Well, I haven't blogged nearly as often as I'd like to this year, but it hasn't been without good reason. Though not in terms of blogging, I have been very active on the internet this year. I teamed up with ecdawg at LHB to develop and roll out a brand new Bulldog news site, GATA News Net. We're still working on getting DawgNation to add to their bookmarks, but I'm very proud of the way the site turned out. In addition to GATANews, I've also been very involved in the rise of the Hobnail Boot Blog. Bigredballer reached out to me this summer expressing interest in the two of us joining up to create a new blog. I've been stretched pretty thin, but I agreed to help out, and I'm very happy I did. HBB is doing quite well and Bigredballer always has great insight and information.

Then, of course, I made time over the last few months to rewrite my baby - NatesDawgs. If you've visited my site before, you can hopefully see how things have changed. But the real work has actually been in the changes I made behind the scenes. NatesDawgs is over 10 years old now and the site (as well as my knowledge and capabilities) have evolved a great deal in that time. The technology behind my site (most specifically my database solution and scripting languages) had become almost obsolete, so it was long overdue to roll up my sleeves and make some painful changes. Hopefully pages throughout my site are now quicker to load, more portable and easier to use. Additionally, I've made a big effort to improve the way my friends can add their opinions. I've always been VERY happy when Foltz, Joe and Dunk share their opinions and thoughts through my blog. I hope to encourage more of that by making it easier for them to contribute.

Anyway, I know no one really cares about the "why" behind all these changes, but I wanted to share anyway. For anyone that has somehow managed to stay with this blog entry to this point, I just can't end it without mentioning this season. What an incredible rollercoaster of a year! I don't think I've ever been as high on a Bulldog team as I was early this season. Then, I honestly don't think I've ever been as low on a Bulldog team as I was coming off that embarrassment against South Carolina. Then, they turned it on, and I went through the exact same cycle all in 1 game in the Ga dome. Yes, I was fortunate enough to get a ticket to the game (thanks Joe!), but, man, what an excruciating loss. It still hurts my heart to even think about how close we were to finally getting a shot at the MNC. As hard as it is to accept what happened in the SEC Championship game and as embarrassing as the beatdown in Columbia, SC was, I can definitely say that this was a great season and this team has no reason to hang their heads. It's not always an easy thing, but I can definitely say that I'm proud to be a Bulldawg! Below is a horrible amateur video I took from the SEC Championship. I had a feeling we might do something great that play, so I decided to record it with my phone just in case. Then John Jenkins delivered!!