Back before the ACC expansion, VT had two rivalries of any significance: UVA and West Virginia.  VT happily tried to sit between the two extremes of UVA snobbishness and WVU hillbilly-ness.  Both rivalries were competitive to varying degrees throughout the years but both were “big” games every year.

For better or worse, this is no longer the case.  West Virginia remained in the Big East and there are no planned inter-conference games between West Virginia and VT for the foreseeable future.  I think most VT fans will miss the rivalry in principle but not West Virginia in particular; Besides, you could argue we now have Maryland, the ACCs interpretation of West Virginia.

On the other hand, the UVA rivalry should have been even bigger with them competing in the same conference but instead, UVA has trailed off to become one of the worst football teams in Div I-A.  While rivalries are by their very nature competitive, the UVA rivalry has become too lopsided in recent years in favor of VT for it to register much interest.

VT doesn’t have to be too concerned with losing those rivalries as two new rivalries are starting to evolve from a surprising pair of teams: Fellow Big East -> ACC expansion teams Boston College and Miami.  Boston College has remained a solid, not great, program for many years now, and more noticeably, has been the pest that manages to knock off VT at most inopportune times.   The NFL Atlanta Falcons used to hold a warm place in many Hokie fans hearts with all the VT alumni that play(-ed) there but I wonder how many remain so now that evil wunderkind Matt Ryan of BC and VT-heartbreaking fame is running the show down there.

Possibly a bit more related to national relevance is the Miami/VT rivalry.  Going into the game last week, the VT/Miami was as even as possible: 9-9 wins, with the 18 games also matched at 391-391 points scored… that’s just crazy.  It’s impossible to be even more evenly matched.  In addition, VT & Miami have essentially run over the conferences they’ve been a part of since their Big East days.  Since 1994, VT has won 6 conference champions and Miami has won 5.  As you might expect, this dominance has usually lead to the Miami vs VT games being one of the more important games of the season.

Miami has traditionally been one of those schools you love to hate.  I don’t know any other schools that take pride in being arrogant but somehow Miami fans and athletes did.  For as long as I can remember, Miami has seemed to revel in trying to rub people the wrong way.  With questionable academic standards and over-priced tuition designed to provide a safe haven for undeserving trust fund kids, the whole idea that Miami is the “U” and somehow better than anyone, much less everyone, is preposterous.  Yet, somehow that’s exactly how Miami rolls.

That arrogance made the beautiful 31-7 beatdown VT graciously handed Miami this past weekend all that much sweeter so I won’t complain too much.

All of that said, a new wrinkle has been added to the mix.  I must give props to what appears to be a changing culture at Miami, on the football team at least.  I really like what I hear about Randy Shannon.  He sounds like a class guy that I would be happy to have coaching my own football team.  But I still want to beat his team every year.  That’s what rivalries are all about.

One full day back and Christina and I are already ready to return to Puerto Rico — We had an excellent, much-needed vacation in San Juan.

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Few creatures of the night have captured our imagination like vampires…
What explains our enduring fascination with vampires?
What is it about the vampire myth that explains our interest?
Is it the overtones of sexual lust, power, control…
Or is it a fascination with the immortality of the undead?
And what dark and hidden parts of our psyche are aroused and captivated
By the legends of the undead

– Vampires, Godsmack

I remember when vampires were awesome.  Whether it’s a book by Anne Rice, the Lost Boys, pretty much any RPG, or Dracula himself — Vampires are to be feared.  As suggested, vampires have always had a “sexiness” to them but first and foremost, they were creatures to be feared.

No more.

I suppose it started with Blade making vampires “cool”.  Then Kate Beckinsale made them ridiculously hot.  Finally, Stephenie Meyer emasculated them.  The so-called “next J.K. Rowling” has turned vampires as ordinary teenagers experiencing overly dramatic romanticism.  Now vampires are cropping up everywhere but almost universally as a love interest as opposed to, you know, a terrifying force of evil.

