Panthers Win!

EIU panthers officially reclaimed the title of OVC Championships as well as guaranteed a birth to the NCAA-IAA playoff Saturday Jacksonville State University Saturday, defeating the Gamecocks 10-6.

The Panther's only touchdown came late in the second half after a 93 yard drive.

As I predicted the game was decided among the defenses. Eastern even stopped Jacksonville on a 1st and goal. (one of the plays being from the 1 and a half yard line.

The Panthers will find out who they play tomorrow. Students and fans can watch together in the Student Rec Center Sunday at noon.

Rumors say it will most likely be a midwest team and analysts are predicting a Southern Illinois University at Eastern Illinois University.

Junior strong safety Tristan Burge injured his ankle on the last play of the game though. Burge got caught in a pile of players and jumped for a last second pass from Jacksonville knocking it down but appeared to roll his ankle. Early reports from Eastern trainers say his ankle was not broken.

Johnny Damon Offer

Johnny Damon was officially offered a three-year deal worth between $27 million and $30 million Thursday from the Boston Red Sox according to the Boston Red Sox homepage and the Boston Globe. The 33-year-old Red Sox center fielder who hit .316 in the 2005 season reportedly wants a longer deal. The Globe's Gordon Edes and Chris Snow say their is a possibility for a 4th year option in the deal. Damon has repeatedly shown interest in remaining in Boston. Damon said he feels he could play center field for another 4 or 5 years and then move into left field to finish off his career.

So much for the rumors about Damon coming to the Cubs. I could honestly care less either way. Damon's career .290 batting average would be of great help to the Cubs and give them the lead-off hitter they thought they were getting with Garciaparra, but let's face it. The Cubs are still struggling with their pitching. The team may have scored 703 runs, but they gave up 714 according to baseballreference.com. Comparing that to the Central Division champion St. Louis Cardinals 634 runs allowed shows the Cubs are in dire need of pitching before batters.


The way it looks right now, Damon will settle with the Red Sox, leaving many teams, especially the Cubs, disappointed. I can completely understand Damon's concern for a longer contract, but at the same time I would be hesitant to give him anything longer than 3 years with an option as they have. Damon's 2005 season was his 2nd highest batting average since he left the Kansas City Royals or the Sox in 2000 with a .320 average. Damon is a solid player and proves himself time and time again. The team has until December 7 to offer him arbitration. If they fail to offer it, dealings with the Sox will cease until May 11.

The Red Sox should go ahead and offer him arbitration if he fails to accept the current deal. Worst case scenario, Damon gets more money than originally planned. With the Sox looking to unload Manny Ramirez this year there should be extra money in the near future anyway.

As a Cubs fan and a Red Sox fan I would rather see Damon stay in Boston. Damon is not going anywhere for a cheap price. No Damon in Chicago means more money that can be devoted to pitching. Not to mention the Sox would be losing two outfielders rather than one. (pending a Ramirez trade.)

Daily Update

I finally heard from the insurance company around 5 p.m. today. They now have to send a person out to check out my car to make sure they do their own estimate. It's going to be another 24 to 48 business hours until I actually hear from them though. That's if Jeff Hale called them back today before they left. It looks as though I will probably have my car in the shop by Monday and get them going. I was originally going to take it to Porter Autobody, but now I think I'm going to take it to World Class Collision because of the helpful assistance they've given me. The guys were extremely nice to me while I was there and they even called earlier tonight to see if they could get things moving with it. I hope it gets taken care of really quick. It's cold as hell and I don't really want to drive 75 down the interstate with a bag for a window.

Pica Pole was also tonight. I had a lot of fun and I handed down a few funny things to Eric. I was really happy I found the photo book to give to Eric. I thought we had lost it, but it was just on the shelf. I think the funniest thing was when I gave him the doodle pad for photo illustrations. The whole newsroom signed a sheet of paper with a Daily Eastern News header and my mug next to it. Everyone had some really nice things to say about me. It made me feel really good.

It was kind of sad to be my last day working for the DEN. I have to pack my stuff up in here to take home. Of course I'm glad to have some free time back, but it means I'm going to have to grow up now. Time to start looking for a job. I do have an intership with News-Gazette in Champaign tomorrow. I've already done freelance for them so hopefully that gives me a little edge.

Delivery Driver's Beware...They're Out To Get Us!

