It’s still great to be a Florida Gator…

But it’s a bummer losing like that. I’m still not sure what happened but, if I had to guess, I’d probably use the words “meltdown” and “unprepared”. Our defense stunk up the stadium and our offense was a one-trick pony with little resembling anything “spread” or “option”. ‘Bama played well, but they beat a team that was only a shell of the team I’ve seen the past few weeks. I don’t know where the Gators were on Saturday, but they weren’t in Tuscaloosa.

Hopefully we’ll play well and run Meyer’s offense this weekend against Mississippi State. I hope we’re able to get a win and gain some confidence in our schemes so that we’re prepared when we go to LSU in a couple weeks. I think the most important thing to remember right now is that we’re still in control of the SEC East. We do have a loss, but it was to West team, so it did the least amount of damage possible. If we get back on track and run the table in the East, we’ll go to the SEC Championship game and hopefully get a rematch against the tide.

Anti-Gator fans?

Since our loss to Alabama, I’ve had a few people–none of whom are Alabama students, fans or alumni–say to me or e-mail me a big “Rolll Tiiiide!!” I don’t get it. I don’t understand why people dislike Florida so much. My only guess is that Spurrier was so dominant and cocky that people just decided to hate the Gators. One of the people who said that to me is an Auburn grad. When they lost to GaTech earlier this year, I didn’t say a word to him. When they got snubbed out of the National Title game last year, I told him I thought that was stupid and the BCS was flawed. The only jawing I’ve ever done is to say, “We’ll see you in the SEC Championship.” That’s it. But when we lose to a tough football team, this guy starts giving me lip. Seriously?

Another person, an FSU fan, e-mailed me with nothing but “Rooolll Tiiiide!” I guess she may’ve been irked because, after she tried to tell me how we’re going to lose this year and UGA has our number, I called Doak “Ron Zook Field”. I never e-mailed her last year (or any of multiple opportunities) to say “Go ‘Canes!!!!” or “Go Terps!!” I didn’t e-mail her to talk smack after we beat FSU on their field last year. But we get a road loss to a Top 15 team that she doesn’t even root for and I immediately get an e-mail? Seriously? Nevermind that an astute FSU fan would realize that Florida’s record come November 26 could have a huge impact on FSU’s potential to play for the National Title, and a Florida loss doesn’t help their cause.

After UGA beat us last year, I was at Radio Shack buying some batteries or something. Some random dude saw my hat and came up to say, “You a Gator fan? Man, them Bulldogs beat y’all today, huh?” He was obviously trying to get a rise out of me and also obviously not a Georgia fan. I said, “Well, we have to give them one every 15 years or so. We figured this’d be a good year to do it since we don’t have a coach and all.” He just kinda’ sheepishly put his head down and walked away. I guess he hadn’t really thought his chiding through. But why say anything to begin with? I’m surrounded by Sooners fans. I haven’t said a word to any of them about their season so far. I work with several Aggies. I haven’t made a peep. It’s one thing to root for a football team, but it’s another thing entirely to root against a team just to spite its fans.

Yes, I know what a rivalry is. No, I don’t like FSU or Tennessee. But, no, I wouldn’t e-mail anyone from those schools if their team lost a football game to some team I don’t even root for. That just seems silly and sort of mean-spirited.

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It’s great to be a Florida Gator

Wow. Saturday’s football game was really incredible. I’m pretty sure the last time a home game held that much significance was Tennessee in 2001 at the end of the season. If we won that game, we would go on to play for the SEC Championship and possibly play in the National Championship. But we lost.

It’s been almost four years since then and we’ve had some big disappointments and a couple nice wins, but Saturday’s game was the first game in a while that’s meant something. We’re back in the Top 5. Our schedule is difficult, but if we remain undefeated and win the SEC, we’ll have an excellent shot at playing for the Championship. We still have to play LSU, Georgia, Alabama, another West team in the SEC Championship and so-far-undefeated FSU. If our schedule is as difficult as it seems it will be, we could have to win five games over Top 10 opponents.

