34-0 win over a major conference school is the way to start a season!
Though honestly it felt like we watched two games. The starting QB, Tommy Beecher didn't have any career starts here but won the job over spring and summer practice ball. Well, apparently there's a big difference between practice speed and real game speed because he was overwhelmed. Even on ESPN when they showed our player's "walk" into the stadium he looked scared.
Anyway, after his 4th interception and taking a good knock to the head on a running play, Spurrier put in Chris Smelly instead and it was a night and day difference. Smelly started 6 games for us here at Carolina already and once he came in it showed. Better touch on his passes, more poise in the pocket, throwing great passes instead of just chucking it to a point on the field he's supposed to without checking coverages, etc, etc.
Now in Beecher's defense he faced a fresh NC State defensive team while Smelly came in against a beat down NC State that had more or less given up already. But still, I only saw Beecher throw one ball that he stepped into and threw with any kind of authority really. Most of the passes were overthrown or thrown from his back foot... just didn't look sharp at all.
Still, the defense was very good and pitched a shutout which was great to see. That helped Spurrier try to stick with Beecher out there through his 4 interceptions because if NC State had been scoring on us it would have gotten ugly pretty quick. So, hopefully our defense stays healthy because they could be something special this year with all the talent and depth they have.
We actually kick off college football more or less. There are a couple of 6pm kickoffs I believe, but they aren't televised. We're on ESPN tonight at 8pm.
Playing NC State which while they are from a major conference they weren't a very good team last year and we're favored by 13.5 points right now. Still, in college football there is no preseason so you're not sure what you're going to get from a team until you see them play. And with how many crazy college football fans there are out there, you know all eyes will be glued to the first game of the season on a Thursday night. Let's hope we give them something good to watch.
As for the season in general I'm going to just be an observer for the most part to start... can't get wrapped up in any hype right now both because of how last season ended after we started 6-1 overall and because we really don't know what to expect this year with a brand new quarterback and 1/2 of our running back combo gone. Defense and offensive line are supposed to be pretty good, so maybe that will help. Guess we'll know by later tonight...
I can finally post what our plans were for this last weekend. Couldn't say anything before because it would have ruined my Mom's surprise 60th birthday party.
We took Friday off and flew up to Michigan for a quick weekend visit. Made for a lot of travel in 3 days, but it was worth it! The party was great - she was completely surprised. I really don't think she expected me to answer the door at Brian and Tasha's house Saturday morning when she was bringing Carson back over.
Speaking of Carson, there's tons of photos of him in the gallery below - cute as ever... all he ever seems to do is laugh, grin, and make babbly noises. He's learned a lot since I was there last April - dragging himself along the floor already, sitting up, rolling over... all sorts of new tricks.
Anyway, the trip was good... tiring, but good. Only bad part was when we came back into Charleston last night we found out that ants had invaded Christina's car while it was parked next to a tree in airport surface parking. We spend 15-20 minutes killing them down there, made it home only seeing maybe 10 the whole ride, but then her car was covered in them again today. So, I sprayed and killed probably another 50 or so until they stopped coming out again. If that doesn't do it then the next step is bait traps outside the car of some sort since there are no food sources inside the car. Fun stuff...
I blame life. It's been crazy lately and my mind is in a thousand places so I forgot I had my free Carolina Dining card on my tray with lunch when I dumped it in the trash, remaining $2.73 balance and all.
I got the card for helping out with new student orientation in the School. My 'helping out' is fun though - I get to play photographer each year. Of course, this year with how overwhelmed I am at work it basically just means more work since I have to go through the 50-60 photos and process them.
And as if work isn't busy enough what with trying to figure out how to go through this email system migration at USC without breaking the old email in the interim, the School finally whipped out the dreaded "If they survived with 3 IT people for this long, that must be all they need" card.
I guess I knew it was coming all along, after all, that's how business works. But it's a bad idea to give me forewarning about something that's likely to upset me. So, a handful of stats later, I realize just how bad we have it here and I have a pretty good case for maintaining AT LEAST 4 people in our group. In fact, for us to compare minimally to other groups on campus we should have 9 IT staff members. Yep, n-i-n-e. Turns out with the three of us (since you can't really count my boss Robert over the last couple years), we're running a 120:1 ratio of full time faculty and staff to IT staff. Campus average is around 25:1 or 30:1. Industry average according to results of surveys I found online is between 30:1 and 40:1 at the worst. For us to have a 40:1 ratio, we'd need 9 IT staff members. Oh, and that doesn't cound our Graduate Assistants who almost always have their own office and computer as well... we're around 167:1 ratio if you count them.
So anyway, all I can do is present my case to them, show them the numbers, and let them decide if I'm going to stay here long term or not... because that's basically what they're deciding, not whether we have a 4th or 5th IT staff member.
I'm still bummed about that $2.73 though.
And there's a baby crying in our computer lab outside my office right now. A baby. In a college computer lab. Crying.
No, I haven't given up on this blog - just had a lot going on lately.
The biggest news is that last week my boss Robert told us he's decided to go on disability retirement. Mixed feelings somewhat on that since I know it can't be easy for him and I do feel sorry for him, but I also think it may be what he needs the most so he can take time to truly get healthy and not have to worry about being in the office. Plus, for the last three and a half months of trying to come back at 20 hours, 32 hours, then back down to 20 hours a week he didn't hit his hours once.
Anyway, I'm not going to know much more until his approval process goes through. I'm told that could be the end of October or perhaps as late as the end of the calendar year. Regardless, it is some relief to know it's settled now and hopefully by early next year things should get better around here when I can hire a 4th position.
We're still in a crunch at work though even though that stress has lessened. We've got about 60 days to finish the last of the domain migration and get Outlook set up and ready on everyone's computers after that. Being short staffed has really put us behind on both things that's for sure. We've got maybe 50-75 users left to move over and I think I'm going to use SMS to remotely install the whole Office 2007 suite on everyone's computers, so 60 days should be plenty of time - I hope. Not sure that the migration day can be pushed back again.
But, not everything is stressful... had a nice break this last weekend because Brian and Tasha came down to visit for a long weekend. I worked flex hours last week and I'm working flex again this week so that I could take Friday and Monday off without taking leave. It means working late, but it was worth it these two weeks.
Always nice to have them come visit - we had a great time and spent most of it on the lake it seemed. Got enough sun to last me a few months... well, at least a week maybe, we'll see. I got to learn that I can't wakeboard, kneeboard, or water ski which was frustrating. Course, much like video games, if I try something 5-6 times and can't get it I tend to just hang it up. I'm sure if I kept at it I would have gotten it eventually, but I got tired of drinking lake murray every time I tried to get up on one contraption or another.
Brian rode a lot this last weekend though and Sunday afternoon we picked up our friends Brian and Debra and their daughter Raegan and he skiied for a little while too before we headed out to bigger water to get the tube inflated. No sooner did I start the inflater and everyone got in the water to make way for the tube since it's huge, we see lightning off in the distance so everyone scrambles back into the boat. Turns out the storm was around 15 miles south of us and headed away from us, but why risk it, right? So, we called it an afternoon and headed in.
Anyway, took a few photos while we were out there:
