A Tuesday Blog

I "finished" writing my only final today (for the class I'm taking). Now, I only have to grade about 45 final exams before I'm free (to work on my thesis) for Winter break. The one final that I did write was about a video game, Fallout 3. The problem with writing about video games is that it makes me want to play video games. So, I spent the second half of my day playing Penny Arcade's OTRSPD Episode 2.

Santa Ski 2008 was a good time. Despite my comment in Inaugural Blogural, if you're reading this, then you probably weren't there. We had a pretty low turn-out this year: 8 people, and never more than 7 at a time. I don't know why we couldn't get a larger crowd to hang around a lake in the middle of December. Must be the "lake snow effect" or the lake-effect snow, which does actually exist. So kudos go to Austin for being right about that (though I don't think he had the whole concept down). But even more kudos go to the people who ignored the lake snow effect and actually showed up. Of course, Stew, Byron, Bryan, and Travis get the most kudos for actually skiing in 40-some degree water.

As usual, we fried way more food than necessary. This year, we added fried pickles and fried cheese that were especially good. We're still working on a dessert.

Also, this happened:

That's not a particularly important picture, but I'm just trying to figure out how pictures work on this new blog. (It turns out I can't publish them from Microsoft Word like I was hoping. Actually, posting pictures is considerably more annoying than I'd expected, so don't expect too many.) Also, it's the only one I have until Jenny posts her pictures somewhere.

It's been a few days for UNC sports, especially considering the men's basketball team didn't play.

The football team is going to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, which works out nicely. They're playing West Virginia.

Also, the women's soccer team won its 19^th NCAA title in 27 years, which is a pretty good percentage. I wrote a story on their coach Anson Dorrance a couple years ago that you can find here. (I think you'll have to register with The Franklin Times website to read that, though.) He was interesting.

The men's soccer team plays Wake Forest in a semifinal match Friday at 5:30 on ESPN2. I'll probably watch it with beer. You're welcome to join.

For anybody who didn't watch MNF last night, the Panthers looked strong, especially their running game.

There is a new episode of "The Guild" available. If you have five free minutes, you might want to check it out. It has an odd and abrupt ending, but I assume that'll make sense after the next episode.

Question of the Day:

Which college football bowl game are you most excited about?

My take: Probably the Fiesta Bowl between THE Ohio State University and Texas. But I'm also looking forward to the national championship between Florida and Alabama. Tebow is fun to watch. Plus, he might have a new Heisman by then.