summer won't be the same without you, tiger

i have to admit, that i was pretty upset when tiger woods downplayed hockey. here is the main reason. he can be totally indifferent to hockey, i don't really care about that. he's got the right to his own opinion, and to share it. but there is a time and place. woods was on the verge of playing in a tournament that was being featured on the same station (nbc) that was featuring the stanley cup finals. without major television networks, woods would have never been able to reach this level of popularity. every golf commentator talks about tiger woods in terms that no other player even approahes. it borders on creepiness, if you ask me. so woods needs to repay their investment in him by helping them showcase a product that isn't popular - in my opinion - because the average person just doesn't quite understand what's going on. if woods had talked about the finals in even a slightly positive note, i think a few more folks would have tuned in.

in the end, it doesn't quite matter to me what woods says. i love to watch the guy get out there on a golf course and compete. so i'm pretty sad that he'll be missing the rest of the golf season. i hope that he makes a full recovery and comes out dominating again. but everyone talks about how his swing puts a lot of pressure on that knee. so i have some doubts about whether the guy will own golf again the way he has. any changes he would make to protect the knee would have to take some bite out of the old big dog.

apparently knee surgery rehabs involves trashing other sports

come on tiger....seriously. you haven't played in a tournament for quite some time while rehabbing from knew surgery. but seriously?

when asked about the epic 3ot game 5 of the cup finals (yeah you know the one. it would be the game that made the next day a complete wash), tiger responded as follows:

"I don't really care," he said with an impish smile. "It's all about the Dodgers. I don't think anyone really watches hockey anymore."

come on man...seriously? nobody cares about hockey? thanks tiger, for giving some support to another sport.

google reader strikes again

still basking in that sykora wrister, i decided to check my google reader before going to bed. google reader has pretty much changed the way that i use the internet. with all of my feeds organized on a central page, i find myself spending less time online going from one website to another. and i get to keep track of a lot more feeds, especially music feeds. live music blog turned me on to a website called black cab sessions.

it is pretty sweet, a nice way to wind down after that epic game.

at least they got one thing right

as i try to get my heart rate under control for the third period, i keep thinking that versus and nbc have done a pretty pathetic job broadcasting the nhl playoffs. from unnecessary and lengthy graphics to confusing camera angles to terrible broadcasters to constant reminders to buy dockers and edge shave gel, the networks have not done very good job 'selling' hockey to the casual hockey fan.

but at least they made this commercial, which is one of the sickest ads i've ever seen:



go pens

some sunset pics

we get some pretty decent sunset views from our apartment. here are a few...

the A is for awesome

just in time for the series shift back to philly, my gonchar jersey got here via ups today. gonch must have known i was in serious anticipation, as he tallied 3 assists in last night's game 2 victory. the jersey is sweet, here is a pic of the front and back:






gonch had a great season, and it ended up being a basic no brainer when i decided to buy a pens jersey.

defense wins championships

For those who haven't heard, I just wanted to let everyone know that last Friday, May 9th, I successfully defended my Master's Thesis here at Penn State. It only took a small amount of bribing on my part, so all in all I would say it went pretty well. Once I submit all of the paperwork and turn in the final draft, the thesis will be available for viewing through the Penn State libraries. I'll post a link once that happens.

It has been quite an academic journey to get to this point, and it was a great feeling to get those signatures on the Masters approval page. I celebrated by watching the Pens dominate the Flyers in game one, while also attempting to drink all of the alcohol in State College. I was also lucky enough to get my economic stimulus check right about the time of my defense, which allowed me to buy myself some presents. My Gonchar jersey still hasn't arrived (it should be here tomorrow), and that was the big present to myself. I'll post a pic of that when it gets here. I'll also be traveling to Denver in a few weeks for a good friend's wedding, and I'm really looking forward to that trip.

Now I have a week off to enjoy this feeling before summer session starts and I have to teach a 6 week course (everyday for about an hour). At some point during this week it would probably be a good idea to write a syllabus...

