For whoever reads this....

Praise the Lord for his goodness and actions this day! His hand was on the rugby game today, preventing any major injuries (I think one guy on our side had his nose smashed up pretty good, but nothing major on either side.), and incidentally, God has given us victory! He made our legs strong and swift, and our minds quick.

We played Geneva again today, at home. It followed the ladies game (which they also won, something to nothing). We actually had a pretty big cheering section today as well - another praise! It is nice to be able to win and have friends watching. Well, they were much better than they were at the Scottish festival. They had a bunch of better and bigger players than last time (when we beat them 45 to nothing), and were out for blood to get us back for the last game.

Well, they kicked to us, our outside wing (a back at the far left of the field) caught it from behind the half-line, and ran it all the way for a try. About 30 seconds into the game, we had a try.
About 2 minutes after that, we had another.

The grand total was 75 to nothing. On our big field (Geneva has a tiny field) we had an enormous advantage, because we run so much for conditioning. So, one of our backs, or at times, even a slower forward, would get the ball and run all the way down the field for a try. One of our backs scored 5 tries, all by outrunning anyone chasing him.
Just because we crushed them points-wise, does not mean that we are a really good team or Geneva is a really bad team. God was with us - that is the primary explanation. Also, we have been working really hard over the past two weeks, and have gotten better as well.

I didn't get to score any tries, but I played the whole game, and was told that I was playing well and agressively. Praise the Lord for his protection and his blessings!!

Jeremy Turpin

A movie review

I borrowed the new Pride and Predjudice film from a friend and watched it tonight. Although I am biased from liking the book and the A&E version of the film, I did not feel that the movie was very good. Granted, compressing the rather lengthly book down to two hours is an impressive feat, given the numerous essential elements of the plot that must be included in order to give any sense to the whole. But, really, if I had not have already read the book and seen the 6-hour movie, I am sure that I would have had no idea what the story was. First, watching this is like watching a slideshow, perhaps one showing someone's vacation. It jumps from one location, timeframe, or general tone rapidly, without actually explaining or showing anything. Viewing more like a selection of the best scenes from the book, the movie lacks the connecting tissue that brings the series of vingnettes into a collective whole. The characters, except for possibly Elizabeth, have no depth whatsoever. They are like little paper dolls, without substance. With half of them, I would hardly catch their names before their 30 seconds in the film was up and they were cast off stage. Even Elizabeth, the heroine, did not have much substance backing the image of the actress. The vibrant character in the book is displayed as a pensive, and inscrutable woman, with a much less understanding nature.
The whole story of Lydia's elopment with Wickham is told and resolved inside of five minutes. Elizabeth receives her letter from Jane, Suddenly she is home with her mother, when they receive a letter just as her father arrives home, which states that the two have been found. Cut to next scene - Lydia arriving in state. There is no portrayal of the despair of the family, of how deeply it has affected them. This is a time that helped to develop the characters in the book, but here it is glossed over.
Now, some of the above I could partially understand - they are extremely limited by time constraints. But, many scenes were changed from the book which would have had little change on the length of the telling.
Quotes from the book, quite recognisable and distinct, would be stated here and there, most of which seemed to be put in merely to try to maintain some form of adherence to the original, but, in my opinion, they could have chosen better. It seemed like the producers liked to try to force the audience to imagine the emotions going through Elizabeth's head at various points, as well as attempt to indicate the passing of time, by including of shots of Lizzy with a thoughtful look on her face just staring into a mirror, or the sunset, or the spinning walls of a barn - they could have saved some time on those and added some extra dialog that tells the story better.

My advice (for the little that it is worth) is to read the book, which is an excellent story, and then to set aside a long period of time to watch the 6-hour A&E version of the movie, which feels as if you are watching the book unfold before your eyes.

I would like to include an explanation for any spelling errors, incoherencies, or grammatical oddities that are found within this post, or, for that matter, in anything on this blog. When I write something that is not going to be graded or put to the test or otherwise important, I will generally not read what I have written. For example, I have not read what I have written above after I have written it. It saves on revision time, and besides, who reads and cares about it anyway?



What is left feels like a mere shell of the beautiful story that it is modeled over.

Token post about rugby game today

Well, we played another rugby game today. We didn't know about it till wednesday night - so I was all set to get work done this weekend. It was going to be the last saturday without a game until the 11th of november. Oh well.
We lost, 15 to 7, to Franciscan University. We actually did very well, considering that they are a division 2 team and we are division 3. And that they have beaten us every time we have played them since 2002 (They are the team that we played last year at the highland festival who sent one of our guys to the hospital). And the fact that the ref was making some interesting calls, some of which seemed to be slightly biased (he helps to coach the franciscan team). We played well, and for the first three-quarters of the game, completely drove through their forward pack (pack is a collective term for the forwards) We won all but a couple of scrums - there were a lot - and should have gotten at least one more try, but the ref didn't call it one.

I played the full game - 80 minutes, and a 20 minute B-side game, so I am tired. And sore. A pretty good game though.

Rugby news

Well, the first game of the season was yesterday (Saturday the 9th) at the Ligonier Scottish Highland Games. This game was better than last year - we beat Geneva College 45 to nothing. That felt pretty good - usually we are the ones that get ran over roughshod. It was also cool, because that game is the one tha thas the largest audience - probably 500 to 1000 people watching. That was cool, and pretty fun. Nobody was seriously hurt this year on either team, so praise the Lord for that!

On the bus trip home, we were taking bets as to the football game that our college's team had played that day. The question was: how much did they lose by? I voted for at least 14 points. Lots of people said 21pts, and the coach and our advisor called for 30 points or more. It turned out that they lost 28-0.
Our football team is a standing joke around here. They aren't that good, and the people who are recruited to play do not really work along and seem to fit in with the rest of the campus. I personally do not see why they care about a school football team, but, that's just my opinion...

Later!

Jeremy

Flashback

Take a look back to September 2005 in this blog. Near the beginning of the month, you will find a piece entitled, "A Treatise on Modern College Dancing." In said post, I discussed at length the dynamics of the 'Street dance' on the first Saturday of School. Now, almost exactly a year from that date, I will again set fingers to keys to tell about the street dance of tonight.
My opinions as to the dancing, music, and people have not changed. However, again I risked sanity and ability to hear low sounds for the remainder of my life by again attending. However, this time, somthing had changed. I had something to induce me to go. A very strong, and very intriuging inducement. No, it wasn't a girl. Had nothing to do with a girl.

One Word.

Lederhosen.

Yes, Lederhosen. See Below.


For some reason, today while walking back to my room from playing racketball, I thought of lederhosen. I don't know why. But, after I showered the sweat off, I decided to experiment. After that, I decided that I had to wear this and go to the dance. If I couldn't enjoy the dancing or music, I could at least try to talk to people and amuse myself with watching people's reactions. In this, I was amply repaid.

First off, all of my friends enjoyed it. Walking around (I still had nothing to do) I watched people's eyes - 'looking around, hey! Hang on! was that guy...no it can't b...yes. Its lederhosen!' These facial reactions were amusing. A couple of people asked me about it - one conversation

Girl - Can I ask you a question?
Me - Sure!
Girl - Are you german?
Me - No.
Girl - Are you of german descent, then?
Me - not really. I think my mom might be about a quarter german, but not really.
Girl - Well, THEN WHY ARE YOU WEARING LEDERHOSEN??!
Me - /abbreviated synopsis of above/

I thought it was funny, anyway...maybe you had to be there.

Construction:
I rolled the legs up from my knees and held the pant legs there with bungee cords. Not very authentic, but I don't exactly want to put holes in my good pants.
I used my rugby socks for the hose. They worked. Nice clunky shoes.

I used my belts and borrowed another for the suspenders, which worked decently well. I used one of my ties for the cross-piece half-way up.

My favorite was the bolo that I am wearing. I cut off a piece of rope that I had brought from home, and used that with one of my Jamboree belt buckles to make a bolo. I decided I needed one because the web site that had pictures of the german outfits had most of the guys wearing something like that.

In synopsis: I had fun tonight at a dance, but not due to the events given out by the dance, but by the changes that I put into it. I hope that you enjoy this - I convulsed a couple of my hallmates and their friends.


Jeremy Turpin

Save Aaron Klein!

from the attacks of the ravenous ssc-hounds (Save Sierra College), who are hunting for blood. Their teeth have been pulled repeatedly, they cannot run, and their noses are so covered in thier own blood so much that they have latched onto Aaron Klein and Jerry Simmons as thier enemies, unable to smell out the true problems.

I just received one of thier emails today. Most of them I merely delete, but this time I sent a reply. I do not expect it to be read or taken seriously, probably deleted as I delete thiers, but so someone will read it, here it is.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply

I am sorry, but I do not agree with your constant attacking of people these fine men in office. I feel that Aaron Klein and Jerry Simmons are doing a great thing for Sierra College and I am glad that they are in office. The former president BROKE THE LAW, and left his position voluntarily. Your effort to obtain a vote on the recall for the next election failed miserably, as, no doubt, will this one. As long as your group continues to use your hate and your twisted truths in order to bring about whatever is your ultimate goal, people will continue to see though it and recoil from supporting a group whose sole purpose is to defame and create public hatred for Aaron and Jerry.
Sierra College has problems. Lots of financial problems. BUT MOST IF NOT ALL OF THOSE PROBLEMS PREDATE AARON's ELECTION TO THE BOARD! He and Jerry are trying to fix those problems! The board of trustees has produced the first balanced budget in years with these men on the board. Is that Bad? What have they done that is against the law? If sierra college was a private entity and not a state-sponsored organization, then the unprincipled and uncontrolled spending would have bankrupted and closed the school long ago. Instead, you take more of MY money from MY pocket that *I* earned to fix YOUR mistakes. You are trying to fix a leak in a dam by adding more water to the top, and pretending that that is not the problem. That is neither just nor fair to me, nor all of the rest of the people who pay you money and receive nothing for it! Stop your ceaseless bickering! You are behaving like little children! Learn that, in the real world, life does not behave as your political ideology states that it should. Money should be earned and used wisely, not dumped down and trodden into the mud. I am sick and tired of your hate and scare tactics. All you are doing is calling attention to the integrity and upstanding nature of these two men, and people will consider - should we re-elect these men who are reducing spending, working under a budget, refraining from hate and name-calling, calling out and getting rid of corruption when they see it, and in general acting like responsable and mature adults? Or should we go with these people who are wild with fear about what will happen to their ideological theories if what these men are trying to do actually works? Should we agree with those who are hateful, prideful, suspicious of others, who evidently don't believe in the democratic republic in which we live unless it suits their purpose? By the way, in case you don't know, those two phrases are NOT references to the two primary political parties in our nation. I know which side I will stick to.

