What we would have looked like in the past

So there is a funny website where you can put a picture of yourself in and it puts your face on hairdos from the 50s to 2000. Some look funny like these and some just don't quite work out right. The website is printed on the pictures (yearbookyourself.com). You all should try it out for fun!

Another ESPN Article including BYU in the Conversation for a National Championship

The first official BCS standings won't be released until Oct. 19, but both polls and four of the six computer ratings that make up the formula are already being published.

So what are we waiting for?

Mock BCS standings

Team	Record
1. Oklahoma	4-0
2. Alabama	5-0
3. LSU	4-0
4. Texas	4-0
5. Missouri	4-0
6. Penn State	5-0
7. Georgia	4-1
8. South Florida	5-0
9. USC	2-1
10. BYU	4-0
11. Utah	5-0
12. Texas Tech	4-0

If the BCS standings were out this week, this is what you would see: Oklahoma, on the strength of its commanding lead atop both polls (coaches' and Harris; AP doesn't count in the BCS) would be ranked No. 1. Alabama, although it isn't ranked second in either of those polls, would be No. 2 because it's the clear-cut top team in the computers. The most significant deviation from the top 10 of the polls involves Texas Tech, which currently ranks very low in the computers thanks to two early games against FCS opposition.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when looking at these standings is … last season. It's been almost 12 months to the day since USC lost at home to Stanford as a 40-point favorite, and many people believed -- logic even dictated -- that the Trojans' national title hopes were gone. In retrospect, if they hadn't taken a second loss (at Oregon), they would've played for the BCS title in spite of that upset. That loss no more eliminated USC than a late home loss to Illinois did Ohio State or an even later home loss to Arkansas did LSU.

Or USC's loss last week to Oregon State, or Florida's loss last week to Ole Miss, or Georgia's … You get the point.

Highest Avg. Poll Ranking
By Non-BCS Team Entering Oct.

Year	Team	Avg. Ranking (Avg. of 2 polls used by BCS)
2008	BYU	8
2001	Fresno State	10.5
2004	Utah	14
2000	TCU	14
2007	Hawaii	15.5
1999	Marshall	17
2006	Boise State	21.5

If last year should've taught us anything, it's that one loss doesn't necessarily end championship dreams. And if you're really fortunate, two losses might not do it, either.

• BYU is entering October with a BCS standing that would be good enough for automatic inclusion in a major bowl game. So the question isn't whether the Cougars will make the BCS if they go undefeated. It's whether they could actually work their way into the BCS Championship Game. Obviously, that's impossible to answer right now, but by having a coaches' poll ranking of 7 and a Harris poll ranking of 9 entering October, BYU has made such a discussion far from ridiculous.

It's the highest a non-BCS team has been ranked at this stage of the season in the BCS era, and it's pretty close to where the Cougars were ranked (6th by the coaches, 7th by the AP on Oct. 1) when they won their national title in 1984.

Brad Edwards is a college football researcher at ESPN. His Road to the BCS appears weekly during the season.

BYU in top 10

There is not too much I need to say about this, except that it is amazing! BYU, even though they had a bye week greatly benefitted from several losses in the top 10. I am not going to get ahead of myself and talk about possible situations at the end of the season for bowl games, but in my opinion if BYU wins out the rest of the year (stays undefeated), beats Utah also as an undefeated team (they would be probably around 10th by then if they stay undefeated including beating Oregon State this Thursday that beat USC last weekend), and a few more teams ranked better than BYU get upset, i don't think anything is out of the question for BYU's bowl game potential. Here are the rankings:

USA Today Poll

1. Oklahoma (57) 4-0 1,520

2. LSU (1) 4-0 1,399

3. Missouri 4-0 1,398

4. Alabama (2) 5-0 1,350

5. Texas (1) 4-0 1,310

6. Penn State 5-0 1,146

7. Brigham Young 4-0 1,054

8. Texas Tech 4-0 1,047

9. USC 2-1 990

10. Georgia 4-1 888

10. South Florida 5-0 888

12. Ohio State 4-1 854

13. Florida 3-1 832

14. Auburn 4-1 776

15. Utah 5-0 684

16. Kansas 3-1 555

17. Wisconsin 3-1 521

18. Boise State 3-0 446

19. Vanderbilt 4-0 351

20. Oregon 4-1 286

21. Fresno State 3-1 280

22. Oklahoma State 4-0 229

23. Connecticut 5-0 180

24. Virginia Tech 4-1 161

25. Wake Forest 3-1 148

price of gas chart below

I made the chart too big when I inserted the graph in the post below. My apologies. All you have to do is click on the chart though to see the whole thing and it become much clearer as well.

