Now that you have that over with

Well, I did the annual tradition today. Christmas shopping for folks. It's the one day a year when I become a consumer and go to the mall with all the other people that like to buy things on a much more consistent basis. So, the lovely day of joy began when I got in my car and left for the haven known as Indiana, Pa. Now for those of you who don't know, Indiana houses IUP, which is my school's most bitter and moronic rival. So for me to have to go to the town is not something that I look forward to. On the plus side though, I went by myself which meant I got to speed up the process and not wait on other people to slowly pick out things, such as in past years. I'm not sure whether this helped out or not, but I went to the mall today again, not feeling well. Probably not a good idea to do a lot. Right now, I've been taking Tylenol Flu like it's my job, and I'll be doing that until I shake this bug off of me. I'm feeling better than I did earlier today and I just had ice cream. So now another day crossed off until Saturday. Now the funness of wrapping presents begins. Last year, I got laughed at because of the awful job that was done doing it. I expect much of the same this year.

Make a note

First off, let me warn you. I don't feel well right now. I've got some flu-like symptoms, like fever and headache, stuff like that. First time in a year, I've had this stuff and I had this strange premonition that this would happen right after I got home from school. So I got so so lucky and maybe I'll be better so I can go and get christmas shopping over with.

My grandpa's funeral was Saturday, and it was a nice and unique service. I'm glad it was like that. I got to meet my cousin Sharon who writes diligently. Sharon, you seem surprised when I told you I read your thingy, but I do. And by the way, I hate when things are spelled wrong too, very annoying. The entire family came back after dinner for eats, and after a while I had to vacate the surroundings for my basement room because of all the insanity.

Lots of talk about blogs during these last few days and that brought up some interesting thoughts. A blog is an online journal and I find it ironic that I actually write in a "journal" Why? Because throughout my schooling, there were numerous times that I had to keep a journal, most notably my english class in 12th grade. Let me tell you something: I hated writing in journals. I would procrastinate writing in it until I absolutely had to because writing a journal was for a grade. Yep, I would procrastinate, and my English teacher hated procrastination. But everybody does it. But here I am, writing whenever I get a chance to or when something interesting happens. But for now, it's back to trying to get better from stupid flu, and trying to get christmas shopping over with. Because going to mall is comparable to smacking my head against a wall.

93

I think I should write a nice little remembrance of my grandpa who passed away Tuesday. He was 93. (Closer to 93 1/2) When I think about that, I think it's great he lived so long, considering, sadly in fact, that I've known people that haven't made it past 20, yet alone 93. He wouldn't go until he was darn ready, kind of like he didn't want to cut a visit or a conversation short with you unless he was darn ready.

Um, what I'll remember most? Definitely goota remember that he drove a Buick, he insisted on taping me a lot, (there's probably an orange tape with me on it circa 1988ish, about 4 years old.) also gotta remember the car rides, pipe organs, him asking me ridiculosly difficult math questions and me not having a clue what he was really taking about, talking to anybody he could find on the street, making music tapes for others because he wanted to and felt you had to have them, trains, that low-quality Zenith TV, and of course, pipe organ music. But I think what should most be remembered is that I think he cared about others, and he was generous both with money and of his time. So have a good time, Grandpa, and go take a car ride.

It's finals week, time to head home

Finals week, is a different time than any other part of the year, and a much welcomed one for many kiddos. For me, knowing that I'll have two days to get out of bed when I want to is pretty cool. Getting out of this town on Thursday, even better. Maybe not the town so much, but getting away from school work for 3 weeks. Excellent. So the journey begins today. Right now, I'm trying to finish my new-media project so I can get that over with in a glorious manner. I have 3 finals, two tomorrow, one on Thursday. Wednesday night, the Rocket staff is going to Rachel's Roadhouse to gouge Dr. Zeltner from lots of money. (He pays for all the food) That's usually a good time.

