Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

I went to a second advisor. He also couldn't tell what the deal was with the "degree check" and decided to totally disregard it. Then he suggested I turn it in with no modifications, but to a different office. He actually laughed at the "degree check."

Goofy.


My physics instructor announced that the average grade on our first exam was a 53. I got a 55. I am above average! Yeah!


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

This semester, I had to file yet another financial aid appeal. Why is that? Because fifteen years ago, I was a poor student. Nice to know that our higher education institutions believe in second chances.


I filed the appeal a couple of weeks ago. Monday afternoon, I got a call from the financial aid office. No details, just a call. I tried to call back, but the person that called me was already gone. I tried to call her twice on Wednesday, but she was in a meeting, then nobody answered the phone. I was at West Campus, so I went to their financial aid office. A woman at that financial aid office called the Downtown Campus, was grilled by whoever answered the phone, and then told they'd call her back. They never did.

She told me that she always has a hard time dealing with the financial aid office at Downtown Campus. If a someone who works for the college has trouble getting a straight answer, what chance does a student have?

Today, I had a class at Downtown Campus, so I stopped by. They are claiming that my PEP, an "education plan" that a Pima College advisor wrote, was improper. They know this because they did a "degree check" on me. This degree check is written in ball point pen on a piece of lined paper, so it's hard for me to regard it as official, but apparently it's enough to stymie the whole thing. They can't do anything until I get this PEP re-written.

I took the PEP to different advisor (I was on a different campus), and he couldn't make heads or tails out of the "degree check." So, I am supposed to take this to the woman that they claimed messed it up, so she can re-write it, even though one of her colleagues can't tell what was wrong with it.

Gawd.


This is the second time I have gone through this. Well, not these exact problems, these are whole new ones. I have to admire their creativity. Yes, I realize that they are giving me money, so I can understand that I should jump through some hoops. This is ridiculous though.

Think of this, the money I will be getting from financial aid will mostly be going to paying for school. In other words, they make money if I can get my financial aid check. Why the heck would they want to be anything but helpful?


Despite the fact that I am always broke, I think I can be considered pretty solidly middle class. I am relatively sophisticated about bureaucracies. My mother went to college and worked on staff for the University for years. All of these things are supposed to indicate that I should have some advantages in these sorts of matters. If I am having this much trouble, what happens to some 18 year old with working class parents who have never been to college?


Do zobaczenia. Hasta la proxima.

The pool team had a "bye" last night. I had to explain to one friend what a "bye" is. I think she thought I said "bi" and was refering to some of the clientelle.


Anyhow, Todd Lybeck and I practiced for a bit. Then, "The Man Whose Head Expanded" popped up over the sound system. I saw no DJ, and I knew it wasn't on the jukebox. Turns out, it was some sort of player that picked songs randomly. Maybe the player was corrupted by Mr. Sociological Memory Man.

For those of you that haven't heard the song, it starts with one of those looped amateurish keyboard lines that were so popular with new wave bands at the time the song came out. Then a driving bass line comes in, and Mark E. Smith starts ranting. There is barely an identifiable melody line.

The keyboard line then goes from amateurish to totally incompetent. Heck, Flock of Seagulls did really well for themselves with two finger keyboard lines, and I think I read the keyboarding technique of Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran described as "You're soaking in it." But, it takes true genius to make that much gawdawful noise, and make it work in a song.

Sounds like hick wap, huh?

NB: I cleverly threw in lines from the song there. I didn't want to sound illiterate.


I saw someone there I hadn't seen in years. Her name way back when was Allyson Duval (yes, she's Fred's niece). She's married now and lives in Fremont, California. She said, "My mom and I were just talking about you."

Eh?

She and said her mom said that I "saved" her. It stemmed from an incident I barely remembered. I guess little gestures can make a big difference to folks, even when you don't realize it.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Don Adams, who played Maxwell Smart on Get Smart and was the voice of Inspector Gadget, died yesterday in a Los Angeles hospital. He was 82.


Do zobaczenia. Hasta la proxima.

Once again, a "featured site" list on Blogger's home page does not include my excellent page. I think it's discrimination against the Polish-Mexican community.


