The Move

As I write this, I sit in the middle of what will some day be a glorious office. This room has its own private doors and some great windows that look out into the woods surrounding our house. Inside this room, the story is not so good. I see a room with great potential, but right now it is a disaster area. There are boxes everywhere, my computer is on a folding table, and I don't even have speakers set up for the computer. How am I supposed to play classic video games without speakers? Someday, this room will have a network server, serve video to the living room next door, a liquor cabinet, some seating space for guests, and another television. Why the delay? Read on.

We purchased the new house without selling the old one. Stop your whining or laughing, or whatever other snickering you are doing. We wanted to be able to work on the new house before we moved in, and then work on the old house before we sell it. That seemed like a good idea at the time.

We started out by painting the bedroom of our new house. The old color was light green, sort of the color of toothpaste when you spit it out. We picked out a nice green (I am sure Mrs. Alphageek will correct my color description) and began to paint. I will say I like the color but what happened to paints covering in one coat? I guess the low VOC paints just don't cover as well anymore. Oh well, I will call the house "environmentaly friendly" when we sell the house. We also decided to paint the dining room. We selected what we thought was a mild yellow, but the yellow was louder than a 1974 AMC Gremlin! Before I could have flashbacks to my parents house, which had a bunch of yellow rooms at one time, Mrs. Alphageek returned the paint for a more mild option. The new buttercream (light yellow for the color impaired such as me) looks pretty good, and does not scream at you when the lights are on.

We hired some movers to move everything in. I thought the movers were pretty good. At least one of them was a former WVU football player, so he was a pretty big guy. They made moving the big stuff look easy. They are a local outfit and are willing to move some things that the big guys won't. So, when the handle tore off of a bag and the contents spilled all over the ground, I decided it was best to pretend I was on my phone. The movers also lectured the satellite installation guys about taking off their shoes when entering a house, fearing the movers, and not the satellite guys, would get blamed for any dirt on the carpet. I again decided to let these guys work it out while I ran outside.

So, everything is moved. We have spent the last several weekends over at the old house, doing all kinds of work to get the house on the market. The only one I will mention is paint. I don't like low VOC paint anymore. Can someone give me coverage in one coat?

We are hoping to get the old house on the market shortly. When that happens, you will get some updates on a more regular basis. I noticed this web site got slim last year and it is the Alphageek's pledge to bring you more original content this year. Maybe I will do a series of articles on this new office and all of the cool stuff in it. Until next time, why not leave some questions on the feedback portion?

Top Memories

This is an entry that has been bouncing around for a while. I thought about writing it after this year's Nebraska game, but moved the idea to the back burner for various reasons. Given that "performance" by the VT football team last Thursday, I thought it might be good to give my top memories of Lane Stadium.

This list could include a lot of things that it does not, so I will just hit on a few things. My first VT-UVA game, my first game as a member of the MVs, my last game as a student and MV, the coldest game, my first game and other such things were games I contemplated, but did not go with. I am sure I could come up with many other interesting lists. Instead, these are games and moments, you might or might not see on other lists. I make only one promise on Alphageek's Thoughts and that is that you will get original content from me. So here you go, the top moments I remember from Lane Stadium.


Number 5

Virginia Tech vs. East Carolina September 1, 2007.

I am still not sure I want to include this game, but it kept coming back on to the list. I certainly hope nobody has to go to a game like that ever again. I certainly think it was the most difficult game for any Hokie to ever go to. On the other hand, I am sure every Hokie felt he or she needed to be there. I know I felt that way.

Number 4

Virginia Tech vs. Syracuse October 16, 1999

This game is significant for several reasons. One is the score 62-0 will get the blood going. This was also the first game that Mrs. Alphageek attended. Before that, she was simply the Alphageek's girlfriend. Once the Alphageek found a loyal woman to go to the games with him, he decided to make her a member of the family. She is sill the only family member that is a Hokie besides the Alphageek. An additional bonus: the Marching Virginian's were doing their 25th anniversary that year. We were down on the field before halftime, which made that game an extra treat. I can still taste the electricity in the air from that day.

Number 3

Humes outruns the entire Uva defense, November 27 2004.

Entering this game, Virginia Tech could clinch a tie for the ACC Championship with a win, but that is not the only story I remember going into this game. UVA was bragging that their linebackers were the best that ever played college football and that Virginia Tech could not handle them. I think I am going to let the attached video do the rest of the talking.


Number 2

VT vs. Nebraska, September 19 2009

Virginia Tech wins in a thrilling final minute touchdown. I am not sure that anything other than watching the entire game can recapture the energy, but give this video a try.


Number 1

Virginia Tech vs. Clemson, September 23 1999

Of all the dates, this is the only one I know by heart. This would be my final game without a Mrs. Alphageek. That's right, this is the game I often joke of as our wedding day. Fortunately, Mrs. Alphageek is okay with some humor. I don't know that I can remember a defensive player taking a game over like this, but Corey Moore did the job that night. This game still brings a smile to my face and you can watch the highlights right here.

