People's Court, Anyone?

I'm not sure why, but I've been enamored with litigation shows. The Defenders has been a show that I've taken a great interest in lately as well as Judge Judy, Judge Alex, and The People's Court. After watching today's episode of The People's Court, I've noticed the following text at the conclusion of the show:

Both the plaintiff and the defendant have been paid from a fund for their appearance. The amount, if any, awarded in the case is deducted from this fund, and the remainder is divided equally between both litigants. The amount of the fund is dependent upon the size of the judgment.

I wonder if there's any way two people can make out on this deal. My guess is that the size of the fund becomes the judgment, so that noone makes out on any money in the deal. What are your thoughts, and how can we maximize our winnings from The People's Court?

Picking the BCS Bowls

Since I'm not a huge fan of Christmas, my favorite time of year may be the end of the college football season. And even though the game is played with a very poor postseason, it's still fun to see who goes to the big games. To give a refresher, here's the top 15 schools in the BCS according to last Sunday's rankings along with results this weekend if they played.

#1 Auburn -- Def. #19 South Carolina 56 - 17...ouch!...SEC Champion

#2 Oregon -- Def. Oregon State 37 - 20...Pac 10 Champion

#3 TCU

#4 Stanford

#5 Wisconsin...since they're the highest ranked team in the Big Ten (it's really the Big 11, but who's counting?), they're going to be the Big Ten champs.

#6 Ohio State

#7 Arkansas

#8 Michigan State

#9 Oklahoma -- Def. #13 Nebraska 23 - 20...Big 12 Champion

#10 LSU

#11 Boise State -- Def. Utah State 50 - 14...making up for previous shortcomings, eh?

#12 Missouri

#13 Nebraska -- Lost to #9 Oklahoma 20 - 23

#14 Oklahoma State

#15 Virginia Tech -- Def. #21 Florida State 44 - 33...ACC Champion (Go Hokies!)

...

(Unranked) Connecticut -- Def. South Florida 16-13...Big East Champion

My only comment here is that Nebraska is pretty much out of the BCS picture by losing in the Big 12 championship. Now let's look at the selection procedure according to bcsfootball.org. Otherwise, there isn't going to be a lot of leapfrogging going on.

1. The top two teams in the final BCS Standings will be placed in the National Championship Game ("NCG").

Result: NCG -- Auburn v. Oregon...this will be a great game to watch. Go SEC!!!

2. Unless they qualify to play in the NCG, the champions of selected conferences are contractually committed to host selected games:

Atlantic Coast Conference-Orange Bowl
Big Ten Conference-Rose Bowl
Big 12 Conference-Fiesta Bowl
Pac-10 Conference-Rose Bowl
Southeastern Conference-Sugar Bowl

Result: NCG -- Auburn v. Oregon
Sugar Bowl -- (Vacant spot by Auburn) v. ???
Orange Bowl -- Virginia Tech v. ???
Fiesta Bowl -- Oklahoma v. ???
Rose Bowl -- Wisconsin v. (Vacant spot by Oregon)

3. If a bowl loses a host team to the NCG, then such bowl shall select a replacement team from among the automatic-qualifying teams and the at-large teams before any other selections are made. If two bowls lose host teams to the NCG, each bowl will get a replacement pick before any other selections are made. In such case, the bowl losing the No. 1 team gets the first replacement pick, and the bowl losing the No. 2 team gets the second replacement pick. If the Rose Bowl loses both the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions to the NCG, it will receive two replacement picks.

For the games of January 2011 through 2014, the first year the Rose Bowl loses a team to the NCG and a team from the non-AQ group is an automatic qualifier, that non-AQ team will play in the Rose Bowl.

A bowl choosing a replacement team may not select any of the following:

A. A team in the NCG;
B. The host team for another BCS Bowl;
C. When two bowls lose host teams, then the bowl losing the number one team may not select a replacement team from the same conference as the number two team, unless the bowl losing the number two team consents.

