Its been a while since a state leg tid bit, so here are two…
One, did you know legislators strategically use prisons in redistricting. I actually find this extraordinarily clever. See here for more.
Second, the Oregon State Legislature:
Do you think a Harry Reid-John Boehner rendition of Rebecca Black’s Friday would prevent the shutdown? It would be hard though to sneak in “gotta have my cereal” into the congressional record. The “laboratories of democracy” should get on this.
Thank goodness I went to grad school, giving me a third college basketball team. Tuesday, SLU lost to Rhode Island. GW lost to St. Joseph’s in overtime, but Princeton beat Penn to give me a rare Ivy League playoff between Princeton v. Harvard at Yale!
Some highlights
My first SLU tournament was in 2000. They won. My first GW tournament was 2005. They won. My first Princeton conference playoff was 2011. They won.
Conference week is by far my favorite week in sports.
For Christmas I got a great shovel, however the week of my birthday I got:
WTG Gift Givers and Cookie Cake bet settlers
Given the Billiken-centric-ness of my last post….
Oh by George…
Update…Rich didn’t like the above, and in doing so, brings up probably my favorite college basketball game I have ever been at..no Billikens involved.
And “forgotten” moment.
Eleven years ago Thursday, my dad made me a bet. If SLU beat Cincinnati in the second round of the C-USA Tournament, we would drive to Memphis the next day to watch them play in the semi-finals. While listening in study hall freshman year of high school, Kenyon Martin broke his leg…and the month of March for Steve changed forever.
I have not missed a conference tournament since SLU won in the Miracle in Memphis. My journeys to conference tournaments have been somewhat humorous. So as I avoid work before seminar: a run down.
2000: Miracle in Memphis. SLU’s last tournament bid led by Justin Love. Think this picture is from then
2001: Second round SLU loss. Steve lugs desktop computer to Louisville to update Billikens.com The Rogers finally learn the art of buying conference tickets on the street.
2002: Drove to Cincy in the day with Mom. Marque Perry shoots a 3 half a second too late, drive home the next morning.
2003: Perry’s senior year. After willing SLU to 8 wins in a row, a layup wouldn’t fall and SLU loses in the second round.
2004: Steve’s first academic conflict with conference tournaments. A political theory professor said absolutely no rescheduling of the midterm. Steve then went into her office. Said he was going to be completely honest and “Can I reschedule my midterm so I can go to a basketball game?” She laughed and replied the only reason she would let it happen is because I didn’t even try to make something up. Old man Taj79 (Billikens.com poster) drives Steve from DC to Cincy. SLU makes the Semi-Finals. Basketball hall of famer Oscar Robertson gets mad at Steve in semis for waving his signs as his Bearcats beats SLU.
2005: Steve’s first A-10 Tournament. Drove to Cincy with Dad to watch the Colonials win the A-10 Tournament. SLU had already lost in Memphis. The next week, I drove to Nashville and back in the same day for the only time I have ever seen my team in person in the Dance.
2006: SLU and GW now BOTH in the A-10. GW had gone 16-0 in the conference season. SLU had the 4 seed. Steve was sick, but slept in the back seat of a college friend’s car and drove from DC to Cincy. GW lost. Steve changed shirts. SLU lost. Steve goes home with aunt and uncle to St. Louis next day. That sucked.
2007: First A-10 Tournament in Atlantic City. Steve drives up with old man Taj79. SLU wins and a great night at the bar is had. Next day, SLU beats UMass in overtime. Steve changes shirts. GW beats St. Joes setting up a GW v. SLU Semi-Finals. It is the only game ever where I rooted against GW…and GW won. They then won the next night getting their third straight tourney bid. Favorite conference tournament ever.
2008: Steve was traveling for grad school visits. His preseason favorite school scheduled their visit during the A-10 tournament. Steve asked if he could come out a day early to bump up the visit. They agreed. After the visit, Steve red-eyed from the west coast to Philly. Aunt and uncle picked him up from Philly airport. Drove to AC. SLU lost in the first round. Steve bussed to DC the next morning. (GW didn’t make the tournament). Steve however learned his aunt is very good at slot machines.
2009: Things are finally easy because Steve lives in the same state as the tournament. SLU loses to Xavier in the second round after an OT win in the first round.
2010: Another academic conflict. Conversation went like this:
Adviser: Steve, could you present such and such next week in class?
Steve: Uh, I may not be here next week.
Adviser: ….Who are the Billikens playing?
Steve: Well, that depends on what happens Tuesday.
Adviser laughs
SLU then lost in the first round. Aunt however still good at slot machines.
2011: What prompted this post. Same adviser asked if Steve could do something Friday…Steve replied, lets relive what happened last year….
So if SLU beats Rhode Island tomorrow. The streak continues. If not, I need GW to make the semis.
Lets go Billikens.
It is February 28th. The last day of the month, and I have yet to post on SteveRogers.info. So I am posting in the last hour of the month. There has only been one other month I did not post on here, March of 2007. That month encompassed my favorite weekend of college. I wrote a long description of it, but it somehow got lost.
In a nutshell, it was the 2007 A-10 Tournament. The tournament was the only way SLU was going to get into the dance, and SLU’s team arguably was the best one they had in the 2000s (okay, that is not saying a lot). I had gone up to Atlantic City with someone from my message board Wednesday. SLU won Wednesday. My best college friends came up Thursday. SLU and GW won Thursday. SLU and GW played Friday, in the only game to date I actively rooted against GW. GW won Friday. And GW went dancing with their win on Saturday. I have not missed a conference tournament since 2000, and that one remains my absolute favorite. My aunt and uncle were there; SLU crew was there; college crew was there. I still remember dancing on the boardwalk to Johnny Rockets music after GW won the championship. On Friday, Rich had to talk to my mom for me on my phone because I had lost my voice at the games. At night, we mastered the art of free drinks. Between slots and roulette winnings, the trip didn’t cost me a dime. Simply my best weekend in college.
In this month of missing posts, I never got around to writing about a few weekends ago. That weekend I received some pretty nice complements from those in my field; I had an excellent dinner and movie experience on a day where it was needed; and I had my annual Superbowl party where (other than a little overbuying of food) I think I have mastered serving 25 using three Foremans. Another solid weekend.
So I guess if in the future if I don’t make an monthly update….assume I had a very good weekend somewhere in there. At least I hope that is the case.
As some may know, I at times pride myself on my gift giving ability. I do not always hit home runs, but I generally put a considerable amount of thought into gifts. Given this, I must give props to my mother.
Last year, the east coast experienced “snowpocalypse.” (It was really east coasters just overcomplaining.) Anyway, the university shut down one day before a storm. I for some reason thought it would then be a good idea to drive to work. Well, snowpocalypse happened and my car got buried in snow at work. I had to dig it out only with an ice scraper. I got back to my apartment, and then had to dig my way into a spot. In a nutshell, this experience sucked.
My mother learned of this, and she got me a fantastic gift for Christmas. It is a snow shovel that disassembles into three pieces and goes into a small bag. It takes up very little trunk space and was exactly what I needed.
Well, Princeton got hit heavy by snow again last night. My friend Scott asked for help digging out his car. Since SLU v. GW is Saturday, I will need my car this weekend. So we dug out mine too. And that shovel did the trick.
So remember, it really pays off to put thought into your gifts.