What a finish!

After Saturday's atrocious beating at the hands of the Gaels (come on, is that any kind of name for a mascot?) the Williams family was pretty certain that last night's home finale against Conference leading Santa Clara was going to be ugly.

In fact, Matt and I decided not to go to Firestone Fieldhouse for it.  We stayed home and tuned in online.  I wish we had gone to the game.  What a finish!  The Waves came back to tie it in the final minutes and won by seven in overtime.   It is sure fun watching games with Matthew (when he's interested). 

A Big Day for Matthew (and me!)

 

I taught Matthew the basics of chess about four years ago.  We've played on-and-off since then.  However, he was in chess club this year and really improved.  We played last week and I just barely beat him.  So, yesterday he spent several hours reading this book about chess.  We played again this morning and he killed me!  It was the first time he's ever won when I played my best (of course, my buddies PAV and SN will tell you I'm not very good...).  Anyway, it's a big day.  I'm going to write it in his journal.

In other big news for Matthew...we've been wondering about sports camps for the summer.  But, Matt is just not that into sports.  So, today we found a terrific alternative...Internal Drive Computer camps! They host camps for kids aged 7-17 where they teach game programming, robotics, and video production using world-class equipment and software.  We found the site today and he is SO excited about it.  The best part is that they have these camps at 50 "prestigious locations" such as Brown, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Georgetown and Pepperdine.

Some homecoming photos...

Here are some photos from homecoming.

2007-Q1-Homecoming Vacation

More on Basketball...

Matthew finished his second season of B-ball this year.  I was so proud of him.  He had a great attitude all season, never complained about practice, or the games, and improved a lot over the course of the season.  Way to go, big guy!

 

2006-Q1-Matthew Basketball

A bad night for basketball...

My good friend DMS put together a wonderful night for faculty and staff at the b-school.  After a very pedestrian dinner (provided by the most utilitarian of providers) of hot dogs and hamburgers, we went down to watch what had to be the ugliest basketball game I have ever seen.  After the rousing victory last week against Loyola Marymount, I expected a decent showing tonight.  Holy cow...the Waves played awful.  I suspect they missed at least a dozen layups.  Wow.  At least I enjoyed visiting with JM, NG, DMS, TP, PP and others.  I feel awful for these kids on our team right now.  It must be hard to suit up each night and go give it your all when the odds of pulling out a victory are so low.

Many of us at Pepperdine are from the midwest, or have Ph.D.'s from Big 10 schools.  So, the Michigan State/IU game was on our minds tonight too.  Well, my Hoosiers collapsed in the second half and gave up an 11-point lead to lose by 8 in Lansing.  Hard to believe the Waves gave up nearly as many points in the first half as the Spartans did all night. 

Definitely, a bad night for basketball.

This ones for your, Sammy...

The following story is a shout-out to my buddy SLS to whom I've made similar accommodations over the past months...

Ping-Pong Rules Adjusted For Girlfriend

So long to wisdom...

After nearly 25 years, and saying "NO" to at least 11 dentists, I finally agreed today to have one of my wisdom teeth pulled.

I've found that there are at least two kinds of dentists...those who think you should have all of your wisdom teeth extracted as a right of passage into adulthood, and those that think these teeth should be kept until they begin to cause other problems.  And let's be clear...they will start to cause other problems.  Actually, there has been long-standing debate about the efficacy of preventative removal of third mollars with equivocal findings.

In my past 25 years or so I've used a dual-pronged heuristic for selecting a dentist...a) do they take my insurance (or if I didn't have insurance, would they give me a good rate) and 2) do they recommend I take out my wisdom teeth.  Anytime a dentist recommended I extract my wisdom teeth for ideological reasons I assumed he would recommend other unnecessary dental expenses.  Thus, I would find a new one (I'm on my fourth dentist since moving to Malibu!). 

Well, apparently, one of the fillings that I've had since I was about 12 is starting to rot and needs to be replaced.  Unfortunately, since the filling was the size of South Texas it requires a complete crown.  Also, apparently, the wisdom tooth behind that tooth is obstructing the crown.  So, I had one extracted today. 

Right now, I'm at home "recovering".  Recovering from an extraction like this can be compared to what it must feel like to have 1,241 bee stings inside your mouth.  OUCH!  My whole face is swolen, numb, uglier than usual, and bleeding like one of the steaks my brother routinely eats after letting it thaw to room temperature.  The bad news is that the surgeon suggested today would be the easiest day of the next 10!  Goodness... 

Another great homecoming...

I wonder if faculty always feel like this...I actually prefer homecoming here at Pepperdine than at any of my four alma maters.

Today was the third Pepperdine Homecoming we've been too. Again, it was a day full of festivities with food and fun for the kids, perfect weather (blue skies and 80 degrees), and a ton of sporting events. We went down to the "Homecoming Village" around 11 and played a bit of kids stuff (bounce house, painted faces...) and grabbed some food.

Then, at 1pm we watched as the mighty Waves Men's Volleyball team crushed the top-ranked BYU cougars 3-0 in 78 minutes.

After that I wanted to watch our baseball team play the recently #3 ranked Wichita State team, but I was outvoted in favor of In-N-Out at Alumni Park (could there possibly be a better way to fill your arteries with trans fats than with In-N-Out at Alumni Park???? I think not!).

Apparently the game wasn't much to see anyway as we pasted the highly regarded Shockers 12-2.

Then we came home and rode bikes for a while before my buddy CP invited me to join him with VIP seats to the Homecoming game against crosstown rival Loyola Marymount. In case you don't know...the basketball program is in a "transitional year"...meaning we suck. But with a rousing second-half performance by Chase Griffin, we pulled out an astounding victory.

All together, a terrific day. Sometimes it feels like I'm at a resort...

The "Born-Again" movement is dying a slow, miserable death...

Here's strong evidence (primary source documents here).

A New Local Federalism, and what happened to Local shops & media?

Props to JAW for an excellent post about the Governator's recent initatives here in CA.  Also, in other local news, Starbucks' plan to add 4000 new stores in this decade has begun here in Malibu where ou local Diedrich's Coffee began it's metamorphosis into another Starbucks.  Here's a great article that captures the spirit of the old Diedrich's.

Finally, last night on the way back from our Irvine Graduate Campus I listened to an excellent story about Net Neutrality.  You can download the audio to your MP3 player, or watch it online here.  I may require it for future MBA classes.

Marcus' New Trailer Bike

Thanks to my good friend JM, Tater has a new trail bike. Here's one of his first episodes on it. He LOVES it!
mlw

Why I love campus life...

One of the many reasons I love being a professor is the flurry of cultural and athletic activities. Last night we went with some good friends to see I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change at PU. It was a student production for a Senior Directing project. The kids were so talented, and the show was so enjoyable. I bought the soundtrack on iTunes this morning. I've been listening to it all day. Too much fun. If you haven't seen this show yet, get tickets today!

Want a Free Mac Book Pro?

 

My buddy PAV put me on to this site where you can "earn" a brand new Mac Book Pro just by filling in some "offers" from various advertisers.  My buddy has several friends who did it, so he tried it.  He got his new Mac yesterday.  Seriously.

So, I just started filling in offers this morning.  I suspect it will cost me about 10 hours and $100...I"ll keep you posted.

Archives are back...

A friend pointed out to me a few weeks ago that my "Archive" was not working. I figured it out this morning while procrastinating an MISQE revision. When I switched ISP's a few months ago the archive path changed (since I added another domain) and I forgot to adjust the settings in Blogger. So, now feel free to peruse my archives all the way back to when Fischler first introduced me to blogging in 2002.

Marcus and the Good Samerican