A couple of weeks ago, I described how the USF Bulls were trying to break a trend in which they start their season undefeated only to lose a big national televised game and then proceed to fall flat on their faces. If you watched last week’s disappointing effort in Pittsburgh, I don’t have to tell you that history is repeating. If losing a game 41-14 is not the epitome of falling on your face, I don’t know what is.

In that same article I mentioned how USF is trying to crawl from the shadows of other Florida powerhouses and earn the respect from a state that loves it’s football. Although USF’s chances of winning the Big East are drastically reduced, they still should consider tonight’s game against conference rival West Virginia as a statement game.

West Virginia enters the game with an impressive 6-1 record (2-0 within the Big East Conference) and are currently ranked #21. This is the third straight week in which the 5-2 Bulls (0-2 within the Big East) will play a ranked conference opponent.

The Bulls still have yet to finish a season with 10 wins and still have a chance to reach that benchmark but they will need to win the rest of their games.

Tonight’s game at Raymond James Stadium will be televised on ESPN2 at 8:00PM

Links:

ESPN Interviews West Virginia QB Jarret Brown

Bulls Try to Escape Their Own Horror Film

Kevin Alvarez is the Chief Marketing Strategist for Blue Lynx Marketing, Inc.

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If you’ve seen Rocky Horror with stage actors miming the parts, you haven’t seen it as well done as you will this weekend. Director Daniel Ballard has revitalized the show with a professional performance from an amateur cast, new scenery and props, and a new life to the production.

Proceeds benefit the Polk Theatre & Florida Dance Theatre. Doors open at 8:00 p.m. for live music and pre-show activities. Movie starts at midnight. Tickets are $15 at the door or from the Polk Theatre office 863-682-7553 or on line at www.polktheatre.org.

photo credit: Chuck Welch for Lakeland Local

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To the owner of the cat that continues to sit on my car at night: you should just know that her days are numbered, should I actually catch her up there. P.S. I know she’s the one who threw up a quarter of a frog on my car roof. I’m not happy. Soon, she won’t be either. She’ll be boxed up and headed to the pound. And no, I’m not sorry.

It resulted in comments from one end of the spectrum to the other. Many agreed with me. Several indicated that perhaps I need to lighten up. But here’s the deal: if you love your pet, why in the world don’t you care enough to keep it protected and inside?

Here’s some back story on this particular cat: she’s basically without a permanent owner. The person who took in this cat’s mother when she was pregnant kept this kitten, got her spayed and then left her with the house when this person moved in with someone else. The last tenant rented the house and inherited an indoor cat (which was sent to Animal Services), an outdoor cat and a dog. Who moves away and leaves pets behind?!

Now that tenant is gone and there’s a new one. This one inherited the dog and the outside cat.

The cat uses my car as a lounger. There’s constantly muddy or sandy footprints all over it. It leaves tiny scratches on my car.

There are people who don’t understand why I’m worked up over this. Frankly, I don’t understand them.

Since when did pet ownership mean that your animal was entitled to be a nuisance to your neighbors? If I wanted a cat to scratch up my car hood, I’d buy my own #$^&ing cat. If I wanted frogs thrown up on my hood…well, who wants that??

I have two dogs. They are inside except when I let them out to do their business. One dog- I say she’s from the wrong side of the tracks- loves to go on a hunt for partially buried cat crap if I don’t watch her closely. If people kept their cats out of MY yard, I wouldn’t have that problem.

My point is this: I love dogs and I own them. Or they own me. Whatever. But I realize that if my neighbors wanted dogs, they would get their own. They don’t need mine roaming their yard or keeping them up with their barking all night. I take measures to ensure that doesn’t happen.

I just wish other pet owners would do the same.

photo credit: wecand

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Today has been emotionally taxing. I lost a friend, Anthony Gilpin, on Saturday and attended his memorial service this afternoon. He died unexpectedly, and his death seems to have rocked my circle of journalist friends much harder than any of us would have anticipated.

I think his death has become a teaching moment to all of us on how we should treat each other. You see, Anthony was what I like to call an “odd duck.” He talked a lot. He was brilliant. Socially awkward. Unusual. His kindness was immeasurable. He was honest and thoughtful. And you didn’t have to speak to him long to figure out any of that.

People weren’t always kind to him, myself included. Sometimes people just weren’t in the mood, or didn’t have the time to carry on a conversation with him because they knew it wouldn’t be brief. It appeared that sometimes people flat out didn’t like him because he was different.

I imagine that there were many parties that Anthony didn’t get invited to. Many dinners that he ate alone. And I’m absolutely sick about it.

