Big Game Tomorrow

We are headed en masse to Ann Arbor City tomorrow for the annual rumpus between the Wolverines and the Nittanies. Based on the Big Ten Network commercial that is on the air constantly and features JoePa imploring recruits less than 1/4 of his age to 'Come to PENN STATE!', he's completely lost his mind. On that information alone, I like our chances tomorrow.
Let's revisit my predictions from earlier this fall.
Game Prediction Actual
Western W, 31-17 W, 31-7
Notre Dame W, 31-24 W, 38-34
Eastern W, 35-10 W, 45-17
Indiana W, 37-14 W, 36-33
MSU L, 24-27 L, 20-26
Iowa L, 21-31 L, 28-30
Delaware St.W, 35-13 W, 63-6

As you can see, 100% so far, with the only glaring error being my miscalculation of the level of Delaware State's suckitude. I want to take this opportunity to revise my next prediction. Back in September, I thought Penn State would win this game, 27-14. Now, however, after not being blown away by their level of play, and pleasantly surprised by ours, I envision a closer duel on Saturday. An updated prediction - Michigan wins a wet one on the strength of their running attack, 24-20.

Can't wait to see a bunch of friends (Rodney, Kellyn da don, Evanakahustla, Nabeel, Dom, JonTBuck, Paul, the list goes on), and relish another fall day in Ann Arbor with them.


Alan Branch crushing fools in Happy Valley circa 2006. We were sitting top row, next to the gods, watching two college football heavyweights throw down for a couple hours on a crisp October night. The atmosphere at Beaver Stadium is unparalleled as well. The stands literally quake as the whited-out crowd bounces up and down. Luckily, we were able to hijack their 'We are Penn State' cheer and improve it to 'We OWN Penn State'.


Two things he and the Penn State football coach have in common?
Outfit.
Diapers.

FPotD and Tom Friedman

This was a stunt performed by Green Peace. Both clever and dangerous, I don't condone potentially life-threatening acts of (slight) civil disobedience, I wholeheartedly support this particular message. Those faces are not carved in stone because of their crafty politicking, skilled partisan manipulating, or smooth speechmaking, they are etched to honor their courage in leadership. Each of those presidents took monumental risks in pursuit of truth and justice for all Americans, and for that they will be recognized, at least until an earthquake swallows up South Dakota or something.

On a similar bent, we attended a speech at Devos Place by Thomas Friedman, the respected author and New York Times columnist. He spoke at the 60th anniversary meeting of the West Michigan World Affairs Council, with a topic of 'Hot, Flat, and Crowded:Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America'. Ostensibly to sell books (we bought one and had it signed), the talk was informative, entertaining, and very educational. Some notes are after the jump...

Walking on the treadmill again

Many thanks to the (slightly annoying) narrator Mackenzie.

This week

My schedule the past week or so has been a bit unorthodox, so I thought I'd clue everyone in to what I've been up to, or, as I like to call it, 'the happs'. I've been taking a break from therapy in order for my neck stitches to heal and the scar not look all gnarly, so I've been finding other ways to occupy my time. Monday evening, my grandparents and I attended a debate downtown between Jonathan Alter, a Newsweek columnist and Amity Schales, a conservative author and pundit. The topic was the effectiveness of the New Deal on the US' recovery from the Great Depression. This obviously is relevant these days as well, as we try to recover from the 'Great Recession'. Check out my notes from the speech after the jump.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays the past month and a half or so I've been interning at Hanon McKendry, a brand consulting and advertising firm downtown GR. It's been a great opportunity not only to get some experience in the marketing and advertising world but also just be in an office and around a business. You can't knock til you try it, so I wanted to try it out and see firsthand what it is like. I enjoy both sides of the business, both the statistics based strategy aspect as well as the creative side. So I'll be there a while longer and see how it goes.

I returned to therapy today after a couple days off, and had several revelations. First, a couple days off can wreak havoc on your conditioning; it was obvious why swimmers and runners train on Christmas when I was huffing and puffing after just a few minutes. Second, we identified some tightness in my hip that's been causing me some issues in my gait, a literal 'hitch' in my step, and promptly stretched it out into oblivion. It's amazing how much your pelvis rotates and moves as you walk just straight ahead; I can't even imagine side to side. Loosening that up made a huge difference.

We're headed to AA for the football again tomorrow; for those keep score, my predictions are 6-0. And with a Div 1-AA team coming in, I'm confident in a win.
And...a bear on ladder to take you into the weekend.

I survive!

Yay! Surgery was a grand success, and despite some lingering drowsiness yesterday afternoon, I was totally fine. The doc wanted me to stay over night as a precaution, to make sure air from my trachea wasn't leaking out under the flap of skin/muscle that was pulled over the dent in my throat. The stretching of one of the vertical muscles in my neck horizontally to make a flap over the hole the surgeon cut out has resulted in some soreness. Right now, my throat's a little stiff, but once the muscles loosen up, things should be back to normal. I was looking forward to popping some Vicodins, you know, for 'pain management', but the nurse warned me they tend to 'bind you up' (read: severe constipation) so I passed on the pills. The stitches come out next week Thursday, so I'll be taking it easy until then. Gotta make sure this scar stays nice and pretty, I guess, so no therapy for a little while either. But at least now I'll have the time to make some progress on my Tivo queue; it was getting backed up.

Ugh, surgery tomorrow.

Don't worry, it's nothing serious, although not as flippant as 2008's calf implant debacle. (For the record, my calves are all natural.) I'm getting the site at the base of my throat where my trach was worked on a little bit. Mostly for functional reasons, it still leaks air occasionally and has the potential to leak water in the shower or lake (not that I want to go in the lake anyway), making the possibility of infection a real and ever present threat. There might be a cosmetic reasoning behind it too, it looks like something you'd find on a zombie or Spartan, not yours truly, and it prevents me from rocking my favorite v-neck shirts. Which is unacceptable. So wish me luck, and pray for a swift recovery. I have to spend the night (lame!) so hopefully during my 24+ hours there, I'll find some way to amuse myself. Here's a photo of the horror -


Kind of a blurry picture - luckily, I guess, or you'd be scrambling to get away from your screen, and blocking the view of your loved ones and small children. It's basically an indentation like I got shot by a quarter and my throat was made of silly putty. Or something like that.