Trying to be myself....whoever that is.

Okay, so this is going to be a strange post...I don't quite know yet what I'm going to say.

I like to feel like I'm real honest with people, you know? I like to think people know the real me. What with Facebook, the blogs, pictures on the web, etc etc...it just seems like there's not really any secret about me that people don't know.

Call it a spiritual crisis, inner turmoil, repressed emotions. Call it something else, I don't really know exactly what it is.

All I know is that suddenly I'm looking at this blog as the couch, and you people who are reading this are the psychiatrist in the chair with the notepad, going "mmm hrm...I see."

So hear me out. I think I'm going to force out a post or two here in the coming week(s) and see if I can tell you people who I really am...or at the very least, the person I attempt to be on most occasions.

When I figure out exactly what it is I'm going to say and how I'm going to say it, it'll be up here for ya. How's that for transparency?

Marketing

I like to pretend that people still read my blog. It's actually quite liberating to know that it isn't the case, though...I can type whatever I want, no need to read over it or edit, just post it. Too long? Oh well. Too brief? Hasn't happened yet...

Well, since UGA football isn't worth talking about, I'll move on to something else for this post. And it's not exciting, really (hence, the title of this post). So...you've been warned.

I have all my computers running Windows Vista. You know, Vista...that thing that is absolute crap...it sucks. I'm sure you've heard of it.

Anyway, I've been thinking about product marketing as a result of this Vista upgrade of mine. People almost always expect the next version of something to be better than the previous and current versions. The marketing for products usually feeds off of that eagerness for improvement. So when people's expectations - however inflated - are not met, it makes us go crazy.

High definition discs (Blu-Ray and the now-defunct HD DVD) have been disappointments. The video quality is there, but it's not really the big leap that VHS > DVD was.

The Mac vs. PC stuff has raged on for a long time, and it only got more entertaining with the TV ads that had the dorky PC guy and the fun, young Mac guy. Then Vista came out and Apple had a field day.

Every single product manufacturer - no matter what they make - has a tendency to fall short of expectations, make mistakes and generally fail in one or more areas. Knowing which areas and how the failures work can be a real benefit to the end user, however, as we can use that knowledge to keep on keepin' on.

I moved to Vista because - based on my own research - I was pretty sure it would be better than my old XP setup. So, long story short - HOLY CRAP. My video editing machine is blazing fast now, and all I did was change to that poorly marketed, formerly bug-ridden piece of software called Vista.

No more details here (I mean, if you really want to know what's happening, you can e-mail me and I'll explain) but it's hard to admit that poor and negative marketing has so successfully tanked a product that works so well for me. And if it works for me....well, aren't there probably at least a few others?

Marketing is powerful...it can make and shape the nature of discussions. Marketing points can even become substitutes for real-world facts and figures as people quote advertising rather than results.

It's not just product marketing, either...just look to our recent presidential election for an example. Obama won the marketing war, and won the White House as a result (whether or not it's right is irrelevant...it happened nonetheless).

Sometimes the marketing is just a simple shouting match. The louder and/or more persistent party wins. That's probably more likely the cause of the recent Mac/PC stuff regarding Vista. Microsoft made mistakes and then buried their head. Apple poked fun at them and Microsoft took over a year to fight back. All the while, Apple's ads got funnier, more pointed and aggressive.

So is it fair, that a product (that is perhaps better in many ways) loses ground simply because the marketing was bad? I would argue "yes."

Opinions drive the swiping of the credit card, and if you win the opinion, you win the purchase. Failure to win opinions is a failure in total, unfortunately.

So I feel like a bit of an outsider using Vista and being all satisfied about it, but facts are facts. Microsoft blew it, and as a result, many people will never be able to take advantage of a good product because they will never take the chance on something that so many advertisements said was laughable.

SIDE NOTE - Many of the "expert" end-users out there do agree that Vista isn't as bad as originally thought, but all concede the point on marketing. It's generally agreed that Microsoft's PR caused this failure more than any bugs or missing features ever could have. So these "experts" agree that Vista is a generally useful product but there is about 0% chance you will find them all spending their time and money trying to save Microsoft's butt on this one. That's one lonely kid playing all by himself on the playground.

Falling

So it's fall, which is nice. What's it mean?

- Hayrides
- Pumpkin patches
- Camping
- Mountain trips to see the leaves change
- Football!!
- Cooler weather
- Shorter days

It's all good stuff...I prefer the heat of summer (honestly, I like it hot) but the fall season has all those great things to offer. This weekend offers a fall favorite for our group up in Helen, GA at Oktoberfest. The grandparents are watching the kids, so the Garlands and Eric and Emily will be joining us for a weekend of camping, chicken dancing and drinking beer. Weather is supposed to dip up in the mountains to a cool lower 40's to upper 30's overnight, with highs only in the 60's during the day (somehow that always seems to happen the weekend of Oktoberfest).

Skipping the UGA vs. Vandy homecoming game. It's never fun...either the game is a blowout for UGA (snooze...) or it's a tight "exciting" game. Exciting isn't good when you're playing Vandy. So either way, I just hope for the W and go on about my business.

GA/FL game is just 2 short weeks away. My grandfather, my father, my uncle, my cousin and I all make the trip each year as a sort of "guys retreat," and it's usually very relaxing. Then game day comes along and it's full speed ahead in Jacksonville, FL where UGA has the recent win from last year, but a more troubled past of losses against the Gators. Still a lot of fun at that game (just more fun to win, obviously).

After 27/28 years, you wouldn't think it would be surprising, but it is strange to see the sun disappear over the horizon before 8pm. And then winter comes along and it's even earlier. Give me the long days of summer anytime.

I'm curious what kind of stuff you readers out there do with your fall months (if there are any of you left after all these years). Any kind of trips that you take? Things on your fall "to-do" list this year?

I lost the bet

Well, as many of you have already noticed, I lost a recent bet. Georgia and Alabama played a football game this past Saturday in Athens that was supposed to be the biggest game in the past 20 or so years for Georgia. SEC championship and BCS National Championship all on the line in this early season matchup of top 10 teams.

I had seen Georgia and Alabama play every single game so far this season, and both looked very good, but my bet was that Georgia was going to win. Not just win, but win big.

Well, at stake between my friend David and I was that time honored act of making your Facebook profile picture and Facebook status a complete and total reflection of who you are, what you are all about, what you were up to recently, how incredibly awesome you are. David, being a Bama fan, felt perhaps as strongly in favor of a Bama win as I did a Georgia win. David, being the winner of this bet by virtue of his team's total domination of Georgia football, now has the satisfaction of not only saving his own profile from ruination, but ensuring that my profile remains Crimson for at least until October 11th.

