Journal Archives

September 2002

Sunday September 1: Interesting Today has turned out to be an interesting day.
Last night, I had trouble falling asleep. I sleep best when I’m away at college, I guess. I got to sleep around two. I was up shortly after eight for church. I got up, showered and got dressed. Dad and I went into Church while JN washed clothing and mom did something. Church was sparse. Chachi, MLE Smith and I were the only ones in attendance for most of the time. Even Mr. B, the teacher, was late. During the worship service, I sat by myself for a while and later with Mr. B and my dad. The place was pretty devoid of youth folks. I wonder what ever happened to that Trevor Godfrey kid, or that Rob Kerr fellow.
This weekend’s sermon was on "Real Choices". On Thursday, the speaker at end of "Bronco Days" talked about choices. On Saturday night, I packed a t-shirt that said "Real Choices" (It was a shirt Mrs. Prisk got me). So, maybe the Big Guy is trying to send me a message. I’m not sure what it’s about, but maybe it has something to do with choices.
After church I ate lunch and came back to my house. Steve called and we figured out when we were going back. In the afternoon, I read my hockey magazine and tried to go to sleep. It didn’t work. Steve and his parents came over around three. We got to school in the evening.
In the evening, we unpacked, watched TV, visited with Erin and were introduced to the suitemates and some of their friends. The suitemates are really sociable; it should be interesting how the living with them thing works.
I’m tired. I’ll write more later.
-greg.

Monday September 2: Raining on my parade So yeah, I’m back at school. When Steve said that he wanted to go back on Sunday afternoon, I thought, "Sweet, that means we can go into Kalamazoo on Monday and see what it is like." Those plans got rained on. First of all, it rained today. Regardless of the weather we were still going to try to visit Kalamazoo. However, we found out that the buses don’t run on Labor Day. The library and most everything on campus were closed. I hate Labor Day. It sucks.
In the afternoon and evening, I spent most of the time in the room or at the cafeteria. People came and visited us. Erin, Kelly and Jenni all made trips over to our room. We watched a lot of TV. We saw part of a football game, part of "US Marshals", "Something about Mary" and one other movie. I ate some food today and I played on Nintendo some. Not much else happened today. People came over and we chatted, played on the computers and that was about it.
The other day, my mom called me "evil". Yeah, I know. I can’t believe she called me "evil". That’s just mean.

There is not "always room for Jello". On Friday I had a full plate of food for dinner. I finished my meal and was going to have the Jello for desert. However, I was too full to finish it. There just wasn’t any room.

I investigated the train station today. One of these weekends, I’m going to ride the Amtrak home (Prayer Concern). According to the people at Yahoo!, the train station is only 8 minutes away. I’m not sure who could make it there in 8 minutes. It’s three miles. I don’t know anyone that can run that fast.
Everyone in the world should have a webpage. That way, I could check up on people and see how their life was going when they don't have time to write me. WebPages are easy to make. They are a great way to communicate with friends. On top of that, they are a great way to spread hatful anti-Canadian propaganda.
Christopher Walken went to Hofstra University for one year. That means that I know two cool people who went to Hofstra for one year.

Steve can no longer say "I'm not on your webpage.
IF OF TODAY AND YESTERDAY: "If you had to nominate one person you have known for sainthood, who would you choose?"
I don’t know. I know lots of nice people, but none that are at the level of being one of the fancy saints.
"If were to spend the rest of your life in the company of a single type of animal, which would you choose?"
Humans would be my first choice. However, I think that the question is asking about subhuman beings. I’d pick dogs. Dogs are great toys.
Ok. Sleepy. Night.
-greg.

Tuesday September 3: Beginning The first half of today was very uneventful. Steve got up around 9:30. I said good morning to him and then went back to sleep. That was about it for the first half of the day. When Steve came back, it was around noon. Eventually I got up, took a shower and went to dinner.
After lunch, I had some time to ready my school supplies and to write out a few more e-mails. Before long, it was time to leave for "Bronco Bash". Bronco Bash is the biggest commercial in the world. It’s like a live version of public access television. Pretty much every campus organization and dozens of local business set up tables along the Miller Plaza. For seven hours, they give away pencils, cups and flyers. The place was wicked crazy. There were hordes of people (I took some pictures and will have them up sometime this week). So, after hanging around at Bronco Bash for about two hours with the WMU Crew we broke up for meals and classes. Steve went to his English class, the girls went to dinner and I hiked all the way back to the valley to drop off my stuff, get dinner and get my book for class. I ate dinner and then ran (In reality, I walked, but I’m trying to use a variety of words to keep from being redundant and repetitive) to Dunbar for class.
Class was witty. The teacher I have is kind of funny. No one laughed much, but I chuckled quite a few times. Furthermore, class only lasted 20 minutes ("Brevity is the soul of wit."). The professor gave a definition of logic and that was about it for today. After class, I came back to the room and dropped of my books before going down to the cafeteria to get "second dinner". Although I woke up at noon, I still managed to squeeze in three meals. I may have skipped out on breakfast, but I doubled up on dinner to right my course.
I wonder if anyone caught the pun.
In the evening, Jenni, Kelly and Erin came over and watched part of "the Fellowship of the Rings" with us. We watched about an hour of the movie before they decided to leave.
My mom called me today. She actually talked to me today. It’s funny. The two previous times that she called, she just talked with Steve. I was in the room. I watched Steve pick up the phone and talk with her. Then, she would hang up without ever talking to me (I love to give her a hard time about it. It is much fun.)
That is about it for today. Have a nice night.
Oh yeah, Jiri Fischer re-signed with the Wings. (Dude, Sweet)
-greg.

Thursday September 5: Quality Today’s entry is going to be a quality piece of writing. Well, it probably won’t be that good, but it should be much better than the late night ramblings that I’ve been posting since college started. Today I’m actually updating while the sun is up.
Yesterday was a pretty eventful day. I was up around seven in the morning for class. I didn’t have to be to the room until nine. However, every other day I have to wake up at seven. It’s a hassle to change my alarm. I showered, ate breakfast and eventually walked over to Rood Hall for my class. Rood is a strange building. I was walking around the halls when I came upon a museum. There were classes on my left and right, then, suddenly I had a wooly mammoth bone on my left and an information kiosk on quartz to my right.
My physics class is lecture-style room. I think there are more the fifty people in it, although it was hard for me to get a good count of the people in the stands. My instructor is an older gentleman with a little bit of gray hair. His name is Doctor Shamu. It’s spelled like the whale. The class is kind of like the AP Environmental class that they had at my high school, but this one just requires real knowledge of physics.
After class, I decided that I would stay on the main campus until my noon class. I went and explored the library. It’s really quiet in there. Even the heating and cooling units don’t make noise. It was really creepy. I’m definitely not going back to the library for a while. I had an early lunch on main campus. I went to the Bigelow cafeteria. I got yelled at by the lunch ladies and lunch men. Biggy has a strange set up for the cafeteria. It's confusing enough that, in my sleepy state, I managed to get lost in the lunch line.
After eating and watching "the Price is Right", I went to my literature class. It is a bit intimidating. The class takes place in a room the size of a movie theatre. There are between 150 and 200 people in the class. The professor said that 48 people failed the class last year. That’s a lot of people, especially considering that I’m not one of those people who are good with literature. On top of all that, my teacher is kind of a hippie. He has long gray hair, wears sandals and talked about how books can change lives. He is kind of funny, but I think the class is going to be difficult.
In the afternoon, I came back to the room and chilled. I talked online, did homework and worked on my WMU page (I added some nifty buttons to help those with smaller screen sizes yet still maintain lack of a scroll bar on the side menu).
In the evening, I went to dinner and then came back to the room just as Steve was returning. He went to dinner and a meeting while I relaxed in the room. I feel asleep from about eight until nine. At nine, I got up, changed clothes, turned off the computer and lights and tried to go back to sleep. It didn’t work. I couldn’t get comfortable. Around ten, Kelly and Steve came back from a basketball excursion at rec-center. They came in, saw that I was trying to sleep and then left. It was really more considerate than they needed to be. After about ten minutes, I went looking for them. They were sitting out in the hallway talking. I told them to come back in and I gave up on my foolish quest to get to sleep early. So, the three of us hung out in the room for a couple hour. Kelly asked who the people were on my computer background (I have a collage of pictures as my background). After I told her who was in every snap shot, she asked if I had anymore pictures. That was a foolish question to ask. I gave her a guided tour of my webpage’s Photo Section. So yeah, now Kelly knows my entire life story. She could probably write my biography.
Eventually, she left and I went back to sleep. As I was resting in bed, I heard shattering glass and some yelling. Steve heard it, too. I got up and looked out the door. I saw a bunch of other people looking to see what had happened. For a moment, it was rumored that someone had fallen out of a window. Someone shattered one of the windows in the staircase by my room. So yeah, that was pretty exciting.
Eventually, I managed to go to sleep.
I was up at seven today. Seven is early. The sun doesn’t rise until about quarter after this time of year. When winter comes, I am going to be getting up in the dark. This morning began as a very busy day. I went down to the café and picked up breakfast. Then, I hiked over to Rood for my calculus class. We got the syllabus and did a refresher problem (I was going to say "simple" problem, but then I remembered that calculus isn’t all that simple). I have the stereotypical math teacher; she is a short woman with glasses. She has a puppy, too. Apparently, she has chronic arthritis. Instead of carrying around a briefcase or backpack, she has a big dog that carries around her teaching supplies for her.
After class, I stopped by the post office to mail a CD off to Chris. I love the USPS. I mailed the CD for under a buck. Now, I just hope that it doesn’t get broken. After my stop at the post office I continued on my way to the rec-center. Yep, I went to the gym today. Sometimes, I even amaze myself. I really didn’t know where to start, so I went and worked out on one of the machines that I knew how to use. I rode three or four miles on the stationary bike. After that, I got brave enough to try one of the weight machines (Note: I was a bit wary. Not only did I not want to look like a dork, but I also heard what happened to Martin Straka (Hockey player) this summer. He was working on a weight machine when it collapsed on him. He ended up with a cracked vertebra). I worked on the lifting and pushing machines for a very short time. In all, I spent about 35 minutes in the gym. I plan on slowly expanding my time there to an hour session three days a week. However, today’s workout was enough for today.
I walked back across campus and took a cool shower. By the time that I got done, it was only a few minutes past ten. I can’t believe that I got so much accomplished before my regular wake-up time.
I made up for my morning activities by doing nothing during the next hour of time. Eventually, I went down to lunch with Steve before coming back up and working on this journal entry. When I get done with this, I think that I’m going to get ahead in calculus or perhaps read my literature homework.
Someone tried to sell Steve and I magazine subscriptions the other day. I need to get a "no soliciting" sign for my dorm door.
The other day, I knocked my shampoo bottle off the shelf. It fell from the heights of my closet onto the hard tiled floor. The plastic top popped off and went skipping across the floor. As I tried to keep more books from falling off onto the shampoo, a small puddle of shampoo began to form. By the time that I averted the avalanche and picked up the button, I had a six inch wide pool of shampoo on the floor. Cleaning it up was a bit difficult. The floor got sudsy. A large portion of my floor is now not only clean, but also well conditioned thanks to my combination two-in-one shampoo and conditioner.
I like football, but it’s going to be unpleasant to cheer for my school’s team. Last week, we massacred Indiana State. The upcoming schedule looks kind of tough. This week we play the number seven ranked University of Michigan (I’ll be happy whoever wins that one). The following week we play Purdue, who is ranked in the top forty. Following that game, we have a week off to prepare for the late September game against number ten Virginia Tech (One-and-three wouldn't be a bad start).
According to the people on the radio, Drach is supposed to start against U-M. I’m hoping that he stubs his toe or something like that and Munson (The second string QB) gets put in. Comparison: (It’s not McMahon vs. Harrington, but it’s the closest thing we have in Kzoo)

Player	CMP	ATT	%	YDS	AVE	TD	INT	R-ATT	R-YDS	QB-Rating
Chad Munson	14	19	74%	197	10.4	4	0	1	0	230.3
Jon Drach	9	17	53%	112	6.59	1	0	6	28	127.7

Have a happy day.
-greg.

Friday September 6: Sleep Last night was really late and today was really early.
I got up at the standard seven in the morning and went to my math class. Right now, it is a waste to go to class. We are still reviewing. There really isn’t any point in my attendance at class. I was good enough at math in high school that they gave me medal (That’s not just a figure of speech; they actually gave me a medal). Physic was also rather mind numbing this morning. We talked about the metric system and joules. It was a refresher of high school physics. Yes, it was a refresher that I, along with most thinking people, didn’t need to experience.
After class, I came back to the room. As I was walking down the hill, I saw one of the buses at the stop. I started walking to it. However, I held steady. I did not give into the temptation of laziness. I righted my course and walked the distance back to the room. It hasn’t been a week. If it rains or snows, maybe I’ll ride the bus. I need to get in shape. I’m tired of being chunky.
When I made it back to the room I went to sleep. I was tired, very tired. I came back and got into bed right away. It took me a while to drift into sleep, but I still got a good two hours of rest before all was said and done. I didn’t wake up until Steve came back from his math class. He and I went down to lunch. In the afternoon, I was too tired to go do anything that required real work (Work is defined as the product of force and displacement). I hung around in the room and I chatted online some. I had a very nice conversation with Melissa. It was so cool to just chat with her for a very long time. It’s been months since I’ve just been able to catch up and joke around with her.
I played some video games and Erin came and visited during the afternoon. We made the hike up to main campus to go to dinner with Jenni. During the post-dinner part of the evening we watched the final two hours of "the Fellowship of the Rings". That was about it for today.
Quote of the day: "Pity was meant to be a spur that drives joy to help misery." C.S. Lewis The Great Divorce (117) More C.S. Lewis quotations
I need to find a Church group up here. I'm not sure which one to go to. So far, I have discovered four options: Campus Christian Fellowship, The Navigators, Campus Crusade for Christ and InterVarsity. So far, CCF has the best Webpage. However, I'm not sure if that is a good reason to select a church group.
Oh yeah, the reason that I didn’t get to sleep until late is because I share a suite with the village idiots, the kings of inebriation and ignorance.
IF OF THE DAYS: "If you had to constantly carry a weapon of some kind, what would it be?"
I would carry around nunchakus. We all know what nunchakus are. They're the pieces of wood that Michelangelo’s carried around when he was a teenage mutant ninja turtle. Nunchakus aren’t that useful of a weapon. However, the look pretty good. A gun is kind of lame. Anyone can carry around a gun. Nunchakus take skill.
"If you had to name the one most important ingredient of human beauty, what would you say it is?"
Pretty girls have slim athletic bodies, long shimmering hair, a pearly smile and bright eyes. I see pretty girls all the time. Beautiful girls? Now, they are a rare commodity. Beauty has more to do with who the person is than what she looks like. I might know, at tops, a dozen beautiful girls (Right now, I can only think of five, but that's probably because I'm tired). Someone who is pretty is nice to look at. Someone who is beautiful is nice to be with. What separates the prettiness and beauty is the things that we can't see. The most important ingredient in human beauty is that feeling inside that lets us know we are with someone who is truly special.
"If you had to give a prize for the most attractive politician in U.S. History, who would win it?"
They are no famous attractive female politician. Sorry Janet Reno, but you're not my type.
"If you were to add a thirteenth month to the year, where would you insert it?"
I would insert my extra month right before January. That way, Christmas break would last from mid-December, through the whole thirteenth month and into the first couple days of January.
Hockey

Freep DetNews ForeCaster

The Red Wings signed Fischer this week. That leaves Darren McCarty as the only unsigned unrestricted free agent. However, we have nothing to fear. Kenny Holland and Pat Morris, Mac's agent, already have a one year deal ready to be signed. Mac just wants to work out a long term deal with the team. Regardless of how negotiations work, Mac will be signed and ready for training camp. Also, the Wings are going to try to sign one more veteran defenseman. Slegr and Duke are the top two defensemen left. The Wings are talking with both of them. Duke said that if the team doesn't re-sign him, he might retire. If he does retire, he will be one of the people who might take over Joey Kocur's role as the video coordinating. That would be cool. I like Duke. He's great. However, I think Slegr would be better on the ice. Hopefully, we can keep Duke on the staff as a couch or scout. The Hockey Forecaster labeled Zetterberg as "arguably the best prospect in the game today". That's a great compliment for a team that is supposed to be too old.

