Crazy Texas Weather

Everyone in Texas is quick to tell you that if you don’t like the weather wait a couple of hours, because it is bound to change. I really wasn’t surprise with Austin weather, it is either hot or less hot most of the time and I’m used to the changing weather from Florida, where it could be pouring one minute and sunny (and super humid) the next or sometimes both at the same time. But the last few days have been pretty crazy here in Austin. Check it out:

• Sunday (February 21, 2010), Beautiful sunny day in the 70’s.

• Monday (February 22, 2010), Colder foggy day.

• Tuesday (February 23, 2010), Cold and snow!!!

• Today (February 24, 2010), Still chilly, but nice and sunny… What ever happen to the snow?

Here is a picture of the snow in IBM:

Quicker Ride Than Expected

Today (02/21/2010) was a beautiful day in Austin, low 70’s sunny day. V and I thought it would be a great time for a bike ride, so we headed out to attempt the same ride we did last Sunday, a twenty mile ride in the Avery Ranch area.

What was a nice ride last weekend turned sour quickly due to the wind. It was so windy that even going down hill was hard. We cut the ride short to 10 miles, but it was a very challenging ten miles.

Iron-V Multimedia Documentary Project

I mentioned my proposed documentary project in the previous post. I will be following V on her road to participating in Ironman Brazil next year. Initially, I wanted to photograph the story, but after doing some research I would like to expand the scope of the project to a multimedia and social documentary:

1) Multimedia – A multimedia documentary mixes all sorts of media to come up with an outcome which exploits each type in order to best tell the story. These include photography (documentary, portrait, environmental, etc.), video, audio (spoken or environmental) and music. The definition according to wikipedia.com, ‘A web documentary (or multimedia documentary) is a documentary production that differs from the more traditional forms—video, audio, photographic—by applying a full complement of multimedia tools.’ I would also include web page and web presentation.

2) Social – I would like to exploit the available social tools for documentary content delivery, sharing and advertising. Currently we are making some progress on this front since you can follow V’s progress on her blog IRON-V and I will continue to blog about the documentary progress.  I’m currently working on the website. Soon you should be looking for our Facebook group and follow V on twitter or buzz (as soon as I convince her to start posting).

I also would like to share with you some great sources for multimedia documentary:

• Multimediashooter.com is a great source on information, technique and examples.
• ‘Remember Me,’ a touching and great execution of such documentary.
• ‘9 Multimedia Projects You MUST Experience’

My First Documentary Project

As a holiday present, V registered me in a documentary photography course taught by Ben DeSoto at the Houston Center for Photography. I was super excited since I like photography, although I read more about it than I actually practice it and I have never really looked into documentary style photography before. The course was split into two days, the first day we talked about the telling of a story through photographs and the history and styles used by the best. The second class was a bit more about technique, technology and what styles current artist are doing.

After the first class, a seed was planted in my head and I wanted to nurture it and see what I can do, but the problem was that I could not come up with an idea for a story to tell with my photographs. I had no idea because I was looking out for inspiration, instead of looking in. When I did looked into what was important to me, the idea was so obvious. V was the first thing in my mind.

One of the reasons I’m so proud of V and so attracted to her is her determination, specially in her physical activities endeavors. She sets goals and trains long and hard to be able to accomplish it. That means waking up early in the morning to go train before work or running for miles at night or falling off the bike in mile 24 during the 2009 Longhorn Half Ironman, getting back up and not only finishing the bike with major road burn on her right arm, shoulder and left hand, but also finishing the half marathon run to complete the race.

Now that she completed the Half Ironman, she wants to finish the real thing, a full Ironman; a total of 140.6 miles (2.4 mi swimming, 112 mi bike, 26.2 mi run). This will be taking place in May 2011,  Ironman Brazil Florianopolis.  In the meanwhile she will be training hard, participating in events, getting married, completing the Texas Tri Series and two half-ironman's.

