Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

So... the Northwestern Wildcats were 2-0 going into this weekend's games. I had not realized that they'd made the #23 spot in both major polls. NU hasn't been in the NCAA Division I top 25 since October 2013 -- I remember, because I was still in the hospital watching them. Now don't get too excited. We haven't hit the rest of the Big Ten juggernaut yet, so most years any top 25 ranking happens early in the season. On the other hand, some of the mighty Big Ten teams have struggled early. Michigan has lost a game. And #1 Ohio State was tied 10-10 at the half with Northern Illinois today -- they only won by 20-13, not a Buckeye slaughterfest. I keep telling people, you've got to take the Huskies seriously.

Just before I went to take my nap at 12:10, after a late breakfast following my ER adventures (DW) (LJ), I remembered that the Northwestern game was actually going to be on in West Michigan.

#23 Northwestern at Duke, 12:30pm on MyTV -- cable channel 789.

No problem, I figured they'd still be at it when I got up in two hours. And they were. Northwestern, wearing white and new dumb looking Wildcat logo helmets -- much prefer the simple N logo -- was ahead 12-7 with most of the third quarter to go. So as we settled down to lunch, it was Northwestern football.

Duke managed a field goal, and it was 12-10. Then we got a touchdown and the game ended at 19-10.

Hey, ho, Northwestern is three-and-oh! Go Cats!

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Last week of August and the weather was practically fall-like. The highs in the 70s, except for one day where I think it only got up to 69°F. Lows were in the 50s, and even the high 40s.

It's September now and... ugh.

Yesterday was one of the top five hot days of 2015. Still didn't break 90°F in Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo, although Mount Pleasant was 90°F on Tuesday and 91°F on Wednesday. Lows have been in the high 60s, low 70s. Heavy fog Tuesday morning. Lighter fog Wednesday morning. And Thursday? Murk. As in humid.

The air feels awful. And in prepping for the Fall Semester -- starts Tuesday! -- I came into Kalamazoo twice. Wednesday and now Thursday. Yesterday was pleasant. But today... ugh. The A.C. in Everett Tower is doing nothing. The air is just as thick and heavy and damp as outside, albeit a little bit cooler. As in a few degrees. Not sure how long it is practical to be here today, although I now hear a background rumbling in the building. Is the A.C. back on? We'll know in a while.

Right now, not only is my skin clammy, but my palms are sticking to the wrist wrest on OUEST. (Say that fast six times!) Thankfully, years ago I rigged up a Radio Shack 110V 5" computer cooling fan and have the air circulating in my little office.

It feels cooler if I turn the overhead lights off.

At home, I had the annual heat pump and furnace checks done on Tuesday, and the big accordion pleated air filter replaced -- not sure that got done last year. But we're in good shape. Had the batteries changed in the thermostat controller. 3xAAA and the old ones tested in the yellow on my tester, so glad I thought of that. High tech worries on a system that used to use just a simple coiled bimetallic strip and a glass bead with two wires and a drop of mercury. Progress.

Gas prices. Well, the BP refinery in Indiana is back in operation. I suppose you could say that gas prices are dropping, though they never seem to fall as fast as they rise. This all while crude oil is running under $40/bbl and in fact is so low that the dreaded fracking oil sources are shutting down exploration and calming down production because oil is too cheap to pay the bills. I'd say that the free market is doing what environmentalists were unable to do to save the planet -- except oil is not exactly a free market.

After regular topped locally at $2.99.9/gal, it dropped to $2.72.9 last week. Wednesday is was $2.52.9/gal and Thursday $2.50.9/gal. "They" are still talking about under two buck a gallon gas by Christmas -- it was supposed to before Labor Day, but then the BP in Indiana "crisis" flared up.

The big summer road projects are beginning to show signs of getting somewhere. Usually during the summer I take "the back way" to connect from M-45 Lake Michigan Drive to M-11 Wilson Avenue. It's curvy and pleasant and takes you away from the big parking lots and three sets of traffic lights at the Meijers in Standale. But... this summer they took out and replaced a bridge. Then they did roadwork on Wilson. And they are currently rebuilding the M-11 28th Street/I-196 intersection and interchange, resulting in me avoiding that area and some ugly detours. Just as well I didn't have summer classes this year.

The bridge on the back road is done and yesterday they were painting a few miles of lines on all the shiny new pavement. Yay. Similarly the new paving on Wilson is done. And all four legs of the I-196 interchange are open again, so I can use my usual routing if I so choose again.

