The annual Taboo Championship was yesterday. Even with Barb in town from Kansas City, the men took the title again. Jeff (holding trophy) was the Men’s MVP this year giving us a 1 point lead with his 12 point round.
The women seemed to be happy losers this year. As compared to years past.
Mom got the honor of the “Losers” Taboo Pie Serving Apron.
I believe this is what they call a three-peat.
On Wednesday, three neat things happened.
Bobby B
Junior year of high school, I took AP Chemistry with Mr. Becker. Mr. Becker is an enthusiastic little man. He put the periodic table on the ceiling, blew things up weekly, and instituted “early mornings” for AP Chem where we got to class at 6:55am three times a week. I was awful at Chemistry, and quite honestly that class convinced me to end the family trade (both my father and grandfather were Chemists). This man however was extraordinarily dedicated. He inspired many to go into the sciences. He came in early and stayed late after school helping students. While Chemistry was not my thing, every high school should have a Mr. Becker.
Mr. B got his well deserved props this week. He was named Missouri teacher of the Year. He will be nominated for National Teacher of the year. It is simply neat that he got the recognition he definitely deserved.
The Sunday Mail
Sophomore year of college, some friends of mine had a town house. Most of us lived in dorms, so having this venue was a gift. The F Street townhouse was where many parties happened. Before many of these parties, three guys in a band would play. They were good guys and called themselves the Sunday Mail. I was not great friends with them, but they were in my extended circle. They kept the band together (but changed the name to Jukebox the Ghost) after college and have made a living out of it. They opened for Ben’s Folds Five, are headlining a tour this fall to promote their second album. And tonight…well…watch.
Hands Tied
On Tuesday, I had a bit of a dissertation rant to my friend Deborah. As mentioned before, my advisers have pushed me to wander more. On Wednesday, I went into one of their offices. I returned a book I wandered in (it was actually pretty good). We talked about it some, and I brainstormed with him on another unrelated idea, which he liked. We talked about future readings, and I somewhat re-ranted my rant to Deborah to him. I do not quite remember how the events unfolded, but somewhere in the conversation I said that this process is “eating your vegetables,” to which he chuckled. Somewhere else he said: “Well, it is probably good to keep your hands tied for a couple more weeks.” I don’t know why, but it made me feel a little better. It made it seem like he understood a fair bit, which I appreciated.
Sorry…No video on that one.
SteveRogers.info is 5 years old today. There have been 175 posts over that time. Here are some of the highlights:
For some stats (since August 2006, not ’05. Note, most people seem to read through Facebook)
Thanks for reading folks!
Today was a classic father-son day. My dad was in town, and we decided to make the trek up to Cooperstown. We drove there yesterday and went to the Baseball Hall of Fame today. I had been before, but I was about 11 or 12 and didn’t really appreciate or know the history well enough. Today I donned my John Mabry jersey. By wearing Cardinals gear, it made it easy to strike up conversation with other fans of NL Central teams.
My Dad and I took our time seperately getting through the three floors of the museum. I was actually proud of myself, thinking I took longer than pop to go through the first two floors. It took me about three hours, and I was convinced my Dad would be in the main hall. I looked for him, called him, looked again, and he called back. It turned out he had just started the second floor, taking three hours himself on the first. I then went through the second floor with him, catching this classic sketch on the second trip (I had actually never watched it in full until today. It is quite funny if you have never taken the time to watch).
We left the museum; had lunch; and returned to see the plaques. My dad was excited because this year Herzog was inducted.
His plaque was on a wall by itself awaiting future inductees
The White Rat however was a little before my time. His World Series win was before I was born, and the first Cardinal manager I remember was Joe Torre. It was however neat to see the first Hall of Famer I really rooted for: The Wizard
But no one can match up to The Man. Looking at the stats in the museum really make you understand how underappreciated Stan Musial is. Three MVPs; top ten in: hits, doubles, RBIs, runs; top 20 in: singles, slugging, triples, leading to a career .331 average in almost 11,000 at bats.