I'd also like to wish my Mom a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! Without a doubt, I have the best parents around. There is no way that I would have gotten to this point without all of your emotional and financial support. So a big part of this MA is definitely yours.

the real battle for pennsylvania

hillary might have beat obama here in PA a few weeks ago, but with the pens eliminating the rangers today the real battle for pennsylvania is about to begin.

my house is 134 miles from mellon arena - the cozy little igloo that gave us this gem:



the wachovia center is 199 miles from my house, and it led to this very notorious encounter. my friend melissa snapped this pic before that game:



we're currently shopping for a penguins flag to hang in our window. the city of state college will become divided over the next few weeks. its not only about penguins versus flyers. its bigger than that. lines will be drawn, and then they will be crossed. loyalties will be tested, and they will probably strengthen. i ordered a sergei gonchar jersey with the winnings from the ncaa tournament pool. i'm only about 60% sure that it will survive the series.



go pens

moises alou = bum

this article makes me want to vomit. bartman's life was ruined, and 5 years later alou says he never would have caught it.

give me a break. my new favorite team: anyone playing the mets

rock chalk jayha.....i just can't do it

most years my bracket is near the bottom of a trash can right about now. but this year i've been hanging on. i've got 3 of the 4 final four teams right, after stanford decided not to show up against texas. i should have remembered the first rule of basketball: nerds can't handle quick guards.

when i filled out my bracket, i went with kansas because i figured that everyone and their mom would be picking either north carolina or ucla. so i knew i needed to do something in order to give me a boost in case i was in the mix going into the final weekend. i would be stuck in the middle of the pack if i picked unc or ucla.

so i'm invested in kansas, but i just can't cheer for them. can't bring myself to do it.

ok, there is one small reason i'll pull for them. after SU beat kansas in '03 (cuse is in the house, oh my god oh my god!) roy williams bolted for carolina and then won the title in '05. but it wasn't with his own recruits. so it would be nice for his old school to deny him the title.

i'll also be pulling for memphis, because as far as i know, john calipari is the only remaining coach to have been threatened with his life at a press conference.

wanted: new music

the combination of my xm antenna breaking on my recent trip to syracuse* and my lack of driving has caused a serious problem for me. my exposure to new music has decreased substantially recently...and i'm not happy about.

i can't function without music. there is basically a constant soundtrack going on in my life. i fall asleep to music, wake up to music, shower to music, walk to school and back with music, and listen to music while i'm working, cooking, cleaning, and often while watching the tv** (or blogging - song currently playing: band of horses - the general specific).

anybody have any new music suggestions?

song playing as i sign off...badly drawn boy - once around the block



* as i was digging my car out of the snow, a huge chunk of the thick layer of built-up ice came off the roof...taking the antenna with it. with only 1 cd and terrible fm radio reception, i was forced to make an emergency walmart stop to buy a transmitter for my ipod.

** a lot of people here think it is weird that i'll be listening to music while also having the tv on. it is something i picked up from my good friend zach "coach" miller.

thank god thats over

49 games later and i'm definitely ready for a break. cbs basically screwed me by allowing one to live stream every tournament game. so i spent the past 4 days with the tv on whatever game was being covered and propped my computer up and had another game going full screen. it would get a little frustrating as cbs was constantly switching games as both the tennessee-butler and georgetown-davidson games came down to the wire today.

so lets recap, and briefly, look ahead...

my bracket is not totally garbage right now. 10 of my sweet 16 are still alive, and 7 of my elite 8 are still going strong. i decided early on that i liked usc to make a run in the tournament and have been playing catch-up since thursday. stanford tried to give me a heart attack, as i have them in the final four.

some pretty incredible games, as is always the case. the best game of the first round had to be drake-western kentucky. they just went back and forth nailing 3's all game. too bad i picked on the wrong side of that matchup. in the second round, the stanford-marquette game was insane, as i thought i was done after the head coach got run.

i'm totally in love with davidson right now. in fact, in my practice bracket i had davidson beating georgetown, but changed at the last minute. i remember when then freshman curry almost upset maryland (just had to look up the opponent) last year. they also played duke and north carolina earlier this year, and played them tough. curry, who looks 12, has got serious ice in his veins. i can't stand wisconsin, so i'll be pulling hard for davidson next week.

looking ahead...texas-stanford is huge for me. a lot of people are picking texas, but if stanford can pull it off i'll be in great shape. i don't think memphis makes the final four with their TERRIBLE free throw shooting. things look pretty good for ucla and kansas. louisville has looked incredible in their first two games. i think they might take down tennessee. hopefully someone gives carolina a game.

thankfully, games won't start at noon anymore. so i've got to crank out some serious work over the next couple weeks in preparation for the FROZEN FOUR!

