I've decided to move my blog over to a different plaform. I fell in love with WordPress at work and have decided to use that instead. I've imported all the content (pictures, posts, comments) from here to there, and I've even set-up my very own domain.
From now on, visit chrisbrummund.com to keep up on all my wacky shennanigans.
See you there!
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Friday, November 14, 2008
Let the hate flow through you
It's the eve of the Gopher-Badger football game, so I thought I'd post some good reasons to hate the Badgers.
Proximity to obnoxious fans
Being that Minneapolis/St. Paul is so close to Madison, WI, many UW grads migrate to our fine city looking for employment and other opportunities to live a fruitful life. Unfortunately, they show up at our games, irrelevantly and constantly talking about Brett Favre while wearing those horrid red hoodies. That leads me to the next hate-point:
Ugly school colors
Red and white is a shitty sight. That's one of the reasons why I hate the Badgers and traditional peppermint candy canes. When watching their home games on TV, the site of all that red makes me want to vomit. The only other time I got ill from seeing to much of that despised color was when I looked at the electoral map from the 2004 election.
Jump Around
These morons have a "tradition" of playing House of Pain's "Jump Around" over the loudspeaker at the end of the 3rd quarter. They took an obnoxious, early 90's hip hop tune that is played in stadiums and arenas all across the country and made it their own. How did they do this? Much like a classroom full of pre-schoolers, their entire student section takes the lyrics from the chorus literally. Voila! Instant, manufactured "tradition." To me, the novelty has worn off, and this is about as cool as playing The Village People's "YMCA" and doing all the letters with your arms.
Lack of Discipline
During the 2007 off-season, former UW running back Lance Smith slaps around his girlfriend in the middle of the street, takes her shoes, and leaves her stranded. His punishment? He's not allowed to travel with the team and play in road games. However, he's still with the team for every practice function and suits up and plays in every home game (71 carries, 429 yards for the season).
If you thought that was rough, wait until you hear what happened to cornerback Jack Ikegwounu. He was arrested with his brother at the end of the 2006 regular season for breaking into somebody's apartment and stealing an XBox. I don't even know if he got a slap on the wrist, because he was still able to play in their New Years Day bowl game and played all of the 2007 season. Karma police caught up to him though, as he got a nice groin punch from our own Eric Decker in last year's game and he ended up blowing out his knee while preparing for NFL predraft camps last spring.
Idiot Coach
If there was a Coach of the Year subcategory award for "Coach That Looks Like His Team's Mascot," then Bret Bielema would be looking towards winning that award for the third straight year. The combination of his buzzcut, fat head, and squinty eyes is enough. But takes the cake is the fact that he has one of those receding hairlines that attacks the upper corners of his forehead, leaving him with an awkward penninsula of hair that protrudes down the center of his head. That is how a grown man looks like a badger.
I could go on and on, but I don't want to drift to far to the darkside.
Better Dead Than Red!
Monday, November 10, 2008
I have slain the bat!
Let me tell you a tale of my previous Saturday:
It started like any other Saturday night: I stopped at France and 44th to pick up a 12 pack of beer on the way home from work. Lately I've been enticed by variety and have grown fond of buying sampler packs from various breweries.
However, I found a completely new brew this night and decided to take a risk and purchase a full twelve pack of it. It was Leine's new seasonal, Fireside Nut Brown. It was pretty good, but had a very sweet cocoa aftertaste to it.
When I got home, I had the entire house--and more importantly, the tv--to myself. With no friends, family, or girlfriend to distract me, I could concentrate on drinking beer and watching NCAA football. There were three prime-time games on that night: Florida versus Vanderbilt, Boston College versus Notre Dame, and Texas Tech versus Oklahoma State.