But all that’s just chit-chat. The real deal was going to a big game in the Swamp and beating a solid opponent when it really counted. And the best part of the real deal was watching the game from the student section, 20 rows up on the 30-yard line. It was one of the best experiences I’ve had at the Swamp, and I’ve been to a lot of home games.

Now, I just have to see about getting tickets (plane and football) for the FSU game in November. I’m hoping to take Thanksgiving week off and travel home to see family, friends and some Florida football.

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Two-week update

It’s been quite a while since I wrote anything here. Why? I’m lazy.

Ok, so what’ve I been up to? Well, I’ve had two basketball games since my last post and I’m finally starting to play pretty well. Last week, I had 12 points on 4-of-6 3-point shooting. This week, I had 10 points–2 3-pointers, an 18-foot jumper and a couple freethrows. Those are decent point totals since this league plays a 36 minute game with a running clock and a 2-minute half time. Our team is averaging somewhere in the low 30s per game. We lost both games, but against decent teams and both games were pretty close. Last week, we just couldn’t hit our freethrows and this week, we basically didn’t have an answer for their big man.

Poker

Well, I have played for about a year online and have seen moderate winnings. Mostly, I’d been playing to get experience and learn more about the game. Recently, I decided to try and grind out some actual steady money, so I started playing Limit Hold ‘em cash games. I started at Micro Limits–$.5/$1, 4-tabling–and am gradually moving up. My win-rate was just over 4BB/100 hands for almost 6,000 hands. I just moved up to $1/$2 Limit and I’m up, but I’ve only played a couple hundred hands. Anyway, I’ll play $1/$2 until I’ve won about 300BB, then I’ll jump to $2/$4. Slow and steady.

Reading

Since I returned from Europe, I’ve been reading a lot. Mostly, I’ve been reading books on poker, but I’ve also read some good fiction. Right now, I’m reading David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day. Sedaris is just a great author with a unique perspective and writing style. It’s just fun to read his stuff. Next, I think I’ll move on to John Irving’s latest book, but first it has to come out in paperback.

Work’s been rough

That about says it all. When I returned from Europe, I assumed the responsibilities that had previously been two peoples’ jobs. Actually, it seems I’ve taken on even more responsibility than that. Anyway, I’ve been ultra-busy and it’s been keeping me from pursuing acting like I want to. I know I should continue pursuing acting, but my schedule at work is very demanding and volatile and I don’t want to over commit myself. Hopefully, things will calm down by the end of the year and I can get back on the bus.

Headin’ home for football

I will be going to Florida to see the UT vs. UF football game next month. Really, I’ll be hoping to see the game since I don’t have a ticket. Basically, I plan to fly into Orlando, rent a car, drive to G-ville and start hunting for a ticket. I’ll be getting to G-ville on Thursday afternoon, so that’ll give me almost two full days to find a ticket.

I really should find something more interesting to write about.

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Back to DAL from ATL

Well, my Florida/Georgia tour has ended and I’m preparing to re-enter the real world tomorrow. I figure I should capture some of the highlights from ATL, so here goes.

I had a great time hanging with my pals and just layin’ around. Mostly, it was good to see many of my friends from UF and also to spend time with all my buddies that have moved to ATL. I went to the Peach Bowl and watched the Gators get waxed, but at least I had decent seats and went with several of my good friends. While the game wasn’t too exciting, it was fun to make fun of the drunk guy behind us and mock the lady he was with. Apparently, his special lady friend thinks it’s ‘bad coaching’ if Leak slides short of the first down marker because there are three defenders about to crush him. Yes, lady, a ‘good coaching’ decision would be for him to just continue running right for the defenders so that if he makes the first down, it’s his last play of the season.

