Happy Diwali from PA Governor

So I just heard from a friend that the PA Governor Rendell and his offices have issued a special proclamation saying HAPPY DIWALI and declaring Oct-Nov as Diwali month.

Very interesting!

you can read the actual proclamation here. (opens a PDF)

Open Letter to Big Ten and Penn State Haters

Tom Dienhart,
Are you a masochist or a desperate attention seeking individual? Because you sure are going to get a lot of (angry) emails and lot of attention in the process. Because other than that there is no reason to diss an unbeaten team. Admit first that the BCS system itself fairly screwed enough that several unbeaten teams from different divisions in the country (the non Big Six) don't even get a shot at the title game.

Isn't the saying: Don't hate the player, hate the game?

So I hope you are just hating the game (the BCS method) the way it is played. It is funny to see you bashing Big Ten just like that, when this only leads more credence to a play off system, where there will only be true contenders who work their way to the top.

Also while OhioSt. might have a sloppy record against SEC/USC etc , you have to understand that football teams are dynamic year to year and change. They don't stay the same team even if the coach stays the same over years. There are always talented athletes coming in and going out.

Coming to your choices, USC's performance record is so confusing that it makes me wonder why they lose to an Oregon state team that got handily defeated by Penn State. Then again, I think the Trojan's offense is sputtering enough (17-10 vs Arizona?).

Alabama & Texas Tech are the teams that I will be playing closest attention to this season, apart from the Nittany Lions of course. American football is finally looking like fun.

- Just a fan

PENN STATE BEATS OHIO STATE 2008

Just adding two videos of students celebrating wildly on the streets back home in State College, after the PSU Nittany Lions defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 13-6 to remain 9-0 in season and 5-0 in conference (big ten). A recap is available here.

Youtube video of crazy crowds. (cellphone video,dont expect high quality)

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recap?gid=200810250033




and one more..

HAPPY DEEPAVALI HAPPY DIWALI

HAPPY FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

Shower love on your family, friends and beloved ones.


This image was originally posted to Flickr by dhondusaxena at http://flickr.com/photos/36669145@N00/187469545

Fall Leaves

Just to show the leaves.


The swinging screen door.

Penn State Storage Space Increase & Ride Share news

University significantly increases personal PASS resources

Penn State (ITS) has significantly increased the amount of personal storage space available to University community from the current 1 GB max to 5 GB max. Your initial allocation is 500 MB (0.5 GB) but you can incrementally increase it by 0.5 GB whenever you want more, space or you can use the drop down menu and directly increase it to another suitable size. I recommend that you use the incremental increase feature as this would lead to a more orderly allocation of resources by the ITS team. Please do not be greedy and do not cause a "bank run" on disk space.
The PASS space is meant for course work, research, Web projects, portfolios, personal blogging, graphics, photos and more.
ITS is also unveiling a new data restoration utility. For more details on that: visit the ITS Knowledge Base at http://kb.its.psu.edu/ and search on the criteria "Recreating PASS Space."

This news flash was published as a full story on Penn State Live at: http://live.psu.edu/story/34958/nw5

FAQ: This post answers questions such as:
how do i increase my pass space size psu
how do i increase my quota at penn state
these topics are related to server hard disk (web / storage) space and not to the size of anything else.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rideshare and fall campus challenge (fully copied)

Students that want to save money, meet new people, share a ride with others
and contribute to a cleaner environment may consider ridesharing/carpooling.
Penn State has teamed up with AlterNetRides to offer free ridesharing
networks for students. It is easy to use and completely secure.

FAQ: This post deals with questions of:
how do I carpool or rideshare at penn state (state college)
how to save money on gas. Also visit: www.gasbuddy.com
how to reduce transportation expenses
Read the full story on Live: http://live.psu.edu/story/35082/nw5

Vice Presidential Debate: Biden v Palin, Expert vs High school student

This post is not really about travel, but more about an interesting evening that I spent with some friends. Although I had lots to study, I decided to take some time off and watch the US Vice Presidential debate between the candidates Senator Joe Biden (Democrate- Delaware) v. Governor Sarah Palin (Republican- Alaska). I know there are some people out there who want the Independent candidates also on this debate (Link with list) but then most debates are managed by media companies that care about ratings and frankly, why play with a system that is in place already? .

So what were the oft-repeated phrases by the candidates. Digging into my memory, I could remember Palin going on and on about

• "in my experience as Mayor and Governor"
  
• Energy independence
• Largest energy producing state
• the hungry markets (referring to crude oil markets)
• betcha
• darn it
• kinda
  
• predatory lenders
• small town America
• small businesses
• tax cuts
  
• team of mavericks
• maverick
• McCain
• Obama
  
• tax on windfall profit -- no she did nt use those words, but you know what it is about.

Joe Biden on the other hand relied on these:

• not a maverick
• I understand
• Iraq
• middle class
• 95% of American families/small businesses
• $ 250,000
  
• John McCain
• Obama
• Gwen

Note that some words may not be keywords, but are just words that got repeatedly used by the candidate. If you want a more detailes you can read the debate transcripts here. Well overall my opinion was the Biden managed a confident attack on John McCain and McCain's voting record and policies. However, when it came to actually tackling the questions direct he did not do very well, but neither did Sarah Palin which was already expected. But even she exceeded expectations by giving solid responses to several questions. But most of the time, she was just attacking Obama, instead of debating with Biden on the issues. Substance wise this debate was low, but voice modulation wise it was great. The one other thing which had me groaning was Palin's repeated use of folksy language - which was annoying, not too many actually speak like that and I live in a rural town. It was a blatant attempt by her to reach out. Arggh!

College Football Opinion SEC Big Ten Big 12

To all you whiners from the SEC who keep talking about offensive lineups etc., if you really want to see high scoring games, go watch basketball. American football is a strategy game and you play it in the best manner to win against a given opponent, not just to make numerous drives and put points on the board.

There, that's all I am going to say.