The Price of Gas

Over the past few, I have driven probably around 1,000 miles. That driving included traveling to Richmond, VA and then back here to Syracuse again. Luckily my car gets excellent gas mileage (usually around 35 mpg if it is on the highway the whole time). All this driving and filling up the gas tank several times got me thinking about gas prices. I have heard at least once or twice that the price of gas, as disgustingly expensive as it is, is actually low if you you factor in where it has been historically and then scale up the price for things like inflation. So I had heard that and always wondered if it was true. Since gas is something that everybody needs and uses on a regular basis I would be glad to learn that gas has not risen as much as inflation would normally cause something to rise, but I have never known for sure whether or not that is actually true. Coincidentally I am also working on a group project in school for a class about US foreign policy and national security. I was assigned to work on doing research on our country's energy policy. So I have been doing a little research on a few things and have found some interesting figures. This graph that I have posted shows the actual nominal price of gas since 1919 and then shows what that would be after adjustment for inflation. Interestingly, gas in 1919 was like3 dollars a gallon or something like that. Since 1919, with lots of ups and downs, the price of gas was actually decreasing until around 1999 or so. It spiked up and went down a little until around 2003 it looks like and has been going up through the roof ever since. I will continue to post things I have found in my research that I think are interesting. I will also try to figure out why the gas prices have been rising through the roof since around '03. If anyone know let me know.

the graph I posted along with some other graphs can be found here: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/fsheets/real_prices.html


Just to give a quick explanation of the rising gas prices since 2003, i looked it up on Wikipedia (obviously not the best source of information and some say not even a good source of informaiton, but it has almost everything and is really easy to find) and here is a few paragrpahs directly from Wikipedia:

"From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under $25/barrel. Then during 2003, the price rose above $30, reached $60 by August 11, 2005, and rose above $146 in June 2008. Commentators have attributed the price increases of this period to a confluence of factors, including reports from the United States Department of Energy and others showing a decline in petroleum reserves,^[1] worries over peak oil,^[2] Middle East tension, and oil price speculation.^[3] Some events have had short term effects on oil prices, such as North Korean missile launches,^[4] the crisis between Israel and Lebanon,^[5] tension between Iran and U.S.,^[6] and "a hundred factors."^[7]

At the start of September 2008, with prices having fallen back to $110, analyst Jan Rudolph said that "weakened economies" and record high prices had reduced demand worldwide. He pointed out that the oil market had changed fundamentally in 2008, and was not sensitive to price spikes from events such as Hurricane Gustav and the Russo-Georgian war.^[8] In response to falling prices, OPEC declared it was prepared to take action (such as coordinated reductions in supply) to maintain prices near $100.^[9]

Prices near $95–105 per barrel (2007 U.S. dollars) are equal to the previous all time inflation adjusted record of 1980.^[10] This had been clearly exceeded by the first quarter of 2008. In terms of the crude price, U.S. records suggest that equivalent prices were last seen in the 1860s.^[11] In terms of refined petroleum products, similar prices in real terms have not been seen since the 1920s.^[12] Outside the U.S., the history of both inflation and oil prices will be different, but after being adjusted for inflation, prices over $120/barrel are unprecedented since the very earliest days of commercial oil production. Sustained high prices contribute to fears of an economic recession similar to that of the early 1980s.^[13] In the United States, gasoline consumption dropped by 0.5% in the first two months of 2008 in response to higher prices,^[14] compared to a drop of 0.4% total in 2007.^[15]"

How about the Cougars?

