Thoughts from the Other Side

End of the month

I'd like to thank all the people who keep coming back to read this place. I registered 830 hits this past month which is quite an increase over August. Why you all keep visiting is beyond me, but thanks, and keep up the good hits :)

Blah

That's pretty much how I feel about this past week. I haven't really had much good blogging material of late. I think its mostly due to the fact that classes are picking up a little right now (we're hitting our mid-terms next week) and I have a bunch of papers I've been slogging my way through.

Zach and I did go see Alien: The Director's Cut tonight. Ever since I saw the movie for the first time with my dad (its been awhile) I've wanted to watch it on the big screen. Now that I've seen it, I'm glad I did. For me, Alien represents a combination of campy 1970s visual effects and a healthy dose of true scifi brilliance. Its not that its a unique story. In fact, the story is an almost completely unoriginal idea. What makes it special is the way Ridley Scott actually puts the viewer on the ship with the rest of the crew.

I've always been a big fan of the way Scott does that. The way he creates a film atmosphere is really amazing to me. Its the main reason I also really like Blade Runner, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down. Say what you want about Gladiator (I personally like it alot), the recreation of Rome portrayed in that movie is awesome.

But I digress.

For most people, I imagine seeing small worm-like aliens with lots of teeth popping out of a living man's body is something altogether undesirable. With that in mind, if you haven't seen this movie at some point or another (its been out since 1979. . .) make sure you know what you're getting into. My dad's family didn't and they got a not so pleasant surprise (funny story. . .ask me about it sometime). However, if you've already seen it, but you're not old enough to have caught it on the big screen, definitely check this one out. People call Alien the greatest scifi movie of all time. I'm not sure if that's true, but its definitely something to see in a decent theater while the chance is there.

On the beauty of free stuff

One of the biggest problems that I have with the UK is how much more expensive things are here. Its not that everything is exorbitantly priced (not for the the British anyways), its just that the conversion rate between dollars and pounds really sucks. I have to pay about $1.70 for every pound. . .while I know I'm not actually losing money in the exchange, I still feel cheated somehow. Overall, price tags are comparable to those in the states, its just that they are in pounds sterling and, therefore, more expensive.

However, one thing I really like about the UK is how all of their museums and galleries are free to the public. That's right. I can go to the Scottish National Gallery and gaze at Rembrandt's self-portrait or Monet's paintings of poplars for as long as I want and it won't cost me a red pence. Same with the museums. When the Kelvingrove Museum (the UK's version of the Smithsonian) was open people would just wander in for a few hours and then leave, knowing that they could come back whenever they wanted to browse some more. I really like that. Somehow it just makes sense. . . I know many of you probably can't understand why I would like to go to an art gallery or museum in my spare time, but I've always been intrigued by old stuff. Especially foreign old stuff.

I also really like Student Movie Rates. I know that these can occasionally be found in the States (as in students pay $6 instead of $8 or something like that), but they aren't very widespread and, specifically, they are not to be found in Chattanooga. It just doesn't seem right to me that I can go see a movie here, in the tallest theater in the world, on a HUGE screen (easily two or three times anything available in the Chattanooga area) and still pay less than matinee prices back home. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

*Steele crosses fingers and hopes that the Lord of the Rings marathon will be coming to the theater in Glasgow*

More Pictures!

Before I put these up I'd like to give props to a person I don't even know. Whoever Mihov is, he deserves a round of applause. I'd had all these pictures sitting on a CD, but I couldn't upload them because they were too large (1.6 megs/picture. . .yikes). But then I found this freeware photo resizer on google and it works like a charm. A little slow if you want the best quality resize, but its worth it. . .especially since I don't have all of my usual computer toys with me over here.

So. . .now that I've given credit where credit is due, I give you:

That picture was taken about two weeks ago mid-way through a birthday party for one of our flatmates. Here are some others. . .

