Introductions

[yvonne]

We've had an influx of new posters, probably due to the football team's recent success. On behalf of the CardBoard staff, such that it is, I want to welcome you to the board.

Oman mentioned that there are a lot of inside jokes. That's probably because many of us have been around for a while, and have met members in person, or because members have written things about themselves over time.

We know that:

- Redrum lives in Alabama and has daughters who attend or attended Stanford and Alabama. He has a thing for Uma Thurman.
-  Garvin is a TV writer who used to be the Latin American beat writer for the Miami Herald. He lived at Roble soon after Jane had it built. He also has this thing for Dana Delany.
-  Viking Guy is an LSJUMB alumnus who still plays sometimes. He enjoys attending women's basketball, soccer, and volleyball, and gives us thorough reports. He works for the Dark Lord.
- Kathy works at Missouri and has a connection to Texas A&M. She hates the University of Texas and bad punctuation.
- Terry2 is a lawyer who is a meticulous fact checker, and can back up any point with amazing statistics.
- Oski79 and Lurck42 are honorable heathens. Oski lives in husky country and is a gourmet cook. He and Garvin like the same music. Lurck42 was employee number something less than 100 at Apple.
- Nan3cy is even older than Garvin. She's an alumna who also works at Stanford.
- fullmetal rowed on the crew team and is attending grad school at Texas.
- daBigV is a recent MD who went to med school at the University of South Central, but remains loyal to the Farm. He likes Italian "soccer."
- Mick attended the University of Santa Clara, and I believe he also follows soccer.
- I'm the webmistress, and a former technology journalist who spent a few years teaching at a career college. I like English "soccer" and take the mickey out of anyone who sneers at it during the World Cup or European Championships. Some people even take me seriously.
- Cowboy Indian is a real cowboy who owns a ranch in the State of Jefferson.
- Good Grief is an actor who mounted a strong grassroots campaign to get Toby Gerhart the Voldemort.

Those are the most frequent posters. Sorry if I missed anyone. We have several hundred lurkers.

So tell us something about yourself. Did you attend Stanford or some other school? What activities did you participate in at Stanford? What are some other things you enjoy? You don't have to answer all or even any questions, but it would be nice to get to know you.

[yvonne]

We also have some less new members who may want to post something about themselves.

[CowboyIndian]

- Cowboy Indian is a real cowboy who owns a ranch in the State of Jefferson.

At this point in my life, I prefer "cattleman" and hey...I hate bad punctuation, too....and eels!

[oman]

Dear Kathy Im oman.

Toyon, Trailers (Manzanita?), Yost, Off campus
Rowed one semester -- told I needed to grow six inches (height) or lose 50 pounds (cox). 
Wrote some horrible op-ed columns for the Daily.  Big regret in not getting more involved with the paper -- or the school in general.
Was a few rows up from the trombone player at The Play.
Went to law school with Papa Luck --  which makes my man crush on his son especially weird

Likes (in addition to Stanford): University of Texas at Austin
Texas High School Football
FC Dallas
Blackpool when in Premiership
Justin Townes Earle
Cabrito
Cava

Dislikes:  OU, SoCal
Chelsea
[political comment withheld]
Dallas' endowed natural beauty
Being away from Point Reyes for too long

[Nan3cy]

One minor correction: I no longer work at Stanford because I've retired. (Retirement is cool. If it came with a paycheck it would be perfect.)

You can look at me as being "even older than Garvin." I prefer to think that Garvin is a kid. Which puts most of the rest of you in diapers, I suppose, but there we are.  :D

[fullmetal]

I'm not in grad school anymore--I was offered a nice job and decided to put off finishing grad school for a while (there I go, off the beaten path again).  It's all good :)

oman, you should make an overnight trip down to Austin for the women's basketball game against Texas in November.  Stanford/Austin is organizing a pre-game dinner gathering!

[Rando]

My names Aaron and I'm from Sacramento. I have season tickets this season despite being 20 with a minimum wage job @ fast food and no car. I've found rides to get to the games and money to pay for them. My other favorite college team that aren't Stanford are Nevada (I love scrambling QB's and the pistol) and Hawaii (jerseys, friend on the team).

I'm a Cardinal fan since the beginning of the season 2009, when Toby Gerhart was our HB. I was a Broncos and Cal fan growing up, but I mainly only paid attention to the Broncos. I never actually watched a full Cal game growing up. For some reason in 2009, I started using Stanford in my NCAA Football 2009 dynasty (the video game). I wanted to build a team up and Stanford was the team I chose. I became a fan of them since then. It just so happened that when I started watching the games I realized that Stanford wasn't as bad as I thought and we had a Voldemort runner up in Gerhart.

I remember talking to my friend, a Huskies fan, and telling him about our freshman QB, Luck. He didn't have any cluse who Luck was in 2009. But I remember telling him our kids the real deal and could be better than Locker. Sure enough, Luck has become a Voldemort candidate himself.

