CEREAL KILLERS ARE BACK AND READY TO ATTACK

We're in the semi-finals for co-rec floor hockey!!! This is NOT the first time that this team has gone to the semi's. I'd like to re-cap the history of the team, appropriately named Mat Sci Cereal Killers for their ability to decapitate Captain Crunches, pop those Pops, and make Toucan Sam follow its nose to the grave. Ouch. Yeah, for cereal.

In 2007, the Mat Sci Cereal Killers, formerly known as "The Fire Ants of Doom" aka "Harold & the First Years," began their journey to awesomeness. The team at that point was comprised of all first years + Harold, hence the name, duh. Actually, we did pull in a goalie, Erik or Eric or Mike. I have no idea where he was from. Anyway, the team had a total of 0 people who played hockey for real before, and maybe 1-3 who played street hockey as a kid, and the rest were newbs like me who could barely hit the puck without missing it. I remember there being an elaborate and detailed PowerPoint presentation in Bodeen put on by... Andy Shoch? and... others. It was actually quite helpful and the next step was the "scouting" session. Remember that? Basically everyone had to come to this pre-practice so that Sargeant and his Canadian posse and all the upper years could check out our skillZ and place us on the appropriate team. At that first practice I really wanted to impress them so I put my all into it, and I remember waiting on the sideline standing by Hersam, totally being freaked out and thinking "Wow, this is the real thing." My goodness, it was so fun being so young and ambitious and hopeful. Aside from that, little did I know that it didn't really matter for us because we were first years and we were going to put on the "bad" co-rec team. Well, whatevs, we started off on our road to stardom. Each regular season game we got better and better! We totally gelled and we could see ourselves improving leaps and bounds each week. We ended up losing every regular season game, but then there was the playoffs. We ended up going into TWO OVER TIMES + 2 ROUNDS of SHOOTOUT. Does this sound familiar current 1st years?!?! All I remember is wanting to be the LAST girl to have to shoot because I was absolutely horrible. It was so embarrassing trying to shoot at this goalie with my dinky little shot gliding along the floor (lifting the puck was absolutely out of the question at that point). Well, we ended up losing, but we felt like we had won. If there were an award for it, we definitely would've gotten the award for MOST IMPROVED. I kid you not.

So...as I recall, the "good" co-rec mat sci team WON that year. Now, being part of the "better" mat sci team, I have to wonder, will history repeat itself? I don't want to jinx it, so I won't make any predictions.

I'd re-cap on years 2008-2010 but I'll leave it for another day. All I'm saying is.. COME WATCH US AND CHEER FOR US!

NU Intramural Co-Rec Floor Hockey Semi-Finals

SUNDAY, 1 PM

PATTEN GYM

Mat Sci Cereal Killers vs Prestige Worldwide

The competition will be fierce and there may be an ejection or 2 (depending on how some particular guys behave, ahem A & J). =P

(FYI, the winner of the semi's will most likely win it all. The other side of the bracket ain't that tough. So this is for all the marbles!)

BTW, the baton has been passed on and you will soon be seeing new wanderings and ramblings from some young-en bloggers. It's gonna be good!!!

Harder

This is unbelievably awesome: "The Tangover" - Harder's best man's "speech"

I have always been a Harder fan. The intensity he maintained during IM sports games was always at a max, but if you are female he'd always always always say "Good job!" no matter what you did. If you are a guy, though, way different story. No getting by him. All in all, he was always suchhh a nice guy, always so encouraging, always so friendly, always so cool and one of those guys that we secretly had crushes on when we were wee little 1st years (in addition to others...). Alas, he is on to bigger and better things like NASA and married life. Congrats! We miss Ernie!

We are the champions

As requested, the 2010 men's soccer team.

MAT SCI VICTORY!

Congrats to the Men's Soccer Team! Awesome game! We finally got one! You won one for us all, although we all secretly wish we could get a t-shirt for ourselves.

Highlights of the game (I apologize for not giving a live update):
-The Mat Sci Fan Club section
-Mat Sci Domination for almost all of the game
-A lengthy discussion of "good idea"
-Prof. Shull's appearance along with the 2 cuties!
-SLP girl, of course there for Olivier
-many awesome shots, precise passing, and sexy playing by our men
-And last but not least, 2 totally awesome goals, 1st one by ___, a slow roller, and 2nd one by Wei, headed in by the other team and well out of reach.

GREAT JOB GUYS! Pictures and possibly video may be posted soon (DCarvy?).

DON'T FAIL US

Men's Soccer Finals.

TODAY, 8 P.M.

IM Sports Poll

The winners are: Flag Football, Floor Hockey, and Soccer. No surprise here. However, 2 people marked Dodgeball as one of their favorites? Seriously?

Ideas for the next poll?

Mat Sci Athleticism

NOT speaking of IM sports, the arrival of the GSA 5K sparks up an interesting subject - Mat Sci Athleticism.

A great thinker once said, "In undergrad, you reach your physical peak, but in grad school, you reach your athletic peak." -M. J. Palmeri., PhD Candidate (I think he was the one who said this, correct?)

Who has also heard undergrads complain that grad students should not be allowed to play in the same IM leagues as them because we are older and therefore more experienced and better? To which we have replied, No, we are so old and slow. If anything, we have a disadvantage.