I found a blog called No Rock & Roll Fun. Despite the title, the writer seems to have never heard of Sleater-Kinney. I think the blog comes out of Britain, since there is way too much on there about Robbie Williams, and I have yet to meet anyone in this country who cares about him.

The author has been writing a great deal about Kate Moss. This story has been fascinating me, not because I like Kate Moss (I really don't), but because it exposes the hypocrisy in the fashion industry. These guys love to have these gals drugged up, but run like hell when it comes out in the open. The party where she was photographed probably included employees from the very companies that are now dropping her contracts.

Anyhow, according to the blog, some reporter somewhere thought it would be a great idea to ask Shaun Rider of Happy Mondays his opinion of the situation:

Meanwhile, Shaun Ryder has been shrugging his shoulders. Apparently, he could try to tell Moss to calm it down but would she listen?

Speaking to The Sun, Ryder said: “I wouldn’t give Kate advice on her habit – she probably wouldn’t listen to me anyway.

“I’ve been in Kate’s company but I can’t say I’ve ever done coke with her.”

Well, yes: Having Shaun Ryder stand in front of you and tell you to leave the drugs alone... it might not be entirely convincing, mightn't it?

Actually, I think Ryder would be a big help. I mean, if a drug habit is so bad that even Ryder says, I dunno, "Bitch Slow Down..." it would definitely make someone think twice, don't you think? I mean, it would be like Lil' Kim saying, "put some clothes on you exhibitionist..."


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

University of Arizona basketball player Shawntinice Polk collapsed and died this morning before a practice.

"Polkie" was a fan favorite because of her size (6'5") and scoring prowess. She earned double-doubles in all three of her first games as a Wildcat back in her freshman year, and got to 1,000 career points faster than any previous player. She was considered a serious candidate for both the Wade and Wooden awards, and had been a member of the USA Basketball squad.

I like looking at the Sunday morning reaction to the games, especially from the fans of other teams. Most of these guys aren't too creative; there are always two complaints:

• [Insert name of Forward Here] dove!
• Matt Reis is a thug for not letting our players run by him with the ball.

Some fans are a bit more...uh...creative. You may remember that I used to make fun of the Chivas and the Chiva Girls. I stopped because, well, it just wasn't worth making fun of them any more. But, jokes about them are still funny to Galaxy fans.

I ran across this video of what the LA Riot Squad thinks of the Chiva Girls. The Riot Squad is an always drunk hardcore group of Galaxy fans. One game, two Riot Squad members, a couple from Scottsdale (they fly in for the games), told me they would have kicked my ass for wearing a Revs jersey, but I was wearing a U of A hat. They were Alums so they figured I was okay.

Anyway...the video. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I've watched it three times.

Notice how eagar the Galaxy players are to take the dolls home with them?


By the way, the video was produced by Tommy Mack, who is the same Tommy Mack that posts on Bartcop. I went to a game out there in late 2003, and Mack complained that he had no Wesley Clark stuff. Mack claimed that no one in California had anything. I think Wes Jr. had a button or two though. I happened to have some swag in my trunk (I think at that point, my trunk was Clark's Arizona headquarters), so I handed him a bunch of stickers.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Finally!

The Revolution defeated the MetroStars 1-0 tonight. This gives them three points and ensures that they will finish the season in first place and keep home field advantage throughout the playoffs.


Todd was watching with me. He said, "83rd minute, so they will score in two minutes." And guess what? James Riley scored in the 85th minute. Yeah, typical Revs to wait until near the end to score the winner.

Wait, Riley? Isn't he a defender?


Full disclosure: the picture at the left is not from tonight's game.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

I finished up two physics labs today so I can get them turned in on Tuesday. I managed to find out just how many electrons I was moving around by waving a plastic wand I placed near two styrofoam spheres. I used a forty year-old slide rule to figure out that the charge created amounted to 5.3 x 10²¹ electrons.

Yep...without even a calculator. I am a super geek.


Oh yeah, what the heck did you get done today?

That's what I thought.


We charged these plastic, rubber and glass rods by stroking them with wool or silk. Strangely, the physics and engineering students were very familiar with this sort of motion.


Revs will be on in a few minutes. Go Revs! Beat the RotMasters!


