Last UT Football Game

Last night was my last UT football game here in Texas, at least as a student. My sister Shana was in town from LA for Thanksgiving, so I took her with me. The game was against the hated Texas A&M Aggies. Even at 4-7 (now 4-8), it's a rivalry game, so you can't always predict how things go. I brought my Canon Rebel XT to the game, so I got some better pictures. Online, it says that you can't bring a camera with a detachable lense (what they call "professional" cameras), so I didn't bring it, but I've noticed plenty of people with them, so I took it this time.

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I like to get to the stadium about 30 minutes early. The Showband of the Southwest (UT's band) comes out and fills the field and gets the crowd going. They have one of the biggest drums, the biggest Texas flag (they actually have 2 now, they just got a new one), and the biggest LCD screen in the world (area, the one at Dolphin stadium has a longer diagonal).

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What I learned last night was that bands can spell. Here is the Texas band making a UT, a T, and TEXAS.

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Two years ago when TAMU came to town, I enjoyed watching their band march at halftime. They march up and down the field with parade moves (tradition from their military history). Did you know that Texas A&M sends more students into the armed services than any other college besides the service academies? Their march is so clean with straight lines and precision moves, you can't help and notice how good it is. They can also spell, making the block ATM (Texas A&M).

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Texas won the game 49-9 with Colt McCoy making his case for Heisman with 311 yards passing and 2 TDs (no INT) and 49 yards rushing with 2 TDs. We'll see if it's enough for voters to keep UT ahead of OU (who they beat 45-35 on a neutral field), which would put them in the Big 12 championship game and if they won that, the national championship game.

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If OU goes ahead in the BCS polls, UT will probably end up in the Fiesta Bowl against USC (unless Oregan St. lose, and then Utah would probably get the Fiesta Bowl nod). Utah will likely end up in the Sugar Bowl against the SEC championship game loser (Alabama or Florida). Wouldn't it be great to see Urban Meyer coach Florida against Utah? Not really, Florida is scary good right now.

Random Pictures

Water Heater 1, Scot 0

Last night I left the caulk to dry around the flange of the toilet and planned on putting the toilet all back together this morning. I also left the small puddle of water in the garage to dry overnight. When I woke up, I checked the garage and there was MORE water! ARGH! Since no water supply was on for the toilet, the culprit couldn't be the toilet. In other words, I "fixed" the toilet twice, but the toilet was not the leak.

I looked around and laid on the garage floor and waited, listened, and watched. I heard a drip, then using my superpower listening skills (I hear better when my eyes are closed), I zoned in then watched. Sure enough, on the backside edge of the water heater, there was a drip. It was coming off of the insulation around the tank, so I stripped that off and there was some rust near the top of the tank and it was slowly leaking. I duct taped it just for a quick patch (it was very slow, not like a stream) and headed to Home Depot.

What started as a $15 toilet fix turned into a $750 water heater replacement. ARGH! Why couldn't this happen a month after we sold the house? Just kidding. Maybe. At least now I know that I can take apart and put a toilet back together since I have practiced twice. This reminds me of when I wanted to replace the handles on our shower (~$10-$15) and when I took the old ones off, the stem broke. As I replaced the stem, the threads got stripped. I ended up having to get a plumber come and replace the whole assemby (tearing the tile off the wall, cutting the old piece out, replacing it, then retiling and grouting that section). Price: something like $300. So, if you need help "plumbing", Scot knows how to fix some stuff, but will just cost you 20-50X more than you thought. Call for help at your own peril. Plumbing, you jerk!

