WhistlinDixie

Make Yourself Known

First of all, you may have noticed that I have not been online at all this past week. That would be because I was banned from the network at the place where I was staying for using too mush bandwidth. Basically, they were in the process of banning me, but were unable to because they could not stop the connection that I was using. So, to disconnect me, they had to shut down the hotel’s internet connection and initialize it again. Because of this, and the fact that it was my second offense, I had to get the hotel manager to call them and tell them to lift the ban on me. Only problem is that the manager works hours that overlap with mine, so it was a little hard to go and talk to her. I finally called her on Friday, but got her voicemail. I left a message, but figured that I would probably have to call again on Monday. However, I tried connecting this afternoon, and it worked. I’m not sure if she actually requested my ban be lifted or that by keeping my wireless off for a week allowed me to connect as a different computer, but I’m back.

Anyway, back to what I was going to write about. I ran across a site called Frappr that allows you to make a Google Map that pinpoints the location of anyone in your group. All you have to do is type in a name (real or made up), a zip code, a "shoutout", and, optionally, a picture. Frappr will put a marker on the map according to your zip code and post your shoutout, with picture, at the bottom of the page. You can click on the markers on the map to read the shoutouts that have come from there. It looked pretty neat, so I got my own Frappr page. So, feel free to go and make it known just who exactly reads this and where you are. No registration is required, so go ahead and Frappr. (Check it out. I think that I just invented a new verb.)

This Frappr map is deprecated. Don’t waste your time with it.

Boo Michigan!!!

I got a good laugh out of this. Every week during the college football season, ESPN publishes a bunch of polls. Most are the usual: AP Top 25, USA Today Top 25, ESPN Power Rankings, etc. The most interesting (read: funny), however, is the Bottom 10. In it, ESPN usually collects a group of nine college football programs that are on monumental loosing streaks or just really doing bad. Teams like Duke and "Directional Michigan" (Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, and Western Michigan) are perennial bottom feeders.

By now, you are probably thinking "OK, Bottom 10, nine teams. Doesn’t make much sense. Did they assign a bottom 10 mathematician to compile the list?" Well, let me finish. You see, the number five spot is reserved for programs that are just plain disappointing. These are teams that are normally in the top 25, but that have really sucked lately.

Anyway, guess who received the #5 ranking on the Bottom 10 last week? If you actually took the time to read the title of this post, you will be on the way to giving the right answer. It was great to see. To save you the trouble of clicking on a link, here’s a glimpse of Michigan’s entry:

It was also funny reading the user feedback for the week’s Bottom 10. It’s funny that U of M fans can’t even take a joke, or admit that their team just plain sucks this year. It’ll be great if this continues. It isn’t like it will hurt Michigan’s rankings any more.

Back to the Blog

In case you haven’t noticed, I have hardly touched my blog over the past couple of months. I’ll choose to blame this on school. When you are taking 20 credit hours AND have a TV in your room, time for blogging just seems to disappear.

Now, next subject: the Buckeyes. Since most of my readers happen to hail from Buckeye country, I am sure that you have been hearing plenty about the Bucks. At this point in the season, with two losses, we are extreme long shots for the national championship game, the Rose Bowl. Our only losses this season have come to unbeaten teams: #2 Texas and #9 Penn State. I hope that it stays this way: no more losses for us or Texas or Penn State. I would rather loose a close one to a unbeaten team than one that has lost a few. Even how, we need Penn State to lose two, Wisconsin to lose once more, and to win out, to have a chance at winning the Big Ten.

Now, who or what could we attribute the two losses to? I think that the first one could be placed squarely on the quarterback carousel that we ran during that game. Our loss to Penn State, and our poor offense, I think can be attributed partially to the unproductive season that Ted Ginn is having. Six games into the season, he only has two touchdowns and has been ineffective almost every time that he has touched the ball. If Ginn can get on track, I think that our offense could really start rolling. Considering that our running attack is doing better this year with Antonio Pittman at tailback, we could be even more effective than last year. Right now, I can only hope.

Expect to hear more from me in the near future. Even if I haven’t been writing much in the past few months, I have been collecting things to write about, so I am not short on material.