The Big 12 conference this season was led by Kansas State and Oklahoma. Kansas State won their first 10 games but suffered a terrible loss to a struggling Baylor team 52-24. This loss took Kansas State's quarterback Collin Klein out of the leading spot in the Heisman race. Kansas State had defeated Oklahoma earlier in the season 24-19. West Virginia was thought to be the leading Big 12 team this season with quarterback Geno Smith. They started out the season 5-0, and Geno Smith was expected to be a Heisman front runner, but they lost 5 games in a row, and have finished off the season 7-5. The ACC and Big Ten struggled this season. The ACC had 3 ranked teams at the beginning of the season all in the Top 15, Clemson, Florida State, and Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech has proven to be an overrated team,CSS they finished the season 6-6. Clemson and Floria State both finished with 2 losses but remained in the Top 15. The Big Ten only had two 10 or more win teams, Nebraska and Ohio State. Because Ohio State is ineligible for the post season, Nebraska had to play Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship. No. 12 Nebraska (10-2) was absolutely destroyed by unranked Wisconsin 70-33. Wisconsin will go to the Rose Bowl for the 3rd year in a row. Lastly, the Big East had an above average year. Although they lost their best team, West Virginia, the big East had several team to keep them up this year. Halfway through the season, the Big East had 3 undefeated and ranked teams: Cincinnati, Louisville, and Rutgers. Now the Big East does not have any ranked teams, and one 10 win team which is Louisville (10-2) who won the Big East by defeated Rutgers (9-3) 20-17. Also, Cincinnati finished 9-3. This was a great football season, and I can't wait for bowl season.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
End of the College Football Regular Season
One of the greatest regular seasons of college football has just ended. Alabama has won the SEC and claimed their spot in the national championship. Notre Dame and Ohio State are the only undefeated teams, but Ohio State is on probation and therefore ineligible for the post-season. Notre Dame will play Alabama in the national championship on January 7th. The SEC was by far the best conference this season like always, finishing with 6 teams in the top 10. Also, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida were in the top 5 at the end of the regular season from the SEC. Others memorable SEC teams this season were No. 7 LSU (10-2), No. 9 Texas A&M (10-2), and No. 10 South Carolina (10-2). During the last week of the regular season, the SEC showed their dominance over the ACC by going 4 for 4 against them. Florida over Florida State (37-26), Georgia over Georgia Tech (42-10), and South Carolina over Clemson (27-17) were the instate rivalries the SEC had over the ACC. Also, Vanderbilt defeated Wake Forest that week 55-24. The PAC-12 finished as the second most powerful conference with 2 teams in the top 10, No. 5 Oregon and No. 8 Stanford. These two teams played each other in the second to last game, and Stanford defeated Oregon 17-14. Stanford just won the PAC-12 championship against UCLA yesterday. Alabama's only loss this season came to Texas A&M, whose Heisman candidate freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel led them to a 29-24 win over the Crimson Tide.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Zones 2012
Toward the end of the summer, I was selected to go to a swim meet called Zones. My long course, or 50 meter pool, state meet had started on July 26, and it ended on the 28th. Several weeks ago, I had applied to go to this meet called Zones, which is a meet held every year. South Carolina picks their zone team by choosing the 8 best swimmers in each age group. When I applied, I was not confident I would make it, and I mostly applied just to say I did. But, I had a great state meet, so I was chosen on the last day of state to go to Zones the very next morning. At first, I was actually disappointed I had made it. Here I am, with only a couple weeks left in the summer, already exhausted from the state meet, and I have a week long swim meet to go to. Also, I wouldn't know many people on the trip. I would only know two of my teammates who were both older, and then two swimmers from Greenville that I had met before.
I had to pack that night and wake up early the next morning to take a bus ride to Atlanta that took over 4 hours. Then, I boarded a plane to reach our destination, which was Dallas, Texas. I had already started talking to a lot of people I didn't know before on the bus ride and at the airport. Once we reached Dallas, we had to take another bus ride that took almost an hour to a town near Dallas called Rockwall. Everyone was very tired. Once we got to the hotel, everyone was tired, and the rooms were each split up into 4 people. I did not have to swim until the third day we were in Texas, and when I did, it did not feel good. I did not have great times at this meet because I was so tired. The competition at the meet was amazing because it was one of the best meets in the country. I made a lot of friends, ate a ton of food, but the best part was how it felt like an honor just to be there. The coaches of the team told us to cheer every time someone from the South Carolina Zone Team was swimming. Zones was great experience, and I hope I can go back sometime in the future.
