SEPTEMBER
'03
9/30/03- Boo Braves, Boo Yankees
Boxers still in the bushes.... when will they be claimed or be
taken away??
Believe it or not, this is toward the beginning of the UNIX book I'm
using:
The best way to learn about the UNIX
system is to use it. Try the date command.
$ date
Weds
Jan 21 16:32:39 EST 1993
$
In this
dialog, things that you type are shown in bold type and responses from
the computer are plain. The currency symbol is UNIX's prompt. (The
prompt may be different on your system.) To enter the date
command, type the letters d, a, t, and e followed by a carriage return.
The carriage return says to the computer, "I've finished typing
the command, now it's your turn."
Honestly, if someone doesn't understand that to enter the date command
you write the letters d, a, t, and e in the proper order, they probably
aren't at the point where they should be trying to learn UNIX. I
understand the need for "Computers for Dummies", but this seems like
"UNIX for dummies" and that doesn't make sense.
Worked out for the first time in almost 2 weeks tonight. I'm
gonna be feeling good tomorrow, for sure. They had 97.1, QWIK Rock
on, which meant I got to hear all the lifting classics like:
"I love you
I hate you
I can't lift without you"
Maybe those aren't the REAL words but we hear that song so much at the
gym, they might as well be.
Cubbies WON tonight... had to move over on the futon since they were
doing bad while I was sitting on the couch. They loaded the bases
with nobody out in the fourth and couldn't score... the SAME three guys
got on base to start the sixth, and the first batter struck out.
The next guy hit what looked like a double-play ball, but the
first baseman bobbled it and they only got the batter out. Good
thing... if they hadn't scored THAT time -- beware of unidentified
flying remote controls. Kerry Wood then had the biggest hit of the
game, a two out double that made it 3-1. He also pitched awesome,
and he definitely deserves the hot wife they kept showing in the stands.
It's a little early to get married, Kid K, but you made a good
choice. If you're gonna go down, go down big.
Oh yeah, and the BOO Yankees lost. Great day all around.
9/29/03- Fun
with the DMV
Woke up pretty early today so I
could go see my friends at the DMV, first to get my car inspected.
The car was fine, but unfortunately I didn't have my new insurance
card with me so the form said FAIL, and I have a red sticker on the side
of the windshield that says "REJECTED". It's like the Scarlet
Letter (shudder thinking about that book) for automobiles. Anyway,
after my doctor's appt I got my license renewed, and with my new
insurance card went back to the DMV. Unlike when I was there at 8
AM, THIStime the line was 85 minutes long.
ALL I HAD TO DO WAS
SHOW A PIECE OF PAPER THAT SAID MY CAR WAS INSURED!!! Is it really necessary to wait in
line that long, just for THAT??? I didn't think so either, so I
left. Went to Big & Tall place (none in SC -- I guess there's
nobody big or tall out here) to get socks and try on shoes, and then
drove past the Inspection Station on the way back to school. 110
minute wait. Ummmm.... NO.
Got too lazy to swim tonight.
Monday Night Football was boring so I got caught up on some stuff
around the house.
9/28/03- First Eagles win of the year!
Watched Eagles football with Homey and Steve. Finally the
Eagles got their heads out of their butts and played a pretty good game.
Not the best I've ever seen 'em, but sure as hell better than the
last couple of weeks.
Ate panzarottis for lunch... damn I love those things.
Spent some QT with the fam tonight... had an enlightening discussion
about who among the four of us had used drugs, and more specifically
pot. As I said that night, "Getting drunk is still fun for me....
maybe if that stops being fun I'll try something else."
Sorry I wasn't there for you this
weekend :-(
9/27/03- Cubbies goin' to
the playoffs :-) :-) :-)
Got up early and headed off
to the Vet with a group of meteo people. Today's the second to
last game ever there, and next year they move into a nice new stadium.
Why are all the arenas in Philly
named after banks? There's the Wachovia Center & Wachovia
Spectrum (blech! at least when it was First Union we could call it
the F.U. Center), Lincoln Financial Field, and now Citizens Bank Park.
Give me Wrigley Field any time... that's not advertising anything
except Wrigley's gum, and that's not even the reason it has that name.
Saw some mean accidents on the way
home. On 322 saw a pickup truck completely on fire... not the
remains of it but really ablaze. Came up to an accident that
happened right before we got there on the PA Turnpike... it looked like
a car had gotten rear ended and then plowed right into the cement
median. Looked like everyone made it out of the banged-up car
though. Then by the airport saw another burned up van, and a guy
standing by his car which he crashed as he was coming around a
jughandle. I hang my head to say that I went the wrong way on the
way to the Vet... I had my mind elsewhere and didn't stay right on I-76
and ended up taking 291 rather than I-76 east. Boo me.
Got to the game an inning and a
half late, and barely missed Jim Thome's first home run of the game.
Even thought the rest of that team doesn't seem to be trying any
more, at least he has been big down the stretch. Definitely worth
the $15 million they're paying him this year (I'll suspend judgment on
the $75 million over the nxt 5 years, however).
Spent a lot of time watching the
out-of-town scoreboard in left field... for some reason they switched it
to American League scores during the game, which sucked because (a) no
A.L. games were meaningful any more, and (b) no A.L. games had even STARTED. Meanwhile, the Cubs had a
doubleheader going and Houston was taking on the Brew Crew. Called
up Steve & Homey, who were at the game, and they walked around so we
could see the RF scoreboard. Cubs up 4-1, and Astros down 5-1!!!
I kept watching the scores the whole time, and the Cubbies ended
up winning 4-2 and the Astros lost 5-2. The Cubs won the nightcap
7-2 and are in the playoffs versus the Braves. WOO HOO!!!!!
The Phillies ended up winning a
dramatic game vs the Braves. Got one back on a Thome HR, and then
two in the bottom of the 9th versus John Smoltz, one of the best closers
in baseball. Thome scored to win it in the 10th on a single by, of
all people, Chase Utley.
Went to Geno's for dinner and
waited in line for about a half hour, some of that time waiting in line
in the middle of the street. Eventually someone decided that
wasn't such a good idea and moved everyone down to wind along the side
of the road.
