You Might Like to Know

We have all heard fish stories, like the one, “like my friend, like he caught this HUGE, like 5 foot long fish with a shoelace, some Ramen and a ping pong paddle, like I know!  It was so awesome, and then, like when he went to get his phone to take a picture of it, this kid was drowning.  So, like my friend, he had to save him.  And by the time he got back to his ping pong paddle, someone STOLE his fish!  Like, that is so uncool.  I wasn’t there but like, my other friend, she said it must be true because that guy is totally missing a shoelace now.”
Well Katie used her lightweight rod with 6 lb test line to pull in this whopper Red Fish.  It took about 12 minutes to reel the thing in, she though she hooked a rock.  Just as she heaved the thing up onto the jetty, the line gave out and snapped.  She jumped down to the rock grabbed the line and the fish and sealed her position as Fishmaster of the Christy clan.  My estimate is that the fish weighed somewhere around 14 lbs, it felt about as heavy as a bowling ball.
All hale the Fishmaster.

 

It was quite the event, the whole school turned out to watch 30 sorority girls chug a pitcher of beer or in some cases like Sarah – champagne

At stake were pride, bragging rights and completion of one of the events that make up the “full Aggie experience”

My little nipper was able to guzzle her allotment of alcoholic beverage (I believe it was Don Bubba Perignon) in 35 seconds catching her ring (previously dropped to the bottom of the pitcher) between her teeth. This picture is actually a reenactment after the queasy victory burp.

There was much cheering from the crowd and a good time was had by all, even those girls who immediately ran to the small patch of grass, hands on knees and gave back some of their hard swallowed libation.  It was funny to see the people rushing over to them to capture the event on film.  I myself used a telephoto lens. I spared you the details but look at the lower right side of the poster picture.

After such an event, you can imagine how proud we all must be.

 

Sarah is going to dunk her ring today.  For the 98% of you out there who are not Aggies or related to one, that sounds like a bad thing but for a Fighten Texas Aggie it is a rite of passage.  As a regular reader of this blog you know Sarah got her A&M ring back in September and has been wearing it proudly.  Today her and 29 other girls from the ZTA house are going to christen their rings by dropping them into a pitcher of beer then chugging the pitcher till only the ring (hopefully) is left.  Slurred speeches and projectile vomiting are sure to follow.  The whole family is invited to witness the event

I know what you are thinking. “My, what a fascinating tradition, it reminds me of the Orange County CA fist birthday event where a birthday party is thrown for the first born child on their first birthday where the mother of the child performs a pole dance for friends and family”  I was thinking the same thing. 

Sometimes it’s hard to draw a straight line from what you celebrate to how you celebrate it.

Come to find out, there are many of these college rites.  For instance, at the University of Minnesota they are known for their Chemical Engineering program, what is less well known is how the masters program students complete the program.  Successful completion of this ritual ensures previous graduates will do everything they can to secure gainful employment for the new graduates.  Friends and family are gathered at Powderhorn Lake Park where they form a large circle (sometimes called the “circumpunct”), in the center of the circle  are the candidates for graduation and 3 Thomomys talpoides (to you and me they are gophers).  There is a festive atmosphere, many of the candidates have been drinking.  When the golden sandals are slapped together it begins.

The candidates and gophers scatter with friends and family keeping all the participants inside the circle.  In order to successfully leave the circle each candidate must pee on one of the gophers.  Its not as easy as it sounds the gophers aren’t too crazy about this plus the grandparents are watching.  This is often called the (NH₂)₂CO Rodeo.  Not everyone gets to leave the circumpunct a winner.  Female candidates are woefully under represented in the program.  This tradition goes back to the early days of the university.  Hard to believe?  How do you think the University of Minnesota chose its mascot?

 

Windows 7

It’s good.  I have been using it for a couple of months now and I have been impressed.  For most of you the difference isn’t so great as to cause you to immediately run to the store, buy a copy and disrupt your PC world while you go through an upgrade.  BUT  If you have an opportunity to make a change, I recommend it.

W7 has some very slick visuals and animations, some of which were in Vista.  They require a decent graphics card.  Lots of standard graphics chips will run it but if you have an older notebook, it may not.  You would still get the steak but not much sizzle.

G11 Keyboard

After many many years I have upgraded my keyboard.  Spending so much time using it the choice of which one is an important decision to me.  It seems I have chosen wisely (at least for my meat paws)  The Logitech G11 is known as a gaming keyboard, it is wired not wireless, it is BIG and it has a bunch of extra keys (G-Keys).  It also has lighted keys for those late night sessions.  The higher end version, G15 includes a LCD display which is completely unnecessary in my opinion.

Of all its features the one I like the most is it’s feel.  I know this is very subjective.  I like a “substantial” feel. My favorite was the IBM AT keyboard that made that loud clicking noise that they still use in movies today.  You can buy a much cheaper keyboard but if you spend a lot of time on yours, you might want to give it a feel.

Kids today . . . they think college is just one party followed by a get together after a sorority function.  Well I just came across this portal in time, and I remember how it used to be.

Yes, me and my Valedictorian-full-academic-scholarship study partner were getting in a little extra credit work before our fellowship meeting.  I remember it well, this picture was taken on a Friday night.  We used to get a little crazy on the weekends and study in our rooms instead of the library – hey, it was the 70s everyone was doing it!


p.s.  I bet you didn’t know Linda was a Keyette