ModestGeniusXL

O the Randomness...

When we say we miss an artist that's passed (like MJ) is that really accurate?  I mean they are still around in their music and videos so what is there to miss?  It's not like any of us really knew them personally

They've really got "Fast and Furious 6" in the works??  Now that I think about it...I'm okay with that

I still have no idea what Kanye meant by he would have married Kate and Ashley if he was Chris Williams.  Who's Chris Williams??

Despite the fact that plenty of other folks have been bashing it, I'm rather fond of that ticker that The Book has recently added

Someone pointed out that only nosy people like it.  Well there you go!

If I see one more hip-hop artist/group trying to make a come-up in Des Moines...where's all the R&B local talent??

So I was watching the Patriots/Chiefs game on Monday Night Football and thought for a minute that Brady was scared of the Chiefs because of what they did to him last time they played.  Then he quickly got over it

Speaking of which, no I haven't intentionally been omitting my "Hail to the Chiefs" posts.  Let's face it..there just hasn't been a lot to talk about recently regarding their abysmal performances

Now my Cyclones on the other hand...MAD props to them for upsetting the #2 team in the country this past Friday night!  Still mad that I had tickets to the game and didn't go because I thought they would get blown out.  That's what I get

Never thought I would see the day when a Ford Taurus was considered a premium vehicle.  Next thing you know Taco Bell will be considered gourmet dining #obscureDemolitionManreference

I'm still baffled at why the window washers were cleaning the exterior windows at the office while it was raining outside

I don't think it was a coincidence that most of Marc Anthony's back-up dancers in his recent American Music Awards performance looked like J-Lo

The new Verizon phone has beats by Dre on it??  That's what's up.  Almost makes me want to switch to Verizon and get rid of my iPhone.  Yeah....right...

Can't believe Zombie Burger stopped selling onion rings.  What's a burger joint without onion rings??  Which reminds me...guess I better get that restaurant out there before I forget about that too

Watching those old shows like "The Big Valley" and "Bonanza" always cracks me up. Those cats are walking around dirty, dusty wild, wild west roads all day long and never have a speck of dirt or dust on their outfits

Everytime I look at Madden Football I laugh at how far video games have come since the days of M Network. How many remember that Atari gem?

Was that Amber Rose I just saw starring in a high-end alcohol commercial?

Read that MidAmerican Energy suggests keeping the thermostat at 60 degrees during the winter. I don't know about them but I like keeping warm during the winter

Saw photos of the new auditorium at my alma mater. WOW! Can't wait to see it in person. NHS has come a long way since "The Pajama Game" in the gymnasium

Dear Mickey Ds: It's probably not a good idea to have the hard of hearing employees taking orders

I wonder what the over/under is for number of food-related posts we'll see on The Book today.  Mine included

If they will gossip with you then best believe they will gossip about you

'Nuff said

 

 

Time for Some Random

So The Book has made some changes again which means people are complaining about it again.  As an FB friend pointed out, they do realize that their use of Facebook is completely voluntary AND free, right?

I could really use a manager and/or assistant for this XL-Images business.  But I love how business is getting to the point where that would even be a consideration 

I'm rather excited about the lights I just obtained that will now allow me to add light when shooting somewhere that needs a little extra boost.  Soon as I get a portable power source so I can shoot anywhere anytime then it will be even better

Speaking of which, the squatting pose that Lil Kim made famous ie NOT sexy. Whether shot from the front or back. It looks like you're trying to take a dump.  Please don't do it. And if you know someone that's thinking of doing it when taking pictures, please stop them

As long as we're on the subject of The Book, some folks should really learn to incorporate spellcheck before posting updates.  And misspelling words for the sake of trying to be cool is not cute.  It just makes you look stupid

Can we please get a shout out to my ISU Cyclones that are now 3-0?  WOO-HOO!  Have to celebrate now before they start getting into the heart of that Big 12 schedule where they have to face Texas AND Oklahoma this year

On the flipside, let's all offer our condolences to my Chiefs for the rest of this season.  They are currently the frontrunner for next year's Andrew Luck sweepstakes

Of course with the Chiefs luck, Luck will turn out to be first Ryan Leaf tragedy since Ryan Leaf.  Or since Jamarcus Russell

Had a very enlightening conversation with a fellow photog yesterday and received some excellent advice.  Have I mentioned before how great the photog community is here?