Went to Wildwood for the evening,
where some volleyball people Steve knew were boozing. They had a
tournament today... guess it wasn't very important b/c they drank most
of the day, even while they were playing. Everyone was staying at
this motel, and the owner was partying with them. There was a live
band, food, and lots of beverages. I don't know if there are rules
of any sort in Wildwood... honestly what kind of place just allows big
loud drunken parties in motel parking lots??? (Not complaining, just
saying...) Anyway they had to stop playing at 11 (I guess that's
ONE rule they have) so we went out to bars/clubs. There was NOBODY
in the first place we went but we found most of the other group in the
second place. Nothing much interesting happened there.
Oh yeah, in the parking lot this
drunk guy in his 40s smacked Homey's ass real hard twice. The
first time he just did it on his own; the second time he did it at my
urging (didn't take much). That was the highlight of the night.
There also was some guy w/a breathalyzer. I blew a 0.06, but
that was only an hour or so after I started drinking. I was
determined to be better than that, but I didn't see that guy the rest of
the night.
Oh yeah, and I kept the streak
going... every year since 1997 now.
9/26/03- G.F.D. =
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics = Great Fucking Disaster
Writing these early so there will be some stuff from the night
left out. Despite drinking some last night, woke up before 7!?!?!
What's up w/that??
I've gotten less than 6 hours of sleep for who knows how many days in a
row now, and eating habits have been bad (i.e., late dinners) due to
late nights here and late buses back after swimming. Doesn't look
like there will be much catching up on sleep this weekend either.
Hopefully I can get a nice diet of cheesesteaks and mom food,
though.
There were a pair of boxers in the bushes at the bus stop outside my
place this morning. Did someone get a little too frisky last night
and just couldn't wait for CATA to arrive? Actually whoever it was
probably just got sick of waiting and went at it right there.
Spent a while this morning trying to get my Isabel pictures page onto 6
pages, since it complains b/c I have hardly any bandwidth for data
transfer. Like I said before, you get what you paid for, and I pay
nothing for my geocities sites. But now I am the proud owner of
the following webpages:
poolboybob
poolboybob0
poolboybob1
poolboybob2
poolboybob3
poolboybob4
poolboybob5
The Isabel pics are spread out everywhere except for the original
(poolboybob), b/c I don't want that one to get blown up by people
looking at the pictures. Basically what's been happening is that
you can only get so far, and then whoever is looking at the pictures
gets a message saying that the page is unavailable but will be available
in an hour.
I. HATE. THIS.
:-(
Finished writing up a (very) preliminary thesis proposal... will work
on that a lot next week after I meet w/my advisor and another committee
member.
Off to lift, home for dinner & laundry, and then probably going out
w/Beth tonight. Then home early tomorrow... have a good weekend
everyone.
Most of that stuff happened... didn't get to finish the white
wash, and had to see about a friend instead of going out w/Beth. I
can't bear to see you cry any longer :-(
The Cubs got rained out, but the Astros lost tonight... Cubs
will be in the playoffs if they win their last 3 games!!!!
9/25/03- If
you don't get your hopes up, you'll never end up disappointed
I think I'm going to
stop writing that I'm in Walker. Basically, if it's a
Monday-Friday, just assume I'm at Walker and I'm doing research. I
fear I'm beginning to sound like a broken record.
Wanting more is
just a recipe for heartache. Dreams are for kids. --stephen king
Swam tonight...
now we have two super-swimmers serving as coaches. Smaller turnout
than we've had lately, but still pretty good. Only bad thing is
that the new coach is into kicking and puts lots (like 500 meters) worth
of kick in the practice. That's cool and all, and it does give my
legs a workout, but when I swim I.
DON'T. KICK. As
nice as it would be to learn to kick, I've been swimming too long to
start doing something I don't know how to do. Besides, kicking
uses up oxygen, and I want all the oxygen I can get when I'm swimming a
10K.
Went out w/Beth (new grad student who swam for Shippensburg, which
apparently is pretty near Gettysburg. Who knew? Jeff and
John joined us later. Had a pitcher, a couple of Tonto's, and of
course, a dozen pazzo wings. I'll have to do extra crunches when I
work out tomorrow. Also, tonight Beth became the first 570 area
code in my phone... way to go Beth. She said the 570 was the new
area code for the Poconos, but I couldn't imagine the Poconos being
populated enough to require their own area code. Scranton-Wilkes
Barre switched over to 570 though... so it makes sense.
One more day of school then I'm off for 3... looking forward to home
for some reason...
9/24/03- Juliet, I'd do the stars with you, anytime
but this, this is just
the beginning
Got
a lot of work done over in Walker today... things are starting to
become more clear in terms of my thesis. What's unclear is how
much the thesis will involve ensembles, and how much new ground will be
broken (those are kind of related). I'm hoping we can do some
stuff with ensembles, if for no other reason than I've done a lot of
work and research of them, and I'd prefer that all that time not be
wasted.
We're
already wet, and we're gonna go swimming
I had planned on lifting today, but
I'm not feeling so hot. It's weird... I don't feel congested, but
there's this pressure in my ears where I have to keep popping them to
keep from going crazy. I don't get it. Anyway, I ran out to
Giant today and picked up some rice vinegar, so I could brew up this
foul-tasting concoction:
1 tsp honey
1 tsp rice vinegar
1/2 cup boiling water
According to my mom, she had it one morning when she was sick, and was
swimming laps that afternoon. Normally I'm leery of miracle cures,
but when my mom says it worked, I believe her, so it's worth a shot.
Why
can't I breathe whenever I think about you?
While
pulling into the parking lot at Giant (at 11:30 tonight - not many cars
there at all), a Honda Element pulled into a handicapped (or is it
handicapable?) parking spot, and two able-bodied people hopped
out. Nothing hanging from the rear-view mirror; nothing about
being handicapped on the license plate. Now come on... that is
just pure laziness. It
wasn't exactly the mall at Christmas... there were SO MANY spots open in the
parking lot... many just a few feet away from where they parked.
Why
can't I speak whenever I talk about you?
