As usual, there’s plenty going on this time of year for notes:
- Did anyone see the Packers-Cowboys game last night? It was only the best NFC matchup so far this year, but thanks to our cable companies and the NFL Network, practically no one was able to see it. Congratulations are in order for the NFL in what is apparently an attempt to dethrone itself as the nation’s premier professional sport. I flipped back and forth between a couple of exciting college basketball games instead.
- Tomorrow I’ll get the chance in person to watch what is annually one of the most highly-anticipated games of the college football season: the SEC championship. Even though the winner likely won’t get the opportunity, I will maintain that the top SEC teams, even those with three losses like Tennessee, can compete with anyone you will see in the national title game. Of course, they could just call the whole thing off. Or if you think a playoff is a good idea, here’s an older proposal you might be able to get behind.
- Matt Hall has already picked up a GSC West Player of the Week honor based on his 36-point game against WTAMU. I’d put the over-under at 4.5 for the number of his POTW recognitions this season.
- I haven’t maintained a weekly list of my favorite songs in some time, since my musical tastes have been slower to change in recent years, but here’s a list of some songs I like that are getting airplay on mainstream/modern rock stations: Paramore’s “Misery Business,” Jimmy Eat World’s “Big Casino,” and Foo Fighters’ “The Pretender,” the last of which is available for play in Guitar Hero 3 as part of a Foo Fighters pack download (with “All My Life” and “This is a Call”).
- I also recently bought Collective Soul’s latest album, Afterwords (which is frustratingly a Target exclusive), which has finally convinced me that one of my favorite bands growing up has finally lost a step. Their lineup has changed somewhat in recent years, and Ed Roland just isn’t writing like he once was.
- In what will probably be my last major purchase for a while (barring a complete vehicle breakdown), I bought one of Best Buy’s Black Friday laptops, a Gateway T-1620. It’s a pretty solid computer, although I’m a bit apprehensive about dealing with Windows Vista. I spent the last two nights setting it up the way I want it, and I’ll probably be doing most of my blog work from it in the future.
Have a great weekend. I’ll have a review of the weekend’s basketball action on Sunday, and I assure you I’m working on some basketball stat pages for the site in the meantime.
jfwiii.net 
The Dell laptop I purchased this summer came with Vista. Vista took me some patience, probably a week’s worth, but once I was able to adjust all the settings to my preference, I like Vista more than Windows XP.