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Blogger features a "blogs of note" item on its homepage. I'm bitter because I am not included. I know this because I check.

However, they did feature one called Look at His Butt. The blog is dedicated to William Shatner and is run by two self-described "geek babes" named JK and LT.

The two of them also feature their Trek-fan podcasts on the site.

I forgive them because they are probably Canadian and can't help themselves.


Do zobaczenia. Hasta la proxima.

I heard an ad today for the Motley Crüe concert that's coming up. They ended it with "What happens at the show, stays at the show..."

Okay, it was an interesting little tag line for Las Vegas or Fight Club, but now it seems to be used everywhere. So many places that it is now totally meaningless. I'm half expecting to hear "What happens in Gilbert, stays in Gilbert" from some East Valley booster.

People, a good way to tell me that something wild and unexpected will go on would be to find an original catch phrase.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

The Revs blew another game last night. Well, not totally. It was a draw against the Columbus Crew. The defense was strong, but Taylor Twellman couldn't score on Landon Donovan's sister the way he was shooting. Up until...stoppage time. I would be irritated by this, but it is so damn fun everytime it happens.

Referee Richard Heron needed a couple of lessons from Lauren Bacal about how to use the whistle. His no-calls made the game a constant contest of who could get away with what rather than good attacking soccer. Some fans over on the Big Soccer board are tweaked about Dempsey's lack of production, but the sort of game the refs allowed to happen last night punished any sort of creativity.

Dempsey has been looking like he's been sleepwalking lately. Jon Martin, a Revs fan that posts on Big Soccer said:

And yes, Dempsey looked as though he had been attending a Rastafarian harvest party before the game.

I thought it was clever.

Lucky for Revs fans, the Crew suck, so they couldn't put anything together.


The Revs still need a win to secure first place. Saturday, they play against the MetroStars, who are near the bottom of the table. Normally, I would say that a win is sure, but they way the Revs have been, who knows? The MetroStars, who are a bad team this year, beat New England last week 5-4.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

You all are tired of me writing about music, so I'll write about soccer again.


I was very suprised this morning to hear a commentary from Frank Deford on the recent retirement of noted Italian referee Pierluigi Collina. Deford doesn't like soccer, but he doesn't go into the rants against the sport and its fans that other American sports commentators do.

For those of you who don't know, last month, the Italian Football Federation granted Collina a waiver from the madatory retirement age of 45. Then, a couple of weeks later, Collina signed a contract with Opel for an endorsement deal. Yeah, Collina was huge enough that he got lucrative endorsement deals.

The trouble is, Opel also is a sponsor of AC Milan. The last thing the Italian football bosses wanted was the appearance of a conflict of interest. So, they asked him to referee Serie B matches (sort of like being bumped from the National League to the Pacific Coast League). Collina said, "no thanks," and retired.

Collina had planned to keep refereeing through the next World Cup. I don't know how the Italian decision affects who FIFA has do the international matches. Interestingly, FIFA had no trouble with Collina refering the 2002 World Cup Final between a Nike sponsored team, Brazil, and Germany despite Collina being featured on a famous Nike ad that year.

I can understand the Italian decision, given how many worries there have been about Asian gambling syndicates trying to mess with the outcome of games, the recent doping scandal in their league and political intereference from AC Milan boss (and Italian Prime Minister) Silvio Berlusconi. Collina was regarded as beyond reproach, but appearances matter a great deal.

I can see why Collina decided to say enough too. He's been doing this for 28 years, and it has meant a great deal of time away from his family. Not every fan agrees with me though, some are decrying his decision to abandon the beautiful game for an endorsement deal.

Collina may not be done. FIFA and UEFA could bend their rules to allow him to referee some big internationals (they aren't above this), also, there is a rumor that he may referee games in Japan.


UEFA's website features an interview with Collina where he talks about his favorite matches and players.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

I was listening to The Point the other day. The music mix was okay, but then there was one of those moments that reminded me of why I am frustrated with radio.

They ran one of those ads that is supposed to tell you that you are listening to uninterrupted music (an irony so obvious that I really don't need to point it out), then the ad said "The best of the 80's, 90's and now, and no rap!"

Then, the very next song was...wait for it...Kelly Clarkson.