You see, the deal was this...loser's profile is owned until the losing team wins another SEC game. Georgia doesn't play another SEC game (or any game) until October 11th when they take on mighty (awful) Tennessee in Sanford Stadium. The whole "at least" part of October 11th is that Georgia actually has to win against Tennessee. Shouldn't be hard, but still...shame shame until the game.

So enjoy, fellow Facebookers. Enjoy the Roll Tide status, enjoy the screen-printed adornments and the "we're #1" smiling endorsement. It will be over soon as UGA returns to SEC dominance.

And for anyone willing to take another one of my foolhardy bets...here's one for a few weeks down the road. If UGA and Alabama have a rematch in the Georgia Dome for the SEC Championship game, at stake is a year-long shame. Not on Facebook this time, no. This time, it will be a little more gutsy - the winning team's logo affixed to your vehicle's rear window until 2009 season kickoff, and flags flying proudly from the windows for no less than a full week. No cheating, either...if you have more than one automotive choice, I will be happy to provide the additional stickers you'll need to properly dress all of your transportation.

Any takers?

Tropical storms, hurricanes and football

Crazy last month and a half.

Our vacation with the Bowler family to St. George was a lot of fun as always. It's a great little island if you've never been. This year's trip, however, suffered two major interruptions (well, maybe three or four).

1 - Power went out on the island. A water spout had made an appearance across the bayside of St. George about 4 days before we left, killing power to the island. They set up generators for temporary power, but in the days leading up to our departure, they were still getting it fixed and not letting people onto the island unless they were residents. The affect on our stay was minimal, however, as they restored full power within 24 hours of our arrival. There was a 1 or 2 hour time period in the middle of the night where the power was completely out while they switched from generators to full power, but we were asleep and didn't really get bothered by it.

2 - I got sick, real bad sick. It kind of came on a little before we even left for the beach. It was a fever/cold kind of thing, and it pretty much lasted the first half of the week. It finally let up on me about the time...

3 - Tropical Storm Fay made an appearance. Fay zig-zagged all across the state of Florday, making its final pass clear across the panhandle where St. George is located. By the time it got to us, it was fairly weakened, but there was more wind than I had seen in my life (that I can remember. It only affected the last 2 or 3 days of the trip, but those were the days that I wasn't sick anymore so...ah well. What was very interesting was looking out the window one evening and seeing funnel clouds (yes, plural) forming over head, not more than a mile away. Scary, but not that scary (maybe we should have freaked out more...?). The Gilbert family was over, and Katie Niebes took a picture of the clouds. I got on the laptop and sent her pictures along to the Weather Channel. Whether or not they ever used them, who knows. I felt like a real field journalist. Woo!

4 - I had work to do. A handful of hours were occupied with editing a couple of commercials for a client that had a deadline in the middle of my vacation week. It wasn't a huge deal, but it took away time that I would have rather been on the beach (you know, before the tropical storm arrived).

Good trip overall...Jingles, who was a little bit shy of the ocean last year, apparently forgot all about that and went diving around in the waves without any real encouragement from any of us. At one point, she just laid down at the water line and the waves were coming in on her, like it was no big deal. Crazy doggie.

More recently, I took a trip to St. Louis, MO to shoot Kelley Gilbert's wedding. It was a good trip, never been there before. Spent the first 2 days doing tourist stuff with the wedding party...did the Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour, took in a Cardinals game at Busch Stadium (game was against the Cubs, pretty good game), went to a couple of neat local restaurants, went to (and up inside) the St. Louis Arch (sidebar - apparently it's not the St. Louis Arch, but rather, it's the Gateway Memorial Arch. Also, it's not a state property, it's a federal development to commemorate the pioneers who went out west with Lewis and Clark...being federal, we should all be proud to know that our federal tax dollars built and maintain this place). Beautiful grounds on the property, very nice view of the Mississippi River and the city of St. Louis.

I will admit a little disappointment, as I was always under the impression that the arch spanned the Mississippi River, but it's actually all on one side of the river. Kind of like my visit to The Alamo 3 years ago. See, I always thought The Alamo was surrounded by mostly nothing, maybe some desert sand and a few trees. I was surprised to find out that it's right in the middle of the city of San Antonio, and the city has been built up around it - buildings, streets, tourism stuff. I just remember we were walking towards it, and we turned a corner and all of a sudden it was just there right in front of us, like it wasn't supposed to be there at all.

Disappointment aside, it was a great little arch, and the Alamo was cool, too.

The wedding was very nice and everyone had a good time. The DJ was wild...he really got out on the floor and interacted, teaching the crowd some crazy dance move stuff. Reception ended sometime around 1am, but the bride and groom were out of there shortly after midnight.

The next morning, what was left of Hurricane Ike made contact with the city (actually arrived around 2:30am). The next morning, it was real treat packing my equipment and luggage into the van. There was a portico we parked underneath - which was very helpful - but still, the wind and rain blew in under there pretty fiercely. I was riding with my in-laws, and as we made our way out of the city around 8 or 9 in the morning, there were huge pools of water on the interstates, road closures going the other way, poor visibility, gusts of wind pushing at the car and general horrible weather like you would expect from a previously category 3 hurricane.

It didn't let up until around Kentucky, but at that point the damage was done. We were heading around Paducah, KY when the interstate was closed off, routing us along some side roads for a few miles. As it turns out, we arrived only a short while after a tornado came through. This was apparent from the damage we saw going through these towns. At one point we were going through a Wal-Mart/Home Depot parking lot where carts had been blown around and the little aluminum cart corrals were all twisted up and blown around. The giant interstate-visibility signage was torn off the pole and lying twisted and destroyed on the ground over to the side of us. The power was out for the most part, and the traffic lights were out as a result, so it was a relief to finally get back on the interstate and continue our escape from the storm remnants.

The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful (thankfully) aside from a few small storms coming through Tennessee and north Georgia. Gotta say, that was the absolute worst weather I have ever experienced in my life. Even though I wasn't genuinely freaked out, there were moments when I wondered whether or not we would make it out of town that day, or at least make it out without being in some kind of car accident.