As for Western Michigan University, one can't complain that they don't want to finish up New Student Week with a bang:

The Bronco football team opens its season with a matchup vs. Michigan State at 7 p.m. tomorrow. Sept. 4, at Waldo Stadium. Many WMU offices will close at 2:30 p.m. in anticipation of increased traffic on campus.

Western has never beaten a Big 10 opponent -- and the Spartans are highly ranked nationally. I believe only Ohio State has a better national ranking in the Big 10. Of course rankings mean nothing now and very little later when they are used to justify the networks' choices for bowl games and the mythical pseudo-playoff national champion.

However... I expect Western to give it a good start. And I'll post the results Friday night with the appropriate school LJ icon for the winner. Full disclosure -- I work at Western and indeed worked for a while on a second Ph.D. in Science Education here AND I like Michigan State and have something like two Continuing Education credits from them for taking the six week 2004 Clarion workshop when it was still held in East Lansing.

Tuesday will be a parking zoo on campus. Fortunately, I have the handicapped hangtag, which means I don't have to compete for parking spaces. See, they don't actually ticket students for parking in faculty spots for the first two weeks or so -- and the students know this.

Ugh, indeed.

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Outback Bowl Finale

In the last post (DW), I mentioned that Michigan State went for the tie 27-27 against Georgia with 19 seconds to go.

On to overtime.

OT1 -- no scores. OT2 -- trade field goals. OT3 -- MSU scores a field goal, Georgia goes wide right.

33-30 MSU.

Snow Update

M-40 in Allegan County is getting hammered -- Hamilton MI is up to 15" right now. There's a reason I don't drive M-40 to get to WMU in the wintertime.

Dr. Phil

Welcome to 2012!

At long last the somewhat crappy miserable year that was 2011 is done. Yay. Alas, New Year's Day as a single holiday has been ruined by the twin conspiracies of the calendar and greedy graspy capitalists. Once New Year's Day included a solid day of college bowl games, plus the Rose Parade, and the last several years an outdoors NHL hockey game. But 1 January 2012 is a Sunday, can't do that stuff until Monday.

Then everyone wanted their bowl game to be shown unopposed and they also created this worthless BCS Bowl Championship Series to create a mythical NCAA Division I "national champion", so the big bowl games are no longer on New Year's -- or January 2nd this year -- and the bowl games are spread out until MONDAY January 9th. Ridiculous!

Anyway, we welcomed in the New Year with the traditional eggnog -- and then I had some pickled herring. Mrs. Dr. Phil has given up on combining these two good luck foods from my family in one sitting. As I said the other day (DW), "My theory is after having hit your gut like a bomb, if that's the worst thing to happen in the new year -- it's good luck!"

Our NY/Sunday morning breakfast downstairs with Sam and the Sunday paper had two kinds of stollen, as did Christmas' breakfast (DW), though we added kumquats but moved the kielbasa to lunch. The last few years we've had Shrimp Sauterne for dinner, but this year we had a salmon and mushroom dish -- very yummy and more fish for luck! Oh, and Iron Chef tonight is also farm raised Atlantic salmon. (competitive grin)

The sabbatical is, I suppose, over. Classes begin Monday January 9th. I shall have to get serious about prep. And Epic ConFusion is in like three weeks -- 20-22 January 2012 -- and I have to blog about my panels. So I suppose I have to get busy. So much for vacation days... (grin)

Happy New Year, good friends. May you have a good year even if you didn't scarf down fish. Buckle your seatbelt and make sure your seat is in the upright and locked position. The year is off to a start.


Dr. Phil

Sacrificial Lamb Week

Seems a lot of big football teams schedule non-conference games, often against lower tier opponents, for their first game. So there I was, flipping channels after the Cubs game hit a 7th inning rain delay, and ABC was showing Western Michigan University at Michigan. While The Ohio State University was beating up on Akron 42-0, Western had bravely scored first blood, 7-0. Then 7-7, then the Broncos were about to score and Michigan intercepted and ran it back for a TD. Michigan scored again, but must've missed an extra point, 20-7.

At this point I changed channels. So color me surprised when I checked the score and saw the final as 34-10 -- not bad, Broncos. But there was a cryptic note, cut off. So I investigated on ESPN. Seems both teams agreed to call the game near the end of the 3rd quarter -- due to lightning.

The Wolverines were driving for another score when the game was suspended because of lightning. Nearly an hour later, the game was called with the result and statistics standing in what school officials say is the first weather-shortened game in the 132-year history of college football's winningest team.

Huh.

Not sure I've ever heard of a football game called before.