At today’s memorial service, I learned a lot about Anthony that I never knew, but here’s the thing that struck me the most: Anthony was loved. What’s so heartbreaking is that I fear he was loved more than he ever knew.

I found this statement on the Facebook wall of Mary Toothman, a former Ledger reporter, this week:

Mary Shawn Toothman asks her friends to be kind to the Anthonys in their lives – embrace their otherness, and include them when you can. We who have lost that chance would be grateful…

I’m sharing this story because we all have an Anthony in our lives. We all have someone who means well, yet irritates. We need to get over that and love that person for who they are. And for God’s sake, we need to tell them once in a while that they matter to us. Anthony mattered to us.

Anthony’s memorial service drove home this point to me today, as well as to many others in attendance. My prayer is that the “new” doesn’t wear off of this concept any time soon and that we make some changes in our lives to include those who aren’t often included.

I think Anthony would like that.

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Tuesday, Santiago Calatrava made a presentation to USF regarding his vision for the USFP campus. In addition to Tom Hagerty’s photo set, USFP is streaming the full presentation for your viewing pleasure.

photo credit: Tom Hagerty for USF Polytechnic

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We’re told as young adults that we need to establish credit and build a strong credit history. More often than not, we hit a stage in life where we run up credit card bills and fail to pay them off each month. Hopefully, we reach the point where we buckle down and get them paid off.

As we get older, we’re advised to pay off those balances each month. To use our credit cards only in an emergency. Well, pretty soon even doing that could cost us more.

The Today Show reported on Monday that in these economic times where debit card use is outpacing credit card use and more people than ever are defaulting on credit card balances, the blood-sucking credit card companies are finding new ways to squeeze more money out of us.

Bank of America is about to implement an annual fee on credit card holders who pay their balances in full each month, according to the Today Show report. That fee could be between $29 and $99 a year.

Citi is about to begin imposing fees for customers who don’t carry a high enough revolving balance. For those whose balance falls below $2,400 a month, they may have to start paying a $29-$39 fee.

Do you just keep a credit card for emergencies? Even you may have to start paying an “inactivity fee,” just for the privilege of having that card in your wallet.

This report really angered me, because it’s not like the credit card companies aren’t making money. Every time you use your credit card, the merchant pays a fee just to be able to accept that form of payment. But apparently it’s not enough to make money every time a credit card is swiped and every time a customer doesn’t pay their balance in full. They’re coming up with new, creative ways to gouge us.

On Wednesday, the Today show covered another sneaky trick the credit card industry is pulling- raising interest rates on people’s credit card balances before the laws that more strictly govern abusive credit card practices kick in next February.

Now people who make their payments on time- never make a late payment!- are seeing their interest rates increase from 8 percent to as much as 30 percent.

The more I learn about credit card companies, the more I agree with Dave Ramsey’s rather extreme opinion of not having any. He often discusses on his radio show that his credit score probably is zero, because he hasn’t purchased anything on credit in 20 years.

My husband and I recently purchased Ramsey’s book, The Financial Peace Planner. It’s a great tool for getting out of debt, building up an emergency expense fund and saving for the things in life that you want, rather than buying them on credit first. I’ve spoken to a Lakeland woman who went through the course with her husband before they were married and they paid off $30,000 in debt in one year by using Ramsey’s principles.

If we learn nothing else from these crazy economic times we’re in today, I hope we all learn to begin living within our means and stop giving our hard-earned money to credit card companies.

photo credit: Qiao-Da-Ye

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Immediately we started playing the suspect game.  We had an inkling it was our neighbor because it looked like the person made multiple trips and walked/ran with our belongings.  Also a few days later they put their vacuum cleaner on the street for the trash collection.  Coincidence?  I think not.  We gave the lead to the detective and the police on the scene had multiple fingerprints and blood.  There we also about five more break-ins in a two week period and someone in the neighborhood told a neighborhood source (just protecting identity) who it was, yep our neighbor.  We pass this information along to the police as well.

Easy case, right?  No. On either the 15th or the 16th of OCTOBER we finally get a call saying the blood work was back and a positive ID was made.

Guess who it was?  Sure enough our neighbor CHARLES KIRKLAND.

Great news right?  No really because about 3 weeks ago he skipped out.  He was in our neighborhood for TWO months and did the police even knock on his door?  (I don’t know the answer to that question, but I would like to know.)

We are grateful for the work the police have put into the case and grateful to have a confirmation of who broke into our house.  Something needs to be done though when there are solid leads in a case.  I know the department is completely understaffed and having to wait THREE months for fingerprints and blood is a bit, ridiculous.  That is a crazy back log.  Of course we also realize this is on the bottom of the priority list, as it should be.  Maybe a guest from the department would be willing to respond with ways we can assist the department.  I don’t know for sure, but I bet break-ins are up from 3-5 years ago.

