patrickdaley.com

Our season is more or less over unless you count a trip to the Capital One Bowl a giant success. You’d hope we’d be ok against Purdue, Minnesota, Illinois, and Penn State, but from what I’ve seen in the past two games it’s possible we drop another game. (Minnesota beat Iowa today so watch out). Our special teams are atrocious. I know Wisconsin wants to use Wilson as a pocket passer, but why not use a few more designed runs? 3.1 yards per rush compared to 4.6 for Ohio State. Our passing game was better, but the end result didn’t show it. Braxton Miller, a freshman, was largely limited in the passing game until it counted at the end as he pulled out a big 40 yard touchdown. Ah, it will feel good to drop to about 21 in the polls; familiar territory for Badger fans. On the release of the newest rankings we’ll be back to where we belong.

Boy that was fun! R-dub continues to dazzle us. You can get on the Heisman train here.
@RussellManiaXVI

Jump Around!

Buttercup (long)

Buttercup (Herbstreit/Musburger returning from commercial)

The cornnation.com perspective on Madtown.

I won’t pretend to provide in depth X and O analysis of the upcoming game as there are folks who do that far better than me. Wisconsin has generally looked more impressive than Nebraska, but with neither team really playing anyone of consequence in non-conference play I think it’s hard to know exactly how these two teams will match up. Both teams have dual threat quarterbacks (although Wilson is a much better pocket passer), both teams have solid defenses, both teams have the ability to score points, and both boast very good offensive lines. Nebraska might be a little speedier on special teams and Wisconsin has missed kicker Philip Welch so far this season. Wisconsin is also missing a true JJ Watt type of playmaker on the defensive side of the ball. One thing is for sure, only one of these teams belongs in the top ten and on Saturday night we’ll find out who it is. I’m counting on you to be loud Camp Randall.

Now, on to some fun facts that I mostly didn’t make up.

- Metro Milwaukee has as many people as the entire state of Nebraska.
- Nebraska has five national titles and only one losing season since 1961: impressive.
- The difference in seating capacity between Memorial Stadium and Camp Randall is only 746. (Memorial is bigger).
- Nebraska is the only Big Ten school that is not a member of the Association of American Universities, which is comprised of the best research universities in the country. Yep, we’re smarter.
- Nebraska does have very passionate fans that travel well, but there are no professional sports in Nebraska. No playoff baseball, no Super Bowl champs. It’s Huskers or nothing.
- Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral Legislature. That means they only have one legislative body as opposed to a traditional House and Senate.
- Before adopting the “Cornhusker” name at the turn of the twentieth century they were referred to as the “Bugeaters”.
- Nebraska has two official mascots, both with overly exaggerated “murder you in your sleep” smiles. (Lil Red is in the Mascot Hall of Fame. There’s a Mascot Hall of Fame?)

This isn’t supposed to happen. We have our own network. Yet somehow the Badger game this Saturday will be missing from the satellites, airwaves, and cable feeds. It will only be watchable via an online stream. For an IT geek like me that’s not an issue, really; it’s why I have a computer in my living room that’s hooked up to my HDTV. But for a lot of people this will be an issue. Sure, most people have Internet, but most people don’t know how to hook up their computer to their TV. (Someday we’ll get there, but not quite yet). It also poses a real challenge for our alumni chapter of which I’m a board member, or anyone who wants to watch the game at a bar/restaurant. If we want to watch the game at our sponsor bar I will have to haul in one of my computers that can output to component video because that’s what the AV feed in their bar connects to. (Most computers do not output to component video natively and unless a bar has a really recent AV installation they probably do not have HDMI driving their system). It’s all doable, but really kind of a pain in the neck. I’ve been told that the BTN doesn’t cover games outside of Big Ten venues. (If that’s true they won’t be anywhere near the Big Ten championship game later this year). I’ve also been told that since we’re visiting a MAC opponent they have control over the TV coverage and have declined any for this game. This doesn’t make sense to me. Why go to the effort to schedule a game at Soldier Field if you don’t want anyone to see it? To drive ticket sales? That’s all well and good except that there are an awful lot of people who’d like to see this game that don’t live close enough to buy tickets.

