If you’ve found this site via searching for my name from the hoooorible youtube video, I just wanted to say welcome.  The reason my name is up there is that schmuck KidBronc used a photograph I took as the background of that POS video.  I couldn’t stand to be accociated with that garbage, so I had youtube pull it.

Again, I am NOT and have never been associated with the guy who made that video. I’m just the poor guy who had his photo stolen and used.

That being said, feel free to poke around.

Thanks for visiting.

-Jason Haberman

If you’re a semi regular visitor you might notice now that the content area is wider than it was.  Previously, I was frustrated by the fact that my content area was so narrow, specifically when posting images.  I could only go so big before the damn thing would blow up.

Now it is definitely wider (by 200px).  Of course, I don’t think I’m done futzing with it.  I’m really kinda bored with the look and feel of this thing and want to go in another direction.  The only thing that is stopping me is the fact that I really like my rotating headers I have and I don’t want to have to recreate them or something to fit a new layout.  As you can see, they don’t fit the new width and perhaps I’ll do something with that soon.

Since I basically play with HTML and CSS all day at work, it really isn’t high on my list of things to tackle once I get home.  But maybe I’ll have another slightly larger burst of energy to completely change this blog layout around.

Stay tuned.

We pretty much dominated them on the defense side of the ball.  Our defense is scary good.  In every game except one (Oregon) we have held the opposing offense to a single score.  That’s it.  Amazing.  Last night, we pulled down 5 interceptions and got 7 sacks.  That is a thorough ass whippin.

However, our offense still isn’t as good as it should be.  Sure, we won and I won’t ever complain about a win, but we have one weak link on offense this year.  Our offensive line just isn’t very good.  I don’t know why, but they struggle every game.  The running game has never got off the ground.  Also, we have not had many deep passes this year.  What do both of those things need?  Good blocking.  We just don’t have it.  I am certainly not used to watching a Boise State team be more dominant on defense than offense.  It is an interesting change of pace.  Especially when you are used to seeing 45+ every game.  This year, we have to be satisfied with 24+, but this time around we’re holding the opponents to 11 points a game.  A “W” is a “W”, I suppose.

This also marked the first game I was able to bring our new camera to.  Jess and I got a Canon XSi Digital SLR a couple weeks ago and I’m still figuring out how to use it.  But, it came with a couple nice lenses and what follows are some of my favorite shots I got. Click on each one to go to the flickr page or view the whole gallery here.

Now, I’m enjoying it, especially the little piece where you can update your “status”.  And now, since I have gotten the Facebook App for the iPhone, I can mobilly update my status whenever I feel the urge.

Which made me think… perhaps there would be a way to incorporate that information into my blog…

Well, scan your eyes to the right, just below the picture of your glorious author.  What you will find there is my current facebook status.  Fun right?

What this means for you is even if you don’t have facebook and add me as a friend (or if you do, go here: http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason_Haberman/1300160722) you can still see my status.  Even better, there will often be at least a little something new for you to see on every single visit, as I am tending to update that thing multiple times a day.

Cheers!

I always hesitate to do this, because it can cause all sorts of strange errors or problems with incompatible pieces.  But, since my brand new iPhone has a native application that will allow me to mobile blog even more efficiently, and there are numerous security updates, I finally went from version 2.3.3 to the full fledge version 2.6.  No, it doesn’t sound like much.

What does this mean to you, dear reader?  Well… nothing.  Although, I have removed the anti-spam captcha words that were on the comment form.  Ok, well, I didn’t choose to remove it, that plugin was incompatible with the latest version.  Hopefully, I won’t be innundated with spam, but time will tell.

The only problem I have now is that the permalink structure (aka: the path that shows up in your browser address window) now sucks.  Due to 2.6 and IIS not playing nice together, I’m unable to go back to the cooler way of linking (/2008/7/30/Blog-updated) and have to stick with the default (?=414).  This is quite aggravating since I have numerous links from elsewhere on the web that point to the old structure.  I’m going to have to do some more investigating.

Anyway, there ya go.  Not all that exciting, but news none the less.

Update:

I figured out and implemented a fix for the ugly url deal.  Much thanks to this guy.

Anyway, I was asked by the guys over there to contribute to their little ongoing feature called the OBNUG Hall of Fame. I could nominate any player/performance I wished. After some deliberation, I finally settled on my candidate and selected the best performance I ever witnessed live (aside from the Fiesta Bowl).

