October 2003 Archives

It sure is a crazy week. But then, which ones haven't been crazy lately? Despite the insanity, there's also a lot to look forward to. Friday night is, of course, Halloween! To get in the spirit of things, check out Marshie's Malloween game and the Halloween cartoons from years past at homestarrunner.com. Having opted out of any kind of costume since my freshman year, I'm reentering the arena this time with Tom, sporting a simple-yet-elegant idea: a frat guy. Gina helped make the costumes, so you know it'll be great! I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

In other news, the sun fired the third biggest solar flare on record at us yesterday, which could mean some auroras (or northern lights) as far south as our part of the US this evening. It's supposed to be a mostly clear night in these parts, so take a look outside tonight if you get a chance. It has the potential to be spec-TAC-ular.

This Saturday, College GameDay is coming to town. I most likely will get up and drag myself down to Lane Stadium to try to get on TV, but the prospect of sleeping in is also pretty tempting. Katie and a bunch of Wesley folks are going to be bringing a banner, so the best of luck to them in scoring yet another ESPN appearance. With or without our second fifteen seconds of fame, the Hokies will be taking on the Hurricanes at 7:45 Saturday night. I won't be in the stadium thanks to the ticket situation, but you can bet your buddha that I'll be watching. It's still the biggest game we'll play this year, and arguably the biggest one we've played since I've been here. With a Sugar Bowl bid now out of reach, it's all about respect. We'll see if my Hokies can find their heart and play like they can.

I feel like I should say something spooky here to help get everyone in the Halloween spirit, but I got nothin'. So I'll just go wander around aimlessly instead. Cheers!

Well, friends and neighbors, the Hour That Doesn't Count was a decided success. In the hours leading up to the big one, I must admit that my energy was flagging; however, a quick nap around 11:30 charged me up for the wackiness that ensued. I think I'll let the pictures and video speak for themselves whenever they are ready to be unleashed on the world. I'd just like to thank all the people who were there to make it happen. Without you, there would be no Hour That Doesn't Count. Okay, there would be, but there wouldn't be anybody there to celebrate it! So there. Nyaaah.

Something even cooler than the Hour happened this weekend, as well. On Friday night, Mom informed me that my high school held a ceremony naming its football field after my dad. This is easily the coolest thing to happen back home since I've been here at college. I've already told my dad that I'm gonna be first in line to get some autographs the next time I'm back in WV. And really, after all the times he's helped the athletic department at Tolsia, no other person is more deserving of the honor. Hip hip hooray!

This Ramble On will be cut short due to the rapidly-approaching men's intramural volleyball game. We're winless, but I don't think we're necessarily a bad team. There are plenty of things we need to work on, and maybe tonight will find us with at least one victory this season. If nothing else, it's exercise, and it's fun. While I'm bumping, setting, and/or spiking, you can check out the new pictures I have posted from Fall 2002. And bundle up out there - fall has fallen fast.

Lack of entries this week can be explained, I promise. It's easy for me to take on too much in my life (call me a glutton for punishment or a man who likes a challenge) and that's essentially what happened. Sure, I might be able to juggle 134013948039 different things for a few weeks, but sooner or later, I know deep down that it's going to come at me hard enough to send me flying on my back. And then it'll sit on my stomach and laugh at me. And then it'll really start to get serious. So, this week has been a rough one, though I don't think it's because it's been a bad week in itself. It's just that all the other nights of not-quite-enough sleep and non-stop errands have finally caught up to me. This situation can get even worse when the people you care about are also having a bad time - the energy just isn't there to give them the support they need, too.

Is it any wonder why I'm ecstatic that this is Friday, that Gina's feeling better, and that I'm almost certain I'll like my third co-op term (which comes complete with a raise)? Now, I think I just need one more night of good sleepytime and I'll be solid gold. Comedy gold, even.

In other news, lots of new music has been coming out lately. I've been digging Howie Day's new record, Stop All The World Now. A lot of people like to debunk the latest barrage of singer-songwriters-with-an-acoustic-guitar, but I really like this album. The guy has some nice songs to be a young artist, and I gotta respect that. Barenaked Ladies also released their latest, Everything to Everyone, this week. I'm definitely going to have to check that out at my earliest convenience. New music in the fall puts me in this certain indescribable mood; I always seem to be able to associate the new stuff with what's going on in my life at the time I buy it. Ah, well, if you're interested at all, pick up these two albums. I'm thinking about adding one of those "What I'm Listening To" sidebars to here. Yeah, good idea, Bret. Look for that soon. :)

Peace, everybody! Enjoy the weekend. May it bring you shine of the sun and warm, fuzzy feelings.

This Saturday night, we will all be getting an extra hour's sleep. That's right, the often-misunderstood, underappreciated beginning of Daylight Savings Time begins soon. This really means that I'll be both driving to and from work in total darkness, but I'm not going to dwell on that point just yet. It takes a while for winter's grayness to get me down. No, something much better is on the horizon.

For this weekend also contains The Hour That Doesn't Count.