Fall is usually the time of year when I see my business slow down, but this fall has been extremely busy for me...and it seems to be getting busier. I've been shooting the weekly meetings for the Touchdown Club of Atlanta. That's been a lot of fun, getting to hear people talk football for an hour. We're shooting it for the website, and we're actually going out live during the meetings. Very cool. This coming week, Mark Richt is the guest speaker, so assuming that UGA beats Alabama this weekend, it should be a packed house. Well, it'll probably be packed regardless.

Speaking of football...UGA is looking a lot better than I think people realize. They haven't really had to do a lot of fancy stuff yet, since all their competition has been pretty minimal. South Carolina wasn't a huge test...it was a close game, but it's not like you're going to see UGA throwing all they've got out on the field for 4 quarters at the beginning of the season, especially when you're closer to winning than you are losing. Arizona State should have been more of a test, but I think that even though Arizona State may be the 2nd best team in the Pac 10, they're a distant 2nd from USC. Georgia played well, and Knowshon looked like a Heisman candidate alright, but it wasn't a big test of skill.

Penalties are gonna lose a game for us sooner or later if that doesn't get figured out. Giving up a full field (over a 100 yards) in penalties to Arizona State is a bad move...it only really cost the dawgs 3 points in the end, but it could have been much worse. Against a better team, like Alabama or Florida...that sort of stuff loses you the game.

Speaking of Bama...I'm excited. It's a BLACKOUT game, and ESPN GameDay is going to be there. I'll probably be showing up just in time for the game (gotta work a shoot from 9a-5p on Saturday). No matter, though...the game's the main thing. I think Alabama has built a good team so far this year, but I'm not buying into the hype quite yet. At this point, they've played a clearly struggling Clemson team, two teams with no real chance (Tulane and Western Kentucky) and Arkansas, which never even threatened in a year where nothing is likely to go their way. Georgia's opponents haven't been much more impressive, but my point here is that Alabama's win over those much lesser opponents have catapulted them from unranked in the preseason to #8 currently, whereas Georgia's wins have dropped them from #1 to #3. If Alabama beats Georgia, they'll deserve their ranking. But that's not going to happen. Georgia has two wide receiver threats in Mohamed Massaquoi and AJ Green, and two running back threats in Knowshon Moreno and Caleb King (three threats, if you count Richard Samuel). It's an awful lot to try to defend such powerful running and passing offensive options, especially with a quarterback like Matthew Stafford who can change it up on the fly when the defense lines up against the play.

Alabama's got a guy on special teams who likes to run the ball back for big yardage and good field position. That's probably Georgia's biggest weakness - special teams - for both punting and receiving units. If they can shut down Alabama's punt returns, I think that'll be all Georgia needs to do to ensure a win. To ensure a BIG win, however, Georgia will need to make sure that Stafford has plenty of time to get the play off, and I'm not sure the offensive line can hold off Bama for very long.

Alright, that's probably more than enough for now. I've posted on Caleb's blog, so you can check that out, too.

Cereal

A quick blog...

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I tend to agree. That being said, I'm not a huge breakfast cereal fan...my idea of a good breakfast is some grits and eggs with bacon/sausage and some good coffee. A nice, big, warm meal to fire up the day. During the work week, however, cereal is usually the most time-efficient food to get going with the day.

So if I'm going to have cereal, I want something like Cinnamon Toast Crucnch, Froot Loops, or Cap'n Crunch...SUGAR. I also like things like raisin bran, Cheerios (Hone Nut) and Rice Chex sometimes, but I'm going to pass those over if one of my preferred little-kid-at-the-table cereals are available.

My wife goes for the really nasty stuff, like Grape Nuts (neither a grape nor a nut). I'll pass. Gimme the sugar.

Too many days separating me from football...

The title says it all...right now, one of the persistent thoughts in my mind is the upcoming football season. In particular, it's UGA football that is fighting obligations for brain time.

The other (obvious) persistent thought is updated over at Caleb's blog.

So there's all kind of speculation about where UGA will be ranked, or where UGA will end up at the end of the year. For once, it's nice to have Georgia be the topic of preseason discussions, and not just because the whole team is being arrested for one thing or another...although that's always a common reason at UGA for some reason.

So is it better to be ranked high and get a big ol' bull's eye on you? Or, is it preferable to be ranked low, and have to prove yourself against all the naysayers? Right now, it looks like only a handful of people are predicting UGA to go undefeated, and the schedule is perhaps a little bit too intimidating to expect all wins and no losses. Even worse, as we learned last year, some of those sleeper games at the beginning of the season can have the undesirable effect of putting a football team to sleep, or giving the team more confidence than they have earned by defeating much lesser opponents.

So we start with Georgia Southern...while they are usually a Division I-AA powerhouse, they are still Div I-AA, which means - theoretically - that they aren't as good as any of the other 120 football teams in Division I-A. That being said, we've certainly opened the season with weaker opponents in the past, so this is good enough (and certain to stir the conversation around whether or not UGA, as a big name team, will get shocked like Michigan did last year when Appalachian State ruined their picnic).

Then there's Central Michigan...again, not a huge threat, but they aren't pushovers either, and are probably going to be more of a surprise than GA Southern proves to be.

Follow those two with a weekend in Columbia, SC against the Gamecocks and the king croc-cock himself, Steve Spurrier. This game last year still stings, because it stands out in my mind as the one game of the two that we lost that we should have won (easily)...it's the game that I think took us out of the SEC championship and the National Championship games. Sure, we lost to Tennessee, but they're usually a tough opponent, and they played well to the end of the season. South Carolina proved to be quite beatable down the stretch, and UGA was but one of their very few conquests. So this year is about not making that mistake again, and NOT losing to Steve Spurrier's team. It's do-able...they're still dealing with a fairly young team.

Next is Arizona State, probably the first time in as long as I can remember that Georgia left the south to play football. ASU is no pushover...they gave USC a run for their money last year, and are usually in contention for the Pac 10 title. With the unique climate and big game atmosphere out west, makes a man wonder how his team will play out.

Alabama comes in after that for their 2nd loss to UGA in as many years. Really, I think Saban will have Alabama in good shape sooner rather than later, but this isn't the year. I like Bama...like 'em a WHOLE lot more than Auburn...but they're in a little over their heads trying to beat out this UGA team in Athens this year.

Tennessee...oh, how I hate thee, Tennesee. Rocky Top isn't a bad song, it's just that I lose my head after the 140th time they play it each game. It also doesn't help when they're beating you pretty soundly, which is the story of the last 2 years, and 3 of the last 4. They're gonna have a good team this year, and they usually do. But...and this is a big "but"...I doubt Georgia is going to forget how they fell asleep last year. My money says we'll see Georgia win this one pretty easily.