Kelly Clarkson? The best of now? The song was okay, but probably forgettable by even her hardcore fans, one of those oversung ballads but had a bit of over amplified Buck Dharma style stun guitar to make it "rock", but not too hard.


The other thing that I found a bit offensive was the "and no rap" comment. One thing I have learned from the kids I am around is that only white guys call the genre "rap" these days. And yeah, hip hop can be obnoxious. In fact, up until a few years ago, even "black" stations didn't play any hip hop if they expected to have any listeners over the age of 30. This has changed since then as the genre and its fans have grown up.

I wonder if there is a racial tinge to this. I'm not suggesting that there is out and out white sheet and crossburning racism; it is just in the back of their heads somewhere. They may not even know it. It sounds like the white-boy rocker chant of "Disco Sucks" back in the late seventies, one has to wonder if that was inspired because disco was so closely associated in its early years with blacks and gays. Funny thing, most disco rocked harder than whatever Journey or REO Speedwagon was doing at the time.

The Point's website has an animation that doesn't feature a single non-white artist.


To help out the folks at The Point, here is a non-exhaustive list of ten hip hop songs I would rather listen to than Kelly Clarkson:

1. "Rapper's Delight" - The Sugar Hill Gang
2. "I left My Wallet in El Segundo" - A Tribe Called Quest
3. "Bring the Noise" - Anthrax w/ Public Enemy
4. "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" - Digable Planets
5. "La Raza" - Kid Frost
6. "This Be The Def Beat" - Dana Dane
7. "Brooklyn Queens" - 3rd Bass
8. "Jump Around" - House of Pain
9. "Lowrider" - Latin Alliance w/ War
10. "Bridging the Gap" - Nas

A few years ago, Chuck Roast was hosting the "Eat Your 80's" show on KFMA. He played Run-DMC's cover of Aerosmith's "Walk this Way." Then, he played a call that he got that went something like this:

"Why are you playing this?"
"It's Run-DMC, it's cool."
"But, it's rap..."
"We play rap all the time, Beastie Boys, Eminem."
"But, that's different."
"Why is it different?"
"Well, you know."

I can't remember her answer getting much better than that.


Speaking of Mr. Roast, I spoke to singer and former KFMA and Point DJ Cathy Rivers the other night. I said "hi" to her and she admitted that she didn't remember me. I didn't really expect her to, since I only have spoken to her once before and I think it may have been a year ago. We ended up talking for about ten minutes, an awful lot of time to give a virtual stranger when there are plenty of other people to talk to. I felt bad because I was the one that cut the conversation short.

Cathy and I ended up talking about Chuck Roast. Back when I was station manager at KAMP, I gave him some rudimentary training when he was still Rob Cross (I think that was his real name, he adopted the nom de guerre shortly afterward.) Turns out that Cross/Roast is now producer for Howard Stern. Geez, I thought that tyring to manage college DJ's was bad enough.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

In the first match they have ever lost, the Furious Truckstop Waitresses were narrowly defeated by the Vice Squad in the Tucson Roller Derby championship match yesterday.

Vice Squad's jammers, expecially Aja Consent, were just too darned fast. Not only did this help them pile on points, it put the Waitresses on constant defense. The times when the Waitresses had the lead jammer, they often had to cut the jams short to prevent Vice Squad from stealing the lead jam postiton and piling on yet more points. This made it near impossible for the Waitresses to get a decent scoring run, which was necessary even though the scoring deficit was never more than eight points.


I'm still an FTW fan. I like Vice Squad though, they are a fun team to watch, plus their captain and founder, Whiskey Mick, was a study partner of mine in an English class I took last year.

All of these women are incredibly hard working and are also really appreciative that people actually want to come out and see them do this crazy thing. The picture at the right is of Fisti Cuffs, who is one of the ones who really enjoys being around the fans. She once stopped my car on the street because I had an FTW sticker in the window.

Fisti is a jammer, so its her job to skate real darned fast and not lose speed on the turns. She's also small, so she can be pretty vulnerable to the errant elbow. Not as vulnerable as she looks though. Also, she's got a team of tough women protecting her. Think of Fisti as Wayne Gretzky, and Jezebelle as Marty McSorley.

