GRE OVER! Also, CAL-UW
WHOOOOOOOO! AFter months of study (and worrying if I had done enough), I took the GRE Friday. Started out with the 2 essays - the "present your perspective on an issue" one that I wrote about was "studying the past is useless to understanding life in today's complex, modern world" (you choose to either agree or disagree with the prompt). I disagreed, said that while today we have technology that didn't exist previously (used the internet mostly, though may have mentioned television as well, and cell phones), people's behavior hasn't altered all that much, and that we can learn from elders (or some shit like that), because they went through good times and bad, as we do, and learning from how they dealt with situations can help us understand/live in today's world. Also used the military (we learned from Napoleon's defeat that preparation is the key, and we don't send our soldiers into battle without advanced scouting (ok, so I wasn't 100% accurate with the essay, but my point that studying the past is key was made)). Hopefully the graders see it the same way. The other essay was picking apart an argument (which allows for some creativity, but not as much).
My next section was math, and I ran into some bad luck right off the bat with a few geometry problems to start the section. I don't know how I did on them, but think I did ok on the algebra/arithmetic problems in general.
With the verbal section, I realized just how much the vocab lists helped. I felt like I knew most of the words in the analogies and the antonym parts, and generally felt comfortable with the section. Felt ok with the reading comp part, although what stunk with the GRE as a computer-based test is that I couldn't underline the text for future reference.
Decided to find out my score and...
1270 combined!!!!!
650 verbal (based on the GRE Power Prep, that's around the 90th percentile)
620 math (around 67th percentile)
I'm not sure if the percentiles are just for the social sciences (I think they are) or if those are general scores. Definitely happy with those scores, especailly the verbal (because soc schools don't care nearly as much about math =D).
Went with Daniel, Joe, and Joe's Godfather to today's (Saturday's) Cal-Washington football game. It was a strange game for me, to say the least. I went to Washington for two years, and while I hadn't met any (as far as I can remember) players from this year's team, there were several players whom I had heard about. Unfortunately, one of these players was quarterback Isiah Stanback, who I was hoping to see play....except he broke his ankle last week, thus ending his season and likely, his collegiate career. I was hoping for a close game, but in the back of my head, thought Cal could blow out the Huskies (Cal had scored in the 40s for 5 or 6 consecutive games until last week's 21-3 win @ WSU, and I just didn't think that Washington had the horses to run with Cal). We sat 6 rows in the corner of an end zone, which made for some cool views on close plays, but kind of a crappy view once the ball was around midfield. What was nice is we could hear both the Cal and Washington bands really clearly, and also the student section. Surprisingly, it's easy to understand the student section chants (from experiences in there and in the nearby young alumni sections, it sounds really garbled when in the crowd). I ended up wearing lots of UW gear (cap, tshirt, baseball jersey), although I did applaud nice plays by Cal. Figured it's one of the few times I get to see Washington play live, so decided to go all-out as far as what I wore.
For the most part, I didn't get crap from fans, other than one jerk who I think was trying to pick a fight (kinda sad). What was funny is that it wasn't a student (or someone young) trying to pick a fight; this guy was in the general section/alumni section and middle-aged. I ignored him (jokingly told Daniel, "That's the best your fans have? Weak." There were 2 Washington fans behind me, so we'd high-five after nice Huskies plays. Late in the game, some women sat behind us, and I think it was their first Cal game. One asked what fans were chanting during a "Roll On You Bears" cheer by the student section, then asked how it was punctuated. I'm not sure about you, but if I don't know the grammatical breakdown of a cheer, I just don't participate (yes, that was sarcasm...). One of them also randomly went "hey, you're wearing a Washington shirt" (again, keep in mind this was the 4th quarter). I just replied with "Yeah. I am.". From what I could gather, the woman who was unsure about the syntax of "roll on you bears" and was perceptive enough to notice my gear was a former Stanfurd ban(ne)d member. Gee. A furd banned member not paying attention to the game, and generally not knowing what's going on? What a shocker.
