I Miss My Dog

I guess the old adage is true...time flies when you're having fun. The year is quickly coming to a close, and there's nothing I'm looking forward to seeing more than...my dog. I will confess my undying love for my puppy, Aiden, in this post. Throughout my lifetime, I've went through my phases of pets...several fish, a (really cool) cat, an iguana, and last, but definitely not least, a dog. Each pet definitely had its own unique quality - except fish, I think fish are most pointless and stupid pets ever. Ultimately, I really do believe dogs are the best companions, both mentally and physically. In raising a puppy, you have to learn responsibility, they keep you active, and of course, the unconditional love doesn't hurt (and they're much less of an investment than actual children!) Every time I see one of those seeing eye dogs around campus, I get really excited...hopefully in the near future I'll get off-campus and bring Aiden up to Ithaca. She's half German Shepherd, so I think she'd be good for fending off any of the creepers which seem to wandering Ithaca...

RE: Evaluation: Lacrosse

This is in response to Tyler's post evaluating the great sport of lacrosse. After being cut from the basketball team year after year in high school, I decided to try my skills in the game of lacrosse, and went on to play for my school's varsity team for three years (wooo Vikings!!). Unfortunately I was not motivated enough this year to try out for Ithaca's team, however I completely second Tyler's claim that "The game has so much to it such as speed, finesse, strength, power, agility, concentration, hand eye coordination, and much more." Lacrosse is hands down my favorite sport to play, and I really do believe it is one of the most demanding sports (second to maybe hockey) - not only are you constantly on the go, requiring a substantial amount of stamina, but you need precise stick-handling abilities, because having a lacrosse ball thrown at your face from halfway across the field will really, really hurt. I also have noticed lacrosse being a predominantly northeastern sport, but I think its popularity is rising, with higher spectators at each NLL game and more teams in the league. Our boys lacrosse team currently has a 13-2 record - nice job, boys....be sure to stop by the game Friday at 5PM, on the Upper Terrace Field.

Re: Key System

This is in response to Beth's post about the key system on Ithaca campus. Personally I have a terrible habit of forgetting important things, like my keys, and I can totally relate to the experiences of Beth's friend. Last semester I received enough lockouts to obtain a judicial referral. I recognize the fact that it's my own fault for locking myself out so many times, but to be penalized with a judicial referral? It seemed a little excessive, to receive such a reprimand in addition the penalty charges, however there was nothing I could really do about it. I completely agree with Beth's statement that the current system is pretty inefficient - there are certain limited hours for each local residence office, and in those off-hours you are doomed to lurk around the buildings and find an RA to let you into one of the offices. I guess as lavish and unnecessary of an expenditure as it is, this is one way the new ID card entry system may be beneficial to IC students.

Yankees Throw First Pitch From Space

Tomorrow night and Wednesday night, the New York Yankees face their archrivals, the Boston Red Sox yet again. Currently, the Red Sox stand at 9-6 and the Yankees 8-7... word on the street is that the ceremonial first pitch of the game is to be filmed from the international space station, which is currently in outerspace somewhere orbiting 220 miles away, studying the coarsening of particles suspended in tin/lead alloy (what??). I can't even begin to fathom how much money is generated by the Yankees, but it certainly must be a lot if they're pulling this. US Astronaut Garrett Reisman, long-time Yankee fan hailing from Parsippany, New Jersey, has thrown a fastball which reportedly clocked in at better than 5 miles a second. I don't really know how this would work in space, but that sounds pretty cool. And it's a pretty sweet opportunity for Reisman, who embarked on his first flight on March 11th, 2008, and has been orbiting around ever since as a flight engineer. It would be pretty awesome if he could get live HDTV up there, unfortunately he only gets news feeds from headquarters after the game. However, I will definitely be watching the game (live at 7PM), representin New York, who suffered a two-night loss to the Red Sox over the weekend...

Re: Public Safety Comment

This is in response to Chris' post about public safety and SASP on our campus. Although they are a necessarily evil of campus administration, I can't say I've had one positive experience with them throughout this entire year. I can relate to Chris' comment on public safety and SASP riding kids unnecessarily hard. Last semester, it seemed someone would knock on my door to complain about noise every other night. I think most students have gathered enough common sense by now to know how to be respectful living in a dormitory - but it's true, we're still kids and we still want to be able to have fun in our pseudo-homes. I can also attest to the notion that SASP works with the worst intentions - not necessarily just to regulate a respectful environment oncampus, but moreso to screw kids over and get them in trouble. The SASParilla (it sounds like a disease) needs to lighten up!

South Park vs. Family Guy

While fighting over the remote one lazy Sunday evening in the quads, my friend and I got into a heated debate over which show was better - South Park or Family Guy. Having been a devoted fan of Kyle, Stan, Kenny and Cartman for years now, I picked South Park hands down. While I can attest to that fact that both shows provide quality entertainment, I believe South Park's humor/storylines are better crafted than Family Guy's. In each episode, South Park typically presents a humorous take on certain societal issues or trends (Britney Spears, hippies, hybrid cars). While these may be racist or offensive at times, at least it builds up to a good story. South Park took direct aim at Family Guy's plotline (or lack thereof) in its "Cartoon Wars" episodes, which aired during Season 10. Basically, the boys ended up on a mission to the Family Guy headquarters, only to discover that Family Guy's (lame) plotline was dictated by manatees. Every time an episode needed to be written, the whales randomly combined three "idea balls" in their tank - the name of a person, a verb, or a pop culture reference. This parody really could not have captured the essence of Family Guy any better - random run-on jokes. South Park will ultimately always be one of my favorite shows, although Stewie is a pretty amusing character.

Spring

In response to Seth's post...I must agree that it was pretty nice waking up Sunday morning to this amazing weather. The campus itself seems to be rejuvenated with a livelier spirit...which further supports my belief that weather plays an important role in social attitudes. I can vouch for this personally, getting myself out of bed on a rainy Monday morning seems almost impossible sometimes. My friend and I were actually talking about how funny it was that all the Ithaca brochures published pictures of Ithaca during the spring/summer, with the sun shining and the flowers blooming...when ironically the majority of your schoolyear will not look like this. Anyways, after four or five months of cooooold cold winter, I think it's important for people to take some time out and enjoy weather like this, especially in a town like Ithaca which boasts a lot of beautiful natural scenery. I could never imagine what it would be like to live in...Moscow. We can only cross our fingers and hope this beautiful weather stays.