And that my friends, is my project, I will follow V from February 14, 2010 until she completes her goal on May 2011. It will be a long road, I hope you guys can appreciate it as much as I will and enjoy as I fall ever more in love with every stroke, pedal and step V takes.

First Bike Ride this Year

Yesterday, V and I went out for our first bike ride of the year, a 20 mile ride that took us from the Avery Ranch area to Cedar Park, Leander and then back ( You can see the route here or in the map below).

The morning started a bit chili and in a bit of rush, since I woke up late and had to get ready, place all of our gear in the car and get there in less than an hour…. but we did make it. If you want to read V’s input check out her IronV blog post for this event.

Overall we did great, averaging 15 mph… not bad for being the first ride in a very long while. I was particularly impress with myself in the mini hills, since I was able to attack them without loosing too much time recuperating. I also rode on the largest (heaviest) gears and was able to keep up with V, something I couldn’t do previously. I have been taking spinning classes 3x a week this year and I’m glad to see that they are paying off.

My New Year Resolutions

With the pitfalls mentioned in my previous post in mind I made a list of simple changes that I would like to achieve consistently through the year. To achieve the list I selected a number of domains in my life and tried to select three things that I would like to do to improve in that area. Some of the changes are minimal and some may be gradual, but I think all will improve me.

So here is my list, please don’t make fun of me :-) :

• Work Goals
  • Set up a two achievements per day behavior. I had a successful co-worker and friend when I used to co-op at Tivoli, which used to have a two achievements a day goal, which meant she set a to-do for the morning and one for the afternoon. She use to be surprisingly efficient, but if you look in your days between meetings and calls a lot of important to-dos get left behind, this way you always make time to get two done even if they are small.
  • Establish, actively update and promote an IBM internal blog. I got started on this one earlier, setting up the InfoSphere Security Talk blog, but usually my problem is actively updating the blog… that will be my challenge.
  • Complete status reports on time and keep a work log. Usually I got my manager asking me for status reports and then I don’t remember everything I’ve done.
• Personal & Fitness Goal
  • Lower my Body Fat Percentage to 15% by the end of the year. Right now I’m around 20 to 23% , I need an accurate measurement so I can start tracking my changes.
  • Continue to log my activities and food consumption daily. Pretty self-explanatory.
  • Better Grooming (Shave at least a couple of times daily and dress better for work.) This goal may seem weird, but I hate shaving… I don’t particularly like having a beard, but shaving is a pain, my skin get irritated and and I get ingrown hair, but I would like to increase my customer interaction at work so I should dress more presentable in a constant basis.
• Hobbies and Photography Goals
  • Setup and maintain a website in addition to this blog. I’m hoping to have a place where I can display my photography and to keep it updated monthly.
  • Complete a creative photography challenge book. David du Chemin is the author of the ‘pixalated image’ blog and a number of books, but some of his most interesting work is through PDF book (here) which usually number 10 different challenges for photography enthusiast to improve their skills. I’m hoping to complete one of these and publish it in my future website.
  • Photograph 2 zoos this year. Last year I visited the Austin Zoo with the goal of getting some animal photos for my nephews room (which he got this Christmas), but I ended up getting some pretty cool photographs and I enjoyed it very much. So I’m hoping to visit a couple of more and improve my technique. V already told me she was going with me to the Houston Zoo. Maybe I’ll get to go to the San Antonio Zoo as well.
• Home & Finances Goals
  • Pay off any wedding expenses accrued by the end of the year. For those of you who don’t know this year is my wedding, crazy times… But with any wedding a certain amount of debt is accrued, I’m hoping to get rid of it by the end of the year.
  • Completely Decorate 2 Areas out of the 6 areas of the house. V and I have been going back and forward on decorations for the house and what not, but I’m hoping to completely decorate two out of the Bedrooms, Kitchen/Dinning, Living room, Backyard and garage areas.
  • Bring down debt by 15%. We do not have a lot of debt, but between the cards, cars and house it adds up. I would like to take a chunk of it out by the end of the year.
• Relationship Goals
  • Bi-Weekly Date. I would like to take my bride to a romantic date avery so often and make it kind of like a tradition, so we can have nice us time.
  • Continue and Improve Communications. Now that the wedding is coming up I would like to continue to focus on our relationship. Not that is bad now, but I don’t want to let it slide.
  • Find and/or develop a hobby for both of us. V usually does her running and triathlons and I do my own thing, but I would lie to find something that we both enjoy doing together. Until now that has been going to nice restaurants, which we both enjoy, but I would like to do something more engaging.
• Family Goals
  • I would like to see my immediate family members at least 2 times a year. This difficult since my family is all over the place, but I should make an effort to accomplish this task.
  • Attempt to strengthen family ties and relationships. Aside from my immediate family (and some may argue that), I have not been a good family member. I would like to reconnect with my family and develop new relationships with cousins that I haven’t even met or have not seen in years.
  • Family Photo. My mom has not been able to take a family photo, since 2000… I think it is due for her to get her photo.
• Friends, Social and Volunteering Goals
  • Volunteer once a 1/4 with SHPE.
  • Volunteer once a 1/4 at Church.
  • Strengthen friend ties. I was thinking I can do a monthly get together or social outing. I know I’ve been a bit of a loner lately.

