Yesterday I went down to Raleigh to watch my second favorite football team (the Wolfpack of North Carolina State) play Wake Forest. My good buddy from NC, Bill S of Moncure, NC, asked me down to watch the game with some of his friends. Bill has 4 season tickets and normally shares them with good friends, I am happy to be included in that group.
When I was a very young CPT (ages ago . . . . 1991 or 1992, when I was stationed at FT Benning, GA for a year), I had the opportunity to meet the head coach of NC State, Dick Sheridan. He was a very down to earth man, and a football genius. He managed to get the Wolfpack to a few bowl games and had a few great teams. I got to meet some of the players, they were all gentlemen. We watched them play at Georgia Tech, Dick Sheridan invited us to meet the players, watch practice and everything. The Georgia Tech coach on the other hand, literally chased us away from the practice when we stopped to watch a few snaps. Of course we were wearing red shirts, but still, the head coach himself came over.
Fast forward several years, I met up with Bill, an engineer for the state of NC and we talked a ton of football. He ended up inviting me to a few games, about one a year. Most of the games I went to the Pack was into the game and either won the game or it was very close. The stadium is a nice one, the fans are football fans and the band is pretty good. All in all, a very entertaining college football experience. When I look at college football, I always respect programs that keep it all in perspective: Fans respect and cheer for both teams, there isn't a weekly demand for a National Championship, the team plays hard. NC State is like that, very loyal fans, nice stadium, just a good college football experience.
The Pack will never replace the Huskers, but I like em. Yesterday was senior day, the NC State seniors stepped it up and shut down Wake Forest. Wake Forest is having an off year, but are normally well coached, fast and play a very interesting mis-direction offense. Yesterday was not their day, they played well, mostly mistake free, but they got beat, 38-3.
I figured out how to attach pictures using Picasa, much easier than before, there are some pics from the day posted on the right.
Other notes:
Riding is getting kinda cold, but bearable in the mornings. The afternoon rides last week were spectacular, very good weather for riding. With daylight savings time, it is actually light towards the end of my morning rides. Of course, on the other end, unless I leave work early, I am riding in the dark. I have put more lights on my bike, so I think it is OK. I am going to stick with riding until the weather says "no more riding" (snow, ice or cold rain).
Fantasy Football:
This season will be interesting, I have moved from dead last to top 10. Wade is only 20 or so points ahead of me. Once again, if I could pick a wide receiver, I would be doing really well. I will keep you posted as the season goes along, but, I could squeak by Wade this year, unless he uses his last two trades.
Movies:
I am now a Netflix fan. Not only can you watch movies by disc, but you can watch them online. A friend of mine set up a computer with my big screen TV and I can watch anything that is online (Netflix, Hulu, CBS, ESPN3.com) on my TV. I have watched a few movies that stand out.
The Cove: Documents the Japanese systematic slaughter of dolphins in one of their coastal towns. Great flick, it provides another reason for me to lose respect for the Japanese fishing industry. Not only were they mostly responsible for the near-extinction of whales in the 70's, but they have continued to whale, fish other species to near extinction (tuna) and now systematically kill dolphins.
Note: I stopped eating all seafood two years ago as a response to the over-fishing of species done worldwide. After diving for several years, I can't imagine a world without fish. I know that folks want to eat fish and some societies rely on fishing for their sustenance, but the rampant over-fishing will not be a good planetary thing. I figure not eating fish will help one or two fish stay in the ocean.
The King of Kong: I thought this was fiction at first, the characters in the movie were so stereotypical that I didn't think they were real. The movie talks about the record holders for classic arcade video games and how they are documented internationally. I couldn't believe it. If you grew up in the 80s, check it out.
180 Degrees South: A much happier movie, but still with an environmental twist. In the 60s, three friends drove from CA down to Patagonia, stopping to surf along the way. A modern filmmaker traced their route, and wanted to do the same thing. The three kids from the 60s turned out to be the founders of North Face, Patagonia and Royal Robbins clothing and outdoors equipment companies. They have since spent a lot of their money buying land in Patagonia and turning it into nature preserves. Good flick.
Dogtown and Z boys: Documentary about the group of surfers that revolutionized skate boarding in the 70s. Very good flick, I enjoyed the interviews and film from the early days of skateboarding and surfing near Venice Beach.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Touring DC with Melissa
A few weeks ago (OK, probably a month ago) my sister Melissa came to DC for a weekend and we did some touring around. Surprisingly, she had never been to DC but had always wanted to come out.
I am always apprehensive when folks come to visit, because I like to have a plan of some sort for a visit. Luckily, DC is pretty easy for that, there are always a bunch of things to do or see. She came the weekend that Nebraska played Texas, so that was one good event (already blogged about: "Niles Paul, you are breaking my heart . . . . ."); the rest of the time we hit the museums and the monuments on the mall. We also had an opportunity to visit one of her best friend's daughters that was studying at Georgetown.