I knew Florida-Vanderbilt would be no contest, so I only flipped to that game if both of the others were on commercial break. The TT-OSU game was supposed to be amazing, since both teams were both ranked in the top 10, but Tech started to run away with this one pretty quickly. So I settled in with the BC-ND game, which I guess was also a one sided contest (BC won 17-0), but it was more interesting because it was a defensive blowout. Notre Dame was just stifled by Boston College. Just when they would get something moving, BC would come up with a big stop or takeaway.
Now I mentioned earlier that I was just going to concentrate on football and drinking beer. Well I wasn't really concentrating on the beer drinking part. If I was concentrating, then I wouldn't have been drinking it at such an alarming rate. I cracked into my seventh brew before halftime. I was now officially drunk. It was a weird kind of drunk that I hadn't experienced since I was a minor and we would always drink really fast in order to get intentionally plowed. I couldn't feel my lips.
I slowed the pace and only had one more beer in the second half. I also was starving, so I ordered a Pizza Hut Pizzone and a small order of Quepapas. I actually despise Quepapas. They are the biggest waste of space I have ever put in my stomach. I even knew this before I ordered them. However, the Pizzone was only $5.99 and I needed a minimum order of $8.50 for delivery. The Quepapas were only $3.00, so I got them.
When the delivery guy came, I had a hard time speaking. Normally when you drink in a social setting, you are talking constantly and don't have an issue with speaking as you get more intoxicated. However, when you get drunk alone, you aren't really talking. So when the time comes and you have to actually put together some coherent words, it can catch you off guard and be more difficult then you expect.
I finished the Pizzone and the football games were ending. It was still relatively early that evening, but because I was now intoxicated, I could not drive anywhere. This was disappointing because I got a text from a friend who was going to the Park Tavern. They have karaoke there. I love karaoke.
I decided I would hoof it to the nearest Blockbuster video store to find me some Saturday night entertainment. I picked up John Carpenter's The Thing. I also brought back my video I received in the mail. With the Blockbuster subscription plan, you can exchange your DVDs received in the mail twice a month for a free rental at the store. After those two freebies, you can still exchange them for $1.99 rentals.
Every time I bring a DVD back for the $1.99 rental, the cashier fucks it up. Saturday night was no exception. I approach the counter with my DVD I want to rent, the DVD I am exchanging, my Blockbuster membership card, and a box of Mike and Ikes. He rings it all up and gives me a total of over $6. The Mike and Ikes were only $1.79and the total with the $1.99 movie and sales tax should have been somewhere between $4-$5.
I inform the clerk of the error and he seems to get it right away. He just doesn't know how to ring it up properly on the computer. He flags over the manager to help him out.
The manager types up some stuff on the register and then gives him a reassuring, "There. Now scan it in again."
The clerk scans the stuff again and gives my total: $0.87. Now this obviously makes no sense to me, and it really shouldn't to the clerk or the manager who's still standing there supervising. The right thing to do would be to correct him again so we could get the right total amount due. But I was drunk, and they may have sensed that, too. Maybe they were afraid I would go on a belligerent rampage and wanted to get me out of there as soon as possible.
Whatever. I got a movie and a box of candy for $0.87.
On the way home, I grew impatient of walking. It was taking to long. I wanted to be back in the house and watching my movie. So I did what any rational man would do: I started jogging. I jogged all the way home.
I got home and got myself all ready to enjoy this feature film starring Kurt Russell. I was wearing sweatpants, covered up in my blanket, and was sitting in the dark while munching on candy. The movie was starting to pick up right away in the first 20 minutes. A Siberian husky mutated into a giant monster and started attacking the other dogs in the kennel and it's handlers.
That's when I saw something fly across my basement room. It was too big to just be some bug. It flew around the corner and back again.
"Great," I thought, "there's a damn bird down here."
It came around the corner again and then at me. Startled, I swung at it with my trusty blanket. I either hit it or it got disoriented and flew into the wall. It then fell down behind some junk piled underneath the window. I turned on the lights and grabbed my weapon of choice: my trusty blanket.
It rustled behind some bags of stuff and then crawled on top of a pillow in the corner. It was no bird. It was a bat. And it started flying at me again.
