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January 26, 2007
How Cold Is Cold?
We've now had our first true Arctic blast of the season, with the passage of a cold front yesterday evening. Temps dropped down into the single digits overnight, sinking all the way to 5ºF at the airport, making it the coldest weather State College has seen since December 2005, when it dropped below zero on a couple occasions (not coincidentally that was the last time it's truly felt or looked like winter around here). By the time I made it outside to start my walk into Walker, it had warmed all the way up to 10º, but the windchill was down around -10º, so it was a bit brisk out. But just how cold is it? If you ask someone like Daniel he'll say it's "cold as hell," whereas Chris would say that it's finally cold enough to put on long pants instead of shorts, and everyone else has their own opinion as well. So, in an attempt to settle the debate, here's my somewhat arbitrary scale of coldness:
30º to 40º : Crisp (autumn); Balmy (spring)
20º to 30º : Cool
10º to 20º : Chilly
0º to 10º : Cold
-10º to 0º : Very Cold
-20º to -10º : Damn Cold/Frigid
-20º and below: Bitterly Cold
-60º : "Embarrass"-ingly Cold (a little 1994 Minnesota humor there)
Feel free to leave a comment with your own scale of coldness, I'd be interested in seeing them.
The State College NWS office is embarrassing. On Wednesday during the day they were forecasting a total of up to an inch of snowfall for Thursday, as a result of the front coming through and some leftover lake effect squalls making it over the Allegheny Plateau and the Laurels. We all agreed with that forecast. On Wednesday evening they suddenly upped their forecast to 1-3 inches of snow for Thursday and another 1-3 inches for Thursday night (honk honk!). We were all scratching our heads at that one, because nothing we could see was indicating that we'd get more than an inch, or maybe two if we got really, really lucky. So then yesterday morning they came to their senses and re-did their forecast to indicate less than one inch of total accumulation, yet they left the phrase "heavy snow" in the forecast. Huh? Since when does "heavy snow" belong in the same sentence as "less than one inch accumulation"? Anyway, we got a couple of nice little snow squalls late afternoon to make the ground white (Jeff, observing a nice 35 dBZ snow squall on the radar a bit west of here just before then, said, "Man, I wish I were in Tyrone right now. [pause] I never thought I would ever utter those words."). Then the front came through around 6 or 7pm with a few more flurries, but then absolutely nothing was showing up on radar behind it (the lake effect machine turned out to be particularly wimpy). Sometime shortly after this the State College NWS changed their forecast from "40% chance of light snow" to "100% chance of heavy snow, mostly before midnight, with overnight accumulations of 1-3 inches." What?!? How can you change your forecast to that when your best chance of precip is already well past you, and there's literally nothing showing up on radar?? I don't know what they're smoking up there, but as Walter said, "I need me some of that." The thing is, even their own forecast discussion said that they were starting to lower PoPs [probability of precipitation] in central and eastern PA, but that was certainly not reflected in their increase from 40% to 100% in State College. And that's not even mentioning their forecasted overnight low of 12º when the current temp at that point was 9º (remember that it dropped to 5º last night). Their routinely busted forecasts at least provide us with a fairly regular source of amusement here in the department though.
Okay, I'm done ranting now. I should get back to work anyway, as my model just finished running. Stay cool!
Posted by Jared at 09:36 AM | Comments (3)
January 23, 2007
Winter Hike
Imagine a day with a pretty steady 15-20 mph wind, temperatures in the mid-20s, and occasional flurries mixed with a few peeks of sun. Perfect day for a hike, right? That's what we thought! Aviva, Meaghan, Lindsay, Andrew & I all went on a nice three-hour hike in the Shingletown Gap area of Rothrock State Forest, just outside of State College. 
We would've probably had a few more people join us, but they wussed out, whinging that it was going to be too cold, too windy, too slippery, too boring, any number of lame excuses. At any rate, it was a really good time, and we didn't really get cold at all, since we rugged up in layers and everything. 
That and the trees blocked the wind pretty well most of the time, and it was only windy up on the ridgetop. I didn't even wear my gloves most of the hike, but we managed to pick the coldest, windiest spot along the entire hike to have lunch, but hey, it had a view. 
