tracker7 | Entries tagged with football

Pro football season started on Thursday the 7th, and for a few shining days, the Patriots were the worst team in the NFL, having lost the season opener to the Chiefs. It's still a little strange to want the Chiefs to do well, but here we are.

Unfortunately, my Dodgers continue to slide. They've now dropped ten straight games, and hopes for a 100-win season are fading fast. It's a teamwide slump. Hitting, pitching, defense - just everything.

UofL's 2-0 now, after wins over Purdue and UNC. Neither game was especially pretty, but wins are wins. Next up is the home opener against Clemson, who is defending a national championship. Last year, the Cardinals came close to beating Clemson on their home field, so next weekend should be a good game.

Spent last night at the farm, and it was a good/bad night. No middle-of-the-night anxiety attacks, but it took forever to get to sleep, and I only got about five hours. I've been dragging all day, and this was a busy day. Drove back here in time for a Fathom showing of The Wrath of Khan at Preston Crossing, then over to the Phelps' for [REDACTED] - which is going pretty well.

As you might expect, I'm a sleepy boy. Watching the Dallas-NYG game, in a desultory fashion. I have a Google Docs tab open, but that promise is likely to go unrealized tonight. There is a small cluster of neurons arguing that I should brew some coffee and make a more constructive night, but that voice is being shouted down quite effectively.

I'm feeling some fatigue with my Star Wars game. It's been going for about a year now, and that's a decent run. After for-freaking-ever with only minis gaming, launching the SW campaign was a good way to knock some rust off. Joining the Pulp Cthulhu game has been a good decision - good GM and players and a ridiculously cute black kitten. Should go ahead and throw in on Imaginarium and Nerdlouvia, I guess.

Saturday was for nerdery of another stripe. Small model train show across the river in Sellersburg. A couple of good HO scale modular setups and one okay N scale display. Took my buddy Darryl along, and it turned out to be a great day for him - someone from one of the clubs was able up to repair his prized 4-4-0. They put it on their layout, and dude got to see his baby run for a while. The club invited us out to their meeting nights, no pressure to join or put down dues or anything - just come out and run some trains and learn some things. Depending on things, I'd like to pick up a couple of locomotives to run on their layout. Watch for warehouse sales and the like. Like the Chessie System GP15-1 over at Walthers, for a c-note. Not that I've been window shopping or anything.

Hurricane Harvey rolled onto south Texas over the weekend. Ungodly amounts of rain and flooding, but minimal loss of life. It's not over, as forecasts predict that the thing is going to get a recharge before heading back over land and up the coast. This one's going to be costly. Every refinery is shut down, either due to damage or as a precaution, and fuel costs are already starting to climb. Some cities in the Houston metro area ordered evacuations, but most didn't, likely out of memory of the Rita evacuation in 2005. Maybe 3 million people were trying to get out of the Corpus Christi area, hopelessly gridlocking the whole evacuation network, even with Interstates set to contraflow. Over a hundred people died during the evacuation, mostly due to heat-derived conditions, and the roads were clogged for days after the storm's passage, preventing relief supplies and personnel from getting to affected areas. Lessons learned. There's a small and surprising silver lining - one of the few people in the current administration who isn't utterly awful is the FEMA director, and he seems to be handling things as well as can be.

CNN's reporting that Texas's governor has activated the entirety of the state National Guard. 12,000 citizen soldiers. Customs & Border Protection has been retasked into relief and assistance. And there could be another four feet and change of rain coming.

Loosely related, traffic was utter hell for a hojillion people a week ago. A total solar eclipse was viewable across this great land of ours, and ... well, see my previous entry. A GenCon buddy and his girlfriend went to Nashville to see the totality, and routed through Louisville on their way back to Michigan. We made plans to get together for dinner. And then a late dinner. And then a midnight refuel. It took them nine hours to get here from Nashville, and no rerouting helped. Interstates, federal highways, state roads - all just choked. And it wasn't just a regional problem. Similar stories all along the eclipse's path, from Oregon to South Carolina.

LA's still on top of all of MLB, despite dropping two of three to Milwaukee. This has planted a tiny seed of worry in the back of my mind. This may be the best single-season baseball team, ever, but come playoff time, the season is much shorter, as short as three games. LA's collapsed in the postseason before (albeit with a less-talented roster than the 2017 team), and I can almost see it happening again. For now, though, 91-38 with 33 games left in the regular season. The Giants were eliminated a week ago, before the Padres, even. October's coming.

The late stage of baseball season means the approach of football season. I've already seen a few mediocre preseason NFL games, and UofL starts against Purdue this weekend. (High school games are already underway, but I give zero fucks about those.) Maybe as a by-product of the Dodgers being just amazing this year, but I'm not as excited about football this year as in most previous years. The rapid increase in information about brain injuries in NFL players has taken a lot of shine off the sport, too.

My players got me out of the jam I'd written us into, and we had a good action-packed session Friday night. Got in some space combat for the Ace and enough spotlight time for everyone else. Next up, more Jedi action, introducing an Inquisitor.

The first pairings for the Corellian Conflict are assigned. Task Force 29 is defending Corfai against an Imperial attack. Just have to coordinate schedules with my opponent.

After last weekend's mostly-terrible wild card games, I had hope for better games in the divisionals. I mostly got my wish. Better games, although only one went the way I wanted - Atlanta over Seattle. Green Bay beat Dallas by a field goal, and the Steelers got past the Chiefs. Also New England beat the Texans, so I'm pulling for the eventual NFC champion in the Super Bowl. Best part of the weekend was watching the Dallas game with some of the cohort.

Swapped out some old and half-functional tech for an equally old but fully functional piece, and finally set up the Echo Dot I was given for Christmas. The Dot ... I don't know quite what to do with it.

Three weeks left in the semester. Papers and projects are moving along nicely, and I'm registered for spring's last push for the MPH. Less than six months until graduation.

Stephen K's brother died Tuesday morning. 30 years old. Fucking cancer, man. Service was Saturday morning; homework won out over attending, at Stephen's request. Expecting him to be back tomorrow for a work session, but won't be surprised if he takes the last day to spend more time with the family.

Ran around with Tegyrius on Saturday. Went to a disappointing train show, then hit the Baxter Avenue game shops. Since I didn't spend money at the show, I felt justified in picking up something at each shop. Talked a lot about gaming, career changes, life in general. Darn good day. And more homework that night. And Sunday, all day.

Short day at the desk today. An aunt and her husband are flying in and spending a week with Mom&Dad. I'm bailing out early to play tour guide and get an early vibe on how much interference I'll have to run for Dad. Short week, of course - normal day tomorrow, including class; half-day on Wednesday. I'm heading to Liberty Thursday afternoon, and staying until Saturday afternoon. Mom&Dad are taking the visitors to Nashville Friday afternoon, maybe coming back late that night.Gives me a lot of very quiet time to spend working, and then watch the UofL-UK game on Saturday.

UofL got whupped by Houston Thursday night, in case you were wondering. Houston had our number from the first play. National championship talk is over; Lamar Jackson is still a runaway favorite for the Heisman. Louisville will get a good postseason game, and then I start looking ahead to baseball season.

Conglomeration sent out an a call for GMs for 2017. I'll gin up something, maybe another Chronicles of Darkness game, or Shadowrun or something. Should look into CincyCon, too.

Current Mood: busy

I've come to love Thursdays. I don't really miss market setup and teardown, although the lunch options right outside my building door were nice to have. Thursday night is my favorite class, the one not part of my concentration. Two instructors, four students, and we tend to be super casual. Last week, we spent a good chunk of class time talking about communications methods and technology, human obsolescence, technoshock and a singularity event. And then went for a joyride in one classmate's RS6 and holy cow that thing is fast.

Fridays are hit and miss. This one was a hit - practicum mentor was out of the office, so I had a free day. Slept late, went into LMPHW around 10, handled some paperwork and phone calls and journal logs, and went home. Age of Rebellion game that night, which went well and, more importantly gave me tons of good player feedback and suggestions on the game as a whole.

Which led to Saturday. Stayed in bed until noon, working on the game. Wrote up three opposition forces for the PC group - a Rodian clan, an ISB investigation team, and an Inquisitor. I think they're nicely scaled, each with their own threat level and reasons to oppose the PCs. We'll start finding out next session when the PCs cross paths with the ISB operation.