Scouted some locations downtown and found some I can't believe I had previously overlooked.  Can't wait to utilize some of them for shoots this weekend

This Troy Davis cat could really use Casey Anthony's attorney right about now

It's rather ironic that my digestive system doesn't want to cooperate whenever it comes to processing chicken.  Next thing you know I'll start having problems with watermelon

Totally spaced off that yesterday was National Talk Like a Pirate Day until it was almost too late.  I only got a chance to use one pirate phrase the whole day

Went back to Google Plus the other day to see if I was missing anything.  Nope

I tried to get into that "Beyond Scared Straight" marathon that was on but whenever they started doing their yelling I just kept envisioning that SNL skit with Keenan and I would start cracking up

I will always love me some Stevie Wonder, but why is he still holding on to the braids??

My favorite conversation from this week...
G:  I got an A+ on my Science test!
Me:  Great job, son!  I thought you didn't get letter grades yet though?
G:  We don't.  But I didn't miss any so that means I got an A+

'Nuff said.

 

A Boys and Girls Club Thanksgiving

Last night was time for the annual Thanksgiving dinner at the Boys and Girls Club.  D first noticed it when she pointed out to me that the Kappas would be serving the dinner.   I knew right away that didn't sound right.  The "Kappas" would imply the men of Kappa Alpha Psi.  I'm pretty sure they have the same problem my frat currently does in that there are none of their undergrad brothers on the yard.  What she meant was Pi Kappa Alpha.  If I'm not mistaken, they are known as the Pikes.  The same guys that did the same thing as one of their community service projects last year.

The Boys and Girls Club itself has plenty to be thankful for.  The one here in Ames sat right in the middle of a flood zone which made it one of the casualties of the flood we had this summer.  The bowling alley next to it that had been open at least since I was in college and the floods shut it down for good.  A local bar that had been open for probably even longer located across the street suffered a similar fate.  We thought the Boys and Girls Club would surely have the same issue.  Fortunately, they were able to get it cleaned out and restored so it could finally be used again.

The food was once again just average this year.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Just your standard turkey,  instant mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, corn and stuffing (which I naturally wanted no part of).  And again everything was bland.  Even the pepper wasn't cutting it for seasoning.  I should have brough my own secret stash of cajun seasoning.  That's the first time I've had turkey dark meat that was dry even wth gravy.  I have no idea how they managed to accomplish that.  But hey....it was free.

So as G and I were sitting there eating, two of the Pikes asked if they could sit at our table.  I naturally obliged. I didn't want to be rude so I engaged them in a little conversation.  Asked them about their house, what they did for Homecoming activities and whatnot.  Once the eager one found out that I knew what VEISHEA was as well as where their house was, he was brilliantly able to ascertain that I attended Iowa State.  That's when the conversation got a little interesting.

Frat kid: What was your major?

Me:  Journalism.  That's back when Channel 5 [central Iowa's ABC affiliate] was still in Ames.  Iowa State owned the station.  They sold it a year before I graduated so that would have been back in 1992.

Frat kid (very excitedly):  1992?!  That's when I was born!

Talk about feeling old.  Not that I really should have been surprised.  Afterall, I do have a daughter old enough to be a college freshman.  It's just that it sounds so surreal when it's coming from some strange, random kid that I don't even know.  I didn't even find it rude that he would say such a thing.  It was rather amusing to me.  Although I gathered from the look on his frat brother's face that he felt it was a little inappropriate.  It's good to know that some of these kids still respect their elders.

When they have functions like that I am reminded of what a great place the Boys and Girls Club is.  The youthful staff they have working there are some of the friendliest people you would ever want to meet.  They all interact very well with the kids and always seem to be enjoying themselves.  The kids themselves are all good-spirited and well-behaved.  Not to mention how diverse all of them are.  It's the perfect environment for G to have a well-rounded afterschool outlet.  Now that was something to be grateful for.

ISU Homecoming 2010

I had no intentions of going to ISU's Homecoming game against the Kansas Jayhawks.  It didn't even matter to me that it wasn't going to be televised (thanks largely to the school's decision to change the start time).  It's not like I was going to miss anything since it was only Kansas.  But deep down, I did want to go.  The weather was just too nice outside to miss a home game.  Especially one that my Clones were favored to win.  Especially after still having remnants of that Texas defeat fresh in my mind.

So I'm sitting at home Saturday morning minding my own business when I get a call from a 515 area code (that's central Iowa for all non-Iowans) that I didn't recognize.  I normally would let an unidentified call go to voicemail (that's intentionally not set up), but I was a little curious.  Glad I did answer it.  It was an FB friend of mine calling to see if I wanted two tickets to the game.  It seems her parents' friends had two extra tickets they didn't need and she didn't want to them to go to waste.  The price couldn't be beat either.  They were FREE!  Well heck yeah I would take them!

I immediately looked at the clock to see how much time I was working with.  It was just after 10am.  I remembered my co-worker Lisa telling me that the players usually arrive at the stadium a couple of hours before kickoff (1pm in this instance).  Their arrival was a tradition of sorts as they would be prefaced by a wailing siren from an old-fashioned fire engine then the buses would pull into the tailgate lots so all the fans could greet them and Coach Rhoads on their way to the Jack Trice Stadium.  I had missed it the last couple of times but made sure we got there early enough to catch it this time.

Parking around Jack Trice on game day is an adventure in and of itself.  Unless you have one of those coveted season passes, you're at the mercy of folks trying to do get over on us game-goers.  The closest non-parking pass lot I found wanted $20.  No way I was paying that much.  I thought about parking at the dorms across the street and just taking the parking ticket that came along with it.  Apparently the dorms had thought about that too.  They had a guy positioned at the entrance to prevent that.  However, the Rec Center right next to it didn't and their parking was free.  It was about a three block jaunt from there to the stadium, but well worth it as opposed to paying $20.

Not only did we get there in time to see the players arrive but we also arrived early enough to get some decent tailgating food.  No burgers and/or brats like I hoped, but there was some pulled pork what was off the chain.  Not to mention enough snacks there coupled with the sammiches to get us full before the game.  That way we only had to worry about getting drinks inside instead of paying their exorbitant concession prices for food.

I couldn't believe how good our seats were.  We were seated on the lower level right around midfield about a couple of dozen rows up from the field.  Easily the best seats we've had out of the few games that we've been to at Jack Trice.  They were just right to get some excellent pictures as well as very clearly seeing the action all over the field without having to squint.

There were a couple of interesting things going on in the stands around us.  Probably because of our very close proximity to the student section.  One was this gal in front of us that appeared to be so hungover she looked sick.  Her boyfriend attempted to help out her out of the stadium and she nearly passed out on her feet more than a few times.  I'm not sure she would have made it if some helpful fan wouldn't have assisted the guy with carrying the girl out.

Then there was a trio of KU students that had somehow ended up in the ISU student section.  It didn't last long though.  The ISU students quickly began booing them and verbally berating them.  I almost felt a little bad for the three KU students (all three were girls) as a couple of guys were shouting obscenities at them for being in that section.  At least it never got physical.  Hey..they should have stayed on their side.

My Clones got off to a pretty slow start.  For a moment there I was beginning to think that maybe they were so emotionally drained from that upset over Texas.  Fortunately, it didn't last long.  They were able to come out in the second half with a renewed spirit and dominated the Jayhawks on both sides of the ball.  It was the culmination of a perfect afternoon in perfect fall weather.