I had to pack that night and wake up early the next morning to take a bus ride to Atlanta that took over 4 hours. Then, I boarded a plane to reach our destination, which was Dallas, Texas. I had already started talking to a lot of people I didn't know before on the bus ride and at the airport. Once we reached Dallas, we had to take another bus ride that took almost an hour to a town near Dallas called Rockwall. Everyone was very tired. Once we got to the hotel, everyone was tired, and the rooms were each split up into 4 people. I did not have to swim until the third day we were in Texas, and when I did, it did not feel good. I did not have great times at this meet because I was so tired. The competition at the meet was amazing because it was one of the best meets in the country. I made a lot of friends, ate a ton of food, but the best part was how it felt like an honor just to be there. The coaches of the team told us to cheer every time someone from the South Carolina Zone Team was swimming. Zones was great experience, and I hope I can go back sometime in the future.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Skyrim
Last November, one of my favorite video games of all time came out. This game was The Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim. Skyrim is a first and third person role-playing game that takes place in the fictional province of Skyrim in the continent of Tamriel. This game is also open world, which means the character can do whatever he/she wants to. Also, Skyrim has more of a medieval feel to it, and would seem that it takes place in the past. The plot of Skyrim starts out when the protagonist (or you) wake up on a wagon being pulled by a horse, but don't know where you are going. Your hands are chained together, and there are three other men on the wagon with you. One of the men you find out to be Ulfric Stormcloak, who is the leader of a rebellion against Skyrim's leaders, the other is one of his men named Ralof, and the third one you find out is a horse thief. Not a good sign. The Stormcloak soldier tells you that everyone is going to be executed for being involved in the rebellion against the other side of the war, the Imperials. The horse thief was not actually involved, but while he was riding away on one of his horses, he got caught up in a battle between the Stormcloaks and the Imperials. Ralof and Ulfric were also caught in this battle. You find out the wagon leads you to a town called Helgen, and when you get there, the horse thief tries to run away because he was not involved in the rebellion. The Imperials quickly shoot him down with an arrow. An imperial named Hadvar calls out everyone's name on a list....except yours. This is when you have to customize your character.
You can choose whether your character is male or female, you can name your character, and you can also choose what race your character is. The races in Skyrim are not exactly what you would expect. There are Nords, which are native to Skyrim and are tall, pale, and mostly blond people. The Imperials are native to a nearby province called Cyrodil, and many of them are in control of Skyrim through their empire. The other human races are Redguards, dark-skinned people from the province of Hammerfell, and Bretons, who are natives of High Rock and are medium-skinned. There are also elven reces such as high elves, very tall light hair and skinned elves, dark elves, who are green skinned and red eyed, and wood elves, short elves whose skin is very close to that of humans. Many high elves are members of the Aldmeri Dominion or the Thalmor, who technically control the empire of the Imperials. In addition to these, there is an Argonian, or a human-like lizard, a Khajiit, or a human-like cat, and an Orc, which is a big, green, monster-like being. In addition to choosing your race, you are able to customize you character's hair, nose, mouth, face and more.
Once you customize your character, you proceed to be executed. As you are kneeling down to get your head chopped off, a dragon swoops down, knocking everyone down. Your character has to escape quickly, because the dragon starts attacking everyone. As you are running, you meet up with Hadvar and Ralof, and the game lets you choose which of them you would like to follow. Whichever one you choose, you will travel under the town, reach the above ground, and reach a town called Riverwood. Both men have relatives that give you supplies in Riverwood, so they are indifferent. Once you receive supplies, you are on your own. There is a main storyline to Skyrim, which involves finding out you are Dragonborn, which means you are the prophesized man to save the world from dragons. You also have the voice (or shout) of a dragon. There are several other big story lines in Skyrim. You can be an assassin in the Dark Brotherhood, a warrior in The Companions, a mage (or wizard) at the College of Winterhold, a thief at the Thieves Guild, and a vampire hunter in the Dawnguard. Also, there is a civil war quest line, there you can either be a Stormcloak, and try to free Skyrim, or an Imperial, where you try to keep Skyrim under the empire's control. There are many other things to do in Skyrim, many places to visits, many quests to complete, but there is too many to say in one or even twenty blogs. Skyrim is a great game and I would recommend it for anyone.
You can choose whether your character is male or female, you can name your character, and you can also choose what race your character is. The races in Skyrim are not exactly what you would expect. There are Nords, which are native to Skyrim and are tall, pale, and mostly blond people. The Imperials are native to a nearby province called Cyrodil, and many of them are in control of Skyrim through their empire. The other human races are Redguards, dark-skinned people from the province of Hammerfell, and Bretons, who are natives of High Rock and are medium-skinned. There are also elven reces such as high elves, very tall light hair and skinned elves, dark elves, who are green skinned and red eyed, and wood elves, short elves whose skin is very close to that of humans. Many high elves are members of the Aldmeri Dominion or the Thalmor, who technically control the empire of the Imperials. In addition to these, there is an Argonian, or a human-like lizard, a Khajiit, or a human-like cat, and an Orc, which is a big, green, monster-like being. In addition to choosing your race, you are able to customize you character's hair, nose, mouth, face and more.
