The College Football #8 Ranking Curse

Last night Florida State lost in an upset to the unranked Virginia Cavaliers. With the way the college football playoffs are set up, Seminole fans shouldn’t give up yet. After all, they’re already having a better season than last year. Going in to last night’s matchup, Florida State was #8 and that particular spot in the top 10 is becoming a curse. And it might even be worse than the Dr. Pepper curse! We’re in the 5th week of college football and the #8 team has lost 3 of 5 weeks, worse than any other spot in the top 10.

week 1: (unranked) Florida State defeats (#8) Alabama

week 3: (#16) Texas A&M defeats (#8) Notre Dame

week 5: (unranked) Virginia defeats (#8) Florida State

In the new rankings, teams that could be #8 are… Texas A&M, Texas, or Indiana. Each of those teams have potentially tough opponents in their following matches which could manifest another loss for the 8th ranked team.

Texas A&M vs. MS State (currently undefeated).

Texas at Florida. (I know it’s Florida and they stink, but it’s in the swamp)

Indiana at Oregon (currently #6).

The upset alert hasn’t been switched off yet this season. This is what college football is all about, isn’t it?

-Out of the Wilderness

Kamala Harris – 107 Days, The Movie

This is just a little fun I had with the title of Kamala’s new book called “107 Days.” The book is a look into her experience running an abbreviated presidential campaign in which she took the mantle handed to her from Joe Biden (she wasn’t democratically nominated but that’s neither here nor there 🥴) to go up against the Republican candidate, Donald Trump. My mind wandered a bit and wondered what the book would be called if it were turned into a screenplay.

I have the book reserved at a local library so as soon as I read it (I’m like 43rd in line), I’ll probably write up a reaction post for it. Although I’m not sure why I’m even contemplating the idea of reading a story about how someone lost at something. It’s like the Kansas City Chiefs putting out a book about how they lost the Super Bowl. And we care because………??

-Out of the Wilderness

The Pixel 10 Ice Cream Phone Commercial – The Music and More

Eminem’s “Kill Shot” is to Machine Gun Kelly as the Google Pixel ice cream commercial is to every other phone ad. OK, only time will tell if other brands pivot like MGK did after his beef with Eminem so for now take a look at the creative spot for the Google Pixel 10 then scroll down for more…

The Song. An important piece of a commercial is what the audience hears. Sometimes it’s natural sound and other times it’s a song. In this case, it’s the perfect song to be featured as the soundtrack. From 1966, it’s “Sugar Town” by Nancy Sinatra.

I love the commercial even if the Pixel 10 technically looks a lot like every other flagship phone. In other words, it’s vanilla, too, but maybe with a few sprinkles on top. Earlier this year I swapped my flip phone for a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and it’s topping the list of best phones I’ve ever owned. It comes with a stylus, which automatically sets it apart from others. Of course, there are quite a few phones out there that are very, very far from vanilla but as far as mainstream flagship phones go, the S25 Ultra is #1. My favorite part, using the s-pen to accomplish the tasks, is what they call “drawing assist.” I can explore my own creativity and I get to draw stuff, then AI generates images based on my drawing. It’s fascinating. Here are a few recent examples.

Godzilla kicking a soccer ball.

An elephant.

A dog.

Whoa, I totally went on a tangent there, didn’t I? Back to the Pixel commercial: It’s great. Calling out other phones’ blandness while setting yours up as the (ice) cream of the crop is what every brand wants to do, and Google just set a high bar on quality and an effective message. Do you like the commercial? Comment below…

-Out of the Wilderness

A Triathlon Update – Unexpected Twists

I definitely didn’t predict 2025 correctly. As last year was ending, I’m sure was getting excited about an upcoming year of triathlon training and exercise. Actually, wait a second… both of those things have come true. Well, that’s pretty cool. I joined a gym and have been exercising pretty regularly. I’ve been training, too. The ironic part is that with all the workouts and training sessions, I’ve only participated in 2 races all year and only one of those was a triathlon. What the!?!?!

Now it’s nearly October and no races are on my calendar for the remainder of the year. On the one hand, that’s a bummer but on the other hand, I do still have the desire to race. So I’m glad this year’s mostly dry spell isn’t because I’ve lost interest. Plus, the training is good for me even if there’s no race to go along with it. My current situation is mostly making sure I can get back into running, swimming, and cycling after hurting my knee almost a month ago. I thought I’d recover quickly and maybe I would’ve if I was 20 yrs old. Just this week, 3.5 weeks after the pain started, I’ve been able to run distances I’m familiar with. So that’s good. I would even have a race coming up in 2 weeks had I signed up on time. As it is now, it’s sold out and the waitlist is full.

So it looks like it’ll be more working out and more training for the foreseeable future. When the next race comes along, it’ll be great to feel the rush of “race day” again!

-Out of the Wilderness

The New iPhone 17 Commercial – The Song and More!

My sister loves her iPhone (she has the 12) but just the other day she saw a commercial for the iPhone 17 and her curiosity has been piqued. My guess is she’ll have the 17 before we ring in a new year. Once she has her sights set on something, she gets that thing. Usually it’s a phone or a watch or a WWJD bracelet. She’s awesome. Here’s the ad she watched and if you’re curious about the music like I was, scroll down for the answer. Also, click here for why I’ll never look at the iPhone 17 the same way again.

The Song. Something old, something new. In this case, it’s a new phone with an old song. From 1959, it’s called “Come Rain Or Come Shine” by Connie Francis. Here’s the full track.

Are you an iPhone person or Android? Why can’t we all just get along? I ask this as I tap-tap-tap on my Android without an inkling of desire to ever switch. 😉

-Out of the Wilderness