Results: Since the Rose Bowl loses a team to the NCG, and TCU is an automatic qualifying team from a non-automatic qualifying conference, the Rose Bowl gets TCU. The Sugar Bowl gets a replacement pick, and they will probably pick Ohio State since they will travel well to New Orleans. To summarize:

NCG -- Auburn v. Oregon
Sugar Bowl -- Ohio State v. ???
Orange Bowl -- Virginia Tech v. ???
Fiesta Bowl -- Oklahoma v. ???
Rose Bowl -- Wisconsin v. TCU

4. After steps No. 1, 2 and 3 have been completed, any bowl with an unfilled slot shall select a team from the automatic qualifiers and/or at-large teams in the following order for the games played in 2007 through 2010:

January 2011 games: Sugar, Orange, Fiesta

Results: Sugar Bowl will choose a SEC team to keep the tradition, so they'll take Arkansas. Unfortunately, the rules have Stanford as an automatically qualifying team in the BCS. So does the Orange Bowl pick Stanford or UConn. Despite Stanford being located across the country from the Orange Bowl site, it'll undoubtedly sell more tickets than picking UConn. So the Orange Bowl (reluctantly) pick Stanford. This leaves Connecticut to the Fiesta Bowl. To summarize:

NCG -- Auburn v. Oregon
Sugar Bowl -- Ohio State v. Arkansas
Orange Bowl -- Virginia Tech v. Stanford
Fiesta Bowl -- Oklahoma v. Connecticut
Rose Bowl -- Wisconsin v. TCU

I hope that there'll be some surprises tonight, but I think this what will probably happen.

Enjoy!

Why Can't We Just Get Along?

I have to write about this topic because the 2009 baseball postseason is a prime example for what I want to talk about. For those who don't know this, I grew up in the borough of Queens in New York City. It's such a large city that there's more than one professional team in the market for each of the four major sports (2 football teams, 2 basketball teams, 3 hockey teams, and 2 baseball teams). Growing up, it's perfectly understandable to pick one team from each sport (assuming you follow all four sports) and stick with that team, no matter how well or poorly the team performs. Most of the time, those choices are determined from your parents (i.e. if your dad's a Mets fan, you're most likely going to be a Mets fan), and that's alright too. Another aspect of being a fan I'm alright with is rooting against the other team during the regular season. For example, as a Met fan, I usually hope that the Yankees don't do well during the regular season.

What I'm not alright with is taking that same attitude into the postseason. At some point, you need to put your personal pride aside and take pride in your city. If both teams make the postseason, not only is it amazing that both teams were good enough for the playoffs, but you can also root for your team in hopes that they win the championship, especially if it comes at the rival team's expense. But it seems selfish that because your team didn't play well enough to make the playoffs that you need to have the rival's team experience some sort of embarassment in the postseason. One thing I enjoyed as a kid was when the Yankees won the World Series a couple of times in the late 90s. You may ask why I enjoyed this when I was a Mets fan, but my answer to that is because Mets fans and Yankees fans were able to enjoy an awesome parade/celebration in Manhattan because NEW YORK won a championship. Even better, New York was guaranteed to have a parade in 2000 because the city fielded teams that were the best in both the American and National League.

So why can't we come back to those times? Is it because people are up in arms about Yankee spending? Didn't they lose the World Series in 2001 and 2003 to small market teams (Arizona and Florida)? Didn't they blow a 3-0 lead in the ALCS to the Red Sox, something that hasn't happened in history until that point? It seems like Yankee fans got their karma the last 8 years, so what's the point in battering them some more? That time period was evidence that spending doesn't correlate strongly with whether you have a World Series ring on your finger or not. An even better question is why are we cheering harder for someone else's demise than for our own success? Believe it or not, baseball is a zero sum game. In zero sum games, there are winners and losers, nothing inbetween. Because of this, you need to take the falls as much as celebrating your successes. For these reasons, I hope many fans think about what they are really rooting for. If they stick to rooting for themselves, then everyone will end up being a winner in some fashion. And if someone else has more success instead of you at one particular moment, then allow them to enjoy their success in their own space and look forward to when your success will come. In essence, why can't we just get along? Why can't we root for NY? LET'S GO NEW YORK!!!