Player	Age	H/W	GP	Pts.
Nick Lidstrom	32	6-2/190	853	626
Chris Chelios	40	6-1/190	1260	874
Mathieu Dandenault	26	6-1/196	477	118
Jiri Fischer	22	6-5/228	187	27
Maxim Kuznetsov	25	6-5/235	64	6
Jesse Wallin	24	6-2/190	17	1
Niklas Kronwell	21	5-11/174	Swedish Rookie
Dmitri Bykov	25	5-11/201	Russian Rookie
Paul Ballantyne	20	6-3/215	Canadian Rookie
Steve Duchesne	37	5-11/195	1113	752
Jiri Slegr	31	6-0/220	538	207

Many many Red Wings stats
Kyle McLaren, the guy who took Richard Zednik's head off during the first round, will not report to training camp. He cannot be bought. He will be trade or he's willing to sit out. Jose Theodore signed a three year deal with the Habs. Jarome Iginla signed a two year deal. Mark Messier signed a one year deal with the Rangers and Martin Skoula re-signed with the Av's. Meanwhile, Byron Dafoe remains unsigned. Poor, poor Byron. This experience can't be good for his self-esteem. Now I see why McCarty doesn't want to become an unrestricted free agent.
"Teams such as the Rangers, Red Wings and Avalanche make ridiculous bids on players and turn the sport into a mockery. Case in point: Bobby Holik." -- Brian V., Pittsburgh
This is an example of the foolish talk of the uneducated. The Avalanche only re-signed their owen restricted agents. Last year, they re-signed all three key players (Blake, Sakic, Roy) before the market opened and thereby avoided a bidding war. The Red Wings play less for Luc Robitaille and Brett Hull (600+ goals apiece) than the salary of Bobby Holik. The reason the Wing's salary is so high is because they've got more talent than anyone in the league. Holland is a smart shopper. The Rangers are the morons playing a second-line super-star money.
Football
The Bucs (NFL) practiced the other day in a parking structure because of the rain. You would think that they could at least have one of those inflatable golf domes. All of ESPN's football forecasters (Seven: Joe Theismann, Merril Hoge, Sean Salisbury, Mark Schlereth, Mike Golic, Mark Malone, and Ron Jaworski) picked the Dolphins to beat the Lions this weekend. I think that the Lions are going to win.
World News
Satire Wire went the way of the buffalo. I will have to add it to the long list of cool sites that are no longer. Satire Wire was right up there with the Mr. T site and Dave Nagle's page.
"The president meets Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who said Thursday he has yet to see evidence to justify Canadian support for a military campaign against Iraq." -MSNBC
Funny, I didn't know that Canada had a military to help support the campaign.
-greg.

Saturday September 7: Sleep Today was a sleepy day.
I woke up in the afternoon and watched the U-M vs. WMU game. It was ok. U-M won, so I was kind of happy, even though my school lost. I guess that I’m still a U-M fan. MSU was losing for a while, but they came back and won.
In the afternoon I stayed in the room and that was about it. For dinner, we went and ate with Erin on main campus. Then, we went to Kalamazoo. Riding the buses is a bit tricky. It took us a while to figure out where and how to get to Meijer.
Eventually, we got to Meijer. We got some stuff and I took some pictures. In the evening, we came back to the room and we played video games and talked online with Miriam. It was nifty to talk online with Miriam. It’s cool, because I talk to her about stuff at my old high school, things goi0ng on at church or camp, and life at college.
That was about it for today.
Andrea saw Jimmy Fallon in concert. That’s sweet. The other day, I came across the "Idiot Boyfriend" video at MTV.com. Since then, Steve and I have downloaded the song and listened to it two dozen times. Jimmy Fallon cracks me up.
The other day, I saw someone from my high school at lunch. I started to think of all the people who went to WL Western that are here at WMU. I came up with 18 names. That only counts the people that I know from this year’s graduating class. I’m sure that there are at least another dozen WLW people that are hiding around the campus. Maybe that is why WMU seems to have the same mildly unpleasant feeling that I had in high school.
Chris might start making a webpage. That would be nifty. In the ideal world, everyone would have a webpage. That way, I could check up on people when they were too busy to write personal correspondence.
Anyway, I’m sleepy.
-greg.

Sunday September 8: Football, Homework and Church Today’s title summarizes today’s activities. I got up around ten, washed up and then went to church with Steve, Erin, and Erin’s roommate. We went to St. Thomas More Church which is right down the one road that runs down through campus. It was the second time that I’ve been to a Catholic mass. I like the other Catholic Church that I went to better. First and foremost, the service leader at this church made jokes about Baptists. He talked about an examination that he went through when he was in seminary. It was one of the final examinations that he had to go through. A group of professors got to look at all of his college papers and then the board of teachers could ask him any questions about what he had written. So, at one point during the inquisition (that’s probably not the best word to use), he said "It doesn’t matter what the community believes, but what the individual believes." To that, one of the inquisitors (again, not the best choice of words) said, "You sound like a Baptist." At this point in the story, the congregation laughed and I thought to myself, "What’s so funny?"
This time I disagreed with the priest. We have been called to be one body in Christ. However, that doesn’t mean that we have to have an absolute conformity of belief. The apostle Paul, my good buddy, talks about situations when a person’s conscience can determine when something is wrong or not. Sometimes, something that is ok for you to do is something that would cause me to feel distant from God.

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. (Romans 14:1-7 NIV)

You don’t have to agree with every Christian, but you need to respect his or her beliefs and practices. When I go to a Catholic Church, I cross myself, kneel when everyone else does, and use the water by the doors. In that way, I express my faith in a manner that the other believers there recognize. When I took the Eucharist, I followed the others in the processional. I still don’t believe in transubstantiation, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t celebrate the Lord’s supper with fellow believers.
Anyway, sorry for the tangential theological ramblings.
The sanctuary was so full that I had to sit on the floor. As a result, it took a while to empty. As we were exiting, I considered yelling "Hurry up you silly Papists." I didn’t do it, but it would have been amusing to see what the response would have been.
Anyway, after church the four of us got lunch before Steve and I returned to the Valley. I did homework and watched football for the rest of the day. I had to read "the Death of Ivan Ilych" by Leo Tolstoy. It’s a fifty page short story. It wasn’t bad, it was just long. From the title, I knew that the main character was going to die. As the pages dragged on, I couldn’t wait for Ivan to die. Finally, he kicked the bucket on page sixty-three.
While I was working on Calc, Phil and Physics work, I watched parts of five NFL games. The Lions got smoked. The game was ugly. The only highlight was that Joey Harrington played. The Broncos beat the Rams. I like that Rams, but Brian Griese is one of my favorites.
That was about it for today.
The other day, I discovered something interesting:

That advertisement is on every table in the many cafeterias across campus. You would think that college students would be smart enough to proofread before they had something like that published.
Anyway, that is about all for today. Have a good night.
-greg.

Monday September 9: Fabulous Why does today feel like Tuesday? Oh yeah, I did homework all Sunday.
Anyway, today was a fabulous day. So many great things happened.
First off, I slept into today. It wasn’t on purpose. However, because today turned out to be a good day, I don’t mind that I missed the alarm and got up half an hour late. I took a lightning quick shower and then ran over to class. Math was interesting today. I learned; it felt good. Physics was mind numbing. I have a bad feeling that I am going to sleep a lot in that class.
I trotted over to the library and then to the cafeteria at Biggy. The café staff didn’t yell at me this time. It was great. My literature class was interesting today. The teacher babbled a lot, but it was interesting babble. After class, I came back to the room.
During the afternoon, I talked online, did Calculus and took a couple trips down to the cafeteria to get snacks. Overall, it doesn’t sound that great. However, today really was fabulous. I got to talk with Cassie online. I got a letter. Also, I had a rather enjoyable time solving integration problems. I might be a pathetic, mail-obsessed geek, but I’m very happy today, so I don’t mind.
Erin came over and the three of us went to dinner. There was a girl sitting by herself, so Erin invited her to sit with us. During the conversation, she said (about Steve and I), "You knew each other from high school? Are you sick of each other yet?" It’s funny. Really though, I’m rooming half blind. I’ve known Steve for a couple years, but it hasn’t been until my senior year that I hung out with him any. So, I just got a couple months head start on the kids who roomed blind.
By the way. . . No, I'm not sick of Steve. He's been a very good roommate.
After dinner, we came back to the room. Steve had to go to some sort of thing and I went to the InterVarsity Bible study. It meets on Monday nights on the main floor, so I think that I am going to go to that one. I still need to find a church or student group with a worship service. So far, the only ones that I have discovered meet at 7 on Tuesday and Thursday (the same time that I have my Phil class)
So, today was a great day. I got a letter, I found a Bible Study, I got ice cream, I stumped Erin, the music major, with a pretty simple song ("Simple" is stressed for a good reason), I got to talk with Cassie online. . . ( I could go on, but I’m sleepy)
Amusing Quotations :
Greg says, "I checked the mailbox twice today (at around 4pm)". Megs says, "That reaches a new level of pathetic"
Bloom [about Calc 2 at OCC] says, "When the teacher said, 'Raise your hand if you've heard of sine, cosine, and tangent,' I knew everything would be ok."
I opened up a pack of batteries today. The date on the side of the batteries read "Mar 2009". Honestly, who buys batteries seven years in advance?
Sexism underlies agenda of reproductive freedom
Jason Gillikin
Western Herald Staff
September 09, 2002

If we accept at face value the battle cry of gender feminism -- that every woman should have complete reproductive freedom, including the option to abort -- then we are left with a most remarkable set of contradictions that calls into question the commitment of feminists to true equality between the sexes.
The problem is this: In a nation of laws, equality is a political concept. Equality may, of course, be insufficiently realized by actual social customs, but before the courts we rightfully expect justice without regard to race, creed or gender. This being the case, feminists who fight for social gender equality must defend their persistent silence about the legal reproductive rights of men.
Conventional wisdom posits that females ought to have an unfettered right to complete reproductive freedom, which is just a fancy way of justifying unilateral abortion for lifestyle reasons unrelated to the health of mother or baby.
Yet this position is profoundly sexist. As women don't typically become pregnant spontaneously, justice under our system of laws seems to demand a formal recognition of reproductive freedom for males, as well. After all, a male is absolutely required for conception -- even if his sperm comes from an ice-cube tray.
Nevertheless, women are presently accorded a legally privileged position regarding the ultimate product (and end, it might be noted) of insemination. If the father of a child in utero wants the baby but the mother doesn't, the man has no legal right to interdict an abortion. If a father does not want a child but the mother does, the man has no legal right to compel an abortion.
Worse, a man faced with an unwanted pregnancy has no way to "abort" his financial obligations to the child if the mother carries the baby to term. Mothers have permission under Michigan statute to voluntarily terminate parental rights by dropping off their newborns to a hospital or police station, but men have no concurrent means of surrendering their paternity.
This situation is clearly unjust, and it is indicative of the moral and intellectual poverty of today's feminist movement that their pursuit of a rigid political orthodoxy prevents them from addressing the subject in a responsible and compassionate manner. Two possible solutions immediately come to mind.
First, men could be given the legal right to compel or interdict abortions. In cases where the parents of the child are at odds, sole legal and economic custody should be awarded to the parent willing to take the child; the parent in favor of abortion could simply have all obligations to the child terminated by a judge. There could even be a presumption in the mother's favor if a physician reasonably thinks her life would be jeopardized by the pregnancy.
The one potential drawback is if the mother wanted to abort, she would have to endure the irritation and discomfort of a full-term pregnancy for a child she didn't want to keep. This objection actually isn't problematic, though, for reasons to be detailed below.
Second, the ability to abort could be eliminated as an option. The rhetoric from the Feminist Left has always emphasized "choice." Reproductive freedom has rather narrowly been defined as a woman's choice of carrying a baby to term. Yet logic suggests that those unwilling to carry a baby, or to father one, ought to avoid engaging in any activity that might make such a condition arise.
The only real "choice" that is meaningful as a measure of reproductive freedom is the decision to engage in, or abstain from, sexual activity leading to insemination. Once the sperm fertilizes the egg, all bets are off and the choices made. All that's left are the results of those decisions.
Feminists, wanting their sexual desserts but without the calories, refuse to accept that pregnancy is a consequence, not a choice.
However, if the law recognized that reproductive freedom is the freedom to engage in acts of insemination without the ability to abort the consequences of a resulting pregnancy, then the legal discrimination men suffer under current reproductive law would be erased. Both mother and father would share equal legal burden for the child they've created, and equilibrium under the law would be restored.
For too long, America has let gender feminists write the social agenda on reproductive rights. Predictably, men have suffered grave injustice at their hands.
Now, as a society, we're in a position to decide which is more important: equality before the law, or special privileges for females. Silence is not an option for any ethically-minded person concerned about basic human rights.
Whether we choose to extend the power to choose or prohibit abortion to men or ban the practice altogether, gender equality demands a change from the status quo.
It's time we recognized that both parents of a child have the same obligations and rights under the law. It's time we understood that choices have consequences. It's time we embraced truly equal rights between men and women. It's time we restored a just balance to our country's understanding and practice of legitimate reproductive freedom. End of Article
I happen to agree with this fellow. If you disagree, please direct your hate mail to the newspaper, not to me.
Sports
Last night I stayed up and watched the late night football game. The expansion Texans beat the Dallas Cowboys. Yippy for the underdog! In other football news, my old high school had it's first victory last week when the WLW Warriors defeated Wayne Memorial by a score of 56-18. Forward Mike York (formerly MSU) signed a three year deal with the Oilers (Edmonton, not Houston) yesterday.
-greg.