4 week shadow

After 4 weeks sans haircut or shaving, a noticeable fuzz has appeared....



Maggie, don't take my inability to grow facial to mean that I'm not thinking about you and how you are feeling. For if that were the case I would look something more like this...



And I only do a small amount of cheating (a little trimming around the neck and upper lip). I know, I'm horrible.

In other news, my bracket is basically garbage now...but how about all of the underdogs winning in Tampa yesterday? That was crazy.

Happy Anniversary!

I made my first blog post 1 year ago today. Even though I often fail to make posts in any sort of consistent manner...I enjoy having the outlet for things that come to mind.

Thanks go to my little sis for getting the ball rolling.

Here's to year number 2...

10,000! (plus!)

I've been crazy busy lately, spending my Spring Break in the lush tropics of my apartment doing work. I found myself at school today really needing a break, but I guess I'll have to wait about 3 weeks for that. So much to do between now and then.

Long story short, I had kind of forgotten about keeping tabs on the jeep count. However, yesterday I remembered that the jeep was bearing down on 10,000 views. And it certainly was, sitting at 9,994 as of yesterday afternoon. And when I checked this morning, the count was at 10,036! Congratulations to the Warner Jeep...you're a star!

Here is my idea to celebrate. Everyone should share their favorite jeep memories, stories, pictures, etc. Either do it in the comments to this post, or make a post of your own. I know that the jeep holds a special place in the hearts of a lot of people (as is demonstrated here), so let it be known across the web! I'll start with a story.

I made the cross-county trip with Pa Warner to pick the jeep up. I was probably a terrible traveling companion, in possession of only a learner's permit and thus unable to do my share of driving. There were two things about that trip that I really remember. The first was the fight between Grandpa Warner and the U-Haul people about what type of trailer we could get for the jeep. He wasn't too happy when we took off with 2 jeep tires still on the ground. But we were off nonetheless. The second thing that really stood out was all the attention the jeep got at various gas stations. People really responded to the jeep. I don't think we made a stop without someone asking a few questions or just generally complimenting on how great the jeep looked. Those moments really laid the foundation for the way I feel about the jeep today.

This is one of my favorite jeep pictures:



I took this on a trip up to Kirwin shortly before I moved east. There is just something about the mountains and the jeep that just go so well together. It just seems to belong up there...its hard to explain.

Anyways, share something about...and someone in Meeteetse go let the jeep know that the internet loves it!

playoff beard (kind of)

i forgot to mention something in my last post. just as hockey players - and those in other sports - grow a playoff beard out of superstition in the playoffs, i've decided to start one of sorts myself.

now that we turn our full attention to recovery mode, i will not shave my face or cut my hair until i see my sister return to full health. this post makes it official. lets see, i last shaved (shove?) on saturday so that means it should take about 8 months for a noticeable beard to appear. i haven't cut my hair since shortly after classes started, maybe about a month.

watch out, cause here comes fuzzy mc-fuzz-face.

if you're like me and hate david eckstein, this blog is for you

I got a subscription for Rolling Stone for Christmas from my mom, the nurse (!). It continues to change my life. In this issue's top 10 they discuss a blog called Fire Joe Morgan. In it, a writer for The Office and his friends "eviscerate dumb sportswriting, smacking down fuzzy-headed nostalgia with statistics and sarcasm."

In the short review, Rolling Stone notes they are particularly harsh on shortstop David Eckstein. I was immediately intrigued. Finally, a place where people like me, who hate David Eckstein, can go to have his game - and people who think he is awesome - picked apart by baseball nerds. I've always thought that Eckstein was tremendously overpaid and over-hyped. Have you ever seen him throw the ball? He can hardly get it from shortstop to first base. Have you even seen him swing? He always looks so scared. Now I'm not saying I could do any better, but I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who could. But Eckstein managed to become known as a "scrappy" player and makes huge money these days.

I didn't read too much of the blog, just skimmed a bunch of the Eckstein hating posts. Here is my favorite Eckslam (term I just invented, possibly), in response to Buster Olney saying Ecks could sign as a utility player and play third base:

David Eckstein playing third base would be amazing. I would love to see that. If Jacoby Ellsbury hit a ball down the line to David Eckstein and Eck had to backhand it and throw from foul territory, by the time the ball landed in the first baseman's glove Ellsbury would be sitting on the bench after his inside-the-park little-league HR and Kevin Youkilis would be at the plate with a count of 2-0.