Hey Bulldog

No, this is not going to be a rant on UGA athletics. I like this title because I've acquired a whole bunch of Beatles music, and Hey Bulldog was the first song that's not one of their most popular hits that I've really enjoyed.

Currently, things have been coming along well. I'm doing a LOT of Java programming for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, but I'm a lot happier working with Java programming from scratch than editing FORTRAN code that's far from efficient (using outdated techniques from FORTRAN 77 or something of the like). Plus, I'm understanding the underlying theory a lot more when you're coding up something from scratch like I have been doing. Classes are becoming more interesting as the semester is coming along, but I cannot say whether the switch to Industrial Engineering was a good one or not.

Things on the horizon look very interesting. Timmy and I are going to be going to our first home UT game at night. Finally, the fireworks that have been shot during the other home games can been seen for once. Then, we'll have three weekends in a row of visitors. First, it's two of Timmy's friends from Floral Park. Next comes my mother, which will be anticipated because I haven't seen her in a long time and Georgia's coming into town to take on the Vols. Finally, it's my better half that's coming into town for the second time, and I'll have myself a four-day weekend.

Until next time, keep out of trouble. Go Greyhounds! Go Hokies! and Go Vols!

Settling Well in Knoxville

So it's been about 3 weeks now since Timmy and I have moved down to Knoxville, and it's been a splendid time already! We've attended an Irish festival and a country music concert. Yes, I said country music, but it was a very good concert. Sugarland was a great opening act, but Keith Urban was the one that shook Thompson-Boling Arena (UT's basketball arena, which is an excellent venue). He was so good that I bought my first country album today, which was the album that he released this year (Defying Gravity)!

As for school, classes haven't been taxing thus far. We're into our third week of classes already. I have my research topic, which is a neat one. It's called highway cost allocation, which involves coming up with a fair and rational way of splitting up the cost of rehabilitating, repairing, and/or building a highway among the vehicle classes (passenger cars, two axle trucks, etc.), which are the people who use the highway.

This weekend's going to be an excellent one! Annette's coming in on Thursday morning. Timmy, Annette, and I have tickets to see Sara Evans on Friday. And Saturday's going to be a glorious day. The three of us have tickets to see the season opener for the Volunteers football team, where we'll be in a stadium that holds over 100,000 people!!! Not only do we have some football action at noon in Knoxville, the Hokies will be on national TV against Alabama. I'm hoping for a big win here since it'll be against a top 10 team.

Until later, keep out of trouble folks!

Welcome Back My Friends...

Yes, it's been nearly a year and a half since I last posted to this blog. Many people have abandoned this blog probably, and it's ok. I felt that I had some time on this holiday to bring some people up to speed with what's been going on, especially those I haven't seen in a while!

• I'm heading down this week to the Volunteer State, Tennessee, to look for a place to live. I'm moving down there because I was offered admission into the PhD program in Industrial and Information Engineering at the University of Tennessee, which is located in Knoxville. I'll be funded under a graduate research assistantship, although I may have some grading the first semester I'm there.
• Currently, I'm home preparing for my last teaching assignment at Virginia Tech. It's an online course, which I am looking forward to because online learning is a recent development that has my interest. I shall be learning the pros and cons of this teaching medium over the next few weeks, and I'll be glad to share my experiences with other fellow educators.
• If you weren't aware of it at this point, I got engaged last May to Annette Fidecaro, my college sweetheart. However, the wedding is in the mildly distant future because we do not currently live in the same state (she's working in DC) and I'd like to finish my studies at Tennessee before we start planning. Another bonus in waiting is that a close friend of mine will be receiving his Holy Orders shortly after I earn my PhD, and it would be awesome to have him preside over that special day.
• My AFI journey is still coming along. Last fall, I purchased an Xbox 360 and discovered the power of Netflix. That service has greatly assisted me in the AFI process. I will give an update sometime in the near future with my progress.