That reminds me... one
evening a few weeks ago I saw an Element driving up Burrowes as I walked
back to (boo) Walker. There were two girls in front of me, and
they BOOed the Element as it drove by. Yes, I agree, they are
quite ugly. But I don't think someone should be booed for buying a
low-emission SUV-type car... unless you are one of those "Pave the
earth, Pave the whales, Pave the rainforest" types like (y)our
president. I guess it's their fault for driving an Element instead
of some gas-guzzling monstrosity like, say, a GMC Jimmy.
Heard Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet" on the way back from Giant...
still my favorite song ever. Kudos to preset #5 on my radio dial,
92.1 out of Lock Haven.
[Note: I have been corrected on the above statement. The
Honda Element is not a low emissions car, thus there is no reason for it
to look so ugly, and it should be BOOed. I will not be making
further commentary on cars, since my knowledge in that area is limited.
SUVs are still dumb though.]
9/23/03- There
is no why--clear your mind of questions
Another day, another crappy
day in Walker. If Prozac is supposed to cure depression then I
think Walker Building would be your "pill" to induce depression.
Had a very frustrating time
dealing with CATA (surprise, I know) and the bursar. My plan;
go to CATA office, get my bus pass, go to bursar, pay semester
bill. Easy, right? Not so fast, my friend. Went to the
CATA office, but need some form signed by the apartment office, a.k.a.
Blonde & Blonder. Went to the bursar's office - my library
fine for "lost" books (they weren't really lost, just very overdue)
wasn't taken off even though I stopped by the library and it was
supposed to have been. Went to the library, they saw that there
was a mistake and printed something out for the bursar's office.
Back to the bursar's office and finally that's taken care of.
Back to the Copper Bitch office...
Jeannine, who's probably a touch brighter (that's not saying much) and
more clothed than her sister, gets the form for me. I go back to
CATA... and the woman who does cards is out to lunch from 11-12!!!
They also opened late (9:30) today... that's CATA for you.
Waited around til noon, then got my card, ran home, dropped off my
car, and then waited for CATA to get to the Copper Bitch stop more than
10 minutes late. Just when you thought CATA do any more damage,
they just come along and kick you right in the nads.
Rest of the day did research and
then swam at night. Looks like a few people will be getting
together for wings on Thursday night, which is good b/c I've been
craving 'em lately.
9/22/03- Always
two there are. No more, no less... a Master and an apprentice
They should make a Star Wars
featuring just Yoda. He is THAT cool.
Not much to report today. Swam tonight and we have a new coach...
I guess he's a good swimmer cause he has clothes that say "USA Swimming"
on them, and I don't think he got 'em by buying 'em at some sporting
goods store. Practice was a little easy, but he'll adjust... right
now I think he just assumes we are old and fat and slow.
Ate dinner after 11, which is always fun.
I think I really need to start dividing this page up by months, because
it's getting way too long.
9/21/03- I sense much fear in you
Went to Hershey Park w/Jeffo and Vicki today. Had a good
time... weather was nice and there were plenty of buddies for the
always-popular hobby of buddy-watching. Funny stuff happened, like:
J: Hmm.. let me
see, do we want to choose the lane that points to Hershey Park, or the
one that promises SITTING IN TRAFFIC?
(yes, there really was a sign that just said "Traffic")
You know when they have stickers like "Don't do such-and-such" on a
ride, and it's got a figure of a person on the sticker? You ever
see when people draw on/scratch off the private areas? That was
done on one of the roller coaster rides that we went on, and then later
another one was not defaced, so I scratched off the breasts and crotch
as the roller coaster ascended. Heard at the top was something
along the lines of "No, not yet! I'm not done scratching!"
Later I had part of the sticker stuck to my shirt...
B: What's that?
V: I don't know.
B: Oh... it's probably just part of that guy's crotch
Then we played that old baseball game where one person has a choice of
4 pitches to throw, the other person hits a button to swing, and then
the bat hits the little pinball and it goes up and hits a flap that has
a predetermined result (i.e., out, single, etc.) I beat Vicki
25-22 in a 6 inning pitchers duel. She scored about 12 runs in an
inning to take the lead, but I rallied to win in the top of the 6th.
Then we played bubble hockey and I topped Jeff 3-0 and Vicki 2-1.
the hardest thing i
had to say today: yeah, but it hardly feels like it anymore
Went to Friendly's for dinner and it hit the spot.
Seriously, can't we have one in town? We agreed that a
Friendly's and a Wawa are necessities. Jeff wants a White
Castle, for some bizarre reason. The "special sauce" on their
burgers tastes like a mixture of bad dressing and cow jizz. By the
way, this
has to be about the worst idea I've EVER heard of. It's time for
that tradition to die before one of the participants does.
Everyone needs to feel loved
sometimes. I hope you felt that from me tonight.
9/20/03- Dangerous
and disturbing, this puzzle is. Meditate on this, I will.
Ah those lazy Saturday
afternoons... gotta love 'em.
Spent much of the morning
unloading my photos onto Jeff's computer and trying to figure out how
(mostly unsuccessfully) to make them smaller so that they don't take up
a crapload of disk space. I already had to create another
Geocities name (poolboybob2) to hold the Isabel pictures, since there
will be about 70-80 once I'm done cutting some out. Watched
college football for some of the afternoon... Penn State wasn't
televised for the first time in 6 years, but I didn't miss too much.
Vicki took a break from pick-up-sticks in her yard to hear the
stories and see the pics from the hurricane, and she helped me out some
with editing down the photos. This is gonna take a little while
setting this up though, and demand to see the pictures is high.
Michigan lost today,
and although Jeff would disagree with me, that was fun to watch.
Some of us out here at PSU do this college football game (Dirty-dawg) and even though I picked
Michigan, I really don't like them, so I rooted for them to lose.
Went over to the other Copper
Bitch to watch more college football and hang out w/folks over there.
Some people played cards in the kitchen, but I was just content to
relax on the couch and B.S. with people. Talked about Isabel with
people who hadn't heard the story. Pitt lost to Toledo, which
Robert picked correctly, and he rooted on Toledo the whole time.
