Disturbed

There's a lot of catching up to do, I mean a lot. Like the catching up i'm going to have to do after missing the last two episodes of "Entourage" or the catching up they must have done on the "Saved By the Bell" reunion. What had that must have been like? "so...Elizabeth, how did that movie about being a stripper work out for you?" and "So...Dustin, you're completely crazy. Who knew?" There was an episode of the "College Years" on the other day when I was on the eliptical machine in the weight room of the football stadium and am I the only one or did Mark Paul Gossler look like he was on roids? Seriously, he was all jacked up but was back to normal for his stint on "NYPD Blue". Good I miss Sipowicz.

But before we get to that, I've got a serious issue....

In hopes of protecting my anonymity, I put the name of the blog into a Google to search to see what came up. To my shock, the first result was a blog by the very same name, hosted by this very same company. Shouldn't have the good people at blogger detected that and stopped me from putting together a blog by the same name? There should really be a rule that you can't have two blogs with the same name, at least hosted by the same site. I could see if there was one here and one done by Tripod or whoever, but it's kind of incestuous, don't you think?

This also leads me to a dilemma. Do I change the name of the blog, and the address, to keep mine unique or do I just stick with this one? Had I gotten one of the columnist spots at the Post my senior year, Skydiving Without a Parachute was the back up name for the column to Life in the Moose Lane, which was the name of the old blog, but you already knew that. I don't know what to do. If I do change, my last post at this site would just be a link to the new site. I'll stick with the good folks at Blogger.com, so they don't have to worry about the 1,000s of hits that I get every day.

I'm a little disturb that my blog didn't come up on the Google search, but relieved at the same time. It was surprising how many hits there were when you put the name into Google. So much for being orginal, I'll have to come up with a better one I guess. Any suggestions?

I also tried putting my last name in Google and the first reference was to the Urban Dictionary with the street definition of "Moose is a Japanese Samurai Hitman who kills by Honour." The next listing was www.Moose.com which upset me again because I was hoping to get that domain. The topper with this thing is that none of the references to the people on the site are to anyone I'm related to or with the same last name. I could see if it was a cousin of mine who did it, that wouldn't be an issue, but just some random jagoff pisses me off. This SOB didn't have to go through elementary school getting picked on because their last name. That bitch has earned that site. I need to plane some sort of hostel spamming take over to get it back.

Alabama Getaway Part I

Well I got to Tuscaloosa okay today and to my shock, about an hour or so faster than what Mapquest said. Mapquest said it would take me just over five hours to get here and that was with directions that took me the whole way up to Birmingham and then back down southwest towards Tuscaloosa.

Luckily for me, a friend who had been to Tuscaloosa many times said the quickest route was to pick up Highway 82, just north of Montgomery. When I look at the Mapquest directions for that route this morning, the site said that way was shorter, but it would take me almost seven hours. Fortunately it was a quiet Sunday on the roads and I was humming along in a caravan with a few other cars the whole way here.

Tomorrow afternoon may be a different story when I go back. I'm going to hit Montgomery right around 5 p.m. so there will be some congestion and the state of Alabama hasn't done a great job of snyching its lights. With the exception of some parts of 82, most of the roads I was on were four-lane state highways where the speed limit is 55-to-65 mph, which is great. What I don't get is why they throw stoplights up on a road where the speed limit is 65. They do that in some parts of Ohio, but at least they put up a sign about a quarter of a mile away with a flashing light that tells you if you're going to hit a red light or not

I haven't seen much of Tuscaloosa as I came straight to my room at the Hampton Inn. Nice place as most Hamptons are. My only complaint so far is that the ID that pops up on the screen does not match the actual station. If that's my only gripe, it will be a good trip. I'm schedule to leave here at 3 p.m. (CST) which would put me home at 9 p.m. EST

I've got dinner tonight with the director of Media Relations and a couple of guys from the office then most of the interviews are tomorrow. Tuesday I have two interviews at Florida State with another pair Wednesday. Wednesday afternoon I'll be on a flight back home and I figure by the time I reach Pittsburgh I'll know whether I want to be in Tallahassee or Tuscaloosa. Both places are good solutions and hard to spell.

Roll Tide

So I'm interviewing at Alabama on Monday for a job in their SID office. The last three days have been a rollercoaster. Having not heard from Bama this week I was all set to accept a job at FSU, but by Wednesday afternoon Alabama was back in the mix. Since then I've gone through a set of mood swings where every three hours my opinion seems to change.

I'm not sleeping particularly well. I tossed and turned all last night and had a couple of crazy dreams. It took me 45 minutes to get out of bed after the alarm went off at 6:30. Most of it has to do with the stress of the job, but I'm sure the 40 of Colt 45 that I drank last night at friend's going away party didn't help.

I drive up to Tuscaloosa Sunday afternoon and have dinner with some people from the office, then Monday is all the interviews with the various coaches, administrators, etc. I come back Monday night, then interview here Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Wednesday afternoon I'll be on a plane for PA.

I think the job is going to come down to the people. The schools, the jobs and the salaries are pretty comparable, so that leaves the people. I already have a great relationship with the people here so Alabama is going to have to comparable or better. We shall see.

First Ones Here

This is the new blog. Apparently I need a little more anonymity in my life so I've moved from the good folks at Tripod - fair ye well - and now I'm here. Look for more post along the way.