Another Century, Another Cubs Curse

Well, the Cubs were swept out of the postseason once again. The gap between World Series victories has widened to 101 years. It's the worst I've ever seen a baseball team perform in the playoffs. It wasn't just that they got swept; they lost in spectacular fashion. They couldn't pitch, hit, field, and probably had trouble tying their own shoes. At least hockey starts next week, but I'm not so sure if that's going to be much better. Maybe the Bills can keep winning. I wouldn't count on it, though.

Cubs Win! Bills Win?

The Cubs clinched the central division this weekend after beating the St. Louis Cardinals twice. Now it's time to rest the big guys for--hopefully--a World Series run. This is the best chance I think they've had in 100 years. It's certainly their best team in the past 50 years. But I'm not getting my hopes up. My teams have a way of disappointing me in big games. I am a Cubs, Sabres, Bills, Bonas fan after all.

Speaking of the Bills, what's with this 3-0 stuff? Since when have we been good? I wish I could have watched the games these past few weeks. I've been tracking the games on NFL.com's Gameday program. I'm getting a steady paycheck now, so maybe I'll spring the $30 to listen to them on the radio.

And I might as well mention the Sabres while I'm here. They've started their mandatory training camp this past week and even unveiled their new third jerseys. They look pretty nice. They mix the old classic logo with the new, deep blue colors. They even have the old timey draw strings on the front. They may not be a good team this year, but at least they'll look good.

Please leave me comments. I enjoy reading them. I'll keep everyone posted on what's going on and when I plan on making a trip home. Talk to you soon!

ZambraNo-Hitter

Wow!

Carlos Zambrano throws a no-hitter...and I didn't get to see it. I was too busy reading stuff for class that I forgot the game was on WGN. What can I say? I'm a bad fan.

Stupid school making me do work.

Anyway, go Cubs!

(I did watch an hour long recap on MLB.com, so I guess I'm not all that bad of a fan.)

I'm a geek

Well, today I finally figured out that I deserve to be in a Ph.D. program. We were assigned a text to read in class that is pretty rare. The professor couldn't order it because it has gone out of print, but he still wanted us to write a five page response on the material for Tuesday's class.

Everybody scoured the internet, but there are only a few copies available. We all searched Amazon.com, Abebooks.com, Borders, and even eBay. I think there were five copies total. Some people decided to place a rush order it, but--being poor--I couldn't pay the $30 the websites were asking, nor did I think the copies would arrive in time for Tuesday's class.

So, I felt a sudden urge to hunt down a text on my own. Sharing is fine and all, but when I read I like to make notes all over the page. For some reason I just can't take notes on a separate piece of paper. I knew our library didn't have it, but I decided to check some of the other local colleges. Luckily, I kept my password for the University of Pittsburgh library archives from when I taught in Bradford. I searched Pitt's network of libraries and found the ellusive book in the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown library. This was just a pure fluke; not even Carnegie Mellon had this book. I jumped into the car at drove fifty miles to Johnstown to find my Holy Grail. I yanked the book off the shelf, made photocopies of the pages I needed, told the librarian "thanks," and rode off into the sunset.

I wasn't until I got back that I had the following revelation: as an undergrad, and even as a masters student, a road trip would consist of going someplace fun. I got the same thrill hunting down a rare book that I used to get making a trip to Toronto to watch a baseball game. What has happened to me?

I'll take that degree now, Mr. IUP President.

Yikes.

Hello again,

I thought I would take a minute to post a few pictures so everybody could get some sort of idea about where I am. The following pictures are are just of Indiana and IUP. I didn't take these myself; I just found them on Google. Enjoy!

This is the Oak Grove. It's basically the heart of the campus. The English building (Leonard Hall) is situated in it--though you can't see it here.

This is Sutton Hall. It's the largest building on campus. It's only four stories tall, but it's splawling. I got lost many a time in it already. It's a palace.

Of course I have to put one of the many bars into my collection. There are several (most better than this one), but this is the only one I could find online. Still a nice place, though.

Here's an overhead shot of most of campus. It actually extends a bit beyond the picture in all directions. I just thought it was neat, so I put it in here.

This is one of the many historical buildings in town. I'm not really sure what it is, but it looks nice (maybe it's town hall?).

This is a neat building. It's actually the national headquarters for S&T Bank. It's ginormous (yes, I made that word up).

Well, that was a quick look at some of what Indiana has to offer at least in terms of architecture. I'll put more pictures up when the fancy strikes me. I hope to have another post later this week for everybody. See you all then!

Sorry for the Delay

Hi Everybody!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated my blog. I've been pretty busy this first week trying to finish all of my readings. One of my classes meets every Tuesday and Thursday, and this week we had to read a 200 page novel in just two days. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much the last couple days.

I'm still working on uploading pictures into the blog. Actually, I have already figured out how to do it, but I need to take some pictures to post. I'll probably do it this weekend since I have about a day and a half in which I don't have to read too much (yeah right, I wish).

With regards to Kaeli, I've been checking my phone, but I didn't see a call from you. There was about a 12 hour period this last week when my phone wasn't working. (I think dad forgot to pay the bill ; )

Hey! I also got my Graduate Assistantship assignment this week. I'll be working with Dr. Kuipers. I'm not sure what I'll be doing yet. I have a meeting with him today at 4:15, so I guess I'll find out then.

Talk to everybody soon. Keep leaving me comments. I like to read what everybody has to say.