It's safe to say that this game produced my last ISU football photo album of the year.  I know we can't maintain this weather for long and there's no way I'm sitting out in the cold for one of their games.  At least I was able to go out with a bang since this was the very first ISU Homecoming game I have ever attended.  You can enjoy it as well thanks to the ISU Homecoming 2010 photo album.  There are some random pics in there that could have sparked their own post altogether.  You'll know them when you see them...

They Shook Up the World!

I don't care what nobody says, that's how us ISU fans are treating that game Saturday against Texas.  It was an upset of epic proportions in more ways than one.  It didn't matter to us that Texas was ranked in the teens (or 22nd in some polls).  It didn't even matter to us that this supposedly wasn't one of the better Longhorns teams that Coach Mack Brown has fielded.  What we saw is we went down to THEIR house and straight manhandled them.

I know this would have been more timely had I done it clear back on Saturday when that 28-21 victory over Texas actually took place.  I got a little caught up.  Or maybe it's that I was still trying to let it soak in.  Or it could have even been that I was still in shock until just recently.  Truthfully, what it was was that all those Iowa fans moping around today reminded me of what a great victory ours was this weekend.

I didn't even plan to follow the game.  The Clones were visiting yet another ranked team and yet again it was in their stadium.  We saw what happened when they went to Oklahoma and did that.  It wasn't pretty. There was no sense in witnessing that again.  But then I found out it was actually going to be televised for a change so I figured I might as well watch.  At the very least it could be some white noise in the background while I was doing other things.

It wasn't too hard for us Cyclone fans to not get our hopes up when ISU was up 14-3 at the half.  Only half the game had been played.  We had seen ISU give up leads before.  Heck, they were up on Utah at first two and look how that turned out for them.  But there was something different about this game.  It was in the swagger with which they were playing.  The first sign was the fact that they put two solid quarters together to lead at the half.  Things were definitely looking up.

The second half saw more of the same.  Before it was all over, ISU had forced Texas to make 4 turnovers.  Three of them interceptions.  You would have thought that was one of the top-ranked college defenses in the nation with the way those boys were ballin'.  Even though they did scare us a bit by letting Texas get back into it i the fourth quarter.  Thankfully, that didn't last long as they were able to stave off the Longhorns bid for a comeback.

That victory in Austin woudl be the Clones' first win over a ranked opponent on the road since taking down #18 Oklahoma 33-31 in Norman in 1990.  Not only that, it was their first win over a ranked team since beating #22 Colorado 30-16 in 2005.  But most importantly...it was the first time we had beaten Texas in eight tries.  You hear me??  Texas has been owning us for...eh....ver until Saturday when all that changed.  That was HUGE!

So all of you fans of the perennial top 25 programs can yap all you want about how we are making a mountain out of mole hill.  You dang skippy we are!  We celebrate any huge feat that we can.  If it comes at the expense of a Big 12 opponent then it's even better.  We don't know when another moment like this will come around so we take what we can get when we can get it.  And right now it feels pretty dang good to be a Cyclone!

 

ISU vs. Utah

The weather was just far too nice to sit at home doing nothing Saturday.  We were expecting a high of 85 degrees with perfectly clear skies.  It was a year ago this time that we were getting hit with our first bout of snow.  Now it's summer weather clear into October.  On a Saturday even!  Yeah...that was definitely a sign for me to check out the ISU game.  Afterall, college football is the perfect activity for a Saturday afternoon.

The opponents this week was the Utah Utes.  The #10 ranked team in the nation.  I sure would like to know whose idea it was to put them on the schedule.  They were ranked higher than the Hawkeyes who laid that beatdown on my Cyclones just a few short weeks ago.  And Utah's been a football power for a minute, so I'm sure they knew when they made this schedule that this one would be an even more difficult game.  But I just had a good feeling about ISU's chances for some reason.  Boy was I mistaken.

I still didn't get to the game early enough to enjoy the full benefits of tailgating.  Lisa from work has season tickets and invites me every week to stop by their tailgating tent. I figured 4:30ish would have been okay for a 6pm kickoff time.  The only thing is we were running a bit late so we didn't get there until closer to 5.  Folks were starting to pack up their stuff and head to the stadium by that time.  I was still in time to get a good pork sammich and a rice krispie treat.  In addition to seeing the marching band arrive.  If I come to another  game, I'll make sure to get their earlier to see the team arrive as well.

We had different seats this time around which made me venture to a different part of the stadium I missed the last time I was there.  I can't believe I never noticed their Jack Trice Legacy wall.  A very impressive memorial to one of ISU's finest student-athletes.  G asked who he was and I gave him the Cliff Notes version of why he was important and what happened to him.  He became fascinated after that.  I swear he must have grilled me with a couple of dozen questions about Jack Trice.  I was surprised I actually knew them all.

As for the game, I have to admit that the intro is always my favorite part about the games at Jack Trice.  They pump Black Sabbath's "Crazy Train" thru the sound system while you see Coach Paul Rhoads leading the Cyclones thru the tunnel approaching the field.  It kinda gives you chills a little bit.  If the Clones were a better team, the whole thing might actually be intimidating.  Of course the other team isn't on the field yet anyway so they can't see it for the intimidation factor to actually be effective.

The Clones got off to a great start for the home crowd.  They put together a couple of good drives and had some great stops against a top-ranked offensive juggernaut.  They ended the first quarter up 14-10.  We were smelling an upset in the making.  Austin Arnaud was actually playing decent for a change.  All they had to do was keep up that pace for another three quarters and they could be one of the top stories on ESPN.  It didn't quite turn out that way though. 

Apparently the Utes woke up in the second quarter.  All they needed was one back-breaking kickoff return to demoralize ISU and get the Utah squad motivated.  They started going on a scoring frenzy and never looked back.  Before we knew what hit us, they had went up 41-14 at the half.  It was getting to the point where it was down right embarrassing.  G and I made the decision at that point that we had seen enough.  We could have stuck it out for another half, but I really didn't see point.  We had witnessed enough of the carnage to know it wasn't going to get any better.

As we were leaving the game I continued to monitor it on my ESPN Sportscenter app.  It goes off everytime there's a score in the game you're following.  I swear that joker must have been going off every few minutes.  It turns out Utah kept racking up the points to the tune of 68 for the day.  I would find out later on Sportscenter that it was the most points Utah had scored in 27 years.  Way to go down in the history books, Cyclones.

I have now been to more ISU football games this year than I attended in all five years of my undergrad.  To be fair, I wouldn't really consider that a football team that was there during my time on campus.  They were more like a bunch of thugs in football unis.  At least the team we have now can actually win a few games.  But I doubt I'll be going to any other games this year.  Therefore, enjoy the ISU vs. Utah photo album as it will most likely be the last ISU football photo album of the year. 

Thursday Throwback

The Vators

Not to be confused with the Biz Markie song "The Vapors" which only my fellow true old school hip-hop heads would know.  It's not misspelled either.  It's a shortened version of the word "elevators".  It's done intentionally too.  Anyone who ever lived in The Towers at Iowa State or probably even ever visited there would be familiar with it.  Everyone there referred to the elevators in those antiquated buildings by the same familiar term:  the vators.

I started off with the idea of talking about The Towers themselves.  It would have been very appropriate on this weekend that is the ISU Black Student Alumni Reunion weekend.  Not to mention that they are worthy of such.  Even though two of them are now gone (including Storms Hall where I stayed for two years), they are definitely not forgotten.  However, I could go on and on about the memories from that place.  I may still do that at some point. Instead, I decided to focus on just the vators aspect.