This was the morning after the party I just mentioned. I'd been up for awhile, but Zach woke up shortly before this picture was taken (hence his groggy, slightly forlorn expression).

Three of our flatmates. . .the party was for Leah (blue shirt).

And two more flatmates. . .the other two guys on the flat (there are 6 girls in all. . .only four guys).

That's all for now. I'm going to resize a few more and post them later. I'll see if I can find the pictures of me and Zach with our first Cubans. . .

My own iTunes experience

So after hearing everyone over in the Chattablogs crowd raving about the new Windows version of Apple's iTunes, I decided it was time for me to try it out myself. I've looked long and hard in my quest to find a music player that really works. . .and maybe I've finally found it. Back in the day I used WinAmp, but that really got tiring as I just grew to hate the interface. I messed around with RealJukebox also, but that was really only good for movie clips and .rm media files. My player of choice for the longest time was MusicMatch, but I hated how much processor time it would use. . .and it would also crash occasionally, an unforgivable sin. Lately I've been mildly satisfied with the RealOne player. I like the way it looks and it does everything well, but it still uses WAY too much CPU. So I go to iTunes.

I really like it. It looks good, has some great features, and it runs with low requirements. What else is there? Even the visualization screen looks really cool (WAY better than the crappy visuals that Media Player throws up there). I think I may have found what I've been looking for.

But a word on the shuffling feature. . . I think its amazing how these programmers have been able to put such an amazing piece of code together. Just this morning I had it set on shuffle and started off with a song by Evanescence (I think it was 'My Immortal'. . .great song). The song ends and all of a sudden I hear 'I'm Sorry Mama' by Eminem. . .quite possibly the angriest song I've ever heard (awesome riff though). This change struck me as being rather odd since there was no relation at all between the two songs. I really like that a random shuffler actually makes random selections. But then, as the anger of Marshall Mathers dies away, I hear 'The Ride of the Valkyries' by Wagner. Talk about genre hopping!

I haven't tried to burn feature yet, but if its anywhere near as good as the rest of this program I may never use another media player again. Hehe. . .and I haven't even been able to access to music store yet.

Mystic River

I just got back from watching this. I'm not really sure what to say that would do justice to what I saw. Wonderfully directed. Wonderfully acted. Sean Penn is amazing.

This movie may haunt you, but go see it. Its well worth the piddling amount you will spend.

Give him a hand. . .

John Spencer Melton has now entered the blog world. For those of you who know him that means we should all be grabbing some construction helmets and (where possible) a long stick or two for defense. :)

Hehe. . .not really.

His blog is named Kappa Epsilon Gamma (K.E.G. for short) and its going to be a wild one. Give him a visit.

Senseless Blathering v 2.0

It occurred to me that I haven't blathered senselessly for a while now. I figured I should get on the ball. :)

I guess the biggest news of late is that in about two weeks I'll be heading off to Paris for a few days. The university here has this really cool thing called Reading Week where most classes (at least all the honours classes) don't meet and there are no seminars either. This works out doubly well for me since it coincides with a really cool deal on RyanAir. Basically, I get to fly to Paris and back (from Glasgow) for around $80. Not too shabby. Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to this. I probably won't leave the city too much as my main goals are to hit up the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, The Louvre, the Latin Quarter (where I may actually be staying if all works out accordingly), and the Arche de Triomphe (sp?). I would like to swing by the palace at Versailles though and my dad told me I should see Azincourt if at all possible though so I may be doing a little moving about. More will be posted on this as the time approaches.

As of this coming Sunday, Zach and I should have acquired tickets to the Evanescence concert here in Glasgow (also during Reading Week actually). This also makes me exceedingly happy as I've wanted to see them live for some time now. The venue is supposed to be really good also. . .should make for an awesome event.

