Texas A&M Sues Seattle Seahawks for Infringement upon "12th Man" Trademark

Today Texas A&M filed lawsuit in the 85th District Court of Brazos County for infringement upon their 12th Man trademark. A temporary restraining order that restricts the Seattle Seahawks from usage of the 12th Man trademark was also filed today. "The Seahawks have celebrated their fans as a '12th Man' since the 1980s, when they used to turn the now-demolished Kingdome into one of the NFL's loudest venues. The team retired the No. 12 in 1984. Now, a No. 12 flag waves atop the city's signature Space Needle and the team has raised a '12th Man' banner at their new stadium, Qwest Field. Texas A&M has legal claims to the '12th Man' monik," which has been a school tradition since the 1920s.

At Texas A&M, "the tradition of the Twelfth Man was born on the second of January 1922, when an underdog Aggie team was playing Centre College, the nation's top ranked team at the time. As the hard fought game wore on, the Aggies were forced to dig deep into their limited reserves because of injuries. Coach Dana X. Bible remembered that a former squad member, who was playing basketball at the time, was in the press box helping reporters identify players. His name was E. King Gill. Gill was called from the stands, suited up, and stood ready throughout the rest of the game… which A&M finally won 22-14. When the game ended, E. King Gill was the only man left standing on the sidelines for the Aggies. Gill later said, 'I wish I could say that I went in and ran for the winning touchdown, but I did not. I simply stood by in case my team needed me.'

This gesture was more than enough for the Aggie Team. Although Gill did not play in the game, he had accepted the call to help his team. He came to be known as the 'Twelfth Man' because he stood ready for in case the eleven men on the gridiron needed him. That spirit of readiness for service, desire to support, and enthusiasm helped kindle a flame of devotion among the entire student body; a spirit that has grown vigorously throughout the years. The entire student body at A&M is the Twelfth Man, and they stand during the entire game to show their support. The 12th Man is always in the stands waiting to be called upon if needed."

Texas A&M has registered trademarks twice for "The 12th Man" label in 1990 and 1996 that include entertainment services, 'namely organizing and conducting intercollegiate sporting events,' and products, such as caps, T-shirts, novelty buttons and jewelry.

The Seahawks have been contacted repeatedly since 2004 to stop their use of the 12th Man trademark, but have not responded. In the past the Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills have used the 12th Man theme, but when made aware of the trademark registrations they stopped. Since the Seahawks have shown no signs of compliance, Texas A&M has chosen to seek legal action.

sources:
1)http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs05/news/story?id=2309668&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines
2)http://traditions.tamu.edu/traditions/
3)E-mail sent from Steven B. Moore, chief marketing officer and vice president for communications at Texas A&M University to student body and faculty

Calculus II Prof

Does the name Einstein come to mind?

His name is Dr. Fleischner and he is German/Austrian. Heaven help all who are in his other classes.

New RNC 2006 Membership Card

Got my new RNC membership card in the mail the other day. Thought you might be interested in seeing it.

Fighting the Good Fight

"It's like the great stories, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were and sometimes you didn't want to know how it turned out because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened? But, even darkness must pass. A new day will come and when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those are the stories that stay with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think I understand. I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding onto something. We're holding onto the fact that there's something good in this world and it's worth fighting for."

-Sam, Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers

Survey!

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey
Name:	Justin
Birthday:	August 31, 1985
Birthplace:	Douglasville, GA U.S.A
Current Location:	Texas
Eye Color:	blue
Hair Color:	blonde
Height:	5'10''
Right Handed or Left Handed:	right
Your Heritage:	Scotch-Irish
The Shoes You Wore Today:	boots
Your Weakness:	where do I begin?
Your Fears:	bad grades
Your Perfect Pizza:	pepperoni
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year:	Get an 'A' in all my engineering classes
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger:	adios!
Thoughts First Waking Up:	What the heck is that noise?
Your Best Physical Feature:	Ask one of my friends because I have no idea.
Your Bedtime:	2:00am
Pepsi or Coke:	Dr Pepper :P
MacDonalds or Burger King:	Burger King hands down
Single or Group Dates:	Single, if ever...;)
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea:	who cares?
Chocolate or Vanilla:	chocolate
Cappuccino or Coffee:	cappuccino
Do you Smoke:	no
Do you Swear:	no
Do you Sing:	yes
Do you Shower Daily:	um.....define "shower"
Have you Been in Love:	yes
Do you want to go to College:	Already am
Do you want to get Married:	yes
Do you belive in yourself:	sometimes
Do you get Motion Sickness:	sometimes
Do you think you are Attractive:	I don't know
Are you a Health Freak:	Eat right, die anyway:P
Do you get along with your Parents:	now I do:D
Do you like Thunderstorms:	yes
Do you play an Instrument:	yes, percussion
In the past month have you Smoked:	no
In the past month have you been on Drugs:	no
In the past month have you gone on a Date:	not officially...define "date"
In the past month have you gone to a Mall:	no
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos:	what the crap?
In the past month have you eaten Sushi:	no
In the past month have you been on Stage:	no
In the past month have you been Dumped:	no
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping:	no
In the past month have you Stolen Anything:	no
Ever been called a Tease:	yes
Ever been Beaten up:	no
How do you want to Die:	In the Lord's hands
What do you want to be when you Grow Up:	A Computer Engineer, a good husband, a good father, and as good a servant to God as I can be
What country would you most like to Visit:	Ireland
In a Boy/Girl..
Favourite Eye Color:	any
Favourite Hair Color:	any
Short or Long Hair:	long is my preference, but it doesn't really matter
Height:	don't care
Weight:	within reason:D
Best Clothing Style:	don't care
Number of Drugs I have taken:	none
Number of CDs I own:	bought CDs: 30; burned CDs: 35
Number of Piercings:	hehe
Number of Tattoos:	hehe
Number of things in my Past I Regret:	quite a few

