The ROTC Doesn’t Have Its Own Building

I was asked for directions. I’m going to try to keep track for the next year or so of every time I’m stopped for directions. It’s Open House on campus, so there are herds of people who don’t know what they’re doing or where they’re going. On my way out of the Architecture Building, I was asked where the ROTC building is. I don’t think they have their own building; I tihnk they operate out of Cole. So I told them that and how to find Cole [Field House].

Direction count: 2

 

NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships

Because I’m paying attention and I think you should be, too:

schedule:
Today, Thursday 4/16, session 1 at 2:00 p.m. EST and session 2 at 8:00 p.m. EST
Tomorrow, Firday 4/17 the Super Six finals at 7:00 p.m. EST
Saturday, 4/18 individual events at 7:00 p.m. EST

Live stream at least for prelims (it’s live NOW): http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=ncaa&media=113213

Enjoy! I’m rooting for UGA, particularly for the Courtneys (Kupets and McCool).

 

I Lost Him at “Perpendicular”

As I was walking from the parking lot to the library for work, a man driving by stopped and asked me where “Hornback” was. (Just a note: I’m constantly being asked for directions. I must look like I know where I’m going.) I told him that to get to Hornbake he would need to turn around and go right and it would be on his left before he got to the traffic circle. Then I said there was a courtyard outside the library perpendicular to the road. He gave me a blank look. “So, I go that way and go right?” Sigh. “Yep,” I say.

 

Cherry Blossoms

Here are some pictures from DC’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival. It was fabulous weather for the event. There’s no end of great pictures to be taken on a fine day in DC with the cherry trees blooming.

 

Courtney Kupets is my hero

Courtney KupetsStill Learning to Relax.

I really loved this article and thought I’d add a link to it. ‘Cause obviously my life consists of school, paying attention to gymnastics, and writing (on occasion).

Anyway, just a little background because they’re a little spare on the details of Courtney’s life before Georgia.

Courtney Kupets was an elite gymnast (ie Olympic-caliber) long before she went into collegiate gymnastics. In 2002, she was in the American Cup, the first really big even she competed in. I remember pretty clearly being peeved that Tasha Schwikert won when Courtney so totally kicked ass. I took a liking to her right then. Courtney’s coach was Kelli Hill, who’s a wonderful coach, known for being reasonable and supportive along with effective. She coached Dominique Dawes and Elise Ray amongst others.

Later in 2002, Courtney was sent to the 2002 Worlds, which were an events-only worlds (meaning there were titles for vault, bars, beam, and floor, but no all-around or team competition). Courtney won the gold on bars with her massively huge release skills. The following year at nationals she won the all-around national title.

A few months later, the 2003 World Championships were in Anaheim. Courtney competed (well) in preliminaries, but in training between preliminaries and team finals, she ruptured an Achilles. Not so long ago, this would have been carerr-ending, and for someone less determined than Courtney, it might have been. After a long recovery, she was back for the 2004 Olympic season. At nationals, she tied with Carly Patterson for the all-around title, and won the Olympics Trials. There had been little doubt that she was going to the Athens Olympics, but she secured it with that win.

In Athens, Courtney performed well for the team but was hampered by a hip injury (stress fracture). She didn’t quite perform up to her vast potential, but won silver with the team and placed 9th all-around. She won the bronze on bars behind Emile LePennec of France and teammate Terin Humphrey.

Courtney followed her sister Ashley into NCAA gymnastics, where she was a bit hit from the beginning. She’s always had an amazing attitude, and that’s a huge advantage in NCAA gymnastics. She kept a lot of the big, high-flying skills and great execution from her elite career, removing a little difficulty along the way. About a year ago, the girl ruptured anotherAchilles. Again, it was dicey, especially since a college girl has a whole big world to tempt her away, but Courtney got back in the gym and has been blowing my mind. That girl’s the shiz-nit. Courtney Kupets, you are my hero.

Some vids:

And my montage:

 

A Day in the Life

“I heard the news today, ooh boy.”

Ahem.

