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August 28, 2007
College Football Preseason Fun, Part 2
Only three more days till college football season starts here in Happy Valley with a home date against Florida International! Granted, FIU is quite possibly the worst team in Division I Bowl Subdivision football (with Temple and Buffalo, two of Penn State's other non-conference cupcake opponents this year, giving FIU a run for their money as the worst team in the nation), so it won't be much of a contest, but still, football's back! I get really pumped up for the upcoming Nittany Lions season when I watch videos like this one (I thought I'd try something new and occasionally embed youtube video clips to my blog entries -- click to start it):
And I absolutely can't wait for the pageantry and atmosphere of the Blue Band marching onto the field before the game to the roar of the Beaver Stadium crowd of 110,000 shouting "Ohhhh, Ohhhh, Ohhhh, LET'S GO STATE!":
And the 2007 preseason Herbie Awards are out, and Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN sure gives Penn State a lot of love, picking them to win the Big Ten, saying that we have the best student section (gotta love the white out!!), and that we're on the top 10 list of best GameDay locations (hopefully that means they'll pay us a visit at least once this year!).
To prepare for the first tailgate of the year this Saturday morning, I bought two hurricane warning flags (3'x3' red flags with a 1'x1' black square in the middle) to fly at our tailgate. It's been a pain to try to give directions to our tailgate in the past, as conversations have had to go something like this: "Okay, so do you see that green Hess flag? Alright, cool, now look further down the line, and do you see the confederate flag with the Nittany Lion logo in the center? Okay, well, we're *somewhere* in between those two." Now we can just say, "Look for the hurricane warning flags!" So I've taken up a bit of a collection and gotten those paid for. We're such nerds, but at least now we'll add to the Happy Valley tailgating atmosphere with even more flags flying, but these will be both unique and weather-themed, haha!
Then we had the problem of how to fly the flags. Our plan was to buy several sections of either PVC or metal pipe and have threaded connectors to screw the lengths together, to get a 15-20' pole. We'd been tossing around several ideas of how to secure the base of our flagpole so that it wouldn't fall over. One basic idea was to get a piece of steel, aluminum or thick plywood and drill a hole in it to use as a plate for a car wheel to drive onto (so the car can serve as the anchor weight), and drill a hole in the plate, sink in a flat cap into which we could screw the bottom length of pipe. The alternative plan was to get a square piece of half-inch plywood, set a tire on it, bolt the tire to the plywood base, and pour concrete halfway up the height of the tire, setting the bottom length of pole in the concrete. That would've been quite heavy, and would've certainly had a big enough footprint that it wasn't gonna tip unless we actually had a hurricane! But after much hemming and hawing over what to do and how to accomplish it, in the end we just decided it'd be easier to spend a bit more money ($97 with S/H) and just buy a 20' telescoping pole and a drive-on aluminum plate base. It'll be relatively light (lighter than the concrete-filled tire, at least), easier to transport, it'll last for years (we can bequeath it to the grad students in the department after we all leave, along with the flags), and we know it'll work without much trouble on our part. What we don't know is if it'll get here by Friday or not. If it does, awesome, if not, then I guess that'll be one more reason the Notre Dame tailgate will be awesome the following week! We'll have to take up a collection for that too, but I'll let Walter take care of how he decides he wants to shake people down, since the pole/base went on his credit card. ;-)
Well, and now for the original reason of this post. I've gotten a few more sets of college football preseason surveys from friends (Andrew Bennett, Robert Carver, Lindsey Long), so it's time to publish them for all the world to see! If others would like to fill out a survey and have it published on my website, just go right ahead. You can either leave it as a comment, or email me separately. So in the order that I received the picks, here they are:
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Name (location): Andrew Bennett (Kearney, NE)
1. Pick a team in the preseason top 10 who will NOT be in the top 10 when the regular season ends.
I believe I shall have to agree with the previous answer [Robert Long's in my last post] concerning the Florida Gators for the aforementioned reasons. Ohio State could be another over-hyped team. At the very least, you can't really count on any sports team from Ohio, certainly not to win a national championship.
2. Pick a team not in the preseason top 10 who WILL finish in the top 10 at the end of the regular season.
I will go with Penn State, but also watch out for Nebraska (Note the Nebraska 'Huskers, not the Nebraska Cornhuskers. 'Twas changed many a year ago by some marketing people. Why? I don't know why, but it is of courseglorious.) In particular, watch for new quarterback Sam Keller, who has something a very high pass completion rate. He is known for being somewhat "wild", but he gets the job done nevertheless.
3. Predict the regular season record of your favorite team.
Nebraska: 10-3 (I'm keeping my eye on several other teams, but Nebraska is still my favorite).
4. Predict the order of finish (top four teams) in your favorite conference -- if you pick SEC, Big 12 or ACC, pick the top 2 in each division.
Big 12 North: 1. Nebraska, 2. Missouri
Big 12 South: 1. Texas, 2. Oklahoma
5. Predict the biggest upset in your conference (must be a conference game).
Nebraska over Texas in overtime for the Big 12 Championship (I hope conference championship games count).
6a. How many undefeated teams will there be at season's end (NOT including bowl games)?
None
6b. Which teams will be going undefeated?
None
7a. Predict the BCS teams -- in other words, pick the following ten teams: ACC champ, Big East champ, Big Ten champ, Big 12 champ, Pac-10 champ, SEC champ, and then the four next best teams. Remember, only two teams from the same conference can be in the BCS.
ACC: Virginia Tech, Big East: West Virginia, Big Ten: Michigan, Big 12: Nebraska, PAC-10: USC, SEC: LSU, At large: Hawaii, Wisconsin, Texas, Florida
And here are my BCS bowl matchup predictions, too:
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech vs Florida
Sugar Bowl: West Virginia vs Wisconsin
Fiesta Bowl: Nebraska vs Hawai'i
Rose Bowl: Michigan vs Texas
7b. Out of those ten teams, predict the BCS Championship game and the national champion.