New Year Resolutions

Every one has them, but most do not accomplish them. Why is it? Every year thousands of people make new resolutions and I’m willing to bet that the most popular is to get in shape or lose weight. That’s the reason most gyms’ membership count jumps every January and parking is terrible during January and February. After Valentines, parking starts getting easier and that’s about the same time when people start jumping off the ‘resolutions’ wagon. It happens to everyone and it definitely happens to me.

This year is a big year for me. I got my wedding and my 30th birthday and I also wanted to be the year that I stick and complete my resolutions. So I went online and did some research on why people do not accomplish their resolutions and what I can do to be successful at it. I found out that the most popular 2 reasons for people dropping their resolutions are:

1. The Goal is not specific enough. For example, “I want to loose weight” or “I want to get in shape.” There is no way of breaking that down or knowing how much progress you have done or more importantly when are you done. A better goal would be to “lower my body fat to 15% by the end of the year.” In which case you have number to reach and a deadline. Depending on your current percentage you can plan accordingly.
2. The Goal is not realistic. For example, “I want to look like a magazine model.” Achieving major and healthy remodeling of your body needs time, persistence, and most of the time changing your lifestyle. Achieving all three takes some trial and error, so don’t expect to get there in a couple of months.

Tax Rates for the North Austin Area

I just got my 2009 Property Tax Receipt and I figured I would share with you the tax rates for my area. I had no idea the School District would tax so high.

City of Austin	0.4209%
Travis County	0.4215%
Pflugerville ISD	1.46%
Travis County Healthcare	0.0674%
Austin Community College	0.0946%

How does it compare to yours?

My Holidays

Hello everyone, I hope you had the best holidays. I know I did. I spent the holidays at home in Austin with my parents and a brief visit from my brother, his wife and my baby nephew. It was great because I got to share with all of them a little bit of my day to day life, something that due to distance we don’t get to experience from each other. Small details like my mom liking toast with sour cream and apple juice like three or four times a day, my dad liking super sweet coffee, my brother being a responsible parent, my sister in law loving to bake, but doesn’t like to eat what she makes and the baby liking the bouncy game I played with him. It was all great.

We spent Christmas Eve cooking. I had invited some friend over for dinner and the Puerto Rican Christmas experience. That meant cooking a lot of the typical dishes you would find during the season; Arroz con Gandules, Pernil, Papas Majadas, Pasteles, Guineitos en Escabeche, Zorullitos, Coquito, etc. There were a couple of popular extras like Rum Cake and good Cuba Libres. The night developed into some singing and poetry recital performances. I would like to thank, Andres and Oliver for their performances. We had a great time.

Santa Clause was nice to this year too… I was expecting coal, but instead I got some nice items I’ve been wanting for a while.