Alright, I'm getting somewhat tired with writing at the current moment because I want to get on my bike and enjoy this wonderful weather. Contact me when you have a chance; I'd love to hear what's new with you!

AFI Update

So I talked about my movie binge last post. Here's a more complete update of the films I've seen on the 2007 AFI 100 Years...100 Movies List

Movies I've seen with AFI rankings next to them:
#1 Citizen Kane
#2 The Godfather
#3 Casablanca
#4 Raging Bull
#8 Schindler's List
#9 Vertigo
#10 The Wizard of Oz
#11 City Lights
#12 The Searchers
#13 Star Wars
#14 Psycho
#17 The Graduate
#19 On The Waterfront
#21 Chinatown
#24 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
#25 To Kill A Mockingbird
#26 Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
#32 The Godfather Part II
#33 One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
#34 Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs
#39 Dr. Strangelove
#50 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
#51 West Side Story
#57 Rocky
#66 Raiders of the Lost Ark
#71 Saving Private Ryan
#72 The Shawshank Redemption
#76 Forrest Gump
#83 Titanic
#89 The Sixth Sense
#92 Goodfellas
#99 Toy Story

And I'll keep things posted as we go along. Take care fans.

P.S. You can find the list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI's_100_Years..._100_Movies_(10th_Anniversary_Edition)

Thank The Flu For The Movie Binge

Hello fans,

First, I want to apologize for not posting in quite some time. When I was ready for another post last week, I got smacked with the flu. It began on Monday afternoon and ended sometime between last Thursday afternoon and last Friday. Because I couldn't do much, I figured that it's a good time to catch up on my movies. You can deduce how much time I spent in bed from the list of movies I watched since I was sick.

• The Godfather
• The Godfather Part II
• The Godfather Part III
  
• West Side Story
• Rain Man

After those movies, I was inspired to print out the list of AFI's top 100 movies that was published in 2007, which was the 10th anniversary of the original list. I'm looking to watching most, if not all, of the movies on the list. As of right now, I have watched 22 movies on the list. And I'm only counting those movies where I can recollect at least 2/3 of the movie. So there are some movies that I've seen when I was little and don't remember much, and I have therefore not counted them. Right now, I'm watching Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Most of the ones I watched on the list I really enjoyed, but there are some that I didn't enjoy much. I didn't expect to fall in love with all the movies on this list, but I have grown to appreciate them and understand why they're on the list.

Things in the classroom have been good so far. A challenge I've been facing with is how to deal with the material that I was supposed to cover when I was sick. I think that the class has been able to recover nicely since I was sick, and I've been trying to backfill the material when I can. As time goes on, I consider more and more the possibility of getting a PhD in Statistics Education or something of the like. It's something that I love and want to make a serious career out of it, and there's plenty of time to decide what to do.

As for this weekend, I'm going to watch some more excellent movies. Here's some of the movies that I'm looking to watch over the weekend.

• On The Waterfront
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Scarface
• Silence of the Lambs
• City Lights
• The Graduate

I know it'll be a stretch to watch all of those movies, but I can try. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Awake....somehow

Unfortunately, it's Monday. Back to waking up at 8 in the morning, going to morning class, and doing all sorts of work throughout the day. At least the weekend was not as bad as it looked on Friday.

