Clearly the Hokies didn't get my blog post this week. They were obviously not ready to play this morning.
I woke up at 8am on a Saturday morning to try to find a bar that would be open at 9 or to find a web site that would air the game. Two strikes. I settled for the ISP Sports online radio broadcast, which was delayed about 30 seconds. The only thing worse was watching the ESPN Gamecast for the live stats, which was delayed several minutes. I was getting texts about events in the game long before Mike Burnop and Bill Roth told me about them over the air. Not a fun way to watch football.
More importantly, our offense, defense, and special teams were all sub-par. We started out moving the ball very well until 5th year quarterback Sean Glennon threw a goal line interception on his first attempt of the day. Deja vu...
Shortly after, we find ourselves on the goal line again, but this time are stuffed on 4th down. It was so promising, I thought all my worries were for nothing. Then ECU started playing.
It was all downhill from there. We had some great plays here and there, but our defense bought too much in to the 'bend but don't break' philosophy. There was a lot more bending--and far more breaks--than anyone wanted to see.
To cap it all off, we lost after the Pirates scored 14 points in the final 4 minutes (BC last year, anyone?), with the nail in the coffin coming off a blocked punt for a touch down (Beamerball?).
I know the team is young. Expectations are relatively low, despite being the favorite to win our division. That is definitely a sign of how bad our division is, and not how good we are. But a Bud Foster defense should never look like that against a team like ECU (all respect to ECU for being on the rise as a program, I don't mean to discredit them). We all expected this kind of play from the offense.
I'm angry, and the Hokies just sucked all the 'happy that football started' life out of me. Thanks, guys.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Get. Ready.
College football is underway.
Kickoff from Charlotte tomorrow at noon (9am my time, unfortunately) against East Carolina.
Kickoff from Charlotte tomorrow at noon (9am my time, unfortunately) against East Carolina.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Still a Bit Tempe-orary
It's a play on words...get it? Temporary...in Tempe.
So I bought season tickets for football and basketball yesterday after we (the roommates and I) had put it off for awhile. It was $104 for football and men's basketball combo. Lots of people had talked about getting them. My roommates, as with most other things, forgot to call and now the ticket office is sold out.
So, I spent $104 and have no other friends with tickets. I guess I'll try to find people who got them, but for now I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
I still don't feel like I live here for good. It's a sad feeling to think it, but I guess exciting, too. I miss so many things back home, but I'm really enjoying what Tempe has to offer so far. It's all new and exciting.
We got a gym membership last night at LA Fitness and plan on using it for the first time tonight. The sales guy that gave us the tour, etc., was very explicit in telling us that, unlike other gyms, LA Fitness had the lowest possible prices and could not negotiate under any circumstances. We finished the tour and sat down at his desk to talk pricing. It was $200 to enroll and $40 a month per person, which was significantly more than any other gym we looked at. By the time we left, he had waived the registration fee entirely and knocked our monthly fee down to $25, so we bought it. It's a month-to-month, so if we don't like the gym we can leave any time (with 30 days notice).
I am finished with all of my reading and homework until Tuesday, and I'm having trouble figuring out what to do with myself. I want to get really far ahead in my reading, but just don't feel like it. Unfortunately, I don't have any friends here to distract me, and we don't have a TV with cable. I'm going to go to the gym in a bit, once Carl finishes his reading for Torts (civil wrongs, committed by one individual--the tortfeasor--against another individual).
When we get back, maybe I'll feel like reading a little to get ahead. We might do Dos Gringos again tomorrow night for 50 cent Coronas. Then, the ASU Bar Review (clever name for the group that organizes weekly law student happy hours) is having the weekly meeting at RA, where we went last Friday. If I didn't talk about it already, it was great. Half price sushi and appetizers, and it's really good quality food. Drinks, as they are in every other bar we have been to, were criminally cheap.
ASU opens the season this Saturday at home against Northern Arizona. Virginia Tech opens in Charlotte against ECU at 9am Arizona time. ASU should be a walk through. The Hokies may struggle some, but should come out on top, barring some horrible play on our part, or fantastic play on the Pirates' part.
So I bought season tickets for football and basketball yesterday after we (the roommates and I) had put it off for awhile. It was $104 for football and men's basketball combo. Lots of people had talked about getting them. My roommates, as with most other things, forgot to call and now the ticket office is sold out.
