesis," and I came across an interesting quote while reading it:
"What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind." --Buddha
This really struck me as a huge revelation. So much of our life is formed by our perception of events that happened. We all know people who think that everybody is giving them "the look." They live continually angry and stressful lives because they think that every person is out to get them. Or when people take no responsibility for their actions. Every failure in their life is because of somebody else's actions. Not even that, but just the simplest everyday encounters when we have conversations with people. If they are in a good mood, we assume that the conversation was good. If they are a little ticked off, for whatever reason, we attribute their mood to something that WE did or said. People always want to think they are so much more important than they really are. Our actions are, in the grand scheme of things, insignificant. We are ONE person, on a planet of BILLIONS of people, on ONE planet, in ONE solar system, in a vast universe of BILLIONS of solar systems.

Don't get me wrong, I know the impression I just gave off with that is one of extreme pessimism. But it's not. I am simply saying a SINGLE human life is ultimately insignificant. The human race, as a whole, is extremely important. Life will go one without a single person among us. Even if the person is very influential in whatever field you like to think of. Inevitably, their work will be carried on by another person. I guess what I'm getting at is this: A human life is but a single molecule in the Arch, or Eiffel Tower, or whatever tall building you chose. The lives we live today lay the foundations for lives to be lived in the future. Think about it, this makes sense, I promise. How many of our modern inventions are based on simpler mechanisms invented 2,000 years ago? Shit, for that matter, look at how much difference the wheel has made in today's society. And that was invented as far back as 3500 BC. It really is true that most parents' dreams and life's work is just to make sure their children live a better life than they do.

Anyway, I just thought that quote was pretty inspiring. To me, at least. I guess most people would say the whole insignificance of life thing is pretty dire, but it gave me a whole lot of motivation and perspective on life. Make of it what you will.

Welllll, I fear my time has come to get my act together and get some stuff done.

Buenos Nachos!

---The Comeback Kid

Hey, Mikey, I think he likes it!

Okay, so I was skeptical about whether I would get into the "blogging" mindset. Clock it, 2 hours since the inaugural post and I'm back for more.

The picture with the title of the blog is of the Goldrush game last year at Faurot Field. Uhhh, memory is failing me here, but I think we played Nebraska. Yepppp, yeah we did. And if I'm not mistaken, I THINK we won something like 41-6. I don't know. It was such a long time ago I'm having trouble remembering..... uh huh. That was the score. Here's proof:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngr7apc6_hY

Brilliant stuff. Quality is not as good as you would hope, but that game was unbelievable. 73,000 outrageous fans there, the atmosphere was unreal. Now, this week the football Tigers go into Lincoln, where they have not one in 30 years. The media has been saying that all the time, but honestly, WHO CARES? The fact is that in today's college football, tradition is counting for less and less everyday. Don't get me wrong, it still matters. But the Nebraska fans out there who make the claims that they'll be back because there's just so much tradition in football there is a load of crap. These are 17 and 18 year old kids here, names like Tom Osborne don't mean anything to them. Especially in this age where on any given Saturday you can watch 5 or 6 different college football games, the players today just want to go where they can get playing time. The 85 scholarship limit has given college football a new face and a level of parity that has never been experienced before. Gone are the days when the Cornhuskers would recruit the 3 best running backs just so the Tigers or K-State or whoever else wouldn't get them. It's time for new powers to arise in the various conferences around the nation, and it's a beautiful thing.

In summary, I like college football.

Alright, I better get back to studying for now. Plus I'm feelin a steamin plate of pizza rolls comin my way.

Don't worry, I'll be back.

---The Comeback Kid