Around 6:30 someone in my house was up and clomping about. Whatever makes them (him, if you want to be grammatically correct) think they ought to go stomping around? Right over my head, no less. My room is in the basement, so is echoes directly over my head whenever they walk. Whoever it is also must weigh approximately the same as an elephant because they make a racket that would wake the dead. Ah, hey there, Mrs Lincoln. Did they wake you? Sorry. Oh, by the way . . . other than that, how was the play?

I tried to go back to sleep and succeeded in dozing. At about 7:40 I had to get up. My dozing was cut short. I went to the bathroom, I came back downstairs, I got dressed. I debated whether to wear my brown jacket or my steel-gray one. For the next hour I also debated whether it would be best to wear my raincoat or my heavy coat. It was chilly, so I might be cold in my raincoat. But I really like my raincoat, it’s the shiz-nit. Plus, it was raining, so a raincoat seemed like a natural choice. Anyway, I chose the gray jacket and postponed decision on the coat until I left.

I went back upstairs for breakfast. There was a clean bowl and spoon in he kitchen, so I was happy. However, a pile of dirty pots, pans, and dishes filled the sink. Which made me decidely ireful and billious. None of them were mine. I always clean up after myself. I might leave a knife out by accident once in a while, mostly because it blends in with everyone else’s mess. I’m really fed up. The kitchen is always disgusting, and I refuse on principal to clean up after them all the time. From time to time I’ll clean up some things, but I decided a long time ago that I was not cleaning up other people’s mess. Screw them. So I wrote as pleasant a note as I was capable of at the time: “To whom it may concern: Get the stuff out of the sink….Please.” I added a smiley face after the “to whom it may concenr” because I was being a little ironic there. I didn’t want to add the “please”, but hey, honey and vinegar and all that.

My breakfast eaten, my lunch put together (someone keeps putting my yogurts in the crisper instead of just on a shelf in the freidge–I don’t know why and I don’t understand), I was pretty much ready for the day. So I checked up on a few of my favorite websites, then put in a few minutes of cramming for my exam at 9:30. It was an English exam and I hadn’t really done any studying for it because, well, I wasn’t sure how to go about studying.  He told us it would be an essay, with three choices for the question. He even gave us the general idea of one of the questions. So I glanced at my notes and tried to refresh my memory a little, but that’s all I could do. Besides, it was 8:50 and time to go. I chose my heavy coat, grabbed my umbrella, and drove to the bus stop.

Why drive to the bus stop? Because I refuse (on principle again, of course) to pay a few hundred dollars for a parking pass from the jerks who give out tickets right and left. Besides, I’d probably have had to park far from my classes anyway, and you always have to do WWE-style smackdowns to get a parking spot. So, all told, I take the bus. And since it’s kind of far to walk (especially since I have to walk about a mile after I get off the bus), I just drive to the bus stop.

The bus was very hot and I had to stand. There was traffic, to, so the bus was slightly later than usual. I cut it might tihn as it is, getting to class by 9:30. But I hurried up, even though it’s uphill the entire way. I got there at 9:30 on the dot. The professor handed out the exam. I conjured up a pretty good essay about Edgar Huntly, Deerslyer, and Moby-Dick. I got back a paper we turned in a few weeks back. An A-, not bad. I spent a lot of time and effort on it and would have been pretty damn peeved if I hadn’t gotten an A.

I didn’t do any of the reading for the next class because I was lazy last night and watched King Lear instead of reading Thoreau. No offense, dead guy, but you’re full of crap. That class went pretty slow, and I rezlized that I didn’t miss much by not reading Walden.

From there I walked back across campus (up a hill, down, up a hill, then down again) to work. I was starving, so I inhaled my lunch. I had a little assignment from my boss, which didn’t take long, then I set to the newspaper, which I read to see if we’re mentioned. Then I bought a candy bar (mmm, Mily Way), and now I am sitting here wasting my time by blogging. In fifteen minutes, I’m blowing this joint and going back to my house. Then, who knows . . . ?

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little journey through a day in the life.

