nate mcguire

We may have won, but UCLA sure are winners. MMM.

Last night was a crazy game, but it looked like from the start the horns would have it. We were up by 8 (I think) at the half, and AJ Abrams was shooting lights out from behind the arc. We, as we usually do in sporting events, tried to give up our advantage during the second half, and UCLA caught up and took the lead for a while, but it was never more than 2-3 points.  They definitely don’t look as solid as they did last year, they didn’t handle the ball well and gave us a bunch of easy turnovers.  Our rebounding was also ridiculous, at one point I think I saw 4 offensive shots and rebounds in the same posession before we scored. Final Score: 68-64, Longhorn Victory.

Outside of that, its Friday. Finally. December 5th, apparently, is Repeal Day in the US.  If you’re like hey, Nate, WTF is repeal day, and why should I care?  Prepare for the knowledge bomb.  On December 5th, 1933, Utah, the final state needed for a three quarters majority, ratified the 21st Amendment, repealing Prohibition and restoring the American right to a celebratory drink. While the amendment still allowed for state and local levels of Prohibition, by 1966 there were no state laws banning alcohol.  I know here in Texas we still have dry counties or limited access to hard liqour in some counties, which is random and REALLY annoying when you want some good liquor.

So break out your booze, buy a stranger a drink (preferably a hot stranger), and celebrate your constitutional right to “MIX SOME DRANKS”.

Now that fall is over, football season is coming to an end, and all the good TV is ending with lame, string you along season finales, we have….basketball to look forward to.  It is the start of another not cared about season for the other sports that my horns play, namely our #8 ranked men’s basketball team.  I for one, now that KD, DJ, and Lamarcus have vacated in the past few years, could not care less about our mens basketball team.  As I’ve always said, Rick Barnes can recruit the hell out of people, but can’t win any games with all his talent.

And because of that, I think we’re going to the championship this year.  We lost our stars. There are no “names” on the team.  I’m sure people who actually follow basketball will know that there are some awesome players on our team or something, but I don’t, and that makes me qualified to make this statement.  A team without a star is a team that can actually play as a team, and this is the first time since I started school that we don’t have a superstar lottery player on our team, biding his time before he can go to the NBA.

Last year in LA the ‘horns had a pretty impressive victory against the team they play tomorrow: UCLA. Damion James (still on the team) had 19 points and 10 rebounds, including the game-winning follow slam with 8.3 seconds left, to lead the Longhorns to the two-point victory. No. 2 UCLA marked the highest-ranked (AP) opponent that the Horns had defeated in a true road game in school history. The second-ranked Bruins also equaled the highest-ranked (AP) opponent that Texas had defeated in school history, matching the win against No. 2 Louisville on Nov. 30, 1986 in the Great Alaska Shootout, if anyone actually knows what that is, because I don’t.

Tomorrow we play UCLA again, and for the first time in Austin.  They’re only ranked #12/9 this year, but it should still be a pretty sick game.  Go down to the O-zone, be loud, wear orange, and GET YOUR HORNS UP for another college sports season.

Due to my recent disillusionment with college football and the BCS system, I have decided that Soccer will be my new favourite sport.  Soccer (football) is the most popular sport in the world, has the most teams, and has a system that doesn’t usually fuck with it’s constituents.

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have found that soccer is the most unpredictable sport, as it more likely that a team with a worse record can defeat a team with a better record. The researchers looked at the results of over 300,000 soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey and football games, and found that the likelihood for an upset was greatest in soccer.

So it seems as if I’ve been following the wrong screwed up sport all along. Soccer should be more exciting to watch a soccer game because the results are not as predictable by the records of the two teams as other sports. If you think about it, soccer’s scores are a lot like football, but instead of 6 points per score you get 1.  The numbers are lower but a 4-3 game is like 28-21.  Good job for tricking us into thinking that you’re boring, soccer.

Oh who am I kidding?  I love real, American football.  Soccer can take it’s balls elsewhere.

I have nothing to say except this: Stay Classy, Horns. Hook ‘em!

Good quotes from our team

So there are some people in this world that deserve the money that they make.  They work hard, show up for their jobs, and are genuinely smart and good people.  Plaxico Burress is not one of them.  While at a giant-ass club yesterday, probably “pimpin’ some hoes”,  he shot himself in the leg. So not only was he already sidelined from a hamstring injury and unable to play, he goes out, gets drunk, turns off the safety on his gun and shoots himself in the right thigh.  Good job, man.

Burress just recently signed a $35 million, 5 year contract extension for the NY Giants, which seems kind of interesting to me seeing as he was hurt a ton last year and has a pretty bad attitude in general, getting fined in September for $117,500 and suspended a game for skipping practice and not telling anyone he was going to do so.  My job requires an IQ above 35 and I still show up every day.  Seriously dude, its not that hard, just go to practice. In all fairness, at least he or someone else isn’t dead.  This is why stupid people shouldn’t be allowed to have guns.

Two things:

A buddy of mine, who will remain unnamed, started his own blog recently, dealing with lawyer-ish, law, and tax related issues. If you’ll notice I’ve added him to the now even more awesome “Links” category to the right.

Second, he also happened to write about something relevant because approximately two days ago, I started looking to consolidate my student loans.  For those of you that don’t know what student loans are because mommy and daddy love you more than mine did, screw you.  Student loans suck balls because you graduate college and have a massive amount of debt.  YoungLawyer’s article will help you (and me) out through loan consolidation.  Get some knowledge dropped on you here.

The Young Texas Lawyer

gotta love those aggies…

Yeah, I know, you all know what a turducken is by now.  But with Thanksgiving rapidly approaching, I had to say something about this only-in-America creation.  1/2 man, 1/2 bear, 1/2 pig, manbearpig…I mean… turducken is something only our gluttony filled minds could create.

I’ve decided that this is probably the most beautiful culinary creation and probably tastes a little bit like this.  For the uniformed among us, a Turducken is a dish consisting of a partially deboned turkey stuffed with a deboned duck, which is then stuffed with a small deboned chicken. The hole in the chicken and the rest of the gaps are filled with other random crap, like breadcrumbs.

The one downfall of the turducken is that it is only suitable for “braising, roasting, grilling, or barbecuing” and can’t be fried (which is the best way to cook turkey) since the body cavity must be hollow to cook evenly.

Now doesn’t this look delicious?

Yesterday M$ released the new Xbox “experience” update for the 360.  I’ve yet to tool around with it hardcore, but from initial observations, its very uhh…different.  I guess I was a fan of the blades, and seeing as my xbox goes straight to CoD4 on boot up, it wasn’t really an issue.

Obviously the first thing that you’ll notice is the pairing of xbox and netflix.  This is probably the single most important update that they’ve provided, and I’m thinking I may renew my netflix account just to watch the streaming movies.  At 5.99 a month you can get unlimited online access to their movies and a one real movie in the mail at a time. Oh, and its in HD. I’ll mess around with it more tonight/this weekend and fill you in.

So, seeing as the house of cards that is our financial system is collapsing, I thought I would give an update for today.  The Dow closed at around 7500 today, which I was thinking might be the bottom.  Today I’d like to revise my statement and say it could go even lower than 7k.  This crap is going to be around for a while.

The S&P closed down 6.7%, undercutting its low from the 2000-02 bear market during trading today.
Here are the numbers, enjoy:

and for the “more” part:

Texas Tech plays OU this weekend in Norman. This will be the first time that I’m cheering for OU hardcore. I’m looking for a 3-way tie and us on top of the BCS. SOLID.