Meanwhile Northwestern played a more regular non-conference foe and had a more civilized win, NU 24 Boston College 17. Ah, a real college football game. (grin)

Dr. Phil

49 Hours To be Precise

Under DST2007, this was the weekend of "Fall Back" from the twice annual clock changes. Only one device -- an alarm clock -- automatically fails the DST2007 test. Even our digital thermostat with the new furnace knows both sets of DST rules and so pretty much only those date insensitive clocks needed to be changed.

With recent weather dipping down into the mid-20s and low-30s at night, and a couple of visible flakeages during Friday afternoon in West Michigan, it's been some nice fall weather lately. Today on Sunday it's finally the full blue sky and sunny I've wanted in order to shoot some reference photos with different lenses and settings with my Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n. (Update: wrote this note too early, haze settling in, it's wan sunlight and no bright blue sky anymore.)

The Bagel To Batteries To Litter Triangle Trade

We went out to Holland yesterday on errands. Stocked up on bagels -- got two baker's dozen. Felt good that I didn't get them in Kalamazoo on Friday, because Saturday they were half price. Then ran by the Holland Post Office to mail my mother's birthday card, and found they had a 4pm pickup which the Allendale P.O. doesn't, so that was a win. Then circled back and located a new Batteries Plus store. Our two Motorola Razr cellphones need new batteries, but I couldn't find any Motorola replacements that weren't actually old stock. Bought a pair of new Rayovac Li ion batteries, so unlike everyone else in the world, we'll continue to have cell phones that are two-and-a-half years old. Shocking, I know. Mrs. Dr. Phil also got a new watch battery for her Pulsar watch with no numbers and no second hand, which was got in Hancock MI back in the late 80s, I think.

And since the weather was fine, we drove over to Grandville to get some cat litter and some paper and a memory card. Finally home, just in time to watch most of the Northwestern football game.

Gas Prices On The Move

Suspicious of motives? Moi?

Gasoline in West Michigan has ping-ponged a bit of late, but just before the election it dropped down to $2.67.9/gal. After the election, when many business and big oil friendly politicians get elected, gas shot up 18¢/gal to $2.95.9/gal, dropped briefly to $2.90.9 Saturday morning, then up another 19¢ to $3.09/9/gal an hour later.

I heard a pundit on the news explaining that gas prices rose because (a) there was a fire at a small Chicago refinery and (b) the Federal Reserve dumped $600 billion into the money supply and "devalued the dollar". Ri-ight...

I think gas prices were kept low all summer, compared to an earlier prediction of $3.50/gal summer gas, by the BP oil spill in the Gulf and the Enbridge oil spill into the Kalamazoo River. Now that both of those are no longer daily news items, and those evil socialists in Washington have been roundly defeated, I am NOT surprised that gas prices are jumping. And now that we've broken the three buck barrier, I expect $3.50/gal gasoline Real Soon Now. The frugal local conservatives should chew on that for a while. (evil grin)

Football & Such

Illinois scores 65 points yesterday. In a football game. And still lose. Michigan won 67-65 in 3OT. I turned into NU scoring 3 TDs in a row against Penn State, then PSU managed to run 3 unanswered TDs before we turned away, finally beating Northwestern 35-21. Sigh. At least Joe Paterno got his 400th win.

Before last Sunday's 60 Minutes, we'd never heard of Zenyatta, the mare who was 19-0 and going for a 20-0 retirement at Saturday's Breeder's Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. Despite another example of her terrific out-of-last-place acceleration, she just barely lost. A 19-1 career.

Last weekend's football had been disastrous. Michigan State ran into the University of Iowa at home buzz saw -- I've always maintained that Iowa at home is one of the toughest games in the Big Ten. And undefeated #1 D-II Grand Valley State University went up to Houghton lost last weekend to Michigan Tech in football. Unbelievable.

I can't root for anybody.

Dr. Phil

Sigh

We were out running around for much of the daylight hours on Saturday -- bright and clear and sunny and warming up to 35°F. Mrs. Dr. Phil was off to the GVSU Fall Commencement as Library faculty -- this was held downtown Grand Rapids in the Van Andel Arena. I spent some 2½ hours at the nearby Ferris Nut and Coffee House, transcribing some notes for the current novel project GRG. When we got back together, we had a pleasant lunch, then did some shopping up at Schuler's Books and Music on Alpine.

While this was going on, starting at 1pm in Florence AL, the NCAA Division II Football Championship began between the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats and the Grand Valley State University Lakers. We got home in the 3rd quarter, after listening to bits and pieces of the game on the radio. Alas, the game did not go our way and GVSU lost 30-23.

Still, second place and being in the Championship game yet again in this decade for GVSU is quite the accomplishment. And we salute you.

