David's Tangled Thoughts

I'm a Jeopardy watcher... at least I watch it whenever I can. This summer, my two neighbors and I watched the show and saw Ken Jennings emerge from obscurity. Jeopardy had recently changed their rules and now allow champions to return as long as they keep on winning. Previously, a champion could only come back to complete five episodes. For the rest of the summer, we kept track of Ken Jennings to see how he would do. It was amazing that this guy was going on for so long. Then the end of summer came and the show ended its season... so Ken was going to come back. Well, I never thought that he would have lasted this long but tonight the end came for him. On his 75th episode, he missed the question allowing Nancy Zerg to win. The answer was, "Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar workers work only four months a year." Mrs. Zerg wrote, "What is H&R Bock?" which was correct. At that point, she was one dollar ahead of Ken. Ken still had a chance t

President and Mrs. Peter McPherson request the pleasure of you, the graduating student, at a Reception for Fall Semester Graduates of Michigan State University on Monday, November 29, 2004 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at Cowles House A few weeks ago, I got this invitation in the mail. Although, I only know of one other person who is graduating with me, I wasn't sure that I would be comfortable at this event. Surely Liz would not be going. Yet, I had this nagging feeling that I should go. This was an opportunity that only comes once. I would have a chance to actually go to President McPherson's house and meet him in person. Even if I knew no one there, I thought that I should give it a go. Sometime last week, I asked Liz if she was planning to go. She said that she did plan on going, but we didn't really make any plans to go together. More likely, we were just going to meet up with each other should we decide to go. At that time, I was still not committed to going. Then th

I had called Dad on Tuesday to see if he would have liked to come up early on Wednesday to hopefully beat out the snow that would be coming. It was supposed to turn over from rain to snow around noon but I thought that if we started out earlier, it wouldn't be as bad. Instead, he came at 2 and we went to Sparrow Hospital. I don't understand why he wanted to pay my hospital bills in person. So we didn't end up getting on the highway until 3.

Stopped on I-94 As soon as we got on the highway, I knew that it was going to take a while to get home. I didn't, however, expect to take as long as it did. On I-94 from just before Battle Creek to quite a ways after Kalamazoo, traffic was horribly congested. It was most horrible by the cities. In the picture above, traffic was actually at a stand still. One car who was directly in front of us, broke down and the people had to push it off the road. Also, whenever we did move, we had to negotiate broken sheets of ice.

We stop for a rest... I can pretty much guess that Dad was getting sick of being on the road. So we got off twice when we got the chance. Dad needed a nap so we stopped at Meijer where he took a nap. I went inside to buy... paper clips? For some reason, I got sent in for paper clips. I took my time though so he could catch a few more z's. Then we also stopped by Arby's. It had been a long time since I had an Arby's roast beef sub. Damn, that was a good sandwich. Once we got to Berrien County and I-94 widened, the road became clear and we were making good speed. But then we had to slow again on Cleveland, a local road.

The aftermath... After such a long and horrible drive, in the morning, I woke up to this scene. What the hell? I thought that crap was supposed to melt! Still it looked pretty good for being the first snow. Although we didn't celebrate Thankgiving this particular day, we did postpone the food until the next day.

The End of Thanksgiving Day 

Well the NBA finally made some good penalties to the players involved in that fight during the Pistons/Pacers game. Ron Artest of the Pacers especially got what was coming to him. That punk ass was suspended for the rest of the season. As moronic as those players were, I wish that something could happen to the fans. Their behavior was just as crappy. Yet even with that kind of behavior, players should never ever enter the stands.

Thanks Liz. She allowed me to use her account for access to the cafe computer. Then I was able to send these plus some other pics to myself.

3 of my opponents 

Britt 

Crystal, Maria, and Missy 

Another group pic 

The Cafe put together bowling night for student worker appreciation. I wasn't planning to go but Mario stopped me during dinner and convinced me to go. Free pizza and unlimited bowling. How can I say no to that especially when there was only CSI on TV tonight? I got on a team with Michele, Rachel, Bryant, and two others whose names I can't think of at this moment. We played two games. I peaked when I got there and went downhill. Now, this is only the fifth time that I've actually gone bowling. Well, it would be the third, if you don't count the two times that I did in 2nd grade. Last year, when I did it, I scored 78 and 84. This year I managed 103 and 91. So that's not a bad improvement is it? I wanted to take some pictures but didn't. But I will try to get some copies that was taken with the cafe camera. So expect those within a few days.