That's the first half of the season, and I can see UGA going undefeated all the way 'til Jacksonville for the Cocktail Party...but at that game, we'll probably be looking at #1 and #2 playing each other for the top spot, and it'll be tough to call until about halfway through the 3rd overtime period.

I might try posting a mid-season update once we get to October, but for now I'm going crazy counting down the next month full of days until kickoff.

GO DAWGS!

My New Job

Today is an important day for me. It marks two things in my post-college life. First, it marks the day that I started my foray into the working world after graduation. I became part of the rat race 5 years ago on this date, and for a long time it seemed I'd never need to leave, never want to leave....never leave, period.

The second important thing about today's date is that it also marks my final day working in this office. I have 2 more days working full-time for the company (tomorrow and Friday) but they are on-location productions at the client's site, so I will not be involved in anymore office shenanigans here after this afternoon.

I put my resignation in nearly 3 weeks ago to give my employer a little extra time to replace me (small company, it's harder to replace folks in a small company when each person wears so many different hats). It was time for change (a change unlike my recent post on Caleb's blog...but change nonetheless). I've spent enough time here, I did what I came to do, and now I'm moving on.

Having Caleb come into my life was the primary reason for me to depart. Hilary decided that she would go back to work after her leave of absence, and so the question of child care arose. In the end, however, we decided that I would leave the company to pursue TradeWind Productions from home while I raised our son. Financially, it isn't too bad of a stretch since child care is so expensive. Likewise, I've had a healthy amount of growth in my business so I will hopefully be able to sustain our current standard of living or possibly even better.

Even better, I'll still be acting as a subcontractor for the forseeable future with my soon-to-be past employer, so I'll still be able to make some decent money there. I won't be the "Production Manager" anymore, but I will be taking on the title of "Mr. Mom" instead, which I think is a pretty fair trade.

So with child in arm and camera on tripod, I will be making my departure today with a small box of wall hangings and desk paraphrenalia. It's been real. It's been fun. Can't say it was real fun, but maybe this next jaunt around the race track of life will prove more valuable than anything else I've done to date.

Here we go...

Walk Through the Fire

For those of you keeping score at home, it has been a little over a month now since I last posted on any blogs (including Caleb's blog). This has not been for lack of any interesting things to talk about, as I'll detail below.

Since this post is relevant for me personally and also about Caleb, I'm double posting it on both blog sites.

As of the date of my last post, my life changed a little bit. Not quite as drastic as the actual birth of my son, but mind-altering nonetheless. That evening of April 1st, Caleb's situation with the constant vomiting finally came to a head (see previous posts for more details). Around 11pm, we contacted the on-call nurse at our pediatrician and asked what could possibly be wrong with our little guy. All of a sudden, we get a diagnosis for something called "pyloric stenosis" which we had never ever heard of in our entire lives. Essentially, it's a condition where the muscle (pylorus) that allows food to flow from the stomach into the intestines becomes overgrown or swollen to the point that nothing - no food, no liquid - can pass through the system. This apparently started off relatively unnoticed when Caleb was born and became more pronounced in the ensuing weeks to the point that he was getting no hydration and no nourishment.

We don't know how much longer he would have actually survived with this condition. Suffice it to say that we left for the emergency room at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta within the hour to begin a crazy 5-day trip at the hospital that included multiple rooms for multiple days, a trip to the ICU and a simple surgery with scary unexpected complications - in fact, the complications were probably more disconcerting than the whole situation at the time, since we were expecting a straightforward procedure.

So when you come through the other side of this thing like we did, you can look back and feel quite blessed that you're all here to tell the story. At the same time, you can look at it all and say, "wow, THAT was close." It's scary to think what could have happened if the condition wasn't finally diagnosed correctly.

I thank God that all we're left with is a little surgical scar and some bad memories. And the results of the surgery are that we have a baby now that eats and eats and is growing bigger (not smaller) with each passing day. He's happy most of the time and just seems to enjoy life all the more because we're all here together.

There's a song that says "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." I would agree, but I'd add that sometimes you know exactly what you have once you just come close to losing it. Going through the fire and being able to hold on is an amazing blessing.

Help me pick a new phone! Hooray!

WARNING - NOT A SUPER-EXCITING BLOG TODAY!!

I am looking to get a new mobile phone...here's the deal:

• It's for business use
• It needs to combine the 2 devices I currently carry around - a Palm Z22 (organizer) and a Nokia 6102i (phone) - so that I don't have to carry around 2 devices anymore
• It has to hold a battery charge pretty good...I don't want to have to recharge the thing every 12 hours
  

So I've seen lots of stuff out there that will meet these needs, but I don't really know anything about any of them. I am asking for YOUR HELP, dear reader. Do you know something out there that would satisfy all my mobile communication desires? Do you currently have such a fabulous device in your possession that you could recommend to me?

I'm currently on AT&T mobile and have no reason to leave, but since it's a business expense I don't really care what network it's on.

You can just e-mail me or post in the comments if you have anything to offer on the matter.

As a sidebar....I've looked at the Palm Centro (?) devices recently because I could dump all my current information from my Palm Z22 without having to deal with a bunch of conversion. However, it's a fairly brand-new device and I don't know what all it can/can't do. If you think this thing is the bee's knees, let me know (or if you think it really sucks, let me know that, too).

What a mess

Caleb is having a problem with his food (or his feeders, maybe both). We are getting some serious vomiting. Serious!

He sprayed one a full3 and a half feet of good upholstery yesterday. THREE AND A HALF FEET! I CAN'T EVEN DO THAT!

All this is apparently quite normal though. We have nothing to worry about, since all babies vomit like drunks on a booze cruise after 3 hours of fully-loaded sea-sickening, boat-rocking, good-times sailing.

That's what I've been told anyway.

In all fairness, we have tried a few different formulas out by now, and all of them have been tried in varying quantities from different bottles and different positions, so on and so on. No dice...

Seems to be getting better now, though. I really think he was just fooling with us, like "ha, just kidding, I just wanted to see how many times you would change my clothes today." He's at least keeping some of it down, so that's plus.

It's kind of funny in fact....I actually burst out laughing yesterday because 1) I totally could see it building, like a wave on the horizon, and 2) it was a freakin' 3 and a half foot blast!