If this stuff was easy, everyone would be a winner. And at least in D-II, one can actually say with a playoff system that we know who that team is each year. BCS? You taking notes? No, I didn't think so.

Dr. Phil

Variation In Traditions

For quite a number of years, we've actually done our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday or even Saturday, and have gone out on Thanksgiving to see some movies. Now I can hear it now -- doesn't this make you a hypocrite after your rant about Thanksgiving shopping? If you like. But I consider going to entertainment a bit different than Christmas shopping or looking for bargains for yourself. After all, people are going out on Thanksgiving to those big football games and the Big Balloon parades, etc. And frankly, the alternative is that a lot of multiplexes are located in, wait for it, shopping malls. And come Black Friday, people who don't like to drive into crowded places (like us'ns) won't go to those cinemas.

This year, though, we had some company and ended up doing the Turkey, et al, on Thanksgiving. So it was that we drove off to a movie on Friday. Away from any malls. Otherwise, we might've gone to see Bright Star, a four-star Jane Campion movie about Yeats. And no, we weren't going off to see sparkly vampires.

The Blind Side [PG-13]

Holland 7 Theatre #7, 2pm, 4×$6.75

It seems like a movie we've seen before. Big, really big, black inner city underprivileged kid is looked upon as meat for the local high school football team. Try to show him a new life and tutor the hell out of him, and hope to feed him to the Great Southern God of Football. Maybe make him illiterate or with a big chip on his shoulder. Doesn't even have to be a football movie, it could be Drumline.

It would be easy to say that The Blind Side is that movie we've seen before. Except I think that would do a series of disservices to this film and -- since this is based on a true story -- a disservice to the real people involved. Predictable? Somewhat. But we found it damned entertaining. And though I hadn't heard the real story of Michael Oher, or of the book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis, I found the characters pretty realistic and compassionate in a way very different from most of the movies out there.

Quinton Aaron as "Big Mike" -- can we say he plays his role low key with enormous energy? Can we say his character is hiding in plain sight and we get to watch him blossom? Sure. But of course what the reviews are going to talk about is Sandra Bullock. Now I've watched her since she had to drive a bus in Speed and really enjoyed her quirky offbeat characters. As Leigh Anne Touhy, we get to watch Sandra Bullock playing a real grownup. A force of nature. Now realize, she's as foreign to my life as Michael is. Rich. Driven. Southern Republican. A former cheerleader. But she's sincere -- and she has doubts. And dammit, at least twice in the movie she admits she's made a mistake, which would be very hard for her character, and she sucks it up. The queen of a string of romantic/action comedy movies has made an admittedly lightweight serious feel-good movie -- and dammit, I suspect she's going to earn herself an Oscar nomination, if not a statue.

The little brother of the family nearly steals the show -- the kid is brilliant as the plugged in operator -- wonder who he is supposed to have inherited that from. (grin) And a whole slew of NCAA Division I Southern head football coaches play themselves, which is a real treat. The wheeling and dealing is a bit comic, but it's as close as I'll ever get to sitting across a coffee table from a major league recruiter. (double-grin) And in this film, the crack using mother who lost custody of all her children over the years, isn't trying to get money from the new mom, trading a son for drugs. It would be so easy to complain, and I'm not sure it isn't something of a legitimate complaint, that this is some sort of white saves black from themselves story. Except that this all is set in motion by a black man helping out his own son and someone else's son, followed by a simple desire to help someone in a cold rain wearing nothing but soaked T-shirt and shorts and soggy tennies.

Since this is based on real events, it is interesting that there are things they decided not to do, decisions I think were made to avoid being distracting. The real Michael Oher graduated from Old Miss in 2009. Back up four years and he graduated from high school in 2005. So the action in this movie probably starts in 2002-2004, though I don't think it says. That's not all that long ago, but at the same time I don't think they made any attempt to adjust for the time period. Prior to Obama's run for the White House last year, the only people doing fistbumps that I ever saw were with Howie Mandel. (grin) Like I said, no distracting period stuff. Second, while it is crucial that the school involved was a private Christian school, and Sandra wears a lovely not-so-simple gold cross all the time, we never see any church scenes. These are the things they didn't do, and yet the movie clocks in at a solid 128 minutes. This isn't some 79 minute hardly-a-movie.

If you go, stay for beginning of the credits. They end the movie with Michael being drafted by the Baltimore Ravens -- and this is real footage. We get to see the family and people, and they did a fine job of casting, especially Sandra Bullock's hair (grin) and Kathy Bates (who is in everything lately) as the tutor. And an interesting side note, given the big debate in Michigan about whether to continue the subsidies to filmmakers shooting in the state, this movie about Memphis and Old Miss was shot in Georgia under their state program.