Aviva didn't have a great map, so most of the hike we didn't know exactly where we were, but that was okay. We still knew the general way we wanted to go, along Roaring Run for awhile, then turn straight up the ridge (ugh), come back along the ridge for a bit on the Mid-State Trail, 
then come back straight back down the ridge (ugh). And whaddya know, we wound up right back where we started with no difficulties. Not bad, I'd say. :-) It was a really pretty hike though (Rothrock always is), with a little bit of snow dusting the ground in most places. It was the first time I'd ever taken a hike in the winter like that, and I really enjoyed it! I really ought to take more hikes in Rothrock, it's a great area. And maybe drive a little further away from town to some of the other great spots I've heard about. But I guess if I'm here another 3-4 years I'll have plenty of chances to do all that.
The hike tuckered me out quite a bit, but I had something else going on Saturday evening as well, the Spring Semester Kickoff for Penn State Christian Grads in the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center. The other officers and I were quite pleased with the turnout, almost 30 people showed up, including 5 or 6 new people! We're all quite encouraged with how healthy and active PSCG seems to be this year, we've got a good-sized nucleus of active members. After quite a bit of free pizza and plenty of cookies, we all hung out and played a bunch of games for awhile, till 10:30 almost. Everyone had fun but I was totally exhausted by the end of the evening!
All this was after a rather entertaining Friday evening. We were in 2nd place entering the final question at trivia, but fell out of placing when we got it wrong after having gone all in. Oh well, you can't win every week I guess. 
After trivia a few of people came back to our place to play a cool game called "Mafia" that Steph, Petters & I know, and were able to teach to everyone else. That and we were just having a bunch of fun in general. What a jovial bunch we are. :-)
This evening I got all excited when practicing the songs for church for this coming Sunday, because we're doing a couple of my favorite favorite songs, including "Prince of Peace" and a wonderful hymn, "Wonderful Grace of Jesus," which I absolutely love belting out on the piano. With the whole worship set it should be a really fun service on Sunday. :-)
Amber, Kerrie, Daniel & Katie all came over tonight to watch episode 5 of "24." Let's just say I almost literally fell out of my chair when they revealed who Jack's brother was. That was most unexpected!
I think I'm semi-addicted to watching the Australian Open. The quality of the tennis has been riveting (Andy Roddick vs Mario Ancic on Saturday night and Serena Williams vs Shahar Peer tonight, in particular), and the many shots of Melbourne and the Victorian countryside during commercials and outros from commercial breaks are making me long to go back there again...
The winter has been slightly less lame here in State College this month, but this is how lame it's been overall: Phoenix had 1.5 inches of snow yesterday (they almost never get snow!), which now gives them more snow for the entire season than State College, which has had .8 or .9 inches, I believe. This is really getting ridiculous.
Posted by Jared at 12:48 AM | Comments (2)
January 18, 2007
Jack is Back!
I am soooooo excited that Season 6 of "24" has finally gotten underway!! The first couple of episodes started out a little slowly (except when Jack Bauer killed that terrorist by biting him in the neck, haha), but they were definitely building towards the fourth episode, when the plot *really* started to get going. I watched the first two episodes after Bible study at my place on Sunday night, and John & Ruth decided to stick around to watch. They hadn't seen "24" ever before, but they're hooked now! (And Daniel finally relented and started watching "24" with the season premiere as well (Katie's love for the show might've had something to do with it, haha), and now he's hooked too!) And then on Monday night, for the last half of the 4-hour season premiere "event," I went up to Houserville to watch episodes 3 & 4 with Jeff, Bob, Vic & Lindsay. I think it was in episode 3 when Karen Hayes from DHS was explaining to the president what the kill zone would be from a suitcase nuke in an urban area, and then where the radiological agents would spread and disperse (to "a much wider range, depending on the wind"), at which point everyone turned and looked at me, haha. You know, "24" might really be on to something here, the government really should start researching some of this dispersion stuff. Yeah, and maybe pay a couple of grad students to work on it too...
In an incident mostly unrelated, during "24" Vic brought down a can of Koch's Golden Anniversary ("Golden Adversary") and made Lindsay try some of it (Vic can sure be cruel sometimes, haha), which elicited the famous Koch's face from her that everyone gets when they try it. This picture showing her displeasure with his choice of beer was too good not to put up here. :-) But as bad as Koch's is, it's not as bad as La Crosse Lager, which will be back to defend its crown at the BASF 3 around Memorial Day weekend!