There's currently a kind of flame-war (basically people shooting insults at each other) developing between Bo Lancaster's and Zach's blogs. Bo posted on the art of being pretentious and all but named Zach as being a pretentious turd for ending his Wittenburg Door posts by saying he was simultaneously drinking Guinness. Zach responds by calling Bo a wanker (in classic Leprechaun style) and Pnut and ColeSlaw have also chimed in. This one could get interesting, though strangely it might actually turn into an argument about beer.

I have to say, I really love the beer here. Overall my experience has been that British food is crap. Everything is either deep-fried or frozen and with the exception of the beef (which is REALLY good) it is all more expensive and cheaper quality (read: cheaper = worse). For example, I went to a Fish and Chips shop (EVERYTHING is Fish and Chips and Kebabs. . .no variety whatsoever) and ordered a hamburger. What could be more basic than a hamburger with chips (fries)? When I think hamburger I think of a nice piece of grilled meat put between two pieces of bread with lettuce and tomato and maybe some mustard. Apparently people in the UK have a different mental image. My 'hamburger' was a piece of fried meat (it didn't even look like beef), still contained in the batter, placed on a pile of chips, slathered in salt and vinegar, and then wrapped in brown paper. No bread. No lettuce or tomato. Nothing. I was very depressed.

But the beer. . . Mind, I'm by no means an expert on American beer. In fact, being underage I've only experienced American beer in very small (and highly specific) quantities. That said, the few times I've had American beer I really was not impressed in the least. Coming over here the obvious choice for first drink was a Guinness. I really enjoy Guinness, especially on-tap (to my mind the only proper way to consume it), but I find it to be a hard drink to have frequently. For one thing, its really heavy. I don't really consider it to be a beer. I know it falls under the 'beer class,' but there really aren't any other beers which can be compared to it. That said, I've really latched on to Belhaven over the course of my stay here. The beer of choice for most Glaswegians is Tennet's (or Carling), but I've found that to be a little bitter for my tastes. Belhaven is really smooth and I have a great respect for it.

Wow. . .I can't believe I just posted that much about beer. If anyone has actually read this far, you should be ashamed of yourselves :) There are far too many more important things you could be reading, like articles on the growing violence in movies these days. I'd really recommend going here and reading what Mesh has to say. I found this essay (I suppose that's what it is) to be extremely insightful and very well-written. Its worth a look.

And finally, have any of you ever wondered why classic arcade games (as in, Sonic or Mario or anything else in that vein) are always filled with things like moving walkways or platforms which just hang in mid-air? I know that may seem random, but its a question which goes along with this. I found it to be very amusing.

Tarentino is my hero

Up until about a month ago I had no real interest whatsoever in seeing the first half of Quentin Tarentino's latest work of art (that being Kill Bill vol 1, for any who don't know). However, at some point in my journeys to the UGC over the past month I came upon the realization that it was going to be an incredibly good movie and that I really wanted to go see it. So I did.

On Friday night Zach, Curt, Duncan (two of our flatmates) and I decided to try and catch an opening night showing, but we didn't take the big-city factor into account. Upon arriving at the theater sometime around 7:30 we found ourselves joining a line that went out of the building and a half-block down the adjacent road. Once we arrived in view of the scheduling screens we saw that all showings for the next four hours had been sold out. We didn't want to leave without having seen something so we decided to go for another round of Pirates of the Caribbean. Once again it was entertaining. . .

We returned to the flat feeling defeated, Curt and Duncan went off to get drunk, Zach and I stayed in to read for awhile. Yesterday, we awoke and decided that today was the day to go see Kill Bill. We took the tube downtown (always an interesting experience) and wandered around for a bit as we tried to locate a camera repair shop for Zach's digital camera (the loss of which has been greatly mourned). Having no luck, we bought our tickets for a 5:10 showing and then hit up McDonald's for milkshakes (oh so good) and then went to Borders to kill the time. I really like the Borders here. They have two whole levels just for CDs and an escalator running betwen them and the main floor. I picked up a really good CD of Scottish music and Zach got a classic Billy Connelly album. After that it was time for the movie.