From a Cal perspective, quarterback Nate Longshore seemed to be out of synch with his receivers for the entire game, and looked worse than his #s indicated (21-36, 291 yards). Marshawn Lynch carried the offense, rushing for over 150 yards and receiving for roughly 50. I was a little disappointed, because he had a touchdown run right in front of me - I could see his eyes through his visor - and I couldn't snap the photo in time (got him celebrating after the score, but not on his way in). The defense played well, forcing 5 interceptions (one of them on an amazing dive by linebacker Zack Follett - I don't think Bonnell saw him at all). The only negatives were a lack of pass rush and Cal not scoring after getting the turnovers. The defense also did a good job holding on 3rd and short situations, forcing the Huskies to punt.
From a Washington perspective, this was quarterback Carl Bonnell's first start, and he had only one week of regular reps with the first team offense, and it showed somewhat. There were times that the Huskies receivers didn't help him much, but Bonnell needs to improve his decision making. He threw 5 interceptions, which sounds horrible, but only 2 (as far as I remember) were legitimately bad plays on Bonnell's part. One play had him rolling out towards a sideline, looking to a receiver who was being covered. Instead of chucking the ball out of bounds, Bonnell threw a pass that was intercepted by a diving Zack Follett (a really cool play by Follett, but not a smart play by Bonnell). The other interception that comes to mind happened in the end zone near me. Bonnell had Anthony Russo running a fade or post pattern into the end zone...only to have Cal DB Daymeion Hughes run the route better than Russo, and intercept the ball in the end zone (right in front of me). Other interceptions included a Worrell Williams pick where he took the ball out of tight end Johnie Kirton's hands (can't really blame Bonnell for that). That being said, Bonnell impressed me with his mobility (he was the Huskies' 2nd leading carrier with 9 carries for 64 yards, and had a touchdwon run). I think he looked roughly as good as his numbers (17-31, 280+ yards, 2 td, 5 int). Seemed like he was hitting receivers, only to have a case of the drops at times, but when he did complete passes, they'd go fairly far.
Washington's defense and special teams kept DeSean Jackson out of the end zone, and while Lynch had a good game (he had a really cool play where he ran to the right sideline, cocked his arm to pass, then reversed field and gained 16 yards when the opportunity to throw didn't present itself), the run defense was fairly stout.
I was a little annoyed with Washington's conservative playcalling. They may have simplified the offense simply to make life easy for Bonnell, but it boiled down to a run on first down (generally up the middle, where it would get stuffed), run on 2nd, pass on 3rd. What was also frustrating is that the Huskies would get to 3rd and 1, and not be able to convert.
That being said, Washington got out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, and led 10-3 at halftime. Cal took a 13-10 lead after 3 quarters, thanks to a 50 yard Tom Schneider field goal and a short Justin Forsett touchdwn run. The Huskies answered with Bonnell's touchdown run to go up 17-13. Cal got the next 11 points thanks to the Lynch td run in front of me and another Schneider field goal (not in that order). The Lynch td came with roughly 2 minutes to play, and Bonnell took advantage of Cal's prevent defense, hitting medium passes and getting first down on runs. The Huskies had the ball on the Cal 40 with 6 seconds left to play, and Bonnell launched a pass into the end zone....and it was caught by a Husky (Marlon Wood) for a touchdown! This was the first hail mary I had seen work, and was the first overtime game I had ever attended. Cal opened up overtime by scoring with a Lynch run, this one from 22 yards out, and Washington took over, needint at least a td and pat. The play of running Louis Rankin (who took over as the main running back after starter Kenny James left in the first half with an injury) up the middle yielded no gain, and Bonnell tried passing into the end zone. Unfortunately, the receiver he threw to was being bracketed (between linebacker Desmond Bishop and a defensive back),, and Bishop picked off the pass and ran it...back to the UW 25, when he ran out of gas...thus ending the game. It was definitely a closer game than I anticipated, and it was a ton of fun watching it, especially the last-second hail mary. Next Cal game I'll be at will be in 2 weeks: Nov. 4 vs. UCLA.