Tuesday September 10: Rain Day It rained today. It’s kind of funny.
I got up on time and made sure that I got breakfast today. I trotted over to Rood for my Calc class. Today was a step in the wrong direction. We’re supposed to learn new things in Calc, not review the refresher that we did the previous day. We don’t need to relearn something that we already know. I really would like to learn more math.
After class, I hiked over to the gym. I rode 4.32 miles on the stationary bike and did very little lifting (I have weak fragile arms). It only took me about half an hour. I came back to the room. I had gone to class, worked out and showered before Steve even woke up. Yeah, life isn’t fair.
While Steve went to class, I washed a load of laundry. Eventually, Steve returned from math class and I went to lunch with him. After lunch, Steve went to another class and I returned to the room. Eventually, Erin, Jenni, Jordan and Kelly came over to the room. When Steve got back, we watched "Monsters, Inc." It is a funny movie. I rather enjoyed it. It reminds me of Enron. Before the movie ended, Steve had to go to class again. He sure has a lot of classes. Maybe life is fair. The girls and I went to dinner at Biggy and then I went to my evening class.
Class was ok. I almost dozed off in the first fifteen minutes, but the class livened up before long. After class, I walked back to the room in the rain. It kind of stunk, but, at the same time, it was rather amusing. When I got back from class, I changed out of my rather wet clothes and decided to do nothing for the rest of the day. I read some and played some video games. That was about it.
Steve got mail today. I’ve been here two and a half weeks and have only gotten one letter. Maybe my constant begging for mail as irritated people. I’m going to have to try something other than pleading for mail. I’m sure that I’ll think of something.
I am sorry that I might have bothered anyone by my constant supplications for mail. Why did I so irritate people about sending me typed mail? I don’t comprehend my actions sometimes. All should work out well. I will probably slowly get a little mail as the weeks come and go!
Yep, I'm retarded.
The Dallas Stars are for sale. The ESPN article said that owner Tom Hicks is only willing to sell the team to a "hockey-loving, well-capitalized owner or ownership group with a commitment to winning." I love hockey. I like to win. If I start spelling my name GREGORY NICKEL, I'll be the ideal buyer (Well capitalized, if you missed it). I've got about $12.50 in cash on me right now. For a team that finished tenth in the conference last season and has an unproven starting goaltender, I think $12.50 is a generous offer.
Hockey
Gary Suter retired today. It’s kind of disappointing. He was good enough to play in all 82 games and for also TEAM USA last year. I can’t believe that teams didn't actively pursue him.
The Wings are already trying to re-sign Sergei Fedorov. I think it’s a smart move. I think Sergei is going to put up monster numbers this year. Even if Sergei doesn’t have the greatest year, we really need to sign him. I have to think that this will be Larianov’s last season. We still don’t know how Yzerman’s knee recovery is going to turn out. To lose three quality centers in the course of a year would be devastating. There is some promising young talent. Datsyuk has good skills, but it weak in the face-off circle. Zetterberg is supposed to be the next rookie sensation. However, Henrik has yet to play an NHL shift. Jason Williams and Sean Avery are nice, but neither is capable of being a superstar. Hopefully, we can get Sergei tied down to a nice long term deal.
-greg.

Wednesday September 11: Not just a normal day I began that day by celebrating September 11. You might think that celebrating is the wrong word. However, I disagree. Today is my mom’s birthday. I sent her a card in the mail earlier this week. I continued the celebration this morning by leaving a message on the answering machine and an e-mail in her inbox.
It was cold today. I don’t have class until nine today. I still woke up early but I stayed in bed for that entire extra hour just because it was too cold to get out from under my blanket. After I took the hottest shower ever, I put a hoody on and was set for the day.
After a flapjack breakfast, I walked over to my physics class. That class is going to be rather simple. Hopefully, I will learn enough entertaining tidbits about the environment to keep me interested. Otherwise, I’ll probably end up slacking off and failing.
After physics, I went to the library. I didn’t have any homework to do. The library is really boring when you are sitting there watching the dust collect on the books. So, after a five minute stay at the library, I went for a walk. I headed towards the Miller and walked by the fountain outside the theatre. I think that it is one of the prettiest spots here on campus. There is just something nifty about the big fountain. I walked around near to the hockey rink and passed the 7-Eleven and the University Bookstore. I came back to the campus and walked over to Biggy for lunch. I was supposed to meet a group of people there at eleven, but I was a bit early. I got a drink and some chips and watched the TV. As you probably guessed, there was 9/11 stuff on. It was hard to watch. It made me want to cry. Generally speaking, I’m a rather stoic person. I don’t get angry, sad or happy. I float through life mildly contented or rather melancholy. There were points when I just had to turn my head away from the screen, put my hands on my temples and regain my control. It was really weird. I’m never like this. I wasn’t even like this when I was watching the towers collapse on live TV. I think that now, after time, I understand, to some extent what was going on. When you see it on TV, it’s just a plane crashing into a building. The collision of two inanimate objects isn’t a tragedy. It’s not until you begin to think of all the people on the planes that it becomes something that is horrible and miserable and ugly and evil.
Eventually, people came to lunch. I ate some tacos with Steve, Kelly, Erin and Heather (Erin’s roommate). It was good fun. Eating with people is fun. Normally, I sit by myself at lunch on Mondays and Wednesdays and watch "The Price is Right". After talking and eating, I went to my literature class. Today’s class was brief, yet poignant.
Our teacher wore black. Originally, a reading quiz had been scheduled for today. However, the teacher decided that on a day such as today, he would not bother us with such a "trite" task. Then, he went on to give a lecture relating the short story we read "the Death of Ivan Ilych" to the deaths experienced in the terrorist attacks. He talked about a former student he had who was on the ninety-five floor of one of the towers.
It’s not how much you say, but it is what you say and if you mean it.
After class, I came back to the room. Steve went to a class and I sat on the bed to write. When I get frustrated, I like to write in cursive. For some reason, writing in squiggly letters puts me at ease. I didn’t get much writing done. In fact, I didn’t even get a word off. I started to doze soon after laying down. After a few minutes I got out of bed, locked the door and changed my away message. I was out quickly. When I awoke, I heard some noise at the door. Erin came to visit.
We hung out in the room for a bit before we decided to go on errands. I had to go to the bookstore to get a big envelope (By the way, I got my SECOND letter in three days. Thanks Megs. I feel special, although my self esteem is going to crash the moment that people stop sending me letters). Erin had to get a book, so she went with me. When we got to the campus bookstore, she found out that she had to go to the University Bookstore, which ironically enough is located off campus, to get her book. We hiked over there and then to the nearby 7-Eleven and got slurpees. Then, we hiked back to the room. Steve came back from class shortly thereafter and we went to dinner. After dinner, we came back to the room and talked with Erin as we played video games. We got "Jedi Knights 2: Jedi Outcast" from the neighbors. It’s a pretty sweet game, although it is wicked hard. The multiplayer is pretty cool, too. After two days, I’ve gotten to the point where I am competitive at the game (I just need to learn how to do the nifty force powers).
Yes, I know that I’m a big geek.
Eventually, I went to More at Midweek. That’s the youth group at the local parish (St. Thomas More Catholic Church). I’m not Catholic and I don’t intend to be switching over anytime soon. However, Steve, Erin, Kelly, and Heather are all Catholic. So, I go with them. There were about twenty people there. They had those sticky name tags that you have to wear. I wrote "Greg the Baptist" on mine. Father Ken, the priest, asked me if I was really Baptist or if I had just heard the joke at the Sunday service. He laughed and told me that he had grown up with many Baptist friends when he was a youngster. They had pizza and then there was a learning session. Steve, Erin, Kelly and Heather (From now on, I will abbreviate them as SHEK) took the last four seats at the table. There were two full tables set up on one side of the room and an empty table on the opposite side of the room. I told SHEK that I was going to sit at the "Baptist table".
This week, the priest is doing a lesson on the parts of Mass, so it was pretty deep. (I would guess that the regular weeks aren’t as deep or as long). The introduction to Mass and "Sunday in general" was given. They talked about a bunch of stuff that I didn’t know about. It was pretty interesting, for me. During part of the session, we had some small group discussion time. SHEK and I made up our small group. We had four discussion questions. The first one and the one that we disagreed and discussed the most about was question number one: "Does God need our love? Does Got want our worship? Is so, why?"
I answered the question "No, Yes" and then I went onto explain why. When the discussion began, I was the only person in my group who said no to the first one. God doesn’t need our love. He won’t be diminished or weakened if we don’t love Him. He desperately wants are love, but it is something that He could go on without. During the time, the priest came and sat with our group and would chip in with the hard questions often asked by teachers. After the discussion, I converted Steve to my position and got Kelly to the point where she would equivocate. The only thing better than being right is being right and having other people agree with you.
I was at the church until 10:40 (arrive around 8:30, but it didn't seem like two hours of time) and I now am much better educated on what Mass is like. Also, I had a good chance to discuss God stuff with people. I think that I like talking about God even more than talking about hockey. Amazing.
Afterwards, I came back to the room and worked on the journal entry.
What is so Greek about fraternities and sororities? They use three Greek letters as their name and they think they're Aristotle or some other famous Greek fellow.
This morning, I put all my mp3s into a WinAmp play list. Right now, I’ve got 28 hours worth of digital music.
Steve is turning into me. Last night, I taught him enough HTML to start a webpage.
A couple of you might have noticed that yesterday’s entry wasn’t posted until about 1:30 today. There are a couple reasons why that happened. I finished last night’s entry and was going to proofread it. However, I got kind of distracted as I taught Steve, amongst other things. It got late, I got tired. I got frustrated by something stupid that I did and I didn’t feel like proofreading. Up until today (Today was a 19 visit anomoly), webpage viewing had been down. I figured that not too many people would miss the update if I did it late.
I need to find a friend who thinks I’m stupid. It would be helpful. I’d love to able to talk to someone about some of the stupid things I do. At the same time however, I don’t want to shatter the image that my friends have of me. I’d hate to damage a person’s ability to grasp reality by destroying one of the fundamental premises that he or she had understood to be true.
Yeah, I’m kind of arrogant sometimes.
Quote of the day, from Monica’s profile: "You cannot make someone love you, you can only stalk them and hope they panic and give in." Ironic statement of the day: "I’m so smart, I’m a genus"
Good News: "The abdominal cancer that forced Montreal Canadiens captain Saku Koivu to miss most of last season is in remission."
-greg.

Thursday September 12: A day of rest Normally, I like to make each journal entry at least a page long. That is going to be tough today, as you will see.
I got up this morning. Again, it was rather chilly in the room. You would think that I would have learned to close the window by now. Regardless, it was rather chilly and I stayed under the warmth of my covers for longer than I should have. I didn’t have enough time to eat a full breakfast, so I just picked up a cup of coffee to go. For most of the walk to class, I used it as a hand-warmer. We are still reviewing in calculus. I look forward to the day when I will begin to learn. After calc class, I took my Thursday trip to the rec-center to work out.
Why do we punish ourselves? I don’t know.
I’ve never really worked out, ever. Today was the third time, ever, that I’ve gone to the gym. I’m still slowly learning how to use the equipment. Everyday, I work on the bikes. The last couple trips to the gym I’ve done twelve minute travels on the bike. Today, I decided that I would step up the work out. The next interval on the bike is eighteen minutes. On previous occasions, I have used the default difficulty setting. After two days of working on the bike, I finally learned enough to change the difficulty setting. Ignorance was bliss. I set the resistance on an "8" out of twelve. The bike almost killed me. I did 6.5 miles and burned 185 calories. That is a lot of work. One hundred and eighty calories is enough energy to lift one ton three feet off the ground. After working on the weights for a very brief time, I made the pilgrimage back to a cool shower and my warm bed. Deductive Reasoning class was somewhat interesting today. I was a bit sleepy, but I still managed to grasp the points of today’s lesson. After class, I came back to the room. I was on the computer for a bit before I walked back across campus to Hoki and then to the Miller with a large group of people whose names are too numerable to retell. We saw "Spiderman" for a buck. Peter Parker is my hero. It’s like "a song sung for underdogs, for all the left out, a flag flying for losers." Anyway, I liked the movie, but I am tired enough that I’m not going to take the time to describe how much I liked it.
That is it for today’s occurrences.
Books are better than the internet. Books don’t get disconnected. You can carry around a book in your pocket. You can read a book underneath a tree. Books are cheaper. Books become cooler with age.
Hockey
Milan Hnilicka-ATL, Eric Brewer-EDM and Radek Dvorak-NYR signed today. Stephane Fiset retired.
I’m tired.
-greg.

Saturday September 14: Home again I'm home for the weekend. I didn't update last night, so I will begin on Friday.
On Friday morning I got up and I went to class. We didn't do much in either class. We continued the seemingly never-ending process of reviewing in Calculus. In Physics we had a little lecture and a problem set to solve. After class, I returned to the room and packed for my coming home trip. I didn't do a whole lot on Friday. Much of the time was occupied by getting things ready and waiting for a phone call from home. I went to lunch and read some during the afternoon. Erin, Jenni and Kelly came and visited during the latter half of the afternoon. The five of us (Steve is the fifth person in case you were counting) went to dinner together. We met a guy named Chris at dinner and he seems like a nice fellow. After dinner, there was a little bit of hanging out in the room, watching TV, and reading from the IF-Book before my parents came by after nine to pick me up. I had to make two trips out to the car because I had so much stuff to bring with me.
I got to drive home. Driving at night on an unfamiliar route isn't something I usually like to do, however, since I hadn't driven in two weeks, I couldn't pass up to the chance to sit behind the steering wheel. In three weeks of living at school, I've ridden on the bus once. Every other time I've desired to go some place, I've either walked or decided that I didn't desire to go there all that much. I was driving kind of slow on the expressway, but it seemed fast in comparison with all my walking.
We got home around midnight. I was sleepy. Somehow, my internal clock changes when I'm at home from when I'm at school. At WMU, midnight isn't late. I got to sleep before twelve thirty. I slept for a quite a long time. I woke up once at 8:30 and another two times in between periods of dozing off. I didn't get out of bed until a few minutes after twelve. My dad was visiting my uncle and my mom had a church meeting, so no one was around the house until one or two in the afternoon. I made myself lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon reading for school, doing laundry and watching college football.
WMU almost beat Purdue. We lost by four, which is pretty impressive considering that Purdue is good and we are not very good. U-M lost to to Notre Dame because John Navarre sucks. On the final set of downs, he missed two passes to wide open receivers and then topped of the series by throwing an interceptions. I will admit that the interception wasn't Navarre's fault, but that doesn't make him suck any less. I sure miss Tom Brady and Brian Griese (and Drew Henson).
For dinner we had pizza. It is kind of ironic that I came "home" for the weekend, and didn't have any "home cooked" meals. That's kind of funny, now that I think about it.
In the evening I spent some time packing my freshly cleaned gear and studying issues and leaders for upcoming election. I think that I'm going to vote posthumously, I mean for Posthumus. He's pro-life and he's pretty good with the environment. Right now, those are two of my few political concerns. I don't have kids, so I don't care about education. I don't have a job, so I'm not very concerned about taxes. I don't have a car, so the roads can be crappy and that doesn't bother me. Crime isn't a problem because I live in the middle of nowhere during the weekends and during the week the DPS (WMU police) take good care of me.
Funny Site What do Republican's know about fun anyways?
Hey Andrea, you might like that link.
Sports
"He [Henrik Zetterberg] is definitely the biggest star that we have in Sweden -- that we had. I haven't seen anyone that big since Peter Forsberg when it comes to the national hockey. People expect a lot from him now. He really is that good." -said Suzanne Sjogren TV3 Sports reporter
Funny story: "The entire coaching staff of an Ottawa-area junior B hockey club was fired Friday, hours after the team president's son was cut during preseason tryouts."
During training camp, the Wings break up into four teams and play one another. Just to like you know, the "A" team isn't the best. The letters are just there to put the teams in sequence.
TEAM A
Paul Ballantyne-D, Ryan Barnes-LW, Darryl Bootland-RW, Brush-?, Ed Campbell-D, Matt Ellis-C, Fedorov, Fischer, Tomas Fleischmann-C, Marc Lamothe-G, McCarty, Derek Meech-D, Mark Mowers-C, Pannoni-?, Michel Picard-LW, Senez-? and Shanahan
TEAM B
Bryan Adams-LW, Avery, Baumgartner-?, Pierre-Olivier Beaulieu-D, Chelios, Rob Collins-C, Datsyuk, Devereaux, Hope-?, Hull, Legace, Drew MacIntyre-G, Dave Van Drunen-D, Van Leusen-?, Tim Verbeek-C, Wallin and Ward-?
TEAM C
Allen-?, Bell-?, James Cuddihy-C, Dandenault, Draper, Nick Greenough-LW, Danny Groulx-D, Kuznetsov, Larionov, Larose-?, Joey MacDonald-G, Parillo-?, Travis Richards-D, Robitaille, Roest and Tim Skaperud-W
TEAM D
Pat Boileau-D, Hugo Boisvert-LW, Sheldon Brookbank-D, Brown, Holmstrom, Hubbauer-?, Jerant-?, Joseph, Kink-?, Kiser-?, Logan Koopmans-G,Tomas Kopecky-C, Lidstrom, Maltby, Robinson-?, Williams and Zetterberg
Key: NHLer/Red Wings AHL/Grand Rapids Griffins Drafted 2002
I tried to find out as much as I could, but information on some of these players is hard to find. The Wings have a new minor league affiliate, so I think a lot of the guys will probably end up filling up Grand Rapid's roster.
Ladislav Kohn, who served as a depth player last year, was traded to the Calgary Flames. Kohn has some pretty good skills. Calgary doesn't have many good forwards other than that Iginla fellow, so Kohn should end up on the NHL roster. Jiri Slegr signed with the HC Chemopetrol Litvinov of the Czech Extraleague. It looks like we won't have him on the Wing's blueline. I still think it would be nice if we signed Steve Duchesne, but I don't think it's going to happen. We might end up with a "veteran" rookie. Dmitri Bykov is supposed to be a good defenseman. He's 25, which is kind of old for an NHL rookie. He's been playing in the top Russian league since he was a teenage, so he should be prepared to step up and play a role as a sixth or seventh defenseman in the NHL. The only problem is that he is stuck in Russia right now due to immigration problems. The paper says that he will be here in time for the exhibition season.
NFL Picks Last week, no one picked the Lions to beat the Dolphins. This week, one of ESPN's analysts went out on a limb and picked the Lions over Carolina.
-greg.

