Bad News

So I went to my physical therapist yesterday and got some rough news. It’s either I rest for 3 weeks or risk my knee problems worsening to the point of having to have surgery on them. Of course, I have no choice but to rest, so my IM season is over. I am on schedule to return sometime in the playoffs, however, so the news is not all bad. However, I don’t think I’ll warrant any PT with the condition I’m going to be in after not practicing for 3 weeks. We’ll see.

Taotao just walked in and is starting to bother me about playing Smash. I will go play a couple rounds to appease him…for fear of the consequences otherwise. Later.

-Jack

Would you donate your balls to science?

Like this guy?

Thanks go to With Leather

-Jack

May v. Rickert Pics

I selected a few of the 58 taken by our very own Chelsea Woods (who is sick at photography):

Don’t worry about what happens at the end of this play

Yilei shows off the hops

Ruben with the sick handles, and passing, and shooting

Our awesome RHs and RA, comin out to support us

Zack is a beast down low

Just how badly can I miss this shot?

Sherman’s silky smooth release

Silly Willy

-Jack

Gameday Blog

Just to make it clear, this is a live blog of my personal day before our IM basketball game. Excuse my punctuation, grammar, etc etc. I’ll probably include a summary and other lessons learned at the end of today.

9:10 AM : Just got in class and booted up the laptop. Dr. Sierwald was reviewing natural selection / adaptations, so I don’t think i missed too much. So begins my looooong tuesday.

9:11 AM : Forgot to mention, I don’t think my battery’s going to carry me through Bio and Econ (which are back-to-back), but we’ll see how it goes.

9:17 AM : Sexual selection, eh? Well I know for humans, being attractive to prospective mates usually doesn’t hurt. But then again, it doesn’t involve us growing and losing horns every year

9:19 AM : One thing i’ve noticed sitting in the far corner in the back of the classroom is that there are a good number of laptops in the class and the people that have them generally seem absorbed in whatever they’re working on (which is not taking notes)

9:25 AM : Some girl is in back reading a SOSC book and taking notes on it. …And now our professor is talking about male spiders that are basically gigolos. Death or no sex? I mean, I guess they don’t have a choice

9:30 AM : Apparently males all over (not just men) go through a great deal of effort to attract females. Everything is driven by female choice. Amen to that.

9:34 AM : It’s only been half an hour into the class and I’m already starting to get tired. I should really get more than 5.5 hours of sleep, especially today where I might get more minutes in the game v. Rickert (some of our subs have other obligations)

9:41 AM : We have just been shown a youtube clip on lion infanticide. That shit is messed up.

10:00 AM : Almost done with Bio…although this lecture wasn’t that bad

10:13 AM : We’re watching a movie to end class, so I’ll sign off until Econ

10:36 AM : Blech…our econ prof gets started right away, looks like I’m not going to have that much time to blog because I’ll be busy taking notes. Stay tuned.

10:51 AM : Profit maximization is the topic of today. While typing the previous sentence, I just noticed my laptop screen is REALLY dirty. Note to self : clean laptop screen.

10:58 AM : Some guy in front of me is wearing a girl’s shirt (or what looks like a girl’s shirt). what. the. hell.

11:04 AM : running out of batteries. a quick glance at the class shows at least 1/2 (including the prof and TA) have some sort of beverage in front of them. which reminds me of how thirsty i am. Note: bring water to class

11:08 AM : There seems to be some construction work going on in adjacent rooms. Drilling noises are VERY painful to listen to. And most definitely distracting. Can’t they do this sometime at night…when classes aren’t being held?

11:26 AM : Just got the low battery warning, time to log off, kids. hopefully i’ll be back for SOSC, if not, the next time I blog will be at dinner and then finally at the game.

12:04 PM : Back in the room for a short while to get my SOSC readings done for today. Durkheim is a jerk, that’s all i gotta say. Can anybody concentrate on reading him without wanting to take a blender to their insides?

