The Diagnosis

Well, one thing that I finally figured out today at basketball was that I'm old. I need to get the knees loose before I can actually play. And once they're warmed up, they're okay. So, it was funny - I needed a few minutes on the exercise bike before we got going. I felt like TO out there. All I needed was a bicycle helmet and a Team Discovery jersey.

So, today's game was a lot like last week. Good play, overall. Very solid defense (against a pretty good player who played both inside and outside). Was able to move around. And I even hit a couple spot-up jumpers from the baseline, a couple long jumpers, and even one litle bank shot off the dribble. The downside - I've lost the pull-up. I need to get that back. The funny thing is that I was able to get open in the lane, from about 10 feet. And as I pulled up to shoot, I would get spooked by guys flying at me. Granted, they would fly into me some of the time, but that never used to really bother me. I think that I'm afraid that they're going to crash into my legs. I think that I can get over this in a couple weeks, though.

I was browsing through the Sports Guy's latest post. And I was reminded that Nick Curran was the name of the Michael Douglas character in Basic Instinct. That's hot. Also, Michael O'Donnell was the name of the alleged altar boy that was raped by a Catholic priest in Primal Fear. That's also hot. All I know is that if I ever write a movie, I'm writing all of your names in there as various seedy characters.

Actually, I've sort of done that already. In one of my journal submissions, we have a qualitative piece where we use interview transcripts from our research to tell a story (here, it's the retail shopping experience for low literate consumers). Now, we can't use the real names of our respondents. So, part of my job as the co-author is to clean up the interview transcripts, and to make up names. And that's where you fine folks come in. So people like George, Christian, and Michael have made it into my articles. And future articles will get more of you into the archives of academia. As functional illiterates. How awesome is that?

Now, I'm thinking that it's about time to jump ship on the ol' Reds. Now, a couple times earlier this season, they've swooned, but have bounced back. We'll see if they can do it one more time. They're on probation right now. Maybe things get better if Guardado comes back to close. If not, the Yanks are looking pretty darned good right now. If Mussina comes back healthy, and Unit keeps throwing like he has of late, this team should bring things home. They owned the Tigers, White Sox, and Twins in the second half. And they'll be too good for Oakland (though the A's are probably the 2nd best team in baseball right now).

To close - our Illini are 1-0, after owning... well, Eastern Illinois. I mean, they were ranked 16 in Division I-AA. But a W's a W. Only 5 more wins until bowl eligibility. Instinctively, I figured that we'd have 3 wins. But, if all the breaks fall our way, maybe we can sneak out a bowl bid. Hear me out. We got Eastern. Figure that we get Ohio, as well. We have Rutgers and Syracuse. If we can pull out both of these, we'll have 4 wins. I think that we can get Indiana for Homecoming. And if we don't get both of the Big East teams, maybe we can get a W when Purdue comes to town. Or maybe even at Michigan St. But the game that I figure that we can get Northwestern. Afterall, they've got a rookie coach, after Randy Walker died. I'd like to think that we have a shot against Northwestern, after their coach dies. Ideally, we beat them even with out their head coach dying (after all, it's friggin' Northwestern). But at this point, we take what we can get, right? So, if all the breaks go our way, we may be able to get that bowl game, after all.

Of ocurse, I'm calling the over-under at 3.5. I don't really like our schedule. We need to take a page out of Jim Boeheim's non-conference schedule. We need to get more of those directional MAC schools to come here. No more of these Big East teams that want home and homes. We need to bring in bad teams, pay them $500K, and send them home with a loss. If we set up our non-conference schedule right, we can get 4 W's before the Big Ten season starts, and then need to beat Indiana and Northwestern to get a bowl.

We'll see.

-Chairman

The Follow-Up

Hit the courts yesterday to ball with a bunch of guys from my previously mentioned flag football team. And for the first time in a while, I played ball. And I played pretty well. Good defense, decent rebounding, decent point skills and passing. The only thing that I sucked at? Shooting, oddly enough. It was funny - I had gotten used to being either a spot-up shooter or a post player for the past year and a half. And I was playing ball that was sort of loose, so I was running a lot of point. So, I didn't get any kick-out passes for jumpers. I was the one finding shooters. And if I wanted to score, it was going to be beating people off the dribble. So, I'd set up the little crossover dribble into a pull-up jumper. Only I hadn't shot a pull-up in a long time, so I looked like a special ed kid in gym class (and not the autistic kid that won an ESPY). That's alright. I moved well - the pull-up jumper will come back soon enough. But what was nice was that I was able to play some defense. I was actually tipping passes, making steals, and starting breaks. I guarded some big guys, and pretty much neutralized them.

Today, the legs are a little sore again. The knees are, too. But not in a crippling way that I've been used to. They're sore in a way that I'm used to them being the day after I play ball. This is good. I'll probably try to make it back to the courts some time in the middle of the week for another run.