Sunday September 15: The Matrix I got up this morning and I went to church. The worship service was a little sparse, but not too bad. The choir has returned, so that is nice. I like choir music (yeah, I’m strange). Matt Godfrey joined the choir, at least for a temporary basis. I think he is the only person in the church choir who isn’t a grandparent. Today’s sermon was on turning our lifestyle over to the God. It was a bit vague. "Lifestyle" is a little word for "everything that you do any time with anyone." There were many tidbits that I picked up from the sermon. We don’t have to act in the same manor as everyone else to serve God. It’s kind of something that I’ve always known, but is always worth restating. In the body of Christ there are many parts, even though there is only one body.
After worship school we had a full Sunday school. The group consisted, Megan, MLE Smith, Matt Godfrey and a series of random youth. I felt like an old man.
After church, we went shopping. We stopped at Sam’s Club and GFS in search of a case of IBC Root Beer. Neither had it, although Sam’s did have my favorite barrel of pretzels. We stopped at grandma and picked up some pizzas that my mom ordered. We stopped at Meijer and picked up clothing washing items. We stopped in Mason and picked up lunch at Burger King. Before long, we were at Kalamazoo. It was a rather long drive. It went two weeks without driving. Then, in less than 48 hours, I drove two, two-and-a-half hour cross-state treks. That’s pretty crazy. I unpacked my items when I got to school and said goodbye to mom and dad. During the evening, I took a little bit of a nap and watched some football. I really like football. Sure, it isn’t hockey, but it will keep me satisfied until the NHL season starts three weeks from now. Steve went to Mass and I tried to make a phone call and nap, but neither work. In the later evening, Erin, Kelly, Steve and I watched "the Matrix". (Special thanks to JN for leaving the video at home). That was about it for today.
Over the course of the day, I talked with Erin, Kelly, Megs, Miriam, and Aunt Gayle on instant messenger today. Now, if only Cassie and Mel had been on it would have been the perfect day.
Note to self: Send e-mails out tomorrow. (HS, CC, G-Ma, etc)
Note to self: Send mail out tomorrow. (CMJ, I think that is all)
Note to self: Go to sleep.
Now.
(FYI: The GQ Sports News is usually prewritten during the afternoon)
Sports
Quote of the day: "It's still too early to judge just how bad the Lions might be or if Carolina is actually any good."
Florida Panthers Kristian Huselius collided with Byron Ritchie in a scrimmage on Friday. Huselius is going to be out for a month. Ritchie is fine. That’s funny. Ritchie scored five goals last season and is ok. Huselius scored twenty three goals. That’s unlucky.
The Sporting News did a feature on each team’s top line. They ranked the each teams' top line in comparison with the other teams in their division (See the last column on the table). I broke the teams up into the two conferences and then put them in order from best to worst, in my opinion. There are a couple things with which I disagree. I think that Mark Parrish is going to play on the Isle’s top line. Also, Daniel Alfredsson-OTT is much better than Marian Hossa. Renberg and Hoglund shouldn't be on Toronto's top line. Sami is better than Eric on Carolina's line. As of last season, Brad Ricahrds was still better than Vinny (although Lecavalier could be the best player in the league if he wanted to be).
EAST:

Team	LW	C	RW	DivRank
Bruins	Sergei Samsonov	Joe Thornton	Glen Murray	NE-1
Rangers	Martin Rucinsky	Eric Lindros	Pavel Bure	ATL-1
Penguins	Mario Lemieux	Jan Hrdina	Alexei Kovalev	ATL-3
Flyers	Simon Gagne	Jeremy Roenick	Justin Williams	ATL-2
Capitals	Dainius Zubrus	Robert Lang	Jaromir Jagr	SE-1
Thrashers	Dany Heatley	Slava Kozlov	Ilya Kovalchuk	SE-3
Hurricanes	Erik Cole	Ron Francis	Jeff O'Neill	SE-2
Isles	Oleg Kvasha	Alexei Yashin	Trent Hunter	ATL-4
Devils	Patrik Elias	Joe Nieuwendyk	Jamie Langenbrunner	ATL-5
Senators	Petr Schastlivy	Radek Bonk	Marian Hossa	NE-3
Leafs	Jonas Hoglund	Mats Sundin	Mikael Renberg	NE-2
Panthers	Kristian Huselius	Viktor Kozlov	Valeri Bure	SE-5
Canadiens	Donald Audette	Saku Koivu	Richard Zednik	NE-4
Lightning	Fredrik Modin	Vincent Lecavalier	Shane Willis	SE-4
Sabres	Miroslav Satan	Chris Gratton	J.P. Dumont	NE-5

WEST:
6

Team	LW	C	RW	DivRank
Canucks	Markus Naslund	Brendan Morrison	Todd Bertuzzi	NW-1
Stars	Jason Arnott	Mike Modano	Bill Guerin	PAC-1
Red Wings	Brendan Shanahan	Sergei Fedorov	Darren McCarty	CEN-2
Kings	Adam Deadmarsh	Jason Allison	Ziggy Palffy	PAC-2
Ducks	Paul Kariya	Adam Oates	Petr Sykora	PAC-3
Avalanche	Alex Tanguay	Joe Sakic	Milan Hejduk	NW-2
Blues	Keith Tkachuk	Pavol Demitra	Scott Mellanby	CEN-1
Flames	Dean McAmmond	Craig Conroy	Jarome Iginla	NW-3
Oilers	Ryan Smyth	Mike Comrie	Anson Carter	NW-4
Coyotes	Ladislav Nagy	Daymond Langkow	Tony Amonte	PAC-4
Sharks	Marco Sturm	Vincent Damphousse	Owen Nolan	PAC-5
Wild	Andrew Brunette	Cliff Ronning	Marian Gaborik	NW-5
Blackhawks	Eric Daze	Michael Nylander	Steve Sullivan	CEN-3
Blue Jackets	Geoff Sanderson	Andrew Cassels	Espen Knutsen	CEN-4
Nashville	Martin Erat	Denis Arkipov	Vladimir Orszagh	CEN-5

-greg.

Monday September 16: A case of the Mondays Today was an ok day. Nothing bad happened, but it seemed to be slightly unpleasant for no apparent reason.
I got up at my normal time, which is a little later than it should be. I took a long hot shower and then picked up coffee and orange juice for breakfast. I had the coffee to keep me from getting cold on the way to class and the OJ to keep me from getting a cold. In calc class we learned about cylindrical shells. That’s something that I already know. It’s no more difficult to understand than a roll of paper towel. While the professor explained shells, I did the day's homework assignment. In physics we had a fairly simple quiz. After class I took a quick walk over to the library. The library was kind of creepy today, so I went to find another place to spend my time.
I ended up in the Biggy Café. I worked out all of my physics homework and worked on acquiring a bowl ("acquiring" sounds much better than the "s" word). I was supposed to meet Kelly and Erin for lunch at eleven. It was about ten after when I finished all my work and packed up. I figured that plans had changed, so I went up and got my tray and some pizza and I was content to eat with myself. As I was coming back to my chair, I saw that Erin and Kelly were sitting two or three tables away from where I had been studying. I ate with them for the second half of their lunch. After eating, I headed to my literature class. I learned an important thing about college. The teachers think that you are going to read the syllabus. We were supposed to have read a story by today, but I missed out on when the assignment was given. We had a quiz on the last week's Tolstoy story. The quiz exhausted most of the time, so I didn’t miss much of the explanation during the abbreviated lecture.
During the afternoon I caught up on my literature homework. It was a long process. The story was nearly fifty pages. I finished all but the concluding two pages of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". An unintentional nap occured during my reading. Also, I took one deliberate pause in the reading. During my conscious break, I talked online for a little. Today was a very good day for conversations. I talked with Chris and Gary during my break. Sometimes, talking online with people sucks. You’ve been involved with those times of conversations (e.g. "Hey / Hi / How are you? / Pretty good, u? / fine / So yeah. . . / definitely /" etc.) Today I actually talked about things. When I was done chatting, I decided that I would grab an ice cream bar from the café and return to the room to study. When I got down there, the food smelled good, so I ate my first dinner. I returned and read until Steve came back.
Eventually we went to second dinner. Afterward, Steve went to campus to hang out with the girls. I came back to the room and wrote a half dozens pieces of correspondence. I talked with Melissa tonight. She made me feel happy. It was strange. I guess that there are just some friends with whom we have a special connection. I went to Bible Study in the later evening. We spent an hour of time talking about the first part of Ephesians (1:1-14) and then had some prayer time. After "church", I went to main campus to find Steve, Erin, Kelly and Jenni. There are rules on campus. You’re supposed to be escorted whenever you go into someone else’s dorm. I hung around the doors to Henry (that’s the name of the building) until group of guys came by. I mixed with there group to get through the locked doors and around the check-in person at the front desk. When I got to Kelly’s room, she was the only one left. Everyone else had returned to their living quarters. I talked with her some and I talked to random people on her buddy list. It was good fun. After spending some time there, I returned to the room.
That was about it for the day.
I talked online less than normal today, but had better conversations. I chatted with so many people that I’m not going to list them by name. I would forget people and that would be mean.
Gary is playing in an amateur hockey league. In his first game, he got an assists and was in a fight. He was one goal short of the Gordie-Howe-Hatrick.
"The Russian Rocket" (Pavel Bure), "the Bulin Wall" (Nicolai Khabibulin), "The Finnish Flash" (Teemu Selanne), "The Little Ball of Hate" (Pat Verbeek), "The Dominator" (Hasek), "The Great One", etc. All cool hockey players have cool nick names. We need to come up with a nick name for Gary. Right now, I’ve only been able to come up with two. The first one that came to mind was "The Fighting Frenchman". The second one isn’t as cool; it is just "Gary Gig-GRRRRRRRRRR"
The Western Herald: WMU should toughen admission standards
Jason Gillikin September 16, 2002
Mark Goldblatt, a professor in the SUNY system, wrote an essay three years ago for the "New York Post" that was recently reposted to "National Review Online." In it, he argued that today's college students don't know what they should know; worse, they assume they know much more than they actually do know. The phenomenon is hardly limited to college students from New York, of course. This columnist has sat through courses at Western Michigan University in which other students couldn't solve the Pythagorean Theorem, correctly identify the time period of the Korean conflict, explain the difference between nouns and verbs, name the capital of Russia or explain who Aristotle was. Really.
To top things off, these are usually the same students, victims of dumbed-down but warm-hearted pre-college curricula, who are the most confident in their intellectual abilities. In a learning environment where effort is more important than achievement and compassion trumps knowledge, it's no wonder that the products of contemporary public schools are increasingly arrogant for less and less good reason. At least they've mastered the fine art of sharing their feelings in a welcoming, nonjudgmental way.
As Goldblatt puts it: "After years of psychotherapy disguised as pedagogy, ignorance is now buoyed by self-esteem -- which, in turn, makes students more resistant to remediation since they don't believe there's a problem."
This state of affairs might be tolerable in the abstract but for the pernicious belief that every opinion counts, because the intellectually under-equipped lack the modesty to avoid voicing opinions on subjects outside their competence.
For that matter, many fail to apprehend the distinction between opinion and preference. An opinion is a judgment based on facts or the conclusion to an explicit or implied argument, whereas a preference is a mere statement of likes or desires. Opinion: "Because Saddam is building nuclear weapons, I think America should promote regime change in Iraq."
Preference: "I like cheese."
Preferences are never right or wrong, they merely are. Opinions, however, can be valid or invalid, depending on the underlying reasoning process and the accuracy of supporting facts. And even valid opinions can be rank-ordered; the grotesque non sequitur, "I'm entitled to my opinion," ought to entitle everyone within earshot to perform acts of violence against the speaker until he repents or is rendered unconscious.
In Goldblatt's more soothing prose: "I am saddened, therefore, to report that more and more of them [students] are arriving in my classes with the impression that their opinions, regardless of their acquaintance with a particular subject, are instantly valid -- indeed, as valid as anyone’s. Pertinent knowledge, to them, is not required to render judgment."
Of course, complaining about the present circumstances provides no amelioration to the oblivious suffering of the masses. What, then, is to be done? Well, at WMU, the entire campus community could impress upon our new provost, Daniel Litynski, the need to substantially increase admission standards. If WMU is serious about being a respected student-centered research university, then elementary logic suggests the institution must not admit students who are unable to excel at research and scholarly study.
I deleted a paragraph that I thought was unnecessary. The author began to suggest possible ACT and GPA scores that should be necessary for acceptance. Based on Mr. Gillikin’s premise, ACT scores and GPA rankings are the most viable means of judging someone’s intellect. There is a 98% chance that I scored better on my ACT and had a higher GPA than the author, so I believe that I have the right to edit his work. We all know that the only thing the ACT tests is someone's ability to take tests. It’s foolish to suggest that concrete score requirements should be used as discriminator in the admission process.
Some will undoubtedly argue that WMU has a historic commitment to first-generation college students regardless of their academic merit. Admit borderline students, provide them with remediation and they'll be successful, the theory goes.
Perhaps. But at what cost? Research and remediation seem like mutually exclusive endeavors, and the useless abomination replacing Oakland Gym notwithstanding, WMU is hardly rolling in dough. A university cannot achieve excellence by being a jack of all trades but a master of none.
We are approaching the much-anticipated centennial celebration. Without doubt, we have plenty of reasons to be proud of WMU, but we also have one tremendous obstacle, greater than any other challenge facing the university, that must be overcome with speed and prudence -- the problem of poorly prepared, underachieving students.
It is breathtakingly tragic that a student can be awarded a diploma from the WMU board of trustees without ever having taken a course on literature, or ancient philosophy, or Latin, or physics, or music, or world history -- a defect of substandard general education requirements.
No student should pass beyond WMU's hallowed (even if decaying) halls without having written a significant persuasive paper or conducted some sort of original research. None of these laudable goals are easily obtained, however, if inferior students continue to be admitted.
Why? Goldblatt explains it best: "They [the students] have been robbed of their entrée into serious cultural debate. Robbed even of the realization that they are stuck on the outside looking in. They are doomed to an intellectual life of cynicism without ever passing through knowingness, a life in which they grasp at platitudes to resolve momentary disagreements and do not possess the analytical wherewithal to pursue underlying issues."
We owe it to ourselves and our successors to reverse the decline into mediocrity that has befallen WMU, and the best place to start is with a more stringent admissions process. Let's make sure WMU's legacy for its second century is unabashedly intellectual.
Another quote from the paper.
"There are not that many available men to date at Western Michigan University," said Meghan Maka, freshman majoring in Elementary Education.
In response, I say that I am available. "My name is Greg; I am a SWM, looking for a SWF. She needs to know how to cook and give backrubs. She has to be someone that is going to prayer for me and forgive me at least twice a day. If I don't think she's the most beautiful girl I know, then I don't love her and I'm not interested."
-greg.