If you were paying attention earlier, you probably noticed the use of the word "formula" in place of the usual "breast milk" or the more humorous yet improper "boob juice." Yes, Caleb is on formula, not the boob. There are reasons for this, suffice it to say that we have a good set of reasons. Nonetheless, some people are looking upon our act of [so-called] child abuse with shameful eyes. I totally get it..."breast is best" and all that. Great, I'm glad that's out there. Now, for the rest of us, there is formula and I couldn't be more happy about it. Sorry if it makes you angry and whatnot.

I'm back at work today for the first time in two weeks. Nothing has changed. Crap.

And Happy St. Patty's! We'll even slip a little whiskey in the formula tonight for a big family celebration at the Jolly house (haha...only kidding!). Flogging Molly blasting on the radio.

Can you believe UGA men's basketball winning the SEC championship game? I heard a guy had a sign made up that said "Worst to first!" and it's pretty much spot on. UGA basketball (men's, again) could not be less interesting on an average year. Doesn't help that I don't really like basketball anyway, but still...UGA basketball is just not that good. So kudos to them for making those last 4 games count! I'm actually doing a bracket for the NCAA tournament this year. Wanna guess how far I let the Dawgs ride in the tournament?

Giving birth to a car and buying a baby

They say a picture tells the story of 1,000 words, but here are about 1,000 more in case you wanted them...

Baby time is NOW! Caleb Nathaniel Jolly was born on March 4, 2008 at 6:26am. 7lb, 9oz and 20 1/2 inches. His official due date was about one week later on March 10. After about a week of getting to know the guy, I've finally found a few moments to blog about the whole thing. (FYI - the car thing is at the bottom of this post, just so you're not too confused by the title).

I keep reminding myself how wrong it is for me to claim this (being a dude and all)...but the labor and delivery went surprisingly well. Water broke around 11pm on Monday night, and after 7.5 hours and about 4 pushes the little guy was outta there. We were completely prepared for this marathon, sweat-it-out, profanity-laced endurance test that would last for 12 hours or more, but it was over so quick I barely had a chance to respond. I think my first words after the delivery were ".............."

I just couldn't believe we were done with it all! Hilary couldn't either, just shocking how fast it was. The remainder of the day was filled with doctors, family, friends and a little bit of rest. Two days later we were out of the hospital and headed home for a little quiet time (yeah, right).

They say you can never really prepare yourself for parenthood. Knowing that early on, I felt emboldened, not afraid - hey, if I can learn as I go along, that works for me. The whole preparation line is quite true if you've never experienced parenthood (or at least these very early stages). I knew there would be nights of lost sleep (I just didn't realize how horrifying 3 hours of screaming could really be). I knew there would be a lot of feeding and diaper changing (....yeah, I'll just leave that one alone for now). All told, however, I'm very excited about this turn. It's weird, it kind of makes my marriage itself seem brand new as it changes the rest of my life around as well.

People support has been super awesome this past week, and that is a big thank you to those of you reading this who have come by to visit, called, e-mailed or just said a prayer for us. You will never hear me say that "it takes a village," but I will acknowledge that the people in my life are more important to me than I might have realized.

There's not really a lot else to say...it's just happened so fast!

I will be setting up a separate blog for Caleb to keep people posted on pictures, news and emotional stress levels (NO, I won't be writing it from Caleb's perspective - though I could try it once or twice if requested...). That will free me up on this blog to continue the useless writings you have become accustomed to seeing here. As soon as I get that ready, I'll park a link here for you all.

[NOTE - parts of this car blog were drafted the day before Caleb showed up, so I'm mainly posting it now so I don't feel like I wasted so much time talking about a car just to not post it at all. Make sense?]

So as we got closer and closer to baby time, we realized we probably wanted a different car...something bigger, easier to get stuff in and out. However, we had two perfectly good cars, and despite being a little cramped, they seemed like they'd pretty much fit the bill for a good while longer. It's been a couple of years since we've had a car payment, and that's nice.

Well, one of those cars got a little less reliable (that would be "The Chief," our '96 Cherokee). High mileage, old car, time to rethink. We took a look around, but everything was a bit pricey, and we were figuring a zero-sum on the trade in value for the old car. In fact the Kelly Blue Book value was only around $400-$500, maybe $1,400 if you labeled it as "great condition." So on a whim (and a lunch break) I took the car over to CarMax to get an appraisal. Even though they basically refused to make an appraisal the first time, another guy chased me down as I was leaving to let me know they could try to offer me something. Long story short, they offered WAY more than the car was worth, and so the idea of getting rid of the old car became more of a possible reality.

We looked over our options for a new car and settled on a handful of different SUVs. Big ones and small ones. We mainly wanted to buy a pre-owned with low mileage like we did with our first car back in '03. The one we wound up really liking was the Saturn Outlook. It still seemed a bit outside what we wanted to pay, but we crunched the numbers, moved some stuff around and made it happen.

Now it should be noted that Saturn is a "no-haggle" car company. It's like they say...you pay what the sticker says. That's really not so bad, because they're not charging a whole lot on the car when you compare it to others in the same class (invoice, NOT MSRP), and most of the features you'd want are standard (tinted class, floor mats...the basics that you normally have to pay hundreds or thousands extra for). However, we felt the need to do SOME haggling just to make sure we got what we came for and nothing more. It almost didn't happen, but....well, long story short, we bought one new and are now officially ready to transport Caleb around in something that rides less like a theme park ride and more like a family automobile.

Caleb is riding in style.

It seemed like a dangerous thing to do...buying a new car (let alone a "new" new car) in the days leading up to your baby's due date. But...the offer on the old car was only good for 7 days, and so we made good on it while we could. Now we have a car payment again, but we have safe, reliable transportation.

Our sales guy was awesome (I never thought I'd say that about a car salesperson...ever). He (and the other people at Saturn of Gwinnett) were very helpful throughout the process. Turns out he and his wife go to our church (we never know...our church has something like 11,000 members and we've only started getting to know people). He's around our age, so he and his wife are going to look into joining our Sunday morning class before worship service. Pretty amazing that you'd be able to join your car salesman at church...I think you usually end up being at odds with a guy once you've debated over a car purchase. What's next, lawyers and tax collectors in the church?

Unheard of!

Anyway, I think this is one of those situations where you spend a lot of time researching something, you feel like you know it backwards and forwards, but then a few months later you hardly remember anything you learned while researching your purchase. I'll be happy for that...right now, I am wasting WAY too much brain space on car knowledge and sales/purchase tactics. I could really use that section of my brain for something else right now.