I took a swing at it again with my blanket and again either hit or stunned it. He fell to the floor by my desk. Unsure of what to do next, I just followed my instincts. I proceeded to pick up one of my shoes and hurl it at him. I missed by about 4 inches. He started flying again and ran into the wall in the opposite corner. This time he fell onto a pile of seasonal decorations. Actually, it was just an Easter basket with a couple small Christmas decorations in it.
I sat there and waited for him to emerge. He didn't.
I stood there pondering my next move for about 15 minutes. I couldn't just go back to sleep knowing this little bastard is floating around in my room. On the other hand, I didn't want to go digging in that corner for fear of it attacking me.
But I decided to face my fear that evening. I grabbed a broom and started poking around. He wasn't coming out, so I had to start picking some things out of the pile. I was trying to pick up the Easter basket with the broom handle but I ended up dropping the whole basket. That's when I started to hear a faint squeaking noise. I believe he was in the basket and was injured by a heavy snowman figurine that was also in the basket.
I cleared the holiday decorations away and found the furry little bugger just lying there and making this innocent little squeaking noise. I then proceeded to pummel the living shit out him with my broom. First, I attacked with the broom head. Then I flipped it around and got him once with the broom stick. Finally, I put him out of his misery with a fatal jab straight to the chest with the tip of the broomstick.
Despite not really leaving the house and having very limited human interaction, last Saturday night was pretty eventful.
It started like any other Saturday night: I stopped at France and 44th to pick up a 12 pack of beer on the way home from work. Lately I've been enticed by variety and have grown fond of buying sampler packs from various breweries.
However, I found a completely new brew this night and decided to take a risk and purchase a full twelve pack of it. It was Leine's new seasonal, Fireside Nut Brown. It was pretty good, but had a very sweet cocoa aftertaste to it.
When I got home, I had the entire house--and more importantly, the tv--to myself. With no friends, family, or girlfriend to distract me, I could concentrate on drinking beer and watching NCAA football. There were three prime-time games on that night: Florida versus Vanderbilt, Boston College versus Notre Dame, and Texas Tech versus Oklahoma State.
I knew Florida-Vanderbilt would be no contest, so I only flipped to that game if both of the others were on commercial break. The TT-OSU game was supposed to be amazing, since both teams were both ranked in the top 10, but Tech started to run away with this one pretty quickly. So I settled in with the BC-ND game, which I guess was also a one sided contest (BC won 17-0), but it was more interesting because it was a defensive blowout. Notre Dame was just stifled by Boston College. Just when they would get something moving, BC would come up with a big stop or takeaway.
Now I mentioned earlier that I was just going to concentrate on football and drinking beer. Well I wasn't really concentrating on the beer drinking part. If I was concentrating, then I wouldn't have been drinking it at such an alarming rate. I cracked into my seventh brew before halftime. I was now officially drunk. It was a weird kind of drunk that I hadn't experienced since I was a minor and we would always drink really fast in order to get intentionally plowed. I couldn't feel my lips.
I slowed the pace and only had one more beer in the second half. I also was starving, so I ordered a Pizza Hut Pizzone and a small order of Quepapas. I actually despise Quepapas. They are the biggest waste of space I have ever put in my stomach. I even knew this before I ordered them. However, the Pizzone was only $5.99 and I needed a minimum order of $8.50 for delivery. The Quepapas were only $3.00, so I got them.
When the delivery guy came, I had a hard time speaking. Normally when you drink in a social setting, you are talking constantly and don't have an issue with speaking as you get more intoxicated. However, when you get drunk alone, you aren't really talking. So when the time comes and you have to actually put together some coherent words, it can catch you off guard and be more difficult then you expect.
I finished the Pizzone and the football games were ending. It was still relatively early that evening, but because I was now intoxicated, I could not drive anywhere. This was disappointing because I got a text from a friend who was going to the Park Tavern. They have karaoke there. I love karaoke.