Tuesday September 17: Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting That is a rather amusing song. It is definitely quality entertainment.
Today was a rather uneventful day. I spent much of my day sleeping and eating. It is hard for me to believe that the stuff that happened this morning was still part of today. It was rather chilly this morning. I really should start closing the window at night. It might make it easier to get up in the morning. It’s so easy for me to hide under the soothing warm of my fuzzy blanket. Eventually, I got up and went down to the food area. I picked up a big cup of OJ to go. I went to calc class and we learned about nothing new. Afterwards I went to the gym and worked out. Today was a bit weird. Normally, I feel like I’m going to die on my way back from the rec-center. Today, I was a bit fatigued, but not near death. I did an extra quarter mile on the bike and I did a lot of work on the machines.
After working out I came and took a shower. A bit later, I went to lunch with Steve. Steve went to class and I returned to the room. I worked to make the room less dirty. I can’t say that I "cleaned" the room because, no matter how much effort I exert, this place will never be clean. It will only be "less dirty". Afterwards, I spent about half an hour on the computer. During the afternoon, I napped a lot. Around two I went down to the café and got some ice cream. From about two thirty to five I napped. That is one wicked-long nap. At five, I got up and I ate first dinner before I headed off to logic class. After class, I met the group up at the Biggy café to get dinner. Second dinner was good. Following the food, folks and fun, Steve and I came back to the room.
We watched "Beverly Hills Ninja". That movie isn’t Chris Farley’s best, but it is still worth watching. Following the movie, I went to RealUltimatePower.net. It’s a site about how cool ninjas are.
Dude, I wish I were a ninja. Ninjas rock.
Are you looking for a Christmas gift for GQ? Why not get him some ninja gear. If you got me a ninja hooded sweatshirt, I could put my nunchakus in the front pocket.
In case you are wondering, I really do own a set of nunchakus. They rock my word.
Funny quote of the day: "Let's sell your house so we can buy [Red Wing’s] season tickets for the next 5 years."
Hockey
Jarome Iginla got a fat pay raise this season. After he signed a two-year $13 million contract, he bought everyone on his team and all the coaching staff an expensive watch with the words "Thanks for your support, Iggy" on the back.

Henrik Zetterberg: He is cooler than a bus-load of ninjas
Want to see a beautiful picture? The Wings at training camp. It almost brings a tear to my eye. There is less than a month until the start of the NHL/FHL season. I don’t know how I am going to sleep until then. Can you imagine Zetterberg skating around center ice? How about Pavel Bure and Eric Lindros spending 82 games together on the same line? That is going to be beautiful.
Today’s Hockey History Lesson:
"The Summit Series was the first time that Canadian pros played internationally. Thirteen players, plus coach Harry Sinden, would go on to the Hall of Fame. Phil Esposito, Bob Clarke and Stan Mikita would be named league MVP a total of seven times. Esposito and Mikita would total nine scoring titles, and Tony Esposito and Ken Dryden would have eight Vezina trophies (top goaltender) between them" 1972 Summit Series
The Summit Series was something that I’ve heard about. Now, I kind of know about it. We have all just become smarter for reading that paragraph.
-greg.

Wednesday September 18: Almost the weekend For me, Wednesday is really close to being the weekend. Right now, I only have to go to class four more times for the week. After 10am on Friday, I’m done.
I got up around eight this morning. I washed up and went down and eat breakfast. Today, I mixed apple juice and grape juice to form a super-powerful breakfast beverage called "grapple juice." Today was a bit weird. It was the first day that I’ve had breakfast since, well, since last Wednesday.
The Gideons were on campus today. I saw four of them on my way to class. They were standing outside with umbrellas passing out their trademark green KJV-versions of the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. It was uplifting to see fellow Christians working the mission field and some people responding well. On the other hand, there are few things more deflating than seeing a person toss one of the "Good Books" into a trash can. It angered me on so many levels. First and foremost, there is the spiritual ire that the action brought about. The Gideon Bibles are pretty small, but it’s not like a person could read the whole thing and been done with it by the time he or she got to the trash can. I you don’t want to read the book then don’t take one. At least respect the free will of others. What happens if there is someone who wanted a copy of the Bible and the Gideons ran out? One person’s wastefulness has cost another person that ability to read, understand, and make a decision based one his or her free will. Secondly, there is the intellectual frustration. Even if you don’t believe in the Bible, it’s still good literature. Authors make more references to the characters, events and saying from the Bible than from any other collection of writings. Finally, why did the bum have to waste the paper? Think about the trees! (If you are one of the spiritually depraved, selfish, culturally ignorant, tree-killing Bible disposers, I’ve got two words for you: "YOU SUCK")
Anyway, let me get away from the ranting and back to the story telling.
I only had physics class this morning. Our professor said if more efficient furnace, it will require less fuel and cost us less money to run. I have a thought on this subject. I want to have the most inefficient furnace out there. Let me explain. If I burn more heating fuel I will produce more greenhouse gasses. As my furnace pumps more CO₂ into the atmosphere, the earth’s temperature will slowly rise (It’s called "Global Warming" or the "Green House Effect"). Eventually, my furnace will pump enough gas into the atmosphere that the outdoor temperature will be sufficiently warm that I don’t need to have a furnace at all. Once I get to that point, I will be saving tons of money because I won’t have pay for heating fuel at all.
(I wonder if I’ve done enough in this entry to confuse people about my environmental beliefs.)
After physics class I went to Biggy Café. I did homework for about an hour until the lunch crew began to arrive for our schedule 11am lunchtime. Lunch was fun. When Kelly got up to go get something for dessert, I poured a bunch of salt into her iced tea. So, I was sitting there waiting for her to take a sip out of it. She left the full glass of salted-iced tea alone and started drinking from the glass of Orange-stuff she had. When she got up again, I poured salt into the other glass. The practice joke didn’t work. She sat down and chatted for a few minutes, and didn’t take another sip from either of her glasses. Argh. My amusing plan was foiled.
After lunch I went to my lit class. It was kind of interesting but I still dozed off during the course of the lecture. After the lecture, I came back to class. I showed a little bit of self-control this afternoon. I was really hungry when I got back from class. I was going to go get ice cream. Instead, I made the healthy choice and had watermelon and pineapple instead of ice cream. After my snack, I came back up to the room. I read, watched TV, talked online, had Erin visit, worked on the journal entry, and listened to music during the afternoon. I got to talk with Cassie some, so that was nice. Gary and I chatted about hockey. Monica, Erik, and I talked a little bit about birthdays. I told Neville he wasn’t going to fail his chem test. It was a good day of conversations.
The other day, I was reading a "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and I came across some words that I didn’t readily recognize. Since I have a rather limited vocabulary, I decided that I would look up the words and thereby expand my lexicon. I can’t effectively use a word in my journal entry unless the readers know the meaning of the word. So, in the interest of making my friends and fans smarter, here are some words for you to learn.
tarry: to delay or wait
Michaelmas: September 29
dint: stroke, force, or dent
decorous: marked by propriety and good taste
solace: a source of relief or consolation
blithe: of a happy lighthearted character or disposition
mirth: gladness or gaiety as shown by or accompanied with laughter
panoply: something forming a protective covering
paragon: a model of excellence or perfection, paradigm
comely: having a pleasing appearance : not homely or plain
coy: marked by cute, coquettish, or artful playfulness
(Special thanks to Merriam-Webster

He said, "Why should I tarry?"
And smiled with tranquil eye.
"In destinies sad or merry
True men can but try"

From, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Ron Howard was the director of "A Beautiful Mind". That gives me yet another reason to love that movie.
I saw a commercial on television during lunch today. People who took Fen-Phen can call 1-866-LAW-9700 for information about the legal settlement. If someone is suffering from symptoms of "chest pain, fatigue, or memory loss" after taking the drug, he or she might be entitled to some of the settlement money. (Question: If you are suffering from "memory loss", how are you supposed to remember to call an eleven digit phone number?)
A good site to visit: Famous Birthdays My good friend Mr. T was born on my birthday. It's funny though. The site doesn't have Jesus’ birthday listed on Christmas.
More Mr. T. Mirth
Today’s Fun fact: Over the past year, I have sent 442 e-mails (1.21096 per day). If I had sent out real letters, it would have cost me $163.54 just in stamps.
Amusing Pirate Jokes:
Did you see the new pirate movie this weekend? (It’s rated ARRRRR)
What is a pirate’s favorite fast food restaurant? (It’s ARRRRR-by’s)
What do you call a pirate who likes fire? (An ARRRR-sonist)
A pirate walks into a bar with a squirrel hanging from his pants. The bartender asks, "What’s with the squirrel?" The pirate replies, "He’s driving me nuts."
I love pirate jokes. Pirate jokes are almost as cool as ninjas or Henrik Zetterberg.

During one of the three times that I checked my mailbox today, (SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: Send Greg Mail) I came across this poster. It’s kind of tricky and I’m not sure if I like it. In big letters it talks about dating. Then, in the small print at the bottom, it has the sponsor. This is kind of sneaky, if you ask me.

IF(s) of the day: "If God were to appear before you in any form, what form would you want Him to take?"
The burning bush and a column for fire and smoke were cool. However, I think that I have an even better idea. I would want God to appear as color which I have never seen before. I’m not too concerned with the shape. He could manifest himself as a talking umbrella or giant asparagus plant. I’d want to see a color that no human has ever scene before. I’m talking about something different than red, blue, yellow (green) or any combination of the three. That would be sweet.
"If you had to name the hardest position to play in sports, what would you say it is?"
Without a doubt, it has to be a hockey goaltender. First off goalies have all the pressure on them. The quarterback can always say that the wide receiver dropped the pass or ran the wrong route. Goalies can’t make excuses like that. Even if they are being screened, it’s the goalie’s job to find a way to see around the screen. Baseball pitchers and soccer goalies have the same type of individual pressure on them. However, baseball players aren’t athletes. For the most part, baseball players are fat overpaid people who were too wimpy to play football (Drew Henson, ahem). Pitchers don’t even have to move. They just stand on the mound and throw. Soccer goalies have a similar pressure and required athletic ability as hockey goalies. However, since I could care less about soccer, I’m going to say that hockey goalies have it harder. The hardest places in the NHL to player goalie are probably Montreal, Toronto and Detroit. Also, there is Philadelphia, where they have a new starting goalie very year.
"If you could rename any sports team, which would you pick, and what would you rename it?"
The Minnesota Wild. I would call them the North Stars, Lumberjacks, Semi-Canucks, or any other name that isn’t the Wild.
"If you could set the national speed limit for all highways, what would it be?"
I would set the speed limit at 80. I kind of suck at driving, and I can drive 80 and still be safe.
"If you could set the guidelines for gun control, what would they be?"
(I am prepared to get hate mail from Chris Christensen, among others) There would be a farewell to hand-guns. What good are hand guns? They only purposes I can think of for hand guns are sticking up 7-11’s and shooting people. Rifles are cool for hunting. If someone wants to have a gun for protection, they should get a shotgun. Really, if some criminal broke into your house, which is going to scare them more: a six-shooter pistol or a 12-gauge? Cops and historical collectors are the only people who should have hand guns.
-greg.

