Red zone defense

I measure my fall semesters by athletic events--fall head races (rowing), the college football season (it's weekly), and the NBA (got sucked into a fantasy league again).  Time has passed by so quickly this semester, leaving no time to enjoy the warm weather while projects and finals loom. Shoot, when ARE finals anyway?  Too soon.

The highs are still in the 70s (degF) here. It's not cold enough to fire up the fireplace, which does disappoint me.  On the other hand, I'm not freezing my face and hands off when I bike into campus.  Also, not having a functioning car anymore is a bummer because when you go out, you're at the mercy of the driver as to when you get back home.  Case in point, I wasn't able to do anything in the lab earlier this weekend.  Maybe that's not a bad deal.  The project was finished on time, thankfully.

Texas had a great game against A&M last night, and I was there for it.  In fact, I was at just about every home game this season.  It's been a great series of games, and I'm glad I was able to catch a lot of it with my newest toy, a Nikon D40x.  I hope Texas manages to play for the "national championship"...this team of underrated players, more than the sum of its parts, surely deserves it.  (Stanford needs to improve next season--Oregon and UCLA, anyone?  Defense gave up last-second touchdowns to lose...)  Thanksgiving is over, so the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas erg challenge is on.  Haven't started. I'll get there eventually...200,000 meters isn't that much, is it?

Things that happen when you get older

Weddings are just one of those things. Since this weekend is Memorial Day, it seems a lot of people are having their wedding on Monday. Two friends of mine each have performance gigs with different weddings...and I'm no different--one wedding performance coming up! It's going to be good--I love the music, and I know the couple and the guitarist I'm playing with--good people.

It's kind of amusing though--the couple has just graduated from UT (so maybe 21, 22 yrs old), and the guitarist is 22 and also married. Me? Well, you know...

Anyway, so when I RSVP'd for the wedding rehearsal dinner in person, I was asked if I was bringing anyone. I could not, for the life of me, think of an appropriate someone to ask. Given that I know most of the wedding guests and couple and guitarist through HSL, I knew that if I did bring someone, it'd have to be a respectable decision, someone comfortable with the HSL vibe, and also someone who would want to eat at the Salt Lick, yum. I think I was marked down as flying solo after much inability to think of a name. A week later, I'm still undecided as to whether this is a truly bad situation or not...but really, I guess I don't care. Right now, I just hope to play the bridal procession music so well that I'll make myself tear up...but not ruin the music or the moment. Ooh, this is going to be fun.

Seasons

Within the last five days (as of April 18th), my circle of high school friends has lost two parents. It's the first time consciously experiencing death this personal, more due to luck than anything else. I don't remember losing the attachment of grandparents passing quite as well since it happened so long ago--time waits for no one, and for twenty-five years, perhaps it's time.

The sudden passing of these two people, whose children I can safely say were close friends of mine, has really made me realize how blessed I've been to have never had to attend a funeral until now. Seriously, in a quarter of a century (wow), I've never remembered attending a funeral. I've never had to deal with contemplating the earthly loss of a living, breathing human being I knew. You can't beat the odds though--last I checked, just about ten out of ten people these days end up dying.

The personal impact of a death in the family is still something I've been able to avoid so far though, as if I had any say in how that goes. I'm left wondering how best I can be a friend to my two friends whose fathers have quite suddenly departed this mortal existence. I really want to just hug them and be a shoulder for them to lean on, but hell if that's something men really do these days. Deep hugs all around when I next see them. I love my friends too much to do anything else.

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rent, and a time to lose; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
--Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, KJV

So reads some of the last written words of King Solomon, wisest man on Earth.

It was true then, and it's true now.

From The price of gold, published Aug. 4, 2004.

China's Olympic prowess, though, is hardly a reflection of a nationwide passion for sweaty competition. Unlike Americans or Australians, the vast majority of Chinese are not sporty people who tote racquets or join gyms. China's international athletic success is about nationalism; it is the physical expression of a resurgent country, a rebuttal to its history as the "sick man of Asia" exploited by colonialists during the waning days of the Qing dynasty. The average Chinese--for whom supporting the motherland in athletic competition is one of the few instances in which mass, spontaneous celebration is allowed--is conditioned to see sporting victories as a metaphor for China's ascendance. "Our current national sports policy is called 'Winning Pride at the Olympics,'" says Hao Qiang, head of the State General Administration of Sport's Competition and Training Department. "By being successful at the Olympics, China will erase our shameful past of being humiliated by foreign powers."

If anyone had any doubt, let it be known that the Chinese people do not easily forget an insult or a grudge. The existence of such a stereotype in America, though waning in popularity, contributes to racial sympathies with Chinese success in American professional sports and globally at the Olympic scale. It's hard for me to not cheer for the Chinese lightweight rowing squad when they storm the world championship stage, as they did last summer out of the blue, but I know that they are all products of a twisted system that dehumanizes and is probably worse than anything at Guantanamo Bay. Any bets on whether the Chinese lighties were on substances of some sort? Yeah...as a Chinese friend of mine said, the Department of Medicinal Chemistry might have been very pleased.

The Chinese say we shouldn't make sport political or make the Olympics into a political issue by boycotting the games, etc. This is true. But, you know, they started it. Wasn't landing the Olympics and putting these kids through the meat grinder to win golds nothing short of a political statement? It's not as if Beijing had any intrinsic interest in sport. So yeah, when they say that politics shouldn't interfere with the spirit of athletics, they're being two-faced hypocrites, which, for the Chinese government, is par for the course.

