Welcome to Autumn climbing

After my last post I decided to finish work early and go out climbing. I put together a wee video below of the afternoon’s activities, working on the project at Sky Pilot and then dry tool training with Kev in preparation for winter.

Poison pens and private eyes

Forensic linguistics is rapidly becoming my favourite thing in the world: what better way to combine a love of language and The Wire in one job? So, this story on the BBC news website about abusive letters being sent to religious and political figures and covered in this week's Crimewatch is very exciting.

Apparently, a total of 57 abusive, racist and sexually graphic letters have been sent to various religious and political figures from the Southampton & Portsmouth area, and forensic linguist Tim Grant from Aston University's Centre For Forensic Linguistics has been called in to look at who the sender/s might be.

The article raises a number of interesting questions to do with language, some of them about gender and language use. While the linguist, Deborah Cameron lays into the generalised "myths" of clear differences between male and female language use in conversation, Tim Grant seems to suggest that men and women often tend to have distinctive patterns of written language:

He said: "One of the things that were striking about the letters was the heavy use of expressive adjectives, which is more typical of women than men.

"You could say women use more adjectives because they can be more socially evaluative but we don't look at why rather than how the two different groups behave.

"We just know that's the case because we read a lot of letters and make statistical correlations. The words (in the letters) used were things like 'squalor', 'dirty' and some sexual adjectives which were suggestive of women's writing.

"Another thing we know is that women tend to use fewer first person pronouns, such as 'I'."

Trojans Joust Knights to Cap Homecoming

LIVE WEBCAST

It didn't take long for the Garner offense to get the Trojan Crazies going on Friday night at Trojan Stadium as Garner welcomed Knightdale to town for Homecoming 2009.

Garner got the ball to begin the game and on the first play from scrimmage, Juwan Moye rumbled 68 yards and just five seconds into the first quarter, Garner led 7-0. However, that would be the only scoring of the first half as the two teams played the field position game to end the first stanza of the game.

After Knightdale couldn't move the ball to start the second quarter, Juwan Moye took over again on the fourth play of Garner's first second quarter possession, Moye, ran 53 yards to pay dirt for the 14-0 lead.

On the ensuing possessions, both teams traded turnovers and when the dust had settled, the Knights were facing a fourth down and 12 from deep in their own end as David Hall dropped back to punt, he was barely able to get the punt away, before it was blocked by Garner and recovered by Davonte Atkinson in the end zone for the touchdown and the 21-0 Trojan lead. Knightdale added a late touchdown to go to the locker room trailing Garner 21-7.

At halftime, the homecoming activities concluded as Tre' Perry was named Prince, Cacey Story was named Princess. Matt Powell was named Homecoming King and Homecoming queen was Dasmier Chambers.

Also, the float building results were announced and the Sophomores finished fourth, while the Juniors finished third, the Seniors finished second while the Freshman class can away with the shocker to win first place.

As the two teams came back for the second half, Knightdale took the ball first and drove down the field to score and make it a 21-14 Garner lead. However, the Trojans responded as they marched down the field running a 8 play drive that ended with a Connor Torruella 31 yard Field Goal to make it 24-14 Garner.

Knightdale could do nothing on their ensuing possession and Garner would capitalize as the Trojans again marched the ball down the field and Marques Townsend scored from a yard out and the route was on as Garner led 31-14.

But, the Knights wouldn't die as Aaron Smith returned the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown to cut the lead to 31-20. But Garner came right back with another long scoring drive and Juwan Moye scored from two yards out for his third touchdown of the night. Knightdale would add a late score but it wasn't enough as Garner won 38-20.

With the win over Knightdale, the Trojans improve to 4-3 on the season and 2-1 in the Greater Neuse River Conference. Also, with the Homecoming win, Garner continues the homecoming winning streak to 26 years.

The Trojans are on the road next Friday when the travel to Smithfield-Selma, kick-off is set for 7:30.

JV Trojan Football Escapes Knightdale with Win

It wasn't pretty for the JV team on Thursday night, however a win is a win, and Garner escaped Knightdale Stadium with a hard fought 14-6 win.

Knightdale had their chances, but several Knightdale turnovers prohibited the Knights offense from kicking into high gear. The big play of the game was when Knightdale had the ball on the Trojan 15 yard line, but turned the ball over and Garner was able to take over.

With the win, the JV Trojans remain perfect on the season at 6-0. Garner returns to Trojan Stadium next Thursday night at 7:00 when they host Smithfield-Selma.

Volleyball Continues to Roll

The Varsity Volleyball team continued their conference dominance on Thursday night as they defeated Knightdale in a very competitive match.

After winning the first two games on the match, Garner dropped the middle two games to set up a winner take all game five.

Garner would come out in the final game of the match and defeat Knightdale to take the match and get another conference win, as they beat the Knights 3 games to 2.

JV Also Gets Win

The JV team also defeated Knightdale, however the JV match was a little less nerve wrenching as the JV Trojans defeated Knightdale two games to none continue their hot play inside the GNRC.

Former Trojan Gets Mention from Sports Illustrated

Former Garner Trojan football standout, Brandon Banks ('06), was mentioned in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated.

On page 17 of the magazine, Banks is listed under the Who's Hot category of the Who's Hot, Who's Not. Last Saturday, Banks returned two kicks of 91 and 92 yards for touchdown's for the Kansas State Wildcats in their game with Tennessee Tech.

Banks commented after the game saying "I just ran." Congratulations to Brandon for keeping up the Winning Tradition.

Welcome to autumn

A room with a nice view. I made a wee bird house recently from ply left over from building my training board and finally found a moment when it’s not been chucking it down to make it available to the local bird population.

A much needed break in the west highland rain this morning. The first time in absolutely ages I’ve seen stars in the sky at night. The hills have turned orange, and a nip in the air. A nice lift.