Last night I went to see Star Trek: Nemesis with several of my Brothers. Strange – before last night, I hadn’t watched any Star Trek in years. There was a time when I was a big-time Trekkie. I went to Star Trek conventions, watched “Next Generation” reruns nightly — I even owned a copy of the Official USS Enterprise Technical Manual. Perhaps my love of Star Trek even influenced my decision to become an engineer.

My obsession with Star Trek lasted several years, but then I abruptly lost interest. Was I concerned that “Star Trek” was “dorky?” Was I disheartened when ST:TNG was cancelled? Did I simply outgrow it? Hard to say…

I had high hopes going into the movie. After all, Nemesis is Star Trek movie #10, and as all true fans know, the even number movies are historically better than the odd number ones. What did I think of the movie? Well, in the interest of not tainting your opinion, I will not say. However, I will say that the audience was stereotypically “trek-ish.” Which is what prompted this entry in the first place. So, yeah.

Hmmm… that wasn’t very coherent. Let’s change topics.

Last Wednesday, it snowed in Terre Haute. I was so happy to see actual snow accumulating that I felt the need to take a photo of the back half of the Pike grounds. Driving to work took a bit longer than normal. Although I consider myself adept at driving on snow, thanks to my Minnesota upbringing, my journey was slowed by Hoosiers driving 20 mph in the fast lane. Mind you, the roads were not slick: be it because of InDOT’s salting or the natural heat from moving vehicles, the main road was wet but not slippery. Ah well, I can deal with slow driving on snowy days, if only for the payoff: it’s currently 45 F and sunny.

Keacher.com, in its current blog-esque format, turned one today. Happy birthday to it!

Astute readers will notice that the archive starts on December 20, 2001. A little database snafu is to blame for the discrepancy.

To the roughly 23 people who visit each day, thanks for stopping by!

Every year, my Fraternity holds an event called Ditch. No, it’s not a time for digging trenches; rather, for Ditch, “big brothers” try to outsmart their respective “little brothers.” Normally, the big brothers start at WalMart south of Terre Haute and try to make it back to the Pike House while completing a scavenger hunt without being caught by their [new] little brothers. The catch is that the big brothers are on foot while the little brothers are in cars.

My freshman year, I failed to catch my big brother. Last year, I was caught by my first little brother after only half an hour.

Based on those experiences, Ditch is my one of my three favorite Pike activities.

This year, the rules changed slightly. Instead of starting at WalMart, the big brothers started at ISU. Instead of a normal scavenger hunt, we went on a “take photos of stuff” scavenger hunt. So, camera in hand, I started out from ISU with three of my brothers. The group decided that we should make our first stop with the Zeta Tau Alphas. After a snapshot, we continued on. It was dark out. Temperature was about 20 F, but winds were calm. We decided to progress towards the house along an old railroad bed that had been converted into a bike path. We were having a jovial time, prank calling various little brothers, running away from suspicious cars.

After getting to Rose, I called one of the little brothers, whom I suspected was with my second little brother. My hunch was correct. I asked where they were. The response shocked me: Olive Garden! Now, I love Olive Garden, but that’s not the point. There I was, having just walked five miles in the cold through a rough part of Terre Haute, all in an attempt to elude detection by my little brother. But he wasn’t even looking for me! Understandably, I was a bit disappointed.

However, like so many things in life, there’s more to the story. (Note that the following is mostly conjecture and is based on about five seconds of conversation) For some reason, two other brothers set something up where they completely abandoned the rules of ditch and set up their own game. The game was of the “follow hints to find a destination” genre. The destination turned out to be Olive Garden.

It’s Monday night in Minnesota. What to do? Go to a hockey game!

Last night I brought my sister to a Minnesota Wild game. It was my first Wild game this season — hopefully it will not be my last. At the game, I ran into one of my Fraternity associates (neé pledges), Tim, which was cool. Despite our 1 – 2 loss, the game was a lot of fun. It’s remarkable how different a Gophers game is versus a Wild game — each has a unique crowd dynamic. The Wild game features a bunch of high-tech entertainment gizmos and whiz-bangs, whereas the Gophers game features a crowd of fervid fans. Not to say that the Wild fans lack enthusiasm; there is simply more fan involvement at Gophers games.

Either way, Minnesotans love watching hockey. The Wild have sold out every home game in the history of the team. The waiting list for Gophers season tickets is over 1500 names long. Hockey is part of the Minnesota identity. We will fight to make certain that we never lose an NHL team again (Dallas stole the North Stars back in the early 1990s).

On a completely different topic, I just received my term grades for Fall quarter at Rose-Hulman. I’m happy to say that I got a “four-point” for the term. Duff Man says, “Oh yeah!”

I returned to Minnesota on Friday for a much needed vacation from college. Although the drive from Indiana to Minnesota is 620 miles, the trip wasn’t bad. I gave my other [ fraternal ] little brother, Will, a ride back to Minnesota, so I had some company in the car. After getting home, I relaxed for a couple hours before I got in contact with one of my high school buddies, Eric. The plan was originally to see the new James Bond flick, “Die Another Day.” Instead, Eric mentioned that he was flying to Chicago the next day and offered to let me ride along. Not having been to Chicago for many years, I accepted the offer. (Why was Eric flying to Chicago? He needed to fly to Chicago as a component of his efforts to get instrument-rated) Soon after, I drove down to Mankato to be near the plane for the early-morning departure. At 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, Eric, Eric’s flight instructor, one of Eric’s other friends, and myself took off in a Cessna Skylane 182 from the Waseca airport. Destination, Chicago’s Meigs Field.

We had a good tailwind on the way to Meigs, which, combined with the high-performance nature of the Skylane, gave us a ground speed of about 160 mph. After making several touch-and-gos en route, we arrived at Meigs. The weather was beautiful: Sunny skies with a hint of haze. The winds were a bit high but nothing that the pilots and plane couldn’t handle. Meigs Field was wonderful. The view of the Chicago skyline was wonderful, and made for a great photo backdrop. We stayed at Meigs just long enough to refuel before turning around and heading back to Minnesota. Unfortunately, the tailwind that aided our journey to Illinois hindered our trek home. Our ground speed rarely exceeded 100 mph on the way back. Eventually, I got back to Minnesota and drove home. Time for rest? Hardly.

I was home for no more than ten minutes before my sister and I left to go to a Gophers Men’s Hockey game. I hadn’t been to a Gophers hockey game in many years and had never attended one at the relatively new Mariucci Arena. The atmosphere was festive inside the arena. Everywhere we looked, Gophers jerseys filled the stands. Fans of the opposing team, Michigan Tech, were consumed by the native masses of maroon and gold. The Gophers mascot, Goldy, was warming up the crowd with crazy antics. Once the game got underway, the student sections livened up with traditional cheers and taunts. There was plenty of goalie heckling going on, what with cheers of “Ellsworth is a great big sieve, do-dah, do-dah . . . ” (of course, Ellsworth was the Michigan Tech goalie). As another example, whenever a Minnesota penalty expired, the public address announcer, Jamie, would proclaim, “Gophers are full strength.” The fans then replied, “We always were!” At the beginning and end of each period, as well as after every Gophers goal, everybody in the arena stood up and sang/clapped the University of Minnesota rouser. All of the cheers are quite detailed and well orchestrated. Everybody reading this should go to a Gophers game to see what I’m talking about. If you do go, be sure to check the cheer reference so that you know what to say.

The game was good. We ended up winning 2 – 1. I returned home with my sister, and went directly to sleep. So how far did I travel? Between 6:00 a.m. on Friday and 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, I went: 620 miles from Indiana to Minnesota; 90 miles from home to Mankato; 460 miles from Mankato to Chicago; 460 miles from Chicago to Mankato; 90 miles from Mankato to home; and 40 miles from home to Mariucci and back again. That makes for 1760 miles in 40 hours, or an average speed of 44 mph.

I’ll try to slow down in the next week.