New Years, was a bit tone down. My mom wanted to go to San Antonio for New Years Eve, so we did. We went sightseeing at the Alamo and River Walk. They had a blast. Later that night after eating a big Tex-Mex meal we drove back to Austin, but by the time that midnight rolled around we were all super tired. I promised Vanessa that next years we will party the new year up.

My Top 5 iPhone Apps

Today I was reading Scott Kelby’s blog, ‘Photoshop Insider’ (today’s entry here) and it mentioned yet another iPhone App site by his friend Terry White called BestAppSite.com. Of course, I went to visit and it had a number of handy new apps reviews, videos and his list of top apps. I found it interesting that our most use apps were related and in some cases the same. I would like to know which are your top five apps, because if a trend starts to develop maybe we should get one of my co-workers to build on currently existing apps and make them better, once he is done with the BG App of course.

Following are my top five apps, not counting the browser and texting app (although I would like some improvements on those apps as well).

1. Diner Dash – A pretty addicting game which gets you started with it’s simplicity, but keeps you intrigue with their expert score challenge. This is one of those games that does a great job when you need to kill some time while waiting for the doctor, waiting for your fiancé to finish getting dress or when she is watching ‘In The Middle.’ My alternative in the game category would have been Civ Rev, but it is a more involved game, it takes more time and sucks the life out of your iPhone battery pretty quick.

2.  Chase Application – If you think online banking is awesome then you will love iPhone banking. With the Chase application I can pay bills, check account balances, transaction history and find the closes ATM or bank. If you are concern with your security and privacy, web security standards are used during your connection with the bank. I don’t need to be close to a computer to pay my bills anymore, I can just log in my phone and set up a payment as I read the bill. There are similar apps for Bank of America and other banks.

3. Open Table – This a nice little app for making restaurant reservations. As you make more reservations and respond to a survey after every restaurant visit you gain points which could be use for a free dinner. V and I like going to restaurants locally, but also when out of town; the app does a good job at recommending restaurants to try and showing reviews. The big brother website is very helpful and they sync well. The only problem is that sometime the app gets a ‘bit sluggish and freezes, but I’ve notice that after the last upgrade it works pretty good.

4. Now Playing – This app has been the most complete app I’ve found for movie listings, buying tickets and reviews. Now if I could get an app that unites Open Table and this one in order to have the Dinner and a Movie combo all in one place…. Listening co-worker?

5. Best Camera – This fairly new app is my iPhone photo editing app of choice. It lets me crop and apply a number of filters to my iPhone photos, but where it shines is in the available options for sharing in social networking sites. The Facebook app would have been in this listing, but I only use it for updating my status and posting mobile photos, now I don’t need the Facebook App for updating the photos so it dropped out of the top five. Sorry Facebook freaks (mom)… Also, if you are looking for a free alternative photo editing app, then the Adobe Photoshop App is for your, PS Mobile.

Please, remember to comment on your top used apps. Thanks!

Five Steps to Make Your Holiday Guests Feel @ Home

It is holiday season and many of us will be migrating home to share our time with the rest of the family. In my case, my family is spread around the world; Oklahoma, Florida, Texas and Germany. If we don’t count Germany, my home in Austin, TX turns out to be the most central location for the rest of my family to get together.  Which gives me the honor to host the Holidays for the first time.

That also means that I have to host my parents, my brother, his wife and new baby, V and I in my two bedroom townhouse. don’t get me wrong, it’s a joy to have them home, but how will I make them feel comfortable?

I have made up a list of five steps to make your home more enjoyable, welcoming and Zen for holiday visitors.

1. Complete Un-Finished Home Projects

This is not the time to take on long projects that down deep you know you will not finish on time, but it is time to complete some of those unfinished projects. I know I had quite a few; unfinished entertainment system area as well as un-hanged frames, stuff I have listed in Craigslist and paint for ‘quick’ painting jobs that never got done, all just laying around the house.

I believe that finishing such projects will give the house a feeling of home instead of a building site as well as make you feel good about finishing something you obviously wanted at one point or another.

2. De-clutter

Once the materials for those projects finished in the previous step are either used up and/or put away, the next step is to step back and take a good look at your house and see where you can reduce the content of ‘stuff.’ If you have ever watched HGTV then you are familiar with de-cluttering… They recommend it for everything, you want to sell your house? De-clutter. You want fix a room? De-clutter. Your house is falling in to pieces? De-clutter.

In this case, do you want the feeling of a roomier house? De-clutter.

• A good way to decorate while de-cluttering is to group similar small items into inexpensive deco boxes which are found in Ikea (or similar store).
• Also, it is the time of giving, try to evaluate what you don’t really need and donated to local non-profit organizations; Clothes, books, furniture and so on.
• Try selling stuff you don’t need in Craigslist.

A small article on De-cluttering, ‘Declutter 101: Where Do I Start?’

3. Clean

“A clean home is a happy home.” Sadly my home is seldom really clean, but no one can deny how good it feels when in a clean home. If you own a large house, I believe that as a present to yourself and accommodations to your guest it is really worth getting a cleaning service to do a detailing cleaning job in your home. I mean we get our cars detailed every so often, why not our house?

4. Have Hotel Like Accommodations for Guest

I do not mean have a spa and a hot tub…. See the following list:

• Have a space for them to unpack and have their own area.
• If your guest will have their own room take some time to decorate it by getting matching sheets, maybe a reading lamp, art or picture in the wall, etc.
• If you have a guest bathroom, have a little basket with grooming essentials: shampoo, soap, tooth paste, tooth brush, deodorant, etc.

The point is to provide them with a sense of privacy and comfort.

5. Set the Mood

This events are optional to your guest, but they are meant to entertain, promote sharing and setting a joyful mood.

• In this case we are talking about a holiday visit, so have holiday decorations, holiday music, holiday food, etc.
• Keep your guest entertain by scheduling events… visiting the light show or local holiday events, family game night, cooking and sharing time, etc.

I believe that even if you have no guests, these steps will provide you with a more enjoyable home for the rest of the year and a great mood to launch the year to come.

Happy Holidays and Marry Christmas!!

My Top 10 Christmas Gifts Ideas

Hello everyone, it has been in forever since I write a post. If you look in the history it all started to go down hill since the UM lost to Virginia Tech…. ‘What a terrible day?’

Anyway, I’m writing this post, because I know how hard it is for me to buy presents for others. I usually want to get them something that will seem thoughtful and different, but that they would like and use. Sometimes, giving a present that would introduce the receiver to something new is good, but the giver has to be aware that not everyone likes the same things. Just because you like bungee jumping from trees, doesn’t mean your girlfriend would find it interesting.

In the spirit of making it easy for my friends and family to shop for me, keeping away some of the queries from V and giving ideas to others with friends with the same interests as I do; I have compiled a list of 10 present ideas. These ideas are categorized on six areas that I’m interested on: Health/Fitness, Cooking, Home, Home Entertainment and Photography.

Ordered by relative price:

1. Good Eats: The Early Years      Interest: Cooking      Idea: Give the gift of new cuisines (recipe books)      Info: $19.50 in Amazon.com (here)      Effort Level (1-4): 2, May want to know the receiver’s tastes and interest I like trying new stuff and experimenting in the kitchen, a recipe book is a good way to open the doors to different tastes, techniques and experiences. Maybe you’ll get an interesting dinner out of it :-). In this case I’m a fan of Alton Brown, but with recipe books you can experiment from exotic foods from around the world to local cuisines.

2. Smugmug.com Yearly Membership      Interest: Photography      Idea: Web Platform for Sharing, Storing, Printing & Selling      Info: $39.95 per year (here)      Effort Level: 1, May want to know if using a service already If interested in photography the odds are that they are sharing their work online and depending on their level, they may be using free services for this purpose. There are benefits to have a paid service like Smugmug or Flickr including:      - Unlimited Storage      - No File Size Limitations      - Ease of sharing      - Professional Groups and Collaboration      - Backups In my case I’ve been testing Smugmug.com the last couple of days and I like their following features:      - User Interface is very Nice      - Sharing Security Features      - Visitors do not need an account to see my pics They have three membership levels, basic for regular users like me, power for users with more visitor demanding needs and pro for professionals who sell their work from the smugmug platform and make profits.

3. Play On Software      Interest: Home Entertainment      Idea: Bring the web entertainment content to the TV      Info: $39.99 (here)      Effort Level: 1 PlayOn is a software program that runs on your Windows PC, giving you access to a wide range of Internet content on your TV -- Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon VOD, and many others. In my case it is particularly useful at allowing me to watch Hulu.com content through my PlayStation 3.

4. 100% Whey Gold Standard Protein Shakes      Interest: Health/Fitness      Idea: Supplement his fitness      Info: $42.95 for 5lbs (here)      Effort Level: 2, May want to know his needs Being ‘healthy’ is an expensive business, have you seen the prices in Whole Food lately? Keeping fit ain’t easy and fitness supplementation could be very expensive. Here is when you come to the rescue with a good protein product, vitamins or any product the gift receiver is in need of. This type of gift never goes to waste. Creativity comes in on taste, but don’t get too creative. Fitness supplements are notorious for their bad taste. This is one where you may want to stick to the classics Vanilla, Chocolate or Strawberry. In my case, I’m in need of some protein. My favorite taste is Double Chocolate.

5. Wedding Tux Rental      Interest: Wedding      Idea: Help With Wedding Preparations      Info: $60 - $100      Effort Level: 3, Here you may want a recon partner Planning a wedding is very stressful project and expensive. There are major and minor expenses all over the place…. Giving your time to help with wedding preparations is always welcome and highly appreciated, but not everyone has time to do it. So here is where you can give a thoughtful minor donation to the cause by paying for a small detail needed on the wedding. For example, the groom’s tux, a table arrangement, an extra song by the band, etc.

6. Neat Image Pro Edition Software      Interest: Photography      Idea: Add to his Digital Photography Toolkit      Info: $59.90 (here)      Effort Level: 2, What does he have? In this suggestion the question is more likely to be, What does he has? than, What does he need? Because in this area, we need it all of course lol. Neat Image is an imaging noise reduction filter, similar to Noise Ninja. They have four versions:    - Home – for 8-bit images    - Home + – for 8-bit images and Photoshop Plugin    - Pro – for 16-bit photos (RAW)    - Pro+ – same as pro with Phtoshop Plugin

7. Month of Aikido Classes      Interest: Health/Fitness      Idea: Introduce him to a different way of fitness      Info: $80 a month, (here)      Effort Level: 3 In my case I take Aikido, but this can be any other type of physical activity for example, a physical trainer, salsa classes, martial arts, rock climbing, etc. If he or she already practices something you can just buy the next month for them, but if they don’t you can buy a month to something where they can experience something new.

8. Calphalon Contemporary Nonstick Wok      Interest: Cooking      Idea: Facilitate his culinary experimentation      Info: $99.99 in Amazon.com (here)      Effort Level: 2 The point of this gift is to get someone a new kitchen tool that they would not normally have in a typical American kitchen. The gift becomes much more special if you are able to match the brand, style, or colors to their already existing set thus making it look like it should be there. In this case I have owned a wok before and know how (geeky alert) cool they are, but you may want to look into different countries kitchen essential tools, for example:     - Japanese – Sushi roll tools     - Spanish – Paella pot (can be use outside)      - Indian – Masala Dani (Indian version of a spice rack)

9. Wall Art      Interest: Home      Idea: Improve decoration with his taste      Info: Insert your price range here      Effort Level: 4, Where will it go? What does he like? Guys are notorious for having a bunch of empty walls in their house. Not because we don’t like art, but mostly because we can’t stand the thought of paying so much for something that looks like a kid could have done it and then hang it in a wall….. I can buy some sort of electronic with that money. Anything that plugs into the wall has to be more useful, right? This could be a very hard present to pull off, but if done right it can be a great one. The trick is to get him something that he likes!!! This art is going to be hanged in his wall for a long time, make sure that he has a nice thought every time he looks at it. You need to know what type of art (photography, painting, etc.), style and colors he likes. It is almost as important for the art piece to go with the already existing decor.

10. Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM Zoom Lens      Interest: Photography      Idea: Add to his photo gear Toolbox (or tool bag :-) )      Info: $599 in Amazon (here)      Effort Level: 2, Need to know his camera brand and mount. Photographers like ‘glass’ (photographer’s lingo for camera lenses) and enthusiast like myself like to act like real photographers. That and the fact that this is a sweet professional level lens for the price makes it a great gift. But, if you feel more generous you can get the IS version for $1132.55 in Amazon (here).

IBM Works on Time Machine

J/K!!! But, there is a cool sighting of a DeLorean DMC-12 on the IBM Austin parking lot. The Irish car made famous by its appearance in the “Back to the Future” movies got some attention from fellow IBM’ers while in the parking lot.

Discada Styled UT Tailgate

Last Saturday I was invited to a University of Texas tailgate. This week the Longhorns were playing the Miners from UT El Paso. I have several co-workers from UTEP and some have mutual feelings for both UTEP and UT. Needless to say it was a good tailgate with plenty of good food and drinks, but one of the items that I’ve never seen in a Miami tailgate was an ‘apparatus’ people from El Paso call a ‘Disco’ (Spanish for disc or record). The disco, looks like an Asian wok, but it has its own stand and gas flame.

A typical ‘Discada’ (a Spanish play on words for something made  in the disco), is made with bacon (fatty meat), chorizo (more fatty meat), beef (not so fatty meat) and for all of you vegetarians out there tomatoes, onions and cilantro. Well, OK vegetarians did not have anything to eat on this tailgate, but that didn't affect me at all :-). Of course, as with any Mexican influenced meal, you eat it in a tortilla. The discada was great, I mean when you add so much fat into something it has to be good… proven by the time it took to be gone, approximately 15 minutes. A good meal when drinking on the Texas heat and screaming for your team at the top of your lungs.

Needless to say the discada will be added to my culinary repertoire when hanging with the boys, but I would skip the stand and use my old faithful wok. Thanks to Jacob and friends for introducing me to another of El Paso’s finest customs, which ranks up there with the Chuco Town Dance…. Also Oliver, who did some pretty fancy cooking on a very small space.

Sadly I did not stay to watch the game, since I had to watch my ‘Canes play… looking back, I should have gone to the game, but that is another entry.

ACC Week 4 Counter Predictions

Heather Dinich Predictions	My Predictions
Miami 24, Virginia Tech 21	Miami 27, Virginia Tech 17
North Carolina 24, Georgia Tech 14	Georgia Tech 24, North Carolina 14
Duke 35, NC Central 7	Duke 21, NC Central 10
Wake Forest 17, Boston College 14	Wake Forest 17, Boston College 14
TCU 14, Clemson 10	Clemson 24, TCU 17
Florida State 31, South Florida 10	Florida State 42, South Florida 13
Rutgers 20, Maryland 17	Rutgers 20, Maryland 17
NC State 24, Pittsburgh 21	Pittsburgh 24, NC State 21

The Return Of The U?

ESPN.com

University of Miami @ Virginia Tech Preview

The 2009 meet between these two teams is the 27th in the series, will take place at Blacksburg on September 26. The game will be televised by ABC and it starts at 2:30 Central.

Both teams come in ranked to this bout, Miami at number 9 and VT number 11. For more details on this game and other ACC matchups this weekend check out Heather Dinich’s blog post, ‘On tap in the ACC: Week 4.’

The U Makes The AP Top 10

1		2		3		4		5
6		7		8		9		10

Starting the season unranked and playing four ranked opponents, many did not gave Miami a chance to win a game on their first four tries; Florida State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Oklahoma.

Today, after putting on a show in their first two games and winning (at No. 18 Florida State 38 – 34 and vs. No. 14 Georgia Tech 33 - 17) the Miami Hurricanes climbed up to number 9th in the AP Poll. ESPN’s ACC Blogger, Heather Dinich, posted the question; “Is Miami a top-10 team?” It is obvious that the coaches did not think so, because Miami made it at number 13th in the coaches poll, still a decent ascend from last week’s 20th ranking.

Postings and discussions about Miami going undefeated are already in the web and I have to admit that it is nice to be able to talk about your team in this situation, specially when living in Austin, in which all everyone ever talks about are the Longhorns. I also have to admit that I had a little chat/argument with one of my co-workers about who would be ranked on top if both Texas and the ‘Canes would go undefeated. But, the truth is that after just finishing week three non of it matters.

Is Miami a Top Ten school right now? I don’t think so, I do think that if they do what they are suppose to, they will be rank pretty high at the end of the season and if they do win out they will have a legitimate argument for the National Championship, but all that is a moo point if they don’t win next week, then the week after that and so on. I believe they should be able to win at Blacksburg, not easily, but they will be able to handle it. Their big test will come against Oklahoma and that is where they will really earn the Top Ten spot, at least in the eyes of the Nation. Although it is a wounded Oklahoma team (Sam may be back by that game), they still are a very respected national power.

Win or loose the next two games, Miami’s biggest challenge will be the next 8 teams. Teams that the ‘Canes should be able to handle easily. Why? You may ask, well game 1 at Florida State…. If you are a real Hurricane do you need anymore to get you hyped up than playing FSU? Maybe a lil’ Red Bull or ‘un cafécito,’ but not much more. Then, GT at home, a team which humiliated Miami a year ago, are the cheerleaders even necessary to get you hyped up? Then, the old buddy from the Big East, Virginia Tech, and pre-season pick to win the conference. Lastly, but definitely not least, the Oklahoma Sooners, Miami’s time to shine in front of a strong national stage…. if that doesn’t get you hyped up I don’t know what would.

The problem starts when they play the next 8 boring, ‘we are just playing you because we have to,’ teams… (except for maybe Clemson) Can they keep their tempo, electric atmosphere and swagger thru the end. Or, at least, will the desire to play FSU again in the conference championship keep them awake? This is where coach Shannon has to earn its keep and make them roar at Category 5 strength!

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Georgia Tech 17 @ Miami 33

All I have to say is, ‘WOW!!!’ Yesterday, I mentioned that this game would be a though one, one in which both teams had a legitimate chance to win. I also mentioned that GT was not going to run as much as last year. Well, I was happily semi-wrong:

• The game was not as close as the score shows, Miami was in control most of the game until last few minutes on the 4th quarter where they had two missed field goals and a couple of defensive glitches, one which ended up as a GT touchdown. Their total domination over the line of scrimmage in offense and defense was incredible. Jacory Harris passing was incredibly accurate, completing 20 of 25 for 270 yards and three touchdowns. Rushing was a nice surprise totaling 184 yards. But, the biggest shock was Miami’s defense completely stopping GT’s rushing. A Yellow Jacket team which totaled 335 yards and 301 yards in their first two games of the season respectively, let’s not forget about 472 yards against Miami last year, was completely stumped by a defense that only allowed them 95 yards.
• I knew that GT was not going rush for 472 yards again, but only 95 yards was a very nice surprise.
• By the second half Georgia Tech looked beat and gasping for air while The U was more focus than ever.
• How hard is it to find someone to kickoff the ball? Miami’s kick off ability is terrible, GT had good field position the whole game. Then in the fourth quarter, two missed field goals…. I’m pretty sure that the kicking team will be practicing overtime this week.