 

Montage Series #7–a new montage!

This is my newest creation. Nastia was such a big focus of the past quadrennium, for good reason. She always had the talent. She had the genes with two amazing Soviet gymnasts as parents. During the long four years from her senior debut to the Olympics, she went through a lot of ups and downs–a LOT of them. From time to time, she made big mistakes even though it was obvious she was the best gymnast on the floor. Then, around the time of the 2006 Worlds, she injured her ankle. She had a long, frustrating recovery. By 2007 she was still not 100% but pulled it together for the 2007 Worlds. She won the beam title and a bars silver along with team gold. But in the all-around, she fell on beam. Certain people (*cough* NBC’s Al Trautwig *cough*) implied she was old and washed-up. But come 2008, she was looking so strong. She avoided injury and peaked at the perfect time for the Olympics. She put on a stellar show to win the all-around title and take silver in team, on beam, and on bars, and bronze on floor. I love the girl. I set the montage to White Houses by Vanessa Carleton because it seemed to fit.

We should be seeing Nastia back in competition again. 2009 Worlds, look out. London 2012? I sure hope so!

 

Ballroom Dancing with Shawn Johnson

I would never watch Dancing with the Stars if my favorite little trickster, Ms Shawn Johnson, weren’t on it. Honestly, I think it’s a silly concept and the stars are not really “stars” for the most part. But apparently lots of people love the show, and since they asked Shawn to be on it, I have to concede a modicum of good taste on their part. Rumor has it they asked Nastia Liukin too, but Nastia declined. That would have been awesome to see those two battling at ballroom dancing. Sorry to say it, but I think Nastia would kick Shawn’s and everyone else’s asses. She’s got that whole Russian cool-as-ice, elegant-as-a-ballerina thing. It would be an unfair advantage.

Shawn has never been known as a dancer (she’s a trickster), but she did very well last night. She looked nervous as hell, but when she danced, she kept it together, danced with a lot of grace, and looked at ease. Even though she had “gymnastics arms” (lmao), I think the body awareness of gymnastics helped her out. She’s such a cool kid. I’m proud of her effort. Go Shawn!

 

Montage series #6

Here we have yet another gymnastics montage.

This one is about the single greatest moment of gymnastics history–okay, okay, there have been other significant moments, but this was the biggest of my life. In the summer of 1996, I was 9 years old. I did not stay up to watch the gymnastics because it was on late. I remember that for some reason, the Compulsory competition didn’t tape, and I cried. I did, however, get the Optionals. (Just for those who don’t know gymnastics lingo, Compulsories were the preliminary competition in which everyone did the same routines and were scored for their execution; Optionals were individual routines of each gymnast; each counted 50% towards the team total. Compulsories also acted as a qualifier for the all-around ad event finals. Compulsories were done away with after 1996, so gymnasts simply did their optional routines twice, in preliminaries and in finals.)

Like millions of other people, I was enthralled by the performance of the Magnificent Seven–the US’s women’s team. There was so much energy in that building. They gave every ounce of what they had. It was something very special. It was caped off by the dramatic moment when Kerri Strug vaulted on an injured ankle. I was hooked. Totally hooked.

Enough about me. The montage is set to, appropriately enough, The Devil Went Down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels Band. It was also Dominique Moceanu’s floor music. So here you go:

 

The Display Case

So, I work for our Office of Information Technology’s communications department.  We put out newsletters, deal with the media, and promote the technology store (among other things). For a February promotion, the idea was to a basketball-themed ad in one of the displays in the Student Union. My boss wasn’t totally happy with this and asked my opinion about it to get a student perspective. This is a basketball school, but at the moment our men’s team isn’t doing so hot and there had recently been some friction at the top of the program. Anyway, she thought maybe Valentine’s Day would be better. I agreed and she wondered (aloud) what would be a good tag line (or whatever you want to call it). I just out with, “Get a sweet deal.” It was flippant, but apparently was a fairly good idea, because it ended up in the display case. I’m pretty proud of that, haha. Here’s a pic: