The (Real) Top 25

1. Alabama
2. Oklahoma
3. LSU
4. Texas
5. Missouri
6. Penn State
7. BYU
8. South Florida
9. Georgia
10. Auburn
11. Ohio State
12. Texas Tech
13. USC
14. Florida
15. Utah
16. Kansas
17. Boise State
18. Vandy
19. Oregon
20. Fresno State
21. Oklahoma State
22. Virginia Tech
23. UConn
24. Michigan State
25. Northwestern

Alabama has played two Top 10 teams (#3 Georgia and #9 Clemson) and beat both. Oklahoma has played one Top 25 team (#24 TCU) and won. Alabama also had harder games than Oklahoma's cupcakes, so I reward the better team with better wins. And it isn't Oklahoma.

Missouri and Texas Tech don't get a lot of love for being off. Teams that did play make better statements. Texas Tech still hasn't played anyone of significance, so being #12 is a big favor in my opinion. BYU has done the opposite by making statements against the teams that they played.

Georgia stays in front of Auburn because losing to the top team by 11 is still more impressing that barely beating Tennessee by 2. USC was better than Florida last week, and both losing to unranked conference foes doesn't have me feeling like changing that. Ole Miss still has two losses, just like Oregon State.

Kansas was off so they don't move much, as didn't Boise State. Vandy was off, still riding the wave.

Oregon beat Wash St. 63-14, so that bounces them back in to the top 20. Boise State is there only loss, so that makes them look even better. Fresno barely held on to UCLA so they don't make any leaps either.

Ok State, Va Tech, UConn, Mich St., and Northwestern are all new to the Top 25 this week. Ok State is unbeaten as is UConn. Va Tech only has one loss as does Michigan State. Northwestern is unbeaten and tied for first in the Big10.

Falling out are TCU, ECU, Illinois and Wake Forest.

Why I Suck

I suck because I can't even follow my own motto.

I'm sure I wasn't the first to say it, but a motto I've tried to follow for a while is "challenge how they think, not just what they think". What this means (to me) is that it is less important to change the way someone thinks and more important to change the way they think about it.

In short, my goal during an interaction isn't to change your mind. It's to (hopefully) open at least one door to the way you think about something. If you are a die hard Republican, maybe there is a different way you can go about contemplating abortion rights. Most Conservatives shut down as soon as they hear "abortion rights" as they feel there is no such thing. You have the baby, end of story. So I'm not going to try and talk you into killing babies, but I'm gonna try and make you think about something else. What if the mother was raped? Or a daughter was raped by a father? What if having the baby will kill the mother? Kill the baby? I know this is a dramatic example, but it's what I (try to) believe. You don't have to cross the line, but maybe the line is wider than you think it is.

Lately at work I've been analyzing some feedback from my coworkers. Some people think I'm cocky and arrogant. And perhaps I am sometimes (read; often). But it's because I'm very passionate about a lot of things. And sometimes that passion can blind you. Sometimes it gets me so wrapped up I lose sight of everything else. That can be a problem. And more so, it makes me lose sight of my motto. That is a bigger problem.

So why would my job distract me? Because I suck. More specifically because I let it. I think I've become more interested in letting the job dictate how I act than vice verse. And (warning; cocky arrogance) that sucks because I got the job because I was damn good at the last one I had. So a little swagger is OK, especially when earned. But I have to make sure that I continue to earn it. A group of people see some good things in me, but my recent actions haven't honored that. I need to get back to doing what I do best; coaching, training and teaching the values that made me successful and put me into the position I am in.

It all sounds so simple. But seeing as that I suck, I've made it harder than it should be. I need to continue to attack people's process of thinking, not what they actually think. And yes, attack is the right word. There is (in my opinion) no such thing as a bad belief, only a bad reason for having it. So you can be (warning; cocky arrogance) wrong all you want, but at least have reasons for doing so. And if you don't, expect me to challenge the way you think, not just what you think.

-Burfel

The Race For A Web-Based OS

So as must of us now know, the future seems to be this little thingy called the internet. You might have heard of it. But what many people (the average computer user for example) don't think about is the future of the operating system. Whether you wear the Linux cap, Microsoft pants or Apple shoes doesn't matter. This isn't about which one is best. This is about which one will truly embrace the internet as the future.

When most of us turn on our computers we wait for the OS to load. Again, regardless of the OS you use we follow the same basic few steps. Power on, wait, launch web browser. So why not power on and then surf? It seems simple enough, but yet no one has grasped it yet. Several companies are working on such a thing, but all of us reading and writing our blogs are still using a browser to do so.

