Look at who just attained rank 25 (Elise) and rank 20 (Andrew)! Not too shabby for a couple of old-timers!

Check this out: The Cal Marching Band's Amazing 16-bit Video Game Halftime Show.

The 2007 IBM Flag Football League Championship game pitted defending champion Dade against newcomers The Longest Yard. Since there are only four teams in the league, this could already be considered a rivalry game. Regular blog readers know the rivalry had been a bit one-sided in the regular season. Here's a recap of our last three meetings with Dade:

• Game 1: L 27-13
• Game 4: L 32-6
• Game 6: L 7-6

But you know what they say. If at first you don't succeed, try again. Be persistent. Never give up. Believe in yourself. You could fill a Chicken Soup book with all the cliches.

One thing they don't say is to throw two interceptions in your first three offensive plays. The short field makes it easy for Dade to get up 14-0. Especially important is not to immediately follow up that effort with a three-and-out, followed by giving up a 60 yard touchdown on fourth and short to make it 20-0. A Chicken Soup book with that advice would not sell as well, but would have been more useful for us.

On second thought, let's look at that book again. Believe in yourself... hmmm... Does that sound like "go back to what you're good at"? Rob throws a quick slant to Andre, three jukes and fifty yards later he's in the endzone. The two-point conversion, only our third on the season, makes it 20-8. We dig in defensively and force another three-and-out. There's not much time left in the half... probably only enough for one play. We take the snap deep in our territory. Nate is wide open at midfield and Rob hits him with a strike. The defenders crash in on Nate, only to be dumbfounded as he casually flips the ball sideways to Andre, who is off to the races. Holy Boise State, Batman! Our second two-point conversion in the game not only equals our season total, it takes us into halftime down only 20-16!

The halftime huddle is one of the most excited of the year. Guys are believing in each other. We're fine-tuning strategy for the second half. All the huddle is laughter and smiles. All Dade's huddle is seriously mad (of course, they didn't even laugh or smile when up 20-0... they were still complaining about non-calls!). What looked like a one-sided beatdown is turning into the game of the year.

We start the half on defense and force another stop. Our offense is cool and collected, picking up first downs with relative ease as we march down the field. A short second and goal pass is good for six points and a 22-20 lead. Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! The sidelines are filled with pandemonium!

The champs are not ready to concede this game. They remind the young pups that they are who we thought they were. Their drive is punctuated by a fourth-down conversion that puts them on the goalline, followed by a short QB scramble. Dade leads by five 27-22. The Longest Yard sidelines still believe. Even after the immediatly ensuing pick-six that puts us down eleven, with only seven minutes to play.

Our players refuse to quit. We put together another efficient drive, scoring in just under three minutes. We miss the conversion, leaving us down five points, now with only four minutes to play.

Dade knows not to do anything risky. They run the clock to the limit on every play, calling several runs and short passes, while still sending receivers deep to keep us honest. It looks like we have them bottled up short of the endzone, but they trick us into going offsides prior to the third down snap. They have forced us to burn all of our timeouts. We hold them on first and goal, then second and goal. On third they run a nice criss-cross for six. Though they miss the conversion, they lead 39-28 with two minutes to play, and no timeouts left for the good guys. Rob storms off the field, forcing Nate to step in to a tough backup QB assignment.

The next drive is pure chaos. We've stopped calling plays at this point, relying on the flag football standby of "just get open". Receivers are running into each other on nearly every play. Still, Dade's prevent defense prevents them from forcing a stop, and we manage to score a touchdown. With only five seconds left, the points will only help our pride. The referees signal the game over after our failed conversion. Final score: 39-34.

Games like that are why I love to play.

At least, you better not steal it from Mrs. Roberts. "You've been pwned pretty hard man. You might want to sit down."

Last night we had another football game go down to the wire. After a flurry of questionable calls, we were forced to "punt" to midfield with eight seconds remaining, leading by five points. We stopped two consecutive Hail Mary passes to preserve the 18-13 win. We finished 5-3 on the season, with all 3 losses coming to last year's defending champs. Playoffs start Monday.

Thank you, Dane Cook, for re-stating the obvious. November is the time for IBM Rec League soccer playoffs. Last night in co-ed action, #4 Yuengling Light squared off against #5 Just For Kicks. The action started quickly, as Just For Kicks scored nearly off of the opening tap. We pulled even to 1-1, quickly giving up another goal. Not long afterwards, we tied it again at 2. It's safe to say that at least 3 of those goals were very ugly.

The teams tightened things up in the second half. Although the ball was on our side of the field far more often than not, we turned away every offensive and finished the period still tied at 2-2. Time for some OT!

Overtime consists of two 5-minute sudden-death periods, followed by penalty shots. So as not to change things up, we continued our game-long tradition of not winning a single 50-50 ball in the air. We were rewarded with several more offensives that we barely turned away. The whistle ending the second period was quite welcome.

We won the coin toss and elected to shoot second. We picked our five shooters (Chris, Matt, myself, Drew, and Carlos) and waited for the first opposition shot -- a beautiful strike to the left side netting. Chris returned the favor with an ice-in-the-veins shot to the same location. The next shot was a rocket to the left side, but it was rocketed back to the shooter as our goalie Arnett dove in front and blocked it with both hands. Matt came up with a chance to take the lead, but his shot was also blocked. 1-1 after two shooters.

Good teams make good adjustments. All four shooters to this point had been right-footed, so they naturally shot to the left. (All of the remaining shooters were right-footed also.) The next shooter went right for an easy score. I stepped up to hit a tying shot. I went tried-and-true, which is to aim for the lower-left corner. I didn't get as far left as I wanted and the keeper easily stopped the shot. 1-2 after three shooters. They followed up with another shot to the right, this time barely beating Arnett. Drew responded with a hard shot to the left side, giving the keeper no chance. 2-3 after four shooters. We needed to both stop the next shot and score on our shot to keep our season alive. The opposing shooter saved us the trouble with another beautiful shot to the right, giving his team the win, 4-2 in penalty kicks.

It was quite disappointing to go out that way, especially knowing it was a game we were favored to win. Still, we give credit to the other team for earning the victory. We had a great season, meeting a lot of new people, and we'll be glad to see each other again next year.

The Dog That Followed Me Through Baghdad by Owen Powell (aka Sgt. Roy Batty), edited by David Stanford.

Heisenberg is speeding down the freeway. A police officer pulls him over and asks:
"Do you know how fast you were going?"
To which Heisenberg replies:
"No, but I know exactly where I am."
From nerdtests.com.

I was sorry I didn't score any higher, but my nerdiness is rated as: Supreme Nerd. Apply for a professorship at MIT now!!!

"As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it." -Aman Sharma. Thanks to Marc at Kickin the Darkness for the link and title. I've always felt this way but never heard it described so nicely.