Quote of the Moment

"It's one thing if you're naturally ugly, but I hate people who let themselves get that way."

I mean, this is one heck of a quote. The best (and somewhat shocking) part is that I didn't even say it. This quote comes from a chick who we met while out with MTS and G-Man the other night. This is also a reminder that I need to meet more people at the bars. The hilarious part? The gal uttering this amazing quote was maybe a 5.5 or 6, and was clearly insane.

Anyway, just a fun teaser that I had to get down in print before I forgot about it.

-Chairman

O-ver, Ra-ted, Clap, Clap, Clap-Clap-Clap

I've decided that Christmas is overrated.

One thing that gets me is that you have the rampant commercialism that this season has become. I mean, you get all of these stories about how people just go insane on Black Friday, in an effort to get some cheap Christmas shopping done. Or when there are toy shortages. You see stories of price gouging, and realize that it's just the market at work, since you wouldn't have people raising prices exponentially, unless there were buyers. I just sit back and wonder why people insist on trying to cover up ugly holes in their souls and lives by buying things that they can't afford for people that they should have treated better throughout the year. After all, simply buying stuff isn't going to fix everything that's wrong in their lives. That's the job of alcohol. And gambling. And meaningless sex. Which is great, ordinarily. But on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? Not so hot. Because everything's closed.

On a completely different track, I think that Christmas is extremely overrated in a religious sense, as well. After all, the idea of Christmas is a celebration that is intended to celebrate the birth of Jesus. In my mind, that's not a watershed point in the Christian faith. I think that Jesus always was. There seems to be some evidence within the Bible that points in that direction. Okay. So his arrival on earth in human form is a small blip, not a big blip. I'd say that it would be like seeing a little dot on the map of the U.S. that says "Little Rock." Not the big dot that says New York City.

Where the existence of Jesus really gets interesting is a few decades later. I tend to think that Good Friday is a more important day to the Christian faith than Christmas. For those of you not familiar with the Christian narrative, the idea is that Jesus Christ, son of God, was crucified for the cumulative (past and present) sins of Man, allowing for the redemption of Man before God. Good Friday commemorates the death of Jesus. That was when at the very least, a good man, who was likely at least a prophet, and possibly even the Son of God was killed by Romans, at the request of the Jews. It is his death that I believe is more interesting to the Christian faith because it is the death of a clean soul that allows for the payment of Sin.

But where the story gets better is actually 2 or 3 days later (3 days in the Bible, 2 days how we observe it), on Easter Sunday, when Jesus' burial site is empty, when Jesus actually rises to fulfill the old prophecies as the One who redeems. I don't think that Easter gets enough buzz. And that's just strange to me. Because this is the point where the Christian faith stands alone. Until that point, the Christian faith and the Jewish faith are virtually the same. It is at that point where things really change based on your faith. It is at that point where Christianity makes it's claim that it is different, set apart from the all else, the singular path to God, through Jesus Christ. It is the idea of a man, who was also God, allowing Himself to physically die in order to save Man, and then overcoming death by shedding the burial shroud to walk amongst the living days later.

Why does Easter seem more solemn? I have no idea. I think that it's because very little is done on Good Friday. If there was a time to be solemn, Good Friday would be it. But Easter Sunday? If there was a time to party, I don't see why Christians don't choose Easter. In my mind, if I was a Christian, Christmas would simply be an excuse to party, while Easter would be a reason to party. Easter is when Christ was born in a revolutionary way. If you wanted to buy presents, why not give them on Easter to symbolize the treasures in heaven that will await us?

So, when I become dictator, you're going to see some changes. For one, the bars and restaurants will be open on Christmas Eve. You'll have Fat Thursday immediately preceding Good Friday. And the Monday and Tuesday day after Easter will be mandatory detox days. And Christmas? We'll have that replace President's Day, since we won't have any need for GW or Honest Abe in my new theocracy.

So, here's to Easter - the new Christmas.

-Chairman

1-217-R-U-LEGIT

So Microsoft has this number that you can call to see if your software is real or a rip-off. If we were to set up a hotline to see if the Illini were legit, what would it say?

Well, first off, we have to look at the ranking that we currently have: #6 in the country. Is this for real? Well, we are undefeated so far. We have a couple nice wins - Xavier projects as an NCAA team, Wichita St. and Georgetown look to be boderline NCAA/NIT, and Rutgers and Oregon have chances to be NIT teams. Of course, we do have a nice win at North Carolina, who is currently 6-2 and right on the edge of the Top 25. There are 9 other undefeated teams in the Top 25, though only Duke, UConn, Villanova, and Florida have real cases to be ahead of us. Among the 1 loss teams, Memphis seems to be legit to be ranked ahead of us (they're the only team that's hung with Duke this year). I don't think that you should rank a 2 loss team ahead of an undefeated team that had the buzz that the Illini had coming off of last season. So, is #6 appropriate for now? I think that the ranking is legit for now.

But what does that really mean? Nothing.

The real interesting question is, "Do the Illini have a shot to challenge for the National Championship?" Interestingly enough, I'm buying more and more into how this squad plays. Last year, I made a posting about the Illini team, and I was convinced that we were the best team in the country. This year, I'm not going to make that statement. But some of things that apply to last year's team applies to this year's team.

I wrote last year: "This is a squad that reminds me of the old early 90's UNLV squad - run and gun on offense, but able to play halfcourt, but more importantly, shut down D. The UNLV squads liked the matchup zones a little more, whereas, we run something similar, but more of a doubling/switching man."

We'll use that again for this year's team. Out on the perimeter, Dee Brown is an elite defender. He's excellent on the ball with his footwork and willingness to work. Away from the ball, he's a ballhawk. Rich McBride has improved his defense immensely, though he still tends to use his hands a litlte too much. Where this year's team gets interesting is with Brian Randle. Last year, we were a little small at times, and had to rely on Deron Williams' strength and Luther Head's overall athleticism against the height of some swingmen. This year, we can match up Brian Randle at 6'7" against other team's wings. And off the bench, the play of freshman Jamar Smith has been a very pleasant surprise. He's listed at 6'3", though he seems more like 6'1", Jamar does move his feet well on D, and is willing to hit the floor. Having him on the floor hounding the guy who brings the ball up lets Dee get some rest. He's just a very heady player for a freshman, in general. When he gets stronger next year, watch out.

I think that where this team excels is with how the bigs play D. James Augustine has become an excellent defender over the years. He is rarely in foul trouble, and really does impact how the other team plays. He, Shaun Pruitt, and Marcus Arnold all rebound pretty well, and are active for big men. What I like is that Weber will have us double the high screen, and often push the ball handler back to halfcourt. This completely takes teams out of their offense, and makes the undisciplined teams crumble. The defense that we play makes teams take tough shots - contested jumpers, tough post looks over two people, etc. And teams that don't pass well generally will look awful against us.

In all honesty, on defense this year's version is superior to last year's version. We take a step back in replacing Deron with Rich, but replacing Luther with Randle is about a wash. And really, having Jamar Smith come off of the bench is a better defensive addition than when Rich came off the bench last year. But, the biggest reason is the addition of Pruitt/Arnold over Powell at the 4. While Roger was a tough player, he was often overmatched (see last year's Gonzaga's Morrison, Ohio St.'s Sylvester, and Iowa's Bruener) and asked to do too much. Jack Ingram was a nice player, but he couldn't be counted on to do as much dirty work as we've seen Pruitt and Arnold do. Our bigs still seem to double with a very high level of effectiveness. Not just up high like I mentioned earlier, but also down low. They don't allow the easy dump offs to cutters when they double. With a defense this good, we should be able to stay in any game that we play.

Whether we end up being a top 32 team or a Final Four team will be in our offense. At times, we look like we're still trying to figure out how to play with each other. We'll throw the ball away and look awkward in our motion. Some of the guys still don't look natural in the motion. But I think that the team issues will come together as the season progresses. Our bigs can run, and teams have wanted to slow it down against us. We can still run and gun if teams allow it, but I think that's been a point of emphasis against us this year.

Individually, there are some issues. Dee has looked off until the Oregon game, but picked it up there, and again at the Braggin' Rights game. He's only shooting like 37% from the floor, but he seems to be getting his outside shot back. Rich seems to be willing to take people off the dribble and take a 16' pull-up, which may loosen up the D on his outside shot. Randle has shown the ability to drive to the hoop, and has a knack for getting some garbage points off of loose balls. The problem is that it's all been inconsistent for these guys. In the big games against top teams, we'll need a more consistent effort from 2 out of 3 of these guys. I do like the contribution that Jamar Smith has made - he's like 55% from outside, and just has a good feel for the game.

The bigs are just getting it together right now. Auggie has become pretty reliable for about 14 points, and is mixing it up a little more than he has been in the past. Pruitt has looked a little tentative on offense, but Marcus Arnold is getting back to doing athletic things. Against Mizzou, he had a very nice reverse layup, a strong drive from the top of the key, and a hard dunk to finish off the game. If he's doing athletic things as a 4, then we become a very scary team.

So really, we have a nice 7 man rotation right now. When Chester Frazier gets back, he'll get some minutes spelling Dee. And Warren Carter fits in somehow (though I have to admit, after 2.5 years, I have no idea how - you can't play the guy for more than 3 minutes at a time; he gets lost on offense and shoots whenever he catches it, but makes enough to be intriguing; on D, he's always lost, but is tall and athletic enough to recover a lot of the time, and seems to be a good rebounder). I think that it's realistic to ask for 25 points and 20 rebounds from Auggie, Arnold, and Pruitt. If we get it, then we'll be looking alright.

Here's the deal. Dee's good for 15 a night. Figure that Brian, Rich, and Jamar combine for 25. We'll get 25 from the bigs, plus you'll have some random number between 0 and 10 for Warren. That puts us at 65, conservatively. No one's cracked 65 on us this year, and we've only had 3 out of 12 teams get to 60 on us. At the very least, we'll be in every ball game. We'll tend to have the advantage in experince, so you figure that Auggie and Dee will be able to make some plays at important times for us.