Once you customize your character, you proceed to be executed. As you are kneeling down to get your head chopped off, a dragon swoops down, knocking everyone down. Your character has to escape quickly, because the dragon starts attacking everyone. As you are running, you meet up with Hadvar and Ralof, and the game lets you choose which of them you would like to follow. Whichever one you choose, you will travel under the town, reach the above ground, and reach a town called Riverwood. Both men have relatives that give you supplies in Riverwood, so they are indifferent. Once you receive supplies, you are on your own. There is a main storyline to Skyrim, which involves finding out you are Dragonborn, which means you are the prophesized man to save the world from dragons. You also have the voice (or shout) of a dragon. There are several other big story lines in Skyrim. You can be an assassin in the Dark Brotherhood, a warrior in The Companions, a mage (or wizard) at the College of Winterhold, a thief at the Thieves Guild, and a vampire hunter in the Dawnguard. Also, there is a civil war quest line, there you can either be a Stormcloak, and try to free Skyrim, or an Imperial, where you try to keep Skyrim under the empire's control. There are many other things to do in Skyrim, many places to visits, many quests to complete, but there is too many to say in one or even twenty blogs. Skyrim is a great game and I would recommend it for anyone.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
The Dark Knight Rises
This summer one of my favorite movies of all time came out. This movie was The Dark Knight Rises. There was a lot of hype about this movie considering it was the conclusion to Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. In the first movie, Batman Begins, Nolan experiments with how the batman legend came to be. Early in the movie, young Bruce Wayne's parents are murdered by a street thug asking for money with his parents at gunpoint. Bruce is left alone with his butler Alfred, and swears to himself he will fight and defeat crime in Gotham City. Bruce is later sent to jail for stealing, little did the police know it was from Wayne Enterprises, and is there for several years. A man named Ras Al Ghul greets him on his last day in jail and tells him to go to the mountains and join his band of fighters called The League of Shadows. Bruce gets all of his batman skills from training with the league, and he later leaves and destroys the league's headquarters. Ras Al Ghul later becomes one of the antagonists, but is defeated and killed. The sequel to Batman Begins is The Dark Knight. The villan in this movie is the crazy warlord Joker who does not have a plan, but just wants to see Gotham perish. All of Joker's ideas work perfectly excepct for his last one, in which he is caught and nearly killed by batman. The Joker did drive Gotham's district attorney Harvey Dent insane, by killing his lover and Batman's ex-lover Rachel, and blowing off half of his face. Harvey Dent becomes the classic Batman villan Two-Face. Two-Face holds Comissioner Gordon's family hostage, and nearly kills his son, but Batman knocks him off of a building which breaks his neck. Harvey Dent had put hundreds of convicts in prison, and if someone found out he had gone insane, the convicts would have been let out. So Batman and Commissioner Gordon make a deal to tell the people of Gotham all of the Two-Face murders were Batman's, and that Batman killed Harvey Dent.
The Dark Knight Rises takes place 8 years after the Two-Face incident. The people of Gotham still believe Batman killed a Harvey Dent. They do not know Harvey became crazy and killed several people. Batman also has not shown his face since the incident either. He lives in seclude and only sees Alfred because the girl he loved, Rachel, was killed by the Joker. The streets of Gotham are the opposite of how they were in Batman Begins, which is clean with no crime. After Batman killed Two-Face, the Dent Act was passed, which made it easier for Gotham police to take down organized crime. The streets of Gotham are cleaner than ever. Until Band shows up. Bane's actions start out relatively small: hijacking a plane, killing everyone except a nuclear physicist inside, and causing horror at a stock exchange. Batman appears for the first time in 8 years to chase Bane after the stock exchange incident. The problem is that the cops who were going after Bane decide to go after Batman instead. Batman helps take down a couple of Bane's men, and he and Bane get away. Batman, with the help of the Cat-woman Selina Kyle, finds Bane again, but Cat-woman closes a gate on Batman so he has to battle Bane alone. Bane was very strong unlike Batman, and he wins easily, breaking Batman's back. Bane then sends Bruce to a jail in the middle east where he is from. Bane terrorizes Gotham. He blows up a football field, trapping every cop in the city are under it. Bane uses a fusion reactor built by Wayne Enterprises and creates a nuclear bomb, using the nuclear physicist from the plane. He traps people in Gotham by blowing up the bridges. Officer John Blake and Commissioner Gordon are the only hope for Gotham. Or can Bruce Wayne escape the jail and save Gotham?