After the Peach Bowl, I went to a friend’s New Year’s party and had a great time. There were plenty of funny people there and I had some good conversations. Also, it was great to drive people to the other side of Atlanta at 5 am by using terrible directions supplemented by the guy in the passenger’s seat saying to his buddy on the phone, “Well, we’re at this place that reminds me of Batman one.” and “This looks familiar. Let’s try this one.” about a random apartment complex in the middle of nowhere.

Back on the bike

So, the best part about being home is that I can finally get back to working out. I start a basketball league in a week and I haven’t touched a basketball in at least two months. I have a lot of work to do so I’m ready to run Point when the league starts.

Today at the gym, I was riding the bike and reading (as usual) when a guy sits next to me and, in a thick European accent, says, “Quite a reading selection there.” I looked down to realize that I’d brought a copy of Entertainment Weekly and also The Art of War. I guess those aren’t generally read simultaneously, but I like to go for variety in what I read.

I’m going to shoot around now.

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Back on the East Coast

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything, but that’s mostly because I’ve been so busy traveling and such. I’ve been in Florida for four days now and I’m having a great time. Of course, I’ve done a lot of eating and sitting around, but I’ve also spent a lot of time with friends and having a great time.

There aren’t too many details to share because most of my trip has been simple relaxation and vacation. Today, I went to a Florida basketball game, which we won handily. It was fun to see our younger guys get some playing time and I thought we playe pretty well. We definitely need to work on our offense and our consistency, but we could be in good shape by March.

In a few days I’m heading to Jacksonville for Christmas. I’ll be seeing my family and some Jacksonville friends and hopefully meeting with a couple friends to talk more about the short we’ve been very, very slowly writing.

The following week, I’ll be off to Atlanta for more visiting and also to go to the Peach Bowl and hopefully see the Gators beat the ‘Canes.

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I can’t believe it

For the first time since 1986, the Gators won at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee. This after we fired our coach in October. After last year at Gainesville, I couldn’t be happier that we knocked up the 8th ranked ‘Noles. Looks like the refs weren’t there to bail them out this year.

Of course, I’m becoming more and more unsure of my support for the school’s decision to fire Zook. At first, I was really supportive (I just felt like we weren’t going forward, even in our third year since we hired him), but now I’m realizing he may have his best year yet… and with a young team that is a dead ringer for SEC Eastern Division Champs next year.

I guess now we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Since Spurrier seems to be headed for South Carolina, it seems likely we’ll get Urban Meyer from Utah. Or at least we’ll pursue him. The guy seems to know what he’s doing and his offense will fit very well at UF. It’s so Spurrier-esque it’s scary.

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Florida: Days 9 through 11

Well, my last few days in Florida were relaxing, but fun. On Friday, we went out to Newberry for a baby-back-ribs fix and then watched Miami beat FSU again. Obviously, I take great pleasure in seeing the ‘Noles beaten again and it was even better that FSU could’ve iced the game with a late fieldgoal if only it hadn’t been blocked. Before the game, I predicted they’d go for something new and different since “wide left” and “wide right” were becoming sort of cliche. They didn’t disappoint.

Saturday, I went to the first Gator football game of the year and it was a route, just as everyone expected. I actually left near the end of the third quarter because we’d already been there about four hours thanks to a rain delay. We ended up winning 49-10 and, although we didn’t look perfect, all of the problems I saw can definitely be corrected by some well used practice time this week. I can’t wait for the Tennessee game on Saturday night.

Sunday, I went to church and then packed up and started heading home. A couple of my friends in Gainesville took me to Starke (half-way between Gainesville and Jacksonville) to eat lunch at Sonny’s and then they passed me off to another friend who got me the rest of the way to the airport. My flight home was uneventful (my favorite adjective for describing plane rides) and I got in about 9:30 last night. Since then, I’ve been laying around feeling absolutely exhausted and trying to get some things done around my apartment.