So what do we have trouble with? Oddly enough, I don't think that it's zone. This year, we seem to have been able to get the ball inside against the zone, and Randle has done a very nice job penetrating against other team's forwards in zone. I think that if we were to face a team that plays the style of D that we play, we'd have issues, since we're a little suspect in passing under pressure. So who comes to mind?

Duke comes to mind very quickly. If you remember our Sweet 16 loss to them 2 years ago, it was like watching two teams with the same game plan go at each other. They're good again. Watching Villanova play last year in the tourney, I think that their overall talent level on the perimeter would pose interesting problems (Rich couldn't check either Allen or Foye). UConn has a scary weapon with an unfortunate name in Rudy Gay (worst selling jerseys, anyone?) who's a 6'9" (not making that up) swingman (also not making that up) that should be the #1 pick in the NBA draft this year to go with some nice bigs in Boone. A few teams that have two inside weapons may give us trouble, as well - Boston College (Dudley and Smith) and Gonzaga (Morrison and Batista), and Indiana (Killingsworth and White). But those teams would have point guard issues against us. I think that the same goes for Michigan St. and Texas.

I really have no clue about Florida, as their top players are all sophomores and juniors who we don't know that well. And Memphis is one of those teams that looks great on paper, but seems too young (5 freshmen getting real minutes) and too flaky to win 6 tourney games in a row (though could beat anyone in the country on a given day). I don't think that any of the rest of the teams really stand out.

So for the Illini, I think that a conservative over-under on regular season losses is 4.5. Figure that we lose at Indiana, at Michigan St., at Wisconsin, and at Ohio St., and maybe at Iowa. We do have a chance to make it through with only 1 or 2 losses, actually, as we do match reasonably well against the previously mentioned teams, but we'll just leave some potential upside. We should finish right around 26-4 or 25-5, somewhere in the top 3 in the Big Ten, and have a shot at a 2 seed in the Dance if we can make it to the Big Ten tourney finals.

If we get a 2 seed, we're looking at Dayton or Detroit in the 1st 2 rounds, maybe Minneapolis in the Sweet 16/Elite 8, and then Indy for the Final Four. It's a much tougher road than last year's Indy-Chicago-St. Louis route, but if we can make it to Indy... who knows?

-Chairman

A New System

It's always interesting to me how things roll around in cycles. But speaking of rolling... one funny line to relate. I'm off with DE, and we're about to change location. I make the comment, "It's about time to roll out of here." Naturally, we look over to the left, and sure enough there's a dude on a wheelchair right next to us, who proceeds to roll out before we do. Whoops. I felt like C-Lauff putting my foot in my mouth. But it happens.

I'm currently taking care of final grades for our large, introductory, marketing course. The way we've set it up, the class average is a high B. 1/3 of the students got an A. Another 53% got B's. Only about 13% C's, and a couple D/F's. So naturally, no curve, right? If you were to curve, you'd actually curve people down a few points. But sure enough, we have a ton of bitching and moaning about grades. And all of it at the last second. So many things could have been done throughout the semester. But everything needs to be done now. Oh well. I wonder if any of the students will try to bribe me. I hope so.

Anyway, the last few weeks have been interesting. A lot more fun than that last year or so. It's nice to have a little crew to hang out and go out with. It's different than back in the day, but I think that we're putting all of our experience to good use. It's been such a relaxing, freeing feeling. Instead of worrying about saying the right things to the right people and being all worked up about the inconsequential, we're turning life into our own cocktail party.

Here's the thing. If you can just go out and talk to anyone about anything, you'll just have a much larger social network to draw from. And the process of networking is something that you can train yourself to do. It's all about just being willing to take a step out of the box and talk to people. And it's being willing to do it anywhere. It's being willing to take a rejection and not lose a step. It's being willing to not be satisfied with getting a positive response.

It's strange. Once you put yourself outside of your normal comfort zone, things just seem to happen. Case in point: Normally, at the gym, I'll just keep to myself. Maybe I say hi to a guy that I know. But that's about it. So the other day, I'm off at the gym, I run into this dude that I met through a friend a while back. I catch up, and meet the guys that he's working out with. We have a nice chat and after the guys leave to finish their work out, this cute gal on the stair climber starts up a conversation because she heard that I was a doctoral student. Turns out that she's a post-doc in kines. Score. We have a nice conversation about the stuff that we research. We get her info, and we'll drop her a line at some point this week. No idea where this goes, and no worries about that . We've got a professional link for sure. Maybe we had a connection elsewhere. Who knows? Regardless, it was the cocktail party attitude that made it happen. I was proactive in chatting with my acquaintaince's friends. I was rewarded with a nice conversation on the side.

We've had quite a few other instances over the past couple weeks, as well. Chatting people up has been a fun way to go. We've met some interesting people. We've renewed some ties that were thought to be lost. And we've strengthened some existing ties. Some people I know have always been masters at this. OD comes to mind. Maybe one of my friends Dan. The ability to just talk to anyone, and then to make it a point to talk to them again in the future is something that isn't easy to most people. I think that ultimately, many people don't take that path because of a fear of rejection. They're afraid that they won't be cool, funny, witty, smart, etc. enough to impress someone. I think that where that can be overcome is the realization that rejection isn't anything that will crush you. Making the leap is all upside.

I still am not 100% in running the system. But I'm trying to get there. We'll see how it goes.

-Chairman

Press Release:

I'm back.

A Big Thank You

I think that with the record number of comments from my last post, I need to thank all of my wonderful readers. Yes, both of you. With those two comments, we have actually quadrupled our readership to 2 readers. This is an incredible day for us here in the Board Room. We've been giving high fives all round for the entire day. I think that this essentially validates my career as a blogger. It is an incredible feeling to be on top of the world, holding the pose, sinking the last jumper, and beating John Stockton like a rented wife, er mule.

Which is why I am here to say that as of today, I, of sound body and unstable mind, am 99%retiring from the world of professional blogging.

-Chairman

Forgive Those Who Tresspass Against Us

It's funny sometimes. Sometimes the most skilled individuals don't always work together to be the best team. Some people just have a knack of being a team player. Others don't. We know that it takes a special talent to be a Michael Jordan, or the Alpha. Not everyone has that ability. And it also takes a very high level of talent to be Scottie Pippen, or the Beta. Everyone else on the Bulls took on a special role, like Steve Kerr or Bill Wennington. Now here's the thing that's interesting to me. If Michael Jordan were on a team with someone like Wilt Chamberlain, where Wilt would be the Alpha, it's doubtful that MJ could take on the Beta role and have the team excel. It would be nearly impossible to convince MJ to become a role player. However, we do see many examples of where the Beta becomes the Alpha, with a relatively high level of success. For example, Scottie Pippen was able to be an Alpha when MJ was gone, and Pippen even became a role player later on in his career and was actually a very valuable member of some good teams. On the other hand, we all would prefer to forget MJ in Washington. So, in some ways, you see that not all Alphas are created equal. There are Alphas that have a very rigid set of abilities, and others that can go back and forth to play whatever role is needed.

So, we're out at the bars on Saturday. Me, CJ, and Jigga meet up with DE, The Fitz, and MTS at 11. First of all, it's nice going out with our Euro friends (The Fitz is from Norway, while MTS is from Sweden). They have much larger bankrolls than we do, so they buy quite a bit. Of course, this is interesting when they are intending to get blitzed and want everyone to go along for the ride. It went something like this. Me, CJ and Jigga walk in, and I get us each a beer and a shot to open up the night. Immediately, MTS buys everyone a shot. A few minutes later, he decides to buy us all another shot. We're all hanging out and talking for a bit, when DE and MTS peel off for a second. I decide that I need another beer, and after I get it, I drift over to catch up with DE and MTS. MTS decides that we need more shots. I buy this round, since MTS bought the last one for all of us. MTS immediately buys another round of shots to make up for me buying the previous one. So, within an hour, we've put away 2 beers and 4 shots. Happily, the shots are all weak, mixed shots. Basically, they were T-Bombs, which are like a 3/4 shot of Ciclon and some Red Bull, all for $1.50. But, taken in large quantities, it adds up. It may even multiply or go exponential at some point.

Anyway, a little while later me and DE are off talking to some girls at the bar (more on this later), MTS finds us, and drags us all off to the bar for more shots. So, instead of just buying each of us a shot, I think that he just give the bartender like $20 and gets 12 shots on a server's tray. So, we each end up doing 2 shots off of the tray. The thing was, as the night went on, MTS did this 3 more times. I'm guessing that I ended up doing something like 13 of those damned T-bombs, to go along with the 2 beers and a vodka and Red Bull at the end of the night. And the worst part is that it wasn't even the alcohol that got to me. I think that it was the acid in the Red Bull that tore up my stomach. I think that I'm still shitting Red Bull now, almost 24 hours later.

Moral of story? Beware when MTS is buying shots a tray at a time.

So what does this have to do with trespassing? Nothing. But it works its way in. See, DE is one of those guys who never goes into battle without a backup plan. Or a Plan C. Or D. And maybe even E. He's been sort of playing the game with this girl H. It's been this constant struggle to gain the upper hand in the evolving relationship. It's this game of not being the last one to call, not being the one that seems dependent, etc. It's pretty amazing, actually, in an awesome sort of way. In fact, one of the standard plays that we have is to take a peek, and if we see H, to call up Command Central, so that we can decide what play to send in. For example, I saw H on Saturday. "Dude. H is here." "Really? Let's start working the room." So, once we see that H is there, the play was to go hit on girls, and eventually walk by H with some random girls. And for those of you who may think that this is shallow, you may be right. But it's also effective.

As an aisde, we know that DE has something going on with H. Now, for most of us that would mean that H is basically off limits. Easy call, right? But for whatever reason, The Fitz has to go over to talk to H. See, even if he isn't making a play on H, it still makes whatever DE is doing seem awkward. I believe that the correct play is for the entire team to stonewall H, nothing more than a "hello, how are you, I'm fine" type of conversation. Instead, he's off, and largely ruining whatever play DE had set up. I think that we'll need to talk about that at some point.

