And that little boy grew up for this

Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother...



I can't take credit for doing or finding this video. My friend Rachel posted it and Jennee pointed it out.

Happy Christmas!

Totally in the spirit of the season

This just feels like a comic that is too hilarious to pass up.

Happy Christmas Eve!

More Rose Bowl Stuff

I'm so flippin' excited!

When conference rivalries fall

I must say that typically I wouldn't root for any other school in the Big Ten. However, that all changes in bowl season. It is upon us, and I think my fellow Big Ten fans at Michigan for bringing us this fine USC piece of work.

Commence Ridiculous Scenarios

23

Looking for payday loan?

At our fingertips entertainment

As I sit here in MEL studying for my final exam that is in 2.5 hours, my thoughts drift back and forth between Manufacturing and Viral Videos. Maybe this is just a comment on how I live or a comment on nothing important, but it seems like it should be said in my opinion.

The internet has become our at our fingertips entertainment. We share videos, pictures, and songs like mad. Sites like Digg have taken off and apps like Google Reader allow us to put all our favorite info into one pretty website. We spend hours a day looking for that entertainment. We log onto AIM to send a link. And we peruse for our own newest laugh.

(This feels very obvious and rambly but I needed to say it for myself. Maybe you could flesh out my thoughts better with comments)

In any case, the interwebs have given us a way to connect to others and give our own entertainment to others. It even lets us get off the ground with our own creative ideas. It just gives us everything at our fingertips.

So, if you don't really know about this internet, I leave you with this helpful film and offer.

Can You Tell Where My Mind Is?

It is finals week here at the U of I (I'm 1/4 done), but all I'm doing is California Dreamin'. I've got myself a ticket to the Rose Bowl, friends to drive across the country with, and an itch to get out of Illinois for a bit. I will be at the very stadium shown above in exactly 3 weeks. I'm super excited to see my Illini in their first bowl game since the Sugar Bowl. Oh, I remember that game. It still leaves a sick taste in my mouth and definitely helps me to want to be the biggest OSU fan I can be.

As for other thoughts.....I was mulling over the idea of worship the other day.
Many times in Christian culture, phrases such as, "man I had a really good worship time," or, "man, that worship was really encouraging for me," or "I really needed that time of worship," come up. Not that these things are bad. Not at all. I'm glad worship is encouraging to us. But is that the point of worship? I'm pretty confident that worship is for the glorification of God. I do believe that the joy I get out of worship should primarily come from knowing that my King is being glorified. I think any other element is secondary. I know God can encourage me through worship, but am I truly honoring him in that time. I think that is most important. So the next time you enter into musical worship, think about what the time is for. Even if you don't feel like worshiping, but acknowledging the presence of the King, you are doing him honor.

The other thought I had came from Josh Wondra. We were conversing and the words prayer and charity came into a sentence together. I guess for me I've never heard them used together. It seems totally natural that they would go together, but it struck me regardless. I think in the church culture I've been in, I've never heard it articulated in that way before. Sure we're supposed to pray for others, sure we need prayer warriors, but many times we pray for our own situation or things directly involving us. When I think of prayer as charity for the greater good, I leap and think how exciting that can be to help others with God's direct connection. Maybe we need to look into this more and really consider it a beautiful way to serve when we don't feel like it. I know I need to.

PS: Can you tell what I do when I don't want to study?

YouTube Fest

Being a college student, I have some free time here and there. Having a Wii, I have a web browser on my TV. So, those two components combined with YouTube, my friends and I have found some serious YouTube ridiculousness. Here follows a few fantastic videos...

















I suppose that's enough for now...

The Case for a Playoff Part 2

Here's ESPN.com's fancy National Championship Tournament Application. I just managed to make Illinois the National Champions! Man that felt good. So where's the real playoff?

Tuesday Morning Distraction

This is a good sports year

Alan is having a far better sports year than last year at this time. It is so good to have my football teams back on track. :)

You probably need this

Hey folks, I spent the last couple days just pounding down on a project for my ME 371 class. My teammates and I worked hard and found ourselves presenting this morning. This project was a design project and we designed ourselves a setup that opens a silo door from the ground rather than having someone climb to the top to open it. Check out a couple pictures.



We designed a pulley system to open the door with a tripod to hold the door up. It was a fun project to work on and it ends with a very practical application. We priced the setup and found it to be very practical. Our presentation went pretty well too if I say so. :)

Bulletin Board Material

Hey Illini football, in case you need some motivation to play against USC.

Brought to you by the people who brought you such exciting innovations as graph paper and tube socks: Illinois, in the Rose Bowl.
- from Tim Keown on ESPN.com

And do you think USC's Carroll, whose teams have made mincemeat out of their previous Big Ten Rose Bowl foes, is losing much sleep over those Illinois game tapes?
- from Stewart Mandell on SI.com

You smell that?

The case for a playoff

So, when Mizzou lost last night, I was ecstatic! I was sad for my friends, but I knew that, paired with a loss by Tennessee pretty much sealed a Rose Bowl berth for Illinois, meaning that I SHOULD be headed to Pasadena for my first trip to the southwest. I'm super excited about the possibility of that.