As I was driving to WV to spend the weekend and a B&B with my lady, my car's "check engine" light was periodically going on and off. When I was roughly 60 miles away from Blacksburg, I realized that it was not worth the risk. So I turned around and put my car in the shop. There's a part that needs to be replaced, so I won't have it back until mid-week. Because of this, Annette came down and spent the weekend in Blacksburg as well. We went to Walmart a billion times, and I don't really know why. We ate some awesome food, especially at Mac & Bob's in Salem and the Meditarranean Restaurant on Main St. nest to Moe's. Be warned though that the food in that place can give you some terrible gas. I'll leave it at that

We saw Dan in Real Life on campus, and it was a great movie and better than my above average expectations. It reminded me of his serious role in Little Miss Sunshine, and part of Michael on "The Office". Also, I was supposed to keep it as a surprise for WV, but we watched season 7 of "The King of Queens". I think there's about 3 more episodes we didn't see, so I'll have to get season 8 before I head up to WV in March, which is when we rescheduled the trip for.

Ok, I need to stop typing, make lunch, and get to my 9:05 class. Hopefully, my frequency of posting is making some people happier ;-D Peace out.

Because The People Want It

It was brought to my attention that I should post on a more frequent basis. And if people want more posting, then they shall receive more posting. So here goes...

The first week of the semester is coming to a close, and it's been a pleasant one. Classes don't seem to be much harder than the ones from last semester. And teaching is the best thing ever...at least for me it is. It seems like the students enjoy my mildly crazy teaching style, or they're wide awake from eating lunch before class. In any case, I had them do a mini assignment where they basically introduce themselves to me in the form of a very short bio. There's a lot of interesting people in my class, but I rather not share because of confidentiality issues. So trust me that I have an interesting group of students. I've been telling some people that I have the best job in the world, and I mean that because this is what I'm looking to do with my life.

Besides that, I'm about ready to call it a night. After my 9:05 class, I begin to head up to DC to enjoy a three day weekend with my lady. I was worried that I couldn't make the trip between the snow we got today and my car temporarily acting up. I'll probably be helping her spruce up her new apartment, and I'll relax some while I have the chance to. Maybe I'll knock out a chunk of Eldest, which is shaping up to be yet another great book. Yes, I'm sticking to my word that the Inheritance Series is better than Harry Potter. Eragon doesn't even need his dragon to take care of that whiny brat. To Harry Potter fans, I'm sorry if I offended you.

Even better than this three day weekend is going to be my Bed and Breakfast endeavor with my lady in West Virginia next weekend. I would like to do some hiking in one of the national forests that are adjacent to the B&B, and I would like to spot some bears in the forests. I'll make sure to take some pictures.

Good night and good luck.

Twas the Night Before a New Semester...

So 9:05 tomorrow morning marks the beginning of a new semester. Last semester was a pleasant one. I was introduced to graduate work and the duties of a TA. I'm pleased that I was able to handle the work well, and as a result, the bar gets placed a little bit higher. The courses are going to be slightly more challenging, and this will be the first semester that I'm teaching a full course.
Nonetheless, I am very excited to embark on this journey. At the end of the journey, I'll be presented with one of the hardest tests I will ever take...the qualifying exam. 12 hours over 3 days of testing what I learned during this academic year. I think that I can come out victorious, but it will come with some hard work and dedication. Also, I hope that I'll be a great success in leading 120 engineers to appreciate statistics.
Before I hit the sack, I'm going to write up another homework assignment and enjoy some bedtime tea. Until then, auf wiedersehen.

Let's Check The Scorecard

Let's see how well I succeeded in my list from last blog. Comments are in bold

• A moderate amount of sleep. This one should be easily attainable. Great success.
  
• Finish Final Fantasy XII. Failed.
  
• Play Guitar Hero on the surround sound. Failed.
  
• Annoy my father. Again, this should be easily attainable. Great Success.
  
• Read at least one page of Wicked, with the hopes of finishing the book. This one may be tough. 10 pages, so great success.
  
• Annoy my stepmother. Another easy task. Great success.
  
• See one of my roommates from Loyola, Kevin. Not only would I get to see him and hang out, but I can get a pair of sneakers I left there over the summer. Great success.
  
• Bust open my saxophone. It's been collecting dust since I'm not playing at Virginia Tech.
• Find a way to watch the VT/UVA game if it's not on national TV. Great success!
  