12:28 PM : Still trying to get through Durkheim. I’ve decided that, in order not to arouse suspicion, I will manually liveblog during SOSC and then type it up when I get back to the room. Usually I don’t take that many notes for SOSC, so hopefully it won’t be a problem

1:34 PM : This class is mostly interesting (despite the readings), because my professor is a pretty eccentric fellow with poor handwriting, but a great sense of humor and a gift for spurring conversation in the class

1:46 PM : I’m starting to lose it…but i can’t afford to fall asleep, especially since I’m sitting at the main table today.

1:56 PM : Still fighting the good fight. One thing that sometimes works is if I pinch myself and the pain sorta jolts me awake. I don’t know about today though…

2:07 PM : We discuss the immeasurable impact that society has upon us as individuals

2:18 PM : I just got my second wind, now I have hope that I can make it through the next 30 minutes

2:23 PM : …And now our argument turns to porn. Or rather, the banning of it. Didn’t I say this class was interesting?

2:35 PM : Can anybody out there name any secular a priori beliefs that are still held by people even though experience says otherwise? I think my irrational belief in ghosts might qualify.

2:47 PM : The professor is hilarious. Hilarious.

4:15 PM : Just finished typing in the liveblog from SOSC. Probably going to take a nap and hopefully have enough energy for the game.

6:38 PM : That nap was pretty good, except I woke up quite a bit here and there. I fell in and out of sleep the last bit because my roommate left for a discussion session (or something like that) but left the light on and his dinner in the room. So yeah, the room now smells like chicken tenders. At least close the lid, Andrew!

7:17 PM : Me ‘n Swi find out we have basically the same dinner. Except he got milk…for dinner.

7:22 PM : Shazbot! Swi is from the ’50s ’80s.

8:19 PM : Unfortunately I have found out that Drew Jackson (the former varsity player) was not eligible to play in IMs, so we will be taking on a weakened Rickert team. Also, Choi and Yilei have disappeared / gone into hiding, and we have about 40 minutes before we leave for Crown. Hopefully they show up soon.

8:45 PM : Yilei and Choi finally come out of hiding (from the Reg, no less) and we are gathering up our team. It’s game time!

10:42 PM : Rickert was tougher than we expected, utilizing a zone against us and jumping out to a 10-0 lead. We came storming back, however, with Ruben hitting a couple of 3s and Yilei exploding to the basket and igniting our defense. In the end, our size (Sherman, Zack, and Peter) and tenacious defense was too much for Rickert to handle, as they scored 1 point in the last 6 minutes of the game and we held on for a 38-36 win. May House IM Basketball is now 3-0 on this young season and taking on Alper next week.

10:43 PM : Dammit. I strained my quad. It hurts like hell, but I think I should be fine with some rest. My physical therapist isn’t going to be happy about this though.

11:50 PM : We just watched game tape and found that we got some pretty good looks against their zone, but weren’t consistent in knocking down our shots. Plus, the refs were shit.

11:52 PM : I guess this is basically the end of my live blogging. Thanks to everybody who kept up along the way and thanks to all the fans who came out to support May House Basketball today!

-Jack

Live Blog Tomorrow

In order to help myself stay awake in class, I will be live-blogging tomorrow starting from my 9AM Bio Topics course to my Sosc course ending at 3:00 and possibly even during the basketball game (although those updates will most likely be added all at once (I don’t know if Crown has WiFi access). Hopefully my professors let me use my laptop for the duration of these classes.

-Jack

p.s. def: live blog (taken from Wikipedia) - A live blog is a running online commentary by individual bloggers contributing to a topic thread focused on an ongoing event as it unfolds in real time. Participation is referred to as “live blogging.”

Hooray 2008

Three things I’d like to see happen in 2008:

1. Barack Obama gets elected president. Talks of addition over division increase. 3rd and 4th graders around the nation rejoice.

2. The White Sox win an unprecedented 162 games, leaving their starters in for every single one of those games and humiliating their opponents by trying to HIT instead of lay down bunts with leads of 10 or more runs.

3. The Olympics in Beijing feature a new event: Smog Diving. No athletes make it through the competition alive.

Have a great new year everybody!

-Jack Li