Texas A&M vs TSU (Closeup)

If you look on this side of the end zone, you can see the Aggie making the touchdown.

Fightn' Texas Aggie Band forms up at the north end of Kyle Field.

Aggie Band "steps off on hullabaloo.

Aggie Band does famous form in which each row turns and walks right back through the ranks.

Traditional Block-T.

As tradition goes, the Aggie Band scatters and runs to the north end zone after performing.

The Corps Fish line up by the end zone getting ready to grab the Yell Leaders and throw them into Fish Pond as soon as TSU's defeated.

They got'em! Off to Fish Pond!

Close-up of the Aggie Band's victory march. The band marches to the YMCA building where there is a Victory Yell.

The 3 guys in front holding the batons are the drum majors.

BQ Ball Pics Part 1

Decked out in my tux!

Chick-fil-a Corporate Headquarters

I know this is gonna make all you Chick-fil-a fans turn green with envy:D My older brother Joseph works at Chick-fil-a Corporate Headquarters in Atlanta, GA where he oversees all the renovations of Chick-fil-a buildings across the U.S.. Because my flight back to Texas leaves today and Joseph also happens to be flying out to Texas too, he just took me to work with him with the intent on taking me to the airport with him. Joseph had a meeting this morning (which is still going on as we speak) regarding "dirt," as he called it. They'll be "discussing" different methods of building certain Chick-fil-a's certain ways. Both of us figured I would be bored, so for now I'm just hanging out in his office.

Now comes the good stuff!:) It just so happens Truett Cathy's office is 2 floors up (Founder of Chick-fil-a for those who don't know). What's even better is downstairs in the eating area, they have free all-you-can-eat Chick-fil-a!!!!!! Is that not cool or what??? They not only have the sandwiches and salads, they've also got the Ice-Dreams (frozen yogurt) and all-you-can-drink Dr Pepper!!! I'm in hog heaven!!! In fact, I just went downstairs and got me Dr Pepper and some gummy bear ice-dream toppings to tide me over to lunch where you can bet I'll be eating good:):) There's also a museum downstairs that tells the entire Chick-fil-a story. Truett Cathy has his car collection in the museum also which includes a Lamborghini! He's got some 20 others including the Batmobile.

Well, I guess I better quit before I get a lot of hate mail from people who turned a wee bit too green with envy:D

The Justinator vs. The Fireplace

The night was cold and dark and............dark. So begins the tale of Justin vs. the Moseley's fireplace. It had been a wonderful day; I slept late, hung out with Jason Cawthon during the afternoon, ate a little bit of pizza for supper. We even went to the Kroger a few miles down the road to get some much needed Dr Pepper and another frozen pizza. Everything was going great! I had my Dr Pepper:D, we had more food, the Moseley's had Behind Enemy Lines and Jason had his laptop to watch the DVD on. Then those fateful words came out of my mouth: "It's pretty cold.....could we build a fire in your fireplace?:D:D:D" (As a side note, their house is so big that they rarely turn the heat on and it gets rather cold) . I was given the ok and the location of dry wood, so we headed outside into the night to get the wood. We got the wood onto the porch, loaded up the fireplace, and got the gas going (the gas is used as a starter).

Everything was going just dandy. I was sipping my Dr Pepper, watching a good movie, curled up by the fire. Then I noticed that the smell of smoke was a little more strong than it should be. I turned my head and watched as the smoke would come up from the logs and just hang out right above the logs then ease its way out into the room. I looked up and ooooooooh boy, look at all the smoke! Asa's wife came in for about the third time to check on the fire and was met with a wall of smoke. She then said, "I thought the smoke was smelling a little stronger than it should be." Turns out, she didn't open the flu (or however you spell it) enough to effectively suck the smoke out through the chimney. After opening the back door, turning on the attic fan, and putting towels at the crack of the children's doors (so as not to scare them into thinking there was an actual "fire fire"), the problem was fixed and we went back to our movie. But was that the end of my troubles? Oh no, of course not!