(UofL won Saturday night, after seemingly trying not to do so in the first half of the game. Three higher-ranked teams lost, moving UofL up to #3 in both polls. Playoff committee meets tomorrow and if UofL is in their top four, people are going to lose their minds. Next game is Thursday night at Houston, and that's maybe tricky.)

Autumn finally showed up. The last few mornings have seen sub-freezing temperatures when I woke up, and highs have been in the low 60s. Took long enough - yet another summer that didn't want to end.

Current Mood: busy

LA lost to the Cubs Saturday night, ending the playoff run and sending the Cubs to the World Series for the first time since the 1940s. So, just beat Cleveland, you lot.

UofL beat NC State, Auburn whooped Arkansas, and WKU won, so a good weekend for NCAA football. The NFL put on a crapstravaganza, to balance things out. The Sunday night game ended in a 6-6 tie, which makes me feel pretty good about not tuning in and watching the last episodes of Making a Murderer instead.

15 days until Election Day. Still confident, but a little concerned that voters will get complacent and stay home and we wind up with Cheeto Jesus in the Oval Office and Reverend Stryker as Veep. The day's a full University holiday, so I won't have to come into the office, even. My loose definition of a plan for the day involves buying bourbon the night before, voting pretty early on Tuesday (my polling place is a short walk from the house), and either celebrating or drowning the ever-loving daylights out of disbelief and disappointment.

I've found myself considering buying a gun, thanks to this election cycle. My (grandfather's) Browning is safely in Liberty, and should stay there, so it's not really germane to this line of thought. I know I'm being reactionary, but there is a lot of scary noise coming from one camp.

Thinking about dialing back my work hours in the spring, maybe going over to Infectious Disease for 20 a week or so.

Had a talk with Housemate about some gaming issues last night. One of my SW players actively (and secretly) betrayed his teammates in the last session, so there needs to be some kind of consequence for this. I think I'll come up with a reasonable way for the betrayal to become known, and let the PCs and players handle it.

Current Mood: sleepy

Managed a far higher score on my Health Systems midterm paper than I expected, which countered the less-than-satisfying scores in two other classes. We're given the opportunity for rewrites, and my teammates and I have picked out sections to focus on - so, there goes the weekend.

Still getting out of town tomorrow. Should be able to get a lot of work done - if I can keep myself focused - and refresh a little bit.

The Dodgers are up against the wall in the NLCS. Cubs are up 3-2, and the series goes back to Chicago for the final game(s). I'm hopeful, but this won't be easy at all.

UofL's up against NC State tomorrow. Louisville's a solid favorite, but they were against Duke last weekend, too, and that was a much tighter game than it should have been.

Off to the Cave in a little while. More of the same, and then over to LMPHW for whatever the afternoon brings. Non-zero chance that I'll sneak in some work on class projects.

Thus ends the perfect season. UofL lost to Clemson last night, 36-42. AP ranking dropped from #3 to #7, and no one's talking National Championship anymore.

Stayed in Louisville last night, delaying my escape to the farm. And because I'm occasionally dumb, I made it to Anderson County before noticing that I'd forgotten to drop off the rent (checks were in my vehicle), so I had to turn around and hustle back to take care of that. Got here in time to see part of the NFL game from Wembley, and at the moment, I'm watching the Raiders not be utterly horrible.

Also, doing a lot of homework. Plenty of team assignments due this week, despite fall break. Christ, I'll be glad to see the end of those things.

It is so quiet down here. It's almost eerie.

Current Mood: busy

Louisville beat Marshall. Cards are 4-0, playing at Clemson this week. Although, UofL is ranked higher than Clemson, I can't quite get myself to believe that UofL will win. Clemson is so darn good.

Classes are still progressing. For a small number of reasons, I'm starting to wish that I'd maybe concentrated in Health Management instea of Promotion. I mentioned this in passing to one of my professors, and that led to another conversation about post-MPH plans. We have a rough map, combining our new executive MHA program with our policy PhD while working for SPHIS or a city or state agency.

It's the middle of the semester already. Monday and Tuesday are fall break, and I'm taking the days off from work. Going to head to the farm in a few hours to work on papers. Mom&Dad are gone to Arizona, so I'm house-sitting, and the quiet environment should be conducive to getting plenty of work done.