Goals for next run? Improve defense. Get shooting under control. Dribble penetrate.

Should be obtainable.

Anyway, back to work... sort of.

-Chairman

Who's Marginal? This Guy!

So, I passed my summer paper. But how I passed it was fun. We're judged on 4 criteria. The first three are things like, can you do a good review of the existing literature, do you understand the theoretical issues in the domain, and have you demonstrated creativity in your paper. I passed those with pretty good comments. Now, the last criterion is whether we can effectively communicate our ideas in writing. My result? "Marginal Pass." The best part was the first comment - "Folksy writing style sometimes got in the way." How awesome is that? I'm folksy. I represent the people... if by people, you mean dim-witted mouth-breathers that enjoy Larry the Cable Guy. Git'er Done! That's how I roll. Actually, the critique is an interesting one. I write how I talk. Which is nice here, nice in presentations, but not as hot for journal submissions. I suppose that I'll have to clean up the writing when I start doing it for real. But I passed.

I'm ready to get moving on the dissertation now. This is going to be an interesting year. I'm working for two professors that I really like, my advisor, and a professor that I worked with during my first year. It should be an interesting experience, as I get to sort of see some more of the nuts and bolts that professors go through. I'm seeing how you run a conference from a behind the scenes perspective by communicating with article reviewers, authors, and session chairs. I'm also reviewing some articles for a conference, too. Scary though, isn't it? I'm going to critique the work of other people, and actually have it mean something. But I'm also doing a little web work for my professors' classes, and I'll be an administrator for a little research group of undergrads. It's interesting, and it'll be useful for when I grow up and get a job.

It feels good to have a new school start up. It's the start of number 11 for me out here. It's amazing. The incoming freshmen were in 2nd grade when I first started out here, many years ago. The fun part is that I was playing some volleyball with them last week. And I was actually playing well. I was moving well, passing great, setting alright, and actually hitting the ball well. Bombing it, as a matter of fact. The legs were sore afterwards, but the knees felt alright. Hopefully, they'll stay that way from here on out.

Recently, I've been feeling really good. I've been hitting the gym pretty good, doing some bike work and lifting. I'm actually dominating some of the ab machines in the gym. If I could lose 20 pounds, I bet that you'd actually find some nice looking muscles underneath. But, I've trimmed a couple pounds, too. The diet has been better - I'm getting more fruits and veggies mixed in there. And the big thing has been this mountain bike that I got. I got it fixed up pretty good (well, good enough so that the brakes work, and I won't die). And now, I'm riding around campus, instead of taking the bus or driving. It feels good, even though it's not a real cardio workout. Where it's more important for me is that it's an attitude about how I approach life. It's like I just tell myself that I'm going to be more active, and my body believes it. It's pretty cool.

I think that we'll also be getting some flag football teams together this year. A lot of the folks who played last year are also going to play this year. I think that we'll have a guy's team that's got a shot at doing alright in the playoffs in B. And I think that our co-rec team may be able to make the playoffs. A lot of it is going to be whether or not my legs hold up. If I'm able to get the legs underneath me and throw the ball for real, as well as make some things happen with my feet, then our offense will be solid. Plus, I'll have a better feel for the guys that I'll be throwing to, as well. Last year, we had some issues when we put our fastest guy out wide, only to discover that he didn't know how to catch the deep ball, and was better with plays where the ball was out in front of him (and not above him). Of course, my biggest asset as a QB is that I can throw the 40-40 ball (throw a ball 40 yards, 40 feet up in the air, and just let the receiver run underneath it). So, I'd be throwing good balls to the sideline, he'd be turning in toward the middle, wanting a post-type route. This year, we'll figure out who likes the deep ball, and who likes what routes a little earlier.

One thing that amuses me is that every once in a while, I'll run into some strangers who remember me playing QB against them. And it's always fun. Even the guys that beat us, seem to remember that we were a challenging team to play against because we were organized and had a good offense. And I've even had more than one team try to recruit me to play QB for their co-rec teams (admittedly, I'm a better co-rec QB than a men's QB, since speed isn't as big of an issue for co-rec, since guys can't run across the line of scrimmage, whereas in men's, the QB can just take off and outrun people, if they're fast enough). The other day, I just ran into a guy who played for the team that beat us to go to playoffs last year. It turns out that the two teams that beat us both made the final 8, with one of the teams losing in the finals. We played both squads tough, and were able to move the ball and score on them. They just made some plays that we couldn't match. I think that we'll get them this year.

Reds only 2 games out in the central, and still in the wild card lead, and it's the end of August. If we can survive this West Coast swing, I like our chances.

Anyway, it's time to turn it in.

-Chairman