An Alma Mater Showdown

This afternoon two universities that gave me pieces of parchment with foil on them played football. It was an alma mater showdown. My first allegiance is to Temple University because I earned my undergrad degree there. So I went to a very blue and white Beaver Stadium wearing cherry and white.

The weather was amazing. Sun shining, a slight breeze, you really couldn’t ask for anything better. I biked to campus, then left my bike in the Tyson Building and walked to the stadium. I sat in section NA, which has bleacher seating. I’m not claustrophobic, but I value my personal space. As the section filled in I quickly realized my personal space was going to be invaded. On my right was a rather attractive blond female, on my left was a rather large and hairy male. Guess which one was continually brushing up against me during the game?

The Temple players did their pregame drills and warm-ups right in front of the section I was in.

A final pregame pep talk.

Hooter stares menacingly into the hostile PSU crowd.

Two girls sitting directly behind me spent the entire pregame and first quarter insulting Temple. I could smell the alcohol on their breath. I ignored them. Early in the first quarter cheerleaders from both schools danced along to music during a timeout. The Temple cheerleaders put on a more impressive show (accompanied by Hooter), prompting one of the intoxicated girls behind me to utter a line I will always cherish: “Temple can’t play football but they can dance.”

In the first quarter Temple played very well. They won the coin toss, deferred, and then held PSU to a three and out. Halfway through the quarter PSU scored a touchdown. On the last play of the quarter Temple kicked a field goal to make the score 7-3. On the first play of the second quarter the Owls pulled off a successful onside kick (the first one I have witnessed in person).

Vaughn Charlton, Temple’s junior QB, played a very nice game. Against a good defense he threw for 205 yards with no turnovers. He also had to deal with numerous drops from his receivers, one of which should have been a touchdown.

Vaughn Charlton prepares to fire.

Late in the second quarter the Lions tacked on two quick touchdowns to make the game much more comfortable for the Beaver Stadium crowd. The crowd still stuck around and was quite loud when the Lions were on defense.

The crowd stands with raised arms and voices as the Owls are pinned inside the 5.

The special teams from both sides were good. Temple went 2-for-2 on field goals, recovered an onside kick, and did not allow the Lions to get much return yardage on kicks. The Lions converted their one field goal opportunity and had a solid day kicking the ball.

Collin Wagner kicks a field goal as JoePa looks on.

As the game rolled on the PSU ground attack started to take a toll on the Temple defense.

Evan Royster navigates the field.

The final score was 31-6. As soon as the game ended Coach Golden and Coach Paterno talked at midfield. Coach Golden played at Penn State (TE, class of ’91) and served as a linebackers coach at Penn State in 2000. The Golden era of Temple football began in 2005, and so far it looks promising. The program has gone from outright laughingstock to snicker-inducer, and might soon elicit just a grimace from teams intending to schedule a cupcake.

I wonder what JoePa said?

I was proud of Temple today. They played hard for 60 minutes. They only turned the ball over once (and had a takeaway of their own), hung close in time of possession, and they kept the Lions from covering the point spread (PSU was a 28 point favorite). Only losers cling to moral victories, but this loss can be viewed as a step in the right direction.

We are Temple. And we can dance.

Keeping a Promise = Golfing

A few weeks ago I promised myself I would play a round of golf before August ended. But then my schedule became rather crazy, and each time I made a tentative tee time with myself it fell through. I began to doubt me.

The weather today was absolutely spectacular. As I sat in the lab looking at fungi and fungal-like organisms under a microscope I began to scheme. My scheming led to a quick bike ride home, a hasty lunch, and a trip to the PSU golf courses.

I chipped and putted for 30 minutes, then drove a few ball balls. I’ve been working on the mechanics of my swing lately (using foam golf balls) and the results are mixed. On the positive side, I now hit approximately 70% of my drives straight. On the negative side, the other 30% is a mix of slices and hooks. My old swing was a slice every time. The other negative is that my straight drives often tend to be struck in a poor direction (often on the line I would want if the ball was going to slice).

My goal in this round was to stay under 100 strokes. That didn’t happen. I knew I was due to revert a bit with my score and today it happened. I shot a 111.

The Good

• I had my best day putting ever (5 one putts and 13 two putts = 31 total putts).
• I strung together three consecutive pars on holes 15, 16, and 17 (par 4, 3, 4).

The Bad

• My score was not <100.
• I only hit two fairways.
• I only reached two greens in regulation.