For starters, I have no idea where that term even originated.  From the first day we got there, people were referring to them as "the vators".  And it seemed to be indigenous to only the elevators in Towers.  It may have even been just Storms and Knapp Hall (also now gone) for all I know since I can count one one hand how many times I ventured to the other two Towers:  Wallace and Wilson.

The thing about the Vators that made them special was their quirks.  Or at least one quirk in particular.  Storms Hall had one floor that was co-ed.  It was the fourth floor and the three floors below it were all girls.  So for safety reasons, the vators were programmed to not stop on the first four floors after 10pm.  If you wanted access, you had to either have a key to the stairwell that led to that floor or pound on one of those stairwell doors until somebody let you in.  That was a pain in the butt for us who lived on thaat co-ed floor.

But there was always the quirky option.

We discovered that if you timed the emergency stop just right, you could pull it as the vator was approaching the co-ed floor.  It would then stop and open.  It wouldn't even set off any alarms to alert anyone.  Sure, we could just not been lazy and walked up to the fourth floor, but where was the fun in that?  It was much easier pulling the emergency stop.  You had to time it just right though or you would end up on the 5th floor and have to repeat the whole process all over again.  Needless to say that us folks who stayed there (and frequent visitors) had it down to a science.

It's amazing that there were never any serious crimes that took place since that trick was common knowledge.  The girls really weren't too safe if all you had to do was pull the emergency stop to get on their floor.  Yet there were never any assaults and/or sex crimes committed.  I'm sure there was a LOT of shady stuff that went on behind closed doors, but it was all consensual.  But it was seriously nice to know that no one ever took advantage of that trick to commit a serious illegal crime.

As I mentioned, Storms Hall is now gone.  Razed a several years back along with Knapp Hall when ISU realized they couldn't hide the fact anymore that the two buildings were structurally unsafe.  Gone with it are the Vators that provided us many good times.  Including my episode with alcohol poisoning that almost cost me my life (you didn't know?  You better search these archives!).  However, the memories will stay with us forever.  I know they do for me.  Whenever I get on any elevator I immediately think of somebody running to it shouting that familiar phrase "Hold the Vator!"  while I inevitably make the motion like I was trying to hit the open button and couldn't get to it in time.  Ahh the memories...

Another Year...Another Embarrassment

Things didn't look right even during that opening game Thursday night.  Sure, I enjoyed watching my Cyclones beat Northern Illinois at Jack Trice Stadium, but I wasn't quite ready to drink the kool-aid like all of the other ISU fans were.  They just didn't look sharp to me.  I could tell if they were having trouble against NIU then it certainly wasn't going to look pretty against Iowa this week.  I was just hoping I would be proven wrong.

Too bad I wasn't.

See...there was something that I noticed during that NIU game that apparently many other ISU fans didn't.  Either that or they were in denial.  It was that Coach Rhoads was utilizing the same play selection that he did for most of last year.  There didn't seem to be anything changed with the offense.  They were relying heavily on quarterback Austin Arnaud to be the new Senecca Wallace but he just wasn't that talented.  I knew it would get exposed against #9 Iowa and that's precisely what happened.

Let me backtrack for a second to mention that it took me a minute to even find the game.  I initially thought  that it would be nationally televised since it was being carried by ABC.  All that meant was that the local affiliate still had to decide which ABC game to carry.  I was in Bloomington where that ABC affiliate decided not to carry that game.  It's a decision that still baffles me because the Hawkeyes are the #9 team in the nation.  Bloomington's ABC station instead decided to go with the Michigan game. 

I checked ESPN360 to see if they were televising it.  They were, but it was subject to blackout areas.  Bloomington was fortunately in the area that wasn't blacked out.  So I ended up being able to watch a streaming broadcast on my lappy.  I would find out later that I could also catch it on my phone thanks to the justintv app.  Neither of them mattered too much though.  It was evident by the half that there was no sense in wasting time watching the full game.