Anyway, to set up our play, we wander off and start talking to these two girls, one of whom DE knew, named R, and her friend C. So, DE is talking to R, and I'm running interference on C. C was pretty cute, but she didn't seem to be the sort that was going to a be much action, so I wasn't really putting on the full court press. Which was good. Because I got the "hey, you're my TA." Which is often a death knell. But I played it alright, and the conversation actually stayed alive. That is, until MTS dragged us all over to force us to drink. I actually ran into another one of my students (check that, one of my students recognized me as I was talking to people). And I actually managed to escape without her either slapping me or throwing a drink on me. I chalk that up as a victory.

The rest of the night was alright. Individually, I think that we were OK. How it worked out was that MTS was just buying drinks like crazy and not really working much game. The Fitz always seems to run solo missions. And DE needed someone to run wing, so I went off with him, while CJ and Jigga were doing their thing. I think that this isn't a bad plan overall, though we need to get DE to slow down a bit at times. I think that he goes off too fast sometimes trying to make up for lost time. And the other thing that we need to do is to get CJ to not get shaken up and lose confidence. But we'll iron that out. I think that we need to call a "players only" meeting at some point so that we can go over some of the things that we're doing, and figure out how we can improve our play. We actually did pretty poorly as a team, since we had different moments where people left their wingmen, where people weren't sharing the Alpha role, where no one wanted to be the Beta, and where we were just off our games.

Anyway, just one more week of class left to go. Crazy. Just have to survive a few more days.

-Chairman

Discovery and Progress

I think that our Illini have had a big week. Two wins against two good programs. Obviously, the North Carolina win was big (and looks even bigger with their win at Kentucky today). But, few people remember that two years ago, when we lost to Duke in the Sweet 16, it was Xavier who to lost to Duke in the Elite 8. And some others may remember when we rebuffed in our efforts to land Thad Matta, he was the coach at Xavier. And while Xavier was off last season, they returned all of their major players from last year. So this wasn't a pushover game for us. In fact, I don't think that we'll have many pushover games with this team.

It goes without saying that Auggie played great today. But you almost expect his 14 points and 10 rebounds every game. What I like about the game is that Marcus Arnold showed up in the 2nd half. I think that this is the first time I've seen him without the knee brace, so maybe this is a turning point. He was tough. Played well, boarded well, and used his body to draw fouls and create in the paint. If we can get Pruitt to play a bit better, we could have 3 solid bigs to go to, which is huge for us. Also, we were able to win without shooting well from outside. We were 6-21 (29%) from beyond the arc, and only 20-49 (41%) overall. We won this game with defense and aggressive interior play in the 2nd half. Just like the team last year, I think that our defense will keep us in just about any game this year. And going into the season, I thought that the interior game was going to be our bright spot w/ Auggie, Pruitt, and Arnold rotating through the 4 and 5 spots.

Some things need to be worked on. We still need to get the rotation ironed out and work Jamar Smith into the offense a little more. We also need to make sure that McBride doesn't disappear on us. ButDee still isn't hitting. Part of it is that he's missing some tough layups. The other part is that he's still playing mad bomber at times. The announcers made a good point that goes with my comment about Dee being a better spot up shooter than off the dribble. It's all about the footwork. When you square up, you lose a split second of separation between you and the defender. But your accuracy goes from like 20% to %50. Some guys were able to square up in the air and adjust for the drift (Rip Hamilton with the mid-range jumper or Reggie Miller and Mark Price with the 3), but very few are able to. When Dee was able to square up and get into the shot, he made those two in a row to get us back into it at the start of the 2nd half.

Regardless, we're 7-0, and looking alright. We'll be no worse than 11-3, and probably 13-1 or 14-0 going into Big Ten play. Next up? Arkansas-Little Rock and G'Town, both at home. Should be able to defend home court.

Until then.

-Chairman

If You Have to Sneak Out of Class Early...

...you probably shouldn't slip in the aisle and take a full spill.

This actually happened today in our marketing lecture. Class of 325. Probably 240 were there. The class finds out that the material wasn't going to be covered on the exam. People try to quietly sneak out. Towards the back, there were these three girls that had put on their coats and were ready to go. So, a little break in the action, and they're off. They all get up, and start to leave. Only the first girl just completely wipes out on her way out. Boom! Hilarious. Needless to say, I was trying to keep from laughing loudly.

The thing is, I'm getting more an more annoyed at our business undergrads. There's this feeling of entitlement. I don't think that you saw it in engineering. We knew the game. Just don't be an idiot, and you'll get a B. Get within a couple points of the class average, and you'll get your B. You've got to beat the class average by 5 or 6 points if you want an A. With these kids, it seems that the vast majority of them just want to get the grade without putting in the work or learning the material. I can count on one hand the number of people that have come to office hours this semester for extra help. But sure enough, after the 2nd midterm, when grades were down (only down a little bit, actually), the bitching and moaning started. Oh well. This makes me yearn for the day that I get tenure and stop giving a damn.

Anyway, off to bed. We'll see how the next week runs.

-Chairman

Vengeance

Illinois 68, North Carolina 64

The Illini are the new National Champions!

Okay, so maybe not. Maybe this game wasn't on Monday April 5, 2005 in St. Louis. Maybe Deron Williams, Luther Head, Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, Sean May, and Marvin Williams are all millionaires in the NBA now. And maybe North Carolina was unranked coming into the game. But, it was a legitimate win for a young team that may be on the verge of something great. But, it was a win in Chapel Hill, right in the heart of Tobacco Road against one of the 2 marquee ACC schools. But, when North Carolina gels a little more and starts to roll, this will look much better on the resume than it does now.

I like how this squad moves at times. Our young guards are willing to move the ball and pass. They will look to get the ball inside. Our bigs are pretty active on the glass, and actually seem to be willing to bang on the inside. Randle seems to be back better than ever - makes you wonder how last year would have looked if he hadn't broken his hand. Dee can still fly up and down faster than anyone else on the court. Rich looks more active on offense. And I've liked Jamar Smith's game so far. He has a really pure jumper. Love the release - high and with a great follow-through.

But, we're young. The young guys still look around a little too much, expecting Dee to make something happen. Our bigs are still inconsistent on offense. And I'm wondering if we'll only have 2 big men all season. We really need either Warren to get into the flow of the offense (and stop looking lost), or Marcus Arnold to start playing for real. Ideally, both happens. And with Jamar, he missed a tough front end that could have iced the game. Happily, we pulled the game out, so he gets a learning experience that didn't cost the team.

Where I'm a little afraid is actually with Dee Brown. He's done a nice job carrying the load by himself a lot. He's good on D and in transition. And he does a nice job of passing off the dribble, both with the drive and drop or the drive and kick out. I love how tough he is, and I love how much heart he has. But when things slow down Dee still has some issues with running a half-court offense (namely not being able to make entry passes). It's scary, sometimes. I don't know if I've seen him make a successful lob entry this season. And more and more, I don't see Auggie fighting for position when Dee has the ball on his side. I hate to say this, but I think that Dee is hurting his NBA stock, and playing himself out of the first round. I just hope that I'm wrong.

As for my past critical comments on Bruce? Still under review. He seems to do a great job preparing the team before the game, and between halves. It just seems that we have stretches where the other team catches on, and we dont change it up quickly enough to prevent a run. And my point isn't that he isn't a good coach. Really, aside from Mike Davis and whoever's unlucky enough to be at Penn St., there are no bad coaches in the Big Ten. My point has always been that he hasn't shown that he's an elite coach. But giving credit where it is due - his record at Illinois is 69-9, and something like 56-4 (North Carolina, Ohio. St., Duke, and Wisconsin, all either on the road or neutral site) since we started out 3-3 in the Big Ten in his first season and he had his Bill Self funeral.

This team has a lot of room to grow up. This isn't the team from last year. Last year, after watching the first 8 minutes of the Gonzaga game, I was making calls across the country telling people that we were the best team in the country, without a doubt. This isn't the team that I predicted was going to destroy then-#1 Wake Forest when they came to visit. This is a team that will do well, end up being one of the top 16 teams in the country. As for where in the top 16? I have no idea. I'm not sure if we are quite as good as Duke, UConn, Michigan St., or Texas. But I think that we can give any of those guys a run, if we come together and have some of the young guys develop more.

As far as a prediction goes let's be cautiously optimistic. How about 25-5 in the regular season (losses at Oregon, at Indiana, at Ohio St., at Wisconsin, and at Michigan St.) and 12-4 in the Big Ten, good for a share of the title. Runner up to Michigan St. in the Big Ten tourney, and make it to the Sweet 16. I'm probably a little optimistic about the regular season, but I think that there's a chance that we could be a little better than this in the tourney. Who knows? It'll be a fun ride, though.

-Chairman

Whipping Boys

Okay. Real quick this time. Normally, I don't like kickers. One of my favorite sayings is, "never trust something that bleeds for 4 days and doesn't die." But that's neither here nor there. Another one of my favorite sayings is, "never trust a kicker." Kickers rarely get glory (Adam Vinatieri, aside), but will often get crucified if they miss an important kick (see Scott Norwood, and FSU Wide Right I, II, III, and IV).

Yesterday, Jay Feely missed 3 figgies late in the game for the NY Giants in their very important game against the Seattle Seahawks. Each of those could have been game winning kicks. Instead, the Giants lost 24-21 in overtime. Today, Feely is being grilled, justly so.

What annoys me is that Giants coach Tom Coughlin is getting a free pass. He had just as much to do with this loss as Feely did. The first field goal attempt, a 40 yard miss at the end of regulation was easily Feely's worst. Where I have an issue is with Coughlin taking the foot off of the pedal of the offense. There was a lot of time left on the clock when he stopped playing offense. With 55 seconds, the Giants had 1st and 10 at the Seattle 31. Coughlin was content to just run the ball. His offense had been shredding the Seattle defense that entire drive and the previous drive, as well. There was time to move the ball further and take a couple shots at the end zone. I'm screaming at the TV, "GO! You have them on their heels!" Instead, 2 runs get 9 yards, eat up all the clock, and you send in you kicker on 3rd down.

