Blame Mpls Ju For the Lack of Posting

I don't have much to say tonight. I've been out late most nights this week and that trend will continue for at least the next couple nights. I could have posted something funny about my evening hanging out with TheCrazyCanuck, but then Mpls Ju wouldn't have had the 'honor' of talking to me on the phone tonight (and getting some basic tax advice). It's all her fault.

A Michigan Dilemma

My boss was working in the CT office today. He does not come up here often, but he had a few reasons to make a trip up north today. At the end of the workday, the Michigan crew (me, FlyingV, and RytheRed) took my boss out for a beer. Redneck joined us since he also works for my boss.

After a lot of talk about nothing very important, we turned the focus of the conversation to my boss's wedding. He and his girlfriend were recently engaged and we decided to ask him if he had set a wedding date. As it turns out, they did recently set a date. September 8th. Anyone see a problem with that?

My boss considers himself a devoted and passionate Michigan fan. He has never disappointed in that regard. Until now. He's getting married on a football Saturday, and the thought never occurred to him that September 8th could conflict with a big game. I would have understood if the game was against some cupcake like Indiana or Eastern Michigan. I would have been livid if that were Notre Dame weekend. Instead, my boss is straddling the fence of acceptable conflicts. Michigan plays Oregon on September 8th. Big game, but not a big rival. However, he didn't know that. Once I informed the boss tonight that September 8th might be Notre Dame weekend, he asked me to call him on his cell and confirm the opponent before his 8:30PM flight.

Quick poll of the Michigan fans out there. What do you think when a devoted Michigan fan schedules their wedding to conflict with a football Saturday?

All (semi) kidding aside, if I am invited, I'd happily attend. Hopefully, I could find a way to watch a portion of the game as well.

Suck it Trebek

I've mentioned our little Jeopardy league at work in the past. Every day, I send out the Jeopardy question of the day to a small group of 13 other people. We keep score based on the point value of each question. It's usually a nice way to start the day. It can occasionally be frustrating since I am in the lower half of the league when it comes to trivia, primarily because there are way too many pop culture questions.

Last year, our group had an average correct response rate of 56%. BuckeyeBoy lead the way by answering around 75% of the questions correct and TheExCubemate was worst around 35%. I think I somehow got stuck with the super hard Jeopardy calendar this year. The highest % correct score is 64% and five people are currently below 35%, including myself. I find the start of the day to me incredibly frustrating when I cannot answer the question of the day. Seriously. There were questions about the moons of Saturn and random-ass paperback authors from the 1950s that no one has every heard of. This blows.

The highlight of my day is now the wise-ass responses people send in, with the exception of RoopDogg's Dr. Seuss themed poem that ripped on Tom Brady this past Monday when he could not identify the 'Before and After' question about a Kentucky city that was the setting for Sam-I-Am's adventure.

Are You Intimidated Yet?

At some point in the past, I've brought up my reputation at work as an intimidating interviewer. I'm too lazy to find the link, but it was the same post where I mentioned how V made someone call his mom.

Well, today I was interviewing an intern candidate from a nearby college. As we were walking to a nearby conference room where we were going to talk, the candidate mentioned in passing that he was warned by another actuary at the company at dinner last night that I was going to grill him and be very tough. I was taken aback just a little from that statement.

As we started talking, it was clear that the candidate was incredibly nervous. We were just talking about his background and how he was spending his break from school. His voice was breaking. This continued to a lesser extent throughout the interview. He was scared of me entirely because of what another company employee said about me at dinner last night.

I asked another person on his interview schedule if he seemed nervous during an earlier interview in the day and it turns out that I was not the only one who shared that opinion, but it sounds like he was much worse during our discussion.

The sad thing is, I liked that guy. He had most of the skills we are looking for in a summer intern. I recommended to our program director that we give him an internship offer, though I was very much on the fence because of how uncomfortable he seemed during our discussion.