Like a baby.

Maybe. Ya think?

A little bit more, a little bit more

My brother and his wife were expecting a child (yes, "were") with a due date of March 17th...just about a week after the due date for my little bundle-o-joy. However, this past weekend, Heather (my brother's wife) went into labor and came out with a little boy not much long afterward.

Taylor Hanlon Jolly is his name. We're all obviously excited...it's the first Jolly kid to be born in quite a long time (my niece and nephews are Galloway kids). He's a cute-looking kid, but as excited as I am, there's a bit of a problem here.

The kid came a month early.

Now, he's alright, mommy's alright, it's all good. Apparently he was just done. The real problem here is how I am now perceiving my own situation.

My kid could come at ANY SECOND. Serious. I mean, I knew that before, but now every time Hilary's name pops up on my caller ID, I have a mini-panic, like "oh crap, time to go!!!"

Just knowing that my brother had no clue what his plans for the weekend were really going to be all about....well, I just liked that old idea I had in my head about how this was all gonna come down, and now I can't shake that "any second now" mentality.

I'll get over it.

Needless to say, I feel a certain amount of guilt over the deal, since I almost feel like I haven't been fully excited for my brother. I guess once a few months have passed here and everyone has all their kids and has a chance to settle down, maybe we can start really celebrating what we've all gone through.

I feel like I'll be fine once it all starts, but just KNOWING that I could get a call sometime today to fire it up is....is....well....bothersome.

Phone's ringing...better check it.

No, it's not another tech-heavy post

Okay, so enough tech crap for a while, right? At least the blog is safe for now.

Right now...today, this hour, right this minute, right this very second...this is where it all starts.

I'm going to be a daddy-o, and that's just about a complete certainty at this point (praying nothing goes wrong).

Am I worried? Really, honestly, no. Not a single bit. I've seen the birthing videos, witnessed the screaming child in church....I guess I'm not concerned. So...where does that put me? Am I soon to be blindsided, smacked in the face with the dirty diaper of reality? It's possible, but folks, I am quite optimistic.

First and foremost, I consider myself to be at least average intelligence, so I'll wait while some of you contain your laughter.

Got it together? Let's move on...

With all the morons out there making bad decisions, no decisions and indecisions, I think I've got a leg up. Law of averages. There are so many uneducated and unprepared people out there making a major impact on the world (better or worse) that I'm sure that I'm at least a little better off than they are.

Even better, I fully accept two very important things:

1. your life is what you put into it
2. $&*# happens
   

Now, a child raised by his/her parents will often grow up to live life according to the example provided. That can be seen as a huge burden or a huge opportunity. I look at it as an opportunity. As with everything, I don't expect to put up nothing and gain everything, so I'm fully prepared to give it my all.

On that second part...well, does ANYTHING really ever work out the way you think it will? Certainly, that is not the case for me, otherwise I'd probably still be on the road with SCAP right now, making millions and recording our 5th album (mostly covers, sorry). I think that knowing AND accepting the fact that anything can happen is a real good position.

So, being fully ready to give myself into this new endeavor with my wife, and being fully aware that anything is possible, I guess you could say I'm completely comfortable. I'm not assuming I'll always be tiptoeing through the tulips of life's garden...I just think that sometimes you gotta know that the bitter mixes with the sweet, and that no matter how bad it gets, you still get the sweet more often than not.

This little kid is going to change my life, and that is awesome.

Bring it on.

So I built a TiVo...

Most people have a general idea about what a TiVo does...it grabs programming information off the WWW and uses it to record the TV shows you specify. Not really a very complicated thing...so I built one instead of buying one. Generically, this type of product is called a DVR or PVR (digital/personal video recorder).

Why in the world would I build instead of buy? Well, TiVo is EXPENSIVE. Add to the cost of the little box the fact that you have to pay a monthly subscription, and adds up very quickly. The boxes start around $99 and go to $599 depending on what you want. Monthly subscription will run you $9 to $13 per month, or $108 to $156 per year. Most cable or satellite companies have a similar product with similar prices. In most cases, cable or satellite companies will simply rent you the box.

My problem with both scenarios - I really can't stand the idea of paying a subscription fee month after month. For anything, especially TV (I already have to pay once for TV, a second time seems more like an addiction). Even worse, the quality of the video recorded for TiVo or the cable/satellite junk is usually rather low, and the amount of hours that can be recorded is usually WAY too limited as well.

HEY HEY HEY!!!! Lots of you are probably clocking out right now....that's cool, it's a pretty nerdy post. If you want to just see the final deal, CLICK HERE to wrap it up (not sure if that works in Facebook...if not, just scroll for a couple of days, you'll see it).

Anyway...opportunity presented itself when I won a teeny-tiny barebones computer at some trade show thing last fall. I thought "what am I going to do with this thing?" It would require building out with my own parts and software to make the thing usable as any kind of computer, and it would be too small for most of the work I would throw at it. Ah, but it occurred to me that the machine was small enough to fit in with my DVD player in the living room, so the idea came about to make a DVR. But how?

Did all of like 5 minutes of reading on line and determined that the main thing you need to figure out is HOW you are going to get the cable line into the computer...most people don't have that little screw-on coaxial plug on their computer, so you need to buy a part for that (it's called a "tuner card"), and there are a few choices out there for that. I already had a few spare parts (memory, CD drive, hard drive, video card) hanging around from old machines that are no longer with us, so I could re-purpose those without and cash expenditure. Then I also had a Windows XP license that I've never used (it's legal...thanks Mike) so I saved $$ there, too. All I needed was a processor and a TV tuner card.

Fast forward a couple of months later, I got the tuner card for Christmas and then I won the college football pick 'em for 2007 season and had cash-on-hand to finish building this thing out (I won it for football so Hilary green-lit my project...I think she was just amazed that I'd made money from football). A few hiccups and a couple of underestimations later, I figured it all out and got the dang thing up and running. Been testing it out with a trial software (program guide) for the last week and I gotta say...it is great. We only have about 30-40 TV channels, but there is plenty on those channels that I would like to record for viewing at one time or another. Even better, for shows that have conflicting time slots, I can record one and watch the other.

AND I found out...it's connected with YouTube and Google Videos (plus some other online movies and sources like NBC and CBS for their TV shows). Not that I can't go in the other room to enjoy the latest junk on those sites, but there's something cool about parking it on the couch and doing that in full screen.