Thankfully, a fellow supernatural undead, the zombie, is also riding a huge upswell up popularity.  When it comes to the undead, zombies have always been perceived as the plebs to the vampires patricians.  Unlike vampires however, zombies haven’t had to resort to teen angst for their popularity.  Left 4 Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Plants vs Zombies, 28 Days Later, Resident Evil 5, and the upcoming ZombieLand… zombies are riding high.

The mysteries of the undead will continue to fascinate the living.

– Vampires, Godsmack

Last night, my trigger finger acted faster than my frugality could intercept.  Sony finally lowered the price of the PS3 a few weeks ago which made it irresistibly tempting.  The complete lack of compelling 360-specific games coming out doesn’t help, either.  Then, I spent several hours this past weekend helping a friend get UPnP/DLNA media streaming to his PS3 from a NAS.   If I’m going to tech support a device, I mean, I might as well own one, right?

Who am I to fight all of these reasons?  Uncharted, Fat Princess, Resistance, Little Big Planet, I await thee.

Though Glee surprised me, Community is the new show that I was actually anticipating.  I don’t know if people are going to get into yet another “witty” sitcom but the pilot was pretty funny and well-cast.  Chevy Chase + John Oliver?  Absolutely.

Every TV season, there seems to be at least one new show that comes out of nowhere and becomes the talk of the town.  If the early returns are any indication this season, that show is Glee.  Starting with your standard high-school sitcom foundation, they added on quite a bit of American Idol and High School Musical, a hefty chuck of So You Think Can Dance, and the quirkiness of Pushing Daisies to create a show providing a little something for everyone.

Surprisingly, they mostly succeeded.  It is generally quite funny and for those without a sense of humor, the bits of music & dance will entertain.  Christina is particularly enamored with the show and I have put it into the TiVo Season Pass rotation.

If you missed it, you can watch it on Hulu.

• VT blew away Marshall with their high-powered offense.  Nice showing but where was that last week?
• Taking the pessimistic view, Virginia Techs “offensive” coordinator Bryan Stinespring acquired a straw-man counter-argument for his continued failures.  Blowing away a team with no defense does not mean you know how to run an offense.  Now I just need to convince Beamer of that.
• I’m Michigan’s biggest fan this week.  Hopefully USC, BC and at least one additional team will also beat Notre Dame and keep them from wasting a BCS berth…
• USC-Ohio State wasn’t quite as exciting as I might have hoped for but at least Ohio State shouldn’t appear in the national title game just to get blown out again.  Though, they actually looked respectable in the loss.
• Also — What USC-Ohio State game was the media watching? All they talked about the USC freshman quarterback and his amazing drive to win the game.  Barkley may turn out to be a great quarterback that drive was all about Joe McKnight (who is already a great running back).  If hiking the ball and giving it to your star running back is all it takes to make a QB great, Brett Favre is going to be a legend indefinitely in Minnesota.
• Speaking of which, Adrian Peterson is a man among boys.
• Some are suggesting that Crabtree is going to sit out and re-enter the draft next year? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. If true, it would be another waste of talent on what appears to be another T.O.-esque diva.
• It’s an ongoing struggle to stay a Redskins fan.
• Clijsters wins the US Open after coming back from having a baby.  That’s a story for the ages and yet it’s only the 3rd most compelling story of the tournament.  First, Oudin upstaged her with her spunk and determination and then Serena took “meltdown” to another level.
• Somehow, Federer lost to someone other than Nadal.  I didn’t think this was possible.
• I so very much wish college football was a year-round sport.

Ukrops spoiled me.  Growing up in Richmond, there were, you know, other grocery stores but those were just places you went when you were in rush; You did the real grocery shopping at Ukrops.

When I finally moved out of Richmond, I was a bit taken back at the poor quality of grocery stores elsewhere.  Some were ok, the Harris Teeters of the world, while others were almost universally terrible, such as Giant.  Apparently, there used to be Giants in Richmond before I was born but like Safeway, Hannaford, and FarmFresh, it was run out of town by the success of Ukrops.

