C’mon Man!

One of the things I’d love to see come Monday Night Football would be one of the commentators use the C’mon Man! segment about FBS teams scheduling NDSU. They will come into your house, push you around, beat you up, take your pride, take your money and walk out with a win.

Whenever an FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) team puts an FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) team on the schedule the expectation is an easy tuneup game to get some players some experience and confidence brewing. You can’t do that with NDSU! It’s been pointed out before by different sites and once again today that FBS teams need to quit scheduling NDSU. I think the Big 10 gets it, as they’ve sent out a directive that their teams aren’t to schedule any new FCS games. And no FBS team has come calling play the Bison until 2020 (Oregon).

The thing about NDSU is they aren’t your typical FCS team. They aren’t even your typical elite FCS team. You should basically just consider them a Power 5 program that’s been limited to 63 scholarships. They have won 5 straight FCS National Championships (and appear to be on their way to #6 if they keep playing like this) and their last six FBS contests. There are a couple of cupcakes in there (Minnesota wasn’t that good, Kansas was pretty terrible, and Iowa State made Wentz, Crockett and Emanuel look pretty good), but they also beat a Kansas State team that was the defending Big 12 Champion and went on to win the 2013 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. Now they beat an Iowa team that is the defending Big 10 West Champion and ranked in the top 15 (#11 Coaches poll and #13 in the AP Poll). Those are a couple of good teams.

Darkship Thieves

My review of Sarah Hoyt’s Darkship Thieves

 

Athena Hera Sinistra never wanted to go to space. Never wanted see the eerie glow of the Powerpods. Never wanted to visit Circum Terra. Never had any interest in finding out the truth about the DarkShips. You always get what you don’t ask for. Which must have been why she woke up in the dark of shipnight, within the greater night of space in her father’s space cruiser, knowing that there was a stranger in her room. In a short time, after taking out the stranger—who turned out to be one of her father’s bodyguards up to no good, she was hurtling away from the ship in a lifeboat to get help. But what she got instead would be the adventure of a lifetime—if she managed to survive. . . .

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The Long Tomorrow

My review of Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow

Two generations after destruction rained down upon America’s cities, the population is scattered into small towns. Cities are forbidden by law, as is scientific research.

Rumors abound of a secret place known as “Bartorstown”, where science is untrammelled by interference or hatred. A youth named Len Colter, developing an unhealthy thirst for knowledge exacerbated by the discovery of a forbidden radio, sets out on a long road. During this journey, he will change his mind many times before determining the correct direction for himself, and the benighted America in which he lives.

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Even more photos

I’m around half done with my grandmother’s photo album. Here are some more highlights.

 

Oscar & Elfrida

This looks to be the oldest photo in the album. These are my great grand parents Oscar and Elfrida, both born in Sweden, married in Fargo, ND, March 24, 1906. She passed away a few days after my grandmother was born.

She broke the law, but wasn’t charged

Some yammerwit asked me what law Hillary broke by placing classified State Department material on her private and unsecured server. 18 U.S. Code s. 793 – Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information reads at paragraph (f): “Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch,…

via But What Law Did She Break? — John C. Wright’s Journal

More old photos

I scanned some more of my grandmothers old photos. Here are some highlights.

 

Elsie graduation

I think this is one of my grandmother’s nieces. Unknown what date this was taken.

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There’s no information on the back of this one, but it looks like it could be my grandmother when she was in school.

Old photos

I recently got hold of my grandmother’s photo album. Well, one of them anyway. This one seemed to have the most photos and the widest range of photos. I started scanning them this weekend as the holiday weekend is extremely slow with no camps or students around and all but essential personnel not working.

I just love working with old family photos. One of the things I’ve been surprised by is how flimsy many of these old photos are. Notebook paper seems sturdier. Most have a name or place written on the back, but it’s hard deciphering the handwriting at times. Some have no information so I have no idea who the photo is of. It’ll probably take me a few weeks of working steady to get through all of the album. In other words it’ll probably take all summer of doing it a little here and a little there.

Here are some of the highlights so far:

Bud

This is my paternal grandfather ‘Bud’. He was born in December 1923, so I’m guessing this was taken in the spring of 1924.

Bud

This is my grandfather in his uniform. He was a paratrooper with the 517 Parachute Combat Team.

Ice Limit

My review of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s The Ice Limit

The largest known meteorite has been discovered, entombed in the earth for millions of years on a frigid, desolate island off the southern tip of Chile. At four thousand tons, this treasure seems impossible to move. New York billionaire Palmer Lloyd is determined to have this incredible find for his new museum. Stocking a cargo ship with the finest scientists and engineers, he builds a flawless expedition. But from the first approach to the meteorite, people begin to die. A frightening truth is about to unfold: The men and women of the Rolvaag are not taking this ancient, enigmatic object anywhere. It is taking them.

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Code Three

My review of Rick Raphael’s Code Three

FREEWAYS TO HELL

Ben Martin and Clay Ferguson have got a tough job. In Car 56 — “Beulah” — they patrol the super-highways of a future that might have been. Along with Medical-Surgical Officer Kelly Lightfoot, they help keep an insane road system as safe as possible.

Here is a startling and excitingly realistic portrait of regular folks in a future extrapolated from a time when technology was changing at an explosive rate. What if highways just got bigger and bigger, cars faster and faster? How could such be patrolled, when crashes, jams and road rage are the norm?

The answer is an elite paramilitary corp. These dedicated officers, trying to keep reign on a crazed vehicle culture with sixty foot long tank-like patrol cars with 25mm cannon, cranes and full medical suites.

Nominated for a Hugo Award, Code Three is a gripping tale for all fans of “If This Go On” stories.

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