I also got to reminisce about the 2006 World Series. I saw Carp pitch Game 3 in person, and they had his Jersey from the game.
And if you talked to me about baseball from 2006 – 2007, I likely obnoxiously rose my ring finger and said: RING! And I got to see said RING!
After the Hall, my Dad and I toured the memorabilia shops. I was surprised to see how excited my Dad got over Brooklyn Dodgers stuff, and he ended up being the one buying baseball cards. In the shops, we were able to follow the Cards games via sports tickers.
St. Louis completed a three game sweep of the Reds to take over first place today. The series involved two grand slams and a brawl where our backup catcher got spiked in the head by the Reds’ starting pitcher. However probably the greatest fact of the series is that it was the first time since Tony LaRussa started managing the Cardinals that he used the same lineup for three straight days. He has managed the Cardinals since 1996!
You gotta love baseball.
In the next three years, I will spend considerable time dissertating. Making my first real contribution to the academic world. For the last month or so, I have worked on formulating a research question, and it is tricky.
To brainstorm, I have read a lot. Visited (and revisited) books. Turned the pages of other’s dissertations (for one, I got through the first ten pages of an adviser’s book where he said it was an improvement on the dissertation, prompting me to read what he first wrote: his dissertation)). So in coming up with my own dissertation topic, I have sought inspiration a range of topics. From Presidential strategies to Legislative Professionalism; from Ballots to Minority Party Rights; from Voter Turnout to Ideal Points.
So what advice did I get from my advisers last week? Read more.
At first, I did not know how to absorb this. It was not the only advice given, and they seemed relatively pleased with where I was at this stage. It however was a little difficult to think I primarily needed to continue what I was doing, but in a conversation today with one of them where I apologized for presenting a scattered idea, an adviser replied: “Well it should be scattered, we are telling you to wander.”
Wandering is very different for me. I like to ponder problems over time, but generally the ultimate goal is known and solving the problem is a small step to get there. I agree with their advice, but it is difficult to stick in this stage where I am not tangibly producing something. I am not checking generals readings off a list, getting a data set in order, or producing another draft. I sit at my desk with a book and scribble down research thoughts in my notebook. Somewhat stupidly however I want to have something to report. Just very different to say: still figuring it out.
Again, I agree with the advice given, and I fear I am sticking to much to a particular doable idea and just molding it a bit. Not necessarily allowing myself to fully explore others. My topic will dictate years of work. I however am impatient and want to get started.
There ya go for a rambly Steve post. Let’s see what I think of it in three years from now.
Seven years ago I got my Dell Inspiron 600m. It was my laptop for college. Only today has it been officially replaced. The 600m came with 512mb of memory, a 40 gig hard drive, and a 1.6 Pentium M Processor. It was a blazing machine, but its day has passed.
That laptop designed three versions of Billikens.com; drafted an undergraduate and Masters thesis; connected the networks of: Parliament, Kerry-Edwards 2004, the DLCC, a number of universities; wrote business and not-so-business emails; and created this blog.
I am now on an HP dm4t. The screen and keyboard are wide, but the machine is thinner and lighter. Instead of the never used serial port it has one for HDMI. It does not have a scratch across the screen due to a design flaw. It likely will deal with more Political Science originated data than that for a political party. Instead of grad school applications, it will write job applications. It will present chapters of my dissertation and not state legislative campaign web sites for $40 a month. Like its predecessors, it will edit a fan site devoted to Saint Louis University and play horrible music.
In 2003, I could never foresee what the Inspiron 600m would do. I don’t know if I ever really thought about it. I think about what dm4t will produce, but I am sure my predictions are wrong. We will just have to wait and find out.
No matter what though…every computer I own will look like it runs Windows 95.
I for some reason like group YouTube Dances or lip syncs to pop songs. My favorite is probably this. My high school did their own spin of it (in SLU’s arena no less).