So, I spent $104 and have no other friends with tickets. I guess I'll try to find people who got them, but for now I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
I still don't feel like I live here for good. It's a sad feeling to think it, but I guess exciting, too. I miss so many things back home, but I'm really enjoying what Tempe has to offer so far. It's all new and exciting.
We got a gym membership last night at LA Fitness and plan on using it for the first time tonight. The sales guy that gave us the tour, etc., was very explicit in telling us that, unlike other gyms, LA Fitness had the lowest possible prices and could not negotiate under any circumstances. We finished the tour and sat down at his desk to talk pricing. It was $200 to enroll and $40 a month per person, which was significantly more than any other gym we looked at. By the time we left, he had waived the registration fee entirely and knocked our monthly fee down to $25, so we bought it. It's a month-to-month, so if we don't like the gym we can leave any time (with 30 days notice).
I am finished with all of my reading and homework until Tuesday, and I'm having trouble figuring out what to do with myself. I want to get really far ahead in my reading, but just don't feel like it. Unfortunately, I don't have any friends here to distract me, and we don't have a TV with cable. I'm going to go to the gym in a bit, once Carl finishes his reading for Torts (civil wrongs, committed by one individual--the tortfeasor--against another individual).
When we get back, maybe I'll feel like reading a little to get ahead. We might do Dos Gringos again tomorrow night for 50 cent Coronas. Then, the ASU Bar Review (clever name for the group that organizes weekly law student happy hours) is having the weekly meeting at RA, where we went last Friday. If I didn't talk about it already, it was great. Half price sushi and appetizers, and it's really good quality food. Drinks, as they are in every other bar we have been to, were criminally cheap.
ASU opens the season this Saturday at home against Northern Arizona. Virginia Tech opens in Charlotte against ECU at 9am Arizona time. ASU should be a walk through. The Hokies may struggle some, but should come out on top, barring some horrible play on our part, or fantastic play on the Pirates' part.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Fantasy Football: Part II
Sorry to bore those of you who don't care about football, but my second draft went much better than my first in my eyes. I'm feeling pretty confident about my season, though I have a couple question marks at the moment.
1 (12) Steven Jackson (RB STL)*
2 (13) Drew Brees (QB NO)
3 (36) Ronnie Brown (RB MIA)
4 (37) Braylon Edwards (WR CLE)*
5 (60) Jason Witten (TE DAL)
6 (61) Dwayne Bowe (WR KC)
7 (84) Chris Chambers (WR SD)
8 (85) Kevin Smith (RB DET)
9 (108) Seahawks D/ST
10 (109) Derrick Mason (WR BAL)
11 (132) Aaron Rodgers (QB GB)
12 (133) Greg Olsen (TE CHI)
13 (156) Ben Obomanu (WR SEA)
14 (157) Steve Slaton (RB HOU)
15 (180) Josh Brown (K STL)
16 (181) Devin Hester (WR CHI)
* - indicates keeper
So, those of you that know football, hopefully you will agree with me that this draft was more successful.
In further fantasy 'football' news, I also joined a British Premier League fantasy league. I know next to nothing about the Premier League, but this is a great way to learn.
1 (12) Steven Jackson (RB STL)*
2 (13) Drew Brees (QB NO)
3 (36) Ronnie Brown (RB MIA)
4 (37) Braylon Edwards (WR CLE)*
5 (60) Jason Witten (TE DAL)
6 (61) Dwayne Bowe (WR KC)
7 (84) Chris Chambers (WR SD)
8 (85) Kevin Smith (RB DET)
9 (108) Seahawks D/ST
10 (109) Derrick Mason (WR BAL)
11 (132) Aaron Rodgers (QB GB)
12 (133) Greg Olsen (TE CHI)
13 (156) Ben Obomanu (WR SEA)
14 (157) Steve Slaton (RB HOU)
15 (180) Josh Brown (K STL)
16 (181) Devin Hester (WR CHI)
* - indicates keeper
So, those of you that know football, hopefully you will agree with me that this draft was more successful.
In further fantasy 'football' news, I also joined a British Premier League fantasy league. I know next to nothing about the Premier League, but this is a great way to learn.
