Proud new camera owner
My camera arrived today via FedEX. I played with it a bit and got a feel for the basic features, but I’ll have to wait until the weekend to get into the instruction manual and figure out what it can do. For now, I’m glad I have a way to get pictures of “here” sent back home so my family and friends can see where I live. JoshDoody.com should soon be up and running and will be where I eventually put some pictures online…
Another Friday’s almost here
I guess I’m pretty excited about the weekend, but I can’t stop thinking about what my life could look like twenty years from now. Yes, I have a good job, working for and with good people, making good money, but I’m scared to death that I’ll still be working this same job when I’m forty or fifty or even sixty. I imagine there are people who picture themselves moving up the corporate ladder, making more and more money, managing other people and eventually running things in a big company. I bet some people dream of making it that big, but I don’t want any part of it.
So, I guess the question is What do I want a part of? and I don’t know the answer. Obviously, I’d like to delve further into acting, so I think that’s the thing I want a part of for now. If I start this summer, I’ll have an AA in two years and because Texas is a “right to work” state, I might even be able to get work while I’m still working full-time. For now, my priority is knocking out my student loan debt and I figure that should be taken care of about the same time I finish the AA in acting. I figure if I pay off that debt, get the AA and spend some time trying to get commercials and small roles in indie films while saving up money from my full-time job, I should be able to ensure some financial stability and independence via my savings account.
All I know is that I have a lot of respect for those who’ve chosen to make a career out of engineering or even business in general, but I just can’t picture myself in that sort of setting any time but the near future. But for now, the near future’s all I have and I intend to make it a bright one.
Long, relaxing evening
Today’s my day off from workin’ out, so it seems like I’ve had an extra long evening. In reality, I had a normal length evening rather than the typical short one I get after workin’ out and running all over Plano to buy stuff. Fortunately, I’m starting to get into a routine and that routine doesn’t include spending copious amounts of money on stuff.
I guess what’s more important than the duration of my evening is how I used the time it afforded me. I’m sorry to report that I wasted every moment doing useless things and staring at the television. However, I did guess the answer to “What was it before it was deep-fried” on Letterman (“it” was a pair of mini binoculars), so that’s gotta’ count for something…
Quote of the week
“Gettin’ locked up is a part of… well it ain’t a part of life, but you know what I’m sayin’? … Is this your first time? Aw, man, yeah that’s always the scariest ’cause you don’t know what’s goin’ on. Yeah, the next time you go, I gaurantee you it’ll be funny.” – Jacquese consoling Robin after a night in jail on the Real World
Gratuitous necessities
So, I spent a little money today… but, when I heard about the Atari 10-in-1 system, I had to have it. It’s an Atari joystick that takes four AA batteries and plugs into a component video input in a TV. It has 10 games inside including Centipede, Missile Command, Breakout and Asteroids. The one discouraging thing about it is that the box says, “A blast from your parents’ past!” That means I’m old and I guess I should be a parent with kids old enough to play Atari games.
I also bought Lost in Translation. When I first saw this movie, I was convinced it would get a few Oscar nominations and I’m not surprised to see that it’s up for four awards. I also wasn’t surprised when it won three Golden Globes including best actor. I think Bill Murray has a good shot at nabbing the Oscar for Best Actor as well.
Finally, I bought The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season. This one, I’ve been meaning to buy for a while and just hadn’t gotten around to it. The Simpsons is definitely one of the best sitcoms of all time, animated or otherwise.
Kentucky vs. Florida
I’ve been lookin’ forward to this game for a while now.
Thoughts on the first half
Most remarkable moment of the half? Roberson’s 26-foot 3-pointer at the end of the half. Of course, if he’d missed it, I would say it was a horrible shot, but I’m swayed by the scoreboard.
As for the rest of the half, I think we’re doing a good job with our transition defense. In fact, our defense in general is pretty solid except for our problems around the basket. Our help defense is still slow, especially against all the athletes on Kentucky’s squad. We’re doing a decent job of closing out on the perimeter and I think we’ve done a good job defending 3-pointers, although Kentucky seems to be finding a way to knock down well-defended shots. Our offense is sputtering, but I sort of expected that given two things: 1) Our offense seems to sputter at the beginning of every game and 2) Kentucky is known for defense. I think it’s obvious that our offense is stronger when we’re threatening to score transition buckets. We have to run Kentucky into the ground, even if we’re not scoring, so that they are spread out more on defense.