Later in OT, Coughlin goes the other way. Even knowing that he has a shaky kicker, once the Giants get in FG range, they don't try to run the ball to make it an easier kick. Instead, they go pass crazy, and throw. The Giants have 2nd and 15 from the Seattle 36. That's a 53 yard kick, which is really hard. I'm screaming at my TV, "Run! Run! Get some yards for your kicker!" Do you a) try to throw twice and hope to get a 1st down, or b) run the ball twice, try to get 6 yards for your kicker, and maybe even have Tiki bust one? Coughlin went with a) and got no yards. Feely never had a chance on the kick.

Later still in OT, Tiki busts a big one to the Seattle 31. Take a shot with a pass on 1st down, and miss. No big deal. Run Tiki on 2nd down. 4 yards, 3rd and 6. Now, knowing that you have a shaky kicker, do you a) throw and hope to get a 1st down, or b) run the ball, try to get 4 yards for your kicker, and maybe even have Tiki bust one (which would have been a real possibility)? Nope. Pass again. Feely misses. Seattle marches down and wins.

Coughlin didn't trust Tiki Barber enough, he trusted Eli Manning too much. And he left his kicker out to dry. Sure, Feely missed the kicks. But he wasn't getting a whole lot of help from his coach. Oh well. At least I'm not a Giants fan. Go Bengals!

-Chairman

I'm Supposed to be Smart, or Something...

I was just thinking about things like my future, how I live up to expectations, and what I want to be when I grow up, and how money fits into all of this.

Right now, I am a 2nd year PhD student here in the middle of Illinois, studying Marketing in the business college. I work quite a bit, since I still have classes to go along with my research. My income is low 20's, I drive a 10 year old Altima, and I share an apartment with a roommate. I more or less tithe, as I'm able to contribute to non-for-profits, but I'm not sure if I really make a difference with that money. I don't really know how everything works. But I don't really feel particularly brilliant, nor do I feel particularly wealthy. And that's good, because I'm not, and I'm not.

I like how I live. It's simple. My biggest splurge is eating out. I have nice clothes, but I'm not too worried about spending money on that. My car is beat up, but it drives fine, so I'm cool with that. I don't have a ton of other bills to worry about. I don't get to save a whole lot, but I do save some money. I've got a growing Roth IRA portfolio, which provides a nice security blanket. I honestly think that I could be happy living like this for a while.

And then I think about the future.

The U.S. census suggests that around 1% of the people in this country have a doctorate. That should mean that I'm smart. I've also heard that the average starting salary for a professor in marketing is something like $120,000. Yikes. That would make me rich, or something. I thinks that this means that I'm supposed to become particularly smart and particularly wealthy.

Looking around, it seems that business professors drive pretty nice cars. Lots of SUV's and BMW's and other acronymed vehicles. Those would seem to cost more than my Altima. Professors seem to travel to a lot of nice places. And it seems that professors have to live in nice houses or condos. And I think that they tend to live with themselves, unless they're married. I have a hard time seeing myself being able to contribute anything close to a true tithe with that income, as I'm having a hard time seeing the value of it now, much less at a price point 5.5x higher than it currently is. I think that prospect of wealth is working together with the prospect of making me more cynical.

The other thing that worries me is the lifestyle. Professors are always working. Breaks in class aren't time to relax, but rather a good time to get research done. Weekends don't really exist. They are also very "lone wolf-ish." You do your research. Other people do their research. Sometimes the goals intersect, but often, they don't. I've heard that it's a lonely life. It also sounds exhausting. I think that I can do it for a while. And knowing me, I'll try to do things my way. Maybe I can pull it off. Maybe I can't.

I almost wish that things could just stay this way. Minus the classes. And with a little more money. And a nicer car. And... well, maybe I don't wish that things could stay this way.

Beats me.

-Chairman

While We're at it...

... just another thought before I turned in for the night.

Maybe I can stop leaving my computer and printer on all the time... well, maybe I can stop leaving both my desktop and laptop on all the time. A PC and printer will run between 115W and 185W (give or take, depending on your system and components). Just for reference, leaving something continually on that is using 1W, will result in 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, or 8.76KWH per year. Remembering that I pay something like $.074/KWH for my power, that adds up to $97.24 per year that I pay to leave my desktop on all the time. Let's say that I'm on the desktop for an hour a day, and that means that I'm essentially wasting $93 per year by leaving the dumb thing on.

And my laptop runs 72W all the time, too... maybe I can just deal with the extra 2 minutes it takes for it to load up... Hmmm... so power is sort of expensive. Thankfully, water is cheaper - something like $0.01 for 3.75 gallons of water. (http://www.illinoisamerican.com/awpr1/ilaw/pdf/rates_champaign_2005.pdf ). I think that I'll just go turn off my computer and start running all of my faucets all day. My kitchen faucet takes about 44 seconds to fill up a gallon container. That means that it takes me 2.75 minutes to use up $.01 worth of water. This is about 22 cents an hour... nevermind. I'm going to bed.

-Chairman

A Light Bulb Just Went Off in My Head

You know - it's amusing when you just realize that certain days weren't meant for work. For myself, those days are easy. They are generally the days that start with consonants. For the days that start with vowels, I'm all gung ho about doing work. Maybe it's just coincidence. But maybe something more sinister is at work.

So, during this day of non-work, I was just thinking about ways to save a buck, ways to help slow the increasing size of our ecological footprints. One thing came to mind quickly. Doing a little work around the house can really help. Things like making sure that your air filters are clean and closing the air vents to rooms that you don't use regularly are sort of obvious. Today, we also bought some of those window insulation kits that are really Saran Wrap and tape. Two of our windows got closed up, so that should help the cause, as well. But the one little change that I want to make a case for is with the long-life, energy-saver light bulbs.

Really, they're just like mini-flourescent light bulbs that fit into normal light fixtures. They're guaranteed to last 5 years. Let's take a peek into this:

If you buy a 3-pack of these bulbs out at Wal-Mart, you spend about $2.70 per bulb. A regular light bulb costs you about $0.20. So, right off the bat, you see that these bulbs cost 13.5 times more than regular light bulbs. Can you ever justify this purchase?

Well, first of all, you see that you'll have this bulb for at least 5 years. For them to make this guarantee, you have to figure that the average bulb will last something like 7 years (if you're interested in the stats behind this outrageous claim, I'm just ballparking a break-even figure with a 95% confidence interval, an exponential distribution for defects, and 20% rate of return on defective parts). Based on casual observation, it seems that normal light bulbs wear out every 5 or 6 months. Let's just say that it's 6 months. This means you're looking at using 10 - 14 regular bulbs for each of these fancy mini-flourescent bulbs. Let's just use 10 bulbs, since that's what guaranteed. That means that this is the same as buying $2.00 worth of light bulbs. So, you're getting close. But you have more of an upfront cost - you're paying for everything up front. If you have a simple 5% discount yield (too lazy to use the rate), you could save another $.35 or so in the long run.

How long will it take for you to save $.90 using this light bulb? We'll use a 100W light bulb as our reference point. Let's say that each light bulb is on for 2 hours a days. Most of the lights in my apartment are on more, some are on less, but let's keep it conservative. Anyway, that's .2KWH per day, or about 6 KWH per month. Right now, I'm averaging about $0.074/KWH on my energy bill (https://www2.ameren.com/ACMSContent/Rates/Rates_ipel13rtSC2.pdf ). So, I spend about $0.444 per month for each light bulb. Over the course of a year, that's $5.32 per year. Now, what's interesting is the number of light bulbs you have in an apartment. A quick count in my little place reveals 24 light bulbs. That's a cost of $127.68 per year with normal light bulbs. Now, there's about a 4 to 1 ratio for the actual watts used by these energy saver light bulbs. Basically, this is a 75% discount in power cots for switching to the energy saver, long life bulbs. This adds up to $4.30 per light bulb, or about $95 per year for the entire apartment.

And keep in mind, this is using a very conservative estimate. The bulb cost could be as much as $1 off. And the energy cost could be off by as much as a factor of 2.5 (depending on how many hours you ordinarily leave your lights on). So really, you could be saving as much as $10.75 per year for each light bulb by making the change.

So, we see that you save a few bucks by making the change. What does this do for our ecological footprint? The EPA suggests that 1 KWH is equal to burning 1 pound of coal, or the production of 2 pounds of carbon dioxide (http://www.cogreenpower.org/EnvBen.htm ). Each light bulb runs at a 75% lower wattage than normal light bulbs. So, if a 100W normal bulb is on for 2 hours a day for 365 days, that's 36.5KWH that is used on that light bulb. Our energy saver light bulbs would only actually use 9.125KWH, for a savings of27.375KWH per year. If I were to switch 20 bulbs over to these energy saver bulbs, that would be 547KWH saved. That would be like removing the pollution from 1400 mile drive , or making the round trip from Urbana to downtown Chicago 5 times (http://www.mapquest.com ).

Interesting, huh?

Don't worry. We'll be back to talking about drinking, gambling, women, sports, and the brutal nature of the PhD program soon enough.

-Chairman

Thanksgiving

My week has been inspiring. No work. No productivity. Though, to be fair, I've been sick, so I've been more or less just getting healthy and getting my life back in order. And it's not really true when I say that I haven't been productive. I've cleaned the apartment, I've organized my office, and I've done some PM on my computers. I just haven't done any research or work for my classes. So, tomorrow is the start of getting back on the horse. At least in theory.