LSU over USC
8. If you could attend only one regular season college football game this year, which one would it be?
Well, any Nebraska game of course to or about any game at the "Big House" (a.k.a. the Carrier Dome - perhaps next year, I'm applying to grad school at Syracuse - just in time for their home and home against Penn State).
9. Who will have more wins at season's end, JoePa or Bobby Bowden? (Bowden currently leads Paterno 366 to 363.)
I'm going to go with JoePa, mostly because I'm biased toward former English majors :). Seriously, though, I think Penn State is more likely to win games this year than Florida State.
10. Suggest a name for this year's Penn State Dirty-Dawg group (yep, shameless promotion).
The Beaver Cleanup Crew seems popular, so I will not be contrary.
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Name (location): Robert Carver (San Francisco, CA)
1. Pick a team in the preseason top 10 who will NOT be in the top 10 when the regular season ends.
Gonna go with a climatology forecast here, Va Tech.
2. Pick a team not in the preseason top 10 who WILL finish in the top 10 at the end of the regular season.
Cal. The Big Game is one of the last in the season, so they'll get an
extra bounce when they pound Stanford (geez, a blind man could see that
coming) since nobody else will be playing. I'm not sold on USC.
3. Predict the regular season record of your favorite team.
OU will go 11-1, with a loss to UT. (I feel so dirty saying that, but
this series has a periodicity to it that is currently not in OU's favor.)
4. Predict the order of finish (top four teams) in your favorite conference -- if you pick SEC, Big 12 or ACC, pick the top 2 in each division.
Big 12 South: OU-TX fight it out, with TX probably emerging on top. The
rest need not apply.
Big 12 North: Awash in a sea of mediocrity, I nod to the Huskers and
then Mizzou
5. Predict the biggest upset in your conference (must be a conference game).
Baylor over TX Tech. Just a gut feeling.
6a. How many undefeated teams will there be at season's end (NOT including bowl games)?
I'm gonna pull a Wilbon and pick the field here. Nada. Nobody's
that good...
6b. Which teams will be going undefeated?
None
7a. Predict the BCS teams -- in other words, pick the following ten teams: ACC champ, Big East champ, Big Ten champ, Big 12 champ, Pac-10 champ, SEC champ, and then the four next best teams. Remember, only two teams from the same conference can be in the BCS.
ACC: GA Tech, Big East: [vacant -- leave a comment with your Big lEast champ, Robert!], Big Ten: OSU, Big 12: TX, PAC-10: Cal, SEC: The Other USC - Darth Spurrier, At large: USC, Notre Dame (they probably won't deserve it), Boise State, OU (if my win/loss pans out)
Team to keep an eye on now: The Mean Green of North Texas. They do have a hell of a coach now...
7b. Out of those ten teams, predict the BCS Championship game and the national champion.
I'll wishcast here: UT-Cal, with Cal eking out a win.
8. If you could attend only one regular season college football game this year, which one would it be?
Geez, what would it be? OU-UT of course... For somebody raised in North Texas, there is no finer rivalry.
9. Who will have more wins at season's end, JoePa or Bobby Bowden? (Bowden currently leads Paterno 366 to 363.)
Bowden, easy. I'm not a beliver in the Lions...
10. Suggest a name for this year's Penn State Dirty-Dawg group (yep, shameless promotion).
Escape from Walker.
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Name (location): Lindsey Long (Princeton, NJ)
1. Pick a team in the preseason top 10 who will NOT be in the top 10 when the regular season ends.
Florida
2. Pick a team not in the preseason top 10 who WILL finish in the top 10 at the end of the regular season.
Georgia
3. Predict the regular season record of your favorite team.
Georgia: 11-1 (lose to FL) -- Not counting the SEC championship... then 11-2 against LSU
4. Predict the order of finish (top four teams) in your favorite conference -- if you pick SEC, Big 12 or ACC, pick the top 2 in each division.
SEC East: UGA, Tennessee
SEC West: LSU, Arkansas
5. Predict the biggest upset in your conference (must be a conference game).
South Carolina over Tennessee
6a. How many undefeated teams will there be at season's end (NOT including bowl games)?
2
6b. Which teams will be going undefeated?
Texas and LSU (yes I'm going crazy and picking an SEC team to go undefeated!)
7a. Predict the BCS teams -- in other words, pick the following ten teams: ACC champ, Big East champ, Big Ten champ, Big 12 champ, Pac-10 champ, SEC champ, and then the four next best teams. Remember, only two teams from the same conference can be in the BCS.
ACC: GA Tech, Big East: Rutgers, Big Ten: Wisconsin, Big 12: Texas, PAC-10: USC, SEC: LSU, At large: Michigan, Oklahoma, VA Tech, Arkansas
7b. Out of those ten teams, predict the BCS Championship game and the national champion.
LSU and Texas -- LSU wins (SEC repeat!)
8. If you could attend only one regular season college football game this year, which one would it be?
Georgia vs Florida
9. Who will have more wins at season's end, JoePa or Bobby Bowden? (Bowden currently leads Paterno 366 to 363.)
Bowden
10. Suggest a name for this year's Penn State Dirty-Dawg group (yep, shameless promotion).
I liked the "Escape from Walker"
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As for other football codes, the Geelong Cats of the Australian Football League had their 15-game winning streak snapped by the Port Adelaide Power 106-101, on a goal by the Power with just three seconds remaining. That dramatic win puts the Power in a tie with the West Coast Eagles for the #2 seed and a chance at a bye in the playoffs, with just one game left in the regular season. The Cats fortunately still have the #1 seed all locked up. Man, playoff time for the AFL, the opening month for college football and for the NFL, the Rugby World Cup next month -- what a great time to be a football fan!