Last night I went with Caren to go see Aviva "sing about Jesus" (as Caren puts it) in concert with the gospel choir she's in, Essence of Joy. I hadn't heard her before and this one was free, so I figured it was a good enough reason to go. :-) It was actually just a part of a larger evening Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration. It was good though, they had Carlotta Lanier speak; she was one of the members of the Little Rock Nine, the first black students in the country to desegregate a public high school in the country back in 1957. A brief history lesson about the situation: the Arkansas governor ordered the National Guard in to defy the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education and only let the white students into Little Rock Central High School, but President Eisenhower responded by ordering a thousand troops from the the elite 101st Airborne Division to escort the Little Rock Nine into the school. Anyway, it was fascinating hearing her speak, and hearing her perspective on all those events. After Ms. Lanier spoke, then Aviva's choir performed three songs. They were really good, I thought. (And I know the picture's blurry, but it's the best I could get with the necessary long exposure time.) And then after them there was a dance troupe performing some African dances that were quite, uh, what's the word, frenetic? and very fun to watch (hearing the drums was awesome too). The only downside about the evening was that I got a parking ticket four minutes before I got back out to my car. Grrr.
Classes started up for the new semester on Tuesday (here we go again...). My classes are only Tue/Thu and back-to-back, Atmospheric Dispersion taught by Dr Wyngaard (which I'm currently just sitting in on, though likely will end up taking for credit), and the Numerical Solutions to Partial Differential Equations class (hereafter "Numerical PDEs" for short) that Andrew somehow convinced me to take with him. Numerical PDEs is definitely gonna be a very, very challenging course for me (for Andrew too, but he's had a bit more math than me), but the instructor is cool (and with a name like Qiang Du, we were unsure how understandable he'd be, but he speaks English pretty well, much to our relief), and since it's a grad-level course, he's decided to take all worry about grades out of the equation -- I'm a big fan of his grading scheme, that's for sure. :-)
I've also been keeping up with the workout routine this week with Vic & Andrew. By Monday I thankfully wasn't sore anymore from last Friday's reintroduction to the gym, but now after going on Tuesday, Wednesday and today, I'm quite sore again (though not in the same muscles as last weekend). Who knew all these different muscles even existed?... I'll try to make it tomorrow, and then it'll definitely be time to enjoy a break over the weekend. I'm determined to stick with this at least for awhile yet, I don't want just to give up or anything (oh, the temptation to split that infinitive was *so* there) before I give it a good go. One more trip to the gym and I'll finally be under the $10/visit range for the cost of the semester pass, wahoo!
Posted by Jared at 11:37 PM | Comments (3)
January 13, 2007
So Sore
I... am... sore... Very sore. Yesterday afternoon I lifted weights for the first time, oh, since junior year of high school, a span of seven years. It's not really a New Year's resolution or anything, but I just decided that I'd like to get back in shape a bit, and since Vic & Andrew regularly go to the gym already, I figured I may as well tag along with them. Going with other people is definitely easier than trying to start something new (especially any form of exercise) by yourself. So yesterday Vic & I only worked out for 45 minutes or so, but it was more than enough to make my arms and upper body very upset with me all day today. I'll probably still be pretty sore tomorrow, but if I keep with this working out thing hopefully I won't be quite so sore the day after anymore.
Last night was the first Friday night team trivia of 2007, and we were in third place going into the final round, but went all in, got it right, and wound up finishing in first! Booya!
After going to the kickoff breakfast for the new Men's Ministry at church this morning, I went to the Penn State vs Indiana basketball game. The Nittany Lions jumped out to a 17-5 lead early on, but the Hoosiers came back to make it a 41-40 Lions lead at halftime. What did in Penn State was Indiana's three-point shooting (14-for-34) and the Nitts' crappy free throw shooting. Inconsistent refereeing didn't help either, argh. Penn State wound up falling 84-74. Are you in?
This afternoon Jon & I spent an hour or so rearranging the living room. We're planning on hosting a Super Bowl party for the meteo grads in a few weeks, but we moved stuff around so that the TV would be visible to more people, by putting it in the corner. 
