Screaming Goats

I'm always late to the new fads and trends.  Maybe you've already familiarized yourself with Goats Yelling Like Humans:


If you're craving more, here is part 2.

What I found to be really funny are the screaming goat mashups with Taylor Swift, Whitney Houston and Miley Cyrus...

Goats aren't the only ones having all the fun though.  Now you can watch Humans Yelling Like Goats Yelling Like Humans:


Isn't the internet wonderful?

Google, Google, Radiohead

This compilation was all made from a single Charlie Rose interview:

Edit: For a bonus, I figured I throw in a little Ghostbusters, Gangnam style:

Name that Video Game

I didn't grow up playing video games unless I was at a friends' house, but I was able to name a bunch of these.  This is from the Ohio State/Nebraska game yesterday:


I'm super-impressed with the band's production.

As a bonus, here are a couple of other videos that have made me laugh lately:

I So Pale:


Al Roker Frozen:


There was one other video that I wanted to share, but I can't find it. Maybe next time...

The Next Big Thing

As the new iPhone is being released today, I thought this little video was apropos:

Where Are They Now?

In the beginning of August, Sports Illustrated (Yes, Alison subscribes to SI) had an issue of "Where Are They Now?" One of my favorite parts of the issue was the section on old youtube videos. I enjoyed re-watching them and wanted to post them here.

1. Autistic Basketball Player


2. Michael Jordan vs. CEO


3. Boom Goes the Dynamite


4. Mo Cheeks National Anthem


5. Most Amazing Basketball Shot

Cavs Win!

I saw this clip this morning on SportsCenter and had to pass it on.

Big, Beautiful 'O'

I voted for Barack Obama for one reason only. Watch the video (and pay attention at about the 90 second mark).



I showed up at our polls (about 2.5 miles from our house) at 6:45 AM. There were already around 40 people in line and when the polls opened at 7:00 AM, only 4 voting machines were working (out of 12). Shouldn't these sort of problems been figured out last night, yesterday or last week? Arrggh. By the time I got to the front of the line, there were 6 machines working. By 7:30 I was out of there - quicker than I expected.

Rainbow Conspiracy

The Audacity of Football

I just finished reading Barack Obama's most recent book, The Audacity of Hope. I won't give a review here, for that check out my book review blog. I did want to point out a few things that I found interesting though.

• After Bush's tax cuts, Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his receptionist or most average Americans. Copying the quote from my book review blog:

"(p. 190 - Opportunity, Obama recounting a conversation with Warren Buffet) "I did a calculation the other day," he said as we sat down in his office. "Though I've never used tax shelters or had a tax planner, after including the payroll taxes we play, I'll pay a lower effective tax rate this year than my receptionist. In fact, I'm pretty sure I pay a lower rate than the average American. And if the President has his way, I'll be paying even less."

• I don't actually remember the other items. Oh well. I'll just keep going with other random tidbits.
• In the Colley Rankings (used in the BCS calculations, not to be confused with Austin [shoot your mouth off] Collie), the Utes are the #1 team in America (due to their incredible win over perennial powerhouse UNLV). If the season ended today, Utah would be playing Wisconsin for the Colley National Title.
• According to the Massey Ratings (another one of the 6 computer algorithms used in the BCS rankings), Utah is just a little behind USC for first place. Regardless, if the season ended today, those two teams would be playing for the Massey Title.
• Are we really sure the season needs to continue? Playing Weber State isn't going to help those rankings...
• There's been a wootoff the last few days. While I didn't score a bag of crap (I tried though. The crappy servers were too bogged down) I bought my parents a computer and I got a cheap bluetooth headset.
• YouTube broke when I was watching a video earlier today. You should really check it out. Really, I mean that.
  
• I've been working late the last couple of evenings helping my boss finish a big project. No sweat though, I still love my job.

Pork and Beans

Possibly Undoubtedly the best music video ever. Can you spot Charlie?

ABCs

Because I can't handle having Archuleta's face on the top of my blog anymore:

Here's a clip of Ada singing the Rainbow Song.