I don't mind the reputation as a tough interviewer. I don't apologize for challenging the candidates we bring in and making them think out of the box a little bit or expand on examples when they try to give me generic fluff or avoid the question. Book smarts do not always transfer into work smarts, so I challenge these people a little. However, I AM NOT INTIMIDATING. I may be serious, but I never try to make the candidate feel scared, stupid, or inferior. I see no benefit in doing that to a candidate since it leaves a bad taste in their mouth about the people at my company and could efforts to recruit the best candidates. I always back off on the tough questions if the candidate is struggling.

Furthermore, I am really upset that other actuaries at the company would make such a warning to the candidate the night before the interview. It's horribly unprofessional. Back in the day when I used to take interview candidates out to dinner the night before their interviews, I would briefly walk them through their schedule. I would say something brief about each candidate to let them know about a common interest or background (i.e., interviewer X is from Michigan or interviewer Y plays the trumpet), but I would never tell the candidate what to expect in an interview with a company actuary.

I also dislike it when someone warns a candidate that one of their interviewers is "really high up". That makes the candidate think that some interviews are more important than others. An interview with me should no more or less important than an interview senior actuary or a less experienced actuary. I don't appreciate any "poisoning" of my name before I ever meet the candidate.

I just needed to vent about this. I tried to talk to the "culprit" this afternoon, but I didn't get a chance before he left. He's a good guy, so I assume he meant well and was just doing what everyone else does at the pre-interview dinner, but I want to talk to him briefly in the morning.

This Isn't Good

I stole this from the crazychica blog.

As if the economy in Michigan was not bad enough already with the auto companies making cuts left and right. The city of Ann Arbor is losing their biggest taxpayer and (likely) their largest private employer. At this rate, half of the state will be unemployed by 2009. This is really sad news for Southeast Michigan.

Gov. Granholm and the mayor of Ann Arbor must really be worries today about how they are going to compensate for lost tax revenues and higher unemployment rates in the near future. Hopefully Ann Arbor can find a way to use the massive Pfizer plant soon .

Mouse - I assume this is big local news tonight? What's the reaction in AA? This will make it even more difficult to keep U-Michigan graduates from leaving the state in the future. That is, unless you want to buy a 5,000 sq ft house for $10,000.

I'm Way Too Competitve

I worked most of the day. It's that time of the year, but thankfully I am scheduled to rotate into some position that doesn't have crazy year-end reporting deadlines in 2007.

I was working from home, so occasionally I would take a break when I was bored. What did I do during my breaks, you ask? Well, I decided to try to improve my Scrabble game.

DrT loves to play Scrabble. She received a nice game board for Hanukkah and wanted to put it to good use last week. Unfortunately, the game highlighted a big difference between us. DrT is super smart, being a Harvard grad and whatnot. I am just math s-m-r-t. Numbers don't really help me in Scrabble, except that I know that the word 'quiz' is worth 22 points, unless there are any bonus squares involved.

I put up a respectable 200+ score in our only game last weekend, yet I was absolutely destroyed. When DrT can arrange her 7 letters to spell 'Belugas' and tack on a triple word score on the same word, I know that I am not worthy. I think that turn was worth roughly 90 points.

However, I hate getting blown out in any game. I'm way too competitive to lose like that every time I play a game, but I know that Scrabble is one of DrT's favorite games (if not her favorite). I've made it my goal to not suck at Scrabble. I'll probably never beat DrT at a game that she has been playing with her family since she was a child, but I just want to improve enough so that I can give her a decent challenge. DrT likes to play the game a lot, so I want to be able to play against her and give her a good game whenever she feels like playing.

Unfortunately, I was too lazy to search for a good online Scrabble site. Yahoo has their own game called 'Literati' which is loosely similar to Scrabble, so I played a few games today. The only thing I learned is that I also suck at Literati. I lost three out of four games. It was sad.