I'm actually a big fan of how we have it now, I think it's an improved setup. Basically it used to be that only the couch and the big chair could see the TV, but now both of those plus the futon and the rocking chair can see it as well. Definite improvement. :-)
The NFL playoffs continue tomorrow, but more importantly, the Season 6 premiere of "24" is on! I loved the most recent Bill Simmons column on espn.com, in the section where he was giving the Vegas odds and his picks for the weekend's games, including: "Jack Bauer (+13.5) over THE CHINESE [all caps signifies the home team]. Two nights away. I'm giddy. The pick (in body counts): Jack Bauer 23, The Chinese 0." Awesome. I can't wait! Only 21 hours, 6 minutes and change away!
Posted by Jared at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2007
Brooke's Wedding
On my last full day back in Wisconsin on Saturday, I borrowed Nathan's car and drove an hour from Cumberland up to Hayward to go to Brooke & Matt's wedding. Matt (who I'd never met before) managed to introduce a little humor into the wedding too; he said something funny that caught the pastor off guard and kept him chuckling for a minute or two before he could regain his composure and restart reciting the vows for Matt to repeat, haha. I can't recall ever being to a wedding where the pastor wound up laughing in the middle of the ceremony. I'd also never been to a winter wedding before (especially not one way up north!), but it was quite nice. They had it in the evening, so the only lights up front really were candles and white Christmas lights. 
And then after the wedding everyone was given a sparkler to line the way outside (it was pretty chilly!) and give Brooke & Matt a sendoff to their car. I thought the sparklers were a nice touch. The reception at Lumberjack Steakhouse was really nice too. There weren't very many people that I knew there (I thought there'd be more from our high school class, but I guess they wanted to keep the wedding fairly small), but I did get to meet a few people, including a fellow Penn Stater -- Brooke's younger sister Brittany's boyfriend Craig -- so that was cool. I was really glad that I was able to make it, it was a fun time and I was glad to be able to see Brooke on her wedding day!
It was kinda late when I got back from the wedding, so I elected not to pack at all until morning, which almost turned into a big mistake because I forgot to activate my alarm, causing me to wake up an hour late, oops! But I threw everything together in time (and surprisingly I managed to fit everything too, I was worried I'd have to have my parents mail a couple of books or some other things to me), and Nathan drove me down to the airport (my parents also had a wedding to attend on Saturday, out in central Minnesota). The drive back with Jacob to State College from the Pittsburgh airport was a bit dicey. Driving at night in the rain with lane-marking paint that's so faded you can't see it at all is no fun at all (it's rather disconcerting to discover suddenly that you've drifted partway across the center line or the fog line because they're barely even intermittently visible, it was seriously really bad). Fortunately Jacob was doing it this time, I've made that drive back from Pitt in bad weather enough. :-)
So now I'm back in State College, trying to get situated and settled again before the semester starts up Tuesday next week. I've been doing a bit of cleaning around my room, the apartment, and a little in my office too, though probably not much is showing there yet. :-) I've also been making progress on reading some of the journal articles I probably should've gotten to over break (but then it wouldn't have been a break, would it?), but perhaps not as much as I'd like. And then tonight I practiced piano for a couple hours, taking my first look at the music I'll be playing on Sunday morning. In addition to this Sunday, I'm also on the schedule for Jan 28 & Feb 18, so I'm definitely a pretty regular part of the rotation now.
Monday night was also the BCS National Championship game between Ohio State and Florida. For some reason I was rooting for tO$U and Big Ten pride (it would've been pretty sweet for the Big Ten to go 3-0 vs the SEC), while everyone else that came to Houserville to watch the game was cheering for Florida and doing the Gator Chomp (Jeff because he was a bitter Michigan fan; Vic because he just doesn't like Ohio State; Daniel because he's from SEC country and his Auburn Tigers can lay claim to being the only team to have beaten the Gators; Katie's also from SEC country; and Kerrie changed her mind of who to cheer for when she decided she didn't like OSU Coach Tressel's sweater-vest, haha). I only had a couple of chances early on in the game to lead a solo cheer of "O-H! I-O!" as the Buckeyes were surprisingly and completely dominated by the Gators in every phase of the game, holding the Buckeyes to only 82 yards (82!!) of offense for the entire game. Ohio State just didn't show up, and I don't know how you let that happen in the National Championship game. Florida held a 34-14 lead at halftime, and the 2nd half was excruciatingly dull, with Florida pushing the final margin to 41-14. Congrats to Florida though, they played a marvelous game and shocked the college football world with a huge upset. And now begins the long wait until college football returns anew in September.
