Here's your next nominee for a Darwin Award. Friggin' moron. Yeah, I'm going to stand in water and then fiddle with something electric. Absolutely brilliant. And Texans wonder why they have such a bad reputation...

I was determined to beat Psychonauts tonight before I went to bed and I finally just did. Awesome, awesome game. Tim Schaefer always does a bang up job on his games. Here's hoping for a sequel...

This is some crazy shit. Imagine being the climbers that discovered this body, 80% encased in ice. Wow.

Remember that Campus Recognition Award I got back at the end of last semester? Well, I finally managed to snag some pics of the event and added them to my gallery:

(1) Me and Interim Provost Ken Greene
(2) Another of me and Ken Greene
(3) A group shot of all recipients, flanked on my right by former IMC employee Steve Antonio and on my left by one of my fave professors on campus (and winner of the Teacher of the Year award!), Hester Coan.

Brett Hull retired on Saturday. And damn it if he didn't give the most heartfelt, sincere goodbye in a press conference that day (with shoutouts to Red Wings Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, Chris Chelios and Jamie Rivers to boot). If you're a fan of hockey at all, you need to watch it. Brett will make you tear up, just as he's doing in front of the mic. A rare moment for a rare man. Go to this page and click on the 'Hull Retires' link under 'Related Info' on the right side of the article. I think I'll be wearing my Hullie jersey to work tomorrow to honor the man and his phenomenal 20-year career.

I knew it. I knew Burger King would try and capitalize on "The King". Check it here.

THE YANKEES LOSE!!! THEEEEEEEEEEEEEE YANKEES LOSE!!!

Someone's gettin' fired...heh heh heh.

NHL Center Ice is the new bane of my existence. I watched too many games last night - the Wings 5-1 win over the Blues being the primary one - and now I'm really, really tired. But damn it if I'm not ecstatic that hockey's finally back.

Just stop playing that atrocious "My NHL" commercial. Ugh. Worst hockey commercial ever.

I just found out from my mom that one of my dogs, Sophie back home died yesterday. She was beginning to succumb to cancer and my parents had her put to sleep while she was still alert and before the cancer was able to wear her down completely.

I'm just glad I got to see her when I was in Michigan back in August. Here's a great pic of her, courtesy of my sister.

Okay, I just got the strangest phone call in my office. To give you a bit of a setup, there's a Board of Trustees meeting on campus right now, for which I provided equipment this morning. One of those pieces of equipment was a lavalier (clip-on) microphone. Apparently someone (who I had thought to be part of the meeting) had left the meeting and taken it with him. This is the phone call from a woman involved with the meeting, wondering why the microphone had been taken:

Woman: "We have a problem down here...the President is looking for the lavalier mic and apparently Layne took it."
Me: "Uhm...okay, do you know where Layne went?"
W: "I have no idea."
M: "Well, that's the only working one we have at the moment."
W: "Okay, that's a real problem. Can't you get ahold of Layne or anything?"
M: "Er...no, I have no idea where he went."
W: "..."
M: "..."
W: "Doesn't he work for you?"
M: "No."
W: "You're telling me Layne doesn't work for you?"
M: "Nope."
W: "Who does he work for then?"
M: "I have no idea. I don't even really know who he is, just that - I thought - he was part of the meeting."
W: "This is Instructional Media, right?"
M: "Yes."
W: "And you're telling me Layne doesn't work in your department?"
M: "No. There are three people in this department - myself, my technician Mike, and my secretary Becky."
W: "Maybe the President was mistaken as to who took it then-"
M: "Well, it couldn't have been Mike because he's not even in until one o'clock. And it definitely wasn't me."
W: "So who's Layne?"
M: "I don't know. I thought he was part of the meeting."
W: "And you don't know where he might be?"
M: "Nope."
W: "Well, we'll have to go searching for him. Keep your eyes peeled for him."
M: "Uhm...sure."

Did anybody else get the sense that this was like a bad SNL sketch or something? Going in circles over and over. I don't know who Layne is. I don't know what he looks like. He doesn't work for me. I don't know who he works for. And I'm supposed to go searching for someone that I don't know, wouldn't recognize, and so on? Because, as part of an executive meeting, he took a piece of equipment that another executive needed?

Phew, boy. I'm gonna need a few drinks watching hockey tonight.

I'm completely endeavouring to stop biting my nails. And no, I'm just using any nasty-tasting gel on my nails or anything like that - just sheer willpower. Been biting them for years as my mom would be able to attest to (she'd throw the TV remote at me to get me to stop!). My cuticles and nails are a mess, so I'm aiming to get them somewhat presentable. I figure if I'm going to (hopefully) lose some weight, I might as well look decent from head to toe.