(Never can do this without mentioning Jezebelle)


Fisti also told me that there will be a full "off season" planned against teams from Phoenix and Austin. Be on the lookout for that.


Goddammed Revs. I haven't had to say that in a while. Goddammed Revs.

The New England Revolution are all but assured of a first place seed in the playoffs, all they need to do is win one game. Just one.

With cellar dwelling teams left on the schedule as the MetroStars and the Columbus Crew left on their schedule, how hard can it be?

Harder than it looks, apparently. The Revs had an uneven first half, and the second half they played much better. But, the RotMasters managed to sneak in two goals, one from French veteran Youri Djourkaeff and the other from Honduran cybaby Amado Guevara. At that point the MetroStars had the momentum, then the defenses of both teams seemed to totally fall apart.

Over the next half an hour, five goals were scored. Most of them can be attributed to bizarre defensive mistakes. MetroStar 'keeper Tony Meola was particularly miffed at his defense after poor marking allowed Clint Dempsey a free shot on goal. Of course, a surer save by him on the previous shot would have made the marking unnecessary. Tubby returns to his old team, and he returns to his primadonna ways.


In all, nine goals were scored, most of them absolute junk. Here is your summary:

MET -- Mike Magee 3 (Youri Djorkaeff 6, Michael Bradley 3) 7
NE -- Shalrie Joseph 5 (Joe Franchino 3) 29
MET -- Youri Djorkaeff 8 (Amado Guevara 8, Ante Razov 5) 51
MET -- Amado Guevara 10 (Tim Ward 3, Ante Razov 6) 59
NE -- Shalrie Joseph 6 (Steve Ralston 6) 61
NE -- Clint Dempsey 9 (Taylor Twellman 7) 71
NE -- Taylor Twellman 15 (Shalrie Joseph 5) 74
MET -- Mike Magee 4 (Michael Bradley 4, Ante Razov 7) 76
MET -- Youri Djorkaeff 9 (Amado Guevara 9) 86

Any game like this ends up with a lot of yellow cards. Even the normally quiet and stayed Pat Noonan was cautioned for "Bringing Disrepute to the Game" after coming after RotMaster Tim Ward for a dirty tackle.


The final goal was particularly grating. Not because it was a late goal, the Revs have become notorious for game winning goals in the final seconds. The trouble was it resulted from a judgement error by Matt Reis.

Djorkaeff was running at down the sideline, and seemed to be too close to the end line to make any kind of decent shot. Reis set himself up to block a cross, but Djorkaeff took as shot. Reis leaped at the ball, but unfortunately was a few feet inside the post and appeared to carry the ball into the net. I guess the game officials didn't see what I did, since they gave Djorkaeff the goal rather than count it as an own goal.

It was a mistake, but totally understandable given the way games actually work. Of course, Shep Messing thought that this was an unfogiveable error. Messing was 'keeper for the New York Cosmos back in the late 1970s and now is a color commentator on MetroStars matches. Messing claimed that he never would have done this, that he would have stayed a yard outside the post. What, when you are expecting a cross?

Messing does this sort of thing all the time. This and his reflexive habit of thinking that any infraction by the other team should earn a yellow card are the most irritating sort of "homerism." Color commentators can bring an interesting perspective, but when they start pulling this "In my day, I was better than all of these guys" thing, it's really obnoxious. I know you are an experienced goalkeeper, Shep, but I would look like a fantastic in goal if Franz Beckenbauer was playing sweeper in front of me.


The loss is also annoying because the MetroStars are so darned easy to hate. They have the whiny Amado Guevara and they just traded a hard working player (John Wolyniec) for vapid hack Ante Razov. Their fans loathsomeness is only rivaled by DC United supporters. They have had "big name" national team stars (Tony Meola, Tab Ramos) who couldn't be bothered to put in a good performance for a mere "club side." They have showered by the league with all sorts of big international allocations (the oft-carded Brazillian Branco, Youri Djorkaeff, and the by then lazy German star Lothar Matthaus) but have still never been to an MLS cup. Most unforgiveable, they are from New York. They suck. I hate them and their children.

S'ok. The Revs play division cellar dwellers Columbus next week. What could possibly go wrong?


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.