I decided I would hoof it to the nearest Blockbuster video store to find me some Saturday night entertainment. I picked up John Carpenter's The Thing. I also brought back my video I received in the mail. With the Blockbuster subscription plan, you can exchange your DVDs received in the mail twice a month for a free rental at the store. After those two freebies, you can still exchange them for $1.99 rentals.
Every time I bring a DVD back for the $1.99 rental, the cashier fucks it up. Saturday night was no exception. I approach the counter with my DVD I want to rent, the DVD I am exchanging, my Blockbuster membership card, and a box of Mike and Ikes. He rings it all up and gives me a total of over $6. The Mike and Ikes were only $1.79and the total with the $1.99 movie and sales tax should have been somewhere between $4-$5.
I inform the clerk of the error and he seems to get it right away. He just doesn't know how to ring it up properly on the computer. He flags over the manager to help him out.
The manager types up some stuff on the register and then gives him a reassuring, "There. Now scan it in again."
The clerk scans the stuff again and gives my total: $0.87. Now this obviously makes no sense to me, and it really shouldn't to the clerk or the manager who's still standing there supervising. The right thing to do would be to correct him again so we could get the right total amount due. But I was drunk, and they may have sensed that, too. Maybe they were afraid I would go on a belligerent rampage and wanted to get me out of there as soon as possible.
Whatever. I got a movie and a box of candy for $0.87.
On the way home, I grew impatient of walking. It was taking to long. I wanted to be back in the house and watching my movie. So I did what any rational man would do: I started jogging. I jogged all the way home.
I got home and got myself all ready to enjoy this feature film starring Kurt Russell. I was wearing sweatpants, covered up in my blanket, and was sitting in the dark while munching on candy. The movie was starting to pick up right away in the first 20 minutes. A Siberian husky mutated into a giant monster and started attacking the other dogs in the kennel and it's handlers.
That's when I saw something fly across my basement room. It was too big to just be some bug. It flew around the corner and back again.
"Great," I thought, "there's a damn bird down here."
It came around the corner again and then at me. Startled, I swung at it with my trusty blanket. I either hit it or it got disoriented and flew into the wall. It then fell down behind some junk piled underneath the window. I turned on the lights and grabbed my weapon of choice: my trusty blanket.
It rustled behind some bags of stuff and then crawled on top of a pillow in the corner. It was no bird. It was a bat. And it started flying at me again.
I took a swing at it again with my blanket and again either hit or stunned it. He fell to the floor by my desk. Unsure of what to do next, I just followed my instincts. I proceeded to pick up one of my shoes and hurl it at him. I missed by about 4 inches. He started flying again and ran into the wall in the opposite corner. This time he fell onto a pile of seasonal decorations. Actually, it was just an Easter basket with a couple small Christmas decorations in it.
I sat there and waited for him to emerge. He didn't.
I stood there pondering my next move for about 15 minutes. I couldn't just go back to sleep knowing this little bastard is floating around in my room. On the other hand, I didn't want to go digging in that corner for fear of it attacking me.
But I decided to face my fear that evening. I grabbed a broom and started poking around. He wasn't coming out, so I had to start picking some things out of the pile. I was trying to pick up the Easter basket with the broom handle but I ended up dropping the whole basket. That's when I started to hear a faint squeaking noise. I believe he was in the basket and was injured by a heavy snowman figurine that was also in the basket.
I cleared the holiday decorations away and found the furry little bugger just lying there and making this innocent little squeaking noise. I then proceeded to pummel the living shit out him with my broom. First, I attacked with the broom head. Then I flipped it around and got him once with the broom stick. Finally, I put him out of his misery with a fatal jab straight to the chest with the tip of the broomstick.
Despite not really leaving the house and having very limited human interaction, last Saturday night was pretty eventful.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Our House
I got this from my good friend Elliot, of "I'm o.k, I'm all write." fame. I figure the best way to post something on my blog when I haven't done so in awhile is to find something wacky like this to get back into the rhythm. Enjoy.
