The story of Dan

Is it baseball season yet?

29 days to go :)

My plan is to post here more often, maybe an update once or twice a week, and baseball news every day...maybe.

For now, it is bed.

G'nite.

So last night, for the first time in quite a while, I cried myself to sleep.  I was reminded in the paper of a tragedy that happened to our close-knit society 6 years ago.  Not too many people know about this, save for the few that I went to school with.  On January 11, 2001, my friend, Kevin Cuthbert, took his own life.  Usually, we walked home with each other every day, but this day was different.  I had a lesson, and he walked home by himself.  After my mom picked me up from my lesson, she drove me home.  I noticed the ambulances and police cars, without their lights on.  I immediately knew that something was wrong.  Then later on, Noonan called me and told me that he had died.  The next day, quite honestly, was the toughest day of my life.  I'm starting to tear up just thinking about it  After I woke up, my mommy told me that it was a suicide, and told me to talk to someone..  The next day in school, grief counselors were called in to help us.  I remember going to one and just bawling and not being able to talk at all.  Then, counselors sat in his chair in every class and were talking to us.  It was a very long day.  I remember going back home and just laying down and sleeping for the rest of the day.  Then the wake.  I remember there was a long line of mourners, and his grandmother came by and spotted me.  She took me to the front of the line, where I broke down again.  I didn't want to go to the funeral, but I did.  I remember just crying the whole time.  I just can't believe it's been 6 years already.  In the words of  the great Josiah Bartlet, (West Wing) " The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They're our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels, but every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars."  We miss you Kevin, we love you, and I'll see you again someday, buddy.

Now I'm crying again.

Damnit.

P.S. Comments would be appreciated.

Yay to only having to get a 25% on my final to get an A in the class....

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wow.

looking at this thing, I haven't written in a while.

some of you know, and some of you don't know that I have a girl that's "interested" in me.

well, I almost screwed that up tonight.

I was talking to her on aim, like I usually do, and I fell asleep on the couch.

she wasn't too happy with me as she went to bed, as I had awoken by then.

Then, not 5 minutes later, she comes back saying she feels bad about what she did to me.

I don't think she should feel bad, because I was a jerk.

man, she's awesome.

thanks for being such a great girl. :)

I know of no other band that is or has been on alcohol suspension or has been banned by more schools than the Leland Stanford Junior (pause) University Marching Band (a band after my own heart).

A brief history...

- 1963, The band goes on strike after the director is fired. The new director ceded all control over to the students.

70s:
- The Patty Hearst show includes a formation called the "Hearst Burger": two buns and no patty
- The Jayne Mansfield tribute: The urban legend of how she was decapitated in an automobile accident was announced over the PA, then the band played "Another Saturday Night and I Ain't Got No Body".

1986:
Banned by their own school from travelling to UCLA because of "incidents" against other schools. i.e...
- 2 band members caught urinating on the football field after a home game against WU
- during halftime of the USC game, the band spells out "NO BALLZ"
- the next game (the one that cost them the UCLA trip) they performed an anagram show and spelled out "NEUT". Except for some bad bad trombones who changed the "E" to a "C" without permission. I'll let you guys figure that one out. cool.gif
- After the suspension, the band appeared at the Cal game wearing angel halos in an attempt to apologize and get invited to travel with the football team to a bowl game. They went to the Gator Bowl under very close scrutiny.