• Exercise. I don't know if this will be easy or hard yet. Got sick, so failure.
  
• Study something that pertains to statistics. This one may be very difficult. Does thinking about it count? That's your call.

So not so bad for a list of goals. I'll write more when I'm feeling better and when I don't have so much work to do.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

So this is my first winter in the mountains, and the climate decided to give me a nice warm welcome with some flurries and lots of wind. According to some students, people have been knocked down by the wind, so it seems like the best strategy is to stay indoors and to avoid wind tunnels. Let's see how that works out.
Yesterday, I cooked dinner for one of my neighbors because she turned 22 today. There was gnocchi (Italian dumplings) with roma tomatoes, kalimata olives, and smoked mozzarella. For dessert, I made Italian cheesecake, which is cheesecake with ricotta cheese instead of cream cheese. Both of those things came out wonderfully, so it was a good night. The interesting part was that I woke up around 2:30AM with everything on. I didn't even know I went to sleep. The good part of waking up then was that I got to seize the chance of moving my car from the parking meters into a good spot in front of my building. If you live or have seen Blacksburg, you know how horrendous parking is. For the Loyola folks, parking at the FAC was better than this situation.
Tomorrow's going to be an awesome day because it's the last day of classes before Thanksgiving break. I'm going to NY for the break, but I'm not going to be doing much. I want to spend the first couple of days not thinking about grad school, but that will probably fail. And then I'll get myself ready for an exam that I have when I come back. It's the 3rd of 3 long-winded exams. I've averaged 2 hours and 37 minutes on the first two exams, so I'm expecting the third one to be a long one as well. The good news is that I feel like I'm grasping more and more of the material as time passes, and it showed when I did better on the second exam than the first. Ok, I'm done with geek talk.
Saturday's going to be interesting because there's a football game because I've noticed that a lot of people are leaving town tomorrow or Saturday morning. Will the stadium be filled with 60,000+ screaming fans? I hope so. The only game that matters now is next Saturday at Virginia (grrrrrr). At least my mom will enjoy Saturday's game because she wants to annoy her neighbor, who's a big University of Miami fan.
Since the break's coming very soon, here's some goals that would be nice to accomplish. And if I forget, I can come back to this post to check. I'll take any suggestions for adding to the list.

• A moderate amount of sleep. This one should be easily attainable.
• Finish Final Fantasy XII.
• Play Guitar Hero on the surround sound.
• Annoy my father. Again, this should be easily attainable.
• Read at least one page of Wicked, with the hopes of finishing the book. This one may be tough.
• Annoy my stepmother. Another easy task.
• See one of my roommates from Loyola, Kevin. Not only would I get to see him and hang out, but I can get a pair of sneakers I left there over the summer.
• Bust open my saxophone. It's been collecting dust since I'm not playing at Virginia Tech.
• Find a way to watch the VT/UVA game if it's not on national TV.
• Exercise. I don't know if this will be easy or hard yet.
• Study something that pertains to statistics. This one may be very difficult.
  

So there's my laundry list of goals. As you can see, I've played it safe with the difficulty, so I can feel good about my self if I can knock out most or all of that list. Back to some Guitar Hero and reading before going to sleep.

Good fight; good night.