On the first day, we did a quick tour of a couple of Smithsonian Museums. The paintings that were on display were from the collections of George Lucas (the man that killed Star Wars) and Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones and the savior of Star Wars). There are a couple of paintings that I really enjoyed looking at:
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/tellingstories/
The first one was the Norman Rockwell's "Boy on a High Dive"; it shows a kid on the edge of a high dive, to me this signified taking a new risk or meeting life's next adventure. The second one was "Back to Civvies", showing a young man that has come back from WW II and nothing really seems to fit. That was very poignant to me, I think there are a couple of generations that are going to go through the rest of their lives where nothing seems to fit.
We also went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, there are a lot of displays of Americana here: Julia Child's kitchen and the First Ladies inauguration dresses as well as a display of self driving vehicles jumped out at me. The final museum we went to was the original Smithsonian Castle, we went there because it was towards the end of the day and it was close to the metro stop. The display that I really connected with was a display of Madeline Albright's broaches and pins. These were the pins that she would wear at different events throughout her life, all the pins had a significance. For example, when she was the Ambassador to the UN, and was sitting next to Saddam Hussein, she wore a snake on her lapel (?) because Saddam had called her a snake in an earlier encounter. When she was being asked to solve a huge problem, she would wear a magician or wizard's pin because it would take a lot of magic to solve that particular problem. She also had a few Star Trek pins and other space exploration related pins, very cool.
The next few days we hit all of the presidential monuments (pictures attached on the right), my personal favorite is FDR's, Korean War and the WW II memorial. WW II is just impressive, Korean War is understated and very well done. I like the quietness of the statues, during the winter, when there is snow, it is especially vivid.
Our final stop (prior to the Texas game :-( ) was Arlington, VA. I went there to visit a friend's sister's grave site, as well as check out JFK's grave, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Lee mansion. Lee's mansion (where Robert E. Lee grew up) was a mansion built by the Lee family, the museum there shows how the Lee and Washington families were linked. The estate was taken over by the Union Army during the Civil War and was turned into a hospital for Union Soldiers during the Civil War and as a cemetery. The grounds were then turned into a National Cemetery.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded by members of the US Army's 3d Infantry Regiment. That particular day, we watched the changing of the guard ceremony, as well as a wreath laying ceremony. Very cool.
I am always apprehensive when folks come to visit, because I like to have a plan of some sort for a visit. Luckily, DC is pretty easy for that, there are always a bunch of things to do or see. She came the weekend that Nebraska played Texas, so that was one good event (already blogged about: "Niles Paul, you are breaking my heart . . . . ."); the rest of the time we hit the museums and the monuments on the mall. We also had an opportunity to visit one of her best friend's daughters that was studying at Georgetown.
On the first day, we did a quick tour of a couple of Smithsonian Museums. The paintings that were on display were from the collections of George Lucas (the man that killed Star Wars) and Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones and the savior of Star Wars). There are a couple of paintings that I really enjoyed looking at:
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/tellingstories/
The first one was the Norman Rockwell's "Boy on a High Dive"; it shows a kid on the edge of a high dive, to me this signified taking a new risk or meeting life's next adventure. The second one was "Back to Civvies", showing a young man that has come back from WW II and nothing really seems to fit. That was very poignant to me, I think there are a couple of generations that are going to go through the rest of their lives where nothing seems to fit.
We also went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, there are a lot of displays of Americana here: Julia Child's kitchen and the First Ladies inauguration dresses as well as a display of self driving vehicles jumped out at me. The final museum we went to was the original Smithsonian Castle, we went there because it was towards the end of the day and it was close to the metro stop. The display that I really connected with was a display of Madeline Albright's broaches and pins. These were the pins that she would wear at different events throughout her life, all the pins had a significance. For example, when she was the Ambassador to the UN, and was sitting next to Saddam Hussein, she wore a snake on her lapel (?) because Saddam had called her a snake in an earlier encounter. When she was being asked to solve a huge problem, she would wear a magician or wizard's pin because it would take a lot of magic to solve that particular problem. She also had a few Star Trek pins and other space exploration related pins, very cool.
The next few days we hit all of the presidential monuments (pictures attached on the right), my personal favorite is FDR's, Korean War and the WW II memorial. WW II is just impressive, Korean War is understated and very well done. I like the quietness of the statues, during the winter, when there is snow, it is especially vivid.
Our final stop (prior to the Texas game :-( ) was Arlington, VA. I went there to visit a friend's sister's grave site, as well as check out JFK's grave, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Lee mansion. Lee's mansion (where Robert E. Lee grew up) was a mansion built by the Lee family, the museum there shows how the Lee and Washington families were linked. The estate was taken over by the Union Army during the Civil War and was turned into a hospital for Union Soldiers during the Civil War and as a cemetery. The grounds were then turned into a National Cemetery.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded by members of the US Army's 3d Infantry Regiment. That particular day, we watched the changing of the guard ceremony, as well as a wreath laying ceremony. Very cool.
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