Thanksgiving was nice and relaxed for me. No travel. Just hanging out, watching bad football, and cooking up a nice meal. Decided to mix it up again this year. In the past, I've done a big Thanksgiving turkey dinner w/some traditional sides. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn casserole, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, the whole 9 yards. And after I didn't need to feed a whole group of people, I switched over to making rib roasts for Thanksgiving. Basically, it ended up being me versus a 3 pound bone-in ribeye, cooked a nice medium rare.

This year, I decided to switch it up again. Osso Bucco. Slow braised beef shanks. Pretty good stuff. As it cooked, it made this incredible sauce. I also made a pretty simple sourdough dressing w/ sausage, onion, and celery to accompany it. Dessert this year was a pumpkin bread pudding, with some white and milk chocolate in there to mix it up. And the best part? All-day food coma. This will probably get a full writeup over on my food blog, which I'll be firing up soon.

So what am I thankful for this year?

-Having a great family.
-My old friends.
-Meeting new friends.
-Making the transition from 204 to 116.
-Having a car that doesn't seem to ever die.
-Continuing to survive the PhD program.
-My relatively good health.
-Being able to still play sports.
-Being able to cook a great meal.
-Getting better at the things that I like to do.

Anyway, it's off to bed for now. Back to work tomorrow.

-Chairman

Moving Across Town

I think that I'll be trying to move across town, from Xanga to Blogspot, to see how it goes.

It seems that this is where to cool kids play... we'll see

-Chairman

Matthew 28:19

You Don't Know What You've Got Until It's Gone

Not me, for once. I'm sad to report that I've been missing the show on the Quad for the last few days. We've had the return of the fundamentalist Christian fanatics. Back in the day, it was Mad Max. Then there was some other dude, Preacher Dan, I think. And now, apparently, we have this hillbilly family that's coming into the big city (yeah, I mean Champaign-Urbana) to tell us all that we're going to Hell. Not just the gays, or the Jews or the Muslims, or the immoral. But all of us. Even the new-age evangelical.

I'm not saying that they're wrong. I'm not even saying that their delivery is off. And I'm not even saying that... well... hmmm. I think that they may be on to something. Maybe this whole teaching on God's love paradigm isn't working. Maybe Hell, fire, and brimstone is making a comeback. I mean, retro is cool, isn't it? This is totally retro. Hello, Dante. Goodbye, Billy Graham.

Here's the thing. These guys have an interesting position. They're not saying, "Repent, for God loves you." They're not even saying, "Repent, for the end is near." They're saying, "You're on the losing team. Suckers." Instead of wasting all this energy trying to get people "saved," they're simply happy that they're on the winning team. Think of it as gloating. Or an end zone celebration.

There May Not Be A "ME" In "Team," But There's An "I" In "Win."

That may be why I've sort of liked these kooks in the past. They're sort of happy that they're on the winning team, and they're letting you know that you're on the losing team. Kind of like my guy, Chad Johnson. What better way to celebrate a victory than Riverdancing in front of the losing team and their fans? How cool was it when Terrell Owens pulled that Sharpie out of his sock and autographed that ball after he scored a touchdown? Or when he posed twice on the Dallas star?

And maybe that's the sort of message that will finally reach people in this modern age. I mean, how much of a bandwagon effect do you see out there? A huge one. How many White Sox fans were there in early September, when they were on the verge of an all-time collapse? And how many were there in late October? Exactly. So could it be that to really get people to believe in the God message (or at least ponder it), that you need to show that you're on the winning team? And what better way to show that than to tell people that they're on the losing team? I can't think of one, either.

Here's the thing. These bold, borderline insane Quad preachers are probably considered by most to be extreme. But really, what's wrong with just being extreme? And you may say that they're message is too harsh. But I don't think that they're saying that everyone else is bound for Hell, with no alternative. How do you think that they would respond to someone who sincerely asked, "I've led a sinful life. What must I do to be saved?" I have a suspicion that they are actually giving a pretty standard message. I think that they're just giving the same message a different tone. And I wonder how much people have watered down the perceived nature of God by not offering a true reflection of the justice and wrath of God?

What bothers me is that our evangelical "Christians" go off and label these folks as wackos who are setting back their agenda by years. I really don't think that's the case at all. In fact, I would be awfuly curious to see, percentage-wise, the "hit rate" of Quad preachers like these guys versus the church at large. Let's get to it. How many converts will these guys win? One a year? Two? But if there's only 4 of these guys, that's a pretty good hit rate. Think of it this way. Even if they only get 1 convert a year, from the efforts of these 4, how does that compare to the efforts of a campus church. Rather favorably, I'd imagine. First of all, a church of 100 people would need to get 25 new converts per year. And if you factor in the time that is spent in God's name to win one of these converts? I think that it favors the Quad preachers even more.

And it gets more interesting. I have a suspicion that the converts that these guys get would be more devoted and pious than the typical convert that you would get in a normal church. What's the attrition rate in the church? What's the level of devotion that you see? How would you characterize the level of devotion of one of these Quad preachers? What would you expect from one of their converts who become disciples? After 3 years, how would the hit rates compare?

Overall, here's my best guess. If you believe that God has a plan for this world, and part of it includes reaching the non-believeing, then you have to figure out how to reach them. Different messages work in different settings on different people. I think that with something like, say, Intelligent Design, you offend as many people as you do with crazy Quad Preachers. But here's the thing. You'll likely offend different people. And at the same time, you'll ring true with different people. It seems that people want to treat the evangelistic method as a cookie-cutter. Something where you have a "best-practice." I don't think that's how it works.

I think that the Uzi method works best as a first cut. Lots of different approaches from lots of different people to a lot of different targets. And after you get a hit, you can then go in with a more precise weapon. Like a tack hammer.

Anyway, it's bedtime. So, next time you see a Quad preacher, rather than just shake your head in disgust, or try to argue that you're not going to Hell, or whatever, how about just asking them sincerely how you can be saved. Then you can figure out if they're a kook, or they're just using a different style to say the same message. Or, you can just make fun of them for dressing funny.

-Chairman

The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse

Alright. So check this out. We're thinking about having "Alias Night" out at the bars. Not like the TV show, though if we could get a non-pregnant Jennifer Garner in a skimpy outfit, I would be swayed. But rather a night where we use aliases all night. And they have to be ridiculous ones. For example, our buddy Marten has been using "Patrick Fitzpatrick", which we've modified to "The Fitz." Who the hell is actually named Patrick Fitzpatrick? Even better, he's from Norway, so we love the confused looks when people ask him if he's Irish.

I think that given our target audience (hot, young, naive/dimwitted undergrad girls), I think that we can do this with 80's, or even early 90's references. Chatting with CJ about this, we agreed that this would be awesome. As of now, we've settled on "Rick Springfield" for CJ. That' the dude that sang "Jesse's Girl." We still need to run this by him, but I think that Erik will make a good "Michael Knight," of Knight Rider fame. The problem is, I'm not quite sure what will be good for me. It's tough to go Asian and cheesy 80's. I don't know if we can pull off something like "Bruce Lee." That would be too obvious, wouldn't it? Perhaps "Brandon Lee?" Maybe we need to go something less 80's? "Jack Chan?" Or maybe something from a video game, like "Edmund Honda" or slightly modified like "Shane Tsung?" Or perhaps go Hispanic?

Anyone out there have any ideas?

I'm getting exciting just thinking about Alias Night.

-Chairman

Update:

The prospect of an Alias Bar Crawl has also had mixed reviews as a way to hit on women. Basically, it's a simple way to get a conversation opened up. Problem - many of our young, dimwitted undergrads don't know much about the 80's, and just feel dumb when you ask them what they would be for this bar crawl. Maybe some refinement?

-Chairman

Damocles Can Have His Sword Back...

So I got the results from my lastest paper. And I passed. This is quite the burden removed from my shoulders. See, we don't have qualifying exams. We do two papers, one after each of the first two years in the program. People can fail these things. They will get an attempt to revise the papers. And most people will pass on the 2nd attempt. But some don't. And then they're asked to leave the program, and get a MS in marketing for their troubles.

So, I had the task of getting this paper churned out, starting in September. It was due at the end of October. Two months to make the first real hurdle of the PhD program. It wasn't exactly smooth sailing. I also had classes to deal with while I was taking care of this. It wasn't a pretty sight for most of the time. But somehow, I managed to pass. Which means, that for the first time since the start of school, I feel caught up. Damn skippy.
But for now? I'm taking a nap.

-Chairman

Dude, where's your car?

I was just thinking about how strung out I was a few weeks ago. And how I forgot to mention of the all-time funniest exchanges (in my mind, anyway).

So it was a few Wednesdays ago. Right before OD's wedding in Texas. I was getting pretty tired from all the work that I had to churn out. I normally have to be at the Principles of Marketing class that I TA from 1:30 until 3, and then I have class from 6 to 9 at night. What I usually do is take the 1:10 bus to campus, take a bus home, and then drive back for night class, since parking is free after 5. I had pulled a late night work session for my papers the night before, and I had worked until 9 in the morning to get the section churned out that I needed. I figured that I had time for a 3 hour nap before class. So, at 9:30, I go to sleep, and I end up oversleeping. I don't get up until 1:10, so I had to hustle just to get dressed in time to drive to class. I find a place to park, and pump the meter with enough to last me until 3:15.

So I sit through class, and realize that I was zoned out. I knew that I still had to read through like 5 articles for class that night. So, I walk out of class tired, just ready to go home and push the next few hours. And I do what I always do after class on Wednesday afternoon. I walk through the library and jump on a bus and got home.

I fire up the laptop and I'm reading some articles in my room (on my very nice park bench, I might add) when CJ comes home. He hears me in my room, so he comes over and asks, "Dude, where's your car?" All we needed was Ashton Kutcher.

As soon as he gets to "Dude..." I just start laughing. I knew what he was going to ask, and I knew that I was a moron. My car was still on campus. And I had to get back to class that night. How ridiculous is that? I was so tired that I forgot that I drove to class. I'm laughing hysterically, and I'm just amazed at how scatterbrained I had gotten. CJ was nice enough to give me a ride out to the post office and then to class, where I discovered that I had gotten a very nice ticket from the parking Gestapo. Oh well.