I'm really glad that I got into the team slightly before they were good. I'm not a bandwagon fan. I've been a fan of the Broncos since 1997. I don't change teams. Stanford has been good the past 3 seasons and I just happened to become a fan at the start of the first. I didn't think we'd have such a great year last year, but at this point I'm sold that were going to be one of the powerhouse teams for the next 5-10 seasons -- due to our top 25 recruiting.

[estephan500]

Two things in common with Oman -- I was rows behind the trombonist at The Play (was sitting behind the band), and dislike being away from pt. reyes.

[CompSci87]

My handle means I'm a computer science PhD grad from 1987, back when the department was in Marginal Hacks Hall (aka Margaret Jacks Hall).

Back then I was a typical overly focused grad student who didn't care about Stanford sports. I remember the stir around campus after "The Play" happened, but I didn't go to any games that year. I got to be a fan in later years since I've continued to live and work near campus. Right now I live less than 2 miles from the stadium and often walk to games. I mostly follow women's hoops and football.

I got to be a Cardboard admin because I helped Yvonne get the latest version of the software working and fixed a problem or two that came up later.

[Spiny_Norman]

I guess I am the same era as Oman and Estephan.  Otero, Toyon, Cliveden, Toyon, Manzanita, Toyon.  Back in the era when you had to go to the computing center to use the Largely Overloaded Timesharing System.

I was neither a Daily writer nor an LSJUMB member.  Just a lowly engineer with a big sports jones.  Worked for the men's basketball team in the pre-Montgomery era.  When Dick Dibiaso was fired, I tried to start the "Let's hire Al McGuire" campaign which never got off the ground.  Guess I needed Good Grief's enthusiastic organizing skills.

I was at Big Game 1982 and also Big Game 1990.  I think that was the last time I was in Berkeley.  I follow just about all of Stanford's teams at some level (except for sailing.  Never got into that one.)

I grew up in Oklahoma (Sooner born and Sooner bred) and now live in the vast wasteland known as SoCal.  Trying to keep my career going at a large IT company with a three letter name. 

And yes I am a big fan of Monty Python.

[FarmBoy]

'99 grad here. Flo Mo (Alondra), Clifford (ex-KA house), Haus Mitt, Dolores (ex-TaXi house.) My time coincided with the rise of Stanford Basketball. Was a member of the 6th man club my frosh-junior year but quit when i decided the fans were getting too mean spirited (chanting "your dad hates you" to Mike Bibby is not cool.) I'm one of those "legacy admits" our Easy Bay brothers love to despise, so I've been a fan of of the team from before that (I remember following our women's basketball national championship squads in the early 90's.) aside from basketball and football, i'm a big volleyball fan and like to go to men's games in the spring (it's a great family activity.)

i spent 6 years in exile on the east coast where my wife and i went to grad school and so i largely missed witnessing the Teevens/Harris disaster in person, though I followed most games on KZSU and/or Gametracker (how much more pathetic does it get than a guy staying up past midnight to watch his browser update the third down play as a pooch punt?) i credit my return to the bay area for turning around the football team. you'll find my in section 236 on game day as one of the dozen or so fans who actually gets to their seat before kickoff.

[FarmBoy]

Oh yeah, and i forgot to mention i spent 1 glorious year running around the field with a trombone in my hand though I'd never played a lick before in my life. i loved every bit of it, but it was a tad embarrassing not able to to actually play the instrument..

[JeffInCorvallis]

I was also at the '82 Big Game in the student section, in the southwest corner of the endzone about 1/3 of the way up, saw the whole thing unfold and immediately knew that we were done for.  1990 was a much better outcome.  There's only one major employer in Corvallis, Oregon besides Oregon State University and our major global IT company has been in the news WAY too much recently.  I follow just about all Stanford sports.  If you're ever in Corvallis for a Stanford basketball, volleyball, soccer, or baseball event I'll be easy to pick out because my family is the one decked out in Stanford gear.  At football games we're not quite as conspicuous.  Anyone coming up for the OSU game this year in November can find me at the alumni tailgater - I'll be handing out game tickets or meal tickets or something like that.

If you're seeking nightlife Corvallis is not the place to be; if you want to be outdoors a lot and have a great place to raise a family it's ideal.  The weather sucks in winter but the rest of the time it's very nice.

[Nan3cy]

FarmBoy, I lived in Haus Mitt too -- but long before it was Haus Mitt, when it was Jordan House and all girls. When I was at LSJU, people didn't have to draw every year unless they wanted to change their housing; I got to Jordan as a sophomore, loved it, and spent three years there. Five years after I graduated I came back for business school. Took a bike ride out the Row to look at Jordan and discovered the name had been changed to Androgyny House, with a large question mark on the door. Thankfully that didn't last long...

Big Game 1990 is one of my favorite memories. I was there with C.al friends (yes I have a few), sitting in the C.al alumni section. When our two-point conversion failed, the guy next to me looked completely bummed out. I asked him what the matter was, since they'd just won the game. He said, "We'll find a way to screw it up." I had no idea how right he was -- till 12 seconds later on the game clock. To me the best part of it was that the Weenie fans were so stupid that they couldn't remember the lessons of '82 and stay the hell off the field after the conversion try. To me that was a signal lesson in the ultimate futility of Weeniedom.

