Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Weekend Plans

Saturday is Groundhog Day. Punxsutawney is only about 70 miles away. This is what I'll be seeing around 7:25 am Saturday. Look for pictures next week.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Magic 96 - Celtics 93

That was incredible. The Celtic-Magic game this afternoon was my tipping point. I can't stand not being in an NBA city anymore. I'm calling sometime this week and getting a cable box and ordering NBA League Pass.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

I Get Results (by having impeccable timing)

Back on January 7th I blogged about the stupid front screen on the pitt web site where the university celebrated the opening of hillman library's first floor entrance.

Today I went to the site again and lo and behold they had done as I asked and removed the hillman library story. Click the link and try it yourself, pitt actually looks like the kind of school you'd like to attend now; big money donations, successful teams, etc.

Sure, this is almost certainly the result of good timing rather than somebody in power actually reading my humble little blog, but I'll take all the credit anyway.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

I Know The Real Reason

First they can't afford a first floor library entrance, now pitt can't afford heat either. I got this email yesterday:

***************************
All: There will be no heat in the building tomorrow, Tuesday, January 15th from 8:30AM to 3:00PM. This outage is considered EMERGENCY STSTUS! Please remember to dress accordingly.

Conversation: EMERGENCY OUTAGE NOTICESubject: EMERGENCY OUTAGE NOTICE
HILLMAN LIBRARY, LAWRENCE HALL, BARCO LAW BUILDING STEAM
BUILDING: HILLMAN LIBRARY, LAWRENCE HALL, BARCO LAW BUILDING
OUTAGE TYPE: STEAM
JOB NUMBER: A0038
START DATE(S): Tuesday, January 15, 2008
FINISH DATE(S): Tuesday, January 15, 2008
START TIME: 08:30 AM
FINISH TIME: 03:00 PM
DURATION: 6.5 HOURS
REASON FOR OUTAGE: STEAM LEAK ON 8" STRAINER IN BASEMENT OF HILLMAN LIBRARY
**********************

I guess it is important that we fix steam leaks in the basement of hillman library, but if the school is able to email us about it in the middle of the day yesterday why couldn't they fix it late last night, when nobody would be in these buildings? Maybe that new first floor entrance I blogged about is so expensive the school can't keep the rest of the building working properly.

Honestly, I think there's a greater plan afoot here. By having no heat in the law school on a day when the temperature is 25 degrees outside pitt is simply preparing many of us for our futures as unemployed law school graduates. Learning how to fight off the cold with no money may wind up being one of the few practical things I've learned here.

(In the interest of full disclosure I must admit that it's 12:50 right now and I've been at the law school since 9:00 a.m. and the building has been its normal temperature. Also, my account says pitt processed my refund early this morning, so I'll probably have my money by the end of the week. Despite all this I still couldn't pass up the opportunity to write about something as ridiculous as a school without heat for a day when it's 25 degrees outside)

Monday, January 07, 2008

Since My Loan Money Probably Won't Be In For A While

As usual I'm waiting for the school to give me money that I'm probably already paying interest on. How they think I'm going to participate in the first week of classes without being able to buy books is still a mystery to me even after starting 5 of 6 semesters this way. Because of this I think it's the perfect time to post something I've been saving for a time like this. Here goes;

Here's a fun game. Think of a University and see what their web site's front page says they are up to.

University of Florida: Features profiles of promising students, Heisman Trophy winners, renowned faculty, etc.

University of Miami: Student run companies doing stuff, new hospitals, library acquisitions, studies in Hispanic health.

Duquesne: Athletics, student life, etc.

FIU: High faculty rankings and new artwork being added.

Also check out Florida State and Carnegie Mellon just for good measure.

Usually the schools display things that make you think "hey, I'd like to go there," don't they? At the very least you don't really see anything that makes them look stupid.

Next give pitt a shot; hit refresh a few times to see a few of the images they rotate on their front page.
Chances are you saw this image at least once;
(Click on this picture if you didn't see this image or can't read it)













Notice the caption under the picture of the library;

"Hillman Library's first floor entrance has reopened after 23 years."

It sounds like the school is celebrating getting a door fixed. I clicked the article and found out that they even had a ribbon cutting ceremony for this grand achievement. The article also explains that "the 1st-floor entrance was closed in 1984 because Hillman officials determined it had become too expensive to staff circulation desks on both the 1st and ground floors."

Look, I'm all for fiscal responsibility, but promoting the fact your University couldn't afford to keep an entrance to their library open for 23 years doesn't exactly put the school's best foot forward. This school does a lot of great things in the medical field, they should find something like that and put it up there, or just take this image and story down and don't worry about replacing it.

American Gladiators, My New Favorite way to Waste an Hour

Tonight American Gladiators debuted on NBC and I was impressed. It's the perfect television guilty pleasure. My Monday's at 8:00 are now spoken for.

I liked Hulk Hogan and Layla Ali as the hosts. Just about all the Gladiators are entertaining to watch. On the men's side "Wolf" and "Justice" were the clear standouts.

As for the female gladiators I like "Crush", mostly because I knew about her before the show ever started. Her real name is Gina Carano and she's the best female mixed martial artist in the world. If your curious about her fighting career you can find plenty of video on YouTube.

Lastly, I've found a competitor to root for, at least on the women's side. Her name is Venus Ramos and she won in an amazing comeback tonight. More important than that is the fact she went to UM. That's right, even with American Gladiators it's all about The U.

I even found this cool UM tribute video on her Myspace profile:

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Much Respect to this Kid

I've been accused of having certain peculiarities, often these allegations have been true. I'm not a big fan of red towels, I'm a little obsessive about pajamas, I admit it. Now whenever a neice or nephew of mine does something weird (or individualistic as I prefer to describe it) I'm somehow the one to blame.

However I've finally found a kid that proves I'm not the only one who's a little obsessive about clothing and such. Pictured to the left is 11 year old David Witthoft. He has worn that Brett Farve jersey in the picture every day for the last 4 years. I don't just respect this kids dedication, I envy it. I should really should have done that with a Marino jersey back in my younger days.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Hopeful Signs for 2008

While listening to All Things Considered on NPR yesterday I heard 2 stories that have me excited for 2008. First, the UN has declared 2008 the International Year of the Potato. For a guy like me who eats french fries on his way to a Thanksgiving dinner of baked potatoes with mashed potatoes on the side this means every morning should feel like Christmas morning.

Secondly, All Things Considered ran a piece on celebrations starting for the Abe Lincoln Bicentennial. Even though Abe was born in 1809 I can't think of any reason we shouldn't start now and make it a 2 year celebration.

Here's the link where you can listen to yesterday's story from All Things Considered and see how awesomely Adamcentric 2008 should be.