Semin = "Two Face"

Whenever I see pictures of Alexander Semin of the Washington Capitals I am instantly reminded of the Seinfeld episode "The Strike." During this episode, Jerry announced the concept of "two-face" which according to Wikipedia is "someone who looks attractive sometimes and looks bad at other times, depending on exterior conditions, such as lighting." However, it's not so much attractiveness as it is oldness.

Here are a few examples:

Looks like he could be a little older than 26

Even his NHL roster photo doesn't quite show a 26 year old.

ok, we're getting there.

Yeah, still not quite looking 26.

But then there's this:

For the longest time I didn't know that was Semin just for obvious reasons (see previous photos). My assumption is that it is (green shirt on car) and after stalking some captions for this picture others seem to think so as well.

And then there's this. Dare I say a little Backstromesque? (that's saying a lot coming from me)

I think I've rest my case. Semin be tricksy or he could be vain and lying about his age? but only in bad lighting...or good lighting?

My night with the Hershey Bears

Due to my obsession with hockey, I decided that for my 25th birthday I'd go see the Hershey Bears! What more perfect game than the day before my actual birthday and team photo giveaway and 90 minute after game signing night! So I took 11 of my best friends and headed up to Hershey. We all headed up in different ways considering the way relationships work. Whatever. Anyway, we went to Chocolate World prior and it was alright. We got to hang out in a Hershey Kiss for like 2 minutes and learn about the history of chocolate. Who doesn't love that?

Anyway, it was a decent game. A bit slower than NHL but then when you go to Caps games, those aren't exactly typical this season. Anyway, they ended up breaking their 24 home game winning streak and I'm pretty sure I'm bad luck now :-/ It was against the Adirondack Phantoms who are the farm team for the Flyers and apparently they aren't making playoffs anymore, so they had nothing to lose and it definitely showed. They were feisty.

Anyway, here are some pictures:

Fistycuffs!

Karl Alzner. He's pretty good. Washington's 1st round choice (5th overall) in 2007 draft.
Keith Aucoin. Has 35 goals in the AHL this season so far and 94 points. Good? Yes.

Francois Bouchard. Washington's 2nd round choice (35th overall) in 2006 draft. He's pretty awesome. I think the players with longer hair were convinced to wear hats since they had to since pretty much right after the game.

Bryan Helmer. El Capitan. 39 points away from becoming the all-time leading scorer among AHL defensemen. Although that could have changed since the last time I checked the stats. Man, I love stats.

Anton Gustafsson. Came back to the Bears a week ago or so and I don't believe has played due to injury. Son of Bengt Gustafsson. However, majority of the people there didn't know who he was and his line maybe had 3-4 people at a time. He was bored at times and would get up from his seat and color in his numbers stealthy while looking behind him as if we were up to no good. He's great and very friendly.

Braden Holtby. Sadly this was the best picture I could get since his line was too long and it was about closing time. He's a pretty good goaltender and happened to be the Caps' 4th round pick (93rd overall) in 2008.Boyd Kane. Not bad, not bad. 22 goals and 40 points. Originally with the Philadelphia Phantoms (now Adirondack Phantoms).
Chris Bourque. Was affiliated with those Penguins, but we're glad he's back. Has had a pretty good season thus far with 22 goals and 66 points.

Alexander Giroux. 40 goals and 93 points this season. Very, very good.

Mathieu Perreault. I will admit that Mr. Perreault is my favorite Hershey Bear and was ecstatic when he signed my team photo with Happy Birthday Katie, despite the fact he didn't know how to spell Birthday. I guess it should have been Bon Anniversaire! Washington's 6th round pick (177th overall) in 2006 draft.

Sean Collins. Played with the Caps last season for 15 games (Defense).

Sadly, I didn't have time to get Andrew Gordon to sign anything or have a picture with him, but he's a great guy. There was an elderly women in the bleachers who couldn't go on the ice and Andrew climbed to her and had a picture with her and climbed back. Awwww. As far as I know it was his grandmother, but it was still nice.

I love hockey.

Friends don't let friends go to Denver University

I recently applied to the Forensic Psychology program within the Professional Psychology Department at Denver University. I found out that they wanted an interview me and I was rather excited, mostly because I never thought I would get that far due to my undergraduate grades and GRE scores. So I went up to Denver for a weekend and found out that there were around 100 applicants and 42 interviews. Awesome, I said to myself.

The interview went horribly. They decided that it was an issue that my grades weren't quite they wanted and asked me "your grades aren't the greatest, why do you think you'll succeed here?" Valid question, I suppose, but if you thought this was an issue why did you ask me for an interview? Apparently it was due to my experience, which is awesome, but still. Well, luckily for me, I found out that this wasn't the university for me during the interview since they don't offer any research whatsoever and only offer Clinical settings...aka...therapy. No thanks. But they made this clear when the interview asked me "So why are you applying here and not a research school? Hmmm?" Yes, they actually said "Hmmm?" The website did not specify that they did absolutely no research, so that's why I went to the interview! Whatever.

Anyway, so 100 applicants to 42 interviews to 25 who receive acceptance. It became apparent as my interview proceeded that this was not going well and I will not be accepted, so it should be no surprise when I received my rejection letter. However, it could have been less pretentious. Yes, my interviewer was rather snotty and so the tone of this letter should be no surprise. Frankly, I'm glad I wasn't accepted...well I would have said no anyway. Enjoy the read below...I know I did:

Dear Kathryn:

I regret to inform you that the Graduate Admissions Committee cannot offer you admission to the Master's program in Forensic Psychology in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at this time. We were fortunate to receive more highly qualified applicants than we can accommodate for the positions available, and, therefore, we are not able to offer admission to many good applicants. It is unfortunate that decisions like this have to be made. We evaluate applications globally, so it is impossible to point to a single aspect of an application and identify it as a reason for an offer of admission or as a reason an offer was not made. Our overriding concern is to be fair to applicants and to make offers to promising MAFP students.

We wish you the best in your future endeavors.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. so and so"


So basically there are "more highly qualified applicants" whereas I was only "good" and apparently not a "promising MAFP student." And who says "sincerely yours" in a rejection letter? Ew.

Oh well. I went on the tour just to see the DU hockey rink. Those Denver Pioneers aren't too shabby in the NCAA.

denver bound

onward to the grad school interview in Denver! i get to find out what the hell a group interview is all about!

and i get to compare Verizon Center to Pepsi Center!