Lights out

OK, let's get started with what happened Tuesday, the great blackout of 2004. I'm sitting in my Media Crit class, listening to presentations when right in the middle of this one presentation, snap. Presentation over. Class over. (There was only 10 minutes left) Bad thing was, the power didn't come back on until about 2:30 in the morning, not cool indeed. So after that enjoyable day, including having to throw out the mik that I had just bought yesterday, itwas on to the rest o f the week. Now I don't know how I managed to get through it, but I did. I did a six-page feature story,a media crit project, and edited by 10-page paper in issues. Also, I did 2 projects in Digital Imaging and worked on my New-Media final project. Wow. Now it's finals week and I"m going to relax for a little bit.

Everyone's got a case of the Mondays

I'm really on a kick about that line right now. Everybody I know is not having a very happy day today, especially anybody having to do final projects. From someone having a psychotic meltodown about a Publication Production project to people having mean faces in their AOL away messages the Monday bug has hit again. Not to mention the weather stinks here today. Rainy and gray. I barely could get out of bed this morning, typical Monday tradition after the wealth of sleep I receive each and every weekend. But the day's still young and now it's time to listen to more presentations.

How bout them apples

I'm writing this right after the Steelers beat the Jags, 17-16. Actually, a pretty good game, something that prime-time games simply are not anymore. No wonder the announcers were thrilled that they were seeing a close game, usually it's the borefests of a New England-Nuffalo, or next week, a Philadelphia-Washington extravaganza.

My weekend was interesting enough. In the sense that I realized that I don't have near as much to do as I originally thought. Now all I gotta do is get people interviewed for my feature story and I will be all set. There are other things that will need to be done but I can see the end coming right now. Right now, I estimate that I only have to take 2 finals because all 3 of my MWF classes have finals that are projects or just decide not to have one in the feature writing case. Well, it's off to Monday and the pure disgust that comes along with it. That's why in Office Space, people say: "Sounds like you've got a case of the Mondays."

nice job electricity!

Well, there was some embarassing moment this morning for the roommate. At about 8:45 AM the power briefly went out around the campus and guess what? My fan which is right above me suspended in the window fell right on top of my leg immediately waking me up. Chase is like "Oh, I'm sorry." I murmur some gibberish resembling "It's OK" Bad part about that is I couldn't get back to sleep eventually just taking my shower and having bookoo time to waste for an hour.

I got a good surprise in Feature Writing when the professor liked my original story idea which I thought was horrendous. The idea? Hunting safety. And by the way, everybody I know wants school to be over like right now. And the asst. photo editor Nathan is getting Chinese food along with myself. Apparently, he wants to get more into the SR culture, eating, laziness, and apathy.

cheers for technology, boo to apples

Well, my cell phone is still comfortably alive and still being receptive. Hooray for me. Now I never did like apples, the eating kind or the computers. Macs haven't excatly been my bestest of friends this year, and I have been quite introduced to them this year. Being raised on PCs for a long time, I never did like it when i found out that Macs have only one mouse button (no right clicking for easy shortcuts) and no floppy drive. They have zip discs which are basically beefed up versions of floppies. Except they cost more. Now really, when do you have to transport mammoth-size documents from one comp to the next. See?

I just finished my PowerPoint presentation for tomorrow on getting the entire story. I expect it to be interesting and hopefully good. I am supposed to be questioned on it afterwards. That will be fun. Except not. November ends in a few minutes and the college students can start to see the finish line for classes. And a lot of them really do need for the finish line to come soon. It's been a rough semester for a lot of people I know. (basically eveerybody) A fresh start will be great for everybody.

Two more weeks

OK, it's sad when I'm staring right at the fun being over for a while. But that is what I'm lookin at for this week anyway. Lots of busy work to do, and really not looking forward to doing any of it. But at least I know that school is almost over.