Set up an epic-scale X-Wing game last night. Led a 400-point Imperial force with my Raider against a 12-starfighter Rebel group supported by a electronics warfare GR-75. My Raider and a TIE/SF were the last Imperial ships on the table, but the Raider did its thing and, after hanging back to build up energy reserves, ripped the Rebel forces to bits. A really good time all around, and we're planning to do it again soon - I have yet to use my CR90, and that needs to be rectified soon.

Shadowrun Anarchy dropped this morning. Hoping to get (or make) the time to read at least some of it this weekend.

Oh hey, autumn finally arrived for real. The past week has seen daytime high temps in the low 70s or upper 60s, rain, clouds, some sunshine peeking through.

Current Mood: cheerful

Cardinal football whupped the everloving daylights out of Florida State Saturday. Final score of 63-20. FSU never really threatened. Louisville jumped to #3 in one poll and #4 in another, and noise about a national championship slot is starting to appear. I'm trying to manage expectations, but a showing like that in one of the season's three big games is pretty spectacular, and it's bound to be good for the team's confidence. Next up is Marshall, who let Akron put up 60+ points on them, and then Clemson (big game #2).

I did not go to the game. After the Heart Walk, I wound up lighting out for Bowling Green, and for part of the drive, had some questions about my judgment in doing so. Extremely heavy rain from the Outer Loop down to E-town, many miles of road construction, and more rain as I closed in on BG. But, I'm glad I went. For under a hundred, I picked up a Chessie System SW9, a Southern RS-3, and three miscellaneous freight cars. Both locomotives ran very well on test tracks. Drove back to Louisville in growing disbelief at the game's progress and was able to listen to the second half from the comfort of my bed. Still a little bit amazed at the score.

Halfway through the week. End of calendar summer (and probably the 50th 90F+ day of the year here in Louisville). Six more market days. Seeing Shadow this weekend.

In all of the buildup to Saturday's football, I didn't mention this story. We kicked a student out of school last week. This guy was something of an odd duck anyway; consistently unkempt and ill-mannered, and just had this vibe of something-is-off. So, last week (which, for those keeping score at home, was the fourth week of the semester, a full quarter of the way through), dude walks into a classroom with some documents in hand (maybe his class schedule), and asks if that's the class he's supposed to be in. I guess he didn't get the answer he wanted, got shouty and aggressive towards the instructor and some students. A meeting was quickly called, and his department dean (who had been working above and beyond with this guy) determined that he just shouldn't be here, and he was dismissed. Guy's a foreign student, not sure of his visa status, but I haven't heard anything like deportation mentioned. I'm not concerned about him causing any harm, but the staff has been told to keep him out of the building and to contact ULPD if he attempts entry. Better to be sure, I guess.

Better wrap this up. Need to finish a brief paper for tonight's class.

Onward.

Current Mood: happy

Sweet Jesus, I hate being sick. And this isn't even anything bad, it's just a summer cold. Started hitting Thursday afternoon, and by Friday morning I had no energy. Lost a practicum day, was weak and slow Friday night (but got my first X-Wing league win!), and Saturday, I just laid in bed or on the couch and watched football and tried to read. A little better today, still resting and taking lots of store-brand Dayquil/Nyquil.

NFL season kicks off for real today, after Thursday night's starter game. I'm still a dude without a team, but with growing affection for the Bengals and Colts. Becoming a homer, I guess. Today's games will probably be shot full of 9-11 whatsits and griping about players not standing for The Star-Spangled Banner and all that, because we have to wear the national hair shirt (Thanks, Clayton!).

UofL football is 2-0 after working over Syracuse in their Carrier Dome. Next up is Florida State here, and there's a growing rumor that ESPN Gameday will be telecast from Louisville. The Cardinals are good this year, with a stellar quarterback and a really good organization all around. WKU put up a good showing against Alabama - gotta be honest, a C-USA team keeping the best NCAA team to under six touchdowns is a good showing. Down the road, UK's ... just horrible. Inept, even. I'm a Cardinal coming and going, but I'm feeling some sympathy for my not-asshole UK counterparts. That is not a good program, but it's what you get for being a one-sport school.

Current Mood: sick

Week 2 is in the books. Classes are going well enough, and in one case, it's already about what I had expected, given my experience with the instructor. Made a couple of new friends, and it's good to be back with the cohort. Nine months to go.

