This afternoon I went to the Blazers game against the New Jersey Nets. The last time the two teams hooked up the Nets won 64-60 in one of the lowest scoring games in NBA history. This game started out very similar. The Blazers trailed 10-9 after the first quarter. NINE points. At halftime it was 30-25 Blazers in the lead. Very ugly first half to say the least. In the second haf the Blazers picked it up and ended up winning 83-71. It was really fun and my parent's friend gave us really good seats (Roy Abromowitz for those of you in the know). They were about 13 rows up flush with the free throw line. Really cool to watch the game from there instead of the typical nosebleed seats I get. I took a really good picture:



It was also mascot night. I had no idea because they didn't promote it at all. They promoted it as Blaze's birthday, so I was pissed. Why? Well my aunt and I are supposed to go to mascot night every year. So Lena, I'll look into it, they might have another one later in the season, if not we can find another fun theme night to attend. Anywho, it was fun.

http://www.zolknetwork.com/misc/thomas/thxgiv.wmv

Thar she blows. It's 25MB+ so, it might take a while.

Had a fun time at Thanksgiving. I will post a video shorty of the trip, but it's pretty big, so pray you have DSL.

More pictures: http://www.etspe.ca/thomas/cw.html

I had a blast yesterday at the Civil War. It has offically taken Game 6 of the Blazers playoffs where they whipped the Mavs as my top event attended.

We left Tualatin at 9:30 and were in Corvallis by 11:00 (had to make sure to get decent parking). We tailgated a little bit with our sandwiches and Jello cups (badass, I know) before heading towards the stadium. We stopped at Memorial Union for a tad, reading the school newspaper and trying to pass time. With about two hours to go we headed towards Reser Stadium. They were replaying the 1998 Civil War on the big screen so we stood around and watched that. We then walked around the stadium, trying to get warm. We passed the Duck camp, they brought a good amount of fans. Finally with about an hour to go we got inside Reser and watched the players warm up. Before long, it was kickoff.

One word can describe the crowd: LOUD. Maybe crazy too. It was pretty intense, and really fun to be a part of. It didn't look good at first, the Ducks taking a 7-3 lead on a big drive. The Beavers came right back though and took a 10-7 lead on a perfect pass from Derek to Mike Hass. He had a great game, 9 cathes, 150 some yards, tearing the Ducks up all day.

Beavers led at half 27-14. The Oregon band played, and they were good, except their uniforms are god awful.

Starting the 2nd half was a bit testy as well. DA threw an inception and a Duck returned it 40 yards to the 12 yard line or so. Clemens hit a receiver and it was 27-21. Uh oh, right? Well, no. Derek then led the Beavers to a long drive and a score to regain control. It wasn't a game after that, the Beavers scoring 23 unanswered points.

The game ended and the students rushed the field. I ran onto the field a minute or so later, there were people trying to stop our section from running on (no clue why). Students tried to get onto the goalposts but were met with riot cops. We hung out on the field a while and then headed back to the MU Commons to warm up. After an hour or so of discussing the game and making sure our precious tickets weren't damaged, we headed back to my car. It was really fogged up so it took about 10 minutes to defrost and then we were on our way. Traffic was pretty good getting out and I got home at about 11 after dropping Max off.

Anywho, incase you missed it...

Oregon 21
Oregon State 50

Not much is really going on. Watched the Blazers fuck up another game tonight. Working everyday after school like usual. Gets kinda boring... yeah... paycheck is nice. Uhhhh, my grandma called today claiming someone stole 660 dollars from her apartment and she never has more than $40 in her wallet. Also thinks my other grandma just moved back to Roseburg (aka 1991).

Holy crapola, the Civil War is going to be huge. This weekend the Ducks lost to UCLA 34-26 at home (haha). Meanwhile, the Beavers won 24-19 on the road against Stanford. That leaves both teams at 5-5 (4-3) heading into next Saturday's big game. The winner will move onto a bowl game, the loser will go home for the season. Really couldn't ask for much more (other than the teams both being 10-0). It's going to be a heck of a game... and guess what?