The first time I associated fall's Daylight Savings Time shift with any kind of mystical qualities was when I watched the Adventures of Pete and Pete episode "Time Tunnel." In the episode, young Pete plans on going back in time an hour at the cusp of DST in order to take on the town bully, Endless Mike. Last year, Tom, Sarah, Steve, and I didn't have such high aspirations, but we still managed to dress in weird outfits and go to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night. You can't really plan something like The Hour That Doesn't Count, but one thing is for sure: you have to do something. Think about it. You can essentially do anything you want from 1AM-2AM Sunday morning, because once that clock ticks over from 1:59, it's back to 1:00 again. The possibilities are endless, my friends. In fact, start thinking about your possibilities and write me Sunday afternoon with your stories. I want to hear them! Spread the word!

With the absence of a Tech football game this weekend, it looks like just about everybody has decided to take an opportunity to travel. Some lucky people are going as far as San Francisco, but most are just going home to be with their families. Gina and I made the trip back to my hometown just two weeks ago, so now we're going to go the other direction, catch Shania Twain (Gina's favorite singer) in concert, and hang out with her family this weekend. I'm looking forward to getting away from it all. This fall is passing by quickly (maybe too quickly), but I can feel this particular week taking its toll. All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray... Wait a minute, that's a great line to put in a song! Brilliant!

Those of you who are staying in Blacksburg this weekend should band together and have some kind of party throughout town. Or stay inside, stay warm, and watch the first couple of games of the World Series. (Go Marlins, I guess. Freakin' Yankees.)

I've been a student at VT for four years, and I've been to 98% of the home football games during my time here. This has meant sitting overnight through the wind and rain at times, but the Wesley Foundation has always gotten lucky and pulled through with tickets... until now, for the Miami game on November 1, probably the biggest matchup in college football. My friend Josh Otey's opinion letter to the Collegiate Times sums up my feelings on the issue.

The archive is up, so if you're interested in doing some backreading, head there. On to the topic at hand:

I was browsing around a bit today during some downtime and came across a few blasts from the past. First, there's now at least one site out there that sells t-shirts from 80's pop culture: www.80stees.com. Itching for some way to display your 80's heritage? Pick up a Nintendo, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, or Masters of the Universe shirt. Heck, they've even got obscure cartoons like the Snorks on there. I remember all of them, since I was an avid Saturday morning cartoon watcher (and I came out all right, didn't I?).

Speaking of cartoons, it seems that we're far enough removed from the 80's for nostalgia to kick in. I remember those odd infomercials from the 70's Preservation Society being broadcast during daytime TV as a kid, and now it looks like we're going to be getting a similar 80's deal, only with more hair. This can be good because of certain things, like the Ninja Turtles and He-Man, and horrendously bad for certain things, like most of 80's music, except for The Police, Men at Work, and possibly The Talking Heads. And maybe that Corey Hart guy who wore his sunglasses at night. Ok, so maybe all this stuff wasn't so bad after all.

I'm in the mood for some reminders of childhood. (I know I'm not old by any stretch of the imagination, but still...) I think I'm going to try to catch the new Ninja Turtles cartoon this Saturday. It may also be time to pay a visit to all the action figures boxed up in the attic...

I finally got around to setting up my live show list at Etree.org. It's nowhere near complete as of today, with just a couple of example shows so far, but at least it's up there and a good testament to my latest, greatest hobby. And in case you're wondering, it's completely legal to trade bands that have an open taping policy (like DMB and countless others). Plus it's just neat, and I like neat stuff.

In other news, Nalgene water bottles rock. I never thought I'd shell out the bucks for a high-end bottle like the one I have now, but how can you go wrong with nigh-unbreakable plastic? After I shattered my $2 Rubbermaid model last week, this is a welcome replacement.

For those of you who follow VT Football, you know that the Hokies clobbered Syracuse on Saturday, after a two-year streak of losses to the Orangemen. But there was another quest going on during the football action: to get us on ESPN.

First, we randomly landed great seats, right above the alcove in Lane Stadium where the Hokies take the field (essentially the same seats we had for the Miami game in 2001). We quickly noticed that both the HokieVision and ESPN cameras were not too far from us. And since the HokieVision guy kept panning back to us at different points in the game, getting our mugs on the Jumbotron, we thought there'd be a chance for the ESPN guy to do the same. One of our traditions is to throw streamers when the clock counts down to zero on a Hokie win, and we've always wanted national TV recognition for it. I mean, who wouldn't?

So, if you were watching ESPN coming back from a commercial break toward the end of the first quarter, you could probably see Dave, Gerritt, and a quarter of my head, screaming like hooligans. We were testing out the ESPN waters. After halftime, Gerritt, Jen, Gina, and I cooked up an elaborate plan to get on TV involving Jen writing a note on a napkin, several failed attempts to get the ESPN guy's attention, an old HokieVision guy rubbing Gina's head, Gina and Jen flashing smiles at cameramen, and an extremely cool red-shirted security guard (not the kind that always died on Star Trek) who we saw dancing to the MV's Stick It In cheer. Red Shirt Security Guy promised he'd get the cameramen's attention as time wound down so we could throw our streamers in full national-TV glory.

When the time came, our Elaborate Plan was a success. Sort of. ESPN Guy did swing his camera around as time ran out, but the network didn't cut to his feed until well after the streamers had flown. But, my friends, our faces were still on national TV. The tape will show that we were there, being crazy Hokies, for about ten seconds at the end of the game. Nice work, everyone! I'll be signing autographs tomorrow.

Note: Josh has promised to convert the VHS of this event for Internet consumption, as soon as I can get a tape out to him. Look for that and more soon!