It also does a 10 day detailed weather report. Guess they thought that was the missing piece to make this thing worthwhile....? People love weather.

For the geeks, here's a rundown of the parts and how much you might expect to pay for similar parts if you build your own:

• Shuttle XPC barebones - $200 (this is the thing I won)
• Intel E2160 processor - $68
• OCZ 512MB (x2) 533MHz RAM - $45 (mine was leftover parts from old computer)
• Western Digital 250 GB SATA hard drive - $60 (spare parts again)
• CD writer drive - $15 (spare part, but will probably get a DVD drive soon for $25)
• nVidia GeForce 6600GT 128MB video card with TV output - $60 (spare part)
• Hauppage HVR-1600 TV tuner card with remote control - $85
• Windows XP Professional OS - $100 (just happened to have it around)
  
• SageTV media center software - $70 (running a 21 day trial right now)

All told, I spent less than $200 of my own money ($140?). If you want to build this system, it would come in around $700. THAT is a lot of money, but here's where you can compare it to a typical TiVo system...assuming you only keep the thing for 3 years, this system would have an annual cost of around $230. A typical TiVo system would run you at least $210. However, to get one that compares to the system I built, your annual cost would be more like $300.

Even still, my system is better in every area but one when compared to a TiVo-style box...my system was built by me, so if it breaks or something, I've got to fix it myself. I'll assume for the sake of argument that if your cable company DVR or TiVo box breaks, they will fix it for you free of charge (optimistic, I suppose?).

To summarize (welcome back!)...my junk, when compared to the best TiVo system, is better because:

• it can record many many more hours of TV shows (important when you tell it to automatically record every episode of every show you like to watch...adds up quickly)
• it doesn't require a subscription to keep it working month after month
• the video quality is better, and can be customized. I can allow low quality for things like reality shows, high quality for stuff like movies on TV...this means I can fit even more content on the thing.
• I can still use my box to surf the web from my couch, watch YouTube videos on the thing in full screen, and do anything else that any other computer can do - TiVo is just TV recording, nothing more
• it can be cheaper (mine was/is/will be), depending upon how long you keep it and which TiVo you would want to have
• Um....I made it. That's like 5 bonus points right there.

I'll totally build one for you if you want, it wasn't so hard. You can pay for the parts, I'll build it. My fee is like...a beer (or a bear, which is what I typed when trying to type "beer"), a steak and we'll call it even.

Maybe not the bear....then you'd still owe me, except I'd probably be dead. And that's why you'd owe me. Because of the bear.

Sly is back! Again!

So we get a Rocky movie and Rambo movie in back to back years?

Sylvester Stallone gets credit for one thing...he knows what he can do (be Rocky, or Rambo), and he knows what he CAN'T do (be someone besides Rocky, or Rambo).

Bruce Willis knows this well...Die Hard, Die Harder, Die Hard Until You're Dead, Die Harderer. All of them = AWESOME. What's not to love?

Actually, I'm being rough on ol' Bruce. He's been in plenty of movies that weren't Die Hard. Of course, most of the characters were developed for him so he just had to be McLane again. Seriously though...The 5th Element, good. Whole 9 Yards, good. 6th Sense, good. Even Sin City, and hey, I'll go out on a limb here and say Unbreakable was good, too. Don't you love when you get what you want? You're going to a Bruce Willis movie, he gives you Bruce Willis.

There was this sort of running joke that we were going to name our son Bruce Willis, then change our last name from Jolly to Willis. It probably won't happen, but at least we can still do the Die Hard theme in the nursery. Growin' up Bruce, y'all.

I could have done without the Mac guy in the last Die Hard movie. And yeah, I find it hard to believe you were using your Mac computer to hack all that crap (he was actually using a Mac in the film...he's probably got some stipulation built in that says he can't be seen using a PC or else he loses the money gig with Apple). All told however, Mac guy did a respectable job, but he had a lot of help from whoever was writing his lines. He was also exactly what I was expecting....jittery, counter-culture geek.

It's refreshing to get what you're expecting.

You were probably expecting me to say a little more about Sly and Rambo. Sorry about that.

Blizzard Hits Georgia...No Survivors

I love when it snows in Georgia. It's unique, only happening once a year or every other year. However, you can see the news coverage and witness dozens of people in an area lightly dusted with snow running out to get space heaters, generators, heated blankets, milk, bread, whatever. Seriously, even if the "storm" lasted more than a day or two, you quite likely have enough food and water for a worst-case-scenario, and the space heater you bought two years ago when it snowed probably still works. I mean, I know it's still in the box, so it hasn't been tested yet, but it probably works.

When these people are interviewed, they are often VERY concerned, saying "well, you never know what could happen" or "it don't look like much, but believe you me, if it gets worse, y'all are gonna be callin' me for my heaters." I mean....okay, look, I get it. I was in Boy Scouts (motto: "Be prepared). But really? Really?

In spite of the ridiculous news coverage, I think everyone is gonna be okay. Looking outside here, there's a little ice on the road, but rain has been falling since 3am and even the snow is melting on the lawn.

Perhaps in the northernmost counties of the state, it's a little worse. Hilary headed up there for work this morning, and she called and told me that it's basically just a little wet, some ice, but everyone's out and about.

Nonetheless, after dinner last night, I took Jingles and we wandered around the neighborhood in the snow. We timed it just right, too...the snow started coming full force at that point. When we left, the sidewalk and driveway in front of the house were lightly dusted (melting on contact mostly). By the time we got back, it was covered with snow, and the streets were getting a pretty white covering as well. LOTS of snow.

Went in for a few minutes to warm up (quite windy out), but then Jingles and I went back out for a little while longer until it got too windy. Snow was blasting out my eyeballs (stings the nostrils....). Jingles went absolutely berserko. She L-O-V-E-D the snow. Of course, I got ZERO in the way of photographs of this whole ordeal, but I was just enjoying it - not documenting it.

By the time I went to bed, it was mainly sleet/rain, and then this morning it's just rain. A whole lot of fun, but not a whole lot of snow. As is typical with Georgia weather, I'm absolutely expecting to be wearing shorts and flip flops in the 80 degree heat that is to follow next week. Okay, I'm being a little bit sarcastic (no people, I'm not predicting the weather, and no, I've heard no predictions of 80 degree temps for next week). Point being - we gots us some craaazzy weather here in this state.