Penguin Vacations

On my mind

Here are a few things that have been on my mind lately:

• While the Shaq trade hasn't worked out as well as the Phoenix Suns had hoped (unless their sole purpose in acquiring him was to allow them to beat the Spurs), here's what the Onion had to report about the Shaq trade (read the whole article, it's great):

"Claiming he was initially excited at the prospect of playing for a legitimate championship contender, new Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O'Neal admitted Monday that, upon reading about the phenomenon of massive stellar explosions popularly known as supernovas, he is now terrified of the entire organization."

• There have been two performances on American Idol that I loved. One is by a 17 year-old boy from Murray, David Archuleta who is incredible singing "Imagine" and the second is David Cook singing Lionel Richie's "Hello":

• I don't think that I've shared this video here before either, but it's a good one. Presenting Charlie (not the unicorn again):

18 Monther

Ada turned 18 months today. We posted a bit about her and a couple of videos on our space. Check them out! (ok. as a preview treat, here's one of the videos, it's of Ada saying her colors earlier tonight):

Name That Tune:

You all know this song. How early can you tell what it is? Watch closely - eventually everybody will get it.

Christmas Treat

**Update** - I had forgotten where I had first seen this video. It turns out that I originally saw it on this post from Clark's blog - gotta give credit where credit is due.

Once again, I hope that everybody had a Merry Christmas. Here's a little video treat.

Browsing my thoughts...

Here's a few things that I've come across the last couple of days:

1. Alison's brother Spencer sent me this link of the breakdown of the final regular season football coach's poll. I've found it fascinating to look out how the votes are distributed (alphabetically, of course, but more so geographically). Rich Rodriguez, West Virginia's coach is obviously a genius. He voted Utah 20th (remember how they have 4 losses?). Take note of where BYU's votes came from as well. Most of their highest votes came from the west (you think these guys get the mtn?). Take note as well of the two coaches that didn't put BYU in the top 25. Indiana's coach and Washington's coach (Ty Willingham). As Spencer asked, do you think BYU will remember this when they play Washington next year? (Not to dive too deeply into the crap we call the BCS, I think everyone should check out these articles linked from the Millar's blog.)

2. I took my Nuclear Engineering Final Exam today. I had the option of taking it today or Monday. I don't think that I will be any smarter come Monday. On that same note, do you realize that you can buy uranium ore on amazon.com? Take note of the section "Customers Who Bought Items Like This Also Bought" and be sure to read the customer reviews. They are very clever. **Update** I forgot to mention that the fuel for the nuclear reactor here at the U arrives via FedEx. Think about that for a minute...

3. Are you looking for somewhere legal to download your music on the cheap? Look no further than grooveshark.com. They are having a sale during the 8 nights of Hanukkah and on Christmas Day. During those days all songs (DRM free or I wouldn't be recommending it) sell for a measly $.29. Do you realize that you can get 17 songs for under $5.00 at this price? I'm not sure if you still need an invitation to join or not. If you do just let me know. I've got tons. Alison and I dropped $9.86 on 34 songs the last time that they had a sale like this. Highly recommended!

4. 363 days of the year I'm an Aggie fan (USU Aggie that is). Tonight was one of the night's that I wasn't a fan. Utah played them at the Huntsman Center and totally destroyed them. They started the game 11-0 and I don't think that the Aggies ever got closer than 9 points. Nevill was getting pushed around in the paint (which is good for him - what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right?) and the officials were very, VERY inconsistent in their calls (on both sides of the ball) but it was a great game if you're a Ute fan.

5. My sister Cheryce sent me the following clip. This guy is one creepy singer (On another note [pun intended :)], I saw this similar video on dooce.com):

The Art of the Flop

I took Ada to the second half of the Utes home basketball game yesterday. It was simply awful. The team had no consistency, toughness or heart during the game and they ended up losing by 15 point to Santa Clara. Somethings got to change if they want a winning record at the end of the year.

And now, you decide 2007: Who's a better flopper, Baron Davis or Robert Horry?


Why does it always have to happen against the Jazz?