Living above reproach

As a grad student living with undergrads, it's constantly on my mind that I have to set an example for the rest of the guys, even if they're not paying attention. This means I have to do my best to keep up with chores, step up when others miss chores, keep everything clean, and stay productive in just about every way possible. It's a tiring task, but it's helped me become a better person for it.

Unfortunately, I don't know if it's really having any effect on the house. I sometimes think that I was led to live here in order to be an example for others, but the lack of overall improvement in attitude and responsibility has made me question that. Having said that, I think at least one person has resonated with my attitude, and perhaps that alone is worth it--worth the time I spend daily doing leftover dishes, buying house supplies, tidying up, etc. Well, okay, maybe it's not worth the trade-off in time I could have spent studying, going to class, or sleeping. Time becomes a wholly different resource in the upper echelons of higher education. Is it fair to say that my floormates dump their chores on me because they think their time is worth more than mine? I guess not, but when I see them not stepping up, I can't help but think that they will always shy away from standing in the gap.

It's possible I could end up living elsewhere next year...the cheaper option would be home, which carries dangers of its own. The more expensive option would be secular co-ops (farther from the engineering buildings)--and I would be saddened to think that secular environments would foster better adherence to responsibility than my house. Then again, there isn't a clear vision for the direction and purpose of this house (possibly due to housing discrimination laws), so maybe it's up to us to take point on this. We should not be merely people of Christian persuasion living in proximity to each other. We should be Christians living for each other and for the glory of God.

This brings me back to living above reproach. That's how we should all live--Christians get a terrible rap from the media (public perception) as it is already. Never let it be said that I am not a loving, kind, or responsible person. Extending this behavioral emphasis a bit further, never let it be said that I was careless with alcohol, drugs, or women. May my words be true and meaningful. I will respect everyone as I wish to be respected. Never ask for exceptions to the rules. Do what you're supposed to do--and then do whatever else needs to be done. Lead by example.

Okay. This means I have to start being a better student, doesn't it? Sic semper ducis!

Epoch Coffee House

My second home for studying/productivity has become Epoch Coffee House, followed shortly by the LRC computer lab on the 3rd floor of the ENS building. Epoch's is a representative cross-section of Austin's young population--young at heart anyway. UT undergrad students, bohemians, the occasional indie tech worker, ACC students, graduate students at UT, and probably a whole lot more--the music is loud, the coffee house is 24/7, and the space is generally abundant if you count the outside patio. Right now, it's less than comfortable outside in the forty-something night weather, but I can't complain since I generally find room inside. Free wi-fi and decent food/drink top off the features, though I wish the prices were a bit lower. They can afford it with this volume of customers, however--it's generally packed in the late hours that I'm around here for. I mean, I took the last available parking spot I could find (thank God) when I drove in tonight.

Here at Epoch, everyone is young (figuratively, metaphorically, and literally) and able to handle caffeine and sleep deprivation in copious amounts. There's a four-sided chess board available for play, as well as other board games if you have nothing better to do (we students look on enviously at your free time). People surf Craigslist, MySpace (why??), Facebook, and other hip sites while listening to their mp3 players or computer-stored music. Conversation is easily masked by the ambient tracks, which are controlled by the computer in the back office behind the bar's kitchen area. Sometimes late at night, the servers really blow it with the DJing, starting and stopping tracks in the middle of songs, and sometimes they play some really stupid stuff (misogynistic hip-hop?), but on the whole, they stick to eclectic mixes that aren't too bad, really. I don't have any headphones, so I can't really do anything about it.

Once, I ordered the mango smoothie here, and the lady behind the counter (I've never seen a non-cute lady server here) handed me a glass of mango concentrate--awesomeness! Is that a smoothie? Probably twice the value of what I paid for it, and sweeter than I should have gotten. I think the slightly more expensive pizza made up for that, however.

I really come here for the company and atmosphere though. Friends come here to work too, and the public environment forces me to do work as well. That's about all anyone could ask for from a study nook.

Dusting off the blogger

It's been about 7 months since I last posted--since then I've survived my first semester of grad school and sort of settled into a rhythm of life. It's fairly strange, living with undergrads and not on a closed campus (i.e. I can't bike to class at top speed the whole way). Sometimes it's fun times, other times it can be one trying experience after another. Behavioral norms I once took for granted (civility, grace, etc) are sometimes blurred in the intimacy of daily interaction, which can get on my nerves. But it's been a learning experience for me, and I hope it's been that way for the people around me as well.

Things I'm still doing: rowing, archery, violin with HSL, TXRG scoreboarding (to start March 2nd), CHOP hour-ing (on midterms hiatus, sadly enough), and working out. I've dropped any pretense of having time for IM sports, specifically volleyball, which is sad...to think I once won an intramural championship in it! Also, there's no table tennis going on in my life right now, but that may change if I ever get my butt off the ground and go buy Greg's old racket off of him.

I was going to talk about my living situation, but it turned into a long-winded vent, and it was not very kind. Let's just say that when I have to stand in the gap to do everyone else's chores for them at the expense of my schoolwork, I get cranky. Also, classless behavior causes me to lose respect for you (sad but true fact). In the sentiment of a fellow housemate, what kind of parents did you have anyway? :P

Well, off to study for a midterm. I would have started sooner, but people were playing Rock Band in my room.