Koo’s Corner

Below is a video of Arnold Schwartzenegger announcing that California has secured Tesla Motor’s new production facility to mass produce electric vehicles. New Mexico was earlier announced as the destination for the facility, but the Governator (big fan and owner of a Tesla) worked hard to come up with an incentive package to get Tesla to reconsider.

Have to say that I am glad Tesla made the decision, as the company’s HQ, funding, and biggest fans are in the Bay Area. This move reinforces California as the epicenter of emerging green technologies and as the state most pro active against Global Warming.

I am a big fan of Hulu and blogged about it a couple months ago. At a high level, Hulu is a higher resolution Youtube with advertising except all the videos are legal and come from big name media companies so there is no user generated content.You can watch entire movies and television shows with a sparse amount advertising and even have the option to embed them into blogs. The problem is that WordPress.com users like me have had mild success getting these great videos from Hulu.com onto our blogs. Luckily for me 30 minutes of persistence has paid off. I am sure I’ll post a lot of stuff from Hulu to make it look like I blog a lot, but for now here is a scene from Garden State (good 20’s angst movie).Scene below is fist meeting between main characters Andrew and Sam. Props to VodPod for making this happen, although I had to jump through some extra hoops.

I have moved, and am without internet until Wednesday. Hang in there as I know it hurts you more than it hurts me.

This blows my mind! I am putting this contraption on my Birthday list.

A trio of headlines stood out to me across the college athletics landscape, all of which involved ethical disciplinary actions being taken at prominent sports schools.

Leading off is new Indiana basketball coach, Tom Crean deciding to take a stiff line with a handful of current Indiana players. As you may recall Armon Bassett and JaMarcus Ellis were kicked off the team in March for flat out attitude and insubordination issues by the interim Indiana coach.

Upon Crean’s hiring, he said he would revisit the issue with the players. Initially I thought that with the MASSIVE talent exodus from Bloomington that Crean was just looking to turn the other way and let these numskulls back onto the team. Turns out he did one better, not only did opt to have them not return he also told Eli Homan to join them in leaving Indiana which subsequently led to an altercation in which the campus cops had to come.

Crean’s actions along with another transfer means Indiana will only return 3 scholarship players and 8 total, the makings for an atrocious year. However the quote below really sums up the rationale of making the hard decision.

“”Before you build a team, you need to develop a family,” “We will go through the learning process, feel some growing pains and experience some bumps in the road along the way. We need the Hoosier Nation to rally around this program as we go through these stages.”

For a program marred by contreversy, its good to see Crean really stepping up here.

In a similar story, Bruce Pearl of Tennessee kicked off two contributors from the Volunteer team. Both Raymar Smith and Duke Crews played extensively and had 2 more years left in Knocksville, so Pearl’s actions speak to the seriousness of the players conduct and his commitment to discipline.

In other news Les Miles finally had enough of Ryan Perrilloux and kicked him off the LSU football team (again). Perrilloux has a pretty extensive rap sheet of that should have warranted expulsion, but Miles gave him some extra chances as he is talented, a quarterback, and plays for the defending National Champions. Perrilloux never viewed LSU is academic institution, but more of as minor league affliate for the NFL.

Although this assumption holds true for LSU and the majority of the SEC, the numerous behaviorial issues added up, and stretched Miles and the fan bases’ patience too far. Without Perrilloux look for the Tigers to miss out on a BCS bowl in 2008.

Just a quick note one of my favorite shows, The Office, is coming back tonight with new episodes on NBC.

I was just getting into The Office after ignoring its first couple of seasons. Unfortunately the writer’s strike killed my office groove as the new season abruptly went into hiatus.

The Office is a great show with goofy dialogue, ridiculous characters, and comedic commentary about office culture.

What really propels to show to a broader audience is the relationship of Jim and Pam. Similar to Friends’ Ross and Rachel in the nineties, viewers seem to enjoy embrace their journey as a potential couple.

For whatever reason people worry about and root for their relationship. The depth of the relationship would not seem to fit in such a light hearted show. However male viewers young and old seem to identify witty and nice Jim’s struggles to be more than a friend while female’s identify with corky but sweet Pam’s inability to break out of other tumultuous relationships.

This current season was the first year they actually got together. Time will tell if the writers decide to embrace their new founded relationship or come up with compelling storylines that challenge them.

Either way I am glad this great show is back. If you care to catch up on the office but dont feel like paying check out hulu.com.

Here is recent episode.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/6631/the-office-survivor-man

   On Friday I anointed the Pontiac Spy Hunter commercial as my commercial of the week. Watching basketball this weekened I have seen another Pontiac Commercial countless times. A couple of my buddies pointed out that for some odd reason it looks like my name is spelled out in what looks like blood under the car when it goes sideways 21 seconds into the advertisement. This commercial plays about 4x a day during the NCAA tourney and is beginning to freak me out.

At my company any customer facing content has to be signed off by a multiple people. I am sure Pontiac is the same, which makes me even more curious why Ben appears under the car. Maybe they or their ad agency will care to comment

Found this tonight. The perfect game for mischievous worker bees who dream of glory days of years past.

from www.funny-games.biz posted with vodpod

  We opened up great taking a 10-0 lead. We then gave up 31 straight points. Lots of the blame goes to coaching and stupid penalties. The discrepancy in the score was not indicititve of the talent levels. Really disappointed in the offensive play call after the first quarter. Defensively when LSU had third and short we failed to bring in extra interior lineman and they converted at will.

LSU played man coverage all day. I like Hartline as our soft zone receiver and Robo as our polished more physical reciever to go to agaisnt man coverage. Other things that stick out

- Nothing over the middle the tight ends

- No screens or draws (things that can work and keep the defense honest)

- No trick plays. Come on Tressel. Give me some gadget plays and some trickeration

- Penalties… I thought some of the calls were bad. But some were just flat out stupid.

- Third downs. Simply Miles winning the chess game here over Tressel. A lot of third downs stick out as being bad calls offensively and defensively. I don’t want to get into it, but Tressel really couldn’t come up with much on third and 3-7 yards.

- I really think the offensive playbook could be  lengthend. I really like a lot of our plays but some times its just so damn vanilla.

I pretty much feel like this guy now….

 

Last night was my first time out on the famed Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street lived up to its billing and then some. Imagine 30,000 -50,000 crazed college football fans looking to blow off some steam the night before a much anticipated game. Bourbon Street spans about 12 blocks, has no open container laws, is closed down for the crowds, and has a wide assortment of restaurants , bars, strip clubs, and mini marks that sell everything you need to have a good time on the street. Its a scene I hope to return to tonight in celeberation.

I am off to the game in a little bit. The outcome will most likely dictate my mood for the rest of January. I can’t wait. I have to go as the house keeping lady is here. Go bucks