Posted by Jared at 10:52 PM | Comments (5)
August 23, 2007
College Football Preseason Fun
Another season of college football is almost upon us, and in my mind it can't come soon enough (sorry Dad, but this might be another post that makes you shake your head and say to yourself, "he's such a sports fanatic, where did I go wrong?" haha). The excitement is really starting to build here in State College for the upcoming Penn State season, there's really a lot of optimism that the Nittany Lions will be able to do quite well and challenge for the Big Ten Conference title this year. That, and the home schedule is amazing this year, as I've mentioned in other posts previously, with Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Ohio State as the headline trifecta, with Iowa and Purdue being a pretty decent secondary slate, and then of course the two creampuffs/sacrifical lambs, Florida International and SUNY-Buffalo.
So with the 2007 college football season commencing next week, Robert sent out some surveys to a few of us, and then I passed them along to a few other people. Chris Allen has already posted his answers on his blog, but I thought I'd post my answers as well as those of a couple other people who've responded so far (Jon Lee, Mike Mathison, Robert Long), whether they're partisan or unbiased (ha!). And then after the regular season is done, we can review everyone's answers to see how prescient (or not) they were! So let's dig in, shall we? First off, here's the USA Today/Coaches preseason Top 25, for reference:
1. Southern California Trojans
2. Louisiana State Tigers
3. Florida Gators
4. Texas Longhorns
5. Michigan Wolverines
6. West Virginia Mountaineers
7. Wisconsin Badgers
8. Oklahoma Sooners
9. Virginia Tech Hokies
10. Ohio State Buckeyes
11. Louisville Cardinals
12. California Golden Bears
13. Georgia Bulldogs
14. Auburn Tigers
15. Tennessee Volunteers
16. Rutgers Scarlet Knights
17. California-Los Angeles Bruins
18. Pennsylvania State Nittany Lions
19. Nebraska Cornhuskers
20. Arkansas Razorbacks
21. Florida State Seminoles
22. Texas Christian Horned Frogs
23. Boise State Broncos
24. Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors
25. Texas A&M Aggies
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Name (location): Jared Lee (State College, PA)
1. Pick a team in the preseason top 10 who will NOT be in the top 10 when the regular season ends.
The Ohio $tate University. They'll still be good, but won't be in the top 10 after losing to Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan, all late in the year.
2. Pick a team not in the preseason top 10 who WILL finish in the top 10 at the end of the regular season.
The Pennsylvania State University
3. Predict the regular season record of your favorite team.
Penn State: 11-1 (only loss: at Michigan)
4. Predict the order of finish (top four teams) in your favorite conference -- if you pick SEC, Big 12 or ACC, pick the top 2 in each division.
Big Ten: 1. Penn State (11-1); 2. Wisconsin (11-1); 3. Michigan (10-2); 4. Ohio State (9-3)
5. Predict the biggest upset in your conference (must be a conference game).
Big Ten: Illinois def. Michigan
6a. How many undefeated teams will there be at season's end (NOT including bowl games)?
Two
6b. Which teams will be going undefeated?
Louisiana State, Hawai'i
7a. Predict the BCS teams -- in other words, pick the following ten teams: ACC champ, Big East champ, Big Ten champ, Big 12 champ, Pac-10 champ, SEC champ, and then the four next best teams. Remember, only two teams from the same conference can be in the BCS.
ACC: Virginia Tech; Big East: West Virginia; Big Ten: Penn State; Big 12: Oklahoma; Pac-10: Southern California; SEC: Louisiana State; At-large: Wisconsin, Texas, Florida, Hawai'i
And for the heck of it, here are my BCS bowl matchup predictions, too:
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech vs Florida
Sugar Bowl: West Virginia vs Wisconsin
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs Hawai'i
Rose Bowl: Penn State vs Texas
7b. Out of those ten teams, predict the BCS Championship game and the national champion.
Louisiana State def. Southern California. Nittany Lion fans are once again incensed that their 1-loss team got passed over for another 1-loss glamour team from a big media market (USC) and have yet another thing to gripe about incessantly for the next few decades.
8. If you could attend only one regular season college football game this year, which one would it be?
Ohio State at Penn State (and I have a ticket!). Last time OSU came to town, back in 2005, Penn State won it 17-10 in perhaps the most exciting/intense/electric sporting event I've ever personally attended (there are a couple Gustavus MIAC/NCAA Div. III playoff basketball games that honestly challenge or might top it that were absolutely top-notch for electric atmosphere and quality of play (2003 MIAC semifinal vs Bethel comes to mind right away, 68-67 GAC on two free throws with 0.4 seconds left)). And hopefully with this year's OSU game Frame won't try to pick fights in the stadium like he did last time, haha.
9. Who will have more wins at season's end, JoePa or Bobby Bowden? (Bowden currently leads Paterno 366 to 363.)
Joe Paterno!
10. Suggest a name for this year's Penn State Dirty-Dawg group (yep, shameless promotion).
Beaver Stadium Cleaning Crew
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Name (location): Jon Lee (Spokane, WA)
1. Pick a team in the preseason top 10 who will NOT be in the top 10 when the regular season ends.
Wisconsin
2. Pick a team not in the preseason top 10 who WILL finish in the top 10 at the end of the regular season.
California
3. Predict the regular season record of your favorite team.
USC: 11-1
4. Predict the order of finish (top four teams) in your favorite conference -- if you pick SEC, Big 12 or ACC, pick the top 2 in each division.
Pac-10: 1. USC; 2. Cal; 3. Oregon; 4. UCLA
5. Predict the biggest upset in your conference (must be a conference game).
Pac-10: USC at Oregon, Oregon wins
6a. How many undefeated teams will there be at season's end (NOT including bowl games)?
0
6b. Which teams will be going undefeated?
N/A
7a. Predict the BCS teams -- in other words, pick the following ten teams: ACC champ, Big East champ, Big Ten champ, Big 12 champ, Pac-10 champ, SEC champ, and then the four next best teams. Remember, only two teams from the same conference can be in the BCS.
ACC: Virginia Tech; Big East: Rutgers; Big Ten: Michigan; Big 12: Nebraska; Pac-10: USC; SEC: Florida; At-large: Cal, West Virginia, Penn State, Texas
7b. Out of those ten teams, predict the BCS Championship game and the national champion.
