Schill Kill

Rhyming aside, this is serious. Surgery that could keep Schilling out of the 2008 season entirely? And even without surgery, he'll be out until at least the All Star break? Gee, I'm almost shocked.

Let's face it: the man is OLD. Not necessarily through counting years, but certainly old to be playing baseball. Is it really any surprise that he's injured? The great thing is, though, is that the Sox still have an amazing five man rotation even with the injury. If somebody else has a problem...then we may have a bit of an issue. But still, way back when when the Sox were deciding whether or not to sign Schilling, I kind of saw this coming.

For other Sox news, check this out, and see how Manny is finally getting serious here. And finally, another reason to be glad the Giants won the Superbowl.

First day of classes

And once more, I actually follow up a title with a related blog post. See, much as I hate to acknowledge it, today was really the first day of regular classes since the beginning of December. My schedule is horrendous on certain days of the week: Mondays are a solid block, nine to six. Tuesdays have two classes, at nine and then again at noon, and work at the bookstore in the afternoon. Wednesdays are solid nine to four. Thursdays are completely free, but I'll be working in the bookstore pretty much all afternoon until chorale at four. Fridays are nine to one, and then bookstore after lunch. Today was slightly improved, as there was no lab to tie up my lunch hour.

What are these classes, you ask? Well, even if you weren't asking, I'll tell you anyway. They're remarkably similar to those I took last semester: biology, chemistry, Italian, and multi-variable calculus. Buckets and buckets of fun, indeed. Tomorrow's looking up, though, something like four packages should be arriving in the mail. One of those should bear a Giants logo, but that's not headed for my mailbox. No, that's headed straight to the one who foolishly bet against the Giants and is now going to wear a hat commemorating the Superbowl victory for the next month or so.

Although classes partially blocked my enjoyment of this, today was just about the first real packing snow that's fallen this winter. A snowball fight is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon...yes, it is scheduled...otherwise people can't be there. I personally vote for spontaneous, mostly because I can't resist pegging people in the back on the way to the dining hall. It's things like that that enamor me to people...anyway, to bed. I have to be up and ready to work at the bookstore at eight, and that translates to bed now. Although I really don't think I'll get to sleep until at least midnight...nevertheless, even lying in bed reading is better than staring at the computer screen.

A quick note: Firefox has a wonderful (though questionable) add-on that lets you download streamed content. So if you're listening to, say, Seeqpod, and you want to get a track that you could burn to CD, or listen to without internet access at places like the airport, the add-on lets you do that. Beautiful...

And the votes are in...

Or not. Or some infinitesimally small percentage of votes are in, and CNN is projecting winners anyway. Do they honestly believe over there that calling the winner with thirty percent of the ballots counted is actually going to turn out accurately? Number crunching be damned...I'll count my eggs when they hatch, thanks very much.

Going with the projections temporarily...Huckabee is making a surprisingly strong showing, although he almost certainly won't win another state after tonight. Romney is performing well in places with religious nutjobs (Utah, anyone?), and McCain is kicking some conservative butt. On the other side of the playing field, Hillary is making it quite clear that Obama isn't in the clear quite yet. Another complaint: how come it's always a projected winner, and never an actual count of the number of delegates won? Anyways...here's my plan for good tickets on both sides, president coming first...

Obama/Edwards

McCain/Huckabee.

Both of those are dangerous tickets. The democratic ticket I feel speaks for itself, and Huckabee appeals to those of us living below the Bible Belt.

And now to bed...class starts up at nine tomorrow morning, and I want to be showered and at breakfast by eight twenty. I made one bet on the Superbowl, by the way, and it turns out I lose even though I did bet on the Giants. It had nothing to do with a points spread...rather, I bet a friend that if the Pats won, I would hang a picture of a shirtless Tom Brady on my door. If the Giants won, as they did in style, she would wear a Giants hat around campus for a few weeks. The catch: I have to buy the hat. I'm pretty sure I got cheated somehow...

Fuck Yeah!

And the Giants won the Superbowl! The Giants won the Superbowl! What an amazing game...what an amazing experience. I am so insanely happy right now...also, my blog got nearly 250 hits yesterday. Thank you again to the Giants, this time for traffic. YES! For all of you who wanted/expected a perfect season for the Patriots: IN YOUR FACE!

Going hiking tomorrow near the AT...if I can get up in time. It's been an interesting night...GO GIANTS! Now for the Red Sox to win another World Series, and the year will be complete. Countdown to opening day on the right, folks.

Here We Go Again

Spring semester is just around the corner here at Colby, after the break we're in now ends. Yes, we have a week long break right now. After the month of one class a day. It's just crazy, isn't it? But soon all that will be at an end, and regular classes will start up again. For me it'll be more of the same: chemistry, biology, calculus and Italian. Two lab sciences isn't necessarily fun, but it can certainly be done. I'll be in class for most of the day Mondays and Wednesdays, but Tuesdays and Thursdays will be light.

Applications to continue the radio show through spring semester are in, and although the time slot may change from the most excellent one we had in January, the only thing that matters to me is keeping the show. Broomball starts up again in a week, and hopefully I'll be able to get someone with a camera to film one of the games. Fun fun...just in time for my bruises to heal, it's time to get some more.

The temperature just climbed about freezing here in Waterville, which will hopefully take care of some of the ice that is practically everywhere - the ground, the trees, the lake...freezing rain Friday night pretty much killed the weekend, because trying to go out is almost not worth it for fear of falling.

The Superbowl is later today, as you almost certainly already know, and for those of you who know where my allegiance lies (if you've been reading, you know), please refrain from nasty comments about the actual likelihood of winning. Anything is possible, as the dream team Pats have shown us, and the Giants have been playing amazingly well the past few weeks. Mission: get to Brady, twist his other ankle, and knock him out of the game. Nothing is sweeter than the Red Sox winning the World Series...unless the Giants were to win the Superbowl and make it a double victory. Go Giants!