Then and Now

So things have gotten a little better. I'm done with the papers for now. I'm going to figure out a topic for a final paper, and that's really about it for the semester. The final paper's going to be tough, but that's par for the course. And it's for a class, so I'm not too terribly concerned. I'm already looking forward to Thanksgiving Break and Winter Break. I'm hoping to churn out enough of the paper so that I can actually have a nice Thanksgiving Break. And I'm wanting to get to Winter Break so I can actually get ahead on the papers and research that I need to churn out for my conferences in the spring.

Physical Goals

I'm liking hitting the gym again. I'm back on the 3-4 times a week schedule. And I've expanded the workout to include the abs a little more. Interestingly, I was able to churn out a set of 8 reps at 187 on the incline bench toward the end of the workout. Which is interesting because it was the first time I had done incline in ages. I think that we'll work in some bench exercises, mainly for CJ. I don't really need to build mass. I just need to shed 20 pounds of fat. And then shed another 20 pounds of fat. And then... you get the picture.

The body feels good, and I think that I'm getting a little more go back in the system. Which is the ultimate goal. I need to build the body up so that I can be more resilient to stressful times. I was great at that for so many years. I need to get back there fast.

Anyway, until next time.

-Chairman

Commitment to Excellence

This weekend was much needed. Not much work. Had some fun. And got some of the little things in my life back in order... and here I am.

Al Davis had it right. You need to commit to something to really excel. Over the last few weeks, I had let much of the momentum that I had picked up from August and early September fade. I got myself too deep into school again. And I found myself eating poorly, not working out, and just missing out on life happening all around me. I had that paper due on the 31st, and it finally got done. This past week has been me picking up some of the pieces, sweeping up the mess that I had made, and cleaning up. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep up the momentum until the end of the semester.

So, my room is actually reasonably clean for the first time in a few weeks. The apartment looks pretty nice, as well. I'm about halfway through cleaning and organizing the office, but there are a ton of papers that need to be filed. I think that things are getting back under control on the home front. I even spent some time today making a big pot of chili that I'll be eating for the next few days. I think that I'm going to be cooking more over the next couple weeks. Can't beat that with a stick.

CJ and I hit the gym today for the first itme in a few weeks as well. It felt good. Usual routine, plus a couple new twists. I feel a little stiff already, so that means that we worked it well. I think that I'm going to start back up with the jumprope. I need to get the legs back somehow. I was just plain slow during flag football. A few years ago, I was actually able to make some things happen with my legs. Not this year. I haven't been this slow in a while. I've also brought back my stretching routine from high school. I used to stretch every night before I went to bed. It helped a ton with my flexibility and my recovery time. For the rest of the semester, I'm on the 3-4 times a week schedule. No exceptions.

Where to go now?

This has been a recurring theme, but where to go to get my spiritual community is a question that's been floating around for what seems like forever. I was ready to jump back into an I-Team this fall. But we hit some bumps early on. One of my classes got shifted to Wednesday night, so I was left with really only 2 realistic opportunities for I-Teams. And one of them ended up disbanding. Which left me with really only a single I-Team option. And I'm not quite sure if that's what I'm looking for. It's strange. I went to this I-Team for 3 weeks in early October. I've missed the last couple weeks as things got crazy for me with school. It was okay when I was there - it wasn't obviously the perfect fit for me, but it seemed to be perfectly fine. It wasn't like instant bonding with the guys there, but how often does that happen? But the last few weeks, when I haven't been there, I haven't really missed it. I don't know. I like to think that there's something out there for me that is the right fit. I just haven't really gotten there, yet.

Oh well.

Anyway, a few tidbits for you - you still haven't gotten the rest of my interesting trip down to San Antonio, and this past weekend had some fun moments that are worth mentioning. But for now, it's bedtime, followed by getting back to work.

-Chairman

Procrastination and Memories

Let's see. It's just about 5am on Thursday. I have a revision due to my professor 12 hours ago, and my final paper is due on Monday. So let's post on my blog.

First thing that's interesting to me is the Chicago White Sox. These guys remind me a lot of the '90 Reds team. Wire to wire, but a bit of a fade in the 2nd half. Won convincingly in the playoffs over teams that people thought were going to beat them. Did it with pitching and a good bullpen, along with some clutch hitting. A little difference was that the Sox had so many things go right for them this post-season, it was incredible. Just a "team of destiny" sort of thing. And all that's well and good, but what's interesting to me is how this may change things in Chicago. All these silly Cubs fans have been running around, owning the town, despite being the cheering section for a rather poor franchise, historically. Will we see a baseball renaissance in the south side?

Last weekend was Homecoming, and a lot of my old v-ball guys came down for the weekend for their alumni tournament. Good ol' JohnnyO, Pat, Sully, Miller, Barker, Antonio, and all the rest. Friday night at Kam's, and Saturday night at Joe's, followed by Drunken Sing-Along Afterhours. Just like old times. Let's see... at one point, I was parked behind an RV at 2:30 in the morning, putting a keg of beer, a guitar, and 4 other people into my car. Maybe a strange scene for some, but really, just par for the course with these guys. On the positive side, we managed to avoid 1) fights with the offensive line, 2) jail time for anyone involved, and 3) anything that requires antibiotics to treat. And when you can go 3 for 3 on those, it means that you had a good weekend.

Let's see... this weekend? Working on the paper. And once I finish? Halloween. Two years ago, I was a convict, complete with orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. Last year, I went with the doctor, with stethocope, seeing who needed a physical. I think that I'm covering the whole spectrum. I'll be the one at the bars in the priest garb, seeing if anyone wants to go into the confessional. It's either that, or I'll be eating rice krispy treats and drinking punch with kids from Bible study. It could go either way. And you think that I'm joking.

Anyway, it's back to the paper. Next time we're talking about weddings, hooking up with people when you don't know their names, and gambling. I'm sure that you're all excited. Until next time.

-Chairman

On The Road

This is from a couple of weeks ago:

I'm just walking down the corridor, when this announcement comes over the loudspeaker:

“…this flight is severely overweight… we are looking for six volunteers to take the following flight at 3:12…”

Well, I wouldn’t say that they were severely overweight. I took a little walk by Gate 46 so I could judge for myself. They were a little on the chunky side, but to say that this flight was severely overweight may have been a bit of an exaggeration.

That definitely brightened up my day. I’m traveling today. And right now I’m in the Detroit airport. I actually like this place now… sort of. I’ve found a new place to eat. National Coney Island. Good stuff. Different than the old standby of Cincinnati’s Skyline Chili, but it’s tasty. And there’s also a Jose Cuervo Tequileria here, so the 3 hour layover is a little more fun this time with the aid of some the Agave plant’s wonderful uses.

The flight this morning was uneventful. Sort of just drifting in and out of sleep, working on a rough outline for my speech, thinking up plays for flag football, wondering how different my life would be had a couple other choices been made. I’m not sure if it was the 6 hours of sleep that I got last night (after not sleeping well [or much] the last few nights), but I was just in an introspective mood this morning. It carried over into my layover. I had some time so I took a lap around the airport. It’s always interesting.

Who works at the airport?

People without a lot of hope. It’s like the normal service industry that we see, only a little further down the totem pole. Generally, it’s a long way out of town, so there’s a big commute. There are some tough hours, since you need to be ready to sling hash for people getting in on the redeye. And you need to be open for people who are taking the redeye, too… I remember one of my old Illini Updates – these e-mails that I’d send off to my old high school crew during my freshman year, talking about life. I didn’t like Detroit airport back then. A lot of it was from the people who worked here. And boy, I shredded them apart. I didn’t think much about it then. But then again, I was an idiot 18-year old. Things are different now. I’m now an idiot 27-year old.

I was watching the dynamics in the diner. The servers? All white women. They were young, but looked defeated. There was some pleasure in the trite and trivial. But they looked like they were stuck. They had on a happy face when they were interacting with the others. But in their quiet moments, when they were eating, left to their own thoughts, there seemed to be something different. Something quieter, something a little sad. Maybe I had the wrong read. But it sort of depressed me. What if my life were just a little different. What if I wasn’t quite as smart, quite as lucky, born into quite as good a family, just built a little differently. Would that be me?

I’m not sure. And I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. There was a tequila and tonic (with extra lime) with my name written all over it. And it was good.

Who drinks a vodka-water, with lime?

People who are looking to get drunk, without tasting much, and worried about getting ticketed for underage drinking. I was out with CJ last night. Should’ve done some more work or gotten more sleep, but we needed to go out. We’re off at Clybourne, and we see a couple barcrawls going. One was the nursing students. Pretty solid crew, those nurses. Sort of made me want to turn and cough. The other crew was actually very clever. A 3-legged bar crawl, where the girls had their legs tied together and were stumbling around. Definitely good times watching the show. At one point, 4 of the girls stumble over to the bar where we were drinking and start flirting, but a purposeful flirt. They wanted someone to buy them a couple drinks since they had a big, black U stamped on their hands. Having no morals, I obliged, though they wanted vodka-waters, with lime. Didn’t think much of it until later. Just thought that it was a bland, tasteless drink. But then I realized that it was the perfect drink for freshman girls. They didn’t really like the taste of hard alcohols, so they were wanting to keep it sort of plain. They also wanted it to look like just water. So, in the little, clear, plastic cup was this clear liquid with just some lime. Probably didn’t taste like much. But it got the job done. Like I’ve said before. Youth is wasted on the young. If I could go back and take advantage of the energy, enthusiasm, etc. that I had back in the day, armed with what I know now… watch out world.

In a slump…

When you go 0 for 12 in baseball, it’s a little slump. I just walked around the gate prior to boarding. My guess was 0 for about 40. That’s a “get sent down to Triple A to get your swing fixed” sort of slump. Ouch.

Anyway, it’s time to board. Until next time.

