november? NOVEMBER???!!! No WAY!

dearest all-

it seems like it was just the other day that i was diligently awaiting my bedroom set and sweating away the 100-degree days and nights.

wait. that's not right. it seems like so long ago! and we don't know if this is a good thing. suddenly, i am 2 weeks away from being in hawaii (almost to the hour!) and here's a partial list of things i still have on the table: 2 philosophy essays (i've long since dropped the "geography" from that class when in reality it's a philosophical discussion every monday and wednesday), possibly only 1 GIS assignment (due next thursday), 1 literature review (15pp.), 1 research proposal (15pp.), 1 group GIS project (unknown), and perhaps something like 200pp. of reading that can always be done. add in the grading of the student labs (i can smell a group hand-in this week...), 2 proctorings (feeling more and more like proctologings...), and who knows what else. i'm sure i'm missing something. oh. that's right. i'm lecturing again on tuesday.

so of course, that means that 1) i'm watching the nfl on tv and 2) i spent the greater part of saturday (almost 13 hours???) hanging out with brewpub gary of st.croix when he flew up for the oklahoma game. he's an aggie and had a ticket and so we did the whole day thing. man, do i wish that it was an early game! walking into the house at 1am from a 7pm game is ridiculuous. and before you think the usual scenario, i want to say that the great majority of the time was spent waiting for his classmates and/or taking down a tailgate that i barely got to check out. add in a classic "great moments in betting history" game where the aggies lost by 1 (to cover the spread) on a game where they kicked a field goal from the 2 when they have a running back who weighs a legitimate 275lbs and 2 downs to get in. instead, down 10 points, they end up kicking 3 field goals in the 4th quarter. nice! idiots. and the clincher? the school known for the "12th man" had a 12-men on the field penalty that allowed ou to get a 1st down and kill the clock. nice!

but the semester is rapidly coming to a close. in fact, i will be on a plane to st.croix in 5 weeks. which is a nice thought. there's so much i miss there that has, despite how fast this semester has flown by, made each day a lot slower than otherwise.

and of course, this week has a bunch of appeal for this particular observer, as the elections FINALLY finish up and all the exciting ads are taken off the air and people elected can pretend that they will work together after ripping each other and their families and their names and their base apart for the past 6 months. not that i particularly think that the democrats are much better than the republicans as a choice (see my opus on "why only idiots and fools go into politics these days"), but i think at some point the popular voice that's been crying out about how the president has been conducting business needs to be heard. so if congress changes hands, hopefully gwb will stop listening to his toadies/shadowy overlords and start listening to popular sentiment for the first time in 6 years.

on the other hand, if you've seen the princeton hacking of the diebold computer voting machines, maybe we're all living in some orwellian world (do a youtube search... it's fairly engrossing except for the droning of the princeton IT professor) and whether you vote blue/red/kinky (as in friedman, kids! he's running for guv'nor here in texas!), it doesn't matter. though, if you ask me, the republicans should be worried that some anarchist group will do the hacking and only dems will win. or, if they have a sense of humor, bugs bunny.

but, like everything else on my docket, this election season too shall pass. and to tell you the truth, i don't think i've ever been as excited for thanksgiving and december. and that's a good thing.

--goose

double dose of shout-outs:

first shot of shout-out goes to StateFarm Insurance's comprehensive statistical database on car accidents. you can know all sorts of things on that web site. don't believe me? just watch "who wants to be a millionaire" on february 27th. then you'll understand.

second shot of shout-out goes to my cousin scott and his poor psu nittany lions. noting the usc flag showcased at espn's college game day panel show (as eugene called it), scott wondered if that was me. yes, yes it was. though i was not the guy in the blue helmet who screamed. i wore a yellow shirt and was briefly visible at the end of the usc segment when they cut to commercial. why is this important? because scott ribbed me about the osu loss. just after his joepa broke a leg from a collision (thanks! state farm! i know how to spell that now!) at the wisconsin game. clearly, one is not yet capable of picking on usc without threat of reprisal yet. though hopefully joepa is okay. he's unfortunately at the age where you can die from a broken bone. i sense retirement.