Rooting for Ohio State vs N.C. State, and the Bungles vs. the
Raiders??? I think Robert is a closet Ohio fan.
Christina and Jeff danced on
the table in the living room, which apparently was entertaining. I
didn't watch because I knew I'd be going to be soon, and didn't want to
have nightmares.
9/17 through 9/19 - HURRICANE ISABEL - HAVELOCK, SEA LEVEL, &
ATLANTIC, NC
See HERE
for story & pics!
9/16- Ensuite... le
deluge
Well I'm getting caught up on
RTs, but this might be brief because I was almost finished doing them
for the last five days, and then the browser window just decided to
close itself. Thanks Netscape, you're great.
All eyes on Isabel... at least
all eyes in Walker anyway. By early afternoon the eyewall had
completely eroded... BOOOOO. But then at 5:00, it looked like
Isabel was rallying, and by 7:00 they eye was closed again and pressure
began dropping.
Went swimming tonight...
people were kind of amazed that someone would drive all the way to North
Carolina to be in a hurricane. I guess it just takes a certain
type.
"In my
mind I'm going to Carolina" ... and in real life!!! :-)
Giddy'up!
9/15/03- Anger, fear,
aggression. The dark side are they. Once you start down the dark path,
forever will it dominate your destiny.
Isabel is still approaching... things looking even better.
Isabel isn't looking as good as it was originally, but oh well.
See, this is what happens when I don't keep up with my random
thoughts... I end up having no idea what I did on a certain date, and
today is a perfect example of that. Oh yeah, I think worked fairly
late, and then Vicki picked me up from Walker, and after compiling my
grocery list, we went shopping. Hee haw. Needed stuff for
our place, and also for the anticipated hurricane chase on or around
Wednesday.
I also made the idiotic comment that 20% of the U.S. population lives
in the U.S. I meant to say "in the Northeast", but it didn't come
out that way.
9/14/03- No
more training do you require. Already know you that
which you need.
WTF EAGLES?!?!?!?
Was planning on going grocery shopping
this morning, but woke up very lethargic and with a touch of headache...
perhaps all the beer consumed during the Penn State game had something
to do with that :-) Meteo picnic was today... I ended up working
the grill for a lot of the time, which was fine by me. Ran low on
charcoal though, so stuff took too long to cook and Jeff had to run over
to Giant to get more. Jeff also tried to incinerate himself with
fire and lighter fluid, but fortunately he failed. I had sausage
(sadly, not Uncle Charley's) and burgers, which really hit the spot.
Nothing good happened between
4:15 and 7:30. Well, I take that back.... we did come across THE BUDDIEST show in the history of television.
It was on local channel 13, which according to Jeff is Scranton's
ABC affiliate. These two guys -- one wearing a camouflage jacket,
the other sporting a hat with a deer on it -- were talking about
Pennsylvania outdoors. There was an awesome segment where people
sent in photos and stories from their fishing and/or hunting
expeditions, and the narrator read the story while the photos were shown
on the screen. There were a couple of fish photos, and then the
worst one of all... two girls, probably in their late teens or so,
sitting with a deer they'd shot. HEY BUDDY!!!! Anyway,
according to the narrator, they went out w/their dad and bagged another
one later that day. Way to go, ladies.
9/13/03- Soon will I rest. Yes,
forever sleep. Earned it, I have.
Slept in (8:30 is sleeping in for me), looked up some stuff
related to my research in the morning and then watched a bunch of
college football today. Laughed at Boo Wisconsin, who got their
lunch handed to them at home by UNLV, with a final score of 23-5 (what
kind of score is 5??? I think I'd rather get shut out than get 5
points in football). Also had a good laugh at Michigan State, who
blew a 19-7 lead in the last 2 minutes of their game and lost at home to
the WAC powerhouse Louisiana Tech. MOOOOOO
Had dinner at someone's house while watching Michigan whip up on Notre
Lame. I didn't realize just how bad Notre Dame was until I saw
this game... they are truly putrid.
Watched the PSU-Nebraska game at the home of 3 meteo grad students.
By the end of the game many people, myself included, were yelling
at the TV because Nebraska ran more or less the same play every time,
and Penn State could do nothing to stop it. Nebraska ran the ball
72 times and threw it 6 times, which must be some kind of record.
Seriously, if you know the other team is going to run the ball and
you still can't do anything about it, that's a sign you aren't a very
good football team. It also makes me realize that Nebraska is
going to lose a few games in the Big 12 because these days, good teams
CAN stop the run and you have to throw the ball... which Nebraska
clearly cannot do.
Romperoom ensued at the end of the night as more booze was consumed.
I was just sitting on the couch, apparently staring off into space
or something, and this girl Amy runs across the room and jumps on me for
no particular reason. According to her, it had something to do
with me looking really out of it or something. Pillows were tossed
around the room and I wrestled Amy for a while. It came to an
abrupt end when she was trying unsuccessfully to pin me, and said "I
can't do it, you're too long!" Even without booze, that one is
going to be taken in a perverted manner. No more wrestling after
that...
9/12/03- Do or do not.
There is no try.
In Walker. Sucks, huh?
Played football today with the
meteo team and some other team, made up of meteos not on our team and
some geography people. Even though I was being defended by people
who weren't particularly athletic and I kept getting open, nobody would
throw me the ball. I sat out for a while, then came back in, and
still couldn't get any passes thrown my way. Then I asked to be
quarterback, so at least I could touch the ball on offense. Now it
seems to me that if people kept dropping passes and couldn't get open,
and you've got a kid who is 6'4" and has good hands, you'd throw him a
bone every now and then, but I guess that I am better used as a decoy.
Oh well...
Isabel became a Category 5
hurricane today... the first one since Mitch in '98. Cat 5s kick
ass.
9/11/03- When nine hundred years
old you reach, look as good you will not.
Watched a little of the 9/11 stuff on TV while I ate breakfast,
but it was too depressing. Even Linda Cohn is easier to take right
after you wake up than 9/11 stories.
Forgot something at home so borrowed Jeff's bike and rode home.