Well, I am here to tell you that I do not disagree with any of the aforementioned statements. However, I do think we have our range of grad student athleticism. At one end, I am utterly amazed at the number of people who are rather athletic, despite the nerdy science/engineer stereotype. I am even more impressed by the runners. Why is it so common for people in our department to run 10K's, half marathons, and marathons? Why are/were there so many people in Tri-Club? Who enjoys torturing themselves this much?! OUR DEPARTMENT. A large chunk of people are very fit and actually look forward to working out. Why are you guys so crazy?! Why are you guys so good at running?

Sorry, but I do NOT like running and do not have "Run a marathon" on my Bucket List. I certainly do NOT want to do this 5K and I'm waiting for someone to invite me to do something else Saturday morning, like go eat brunch at Le Peep. That's how much I dislike it. Is anyone else with me on this? Anyone want to be on the other end of the spectrum with me?

Going back to the athleticism thing, I feel this desire to be athletic is not just a part of wanting to be physically fit and healthy. I think this whole obsession is related to the mind of grad students. We like tackling very difficult things that the bulk of society doesn't want to. We strive to be competent in many things and a variety of things, and we want to be that Renaissance person that society respects and looks up to. Or maybe I'm way over thinking this and we're just trying to live "normal" lives. We're just going crazy in the lab and need something to distract us. Whatever the case may be, for all of this working out, training, practicing, sports talk, Can we please win an IM championship? Or at least, can someone please win the 5K? (Still waiting for Glamm-orous's leg to heal so he can win it again like he did his first year.)

P.S. - Don't forget to register for the 5K www.surveymonkey.com/s/9JNBLQT and also donate to the Cradle Foundation! www.cradlefoundation.org/gsa

On IM Sports...

...not really. Sorry. This is about where you change your clothes for IM Sports, into those spiffy Mat Sci diamond cubic(?) structure uniforms.

How many of you change in your office? I find it much simpler to quickly change in the office than in the restroom, which requires you to lug all your clothes (and shoes) there, meticulously hang clothes on the hooks of the door or plop them over the top, and then somehow balance yourself on one leg as you change out of your tight jeans without falling over and landing in the toilet. Wow, so dangerous! So I admit it, yes, I'm an office changer. There are risks involved, however, including: 1. Officemates coming back unexpectedly, 2. Polish cleaning ladies walking in, and, 3. People peeking through the windows. Fortunately, #1 and #2 are non-issues for the most part since these people are on pretty standard schedules. I've also come up with a failsafe - sliding the office chair up against the door for those days I'm extra-paranoid. For #3 there's a handy-dandy giant pillar that I can stand behind and besides, how many creeps are peeking through grad student office windows anyway?

Anyhow, no big deal, right? Changing in the office/lab is quite common from what I've been hearing around the dept. What, then, are the associated problems you ask? Well...take a look at this:


Hmmm...yeah. Now how would you feel coming back to this from a hard day's work in the lab? Pants just lying there, on the ground, untouched, as if the person just dropped their pants, stepped out of them, and left. I can see the crotch area of the jeans! There's something gross and NSFW about it, no? I don't know about you, but this is not professional!

I've also heard about another person (not to be named Mr. mid-dubs4life) who changes in their lab/office WITH people there. Okay, that's just a-whole-nother level. Do you think people want to see your boxers in their faces when they are on IDL??? Do they want to smell your gym shoes as they segment their lives away on Photoshop? Seriously, I think that's where the line is drawn. (Yeah, I'm talking to you. You know who you are. I'm just sticking up for your poor officemates who haven't said anything to you although I think they should!)

So, in conclusion, office-changing is totally acceptable, but only if there is no evidence of it.

(DISCLAIMER: The pic was a set-up, although it HAS happened before, but it is sort of a running joke now. So don't give my officemate dirty looks next time you see him.)

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject...

IM Sports Girls, or lack thereof

Who in this department did NOT hear about IM sports on their visit weekend? I'd say that's a NO ONE. EVERYONE heard about it because that's what we recruit people to our department for. The sequence of questions for the prospective students goes something like this: 1. What's your name? 2. Where are you from? 3. Do you play sports? 4. Which research group are you interested in?

Intramural sports are very important to us, and that's why it's really disappointing to see the lack of participation from certain classes. What I really mean is, why is there no co-rec softball team? Why is there only 1 co-rec frisbee team? Why did we scramble to get enough girls for soccer? Don't even get me started on Winter quarter (hockey). Back in the day (meaning 3+ years ago), everyone played IM sports, including almost all the girls. Maybe not everyone played every sport, but everyone played something. Now-a-days, we have to go outside the department to fill the roster. What has happened to us??? This is unacceptable. (Not trying to hate on anyone, but ain't it weird how different things are?)

I truly hope next year's class has girls who will give IM's a shot. Seriously, no skills are required (remember Fire Ants of Doom, aka Harold and the First Years - Hockey Winter 2007? Yeah, we went on to the semi's the 2 subsequent years).

Is this a matter of recruiting the wrong girls? Not enough promo in the fall? Changing priorities of the department? It boggles our minds to this day, so for now, all we can do is reminisce about the past and the once surplus of girls...