Alice's Restaurant

Where you can get anything you want (excepting Alice). I've made a decision that my blog titles will no longer have any relevance to what I'm posting about. Things of note recently: I received as a gift a Giants hat from my grandparents, and it's become my headwear of choice. It now accompanies me on all my outdoors excursions, and aside from one recommendation to burn it from a particularly fanatical Patriots fan, I haven't had any negative reactions. I met this Pats fan at the bowling alley this afternoon, which brings of thing of interest number two. I spent a pleasant two hours today bowling with the dorm, and learning that without frequently bowling, my skills have actually regressed to worse than they were when I was ten. I'm fairly sure that I have a score sheet at home with myself scoring a 92, from a good eight years ago. My top score today was an 88. Alas, I cannot bowl as well as I used to. One might assume that it has something to do with my form, which involves the trailing foot kicking up to hip level in the follow through. Of course, it could also be the wrist twist that occurs every single time I bowl.

Oh well...no sense complaining, as I will likely not be bowling for another few months. To continue with the things of note, I have learned all of one thing from this weekend: Bud Light tastes like shit. Pardon the blatant nature of the statement, but I felt it needed to be said. If I don't drink during college, it will be because I can't stand things like Keystone Light and Bud Light and all the other watered down crap that is the staple of a college party. There's something to be said for an imported beer, and that something is this: it tastes better. I suppose that at some level my parents have achieved an ironic success in parenting: by allowing me a taste of good beer, they have dissuaded me from drinking to excess in college for the sole reason that I can't stand the taste. Peer pressure be damned, I'm not drinking something that tastes like toilet water. My apologies to anyone who likes drinking light beer; I'm sure that your tastes are very sophisticated in every other way. With the exception of NASCAR fans. And of course, those dieting with the aid of alcohol.

And that wraps up today's college update. Coming up soon: why staying up until 3:30 in the morning to watch a tennis final is almost always a poor choice. Nevertheless, hurrah Djokovic.

Cool

So if you type "ny giants" in to Google image search, my blog comes up as the second result. Sweet. That would explain the 716 visits I've gotten in the past week. It's absolutely insane...and I love Google Analytics for informing me. I now have had visits from 42 states and the District of Columbia, several countries in Europe, and every continent but Antarctica and Africa. And I still average less than a response per post. Ah well...it's going to snow tonight, to top off the foot or so that's still on the ground from last week. It's slightly less frigid than the past couple days, at least, up to the 20s.

Broomball continued last night, with another loss but also our first victory, to put our record at 1-2. With two games left, there's a distinct possibility that we could make it into the playoffs. Of course, if we do, that just means more bruises. It's a hell of a lot of fun, though. The only real pain is being captain and trying to orchestrate substitutions in the middle of play. That and playing teams of seniors who actually know what they're doing.

SUPERBOWL!!!

And the Giants do it in style. Honest to God, I nearly punched a hole in the ceiling when that kick went through the uprights. Just like when I nearly punched a hole in the wall when the other kick went wide. The game was amazing; I absorbed so much football that I'm actually glad to have two weeks before the Superbowl. Of course, I'll be in the heart of Patriots country, so I might have to tone down the cheering a little...nah. I'll risk it. So many things went right and wrong in the game today...interceptions were fumbled, fumbles were fumbled, Bret Favre was picked off and Eli Manning was not. In short, the game was beautiful. I don't think anyone thought that kick was going through...but whaddya know, it was perfect. Tynes, you are forgiven your previous two trespasses and earn a full reprieve. Vinatieri you are not, but you came through when it counted. I'll see you in two weeks! Oh, and Kevin Boss and Plaxico Burress are my heroes. Freakin' sweet!

Hot Damn!

I wasn't doing anything in particular this morning, checking my Google analytics numbers for the past few days. Idly checking todays numbers, for Sunday the 13th, I notice that the number of visits is an all time high (for two and a half months of operation), at 26. Cool. Five minutes ago, I checked again. The scale is off for some reason, and I can't figure out why...until I realize that it's been thrown off by a huge number of visits today. On this single day, January 13, 2008, I have had 110 visits. Excuse me, but what the hell happened? Aside from a few direct links, and an equal number from IDTMI (thanks for the link again, by the way), there's nothing I recognize. 94 visits came through referral from Google images. What? How? And why are they almost all from New York and New Jersey? Two searches using the keyword "New York Giants" found the blog. Is that what it is? Giants fans searching for their team, and finding a fan in the blogosphere? Because that's really cool.

By the way, the Giants did beat the Cowboys this evening, and it was fantastic. Nothing like an interception in the endzone to end the game and rub it in Romo's face. Oh, and little Manning is going farther than big bro. We'll always have the priceless pep talks, though.

Bravo, I suppose

Just finished with the Giants-Patriots football game. Glad the NFL Network decided to let it be seen after all. Why on both NBC and CBS, though?

Of course, the result is more important than the broadcasting networks. I suppose a congratulatory comment is due to the now 16-0 New England Patriots, so here goes: Congratulations.

Sorry if I couldn't muster much enthusiasm. If you'll recall, I don't particularly like the Patriots, and I thought for much of the game that the Giants (yay!) would win. Sadly, they wasted lots of time on their last scoring drive, and kicked the onside right into the Patriots' hands. Final score: 38-35 Pats, and a great game despite the outcome. Both teams are in the playoffs, and we just might see them play each other again. Maybe.

Sigh...

Well, the Giants lost to Dallas...not that I'm really surprised, just disappointed. At least the Bengals delivered some satisfaction for once.