Here is a hint - if you want to win, release all of the information. ALL of it. Like the full pension plan that all SC employees have - for life. The FULL medical plan that all employees, spouses, AND DEPENDENTS OF SUCH have, FOR LIFE. How much money will that take? How much is that taking? Far more than the paltry $600,000 that you accuse Aaron, and Aaron alone, of wasting. But those types of issues are too sensitive - you might make your constituents rethink the amount of cash. Well, here is a statistic: within a couple of years, the amount of money required to pay the pensions and medical plans for all of the college's former employees will be MORE THAN THE CURRENT INCOME OF THE SCHOOL! Aaron and Jerry are trying to find a solution to this. Your actions are clear - you don't really care about the school. You merely worry about your own political ambitions and your own political and educational ideologies - and these two men are threatening them. Therefore, the only solution that you can find is to lash out at the people who are inducing change, instead of finding your own methods of solving the problems. Sticking your heads in the sand solves nothing.

I know that this email will probably not be read. If it is, it will not be listened to. If it is, then I am glad that there are some who are able to accept the opinions of the other side and rationally consider thier position, and I apologise for my misconceptions. I also apologise for any insults or personal aspersions that I may have cast at the SaveSierraCollege organization, intentionally or unintentionally, true or false as they may be. I merely would like to get my point across.

Jeremy Turpin
Former Sierra College Student



On 9/2/06, Committee to Save Sierra College wrote:
Dear Friend of Sierra College,

We need your help to recall Jerry Simmons and Aaron Klein from the Sierra College Board of Trustees.

They defamed the college’s highly respected president, wasted $600,000 on a buyout package and responded dishonestly to the Grand Jury report that found Klein’s charges “utterly without merit”. They have lost the confidence of the public, local elected officials, college staff, and students.
“Mr. Klein in concert with Jerry Simmons has done incalculable harm to the college's finances, reputation and morale. These two trustees need to be recalled before they can do any more harm."
--Cheryl Maki, former Auburn Mayor

“Jerry does not deserve to be Board President any more than he deserves to be a trustee. He is not trustworthy and he is not trusted.”
--Barbara Vineyard, Sierra College Trustee

“The sooner there is new leadership for Sierra College, the brighter the future for Placer County.”
--The Sacramento Bee Editorial: Sierra College woes
June 10, 2006

The pair must be recalled in order to reform the board as quickly as possible, restore public trust, and rebuild relationships with the community.
Please Click here for Jerry Simmons Petition and Click here for Aaron Klein Petition to view and print them on standard letter-size (8.5 x 11) paper. RETURN SIGNED PETITIONS TO THE ADDRESS BELOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Obtaining signatures from a few of your friends and neighbors, and enclosing donations of any size will help us place the recall on the ballot for a public vote.
Carefully follow these instructions:

Fill in county name in the blank above the signature boxes on both pages of each petition. (Use separate petitions for registered voters in each county.)
Fill in the “Declaration of Person Circulating Section of Recall Petition” on the second page of each petition. (The person circulating the petition may also sign it.)
If you have already signed a petition, do not sign again.
Only registered voters should sign and print their names -- just as they are registered to vote. If memory fails, use your full name.
Residence addresses must be completed – No P.O. boxes.
Help us Save Sierra College. Thank you for your support!

George Magnuson Cheryl Maki Alex Ferreira
Rocklin Mayor Former Auburn Mayor Former Placer Supervisor

Donations and Correspondence:

Committee to Save Sierra College
395 South Hwy 65, Suite A, PMB 264
Lincoln, CA 95648
(530) 470-1442 or (916) 449-3017

Note:Your e-mail address was obtained from public voter registration records. We do not anticipate sending further messages to you, but you may click REMOVE to ensure that we do not.

Paid for by the Committee to Save Sierra College (ID #1286925)
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Dorm Room Pics

Here you go - by a request - pictures of my room. For what they are worth...


Looking at the desks and the wardrobe at the back from the window















Looking at the beds, the couch, and out the window with back to the desks














Dorm Room looking towards the desks from the door

A long, long time ago, in a dorm room down the hall,

I used to acually use this site. Well, I will make a post now and then. Might. Maybe. Probably not, actually. Anyway, I am back at GCC, in room 303 rather than 301, and still as an EE major, so not too much has changed. I still have lots of homework to do, so not much has changed. I will try to post some pictures on here soonish, but I don't have any guarantees. Later!

Jeremy Turpin