Don't say you're bored

I'm feeling good that this weekend I have absolutely nothing to do. No 10-page research paper to do, nobody to call for stories, nothing with the Rocket, nothing with sports, nothing with WRSK, zippo. So what am I going to do with my free time. Probably a lot of nothing, definitely a lot of sleeping, and who knows what else. Lately, I've been looking a lot at video games and I must say Metal Gear Solid 3 looks alright. I'm a big MGS fan and I definitely have to get the last installment of the series. Getting back to the original point of time, I must say that I can't believe that it's almost Thanksgiving and Christmas is now just around the corner. With the calendar being quirky and me getting out of school a few days later than I normally or should have, I wouldn't have much time to think about Christmas. Which is probably just as well, considering I only go shop about 1 day a year anyway. By the way, I wrote an anti-gay marriage op-ed about a month ago, and in the last three issues there's been a letter concerning that. My feature writing professor today said, "Greg, look what you've started." The discussion went on for 15 minutes and was a pleasant change from the mental wasteland that is usually the case with that class.

A new record

Again, it took me a while to write in here. I scheduled last Friday. Apparently, I didn't have the fun my sister had. It took me 10 minutes and I got every class except one. Again, I am taking 15 credits, because 18 is insane. Also, I got done with my pages (Meaning, completely finished and set to print at 11:30 P.M. a fantabulous new record of awesome acheivement. The sports pages have been spectactular in my opinion over the past two weeks, probably two of the best sections I've ever done in a year and a half of this job. So now, it's on to Thanksgiving and eating. And maybe updating this some more.

Feeling good

OK, I haven't been here for a few, but there's been bigger things for me to deal with. Such as doing basically 2 sports sections this week, a regular sports and then a winter sports preview with a doubletruck (That's 2 pages wide but has no offical fold, like one big page)But now that's over. And that's not too shabby.

Let's go inside

Here's something you may not know. The weather at SRU is really awful, especially right about now. Why? Because it's November and that means winter is just about here. And if winter is like it was the past 2 years, I'm in for a treat. Just get this. Last year was actually worse than the year before (Which had I believe at least 2 weeks where the temperature on my computer stayed below 20 degrees) Oh, it can definitely be bad. But at least the dorms have heaters that work so so well. Whew, what a relief.
The other main point to this is that football is over and that gets a big thumbs up from me. When you are shaking during halftime and the postgame press conference, it's time to go in. Now I get to cover the disaster that will be the men's basketball team. This is probably the last chance I will have as sports editor to cover a team that goes to the playoffs. Make it good.

It's Thursday. So why are you so happy?

The answer to that question is this. No paper this week. Which means heavily increased time getting reacquinted with Madden NFL 2005. Let the fun begin. Chase is getting more heavily frustrated with his lack of ability to beat me in MVP Baseball 04 or Madden. Last night after dinner, me and him battled in an epic 14-0 drubbing by me of him which resulted in him turning the game off before it was over and deciding we were playing Madden. As the Ravens he was actually beating me, the Browns, 14-13 in the 2nd quarter when he had to quit. The gf was calling him. I'm going to enjoy today and its relaxedness.
Hey, Bush won, that made a lot of people happy. Except not so much. When people have away messages up about it, not so good.

Oh man, you guys

Lots going on this past week. Today is election day and I went and voted. Hooray for me. Tonight should be a very interesting night for the election. I would love to see a network biff on a call again. That would be hilarious.

OK, so I'm not a neat freak

Recently on another blog that shall remain nameless, it was questioned as to my using of cleaning devices such as vacuum cleaner. Well, it should be known that yes I do use them to clean up the fuzzballs and crumbs that accumulate and also because if we don't keep the room "clean" then me and the Chaser get it somewhat of trouble with Res Life.
Right now, it's raining outside. Absolutely not stunning at all.

Will they ever win again?

This is very sad. I've forgotten what it's like to talk to a coach after they win a game. The last win for SRU was a month ago and that streak wasn't stopped on Saturday losing to a bunch of Fighting Scots from Edinboro, 38-26. On Homecoming, no less. That makes me tickled pink to the degree of sickness. So now the Rock has to regroup against a bunch of Red Raiders. In positive news, I got most of my digital imaging project finished before I went to the radio station for sportstalk at 6. Hooray. Now, I have to hope the Rock beats Clarion. I mean, seriously, have you ever seen a Golden Eagle?