The Water Goes Down the Hole

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Last week, I noticed that the floor was a little squishy in our bathroom downstairs. If you stepped on the cracks between the linoleum tiles (quiet you in the peanut gallery, we don't really like them either) your socks would get a little wet. Toilet 1, Scot 0. With everything going on, I decided that it would be fine for a week. So, having completed my dissertation defense, I now had some time. I kind of wish I didn't. At least it should be about a 1 hour, $10 fix. Meaning 3 hours and more money, since it's a DIY project.
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First, I don't like plumbing. It makes me swear (ok, usually just under my breath). You always have to get into weird positions and there never seems space to turn the wrench right, you always bang your knuckles on something, water always gets everywhere (in this case, toilet water), etc. I looked up a DIY site to find out what the problem could be and guessed that the wax seal had given up the ghost.
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I've replaced components in the toilet tank and even the seal between the bowl and tank, but hadn't ever seated a toilet. My dad has done it a couple of times, so I asked him for some advice. It was mostly the same as I read and to lift with my legs (I think her threw out his back once).
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The nuts holding the base to the floor were rusted to the bolts, of course. I got one loose enough to fit a hacksaw blade between the toilet and the nut and after 30 minutes of 1" saw action back and forth, pried the nut off. I wasn't going to do that for the second nut and bolt that were closer to the wall because of impossible angles and the general laws of physics, so I ingeniously thought of the bottle of WD-40 in the closet. I sprayed the nut and bolt, waited a few minutes, jammed a screwdriver between the nut and toilet (so the bolt wouldn't turn), and viola! The nut came right off. I love you WD-40.
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After getting the toilet up, I scraped off all the old wax and put the new wax ring in place. I seated the toilet bowl, attached the tank, reattached the water, caulked around the base of the toilet and was generally happy with my work. I noticed that before, some water went under the framing in the hot water heater closet, so I used my shop vac and cleaned it up. Toilet 1, Scot 1.
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After doing a few other projects (caulking in a bathtub because I had the caulk gun out, which is always fun), deciding on homeowner's insurance, looking at the home inspection, etc., I went to check up on my work. I noticed that there was MORE water in the cracks and a little further away from the toilet. Toilet 2, Scot 1.
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After practicing my techniques, I had the toilet disassembled in about 5 minutes, this time using the shop vac to suck up the water instead of a sponge and bucket and Becca acting as an assistant to get me tools I needed. The other thing I read was that a leak could be caused by a cracked flange. When I got the toilet off, it seemed like the wax was a little too thin in some areas. I checked out the flange and it was a solid metal piece that was part of the pipe that went into the floor. I dried everything out with a box fan and caulked around the flange. I found an extra large wax ring (40% more!) at Home Depot. I'll call it Toilet 2, Scot 2. I'm waiting for the caulk to dry, but I'm hoping for better results this time.
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Looks like we're heading to overtime. Plumbing, that jerk.

Doctor Waye

Today was my dissertation defense. For those of you who don't know what that is, the Ph.D. process is something like this: 1) Take graduate classes; 2) Take a qualifying exam consisting of written and oral tests; 3) Propose your dissertation topic and research and select a committee of 5 professors; 4) Do the research; 5) Write up a disseratation and defend it. At the defense, I gave a 45 minute presentation of my research and then the audience was dismissed while my committee asked questions for about 30-45 minutes. I was then dismissed and they deliberated to decide if I had done what I proposed and if I deserved a Ph.D.

It went well and am now just paperwork away from being Doctor Waye. This was the last major hurdle for my degree. If this was a 110 meter hurdles, I would have just passed the last hurdle and have a 15 meter sprint to the end. I have to make a few minor adjustments to my written dissertation and then upload it to a publisher and turn in about 10 documents to the graduate school. Other than that, I am pretty much done. One big thing to check off the list. Hooray!

Football May Be Shortening My Life

Wow. The ending of the Utah-TCU game last night was amazing, but almost gave me a heart attack. The ending was starting to look eerily similar to the Texas-Texas Tech ending, and I was getting nervous. Here are the similarities:

Texas trailed nearly the whole game. Utah trailed nearly the whole game.
Texas scored a TD in the last 2 min to go ahead. Utah scored a TD in the last 2 min to go ahead.
Texas Tech methodically started driving down the field. TCU started driving down the field.
Texas dropped a sure interception. Utah dropped a sure interception (near the same part of the field).
Texas Tech threw a last second pass to the 5 yd line and Michael Crabtree spun and got a TD. TCU threw a last second pass to the 5-10 yd line and Utah INTERCEPTED it!

I'm still hoping that things fall in place and Texas climbs back into the top 2 in the BCS and goes to the national championship. They are a great, great team. Colt MyBoy just gets it done and knows how to win. I've really enjoyed watching them this year. Brian Johnson is similar to Colt, he gets it done and wins, sometimes not in the prettiest fashion, but is a smart QB (except he makes a few more mistakes and turns it over too much). Utah has a game at San Diego St. that they should win and then play BYU for the outright MWC championship and most likely a BCS berth (if they win out, they'll go - Boise St. has a low SOS and won't be able to pass Utah). The TCU and BYU games should also improve their SOS (which also includes a win over PAC-10 leading Oregan St.). It's unrealistic to believe that Utah (or any non-BCS school) to make the BCS championship, but the Fiesta Bowl would be nice.