The Ugly

• I lost three golf balls. Though none of them were hit far from the fairway, they were struck over rises out of sight and I could not find them. Having three wasted strokes for drops was frustrating.
• I registered an 11 on hole 11. This was not cool. I have a strict zero tolerance policy for double digit scores.
• I hit a 3 wood solidly against a tree trunk, the ricochet resulted in a net loss of yardage (though it did move toward the fairway).

All in all it was a good day. I was not about to let a few bad drives and iron shots ruin a beautiful afternoon. If I ever reach the point where I can’t maintain a positive attitude on the golf course I’ll give the game up.

I’ve promised myself a September tee time.

Going Back to My Roots

My time has been dominated by data collection and final processing of my two summer fir experiments. Today I spent the day working with my flooding experiment. I washed roots and prepared shoots and roots for drying. Even though I stayed late I’m not quite to the halfway point yet. Tomorrow might be a long day.

This afternoon I took some pictures that show firs are not fond of flooding. Take a look at this line up of Canaan firs. You’ll notice the root systems are not as developed on the right side of the picture.

Canaan firs after eight weeks of flooding treatments. Left to right: no flooding, 24hr/weekly, 48hr/weekly, 72hr/weekly.

So all my work right now is collecting data to support this picture.

During the afternoon the control panel by the greenhouse ventilation system registered the temperature around 106 (thankfully that’s Fahrenheit). That reading is taken from high in the greenhouse, so I suspect it was a bit cooler down by the floor. I am thankful that I have a very high tolerance for extreme heat.

Once the sun set the temperatures settled to a freezing 84. It was rather tranquil in the greenhouse. NPR supplied classical music, two lights illuminated the scene.

A late night in the greenhouse.

I finally decided to call it a night when I started mixing up the top of the firs with the bottom. Hours of monotony can do strange things. So I biked home in the dark (Ben Hoover: Bike Ninja).

Now I need to make a quick trip to Wal-Mart to pick up a few supplies for tomorrow (which is nearly today).

My leisure is lacking.

A Saturday Campus Mosey

Today I had a few hours of work to do on campus. After I finished it up I decided to walk around campus and collect a few plant pictures. My collection of plant pictures has steadily grown over the past several years. No matter how many I take there are always more that I need. So today I decided to add to the collection.

Over the past couple of months I have noticed many rabbits on campus. They have blended in with the normal squirrel population. I decided to shoot a few today (with my camera, of course).

This rabbit seemed a bit paranoid.

Nice ears.

I wished that I had a carrot because this one was friendly.

This one took one look at me and ran away very quickly.

This fellow was guarding an abandoned loaf of bread.

If I had wanted to I could have taken hundreds of pictures of rabbits and squirrels (and that is not an exaggeration). They were like political signs in November.

But furry critters were not my primary targets. I took many plant pictures, though I will exercise self control and only show you a few.

This is a shot of white oak gall, also known as hedgehog gall, on a white oak leaf. It looks pretty cool.

White oak gall (hedgehog gall)

Here is a nice planting of Acorus (sweetflag). I love the texture of this plant. While tracing plant lineages can be controversial and contradictory, it is thought that Acorus is the earliest monocot we have left.

A planting of Acorus.

Echinaceae purpurea is called purple coneflower. Strangely enough there are white purple coneflowers. And here is proof.

A sea of white purple coneflowers at high tide.

As I walked past the HUB I noticed my reflection walking alongside me. And then there were two of me. The angles of the mirrored wall create a clone. I had to photograph this.

I always suspected there might be two of me.

A Prompt Notification

Bicycle registration at University Park runs on a June-May schedule. I’ve registered my bike for the past three years, each time well before the May 31 deadline. This year I did not. I stopped by the little kiosk on Pollack Road a few times in the past week, but no one was there to handle the registration.

This morning before I left for campus it occurred to me that my registration had expired. Since my schedule was very full today I decided to postpone renewing my bike registration until Tuesday. This thought ran through my mind: the campus parking police are not going to be out checking for expired registrations on bikes one day after the deadline.

I forgot how slow things get on campus during the summer. Evidently the campus parking police needed something to do. They decided to inspect bicycle registrations.

At 12:26pm I walked past my bike on the way to the Life Sciences Building. I noticed a small yellow tag hanging from the handlebar, which was a notice of expired registration. No fine. Just a reminder that I needed to register my bike. So that means less than five hours after I parked my bike the campus police found it. Impressive.

By the way, when I left campus today at 5:30pm I discovered that the notice had been removed from my bike sometime during the afternoon.

There is a good chance you really do not care about this. In fact, you probably shouldn’t. But this is my blog and I reserve the right to post mundane stories from time to time.