Anyone have any good suggestions for improving my vocabulary? I am looking in the direction of the self-professing V-cabulary expert who reads this site.

A Lesson in Communication

I'm sitting at Gate C18 in the Philadelphia airport this evening waiting for my 8PM flight to Hartford. Right across the way at Gate C17 is the delayed 6:30 flight to Hartford, which was scheduled to leave at 7:30. I thought about trying to get a seat on the earlier flight, but what is 30 minutes? Especially when 7:30 could become 9 very easily at Philadelphia International Airport.

Just as the other flight to Hartford closed up shop at 7:20, the person running our gate informs us that due to bad weather conditions, the incoming flight that we are waiting for is delayed. In fact, it has not even left fucking North Carolina yet. Our flight was now scheduled to leave at 9:45. Thanks for telling us now since it's too late to try to go standby on the other Hartford flight. Way to serve your customers, USAir. You suck.

It's midnight and I've had a long three days of work in Philly. Furthermore, I had to share my row on the flight tonight with an Ohio State fan. And tomorrow's commute is going to suck since it's really icy outside right now. Blah blah blah.

I'm done complaining now. Goodnight.

Great Weekend of Football

For those NFL fans out there, wasn't that a great weekend of football? Four games decided by a total of 17 points!

I missed the last 6 minutes of the Colts game, though I listened to the end on the radio while driving to New Haven. I missed all of the Eagles game, but I watched all of the Sunday action. The night cap on Sunday might just be the best NFL game I have watched from start to finish in my life. I was thinking about the best games of the past 15-20 years and I missed most or all of nearly every other classic game. The best comparisons I have are the Rams-Titans Super Bowl and the two Steelers AFC title games in the mid-1990s (maybe I am biased with these since the Steelers were my #2 team before Tom Brady became a star in New England). I missed most of the other classics including the first three quarters of Oilers-Bills in the early 1990s.

Can anyone name a better game from start to finish in recent NFL history?

The game last night was incredible. The Patriots were completely dominated statistically. The Chargers were much more talented on paper at every position except quarterback, and Brady was awful yesterday. The Chargers just simply lacked the mental toughness necessary to win. They took too many stupid penalties, dropped too many passes, and talked way too much trash during the game. The Chargers mismanaged the game on several occasions which cost them a change to win the game or force overtime, which makes the Patriots win that much more amazing.

Troy Brown is probably one of the smartest players to ever play the game. It's great that he never left New England for a bigger paycheck because he'd be a much worse player on any other team. He is as much the identity of the Patriots as Tom Brady. Brown always makes the game saving clutch plays, whether it is as a receiver, as a cornerback, or on special teams. His strip after a back breaking interception in the fourth quarter was brilliant. Once the Patriots recovered the ball, I just knew that the Patriots would come back to win the game. The Chargers gave them too many chances.

It's a shame that the post game comments were so juvenile. LT's reference to the lack of class from the Patriots organization came across as sour grapes, regardless of whether he had a valid point. LT should have just shut up and used that hurt as motivation for 2007.

I am so excited about a Patriots-Colts AFC title game next Sunday. It's a shame that the undercard for this game is crap. No offense, FlyingV, but the NFC sucks. The Bears and Saints are playing for the right to lose by 20 in Super Bowl XLI, and it's likely going to be the New Orleans Saints playing for that honor since the Bears squeaked by a mediocre team yesterday afternoon.

ESPN Does it Again

This YouTube link contains two ESPN commercials. You've probably seen the first one, since it first aired several years ago. I just saw the second one this morning. Funny stuff

I'm a Dinosaur

I received some great news at work the other day. Thanks to great effort from FlyingV and RytheRed, we received an acceptance to a full-time offer from a second Michigan student. For the first time in who knows how long, our new hire class will contain two graduates from the University of Michigan. It's usually a rare event when a new hire class has one Michigan alum.