If Texas fails to make the championship, I hope that Utah plays Texas in the Fiesta Bowl. That would be awesome, but would kill me because I don't know who I would root for and I hate those people with the half and half shirts. I might have to delay my start date at CPP (I put 1/5/09). The Fiesta Bowl is 1/5/09. Hmm. Don't know how Becca would feel about spending money rather than making it.

Here are the highlights from Texas vs. Texas Tech - heart breaking:

And here is the last couple of minutes of the Utah vs. TCU game - heart attacking:

Blueberries

I wanted to look up the Texas map this morning because usually Travis county (where Austin is - the state capital) is the only blue county. They call it the blueberry swimming in a bowl of tomato soup. Well, here's the map this time. Blue for the major metro areas and the Rio Grande valley (strong hispanic vote).

Time For Change

I'm excited about the election results yesterday. It was especially encouraging to see people excited, engaged, voting, and generally involved and interested. I think that this country at times becomes apathetic and somewhat lazy. I personally don't think that many of the current policies could get any worse. I voted early because I like smaller lines and to make sure I get it done when it might be a little more conveniet for me.

I consider myself an independent moderate. Sometimes I agree with one party and other times, with the other. In fact, in 2004, I voted for Bush and in 2008 voted for Obama. I didn't vote in 2000 because I was in Guatemala and didn't get an absentee ballot. I know my vote didn't mean as much in Texas since all the electoral votes went to McCain, but I also had to vote for other federal, state, and local leaders and local issues.

The responsibility with being in the middle is that I have to research the policies and plans for each candidate. I watch the debates (although the normally play it safe and don't really put themselves on the line in them), ignore all the false junk that floats around, and try to pay attention. For me, some stances are important for the Executive branch, some for the Legislative branch, and some for the Judicial branch (voted local judges, etc.). Some stances are not as important for President because of what they do, although some make some issues more important to them.

I am happy with the results because we need a change. I'm not saying Obama will come to the rescue and fix everything. But, because of him, people are interested, engaged, and have come together to commit to do something. Sometimes, momentum is just as important as what is actually done. I also think it's healthy to balance power between the parties over time. Each party is stronger is different areas - domestic, foreign, energy, health care, housing, etc. Just as important is the staff they put together to tackle the many issues.

For me, one of the biggest areas of importance is energy, energy infrastructure, and the environment. I find these areas important on a personal level, but they will also generally help me in my career. As far as government regulation, I generally agree that the market will govern itself and I am a Capitalist for the most part, but what we have seen lately is that there are many greedy people that use Capitalism to make as much money as they can before it crashes and then pick up the pieces later. I'm opposed to Socialism, such as full governmental regulation of banks, but I think we have to meet somewhere in the middle since, unfortunately, not all people are honest and play by the rules.

What it came down to is that I agreed with more of Obama's policies and McCain's. I didn't feel either was 100% right. I say, let's give at least 4 years to someone coming from a different direction and see how things go. At least we'll try something different. Maybe Obama will bring similar excitement of JFK to our generation or maybe not, but I'm excited that so many people voted, voiced their concern, and that the election is over so we can move forward, unite, and make this country great for us and the world.

Photographing Photographers

A picture of me taking pictures on halloween, courtesy of Chris Rothe. Thanks, we are usually the ones behind the camera and don't get much time in front.

The One

Sometimes in our lives we spend a lot of time trying to find "the one". Sometimes it causes anxiety or impatience. Sometimes we just live our lives and wait for it. Sometimes we do everything we can to find it, going through many "ones" to find "the one". This may be "the one" that we marry, "the one" that will buy our house, "the one" job that we would love to have, "the one" salary we would like to get, "the one" house that is right for our family, "the one" birthmother that will choose us to adopt their unborn child, etc. For some of these, there is a lot we can do to work towards it. For some, sometimes "the one" just has to happen. In a world where we love to have control over our lives, sometimes we don't. We hope, we wait, we live our lives, and then "the one" comes along or "the one" happens. When it does, though, we are glad that "the one" came along and realize that "the one" came in the right way or at the right time. But I understand from personal experience that sometimes we think we know better and we get down on ourselves or life because "the one" hasn't happened. To this I say that there is hope, to keep living, to work hard towards your goals, to keep socializing, to keep praying, and to be happy. "The one" will come along, maybe after a little longer time that you'd like, but it will be worth it.