Time to relax

The week is finally over and for everybody around campus it's a sigh of relief. People have all these good plans tonight, but as for me I'm just going to go and chill till tomorrow's big game. All one of my classes today were really easy. That's right, I had one class on a Friday. How sweet is that. I'm definitely going to get reacquinted with the PS2 and its funness tonight.

Is it Friday yet?

Today I noticed it. People hate Wednesdays, myself included. It's that classic middle of the week day when it seems like the endless strain of school, work, and life will never end and people will never have any time to relax. Today was a particularly bad Wednesday for a number of people that I know. From getting yelled at on the phone, to oversleeping in class, to having to give presentations (Again), everyone I know is having a really bad day. Oh yeah, and the weather again looks really bad. But fortunately, the day is still young and there's time to turn it around.

Eating with the big-wigs

Tonight, dinner was free. OK, that's not any different from any other night, but tonight dinner was in a much more cultured environment. Yep, I got to eat at the SRU President's residence/mansion tonight. It was because I work for the Rocket. So I get in there, and I end up getting put with the majority of the administration including Mrs. Smith and The VP of admin. affairs' wife. I don't know, they must have thought I was mature or something. So they ask me who I am and then I tell them, eventually leading to the point where one of them says, "How did you become an editor as a sophomore? That usually doesn't happen." I just say I guessed was in the right place at the right time. It was really a good time, everybody behaved themselves and it was cool.

Haven't seen that in a while

Well, the fantasy weather has come into to an end at Slippery Rock. It rained today. A lot. Myself and Chase went to Wal-Mart partly due to me needing a poster board for a presentation I have to do tomorrow. It rained the whole way there and back too. And then we went to Rocky's for some grub. I had to walk back in the pouring rain. This week should not be as difficult as last week was, at least you would think that would be the case. But who knows it might just happen. Anyway, a great day of baseball, more postseason drama. Within the span of about 20 mintues I saw both league championship series end with game-winning hits for the home nine. Houston and Boston both won and now the playoffs are getting good. Boston might get to a game 7. I've never seen Boston win a world series or any team come back from a 3-0 defacit to win a series. Those two things just might both happen in the next two days. Oh ya, SRU plays Edinboro on Saturday, the Rock in desperate need of a win. It's Homecoming, and SRU usually shows up and gets a win on Homecoming. That would be so so nice if that happened on Saturday by derailing the Kilt Wearers.

What's he been up to

You know, recently there have been people that have been complaining because I haven't posted. Well, I finally got a few minutes, so here what's I've been doing with myself. Of course getting another stellar issue of the newspaper out and then having to make a five-hour trip to Millersville to cover SRU. Not only was the trip 5 hours, which meant I had to spend 10 hours in a car, but also I had to watch them lose. That's right, Millersville beat SRU 17-14, marking the third straight loss for the beloved Rock. On the way back, I experience numerous torrential rainstorms and spent $25 on Pennsylvania turnpike tolls. Thank you, PennDOT for making me less rich. On a good note though, on Friday night I covered my second game for the New Castle News, Summit academy vs. Laurel. Laurel blew them out 34-6 but what I was more impressed with was the overall friendliness and welcomeness I got from the people that were running the show at Laurel. From the moment I walked in the press box and introduced myself everybody was extremely gracious and gave me great help. The PA Announcer came up to me and said, “You must have won the coin flip to come here.” And now I know why he said that. But perhaps the best part of the night was halftime. Now, usually that's a pretty dry part of the game, but not at Laurel. It was hyped for a long time and I think just about everybody in the room told me that I had to come down and eat at halftime. And I'm glad I did. With a menu including Ham BBQ, Pasta wraps, Cake, cherry pie, along whip chips, pretzels, and cheese curls, a truly incredible amount of food, especially for a high school game. And I will say that I have been to a number of college games where the halftime is Subway. Enough said. Also the PA Announcer said to the crowd, “We'd like to thank Greg Reedy from the New Castle News for coming out tonight.” And then some little plug for the News. But that's what I've been doing. I finally got a decent amount of sleep last night. And they shut the heat off in Dodds amazingly. Finally, res life comes to their senses.