There was a call when I was there... a carpet place calling to say
they can come replace my carpet now!!! I guess Copper Bitch didn't
understand the letter I sent them AND the one my parents sent them, as
well as the talk I had with Blonde, about how I want the problem fixed before they do something like putting
new carpet down. God help us if the remnants from Isabel were to
come up here and dump 5+ inches of rain on the area.
Speaking of which, I e-mailed Doug about Isabel and he says he's going
if he thinks it's going to hit land. Same here. Maybe a
hurricane that could potentially be a Category Four or Five isn't the
best one to start my hurricane chasing experience, but at least there
will be someone else there w/me if I go. As of now, a more
northern track is looking more likely -- possibly the Carolinas, but the
bad thing (for hurricane nerds like me anyway - not for people along the
East Coast) is that it makes it more likely that Isabel could curve off
and out to sea. It seems about 50-50 to me right now.
Got to sit around waiting for CATA late afternoon today. First
the NV Express went by (it doesn't go right by my place, but close
enough), then an N, and then another NV Express - all full. That's
cool that I get screwed like that b/c my stop is the last one before the
bus heads out to the apartments/residences. Finally another NV
Express came by, after I waited like 40 minutes from when I got out
there (should've been only 5 if the N hadn't been full). As soon
as I get some more time - BOO CATA will be joining the BOO page.
Spero melior too, kiddo
Swam today and actually felt pretty good. I don't remember how to
swim short distances though. It looks like we've got a pretty good
group of swimmers this semester... most of the old ones are still here
and there are a couple of decent swimmers that have joined.
Unfortunately, our coach from last year isn't able to coach us
this year. That's too bad, b/c he's an asst coach of the PSU team
and I definitely think he helped me with my stroke. I hope they
find someone new to coach us - someone who knows stuff about stroke
technique.
There will be sunshine in your life
again.
Got home last night, and then went out with Robert and a few of the
newbies (first-year meteo grad students) to the Skellar. There was
some band there with an obese lead singer, but mostly we just chatted
amongst ourselves. The funniest moment of the night, in my mind,
was when this girl Vanessa asked me, "Are you Jewish?" Some of us
had gone out to lunch yesterday (9/10), and she mentioned going to
Israel sometime, so tonight I asked her when she went. I guess she
took my interest in the subject as me possibly being Jewish... now not
to be prejudicial or anything, but I don't know many Jewish people with
blonde hair and blue eyes.
Just
hang in there
9/10/03-
Oops I'm writing this kinda
late... I really can't remember a whole lot about what happened today.
I know I went to Walker all day - nothing new there. Also I
lifted at the Gay Lounge. Most of you don't understand that -
basically there's two places that I work out here. One is the
White Bldg, which is new and has lots of machines and weights that
actually have some grip left. Then there's the gym in Rec Hall,
which is much closer to Walker (where I do all my work), but it's old,
the weights are also old and have very little, if any, grip, it smells
like sweaty socks, and it's almost completely devoid of females.
That's where the nickname "Gay Lounge" comes from - usual when
you're at White you can see plenty of attractive girls, but out of the
capacity of about 55-60 people in the Lounge, at most 8 are of the
female persuasion. And 8 is the MAXIMUM... usually it's less.
For example, on Wednesday there was 1 girl when we started
lifting, and then zero by the time we finished. That really isn't
uncommon.
Jeff went to his Klan meeting
(a.k.a. "Young Republicans") tonight. I'm going to have to go to
one of those, just for the laughs.
Jeff got home and we were watching
L&O, and I was confused about some guy who was married, but was gay.
Robert and/or Jeff informed me that they went to Vermont to get
married. Jeff said something about bringing back some maple syrup
from there, but then I took things way too far by saying maybe they got
the maple syrup as a topping for tossed salad. Inappropriate,
inappropriate...
Junk e-mail of
the day:
From: Confidential
Medical Report
Subject: Hugh Hefner's secret for a good time
Yeah, create a men's
magazine with hot naked women, sleep with lots of them, build a big
mansion, live with all the hot girls, get old, and keep sleeping with
them. Not much of a secret.
9/9/03- Boy imagine if THAT really happened!
Not that these will be at all accurate (they're model forecasts
over 10 days away), but look what the GFS is doing with Hurricane Isabel:
|
10.5 days out
GFS run
OK still well offshore... no worries... |
|
11.5 days out
GFS run
Hmm... is that thing getting closer???
|
|
12 days out
GFS run
All right, NOW I'd be getting excited. Road trip to the shore...
SOMEWHERE along the shore.
|
|
12.5 days out
GFS
This could be a problem!
Is that thing STENGTHENING too???
|
|
13 days out
GFS
Landfall 9/21/03
Splat.
Goodbye Jersey Shore... it was nice knowing you.
|
That was fun. Anyway, more of the usual in Walker. I'm not
sure if the data I'll need to do my research actually exists, so I might
have to change gears. Still waiting for responses from a couple of
people who might know where I can find said data.
Someone had a question about why home teams in all American sports wear
white, except in football where the home team wears their colors and the
road team wears white. Here are a couple of suggestions:
--Dark colors are more physically imposing and "mean" looking, which is
an important attribute in football but not so important in the other
sports.
--In the NFL the home team gets the choice of jersey. There
actually are two exceptions to the home-dark colored uniforms rule.
Dallas and Arizona, at least I think, always wear white at home,
most likely because of the heat.
--Marketing reasons - fans buy more of the "color" jerseys than the
white jerseys because the team is more often associated with the color,
rather than with white. Wearing the color jerseys at home is
marketing them to 60,000+ people in the stands.
--Also I don't know how true the above conjecture is. Let's look
at who wore what this past weekend. The following are the home
teams:
Washington: White
Cleveland: White
Cincy: Color (this, possibly, was b/c they have new unis this
year - by the way, they're brown and they're ugly)
Carolina: White
Buffalo: Color
Pittsburgh: Color
NY Giants: Color
Miami: White
KC: Color
GB: Color
Detroit: Color
Seattle: Color
Dallas: White
SF: Color
Tennessee: Color
Philly: White
If there's a pattern in there, I can't find it. Dallas, Carolina
and Miami all wore white probably b/c of high temperatures, but the
Washington and Philly games were at night, and I'm guessing Cleveland
wasn't too hot if Cincy and Pittsburgh wore dark. Six out of 16
teams wore white, so your guess is as good as mine. Maybe they
just flip a coin.