As I am sure most of you are aware, BYU is now ranked 11 in the AP and and the USA Today polls. That is where I feel like they deserve to be. Until some of the top 10 teams start to play each other and lose or someone just messes a game up, BYU will stay where they are at. A link is provided at the bottom to take you to where the current ranking are at. Even more interesting though than BYU's excellent ranking is that I found an article on ESPN's webpage talking about BYU having a shot at a national championship. The author by no means said that they are a top contender for a national title or anything even close to that. He simply said that at this rate, as he things going, they are in the conversation (as long as they beat the University of Utah on their last game). I will just copy and paste the entire paragraph into this post, it can also be found though here: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/others/0-1-164/What-we-learned-from-the-Independents-and-non-BCS--Week-4.html

Here is the part of the article that talks about BYU:

What we learned from the Independents and non-BCS, Week 4

September 21, 2008 4:40 PM

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

1. BYU is the non-BCS' best hope: No, not for a BCS bid, there are a still five other teams with undefeated records, but the Cougars might be the non-BCS' best hope for a national championship bid. I know, I know, it's only the fifth weekend of the season. Trust me, I've said the same thing a gazillion times to BYU fans. But you can't deny that there's something special in this team. After its controversial win against Washington, the Cougars have gone on to outscore their opponents 103-0. That's dominant no matter whom the Cougars are playing. The Cougars have their highest national ranking since 2001, and if things continue to go the way they're going, they'll be in the Top 8 by the time they meet Utah in November.

current rankings: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/rankingsindex

Girl's Night

Chad left town this afternoon for the ICMA conference. His friend Dan went too, so Dan's wife, Jenny, and I had a party with some of the girls in our ward our age. We had chocolate fondu and just talked and got to know each other better. Five other girls came, so it was a lot of fun. It is nice to finally be getting to know more people in our ward. There are a lot of fun couples to do things with.

Thanks Chad!

Chad made my birthday such a fun day and he really made me feel special. He woke up at 6:45 a.m. so that we could go to breakfast together even though he didn't have to wake up early at all. He didn't have school and could have slept until noon, so I really appreciated it! It was fun starting the day together. Like chad already said, we went to Dunkin Donuts. Then when we had dinner at Chili's Chad ran all around the restaurant to find our waitress to tell her that it was my birthday so that they could sing to me and so I could get free dessert. Then he bought me yummy cheesecake and some cool presents. I got the 7 C.S. Lewis Classics in one book and the book Twilight. He also got me a curling iron and a huge cookbook full of desserts. It will be fun to start trying new recipes. Don't worry Chad, I'll make sure they turn out better than the fudge, and the truffle...It was a really fun day. Thanks Chad!

Michelle's 22nd Birthday

Yesterday Michelle turned 22 years old. Michelle and I celebrated it with our closest friends here in Syracuse. In the morning Michelle and I went out to breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts and at night we went out to eat at Chilli's with some friends and had cake afterwards. At the doctor's office where she works they also celebrated her birthday by having a special lunch for her with pizza and cupcakes. It worked out well going to chili's because Michelle got a gift card for Chili's (coincidentally) yesterday in the mail from her family. That was a very pleasant surprise. We bought a delicious cheesecake from Wal Mart for everyone to share. It was a fun day!

UPDATE: BYU's new ranking

The new rankings were recently released for college football. After BYU's victory over UCLA, they jumped up to 11 according to the USA Today poll and 14 according to the AP poll. Not too shabby. You can check it out at the following link: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/rankingsindex

Final Score: BYU- 59 UCLA- 0

WOW! That is what i must say first: wow! I am a BYU fan and wanted BYU to beat UCLA yesterday, and i beleived they would. I did not expect an absolute blow out like this though. A blowout does not even really do justice actually to how bad BYU beat UCLA. A blowout would be how Penn State beat Syracuse (by like 35 or 40 points or something ridiculuos). To not only win by 59 points but to also shut out your opponent while doing it is something else entirely. I don't know what to call it. I am afraid that the coaches and AP polls will say we won so easilly that it didn't mean anything and not move us up in the rankings. Of course that is not really the case, UCLA is of course a good time (or at least most people would have agreed to that statement before yesterday). I only got to actually watch the first half, but that was all i really needed to see. After the first half BYU went on to score 17 more points but UCLA still never did score. I am curious to read some more articles and blogs about what other fans of both teams have to say about it, because honestly a score like that is just kind of weird. A score of 59 to zip is something you would expect if a college team played a high school team or something...ok maybe that example is a little too extreme...but i think a score like that is more than just a blow out it is weird. I can't wait to see what their new ranking will be.

Congratulations Chad!