I was aware of the fact that they would be showing the film in a nice auditorium, but how nice that room actually was didn't dawn on me until we had to walk through a small tunnel to get there. The place was huge, easily one of the nicest movie venues I've ever been in. I really hope we can score the same place for Matrix Revolutions and Return of the King (and Master and Commander also. . .).

The movie itself was absolutely amazing. I've always liked Pulp Fiction. . .its one of my favorite movies, but Kill Bill (or at least the first half that I have seen) is at least as good, if not better. I love the way Tarantino does all the nifty little things he does. Whether its someone barely on-screen making some hand gesture which serves to cut the background music or an eye blinking to change the lense. . .its all so great. Kill Bill is by far, one of the most gruesome movies I have ever seen. I know it was fashioned after many of the old kung-fu classics (and therefore features many people fighting one or excessive blood spurting everywhere. . .etc), but there are several scenes where I couldn't help but flinch in mental pain. From the very first scene to the very last one there are heads being shot or chopped or limbs being hacked and generally blood everywhere.

This movie is definitely not for the weak of mind (or perhaps stomach), but if you feel you can handle it, there's an amazing movie waiting for you. From the first minutes right up until the cliffhanger ending (and its a weird one), the story had me completely enthralled. I think this (when paired with the second half) could go down as one of the greatest movies of all time. I really can't wait for volume 2.

Movies

As some of you may have read earlier, Glasgow is the proud owner of the world's tallest movie theater. It weighs in at a whopping 12 stories tall and features 18 screens. It also features a student ticket rate which effectively makes going to see movies (regardless of day or time) cheaper than anything back home.

Zach and I decided to take advantage of this fact and we've made a point of going to see one movie a week since we moved to our flat. All of this is, of course, building up to the three movies I really want to see this year (those being Kill Bill vol. 1, Matrix: Revolutions, and Return of the King), but for now:

Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Having seen one of the earlier movies in this series (Desperado) I was already intrigued by this movie. Hearing that Johnny Depp would be in it simply solidified my wanting to see it (I'm currently trying to watch as many of his movies as possible). That said, it was actually a pretty good flick. It did a decent job of compliling a really bizarre sequence of events into a script and the action, while not really meant to be taken seriously, is well done nonetheless. Depp, as in Pirates of the Caribbean, provided a layer of finesse that wouldn't have been there otherwise, and he was hilarious as well.

Bad Boys II
Before you all get on my case about how I could actually spend money to see something as heavy-handed and immature as this let me say, I loved this movie. I've always enjoyed Will Smith's movies (Independence Day is still a favorite of mine and the first Men in Black as well) and while I don't really consider him to be much of an actor, he never fails to make me laugh. And that's what this movie does. There is a plot, but its not really why people are going to see the movie. Mostly it is just a movie made up of large explosions, cool cars, lots of guns, and really funny punch-lines. And I loved it.

Let the criticism commence. . .

Ned Kelly
I had never even heard of this story, but saw the trailer as it was attached to Underworld. I don't even know if it will be released in the states. Anyways, what I liked about this movie was the story itself. The acting and, to a certain degree, the directing did not really impress me much, but the story itself is really good. I was a little disbelieving of its accuracy at first, but after a little research I discovered that, with the exception of a few obvious productionisms, it was all true. Its the story of a young man in Victorian Australia who is falsely arrested for horse thievery. He serves his time and then returns home to find that the Victorian Police are victimizing all the farms in the area, including his own which is run by his mother and brothers. One night, after defending his sister from the advances of a policeman, he is accused of shooting that policeman and is shortly thereafter declared an outlaw. Over the next few years he and his brother and friends are in hiding throughout the area until violent shoot-out which kills all but him (he was arrested and hanged soon after).

I don't know if I would reccomend the movie at all (perhaps as a rental or value theater flick), but it is definitely a story worth investigating.

