Why I Oughta...

As Nat and I are packing our bags and heading out the door this afternoon for a drive down to St. Louis for the Labor Day weekend, my mind keeps wandering back to a post I wrote almost a year ago . We're multi-tasking in St. Louis: Nat is going to a wedding and I'm going to see my Illini take on the Mizzou Tigers in something they're billing as the "Arch Rivalry" . I'll be tagging along to the wedding, and Nat has consented to joining me at the game, so it's a win-win for everyone involved. While I'm putting on my orange t-shirt, I keep thinking that we should have a similar impact on St. Louis that Clemson has on towns they travel to. In fact, other teams could/should be doing this, too. The Hawkeyes of Iowa are playing NIU at Soldier Field tomorrow. Imagine all those crazy farm folks from Iowa staying at the Fairfield Inns and La Quintas around the Chicagoland area spreading out 2 dollar bills with yellow hawks on them at the Chi-Chi's and O...

If you think Guitar Hero is popular on college campuses across the country, wait until they get their hands on this . Midway, the video game manufacturer, is coming out with Beirut or Beer Pong for the Wii. Video game publisher Midway has a new game coming out for the Wii system. “Party Game” will consist of several games including shuffleboard, darts, and ski ball, but the game that will take over college campuses this fall is Wii beer pong. Or Wii Beirut. Or “Ping Cup” as Midway refers to it: The object of ping cup is to use the Wii remote to throw a ping-pong ball at a pyramid of cups. Seems like that "Flippy cup" game is a natural fit for the Wii isn't it? A little flick of the Wiimote and you turn your cup over? That would round out the package.

One of the by-products of traveling for work is that you end up alone in a smallish hotel room with nothing to do but surf the web and watch television. If that wasn't bad enough, for me, it's been summer-time television - which means a lot of reruns, reality shows, and filler. Last night I ended up watching part of Last Comic Standing, which is a show that is trying to find the "best" comic in America. (as a side note, they must be looking for the best amateur, right? But...what really is an "amateur comedian"?) Anyway, I think I might have found my new favorite comedian: Lavell Crawford. He made me laugh out loud repeatedly. This morning, one of the first things I did was look up some of his other material on YouTube. It's priceless. I have no idea if he survived last night's show, but if his act was the only consideration, they should hand him the prize right now.

My old stomping grounds, Memorial Stadium in Champaign is getting a major facelift. They're adding new permanent stands to the North Endzone, and updating both the West and East Halls. The addition of a new press box and an assortment of luxury suites will bring the Illini in line with the majority of the schools in the Big Ten stadium-wise. They have trained a webcamera on the Northside construction. I've been checking out the feed everyday. I think if I put this image up here, it'll show what's doing for you live on this blog. If you see little men working, hit refresh and they should have moved! Pretty nifty. (picture taken down) While all the talk recently has been on how tough a place to play our basketball areana, the "House of Paign" or Assembly Hall is, I think Memorial Stadium, when rockin' is a very formidable home. It has classic lines with the columns, and once the horseshoe portion is done (phase 2?) and there is a more direct link wit...

There's plenty going on down in Champaign and it's not all football related. First, Yahoo announced that they're expanding to bring an office to campus , then Valleywag reported that the U of I will partner with the Library of Congress to preserve Second Life as a museum artifact. All of it makes sense. It's a great engineering school who's churning out great talent. We need to do everything we can to keep those bright minds here in the state.

I can't stop listening to this song. It's the Strokes from "Top of the Pops". Equation Boy/Man took me to see The Strokes a year or so back at the Aragon Ballroom. I bet they played this one.