You can read (and vote) here.

Thanks again for the opportunity guys!

For anyone who might be visiting me for the first time from that site, feel free to peruse my Boise State posts.

Some of my favorites:

• Why You’re A Fan (post Fiesta Bowl)
• So Which Is It?
• Broncos @ Reno in 2006
• My 5 part post about my Fiesta Bowl adventure
• Is It Still a Rivalry?
• Ultimate Bronco Fan

Last year, I somehow missed commemorating my blog’s birthday, or blogiversary, if you will, by a full month. This year, I missed it again, if only by a single day. I had planned to recognize the “terrible twos” with a little post, but sure enough, April 24th came and went with nary a batted eye.

In the “better late than never” department… I can’t believe its already been two years I’ve been doing this. Amazing. Feels much shorter than that. I don’t even mind that 90% of my readers are people that I know personally. I still get the occasional random hit from google, but nothing major. Like I said last year, this is mainly for me.

Some updated stats:

• 267 Total Posts by me.
• 690 Comments from you.
• upwards of 1,300 unique visitors a month.
• 19,541 spam comments avoided.

That’s not too shabby.

Going forward, I’m thinking there might be a major overhaul of the look and feel of this site in the future. WordPress (the software used to run this thing) has been updated greatly since I started, but the theme I’m using does not take advantage of all of those upgrades. So, if I can find the time, I may start tinkering with the presentation around here. If you show up and things look all wonky, rest assured, it’s probably just me playing with it.

So, happy (belated) Birthday In The World… here’s to many more.

Well, this morning was different. When I first checked, I had some 300+ visitors since midnight. Wow… what the hell is going on, I wondered. I checked where these hits were coming from and most of them were coming from a comment I made on ESPN.com a few days ago on a story about Super Bowl foods. I simply posted, “I’m personally going to whip up some Stroganoff Dip. It is ALWAYS a hit.” with a link to my blog post with the recipe.

Lo and behold, somehow that quote got “featured” on their main page. Check the image to the left, bottom. I have no clue how or why. All I know is that as of right now I’ve gotten 374 unique visitors and over 800 page views. The most interesting part is that I’ve gotten a big spike in traffic from Google from people searching “Stroganoff Dip Recipe” and finding my site that way as well.

The web is an amazing thing.

So, welcome folks from ESPN. Stick around if you like. I’ve written about Sports in general and Boise State specifically quite a bit.  Maybe you’ll find something you’ll enjoy.

Why You’re A Fan

The big day is scheduled for Saturday, August 16th 2008.

We have been engaged for two full months as of this Friday. Presently, we have just about everything nailed down. Date, locale (for reception at least), caterer, photographer, DJ, cake, colors, dress, tuxes, honeymoon, you name it. I believe the only semi-major type thing left to do is flowers.

Yes, I’ll take full credit for getting all of this done. I’ve really been busting my ass, making decisions and calling all over town coordinating everything. I will say it has been kinda tough dragging Jess through this whole process…

Oh… Hi baby, didn’t see you there… a-hem… whoops… um… I mean… er… well, see… ahh… the thing is… uh…

Just kidding. She has actually been super efficient in nailing all this down. She jumped into the deep end and has done an amazing job. If it was up to me, we’d be nowhere. Getting married at the local Moose Lodge or something officiated by Reverend Skeeter, local pastor and tractor mechanic.

So, there ya go. You’re all up to date now. For the record, you’ll notice that I’ve added a new category to the right navigation called “Wedding”. This can be your conduit for all things wedding related here on my blog. Right now, this will be the only post in there, but stay tuned. More will be coming to feed you people’s voracious appetite for wedding details.

The first flick (and only flick for that matter) I’ve seen so far is the sci-fi piece I Am Legend starring Will Smith.

Now, this thing will be filled with spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want it ruined, quit reading now.

Brief synopses goes like this. (or, a complete synopsis here) A virus is created that turns out to be a cure for cancer. Thus, docs start using it all over. Only later does this virus mutate into a disease that turns people into grotesque super-strong, hyper-aggressive rubbery monsters who burn in sunlight (UV) and feed on the remaining humans. Oops. According to Neville (Smith’s character) the virus is world wide and there are millions of these monsters who have virtually wiped out the non-infected humans for food. Fast forward to 3 years after the outbreak, Neville is an army doctor who may be the last living person in Manhattan (which was quarantined in the early days of the virus outbreak to try to stop the spread), if not the world.