Directions:
1. Put your iPod, iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Sweet Jane
WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Paper Planes
HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Rotating Head
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Dumpweed
WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Feel Good Hit of The Summer
WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
King Without A Crown (Thanks guys)
WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Lyla
WHAT IS 2 + 2?
3 Quarts Drunk (nice)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BESTIE?
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Underdog World Strike
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
You (wait, what?)
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WHEN YOU GROW UP?
No One Else
WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE
No Complaints
WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Snoop Dog, Baby (Oh, it will happen one way or the other)
WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Fraud In The 80s
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Down Like Disco
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Kids With Guns
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Jenny
WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Our House
Directions:
1. Put your iPod, iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Sweet Jane
WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Paper Planes
HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Rotating Head
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Dumpweed
WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Feel Good Hit of The Summer
WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
King Without A Crown (Thanks guys)
WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Lyla
WHAT IS 2 + 2?
3 Quarts Drunk (nice)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BESTIE?
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Underdog World Strike
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
You (wait, what?)
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WHEN YOU GROW UP?
No One Else
WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE
No Complaints
WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Snoop Dog, Baby (Oh, it will happen one way or the other)
WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Fraud In The 80s
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Down Like Disco
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Kids With Guns
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Jenny
WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Our House
Friday, September 12, 2008
One More Year...
Today is a significant date in Gopher Football history. No, it's not because we are on the eve of our first ever match-up with Division I-AA Montana State. It is because today is the 1 year pre-anniversary of the opening of TCF Bank Stadium. I read an article earlier this summer that asked readers to vote for their favorite memory from the last 25 years the Gophers football team spent in the Metrodome. It was somewhat laughable because there really weren't to many positive memories from those last two and half decades. They pretty much sucked for most of the 80's and 90's, and the big wins during the Glen Mason years usually came on the road. In fact, some his most agonizing losses occurred at home.
Now I never really followed Gopher football until I became a student at the U of M in 2001. Here are my memorable moments (both good and bad) from the Metrodome years:
September 8, 2001 - Minnesota 44, UL-Lafayette 14
This was my first ever college football game I attended. I was with my high school friend, Andy. He went to North Dakota State, but was in town visiting his HS girlfriend who went to the U. I think they might have broken up by the time the weekend was over.
September 29, 2001 - Minnesota 28, Purdue 35 OT
Another first: this was the first Big Ten match-up I witnessed in person, and it was wild. I can't find an exact recap of this game, but from what I remember, Dan Nystrom missed a field goal that could have sealed it.
Then there was a horrible call in overtime that may have cost us the game. A touchdown pass was ruled incomplete because the ref said the receiver was out of bounds. The ref appeared to be confused by the way the end zone was painted. The turf in the endzone was painted entirely gold except for the border was left in its natural green hue. The receiver landed with one foot on the green, which is not out of bounds. The out-of-bounds is marked by white. This was before the dawn of instant-replay in college games, so the call stood.
The game ended a play or two later, and the Purdue players were showered with beer cups and other debris as they celebrated in our end-zone. For the next home game, the end zone was painted with the school name over an all green background.
November 16, 2002 - Minnesota 21, Iowa 45
This was a pretty crappy game where we were thoroughly dominated by an Iowa team that ended up clinching a share of the Big Ten Championship with that win. After the game ended, the large amount of Iowa fans there stormed the field. It was mostly innocent celebration until they decided to partake in the tired tradition of downing the field goal posts. Unfortunately, no body's skull was crushed during this ritual.
Then some idiots were arrested and spent the night in jail for trying to leave the Metrodome with the goalposts. I remembered seeing them briefly interviewed on the local news the next day. They were mostly good humored about the situation, but still seemed befuddled as to why they would be arrested for destroying and stealing private property. Apparently that's not a big deal down in Iowa.