Tried to do some straightening up last night. Was going to lift
late-night, but hey, I think I've earned a little hiatus. That's
three days w/o exercising... what am I going to do w/myself???
Anyway, I'm definitely lifting tomorrow after school, because even
though I like the break, I do feel like a sloth.
9/8/03-
Walker'ed it all day.
Talked for a while with Chuck, the
resident computer guy. Finally I have a computer account set up,
and I've taken over Emily's old computer in my office. It has a
Linux OS, which will take some getting used to, but it's pretty hard to
program on Windows computers, so I guess I have to learn sometime.
Next comes the issue of how to manage all the data I'll be working
with for my project. That will take some work, to say the least.
Passed on lifting due to
soreness in my left elbow and shoulder. I've been training for
this 10K the whole summer, so it's weird not having to be in shape for
anything right now. Of course, I want to get stronger/faster for
NEXT year's 10K, and I definitely want to do the Manhattan marathon swim
with other Holy Cross grads next summer. For the next couple of
weeks I'll probably have a problem with motivation, but then I'll get
tired of not exercising almost every day, and things will be back to
normal.
Had the usual Monday night meal
- M&D's pizza for $4 per pie. Then watched the Eagles game.
I don't want to talk about how that went.
At least the local news
afterwards was funny. There was a dog attack in the area (surprise
surprise) and the caption for the story spelled the caption of the
offending canine "Pitt Bull." Oops. Then another news
spelled a word "recieving" in one of their captions. They must
have hired my boss in the last week.
9/7/03 - Recovering
Very tired -- slept in until 10:30. Gee, I wonder why?
Arms are quite tired, left shoulder feels like someone punched it
repeatedly yesterday, and the left elbow is throbbing. That's OK -
it was all worth it.
Had some good eats for lunch today... three soft pretzels from the Pennsauken
Mart, which sadly will soon be closing, and the best soft pretzels
in South Jersey will no longer be available... a small watermelon water
ice from Patt's ... and an extra cheese panzarotti from Vincent's.
Watched football until about halftime of the late games. The
1:00 games were terrible. The Steelers beat the crap out of the
Ravens. About the only cool part of that game was seeing some
obese Pittsburgh guy with a prominent mullet in the crowd.
Typical. Oh yeah, and they also showed someone preparing
this gross sandwich that had, among other things, fries and fried onions
on top of it. The food service worker wasn't wearing gloves...
whoops!
The other game featured Kurt Warner fumbling the ball like it was his
job. 5 times in the first half alone, and he lost three of them.
Homey said that Warner has the worst football awareness he's ever
seen, and I don't think that's too far from the truth. On one
play, he dropped back into the end zone, ran out of the pocket after a
couple seconds (so he could have thrown the ball away without getting a
penalty), then back INTO the pocket, where he was sacked. He also
had only one hand on the ball (does he ever cover up the ball when he's
in traffic???), so he fumbled it and the Giants fell on it for a TD.
Wasn't he the QB of a Super Bowl winning team not too long ago???
Sure doesn't seem like it. Anyway, the Rams coach is even
more of an idiot. First, and I didn't even know this during the
game, but Warner suffered a concussion in the third quarter and was left
in to finish the game. A guy shouldn't be in the game with a
concussion - no matter what - but what's worse is that the Rams have a
very capable backup QB who could have done just as well as the concussed
Warner. Second, there were two times when he should have kicked a
field goal but didn't. The Giants were up 23-13. For those
of you who don't know too much about football, you need two possessions
to score 10 points. The Rams have the ball at the Giants' 30 yard
line with 5 1/2 minutes to go, and it's 4th and 12 -- very difficult to
get the first down. To Steve, Homey
and I, and to the announcers of the game, it seemed like an obvious
choice to kick the field goal and get within one score. Nope.
Rams go for it and miss. With 2 1/2 minutes left, the Rams
have 4th and 8 from the 24, and again they go for it on 4th down, and
again they miss. Pardon me, why does Mike Martz have a head
coaching job?
Had a good pork roast meal at home, uploaded my 10K pics into the
directory for my page, and then headed back. Talked to Mark for
some time while on the PA Turnpike, then spent the rest of the drive
trying to get either the Sunday night football game or the Phillies game
to come in. That's easier said than done when you're driving
through buddy country.
Copper Bitch still hasn't done anything about the room. Thanks
guys.
9/6/03 - The Race
2 hours, 28
minutes, 52 seconds!
4th out of 20 - male masters
swimmers
See my 10K page - if it's not up
yet, it will be soon.
Later that day... went over to Steve's house and watched UM (U. of
Miami) come back from 23 points down midway through the third quarter to
beat Florida. Funny how I was there for all of two months, and I
became a Miami fan.
Very tired, so had to pass on game two of the Flyers' drive to the
Stanley Cup in NHL 2000. I think Homey and Steve took care of
business, though.
9/5/03- 1 day
These things I know on the eve of the 10K:
(1) That I WILL be faster than last year (2:57)
(2) That I've set my goals high: 2:45 at worst, with the
ultimate goal of finishing under 2:40. Setting tough goals and not
reaching them is NOT a bad thing.
(3) That I'll take
out the first 5K almost as fast as I swam the 5K last month. If I
get into a good groove, I'll be able to maintain that pace throughout
the 10K. Last year I passed 8 people in the last 2 miles.
This year I'm not just swimming to finish it. This year I know I
can finish, and I'm going to make sure I don't save anything for the end.
(4) That lifting 2-3 times a
week since September and swimming throughout the year HAS made me a much
better swimmer than last year.
(5) That I love swimming. It's in my blood and I hope to
swim for as long as I live.
(6) That I'm more motivated for this race than I've been for any
swim since Patriots my senior year.