 90s:
- 90, again the school suspends the band for a game after their halftime show at Oregon criticized the logging of the spotted owl's habitats in the northwest. The Governor of OR issued a decree that the band not return for several years. They finally went back in 2001. Because of the spotted owl "incident", all halftime shows are now reviewed and approved by the athletic department.
- 91, the University of Notre Dame banned the band from visiting its campus after a show at Stanford where the drum major (who had been attacked by a fan of Notre Dame) dressed as a nun and conducted the band with a crucifix instead of a baton.
- 92, the Athletic Department pressured the band to fire its announcers after one used the phrase "No chuppah, no schtuppa" at a San Jose State game halftime show.
-94, the band was disciplined after members of the band skipped a field rehearsal in L.A. to play outside the L.A. County Courthouse during jury selection for the O. J. Simpson trial. They played an arrangement of The Zombies' "She's Not There." Lawyer Robert Shapiro said the incient was "a new low in tasteless behavior."
- 97, the band is again disciplined for shows making fun of Catholicism and the Irish at a game against Notre Dame. The band put on a show called "These Irish, Why Must they Fight?" Besides the stereotypical Irish-Catholic behavior, there was a Riverdance formation, and a Potato Famine joke.

2000's:
- 02, the band was sanctioned for "off-the-field" behavior, including violations of the University alcohol policy.
- 04, the band got the Mormons upset for joking about polygamy during a game against BYU. The Dollies (the bands version of a colorguard) appeared in wedding veils and the announcer referred to marriage as "the sacred bond that exists between a man and a woman... and a woman... and a woman... and a woman... and a woman."
- 06, see 02 above

When traveling as a group by plane, the members usually copy the safety instructions of flight attendants in unison, including hand motions pointing to exits and demonstrating the oxygen masks by putting airsickness bags over the face and inhaling and exhaling. When reciting the full name of the Band, it is traditional to leave a pause between "Junior" and "University", particularly when announcing at stadiums.

Before the ban, alcoholic "rank drinks" were snuck into the football stadium and drunk(sp?) "in ranks", are as extravagant as possible and vary from good to deliberately awful. In '91 there was the debut of the "tuna colada", possibly the rankest drink ever conceived. The Band is currently on alcohol suspension, rank drinks are no longer alcoholic.

Take that Robert Frost!! I am now done with you, hopefully.

On another note, classes are all pretty cool:
Health-got the final, and getting answers for it tomorrow
English 102: Got all the assignments, hardest will be reading "We"
English 104: Class is online, and there's a lot of typing....otherwise pretty cool.
Algebra: Teacher is hilarious, and lots of technological crap in the class.
Computer Logic: going to be interesting...probably not going to be as hard as I think it will be.
Film Appreciation: This class is going to be awesome.  Watching films and film clips, and evaluating them.  How cool is that?

The Cubs' two-year experiment with old-school home jerseys will bite the dust in 2007, when players' names once again will be displayed on their backs.

John McDonough, the Cubs' senior vice president of marketing and broadcasting, said the reason for the change was "the significant amount of roster turnover, plus the emergence of so many rookies."

Of the current 25-man roster, 16 players have been on the team for less than two full seasons. And with Mark Prior and Kerry Wood on the disabled list, Carlos Zambrano is the only Cub remaining from the start of Dusty Baker's regime in April 2003.

In essence, fans could not identify many of the new players without looking at a scorecard, and the old-fashioned scoreboard isn't conducive to associating players with their numbers.

"I think baseball in general has a pretty high turnover from year to year," McDonough said. "And I think with your younger fans, those impressions are made at such an early age, and I think it just makes it a little bit easier [to identify players].

"I think this year, by the time the season ends, we'll have close to 40 players who have been on the roster. We're kind of seeing that trend continue."

The Cubs decided to take names off the jerseys before the start of the 2005 season, when they had many more familiar faces, including Wood, Prior, Zambrano, Greg Maddux, Nomar Garciaparra and Corey Patterson.

It was a concession to the team's history, though many fans didn't care for the move, as the Cubs quickly discovered.

"This whole franchise speaks to tradition, history and nostalgia," McDonough said. "You look back and say that part of that [tradition] was just the numbers on the backs on uniforms without the names. So we experimented with it for a couple of years, and then collectively we thought it was time to bring back [the names]."

so my month old car has three dents in it now.  Not sure how that happened.

So not cool.

so I'm definitely starting to regret my decisions of the past year.  I kind of want to go back to SIUE now.