For the second half, I expect the tempo of the game to pick up a bit. I think as the tempo picks up in transition, our inside-out game will pick up and we’ll get more good looks on the perimeter. As that happens, I think the double-team on our big guys will subside and I expect Kentucky will eventually drop into some sort of zone defense. Then, I think our passing game will start to come into play and we’ll get more open looks. Of course, this is all speculation and I could be totally wrong… We’re down by 4 right now and I think we’ll win by 5 because we’re a second-half team and Kentucky has a knack for losing leads in the second half.
Thoughts on the second half
Everything went about as I expected except Kentucky never dropped into a zone defense. Of course then I got to see a classic Gator choke during the last couple minutes of the game. I don’t really have much to say since the second half went exactly as I hoped it would… until we went home a few minutes early. The end of the game was reminiscent of the Florida vs. Creighton game in the first round of the NCAA Tourney in 2002.
I couldn’t be more sick of seeing Gator chokes: 2 years ago against Creighton, the last three home games against Kentucky, this year’s Maryland game. That’s basketball. How ’bout football? I don’t even know where to begin. What about Alabama at home in ’99? First home loss in 30 games; lost by a series of bungled plays at the end of the game and even in overtime. Three seasons ago at Mississippi State, two seasons ago at Ole Miss, this season at Miami, at home against Ole Miss, at home against FSU. And those are just the highlights.
But maybe I’m just looking at the dark spots. What about wins we’ve eeked out at the last second? Well, there’s the home basketball game against Georgia last year where Roberson drained a 3-pointer on Hayes with only seconds left. There’s the football game at Tennessee in 2000 where we won by a controversial touchdown pass by Jabar Gaffney in his breakout game. The infamous Mike Miller coast-to-coast game winner against Butler in the 2000 NCAA Basketball Tourney. And that’s about all I can think of. Of course, I’m probably missing one or two, but I know I’m missing several tough losses, so I’m sure it all evens out… or at least my point is made.
I’m tired of ranting. I hope the Gators can start putting together some fantastic wins because I’m getting tired of seeing fantastic losses.
Need to start gettin’ out
I’ve been spending entirely too much time staring at my TV lately. Last time I was here (Summer 2002), I spent a lot of time reading and wasting money at Starbucks; I figure I might try getting back into that racket. I might burn a few extra bucks on Frappuccinos, but I figure the knowledge I’ll gain from all that reading is priceless (I should consider getting Mastercard to sponsor my blog).
Fast day at work
Today went by so fast, my head spun. I’m not sure what happened, but I lost (or really gained) about two hours some time this morning. Now, I’d like to think that the time went by so quickly because I was having fun or really buried in my work, but really, I think I totally zoned out for a bit. I just hope I didn’t fall asleep or something. Nothing could be more embarrassing than “the new guy” passed out, face down on some circuit board with drool drippin’ on my shoes.
Speaking of passin’ out… I’m headed to bed.
Florida Basketball
I’ve been a huge Gator Basketball fan since I enrolled at Florida in ’98. Thanks to my extended stay as an engineer, I got to see 5.5 basketball seasons as a student (I’m finishing the 6th right now).
This basketball season has been up and down and I’m confident it can go up again before the end of the tournament in March. As a whole, our team plays well together and has a lot of talent. When our shooters get hot, I think we’re capable of smoking any other team in Divsion 1-A: one of our Point Gaurds, Anthony Roberson, shot 46% from 3-point land over a 10-game stretch and one of our Centers, David Lee, made 16 straight jumpers over a couple game stretch. We have other shooters–Lee Humphry, Matt Walsh (when he’s on), Christian Drejer–who can light it up, too. Our transition offense is solid and, if our defense is pullin’ its weight, we can run up serious numbers on points scored off turnovers.
Those are the positives. There are a few negatives, but I think all of them are correctable by Tourney time: our transition defense still needs work, our defense down low seems beaten easily, especially off the dribble, and we sometimes depend too much on our 3-point shooting. The good news is that our transition defense has been steadily improving since the beginning of the season (I think that was the one thing that really lost the Maryland game earlier this season) and our dependency on the 3-point shot isn’t all bad since we have Lee, Moss, Richard and Colas inside. Lee is a phenomenal offensive player and Moss and Richard will be, eventually. Colas has bulked up a little and he holds his own, but he needs to work on his strength when gathering in rebounds.
