Today is the American Cancer Society's National SmokeOut. The idea is that everyone in the world quits smoking at the same time. Since that will never, ever happen, they say that if you want to participate you can just quit for a day. I've decided to do that. It has nothing to do with the fact that I smoked half a pack last night over multiple glasses of wine and this morning I am completely hungover. No, it has to do with my love for my body and the environment.

While I was at www.cancer.org I was looking around at some of their anti-smoking campaigns and how they have evolved over the years. This one was my favorite. Look, people, the lamer you make your anti-smoking campaigns, the cooler and more counter-culture smoking becomes. Why do you think Phillip Morris is so willing to waste tons of money on trying to keep children from smoking? Because a 1980's inspired duck who says that 'tobacco is whacko' encourages kids to smoke. If you want to get people to quit, the solution is simple ... pass more legislation! Duh. Don't even get me started on the degradation of capitalism that is forcing businesses to ban smoking in public places. We'll discuss that in a different blog. Moral of the story is DON'T SMOKE (on November 18th, 2004).

Speaking of November 18th, not sure how many of you are remembering, but it was exactly 5 years ago today that the Aggie Bonfire collapsed. I was a freshman in college and had been worked into a frenzy over the anticipation of Bonfire since before I'd ever set foot on campus. We'd spent the night playing 3-Man in my room so everyone was too drunk and asleep at 3am when the crew chiefs came through the dorm pounding on doors to get people to help them pick up fallen logs off of the bodies of those trapped underneath. The next morning we were a little bewildered as we turned on the channel that had a 24 hour image of Bonfire and saw it on the ground. Then when I went out to the Polo Fields and realized that every white sheet draped over the logs was to hide a dead body, the enormity of what happened hit me. It still gets to me today ... It's getting to me right now as I type this.

We felt so helpless sitting there staring at the cranes. People walked around handing out drinks, sandwiches, sweatshirts, and anything else anyone needed since some people had stayed out there for days at a time. We tried to go give blood but every blood bank had lines wrapped around the block of people willing to wait. I think we set the Brazos Valley on blood for the next decade. It certainly took some air out of the game. Bonfire represented our burning desire to beat the hell out of t.u. but that didn't seem so important. We weren't even sure if we were supposed to enjoy the game.

That night instead of a yell practice we had a candle light vigil. When it was time to go into the stadium everyone took their candles with them, so instead of the image of lighters being held up that we were accustomed to, this is what we saw. I can't say it was a fun time to be an Aggie, but I'm glad I was a part of it so I could understand. That was the turning point for on-campus culture, and I was lucky to have experienced the way it used to be before all of that went away. Those of you in classes higher than 2003 just can't imagine what it was like.

That game was the greatest game that has ever been played. Everyone in the crowd, Aggies and longhorns, was so emotionally invested. We got the much needed win, needed emotionally, by the 12th Man completely disorienting their freshman quarterback. We all felt like we'd helped. But the best part was halftime. Normally we all sit down when the opposing band plays (the only time through the game that we sit). But at this game, the Texas band came out onto the field, played Amazing Grace, lowered their school's flags and raise an A&M flag. I never thought I would see the day when 80,000 Aggies would stand and whoop while the t.u. band played. It was an awesome moment, many tears were shed, and I am so grateful I got to be a part of it.

I don't really talk about Bonfire very much, because it still upsets me. But I thought it would be okay to share some memories on the anniversary of the fall. If you want, you can post a comment with some of your memories. It's important to remember.

I made macaroni and cheese to contribute to the Thanksgiving feast yesterday with Ryan, AllieD, and her family. I made it the night before and then stored it in the fridge in the crock pot thinking I would be able to just heat it up before I left. This is the mac 'n cheese from scratch, mind you. Unfortunately, I forgot about that little fact of Velveeta that after any time left to set, it will turn to concrete. I eventually got it remelted, though I had to add like another cup of milk to do so. I got compliments on it. Everything we ate was very good. Ryan made some stellar mashed potatoes, and then AllieD had turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed yams, green bean casserole, stuffing, rolls, and pumpkin, cherry, and pecan pies. I think thats everything. Needless to say it was absolutely delicious.