Crap.

So yesterday:
-Go to Best Buy to purchase a wireless router.
-Come home, computer downstairs (not mine) won't work
-Then I notice there's no ethernet jack
-We decide to have it looked at.

Today:
-Take the computer to BB to have it looked at by the Geek Squad (digression: they really are geeks.  Make me look almost normal.)
-They look at it, tell my father that the motherboard is fried.

Next few days:
-AT&T/SBC whatever the hell they are now is coming out Friday to make our box wireless worthy.  
-Have to put splicers on three phones.
-Put in a new phone jack.

And fun times were had by all.

Ok kiddies...new rule goes into effect.

If you call my cell phone, leave a message please.  I don't have many phone numbers and I rarely have the ringer on.  

I think I'm done ranting.

Well kids, it's been a while since I've updated.  

Here's what's happening:

-Start school in two weeks.  Yay to not having to work every day anymore.
-The wireless internet at home has finally been locked.  Therefore, I really don't have any way of talking to folks unless I get to Borders, Starbucks, or the library, and I am really lazy and don't feel like doing that. Plus gas costs a shitload for me.  Plus, I'm trying to talk the parents into getting me internet at home, as I will be there for a while now.
-DCI Thursday hopefully?

Call if anything's going on.

Well kids, here's my new tentative schedule:

MTWR    9:00-9:50  Intermediate Algebra
MW          10:00-12:20 Computer Logic
TR            10:00-10:50  Health and Wellness
TR              11:00-12:15 Film Appreciation
INTERNET English Composition and Literature
INTERNET  Music Appreciation

So no Friday classes.  Awesomeness.

Oh yeah....Clerks II comes out Friday.  Yay.

I took this from one of my friends xanga's.  Comments?

So the new car is sitting in my driveway right now.  And I've driven it, and it is freaking awesome.  It drives so really well, and it's got somewhat decent pickup.  It's an '06 Chevy Cobalt, and it's mine.  I should be able to drive it in a few days, after we get all the paperwork and insurance, etc.  It's going to be an awesome car to drive, until I lose the keys (which I've already done.)

,So I'm driving home from work today, and I hear "Such Great Heights" by Postal Service on 99.9, "We play anything" (Boy, that's the truth).  They're playing their whole music liberry this weekend.  I'm jamming out, because I love that song.  The DJ comes back on and says, "Boy, 1000 cool points to whoever knew the Postal Service sang that. I love music and I've never heard that."  Woot.  So thanks to Raina and Cate for getting me on this awesomely awesome group.

P.S. Still attempting to get a hold of my grandfather for a employee number for my new car.  '06 Chevy Cobalt, so that's on hold for a few days, at least.

EDIT:  We got a hold of him, and the number is in the mail....HELLS YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A'ight kiddies, so here's the deal again.  My father wants to get the end of the year deals on the car, so we have to get one before July 5th.  And the kicker is that it's a NEW CAR.  HELLS YES.  It's either going to be a 2006 Chevy Aveo (my wish) or a 2006 Chevy Cobalt.  My father wants to get a basic Chevy Cobalt for me, sans power mirrors, power locks, etc.  Oh well.  The hell of it is, if we get the top of the line Chevy Aveo, it's actually cheaper than the bottom of the line Chevy Cobalt.  That's right.  Either way, we're  going to get me a pretty rawkin' car.  Anything's better than the Baretta at the present.  That thing ain't going to last much longer, friends.  Oh well.  I'll have a rawkin' car within a week, hopefully.  We've priced both Aveos and Cobalts at all of the dealerships in the area, and we've decided which ones we like and what I need.  We just need to go for a test drive one of these days. 

Cool beans.

So apparently, the new car might happen quicker than expected.  My father has to get a hold of my grandfather, who is honestly the hardest man in the world to get a hold of.  He needs to get a number for the GM employee buyers discount.  So, my father apparently wants this done sooner, rather than later

Huzzah!!