I'm pretty happy with gaming at the moment. X-Wing league play on Friday nights, FNRPG and SWRPG after minis. I'm going to have to take a firmer hand with the Star Wars game, at least for a little while. There are folks new to the hobby in the group, and their herd-of-cats play isn't working. Worse, it's taking away from the more experienced players' enjoyment. So, for a little while, I'm going to put things, if not on rails, on a well-marked and easy-to-follow highway. The aspiring Jedi is due some story time.

Got an extra day for my Labor Day weekend. My practicum mentors took today off, and I don't work at SPHIS on Friday, so, yay, four-day stretch. Plenty of homework to keep me busy, and Dad's birthday is coming up. I half expect that he'll want to go camping/fishing somewhere. He bought a little camper trailer, and since the Canyon can't tow both it and his fishing boat, we'd have to get a tow hitch for the Mariner. Or we'll watch ALL THE FOOTBALL.

Speaking off, UofL football kicked off with a straight-up clobbering of Charleston last night. 70-14, final score. WKU also won, and Appalachian State had Tennessee on the ropes for most of the game.

Current Mood: sleepy

I won't - almost can't - mourn the death of Antonin Scalia. The man was clearly intelligent and well-spoken, but as The Onion put it, he lost a 30-year battle with progress. This year's Presidential election has become even more important.

Because of course they are, the Party of No is insisting that no replacement nomination will even be considered until 2017, following the inauguration of Barry O's successor. Down in my unapolgetic leftist heart, I hope it plays out something like this: Obstruction happens, and the Clinton or Sanders campaign grabs hold of it. The Senate flips, and for my 45th birthday, I get to see the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Barack Obama.

A few of the cohort came over for the Super Bowl. Good time, a good game, and incredible playing by the Denver defensive line.

Saw another NS Heritage unit Friday evening - the Conrail one. Paced it for a few miles down US127, but couldn't get a good photo. That's five for me, I think - CofG, Southern, Jersey Central, NYC, and CR.

Current Mood: peaceful

NFL conference championship day has become my favorite day of football. This year (last weekend) is no exception. Denver beat New England in a nail-biter of a game; Carolina put on a clinic, running away from Arizona almost as soon as the game started. I'm in a pretty happy place regarding the Super Bowl - I'll be happy as long as the game itself is good. The Panthers have been really good all season, and they're a really fun team to watch play. Denver got to the Super Bowl by beating the two teams I dislike the most in all of sports, the Steelers and Patriots. Just let it be a good game, and let me watch it in good company.

Sweet Christmas, I finally got in some role-playing game time tonight. Played Eclipse Phase at Kaiju's monthly-or-so open game night. Good GM, mostly good players. Gave me a little boost of creative energy, and I'm going to work on my games for CincyCon and Conglomeration later tonight (assuming I stay awake much longer). No LexiCon for me this year, though. Like last year, its up against Thunder Over Louisville, and finals are the week after. Some year it'll work out.

Current Mood: sleepy

And we're back in session at SPHIS. A couple of days to, really, get paid for doing nothing before classes started. Read quite a bit. Directed a few new students. Held a few hands.

Went to Indianapolis for a model train show yesterday. Saw some very nice modular setups, bought a whole damn Amtrak train. Didn't stay long; the facility was crowded and ventilation wasn't great, and that combination usually leads to me getting very uncomfortable very quickly. Kinda wish I'd sprung for the Chessie SD-35 I've been lusting after for a while, because what I need is more motive power.

NFL playoffs have started. The Chiefs rolled into Houston and embarrassed the Texans. The Bengals threw away a win against the damn Steelers with a set of penalties. The Vikings lost in the final few seconds when their kicker blew a short field goal. And at the moment, Green Bay and Washington are trading possessions and scores. Even if I haven't been happy with a couple of the outcomes, the games have mostly been good matches.

Winter showed up last night. Couple inches of snow, and it's been below freezing all day. I'm still in pajamas, having had no real reason to get out of the house; nothing that I can't take care of after class tomorrow night, anyway.

Current Mood: relaxed

I think I slept close to ten hours every day I was in Liberty. And it was wonderful.

Mom&Dad, Dad especially, loved the little tablets. Dad took to his like a duck to water, although neither seemed to want to use any of the money I put into a shared account for them. Hopefully that will change soon.