-Chairman

One Step At A Time

SURVIVOR: CHAMPAIGN-URBANA

So, another week has been survived. Things lighten up for my classes for a couple weeks, so now I need to dial in on my project. I got feedback from my professor from the last section that I turned in. I'm not setting the world on fire, but there's progress, and that's good enough. This weekend, my goals are to make some edits on what I've written, as well as get a methodology section out to my professor. Once that gets out there, we're pretty miuch in the revision phase. Which is nice. October 31st is just around the corner. The goal was the 15th to get the first draft done. I think think that I'll make it.

I also had to lead discussion for my class on Wednesday. That seemed to go pretty well. It was a livelier conversation than it had been in the previous weeks. I think that some of my small group leading skills helped out. I got some nice feedback from my class paper, and once I take care of the project. Essentially a "revise and resubmit," which means that there's some worthy contribution, but there are parts that need some work. I guess that some of the other students have gotten "desk rejects" (where the editor, or in this case, the professor, automatically rejects the paper and doesn't even pass it on to reviewers) on their papers, so at least I'm not in last place, and I won't be the first one off of the island.

RE-RUNS

I'm curious as to how this whole life thing works. I wonder if there are built-in re-runs. A couple of posts ago, I commented about this girl T that I was into about a year ago. I hadn't really had any contact with her for a few months. So out of the blue, I get an IM. You know, the, "hey, haven't talked to you in forever, how are you doing, we should hang out, etc." one. I'm friendly, but don't commit to anything. Now, I guess the question goes, do I... a) stick to my general philosophy of not making girls feel good about themselves, or b) decide to go hang out with this really hot girl that I think is pretty fun, too? You'd figure that b) would be the obvious choice. But I'm really digging how a) is going right now.

Anyway, life is good. I need some sleep, though.

Until then.
-Chairman

Adventures in Illinois

Well, I should be finishing off the section of my project that my professor wanted a couple days ago, but since it's 3:30 in the morning, I'll update my blog, instead. The weekend was a fun one, though peculiar.

The first thought is that CJ owes me something fierce. Gilford. Paxton. In fact, we made a tour of the whole greater-Rantoul metro area. I probably should've done work and slept, but I figured that I could afford to play wingman for the night. It was an amusing night out with the yokels. Small town folks are fun to watch. As long as you have beer.

Wasted Motion

Of course, the whole night led to an interesting introspective question. I've been pondering the lack of interest in any particular girl at this point. And it carried over on Friday night. There was this girl that was out with us. Reasonably cute. Very nice body. Very flirty/drunk. The interesting part was that she actually showed some interest, but for whatever reason, I didn't reciprocate. Does the concept of wasted motion apply legitimately here? My reasoning for not really returning any interest was twofold. First, I'm not into making girls feel good about themselves. But more importantly, the second reason was that I didn't want to waste any motion. The thought was that I wasn't going take her home, and that I wasn't going to ever call her, so that there wasn't a need to work the game at all. Instead, I just sort of sat back and enjoyed the show. I don't know if this is a good path to go down. There's a fine line between being stoic/bad ass and just being too proud to deviate from your plan. I'm curious as to where I am right now.

"Where's Professor Xavier?"

A lot of the old crew was down on Saturday. Curran was in from Waco, Westy came down from up north, and even Olson came in from his current stint in Dayton. We had a couple no-shows from Mikey and C-Lauff, but it was still a quorum. I've been swamped with work and sort of sick for a few days now, so I skipped out on the Illini game (happily), and just caught up with the crew afterwards. Olthoff brought Laura out, and we caught some dinner out at Firehaus and went out to Guido's to get a beer. We had a drunken bachelorette party sitting next to us. It wasn't hot, but it was very amusing. I believe that Olson's line was, "... this is a mutant bachelorette party. Where's Professor Xavier?" And I think that he was being kind. Imagine a table of 11 large, loud, and mildly mentally retarded women and one gay dude. And then add alcohol. And headgear with penis attachments. At one point, they were asking guys in the bar for condoms. My response? "Good luck with that."

Anyway, it's back to work. A little more to go before I can get it sent off to my professor. Still a couple more sections that need to get taken care of this week. But it's getting there.

-Chairman

Making the Leap

Things move quickly once you get into high gear. It's like making the leap from All-American to Heisman mode in a NCAA football video game. It's just bloody hard.

Things are moving in high gear right now. Sleep is at a premium, and my brain is more or less fried. My goal is to keep the body strong while we go, and if we need to slow down the pace elsewhere, we'll do so. But I've discovered that health is non-negotiable. I tried to do that last year, with disastrous results. I need to get rest, and I need to keep working myself at the gym.
I'm wrapping up a paper for Wednesday - an annotated bibliography and review paper. And then I'm going to churn out a section of my project for my advisor, as well. Hopefully, that will get to him on Friday. Should've been ready to send out by Tuesday morning, but hey... things move a little slower than you think sometimes.

I just need to survive these next few weeks, after which my semester opens up. Let's keep the head up, the eye on the ball, and the fingers crossed.

-Chairman

Barren Wastelands

Normally, there's some girl that I've got some sort of interest in. In a moment of reflection, after a whiskey on the rocks and a glass of wine, prior to getting late night, after-bar eats, I realized that it's been a while since I've been interested in anyone. Maybe a little over a year? The last girl that I was interested in was T. And that pretty much died off when I got busy with PhD last fall. I fell off of the radar, and didn't have the time or energy to chase a girl. And that's too bad, really, because she's excessively gorgeous and would've been fun to chase.

Anyway, I came to the realization that right now, I just don't know many women and that I don't really get out much. So even if I wanted to, dating wasn't exactly an easy option. So how does one solve that problem?

I'm glad that you asked.

Two words. Internet dating. I think that these dating services are on to something. I mean, there have to be intelligent, attractive women who just don't have enough guys hanging around them that they have no dating pool and would be desperate enough to turn to the internet for dates. I mean, that's foolproof, isn't it? It's not like a law that every attractive woman is already attached, is it? Oh. It is. Wait. Nevermind.

I'm pretty sure that attractive, single women are either 1) entirely insane and not dateable, or 2) just off of a rebound. I think think that I'm accepting that all women are a little bit nuts. I'm pretty sure that all guys are a little nuts in their own way, too. So there's an acceptable level of insanity that's allowable. I think that I just want to make sure that I avoid the ones that boil pets. As for option 2)? Well, that's like getting a rent controlled apartment in New York City. You just have to be around when someone dies.

Oh well. I'm actually pretty happy with life right now. I'm getting my body back going again. I like the new apartment. I'm playing great poker. I like my classes. Life is good. I think that I'm owning my shit. Now I just need to make sure that I'm hitting on soft 17's. And more importantly, I need to make sure that I'm aware that I'm looking at soft 17s. There's nothing worse than not noticing your environment. I need to notice my environment a little more so that I'm not missing out on soft 17's or the rest of life as it's moving on.

-Chairman

Good Thing No One Reads This

"So how's Mardi Gras going to be this year?"
"A little watered down."

Happily, no one really reads this or cares about what I say, so there weren't any death threats regarding my indifference towards New Orleans. That isn't to say that I don't feel awful for the people who were affected. And for the record, I atually can't take credit for that joke. That would have to go to Chad, earlier tonight.

The week has cruised by. School is school and work is work. My TA gig is going relatively smoothly, though the course that I'm working for is not. Nothing really works, yet. It's pretty amusing. Of course, this leads to more work for me, but it isn't bad. Just replying with apologetic e-mails and walking students through technical issues in office hours. Pretty par for the course.

The current item at the top of the agenda is my proposal re-write and literature review for my project. Need to get a move on. It's going to be a working weekend. Probably a solid 5 hours on Saturday and another few hours on Sunday. But that's alright. I think that I can churn out some decent stuff this weekend, and start sending stuff out to my advisor next week.

Lifting has been good. I've actually got CJ going out to the gym with me. And you know what? For a skinny, little, white kid, he's a trooper. He doesn't lift a whole lot of weight, but he goes through the entire workout with me with no complaints. As for myself, I like the progress. I've gotten a little stronger over the past 2 weeks. I'm able to push myself through sets at the end of my workout a little easier. And I've actually gotten back on the bench press for the first time in a few years. Nothing spectacular, but I was able to put up 225 pounds four times at the very end of my workout the other day, after I had already done 3 sets of increasing weight. I used to be able to do sets of 10 at 225. I think that I'll be back there pretty soon, if I want to be.

Right now the most intriguing, and perhaps the most difficult, thing for me is my re-entry into the church community. I've been back to I-Team twice now. It feels strange. I'm definitely an outsider right now, and I'm not sure how badly I want back in. I think that I can show up an go through the motions, but I don't know what it is that I really want. And until I figure that out, it'll be less than ideal.

-Chairman

Lack of Remorse

Hmmm... Hurricane Katrina... makes me think about our Sugar Bowl experience down there a few years ago. And you know what? I think that New Orleans is a dirty little river town that's made it's fortune on the vices of man. Is it okay to root against the folks at Pere Antoine that completely screwed with us? Is it okay to root against what you think is a rather dismal society that's sucked in the poor and uneducated? I'm not sure. It's like being sad that a drug dealer was shot. Or that Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered in prision. We're always sad (and rightfully so) about the bad things that happen to good people. But do we need to be sad when bad things happen to bad people? I mean, the loss of any life can be seen as tragic. But where do we draw the line between something that's truly tragic and something that's almost karma or cosmic justice?

It's probably wrong, but I'm not quite as broken up about New Orleans as I am about the other parts of the region. If there was ever a modern day Sodom and Gemorrah...

-Chairman

Back to the Grind

This is actually an exciting post for me. I think that my knee is back. I've laid off of it for the last 5 or so weeks, just doing some jogging and a little work on the exercise bike, and it's been feeling good. So, I gave it a shot today when I hit the gym. I shot around for a little while (which I have been doing, actually), but then got into a full court game. It felt good, so I matched up against the other team's best player, a decent point guard.