The Hawks were pretty much able to do whatever they wanted to against the ISU defense.  They moved the ball down field at will.  The only reason why the score was only 7-0 at the end of the first quarter is Iowa quickly discovered that their running game was unstoppable.  That used up most of the clock to make the first quarter look closer than it was.  Then they found out the same thing with their passing game and it was 28-0 by the half.

The Hawks could have pretty much put in their second unit from then on out.  My Cyclones looked lost and clueless against them.  It was as if they came in already intimidated by that #9 ranking they were getting ready to go up against.  That and the the fact that they also realized they haven't beaten Iowa in the past three our four years.  It may even be five.  I have now officially lost count.

I was watching the Boise State game the other day and wondering how come Iowa didn't do something similar with their schedule.  Why didn't they open up their season with a higher ranked opponent to earn respect quickly?  Instead, they were forced to play an intrastate rivalry game against a team not worthy to be on the same field.  Yes, I know it was against my Cyclones, but I'm to the point now where I'm more interested in seeing the state of Iowa succeed nationally.  That's all we have left at this point until the Paul Rhoads era can produce some better ISU teams.  I sure hope that is sooner than later.

Iowa State Cyclone Opener 2010

I can count on one hand how many Iowa State Cyclone football games I have been to ever since I attended my first class there back in 1988.  In fact, if I'm not mistaken, this was probably only my second time ever.  It's not because I'm not a true fan.  It's just because I was used to them sucking for so long that I never bothered to go.  I just stayed in the same habit even when they turned the page and started having the occasional winning season.

I made the decision this year that I would switch that up and go to their season opener.  It just made the most sense to choose that game.  It was early enough in the season that the weather would still be warm enough to enjoy and outdoor game.  It was also a pretty safe bet that they would come out with a win.  An added bonus to that was their opponent was Northern Illinois who was known to be a formidable squad.  That meant it should be a good contest.

The ticket choice was a no-brainer:  it would be hillside for me and G.  Those were the cheapest seats.  I just wasn't sure about how great they would be given the location.  Surprisingly, they really weren't that bad at all.  As a matter of fact, the closer the team got to the end zone where we were positioned, the better those seats were.  I didn't think G would take to them at first, but he was loving it.  Although it may have not been the best overall view, it did put us closer to the action which kept G more engaged.

I tried to blend into the normal bleacher section at first.  I found the one opening in the top flight security where they weren't checking tickets to make sure folks were in the right section.  However, the longer I sat there, the more I realized something looked odd about the people around us.  They were all fairly young.  I had messed around and got right in the student section.  No way that was going to work so back to the hillside we went. 

I was anxious to see if Jack Trice Stadium would have the same type of electricity that many college stadiums are known for.  They certainly got it off to a good start.  The intro music playing came booming thru the sound system as the titantron showed the team slowly walking from the locker room to the tunnel.  The closer they got, the louder the volume of the fans increased.  I just wish that could have been maintained though.  I think the design of the stadium being so open takes away from some of that volume that would normally lead to a better home field advantage.

The play selection in the beginning had me worried a little bit.  The Cyclones were going back to the same excessive use of the quarterback run plays they had done last year.  I was hoping they would get away from that predictable offensive game plan.  It was good enough to get them a 7-6 record last year and a bowl win, but how well would it go over this year?  No doubt our conference rivals will have caught on to that by now.  Hopefully Coach Paul Rhoads was just being so trite because it was only Northern Illinois and not Big 12 play.  We shall see.

There were of course some random things I noticed at the game which I tried to my best to catch in photos.  Things like the following:

• That ISU Army ROTC dude who was in front of the student section trying to make sure students didn't wander onto the field was taking his job a little too serious
• The stormtrooper in ISU colors gets props for creative use of a stormtrooper uniform.  However, it would have been better if his shoes would have better completed the costume
• It would have been nice if the t-shirt gun would have shot it off to areas other than just the student section.  Of course it was students operating it so I guess that was to be expected
• The outside of the stadium looks pretty amazing at night.  That pic didn't come out as well as I liked so I'll have to try again during their next night game so you can fully appreciate it.