I’m really surprised how tired I am and I hope I’m ready for work tomorrow. I just realized that, before my 11 day trip, I worked 16 of 17 days consecutively and the last 4 days before I left were jammed with shopping and last minute preparation. Basically, I’ve been going for 3 weeks straight and I’m looking forward to doing nothing this week.

Acting trudging along

Since my coach left for LA and I’ve been out of town, I haven’t been working nearly as hard on my acting as I would like to be. I’ve been doing a little reading, but I haven’t been practicing, training or signing up for showcases and such as I should be. I feel like a real slacker. I guess the good news is that in three weeks I’m headed to L.A. for five days and part of that time will be spent getting my stuff together for acting. I’ll be getting headshots, meeting with my coach and hopefully doing a little networking. I really need to turn up the heat and get serious and I’m starting to feel a sense of urgency. Mostly, I feel I should always be moving forward and I haven’t been doing that lately (at least not at a pace I’d like).

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Weblog? Is that you?

So… um… I don’t have a good reason for not posting for almost a month now. I mean, I’m a slacker and there isn’t really anyone who doesn’t know that, so I don’t see much reason for making excuses or explaining myself.

Football turnaround

At the beginning of the season, my posts were speckled with words like “miserable”, “disappointing”, “unbelievable” and other words that are mostly those words’ synonyms. Well, as is always true in football, those words still apply to some poor school’s season, but it ain’t Florida’s anymore! Right now, it’s probably Georgia seein’ as how they lost to us for the 13th out of 14 times (and the 6th consecutive time). I said before the game that I would feel awful for the UGA fans if we won again. While that’s true, that awful feeling is offset by the feeling of “oh boy! we got us a decent football team again!” that has been creeping over me since we beat LSU. Now, we actually have a shot at the SEC Championship and, yes, I would’ve laughed out loud if someone had said that to me 6 weeks ago.

46 days until graduation, I think

I’m not very good at counting and I am using a regular old wall-hanging calendar to do my calculations, but if I pointed correctly, I have 46 days left until I finally have something to show for my long tenure as a Florida Gator/nerd. In fact, I will have two somethings to show for my time–two degrees, one of which I’ll actually be paid to use. I guess the only problem is I’ve had this problem (a problem I also began suffering some time during my junior year of high school) called “senioritis” that’s been keeping me from attending classes and focusing in general. Fortunately, I just got some crummy homework grades back that have shaken me up and I’ve committed to go to at least one lecture this week. I decided to go today, so I could get that junk outta’ the way and enjoy the rest of my week.

Still playin’ poker

Of course, I’m still playin’ poker and have found marked improvement in my home game. I still have trouble beating bad luck (I lost an all-in hand the other night to a guy who had 10.5:1 odds against making his draw with one card to come, and I lost another all-in hand to a different player with worse odds of making his hand with two cards to come), but I’ve started using a strategy that seems to work well against the people with whom I play:

• First, I never raise before the flop: it’s pointless because all it does is give my opponents proper odds to chase draws and make calls that would otherwise be mathematically incorrect. Also, I’m able to disguise the quality of my hand much better and that allows me to win big pots when the time is right.
• Second, I very, very rarely bluff: I used to think I had to work bluffing into my game so that I could be a better player. While this is true (ie, without bluffing, I’m always playing good cards and other players will figure this out and make it difficult for me to win any money), it’s also true that the people I play with will play most any hand, regardless of what I “represent” with a good bluff. So, rather than throw money away at people who will always call bluffs, I simply patiently wait for good cards and then take all their money as they call my outrageous bets with mediocre hands.

The night I began implementing these two changes to my game, I tripled my buy-in… The next time we played, I tripled my buy-in. The next time we played, I had three opportunities to win huge pots, but lost to dumb luck (see above references to people winning hands against horrible odds). We’re playing in about a half hour and I will be disappointed if I don’t triple my buy-in. I can’t lose unless probability frowns on me.

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