New Stuff And A Realization

So today I went to Old Navy because I've been wanting a pair of corduroys for the longest time, and I realized something in the dressing room that's been very depressing and frustrating. All the work I put into losing the weight over the last two years seems to have disappeared completely. The difference between the time I put on the weight sophomore year of college and now is that I've been eating more fruits and vegetables and less crap, yet I still manage to put on the weight. Again, I find myself going with the Jon Celso system of learning where I have to do something stupid to learn a lesson.
After arguing (with some listening) with my girlfriend, I've managed to commit to myself and my readers that I'm going to get back on track starting now. I'm going to track what I eat, Weight Watchers style, and finding a new workout plan. I've been going to the gym on occasion at VT, but I need to find a more consistent schedule that I can execute, regardless of how much homework I encounter. And this is something the I will be doing, not wishing that I was going this.
I also needed some new footwear because my boots have soles on the bottom, and my sneakers have paper-thin soles, along with a hole on the side of my right sneaker. Now I'm ready to hike and exercise with dry, warm feet.
On another note, I want to let everyone know that I had an awesome weekend with my lady. We went to the VT/Florida State game on Saturday, and we were happy that we held out in the freezing cold after the 20-point fourth quarter. The next day, we hung around campus and spent some time with James, a fellow first-year student, and his wife. I believe that this was the first time that two married (or close to married) couples hung out, but note that I don't have much of a long-term memory. Because Monday was a federal holiday, I got to spend another day with the most wonderful woman in the world. We returned Evan Almighty to Blockbuster, which we both felt was a very good movie, and we had lunch at Gillies, the vegetarian restaurant in Blacksburg. They make a mean quesadilla and a meaner vegetarian chili. Unfortunately, my lady had to leave me, so she could go to work on Tuesday, an idea that I thought was silly. And after she left, I had a very difficult time sleeping because the bed contained one, not two this time. Even after watching a crappy movie, Dead Man on Campus, I still could not fall asleep. I only got four hours of sleep after falling asleep at 5 AM, but I made it through the day strong.
Tomorrow, I get to present a group project for SAS class, the final assignment and the final class. I am very psyched because I am sick and tired of going to a class that I learned almost nothing in. And the other two days before Thanksgiving break seem to be very easygoing. I'm ready to go home and see my parents, although they're probably ashamed that I've put on more weight since I last saw them. The break poses as a great opportunity to get myself back on track because I'm still transitioning between undergraduate and graduate studies. Many a time I doubt myself that I'll even get my Masters degree because I doubt my abilities sometimes, especially when I hit a speed hump every now and then in the form of a difficult exam or a strenuous homework assignment.
Hopefully, I have brought everyone in internetland up to speed on what I have been up to. Perhaps the next email will discuss some success, whether it be on the scale or on the transcript. Auf wiedersehen.

One More Week Before Thanksgiving!!!

First off, Happy Friday to everyone. My 12th week of classes has been a pretty good one for the most part. I had an exam in Regression & ANOVA yesterday, and the exam was so long that we had to move to another classroom to finish it! Two hours of frustration, and I came out of it feeling good about myself. I'm excited for my lady to come down this weekend, so we can enjoy the football game together, as well as hanging out around Blacksburg.
Also, I feel good that I'm one guitar battle away from beating Guitar Hero III on hard after getting the game on Monday. And I'm excited to play Guitar Hero with my lady this weekend because I have two guitars now. I'm also exited to plug my PS2 into the surround system at home when I come up to NY next Sunday.
Tonight kicks off the first basketball game for the men's squad against Elon. I'm looking forward to seeing some potentially good games against Maryland, Duke, Boston College, Georgia Tech, GW, and may others. But I'll note that rivals.com has Loyola ranked more than 50 places higher than VT this season. However, the ACC is much harder than the MAAC. And football's still going on right now. Florida State's looking to spoil our chances at making the ACC championship after they spoiled BC's hopes of making the BCS championship last week.
Now I must go and drop off some cookies at a friend's place and pick up season 1 of The Muppet Show from another friend of mine. I apologize for talking about sports so much, but it's exciting!!! I promise that next post won't be as sporty as this one, and if I lie, please send official letters of complaint to me.

First Quick Post

Hello, world! This is my latest attempt at sharing my experiences and thoughts with all of my friends. The reason I started this is because I got tired of posting the same (or close to the same) story on everyone's Facebook wall. So if anyone's interested in what I'm up to, they can check the blog.

I'm not going to say much right now because I want to leave my office, grab some food, and relax in my room before starting to study for my Regression & ANOVA exam tomorrow morning.