USC vs Michigan; USC 42-27 Michigan
8. If you could attend only one regular season college football game this year, which one would it be?
Ohio State at Michigan
9. Who will have more wins at season's end, JoePa or Bobby Bowden? (Bowden currently leads Paterno 366 to 363.)
JoePa
10. Suggest a name for this year's Penn State Dirty-Dawg group (yep, shameless promotion).
USC for National Champs Group
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Name (location): Mike Mathison (Green Bay, WI)
1. Pick a team in the preseason top 10 who will NOT be in the top 10 when the regular season ends.
West Virginia
2. Pick a team not in the preseason top 10 who WILL finish in the top 10 at the end of the regular season.
Notre Dame
3. Predict the regular season record of your favorite team.
Wisconsin: 12-1
4. Predict the order of finish (top four teams) in your favorite conference -- if you pick SEC, Big 12 or ACC, pick the top 2 in each division.
Big 10: 1. Wisconsin; 2. Ohio State; 3. Michigan; 4. Penn State
5. Predict the biggest upset in your conference (must be a conference game).
Big 10: Northwestern over Ohio State
6a. How many undefeated teams will there be at season's end (NOT including bowl games)?
2
6b. Which teams will be going undefeated?
USC, Virginia Tech
7a. Predict the BCS teams -- in other words, pick the following ten teams: ACC champ, Big East champ, Big Ten champ, Big 12 champ, Pac-10 champ, SEC champ, and then the four next best teams. Remember, only two teams from the same conference can be in the BCS.
ACC: Virginia Tech; Big East: Louisville; Big Ten: Wisconsin; Big 12: Texas; Pac-10: USC; SEC: Florida; At-large: Ohio State, Rutgers, UCLA, Georgia
7b. Out of those ten teams, predict the BCS Championship game and the national champion.
Wisconsin def. LSU
8. If you could attend only one regular season college football game this year, which one would it be?
Wisconsin at Minnesota
9. Who will have more wins at season's end, JoePa or Bobby Bowden? (Bowden currently leads Paterno 366 to 363.)
Joe-Pa
10. Suggest a name for this year's Penn State Dirty-Dawg group (yep, shameless promotion).
Michael Vick's Doghouse
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Name (location): Robert Long (Princeton, NJ)
1. Pick a team in the preseason top 10 who will NOT be in the top 10 when the regular season ends.
Starting with a bold prediction, I'm going with Florida -- and no, Lindsey had NO influence on this pick. While the Gators have a bounty of talented newcomers and Tim Tebow will actually throw the ball this year, the Gators lost most of their defense to the NFL/graduation. Defense is king in the SEC and I don't see Florida's inexperienced defense making critical stops late in games, especially since they will get everyone's best shot this year. Florida loses three conference games (Tennessee, @ LSU and @ South Carolina) and finishes out of the top ten.
2. Pick a team not in the preseason top 10 who WILL finish in the top 10 at the end of the regular season.
One of the two undefeated teams this year will be the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. An easy schedule (home games against Boise State and Washington) with only one possible road test (Nevada) should allow Hawaii to put up video game type offensive numbers all season. Their ludicrously weak schedule will keep them out of the 2008 Fiesta Bowl, but their undefeated record will assure them of a top-10 finish.
3. Predict the regular season record of your favorite team.
Texas Longhorns: 10-2
Arkansas St. -- W
TCU -- W (*upset alert*)
@ UCF -- W
Rice -- W
Kansas St. -- W
Oklahoma -- W (thank goodness your QB stinks, Carver)
@ Iowa St. -- W
@ Baylor -- W
Nebraska -- W (nervous about this)
@ OK State -- L
TX Tech -- W
@ TX A&M -- L
4. Predict the order of finish (top four teams) in your favorite conference -- if you pick SEC, Big 12 or ACC, pick the top 2 in each division.
Big 12 North -- blech: 1. Missouri; 2. Nebraska (because Nebraska loses at Missouri)
Big 12 South -- 1. Texas; 2. Oklahoma (the way it should be)
5. Predict the biggest upset in your conference (must be a conference game).
Big 12: I guess it has to be Texas losing @ Oklahoma State
6a. How many undefeated teams will there be at season's end (NOT including bowl games)?
2
6b. Which teams will be going undefeated?
LSU, Hawaii
7a. Predict the BCS teams -- in other words, pick the following ten teams: ACC champ, Big East champ, Big Ten champ, Big 12 champ, Pac-10 champ, SEC champ, and then the four next best teams. Remember, only two teams from the same conference can be in the BCS.
ACC: GA Tech; Big East: who cares (er, WVU); Big Ten: Michigan; Big 12: Texas; Pac-10: USC; SEC: LSU; At-large: Oklahoma, Tennessee, UCLA, Penn State
7b. Out of those ten teams, predict the BCS Championship game and the national champion.
LSU beats USC to continue the SEC's run of football/baseketball titles.
8. If you could attend only one regular season college football game this year, which one would it be?
Texas vs Oklahoma, which is always held during the Texas State Fair. The stadium is divided 50/50 and you can see the burnt orange/crimson divide from the blimp. Throw in the bands, the mascots, and the cheerleaders -- this is my must-see.
9. Who will have more wins at season's end, JoePa or Bobby Bowden? (Bowden currently leads Paterno 366 to 363.)
Uhh, push? I'll say Bobby Bowden by one (PSU gets 10 wins, FSU gets 8).
10. Suggest a name for this year's Penn State Dirty-Dawg group (yep, shameless promotion).
Beaver Stadium Cleanup Crew
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I'll make a new post with other people's survey answers as they come in. Or you can post them as a comment! C'mon, join in the fun!
Posted by Jared at 12:49 AM | Comments (1)
August 20, 2007
Christian Grad Leaders Retreat 2007
I'm back from my quick trip to Texas, my first-ever trip to the Lone Star State. They definitely make everything bigger in Texas, even the airports. To wit, DFW (Dallas-Ft Worth Int'l) is so big that it has five terminals, with a six-lane tollway going through the middle of the airport. It's huge. I wonder how many other major airports have a big freeway/tollway bisecting them...