Note: Looks like the video is not working! I will come back and fix this, if the video starts working again on youtube. Update: I got it working, but you will have to click the HQ icon in the lower right hand corner of the youtube video frame.





Number 0

September 25, 1999

Okay, only the Alphageek would end an article with 0, so I guess it better be good. This moment did not occur with crowds there, or the lights on. Indeed, somebody left the gates open and there were a few groundskeepers around that day. Yes, this the real wedding day. One of the first places we went was Lane Stadium. We had a great time taking some pictures, and it was good enough to get our picture in the alumni magazine, earning us our own little piece of Virginia Tech history. Click on the link here and scroll about halfway down the page to read the article.

So there you have it, my top memories of Lane Stadium. Want to argue? Use the feedback function and leave a message right here!

Secret Origins

Recently, I asked for suggestions for topics over on the Facebook page "Fans of the Alphageek". So far, there has only been one suggestion: what is the origin of the name Fred Warwick? Exactly who is Fred Warwick, and why has he never been seen around the Alphageek? Why does the Alphageek have an email address with Fred Warwick in it? Will the real Fred Warwick please stand up?

Before letting you in on the secrets of the mythical Fred Warwick, I just wanted to make make a few other comments.

If a taxi ever showed up at your house in the middle of the night, honking its horn, I am sorry about that.

If your house ever had a "For Sale" sign in front of it, I am sorry. Whoever put the ten or so "For Sale" signs in front of the Senior Alphageek's house when I was home from college one time, I just wanted to tell you that was pretty funny.

This story goes way back, all the way back to the dawn of time. Okay, maybe not that far, but 7th grade. When I was in the 7th grade, we were required to take some sort of vocational training. I don't think some of my teachers believed me when I told them I was going to Virginia Tech and be an engineer, so they tried to make us learn a skill. That's okay, being right all these years later is what makes the Alphageek. The class I ended up in was Agriculture. I figured I could always grow stuff later in life, if the engineer thing did not work out. or plant a nice garden on the weekends. I don't remember the class extremely well, but we did take welding. I am not really sure about the connection between welding and agriculture, but all these years later I do know that spattering is caused when arc welding with too much current.

One day, our teacher was absent. At that time, it did not occur to me that teachers are real people and might need to take some time off from work, or get sick. So we had a very nice substitute teacher one day.

For some reason, there were tunnels beneath our agriculture classroom. I don't think that was a good idea. I understand that our old middle school is closed and a new one has been opened. That was probably a good move because bad stuff was probably going on down there, in those dark recesses under the school. Someone in the classroom decided that while the substitute was there would be a good time to lift up the trap door and jump down there and see what was in the tunnel. So a fellow student went down there and disappeared. At the same time, someone shouted that the sub was coming back. The door was slammed over the tunnel and a chair placed over it. That probably would have kept the guys out of trouble, but the guy still in the tunnel was not pleased that his return route was now blocked. He decided that he would express his frustration by beating on the now closed door.

The teacher then noticed that someone's chair was bouncing up and down. (At this moment, it occurs to me that the people in my class who became teachers are pretty brave. They went into teaching knowing stuff like this happens. ) (Imagine, my Wahoo friend actually wants to teach. I wonder if this story will change her mind. Probably not. ) The teacher asked what was going on, but the chair just kept bouncing up and down, so he walked over to the student and noticed that the floor under the chair was moving too. The sub asked, and then demanded that the student stand up.

After the student stood up, the door popped up and another student emerged. The sub asked the student's name and the student replied "Fred Herpal" This was not the student's name, as the laughing from the class probably indicated to the sub. At this point, I think the student was "written up".

Ordinarily, this event would probably be forgotten, except that it made quite an impression on me. Being the analyst that I am, I thought that have a fake name ready would be a good idea. Sort of a play on the "do you know who I am? No? Thank goodness." kind of thing. I decided to make up a fake name, in case I ever needed it. I decided that the Fred Herpal story would probably get around to the teachers, so it was out. I selected Fred in honor of the previous attempt. I am sorry to say I don't remember where Warwick came from.

I started using Fred Warwick in jokes, adding him to student lists and things like that through the rest of school. I think I tried to fill out paperwork for him when one of the classes did the "find a friend" thing, which was a thinly veiled computer dating service. I think at some point he may have actually had a class with me for a while. I am pretty sure that several substitute teachers heard the name once or twice. I heard that he got a birthday greeting on a radio station one time, but I had nothing to do with that one. He became an adopted non-person among the people who knew me.

Years later, I needed another email address, so I selected Fred Warwick as one of them, making this the longest running joke that I have participated in.

So there you have it, part infantile humor, part analytical decision. I will let the reader decide Why not post a reply right here on the web site, and feed back your thoughts?