State Championship Football

As you may recall, Layton High played in the State 5A Championship Football game this last weekend. The game was played at the nicest stadium in the state (not the largest) and there was a huge crowd (almost 20,000 people) on hand. While they weren't able to move the ball with any consistency (credit Alta's speedy defense for that one), they did have one highlight which I will share with you here:



While the Lancers gave it a "nice try", props to them for making it as far as they did this year!

Utah 50, Wyoming 0

I'm not sure where to start with this one... First of all, Wyoming's coach gauranteed a win against Utah while talking to students last Monday. This obviously angered Utah (and Coach Whittingham especially - he should have been happy after the game, but he was on one) and Utah came to pay a bit of revenge. Utah played a fantastic game, but took a few minutes getting started. After Wyoming tried a fake punt in the first quarter (on their own 25 yard line) Utah used a modified version of the old fumblerooski play (watch for it in the video below) to score from 25 yards out.

This game seemed to be a throwback to the Urban Meyer days. Everything was working out, there were a bunch of "trick" plays, the defense was fantastic and Utah could have kept up with anyone in the country playing the way that they were. They were up 40-0 going into the half (and they threw an interception in the end zone in the last minute of the first half - they should have had another TD...). The best play of the game was probably a faked punt by Utah where Louie Sakoda (the punter) faked his kicking motion before tossing the ball (like a girl, I might add) across the line to a defensive lineman who ran the ball down to the 1 yard line (it was actually a touchdown, but the officials had already reviewed three calls and Utah wasn't afraid that they wouldn't score - so it wasn't reviewed).

There's a bit of controversy brewing over the game as well. Utah tried an onsides kick in the third quarter when they were up 43-0. While I don't condone his (Whittingham's) actions, I do think it was a good time to practice an onsides kick, but not a very sportsmanlike thing to do. Utah failed at the attempt (because they retrieved the ball at the 9.5 yard line and a guy was offsides). This gave Wyoming their best field position of the day (on the 34.5 yard line) and they still couldn't convert. This same attempt prompted Wyoming's Coach Joe Glenn to give the Utah bench the one-fingered salute. I've got to agree that the call was inappropriate and I think that Whittingham agrees, stating after the game that he regrets his decision.

The meat of this controversy is actually being fueled more by BYU fans than it is by Wyoming fans (I'm not saying that they aren't mad, but from visiting everybody's fan boards, that's the feeling I get). This is often the case and is something that drives me nuts. It goes both ways, Utah fans are angered more by things BYU does than the teams they are playing against and vice versa. The good news is that this (mainly the one-fingered salute) is giving the conference more attention than they've had all year and it's the first time that I've seen a MWC team featured on ESPN's homepage. Thanks Wyoming.

As for running up the score, I think that Utah's attempt on fourth and 2 in the fourth quarter should be viewed as more an attempt of running up the score than their failed onsides kick (you can't score on an onsides kick). Either way, Utah only scored 10 points in the second half, compared with Boise State's 21 points in the second half against Utah State (where BSU won 52-0) or John [from the comments I learned that I accused the wrong Beck. It should be Jason Beck here] Beck's TD pass to Harline in the latter-half of the fourth quarter against the Aggies last year (where BYU won 38-0 or something). In this game, Utah had pulled their offensive starters for the fourth quarter (although Mack only needed 3 yards to set a Utah record at consecutive 100-yard games). I really don't think that Utah was intentionally running up the score in the second half though (you better believe that they were in the first). I know that there are a lot of people out there who probably disagree, and that's ok. I'm certainly not condoning Utah's actions because I think that there are things that both teams regret.

Utah is easily the best team in the conference right now. They are running the ball, passing the ball and playing defense like its nobody's business. They haven't allowed a team into the end zone in 10 quarters. Wyoming had the 6th ranked defense in the country going into the game with Utah and Utah put up over 500 yards (while limiting the Cowboys to 122 - and 1/3 of those came in the fourth quarter).

You're not going to find me garaunteeing any wins though. As good as Utah is playing right now, they seem to have a knack for having big letdowns under Coach Whit. If they can keep the same intensity that they've had the last few weeks then everybody better watch out!

Yes, I've categorized this post under "rant" because that's exactly what I've done.