However, when West Virginia lost, the scenario that nobody in the BCS camp wanted to stare at came about. One loss OSU gets into the championship, obviously, but what one or two loss team goes? I mean, this runs off of the assumption that UNDEFEATED Hawaii can't go (not for a few more years at least...as there is serious bias against small conferences, and some of it rightfully so...anyway).

There are many teams that have strong resumes...so let's look at all of the #2 teams in the country and their resumes

2a. - LSU (11-2)

• SEC conference champs
• only losses came in overtime (Kentucky, Arkansas)
• decisive wins: Florida, Virginia Tech

2b. - Oklahoma (11-2)

• Big 12 conference champs
• beat Missouri twice
• lost to Texas Tech late in season and Colorado
• decisive wins: over #1 Missouri

2c. - Virginia Tech (11-2)

• ACC conference champs
• lost 14-10 to Boston College earlier in season and beat them in ACC championship game
• destroyed by LSU (48-7)
• decisive wins: #16 Virginia, #11 Boston College

2d. - USC (10-2)

• Pac-10 conference champs
• one of two losses came to Stanford, who lost to Notre Dame (nuff said)
• decisive wins: #6 Arizona State

2e. - Georgia (10-2)

• DID NOT win conference championship
• 4-0 vs. ranked team
• last loss came in early October to SEC championship game loser Tennessee
• decisive wins: #11 Florida

2f. - West Virginia (10-2)

• Big East conference champs
• 3-1 versus ranked opponenets
• average 38.9 ppg (44.5 in wins)
• decisive losses: unranked Pitt

2g. - Arizona State (10-2)

• Only losses to USC and Oregon (who would still be good without losing Dennis Dixon)
• 1-2 versus ranked teams
• decisive losses: #11 USC
  

2h. - Missouri (10-2)

• Beat #1 Kansas
• Only losses came to Oklahoma
• won Big 12 North division
• decisive losses: Big 12 title game
  

2i. - Kansas (11-1)

• Played very weak schedule
• 1-1 versus ranked teams (0-1 against teams in last poll)
• did not win conference division

3. - Hawaii (12-0)

• Play in the WAC...sorry guys, no respect
• Attempted to schedule challenging non-conference games and were denied
• ONLY Bowl Subdivision team that is undefeated

So, what does that leave us with.

11 teams...all of whom have some sort of a claim at playing for a title. So, is it really the best to leave all of this up to computers and biased voters that don't have weeks to analyze and choose the BEST two teams out of this crop. So, how about a playoff already?

What does this look like though?

I propose a system similar to the college basketball playoff. When a team wins it's conference, it gains a spot in the tournament. That means 11 spots would be automatic bids. After this, giving 5 at large bids to the next highest ranked BCS teams would give us a tournament like this (seeding approximate on record and contingent upon final AP poll, not BCS; automatic bids in bold)

1. Ohio State (11-1)
2. LSU (11-2)
3. Oklahoma (11-2)
4. Georgia (10-2)
5. Virginia Tech (11-2)
6. USC (10-2)
7. Missouri (10-2)
8. Kansas (11-1)
9. Florida (9-3)
10. Arizona State (10-2)
11. Hawaii (12-0)
12. West Virginia (10-2)
13. BYU (10-2)
14. Central Florida (10-3)
15. Troy (8-4)
16. Central Michigan (8-5)

In this year, the major conferences are looking at 2 losses consistently still allowing a chance at the title (all but Florida are 2 loss teams). The only glaring ugly in this is Central Michigan's 5 losses and conference title. Perhaps in a situation when there isn't a conference champ with <>

Not ALL emphasis is on winning your conference (although that gets you in)

Mid-majors are given a chance to play for a title

Less griping about who plays and more about where they're seeded

Disadvantages of this system include

• Possibility for upsets of teams expected to win (wait, that's a disadvantage?)
• logistics of locations
• 4 extra games for a team that plays in a conference with a championship means 17 games if they play in the National Title Game
• Non-tournament games might mean less
  

So, what about other years...This should work for many seasons if it is to work...let's look at '05, the year when Texas and USC was the obvious title game. (seeding is approximate, the field is what is important)

1. USC (12-0)
2. Texas (13-0)
3. Penn State (11-1)
4. Ohio State (10-2)
5. Oregon (10-2)
6. Notre Dame (9-3)
7. Georgia (10-2)
8. Miami (9-3)
9. Virginia Tech (11-2)
10. West Virginia (11-1)
11. LSU (11-2)
12. Texas Christian (11-1)
13. Toledo (9-3)
14. Nevada (9-3)
15. Tulsa (9-4)
16. Arkansas State (6-6)

again applying the >3 loss substitution, Tulsa and Arkansas State will be replaced by Auburn and Alabama.

By having a 16 team field, you are allowing a large # of the top 10 teams to play for a title and every conference champ (with a reasonable record) has a chance at ultimate victory. And, if the major bowls still want major teams, why can't the elite eight round be the four BCS bowls (Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, and Orange)? I'm sure there are holes. I'd love to hear critiques, thoughts, etc on this playoff system.

PS: NCAA, this is my idea (as far as I know)...gimme cred :)