As great as it will be to add to the Michigan arsenal at work this summer and have large gatherings for Michigan football games next fall, it officially ends my privilege of free trips back home every year to recruit young and impressionable actuaries. I used to get two free trips home to recruit each year. This year, I was bumped from the Fall trip since we only needed to send two people, but I would have gone to campus for internship and full-time interviews today (and stay for the weekend) if I didn't have a work conflict. With two more people coming to CT next year, there's no chance in hell of me making anymore recruiting trips to Michigan in the future. I am now considered to be too old and out of touch with today's college students. So sad. No more free trips. :(

My day would be perfect if someone pointed out that my hair is turning grey.

SHENANIGANS!

Don't look now, but the Shenanigans are 2-0 in the winter indoor soccer session. That's right. 2-0! We dismantled Team Bristol 5-2 tonight, thanks in part to a goal by yours truly. Yes, I actually scored a goal in a soccer game!!!!!!!!!!

The goal definitely demonstrated my stellar hockey skills. I was making a run in front of the goal area in an attempt to screen the goalie while we were applying some pressure in the other team's end. A low, hard shot came in my direction and appeared to be going wide of the net. I stuck my foot out and deflected it into the center of the goal. The keeper had no chance. Yay me! Too bad I blew my opportunity to come up with a creative, and possibly shirtless, celebration. It just didn't feel right when we were up by three goals.

Of course, I'd be bragging too much if I didn't point out that my goal came shortly after a mistake caused us to give up a goal. My credit card ups don't serve me well when I am trying to head the ball.

That game was a lot of fun tonight, despite the 10PM kickoff. We had 10 players and everyone except one person did a fantastic job of running hard, taking short 2-4 minutes shifts, and passing the ball around. I think I am going to enjoy playing soccer with these guys over the next couple months.

Say No to Drugs...Or Become President

I am going to try to do the unthinkable right now. I am about to watch our president address the nation. It's no easy task, mind you. When the people in this country elected an absolute buffoon and former junkie to run this country and lead us through times of trouble, we get what we deserve.

After a study from no one else than the Republican Party hitman (James Baker) indicating that our approach in a war overseas is failing miserable and after receiving condemnation from multiple former presidents and leaders across the world, our president insists that the only correct solution is to ignore past presidents, Congress, and foreign diplomats. Did we not just send a message to the president in November that his way doesn't work? If he refuses to be open to input from Congress, I sure hope Congress rejects all of his requests and refuses to fund his demands. That's why Congress was established to check executive powers. Bush needs to learn to play nicely with his peers or hear the word 'No'.

I don't pretend to know the best solution regarding what to do in Iraq. I do know that this war diverted attention from a much more defendable war in Afghanistan and that Bush's stubbornness accomplishes nothing. Our president should start working with Congress and foreign allies for a solution that will actually work.

Now it's time to change the channel. I have seen three minutes of this speech and I can't handle anymore.

I ask you all to do the one thing that can permanently fix our nation's problems. Gary for president in 2008. We can change the constitution so that a 28-year-old can run for president.

Best Commercials of the Year!

RoopDogg and I have thoroughly enjoyed the Coors light commercials the splice together questions from young Coors-drinking partiers with actual responses from NFL coach press conferences. All year long, Coors produced several commercials from press conferences WithDick Vermeil and Bill Walsh.

RoopDogg and I had wishlists of which famous press conferences we'd like to see Coors use for future commercials. The #1 preference on our wish list debuted yesterday.

Question: "Coach, there's going to be girls there. Do you thinkwe should talk to them about the playoffs"?

Mora: "Playoffs? Don't talk about the playoffs. PLAYOFFS!?!?! Are you kidding me? Playoffs!?!?

Coors Commercial

Actual Press Conference Video

Immediately after this commercial, RoopDogg called. He was just checking on me to make sure I saw the same commercial. Did he ever really think that I would miss the playoffs? Hello!?! IT'S THE PLAYOFFS! Just because the Lions suck doesn't mean I am going to miss these games (or commercials).