If you’d like to contact the powers that be regarding this, here you go:
http://btn.com/about/contact-us/
http://www.mac-sports.com/MAC/StaffDirectory.aspx
http://www.uwbadgers.com/athletic-dept/contact.html

*EDIT* – ESPN has the TV rights for this game. Let them know how you feel about it only being available online.

Through complete fault of my own I managed to more or less destroy my iPhone two weeks ago. It got wet, dirty, smashed, and otherwise ruined. I assumed I would have to buy a new phone. I just upgraded to the 3GS at the beginning of the year (yes, I’m behind) for $50 and couldn’t see myself spending $250 to replace it given its impending obsolescence. I had a Best Buy gift card burning a hole in my wallet and had already picked out an unlocked GSM phone to tide me over for a year until I was upgrade eligible again. I figured it couldn’t hurt to make an appointment at the Apple store, though. Maybe a $99 screen replacement would be all I needed? When it was time for my appointment I explained what was wrong and that it was completely my fault. My attending Genius (also Patrick) went into the back to see if a new screen would do the trick. He came out after a few minutes to tell me that a new screen didn’t fix things completely. To my utter disbelief he said, “But how about we just give you a new phone?” I felt a bit like I was stealing, but sure enough he handed me a brand new phone, no questions asked. To be clear, I’ve never submitted for warranty service in my three years of owning an iPhone. They didn’t say as much, but I’m assuming this is my mulligan. I’d be shocked if I went back next week with another broken phone to be handed a brand new one. All I can say is what a company; Apple really knows how to mold loyal customers. Now if only I could get my hands on an iPhone 5…

Running through fire. Running through electrified wires. Scaling twelve foot walls. Oh, and let’s not forget the mud. A LOT of mud.

This past weekend some friends and I set out to conquer the first Tough Mudder held in Wisconsin.

What is it?
It’s essentially a ten mile obstacle course. You register like you would for any other race; they give you a bib and there’s a bag check. The primary benefactor is the Wounded Warrior Project, so that’s cool.

How is it different than other “racing”?
By definition it’s not a race, so that’s a start. You wear a bib, but there’s no chip timing of any kind. It’s more about completing the obstacles and having fun rather than putting your blinders on to grind it out against the clock. It’s much more social than other types of racing.

What should I wear?
Clothes that you don’t have a problem throwing away. I opted to wear swim trunks since I knew we’d be wet the whole time. We made tek shirts that survived for the most part, but my trunks ripped in half. Most of our team wore Five Fingers; wearing wet, muddy, heavy shoes would not have been fun. Also, mohawks and costumes are highly encouraged.

How hard is it?
As with anything, it’s all relative, right? Everyone on our team was in pretty good shape. Four out of the five of us have run marathons. This definitely was nowhere near as difficult as running a marathon, but then again it’s not supposed to be. I didn’t consider any of the obstacles all that difficult. Scaling the walls requires some effort if you have girls on your team since they don’t have as much upper body strength to get themselves over. The monkey bars and balance beam are challenging, but if you fall you land in water and just swim to the other side. There’s no referee to kick you off the course for not successfully completing the challenge.

What could be improved?
- A tek shirt instead of cotton. Cotton shirts are $25 in the online store and tek are only $5 more.
- Better food at the end. There were bananas and your normal ski hill fare inside the lodge and that was it.
- Better shower setup. The garden hose setup didn’t really cut it.

Would you do it again?
I will definitely do it again. It’s a blast.

I’m going to need a bigger garden this year….

An interesting Venn-style diagram breaking down what the average American consumes.  (Slide from left to right to see how things have changed since 1970).  Would you like some more sugar with your sugar?

http://civileats.com/2011/04/05/where-do-americans-get-their-calories-infographic/

If you live in the greater Minneapolis area and enjoy beer then you have to make a pilgrimage to Blue Max in Burnsville. It’s just about the best place to get beer around the metro. From Great Divide in Colorado to lambics and trappists from Belgium there’s just no end to the diversity of their inventory. You can even build your own six pack to boot. The exterior is so nondescript that Blue Max blends seamlessly into the suburban sprawl that it calls home, but don’t let that fool you. I would plan to give yourself thirty minutes at minimum to check out everything they have.

Awesome.  I can’t wait to wear these to the office.  As if my coworkers didn’t think I was weird enough already.

I’ll take one in a brown and a black, please.