In Sharks news, they lost 4-1 to Minnesota tonight (Nabokov had 14 saves on 18 shots, but i have no idea how good the shots were). But, they beat Dallas 2-0 (Nabokov with a shutout - doing something he coudln't do last year: get 2 shutous in one season), and rolled over Detroit 5-1, with all goals coming on the poewr play (Sharks were 5-13 on the PP, tying a franchise record for PP goals in a game, and also tying a record for most PP goals in a period with 3). Their next game is Monday @ Columbus, kicking off a road trip.
For now, I'm out. Late.
My next section was math, and I ran into some bad luck right off the bat with a few geometry problems to start the section. I don't know how I did on them, but think I did ok on the algebra/arithmetic problems in general.
With the verbal section, I realized just how much the vocab lists helped. I felt like I knew most of the words in the analogies and the antonym parts, and generally felt comfortable with the section. Felt ok with the reading comp part, although what stunk with the GRE as a computer-based test is that I couldn't underline the text for future reference.
Decided to find out my score and...
1270 combined!!!!!
650 verbal (based on the GRE Power Prep, that's around the 90th percentile)
620 math (around 67th percentile)
I'm not sure if the percentiles are just for the social sciences (I think they are) or if those are general scores. Definitely happy with those scores, especailly the verbal (because soc schools don't care nearly as much about math =D).
Went with Daniel, Joe, and Joe's Godfather to today's (Saturday's) Cal-Washington football game. It was a strange game for me, to say the least. I went to Washington for two years, and while I hadn't met any (as far as I can remember) players from this year's team, there were several players whom I had heard about. Unfortunately, one of these players was quarterback Isiah Stanback, who I was hoping to see play....except he broke his ankle last week, thus ending his season and likely, his collegiate career. I was hoping for a close game, but in the back of my head, thought Cal could blow out the Huskies (Cal had scored in the 40s for 5 or 6 consecutive games until last week's 21-3 win @ WSU, and I just didn't think that Washington had the horses to run with Cal). We sat 6 rows in the corner of an end zone, which made for some cool views on close plays, but kind of a crappy view once the ball was around midfield. What was nice is we could hear both the Cal and Washington bands really clearly, and also the student section. Surprisingly, it's easy to understand the student section chants (from experiences in there and in the nearby young alumni sections, it sounds really garbled when in the crowd). I ended up wearing lots of UW gear (cap, tshirt, baseball jersey), although I did applaud nice plays by Cal. Figured it's one of the few times I get to see Washington play live, so decided to go all-out as far as what I wore.
For the most part, I didn't get crap from fans, other than one jerk who I think was trying to pick a fight (kinda sad). What was funny is that it wasn't a student (or someone young) trying to pick a fight; this guy was in the general section/alumni section and middle-aged. I ignored him (jokingly told Daniel, "That's the best your fans have? Weak." There were 2 Washington fans behind me, so we'd high-five after nice Huskies plays. Late in the game, some women sat behind us, and I think it was their first Cal game. One asked what fans were chanting during a "Roll On You Bears" cheer by the student section, then asked how it was punctuated. I'm not sure about you, but if I don't know the grammatical breakdown of a cheer, I just don't participate (yes, that was sarcasm...). One of them also randomly went "hey, you're wearing a Washington shirt" (again, keep in mind this was the 4th quarter). I just replied with "Yeah. I am.". From what I could gather, the woman who was unsure about the syntax of "roll on you bears" and was perceptive enough to notice my gear was a former Stanfurd ban(ne)d member. Gee. A furd banned member not paying attention to the game, and generally not knowing what's going on? What a shocker.
From a Cal perspective, quarterback Nate Longshore seemed to be out of synch with his receivers for the entire game, and looked worse than his #s indicated (21-36, 291 yards). Marshawn Lynch carried the offense, rushing for over 150 yards and receiving for roughly 50. I was a little disappointed, because he had a touchdown run right in front of me - I could see his eyes through his visor - and I couldn't snap the photo in time (got him celebrating after the score, but not on his way in). The defense played well, forcing 5 interceptions (one of them on an amazing dive by linebacker Zack Follett - I don't think Bonnell saw him at all). The only negatives were a lack of pass rush and Cal not scoring after getting the turnovers. The defense also did a good job holding on 3rd and short situations, forcing the Huskies to punt.