Housing and Food Service and the Office of Study Abroad got together to put on foreign themed dinners. It started yesterday and will end tomorrow. Phillips did Italian yesterday, Middle Eastern today, and will do Spanish tomorrow. So last night they served tiramisu as the main Italian desert. I was excited. I have always liked tiramisu. I first had it during one of my birthday dinners at Olive Garden a long time ago. When my family goes out, it is a great rarity that my parents will buy desert. But this particular time they did, and really liked it. The thing was cool and creamy and moist. The coffee added a nice kick of flavor. While I was in the Philippines for study abroad, there was a small restaurant tucked way back in a residential district. It was one of those places that people would only know through word of mouth. Anyways, once I found out that this restaurant existed, I found some comforts of home there. One of the things they had there was tiramisu. Yesterday, I ma

I will never miss a moment to embarrass myself. This morning, when I got into work, I saw that the new computers were installed. I turned my on and there were slight differences on the bootup. An icon that looked like a stop light was blinking. An early windows alert that popped up during the bootup said that my virus definitions were not up to date. I thought that this might be another security alert. So I clicked on it. Nothing happened. Chris got a call and I thought nothing of it. He then passed the call on to me. It was the desk sergeant. Apparently, the stoplight icon was a sort of "panic button." They were put on alert and called up asking if we were having some sort of problem. So admitted that I pushed the button without knowing what it was. I apologized with my face probably looking beet red. I'm still nervous as that icon lies right next to the "Start" button.

My last game. Well Saturday was my last football game that I will see in Spartan Stadium. There is a small chance that I may see one in the future. But that's a lot of hoping that I return here for post-grad work. But it's hope. Given that Wisconsin is the #1 team in the Big Ten right now, I didn't think MSU had a chance. If only my last game could be great... Today's game was a late game with kickoff at 3:30. So the stadium lights were already lit by the time we got there. It was going to be dark in about two hours anyways. I thought we had got there pretty early but there was a large crowd. We all gave Brian our vouchers and let him cut a way through the crowd. When we got to our seats, we were pretty high up. Not that I mind, I may be farther away, but I can see the formations better. It got pretty crowded on my row. Another group of people were sitting right next to me. Apparently another group that they knew found them and they tried to squeeze them i

(AP Photo/Al Goldis) Wisconsin scored the first touchdown and I prepared myself for a long sobering game. Yet MSU came in for a touchdown to tie plus one more to lead 14-7. Then Wisconsin ties it up for 14-14. The picture above probably shows the turning point in our game. With only inches to go that would have put Wisconsin in the lead, the Spartans stop them. From then on out it was all us. Seeing Drew Stanton come back was something that I didn't expect. In fact, I was a bit pissed when they did bring him in. We were winning. Why was coach Smith messing with a good thing? But in he came and he played very well. Something that I hadn't seen since I was a freshmen occurred that night. Without any prompting, the student section divided itself into two groups and shouted, "Go Green! Go White!" at each other. I think, in that game, we did all of our cheers including, "We want a touch down. We want one now..." Even at the end, with Wisconsin bound t

Victory! With a win like that, we were all excited. We had just fucked over Wisconsin and their chances for the Rose bowl. Even though this win keeps our hopes for a bowl bid alive (assuming we win against Penn State and Hawaii,) I think all of us were just excited that we won against this seemingly undefeatable team.

Scoreboard: Spartans-49; Wisconsin-14 

Last moments... So this was it. My last game. I don’t think I could have asked for a better game. For me, this was the perfect culmination of all my good experiences here at Spartan Stadium. All the cheers, the excellent plays, Air Force ROTC, day and night games, the chilly and warm weather, and so on. I hope that all of it is burned into my memory.

Us watching the postgame One of the things that I appreciated about my company shown here, was that they always were there till the bitter end. Most people that I knew would leave as soon as they got an idea how the game would end. Not these people. No, they stayed even for the post game show. I closed my night to “The Rubberband Man,” the fight song and “MSU Shadows.” Thanks for the memories.

Scott Peterson It's a good thing there was a jury that could connect the dots! 1st Degree Murder (Laci): Guilty 2nd Degree Murder (child): Guilty 1st Degree Murder w/ special circumstances (Laci): Guilty With the special circumstances, that makes Scott Peterson eligible for the death penalty. Whether that is metted out for him is something we will have to wait for. The jury goes into the penalty phase next week.