Thursday September 19: Random Items Today was marked by a series of random events that do not fit nicely under one cute title.
I got up this morning and headed down to breakfast. I had some scrambled eggs, sausage and "super grapple" juice. I’m trying to make the ideal morning drink. Today, I mixed one part Coca-Cola Classic (caffeine) with one part apple juice and one grape juice. It was good stuff. I’m going to try tomorrow and see if I can make it better. Maybe I will try Cherry Coke for some added fruit flavor.
I went to calc class and I pretended to learn. Tomorrow, we get to do integration by parts. That will be useful. I kind of forgot how to do some of that. Finally, I will get to learn!
After calc I went down to the gym. I rode six and a half miles up the hill and then worked on the weight machines. Today, I felt the burn. I was sore and felt really crappy after I was done working out. I took a shower and kind of sat around for the rest of the morning. I read a chapter from my philosophy and took a brief nap in between two of the pages. I ate a really late lunch. Around two, I went over to main campus and met with Erin and Kelly. We were going to go to Kalamazoo.
On the way over, it rained. I need to invent a new word that means RAIN! I had to walk through rivers on my way over to the other hall. My feet and pant legs were soaked. I’m lucky that I had that umbrella from the Metro. It kept the top half of me from being drenched. As I was rushing across campus, I passed a girl without an umbrella. For a brief period of time, I considered offering her the umbrella. However, by the time that I decided that it would be a good idea, I was really far away and she was probably to her dorm. Maybe I will get the chance to be a gentleman on some other day.
Kelly, Erin and I got onto the bus and went into downtown (Eventually it did stop raining). We went and found the train station. Kelly, Jenni, Steve and (I think) Erin are shipping out via the Amtrak station this weekend. Later, we went to the mall.
I learned about some important rules about the mall. First and foremost, you shouldn’t take pictures at the mall. The security guards don’t like that. Apparently, it is one of the rules that I never learned about. Oh yeah, and they don’t like it when you run up the down-escalator.
Anyway, let’s quickly progress to the rest of the day. The bus ride back was incredibly long. It takes forever when you have to ride on a big dumb bus that stops every 100 feet to pick up someone. Now I understand why no one in America uses mass transportation (Because it sucks!). I got back to campus with enough time to shove some pizza down my throat and rush off to my philosophy class. Class was a bit uneventful. We took notes. That’s pretty much all that we do in that class. Sure, it’s interesting, sometimes, but it doesn’t give me much to write about. After class, I ate second dinner and I returned to the room.
When I got back, Steve was gone. I’m not sure exactly where he went, but I wasn't really concerned. He had stopped by and dropped off the mail while I was gone. I got more mail! Any day on which I get mail is automatically a bright, shiny, happy day (Special thanks to Melissa for bring sunshine on this day).
Later in the evening, Steve returned and Erin and Kelly came and visited. We had movie night tonight. We watched "Jurassic Park" on the small screen. I remember when I used to think that JP was an awesome movie. Sure, it’s good and all, but it’s not like it’s the best movie that has ever been produced.
After movie time, I updated.
Chou stopped by today and visited with Steve while I was in Kzoo. I feel gypped. It would have been cool to hang out with Chou (Although getting yelled at by the Crossroads Mall’s Robocop was kind of fun).
Sports
The hockey season has started, unofficially. The NHL exhibition season started tonight. YIPPY!
Hockey Sadness
Bits and Pieces from Freep story
So, now it's Mike McMahon's fault. . .
When all else fails, change the quarterback. That has been the Lions' strategy for 40 years in its perennial attempt to mine a tiny grain of hope from an otherwise hopeless predicament. Change the quarterback, and, miraculously, a slow-footed defense gains speed and the aged suddenly turn youthful. Change the quarterback, and, magically, all the other ailments are cured. . .
Marty Mornhinweg now has had twice as many starting quarterbacks (four) as career victories (two).
Harrington improves the Lions' chances of winning only if he can catch the passes that he throws or if he rushes the opposing team's quarterback. . .
This was the equivalent of waving the white flag. The Lions have conceded the season after just two games, acknowledging positional deficiencies so great that matching last season's two-victory total might prove challenging. This franchise possesses only two viable assets, too fresh to be tarnished by an inglorious past -- a new stadium and a new quarterback -- so they will showcase them simultaneously against Green Bay on Sunday. . .
Starting Harrington temporarily cools the public heat on Ford because, as pathetic as the team as a whole looks, everyone will fixate on Harrington. And in the gullible fans' minds, he'll do no wrong Sunday, even if he occasionally throws to the wrong receiver. End of Freep Story
DetNews Poll: Who would you start at QB for the Lions?
McMahon 73%
Harrington 26%
-greg.

Friday September 20: A Day in the Rain Today has been gray rainy day.
I’m not exactly sure how today started. Let me explain.
I got up at 6:23 this morning and saw that my alarm wasn’t set. So, I flipped the "on" switch and rolled over to go back to sleep. The thing is, my alarm never went off. So far, I’ve come up with three possibilities. First of all, I could have, in my semi-conscious state, flipped the alarm off when I got up at 6:23. I could have slept through my alarm’s buzzer. Finally, there is the possibility that I was dreaming when I turned on the alarm clock. Regardless of what happened, I got up after 7:30 and rushed down to breakfast. While Coke mixes well with apple and grape juice, Cherry Coke does not mix well with the fruit juices. I drank my breakfast as I walked to my calc class.
In calc we did a very rudimentary introduction into integration by parts (Wow, that’s a lot of int’s). In physics class we had a brief lecture and we had a couple problems to do. After class, I came back to the room. After talking to Steve for a spell, I went to sleep. I stayed in bed until about 1:15. By then, Steve had returned from class and I was hungry enough to go to lunch.
After lunch, I kind of sat around. It was raining and Steve was busy getting ready to go home for the weekend. By then, Kelly and Jenni had already left. The afternoon passed by rather uneventfully. I didn’t get any mail today, but I wasn’t expecting any. I know that I’ve got a three or fours letters that will be here in the next week or two.
For dinner, I walked through the sprinkles to the Biggy café and had supper with Erin. Afterwards, I returned to the room and had the music drown out the dripping of rain drops on the window.
That has been it for today. I don’t plan on doing anything else tonight.
On Thursday, when I was at the gym, I heard a new song that like. It is "In a little While" by Uncle Kracker. The song has good lyrics and I’m a sucker for "love" songs.
There is about sixty more days until "The Two Towers" comes out.

I wasn’t a big fan of the Lord of the Rings thing until I saw how awesome the movie was. I’m not sure I should go buy the books or if I should wait until Christmas to get the books.

Caption: This is a picture of part of the WMU Group. From L to R: GQ, Kelly, Erin, Jenni, Steve. I’m not sure why we decided to take a group picture on Steve’s loft. It was rather tricky taking the picture. I had to prop up my camera on a couple Altoid tins to get the angle right. Then, I had to set the timer and run over to the bed. It would have been much easier to take a group picture on the couch. It took a couple times to get the picture right. The first time I hit my head on the ceiling when I was climbing into the loft.
Hockey
Allsports.com: "Bought Cups"
"The statement "Bought the Cup" was started by envious or jealous fans in order to make their teams failures seem glorified, since their teams have failed but they did it with less money than it took the winning team to win, then these same fans put down the hard work passion and dedication it took for the winning team to get that far in the first place. Isn’t the goal for the owners, managers, coaches, players and fans, to watch their team hoist a cup in June? So who decided that winning is no longer the goal but penny pinching and having the lowest payroll is?"
Less than three weeks until hockey begins (Amen)
-greg.

Saturday September 21: Another Saturday Night I am eighteen and one-thirds of a year old today.
My fractional birthday was a rather uneventful day. As I have been saying in the previous journal entries, everyone that I know went home for the weekend. Even the suitemates were gone for the vast majority of the day (although it is more likely that they were passed out in a pool of their own vomit, than that they went home). Since no one was around, I really didn’t do anything. I didn’t even leave the building today.
I spent the first half of my day in bed. I woke up before noon, but I was determined to sleep some more. I had set the computer up to play music while I was asleep, so I stayed in bed and listened for a while. Eventually, I got up. I showered, ate lunch and watched football during the afternoon. I worked on some homework after the Michigan game (They won). When I was finished, I watched the MSU game (They lost). That has been about it for today.
Because I was watching the MSU game, I missed out on dinner in the café. For some reason, they close at six on Saturdays, rather than at eight like they do during the week. I made myself one of those personal pizzas from the Little Caesar’s Pizza Kits. I wish that I had the instructions. I guess how long to cook it. It was warm all the way through, but it was kind of soggy. I definitely need to work on my cooking skills.
Today’s food for thought: “Just because someone is a hypocrite, doesn’t mean that they are wrong,” said my logic teacher. He made a good point. Next time someone gives you advice, consider the advice before you consider the speaker.
I hurt my shoulder yesterday. Surprisingly enough, I managed to hurt it while I was sleeping. When I woke up, my hole left shoulder and that side of my neck hurt. It was sore for most of today, but feels better know.
MEGA Hockey
An interesting NHL trade occurred the other day. Forward Peter Schaefer was traded from Vancouver to Ottawa for defenseman Sami Salo. Most of the readers are probably thinking, "So what." Chances are, few people know who either of these players is. If, by some miracle, they happen to know who Schaefer and Salo are, they probably know that neither player is that spectacular. Still the interesting part of this trade has to do with an unlikely coincidence. Schaefer couldn't come to terms on a contract with the cheap Canucks. Last year, he played for Turku of the Finnish Elite league. Strangely enough, Salo was born in Turku, Finland. I though that was pretty nifty.
Vinny Lecavalier is entering his fifth season in the NHL. When he was drafted, he was touted at the "Michael Jordon of Hockey". As of yet, Lecavalier hasn't lived up to that title. Through his first four seasons he has averaged around 45 points a year. Those are solid numbers, but more is expected from the first overall selection in the 1998 Entry Draft. In my mind, the Quebec-born center resembles two other French-Canadian first overall picks. Mario Lemieux, one of the top two offensive players in NHL history, was also a Quebec-born number one pick. In his first season, he scored 100 points, and then went on to score at least 100 points in seven of his next eight seasons. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there is Alexander Daigle. Daigle was taken with the first overall pick in 1993, ahead of superstars Chris Pronger (2), Paul Kariya (4), Jason Allison (17), Todd Bertuzzi (23), and others. Daigle won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year and spent parts of seven seasons in the NHL before his career fizzled. After two seasons away from the game, Daigle is struggling to make an NHL comeback.
In his fifth season, Mario Lemieux scored 199 points to lead the NHL in scoring. Daigle's fifth season was the last time that he saw notable time in the NHL. Lecavalier is now entering his fifth season in the league. Vinny has the size (6-4) and skill to make a mark in this league. Hopefully for us fans, Lecavalier will turn out to be more like Lemieux and less like Daigle.
Random Hockey Stats for really good hockey players.

	Wayne Gretzky			Mario Lemieux			Steve Yzerman
Year	Rnk	GP	Pts	Rnk	GP	Pts	Rnk	GP	Pts
84-85	1	80	208	13	73	100	25	80	89
88-89	2	78	164	1	76	199	3	80	155
91-92	3	74	121	1	64	131	8	79	103
95-96	29	62	81	1	70	161	17	80	95
98-99	32	70	63	D	N	P	17	80	74

Funny thought. In 1991-92, Brett Hull scored 70 goals and 39 assists for 109 points. That year, Luc Robitaille scored 44 goals and 63 assists for 107 points. Steve Yzerman scored 45 goals and 58 assists for 103 points. All three were in the top ten in scoring. Now, they play on the same team and even spent some time on a line together early last season.
CBC News

Paul Henderson, whose memorable goal with 34 seconds left in Game 8 clinched the 1972 Summit Series for Team Canada over the Soviet Union, is sorry for criticizing Bob Clarke's infamous slash on superstar Valeri Kharlamov
"I apologized to Bobby for causing him aggravation," Henderson told The Fan 590 on Thursday. "I don't think anybody needs that and that's not my style to trash somebody like this.
Henderson dubbed Clarke's slash, which broke Kharlamov's ankle, "the lowpoint of the series" during Monday's media conference kicking off 30th anniversary celebrations of the series.
"I think it's improper to criticize a teammate 30 years later," Clarke responded in the Globe and Mail. "If it was so offensive, why didn't he bother to say something after the game?

I have always thought Clarke was a bad GM (He dealt Boucher and Lindros and fired Roger Neilson). Now I have yet another reason to dislike him. Hopefully, someone will set Bobby Clarke adrift in the Hudson Bay.
-greg.

Sunday September 22: A day of Rest Today was nearly as uneventful as yesterday. Today, I did nothing, and it was everything that I hoped it would be.
I got up at ten this morning. I looked out the window and it was still raining, so I went back to sleep. I got up around noon and decided to stay up that time.
I supplemented going to church by listening to the local Christian music station (88.3 FM) for a few hours this morning. I know that’s not ok, but it’s a once and a while sort of thing. I’m not sure what I’m going to do to find a church. My first problem is that the busses don’t run on Sunday. The second problem is that all the Protestant churches are far away. So, I have to hike a long way just to investigate a church service. Maybe, by some chance, a flaming chariot of fire will soar down, pick me up at my dorm and drop me off at a nice traditional worship service next Sunday.
Anyway, after had my FM church service, I started watching football. For the rest of the day I watched football and played video games. I took breaks to watch it rain during the morning and to talk to people online during the afternoon.
The Lions almost won. They were marching down the field to score the winning touchdown and Harrington threw an interceptions. However, considering the fact that this was his first NFL game and the rest of the team kind of stinks, a six points loss really isn’t all that horrible.
I talked with Melissa online a whole bunch today. It was good to hear from her, although it would be nice to see her. As wonderful as the internet is, it’s no substitution for actually seeing someone.
Steve and Erin got back after seven. Steve and I picked up dinner from the sandwich line and Erin came over and we watched "Monsters, Inc" on DVD. That was about it for today.
I’m working on some new stuff for the webpage. I have another College/Photo Page that I might work on tomorrow afternoon. I’ve got another video to post and a new "super cool" page that is nearly complete.
Exhibition Game The crowd at a Buffalo vs. Ottawa served as extras for "Bruce Almighty," a new movie with Jim Carrey.
Super Sophomore Ilya Kovalchuk bought a $140,000 Mercedes this summer. Not to be outdone, line mate and fellow super sophomore Dany Heatley went out and got a Porsche 911. "The first year in the parking lot we had a lot of Fords and Chevys," Thrashers General Manager Don Waddell said. "The parking lot has been upgraded."
PreSeason End of the Season Predictions.

EAST-Northeast
2000-01	2001-02	H-Fore	GQHN
Ottawa-X	Boston-X	Ottawa	Ottawa-X
Buffalo-X	Toronto-X	Boston	Boston-X
Toronto-X	Ottawa-X	Montreal	Montreal-X
Boston	Montreal-X	Toronto	Toronto
Montreal	Buffalo	Buffalo	Buffalo
EAST-Atlantic
2000-01	2001-02	H-Fore	GQHN
New Jersey-X	Philadelphia-X	NY Rangers	Philadelphia-X
Philadelphia-X	NY Isles-X	Philadelphia	NY Rangers-X
Pittsburgh-X	New Jersey-X	NY Isles	NY Isles-X
NY Rangers	NY Rangers	New Jersey	New Jersey
NY Isles	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh
EAST-Southeast
2000-01	2001-02	H-Fore	GQHN
Washington-X	Carolina-X	Carolina	Washington-X
Carolina-X	Washington	Washington	Tampa Bay-X
Florida	Tampa Bay	Tampa Bay	Carolina
Atlanta	Florida	Atlanta	Atlanta
Tampa Bay	Atlanta	Florida	Florida
WEST-Central
2000-01	2001-02	H-Fore	GQHN
Detroit-X	Detroit-X	Detroit	Detroit-X
St. Louis-X	St. Louis-X	St. Louis	Chicago
Nashville	Chicago-X	Chicago	St. Louis
Chicago	Nashville	Nashville	Columbus
Columbus	Columbus	Columbus	Nashville
WEST-Northwest
2000-01	2001-02	H-Fore	GQHN
Colorado-X	Colorado-X	Colorado	Colorado-X
Edmonton-X	Vancouver-X	Vancouver	Vancouver-X
Vancouver-X	Edmonton	Calgary	Edmonton-X
Calgary	Calgary	Edmonton	Calgary
Minnesota	Minnesota	Minnesota	Minnesota
WEST-Pacific
2000-01	2001-02	H-Fore	GQHN
Dallas-X	San Jose-X	San Jose	San Jose-X
San Jose-X	Los Angeles-X	Los Angeles	Dallas-X
Los Angeles-X	Phoenix-X	Anaheim	Los Angeles-X
Phoenix	Dallas	Dallas	Anaheim-X
Anaheim	Anaheim	Phoenix	Phoenix

(H-Fore: Hockey Forecaster)(GQHN: GQ Hockey News)(X: Playoff Team)
-greg.

