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Hokies Thank the World event – Nov 17

Friday, November 9th, 2007

I saw this posted on a few message boards, so I thought I’d help spread the word:

Hokies Thank the World

The event is free and open to the public. Please arrive on time and visit the check-in tent on the drillfield. Wear something Orange or Maroon (preferred but not required), and dress appropriately for the weather. Jackets may be laid on the ground during the satellite and helicopter operations.

The Hokies Thank the World event takes place on Saturday, November 17, the morning of the Virginia Tech – Miami game in Blacksburg. Join fellow Hokies on the Drillfield as part of your gameday activities!

The “Hokies Thank the World” event will bring together thousands of Hokies on the Virginia Tech Drillfield to spell out a message of thanks to the world in recognition of the global outpouring of support and love for the Virginia Tech community following the events of April 16. The message of thanks will be recorded by ground, aerial, and satellite imagery and will be shared with the world through www.HokiesThankTheWorld.org. The event will take place on November 17, 2007 beginning at 10:35am and ending at approximately 11:12am on the Virginia Tech Drillfield in Blacksburg, Virginia. All are invited to participate in this community-wide effort to thank the world. The event will take place rain or shine. In the event of cloud cover, the satellite imagery may not be collected, but aerial imagery will be collected as scheduled.

Post passwords

Monday, October 29th, 2007

FYI – Don’t be alarmed by the passwords I’m using to protect new posts. Posts are only protected for a few days after they’re published on HokieHaven.com.

Virginia Tech Tragedy

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007

[The following post was originally published at HokieHaven.com on April 17, 2007.]

It’s been awhile since my last blog post. Nearly a month, in fact. As a fan, I put a lot of time and energy rooting for my Virginia Tech Hokies on the football field, then on the basketball court, and I needed a break. To get things going again, I was planning on a blog post title “The Off-Season” about how Hokie fans spend their time during the spring and summer before football starts anew in the fall.

Instead of writing about our fans and our football team, I am instead attempting to write about the tragedy that occurred yesterday on the campus of Virginia Tech. This is just a mere attempt, because it is very difficult to find the words to describe the feelings I have experienced since I learned of the magnitude of yesterday’s events.

When I learned of the first shooting, and only one person was reported to have died, my initial thought was that some one got mad at his girlfriend. I was surprised, because shootings just don’t happen in Blacksburg, but I wasn’t shocked, because domestic violence happens all too often.

When the death toll went from 1 to over 20, I am not exactly sure what I felt. I was shocked, but I was also numb. During the early and mid-afternoon hours, it was a very surreal experience watching the story unfold on the internet. It was unfathomable to think that Virginia Tech would be the site of the deadliest shooting in U.S. history.

I went home from work at about 4pm, and I turned on the television. When I saw the images and heard the sounds of yesterday’s events, it started to sink in. One image in particular hit home – it was a picture showing shocked students standing behind the glass doors of one of the entrances of McBryde Hall. I used to work for the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech, and my office was on the first floor of McBryde. I used to walk in and out of those doors on a daily basis. It was disheartening to see students watching the tragedy unfold from behind those very same doors.

Last night, my thoughts began to drift back to my days at Virginia Tech, both as a student and as a staff member. There was never a time where I felt unsafe walking around campus or around town. There was never a time where I felt unsafe inside a classroom. For today’s students, they will not feel safe anywhere they go for a long time. I simply cannot imagine what it is like to be a student, faculty, or staff at Virginia Tech right now, let alone to be one of the wounded or one who knows a victim.

College campuses are special places. I like to think that the campus of Virginia Tech is extra special, but everyone feels that way about their alma mater. When I walked around Virginia Tech and Blacksburg during football or basketball weekends, I was reminded of so many good times I experienced during my time there, and I felt a disconnect from the strife of the “real world”. There is a youthful innocence that pervades college campuses. It touches everyone there, from the 17 and 18 year old freshmen, to the 60 year old professors who only know life in academia.

Yesterday, that innocence was ripped from the hearts of every Hokie, and it was stolen away from anyone who has spent more than a minute on a college campus.

Since the hours that innocence was taken from us, the Hokie Nation has experienced disbelief, deep sadness, and anger. Many of us are still in shock, and it has started to sink in for others. For too many Hokies, a friend or loved one has fallen.

However, in every cloud there is a silver lining. We have seen an overwhelming outpouring of support from members and fans of other universities and colleges. I have been deeply moved by the well wishes I have seen on our Rivals.com HokieHaven board, TechSideline.com’s Lounge board, as well as TheSabre.com’s The Corner board. I am sure there are many other internet message boards that have similar threads voicing support for the Virginia Tech community.

On behalf of Virginia Tech and the Hokie Nation, I’d like to say “thank you” for keeping our community in your thoughts and prayers. It is comforting to see the kinder and gentler side of the human spirit after such a horrific event.

I’m writing for HokieHaven.com now

Monday, February 26th, 2007

Just wanted to post a quick update.  I am now writing my blog for the Virginia Tech Rivals.com site, HokieHaven.com.  However, I will be re-posting my articles here a few days after they are published on HokieHaven.

Facebook & MySpace

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

I am not a fan of Facebook or MySpace. People put way too much information in their profiles, and then they forget that they made their profiles publicly available. I think they should just rename MySpace to MyStalker. That said, I will admit it, I have a MySpace profile and Facebook profile. (However, if you find them, you’ll find very little information.) Why? A few friends dig those social networking sites, so I just gave in and “joined the club”.

This afternoon I had a few friends added to Facebook. Since I hadn’t been on Facebook in awhile, I started poking around and being generally nosy. I noticed that someone created a profile for Lane Stadium in Facebook. I was immediately amused. Then I do some more poking around. No one created a profile for Cassell Coliseum!!! This clearly had to be rectified.

So now there’s a Facebook profile for the Cassell. Just search for cassell coliseum in the Virginia Tech network and add it as a friend!

TechSportsblog is (back) online

Friday, December 15th, 2006

The subject says it all. This is just the obligatory “first-post”. I have quotes around first-post because it is the first new post. I have imported all of my content from my original site, which was active in 2005.

I hope to make at least one post a week during basketball season. It’ll probably drop off a bit after March Madness, and then pick back up as football season draws near.

Amazing Year

Tuesday, May 31st, 2005

David Teel, of the Hampton Roads Daily Press, talks about the amazing year Virginia Tech athletics has enjoyed in his latest column. Yes, we all remember the Hokies winning the ACC football championship outright. We also remember the men’s basketball team overachieving. But David reminds us of the success the other sports have enjoyed. (eg: The softball team getting a NCAA tournament bid.) Hokies everywhere have much to be proud of, including, but certainly not limited to, our football team.

Old Lane Stadium Pictures

Friday, April 29th, 2005

TechSideLine.com has posted a number of historical photos of Lane Stadium. With the expansion of the West stands expected to be completed at the beginning the upcoming football season, now is a good a time as any to remember the days of Lane Stadium when there were less seats and less people filling those seats.

The 1999 and 2000 photos really bring back memories. Well, who could forget the ’99 season? But the Thunder Bowl is one I’d rather forget. Most people remember it as the night Lee Corso’s rental car got struck by lightening. I remember being in the stands when skies opened up and thinking, “It’s only a thunderstorm. It’ll pass, and the game will get started.” The rain never stopped, and the game was never played. I had to walk back from Lane Stadium to my apartment at Pack Place (Prices Fork Road, across from Turner Street). Instead of walking, I jogged back, because I was quite uncomfortable due to being completely soaked through.

However, of all the old photos, this one from 1972 has got to be my favorite. Check out the gobbler head on top of the scoreboard. That is one pissed off turkey!

The Springtime Blues

Friday, April 29th, 2005

Yup, it’s that time of year – pollen is flying through the air and there’s very little going on in the world of sports. Ok, so maybe I don’t really have “the blues”, but my sinuses are fully congested and football news has sharply dropped off in the wake of the draft. I’m sorry, I’m just not much of a fan of MLB. After the strike, my interest waned, and the
controversy surrounding the steroids issues has completely pushed me away. The NFL really is America’s number one pro sport. They have the right idea with revenue sharing, and they have the strongest drug policy of the Big 3. I know
the NFL isn’t perfect, but it is the most well-run professional sporting league of in the US. But I digress …

Getting back to the topic of Virginia Tech athletics, as reported earlier this week, Marquie Cooke was dismissed from the men’s basketball team. While I am sad to see such a talented recruit leave the team, I am happy to see that Coach Greenburg has that team first attitude that brought so much success to the football and basketball teams. While the men’s basketball team didn’t have a super year by ACC standards, they had one hell of a year by VT standards. A number of the games they won were earned by not giving up late, and that helped to galvanize them as a team. According to TechSideLine.com, as well as this Daily Press article, Cooke wasn’t exactly the ideal team player. His dismismal was the culmination of a poor attitude during the entire season. For Greenburg to dismiss him under that pretext tells me much about the kind of program Greenburg is building. What was that catch phrase of the 2004 football team? Team United.

TechSportsBlog.com’s First Post

Thursday, April 21st, 2005

So, here I am, diving into the world of blogging. After 3 nights of playing with Blosxom, its plugins, CSS, XHTML, and W3C‘s CSS & HTML validators, TechSportsBlog.com is ready for action! I suppose I could’ve used a site dedicated for blogging, but I have the server space for it. Besides, it is a good experience to build a site from the ground up! There are still a number of things I’d like to do to improve the site, but most of the work is done.

This week seems like a great off-season week to “open the doors”, so to speak. Last Saturday was the Spring Game, Marcus Vick was named #1 on the depth chart at QB earlier in the week, and the NFL draft is this weekend. Unfortunately, this draft won’t feature very many Hokies, but I’ll comment more on that in a future post.

That’s all I have for the time being. Expect a post or two about the upcoming NFL draft in the next few days.