Stadium Addition Spartan Stadium has been undergoing some construction work to put on an addition. In the event that you are a stranger who happened to stumble on to this site here's the pitiful story: Spartan Stadium has a bowl. When you look at the picture, the bowl is the lowest section. That extends the whole way around except for at the north section where it dips by about 1/3. I believe it was back in the 50's when they decided to the upper section which is the second section that you can see. These are the "wings" of the stadium located on the west (the one in the pic) and east side of the stadium. When I first came here, I will admit, I have seen better looking stadiums. You know... ones that actually look like bowls. But the wings made our stadium look pretty unique. Now, they've decided to put another addition. They've got a brick building that will integrate with the western wing. Although I give them some credit for making the addition

Arafat 1929-2004 Yasser Arafat had flown to France a while ago to be hospitalized. Reports have floated around saying that he had died, only to be retracted a few hours later. Most people, however, knew that this guy was approaching the end. Finally, a couple hours ago, it appears that he has actually died. Now that he has finally died, I think it will be interesting to see how the power dynamics in Palestine will be shifting. I admit, I don't know what his death is going to do to affect the relationship between the Palestinians and the Israelis and their relationship to the Americans. Perhaps more importantly, how is the Palestinian leadership going to handle their people? Will the system that is in place now fail without Arafat? As I write, I am looking at live pictures of Palestine from CNN. Right now, the area is waking to this news. What are they thinking? What are they feeling? While I don't particularly mourn this person, I will certainly not celebrate it eit

Click the picture for a better view. Well it took them long enough, but they've finally upgraded my account.

Yesterday I wrote congratulatory letters for winners of the local election in Rep. Nitz's district. As I was going through the list, I got a couple surprises. It turns out that Briana Doyle was elected as a trustee for Galien Township. What the hell? I'm sorry but I can not imagine Briana being elected to public office. Briana? Politics? Believe me, those two words do not belong in the same sentence. Still congrats to her, I guess. It's Galien, the world won't come to an end if she does something wrong. And for the first time, I'm glad my parents live in Weesaw township despite the Galien address. The other surprise is that my Aunt Julie was elected as a trustee as well but for Berrien Township. I wonder why she didn't tell me that she was running for office. Plus, she never seemed to express interest in politics. I would have thought she would have said something since I'm working at the capitol. She got a little note from me though.

It went to hell... With QB Drew Stanton out, I thought that our football season was flushed down the toilet. Let's face it, he was the primary reason that we got a boost of confidence when he replaced Dowdell earlier in the season. Since Stanton separated his shoulder in last week's UofM game, I've been wondering how well Dowdell would play. Within the first few minutes of the game, OSU scored two touchdowns and a fieldgoal. Dowdell practically threw it to a Buckeye for a turnover! A lot of us in the student section were yelling to take Dowdell out and put in Reaves. Not only that but Brian and some others were yelling for Coach Smith to, "open the fucking playbook!" It was 17-0. When the second quarter came, Dowdell and the rest of 'em put their game on. A touch down and four field goals put us at 17-19. We were excited. We were pumped. We were going to win! Not so fast... with only a few minutes left, OSU gets a touchdown. Now it is 25-19. Okay f

I took a couple days to enjoy the euphoria of having my candidate win so it took me a little while to get to this. The night of Nov. 2nd, I went to the election party that was being held in Mason cafeteria. They were promising raffle prizes. Not being the one to turn down a raffle nor free food, I went. Besides, I wanted to see how the others here were going to take it. I brought my laptop down with me so that I can get updates on the election through the internet. The net also allowed me to choose what info that I wanted to see. For example, I could watch the returns for an individual state. I was with mostly democrats but there were some groups of republicans that came though. I got to talk with a few people who were interested what info I could look up with the computer. One guy in particular was ancy about the returns of the key states of Florida and Ohio. It toward 12am when I called it quits. The pop, chips, and icecream were gone. I had won a $10 gift card to Beaner'

Today I voted. I would have voted a straight ticket, but there were a couple dems I put in. One was Joel Ferguson to the MSU Board of Trustees. Aside from Cavanaugh, I decided to reelect the sitting judges. Two of the positions weren’t even contested! I voted “no” on the two state proposals and on the one local proposal. Prop 1 wanted to bring up a state-wide vote whenever new gambling was proposed. I believe that gambling issues are appropriately vested in the legislature and I think it should stay that way. Prop 2 would have Michigan recognize only heterosexual marriage. I accept the opposition’s assertion that this proposal is overly broad and potentially sweeping in scope. The local prop would like to up taxes a little to subsidize elderly transportation. I voted “no,” because I don’t own land and have an aversion to raising taxes. Interested to know how I to know I voted? Well, if you are interested: President George Bush U.S