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Out With The Old

I’ve had season tickets to George Mason University basketball games since the Patriot Center  opened it’s doors in 1985.  Back then, Navy was still a member of the CAA and had a guy on their team named David Robinson .  The CAA Championship Tournament for the 1985-1986 season was held at the Patriot Center with Navy  winning over GMU in the championship game.  This was the one and only time the Patriot Center has hosted the CAA Championship Tournament.  I was there and so was the scoreboard in the picture.

After over 25 years of faithful service, the scoreboard has retired.  Its successor is this rookie that first saw action at the George Mason versus Old Dominion game on 4 February 2012.  It gave a solid performance, with the exception of occasionally getting confused over the foul count per player as GMU defeated ODU 54-50 to retain a share of first place in the CAA.  

Parking Places

GMU PinGeorge Mason University’s men’s basketball team made it to the NCAA Tournament Final Four last year.  As a result, the average crowd size at their games this year has been just about double of that of previous years.  I have been a season ticket holder since 1984 and GMU has gone to both the NIT and NCAA tournaments before, but have always lost in the early rounds.  Until now, the average attendance has not really changed that much over the years, no matter how successful or unsuccessful their seasons have been.

This year, GMU is not having the success they did last year.  As I write this, their record is 13-9, and they are in the middle of the pack in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).  Unless they get really lucky and win the CAA Championship Tournament at the end of the season, they will not get invited to play in the NCAA tournament this year.

So, I wonder what the crowds will be like next year?  Will the attendance be as high as this year…or will I once more have my choice of parking places closer to the Patriot Center?

Speech Accent Archive

I found out from one of my fellow bloggers that George Mason University has a web site called the Speech Accent Archive. This extract from the home page explains its purpose:

“The speech accent archive uniformly presents a large set of speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed. The archive is used by people who wish to compare and analyze the accents of different English speakers.”

Since I’m a GMU Alumnus, I dutifully made a recording of my voice and sent it off to GMU. Maybe it will end up in the Archive…or maybe not. But it is preserved for posterity (or however long HR’s halfVAST Blog exists) right here.

So do I have a regional accent? And if I do, what region of the US?