Oklahoma State Football Embraces Classical Greek Philosophy

I thought the upcoming Oklahoma State football season was as hyped as it could get. That was before the OSU Athletic Department weighed in on the matter.

I periodically like to change my wallpaper at work, and I almost always use wallpapers from okstate.com (that way, I can pretend I'm at a sporting event instead of my desk).

The newest wallpapers singles out OSU stars, in color, while blurring the rest of the background, and all of them come with a quote. My favorite is the wallpaper that pairs Perrish Cox with a quotation from the Greek philosopher Cicero.

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character and judgment.

Yeah, that's right. Cicero. And Perrish Cox. The other great combinations are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow/Kendall Hunter, Henry Miller/Zac Robinson, John Wayne/Andre Sexton ("Courage is being afraid to death but saddling up anyway" -- Is that really the message we want to send other football teams?), and Teddy Roosevelt/Dez Bryant (that quote is unbelievably long for a football wallpaper).

Previous to this discovery, I was a little worried about all the preseason hype, since OSU hasn't traditionally done well with high expectations. But now that we're pairing cornerbacks with Greek philosophers? ... ... ...

(For the record, I did go with Cicero/Cox.)

Man, That's a Good Feeling

Thanks, Hoots!

I've been a bit under the weather lately and, hence, feeling a little down. Luckily, I've got John Legend and Hoots to cheer me up.



Man, that owl can play.

Messiah in Shoulder Pads

This post is a little late, but I'm still not quite over the commentary from the BCS Championship. I'm glad I caught it, though. It was absolutely hilarious, and I really enjoy imagining how the Sooners took it.

Oklahoma: Most Neurotic State West of the Mississippi

While browsing Amazon.com for gift ideas recently, I found a book titled, Who's Your City? The book, by Richard Florida, looked interesting, but I wasn't quite sure what it was about after reading Amazon's synopses. So, I decided to google that mo' fo'.

Who's Your City? looks like a great book to flip through at a book store, but I'm not going to buy it. However, there were some really interesting maps on the book's Web site. (I know, I'm a map nerd.)

Check out the personality maps below. As a caveat, I have no idea how this data was accumulated. But it appears that our beloved Oklahoma is one of the three most neurotic states in the country. On the other hand, as my boss pointed out, Georgia looks like a great place to live.

CNN's World in Peril: La Oroya

Here's a preview of Dr. Sanjay Gupta's World in Peril featuring La Oroya. The special will air at 8 p.m. CST on Thursday, Dec. 11, on CNN. I'm very excited that La Oroya will be getting this kind of exposure in the U.S. Hopefully something wonderful will come of it.

Fabchannel: My Live Music Winter Savior

I usually keep a few important music lists in my head. The most important list is the Musicians I Want to See the Most Who I've Never Seen in Concert List. Right now, that list brings a touch of melancholy in with the winter months... for, alas, the top two on the list--Josh Ritter and Calexico--have left to tour in Europe for the foreseeable future.

However, my saving grace also hails from Europe. While perusing the Calexico Web site, I was directed to another: Fabchannel.

Fabchannel is a Dutch company that tries to give attention to innovative artists that are not recognized all that much by mass media. The site streams free videos of musicians playing in two venues in Amsterdam, as well as The Roxy in Los Angeles and a couple of clubs in Barcelona.

Not only are Josh Ritter and Calexico represented, but so are Xavier Rudd, Iron & Wine, Damien Rice, Andrew Bird, and lots of others.

The video and sound quality are generally great on the concerts, and there are also added features if you sign up for an account (although I have not been able to get them to work for the most part).

Anyway, give it a try, let me know what you think. Here's the full Calexico concert from October 15 in Amsterdam. Enjoy!