Caught up with Ben&Rebecca over the break. Talked shop with Rebecca - the CDC's got her doing health education in Marysville.

I had some problems with The Force Awakens, but the things the movie did right, it did so well that I can forgive the failures. I loved the new characters - Rey, Poe, Finn, Hux. Kylo Ren's no Vader, but he's sufficiently villainous.

UofL beat Texas A&M in the Music City Bowl, 27-21. TAMU only seemed to get into the game in the second half, and the last four minutes of the game were tense. Louisville's freshman quarterback threw for 200+ yards and ran for same, making himself responsible for all of UofL's scoring. Dude had a hell of a game.

Didn't do much of anything for New Year's Eve. Started out going to The Back Door with some of the cohort, only to find my favorite watering hole closed for the night. We headed out to St. Matthews to watch Alabama vs. Michigan State, which was only a good game if you're an Alabama fan. Got home early, read, went to bed and was out a few minutes after midnight.

Current Mood: tired

The trip to Atlanta was good, but not without a couple of little hitches. We left the yard with the wrong trailer, and were nearly an hour on the road before we caught the mistake. The first invoice didn't list the cargo size, so we figured it would fit in the Conestoga; the return order did, and, well, had to switch to the drop-deck. Minor frustration. We thought we had a return load, but the engine had only just been removed from the plane when we got to Atlanta, so we headed home.

Holiday weekend and all, but the emptiness of the roads surprised me. Very little traffic on I-65 between Louisville and Nashville, and even Atlanta on Saturday morning was easy (and fast) to get through. At one of our stops, we wound up parked next to a truck with a couple of wing sections loaded; saw it again a few hours later when we were heading out of the airport.

WKU beat Marshall, and Louisville beat the other school, so it was a great weekend for football in the Commonwealth. UofL's postseason game should be announced on Sunday. I've seen predictions of the Pinstripe Bowl against Indiana; if the game is in Nashville or Memphis or somewhere similarly close, Dad and I are going to try to go.

Halfway through Netflix's Jessica Jones, and liking it a lot. It's a pretty damned dark piece of work, and Kilgrave is wonderfully hateable. The first trailer for Captain America: Civil War has released, and I'm eating my words as to this being Avengers 2.5. Also, there's Batman vs. Superman and Wonder Woman shows up, so yay! Arrow and The Flash still deliver, Supergirl is very good. It's a good time for superhero media.

We're in the final week of classes for the semester. Behavior and Biostats tonight, Environmental on Monday afternoon, first final is on the 9th, two on the 10th, one on the 12th (WTF a Saturday), and the last one on the 14th. Going to be a celebration of some kind. Christ, this has gone by so fast.

Current Mood: busy

We're closing in on the end of the regular season. My Dodgers are on top of the NL West, and will probably repeat as division champs, but I'm not celebrating just yet. They've lost three in a row (to the Rockies, for crying out loud), and I'm afraid that maybe they've just forgotten how to play baseball.

I kinda have a hint of how Cubs fans feel.

Spent the weekend in Liberty. Volunteered to help Dad out at the Apple Festival. Did not enjoy the experience, outside of time spent with my family. Too many people, not enough space or sense or civility.

Cardinal football finally got a win, and WKU clobbered Miami of Ohio. I'm thinking about going to the WKU-Marshall game over Thanksgiving weekend - WKU tends towards rapid-fire offense, and last year's season-ender against Marshall was darn near a live-action Madden game.

Current Mood: sleepy

Cardinal football is 0-3. This bodes ill.

Broke in the Starviper in an X-Wing tournament. Not a bad ship, and I can see it becoming a very tricky fighter under a player with more experience using it. I'm not likely to become that player, as it's a S&V ship, and I fly that faction maybe one time in ten. Went 2-2 in the tournament, losing to YV-666 builds both times. One was a no-skill-required fortress build; the other was more interesting. Beat on a double Aggressor build and ... I think a Chewbacca-and-escorts squadron. Won half of my entry fee back in store credit, and bullshitted with some of my fellow pilots for a while.

Tested the new K-Wing out in a couple of casual games yesterday. It's an interesting ship - slow and with limited maneuver options. The SLAM action is great for getting the thing out of harm's way (at the cost of losing the chance to shoot), and it rewards aggressive flying - forget the bombs, load this critter up with torpedoes and missiles and sic it on the bad guys.

