And now 6 months of ennui

Figure 1-1: PSU goes into hibernation.

So OSU lost last night, and the college football season is over. Personally, I couldn't cheer for OSU last night. I have respect for Boeckmann, Wells, and the OSU DL. Still, Laurinitis just bugs me. I watched the first half of last night's game, with special attention payed to said award winner. He couldn't shed a block, was not challenging the LSU RBs to do anything special, and did not impress me in coverage. When he did get a tackle, he was usually NOT the first person in.

I don't see it. James L. has a very special DL, and they make the majority of the plays. I personally think Grant played better, but for some reason Laurinitis kept getting compliments. I hope I wasn't the only person who noticed.

The best thing for James to do right now is to stay another year at Ohio. Last night, he didn't even appear competent, and showed no real instinct. He is not even close to AJ Hawk at this point, and any team that wastes an early draft pick on him seriously needs their GM's head checked. Of course, his draft value is still high, will have a good combine, and he probably will enter. I'm just glad that the Eagles don't have an urgent need for LBs right now. Of course, if they get Connor, I will not complain.

So now no more college football, at least until late April. Selah.

I hated this time of year at PSU. No football until April, but by then anyone with a decent major was getting ready for finals, preparing for some kind of research project, etc. It sucked. Compound that with the absolute horrorshow that is the weather/lighting conditions at PSU from Jan-May, and one has the answer to the question of increased domestic abuse. It's cold, like the north pole of Neptune cold. The sun doesn't come out, and the wind always kicks up on the East side of campus. Coming home at night gives ya the flavor of how the Germans felt on their long march back from Russia.

Personally, I feel that many of us MEs had it worse. A good portion of our classes were in Leonard or EES, which is located out by the golf course. This involved crossing Atherton, which if you hit the lights just right was a small victory in your day.

Really, there is nothing to do up school but go to class, work, and drink. And drink. And drink.

It would seem that I hated PSU from the above passages. This interpretation would be largely incorrect. For 2/3 of the year, PSU is heaven. One has to rely on good friends, booze, hockey, nicotine, and the occasional trip to Sera-Tec for plasma "donations" to distract from the bad months. Which are all solid, considering they all contributed to somehow shortening my life (even hockey. always had to watch at the sports cafe. stupid pitt broadcasting area). The point i am horribly trying to make here is that PSU was worth it. I would do it all over again. Twice. Maybe next time i'll choose a different major, tho.

On to new matter. I stated above that one has to fill in the gaps while you were up there with mind-altering (legal) activities. Since I don't have to make any more trips to sponge out my plasma, and am trying to quit smoking altogether, the void has to be filled. Most people, myself included, turn to sports. Since my ankles suck and can't play rugby anymore, i decided to start passively looking around.

Once in awhile, like this year, PSU is showing up with a (relatively) good basketball squad. We've won our B10 openers on the road agains speed bump Northwestern, and more importantly, the struggling Illinois team. So good for us. I hope I don't jinx it, but I think I'll start following them. College hoops still has that air of dignity that the pros haven't possessed since Jordan entered the league. So for the future, expect draft updates, legal updates, and maybe some extremely uninformed basketball data. Also, follow the links on the side to TNL for wrestling info, and BSD for more informed opinions about everything.