Lynn and I are watching Denny Diamond, a real live Neil Diamond impersonator at Frist Fridays.

This is my dad, and our dog Murphy. No doubt, you’ve seen photos of Murphy before. Dad was the one who actually rescued him, so Murphy still has a strong bond with my dad. In case you haven’t noticed, my dad and I are big softies when it comes to dogs.

I’m going to go a little serious on this one. I usually don’t in this forum, but this is important to me.

I am a passionate advocate for the EFF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation. You’ll see a web badge for them on my side bar. We have groups like the RIAA and the MPAA that are determined to take away our fair use rights in the digital realm. The EFF opposes them, and advocates us in the courts.

Before you think I’ve gone off the deep end, understand this. The RIAA uses an unlicensed investigative firm to track online downloading behavior. They are also lobbying the government to force the telcomm companies to divulge our downloading habits. I could go on and on, but I’ll save that for Empire of Geek.

One of their current projects is the Patent Busting Project. They are challenging in court the use of frivolous patents that discourage innovation. They even have a top 10 worst offenders list.

If you want to give me a Christmas present, make part of it (emphasis on part) a donation to the EFF. It would really make me smile.

Oh my! This was taken Saturday during the Alabama-Arkansas game. It’s 350lbs left tackle Andre Smith (71) and 365lbs Terrence Cody doing a belly bump after a big play.

Here are a couple more photos of Murphy getting used to our guests. The first image is with Moayad’s cousin, Mohammed. He doesn’t live with us, but he is often here. The other picture is with Fouzan, the other student who lives with us. Understand the photos are in low light and taken with a cell phone camera. Even the iPhone can’t do miracles with a cell phone camera.

This is a photo of one of the students living with us and our dog. He is in Nashville learning English at the International English Institute. Our other student, Fouzan, is starting to get along with Murphy after some initial trouble. Murphy almost instantly bonded with Moayad.

But I wouldn’t mind. I held Molly, my friend’s Bryan and Jennifer’s daughter, during their son’s soccer game. What a cutie. 

My EmpireofGeek.com partner, Bryan De Cuir, was watching Alabama’s thrashing of Clemson with his family. His saintly wife, Jennifer, sent this photo of their son cheering on ‘Bama. Not bad for a kid born in California.

Since Lynn works for Vanderbilt, we get a big discount on season tickets. As you can see from the photo, we got great seats at the 50 yard line. Even though I’m a huge Crimson Tide fan, I can always appreciate going to a college football game. Having season tickets to an SEC team is even better. By now you know Vandy upset the #24 Gamecocks, 24-17. The night was great for football, and was only slightly lessened by some rage-aholic SC fans a few rows behind us. With Florida, Auburn and Tennessee still on the schedule, the games should be a lot of fun. By the way, wasn’t it great to see ‘Bama beat the crap out of Clemson?!?! Also, leave it to Tennessee to not hold up the SEC’s dominance this past weekend.