Time check

I bought a new watch today. While buying a $10 watch from Wal-Mart may not seem like such a big deal for a lot of people it is a big deal to some people, quite noticeably, my classmates in high school that asked me in every class, "Reedy, how much time's left?"

That was my identity in high school probably to most people. The kids that had the watch, everybody knew about it, and all the teachers certainly weren't glad to see me in class at the last 5 minutes holding up fingers or other things. The times I didn't wear a watch? I'd hear about it all day. I never purposefully didn't, but one time I misplaced it in the sock drawer. And found it the next morning.

The whole "legend" of me being timecheckman apparently started in 7th grade. The last class of the day was Science 8 with a guy named Mr. Henninger. It was horrendous, like most of my 8th periods would come to be. Anyways, most of my classmates in there got a little antsy and since there was no clock in there, (Elderton probably couldn't afford clocks, I wouldn't be surprised) they asked me how much time was left. I was really exact, which added to the fun and happiness. By the way, this new watch is orange, so I can find it a little easier while I'm in a haze trying to make my first class of the day. My AOL name came from my watch fetish. This is probably the 6th or 7th watch, and I have most of the other ones. Why get a new watch anyway? My wristband broke on my old one, as all of them I have eventually do. The battery will probably run forever and it's nice nostalgia. And that is my day.

The summer begins

Today was memorial day, the unofficial start of the summer. Yay.

We cleaned out the well today. It went pretty smoothly for the most part and now that's taken care of until next year. Right now, while I'm typing this, I have the Western Conference Finals on. A disappointing series thus far as the Suns lost the first 3 games. Right now, the Suns are winning by 8 in game 4 over the Spurs.

Ed, Gary and myself went golfing on Friday and the episode was videotaped. (Go to TM2 Productions for downloads and stuff like that. Early rumor has it a trailer will be posted Wednesday. Expect this to be the highest of high comedy when completed. Let's just say we see Gary running, me swinging from the forest and Ed missing putts. Very good times.

I haven't gotten any surveys in a while, I'm a little surprised, but it's cool, I'm not gonna complain about surveys and such. Also, no weird dreams as of late and I haven't gotten a call on my cell phone in over 3 weeks. I'm also surprised that none of my college friends have called me in the middle of the night leaving me messages. That happened a couple times during the year. Here are the examples:

1. My friend Sheryl calls me at 12:50 AM while I am sick and asleep. Just to exhibit how sick I was: I was throwing up Diet Pepsi. Put that pic in your mind.
2. Colin/Nate/Sheryl call me the last day I'm at school. I was awake at the time but it was extremely late. Anyway,s that's the blog. Stay inside, it's better that way.

Summer and just plain odd

We're in the pre-stages of summer now, (it only starts after Memorial Day) and things look about the same as they do every summer. The weather at least right now is still rather awful with temperatures below 70. I had crazy dreams last night, which caused me to wake up 3 times. That's not fun. Of course, the dreams went mostly unremembered except for these things.

In one of the dreams, I do not get my diploma from high school, I instead move to Erie and get my diploma there. I think in another dream, I rip the SRU women's basketball team. They promptly get mad me and scorn me. In the third dream I'm hanging out with kids from high school and I have to put out a grease fire in the kitchen. I don't know why that happened, but I like to sleep soundly every now and again. Hopefully tonight won't be that bad.

I've seen some of the previews for summer TV this year and it's about the same as always. A mix of good and pretty stupid shows. (Thanks Fox) I saw a show that is giving 80s one-hit wonders a second chance at stardom and I tell you, that might be a show worth checking into. 80s fans like myself who liked Loverboy and A Flock of Seagulls will be intrigued to see them perform their hit on TV. In another show celebrities battle each other with professional dancers. I think Evander Holyfield is on this and this could be incredibly funny to watch once. The third show I've seen is on Fox called "Hell's Kitchen" This looks really pathetic. Basically think of it as American Idol in a Kitchen. Apparently, the chef is supposed to be real mean or something.

Speaking of American Idol, I will say I am not a fan. Basically having the same concept is getting old. Paula Abdul flailing her arms as a judge is just sad. Simon is the only true good constant of the show because he's honest and not here to please the public. So that' s all everybody. Peace and Chicken Grease.

The week in review

As I looked, it's been a week since I posted. So for those loyal fans of mine, here' s what been on the up and up.

Tuesday I went golfing with Gary, and it was a fairly close match until the last couple holes when my short game failed me as it always does. Anyways, I shot a 51, which is pretty disappointing considering it's a 9-hole par 3 course. Yep, my goal is to usually break 50 but it didn't happen this time. Later in the summer, we plan to go and have it videotaped with Gary's keen mind of comedy and such.

I filled out a survey Saturday that was 60 questions long. I would have expected more surveys from my Rocket friends but so far that hasn't happened. 'Tis a shame.

SRU baseball got crushed in their regional playoff game 14-3 against West Virginia State. Not cool. Also, last night, Detroit eliminated Indiana from the NBA playoffs, in what proved to be Reggie Miller's last game. Reggie was one of the premier shooters ever in the NBA and provided some of the biggest thrillsl The 2 that will stick in my mind are the something like 8 points scored against New York in the final 30 seconds in the 1995 playoffs and the winning shot in game 6 of the East Finals against the Bulls. That was only 2 memories. The conference finals are shaping up nicely. Unfortunately, the NBA could be headed for a lockout after this season is over. It's a shame, too if it were to happen because the NBA is getting more and more popular now and finally experiencing the type of fan reaction and interest not seen in a decade.