Great News
Some or most or all or none of you may know that I've had perpetual computer problems for quite awhile now. My old desktop, on which I have all my stories, writings, essays, poems, etc. stored since I was 18, and all my digital pictures since I was 18, and all my music that I've downloaded since I was 18, has been maliciously corrupted by geeky internet nerds.
Anyhow, I gave it to an old middle school/high school friend to try to fix. He kept it for awhile but eventually didn't end up making any progress. He made the computer usable, but couldn't recover any of the data from the corrupted drive.
So eventually, I gave it to Max to see if he could help. He has had it for quite some time as well, maybe early spring, and was making a valiant effort but with minimal progress.
I just got a text today saying it was all recovered, and that he is in the process of copying my data over to his server so that he can reformat the corrupted hard drives and give me a fresh start with all my data.
I couldn't be happier. I now have a bromantic man crush on Max until I die. Thanks. Sorry parents, who won't understand what that means. Don't worry, it's not a bad thing.
Anyhow, I gave it to an old middle school/high school friend to try to fix. He kept it for awhile but eventually didn't end up making any progress. He made the computer usable, but couldn't recover any of the data from the corrupted drive.
So eventually, I gave it to Max to see if he could help. He has had it for quite some time as well, maybe early spring, and was making a valiant effort but with minimal progress.
I just got a text today saying it was all recovered, and that he is in the process of copying my data over to his server so that he can reformat the corrupted hard drives and give me a fresh start with all my data.
I couldn't be happier. I now have a bromantic man crush on Max until I die. Thanks. Sorry parents, who won't understand what that means. Don't worry, it's not a bad thing.
Friday, August 22, 2008
First Class Assignments
I am already displeased with the workload. While all the other groups had a maximum of 20-30 pages for any given class, if even that, I was assigned 53 pages of reading for today's civil procedure class. In that reading, there were nine cases to brief.
Case brief: documents created by students when studying case law.
The cases we deal with are all found in the Appellate Courts (Court of Appeals, for the less-than-law-savvy readers). We are given the cases in the form of a judge's discourse. He or she will lay out the case with all the details and necessary references, then describe the decision.
Our job is to pull out the procedural history (what stages the case has gone through, including where it was filed first, who appealed and to which court, what decisions were made, etc.). It is basically the timeline of the case. We need to pull out all the key facts. This is harder than it sounds, because each case can be interpreted in different ways, and depending on your interpretation, different facts could be key. Then, we find the issue. That is, the question being asked of the court. Next is the holding, which is the answer to that question. Finally, the judgment--whether the appeal was affirmed, reversed, dismissed, etc.--and the reasoning--obviously, the reason for the judgment.
Finally, we are supposed to give our own ideas when applicable. So a full case brief usually ends up being about a page of extrapolated information from these cases, which are often only a page or two long themselves.
Couple case briefing with the rest of the information in the text book that needs to be absorbed, noted, applied, etc., and 53 pages can take hours. And by can, I mean it did. I will get the hang of this soon, and it will be like second nature, but for the first go round, this was painfully tedious.
I already found it getting easier as I went along, and so the future looks bright, indeed.
On a side note, the library is the worst place to study. I was more distracted there then anywhere else. All of the other 1Ls are giddy with social excitement and won't leave anyone alone. I sat in the library for about five hours yesterday and had so many people coming by and chatting that I only covered 10 pages of text. It's frustrating and pathetic. But once everyone settles in (I don't know how many times I say this), things should get much easier.
Case brief: documents created by students when studying case law.
The cases we deal with are all found in the Appellate Courts (Court of Appeals, for the less-than-law-savvy readers). We are given the cases in the form of a judge's discourse. He or she will lay out the case with all the details and necessary references, then describe the decision.
Our job is to pull out the procedural history (what stages the case has gone through, including where it was filed first, who appealed and to which court, what decisions were made, etc.). It is basically the timeline of the case. We need to pull out all the key facts. This is harder than it sounds, because each case can be interpreted in different ways, and depending on your interpretation, different facts could be key. Then, we find the issue. That is, the question being asked of the court. Next is the holding, which is the answer to that question. Finally, the judgment--whether the appeal was affirmed, reversed, dismissed, etc.--and the reasoning--obviously, the reason for the judgment.
Finally, we are supposed to give our own ideas when applicable. So a full case brief usually ends up being about a page of extrapolated information from these cases, which are often only a page or two long themselves.