Anyway, the Grad Resources/University Christian Grads campus leadership retreat was great. Like I mentioned in my last post, it was at Lazy J Ranch in rural Celina, about 30-40 miles north of Dallas. The ranch is owned by an awesome guy named Jim who lets all sorts of Christian groups use it on weekends for retreats and conferences and such. 
It has a couple bunk houses for people to sleep in, an outdoor pool, tennis/basketball court, and even a big putting green, complete with a couple sandtrap bunkers in the surrounding rough. And like any good ranch there's of course a ton of pasture, along with several horses and longhorns. It was just a great place to hang out.
There were a lot of good talks and breakout sessions during the retreat, the main aim of which was to help us leaders brainstorm and figure out ways to help foster true community in our respective groups, and what the barriers to that are. I also had lots of cool discussions with some of the other people at the retreat, and got to know several of them. 
There were about 30 people at the conferences, leaders from Christian grad groups on campuses across the country, including Michigan, Southern California, Arizona State, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Mississippi State and Cincinnati, just to name a few. Nick (the head guy at Grad Resources) said that just four years ago there were a mere four grad ministries around the country -- at Penn State, Michigan, Texas and Washington -- but that now there are fifty! 
So this is really a growing area of ministry, and as someone coming from a more established group, I was more than happy to help give some ideas to some of the people who are just starting up Christian grad groups at their campuses. One thing this retreat really reminded me of is how lucky we are at Penn State to have a ministry as well-established and large as ours is. Even though we tend not to think that PSCG is that big, compared to most other groups around the country it's quite large.
Most of the retreat attendees stayed overnight at the ranch, but because there wasn't quite enough room for everyone, a few of us drove 20-30 minutes back toward Dallas to stay at the house of one of Invesco's executives. He and his wife are Christians and super-nice people, and are friends with Nick of Grad Resources, and every year for this conference give some people a place to stay. Their house was amazing too, probably the biggest house I've ever stayed in. For example, Ashley, Eric and I all stayed in their kids' bedrooms, and each had its own bathroom (Adam & Angela stayed in the guestroom, and that had its own bathroom too)! I kinda wanted to take a couple pictures inside their house, but didn't really feel like that would be tactful, so instead I took a couple pics of the outside.
I almost wound up staying down in Dallas last night too. My flight was scheduled to leave for Harrisburg at 5:25, but then it got delayed until 6:00 and then 6:25 because of rain in Pennsylvania. The rain and storms also lowered the plane's weight limit (turbulence concerns? or maybe braking ability on a wet runway?), so when they asked for three volunteers who would be willing to give up their seats if needed and be put on a different flight the next day (American Airlines would pay for hotel, dinner, and a $250 voucher toward another future AA flight, of course), I volunteered. I figured that since I didn't have class and wasn't meeting anybody or anything like that, I could afford the time to stay down there another night and get a free flight. :-) They also called up all passengers with children, and apparently there were enough kids on board that they didn't need to remove people to make it under the weight restriction. Comforting, huh? I was the last one on board though. So we didn't get into Harrisburg until about quarter after 10, and it wasn't exactly a pleasant drive back to State College, with light rain/drizzle most of the way. The stretches of freeway were fine because of the reflectors, but on the two-way stretches of 322, it was almost hopeless, I could barely see the lines. And they're freshly painted too, but not with reflective paint like most other states would use, so when the road is wet at night, you can't see the lines. I was exhausted when I rolled back into SC around 12:30 or so. I definitely didn't set my alarm clock, so slept in till a bit after 10am. And I was still tired all day today!
Well, one of these days I'll have to update my national county map with all the places I've visited this year and post that here, especially now that I can color in my first counties in Texas. I'll also be posting some college football preseason surveys coming up soon, probably this week sometime. College football is just around the corner, after all!
Posted by Jared at 11:47 PM | Comments (1)
August 18, 2007
Hot Time in the Big D
[On location in Frisco, Texas]
My first excursion to Texas has been a very pleasant one so far. I've had a great time thus far at the Grad Resources national Christian grad student leaders conference. It's been very valuable, and this year's theme has been about building community in our Christian grad groups around the country. The conference is at someone's ranch about 30 miles north of Dallas, in rural Celina (I'd post a picture or two, but I seem to have forgotten my camera USB cable back at Penn State, bummer, guess all y'all will just have to wait till at least Monday night). Most everyone is also staying up at the ranch, but five of us are staying at someone else's house down in Frisco (about 15 miles north of Dallas and an actual suburb) -- I'll tell more about that story next time too.
I'm also very grateful that we've had the cloudy remnants of Tropical Storm Erin lingering around here too, because it's really kept the temp down: it's only been in the low 90s, when it'd normally be around 105 here this time of year. I'm definitely not conditioned to be playing basketball in even that heat though, especially not after some tennis. :-)
But anyway, I'm quite tired and must get some sleep. Tomorrow will be another busy day, with conference wrap-up around 11 or noon or so, and then everyone migrates to the airport. My flight to Harrisburg doesn't leave until 5:30 or so, so it'll be gettin on close to midnight before I roll back into State College probably. I'm really considering not using an alarm clock on Monday morning, considering how tired I know I'll be from this whirlwind trip. Hmmmm, that idea's sounding better by the minute!