Right. So that's about it for now. I think Zach and I are going to see Kill Bill tomorrow with several of our flatmates so expect some kind of feedback on that one soon.

Until then. . .

58 and counting. . .

I was sure that last night was going to be the night. Last night was going to be the night when the Chicago Cubs finally made it to the World Series. It was game 7, they were playing in Wrigley Field, and Kerry Wood was on the mound. Can it get any better than that?

Apparently it can.

Last night I stayed up until 4:40 in the morning, sitting next to the window of my room with my flatmate's portable television so I could watch the Cubbies finally achieve their destiny. But I guess no one told the Cubs that I was watching. Either that or it really made no difference whatsoever.

But what a rollercoaster! After the top of the 1st inning I was already beginning to descend into the pits of despair. . . How can you give up three runs in the top of the first inning and expect to win? But then Kerry Wood launched a mammoth homer (well, mammoth for a pitcher anyways) to tie things up and suddenly we were back in it again. Then, Moises Alou blasted one out of the park putting the Cubs up 5-3. Nothing could go wrong. But then, Kerry Wood finally got tired. They put a stat up early in the game showing how Wood had led the majors this year with over 4,000 innings pitched. Apparently those innings finally caught up with him last night. I'd been fearing that would happen all season long and it finally did. The rest of the game was pretty much all downhill and the Cubs decided to play a major role in the Josh Beckett Show. All I can say is, that guy is going to be good.

I guess I'm kind of disappointed, but at the same time I'm realizing that nobody expected the Cubs to make it to the playoffs this year. Nobody expected them to even compete to be in the playoffs this year. This was a banner year with the front-office finally working well with the dugout (namely, Dusty Baker) and it really showed. Hopefully Kerry Wood won't be asking for too much money and the team will be able to be kept mostly intact. If so, I think next year is going to be great.

Just wait 'til next year. . .

Music for thought

how can you see into my eyes
like open doors
leading you down into my core
where I’ve become so numb
without a soul
my spirit sleeping somewhere cold
until you find it there and lead it back home

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I’ve become

now that I know what I’m without
you can't just leave me
breathe into me and make me real
bring me to life

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I’ve become

frozen inside
without your touch
without your love
only you are the life among the dead

all this time I can't believe I couldn't see
kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
I’ve been sleeping a thousand years it seems
got to open my eyes to everything
without a thought without a voice without a soul
don't let me die here
there must be something more
bring me to life

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I’ve become

Bring Me to Life
Evanescence

My weekend

Well, its finally becoming fall here. As I walked across campus this afternoon I was noticing the trees finally starting to turn and the temperature is definitely starting to fall more dramatically. I finished my second week of classes last week and somehow I'm already doing a ton of work (case in point, I have to finish reading Wuthering Heights by tomorrow morning). I had a great weekend though. I have discovered that not having classes on Friday is a truly wonderful experience.

After turning in my first paper of the semester on Friday morning I pretty much slept all afternoon. Our flat put on a surprise birthday party for one of our flatmates that night and somehow, despite all our best efforts, we still managed to surprise her. I'm not going to go into detail about the party itself, but suffice it to say it was unlike any other birthday party I've ever been to. My friend and roommate Zach put up a summary of events over on his blog so feel free to drop by if you're curious. He's a little long-winded and doesn't always make sense, but I can't really blame him. That's just the way all leprechauns are.

It was also a good weekend for sports. Even though my Seminoles lost to the Miami Hurricanes (it wasn't pretty either) the Chicago Cubs beat up on the Marlins to take a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven Championship series. Just one more win and the Cubs will be back in the World Series for the first time since 1945. Over on the American League end of things, the Yankees/Red Sox game featured several people getting hit by pitches, Don Zimmer attacking Pedro Martinez, and two Yankee pitchers beating the crap out of a Boston groundskeeper. If you want to catch up on all the wild and crazy goodness, hop on over to ESPN's coverage.

Sadly, I must return to my reading marathon. Until next time. . .