Although it's not one of my finer photo albums, you can check out the pics in the appropriately named ISU Cyclone Opener 2010.  Those hillside seats didn't allow for the best angle for some better pics.  I may look into seeing if I can somehow score press pass access to get more unobstructed views in the future.  Yeah...like that will happen.  At least those seats did allow me and G to make appearances on national television.  That's the pic you see here.  I took the liberty of sharing it with everyone because if you blinked, you would have missed us.  Fortunately, I'm quick with the pause button.

 

 

The Great Flood

 

I never thought that we would see another epic event like the floods of '93.  So much so that I even did a Thursday Throwback post about it a little while back that you can check out here.  Now keep in mind that it's not that I thought we wouldn't experience it again because I was being arrogant.  I just thought that both the city of Ames and Des Moines were now better equipped since then to prevent something like that from happening again.  Apparently I was wrong.  Especially as it pertains to Ames.

I should have known how things were heading as I was getting home last night.  13th Street is one of the main roads in Ames that connects to the highway and several parts of it were covered with water.  By the time I was less than a mile from my house, I saw that a huge portion of the road had already submerged one vehicle.  Cars were turning around trying to find alternate routes.  The problem was that several of the alternatives weren't a whole lot better.  A drive that should have taken me 5 minutes ended up taking 30.  The best road I could find still called me for having to drive thru what seemed like a mini-lake.  I have to hand it to Cruella.  She hung in there and got thru it without stalling. 

It didn't take a genius to figure out that there would be water in the basement again.  I just figured it would be in the same room where we had problems before.  That one was still being worked on from the last rain (which was only a couple of days ago) and was nearly completely dry.  But this recent torrential downfall started it up all over again.  As if that wasn't enough, the rain also infiltrated one of the other rooms downstairs.  There was so much water that come morning there was an inch of water in the entire basement.  The carpeted basement.  Oddly enough, the one room that had no carpet-- the bathroom --did not have a drop of water in it.  Go figure. 

Then I go outside and see that the police have closed off our street to thru traffic.  I initially couldn't figure out why though.  There was no standing water anywhere.  But as I walked out further to the intersection, I saw why.  The road at the bottom of the hill was entirely submerged in water.  So much so that it looked like there was a little river running across it.  Ironically, it happened to be right at the entrance of the newly built aquatic center.  I know they had to be salty over that.  Even after that water on the roadway was eventually cleared off to allow thru traffic (which still took a few hours), they couldn't do anything about the aquatic center's parking lot.  Today got up to 100 degrees and nobody could enjoy the benefits of the aquatic center because its parking lot was now a lake.

 
 

Once the road was opened, I took a break from cleaning the basement to see how extensive the damage was across the city.  The first place I headed to was Hilton Coliseum.  Remember back in '93 how it flooded so much that there was standing water inside?  Well it happened again this year.  The height may vary depending on what news source you go to, but they all agree it was well above 5 feet in there.  If the pictures are any indication, that was a conservative estimate.

 

Lastly, I headed to Duff Ave.  It was another main artery which connected Ames to the interstate.  The news had said that pretty much all of the businesses on South Duff had to close due to flooding but I wanted to see for myself.  They weren't over-exaggerating at all.  Water had taken over the entire area.  It was an equal opportunity flood too.  It made sure that it took out Wal-Mart as well as it's competitor Target right next door.  The first picture at the top gives you the view of South Duff's demise. You can get an even better look at the photos if you double-click on them.  Gotta' love that Pano app for the iPhone!

I don't know what the official tally is for total amount of rain we had, but I would have to think these flood were worse than 1993.  The most telling factor of that is that Ames was pretty much closed off from the rest of civilization for most of the day.  You probably could have gotten in from the north, but there's nothing up that way until you hit Minneapolis nearly three hours away.  I just hope it's better come tomorrow so my trip to Dallas won't get prolonged.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.