There is a warrant out for this man’s arrest and we would greatly appreciate your help.  We know our stuff is long gone, but we still would like justice. He isn’t safe in any neighborhood. If you see this man please call the Lakeland Police IMMEDIATELY.

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It doesn’t help when you have tall, skinny friends who weigh 108 pounds on a hefty day and wear size zero jeans. Meanwhile, I’m short, weigh none-of-your-damn-business and wear size fat-in-the-ass.

The skinny friend went through a bout of out-of-control weight loss recently. I felt so bad for her. Yeah right.

But she kept wasting away and frankly, I began to worry. She did, too. It turns out she had hyperthyroidism. This is nothing to fool around with, and I know that.

However, in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help being jealous. Why does she get to have hyperthyroidism and lose all the weight? Why couldn’t I have hyperthyroidism, too?

Now let me just share something about my twisted thoughts. In my mind, I should be able to choose the characteristics of hyperthyroidism that I want. Obviously, I just want the ones that result in drastic, overnight weight loss. I’ll even handle the chronic diarrhea. But you can keep the hair loss, the resting pulse rate of 140 BPM, the inability to sleep and the nagging feeling that your insides are trying to vibrate right out of your body.

Also, in this fantasy world of mine, I could schedule my hyperthyroidism. It would last until I lost the appropriate amount of weight and then it would just go away. Seriously, that’s not asking much.

While whining about my weight to the Skinny Friend, she offered her seven step plan to becoming anorexic. We thought it was ha-ha funny, but I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t considering following the steps. Not all of them are unhealthy:

The Skinny Girl’s Guide to Becoming An Anorexic

1. When you feel hunger pangs, drink water.

2. Cravings typically last 60 seconds. Distract, distract, distract.

3. Plan errands around mealtimes. (I have implemented this- I grocery shop on my lunch hour)

4. Eat your meals on a small plate, such as a salad plate. Eat on a black plate if possible, and avoid eating on red or orange plates.

5. Chop food into small pieces before eating and put your fork down between bites.

6. Count how many times you chew your food before swallowing and double it.

7. Exercise daily. For hours.

photo credit: Julija Felajn

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I’m going to link to a few screen grabs I made, but you’ll need to watch the full video. Until then you can see his presentation one hour into the Oct. 27, 2009 meeting.

Calatrava led the audience through his background, his previous designs, and the metamorphosis of his plan for the University of South Florida Polytechnic campus.

Calatrava explains how the shape of the land, the image he saw there, and the human shape started his thoughts on the campus design.

Calatrava displays two of his campus designs and what each design attempted to accomplish.

Two further refinements for the campus plan.

A study of an option for the water’s edge on the central campus lake.

Graceful bridges over the central campus lake.

Full set of Calatrava presentation screen grabs.

Update: Fixed Board of Governors to the correct University of South Florida System Board of Trustees. Thanks for the note, USFP.

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I was a speedometer watcher because I know that if you speed on a military post, you WILL get a ticket. One day I’m leaving the post and I come up on an MP in the lane beside me. My heartbeat quickens and I automatically get off the gas, even though I’m not speeding. My eyes fixate on my speedometer.

And yet, I get pulled over. The MP asks for my paperwork and I, indignant, ask why I’ve been pulled over. He says I just ran the red light.

Confused, I ask, “Was it yellow and turned red as I drove through the intersection?

“No ma’am, it was red and I was stopped at it,” he replied.

Oh.

So my obsession over not breaking one traffic law lead me to break a different one.

I’m reminded of this every time I go through a Lakeland intersection enforced by the red light cameras. Honestly, I try to avoid those intersections altogether because I just get so worked up when I’m at them.

They’re making me do ridiculous things. Sometimes I come up on the intersection and the light is green, but I automatically begin slowing down, for fear the light will change and I’ll get busted.

Other times, I whiz up to the intersection, feeling particularly confident on that day for some unknown reason, and the light turns yellow. Suddenly, I’m faced with two choices: “drive it like I stole it” through the intersection, or slam on the brakes and wind up with a lapful of groceries. Decisions, decisions.

I can be stopped at one of these intersections and someone else will run a red light. But there’s something psychological about seeing that camera flash. Automatically, I freak out, wondering what I’ve done.

My husband won’t even turn right on red at these intersections anymore. “Just in case,” he says.

Maybe these cameras are a good thing, maybe not. I just know this: they are making a nervous wreck out of me.

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