Monday September 23: Knights, Quests and Tests "An Update of Epic Proportions" Today started early. I made myself get up and get ready on time today. I had one hot meal between Friday night andt this morning. Today, I had some crappy eggs for breakfast. I tried mixing apple juice and coke as a super-caffeinated morning drink. The experiment failed. I think that it was the grape juice mixed with Coke that made it taste good. Tomorrow, God-willing and the creek don’t rise, I will try to mix grape juice and Coke.
After breakfast I went to my math class. The rest of the class learned integration by parts today. It was good fun. When I first learned how to integrate by parts, I didn’t like it. Now I find that any animosity there was between integration by parts and I has faded. I guess that is why I am a math major. Today during my extended lunch break, I solved the integral of y=x⁴ (ln(x))² (evaluated from [1,2]). I felt good after I had solved it. I took me two pages worth of paper, but that is just because I screwed up on the first try. I encourage my calculus-educated friends to try to figure this one out. The answer is in white in between these brackets [ (32/5)(ln(x))² - (64/25)(ln(x)) + (62/125) ] It isn’t too difficult. One just has to remember how to integrate by substitution, integrate by parts and he or she has to keep a clear understanding of the beloved exponent rules.
(Note: If you think I’m a geek now, wait until you get to today’s three page long literary sections)
Anyway, after calc class I went to my easy physics class. We had test that was rather insulting to my intelligence. I'm such a cocky bastard. The teacher gave us an index card that we could use for notes on the test. I filled my up with random facts that were completely unrelated to the test (e.g. "Dover is the capital of Delaware", "Wayne Gretzky scored 894 NHL career goals", "PV=nRT", etc.). Being confident is a good feeling and begin arrogant is something that I rather enjoy.
I got done half an hour early. Today, I had a three and a half hour lunch break because the physics class ended early and my literature class started 50 minutes late. As I previously said, I did math during the early part of my lunch time. During the extra hour after lunch, I visited with Kelly. She made me watch "The Make-Over Show" or something like that. I tried to change the channel, but she wouldn’t let me. I resorted to playing to a ratchet set in order to keep from feeling feminine.
After visiting with Kelly I went to my lit class and we had a discussion (see below). I came back to the room after class and played. I didn’t get any mail today. A day without mail is like a day without sunshine. After checking the mailbox a couple of times, I got some ice cream and did some homework. Eventually, Steve returned to the room. I talked online with Melissa some during the evening before going to dinner with Steve, Erin, and Kelly. After dinner, I was up in the room for a bit before going to Bible Study.
In Bible Study we talked about Ephesians 1:15-23. There was one verse that I really liked (1:18). Also, there was an overall theme that is worth sharing. Jesus prayed. Paul prayed. You and I should probably pray, too. Really, Jesus was off preaching, doing miracles, but he still made time to pray. Paul was starting churches, getting arrested, but he still prayed "constantly" for various churches and friends. I got to think that prayer is probably the top thing that a Christian can do.
Ephesians 1:18 (NLT)
I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people.Ephesians 1:18 (NASB)
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. . .

Ephesians 1:18 (NIV)
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. . .

I wish I didn't live on top of a mountain; I would go for more leisurely walks. I like to walk around, but the large hill on which I live makes it easy to leave, but hard to come back to the dorm.
Do you have AIM? Well, I made some Buddy Icons ® for all my web-fans.
Andrea Scobie needs to come visit me. I want to see "Death to Smoochy" and she wrote that she was going to go buy it when it came out.
I have set out on a quest. I want to have 48 hours worth of MP3’s on my computer. Right now, I am at 41hr, 12min, 42sec. I am close, but I’ve run into a bit of a roadblock. I honestly can’t think of anymore songs that I want to download. Sure, I know there are good songs out there, I just can’t think of them. I suppose that anything worth attaining requires work. Maybe I will just cheat a little bit and burn more CD’s onto my hard drive.
"Why go on such a quest?" some ask. Why go to the moon? Why climb Everest? Why do anything? It is a test of skill and perseverance.
WARNING: Start of Literature
Today in my literature class we had small group discussions. The class has 200 some people in it, so we were broken down into small group of around twenty. Twenty people to a group is still too many, especially for me. I'm not a big fan of talking in groups and I tend to yield the floor to any moron who is willing to anyone with a mouth. For about an hour today, I sat and contemplated "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" while other people argued their foolish viewpoints.
As I previously said, I'm not much for public speaking. However, I do like the write. So, since I held my thoughts back during class, I am going to make the webpage readers suffer through them via my writing.
Before I begin, I will give an introduction and summary of "The Green Knight". The story is British, which automatically makes it cool since we know that all things British are inherently cool (e.g. accents, turning-circles, Tony Blair, tea time, the welfare state, etc.). The story itself is a medieval piece of poetry. When one read "poetry" in the previous sentence, he or she should assume that it meant "difficult to read". After all, the main difference between poetry and prose is the difficulty. The story is written in stanzas of varying length. Every stanza ends with a set of intertwined couplets (e.g. "Quick as a flash he wheels / And darts off in dismay / With hard luck at his heels / He is off to the wood away). The main body of each stanza is comprised of unrhymed alliterated lines of random length. (Alliteration examples: "There were soups of all ssorts, seasoned with skill / Double-sized servings, and sundry fish / Some baked, some breaded, some broiled on the coals" etc). The form, especially the never-ending alliteration makes the poem a struggle to read. However, because I was able to find meaning in the poem, it was worth the effort.
I think that the story of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is a Christian allegory. I’ve got a little bit of historical evidence to help me out on this one. First of all, most of the literature from the medieval and early portion of the renaissance is focused on religion. Not surprisingly enough, Christianity was an important aspect of "Christendom". I think that the poem’s lineage is similar to that of Beowulf (You've probably heard of Beowulf. It is an epic English story. "The Thirteenth Warrior" (Movie: Antonio Banderas) and The Eaters of the Dead (Book: Michael Crichton) are basically the same story). Beowulf was a folk story that was eventually written down. The written version was copied by monks, the only people who knew how to write back then. As the story was copied down, the religious folks added Christian messages to the pieces. I think that is what happened with "The Green Knight". It was a piece of the oral tradition until it was copied down by some religious folk who used the story in his sermon one Sunday.
Now, let me get on to the "modern" summary of the tale.
Sir Gawain and the "G" Knight.
The story opens at Christmas in Camelot. King Art and his merry men are having a big shin-dig around the round table. They are having a fun time. There is dancing, Euchre, Playstation on a big screen TV and all the other necessities for a royal party. Right before they get ready to swing at the piñata, a burly green thug busts into the party hall. He says, "I heard all you boyz in Camelot be pretty tough. You guys is supposed to be the baddest gangstas this side of Compton." Then, the "G" Knight challenges Art to game. Sir Gawain, being the bad mother that he is, accepts the challenge in the king's place. The rules of the game are pretty simple. There are two players. Player number one (Gawain) gets to go first. He gets a big freaking axe with which he gets one swing at player number two’s ("G" Knight) neck (I suppose if I wanted to go along with the Ebonics theme, I would describe the game in terms of "putting a cap" in someone. However, I don’t want to diverge too far from the original). After Gawain takes his one swing, he has to meet at the "G" Knight’s crib and allow "G" to take one swing at his neck. After the rules are clearly explained, Gawain takes up the axe. With one swing, he severs the "G" Knight’s bloody head. Then, like something from the pages of "The National Inquirer", the "G" Knight picks up his head, reminds Gawain to meet him at the Knight’s house in a year and one day, and then hops on his horse and rides off into the sunset. So, Gawain sits around for a couple months. As fall ends, he gets on his horse and start ridding around looking for the Knight’s house. Since they didn’t have Yahoo! or the White Pages ® Gawain just has to go door-to-door asking people if they are buddies with the Green Knight. A couple days before Christmas, a wicked bad storm comes in. It’s snowing like mad and Sir Gawain couldn’t find a rest stop or a HoJo to spend the night. Although there aren’t a lot of road-side hotels in England, there are an excess of castles. Gawain happens to find a semi-mysterious castle out in the wilderness. The guy who owns the castle is really cool. He lets Gawain stay for a while as the storm occurs. Better yet, the lord of the castle knows where the "G" Knight lives. The storm goes away in a day and Gawain is all set to pack up and head over to "G" Knight’s place. As he’s getting ready, the guy who owns the castle says, "Dude, why don’t you chill here for a day. The ‘G’ only lives a couple hours away and you don’t need to be there for days." Gawain thinks to himself, "Should I stay another day at the Hilton Castle, or should I rush off to my death? Hmmm." Gawain stays for a day. Now that the weather has cleared up, the owner of the castle decides to go on a day-trip. He makes a deal with Gawain. Anything Gawain gets during his day in taking care of the castle, he has to give to the owner of the castle. In return, the owner of the castle will give Gawain all the animals that he catches during his hunting trip. Gawain agrees to the deal. So the owner of the castle goes on his hunting trip. Meanwhile, Gawain meets the owner’s hot wife. The wife tries to "get it on" with Sir Gawain. Gawain turns her down, even though she’s a bloody fox (Remember, in British, "bloody" means "very" or "big"). However, since he’s still a nice guy, he lets her kiss him on the cheek. When the owner he gets back from the hunting trip, Gawain trades one kinky kiss for a 30-point buck. The next day comes and goes like the previous one, with Gawain trading a kiss on the cheek for a slab of bacon. Then, the third and final day at the castle comes. This time, the owner’s hot wife offers Gawain a green girdle as a gift. This isn’t just any green girdle; it’s some magic underwear. It will protect its wearer from being killed. Gawain takes the gift and doesn’t give it to the owner like he is supposed to. The next day, Gawain, wearing his magic underwear, departs for the "G" Knight’s crib. Gawain finds the place and the "G" Knight pretty easily. He tells the "G" Knight, "Ok chap, let’s finish the deal that we have made." After taking a couple of practice swings, the "G" Knight swings and hits Gawain with a glancing blow to the neck. The "G" Knight missed on purpose. After a bit of yelling, we come to find out that the "G" Knight is really the guy who owns the castle. On top of that, he knows that Gawain has been kissing his wife and has the magic underwear. Gawain feels guilty. After all, he is supposed to be this high and mighty honorable knight. The "G" Knight is really forgiving, however. He tells Gawain to keep the magic underwear as a memory of what he learned from this little experience. Blah, blah.
The End.
The poem is fifty pages, so I cut out a lot of side details. Still, there is enough presented for me to explain the allegory I have come across. First of all, we have the high and mighty Gawain. Gawain is supposed to be the world’s perfect knight. That means he is one of the best guys in the world. He is involved in this little challenge that we call life. He withstands the temptation of sex with a wicked hot chick. Although he conquers his lust for the female body, he falls in another sin. We could call this sin the "lust of life" or, more succinctly, idolatry. Rather that putting faith in God for his salvation, he takes the magic underwear and puts his faith in that little trinket to save him. When Gawain has to face his judgment, it is the trinket that fails him. The merciful axe-man was going to spare his life. Because Gawain made his false salvation out of the girdle, he can’t just accept the grace of the axe-man. The story takes the last few pages to explain how Gawain felt shame and misery. I equate Gawain’s suffering to be like "the weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt 8:12, et al) (I am hinting towards, Hell). Rather than putting our faith in superstition, position or earthly things, we should put our faith in mercy which is the only thing that is really able to save us.
There is a snowball's chance in Iraq that anyone read all of this entry.
CELEBRATION: End of Literature
Pictures Video Watch me run up the escalator.
Hockey
Who is still a Wing? The Red Wings started training camp with 60+ players. Now, they are down to 44.
Forwards (28): Bryan Adams, Sean Avery, Ryan Barnes, Darryl Bootland, Doug Brown-FA, Pavel Datsyuk, Boyd Devereaux, Kris Draper, Matt Ellis, Sergei Fedorov, Nick Greenough Tomas Holmstrom, Brett Hull, Derek King, Tomas Kopecky, Igor Larionov, Kirk Maltby, Darren McCarty, Mark Mowers, Michel Picard, Nathan Robinson-FA, Luc Robitaille, Stacy Roest, Brendan Shanahan, Tim Verbeek, Jason Williams, Steve Yzerman, Henrik Zetterberg
Defensemen (12): Paul Ballantyne, Patrick Boileau, Sheldon Brookbank, Dmitri Bykov, Ed Campbell, Chris Chelios, Mathieu Dandenault, Jiri Fischer, Danny Groulx, Maxim Kuznetsov, Nicklas Lidstrom, Travis Richards, Jesse Wallin
Goaltenders (4): Curtis Joseph, Marc Lamothe, Manny Legace, Joey MacDonald
I wish that the real NHL season would start. I can't wait to watch hockey. I can't wait to update the FHL. I think that the start of the NHL season is going to be better than getting a letter.
-greg.

Tuesday September 24: To Update or Not to update For a variety of reasons, I am not sure if I should even update today. First of all, not much really occurred today. Also, only two people have visited the webpage today (As of 9pm). Chris (I assume that it was Chris, since it was an MTU provider) visited at 12:08 this morning. Heather (I assume that "Echostar.com" is Heather) visited a little bit after two this afternoon. Although I’m not sure why I’m doing it, I’m still going to update. There are probably good reasons not to update, but the reasons to update are better. First off, updating the webpage is one of my many compulsions. I pace the floor when I get nervous, I tape my pencil on my desk and I chew on my pen cap. The updating is just an extension of the OCD (Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder) that I inherited from my dad. Even if it is because I am mildly mentally ill, the updating still makes me feel good. It is nice to get my thought out on paper (Well, it’s not really paper, but it is close enough). Finally, I think Chris and Heather are worth the time and effort required to update. If they care enough to check up on me, I should care enough to let them know how I am doing. Chris and Heather are cool; yeah, they are worth it.
I stayed in bed until the last possible moment today. I picked up some orange juice from the cafeteria for breakfast. Normally, I try to mix pop and fruit juices to form interesting drink combinations. However, everyday can’t be an adventure. Sometimes, we just have to take it easy.
In math class we learned how about decomposition and partial fractions. It isn’t all the difficult. Since most of the world never took Calculus One, it isn’t really easy to explain partial fractions in layman’s terms. So, let’s just say that I learned something that is pretty easy albeit time consuming in certain cases.
After class, I went to the gym. I was rather lazy in my work out. I only cycled for twelve minutes on the stationary bike, rather than my normal eighteen minutes. When I went to the work out room, it was rather crowded. Rather than waiting for weight machines, I just cut out about half my exercise. When I got back to the room I showered. I talked to Steve for about half an hour. Then, I got into bed. I listened to music for a while as I rested in bed. I feel asleep sometime before 11:30 and I woke up shortly after 2:30. It was a fabulous nap. Although I sometimes wish that I had another class (I get bored sometimes), I really enjoy my ability to take three hour long naps.
When I woke up, I went to lunch. I had grilled cheese and a corn dog. I love simple food. When I came back I hoped online. I talked with Melissa for a while. She is going to be over here in a couple weeks. It’s going to be cool. I don’t think that I’ve seen her since July. I worked on homework during the afternoon before I went get to my evening class.
We had a discussion today. There are some pretty, um, (what is the word?) "thuggish" people in my Philosophy class. One of the guys was angry with the cops because the 5-0 busted into his room and busted some of his roommate’s friend for possession. It is times like these when I begin to think that it would be possible for me to lead the ignorant masses into to a revolt against the powers that be. Anyway, we just did practice work today in Logic class.
On the way back to class, I stopped and picked up dinner. When I got back to the room, Steve was playing Jedi Knights on the computer. About an hour after I got back, he asked me what time it was. I told him that it was nine. I’m not sure how long he had been playing, but he had been there long enough that he had forgotten to eat dinner.
I thought that was rather funny. Since Steve is taking a vacation from updating his page, I figured that I should keep everyone informed in the life of my roommate.
That has been about it for today.
Today, when I went to my late lunch, Michael W. Smith was on the radio. That was pretty cool. Michael rocks.
Nifty Webpage
I wish that Megs and Cassie would be online. I missed them. I'd like to talk with them.
Hockey Boyd Devereaux broke his thumb. Well, actually, some slashed him and broke his thumb for him. Devereaux will be out for month or so because of his hand. I’m disappointed. I really like Devereaux. He is quick, young and has scoring potential (former first round pick).
The Blackhawks are screwed. They lost Tony Amonte to free agency and now they have lost Eric Daze for six weeks to injury. To make up for those goals, they only added Theo Fleury. Theo is good, but he isn’t big and he won’t score as many goals as those guys did.
-greg.