Baby class tonight...earlier concerns that class might be canceled have given way to reality. It's gonna be a little wet, but nothing will stop us from our quest to learn more about the miracle of pushing a watermelon through a Life Saver. Last week's class was interesting. This week - another video, more "techniques" and even a tour of the facilities. I hope it's an audio tour...I'll bring my own headphones just in case. Maybe we'll even get dumped out into a little gift shop with souvenirs at the end!

Open [Source] Season

I've found myself using a LOT of open source software recently. If you aren't familiar with the term, go Google it and you'll get a pretty good understanding. Basically (see, you didn't Google it because you knew I'd more or less explain it for you in the next sentence), open source means that the code used to execute a given application is made available to everyone with the idea that the more developers you have play around with something, the better the product gets. So... that's a very loose idea for you to take home.

Anyway, point being...I've been finding all kinds of neat stuff, and it's all free of charge and really useful stuff. I myself am not a developer, so while I can take advantage of the efforts of the open source community, I will likely add little more than the occasional feature suggestion or bug report.

NOTE - open source does not always mean free, and likewise, free software (freeware) is not always open source. There are pay versions of open source products out there, with the difference usually being things like customer support, product guarantees and typically useless things (when was the last time you actually got good help from customer support, or were able to jump through the right loopholes on a product warranty?).

Most people know about Mozilla's Firefox browser by now - if not, see www.firefox.com. In addition, those same folks at Mozilla offer a mail client (think Outlook, or Outlook Express) called Thunderbird. Both are free, and both are quite good. Thunderbird isn't a full-blown Outlook replacement, but compared to Outlook Express, it's a world of difference (read: much much better).

So I've been using both of those apps for quite some time, but recently I've come across a bunch more stuff. A biggie for me is Open Office (www.openoffice.org). It's got a couple of different components to match the Microsoft Office packages - there's a word processor (MS Word), a spreadsheet app (MS Excel), a presentation app (MS PowerPoint) and a couple of other goodies in there. It compares well to the Microsoft product offering, with a couple of major differences:

1. Open Office is free. Microsoft charges 100's of dollars for their stuff
2. Open Office is fast...it doesn't eat up all your computer's resources and slow you down like MS Office does
3. Open Office lets you build PDF compatible forms (good for business people like me)
4. Open Office lets you export PDF compatible documents from any of the applications. Microsoft doesn't have any such capability without 3rd party support (and $$$)
5. Did I mention it's free?

Okay, enough on the Open Office, moving along...the next cool thingy is a suite of products that can run on your USB flash drive. Pretty much means that instead of you installing applications on your computer and leaving them there when you hit the road, you drop the programs on your USB drive and then make any computer you're using "your" computer. There are a couple of groups offering this, but the one I'm using right now is called PortableApps (www.portableapps.com). I'm not going to go into too much detail, because you can go to that website and see the stuff right away. Suffice it to say that I've set up my USB drive with the following:

• browser (complete with bookmarks/favorites and such)
• e-mail client (Thunderbird, with all my e-mail addresses and username/password stuff)
• my office applications (Open Office, complete with templates for invoices, faxes and all that jazz)
• virus scanner (hey, those public computers can be loaded)
• username+password manager (keeps the websites, usernames, passwords and other info right there, fully encrypted)

I'm running all those applications - including all the data stored for them - on a single 512MB USB drive...so yeah, it's very small and runs fast. Really cool stuff.

Obviously, I'm a certifiable dork, and this isn't really super-exciting ground-breaking information, but hey, it's made my life easier and doesn't cost anything, so I figured I'd share my findings with anyone who might likewise need less hassle from their computer-driven existence.

Time to make the doughnuts

A little birdie tells me it's time for a new post, so here it is.

Christmas was a good time, saw all the people I wanted to see (if you didn't see me, just read between the lines there). Only kidding!!! Really, it was a great family-time event leading up to Christmas and on Christmas Day. Quite honestly, I would rather have more time with people than have a single Christmas gift with my name on it. See, now everyone knows exactly what to give me next year, how cool is that?

FINALLY got the TradeWind Productions website up!! Very excited about that. Go check it out at www.TradeWindProductions.com and let me know what you think! Seriously, if you think it's awesome/awful, let me know!

I'm going to be getting the new mailing list together this month, so hey, if you want to be on the list, just shoot me an e-mail at info@tradewindproductions.com. I'll be sending out monthly newsletters about specials, new services and such.

The baby is coming soon...sooner than I probably realize. I'm not particularly concerned about anything, but I know there are going to be some surprises (inevitable) so I'm just "bracing "myself now. The registry is at Babies R Us if you want to see some of the crazy stuff we're going to be toting around soon. Babies require almost as much gear as I take on a day shoot. There is a lot of stuff.

Caleb was kicking pretty hard in church, Hilary got my attention and I could see him punching/kicking around. It's kind of funny...the lady who was singing a song during the service at that time was pretty bad...and it wasn't really a great song either. I think Caleb was protesting...he must have a pretty keen musical sense.

LinkedIn...heard about it, seen it, don't know if it's for me. Anyone currently on there want to tell me a little more?

LSU is finally on top of Ohio State in the NC game. Woo!! Isn't it lame that I have to root for the SEC? I guess I'm kind of rooting against Ohio State, since I think they shouldn't have made the NC game. I'm not even sure LSU should be there. But hey...geaux tigers! Go SEC!

Georgia beat the crap out of Hawaii a week ago in the Sugar Bowl. Awesome. My brother, his wife and my mom made the trip (I couldn't go, work was interfering with fun-time yet again). I'll make it to the national championship game next year though...when UGA is in it.

Speaking of football...I won the college football pick 'em I was doing this year! Apparently I'm really good at guessing football games...well, at least better than I thought. I threw my money in thinking it'd just be a fun thing to do this season, nothing more. Then I ended up tied for 1st place at the end of the regular season, so I had to pull it out in a tiebreaker during the BCS bowl games. I picked the first three right - Rose, Sugar, Fiesta - against 1 pick on the other side, so I clinched in 3 games. I picked the Fiesta wrong, but hey - didn't matter. I picked LSU in the NC game, too, and it looks like I might have gone 4 for 5 in the bowls. Not bad.

The secret to my success? I picked UGA in every single game all year, no matter who we played and no matter the spread. Only wrong 3 times out of 12 for them (2 losses when favored, 1 loss against the spread). So there's my secret! Shhh!!!

Now I'm spending the winnings on building something...cool. More about that in another post, just the teaser for now.

That's all for now. Abby, you can sleep soundly.