For the record, I’ve always been a sucker for futuristic depictions of utterly deserted urban areas. The resulting imagery has always captured my imagination. In fact, this very evening the History Channel is debuting a new show called Life After People. Looks very cool. I digress…

He spends his days hunting deer in the empty streets of NYC in his impossibly shiny red Mustang. Why he would apparently spend time washing his car was never discussed. Anyway, he also “rents” movies from a local video store, talking with mannequins he placed there like they’re actual people, presumably to ward off dementia… either that or he is already nuts. Jury is still out on that one. Oh yeah, he’s also working on a cure based on his obviously immune blood.

After his dog is killed… well, he actually has to kill his dog because it became infected after he got caught in a trap set by these supposedly mindless killing machines, he gives up hope and goes out one night to kill as many of those creatures as he could before they kill him.

Just before he about eats it, he is somehow saved by a small slim woman and a 9 year old child. No, the movie never explains how this happened. She is convinced there is a “survivor compound” in Vermont. Will doesn’t believe it exists. Blah blah blah.

End of the movie, the creatures are attacking and he finds out his latest “cure” actually works. He sacrifices himself in order to save the woman and child so they could take this cure to the survivors. In the last scene, we see this woman driving another impossibly clean and shiny Ford product-placement and coming across the compound which looks like it was created from a Norman Rockwell painting. Roll credits.

Here is the email that I sent George when I got home from the movie… we spent a half hour discussing once we got out but these were my additional thoughts:

As I was driving home thinking about the flick, I had a few more thoughts.

First, what good would a cure do anyway? I mean, everyone who was not immune naturally is obviously already dead and zombie food. Long since. Right? Those who are infected, well, they didn’t appear to be too keen on getting treatment. Just how would they administer the so called cure? Hypodermic needle gun? Seems like a waste of time.

I would think, that after 3 years, you’ve probably reached a stabilization point, right? All those who are going to be infected, already are. Why then, don’t the surviving immune people start fighting back rather than cowering and hiding? They have one weapon that is instantly effective in stopping the infected, and that would be UV light. Are you telling me, that the among those humans left, they couldn’t start constructing tanks covered in UV lights? Travel out into the night, and slaughter as many of those sons a bitches as they could? Even a super-strong human zombie-vampire isn’t bashing through plate armor with their bare hands and giant mouths. Lure those bastards in with ‘fresh blood’ scent, and slaughter them by the thousands. Think of an APC, fitted with blinding lights facing out and gun ports bristling with M249 SAWs. Obviously, you couldn’t kill them all quickly, but you could make one hell of a dent. Start taking back territory. If there is one thing the human race is good at, its killing a lot of things really quickly.

Few more thoughts about his home defenses too… we already discussed how inadequate they were. Instead of basing most of my defenses on hiding and them not knowing where you were (the internet has proven ‘security through obscurity‘ doesn’t work), I would do the exact opposite. If I had all that time to ensure my survival (well, first off, if there is a world wide plague where civilization collapses I figure I’m just going to cash in my chips and head to my great reward in the sky… Life is cool, but it ain’t that cool… but I digress) I would go the exact opposite route. I would find some bunker type building (like you said, a bank or something similar). Hell, I would do some sort of walk up building, and fill the only way up (stairwells) with light as well. Live in the penthouse. Then, in concentric circles for about 500 yards in all directions, I would have massive flood lights pumping out the UV. Rings of lights every 40 yards or more, with not a space not covered. I wouldn’t have the lights on only if attacked… those fuckers are on from dusk til dawn. You would be able to see my house from freakin SPACE.

Another thing that I’m curious about… when he is trying to kill himself… those infected were smashing the hell out of his truck… Swarming from all sides… He is a rocked out ex-army guy (I’m thinkin Will has got to be on the HGH or something… he ain’t the Fresh Prince of Bel Air anymore), and what not. Yet, a woman and a small child are able to keep the creatures at bay, save his ass, and get back to his house through the middle of the city teeming with those things. How’s that work exactly?

I’m wondering what else will come to mind about this flick. I will say, I’m kinda enjoying picking it a part a bit. I guess that is a good thing, right?