Once again, I haven’t posted here for a while. It’s not that I don’t have stuff to post nor is it that I’m that busy; it’s just that I’ve been lazy with this blog like usual. School has started, but I only have two courses and neither are particularly difficult. I’m not making much progress on research, but fortunately I don’t have any hard deadlines as of yet. In between academic obligations and everyday life, I managed to do some fun stuff along the way.
At the end of summer, I went the Saratoga Race Track with some friends. It’s the first time in my life I’ve went to a thoroughbred horse race track, and it was a pretty fun experience. There were lots of people, and a lot of people bring their kids, coolers and portable chairs to camp out there during the day. Of course, there were some hardcore handicappers (interesting term) in the stands too. There wasn’t much else to do beside watching and betting on the races, but that alone is exciting enough. My friends and I bet on a couple of races, and I was the only one who made a profit from the betting. We played just for fun so the bets were tiny, and thus my winnings wasn’t enough to cover the program that I bought to pick the horses, and lets not mention admission, lunch, and gas money.
During the Columbus Day long weekend, a couple of friends and I went to watch a New York Giants NFL game against the Cleveland Browns. Football tickets were pretty expensive, especially given that it was the Giants, but we thought we should go to a NFL game at least once just for the experience. The home field for the Giants, MetLife Stadium, is actually located in East Rutherford, New Jersey and is also the home of the NY Jets, and this was actually a good thing since we didn’t have to drive into New York City. The stadium is quite new, and pretty nicely designed. We were on the middle of the highest level, and we had a pretty good view of the field and could easily make out all of the football action. The only con against MetLife was that it didn’t have a roof. The weather wasn’t great that day, but it didn’t rain much during the game, and our section had come cover from some panels. As for the game itself, it was certainly entertaining. Despite conceding two touchdowns in the first five minutes, the Giants won 41-27 much to the delight of the home field crowd, and there was plenty of offense from both teams. It would have been terrible if the game ended 10-6 or something. Now that I’ve attended a live NFL game, I’m thinking about going to a NBA or a NFL game, but I have to see when I have the time (and want to fork over the cash) to do it.
Lastly, the fall season has arrived, and finally we had a weekend with not-so-bad weather to go out to a park to look at the foliage. I had wanted to go on a hike or something, but we ended going to John Boyd Thacher State Park. The park lies on a hill and the fall scenery from the top was quite nice. There was also a short trail that traveled along the cliff face and passes underneath two waterfalls for some awesome views. Not bad for an afternoon walk in the park. Hopefully winter won’t arrive too quickly and give me a chance to visit some of the other parks that are not too far away.