I HAVE CIVIL WAR TICKETS!!!

So yeah... I'm excited. This week couldn't go fast enough. I think it will be a close game, Oregon's offense can be scary if they get on track.. hopefully the Beaver defense will be up to the task. I see 28ish points from the offense on the weaker Oregon secondary.

I am updating my faucking blog.

Uhhhh... I've been to school and worked this week. Tomorrow our football team has a playoff game against Lincoln High School at 8:00. Me and a friend are going to the game, which is right next to PGE Park, so hopefully I can find it. Heh, I hope so. I think Tualatin will win, we have a pretty good running game and a decent defense. Our only weakness really is our secondary, so I hope Lincoln isn't a friend of the pass.

Meanwhile I've watched the Blazers throw away two games they should have won against some pretty crappy opponents. It looks like same old, same old this year. We need some leadership, and it appears there isn't any. Zach signs a huge contract only to shoot 35% from the floor and miss some crucial free throws. So bleh.

Beavers need to win this weekend. Stanford has A LOT of starters out, so hopefully they can overcome their road bugaboo and pick up a win. That'd set up one hell of a Civil War. I can't wait either way.

Yesterday was pretty interesting...

First off I had senior pictures at noon. We went to George Rogers park and took a bunch of pictures, and it was a pretty nice location. I just hope my fake smiling doesn't look too cheesy... I suck at things like that.

I came back and went to my soccer game. It got really intense... a Red Sox vs. Yankees type of rivalry. In the first half there was a ton of bad calls, all on us. Two offsides on me (both bullshit) took away two goals. Now, it just isn't me arguing the call, our coach was running onto the field in protest. The line judge obviously didn't know the fucking rules, and made a ton of bad calls like that. The ref wouldn't take charge though, and just go along. Furthermore, numerous times the other team would foul us and the other line judge would wave his flag, but the ref would ignore it. I pointed it out to him but he said he didn't see him wave the flag. The kid was making heaps of noise waving it furiously but to no avail. Anyways, we went into halftime up 2-1 but very very mad at the refs. The second half the same thing continued and we kinda lost it. One guy on our team yelled at the ref with explicitives... ejected. Another throw his jersey and walked off in protest... ejected. By now we were virtually tackling each other and it was getting pretty violent. The ref wasn't calling anything. I got a goal by elbowing the goalie (cocky son of a bitch) and heading it in. The ref called the game early because it was getting out of hand (finally took control)... so yeah... that was fun. Never seen a co-ed rec game get that physical. The Lake Oswego people roared off in their BMW's and Lexuses without shaking our hands... so yeah... they can die.

Then I went to the Beavers game against #1 USC. It started at 7pm and it was foggy as hell. Beavers almost won, taking the Trojans to the wire. It took 2.5 hours to get home too... traffic was terrible. Anyways, here are the pictures:

http://www.etspe.ca/thomas/usc.html

I'm glad Kerry conceeded the election because he obviously wasn't going to win. So good for him... and well... hmmm... not much else. Hopefully this will be the Bush family's last term in White House (oh please dear God).

Well, it's what you've all been waiting for (actually I just sorta did it just now without thinking)... my offical prediction for tomorrow's Presidential Election. So far I am 0/0, 0% on previous predictions. So yeah, I'm hoping I can go 1 for 1 after the end of December (when they figure out who won).

John Kerry/John Edwards: 287 EV's
George Bush/Dick Cheney: 251 EV's

Popular Vote:
Bush 48%
Kerry 47%
Nader 1%
Other 4%

Watch me jinx this election... heh.

Going to an election party at a friend's house tomorrow night. Should be fun, and hopefully we'll be celebrating a Kerry win, but it will be really close and it could go either way.

EDIT: In retrospect, this wasn't even close. Missed FL, NM, NH, and IA. The final EV count ended up being almost a mirror image in the wrong direction from my guess.