dr_phil_physics | Entries tagged with msu

It was billed as the biggest football game... for Kalamazoo's Western Michigan University, at least. They stuffed 35,000 people into Waldo Stadium, many of them Spartan fans, for a game starting around 7pm Friday night.

I never saw any of it. No one was carrying the game on TV. Apparently being #5 in the nation for Michigan State didn't warrant getting covered, when it was just an early September sacrificial lamb. But you have to be careful with early games. The Michigan Wolverines on Thursday night lost to the Utah Utes 24-17, running about a touchdown behind the whole game, I gather.

But I promised to start off with the winning team's LJ icon, so here's the deal.

So the 11 o'clock news on Channel 3 WWMT had the Spartans scoring first, 7-0. On the kickoff, though, Western managed to run it back 100 yards. Tied, 7-7. I think they said the runner had a 70 yard return on his first place last season, too.

Final score:

#5 Michigan State University -- 37
Western Michigan University  -- 24

Sounded like a good game. Though Western didn't actually anticipate winning, they did want to show well, and having been 17 points behind at one point, finishing within two TDs has to be considered a good performance. Close enough.

Good job, Broncos. Off you go -- have a great season!

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Current Music: Danger Zone / Kenny Loggins (Top Gun soundtrack)

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

Current Mood: soggy

An Unexpected Passing

After I'd broken out the laptop at ConFusion, there was a Facebook posting from Sarah Gibbons. Now a fellow itinerant college professor, back in 2004 she was a grad student at Michigan State and beloved by those of us at the 2004 Clarion workshop as "our copy girl". One can only imagine the hours she endured making more than two dozen copies of the 115 stories with a collective word count of 385,562.

On Friday she said that Lister Matheson had died the night before. Lister had been Director of the 2004 Clarion workshop.

Lister introducing Jeffrey Ford at a reading at Archives Books, 1 July 2004. (Click on photo for larger.)

Lister holding court in his kitchen at the Clarion BBQ 4 July 2004 -- it's a terrible picture but it was muggy, rainy and dark, and the flash-and-focus on my tiny Sony U30 got fooled.

Lister Malcolm Matheson Haslett, Michigan and Lochalsh, Scotland was born on May 19, 1948 in Glasgow, Scotland and died on January 19, 2012 of complications arising from a form of aplastic anemia. He was 63. Lister was the eldest son of Charles and Margaret Anderson Matheson (née Lister). In the United States he is survived by his son, Calum, and life partner, Tess Tavormina. In Scotland he is survived by his mother, his sister and brother-in-law Charlotte and John Barbour, his brother Calum, and cousins Edna Shoebridge, Robert Sinclair, Gordon Sinclair, Evelyn Topp, Ian Fraser, Malcolm Freeman, Susan Steward, Heather Marskell, Charles Findlay, Hilda Ross, Farquhar Matheson, and many nieces and nephews. At the time of his death Lister was Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Michigan State University (MSU), where he had taught since 1986. He was an alumnus of the University of Glasgow (Ph.D., 1978), and served as an Assistant Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary while completing his degree. From 1975 to 1986, he worked at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) as an Associate Editor of the Middle English Dictionary and Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature. His scholarly interests lay in the study of the languages and literatures of England and Scotland and especially in their medieval chronicles. His expertise and publication history were wide-ranging and authoritative. Lister's magisterial study of the Middle English Prose Brut - the legendary and historical account of the founding of Britain - is widely recognized by his peers as the definitive work on the topic. At MSU he taught courses in the history of the English language, Old English language, Old and Middle English Literature, Geoffrey Chaucer, Arthurian literature, medieval English drama, comparative epic, and Scottish history and culture. For several years he directed the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop in Lyman Briggs School at MSU. Lister's family and friends will treasure his memory as loving son and brother, devoted father and life partner, dedicated colleague and loyal friend, and esteemed professor and mentor to many undergraduate and graduate students. He was generous with his time, knowledge, and talents and was keen to spur on the intellectual growth and scholarly pursuits of his students. Lister was a natural host whose large heart, expansive soul, and mischievous sense of the silly and ridiculous endeared him to those who knew him and made strangers feel immediately welcome and appreciated. He was a gifted raconteur, actor, reader of poetry, singer of inspired and inane songs, and connoisseur of haggis and single malt Scotch. He lived a full life, travelled widely, and absorbed everything. He cherished his family and friends and was always the animating spirit around any crowded table, sharing good food, drink, and lively conversation. His family and a very large crowd of admiring friends shall miss him terribly. A memorial service for Lister will be held on the MSU campus this spring, at a time and location still to be announced. Lister's ashes will be interred in Lochalsh, Scotland and there will rest honorably in the company of many generations of Mathesons. The family asks those who wish to honor Lister's memory to contribute financially to the ARC Great Lakes Blood Services Region (please add "Blood Services" in the memo line), American Red Cross, 1800 E. Grand River Avenue, Lansing, MI 48912 or by donating blood at the Lansing Blood Donor Center of the American Red Cross, 1729 East Saginaw Street, Lansing, MI 48912 or at any blood donor center or blood drive convenient to them. The family is being served by Gorsline Runciman Funeral Homes, East Lansing. On line condolences may be made to www.greastlansing.com.

Published in Lansing State Journal on January 24, 2012

Anything In A Coffee Cup Is Coffee

Lister could be cantankerous, but it was clear he loved writing and writers. His field was more Chaucer than Tolkien or Clarke, but he saw the connections with Literature and SF/F. With Clarion moved to San Diego, alas I had no need to go to MSU for Clarion readings in the summer and we lost touch. Condolences and sympathy to all who knew or worked with him.

Dr. Phil

UPDATE 1/25/2012 Wed:

A public memorial service will be held on (Saturday) April 7, at 2 pm, in the MSU Alumni Chapel (we chose the date for reasons of family schedules, with regrets that it may conflict with religious observances of the Easter weekend and beginning of Passover).

Current Mood: melancholy

Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Those Who Lie In Wait, Dream Deep

Entries tagged with msu

In State Showdown in Kalamazoo

Ugh

Lister Malcolm Matheson (1948-2012)

Profile

April 2016

Links

________________

Email: drphil at

dr-phil-physics.com

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags