Has Bandwagon Fan Left the Coliseum?

That was fast....USC loses one game and bandwagon fan has abandoned ship. This was the scene at last night's game against the Washington State Cougars.

You probably can't see it all that well, but the Coliseum was not at capacity. Walking into the Coliseum, one could tell that there were less people than usual. As my wife and I got to our seats, there were entire sections that were empty, not to also mention the numerous empty seats where SC fan could typically be found. While it could be that SC fan wasn't all that excited about playing WSU, I couldn't help but think that the team needed our support after a bad loss and we all needed to be there to cheer the team on.

If these no shows were indeed bandwagon fan, I'm glad they're not there any longer. I enjoyed the extra elbow room! :-) Here's hoping they continue to stay away.

Anyways, here's my take on the WSU game:

• The SC offense looked good in the first quarter as they put up 20 points on the board with Matt Barkley back as the starting QB. A few deep Barkley passes for TDs were a sight to behold. As one will undoubtedly ask, where was this type of play and play calling the week before against UW? (And to add insult to injury, Stanford takes down UW by keeping the UW defense honest with the passing game which let Toby Gerhart run all over the UW defense.) Sigh...
  
• Unfortunately, the offense did nothing after the first quarter. The conservative play calling returned and for the final 3 quarters, SC outscored WSU by a single point, 7 - 6.
• The "special" teams play continues to be pathetic. Let's see: a botched extra point attempt, a missed field goal, etc. If this is what a dedicated special teams coach gets us, I'd rather take my chances of not having a special teams coach. At least then, the team would have an excuse for poor special teams play.
• Penalties, penalties, penalties. This was a penalty filled game and there's no excuse for that. Where is the discipline? Coach Carroll better get this cleaned up as we've got Cal, ND, OR coming up on the road and we cannot afford to kill drives with our stupid penalties.
• Dropped passes were a problem here. The team has been too dependent on Damian Williams and Ronald Johnson. With Rojo being injured, no other receiver has stepped up to help. The tight ends haven't stepped up either. The dropped TD pass by Ellison in the endzone on 4th down sums it all up.
  
• The SC defense played a solid (if not stellar) game. It's clear that the defense will have to carry the team this year. The offense still has not shown me it can score consistently where we will be able to win comfortably...especially on the road. The only thing that gets me is that Coach Carroll continues to call for that soft zone on 3rd and long plays.....and it continually gives the opposition big chunks of yards (if not the 1st down).
  
• I hate to say it, but Aaron Corp's playing days at SC are numbered. I was hoping that with the solid 20-point lead going into the second half, Coach Carroll would put Corp into the game to rebuild his confidence and let him lead the offense. Not to also mention that Barkley took a few hard hits in the first half and one would like to keep Barkley out of harms way with Cal coming up next. Unfortunately, we didn't see Corp until the 4th quarter; and on his first pass play, Corp fumbled the ball which WSU recovered and turned into their lone scoring drive. The fans boo'd Corp and I felt bad for him. As an SC fan, I want Corp to succeed...I want him to be able to step in and step up should we need him. This definitely does not help the team as we now have to hope and pray that Barkley can make it through the rest of the season without getting injured. I just don't know if we can count on Corp to step up and lead the team.
  

Well, that's it for now. It's on to Cal...which should be a really tough game as Oregon absolutely embarrassed Cal (42 - 3) and Cal will be looking to bounce back at home against SC.

Fight On!

Should Have Been a Doctor

Well, my dad had a follow-up visit with the doctor who implanted his defibrillator this week. I'm happy to report the following:

• Almost all the bruising and swelling is gone from the area of his surgery
  
• My dad's vitals are good
• My dad is reporting no more pain

My dad still has to be careful with his left arm in that he can't raise it above his shoulder for the next 4 weeks, but the news from this visit was very encouraging.

I do want to share a few photos that I took of the waiting area in the doctor's office.



Obviously, the doctor is doing well. Maybe I should have heeded my parents' advice and been a doctor instead. It certainly would have taken me out of my current work environment.

USC Continues a Disturbing Pattern

First off, congrats to WA - in particular to Sark and Holt - for upsetting Pete Carroll and the USC Trojans!

Here is my breakdown of the game:

• Having seen Aaron Corp up close and personal for 2 years prior to taking over the WA Huskies, Sark and Holt came up with the perfect gameplan to upset the USC Trojans. They stuffed the box and dared the Trojans to beat them with the passing game. SC just couldn't do it.
• The playcalling by SC left me scratching my head. I could be wrong, but the team didn't run a single "play action pass" play the entire game. Seeing that WA was stuffing the box to stop the SC running game, why wouldn't you call a play action pass? Get the WA secondary to bite on a fake running play to allow your receivers to steal a step for a big pass play. Also, I don't understand why SC did not try to move the pocket or run some bootlegs (playing to Corp's strength, his mobility) to give him time to find open receivers or to run the ball himself?
  (Note: I am a big Norm Chow fan. I don't find it coincidental that SC has not won a BCS Championship since he left. I'm just saying...)
  
