That is a newwww state record!

On Sunday, I ran through three states.

United states, in case you thought I was trying to be tricky with the word "states".

It was definitely absolutely 311 degrees outside at the time.

Super Bowl 42

Roman numerals are stupid.

Well, maybe not. But they seem kinda pretentious when affixed to the end of the title of a sporting event.

Anyway, I just watched a recording of the Super Bowl. I was doing more important things at the time of the game; in fact, my first knowledge of the victory was when I got home late at night and my mom said "Well, it was a good outcome." I couldn't really believe me ears. So yeah, I was totally thrilled. And I'm just glad the Patriots made it as far as they did without a loss, because the taste of this defeat is almost infinitely sweeter because of it. Back to the recording: it was a good game. Obviously, "The Play" was pretty unbelievably cool. But just in general, the quality of play on the part of the Giants...yeah, there were some dropped balls, and a couple of blown coverages. But for the most part, the Giants played lights-out. I don't know what that means, but it's a common enough phrase. The Patriots, on the other hand, with the exception of Wes Welker and maybe the Patriots' secondary, were flat almost the entire game. Tom Brady had a particularly poor game; I know this was partly because of a lack of support from his offensive line (that is to say, total dominance on the part of the Giants' defensive front), but honestly, he missed waaaay too many passes - some of them easy - and did not look at all like "the best player in the game", and all of the other superlatives heaped upon him before and during the game.
The coverage of the game itself was reasonable, but frankly pretty boring. I was thankful that it wasn't too over-the-top, but honestly, why did it seem like the announcers didn't even realize how important the outcome of the game was, at least in the world that is the NFL? Still, underproduction is better than overproduction, and though very few insightful comments were made (my heart did, however, skip a beat when the analyst pointed out the delayed rush from Kawika Mitchell - in my opinion, the sweetest play of the game - with about 7:45 left in the first half), at least I didn't have to listen to a trillion references to how the Patriots were the best team ever in the history of the so-far-explored quadrant of our universe.

I'm sorry that last year's game wasn't better, though naturally its outcome was even more fun than this year. But I'm quite thorough in my dislike of the Patriots, and there really couldn't ever be a better "second-best" outcome to a Super Bowl.

not enough energy to post...

Ha!

After what I said about posting a lot, the follow-up must have seemed a little underwhelming. However, I was not entirely delinquent. As it happens, the qualifier on my prediction was that I would have lots of free time on my afternoons and evenings. It did not turn out that way.

In fact, I spent my first two weeks of work commuting an hour and a half each way, and working on my car's engine all night until I fell asleep. Starting on Saturday the 2nd, and proceeding through Friday the 15th, every free moment that wasn't a Sunday night (and except for Friday the 8th, when some relatives arrived that night) was spent either disconnecting the engine from all its myriad attachments, pulling the engine out of the car, taking the engine apart, fighting with the engine's rear main seal, inventing ways to remove the top bearings, checking the bearings, inserting a new rear main seal, putting the engine back together, cleaning the engine's exterior, buying paint for the engine, taping the engine, painting the engine, putting the engine back into the car, or re-attaching all of the engine's myriad attachments.

Oh, and then trying to get it started once it was all put back together.

As if that wasn't enough, I left for Cape May on the night of the 15th, arrived on the morning of the 16th (1:30 AM, give or take), and then spent much of that Saturday either attempting to fix the transmission fluid leak, washing the car, waxing the car (OK, actually, Richie, Kathryn, and my beloved Lauren did the waxing while I did more attempting), driving to get a wrench to fix the transmission fluid leak, buying a pair of needle-nosed pliers to fix the transmission fluid leak, removing the exhaust pipe, using two wrenches and my new needle-nosed pliers (in series, not parallel) to fix the transmission fluid leak, or re-attaching the exhaust pipe after fixing the transmission fluid leak.

I have some photos of the process, which I intend to post here once July rolls around. Why so late, you ask? Well, that would be because I am leaving on Saturday morning to go to Tennessee with a bunch of great, fun (, responsible.....* cough * cough * cough *) guys, to spend a week camping on Grandpa and Nina's farm. And those pictures haven't been organized or improved yet, so they're not fit for posting tonight. Plus, I need to clean up my room somewhat before I can go to sleep tonight - I haven't seen my lovely carpet for about five weeks now.

Well, as you can see, all it requires to get me to post is posting a comment saying "I think you should post" and poof, it happens. That should be encouraging. We here at Life is Like a Safari take our readers (mostly) seriously (sometimes), as has always been our firm policy.

Goodnight, and good luck (...good providence, for those of you at the family conference).

long time coming

If you were wondering...no, the title of the post has nothing to do with anything. I really just couldn't come up with anything better. And so maybe the title is self-referential; you decide.

Another bit on global warming. Note: I really would give these guys a break, but they keep writing the coolest things! It's just so hard to resist. From the article (read the whole thing, if only for the lovely juxtaposition of HOT and COLD. Plus, you kinda have to see it to really believe it.):

While snow piles up outside our windows, we may be hard-pressed to believe climate change is occurring, global temperatures are rising and the planet is on a crash course of serious change if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced.

Just beautiful. I couldn't have put it better myself.

Also. I have so much to tell you all. I just can't get inspired enough to say it.

Home again, home again...

I'm not going to finish that one.

I am home, I am alive. Much more could not be said - at least not truthfully. And we're all about truth here at "Life is Like a Safari". Truth be told (there we go again), sometimes, the truth doesn't make for very interesting posts. We realize this, but it's just part of our policy. Sorry. We can recommend some blogs that sacrifice truth for interesting subject material, if you're interested.

Tennessee lost their bowl game, 20-10 against Penn State. We were a better team at the beginning of the year, but we really fell apart as the year went on. Sad, but true. On the other hand, Indianapolis (I hear) won their first playoff game, so if they can win their next two games, they'll be in the Super Bowl at long last. I'm not getting myself too awfully excited just yet. =P

The kitchen, such as it is, is nice. Of course, on the surface, one would wonder if we were out of our minds, given that when we left the house, there was not a single thing in our kitchen that was broken, not working, or otherwise unacceptable. Now, the countertops don't stick to the counters like they should, the dishwasher and new sink aren't working, there's damage to the kitchen floor, and dozens of smaller issues with the installation of the cabinets itself. I have faith that it will all get sorted out, mais ou menos, in the reasonably near future. But for the time being, when it's hard to find a clean drinking glass, and even harder to wash a dirty one, one begins to wonder what one was thinking about wanting a 'new' kitchen.

I took around 3000 pictures and movies on this trip. I have not even begun to sort through them, but I imagine I'll get to that within the next few days. As it is, I have a couple of more pressing issues to attend to, and hopefully those issues will go well. Consistent, constant internet access would be awfully helpful in those endeavors. Pray.

I hope everyone is well, and everyone is enjoying the new year. I know that Virginians are breathing easier, now that their license plates are no longer big, fat lies. If you don't know what I'm talking about - ask a Virginian.

....OK, ask a Virginian that DRIVES. Smart aleck.

Encouraging.

First off, I make no apologies for my extended hiatus. I was busy; first on vacation, then on schoolwork. I shall continue to be busy for the foreseeable future, as well.

I ran across this this evening: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2482831,00.html.

Thanksgiving was lovely.

Oh, and one last thing. The word "bated" from the expression "waiting with bated breath" is properly spelled B A T E D, with no I. Suzanne brought this to my attention earlier today, and I thought I'd make a public service announcement. A website explaining this can be found here: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bai1.htm. Read it, you'll be glad you did.

I'm so excited!

No, really, I am. New things always get me excited. Except for new pimples, new rust, and new oil drippings underneath my car. But basically, new things get me excited.

So I really might start posting here daily. I think that would mainly be because I can't make myself do the work that I need to be doing. But it's also because this blog is shiny and new, and I really like it a lot more than I like(d) Xanga.

So here's my life in the shell of a nut:
Technology is back to working for me. My computer only randomly dies at reasonably spaced intervals (now that I've replaced the motherboard). My PDA is back to acknowledging touchscreen input - apparently, some screws were loose (actually, a screw was too tight. I removed it, and Voila!). My Bluetooth headset with a battery life of 373,404 (milliseconds) has been replaced, and my new one (a Scala 700) works wonderfully (except that Lorts can never understand a word I'm saying when I use it. This has always been the case, and I suspect it always will. They're genetically defective, or so I hear.).
On the other hand, my iPod is about due for an untimely death, explosion, or maddening dysfunctionality. So is my cell phone.

Classes are plodding along at the speed of the Millennium Falcon on steroids (and not the cheap-o, rub-on stuff that Barry Bonds uses either). I have a total of seven thousand, two-hundred and sixty-nine midterm exams (*I may have massaged the numbers a tad) coming up not this Thursday, but next. I can hardly wait. To buy my History book.

I am going to meet with the English Department tomorrow to see if there's anything I can do to "help" them with a project they have. I have no idea what this means, or what they want. I even doubt that they know, but we'll see. I'm not remotely ready for this kind of stress (telling a bunch of adults that I can't help them because I don't know PHP well enough), but I told them I would meet with them primarily as a character-building exercise (putting to death my man-o-phobia).
I have a hard time imagining what the blog page will look like after a post this long. I'm not sure my beloved new page design will stand the test, but I'll see in a moment.

A dash of seriousness: I would appreciate whatever prayer time anyone can spare. I'm don't think I really get the whole lovingChrist thing, and I think it shows. Ditto for readingScripture and prayer.

Hey Arathon, way to kill the mood. Or at least drastically change it.