November 8, 2003 - Minnesota 37, Wisconsin 34
The game for Paul Bunyan's Ax was intense and ended with a last second field goal by Gophers kicker Rhys Lloyd, whom Glen Mason dubbed "Winston." You know, because he was British. Just like how we always call every Mexican "Pedro" or every native African "Mufasa"...or not.
Anyway, this game gave me hope as it was the first time I've seen a Gophers football team win a close one at the last second (mind you, I wasn't here for the big upset of #2 Penn State back in '99). It wouldn't be the last nail-biter of the season. We beat Oregon on another last second field goal at the Sun Bowl.
October 23, 2004 - Minnesota 45, Illinois 0
After a couple crushing road losses to Michigan and Michigan State, the Gophers returned home to shut out Illinois. This was the first time I saw Minnesota Gophers team shut out a Big Ten opponent (if Illinois could qualify as one that season...they were really, really bad). Regardless, it was uplifting until we closed out the season with losses to Indiana (WTF?), Wisconsin, and Iowa.
September 24, 2005 - Minnesota 42, Purdue 35 2OT
This was the first and only time that Glen Mason had beaten Purdue during his tenure. It was uplifting at the time because Purdue was ranked #11 and had one of the top rushing defenses in the nation. We ran for 301 yards on them. It was a thrilling win as some gutsy calls and clutch play by QB Brian Cupito sealed the deal. In retrospect, this win isn't as glamorous since Purdue ended up finishing 5-6on the season.
October 15, 2005 - Minnesota 34, Wisconsin 38
The most demoralizing loss I have ever witnessed (note: I was not here for the game against Michigan in 2003; I was on a flight to Jamaica for my sister's wedding. The Gophers lost and my sister was divorced within a year. Coincidence? You be the judge).
The Gophers ran for over 500 yards on the Badgers and were up by 10 points with three minutes to go. The Badgers received a kickoff and picked apart the Gophers secondary to score a touchdown within a minute. The drive ended with a long touchdown pass where the defender got called for a face mask penalty. This was assessed on the kick-off. Wisconsin tried an onside kick and failed. But instead of the ball being caught by Minnesota and downed around midfield, it squeaked by and rolled all the way back behind the Gopher's 20 yard line.
Now I mentioned before that we had run for over 500 yards, so you figured we could run for a first down and the clock would expire.
1st and 10, run for 3 yards.
2nd and 7, run for three yards.
3rd and 4, run for 3 yards.
Shit. Now it's 4th and 1.
Conventional wisdom says the conservative thing to do would be to punt and the ballsy thing to do would be to go for the first down. With us, I believe it was the exact opposite. Consider that we had already rung up 500 yards of rushing on this defense, and we just made 3 straight gains of 3 yards with their entire defense stacked against the line of scrimmage. There was nothing they could do to stop us. Now consider that our defense had just given up a 70 yard touchdown drive in about a minute. Wisconsin was only down by 3 and would just have needed to get into field goal range in 30 seconds. The ballsy thing to do here would be to punt it and leave this game in the hands of the defense, and the conservative thing to do would be to run the ball one more time for the first down and let the clock expire.
Glen Mason has balls. He decided to punt it. The freshman punter drops the snap, picks it up, tries to get the punt off and it's blocked. The Badgers recover in the end zone for a touchdown.
Worst. Loss. Ever.
October 21, 2006 - Minnesota 10, North Dakota State 9
This was the first time I saw my Alma mater play against my home-state school where most of my friends went. This was a fun game because it had the same type of rivalry atmosphere as a Wisconsin or Iowa game, as in the away fans nearly outnumber home fans.
The game was closer than expected and it was a pretty pitiful performance by the Gophers. I blame the coaching staff as I don't think they spent too much time with their game plan on this one. I think they thought they would just overpower NDSU like they did with Kent State and Temple. When the game started and they realized that wasn't the case, they didn't know what the hell to do.