Posted by Jared at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2007
The Rebates in the Mail
No, there's no punctuation error in my subject title. About the most exciting thing I've done in the last few days is get some mail-in rebates sent in that had been languishing. Late last week right before I came back to Pennsylvania I sent in my $199 mail-in rebate for my iPod. I finally set up my new Canon photo/document printer on Tuesday (after realizing I didn't have a USB cable on Monday, I had to make two trips to Best Buy on Tuesday to get one that was long enough -- a 16' cable for $47 -[wince]- ...), and it seems to work well, though I haven't printed out a photo just yet. But with that I sent in my $100 mail-in rebate for the printer yesterday. And then yesterday I finally got around to installing 2x1GB of RAM into my laptop, replacing the 2x512MB that originally came with it (I plan on selling the 2x512MB sticks on eBay, next week maybe?), meaning that today I could send in my two $20 mail-in rebates to Crucial for the RAM. So hopefully in about 6-8 weeks I'll suddenly be $339 richer. That'll help remove some of the pain from the credit card bill that's due at the end of this month... And then I'm hoping to get my act together and put my old 15" G4 PowerBook up for sale on eBay next week. I'll be happy if I can get close to $700 for it, but I think I can get a bit more than that. That'll be very friendly to my bank account as well.
Well, I really didn't have much more to say in this post, and that's probably good, because I've gotta quick pack a few things in preparation for my weekend trip to Dallas for the Grad Resources leaders conference, and then get a long nap in. I'm excited about the conference, but not very thrilled with needing to hit the road from State College at 4:30am so I can make it to Harrisburg in time for my 7:30am flight (I like to get to airports early enough that I don't have to be frantic). And with the remnants of Tropical Depression Erin dumping heaps of rain in Texas through the weekend, hopefully that won't disrupt my flights too much. At least I'll be outta there well before Hurricane [Howard] Dean gets into the western Gulf of Mexico. Yeeaaaaaargh!
Posted by Jared at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2007
Softball Disappointments
I am back in State College, safe and sound. My drive on Saturday was much less eventful than Friday's, not to mention much shorter. I got back to State College at 3, but didn't get to my apartment until 4 because I made a stop at Wegmans -- where shopping is a pleasure -- on my way into town since I knew I was out of food. I even had a bit of time to relax before worship team rehearsal started at 6, hooray. In the evening Mario and Jacob came over and played Risk with Petters and me, though Jacob made quick work of us. In this case it might've been a good idea to start a land war in Asia, since once we let Jacob gain control of that whole continent, the writing was most definitely on the wall.
My streak of futility against Ben on the tennis courts continued on Sunday, but this time I didn't even win a game in two sets. Kerrie came out to play too, and then I lost to her 7-5. I fell behind 3-1, battled back to take a 5-4 lead, but then just couldn't seal the deal on a very warm, sunny afternoon. Oh well. I'll get another chance to play in the heat this coming weekend down near Dallas, Texas, against Nick from Grad Resources at the grad student Christian leadership conference I'm going to. That should be... exhausting. Especially when the temp will be in the upper 90s with dewpoints around 70. Yuck. Maybe it'll build my character though. ;-)
Looks like I've got another time commitment on my hands. I've accepted an invitation to join the worship committee at State College Evangelical Free Church. A couple people are stepping down, so Ben & I will be the new blood on the committee. We're already thinking of ways to change the direction a little bit, and hopefully do some things a bit differently. We'll see how all that goes, but I figure since I'm playing piano on the worship team so frequently, I may as well have a bit more input on things.
The season finale for church softball was tonight, and we lost to St Paul's Lutheran 15-6. I managed to scratch out two singles in two plate appearances, an RBI infield hit and a solid knock to left, and when the first half team came out in the middle of the 4th we were tied at 6. So the E Free softball team didn't have a good year at all, going 1-14 plus another win by forfeit. When we started out the year 1-0 we all thought maybe we could finish close to .500 this year, but oh well. So my church league stats this year finished at 10-for-18 with 2 runs scored and 3 RBI, if I've tallied correctly.
I actually hadn't played in a game in the church league since early July, because of conferences, vacations and meteo IM league. Our IM team actually made the playoffs, and last week when I was gone won two wild playoff games, including one by a 20-19 score against a team that beat us in the regular season. Our playoff semifinal and final were supposed to be tonight, but this morning we got a call from the IM staff letting us know that our games were postponed until tomorrow night, because Thursday's games were rained out and moved to today. So while that allowed me to play in one more church game, it means we're likely going to have to forfeit the IM game. It just looks like we're gonna have too many players either on vacation or unable to play because of other schedule conflicts. If only they'd let us know on Friday, maybe we could've worked something out... But we may still be able to play, I think there's a decent chance Nat would stick around for the championship game if we won the semifinal, especially if we'd have to forfeit otherwise. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
In the exciting world of Australian Rules Football, the Geelong Cats won their 14th consecutive game this weekend, defeating the Adelaide Crows by a tally of 103-70, running their record to an impressive 16-3-0, with just three games remaining in the regular season. The win also clinched the minor premiership (regular season title, #1 playoff seed) for the Cats. Their scoring percentage has risen to an astounding 160%. To put their scoring and play in terms of American football, they're basically outscoring everyone by a margin equivalent to 38-24, on average, with the occasional 13-9 muddy-field defensive slugfest or 55-13 blowout thrown in. Their next game is against the (North Melbourne) Kangaroos, and the Kangas, mired in a 4-way tie for 2nd place currently, are actually the last team to beat the Cats, way back in April. The Cats are certainly going to be the prohibitive favourite to win the Grand Final this year, with the way they're playing. I just looked up when their last flag was, and they haven't won the premiership since 1963. That's quite a drought, hopefully they can end it this year!
Posted by Jared at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2007
Holy Toledo, I Hate Chicago Traffic
[On location in Toledo, Ohio]
Ugh, I'm rather exhausted. I got up at 5.15am CT this morning, with the goal of leaving by 6am. Of course, as I mentioned to one of my friends last night, that meant that I wouldn't actually leave until 6.30 or 7am. And sure enough, I didn't hit the road from Cumberland until 6.50am. I was pretty tired for the first four hours before I stopped in Madison at a Valvoline place to get an oil change (I was at nearly 3000 miles at that point, with about 700 miles until PA). I sure got a wake-up call when the guy was doing a standard fluid check in my engine, and all of a sudden the coolant from my radiator shot up in the air like a geyser for a few seconds. 