Martha Moment. The gravy was so watery. It looked like it was nothing but turkey grease. AllieD was pretty upset about it. Luckily, I had seen several shows the prior two weeks on the Food Network that allowed me to solve the problem. I took some of the turkey grease and a few table spoons of flour, and cooked them over high heat to make a quick roux. Then I mixed it back into the rest of the gravy and it came out spectacular, if I do say so myself. And I do .... say so myself. I can't wait for the next Thanksgiving (coming December 10th).

We had some white merlot with the Thanksgiving lunch, and I had my fair share to drink. So, when I got home, I fell asleep for the remainder of the day. Then, I went with Marshall to Wal-Mart because it was the only store in the city that was open. We got new CD's ... I bought Britney and he got Nelly Furtado. Then, I went and drank a bunch of beer over at Raul's. I never want to hear Christina's "Dirrty" ever, ever again.

I'm watching the A&M vs. tu game right now. Since it's already in the 3rd quarter, my prediction for the game is going to be a little bit influenced by the current score. So, I'll say Aggies are going to pull this one off 46 to 28. Gig me Aggies!

I had planned on going to dinner with Marshall last night and then hanging out, but he ended up being 3 hours late, and Dustin and Trey were on their way to see The Matrix, so I decided to join them. I don't know what all the negative hype about this movie is all about. I thought it was fukken badass. Granted, I am easily impressed with fancy special effects, wire tricks, and kung fu, but gimme a break, that was so awesome. The fight between Agent Smith and Neo was so out of control I can hardly think about it. Anyone who cries about the plot or the 'eastern philosophy' is a big whiny baby who should be banned from movies as cool as this anyway. They were fighting so fast that the rain couldn't even hit them. Yeah, you thought it was rain.

If I talk about it anymore, I'm going to reveal too much and I don't want to spoil a movie as good as this for anybody else. Chances are, I'll be going to see it again a few times.

On another note, plans for Thanksgiving have changed. It turns out everyone and their dog is going to be out of town for Thanksgiving. Mostly because no one is going to the game. This dude wrote into the Battalion today yelling at the 12th Man (AGAIN, what is up with this resurgence of uber Aggies this year?) about how so many people were selling their sports passes. I had to laugh ... all the way to the bank, that is. I sold mine for $60. Like I give a shit. I'd much rather have the cash. Anyway, so no one is going to be in town for my Thanksgiving, and I do it right, so I don't want anyone to miss out. Also, AllieD invited me to join her family for dinner so they could get it catered by Luby's. It should be delicious and stress free. Throw in a little booze and you've got a right proper Turkey Day.

I've been watching Thanksgiving Week on Food Network and it is so awesome. I think this year I'm going to make my own stuffing. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I'm still having my own Thanksgiving, just not on that day. As you all well know, I am so cool that I can have Thanskgiving whenever the fuck I want. So maybe a week or two after the real deal, we'll have my shindig. I'll keep you all posted. Now, go get drunk.

I just got back from the Aggie football game against Pittsburg. We didn't win like I had predicted, but that's okay because I was sitting down on the front row of the second deck ... can't beat it. There were two guys in the student section behind us, though, that couldn't seem to have fun. They were completely preoccupied with yelling at people to take their hats off. Now, I'm all for yelling "UNCOVER" to remind someone or let them know that a yell is starting. Its another thing entirely to scream your head off for the entire game. "Hey you in the front row, I know you can hear me, take your damn hat off" And by the time they're done yelling that, the yell is over, the play has commenced and they're missing the game. Keep in mind, we were sitting in the COURTESY SECTION. One couple that wouldn't uncover was like 90 and the other two guys who wouldn't were not speaking English to each other. But these guys would NOT let it go. Please, people, don't be that guy.

We had a guy sitting next to us that knew way too much about the Aggies. He knew like every players name and number and background. It was a little bit creepy. He also went thru about 18 rolls of film. I just thought it was funny sitting next to someone so knowledgeable as I'm yelling out things like "HAIL MARY! THEY'LL NEVER SEE IT COMIN!"