There was another commercial with Mike Ditka today, but it was not as classic as the Jim Mora speech.

There's one other big press conference blow-up I'd like to see Coors parody before the end of the season. I present you Herm Edwards.

Any other suggestions? I'm sure RoopDogg has a list. Dennis Green had a huge blowup after the Cardinals choked against the Bears this season, but I don't think this translates well to a commercial. These commercials are awesome! :)

Coastal Central Connecticut?

Yesterday afternoon, I was heading out for a few hours. Since it looked nice outside, I decided to just go out wearing a hooded sweatshirt and no coat. Would you believe that I was burning hot the entire time. The high temperature was 71 degrees yesterday. 71 DEGREES! Am I the only one who realizes that it is January? We've only had one run-in with Mr. Snowman so far this winter, and we only received a dusting. Usually, we've had two 12+ inch snowstorms by now. This is ridiculous.

I will admit that it's nice not dealing with big snowstorms now that my commute to work is longer than two miles, but this type of weather is not worth the long-term tradeoff that is the drowning of Connecticut by the Atlantic Ocean.

El Nino is truly making this an interesting winter. Maybe it will snow eventually. In the meantime, I will continue to let my winter clothes collect dust.

I'm Not Dead, People.

Sorry for no posts in a while. I was in Philadelphia the last three days.

My flight back to CT tonight was several hours late, so I never made it out to the bar to see our former interns that are back in town for the weekend. Bummer, but I'd rather get a good night of sleep than party until 3 or 4AM tonight anyway. I'm tired.

I'll make up a good story tomorrow since my life is pretty boring right now. Hooray for year-end reporting.

Poor Dick Clark

I know that Dick Clark suffered a stroke a couple years ago. I am probably also one year behind with this observation, but I did not watch Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve last year. He has had a long fight back from the stroke to learn how to speak, walk, etc. His progress since the stroke is truly admiriable.

However, it was really sad to watch Dick Clark on TV last night. I have all these memories from his days as a game show host or on his New Years Eve show, and it was difficult to watch him struggle through his brief pieces on ABC's special last night and mess up the countdown of the final few seconds of 2006.

I admire his determination to continue his New Years special, but I hope he decides to step away from his show in the future and maybe just add a couple of pre-recorded pieces (since he should still be a part of any New Years Eve TV special as long as he is still alive).

Beatdown :(

That was disheartening. Where to start? Here are the five reasons that USC destroyed Michigan.

1) No pass rush. Branch was solid for the most part. Crable was the only player to create any sort of pass rush all game. I didn't hear the announcers mention Woodley all game until he had a sack in garbage time. Without a dependable pass rush, I bring you reason #2 why Michigan lost...

2) Weak secondary. Michigan's defense was so solid all year because of their awesome pass rush. With an ineffective pass rush over the past two games, the secondary was going to be exposed.

3) USC is really good. Their wide receivers were too much for Michigan. Leon Hall was decent, but Trent and Barringer were exposed frequently by USC. I think that USC would have matched up really well with Ohio State. I don't understand how this team lost to UCLA a month ago.

4) USC defensive strategy. They brought more pressure than Michigan has seen all year (except for possibly the Penn State game). Michigan's offensive line, specifically the right half of the line (Mitchell, Riley), was not equipped to handle that pressure.

5) Michigan's offsensive line. Ruben Riley is a sieve. One giant fat sieve. Alex Mitchell also played poorly today. Henne never had time to throw the football downfield, which is why he never had a chance to throw the deep ball to Manningham.

The end result concerns me for next season. While Michigan will return most of their offense, but the defensive line will take a huge hit if Branch goes pro. Without a stellar defensive line and without Leon Hall next year, teams will pass at will against us. Easily. I think next season will be a lot like the 2000 season when Michigan won nine games, but found ways to lose games 54-51.

Boo urns.