Edwin MacPhisto

Incidentally, you guys might have to deal with some strange behavior and excessive commentary from me today. Now that I live in northern Virginia, I'm missing a UVA home game for the first time in 5 years. Even though it's just Wyoming, it's still a big gaping hole. I wasn't planning on going to any games until Maryland in October, but I may have to go down for Western Michigan next week, just to get my fix.

I was in hell for a little while. I'm getting 4 games here: Wake/Duke, VT/UNC, Rutgers/Illinois, and Ole Miss/Mizzou. Nothing great, but one is clearly worse than all the rest...and I was only getting reception for Wake/Duke. You'll be happy to know that all the terrible Jefferson Pilot commentators are still doing just fine for Raycom/Lincoln Financial. Cable, however, has been restored, and life is good again. Surprisingly, Duke is dominating Wake and should be up a lot more than 10-0. Now, please never think about either of these teams again.

It reached number 1, too. That'd be like the music from, I dunno, Saw, topping the charts.

I was still very new to music-mania at that point. I only owned about 90 albums before I went to college in '01. Achtung, Baby was my favorite for most of that formative stretch. I think I maintained that was my favorite album for much longer than it actually was. Only in the last three years or so have I really been able to divorce myself from putting old discarded favorites in my pantheon out of some compulsion, even if I hardly ever listen to them. The Beatles' catalogue plus The Bends and OK Computer have held up the best from 6-8 years ago; they were favorites then and still are now, though a lot of why I love them has changed considerably.

I've grown so much more callous since.

I do much better with Blueberry Boat if I listen to it on shuffle, especially if I include a couple other FF albums in there. It knocks out the routine of it, which eliminates a lot of that information overload. And then I get to giggle with schoolgirlish glee when "Chief Inspector Blancheflower" pops up and surprises me with its awesomeness.

You bought a car without looking in the trunk? Patrick, you're great. Glad it seems to be awesome otherwise, at least.

"Ian Johnson is putting on a show tonight...and remember, this is a Pac-10 defense he's running through!" Quote of the night.

I think we had two matches. I thought I was gonna lose both times. Once I won I was like "whoa, maybe I can keep this up." Frost and TNT got me a couple of times in tag stuff, the bastards. Wargames, and then they beat Raynor and I for the tag belts. They had a really great balance. Hey, has anyone else done Wargames since? I haven't followed closely enough to know. If not, get 8-10 people together, write about 20 promos between the lot of you to set everything up, and then do it. I was pissed for a week when we lost but the whole thing was totally awesome overall, and watching PromoWars unfold is my second-fondest memory of all this. (The Grand Slam retirement angle is my fondest.)

Hey, neat! Old guys 4 life.

Boise State's big, gawky running back is both hilarious and awesome.

Felonies! - "I'm Sick of List Threads" Edwin MacPhisto - "I'm Sick of List Threads"

I know at least 7 people who went to Tulane for a year or two, then transferred. I know lots of people transfer at any school, but anecdotally I've run into a disproportionate number of, uh, Green Wavers. Great name, incidentally.

I kinda don't know how you could help but meet people in college. Not to get ugly, as Czech warned, but if you just take a look at the situation you're in you can meet people easily. -The majority of people live in a dorm first year, have a roommate, and are in some setting (hall, suite-style, whatever) where they have a default of 10-30 people right there. No way you'll be friends with all of them but it's gotta be tough to not find a few people in there. Or even in your building. -Colleges have shit-tons of clubs and organizations. Join one, instant friends. Be in a play, write for the newspaper, do something vaguely political, join a service organization, whatever. -By taking classes you're interested in, you're guaranteed to run up against some people with common interests. Plenty will be dumb, but plenty will be cool. -There are an infinite number of parties. If you can smoke, drink, be funny, dance, or tell good stories, you have friends. Cena's Writer, don't hang out with high school friends all the time, or you'll find yourself sitting around having gay conversations that sounds like they're out of American Pie 2: "Everything's changed, man. [beat] Everything's changed." Seriously. My superlame roommate first year got into that mindset and it crippled him the whole time he was at school. Going to a school where I didn't know anyone at all was fantastic, and I love my old high school friends. Just be amiable and you'll meet plenty of people, because a whole lot of them are in the same exact situation as you.

THURSDAY Boise State SATURDAY Missouri Notre Dame Clemson BYU Colorado UAB California SMU Georgia New Mexico State Ohio State Texas Tech Oregon Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Penn State/Notre Dame game? 44 Tiebreak #2: How many passing yards will Ohio State's Troy Smith have against Texas? 200

Let's not get into the "the media adores USC it's not fair!" thing quite yet. Frankly, you beat a decent team like Arkansas as soundly as they did after losing a lot of superstars, and you really aren't showing a lot of flaws. I see USC's main flaw being the influx of so many new players, who all look great on paper and pretty solid in their first efforts, but obviously have yet to prove that they have what it takes to keep that level of production up all season. John David Booty looks good, I'll say that much--confidence is key in college QBs and it looks like he's got it. Of course, when your "shit, I'm panicking" options are "throw it sorta towards Dwayne Jarrett" and "throw it somewhere in the vicinity of Steve Smith," you're gonna have a great chance to be confident. The second would be the defense, which sat back too often last year and let itself get ripped up before rebounding (Arizona State, Fresno State, Texas). The assessment is that it's improved, but they only kept 3 points more off the board against Arkansas this time around, so the jury's still out. If they can do that to Pac 10 offenses more consistently, they'll play for the title again. I'm dreaming that, somehow, USC and Notre Dame will be #1 and #2 going into their game. If we can get three #1 vs. #2 teams in one year...heaven. (I chose them because I'm not sure there are any other viable combinations for #1 and #2 games throughout the season, based on the game schedule and the current ranking positions of top teams that meet.)

Masked Man of Mystery is on the case. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a great song. Fuck the historical relevance argument; I'll just say it's flat out good. Aggressive, spooky, simple, cathartic. There ya go.

efa

Her hair was shorter when I saw the Fiery Furnaces. And Matthew Friedberger looks kind of like a mongoloid in person. Dude's head is massive.

And she looks it too. Whatta fox. A tiny little rockin' fox.

Good day for games. I'm looking forward to seeing how VT, UNC, Clemson, and BC actually look this year. And of course, there's the main event. Anyone have a link to the ABC regional coverage map? One always pops up and I always forget to bookmark it.

Enjoy it. Great times abound.

Well, it sounds like you're interested in it for what I'd consider the right reasons. Going to grad school primarily for your own edification and because you love studying history/literature/whatever gets slagged on a lot, but if you're fortunate enough to have the means then it's a great opportunity. An M.A. won't beat a few years good work experience for finding a job, but it seems nice for a pay bump when you land one. I make about 5-6 grand more than my B.A.-totin' peers at work, and I'm probably otherwise no more qualified than they are. The "war of attrition" assessment is a pretty good one. The biggest difference in coursework is in the addition of more theory. You also end up with more source texts; I had one class where we were expected to read Clarissa, Tom Jones, Tristram Shandy, and several other novels in full, for a total of over 6000 pages by semester's end. Fudged that one a bit.

What does a Powerpoint/Word class do for you? I mean, can you actually use something retarded like that to get out of a requirement when you eventually transfer to a 4-year school?