you know, the Macs are melting

Interesting thing happened today. On a very brisk day, the computer room were surprisingly hot. Anybody that knows a thing or three about computers knows that computers are supposed to be left in a cool place. Of course, the room was full of Macintoshs. I can't stand Macintoshs. They're so weird.

Go sleep in the hallway

Allright, this is getting borderline insane. The absolute awfulness of the heat in my room makes things quite bad to sleep. Case in point: Last night. It takes me 1 1/2 hours to get to sleep last night due to the awful temperatures that were in the room. I somehow eventually did get back to sleep but it's beyond me how I did it. That was until 6 AM. When I wake up again. For half an hour, because once again I realize it's still about 100 degress in the room and not exactly smelling that good either. So after I wake up at 6 AM I decide to do something about it. With my big fan I decide to put it in the window. And just like some cheap magic trick, the room becomes comfortable again. Until I come back from the craziness that is my Monday and find that, the fan is taken out of my window and directed at my sleeping roommate. Oh well. And by the way, it was back to the ridiculous hotness again. Horrendous. So anyway, I hope tomorrow I get some sleep.

A weekend that actually felt like it was a full weekend

This weekend was really something else. For once it actually felt like the weekend was actually 3 days long (Friday afternoon - Sunday night) I went home Friday and encountered mad traffic problems not to mention the bad drives of anyone else but me. There I go and visit family members and the like. Good times. Then Saturday came, and the disappointment starts. Thank you IUP. Now you once again can rule us in football like the ghetto folk that you probably are. IUP beat my beloved Rock football team 34-13 on Saturday night in a game that really turned into a nightmare for the Rock offense in the second half. Sunday was me being a typical mental wasteland, watchin football, and, um, yep, that's about it.

All good things must come to an end

I tell you what. It was an absolute miracle that sports got sent this week. OK, maybe not so much, but still there's that giant monkey taken off my back whenever my pages are finally finished and edited. The Boots caper was finally found out about. A powerpoint was made detailing the entire incident in question. Very nice job done by my partner in crime, CS. So now it' s on to the weekend. Should be an exciting weekend. I get to go back home for a day and I get to watch the biggest rivalry game of the year, SRU-IUP. I'm hoping for a fight and/or a SRU win. Please fellas. I'm not asking for much. Just a win.

The Prankster Prince

Thanks to the nudging on of one of the ad managers, I have embarked on a somewhat cruel prank. That's right I stole her beloved Boots the Monkey doll and sat it in my room with a dunce cap on. The ad manager in question (Who shall remain nameless for confidentiality purposes) wrote a cool ransom note in order to keep everyone from thinking that I did it. So far, doubts have emerged about who did it. How do I know this? Well, when I left for WRSK today at 12:15 I thought about getting something out of the office. Walking back to the office, I could hear a coversation about who took Boots and doubts emerging due to that awesome looking ransom note. So we'll see where it goes from here. Pictures coming soon of the caper. Don't want to miss that.

A case of the Mondays?

Mondays are amazing. Usually the first thoughts are of horrificness and the like, but the last two Mondays have been really cool. Last week, Monday was cool, and today is the same. After dragging myself out of bed at 9:25 a.m. this morning (It was a struggle, believe me) I get to the front door of the office where my building is and I see one of my former professors who used to teach here and now teaches at BC3. Then the janitor does as she always does, says hello, and then makes fun of me, "Time to go to work, you better actually work hard this week." Then I actually got a new writer to write which means less for me to do. So far, I don't have a case of the Mondays. Very nice.