• Turnovers: USC 3, WA 0. To make matters worse, all 3 turnovers were in the red zone for the Trojans. Just one of those turned into a score would have been the difference.
• Time mismanagement: not getting off the field goal at the end of the 1st half was horrendous. This was the direct result of running a running play on 3rd down when the team had no timeouts remaining. SC doesn't get the first down to stop the clock and time runs out before they can attempt the field goal. Again, questionable playing calling that took 3 points off the board for SC.
  
• SC could not convert on 3rd down situations (see point above), while WA could. Prolonging possessions gave WA more opportunities to control the game and the game clock.
  
• Aaron Corp looked like he hasn't played in a long long time. Or maybe he just isn't that good? This may explain why Coach Carroll didn't want to name Corp the starter during the week and was hoping that Barkley could play this game. Aaron just did not look like a leader as he did not instill any confidence in the offense.
  
• As I said last week, the SC offense not being able to score would be a big problem. Little did I know that it would cost SC the game against WA. Imagine what the score will be when SC plays Cal or the D'oh-mers.
• Punting is still a major problem for the Trojans. If the offense can't move the ball, SC is going to need better production from the punting game as you can't average only ~35 yards per punt. WA was getting good to excellent field position from almost every SC punt.
  

It'll be interesting to see how far the USC Trojans drop in the Top 25 standings. If the drop is like Oklahoma State, the Trojans will be in the teens. The only saving grace is that WA played LSU tough as well. If not for that, the Trojans may be dropping into the twenties next week.

Well, just like the last few years, SC loses a game it had no business losing. The disturbing pattern continues...and the toughest games are yet to come. It may be a long season, SC fans.

Review: Taco Bell's Nacho Crunch Burrito

As I've said before, I'm a sucker for the marketing. Watching all that college football on Saturday meant that I saw the Taco Bell commercial for their new 1/2 pound burritos about 80 times. I couldn't find the commercial on YouTube to share with you, but it's the one with Evander Holyfield where he orders one of the 3 new burritos that Taco Bell is offering:

Well, the wife and I were getting some gas for the car today and on the way to the gas station, we passed by a Taco Bell. I couldn't help but comment about the burrito and the Holyfield commercial, so the wife insisted that I get it (I'm sure she just wants me to get it so I don't constantly comment on the burrito every time we pass by a Taco Bell).

Well, first of all, the Nacho Crunch burrito didn't look like the photo above. However, it sure was tasty!

The burrito had the following:

• Ground beef
• Nacho cheese sauce
• Strips of tortilla chips
  
• Tomatoes
  
• Sour cream
  

There was a good amount of sour cream and nacho cheese sauce throughout, so every bite was flavorful. The only issue I encountered is that you need to eat the burrito quickly! Because there is so much sauce, the tortilla chips which is supposed to give the burrito its crunch got very soggy.

My verdict: If the Nacho Crunch Burrito stays on the menu for $1.99, I will definitely get it again.

USC vs Ohio State - What a Game!

Wow wow wow...



It was the game I expected and it was the game I didn't expect.

First off, the things I expected:

• The Buckeyes played one hell of a game! I had a feeling they would...given 1) the score from last year's game and 2) OSU wanted to shut their critics up. My hat is off to the Buckeyes...there is nothing to be ashamed about from this loss. They left it all on the field. No one can ever say that OSU can't play with the top ranked teams.
  
  
• The SC defense came to play and thank goodness for that!
  

The things I didn't expect:

• The SC offense was dreadful (other than the final game-winning drive). Of course, this had a lot to do with the way the Buckeye defense played as the Buckeyes pushed the SC O-line and pressured Matt Barkley all night long. However, this was supposed to be the strength of the team, so this was very disconcerting. Only scoring 18 points is not going to cut it against Cal or Notre Dame.
  
  
• The SC special teams was even more dreadful than the offense (poor punting, missed tackles on returns, screwing up a punt for a safety, etc.). Is this what we can expect with the special teams even though we have a Special Teams coach this year? Not a very good return on investment on the coach's salary (if you ask me)!
  
  
• Matt Barkley was calm and poised tonight. That game-winning drive will go down in SC Football lore just like Matt Leinart's drive against Notre Dame in 2005 (you know, the Bush Push).
  