School is progressing. I didn't get the research assistant job (all good). Sleep and I have moved into a long-distance relationship (we only really see each other on weekends). We declare concentrations in a few weeks, and I think most of the cohort has selected theirs.

Very weird-ass dream about Cassandra a couple of nights ago. It gets strange up in my mind sometimes.

Current Mood: sleepy

Things happen often at their own pace. Money was held up until the various record-keeping systems at UofL exchanged data, with my loan and grant disbursements happening on the first day of classes (and work).

The job is just cake. I drive a desk, admit visitors to the building, distribute mail, stuff like that. Seven hours a day, and most of that I can spend on homework and other assignments. At least, that's how it is now. Things may change. The school's Technology Director asked if I'd be interested in coming to work for him (currently, he's a one-man department), and one of my professors (and head of his department) offered me a research assistant job. Of the two, the RAship is probably my better option, and I'm going to talk with him and my current supervisor about splitting my time between the two - 15-20 hours a week at each, if that can be arranged.

Classes are going to be very challenging, especially Biostatistics. All late-afternoon and early-evening, as school policy dictates. All of my textbooks are available in electronic format, and while those files are a little pricier than most used copies I've found, it's worth the extra expense to save weight. From garage to SPHIS to class to the garage is about a mile-and-a-half, and if I don't have to lug several pounds of books in addition to the laptop I'll have already, so much the better.

SPHIS operates a farmers market on Thursdays. It has eight to ten vendors, two or three food trucks, and a couple of community or other service organizations. One of the nearby hospitals has a sponsorship agreement with the market, and that draws a lot of its employees over for something besides leftovers for lunch. It's a pretty nifty thing.

I was a bad player at last weekend's X-Wing tournament. No. No, amend that. I was a sneaky player. I flew three kitted-out Y-Wings (testing the new Twin Laser Turrets and Plasma Torpedoes). First match was against a new player - Lambda shuttle, TIE Interceptor, TIE Advanced. Swept him, dogpiling one ship at a time. Next up, a guy I've played before and don't have much good to say about. He flew a netlist (Corran Horn and that goddamn Outrider), and I have some serious hate for netlists in general and this one in particular. I decided to try something different - don't fight to win, fight to not lose. I sicced all three of my Y-Wings on the E-Wing, ignoring the ugly-ass YT-2400. Ionization kept him from using R2-D2 to recharge shields, and massed fire made short work of the fighter. And then, I ran out the clock. 1-speed straightaways, only speeding up to keep away from the 2400. Never made an attack run against it, and only fired when he got aggressive and came after my ships - which, after taking a couple of ion shots and nearly being forced off the battlefield, he backed away from. I lost one fighter, but it was worth far less than the E-Wing, so when the timer sounded, I got the win. Lost my next match against a mixed TIE squadron. Last match of the day was against one of my favorite guys to fly against - Don is creative with his builds, and a challenge to fly well against, and a good fun dude to be across the table from. He had an all-ace S&V squadron, a Z-95, the new Khiraxz, and the flying sandcrawler called a YV-666. The YV can take (and deliver) a lot of damage, but it can only fire forward. Sicced my A4 on it, camping out in the rear arc and pouring ion and blaster fire and stress on it while the S3s dealt with the fighters. Won with the A4 - got behind the YV's deployed fighter and controlled its movements with the same firing cycle I used on the carrier. Went 3-1, made sure the netlist wasn't going to be eligible for the playoffs, and withdrew, since I had to start things early the next morning.

NCAA football starts next weekend. UofL plays Auburn for the first time, either ever or in forever. D and I are getting together to watch, and after the game, I'm heading to the farm for Dad's birthday and Labor Day.

Current Mood: happy

Roadside Picnic

Bright Ideas, Dark Futures

Raised by Wolves

The Miracle

All Fear the Freak

Out on the Street

In a Black Out

Roll With the Punches

It's Still Rock and Roll to Me

Fiery Emblems

Strange Days

Me, Myself, and I

Love Removal Machine

Forgotten

Come Monday

The Recruit

Strangled

All-American Man

All the Way to Heaven

The Rock

New World Order

Let's Dance

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September 2017

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