In the browser wars we have many options. Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, FireFox and now even Chrome. So when will the broswer replace the desktop? Google is undoubtedly the software king now, but even they remain tight lipped on the OS world. Chrome is a brand new broswer and they are set to launch Android for mobile phones, but the PC OS is still rumor and speculation. Apple has as much momentum as everyone, but they still favor the OS as a desktop, not a web based application first. FireFox might be the darling browser of the tech savvy, but it is also simply a browser. Internet Explorer, like Windows, is still king but many quesiton how long that can last. Windows 7 is already known/beleived to be a better version of Vista, so we know they aren't changing anything either.

If you are at all like me, the concept of a web browser being the OS is scary. The internet for all its awesomeness can still be a scary place. The idea of having all of my things on the internet all the time doesn't exactly appeal to me. I like the current generation of browsing, where I can choose to share, but by default my things are offline. I understand the move to blur the lines and make things easily uploadable, but I don't need to be primarily on the internet to type a paper or story. I similiarly don't need to be online to download my pictures from my camera, or to copy my CD to my computer. I don't want my hard drive online, I want my online online.

So the consensus remains that eventually computers will be primarily internet boxes and secondarily everything else. People view the current situation as a dying breed. Well I don't want it to die, I like things the way they are. I'm all for innovation, but I'm also for privacy and security. I have my doubts anyone can make a safe and effective web based OS. Because no matter how hard you try, people will mess things up.

The Sarah Palin Show

The "amazing woman" with the "amazing record of reform" who has been breathing new life into not only the Republican ticket, but the Republican party.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Sarah Palin show.

Price of admission? Free of course! Come one, come all and enjoy the magnificence of the woman who the GOP itself admits is the most experienced candidate *period* for the office of President.

Just don't ask her about her family. Or John McCain's plans as President. Or her plans as Vice President. Or about her experience. Or about Troopergate. Or about the Bridge to Nowhere. As a matter of fact, don't ask her anything. Just listen to her talk about how being mayor of a small town and Governor of Alaska has prepared her. Just listen to the talking points.

My problem with Sarah Palin isn't that she is a woman or a mom, or even a Republican. As a matter of fact, my biggest problem with Sarah Palin seems to be the people that surround Sarah Palin. These are the people that keep her locked away on her own plane and bus and send her to do an interview with Charles Gibson with a list of answers she isn't allowed to deviate from. I heard her talk about her family a lot at the RNC, and then I was beaten over the head by her spokespeople about how I can't talk about her family. Then I was beaten over the head with how she is a reformer, a champion against earmarks and frivolous spending. But if I ask about her hiring a lobbyist as mayor of Wasilla, or supporting earmarks like the Bridge to Nowhere, I'm told to calm down and to quit using Liberal smear tactics.

See, when Hillary was running she was attacked nonstop. And the fact she was a woman didn't seem to stop anyone. The GOP argued that if she was to be taken seriously then she better get used to it and stop hiding behind the fact she was a woman. But not the same talking heads, like Nancy Pfotenhauer, tell the Libs that they should back off and show some respect.

The GOP has this nasty little habit of locking into about three messages and driving them home. Its saddening how effective it is. In 2004 they got John Kerry with being a "flip-flopper" which is the dumbest thing anyone has ever said. And for about seven years they have been driving the fear of terrorism and 9/11 against the general public. This year they added experience as the newest buzz topic. They ignore that as a Senator, John McCain has no more Commander in Chief experience than Obama. Then they put Sarah Palin up as this machine on foreign policy and experience. As if running Alaska for three years makes her more ready to run the country than anyone else.

In her acceptance speech Sarah Palin talked a lot about John McCain. She talked even more about her family. Then she trashed Obama for a long time as well. What didn't you hear? Any substance at all. Not a single plan, not a single policy, not a single detail. Know why? Because they are the same as the Bush administration is doing know. But the GOP is trying to make it about the personality, not the details. Obama has talked at length about his plans, even outlined almost all of them. But when I talk to people, they say such garbage as "neither one of them will change anything" or "Obama doesn't have experience" or "we lose with either one". And most of these people then state that McCain at least has more experience (!?!) than Obama, so they'll go with him.

So congratulations to the Sarah Palin Show. It seems the GOP spin machine and misdirection team are on there way to winning another one. The sad thing is that America won't realize it for four more years, and by then everyone will be so apathetic it might not matter.