Wednesday September 25: Just a day, just an ordinary day Today wasn’t all that extraordinary.
On Wednesdays, my classes don’t start until 9am. However, since I am rather lazy, I don’t bother resetting my alarm for one day of the week. Today, I just hit the snooze button seven times so that I would make up later. I washed up and picked up some OJ from the cafeteria and walked over to Rood for my physics class. I was almost late for the class. When I got there, the door was closed and locked. After another two guys joined me at the door, I started lightly tapping on the metal door. Shortly after I started, someone came and opened it for us. I got my test back. I still managed to get a 90%, but I made a couple of really stupid mistakes. I should have aced it. It was easy. It’s frustrating.
After physics I went to the Biggy cafeteria for lunch. It was only ten o’clock, so I had an hour to kill before other people from the group got there. I watched TV and flatted a fork. It’s really hard to eat with a flat fork. Now I understand why they have the curves on them. During lunch, I "assaulted" Kelly. When she got up to get a brownie, I put salt into her drink. For some reason, I enjoy that practical joke. It’s not very funny. However, as a running gag, I find it rather amusing.
After lunch I went to my literature class. We took a quiz, on which I did rather poorly. I more than passed, I just got more wrong than I prefer to get wrong. After the quiz we had a rather long lecture. For the most part, I enjoy my professor’s babblings. However, I still have problems staying focused, no matter how much I desire to stay on target.
I came back from class and was in the room for a bit. Steve and I went to lunch later in the afternoon. When Steve went to a class, I looked up the hockey news on the internet. I took a nap and I read for my literature class. Steve got back from class and we went to the mall.
The trip to the mall was rather uneventful. We went to a dozen different stores because Steve had to buy a shirt. I didn’t get yelled at by the security guard during this trip to the mall.
Want to know why I hate the bus? It took us an hour to get from the mall back to the school. The mall is six miles away. It is a 14 minute drive according to Yahoo. I hate the bus. It is stealing my life.
After the trip to the mall, Steve and I came back to the room. I watched the "West Wing" today. It was a two hour season premiere. I’ve never watched the show before now. It is on Wednesday night and I always used to go to youth group on Wednesday night. I’ve been missing out on a lot. Everyone should watch the "West Wing". It was one of the greatest TV shows that I have ever seen. I feel as though my life would have been better if I had begun watching when the show first came out.
Today’s game: Who visited Greg’s webpage?
12:13am Comcast Communications Not sure
1:30am Michigan Technological Inst Chris
7:39am Littleton, (echostar.com) Heather
8:49am Northwestern University Chou
10:22am Western Michigan University Not sure
12:08pm Oakland University Andrea?
12:56pm US Coast Guard Not sure
12:59pm Central Michigan University Could be one for four people
4:41pm US West No Clue
5:00pm Comcast Communications Someone from Wixom or WL
7:38pm Pacific Bell Internet No Clue
7:46pm Purdue University Neville
Semi Hockey
I want to go to see a hockey game. I am going to have to investigate going to a Blackhawk’s game. Sure, I hate the Hawks, but maybe I can schedule it so that I like the team that they are playing against (Det, Edm, Ana, Bos, Tam, Ott, NYI). Chicago is closer than Detroit (Sure it’s only by a couple miles). Also, the cheap seats at a Blackhawks game are $15 as compared to $22 at JLA. Also, I can got to an AHL game in Grand Rapids. Now that the Griffins are the Wings’ affiliate, I will know some of the players on the team.
Pure Hockey

The Grand Rapids Griffin’s new third jersey. They will wear it on the twelve Friday home games.
Z-MAN COMETH: "The Henrik Zetterberg era is officially under way in Detroit. The Swedish prodigy scored his first Red Wings goal Tuesday night in a 3-2 preseason victory. Zetterberg is expected to play a regular shift with the Wings this season and is considered a leading Calder trophy candidate."
The "Z-man"? Please, that is the worst nickname that I have ever heard. I think "The Golden Zet" would be better.
Don Cherry signed a new deal with CBC. This is the best free agent signing in Toronto this offseason. (Note: I am belittling the Maple Leaf’s acquisition of Ed Beflour)
Pavel Bure hurt his knee. Luckily, it is just a medial meniscus problem and can be fixed with arthroscopic surgery. We won’t know how long he is going to be out until after the surgery. If it were an ACL or MCL tear, it would have been at least six months. However, the meniscus problem should have a quicker recovery time. Last year, Bure scored 12 goals in 12 games with the Rangers. I figure that if he is good for 65 games, he will score 50 for my fantasy team.
ESPN: (Quote Below)

"To be honest," Hitchcock said in the wake of a Flyers preseason victory over the Islanders on Tuesday night, "that came from recommendations of people who worked with Bob Clarke."
Well, it makes perfect sense. Clarke, the general manager and president of the Flyers, is so popular with head coaches that since 1997 he's dismissed five of them.

Note to all: Bobby Clarke sucks.
-greg.

Thursday September 26: Quickly I am updating just so that everyone has something to read.
This morning I picked my some OJ for breakfast. I made it to class shortly later than class started. Today we learned how to look up integrals in the back of the book. After class, I went to the gym. Today was weird. I worked out more than I did on Tuesday. Yet, at the same time, I felt much better than I did on Tuesday. Maybe I had the plague or something back then.
I came back to the room and washed up. I ate lunch and then did laundry. The laundry room is much too far away. I wasn’t on the top of my game today, either. I had to make three or four trips back up to the room for one reason another. When I first hauled my clothing downstairs, I realized that I had left all my quarters on the bed. I sat downstairs during the wash cycle and did my calculus homework. When I got done with calc, I took my backpack back to the room. I went back down to the laundry mat and then I realized that the dryer sheets were in my bag. So, I had to make another trip back up to the room. Then, I made a trip up to the room to get hangers. It was such a hassle.
After washing clothing, I came and washed the floor to the room. I’ve given up; our floor will never be clean.
The afternoon was rather uneventful. I didn’t do much until I went to class at six. I took some notes during class. After class, I came back to the room and we had "NBC Premiere" Night. Steve, Jenni, Erin, Kelly, and I watched "Friends", "Scrubs", "Will and Grace", "Good Morning, Miami", and "ER". It was the most TV that I have watched in a long time.
The Lions can feel good about themselves. Jay Leno is making jokes about the Vikings now.
I watched Jeopardy today. I used to be good at that game. I feel dumb now.
Ok. That is about it for today.
Hockey is on tomorrow night.
THANK YOU GOD!
-greg.

Friday September 27: Things A bunch of things happened today.
I got up at around 7:38. I picked up OJ and ran off to class. It was hard to stay awake in Calc and physics today. In math we learned how to use rectangles and trapezoids to approximate integrals. I don’t think you really care. Physics was a snore and a half. I wish that I hadn’t gone. I should have just taken Friday of class today.
After class, I came back to the room and I slept. I was down for a good three hours. When I finally got up I went and got a first dinner. I sat and talked with this fellow Chris who I kind of know. After lunch, I came back to the room. I played some on the computer some. In the late afternoon, I got some mail. Andrea sent me a letter. I wrote two letters today after I got my letter. Erin and Jenni came over for dinner.
After dinner, Jenni left and Erin came back to the room. I got ready for the hockey game. Before the game started, Erin and Steve fell asleep. I watched the first two periods of the game by myself as the other two slept.
Hockey is awesome. Watching hockey is one of my favorite pastimes. I’m very happy to have the games back after being deprived of them for so long. Furthermore, I got mail today. I love getting mail. Finding a letter in my mailbox gives me the same kind of happy feeling that I would get if I found a fifty dollar bill on the ground.
This journal entry is going rather poorly so far. I am sorry for that. Today was a good day. I just can’t think of anything witty, ironic, or amusing to say about it.
I wonder if Trevor Godfrey is alive. I almost forgot about that guy. I hope he didn’t die. I’ve seen him and talked to him once in the last four months. If I remember right, he was a cool guy.
Hockey

"I appreciate people's desire to have me up on the side of a building," he said. "It is pretty exciting to me. I drove around other cities and saw athletes on the sides of buildings and I thought it would be pretty nice to be on a building. I never expected it."
Amusing Quote

During an earlier game in Boston on March 13, Hal Laycoe high-sticked Richard, giving him a nasty scalp cut which later required eight stitches to close. The Rocket exploded in rage, swinging his stick like a baseball bat, smashing it over Laycoe's head and shoulders. He yanked another stick from a player and slashed at Laycoe until the stick splintered. Then he turned on Cliff Thompson, one of the officials, and let lose with a right to the face.

Source of the Quote
-greg.

Saturday September 28: Rest For the third consecutive day, I lived a rather boring day. Although I didn’t do much, I think that I will be able to come up with enough to create a rather interesting journal entry.
Last night we stayed up really late partying. No, no, not really. Steve, Erin and I stayed up late watching the History Channel. We watched a few shows, including one on JFK. I feel asleep early this morning. I got up around ten o’clock. However, I was still tired, so I went back to sleep. I got up again shortly after noon.
When I got up I turned on the football game. I watched the WMU and Virginia Tech game on TV and had a little bit of lunch. I can get free tickets to all home sporting events, so you’re probably wondering why I didn’t go to see the game in person. First of all, there is the fact that I would have had to been out of bed before noon to get a decent seat. Secondly, Virginia Tech is the fifth ranked football team in the nation. I knew we didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of beating them. Finally, I didn’t want be part of the riot. Last year, we had a couple student riots here (complete with burning couches), so I figured that I should just be safe, sleep in and watch the game on television.
The football game started well. Up until the last two minutes of the first half, we were only down by three points. However, V-Tech scored in the final two minutes. On the ensuing WMU drive, Drach (our QB) fumbled and V-Tech recovered and returned it for a touchdown. That was pretty much the end of the game.
Eventually, Steve returned. He worked as an usher at the Miller for a "South Pacific". He said it was horrible. Robert Goulet was the lead, so it couldn’t have been good. He and I watched the U-M game in the later part of the afternoon. Steve fell asleep. Then I fell asleep. I woke up a couple hours later.
Steve and I were hungry. So, we ordered pizza.
We ordered pizza online.

Move the mouse over the box to open our pizza

Ordering pizzas online is one of the greatest things that I’ve ever done.
Well, that is about it. Have a happy day.
-greg.

Sunday September 29: Happy Michaelmas Today is Michaelmas. It’s an obscure Catholic holiday that no one celebrates.
Today I slept in really late. I got up around noon and went to lunch around one. During the afternoon I watched the Lion’s game and tried to read "the Odyssey". The Lions won. It’s awesome. Joey Harrington rocks my world. Joey threw for 267 yard, one touchdown and zero interceptions. After the Lion’s game I watched some more football and I tried to read "the Odyssey". I took a nap, too.
In the evening, Erin came over and I helped Steve with chemistry homework. Then, I watched "The Matrix" and tried to read "the Odyssey". Well, needless to say, I didn’t get my Greek reading done. Oh well. We’re supposed to watch a movie in literature class today, so that means that we shouldn’t have a reading quiz. I will just have to double up on my afternoon reading tomorrow.
That is about it for my activities today.
According to Online Conversations.com, I am "desirable". Yeah, I know. They didn’t need to tell me.
My name in Morse Code:
--. .-. . --. -. .. -.-. -.- . .-..
Sweet, eh?

NEW YORK (AP) A judge has refused to throw out a $60 million lawsuit against Steven Seagal that alleges the action film star backed out of movie projects on the advice of his Buddhist spiritual adviser.
Judge Joseph Maltese ruled Thursday that the case filed by Seagal's previous business partner, producer Julius Nasso, can proceed to trial.
Nasso is suing Seagal for allegedly reneging on a contract to perform in four motion pictures, which had a combined budget of more than $125 million.
In the lawsuit, Nasso accuses Seagal of backing out on the advice of a Buddhist spiritual adviser known as Mukara, who allegedly persuaded Seagal to detach himself from his associates and even his children.

Oh no! Does this mean we aren’t going to have any more Steven Seagal movie? Oh well, maybe we should all stop living. Who could go on living without Steve Seagal movies.
In other news, Turkish police arrested two guys and seized 33 pounds (15 kg) of weapons-grade uranium. The uranium is valued to be worth $5 million. In respond, I have decided to coin a new phrase. We’ve all heard the saying "worth its weight in gold". Well, how about "worth its weight in uranium". Thirty three pounds of gold (at $320 an ounce) would be worth less than a quarter of a million dollars.
DID YOU KNOW? When you are traveling at Mach 5, you are going a mile per second.
By the way, send me mail.
-greg.

Monday September 30: Words Today was an ok day.
I got up at my normal time and picked up a donut and some OJ for breakfast. In math class, we learned some weird triangle thing. I understand the process, although I don’t have a clue as to what the use would be. In physics we had a quiz and I pretended to learn. After my morning classes, I went to the Biggy Café and had breakfast with Jenni. I stayed in the cafeteria and read more of "The Odyssey". Then I had a nice lunch with Steve, Erin and Kelly. After lunch I went to my literature class.
Normally, watching movies in class is a good thing. Today. . . not so much.
We watched some dreadful documentary on a long dead mythology expert. The only good part of the movie was the occasional Star Wars clips. The rest of the movie was just dreadful. It was a never-ending cycle of question mark questions. For example: "What is my dragon?", "How do I defeat my dragon?, etc. After about fifteen minutes, the movie began to numb my mind. After the movie, we had a lecture which was slightly less mind numbing than the movie.
When my classes were done, I came back to the room. I turned on WinAmp (I am up to 45 hours of music) and I started doing homework. I read a hundred pages from "The Odyssey", a chapter from my physics book, and I worked on some calc problems before the evening was done. When Steve got back, we went to dinner. After dinner, I worked on more homework. I talked online some and did some homework helping with other people. At night I went to Bible Study.
I am tired, so I am going to cut today’s entry short.
By the way, the Lions are better than the Rams. Ha, I never thought that I would say that.
NHL referees are very crappy (I am watching the Broncos/Ravens game). The Broncos got called for five penalties on one drive and had their starting cornerback kicked out of the game.
-greg.