Also, of interest to me: E3 is going on this week. E3 stands for the Electronic Entertainment Expo and it is THE event in videogaming. This is where new games and ideas get debuted, while the major gaming companies (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo) hold their annual press conferences to detail progress and the future of the companies. The PS3 and X360 are on their way soon. The PS3 is scheduled for a 2006 release, likely around November. (Why November? That time of year is the biggest of the year for sales? That thing called Christmas is why.) I got to look at Madden 06 for PS2 some early footage. Looks solid although watching it on streaming video degrades the quality of the video.

Well, now you are all enthused or bored. Either way, I hope it was enlightening.

New things

The week is just about over, and I'm typing this at the end of a nasty thunderstorm. First off, I completed Metal Gear Solid3 today. Now for most people this merits a 0 on the "Give a Crap" meter but hey I figure why not mention it? Not much else going on this week. Pirates lost again, 4-3 to the Brewers. That's a common theme, losing to the Brewers. So far the Suckos are 1-5 against those beermakers.

Well, I finally had to do it. I joined the Facebook today. Now for those who don't know, The Facebook is a social networking interaction for colleges or something like that. Now, me doing anything social is like snow in May, it doesn't happen all that often and no one's real excited about it. This keeps me busy for at least a couple of days until I find something better to do.

My friend in Missouri e-mailed me back the other day. We worked together at the paper for 2 years until he graduated. Our life paths are scary. We covered the same sports and were promoted to sports editor after 1 year as just a staff writer. He was the editor-in-chief in 2003-2004 while I was still the fledgling sports editor. Amazingly talented individual. Anyways, he's getting married next year, and moving back to PA eventually. Good times.

So that's all for now. It stopped raining, and now I can see what else is on the up and up.

Back at home

OK, everyone. I made it back to the great homestead known as Kittanning. I moved out Friday and it was an aggravating experience as it always is. First off, I had to get up at like 9 AM. Then I had to move my car in front of Dodds. Only I couldn't do that because the wise parents of dormsters had parked their cars infront of the entrance therefore I was forced to park in front of the Union. At about 12, we tried for the second time, and I had to park almost by Harner because of the mass amount of cars. I tried to get in there a third time, but again couldn't because some bimbo in a massive Red truck/contraption had parked on the wrong side of the curb therefore blocking all traffic right in the middle of the road. A little bitter? You got me there. Unpacking was relatively easy and right now, I'm just really not doing much, basically like my weekends at school. I'm just waiting for that next odd job to plop down on me or something.

I started in my epic quest to make the paper more visually appealing. Here's the thing, I have a demo version of Quark 6, so I can get ideas but I can't save them. It's frustrating. But what can you do? So far the only things I've changed are the headshot boxes and the byline name and position fonts. I took pictures of them so if anyone's interested in previewing the early premise, feel free. This will be a long process.

I keep discovering the joy of videogaming. Right now, my rotation features NBA Live 2005, Need for Speed 2:underground and Metal Gear Solid 3. Quality games. I also recently bought a new pair of headphones for the computer.

I keep filling out the surveys I get in my e-mail. They are extremely enjoyable and give me something to do when I'm bored. I should also say I attended graduation Saturday. We had a steady shower 5 minutes into the thing and the crowd was fairly soaked. But the sun came out and we all eventually dried out. Congrats to the 2005 graduates.

Almost to the finish line

I have one more final to go and it's Thursday at 3 p.m. I also have to pack up all my belongings for the long jaunt home. Not a fun experience especially with there only being one elevator working right now. Lazy SRU maintenance. Remember, these are the same people that woke me up at 8:45 a.m. on a Friday. That's all I should need to tell you.

The Copy Editing final was today. It was not too bad, but it seemed a little shorter than the others. Not because I'm complaining or anything. I had to clean out my desk for the office afterwards and get all the important files onto 1 cd. Then I went and sold my books back to the loving and woderful SGA bookstore. That sarcastic tone comes from how much I got back for them: $17.50. What a rip-off! I sell 5 books back, and they only take 3 and then they decide these book aren't worth all that much. Freakin sad, in my view.

"Unnamed girl X" was inquisitive about me again today. That's the same one that everybody in the office is more enamored with than I am, I think. We'll see if that dies down over the summer.

Monday, we all went to the Iron Bridge for dinner. The Iron Bridge is a mile down the road from Rachel's and it's basically the same place as Rachel's. Good times. We went to Kim's afterwards for some more good times as well. We all asked each other among other questions, "Who we would date in the office?" I'd give the answer but then I remember the parents and the Rocket can read this at any time, so I won't. I know it's a tease, but it can get you thinking. Or maybe not.

OK, a question has been raised about my sudden distaste for radio. And the answer to that question is that I really don't hate broadcasting games, it's a lot of fun. It's everything else that goes along with it. Getting people to actually help out, driving long distances, having people not cooperate with you or just not show up, and other technical aspects too.. So that's why I'll be stepping back next year from that.

I'm excited to go home and then again I'm not. It's like this every semester when I leave for the extended period of time. I always forget that the 4 months will go by slowly and yet quickly at the same time. I'm not much of a fan of summer anyways. I find there's really not much to do. Oh, well at least the room will be at room temperature instead of constantly above that. What a relief.