Let It Snow!

I've had this song going through my head for a couple days now. . .

Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

It doesn't show signs of stopping
And I've bought some corn for popping
The lights are turned way down low
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

When we finally kiss goodnight
How I'll hate going out in the storm
But if you'll really hold me tight
All the way home I'll be warm

The fire is slowly dying
And, my dear, we're still goodbying
But as long as you love me so
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

by Sammy Cahn

Hey, it's snowing!

It's not supposed to snow in Seattle. Really. This town just ain't ready for it. I-5 is a parking lot from the convention center north to infinity.

This morning, I drove to work because the roads were bare and I had some errands to run during lunch. My car is still at the office, but I'm not. I walked back home. About five minutes before it started hailing (followed shortly by big snow), I was contemplating going for a run after work. I think my jog/walk to get home will have to do.

Peering outside my window, I can see the moon now. The clouds are thinning out. We're in for a cooooold night.

Seattleites are more polite and friendly when it snows than any other time of year. Strangers say hi and chat with other strangers, discussing their shared troubles. Unless, of course, said stranger is in a car stuck behind someone who's spinning their tires and not proceeding through the green light. Then, they lay on the horn.

I have Christmas music playing and it finally feels appropriate. . . It's a cd that came from my dentist in Houston, who I haven't seen in years. Some songs are good. Others, not so much. The disc doesn't say who's singing any of them, and it's clearly different people for each.

So up 5th Avenue I walk:

The cars moved, somewhat. I probably could've driven home safely, but it would've taken longer.


This was near the new library and community center. Kids were playing in the snow in the field there. This place is starting to feel like an actual neighborhood.


Let's go shopping!

Hiking up 5th Avenue, I hurried along. My forehead started getting cold. I put my hand to my head and felt a layer of ice. Melted snow, refrozen slush. No wonder my head was cold! And brush that snow out of my hair.

I briefly talked to another walker who left his car at the mall. He wanted to get home in time to watch the Seahawks game. He asked me where a nearby pub was, but I couldn't think of any. Still can't. After I left him behind, he flagged down a passing SUV and hitched a ride. See? Friendly strangers!


This is the driveway of the building just north of mine. No tracks whatsoever for most of it.

All in all, snow is a pain, but fun. And I finally found a reason to be thankful my shoes have a goretex lining. My feet stayed warm and dry!

Now I think I'll make a large snowman on my balcony. . .

Happy Monday.

Happy Thanksgiving Friday!

Some may call it Black Friday, but that's just not a happy enough name. Plus, I don't plan on going shopping. . .

I went to Seattle's parade this morning. Took some photos, of course.

I didn't get a good one of the Seagals, though. Sorry, Chunlin. Too blurry. . .

But first, a photo from yesterday:


Okay, here's the first band of the parade:

I just had to yell "Go Conks!" I got a few cheers in response.


I need to work on my aim. . .

The Mariners Moose rode around the street on his usual 4-wheeler:


Some of the few people in skirts:


Aww. . .


Right before Santa is. . . Snow Globe Lady!

I wonder if it's warm in there. . .

Look! It's Santa!!!


Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!!

Happy Friday!

It's Wednesday-as-Friday Day, one of the longest days of the year. . .

My alma mater is better than your alma mater!

The Rice Owls are bowl eligible! They started the season 0-4 (and 1-5) by playing puff teams like Texas, Florida State, and UCLA. Once they got to the heart of their conference schedule, though, they've won five straight. That loss to Tulane is looking more embarrassing each week.

The last time Rice was bowl eligible (8-4 in 2001), they weren't invited to any bowls. The WAC at that time only had two bowl tie-ins, and Rice was third place in the conference.

This year, Rice is third in the C-USA with one game left to play. Even if they lose, I'd still count them as fourth. At least fifth. And the C-USA has five bowl games.

I hope the bowls don't look at the overall record and pick a team Rice beat (eg Tulsa) because they played teams like North Texas and Stephen F Austin at the beginning of the season. It's not like Tulsa has any more alumni than Rice, either. It's an even smaller school than Rice!

But Houston and Southern Miss are #1 and #2. If SMU beats Rice, they're #3. Even though Rice just beat Eastern Carolina, a bowl might pick ECU over Rice as #4. So then it's Rice, Tulsa, and Marshall (who isn't even bowl eligible yet).

So I'm thinking Rice will play in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas, on December 23 versus TCU. Rice's first bowl game since 1961!

To Someone Special

Happy Corrugated Cardboard Day

Wishing You Happiness
and Blessings Always

Corrugated Cardboard Day
is a time for thinking of those
who are a special part
of our lives
and have a special place
in our hearts--
that's why
Corrugated Cardboard Day
is a time
for thinking of you.

Love,
Mom

NFL White Home Jerseys

From Wikipedia, the repository of all known facts:

Dallas Cowboys:

The Cowboys were the first NFL team to primarily wear their white jerseys at home, as every other team wore their colored jerseys at home. This tradition started in the 1960s by then-general manager Tex Schramm, who wanted a single look for his team that every fan would see, whether they were playing at home or on the road. He also wanted Cowboys fans to see a variety of opponents' colors at home games. Since then, two other NFL teams, the Dolphins and the Redskins, have adopted the practice of wearing their white jerseys at home.

Throughout the years, the Cowboys' blue jerseys have been popularly viewed to be "jinxed" because they often seem to lose when they wear them. Most of the time, Dallas will wear their blue jerseys when they visit Miami, Washington, or one of the handful of teams such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that traditionally wear their white jerseys at home during the first half of the season due to the hot climates in their respective cities. But on some occasions, opposing teams will purposely wear their white jerseys at home to try and jinx the Cowboys.

The Cowboys have lost the following playoff games when wearing their dark jerseys:

• Super Bowl V against the Baltimore Colts
• The 1980 NFC Championship Game versus the Philadelphia Eagles
• The 1982 NFC Championship Game against Washington
• A 1996 Divisional playoff game versus the Carolina Panthers
• A 2003 Wild Card playoff game against Carolina

Washington Redskins:

The tradition of wearing white jerseys at home was started by Joe Gibbs when he took over as coach in 1981. Gibbs was an assistant for the San Diego Chargers in 1979 and 1980, and the Chargers wore white at home during the tenure of coach Don Coryell in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Their burgundy jersey (which is primarily used for when the opposing team decides to wear white at home, which comes mostly against the Dallas Cowboys) consists of burgundy jerseys and white pants. The other combination were burgundy jerseys and gold pants, which were used mostly in the past and for one year in the 2002 season when the Redskins celebrated their 70th anniversary and wore it at home.

Their white jersey consists of three combinations. One is the white jerseys and burgundy pants, which is considered the "classic" look. The other (and lesser known) combination is the white jerseys and gold pants, which was used in the past when they weren't wearing their burgundy jersey. The last combination consists of both white jerseys and pants. That particular combination surfaced in the first game of the 2003 season on a nationally televised game against the New York Jets, which led to many sports fans and Redskin faithful alike to point out that they have never seen that particular combination. That year the Redskins wore it two more times. That look didn't appear again until midway through the 2005 season when the Redskins wore it on a road game against the St. Louis Rams. The Redskins won six games (including one in the playoffs against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wearing that combination) and the local media jokingly pointed out that the reason why the Redskins were winning was because of the white on white combination. In the NFC Divisional Game against the eventual 2005 NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks, the Redskins wore the all white jerseys, in hopes that they could keep their luck going; however, they lost 20-10. The Redskins have continued to wear the white jerseys and white pants into the 2006 pre-season. In the 2006 season, the Redskins started wearing black cleats, something that hasn't been done for quite awhile. It was a surprise because they wore white cleats during the preseason. They would have to wear that color for the rest of the season, because the NFL usually asks teams to choose either black or white cleats to be worn throughout the season.

Although the Washington Redskins always wore their white jerseys during home games, there were a couple of exceptions where the Redskins wore their burgundy jerseys. One was during the 2001 season where Marty Schottenheimer had the team wear burgundy, another one during the 2002 season with Steve Spurrier where they celebrated the teams' 70th anniversary, and the last one during the 2003 season where Spurrier had the team wear burgundy in some of the home games.

Miami Dolphins:

Miami is one of the three NFL teams that primarily wear their white jerseys at home (the others being the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins), although they will wear their aqua jerseys during games held at night. Since the 2003 season, the Dolphins have worn an alternate orange jersey twice for home night contests. They are 2-0 in games wearing the alternate jersey (each of which were comebacks against the Washington Redskins in 2003 and against eventual Super Bowl champs and Division-rivals the New England Patriots in 2004). They did not wear the orange jerseys in the 2005 season because they had no night games.

In 2005, new coach Nick Saban did not have the Dolphins wear the aqua pants with the white jerseys, instead opting for the all-white outfit. Prior to Saban's arrival, the Dolphins traditionally wore all-white at home and aqua pants with white jerseys on the road under former coach Dave Wannstedt.

On two occasions, the Dolphins have worn an all-aqua combination for prime-time games, defeating the Chicago Bears in 2002 and the Cleveland Browns in 2004.