The team gets to enjoy the victory tonight and then immediately starts to prepare for the Washington game next Saturday. I have a feeling it'll be a tough game against the Sark offensive playbook and the Holt defensive schemes. It's basically a battle between the teacher (Coach Carroll) vs his pupils (Sark and Holt).

Fight On!

Update 9/13/09:

The Barkley drive and Leinart drive for your viewing pleasure:

Review: EXiM Screen Protector

If you recall from my review of the SwitchEasy Colors case (here and here), SwitchEasy included 2 screen protectors to use with the iPhone 3GS.

Unfortunately, the screen protectors didn't last very long as scratches developed on the screen protectors in less than a day of heavy usage. I'm a bit anal about these things and decided to go back to a tried and true screen protector that I had used on my Sony Ericsson M600i - the EXiM screen protector.

The EXiM isn't cheap as they cost roughly $11 for a single protector. However, let me tell you that the EXiMs can take a beating and are very scratch resistant. Here's some marketing copy from their packaging:

The EXiM SPUC is made of patented glue-free silicone rubber adhesive coating which makes it washable and reusable. What's more, the EXiM SPUC is made of Japan-made highly engineered P.E.T. film which offers excellent optical clarity and anti-scratch performance. It is highly durable and can last for a long period of time under normal usage.

I ordered the EXim through eBay and here's what I received:





Applying the screen protector was easy, but be sure to really wipe off all of the dust from your iPhone first. You don't want any dust trapped between your iPhone and the screen protector as that'll cause air bubbles to show up.



I've had the EXiM screen protector on for over a month now and it's still scratch free. It looks as good as the day I received it. Not only am I using this on my iPhone, my wife is also using it on her BlackBerry Bold.

PS - I purchased the EXiM screen protectors from eBay seller "pda-now". He's based in Hong Kong, but is quick with the shipping.

Review: Wendy's Honey BBQ Boneless Wings

Wendy's commercials for their new boneless wings have been all over the TV lately. One can't help but see them while watching college football on TV.

Well, the wife and I couldn't decide what to have for dinner the other night and since we didn't want to cook, we headed out for fast food. I must be a sucker for the marketing because we ended up at Wendy's and I decided to give their new Boneless Wings a try.



The honey BBQ wings I ordered came in a nice secure package that kept the wings warm and the sauce from dripping. The wings looked promising and I was hoping that they would be moist and tender with a lot of flavor; unfortunately, the wings turned out to be quite dry with the only flavor coming from the honey BBQ sauce (of which there wasn't enough). I ended up using some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce that I had in the fridge to finish eating them. Given this experience, I'd be hard pressed to try the other 2 flavors - Bold Buffalo and Sweet & Spicy Asian Chicken.

Quite a shame, because I typically like Wendy's food....and my wife absolutely loves the buns Wendy's uses for their burgers.

College Football Has Started! Go USC!!!

I'm a big college football fan. It's not hard to be when:

1. Los Angeles has no NFL team
2. The college game is just so much more fun

If you couldn't tell from my "About Me" avatar, I'm a USC Trojan fan! I went to SC when the football program was down in the dumps (meaning the team was in a losing streak to both the UCLA bRuins and Notre Dame Fighting Irish). As you can imagine, I'm thoroughly enjoying the "success" that the team is having under Coach Pete Carroll and became season ticket holders a few years back. Nothing lasts forever, so I'm enjoying the ride and hoping for one more BCS Championship within the next year or two.

Here are a few photos from the San Jose State game that I wanted to share:


(Trojans about to kickoff to the Spartans.)


(Trojans about to score.)


(Part of the USC Marching Band making its way around the Coliseum)

FIGHT ON!!!

The Dysfunctional Workplace: Part 2

For those of you who read my earlier post, I'm sure you're probably thinking that almost everyone has a few complaints about their workplace. I'm sure you're right, but I honestly feel that my current company (let's call them CDE) is one of the worst.

With Labor Day just a few days away, I thought I would do a more detailed post about CDE. Without further ado...

On the surface, one would assume that CDE would be a fabulous place to work. CDE is located in sunny Southern California, in one of the nicest office complexes around; one gets exposed to the latest and greatest widgets and widget news in the widget obsessed culture that is Southern California; the pay is decent and the benefits are top notch - where else do you get 13 paid holidays a year along with the ability to earn 3 weeks of paid time off (PTO)?

Alas, that is where the positives end and the cons begin. Grab a seat, get your popcorn and soda, and be prepared for the inner workings of the most dysfunctional workplace ever!