Couple case briefing with the rest of the information in the text book that needs to be absorbed, noted, applied, etc., and 53 pages can take hours. And by can, I mean it did. I will get the hang of this soon, and it will be like second nature, but for the first go round, this was painfully tedious.
I already found it getting easier as I went along, and so the future looks bright, indeed.
On a side note, the library is the worst place to study. I was more distracted there then anywhere else. All of the other 1Ls are giddy with social excitement and won't leave anyone alone. I sat in the library for about five hours yesterday and had so many people coming by and chatting that I only covered 10 pages of text. It's frustrating and pathetic. But once everyone settles in (I don't know how many times I say this), things should get much easier.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Fantasy Football
My draft was terrible. I was in a bad way on Monday and was nowhere near the right mindset to draft a championship football team. Results below.
1 (14) Reggie Bush (RB NO)
2 (15) Carson Palmer (QB CIN)
3 (40) Julius Jones (RB SEA)
3 (42) Donte Stallworth (WR CLE)
S1 (43) Tony Gonzalez (TE SD)*
S2 (71) Brandon Marshall (WR DEN)*
5 (98) Derrick Mason (WR BAL)
6 (99) Redskins DST
S3 (126) Brett Favre (QB NYJ)*
7 (127) Kevin Smith (RB DET)
8 (154) Kevin Boss (TE NYG)
9 (155) Jabar Gaffney (WR NE)
10 (182) Leon Washington (RB NYJ)
11 (183) Josh Brown (K STL)
* - indicates keeper, drafted in a supplemental round.
I don't really know how this team will pan out. I'm hoping to make some savvy trades again this year, as I did last year. I don't know why I picked Carson Palmer after last year's benching when my franchise was in Naptown.
As for the aforementioned Donkey Bowl, I'm happy to be able to join this league, finally. My brother and several of his friends have had this league for a few years and I have always heard the chirping and banter back and forth about its daily goings-ons. It's an established keeper league, so I had to buy in to a vacated franchise. I took over Team Wookie, last year's championship team. Looking at his roster, I have no clue how he won. I decided to forfeit my first round draft pick to keep Steven Jackson (RB STL) (he will go top 6, and I don't pick until 12, so it makes sense despite my relative dislike of him) and my fourth round pick for Braylon Edwards (WR CLE). So the franchise has moved to Tempe and been nicknamed the Sand Esquires (working title, better ideas are welcome).
This league is entirely different from the other keeper league that I am in, so I am excited to experience another method of playing fantasy football. The draft is Saturday at 12:45 my time. Wish me luck.
1 (14) Reggie Bush (RB NO)
2 (15) Carson Palmer (QB CIN)
3 (40) Julius Jones (RB SEA)
3 (42) Donte Stallworth (WR CLE)
S1 (43) Tony Gonzalez (TE SD)*
S2 (71) Brandon Marshall (WR DEN)*
5 (98) Derrick Mason (WR BAL)
6 (99) Redskins DST
S3 (126) Brett Favre (QB NYJ)*
7 (127) Kevin Smith (RB DET)
8 (154) Kevin Boss (TE NYG)
9 (155) Jabar Gaffney (WR NE)
10 (182) Leon Washington (RB NYJ)
11 (183) Josh Brown (K STL)
* - indicates keeper, drafted in a supplemental round.
I don't really know how this team will pan out. I'm hoping to make some savvy trades again this year, as I did last year. I don't know why I picked Carson Palmer after last year's benching when my franchise was in Naptown.
As for the aforementioned Donkey Bowl, I'm happy to be able to join this league, finally. My brother and several of his friends have had this league for a few years and I have always heard the chirping and banter back and forth about its daily goings-ons. It's an established keeper league, so I had to buy in to a vacated franchise. I took over Team Wookie, last year's championship team. Looking at his roster, I have no clue how he won. I decided to forfeit my first round draft pick to keep Steven Jackson (RB STL) (he will go top 6, and I don't pick until 12, so it makes sense despite my relative dislike of him) and my fourth round pick for Braylon Edwards (WR CLE). So the franchise has moved to Tempe and been nicknamed the Sand Esquires (working title, better ideas are welcome).
This league is entirely different from the other keeper league that I am in, so I am excited to experience another method of playing fantasy football. The draft is Saturday at 12:45 my time. Wish me luck.
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