Times have changed.  It seems most of the other chains have either adapted and improved.  Giant, the poster-child for all the things other grocery store chains did poorly, has the best self-checkout system of the grocery stores around us.  The store has been modernized, cleaned up, and no longer looks like a sad derelict left over from the post-WWII building boom.

Last night, Giant took it up a notch with handheld scanners.

The beauty of this little guy is that I can scan my groceries as I shop, see my total bill at any time, and when I’m ready to check out, I simply zap a little card at the register, pay, and I’m ready to leave.  No lengthy checkout necessary.  For someone who doesn’t particularly care to spend any additional time in a grocery store than necessary, this thing rocks.  For someone who loves tech gadgets as I do, this thing really rocks.

The evolution of grocery stores is much appreciated, especially as the wunderkind struggles.  Now if we can only get payment by cell phone and RFID checkout going, I might actually enjoy going to the grocery store.   Even if it’s only to play with the gadgets.

Weather and UVA move-in day snuck up on Christina and I and killed our Saturday plans to go visit Charlottesville.  As much fun as it would be to bump shoulders with 15,000 Wahoos moving back into C-Ville, we decided to take a raincheck.  While we were waiting for coffee, Christina overheard a group say they were going to a Lego convention that day.   We’d never heard of such a thing and a quick search turned up BrickFair 2009 at Tysons Corner.  On a whim, we dropped in to see what it was all about.

As Christina described it, it was a cross between adults, kids, foreigners, and crazies and it was all awesome.  The stuff they can do with Legos these days is simply amazing.  In addition, the Lego Mindstorms programmable robotics takes it up another notch.  From your basic space, pirate, Harry Potter, alien, and police Legos taken to a massive scale, working Lego factories made of Legos, recreated historic monuments, running trains, and perpetual motion machines, the BrickFair impressed. Not a bad way to spend an hour or two on a Saturday afternoon.

I posted some pictures in my BrickFair 2009 gallery.

Managed to catch not one but two movies in the theater this weekend: District 9 last Thursday and then Inglourious Basterds yesterday.  Both are actually quite good and worth seeing though each has issues.

District 9 was the more interesting of the two — drawing an obvious but not overbearing correlation to apartheid and with more than a few curious plot inconsistencies, it still managed to come across as a great action & special effects movie with a smart backstory.  It’s told in a newsroom/documentary-style that I thought worked pretty well even if the shaky-cam was probably a bit overdone.  It also wasn’t trying to tell the “whole” story and that explains some (but not all) of the aforementioned plot-holes.  That said, if you are looking for a movie that tells the whole story from start to finish, you are not going to appreciate the “incompleteness” of District 9.

Inglourious Basterds has Tarantino at his best… and his worst.  If you appreciate Buschemi ranting about tipping or Jackson preaching, you should definitely see Inglourious Basterds.  The dairy farmhouse and tavern basement scenes are worth the price of admission — some of the most entertaining scenes I’ve ever seen.  The rest of the movie is quite good as well though Tarantino doesn’t know how to pull on the brakes for some of the more sadistic violence scenes.  There are 2 or 3 parts in the movie that are essentially completely unnecessary and break the audience out of the movie’s spell as they look away in disgust.  A better filmmaker would probably have left un-shown the violence and just left it to the audiences imagination.  The last scene in particular could have been one of the greatest final scenes ever but instead, most people walked out of the theater disgusted.  A few minutes later, everyone will recall how good the movie was but why he took that approach, I don’t know.  Lastly, if Christopher Waltz doesn’t get a nomination for his role in the movie, it’s a travesty — his character is the one you want to hate the most but will be talking about long after the movie ends.

If I could only see one of the two movies, it would be District 9.  Basterds was, at its core, just another WW2 movie (granted one with extreme historic license) while District 9 actually broke fairly unknown ground with its story.  That said, I would highly recommend them both.