Thats incredible stuff.

jeep update

As of February 19th at 2pm the Jeep was up to 8,782 views.

10,000 approaches...any suggestions of how we should celebrate the celebrity jeep?

oh happy days

The title defense has begun! Colorado Rockies pitchers and catchers reported for spring training today. In one more week the full squad reports.

Opening Day: March 31st in St. Louis.

From what I've heard, they have one of the best opening days around.

rorrim kcalb

arcade fire is really out there. they put you in control of the music in their new video...

http://rorrimkcalb.com/arcadefire.html

nerd fight!

So the Roger Clemens steroid fiasco has really gotten out of hand. Its turned into a total soap opera, I can't stand it anymore. Roger and his lawyers have taken a general approach of delivering public beatdowns of Brian McNamee to any camera they can find. So Brian shows up with these pictures of used steroid stuff from like 6 years ago that he said he saved just in case this exact situation should happen to come up. More public beatdowns by the Clemens team. Then Brian drops this little tid-bit of info. Not only did he inject Roger, but he stuck his wife a couple times in preparation for an SI photo shoot. More beatdowns.

Roger has also taken the approach of kissing some serious ass everywhere he goes in Washington. Its all about how he got to see the workings of the government and how great it was to meet our lawmakers.

And now a nerd fight has broken out. A little while back, Roger's attorney released this statistical report that claimed to explain his late career success. Well some researchers at University of Pennsylvania Wharton had a different opinion of the numbers. The nerd fight ensues.

Wednesday's public hearing should have a nice zoo like feel to it.

february blues

It is currently 55 degrees, 94% humidity, and pouring rain in State College. What am I supposed with that?

court storming and game faces

By some miracle, Penn State upset then #7 Michigan State on Saturday night. I say miracle because Penn State hoops has been simply terrible since losing star player Geary Claxton. In the 5 games without Claxton leading up to Saturday, Penn State had broke 60 once, and twice were held under 50. Needless to say, not much was expected out of the Lions on Saturday. But I figured, what the hell, go see a top ten team play. You don't get that opportunity very often.

Well PSU proceeded to play out of their minds. They hit a bunch of threes, and made an unbelievable 51 trips to the charity stripe. Normally, they shoot around 60 percent. I read somewhere that they hit 16-20 in the last couple of minutes. PSU took 20 fewer shots and won by 9. It was a very crazy and exciting game. It became very obvious with about 5 minutes left that the student section was going to rush the court in the event of a victory. I've never been a fan of sitting in the student section for basketball games, so I was sitting closer to one of the ends. I've also never really been into storming the court. Again, I only had my camera, and this is the best picture that came out.



In other news, I just found out that Bob Knight just quit at Texas Tech, turning the program over to his son. One can only assume that this will be it for Coach Knight. Here is a top 10 Bob Knight soundbites. 'Game face' is my favorite.



One final note. After I watched the Bob Knight video, I checked out the Jeep video to see how it was doing. The Jeep has surpassed the 8000 views mark in its 10 months on YouTube. Once it hits 10,000 I'm thinking that some sort of celebration will be in order. So while you're here, check out the Jeep one more time.

the band band of horses

So I guess I'll just start every time by apologizing for not posting anything in like a month. Quick recap: holiday break was nice. There aren't many people who rode more in 2 weeks than I did. I've felt pretty boxed in since I got back. And I miss throwing snowballs for Maggie's dog. But since I got back I haven't really done much but work.

Last week, however, I was able to score prime tix for Band of Horses. I wasn't too familiar with them, but their new album has been getting a lot of buzz. So I scooped up a copy of Cease to Begin, listened to it for about 2 straight weeks, and looked forward to the show. I should also note that I was able to score tickets in the balcony box. Oh yeah, and I should also note that I was in the very front corner. There was some debate if we might be able to spit on Band of Horses from where we sat. While there were no cameras allowed, I was able to snipe a few pics with my phone (yeah i have a phone with a camera now. its crazy!). The pics don't do justice to the seats.




And while you're at it, check out Band of Horses. They have a good sound that they are able to convey live, always a good sign.