Last week Chad was picked as one of the five SU MPA students chosen to go to an ICMA (International City Manager's Associate) Conference in Richmond, VA Sept. 21-24. He is getting a $500 stipend to be able to go. City management is one of the career paths he is interested in, so this will be a great opportunity for him to learn more about the career and do some networking. I don't know too much about the conference, but from what Chad tells me it is a four day conference of speakers, workshops, etc. He is really excited to have this opportunity and I am really excited for him. It will be weird to be without him for four days though. We haven't been away from each other for that long since we've been engaged. I'll miss him, but I'm proud of him for being chosen. Congrats Chad!

While I Was Sleeping...

Last night our toilet started running water in the tank behind the toilet seat and wouldn't stop. The apartment complex made it clear to us that if maintenance problems related to do leaks ever occur, call them no matter what hour of the day or night it is. So we did. I didn't actually expect a maintenance worker to come over (as it was getting close to midnight), but somebody did. He came with his plunger thinking we had a clogged toilet, i guess the answering service we call at our apt. complex miscommunicated the message. At any rate, he was able to fix it, the chain had gotten all tangled up. He said he was just going to do a quick fix though but that someone between the hours of 9 and 3 would come back tom morrow and replace the part entirely. I said i should be home (i have no class on Thursdays) but that if i wasn't that they could just come in. So I woke up at around 11 this morning and went to go to the bathroom. There was a not on a small piece of paper there on the toilet saying the handle and chain had been replaced. So in other words, while I was asleep, someone from maintenance knocked on the door, opened the door themselves (presumably with some type of master key), did all the maintenance work in the bathroom right next to me asleep on the bed in our bedroom, wrote the note, left, relocked the door (because the door was still locked when i left the house today), all without me waking up. Michelle leaves early to go to work so she was already at work during all this. Isn't that an odd and slightly disturbing story? When i talked to Michelle i told her this and she said, "so someone could steal everything from our house while you are sleeping and get away?" (or it was something like that). I guess the answer to Michelle's question is yes.

ROAD TRIP TO PENNSYLVANIA!!!

Michelle and I took a road trip to Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend. She doesn't get a lot of time off from her work and we have been wanting to visit some of the cool stuff the east coast has to offer so we decided to pack our bags and start heading to PA. We literally had no plans set in stone, and no hotel reservations, but we just made the decision on Saturday when we woke up that we wanted to go...so we did! We had so much fun! It was a blast and we got to spend so much great quality time together. It was nice to not have any plans because we could just do whatever we wanted that way. We drove to Scranton on Saturday and visited as many of The Office sites as possible. The first place we went to was The Anthracite museum that Michael sings about. It was about as nice as a coal museum could be. Then we went to the Steam Town Mall where the gang goes somewhat regularly. We saw Victoria's Secret where Michael tries to buy all the girls lingerie, and we also saw the famous "Scranton Welcomes You" sign. We also went to Poor Richard's Pub, the Scranton Police Department, the Electric City sign, and many other cool places. We were thinking the whole time how funny it was that we were excited about seeing real places that are talked about on a TV show but that aren't even really on the show. We felt kind of like nerds but we were having so much fun we didn't care. At this point we hadn't even decided what we would do: go home or keep going further into PA. We decided to take advantage of the long weekend and go to Philadelphia. We drove about half way their, found a hotel (it took us like 2 hours because there just happen to be a popular fair in that city last weekend) and then drove th Philly in the morning on Sunday. We went to Church at some random ward in Allentown first though...its nice that the Church is the same everywhere and you can just show up no worries. So on Saturday we saw Congressional Hall (where the first Congress met), the Liberty Bell, some really old drafts of the Declaration of Independence and other documents, and we waited at least an hour to eat Philly Cheese Steaks at the world famous Jim's Steaks. It was worth waiting for those sandwiches....but of course i went overboard in how much i ate. Again, we had no reservations at a hotel but we found one quite easily (apparently a fair in Allentown fills up that city more than Labor Day does in Philadelphia). On Monday we went to Independence Hall (where the Declaration of Independence was signed), the cemetery where Ben Franklin is buried, and the Constitution Center which is an interactive museum of sorts where we learned a lot about the Constitution. I took a lot out of it. It is quite an incredible feat what our Founding Fathers accomplished. OH YEAH! How could i forget....right before we left to come home yesterday at around three, we went to the Philadelphia Museum of art and ran up the same steps that Rocky did while training for his first big fight in the movie Rocky. They even have a statue of him there. It was all in all a fantastic weekend. Not just because of what we got to do and see but because Michelle and I got to spend the whole weekend together!