Abbey-Hsu

Women’s basketball traveled to the University at Buffalo on Friday night but lost 82-75. After a day of rest, the team packed up and faced Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania on Sunday afternoon, where the Lions bounced back to win 61-59. Both games saw a stymied Light Blue struggle through the first period, but claim dominance on the court in the latter half of the game.

Women’s basketball had a packed schedule to open the season, with three games in its first week. The Lions achieved a 1-2 record with the 70-51 win over Fordham University on Sunday, Nov. 10 after losing to University of Albany 82-78 in overtime on Tuesday, Nov. 5 and to St. Joseph’s University 71-57 on Thursday, Nov. 7.

It's late. You're up. It's time for you to put down that homework and pick up a nice warm glass of funny internet links: High anxiety: In an interview with the L.A. times, Mitt Romney complained, "you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that. It's a real problem." Next week, Romney will lecture Americans on the issue of not being able to bring a toaster into the bathtub. Now is the fall of our discontent: Archaeologists believe they have found the bones of Richard III, Duke of Gloucester. We assume the late king is back in order to guest star in the new season of Downton Abbey, the Earl of Grantham better watch out! WANTED - Lawyers: The data collection company 3Taps has filed an anti-trust claim against Craigslist. We assume it's because they have a monopoly on terrible web design. Better than living in South Dakota: Thousands of people gathered in South Dakota today to observe a buffalo stampede. In other news, thousands of people in South Dakota were trampled to death by stampeding buffalo today.more And a funny video:

Well, it's that time of year again---the Super Bowl! But for those who aren't sports fans (or think that football means soccer), it also means it's "Downton" time.

Some people see the immoderate amount of time I spend lounging, or going on long walks or exploring the city, or just sitting and watching four or five movies at a time and, understandably, label me a lazy time-waster. But I do not see it like this. In fact, I loathe waste, and I hate inefficiency even more. So I drink water straight from the faucet if I just want a sip. And instead of wasting money, effort, and calories on spreading peanut butter and jelly over (superfluous) bread, I just plop some jam into the peanut butter jar, and eat the globs straight from there. I think this is brilliant---my roommates say it's why I'm still single.more We've heard it all before: The days may be long but a life is short, so don't waste time. I agree! Why waste all day trudging through homework, making myself feel oh-so-studious, when I could jaunt through it in a few hours and spend the rest of the day happily lollygagging? Indeed, what we sometimes think of as "procrastination" and "waste" can actually be turned into glorious opportunities to rest and rejuvenate. It can be time that ,in the long run, encourages higher quality productivity in our work. We are whole people after all, not just intellectuals. Midterms are here and some crazy things are going down. Take some time to out of your busy schedule and "waste" it wisely. Here are some suggestions:

For many Columbia students and Morningside Heights residents, it's not just papers and exams that have made the past two weeks particularly dark and dry. It may also be that the Abbey Pub, located on 105th Street and Broadway, is still closed after being shut down by police on Oct. 30.

I was a bit worried, when I came to Scotland, that I'd be bidding farewell to one of my most personally significant rituals—multiple-weekly trips to the movies. They're easy to do at home, where Lincoln Square, Lincoln Plaza, and the Film Forum form my Bermuda Triangle of lost time. While I was excited to say goodbye to some old haunts—see you in September, and none too soon, Butler Library—my theaters have provided the structural underpinning of my New York years. What would it be like when I couldn't just ditch my studies in favor of film-going on a Wednesday night? I had my question answered on my first walk through St. Andrews. Sitting on the same street as the library, forming a dialectic between what I ought to do and what I'd rather, is the New Picture House cinema, a petite theater that plays but four movies at a time. The films are usually a few months late—just now, they're playing the Jennifer Aniston dog comedy Marley and Me. The theater announces those films from an LCD screen, taunting me on my walk to the library: I might be off to work on a paper, but wouldn't I rather see the British comedy Lesbian Vampire Killers? In that instance, no, I actually wouldn't­—but still, the theater has its charms. I went to see the superhero fantasia Watchmen the weekend it opened, to find an audience only passably engaged. People watched with polite disdain rather than gawped, as my Dark Knight theater-mates had. That an opening-weekend Watchmen audience seemed disconnected hardly shocks—the movie seemed nihilistic and alienating to a non-comics fan like me, but the image of a flattened New York (spoiler?) seemed less visceral, less affecting than it would have been if I had to get home via subway. I walked back to my room on quiet, grassy paths, framed not by sirens but only the sound of my own thoughts. The movie faded from memory surprisingly quickly—I'm sure this was a common reaction. I saw The Young Victoria, a biography of the British queen not yet released in the U.S., just after a weekend trip to London—the scenes taking place in Westminster Abbey grabbed my attention as they normally wouldn't have. When Victoria is asked whether she knows about the tradition of the Stone of Scone, I almost answered for her. The romance between Victoria and Albert, which I, in New York, would have dismissed as trite—it's really just a smeared carbon copy of Elizabeth—I embraced as part of my temporarily adopted cultural heritage. It was amazing to realize, as I watched the story of one of Britain's most beloved icons—her name and image bedeck London like so much garland—how much I had picked up about British traditions in a short time here. At the end of the movie, the audience murmured its praise for the film, and so too, for a few moments before laying into its flaws, did my companion and I. Perhaps being a gentle audience member is a tradition we'd picked up as well. A few weeks later, after finishing a paper and booking spring-break travel, I once again craved audiovisual stimulation beyond the movement of my cursor and Expedia banner ads. Given my mental acuity, my choices were either to go a movie or read about Britain's deceased reality queen Jade Goody, and one can handle but limited cultural immersion. The ticket-taker seemed about my age, and told me she felt guilty for seeing my study materials: "I never study." Thus began the longest conversation with a ticket-taker I'd ever had—not many people were coming to the Sunday night screening of Duplicity. The only comparable experience was when I gave a sympathetic look to the Manhattan ticket-taker being called ugly by a crabbed old man in corduroys. I chatted more with the concessions girl, also a student, about the right way to pour a beer as she served me one. There was something more genteel, more relaxed about this movie-going experience which somehow took away from it. Stress is part and parcel of the movie-going experience in New York. What is escapism if there's nothing to escape from? As I curled up in the balcony and watched Julia Roberts traipse through foreign capitals, I thought of the cities I had been to—her London itinerary seemed posher than mine, but then again, I'm not an international spy. Once spring break started, I would be headed to cities from the film and some that intrigued me even more. I felt bored—by the audience's lassitude, by thinking about the windy, naturey walk home, a walk I should have made in daylight. Maybe, my movie love aside, I don't need escapism here. Daniel D'Addario is a Columbia College junior majoring in American studies. He is spending the semester at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The State I Am In runs alternate Fridays. Opinion@columbiaspectator.com.