I Was minding my own business tonight driving along Lincoln Ave. delivering a pizza to the Southeast end of town when a black '68 Chevy ran directly into the side of me trying to cross Lincoln from 2nd Street. Jeffrey Hale of Charleston, Ill., slammed his '68 Chevy 1500 directly into the driver's side rear door smashing the glass out of the and sending me into a quarter spin. Luckily for me he missed the driver's door of the car and no other cars were in sight. Hale immediately came to make sure I was alright, but i was already on the phone with 911. I had them send a police officer out, which by the way, was way to long of a response time. It took at least 8 or 9 minutes for a police officer to arrive after I phone in the call. Maybe it was because there were no injuries, but I would assume they would take all precautions and show up as soon as possible. Hale and I stood there trying to figure out what to say to each other for those first few minutes. Hale did apologize realizing it was his fault. He said he simply didn't see me at all. Likely to say that was the end of delivering pizzas for the night. Hale said he has insurance, but could not present documentation of it at the time. (I SURE AS HELL HOPE HE DOES). In fairness, Hale does live in a nicer part of the town where I would assume he has insurance, and even if not, he doesn't look to be short of any money. The reason I say "they're out to get us" is because Sunday night, Josh Verdeyen, a fellow Pizza Hut delivery driver was involved in a 2 car accident on the job as well. The lady in front of him pulled a "U"ie in front of him causing him to hit her vehicle. Her insurance is paying for a rental car of his until his estimate and car are done. I'm hoping the same will happen with Hale's insurance company considering Thanksgiving is next week and I'm leaving Monday to drive home. I don't really want to drive home with plastic bag over my window and a door that looks like it could fall off. It really sucks when you get a new car and somebody carelessly runs into it. Hell, why couldn't it have been on my old Dodge Stratus. I wouldn't have even cared if it had been that car. The door was already in bad shape because of a botched bondo job. I could have gotten the door replaced, then sold the car for a good amount of money. Now the value of my car depreciates because somebody ran into me and I won't be able to get nearly what I payed out of it. I guess I could always hope for the damage to be more than the car is actually worth. Not likely though considering the visible damage. In the end I'm just glad I wasn't hurt and neither was the other driver. Had I not been so quick to swerve into the right lane and slam on the brakes it would have probably hit my door and broke my arm or worse given me a concussion. It really is true what they say though, time slows down so you see every moment right before you get into an accident. I can remember actually seeing the glass flying in front of my eyes as it flew from the window. Probably one of the most surreal things I've ever been in.

Testing Flickr

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Originally uploaded by cropreality.

I'm just testing flickr's "blog this" option by trying to blog this photo from my macro art section. Possibly going to do some day macro if I have the time today.

Flickr Badge

I finally got flickr figured out...I think I put a link badge down below on the sidebar under "recent photos" with some of my photos from last night. I'll update it every so often or whenever I get the chance. I think there may be another way to actually update it whenever I put a new photo in, but I have yet to figure that out yet. I also need to add a "cool people section" or something comparable so I can link to other people's blogs. Finally got my photo up on the profile section as well. Hopefully Thursday night I'll be able to sit in here and learn how to use Slideshow Pro so that I can change my website over.

Just a taste

Well it's 2 a.m. and I wanna go to beeeeehhhheeeed. I didn't get all the photos done. I only got about 6 or 7 that I was at least somewhat happy with. I gave you a little taste. This was my favorite of the night. Maybe I'll make it an ongoing series while exploring different areas of the campus at certain times of the day/night. This was the Lumpkin Hall exhibit I guess.

Let the Rain Fall

Today started out beautiful with a lot of sun and a mild temperature. Coming into the newsroom at noon this morning riding my bike felt like a typical nice day. About 3 hours later the clouds moved in and rain ensued. On most normal days I would have begun to become depressed as a photograher because my beautiful light had been stolen from me. Feeling even lazier than I did before I decided to sit in the newsroom for a good portion of the afternoon to finish up some long needed website maintenance. Later in the evening as the sun began to fade and the lights around campus turned on a photographer on our staff came in with a few pictures from pepper plants outside Lumpkin Hall. The plants were lit be the lights lining the sidewalk creating a very neat look especially with the droplets of water on them. Naturally this peeked my interest in shooting some macro art. Lately I've become obsessed with closeups of naturally found scenes. The rain water is what really make these closeups look more beautiful. I think macro art is really making me appreciate the things that are always there but you never really notice. The images should be available late tonight/early tomorrow after I get done working out and cleaned up.

Revamping the Blog

After realizing that updating an html page everyday that I post a blog and creating a new page for the links, ect., I have decided to use this blog site as my blog thanks to the help of Stephen Haas, from www.haasphotography.com. This blog site is much easier to update and looks far more professional than one that I have time or the ability to create right now. I'm currently in the process of changing to Slideshow Pro rather than using Simpleviewer for Cropreality because of the use of longer cutlines. Slideshow Pro allows for extended cutlines and has a pop down feature for the info that adds a cool effect. Before the end of the semester I will be changing the entire look of te website. The way it's setup now is fine for the purposes I needed to serve at the time, but I want to move to a more basic look on the front page and minimize the amount of links off the front page so that Slideshow Pro just pops up after clicking on the link. I'm also in the process of finding a photo randomizer. The randomizer will allow for different photos to pop up on the mainpage so it looks like the website is updated regularly. It's an easy trick that makes websites look nicer and adds interest to the website. Haas has one on his website that works really well with about 10 images that change when the site is loaded. I'm either going to copy the html from the pagesource or find the program he used. Two new things needed added to the website are an "about me" section and a "links" section. The about me section should be finished soon as it will be necessary for showing potential employers.