From a Washington perspective, this was quarterback Carl Bonnell's first start, and he had only one week of regular reps with the first team offense, and it showed somewhat. There were times that the Huskies receivers didn't help him much, but Bonnell needs to improve his decision making. He threw 5 interceptions, which sounds horrible, but only 2 (as far as I remember) were legitimately bad plays on Bonnell's part. One play had him rolling out towards a sideline, looking to a receiver who was being covered. Instead of chucking the ball out of bounds, Bonnell threw a pass that was intercepted by a diving Zack Follett (a really cool play by Follett, but not a smart play by Bonnell). The other interception that comes to mind happened in the end zone near me. Bonnell had Anthony Russo running a fade or post pattern into the end zone...only to have Cal DB Daymeion Hughes run the route better than Russo, and intercept the ball in the end zone (right in front of me). Other interceptions included a Worrell Williams pick where he took the ball out of tight end Johnie Kirton's hands (can't really blame Bonnell for that). That being said, Bonnell impressed me with his mobility (he was the Huskies' 2nd leading carrier with 9 carries for 64 yards, and had a touchdwon run). I think he looked roughly as good as his numbers (17-31, 280+ yards, 2 td, 5 int). Seemed like he was hitting receivers, only to have a case of the drops at times, but when he did complete passes, they'd go fairly far.
Washington's defense and special teams kept DeSean Jackson out of the end zone, and while Lynch had a good game (he had a really cool play where he ran to the right sideline, cocked his arm to pass, then reversed field and gained 16 yards when the opportunity to throw didn't present itself), the run defense was fairly stout.
I was a little annoyed with Washington's conservative playcalling. They may have simplified the offense simply to make life easy for Bonnell, but it boiled down to a run on first down (generally up the middle, where it would get stuffed), run on 2nd, pass on 3rd. What was also frustrating is that the Huskies would get to 3rd and 1, and not be able to convert.
That being said, Washington got out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, and led 10-3 at halftime. Cal took a 13-10 lead after 3 quarters, thanks to a 50 yard Tom Schneider field goal and a short Justin Forsett touchdwn run. The Huskies answered with Bonnell's touchdown run to go up 17-13. Cal got the next 11 points thanks to the Lynch td run in front of me and another Schneider field goal (not in that order). The Lynch td came with roughly 2 minutes to play, and Bonnell took advantage of Cal's prevent defense, hitting medium passes and getting first down on runs. The Huskies had the ball on the Cal 40 with 6 seconds left to play, and Bonnell launched a pass into the end zone....and it was caught by a Husky (Marlon Wood) for a touchdown! This was the first hail mary I had seen work, and was the first overtime game I had ever attended. Cal opened up overtime by scoring with a Lynch run, this one from 22 yards out, and Washington took over, needint at least a td and pat. The play of running Louis Rankin (who took over as the main running back after starter Kenny James left in the first half with an injury) up the middle yielded no gain, and Bonnell tried passing into the end zone. Unfortunately, the receiver he threw to was being bracketed (between linebacker Desmond Bishop and a defensive back),, and Bishop picked off the pass and ran it...back to the UW 25, when he ran out of gas...thus ending the game. It was definitely a closer game than I anticipated, and it was a ton of fun watching it, especially the last-second hail mary. Next Cal game I'll be at will be in 2 weeks: Nov. 4 vs. UCLA.
In Sharks news, they lost 4-1 to Minnesota tonight (Nabokov had 14 saves on 18 shots, but i have no idea how good the shots were). But, they beat Dallas 2-0 (Nabokov with a shutout - doing something he coudln't do last year: get 2 shutous in one season), and rolled over Detroit 5-1, with all goals coming on the poewr play (Sharks were 5-13 on the PP, tying a franchise record for PP goals in a game, and also tying a record for most PP goals in a period with 3). Their next game is Monday @ Columbus, kicking off a road trip.
For now, I'm out. Late.