I was minding my own business watching the movie and I turned to check on the fire and noticed that one of the logs needed to be turned over. Well, to do that I had to roll one log up on top of another log and hold it still with the poker while I turned the log in question over with the tongs. Well, before I knew it the log I had rolled up onto the top of the second log came barreling out of the fireplace and bit me square on me leg. Of course, the thing had to spit sparks at me, so Jason and I quickly put out the five or six sparks that found their way into the *cough* white *cough* carpet. Then the fun part was figuring out how to get a glowing log back into the fireplace touching it as little as possible, but touching it with enough force to get it back in there and it not come barreling back out. The bright idea of using oven mitts crossed one of our minds, so we put that to good use and there wasn't anything that a little whiteout on the carpet, bleach on the oven mitts, and a slap on the back amidst howls of laughter couldn't fix.

An "Elementary" Walk Down Memory Lane

I decided to go and do something interesting today. It just so happens that my old elementary school is about 3 miles away from my grandparents, so I decided to go drop by and see if any of my old teachers were around. I was the original 5th grade class when the school opened and turns out 3 of my old teachers still taught there. I met up with my old P.E. teacher and when she saw me, she immediately recognized my face but could not remember my name. I told her who I was and then she knew exactly who I was.

We talked and reminisced about the good ol' days. After talking a little bit, she took me around trying to track down a couple of my other former teachers. Amazingly, both of them kinda recognized my face and when I told them my name everything just clicked. We talked a wee bit and then my P.E. teacher and I headed back to the gym where her office was. She got out her old yearbook of that year and we looked at all my old classmates. Interestingly enough, most of the trouble-makers didn't end up doing well later in life. One or two have gone off to play college football. I found it quite interesting that the same three girls us 5th grade boys had such the crush on turned out to be the prettiest girls, so I'm told, lol!

Well, that made for an interesting afternoon. Shortly afterward, I headed over to my good friend Mike's and played some Halo and Halo 2 then I headed on back to my grandparents. Tonight the agenda is to watch the Rose Bowl (not sure who to go for), stay up late, then sleep late. I'll let ya'll know if anything exciting happens tomorrow!

To Post or Not to Post

After the insistence of certain friends of mine, I decided to post after nearly a month of chronic blog neglect. I cleared out most of the cobwebs and got started just as soon as I got to a computer.

My break has been quite enjoyable! I finished up with finals on December 13 and had all day the 14 to "tidy up" and get ready for the trip to GA. To make a long story short, I had a lot of extra time on my hands after packing and "cleaning." Brother Vince and Sister Kristy were gracious enough to let me stash my stereo and computer at their house. The next day, I met up with my coworker who was going to be giving me a ride to Houston to catch my plane. She dropped me off about 2 hours early and it turns out that the flight was delayed due to low visibility in Atlanta, so I listened to some music until it was time to board.

The flight was really quick (1 hour and 20 min.) which is just plain amazing to me. It takes me 14 hours to get from College Station, TX to Atlanta. My older brother picked me up at the airport and then I stayed with my Moseley cousins for a few days. I had a good time there and something rather comical happened while I was there. I'll save that for another post, though:-D.

We had our family get-togethers the following Wed.(21) and Sat.(24). My dad's parent's get-together was Wed. and it went well. It was good to see everyone. Mom's side's get-together was Sat. and that was quite enjoyable. As our tradition goes, we sang Sacred Harp most the afternoon. That was so much fun!

The following week I didn't do a whole lot. I did go see the chiropractor one day and then a friend of mine and I went out to eat one evening before seeing King Kong, which was an awesome movie btw (save for those giant bugs). Then this past weekend I was gone to the Memphis meeting, i.e. Grace Chapel. The Fulmers graciously allowed me to ride with them. I had such a great time. The preaching helped me out a great deal. This past semester was a rough one and really tried me spiritually. I needed it bad. It was great to see all my buddies and to even make some new friends! The Lord blessed us with a safe journey there as well as back to GA.

As we were returning to GA (today actually), some tornadoes broke out near Atlanta and one started heading towards where my grandparent's live. That was actually where I was ultimately going to be ending up tonight after we got everything unloaded at the Fulmer's. We got to my grandparents where my Meteorologist brother (weatherman) informed me that the storm system that had the tornado disappeared before it could get anywhere close to the house. Everyone was quite thankful.

Well, I suppose that's way more than enough for one post. I'll probably post again in the near future to describe the amusing events that took place one night while staying with my cousins:-D