Random thoughts/comments:
As typically happens in a state vs state rivalry, New Yorkers try to blame a lot of things that go wrong on New Jersey, but this time they have a legitimate case. It seems New Jersey swamps were responsible for stinking up the Big Apple earlier this week, haha. We always joke about how New Jersey ("America's Suburb," according to Jacob) can also be dubbed "America's Landfill," but this kinda brings new meaning to the phrase "New Jersey stinks," doesn't it?
Joe Bastardi of State College-based AccuWeather is making bold predictions of big storms and exciting weather yet again like he usually does (honk honk). What does it mean for a weather pattern to "live up to its full potential" anyway? A major cooldown is in the works for almost the entire country for at least a couple weeks starting with a big storm in the nation's midsection this weekend, and while I hope his wishcasting is correct about a very cold and snowy remainder of the winter (a la 1977-78), I'm not gonna hold my breath.
And finally, I'd never before been to a restaurant that didn't have any food. Until today. Daniel, Frame, Yorks & I decided to go to the Sports Cafe to get some tasty 25-cent wings for lunch. When we got there, the guy asked if we wanted wings, and said he'd count how many they had (never a good sign). The count? 18. No more due in until Friday either! And they weren't honoring their dollar menu until next week. Highly, highly lame. I know they'd been closed for most of Christmas break and just re-opened yesterday, but seriously, why are you open over the lunch hour while it's still Christmas break and the town's practically deserted yet (hence very few potential customers) if you don't have any food?
Posted by Jared at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2007
Long Time No See
[On location in Cumberland, Wisconsin]
So much for snow cover. It had been steadily melting since New Year's Eve anyway, but with above-freezing temps and a bit of rain this morning, it's all gone apart from some tiny little spots here and there. Depressing. But there is a ray of hope on the horizon, in that a few models (including some on Penn State's e-Wall) are indicating an intrusion of cold air (well, it'll feel cold compared to now but in reality will be just a little below normal) next week into the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. Hooray! Maybe I'll have to find space in my suitcase for my winter coat after all. The Climate Prediction Center is still predicting above-normal temps for the Midwest and Great Lakes for the next 1-3 months though (even with below normal temps creeping into the Midwest next week), so who knows what's gonna happen.
Yesterday afternoon I drove down to Saint Paul to go visit Dan W., a friend that I hadn't seen in quite some time. We tried to figure out when the last time was that we'd seen each other, and we decided it'd been 7 years, when I drove over to Green Bay to visit him (after one of my "carnie" jobs at the shaved ice stand at a pow-wow in nearby Keshena). Now that's a long time! We'd kind of lost contact with each other, but last spring he called my parents asking for my address so he could send a wedding invitation, so since then we've been talking a bit more. :-) We just sat and talked and caught up on everything for two and a half hours or so, and I also got to meet his wife Holly for the first time. Hopefully now it won't be another 7 years between visits. But getting to see and catch up with both Dan last night and Scott last week (and meet their wives for the first time), both of whom are old friends I hadn't seen in years, were two of the things I most wanted to do while I was home for break. Check and check. :-)
Back in State College when I was packing to come back here for break, I was an idiot (again) and didn't pack any nice clothes that I could wear to Brooke's wedding tomorrow evening up in Hayward. So I took advantage of yesterday's trip to the Cities to swing by Rosedale and pick up some stuff at JCPenney. Sigh. I did the same thing in forgetting to bring nice clothes back on Thanksgiving break for my Mom's "day out" and had to go buy some. My suitcase is gonna be really, really full with all the extra stuff I'm bringing back to PA on Sunday. Hopefully I have enough room...
Hmm, I brought home nine journal articles to read over break. Guess how many I've read so far? If you guessed a positive non-zero number, go lower. I've very much needed these last couple weeks off from research, but maybe this afternoon I'll try to dust off at least one of the articles I brought home. That and since 2007 started Sue's emailed out three additional articles that just came out that she wants us to read. I have a feeling that that's what I'll be doing a lot of next week, reading journicles.