Emerging from the black hole

Okay, all I asked from SRU was a win. Didn't get it. SRU lost 34-31, even though coming all the way back from 24-0 down in the first quarter to take a 27-24 lead. I would have just loved to see SRU kick the snot out of the Vulcans. Coming out of CalU, I was not impressed at all. First of all, the stadium is like 3 miles off the main campus, a truly brainy idea. Secondly, we had to park our car in the middle of this field right next to this ricketty looking baseball stadium. And then after going all that way, we were told there wasn't any more room in the press box to sit. So there went any hopes of a broadcast, but now we had to sit outside. Not such a problem, except it was pouring down rain at the time. Fortunately, though it stopped and I was able to sit in the bleachers in peace. Something like that. Did I ever mention CalU is called the Vulcans? Stupid name. Well, this Saturday it's IUP, SRU's most bitter rival. I'm hoping for something memorable. Hey, and a win would be nice too.

Good job Golden Eagles

I really wish I got more school newspapers from around the state. I saw this in the Clarion newspaper. Yikes on the copy editing job there.

"Eagles even reocord at 2-2 with win over Glenville State"

And I am not making that up either. That really happened.

Wake me when you're finished

There's something I've noticed over the last couple days. Class is really dull this year. Not that I didn't know that before, it's just now it's 20 times worse. Why? My theory is because recently in a few of my classes students have been giving presentations. Now in classes with 20-25 students with presentation that go for 5 minutes, these last for about 3 days. Now double that. Basically what it results to is that every day (Because one is a MWF class, the other a TH) I get to sit and listen to others talk about websites or people that I just don't give a hoot about. And today in Media Crit, the teach went on for 20 minutes about some guy named Fredric Jameson. Powerpoint not done with excitement drives me up a wall. Usually that is a case with most people. At least tomorrow's Wednesday. And I'm the one presenting. Good luck with that.
On another side note, I'm supposed to be traveling to the black hole known as CalU Saturday. Please win Rock. I don't ask for much.

Weekend Wonders

This past weekend was interesting enough. After making a run to Wal-Mart Friday night to get an extension cord, The crew (Mike, Margaret and myself) traveled to Lock Haven. Not necessarily a bad thing, except for the 5 1/2 hours of sleep I received once again. After a morning stop at Sheetz, the trip was um, really dull. When we get to the actual town, poor directions from a cop leave us 15 miles in the middle of mountainous nowhere. Seriously, the only thing I saw was a lot of green and dirt. So after the consicous decision was made to turn around and go back we eventually found the football stadium, which for all intents and purposes is cut into the side of a mountain. After pulling into, the stadium, the next problem arises. Calling from WRSK into our phone line doesn't work. Again and again and again. Finally at about 2 minutes to kickoff, we were able to call the studio from our number, and Voila! Me on the air. SRU beat Lock Haven 31-3 in an unexciting game, contining the 2004 "Semi-destruction tour" proclaimed by me in an effort to make coming out to games, um, desirable. The trip home involved stopping near DuBois at Arby's. Immediately coming out of the car, I wave and smile at a small puppy sitting in the front seat. This prompts Mike to say, "You're messed up, man."
The Steelers won 13-3 Sunday night, too. Miami is a horrendous team this year. Put them and Arizona in a game and call it the Toilet Bowl for 2004. I'm also amazed at how many Eagles fans there are up here. It's quite a bunch, and I've always known at least a couple of them every year I've been here.

Friday Funtime

Friday, September 24

Finally time to relax. Well I finally decided to make a blog just because everyone else is doing it. Plus, it's a cool way to vent. Anyways, I'm sitting here bored in the office killing time until my next class at 2 where I hopefully learn. The paper came out today amazingly. Afterwards, going back to 704 Dodds, something interesting happens. I read the dry-erase board and it says, "Room has been re-keyed, go to office to get new one." Usually, not a big deal except on Thursday nights, I don't get back to the room till about 4 AM. So I had to come back to the office. Fortunately, the web editor let me crash at his place.