The Dark Knight Rises takes place 8 years after the Two-Face incident. The people of Gotham still believe Batman killed a Harvey Dent. They do not know Harvey became crazy and killed several people. Batman also has not shown his face since the incident either. He lives in seclude and only sees Alfred because the girl he loved, Rachel, was killed by the Joker. The streets of Gotham are the opposite of how they were in Batman Begins, which is clean with no crime. After Batman killed Two-Face, the Dent Act was passed, which made it easier for Gotham police to take down organized crime. The streets of Gotham are cleaner than ever. Until Band shows up. Bane's actions start out relatively small: hijacking a plane, killing everyone except a nuclear physicist inside, and causing horror at a stock exchange. Batman appears for the first time in 8 years to chase Bane after the stock exchange incident. The problem is that the cops who were going after Bane decide to go after Batman instead. Batman helps take down a couple of Bane's men, and he and Bane get away. Batman, with the help of the Cat-woman Selina Kyle, finds Bane again, but Cat-woman closes a gate on Batman so he has to battle Bane alone. Bane was very strong unlike Batman, and he wins easily, breaking Batman's back. Bane then sends Bruce to a jail in the middle east where he is from. Bane terrorizes Gotham. He blows up a football field, trapping every cop in the city are under it. Bane uses a fusion reactor built by Wayne Enterprises and creates a nuclear bomb, using the nuclear physicist from the plane. He traps people in Gotham by blowing up the bridges. Officer John Blake and Commissioner Gordon are the only hope for Gotham. Or can Bruce Wayne escape the jail and save Gotham?
Monday, September 10, 2012
Upcoming NCAA Football Season
This upcoming NCAA season is going to be very interesting. USC Trojans took the pre-season No. 1 ranking while former national champions Alabama took No. 2 and former runner up LSU took No. 3. The SEC is still the dominate conference considering they have LSU, Alabama, pre-season No. 6 Georgia, pre-season No. 9 South Carolina, and preseason No. 10 Arkansas. The USC Trojan's probation has just ended so this year they are able to go to a bowl game. Two teams that are usually powerhouse, Florida and Ohio State, did not have great seasons last year (Florida 7-6, Ohio State 6-7) are both pre-season top 25 this year (Florida-No. 23, Ohio State-No. 18). The Big 12, like the SEC, has 6 pre-season ranked teams: Oklahoma (4), West Virginia (11), Texas (15), Oklahoma State (19), TCU (20), and Kansas State (21).
Week 1 and Week 2 have already occurred. In Week 1 every team in the top 10 stayed in the the top 10 except Michigan, who lost to Alabama 41-14. There were not very close important games in Week 1 except the No. 12 Clemson-Auburn game in which Clemson won 26-19. After Week 1 Alabama jumped USC and claimed the No. 1 spot while USC took No. 2. During Week 2, No. 24 Florida won a tight game against Texas A&M 20-17. Georgia and Missouri played a close game for the first 3 quarters but in the 4th quarter Georgia was dominant and finished the game winning 41-20.
The two biggest upsets of the weekend were No. 13 Wisconsin losing in a shocker against Oregon State 10-7, and Arkansas losing to UL Monroe 34-31 in overtime. Lastly, with the Arkansas loss, they have left the top 25, but replacing them in the SEC is Tennessee who moved up to No. 23. Adding to the new top 25 members are No. 22 UCLA, No. 24 Arizona, and No. 25 BYU.
Week 1 and Week 2 have already occurred. In Week 1 every team in the top 10 stayed in the the top 10 except Michigan, who lost to Alabama 41-14. There were not very close important games in Week 1 except the No. 12 Clemson-Auburn game in which Clemson won 26-19. After Week 1 Alabama jumped USC and claimed the No. 1 spot while USC took No. 2. During Week 2, No. 24 Florida won a tight game against Texas A&M 20-17. Georgia and Missouri played a close game for the first 3 quarters but in the 4th quarter Georgia was dominant and finished the game winning 41-20.
The two biggest upsets of the weekend were No. 13 Wisconsin losing in a shocker against Oregon State 10-7, and Arkansas losing to UL Monroe 34-31 in overtime. Lastly, with the Arkansas loss, they have left the top 25, but replacing them in the SEC is Tennessee who moved up to No. 23. Adding to the new top 25 members are No. 22 UCLA, No. 24 Arizona, and No. 25 BYU.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)