Kendo practice on 1/29

Seven other people showed up to kendo practice last night. Four beginners, including Kurt coming back from knee surgery, and three people in bogu: Alice, Calvin, and Bernard.

Last night was howling winds, freezing precipitation, and I couldn't even get my trunk opened. I had originally intended to cancel practice until I called Aston and found out that five people had already showed up. I was shamed into going. -_-;;

Only other club to show up was the Judo club. Naginata had a good turnout as well. About six people. We were able to do a lot more kiai, some good fundamental practices with interaction with bogu, and finally a little bogu practice at the end.

Humbling and encouraging experience.

Illini basketball without the Chief

Last Tuesday I went to an Illini exhibition basketball game with Melvin. The game itself is nothing spectacular. We won handily (thank goodness; a lot of Div I teams have been losing to Div II teams this preseason for some reason), there were a LOT of substitutions since the players were still being evaluated, and Bruce Weber even got mad at the effort on the court at one time.

But what really stuck in my mind was halftime. Halftime without the Chief.

I never went to a basketball game at Cal, so Illinois was my only live experience for college basketball game. Although I don't have strong feelings for the Chief, it was odd to watch a game without his performance. The band started playing during halftime and I was like "Wait, why isn't the Orange Crush surrounding the court? Isn't this the Chief set?" And it was. The band played the whole set and people sang during the song, but it felt odd, empty. Not only that, but halftime felt even longer and more boring.

Melvin and I talked about how long it would last. My guess is 4 years. When the stadium is filled with students that haven't seen the Chief live, I believe the Chief will "die."

Illini hockey

On September 28, 2007, I went to see the Illini Hockey Club Team take on the Michigan State Club Team with Bob, Aqeel, and Melvin. It was my first live hockey game. It was quite an interesting experience. I felt that the game was much easier to follow live than on TV.

I was told that we are known for taunting the visitors in a rather organized fashion, and boy did the crowd come through. The crowd was organized from the get-go, starting with the introduction of the visiting team. After each player is introduced the crowd yells "You suck!" And the coach is followed by "You suck too!" After each Illini goal, the crowd points at the goalie and yells "It's all your fault!" There were others, but those were what stuck with me.

We also decided to do the run to the Illini Inn during the break between periods. That actually worked really well. We were able to down a beer on each trip, even though the Inn was rather crowded that night. That was also when I find out that the Inn had gotten rid of their old wooden tables and replaced them with tall ceramic ones. It just doesn't quite feel the same...