My team had a point man who wasn't much of a passer and was telling people on our squad to shoot (even the bad players), an Asian dude who had jeans on, and a couple kids who were average athletes, but not too tall or very strong. I was easily the strongest player on the floor, and it turns out, the best shooter.

I sort of laid low on offense the first couple of possessions and hoped that the guys would move the rock around. That didn't really happen. I had some great seals on my guy in the post, but never saw the ball. So, I call for the ball, and get my left wing iso against my guy. I love this spot on the floor. I can go right and work for a pull up at the free throw line. I can go left and work for my 14' bank shot. This time I fake left, drive right towards the free throw line. Pull up from 14. Nation. Everything felt good, and I got okay lift on the shot. I thought that I was good to go.

Couple possessions later, same story. Almost the same shot, with the same result. A few possessions later, I cross to the left, but get cut off. One dribble drop step gets me my 14 footer at the free throw line again. All of the shots felt great, and it felt like I had nice lift on all of them. All told, I played pretty good D, only allowing my guy to get two buckets in the half court, both longer J's. I grabbed a few boards, threw a couple assists (would've been more had 1) I been running point and 2) my guys would've been able to hit a 5' jumper). Shot 6 for 9 with all of the misses being in close in the post (strangely enough).

Now the trick is, for the knee to not hurt afterwards. Right now, the legs are a little stiff, but I think that the knee is OK. Both legs are about equally sore, so that means the stress was distributed evenly, which means that I'm not trying to baby the right knee. Which is a good thing.

Let's get some ice on this bad boy, and see where it goes.

-Chairman

Home Improvements

"Really? Where'd you get the bolt cutters?"
"Which park did you get it from?"
"How?"

I like how my friends reacted when they heard that I got a park bench for my room in the apartment. They just sort of assumed that I stole it. Which, I have to say, I am very pleased with. Stealing a park bench isn't a simple task. You have to plan it out well - have the bolt cutters ready, have a truck nearby, have something distract people so that they're looking away. I like the fact that my friends think highly enough of me that they would think that I could pull off something like that. At least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

For the record, I actually bought the park bench and a ceiling fan off at Home Depot, and got them both installed yesterday. Ceiling fans are surprisingly simple to set up. I figured that the odds of me either hurting myself physically or electrically were about even money. I managed to avoid both, though I will say this much... I can see why construction workers curse so much. When you're assembling things, there's just some inevitable task that is completely ridiculous. People who design things never really think it through very well. I managed to reel off a few nice strings of 4-lettered euphemisms regarding product designers and their mothers. But, the fan is installed, and runs great.

First thing that I did after everything was set up? Open up the windows and blinds so I could look outside and have the sun come into the room. The 2nd thing that I did? Popped open a cold can of PBR and sat on my park bench and enjoyed the breeze (from the fan). More importantly, now I can have homeless people stay in the apartment and feel right at home.

Happy Trails

Earlier tonight, I helped Schultzie pack up his moving truck. Big sucker. Lots of stuff, and we filled it up pretty good. Wasn't too bad. Got done in about 3 hours. And got some Papa Del's pizza for our troubles. It was sad, though. Schultzie was someone who I've known for years. Went to church together. Played hoops together every Sunday morning. He was my RB in flag football back in the day. We hung out at Guy's Night (which has become Sanctioned Gambling Night) on Tuesday's for the last 4 years. We've watched many Illini wins and losses together. He's seen me at my highest and lowest points. I stood up in his wedding. And I'll make him rent a tux if I ever get married. I got to play with his newborn son. And tomorrow morning, he drives up to Burlington, Wisconsin to close on his new house and to open a new chapter in his life. Another one of the TFS Extended Family who's headed off for greener pastures. Happy trails, my friend.

Back to School.

Things are moving along. My glorious return to IMPE/CRCE will happen tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I won't die. It's been a few weeks, without much structured work. I've done a good amount of moving, so I've still got some strength, and I've been walking quite a bit, so hopefully the legs are okay. Not a huge week. Need to get some reading and a little write up taken care of tomorrow for class on Thursday. I've got my first day of class for our big freshman Intro to Marketing course, though I'm not really important there. Just need to show. I think that I'll go to the I-Life Fall Rally on Thursday to see what's happening. I really hope that something happens.

-Chairman

Welcome to the Freak Show

Wow. It's been a tiring week. Travel back to the Midwest went smoothly. Moving in was pretty good, too. Things are getting done - just the little things remain. TFS North is more or less functional.

The front room looks nice, though a bit empty... I'm entertaining thoughts of putting in a bar, although it's more likely that we'll be putting in more seating. The kitchen and eating area is pretty organized and pretty much good to go - maybe a few more random pieces of flair to make the place look nicer. The office is good, as well, with the important things set up. I'll need to arrange my books and stuff like that, but all the drilling and nailing is done. The washer and dryer come tomorrow, so the laundry will be set. It looks like CJ is all set up with his room.
The current project is my own room. I'm still not sure how I want to arrange it. I've got more room that I've had the last few years, and I want to take advantage of it. We'll see what ends up happening. In theory, I could put in a bench and a rack, though that may be a little too ambitious... maybe just a pull up bar? Or maybe I'll go the other way and just put in a nice recliner or small couch.

Anyway, I like the new place. Let's see if we can make the same sort of memories out here om 116 that we were able to in 117 (way back in the day) and over at 204.

Just one closing, random thought: that song from like 7 years ago, "Closing Time."

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

-Chairman

Bad Karma

I think that I believe in Karma. I’m not sure how this fits into Christianity, but it works for me. Some of our Armenian friends may think that free will would override Karma, and not like the concept. I suspect that our Calvinist friends would think that Karma may take away from the divine Justice of God, and not like the concept. But for now, I’m going to chalk one up for the Hindus, and find a way to merge Karma into my belief system.

So tonight, I was out in downtown Greenville again, just goofing around. I was at this Irish Pub sort of place called Connolly’s. Fun place. It had a decent act playing – two guys on acoustic who were pretty talented. I just wanted to drink Guinness at the bar and listen to music. The place started to fill up around 11. And up to the bar come two women, a blonde in her late 20’s and a brunette in her 30’s (being kind). The blonde was probably a 5 or so. Not unattractive, though a little dumpy. The brunette was probably a 5, too, but that was mainly because she was older. Twelve years ago, she probably could’ve been a contender. But that was then, and this is now.

They order a Jaeger Bombs, and proceed to down them. I peek over and see the blonde pay for the drinks after digging through the purse, and finding an assortment of bills all crumpled up. Right then, I knew that they were going to start trolling for drinks. When you show up at the bar with little cash, you’re relying on the kindness of strangers. So they just talk for a bit, and the blonde starts dancing around, semi-purposefully bumping into me with her butt. Yep. I was the first attempt. She asks for a light, which I do not have, but it did give her an opening to start talking me up. I find out that she’s Tonya, and her friend is Angie. Great. Somehow, Tonya let it slip that she had a boyfriend. Ding-ding! Dirty women trolling for drinks. Chalk one up for the radar.

So Tonya’s trying to convince me to do shots with them (on my ticket, of course). I’m asking where her boyfriend is. Turns out the gals just went out, and the boyfriend is still at home. Great. So there were two reasons that I wasn’t going to buy her a shot. The first is that I had no interest in her because she wasn’t very attractive. The second is that I’m not in the habit of buying drinks for strangers w/ boyfriends. I decided to be nice and focus on the 2nd reasons, rather than the first.

I explained that I thought that it was bad Karma to buy drinks for some dude’s girlfriend. If I had a girlfriend, I wouldn’t want her trolling the bar for drinks. I think that’s a reasonable policy. Of course, her reply was that she didn’t believe in Karma, that he wouldn’t care, and that it would be okay because she wouldn’t have to make out with me or anything. Which let me play a little bit of the other reason at her. “So why would I buy you a shot if we aren’t going to make out?” She didn’t have a good answer for that one. Basically, I just decided to put my foot down. I had no intention of buying some girl a drink who I knew I wasn’t going to get any action with. It’s one thing for someone to be buying girls drinks if he thinks that he has a shot at her. It’s another for me to be buying some chick who wasn’t all that hot drinks when I don’t even want to take a shot at her.

Of course, this just seems to be the modus operandi for at least a handful of women at every bar. They just stroll in there, expecting guys to be falling over themselves for the chance to buy them a drink. Screw that. There are plenty of other jabrones who will buy those women drinks. I don’t need to be one of those jabrones. And sure enough, a few minutes after Tonya knew that I wasn’t going to buy her a drink, she buys herself a drink, pounds it, and turns to the guy to the other side of her and starts talking. Within 5 minutes, she and Angie were drinking on some poor schmuck’s tab. I got to listen to the band in peace while I sipped on my 2nd Guinness.

The rest of the night was pretty plain. Two more bars w/ bands. One was a pretty standard bar (called The Gathering Place) with a rock band playing (decent), and the other was a dive (called The Bait Shop) with a blues band playing (mediocre, but fun). I capped off the night at a sushi/sake bar, called Wasabi. Excellent snack to end the night – great value at that place. An order of Uni (sea urchin) actually contained two pieces. The order of salmon roe had quite a bit of roe on there. And one of their specialty rolls, the Texas Rainbow Roll was huge – would have filled me up by itself. This huge roll was a Spider Roll about 3 inches in diameter, topped off with a number of slices of salmon, whitefish, tuna, and avocado. Actually, I ended up eating a little too much, as there really was enough for two there.

Well, Saturday figures to be pretty laid back. I’ll probably wash my car and clean out the inside of it. I’ll also probably do a little more running, and may even take a few laps in the pool again. And I’ll do one last load of laundry and pack up the car. I’m going to take off first thing on Sunday morning, and hopefully will be back in Champaign by 6pm. I think that instead of the southern route that I took to get here, I’ll go back to my more customary Knoxville-Lexington-Louisville-Indy-Champaign sequence. With any luck I’ll be able to move in on Sunday night, instead of having to wait until Monday morning. Until then.

-Chairman