EWWD for October 23

Another week goes by, another week where I don't want to talk about Cyclone football. But I will, because it's homecoming. The Huskers behaved themselves pretty well, I think -- ran into a lot when I was at the concert at Papa's Corner. A lot of them seemed to be older, not students. I was surprised at their attendance at this event since one thing about the band I was going to see, is it's loud. As in, a friend who goes to their concerts regularly actually brought hearing protection so he could be up near the stage.

As for homecoming itself, prepare for another weekend with a large number of visitors -- but these are mostly alumni who should have a fair amount of respect for their alma mater and its surrounding neighborhoods. I'm really sorry to be missing it, as I'm in Minnesota for a cousin's wedding. There are also a lot of extra events going around surrounding homecoming, especailly at the new alumni center, as well as lots of reunions of various groups, like the Alumni Band. It's an evening game, which means extended tailgating.

Reimann is doing that Halloween event for kids again on Sunday. At the Varisty, Tonight is your last night for The Duchess (mentioned last week) and "An American Carol" -- the old Dickens tale done as a thinly veiled send-up of Micheal Moore. Tomorrow starts Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (which I am planning to see) and Quarantine (horror, no thanks for me)

Only thing in Greekland for the next week is Greek Trick or Treat on Wednesday. (the city's trick or treat night will be next Friday, on Halloween itself.) If you'd like for your child to participate, I'm guessing Jenn Plegman-Galvin will have more info. She'd probably be able to give information on the Rake-a-thon too, which is a fundraiser happening through November. Proceeds for that go to the MS foundation and Habitat for Humanity.

The event of the week, besides homecoming, is the BB King concert at Stephens on Wednesday. I bought tickets as a birthday present to my husband, and I am really looking forward to it. Concerts at the M-shop include a member of the Indigo Girls doing a solo show Saturday, and a folk singer/songwriter on Tuesday. Not much of interest from the Music Department this week, but Band Extravaganza is coming up in a couple of weeks.

If you want to make a really big day of Cyclone sports, there's a volleyball match at 2:00 Saturday (before the homecoming game). It's free and the first 300 fans get free Coldstone ice cream.

In lectures, there's one on the financial crisis in the Great Hall and one on climate change in the Sun Room tonight, and Monday and Tuesday an author will be talking about the environmental effects of meat eating in the Pioneer and Oak rooms, respectively. Monday features a talk on biofuels in the Sun Room, and Tuesday's lecture in the Sun Room is on the Middle East.

EWWD: A Snack and a Movie

Last Tuesday (gosh, I've gotten behind) was the ice cream social at the new Alumni Center on Beach. As I mentioned on my post on the Kent State game, when I first got a good look at the inside, it's very nice. I got a chance to chat with Jeff Johnson, president of the Alumni Association, who's an all-around great guy, and the staff was on hand to explain various architectural details, such as the pitches in the ceiling designed to remind you of the campanile. I also got a chance to look closely at the university mace, which I believe was introduced at my first graduation ceremony in May '04, so that was pretty cool. Turns out the little gold plates are the names and dates served of all the university presidents. The interesting thing to me was the couple of guys who got stuck doing the interim president thing again and again, and wound up serving longer that at least one regular president. The root beer floats were tasty, too. I wasn't able to stick around for a tour as I had a dinner in Des Moines to get to.

Wednesday Chris and I went to Clone Wars at the Varsity II. As I mentioned in my last "upcoming EWWD" post, we enjoyed the cartoon series, but something was off from the series -- the animation wasn't quite the same, and the darkness that should have been present in Anakin was so toned down that it just didn't seem to fit in the chronology of the prequel trilogy. It also bothered me that they introduced and developed a likable (almost to the point of being a Mary Sue) character that gets killed in Epsiode III as just another Jedi . However, it's not like we paid dodecaplex prices for it, and it is always nice to just walk to a movie, and then just walk home.

Ok, that review was pretty flamboyantly geeky, so I'll move on to researching for Upcoming EWWD for this week.

Football: ISU vs. Kent State

As I predicted in my last football-related post, Kent State did present a bit more of a challenge than SDSU, but the Cyclones pulled it off, and then pulled ahead in the end for a 20 point lead over the other guys. We checked out the new alumni center as part of our afternoon of tailgating -- we contribute to a friend who has a bus to help cover gas, parking permit, and propane for the grill. It's respectable tailgate, thanks to the numerous babies born to its participants in the last 2 years (including the bus owner), but we wanted to wander around a bit. The place itself is very swanky with leather chairs and high ceilings. They're having an ice cream social Tuesday so I'll be discussing that here then.

Since it was a Saturday game, the parking situation should be closer to what we'll be seeing in the future, although overall attendance will be impacted by the Cyclones' record going into the next home game -- if we're on a 2-game losing streak there won't be as many casual fans, and conversely if the team beats Iowa and UNLV while away, there will be a great deal more excitement, especially since we'll be starting the "conference" portion of the season (games more important to determining whether we get a post-season game.) Additionally, it will be family weekend, and students' parents will be in town for the game and other events.

Next week's game in Iowa City should be very close -- I think this is one of the years when we go in truly nearly evenly matched. Beat the Hawks! The next home game isn't until October 4th, and will be against Kansas.