A few random thoughts:
Annoyed at all the corporate sponsorship of college football bowl games, and with how long the bowl season drags out now? Blame the 1984 Fiesta Bowl between Miami and Penn State, the ultimate battle on the gridiron between evil (Miami) and good (Penn State). And I'm not just saying that because I'm a grad student at PSU, read the article to find out more.
If anyone cares to find out how beholden Micro$oft has chosen to become to the movie and music industries with its new Windows Vista operation system, read this. After reading that I won't ever purchase Vista if I have a choice. (Hat tip: Kieran.)
Some Muslim taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport have been refusing service to passengers who carry alcohol or have service dogs with them, on the basis of religious grounds. As a result new rules are being proposed that would revoke airport taxi licenses for 30 days on the first offense, and 2 years for a second offense, if drivers refuse service on the basis of anything other than safety. So of course a bunch of imams Islamic groups are loudly protesting this "injustice," but how come they don't come up with a different solution: If you are going to have a problem transporting certain people, then don't be a taxi driver!
An ESPN columnist has a very pointed article about the trend of black athletes getting shot (most recently Darrent Williams of the Denver Broncos), and what the ultimate cause probably is: a glorification of violence among young African-American males. It's well worth reading.
And with the new Congress taking power, one of the first issues they'll take up will be increasing the minimum wage. But just how much will that actually benefit people or the economy?
And there is hope on the horizon that the US Supreme Court will take a campaign finance case involving Wisconsin Right to Life so that they can clarify their muddled opinions on CFR. One can only hope that they will rightly strike down the completely unconstitutional, free-speech limiting McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act. McCain-Feingold was supposed to "get the money out of politics," but have any of you noticed any such change during the last two elections? If anything, there's more money! That aside, any law that prevents people from speaking or airing advertisements before an election (or at any time) is an egregious violation of the 1st Amendment and should not be allowed to stand. It's sad that we even have to wonder whether the Supreme Court will decide to side with the US Constitution.
Posted by Jared at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)
January 02, 2007
Physics Party!
[On location in Cumberland, Wisconsin]
Physics is phun! Or at least seeing physics friends again is. On Saturday I drove down to Dave's place down in Minneapolis for a sort of physics reunion of sorts, which Dave named "The Nerds Are Back In Town!" party. Since Dave lives right by the Seven Corners area near the University of Minnesota campus, we didn't have to go very far afield all night, just going to bars that were right there at the Seven Corners intersection. :-) 
Brendan & I were the first to show up around 4, so he, Dave & I got the night started off at Town Hall Brewery, where we were able to catch up and have a good chat and everything. Then Carl, Seth, Jolene, Zach, John & Cory showed up, so we all went to have dinner at Grandma's. Even more people joined us after dinner when we moved across the street to Sgt. Preston's for quite awhile, it was fun. Our physics group was starting to thin out just a bit by the time we decided to head on over to Bullwinkle's 
(Carl really, really wanted a hot dog), but the fun kept rolling. Eventually we went back to Dave's to crash, but there were enough other people there to claim the couches that I got a spot on the floor, but that was okay. Before John & I left on Dave's place on Sunday afternoon, Kate came by for a visit too, which was awesome. It's kinda sad that I won't get to see most of them again for another year, but I guess that's how life is after college. Anytime we can all hang out and catch up, even if it's only for an evening, is still a great time though.
We got a bit of a snowstorm here on New Year's Eve. Southern Minnesota got a good dumping (10 inches), while we only got about 2 inches up here in Cumberland, but hey, snow is snow. It was snowing at a pretty decent clip pretty much my whole drive back from the Twin Cities on Sunday afternoon, 
so at least I got a bit more practice in with winter driving, because who knows if we'll have winter weather at all back in State College the rest of the season... But it was a pretty morning around here with the heavy wet snow sticking on the trees beneath a clear blue sky!