One thing I think we really need to work on is our defense down low. On the surface, the problem might seem related to our centers not holding their own, but that’s not the case. The real problem is that our help defense is slow. In fact, I think our whole defense could be quite a bit more aggressive, both on the perimeter and in the paint. The problem down low is that our guys don’t help quick enough when the other team penetrates from the perimeter off the dribble. I think our centers do a great job fronting on defense, but they don’t seem to help out quick enough when the ball is moving around and they’re defending a spot instead of a person. This allows a lot of baskets by the other teams guards and small forwards who are quick and can get within 10 feet or so for a good look.
I think our problem on the perimeter is that we aren’t aggressive enough with attacking the gaurds. We allow them to bring the ball too far in before we start defending them. I think our defense needs to compensate for lack of speed helping by being more aggressive outside the 3-point line. We need to create turnovers before the other team even gets set up in their half-court offense. Our full-court trap is good, but I’m afraid it causes more trouble than its worth since teams seem to score easily if they get past the press.
I guess this is a lot of rambling, but these are my thoughts. I hope we get past the first weekend in the Tourney this year and I know we’re capable of playing with any other team if we get things rolling. I can’t wait to see what we’re capable of over the next few weeks.
Psuedo-visit
I didn’t exactly go to a local church today, but I did listen a sermon from a church that’s about five miles from here. I realized that I could learn a lot about a church from just hearing a sermon (and by hearing one by the senior pastor), so I downloaded one and had a listen today. I decided I’ll visit that church next Sunday morning, so I guess the screening process was good.
Bought the camera
I’m the proud new owner of a FujiFilm Finepix F700 digital camera. It’ll be here in 7 to 10 business days via UPS Ground. I also went ahead and ordered a 256MB picture card, so I’m not cramped for space on the 16MB card that comes with the camera. I just hope I use it a lot and I don’t ultimately feel like I wasted some cash. I am fairly confident that I’ll use it plenty because I can think of numerous occasions when I wished I’d had a digital camera handy. Now I will, so hopefully I’ll use it.
Wrappin’ up the Wardrobe
I figure I’ll be done with Wardrobe by Tuesday (maybe sooner), and then I’ll get to move on to the third book. I’m lovin’ this stuff.
Blog ideas
A friend of mine requested that I write my opinions on the Gator basketball team, so I’ll probably do that in the next day or two. I wish I had seen all our games this year, but I feel I’ve seen enough to formulate educated opinions. I’ll also summarize this year’s team and compare it with teams from the past few years.
Also, I realized that one of the toughest things about the move to Texas was that I had no idea what I was getting into. So, I think I’ll write up a little entry on what all went into my move–planning, cost, things I bought, etc.–so that I have it for future reference. Also, I guess many of my peers will be experiencing a similar transition soon, so maybe they’ll find some useful information here.
S.W.A.T.
One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.
Final decision on digital camera
I’ve all but decided I’m buying the FujiFilm FinePix F700. It’s a good camera, good specs, good price. I’ll probably order it tomorrow and I hope to have it by next weekend (that’s an optimistic estimate).
Back to basketball
I played basketball this morning for the first time in almost two months. Things went about as I expected:
I came out shooting early and made most of my shots, but, as fatigue set in, my shots started going long. My defense was a little better than I expected, but I gave up several jumpers because I wasn’t closing out well on the perimeter (I was afraid I’d get beat off the dribble because I’m outta’ shape and slow). In my last game, I had three good fastbreak layups and a few nice assists. I expect I’ll be improving as I continue to work out and get into shape. I hope I can go back in a few weeks and show those guys that I’m not normally as bad as I was this morning.
Computer desk shopping
I’m about to mail off my claim forms for the computer desk that was busted up during my move. I figure it’s about time to look into replacin’ it. I’m not sure what I want–corner desk or regular one–but I’ve pretty much decided I want something in cherry wood (or at least vaneer or finish). Hopefully, I’ll find something soon, so I can continue getting settled.
Church tomorrow
If all goes well, I’ll be at a local church tomorrow morning at 10:45. It’s less than five miles away and it looks like a decent church… but I’m learning that one can never be too sure before he’s in the doors.
