Waiting For The Balls To Drop

What is it about squirrels that forces them to be so smart sometimes while total idiots the next?

And I’m not talking about flying squirrels or ground squirrels, but just your run-of-the-mill squirrel with brown, bushy tails you can find anywhere in the United States, jumping from tree to tree.

Walking to campus this afternoon, I saw a squirrel scurry from the sidewalk to a big tree next to the walkway, hiding on the opposite side from me. I don’t know why, as I’ve lived near somewhat wooded areas my entire life, but noticing the squirrel act this way today actually made me think.

I understand why when squirrels run away from you and hide in/on a tree, they always hide on the opposite side. No matter how fast you circle the tree, the squirrel will always beat you to the opposite side.

It makes sense. It’s an instinctive defense mechanism, keeping a barrier between the squirrel and its predator. Squirrels are so light and quick, that it works very successfully.

As simple as it may seem, I find it very interesting that this smart, protective move is countered in intuition by a squirrel’s apparent death wish when it runs out in front of a car.

Driving to lunch today, I nearly ran a squirrel over, just like 1,000s of people do every day, because it decided to wait until my car was 10 feet from it before trying to cross the street … acting like a total moron.

I noticed the squirrel from quite a ways away, simply sitting on the curb, watching me approach. Finally, when I was almost too close to stop or swerve, it decided to sprint across the street.

Why?

Why when a squirrel shows some great natural instinct one minute, it has to be so stupid the next?

It doesn’t make sense to me.

Is it a product of adaptation (or evolution, depending on which side of the theological debate you sit) that hasn’t come around in the past 100 years, or do squirrels strive to drive me crazy and actually blog about it. 

Can anyone tell me why squirrels are the smartest idiots around?

I just want to take a few minutes and brag about the awesome job our editorial staff at the Collegian is doing, especially the tag team between the Sports and Design desks.

As I mentioned yesterday with the photos I posted, Colorado State will wear special orange Ag Day uniforms on Saturday against Idaho. It was thought that they would be exactly like the green jerseys, just orange, but that wasn’t the case.

There were quite a few differences, some subtle, some obvious. I decided that it would be nice to make an infographic of these differences to display in the paper.

Last night I printed out a copy of each photo and wrote numbers on it (1-7). I then typed out a list of details corresponding with the numbers I wrote on the photos to make sure the reader knew the differences with these orange jerseys (and the white pant choice).

I handed them to our Design Editor, Alex, to create the infographic — something I was expecting to be pretty simple.

Boy, was I pleasantly surprised when I picked up the paper this morning and saw this amazing work of art:

Being a writer, I’ve always focused more on the content of the text copy rather than the visual side, but I’ve been trying to change that and think about both. I’m really glad Alex and I (mainly Alex) came up with this great graphic for today’s paper.

Humans are visual creatures. Gotta keep them engaged!

You have to admit, that graphic is pretty cool, right?

This is not just a blog, nor a flightlog. This is a Flightblog.

No seriously, I’m blogging this on an airplane, so why not call it a flightblog?

Since I don’t feel like paying $3,000 for WiFi on the plane, I won’t be able to post this until I land – more accurately, until I drive an hour back from Denver International Airport to Fort Collins, but we’re still calling this a flightblog.

I’m on the last leg of my trip to Oxford, Ohio to cover the Colorado State vs. Miami University game. This is my third flight in as many days and every time I get trapped in these giant tin cans, I somehow get stuck within four rows of a baby who just loves to cry. On this flight, I was (un)fortunate enough to get stuck across the aisle from one.

He’s not too bad in the crying department, but the two things I can’t stand on planes are babies and dogs. And yes, there are two dogs on this flight.

Is it cruel to wish the FAA would make it a law that all children, ages three and under, should be force-fed Valium before getting on an aircraft? A sedated baby makes the entire flight more pleasant. It’s a win for the parents and for the rest of those on board.

Doubt that will happen anytime soon.

Just a few minutes ago I pulled out my camera and started snapping a few photos. Nothing directly of people, but just a few shots of the flight in general.

It’s amazing how anxious those behind me look when they saw me pull a large camera out of my backpack (which I admit is part of the reason I did it—to see the reaction). It’s not that they are afraid to get their photo taken, it’s because it’s out of the norm. A camera taking shots down the aisle is something that seems out of place … for whatever reason.

‘What’s that guy wearing a fedora doing taking pictures? Is he a spy, a P.I., working on a special story for a newspaper or magazine about air travel?’

Nope, I’m just bored and wanted to seethe reaction of a species that is filled with creatures of habit who generally can’t stand change.

Speaking of hating change, I have a complaint I’d like to bring to the attention of Southwest Airlines.

I fly more than most people I know, and although I’m aware that smoking has not been allowed in the cabin or lavatory of commercial flights since 1987, I’m used to the “No Smoking” sign still being illuminated.

I hear the “ding”  for “fasten seatbelt” sign to turn off and all of the sudden I notice that there are two lights missing per row, not just one.

When did this start happening?

Items of that magnitude do get past me too often, and I know for a fact that my flight from Denver to Indianapolis had the “No Smoking” sign illuminated. This is bothering me.

I know it’s likely just my OCD taking effect, but why still build airplanes with the no smoking light/sign if you’re not going to use it?

Is Southwest auctioning off used Boeing 737s to countries that do allowing smoking?

Speaking of being a creature of habit, I love boarding Southwest flights early to watch obviously single males between 20-30 try to scout  open seats next to attractive females with the hopes of joining the Mile High Club … or at least the club of those who met a mile high before coming back down to Earth before doing (use your imagination).