Also, don't heckle 2-percenters who leave the game early. They're really essential to getting everyone out of the stadium in an orderly, timely fashion. But we got to do some horse laughs (the officiating was laughably bad), and a Sit Down BusDriver, which was exciting. All in all it was a wonderful experience. Tonight I'm going to some huge party with Allison, should be interesting and cheap. Which will be good considering my tab last night was $75. Whoopsadaisy. Peace out kids, taker easy.

So I'm lounging around my house feeling delightfully hungover (I say delightfully because its such a nice damn day outside and that always feels good) trying to think of something to blog about. Nothing of note has really happened to me lately, so I'd almost abandoned the notion until I decided to check my logs again. Once again, dear viewers, the numbers were staggering. Last week I averaged around 50 visitors a day, and then on Monday I shot up to 2,500. Fearing a resurgence of the shaven Jeffcoats picture, I checked the referrals for where all of these hits were coming from. And here they are:

texags.com -- 1,562
tiderinsider.com -- 725
tidefans.com -- 120
gatorcountry.com -- 94
elite-sports.com/soonerfans -- 89
big12warzone.com -- 50
drunkenbuffoonery.com -- 28
gatorinsider.com -- 23

And there were several other sports related forums linking to my site but they only generated one or two hits. I think drunkenbuffoonery.com is my favorite. I haven't investigated all of these sites, but I'm assuming its the picture of Jeffcoats thats doing it since nothing on this site is in the least bit sports related. And what opinions I have about Aggie football are severely uneducated. Speaking of, my prediction for the game today against Utah is Aggies - 87, Utah - 3. Mormons can't play football. Mormons can't do anything but pilot space ships to heaven.

So there you have it. I won't be at the game to cheer them on, because I am traveling to Humble, Texas soon to attend my brother's house warming party. So long, you have nots, see you next week.

Oh man, did we ever beat the ever livin', ever lovin' HELL outta OU yesterday?! WHOOP! That was one of the greatest Aggie football games that has even been played within the hallowed walls of Kyle Field. In my book it was the #2 greatest game ever, second only to t.u. in '99. Reggie McNeal is a god. He ran through the OU defense like it was tissue paper ... and when he couldn't, he would just make 40 yard touchdown passes. It was so damn exciting. And we won 30-26 for those of you who don't follow Aggie football very close.

Another exciting aspect of the game was when me and Allison went down on the field at halftime for Boot Line. We got right up front on the gate. It was really fun, I was about 2 feet away from Cardo, the yell leader. Then after that me and Allison were TOTALLY on the jumbotron for like a good 30 seconds. So far Lindsay is the only one who saw us. If you happened to see me or Allison on the jumbotron at halftime, please leave a comment. I know for a fact we were on there. That has been one of my goals at this university for a long time. Now, if only I could get on the cover of the Battalion ...

So everyone in this whole damn town was in the best mood ever last night after our stunning upset on the #1 ranked team in the conference. So naturally it was time to party. Me, Todd, Ryan, David, and two of David's friends from Southwest went to Concepts ... the place that used to be Tonix ... the place that used to be Charlie's ... the place that used to be Epi-Center. It was pretty cool except that there was a $5 cover for over 21 and a $10 cover for under 21. It wasn't $5 cover great. But since we were already there we paid and went in. I got completely faded and danced my ass off. It was a good time had by all. Then we woke up today and ate at Chicken Express. It was yummy.

So in summary, this has been like the best Aggie week of my life. Now next week's REALLY gonna suck. I'll see you all there (on the flip side I mean). Peace out.

Hey kids. Boy have I ever not been in the mood to blog lately. That just happens sometimes, y'know. Like you get into the groove of blogging nearly every day for a long time and then suddenly its the last thing you wanna do with your time. Anyway, I'm back now. You've sure missed out on a lot of good stuff, but thats half the fun of me not blogging is you not knowing whats going on, so instead of trying to catch up, I'm just gonna talk about yesterday.

I woke up a little hungover so I spent the morning eating a nice breakfast I cooked for myself, drinking water and juice, and taking a shower. I felt much better after that, and it was such a beautiful day that I couldn't help but be in a really good mood. Keith and Matt left for Dallas to go to the Who concert so I had the place to myself. I decided to turn off the AC, open up all the windows and turn on all the fans. Not only did I air the place out but it felt so good. I had the digital cable music station blaring as I vacuumed and dusted and disinfected. The place is currently spotless. We'll see how long that lasts. So when I was done, I decided to get ready to go to the football game against Vergina Tech. I like to wrap my knees to facilitate standing thru the entire game, so I did the tight ace bandage, metal supported brace combination. No one knows I'm wearin it though cause my overalls go right over it. Man was it hot at the game, especially in these overalls. But it was so fun. Well, besides the fact that we had 3 über-bitches standing next to us all in a huff cause they thought we were in their seats. Whatever. It was just me and Allison so instead of trying to squeeze into our seats, we just took some empty room a few rows back. It wasn't a big deal though, cause they were only there for one quarter and we left before halftime to go down for senior yell so they were only bothering us for like 8 minutes.

Senior Yell was awesome. We went down and lined up and I saw so many people I knew down there. It was like a little '03 reunion. We got to go down on Kyle Field while the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band was doing their show. Then we did two yells and welcomed the Aggies back onto the field. I could have SWORN I was on the jumbo-tron, but so far no one had seen me. The guy with the camera was panning our faces and I had the camera RIGHT in my face for a few seconds, so if it was on the jumbotron then I was too. If you saw me, please let me know. After that they herded us off the field and we went and found a new place to stand in some room of people that left after the band played. The game kinda sucked, mostly cause we lost, but I still had a blast. I got really sunburned in the face, like I knew was gonna happen. But despite all that, it was too fun. Certainly better than sitting up in one of those boxes. Thats just a random opinion of mine, not directed toward anyone.

After that, my brother Stephen was in town, so he came over to see my place. Then we went to go eat at Rockfish. Once again, I ate seafood and enjoyed it. We both got seafood enchiladas. I also ate a shitload of peanuts. Blech. Anyway, I also had a couple beers with dinner, and then stuffed myself with enchiladas, so when we got back we laid around and watched TV, and then Stephen went back to Houston. Almost needless to say, immediately I fell the fuck asleep for a good couple of hours. Allison finally woke me up by coming over to see what I was doing since I wasn't online, and I wasn't answering my phone. Then I went over to her place and watched Super Troopers. It was a pretty funny movie, I would recommend it to all of you without hesitation. After that I got online for a while, did some real nice chatting, drank a couple beers. Keith got home and we went to Taco Cabana at like 4am. Good times, I haven't done that in a while. Now its Sunday and here I am. I don't have shit to do today, so I ain't gonna worry about nothing. Maybe I'll go lay out or something. You know how I do. Anyway, now you're all up to speed, no more complaining. Czech you skillets later.

Oh, and download the new song of the day. Its the JAM, seriously.

Last night I decided I wanted to go out. I had my out-fit on. So I went over to Allison's to discuss the proposition. To make a long story I don't wanna tell into a short story, two and a half hours later, it was decided that we would indeed, go to Northgate. This was around 11:30, which means we didn't step foot into a bar until midnight. By 'we' I mean 'me, Allison, and Katie.' There was a line for The Library (where I really wanted to go) so we opted for the new MadHatter's ... since none of us had been in there yet. It was pretty neat. They played nothing but 80's music the whole time, so I guess its kinda fun to have a themed bar on Northgate. Their drink specials were chocolate martinis for $2.50. That really didn't sound appetizing to me, but I didn't want to be left out, so I opted for an apple martini for a couple bucks more. Mmmk, if by 'apple martini' they meant 'a big glass of sour apple pucker.' Needless to say, I didn't really enjoy my drink much. Allison and Katie didn't much appreciate their chocolate/alcohol concoctions either. It was a little disappointing. We did run into some of our neighbors there, though, and talked to them for a while. And I saw one of my friends from elementary school and said hi to him for a while. All in all, I had a lot more fun that if I had just gone to bed.

I don't know about Princess tho, she was about as sour as my drink. We got home and she went to bed pretty much. I drank a couple beers and watched an episode of Cheers and then went home and drank my last beer. I was all alone and bored and getting drunk and I needed some company, some conversation, and another beer. So who did I call? Naturally, I called Holly. What a class act. She drove over to my place with 2 beers so we could sit and chat and share a drink. She's too cool. After that I called Keith to make sure he was alright cause it was like 4am and he's usually home before that. Turns out this kid decides to drive to Austin with Burns last night just spur of the moment cause they were bored. Whaaaatever. So then I went to bed and woke up today hearing a howling pouring rainstorm. So I rolled over and went back to sleep. I hate rain.

I heard my Aggies won 14-12 against Pitt. That's good news. Too bad I didn't get up to actually watch the thing, but oh well. Not sure what's on the plate for tonight, but I know I wanna get out of the house at least and mingle a little bit. We'll see what happens and I'll keep you all posted.

So much to say, so much to say. Let me start with our first football game. As many of you know, there are very few things that I love so much as Aggie football, so naturally I was pretty excited about the game. My sports pass wasn't renewed like I thought, so I had to wait in this long line in order to get it renewed. The point of telling you that, is that I couldn't pull with my friends so I just had a single ticket. So did Lindsay, so we decided to sneak in somewhere and sit together. I called Todd's cell phone and made him come down from his seats with two tickets so that we could sneak into his section, and then we ended up standing on his row since there was room. We had to move a couple times and Lindsay stood in the aisle for a while (I'm such a gentleman) but in the end we had plenty of room.

The girls behind me were pissing me off though. They were 3 ugly wenches and they kept talkin shit about every single play. They'd be like "Oh boy here comes our offense, this outta be good ... of course our defense is nothing great either" or "Oh great catch, I can't believe how bad we're going to be this year" and it was just constant. I mean they didn't shut up for the whole first quarter. So finally I turned around and I said, "Hi there. Excuse me. I was just wondering if you came to watch my Aggies play or if you just came to criticize every damn play. Can we please get a little team spirit back there?" And they kind of ignored me, but they shut up for a while. It was really sappin my fun though, so I had to say something. The game was great, I rank it #3 all time behind t.u. my freshman year and Notre Dame last year. We may not have played all that great, but thats not really how I rank football games. I really like turnovers, and there were more than enough to keep me jumping up and down the whole game. I'm not sure what the final count was, but there were seriously like 8 interceptions. And we won 31-7, which always makes for a good game. Anyway, I thought it was great. And thats the name of that tune.

When we got home, my neighbors Vinny and Cheyney (sp?) had gotten a couple of kegs, so the whole neighborhood came out again. Ryan and Todd showed up too and ended up spending the night here because we all got a little bit toasty. There were some people in the next building that were having a party too and theirs was much bigger than ours. They had to have had a good 60 people just in back by the keg. And every guy there was massive. I went inside their party for a while and I was absolutely dwarfed by everyone there. It was kinda weird. I don't know if they were football players or what. I met my other next door neighbor last night too and she was pretty cool. Her name is Brianne. She made us some fucking good mashed potatoes from scratch at like 4 in the morning. We know so many people in our neighborhood now, I'm gonna need to start jotting down names on a map to remember everyone. Its so great ... so incredibly different from the Enclave last year where we didn't see, let alone meet, a single neighbor in an entire year. Except for Candy, who we met once and then totally fabricated a personality for her until she was this fictional Kramer-esque 2-dimensional comedy schtick character. Whoo-ahhh!

So anyway, the parties were a little off the heezy so like 6 cops showed up and started IDing everybody. They never IDed me though, oh well. Apparently its illegal to drink in public after 1am, and the area between our duplexes is considered public. I was not aware of that. I didn't get any tickets but both of the people hosting the parties got slammed. Like $500 or something big like that. I'm not sure of the exact figure, I haven't ventured out of the house yet today to see the damage. Anyway, I'm gonna get back to the Food Network now. I just finished up a Good Eats with Alton Brown marathon (thanks for letting me know it was on Allison). I'll catch you skids on the flip slide.