I had thought about staying down in the Twin Cities another night for New Year's Eve, but elected to come back to Wisconsin. So how did I spend New Year's Eve? Playing Cities & Knights of Catan over at Nathan & Laura's. Not a bad way to ring in the New Year, even if I didn't win. :-)
So how have I spent New Year's Day? Well, since 10am, right here in the living room watching college football bowl games! First up was the Outback Bowl, pitting the Tennessee Volunteers against Penn State. I was quite impressed with how well Anthony Morelli, Penn State's embattled QB, played throughout the game. He didn't throw a pick or make dumb decisions, it was really the best he's played all year. And the result? A 20-10 victory for the Nittany Lions, which will undoubtedly create a ton of enthusiasm for next year, with all the talent the Lions are returning. That, when combined with the spectacular home schedule next year, featuring Notre Dame, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio State & Purdue, will surely make the demand for student season tickets absolutely insane. I'm gonna be sure to order them the day they become available this time, so I don't get shut out like I did this past year.
Anyway, after the Penn State game, I caught the end of the Cotton Bowl (Auburn beat Nebraska 17-14, making Daniel quite happy, I'm sure), and then saw Wisconsin hang on against Arkansas 17-14 in the Capital One Citrus Bowl. Then it was time for the Granddaddy of Them All, the Rose Bowl, pitting Michigan and Southern Cal. I was very conflicted over who to cheer for, whether Michigan for Big Ten Pride, or USC because I hate Michigan so much. I tried to stay neutral, but even as few as five minutes into the game, I couldn't do it anymore. Each and every sack of Michigan QB Chad Henne brought a smile to my face unconsciously, so pretty soon I couldn't hide my cheering for USC. I was especially happy that they dismantled the Wolverines so convincingly, 32-18 (it wasn't even that close a game, Michigan scored a TD in garbage time), because all the Michigan fans were whinging (a little Aussie lingo there) that they should've gotten into the national title game. Well, all that's been put to rest now!
And then, to top off a great day of college football viewing, was the Fiesta Bowl, a David-and-Goliath matchup between little Boise State and mighty Oklahoma. Holy cow, what a game! The Broncos leapt out to a 28-10 lead in the 3rd quarter, and looked like they were gonna blow out the Sooners, when most people were expecting the reverse to happen. Well, heavily favored Oklahoma came storming back, tying the game at 28 with a minute and a half to go on a touchdown and 2-point conversion (on the 3rd try, because of penalties). Then on Boise's next play, they threw an interception that was run back for a touchdown, putting Oklahoma up 35-28 with one minute to play. The clock has struck midnight for Cinderella, right? Wrong! On a 4th and 13 play from midfield with about 20 seconds left, the Broncos complete a pass, and the receiver turns it back to the middle of the field (no!! you're not to the first down line yet!!), and then flips it behind him to a teammate who runs the other way 30 yards for a touchdown!! (yes!! what a brilliant play!!) Hook & ladder!! Boise State tied the game at 35 with just 7 seconds left!! I was so excited that I was jumping up and down here in my living room, but shouting silently because my parents were asleep (very reminiscent of last year's Orange Bowl between Penn State and Florida State, haha)!! So then Oklahoma scored on the first play of overtime to go up 42-35, forcing the Broncos to match it with a TD to stay in the game and send it to another overtime. On a 4th and 2 play from the 5 yard line, they send their quarterback in motion to the left as a wideout, and snap the ball to a wide receiver, who trots to the right and tosses a TD pass to the back right corner of the end zone! Boise's just gonna kick the extra point and buckle up for the 2nd overtime, right? Wrong! They go for 2 and the win, and run - guess what - the statue of liberty play! The quarterback fakes a hard throw to the right, but is actually holding the ball low and behind him in his left hand. The Broncos' star running back Ian Johnson walks up, grabs the ball, and sprints to the left corner of the end zone for the win!! Genius!! David slew Goliath!! Boise State downed Oklahoma 43-42 in OT, in one of the greatest sporting events I've ever seen! And then to top it off, a Fox reporter was interviewing Ian Johnson after the game on the Boise State sideline, with his cheerleader girlfriend on his arm. And then he gets down on a knee and proposes on national TV! (She said yes!) That just topped it off as one of the best games I've ever seen!! :-)
Wow, and after all that, I think it's time for some sleep! I don't know how the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, or National Championship Game that are still coming up are gonna live up to the bowl games today! It was a great first day of 2007!
Posted by Jared at 01:20 AM | Comments (1)