Baby bears and Indians

Today is an extremely important day for my favorite sports teams. In about an hour the Florida St. Seminoles will take on the Miami Hurricanes in their yearly matchup. Then, sometime later this evening the Cubs will faceoff once again against the Marlins in game 4 of the National League Championship series.

And I can't watch either one.

I think the world should move to a unified time zone. Things would really become much easier.

I'm so confused

Somehow, even though I've been over here in Scotland for about 6 weeks now, I am still getting emails from Covenant announcing my chapel attendance totals. My plan was to not say anything and wait to see if they would actually try to put me on chapel probation. If so, I was going to come back next semester and go into Student Development and say "HAH!" or some other thing like that.

However, in a very strange turn of events my latest email tells me that I actually have attended a chapel this semester. Don't ask me how. I'm still 18 chapels short, but I've got the one. I find this to be rather amusing. I'm curious to see how many other chapels I can pick over the course of the semester.

On the bright side. . .

Once again I realize how much I really enjoy being here in Glasgow. Tonight my student union (the Queen Margaret Union, or QMU) was putting on a special screening of The Matrix: Reloaded on its big screen TV in the bar (and by big I mean about 15 feet across). It was glorious. They had the bar open as well so I enjoyed a very nice pint of Belhaven with the movie. . .it really made things better I think.

So. . .after a very enjoyable evening I am going to retire to my flat where I will finish reading The Rape of the Lock for my Restoration/Augustan Literature class and seminar tomorrow.

Good night.

Letting off some steam

I just read something over on Ryan's blog which really hit me.

If you read his blog you have discovered a rather frustrated rant about Covenant College and some of the crap that he has dealt with over the last 4 years. Having been Rye-dawg's roommate for a semester and having lived on the same hall as him for a year I can sympathize with much of what he is saying. However, having also spent the last 6 weeks or so attending a different school (the University of Glasgow) with VERY different beliefs/ideals/standards/etc, I'd like to put in my thoughts from that point of view.

Nothing has made me realize how insanely surreal Covenant is more than spending this semester over here in Glasgow. It was such a shock to me to be treated like am actually a (young) adult by the administration of this college. No one is catered to, there is no babysitting atmosphere. You do whatever the hell it is that you want to do and pay the consequences yourself. No Dean Raymond telling you to feel sorry, no Jeremy Jones taking away your visitation rights. I'm free. I go to class if I want and if I don't no one cares. I don't have to go to chapel because there really isn't one (well there is, but its too small to speak of). I live in a flat where I am reponsible for what I eat, drink, say, watch, do, etc, etc. No one here comes into my room and takes my clothes. No one here babbles on and on about what the ideal relationship should be. I had to explain to someone what in the world a DTR (that's Define The Relationship, by the way) was! Just today I was talking with one of the girls on my flat and she was telling me how she spent last weekend getting drunk with some friends (and other people she'd never met before) in Edinburgh. She came back on Sunday, slept all night, and went to class today. What's my point you ask? NO ONE CARES! If there is one thing that really bugs me the most about Covenant it is the hypocritical standard of wanting to raise leaders without ever letting them make decisions for themselves. People I talk to here are appalled (appalled) at the fact that both smoking and drinking are banned at Covenant. When I mentioned the concept of closed-dorms they looked at me as if I was some alien creature from deep space! And you know what? These are not heathens, ladies and gentlemen. These are people like you and me who live normal lives and while they may not have the exact same beliefs as me when it comes to religion, we have an awful lot in common. So I am forced to ask myself, what is it exactly that Covenant is doing for me? I mean, I am investing a lot in Covenant, both time and money (perhaps not as much money as others, but a lot just the same), and in the end I find myself just being frustrated at much of the time I have spent there. When I look back at the last two years of my education and compare it to my time spent here I realize that I have basically been attending an upper-level youth group with really good academics. Granted, I have learned more in my time at Covenant than I had ever thought possible, and I still have another year and a half left. I've made many friends, though to be honest I really don't see many of them continuing past my leaving college. . .that's just the natural course of things. I will come back and I will finish my college career at Covenant. But you know, if I could do it all over again, knowing what I know now, I doubt I would choose to attend Covenant myself.