Let's begin...in no particular order:

1. Can you say bloated? One of the only straight shooters in the company commented to me once that CDE could fire half it's employees and be no worse for wear. He is absolutely spot on. Seriously! There are people "working" at CDE that I have absolutely no clue as to what they do. These people add absolutely no value. While I admire Senior Management for not wanting to lay off people, CDE is in the business of making money. CDE should not be a charity. Get rid of the dead weight already.
   
   
2. There is absolutely no sense of urgency within the rank and file. Things get done when they get done. Internet companies typically release updates to their website every 3 to 6 weeks. At CDE it takes 3 to 6 months...and we're an agile/scrum shop to boot. There's seriously nothing agile about the company.
   
   
3. No one really cares if they do a good job or not. Since no one ever gets fired or laid off, why bother doing a good job? There are no serious repercussions for a job poorly done. Sure, you may get marginalized, but you are still employed and doing less than before for the same salary. No wonder no one ever leaves! Sometimes I wonder if I'm working in a union for a government agency.
   
   
4. Too many cooks in the kitchen. Everyone has a say at CDE, but no one is truly responsible for anything. Worst yet, you may be given the responsibility to get things done, but you have no authority to get them done. I'm one of these "unlucky" individuals and I'm hating every fucking minute of my job.
   
   
5. Before working here, someone had told me that CDE does a lot of numbers crunching and places a lot of emphasis on the numbers. That's true when it applies to calculating widget prices within a given area or projecting the annual widget sales rate, but CDE has a serious problem with using numbers to run the business. What good is knowing your page views for the previous week when there are no revenue numbers associated with it? How does someone run a business when no one has a clue as to whether the company made any money yesterday or is making any money so far today? If one truly looked at the web statistics, it tells us that CDE's website has a serious abandonment/bounce rate issue, but yet the company doesn't undertake any project to address it. WTF! We spent money to acquire visitors to our website, but we let them go without monetizing them. Can someone please explain that to me?
   
   
6. At CDE, we're paid to take orders...we're not paid to think or be smart business people. You can have real world data and have tested something fabulous, but if a senior exec already has his mind made up on how something should be, get ready to throw out months of work to execute their exact whim.
   
   
7. If you are new to CDE, don't expect your fellow employees to come up with great new ideas to grow the business. Everyone is conditioned to do what they are told...and no more than that. Employees do the bare minimum. Anything that will cause extra work is frowned upon.
   
   
8. Don't even get me started on the number of times that management changes its mind. Management can be involved and have sat through months of meetings, but they'll change their minds at the last minute and we'll be starting all over again.
   
   
9. Politics, politics, politics. CDE is good at politics. Almost everything is politicized. I'd be hard pressed to name one thing that isn't politicized as all the powers that be are building their little fiefdoms and trying to wrest more and more under their control. Back handed slaps and comments to weaken your rivals, saying one thing to your face while doing something completely different to wreck your project are all part of the game here.
   
   
10. Can you say passive aggressive? Almost everyone at CDE is passive aggressive. No one ever says anything negative to your face. It always goes up the chain of command and back down to you in your formal review. I don't know about you, but if someone doesn't like my work or has issues with it, I expect them to come to me so we can address it. Going to my manager and not giving me the opportunity to ask questions to understand what the complaint is does no one any good. Are we still in grade school that you can't tell me what's wrong? I must have been mistaken to think that we're all professional, working adults. My bad!
    
    
11. CDE needs to stop lying to itself by thinking its a technology company. It clearly is not as the company has never learned to use the off-the-shelf technologies it has bought nor has it ever developed anything of value internally. Again, it takes CDE 3-6 months to release anything onto the website. Enough said!
    
    
12. For being an Internet company, CDE is deathly afraid of change. If something isn't final or completed, no one is going to touch it or work on it. Even the smallest changes, such as changing the color of a button or changing the button location, elicits a big groan from the Development organization. Since when does the Internet stand still for us to "perfect" everything? Isn't the whole point of an Internet company or website to change/adapt quickly and iterate over time to get better? I guess no one ever informed CDE of this!

If these cons amount to anything positive, it's that working at CDE allows for great work-life balance. As you can imagine, it's strictly a 9 to 6 job since no one really stays in the office past 6pm.

To recap for you:

CDE Pros: Great benefits, such as 3 weeks of PTO and lots of paid holidays. Good work life balance.

CDE Cons: Too many to list...and trying to call out just one or two would be a disservice. I don't want people to think that CDE is better than it actually is.

My Advice to Management: Run the company like a money making business with headcount that matches the revenue numbers. Stop running the business like a hole-in-the-wall taco stand. (Apologies as I just insulted taco stands!)