Jeff, my nephew from Corvallis is visiting us at the moment -- we might well be up there sometime before too long, so will definitely try to get in touch. It is a nice town.

[Renaissance Man]

I'm Mike.  I have been posting on rare occasions for a few years.  I was recruited by Stanford as a water polo player, never attended for a variety of odd reasons. I did, however, end up forming an attachment to SU that never went away.  I teach 12th grade AP English (my grammar errors are usually intentional, but I try to avoid them here--all of the other mistakes are just carelessness, I do know better) at a large high school, where I also coach varsity basketball and golf.  I have only missed one home football game since 1980 (I had a brain aneurysm, my car had been taken away and nobody would drive me because they were afraid of being responsible for my demise).  These are the finest days of all those years--I hope the current ride lasts for a good, long time.

[Leftcoast]

Been around here ALMOST as long as the founders and remember the pre-Cardboard original fan fax newsletter and Longwinded's seminal posts.  I chuckled at the original Uma/Dana wars and the Civil War history that used to crop up in posts around here.  I'd pretend my feelings were irrecoverably hurt by not making Yvonne's list of the famous 13 but she gets a permanent hall pass for keeping this place running.

Lived at Alondra, Trailers and the GC Suites (in their first year) before switching to off-campus housing.  The UW upset in 1981 made me a lifelong Stanford football fan and I watched the '82 Big Game in person and had a roommate on the field (carrying an instrument) who I'll never forgive for not tackling that C.al player.  I saw the 1990 BG on TV (family Thanksgiving meal!) but have been in the stands for most others. 

At Stanford I was a consultant for the hated LOTS system (to get extra allocation), the white kid who was a member of AASA (long story) and was an Industrial Engineering major with a great study group that made even the most boring classes fun (OR152 anyone?).

Best memories as a Stanford fan?  Attending a Final Four and a Rose Bowl in the same two year period.  Unfortunately we lost at both ..... but of such stuff is Stanford fandom made.  I hope we'll make up for at least ONE of those records this year.

Have four kids ranging in age from 9 to 18 which keeps me busier than I'd like.  The kids forced a Bay Area mortgage for a big enough house to give everyone room that makes me feel poor despite having an interesting and decently compensated high-tech job.  Or maybe I should be complaining instead about those two car insurance bills I just started paying for the two older kids.  Despite the complaints I can't imagine being happy with anything but a too busy house and the too frenetic pace that comes with it.

My work has let me travel to lots of interesting places including Ireland, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Cambodia.  I never understand it when people claim they hate traveling for work.  My non-Stanford wife puts up with it as long as I keep trips under two weeks and use frequent flier miles to take her to Hawaii.

Follow most Stanford sports but am most passionate about Football, Men's basketball, Women's basketball and Women's volleyball.  I still get season tickets with that blasted roommate who turned down a shot at immortality by NOT tackling the UCB carrier in '82.

My current tech crush is free music on Spotify.

/Lefty

[Robbie]

First things first - I was on the field in 1982. In a uniform with a red jacket and an ugly tie, not one with a number on the back. Visual evidence: http://es.pn/qqtZdC Damn do we look happy. That smile was short-lived.

I lived in Soto, Roble and in Germany (overseas for most of my senior year.)

I work for ESPN - which I try to remember to point out when I comment on things that are relevant to the company. But naturally, nothing I say is official. I write software, so I am very far away from the parts of ESPN that most people care about.

I live in Seattle. No ESPN celebrities here. But Stanford does come to visit regularly. I live walking distance from Husky Stadium.

[oman]

I didn't think we'd have such a great year last year, but at this point I'm sold that were going to be one of the powerhouse teams for the next 5-10 seasons -- due to our top 25 recruiting.

I'm praying.  Must do well this year.

[jayasena]

I first stumbled on to this board (one of the earlier incarnations of it) when I was hunting around for the latest rumors during the Willingham to Notre Dame saga of 2001. I've lurked here pretty much ever since -- the misery that ensued needed all the company it could find.

I've posted sparingly in part because, having grown up outside the US, my knowledge of the sport isn't quite as deep as that of others here. I came to the US when I started my undergrad at U.S.C. (I realize that factoid probably won't make me very popular around here) in the mid 90's. At first, the idea of a sport called "football" where the ball touching a foot was typically emblematic of bad things (not counting kickoffs) seemed a bit odd. But, hey, I grew to love it quite quickly and was a season ticket holder by sophomore year!

I became a Cardinal fan when I attended grad school at Stanford in the late 90's through mid 2000's. Although I still cheer for both alma maters (and it's been convenient to do because the fortunes of the two programs have been almost diametrically opposed for the past decade or so), cheering for football-playing EEs and architects is somehow a bit more fun.

Oh, and the Cardboard is the only sports-related board I frequent (occasional schadenfreude-fueled tours of NDNation notwithstanding) -- a testament to the quality of the posters and the discussions here.

[garvin]

Another Roble person! What corridor did you live on, Robbie? I was in a quad on 2B as a freshman, then 3-center for the next three years.