Where My Mind Has Been

Chunlin
Reorganizing college sports conferences
New Zealand vacation
Food
Work
Health and exercise
World news and politics
Writing novels
The Amazing Race
Christmas gifts
Maintaining my various calendars
Learning Chinese
Photos
Survivor
Cleaning my condo
Professional development
Blog

Museum of Flight

NCAA Football Reformation

Lest you think I cared more for basketball than football, here are the six top-tier college football conferences, taking the top nine of each region from the rankings as of last weekend:

West:
California
Southern California
Boise State
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington State
Arizona State
Brigham Young
Washington

Central:
Arkansas
Louisiana State
Texas
Oklahoma
Texas A&M
Nebraska
Missouri
Tulsa
Texas Christian

Midwest:
Michigan
Ohio State
Notre Dame
Wisconsin
Iowa
Purdue
Minnesota
Cincinnati
Central Michigan

Southeast:
Louisville
Florida
Auburn
Tennessee
Georgia Tech
Kentucky
Georgia
Alabama
Florida State

East:
West Virginia
Wake Forest
Maryland
Virginia Tech
Clemson
Navy
South Carolina
East Carolina
North Carolina State

Northeast:
Rutgers
Boston College
Pennsylvania State
Pittsburgh
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Syracuse
Harvard
Yale

(I know, I know. Ivy League teams? The Northeast is just weak, that's all. Weak!)

And because I care, here are the second-tier conferences for the important regions:

Pacific:
California-Los Angeles
Arizona
Montana
Hawaii
San Jose State
North Dakota
Nevada
North Dakota State
Air Force

Great Plains:
Houston
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
Northwest Missouri
Texas Tech
Nebraska-Omaha
Louisiana-Lafayette
Rice
Baylor

Great Lakes:
Ohio
Indiana
Western Michigan
Michigan State
Youngstown
Illinois State
Northern Illinois
Illinois
Northwestern

And, just for fun, here are the two third-tier conferences from the West Region:

Northwest:
Wyoming
Portland State
Idaho
South Dakota
South Dakota State
Montana State
Colorado State
Central Washington
Colorado

Southwest:
Utah
New Mexico
California Polytechnic-San Luis Obispo
San Diego
Stanford
Fresno State
California-Davis
San Diego State
Northern Arizona

If things ended as they now stand, Utah and Wyoming would go up to the second-tier Pacific Conference and Colorado and Northern Arizona would drop to the fourth tier. Taking their places would be North Dakota State from the second-tier Pacific Conference and Augustana (South Dakota) from the fourth tier, both going into the Northwest Conference; and Air Force from the second-tier Pacific Conference and Sacramento State from the fourth tier, both going into the Southwest Conference.

The state of Colorado would thus have two colleges in the third tier (Air Force and Colorado State), but in different conferences. But that sounds better than putting Portland State in the Southwest with California colleges and New Mexico.

Oh, and Washington would drop down the second-tier Pacific Conference, to be replaced by UCLA. But there's still a chance to stay in the top tier for the Huskies. Win some games! Go Dawgs!

NCAA Basketball Reformation

I was thinking (oh no!) about the NCAA again. Basketball is starting soon, and poor little Nevada doesn't have any high-caliber teams in their conference. And neither does Gonzaga. Or Memphis. Or other teams in other conferences that I don't really know much about.

So here are the six top-tier men's basketball conferences, taking the top nine in each region from last year's final rankings:

West:
Gonzaga
California-Los Angeles
Nevada
Washington
Arizona
California
Air Force
San Diego State
Utah State

Central:
Texas
Kansas
Arkansas
Louisiana State
Oklahoma
Wichita State
Texas A&M
Missouri State
Creighton

Midwest:
Ohio State
Illinois
Iowa
Michigan State
Indiana
Marquette
Northern Iowa
Wisconsin
Bradley

Southeast:
Memphis
Florida
Tennessee
Kentucky
Alabama-Birmingham
Florida State
Alabama
Louisville
Vanderbilt

East:
Duke
North Carolina
Georgetown
George Washington
West Virginia
North Carolina State
George Mason
North Carolina-Wilmington
Maryland

Northeast:
Connecticut
Villanova
Pittsburgh
Boston College
Syracuse
Bucknell
Seton Hall
Hofstra
Iona

Now, wouldn't that feel better?

An Open Letter to Rana, Goddess of Clouds

Rana, I know it's Your holy day and all that, so it makes perfect sense for You to be overhead, completely and utterly. But do You really have to bring Hívuítoví with You today? Can't You for once go somewhere without Her? I know You can. I've seen You do it. So just try. Once. Today. Please. Thank You.