Luckily, Minnesota won the turnover battle and got a few other breaks. NDSU had a touchdown called back for a rare tripping penalty and the kicker shanked a short field goal. Finally, the Gophers blocked another field goal as the clock ran out.
My friend Dylan sent me a link to a lame ESPN.com Top Ten list that counts down the top ten upsets of the BCS era and the Gophers loss to NDSU the following year was #10. I actually think the 2006 game was more of an upset, even though the Gophers won. The 2006 team was actually pretty good. They struggled early in the season, but started to roll towards the end and qualified for a bowl. They were completely destroying Texas Tech before the Glen Mason's traditional 4th quarter meltdown. NDSU completely dominated the Gophers in 2006, but we won because we didn't turn the ball over and got a few lucky breaks. We should have really beat the shit out of the Bison that year.
When we actually lost to NDSU in 2007, it wasn't much of an upset because of how terrible Minnesota was that year. Not only were we the worst defense in the nation, we were not even close to being the second worst defense in the nation. In statistics, we were known as what is called an outlier. Meanwhile, NDSU was the #1 ranked team in Division IAA (until the schmucks dropped a game to South Dakota State). Anybody who followed NDSU and Minnesota that year will tell you that game was no upset. The Bison were clearly a better team and it would have been an upset if they had lost.
November 18, 2006 - Minnesota 34, Iowa 24
This was a great game because it was the first time I had seen the Gophers beat Iowa and win the Floyd of Rosedale trophy. On top of that, it was our sixth win that season and made us bowl eligible. We were invited to the Insight.com Bowl in Tempe, Arizona, to face Texas Tech. This bowl game is what eventually led to the firing of Glen Mason. I was happy to be there in person to watch such a historic collapse. I was not happy about being snowed in for New Year's Eve outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the way home.
September 1, 2007 - Minnesota 31, Bowling Green 32 OT
Drunkest. Game. Ever.
The season opener and the start of the Tim Brewster era didn't go so well for the team or me. I was pretty damn giddy about the start of the new season. Since kickoff wasn't until 7 PM, we had ample time to get nice and sauced before the game. My friend Matt and I had a couple beers at my apartment that afternoon while watching VA Tech and East Carolina duke it out on TV. Then we went to the liquor store, picked up another friend, and headed out to tailgate. The three of us finished a case of Grain Belt Premium. When that was gone, we started mooching off a keg of Busch Light from some damn freshmen (they probably weren't freshmen since they had the means to obtain a keg, but I have a habit of referring to any college kid as a freshmen). On top of that we took a couple ceremonial tequila shots before we headed in for the game.
Needless to say, I don't remember a lot of the game, but I do remember walking home. It was from the Metrodome to my new apartment in St. Louis Park. I mapped it out online and it was a good 8 mile hike and took me almost three hours. Good times.
So there you have it. Those were my most notable memories from the Gopher era in the Metrodome. Hopefully after this season, I can add beating Michigan and Iowa to become bowl eligible.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Hey, Look What I Found...
I was testing my links on a previous post and found that the site for the Take Back Labor Day concert is already gone. However, it did link to the sponsor site where I found a video from the show. It's over 3 hours long and gives you most of the show uncut. Unfortunately, Billy Bragg's set and the majority of Steve Earle's set is absent from the video. But there's still plenty of enjoyment to be had seeing a bunch of us geeky, white Minnesotans getting down to hip-hop shows.
Since Blogger isn't letting me imbed the damn video, here's the link.
Since Blogger isn't letting me imbed the damn video, here's the link.
Monday, September 08, 2008
Everybody's movin' movin' movin' movin'
On top of myself moving from my lush apartment in beautiful St. Louis Park to a dingy basement in South Minneapolis, there are some blogs on my blog-roll that have migrated elsewhere, too. Mostly it's big-timers who have out grown this free Google Blogger system and need an upgrade. I'm not sure what's so different except their URL's no longer contain .blogspot anymore.