I've certainly never seen that before! It turns out that my radiator fluid was boiling, even though the temp sensor didn't indicate anything abnormal, so it was very good that I happened to pull over then (or you could say it was lucky, my odometer ended in 777 when I pulled over, haha). So I had them completely flush out my radiator/coolant system, which hadn't been done at least in the almost 55,000 miles that I've owned the car, so it was definitely time. If that had blown while I was on the freeway, that really wouldn't have been good.
So while the coolant geyser set me back another 15-30 minutes, I thought I was still in decent shape for making it through Chicago before rush hour got really bad. Wrong. Oh why, oh why did I take Interstate 90 through Chicago, instead of dropping down Interstate 39 from Rockford to La Salle, then taking Interstate 80 over from there, a route that's 50 miles longer yet avoids all but the southern suburbs of Chicago? Sigh. The Kennedy (I-90) was actually a fine choice, or so it seemed, until I got to the Eisenhower (I-294) interchange at around 2.20pm. That's when the traffic suddenly slowed to a crawl. How slow was the going? Well, on the outbound "express" lane south of downtown on the still-under-construction Dan Ryan (I-90/I-94), for example, I was going about 5 mph most of the time. Ugh. It was almost 5pm before I got to the Illinois/Indiana state line on the Bishop Ford (I-80/I-94). And then there was more road construction right at the start of the Indiana Toll Road (I-80/I-90)!
So basically, while I thought I was leaving early enough to give me an outside chance at being able to do the entire drive to State College in one day if I wasn't feeling too tired through Ohio, everything conspired against that potential. When I got here to Toledo finally at 10pm ET (14 hrs after I started), I figured I'd call it a night and relax a bit. About 625 miles down, only 325 miles or so (~6 hrs) to go! Oh, and by the way, my car turned 220,000 miles on the Indiana Toll Road this evening, and it's still going strong!
Posted by Jared at 11:50 PM | Comments (2)
August 09, 2007
Driving All Over
[On location from Cumberland, Wisconsin]
I'm finally home again, resting up for a few hours before starting the drive back to Pennsylvania tomorrow. I've sure been in my car a lot this vacation...
On Friday evening I drove down to Eau Claire for Matt & Sarah's goodbye party. I played piano at their wedding back in 2003, and basically hadn't seen them since, so it was great to hang out with them again. It'll probably be awhile before I see them again too, because they're moving to Las Vegas to be middle school teachers. 
I also got to see a few other Cumberland folks down there too that I hadn't seen in awhile, including Pete, Jesse, Arnes, Brianne & Dave. We went to some different bars on Water Street right by campus, and by the end of the evening I decided it'd be best to play taxi driver to make sure everyone else got home and stay overnight at Pete's, rather than drive back up to Cumberland. It was a fun evening.
After getting home to Cumberland on Saturday, a few hours later I drove down to Minneapolis to hang out with Ben, Vicki & Kate for the evening again at Ben's apartment, mostly chatting and playing spades. 'Twas fun times.
On Sunday I went to church with Aaron & Eve and their kids Gabriella & Mathias. It wasn't a typical church service, but rather a baptism service outdoors at a park on the shores of some country lake between Winsted and St Bonifacious, with a yummy potluck afterward. With being at the lake and having a potluck, it really felt like a Sunday in Minnesota! :-) 
After lunch Aaron & Eve took me and Naomi (a girl from their church) for a spin out on Lake Minnetonka on their boat, Fortunate Lee (apparently Niggard Lee was their second choice, haha). It was cloudy and only in the mid-70s, but that kept a lot of people off the lake, making it nicer for us. Aaron was the only one who didn't go tubing (though he did have an excuse with a badly sprained or possibly broken big toe). 
Though he gave Eve and the kids a "nice" ride on the tube, his goal when either Naomi or I was riding was to get us to fall off the tube. The first time I rode, Aaron failed to knock me off, and was wondering what more he could've done (safely) to try to dump me. Naomi also held on for a long time before finally falling off. 
After Eve took Ella and Mathias for another ride, I decided to go out for one more spin. This ride was even wilder and bumpier, with Aaron swinging me into and out of the wake several times. After nearly falling off a few times but still clinging, my arms just got too tired after about ten minutes of hanging on, so I fell off, much to Aaron's relief. 
Well, and I also realized that Aaron wasn't gonna stop until he knocked me off, so part of me just decided to get it over with, haha. At least the water was really warm! After we finished tubing we boated over to Lord Fletcher's on the Lake for dinner (a couple Twin Cities news anchors were just a couple tables over from us) before going back to Aaron & Eve's place in Minnetrista. It was so nice to be out on the lake! I've missed water while living in Pennsylvania.
On Monday I basically just hung out and relaxed at their place, and then in the evening Aaron & I went over to Waconia to see "The Bourne Ultimatum." I was a big fan of the first two movies in the trilogy, "The Bourne Identity" and "The Bourne Supremacy," so I was really looking forward to this one. I absolutely loved the film! I'd honestly give it 5 out of 5 stars! There were action scenes that kept you tense and on the edge of your seat for 20-30 minutes before there was finally a short break where you could relax. And I really liked the handheld feel of the unsteady camera angles throughout the movie, it gave it a bit of an edge and helped make you feel like you were right there. Since the movie started just by dropping you right into an action/chase scene, we were a bit curious how that fit in with the previous movie, so when we got home we popped in the DVD of "The Bourne Supremacy" and watched the last 20 minutes -- and suddenly everything made sense. It's really cool how they entwined the movies together. The whole Bourne series was quite well-done, and when the third movie comes out on DVD I'm definitely planning on having a Bourne marathon!
I drove back up to Cumberland on Tuesday morning, spending the rest of the day at home (for a change, haha), though I did go with my parents over to Nathan & Laura's for Bible study in the evening. I finally got around to taking a picture of our lake though, and how low it is. Compare it to the picture of the lake that's (currently) up at the top of the main page of my blog, and it'll be easy to see how much lower than normal it is. We have the dock pushed out a lot further than normal, and it's still dozens of feet away from any water at all. We just haven't gotten much precipitation here in the last year at all.