People crack me up.

For the majority of folks, you know what to expect from them, no matter how foreign they may be. They’ll try to be polite and tolerant of certain situations that annoy them. They’ll dress in attire that’s appropriate for their age or profession. And no matter what, without fail, a majority of people will respect senior citizens in ANY situation.

And as much as I applaud those who are polite and respect their elders (because that’s the way “it’s supposed to be”), those people are boring. It’s the same repetitive BS that our lives revolve around.

For the most part, having conversations with strangers like that on flights consists of small talk about meaningless topics and you would be better off reading a book.

Don’t talk to those people on flights.

Talk to the guy who can’t shut up about anything. Talk to the annoying businessman who keeps complaining about every little detail of the flight.

Talk to the woman with tattooed sleeves on both arms. Or someone like the girl on my flight into Indy who wore a tutu and a plastic crown with a multicolored plastic necklace, but I still couldn’t figure out if she was 16 or 24.

Those are the people who make life fun, no matter how crazy they might be. They’re the wrench thrown into the gears that mixes things up.

Some might be annoying, jerks or even crazy, but ultimately, those are the people we remember at the end of the day.

Ok, we’re less than 100 miles from DIA and I need to wrap this up.

If you read all of this, you must either love me or be incredibly bored and need to make friends and have a life.

Time to drive an hour back home and go to work. What a long weekend it has been.

INDIANAPOLIS - It was depressing watching Colorado State’s 51-6 loss to Nevada on ESPNU last Saturday. All I could think about was how the Wolf Pack’s notoriously bad defense was the worst the Rams would see until, likely, New Mexico.

But as I sit here in my Indianapolis hotel room, just a two-hour drive from Oxford, Ohio, watching Nevada play California, a school that beat Colorado 52-7 a week ago (the same margin of victory UNR had over CSU, might I add), I have gained a glimmer of hope for CSU’s mid-afternoon game against Miami University.

Like I said in my column on Monday, the CSU-Nevada game was probably the worst football contest I had ever witnessed in my 23-plus years on this planet. However, it really seems as if Nevada is a much better team than anyone might have suspected.

Granted, Nevada’s defense, especially against the run, still doesn’t look good by any means and I can’t find a single excuse on why CSU still hasn’t scored a touchdown, but maybe last week’s loss for the Rams wasn’t as bad-relatively speaking, of course-as we thought it was.

Are the Rams still an 8-point underdog to a Miami RedHawks squad that won only one game in 2009?

Yes.

But watching Nevada tonight has given me more hope that this season might not end up being the train wreck we all thought we saw just around the corner.

However, Nevada’s performance isn’t enough for SBNation.com blogger Andy Hutchins to give CSU any credit. He had a few Tweets (@AndyHutchins) Friday night that just blasted the Rams … though I really can’t blame him at this point.

• “Nevada gashing Cal, which crushed Colorado, which rolled Colorado State. But Nevada beat CSU, too. Basically, CSU’s just terrible.”
• “@redsoxunixgeek Colorado State could be the worst FBS team of this season. They’re very, very bad.”
• “@MattZemek_CFN New Mexico’s probably dead last. Bottom ten in total AND scoring offense AND defense.”
• “Oh, and Colorado State and New Mexico play on October 30th. Plan your anti-torture rallies now!”

And by the way, how good is Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick?

In three games this season, the senior signal caller has 730 yards and six touchdowns passing to go along with 363 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground. Personally, I think he’s more fun to watch that Michigan’s Denard Robinson.

You can vote on the poll in The Ram Zone message board with your opinion on the topic.

Well that’s it for me tonight. I’ll be making the drive over to Yager Stadium in the morning to watch CSU and Miami square off at 1:30 p.m. MT. Since the game isn’t televised outside of the Buckeye State (other than ESPN3.com), I’ll be running a live blog from the press box. Feel free to join in on the conversation.

Good night.

Note: This post originally ran as From the Road: A glimmer of hope for CSU? on GoldandGreenNews.com, a member of the Rivals.com Network.

I’ve reached a bit of an ethical dilemma reguarding my column for next week.

Friday I’ll be traveling to Oxford, Ohio for the Colorado State vs. Miami football game, which I’ll be covering as a reporter since it will not be televised outside the borders of the Buckeye State. Of course, in the last week it was moved to ESPN3.com, but it wasn’t when we scheduled this trip.

Anyway, I need to decide what to write my column on.

Originally, I planned on wring my column on the game, but since I’ll be reporting on it, I don’t exactly see it as ethical, just like if you’re on a beat, you can’t do an op-ed piece on the topic.

But given that I’ll be in the Cincinnati Metro area all weekend, unable to pay close attention to any other Colorado State sport, what should I write about?

Any thoughts?

Follow the link below for my column that ran today.

The Weekly Blitz - Fort Collins needs a fire to stay sane

It’s official. A week from today I’ll be flying from Denver to Indianapolis en route to the Colorado State vs. Miami game in Oxford, Ohio on Sept. 18.

I’m a little excited because this is the first time in three years covering this Colorado State game that I’ve actually flown out to a game. I’ve followed the Rams all the way to Albuquerque, N.M., Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah, and all along the Front Range, but it has always via car (or the rented Chevy Venture that we drove at 105 MPH down I-80 in 2008).

On top of a nice trip to the Cincinnati Metro area, it’s likely that Colorado State could end its losing streak against the likes of the Miami RedHawks. There’s still a chance that the Rams could beat Nevada tomorrow, but that all depends on an unproven Colorado State offense.

So for now, we’ll bank on covering a win (for a change) a week from Saturday.