Anyhow, here are the changes:
Paging Jim Shikenjanksi has moved to The Daily Gopher. This is the new love-child blog of the former PJS and another UofM blog called Gopher Nation. The two guys who operate this site have been pretty good so far with a couple updates every day. It's now on my daily reading list.
Sunday Morning Quarterback has moved to the Y! Sports Blog network and now goes by the name of Dr. Saturday, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BCS. Same great statistical analysis as SMQ, only now with cleverer title.
The Wizard of Odds is now simply called The Wiz of Odds. Not sure what prompted that change. Again, the only difference I see is lack of .blogspot in the URL now.
While I'm updating the existing links, I thought I'd add a few more to the pile.
Official TCF Bank Stadium webiste - They now have an official site that is mostly designed to sell tickets. However, under the multimedia link, you still view construction progress through the webcams. There are a few bad links in the site, but I've read all of this information before. I now just check it daily to look at the webcams.
Obsessed much?
Yes.
Now I'll probably have these sites linked up until the election in November. They're good things to read daily during a big election season.
Electoral-Vote.com - This site is absolutely great if you like to follow big elections. This blogger has an simple entry everyday, but the fun part of the site is that he tracks every major political poll through the country and updates an electoral college map with red and blue colors throughout the entire campaign season. It's very interesting to see the fluctuations and the biases of all these different polls.
I got to say that I'm pretty damn impressed that a recent North Dakota poll shows Obama with a 3% lead over McCain...in North Dakota. This is a state that was carried by George W. with 60% of the vote in both 2000 and 2004. Polls in South Dakota and Montana show Obama and McCain in a statistical tie as well. It appears there may be a large political shift occurring in the northern plains. Let's see if it carries on into November.
Factcheck.org - This is a great non-partisan site that sifts through all of the political bullshit, spins, misleading figures, and outright lies we will be hearing from both sides of this presidential campaign. Obviously the hot times on this site are right after the conventions and debates. They also post fact checks on new campaign commercials as they come out.
Anyhow, here are the changes:
Paging Jim Shikenjanksi has moved to The Daily Gopher. This is the new love-child blog of the former PJS and another UofM blog called Gopher Nation. The two guys who operate this site have been pretty good so far with a couple updates every day. It's now on my daily reading list.
Sunday Morning Quarterback has moved to the Y! Sports Blog network and now goes by the name of Dr. Saturday, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BCS. Same great statistical analysis as SMQ, only now with cleverer title.
The Wizard of Odds is now simply called The Wiz of Odds. Not sure what prompted that change. Again, the only difference I see is lack of .blogspot in the URL now.
While I'm updating the existing links, I thought I'd add a few more to the pile.
Official TCF Bank Stadium webiste - They now have an official site that is mostly designed to sell tickets. However, under the multimedia link, you still view construction progress through the webcams. There are a few bad links in the site, but I've read all of this information before. I now just check it daily to look at the webcams.
Obsessed much?
Yes.
Now I'll probably have these sites linked up until the election in November. They're good things to read daily during a big election season.
Electoral-Vote.com - This site is absolutely great if you like to follow big elections. This blogger has an simple entry everyday, but the fun part of the site is that he tracks every major political poll through the country and updates an electoral college map with red and blue colors throughout the entire campaign season. It's very interesting to see the fluctuations and the biases of all these different polls.
I got to say that I'm pretty damn impressed that a recent North Dakota poll shows Obama with a 3% lead over McCain...in North Dakota. This is a state that was carried by George W. with 60% of the vote in both 2000 and 2004. Polls in South Dakota and Montana show Obama and McCain in a statistical tie as well. It appears there may be a large political shift occurring in the northern plains. Let's see if it carries on into November.
Factcheck.org - This is a great non-partisan site that sifts through all of the political bullshit, spins, misleading figures, and outright lies we will be hearing from both sides of this presidential campaign. Obviously the hot times on this site are right after the conventions and debates. They also post fact checks on new campaign commercials as they come out.
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