I don't think you particularly have to be a sports fan to see this. Perhaps it's that rare breed that qualifies as a guy's sports triumph movie and a chick flick that isn't a romance. Go figure. Or at least go see The Blind Side.

Recommended

Trailers: Invictus puts Morgan Freeman is as Nelson Mandela, trying to unify white and black South Africa, and picking on Matt Damon and the national rugby team to do it by winning the World Cup. I think South Africa will come out looking better than in District 9. Up In The Air, with George Clooney as a a busy traveler who swoops in to help fire employees -- will have to see the reviews of this one. We'll skip the life feed of Glenn Beck's The Christmas Sweater, trust me.

Dr. Phil

Hours Along M-46

East from Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo, it's a straight shot across Michigan on I-96 or I-94 respectively. Further north, however, and going east-west puts you on the mercy of many state roads and many small towns. Some routes are better than others.

Friday afternoon I had to drive off to Midland MI for Saturday's Michigan Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers Fall conference. US-131 north to M-46 east to M-47 north to US-10. It's most of two hours -- at least an hour-and-a-half -- on M-46. Lots of harvested fields, though there are still many pale wheat colored stands of drying field corn. Many small ponds and lakes, all with floating rafts of ducks and a few geese.

In The Cold And The Rain

Edmore MI lies about halfway between the north-south routes of US-127 and US-131. When we'd drive back and forth to the U.P. and West Michigan, we'd come down the spine of the Lower Peninsula on I-75/US-127, then cross over on M-46. We'd stop at the Burger King in Edmore, which was by the big Edmore Industrial Park. Alas, their big factory closed a few years ago, but there's a McDonald's on the other side of the road now.

As I drove into Edmore around 4pm on Friday, I saw a sign for DETOUR M-46 and was by it. Huh. Well, if I had to turn around... But instead of finding say a Bridge Out or a Road Closed ahead, I started seeing people stream into downtown Edmore, bundled up and carrying umbrellas. It's an October weekend in mid-Michigan. It's Homecoming time and the town is going to close the main drag for their Homecoming Parade. Yay, small town living!

On the other side of US-127, I ran into another town -- Wheeler? -- setting up for their Homecoming Parade. The stretch of downtown street parking places were all sporting upside-down plastic recycling bins to prevent people from parking. But they hadn't closed the road yet. An enormous green John Deere harvester of some description, gleaming and decked out with signs, was making its way to the east end of town and the start of the parade route. Just missed having to detour.

At Merrill, though, I wasn't so lucky, and followed a line of cars and trucks through a few back streets as the latecomers streamed in towards M-46 and the parade was all lined up and ready to go. It was all very orderly and well-done. So small hometown and yet with the drizzle and the umbrellas and the enthusiasm, it was wonderful. I'd have parked and watched if I hadn't wanted to push on...

A Morning Surprise

Stayed overnight at the Midland Hampton Inn. Needed a nice room and WiFi to do my PowerPoint presentation. (grin) There was a parking spot right by the front entrance, so I just parked there and brought in my gear through the drizzle rather than park under the overhang and then have to re-park.

In the morning, as I rolled my gear out the front door the sky was blue and the sun in the East was blazing bright. I'd moved the squeegee out from by the tailgate to the back seat of the Blazer the day before, figuring I'd need to shed the water to see -- but those big drops of water were not liquid. Yup. Hard freeze overnight. Took three yanks to get the driver's door open as the wet on the seals had frozen up. Defroster, rear wires, scraping, washer fluid, and after 5-10 minutes of effort, it was time to head south to the Dow Science Center and the MIAAPT meeting.

An Early Escape

My talk was scheduled for 9:45, but we were running late. "Meet Me On Facebook: Social Networking For Supplemental Office Hours" / Philip Edward Kaldon, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI. Talk went well, got good feedback.

The Dow Science Center was hosting the meeting, which is usually at a college or high school, because they had brought in a major Albert Einstein exhibit. I was going to stay for the museum show, but following a number of people out to the parking lot to unload our gear, I realized that the weather was still nice, but clouding over, and it would be nice to go through all the myriad construction zones on M-46 and US-131 in daylight. So I didn't do the exhibit. Pity.

But I had a good drive home, made good time and was able to get in an hour nap before dinner.

A win-win all the way around.

Dr. Phil

It's Puppy Bowl V

Yes, it's 3pm EST and we are still avoiding NBC until the Super Bowl actually starts, so it's Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl! And Kitty Halftime Show.

How can you not like puppies?

Dr. Phil