(7) That I'm not swimming alone. Even if I end up doing the
whole thing with no swimmers around me (like the 5K), I've got support
from so many people. My parents, who are driving me town there and
watching the whole thing. Even though they worry when I get down,
and think that maybe the training is taking too much of a physical &
emotional toll on me, they understand how important swimming this race
is to me .... Vicki, who has helped keep me positive when I wasn't
swimming so well this summer, and probably would be going if I hadn't
made her promise she wouldn't (not enough sleep this week, don't want
her walking/running 8+ miles on a bum ankle, long drive when she would
barely get to spend time w/me, other more important things going on in
her life) -- I'm doing this swim every year, so you've got plenty
more chances to see me ... Vogel who called last night out of the blue
and left a message wishing me good luck ... and so many people, both
friends from home and from around here, who have wished me luck via IM,
e-mail, or in person. I thank you all for knowing how important
this is to me, and I'll have the story and pics as soon as I can get
them up on here.
3 p.m. tomorrow... let's do this...
9/4/03 - 2 days
The countdown
continues. Felt good swimming today, although I only did a mile
total so I should have. Some soreness in my chest and upper back,
but that's just from lifting on Tuesday, and will be gone by Saturday.
Heard something today that made
me 10% dumber and lose 90% of the respect I have for this school.
I'm standing at the bus stop outside the freshman dorms, and some girl
is talking to her friends behind me, telling them about her "elementary
math" course. She said... and I quote:
"We
had a pre-quiz and I only got one out of ten, but it was really
hard. They had adding, multiplying and dividing fractions, and
long division."
Oy vey.
Walkered it for most of the day. Met w/my advisor, who's a nice
guy, but a bit eccentric. There were two articles in the USA Today
Money section that were related to my research. I went up to his
office to show them to him, but he said he only reads the sports section
(he noted that the Red Sox are now tied for the wild card w/Seattle) and
handed the paper back to me. Found that a bit odd since he's an
econ/meteo professor, but whatever.
Walked over to the track a little after 5 since Vick's page said she'd
be running for the first time since spraining her ankle, and I wanted to
see how it went. Unfortunately, she went early b/c she was too
excited about running. Oh well... good intentions by me, just bad
execution.
Went out to Mad Mex with a lot of
people - some newbies, some second years, and some old farts (i.e, 3rd
year of grad school, like me). Had dinner there, which was pretty
good except there was some weird quiche-looking thing that came with my
tacos. I passed. I also passed on the booze, which is kinda
painful to do at Mad Mex. It's OK... party here Monday night for
the E-A-G-L-E-S game.
Some people went out to
the Skellar but I decided to pass since I'd like to keep my lungs vacant
of cigarette smoke through Saturday. Missed the bus so went back
to Walker and found out the Cubbies won another great game - now they're
a half game up on the Cards and just a half game back of the Astros for
the division lead. GO CUBS
By the way, someone wrote an
article about how will Chicago survive if both the Cubs and White Sux
miss the playoffs this year. If they both miss, Cubs fans will say
"Well at least the Sux didn't make it either", and Sux fans will say the
same thing about the Cubs.
Did the fantasy football draft
online tonight with Steve, Mark, Homey, and G. There were some
funny lines at the end of it, like Homey saying "Man we're really
scraping the bottom of the barrel", and Steve, after a number of obscure
players were picked, asking "Who the hell are these guys?" I'm
just glad that we're still keeping up the fantasy football tradition and
scoring and drafting by hand, not on some computer-run league.
That's pretty cool, doing it even though we live in Cherry Hill NJ,
State College PA, Lancaster PA, Ithaca NY, and Littleton MA.
So much to do before I
leave and so little time... ugh...
(9/5's entry will be
swimming, so I'll put down what Steve e-mailed the football group this
morning - apparently I'm not the only Linda Cohn hater)
What a #$*#!%@
dumb bitch...I was watching Sports Center, and they showed
the Cubs highlights. At
the end, they showed how the Cubs offense had been
doing really well in the
series. It was titled "Da Cubs". The guy was doing
the story. At the end of
the story, Linda Cohen says, "I like that. It has a
50 Cent reference." 50
cent????? What the hell is she thinking? First off,
how the hell does she know who
50 cent is?? A white jewish woman listens to
50 Cent? I don't think
so! What a dumb bitch. I guess white jewish women
never watched Saturday Night
Live. Man, I can't believe how much she pisses
me off!! Have a good day.
Steve
Well said...
Also from 9/5
Vicki (at work): How f***ing hard is it to flush the toilet after
you take a dump?
Funny b/c someone left a turd in a toilet at Raytheon, and also b/c
Vicki actually cursed.
9/3/03-
Another fun day in Walker. Went swimming early, so worked
late. Felt pretty good swimming, although the hot and
super-chlorinated water that is the trademark of the indoor instruction
pool. Still held 1:24s per 100... if I do that on Saturday I'll
finish in 2 hours 20 minutes. Now my stroke mechanics are better
and I'm stronger than last year, and I hopefully will be healthy (unlike
last year when I got sick right before the swim), but I don't think I'll
be able to shave 37 minutes off of last year's time. The goal I've
set is 2 hours 40 minutes, which works out to 1:36 per 100 meters.
Hope I can do it...
Went over to Walker for work today. Got a lot of work done again,
but my advisor wasn't around. Paging Doctor Kleit...
CUBBIES won an incredible game today. Situation in the 6th
inning: playing the Cardinals, who are 1.5 games ahead of the Cubs
for the NL Central lead. Cards have runners on 2nd and 3rd, two
out, and the Cubs are down 2-0. They take out their starter - I'm
fine w/that. What I'm NOT fine with Dusty Baker putting in a lefty
who had never thrown a major league pitch before in such a big
spot. Predictably, he walked the first guy and then gave up a
grand slam to, of all people.... J.D. DREW.
BOOOOOOOOOO! I haven't heard any reports of flying batteries in
Chicago, however.