Yesterday afternoon I drove back down to the Cities *again*, this time to visit with my friend Scott and his wife Katie. We went down to Saint Paul to go to the Science Museum of Minnesota's exhibit on Pompeii, which had all sorts of cool artifacts (and casts of bodies) unearthed from the ash of the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius in Pompeii. At the Science Museum we also saw the Omnitheater film "Secrets of Ancient Greece," which looked primarily at the eruption of the volcano Thira which extinguished the thriving civilization on the island of Santorini over 3,000 years ago, and also a bit at the Golden Age on Athens around 500 B.C. It was all really cool and educational and everything. After all that we finally ate around 10pm at an Irish pub on 7th Street downtown before heading back to their place in Shoreview. It was good to spend time with both of them again.
I drove back up to Cumberland again, and was thinking of starting the drive back to PA today, but eschewed that for a bit more rest today. I'll start out *early* tomorrow, or at least that's the goal. If I feel like a marathon (driving) man and don't feel tired as I'm rolling through Ohio, I might just try to finish off the whole drive in one fell swoop. But more than likely I'll break it up into two days and get to State College on Saturday. In either case I have to make sure I'm at the church by 6pm for worship band rehearsal, since I'm playing piano in church this Sunday morning. Maybe I'll need a vacation from my vacation when I get back to Penn State...
Posted by Jared at 04:46 PM | Comments (0)
August 03, 2007
Third MLB Game in One Week
[On location in Cumberland, Wisconsin]
It's been a busy time at home this week so far. On Monday morning I took my car over to Rice Lake to get some new front rotors and brake pads installed, because it had been shaking a bit too much for my liking when I braked at freeway speeds. But now it doesn't seem to shake at all. I'd say it was a reasonable and worthwhile $167, and hopefully will be the last time I ever have to fix the brakes on my car. My odometer's quickly closing in on 220,000 miles, after all! It should turn that early on my drive back to Penn State next week. I love my 1991 Mazda 626 GT!
On Tuesday afternoon I drove down to the Twin Cities to go to a Twins game with some old friends from Gustavus. It was fun getting to hang out some with Ben, Zach, Jolene, Brendan, Kate & Vicki, all while enjoying some Twins baseball! 
We Twins fans were all thrilled when we got to the ballpark to see that Torii Hunter was still with the team and that he wasn't dealt before the trade deadline, and I think he was happy to find himself still in a Minnesota uniform, because he hit a solo homer to left to lead off the 2nd inning, and then hit another ball deep to center field in his next at-bat, o
nly to have the Royals center fielder make a stellar catch, leaping above and reaching over the wall to rob Torii of a 2nd home run on the day. It was a pretty quick game, with Silva turning in a solid performance for the Twins as they went on to a 5-3 victory. I've now been to four MLB stadiums this year alone, and this was the third major league game in three cities I attended in a one-week span.
I stayed overnight at Ben, Zach & Jolene's apartment in southwest Minneapolis, chatting with them for awhile, and then after they all went to work in the morning I drove up to Roseville (crossing the 35W bridge along the way) to meet my old friend Dan Williams for lunch. It was fun to catch up with him and hear what he's been up to. Then in the evening, after coming back to Cumberland, I went with my parents down to Taylors Falls for Bible study with the folks at Word of Life Church. That's where I found out about the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in downtown Minneapolis.
Pretty much all day yesterday I was glued to the coverage of the recovery effort, flipping between CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and local channels KARE, KSTP and WCCO. This whole story has been gripping to me, mostly because I'm so familiar with Minneapolis-St Paul, and because I've traversed that bridge I don't know how many times. The official death toll currently stands at 5, with I believe 8 people missing who are presumed dead, according to authorities. While it's still tragic that anybody died in this disaster, I think it's miraculous that the death toll won't presumably be much higher than about a dozen, once the divers are able to recover the bodies from all the cars that are still pinned underwater. When I first saw the pictures of the bridge collapse, I assumed there'd be at least 30-50 fatalities. The stories of heroism and ordinary people dropping everything to do what they could to help out have been encouraging though.
Last night I took a break from the coverage of the 35W bridge collapse coverage to go over to Nathan & Laura's place in Rice Lake to play Cities & Knights of Catan with them, Mark & Wayne. Even though I never seem to manage to do well, it's still a fun game. I'm probably even gonna buy the game for myself too, perhaps before I get back to PSU. And maybe the Sauron expansion to the Lord of the Rings board game I have, too. Mmmm, new board games.... Stay tuned! Time for me to go have some more fun!
Posted by Jared at 04:43 PM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2007
35W Bridge Collapse - I'm Okay
[On location in Cumberland, Wisconsin]
I'm sure many of you have already heard of tonight's catastrophic collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm okay, though still a bit shaken because I drove over that very bridge earlier this morning (plus countless other times over the years). As of right now, 7 are confirmed dead, but that number is sure to rise, as this bridge collapsed at 6:05pm CDT with bumper-to-bumper rush hour & Twins game traffic sitting on it. There were a minimum of 50 cars that fell into the river, probably more, but they've called off the search for tonight due to darkness and too much debris in the strong currents of the Mississippi River. Now I'm extremely glad that I went with some friends to the Twins game last night, rather than tonight like had originally been talked about, because this is going to cause major problems with traffic in Minneapolis and the entire Twin Cities metro area, to say the least. It's going to be a major traffic problem in the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area for at least the next two years, as 35W is a critical transportation artery in Minneapolis, and it'll likely take a minimum of two years to replace that bridge. This really is a tremendous catastrophe for the Twin Cities. Ever since I first heard of the bridge collapse I've been glued to the radio and now the TV. I'm so glad I wasn't on the bridge at 6:05pm tonight, because I very easily could've been on that had my plans been slightly different...
[UPDATE at 12:25am CDT on 2 August 2007]: The Star Tribune is now reporting 9 fatalities, with 60 injured and a further 20 people missing.
Posted by Jared at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)