But in the end, all this boils down to is a frustrated rant to no one in particular. What am I going to do? I'm going to drink up while I can. I'm going to cheer for the Cubs because they are doing the unthinkable. I'm going to go to my class and read my books. And then I'm going to come home and finish my last year at Covenant. And you know what? I'm going to do it OFF CAMPUS, because as much as I love my hall, as much as I would miss living in the midst of some of the coolest guys I've ever known, I don't think I could handle being placed back in an environment where it is considered cool to have circular arguments about nothing at all until 4 in the morning. I don't think I could deal with seeing Jeff Kyle flaunting his stupidity at EVERY SINGLE SCHOOL EVENT. I don't know how I would respond to the ultra-conservative perspective on men that all women at Covenant seem to have. We are human, ladies. You should get a dose of the real world. . .there's more to life than I Kissed Dating Goodbye.

I get the feeling that most of the people who may be reading this will think I'm a total ass for writing what I have. Either that or else everything will be falling on deaf ears. I'm sorry if any of this offends, but these are my thoughts. Take them or leave them as you will.

I've experienced life on the other side of the wall and it's just too good to give up. . .

Holy Cow!

For the first time in almost 100 years, the Chicago Cubs have won a postseason series. Last night, in game five of their divisional series against the Atlanta Braves, Kerry Wood once again pitched the Cubs to victory. Though the game was in Atlanta, police were forced to shutdown many roads near Wrigley Field in Chicago due to the mass celebration which ensued.

The Cubs advance to face the Florida Marlins in the NL Championship Series. The Marlins knocked off the San Francisco Giants over the weekend. Currently two of the hottest teams in baseball (they had two of the best records in August and September) this should be an excellent matchup.

I'll post more on this after class.

Prior v Maddux: Round 1

In yet another update on the current condition of the Cubs/Braves divisional series:

Tonight Mark Prior, a man who is just 3 years older than myself, will go against one of the greatest pitchers of all time in game three of the series. The Maddux vs Prior matchup is looking remarkably similar to the Roger Clemens/Kerry Wood duel which took place earlier in the year. The stakes were much smaller then, but hopefully tonight's result will be the same. The games have now moved to Wrigley Field and it is sure to be a madhouse all night long.

Those of you who, unlike me, have access to ESPN should watch this one. It's going to be big.

I give you. . .

. . .my blog's new face! Hehe. . .yes I know I really need to find better ways to spend my time, but its just so fun messing with this stuff. Once again I find myself indebted to Josiah for the little hints he dropped to keep me on the proper path of reconstruction.

Enjoy!

Hmmm. . .

Ok. . .so I think everything still works. Now I have to figure out how to get some sidebars on the left. . .

Suggestions are welcomed :)

Blog changes

Over the next few days (how many days is tied directly to how much reading I do for class tonight and tomorrow) I will be giving my blog a massive overhaul. I warn of this because I don't want there to be any cause for alarm when the color scheme changes dramatically (and not always properly either) or some such thing like that. I am also currently debating a change to my blog's title itself, but I'm not sure if I will change that.

At any rate, everything should be fairly stable once again by the beginning of next week.

Kerry me back (to 1908)

Kerry Wood is my hero of the day. Last night he threw a gem of a ball-game against what is being called the most potent Atlanta Braves offense of all time. He allowed just two hits in 7 1/3 innings and he struck out eleven. Not only that, he also had two hits himself, one of them a two-run double which put the Cubbies up for good. For a write-up on the game go here.

Due to heavy Chicago fan support, Turner Field is currently being called Wrigley Field South.

Why oh why am I in Scotland?