The Cubs got 3 runs in the bottom of the 6th, 2 on a Ramirez homer, and
then got guys on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Up came Mr. Anti-Clutch
himself, Erica Karros, who is hitting .333 with the bags empty and .228
with runners on (.218 with runners in scoring position). That must
be some kind of record for choking. Anyway, he whiffed, next guy
walked, and then a ground out w/the bases loaded. I thought that
was the game, especially w/the Cubs offensive offense. The Cards
got one more in the top of the 7th to make it 7-3, but the Cubbies
stormed back w/3 in the 7th off the embarassingly bad Cards bullpen -
homers from Alou and Gonzo. In the top of the 8th, the Cards
leadoff hitter, who hits about .220 against everyone except the Cubs and
.900 against the Cubs, tripled, but he was stranded there as the Cubs
'pen got three big outs. The Cubs got an RBI triple and a huge
2-out RBI single from Alou (he went 5-5!!!) to take an 8-7. The
Cards pen is such a joke that w/one out in the inning they brought in
Woody Williams, who is their second best starter and pitched 2 days ago.
That plan didn't work out so well for them.
Anyway, the Cubs closed 'em out in the 9th and are now just a half game
back of the Cards and Astros in the Central. I'm fired up.
Of course, tomorrow Estes will probably start and give up 30 runs in the
1st inning, but for now I'm excited.
Heard today:
poolboybob: i'm not going to get married and i'll end up going
the rest of my life w/o sex
poolboybob: i'll die when i'm 50 and they'll do my autopsy. cause
of death: not enough sex
about the reading comprehension stories on standardized tests:
poolboybob: i remember i saw the same story like 4 times
poolboybob: it was about how pencils are made
poolboybob: the funny thing was that on none of those four
occasions did i give a $hit
Did work over in Walker til around 8:30, then Vicki & I went
to Denny's for dinner. Saw Ron, one of our SO athletes,
there. He came over and sat with us the whole time and then got a
ride home from Vicki. I kinda wanted him to not be there after a
while, but since he probably doesn't get to talk to people much, I'm
glad that he got to chat with us.
Went to Turdek Park and talked with Vicki for a while. Some cop
came by and said we weren't supposed to be there, but he didn't really
care and let us stay. He said he was stopping back there (Tudek is
kinda off the beaten path) because people have vandalized the picnic
pavilion lately. About 20 minutes later, some car drove up, pulled
around the parking lot slowly, and then left. Maybe that was the
vandals... if so, I inadvertantly did my good deed for the day.
Jeff went to a young Republicans' meeting on campus, which
surely was attended by all 15 Republicans under the age of 50.
They probably talked about guns, about how amazing it is that the
Democrats can't field a competent challenger to Bush despite the
terrible economy, and complained about those uppity women and minorities.
9/2/03- MORE
water in my room!
First day of classes- for
some reason we're on a Friday schedule even though it's a Tuesday.
Not that it really matters to me- I'm not taking any classes (just doing
research). Hey freshmen, start the clock... now less than one
month until you and your high school boyfriend/girlfriend break
up! Some might call me a cynic... I prefer realist. You
might love someone when you're 18... but you really have NO idea what
love is.
There hasn't been too much water
to come thru the floor into my room. Still, what DID come in
stinks like mold/mildew, and it's the second time in a month that this
has happened. So I went over to the rental office at Copper Bitch
(it's Copper Beech, but we call it Copper Bitch or sometimes just "The
Bitch") and told them about it. Blonde & blonder were 5
minutes late for work. Let me explain about blonde &
blonder. They are twin sisters- former PSU cheerleaders, very
attractive, but not exactly the brightest people you've ever met.
They don't really understand the concept of dressing conservatively for
an office job either. One was wearing a skirt about 2 inches below
her butt, and a low-cut top. She's pretty well endowed so that was
revealing. Note: I'm not complaining about that... just that
they're dumb.
Anyway, I tell one of 'em
(Jeannine and Jessica, can't tell 'em apart) about the problem, and she
says they'll have a carpet cleaner come over. Umm.... NO.
How about you FIX the problem this time instead of just put a new carpet
in? The first time there was a freak T-storm that dropped almost 4
inches of rain in a few hours, but it hasn't even rained that much
lately. Obviously there's a problem - and The Bitch had better fix
it.
Got a whole lot of work done
today, even while keeping one eye on the Cubs game. Doubleheader
today. Tied at 2, Cubs loaded the bases in the 9th and got a fly
ball to the ivy, and the Cards left fielder made an incredible leaping
catch at the wall. The game went on FOREVER, into the 15th inning,
when Sammy Sosa ended it with a 2-run homer. Cubs now just a
half-game back of the Cards for the division lead.
Late game (actually started only 2
hours after the first one ended) - for some reason the Cubs aren't
playing Sosa or Aramis Ramirez, two of their three best hitters.
Look, this is baseball, not football or hockey. Most of the game
you stand around or sit on the bench. If you aren't in good enough
shape to play back-to-back games, you shouldn't be in the major
leagues. I'm not saying this about the guys that sat out - more a
beef with the manager, especially when the Cubs could take the division
lead with a win. Anyway... big surprise, they can't hit and get
shut out 2-0. Big blowup in the 7th inning, when Moises Alou, the
Cubs left fielder, hits a shot down the left field line that would've at
least tied it, and probably given the Cubs the lead. The ump calls
it foul - replays show chalk come up as the ball hits - bad call.
Alou made an out and then he and this fat Cubs reliever blew up at the
ump. It was funny to see, but they'll probably both get suspended
for a while.
Thanks Robert & Jeff for
helping me move out of my room - again. Followed that up with a
late-night trip to the White Building for my last lift before the
10K. It was really crowded there, even at 10 p.m. Two girls
walked out of the exercise room and I swear they looked 12 years
old. Who let these kids into college???
OK guess I'm just that old guy
stuck at college while getting older. Anyway, had a good workout,
then came home and went to sleep in my alternate bedroom.
9/1/03-
"Happy" Labor Day
Nothing good happened today. That's all.
Addendum to Saturday:
Two funny things on Saturday that I forgot to mention:
Steve Greenberg told us that at PSU games, when they played the alma
mater, the student section would replace the first line ("For the Glory
of Old State") with alternative lyrics ("We don't know the Goddamned
words"). I find this terribly amusing...
Also funny was during the Colorado-Colorado State game, Steve decided
to root for Colorado because this pompous turd who was in our department
(as an undergrad) just left to go to CSU for grad school. I
liked that logic and rooted for Colorado, too.