I just I can’t help getting fired up about the latest issue of Philadelphia Magazine because my high school alma mater, Father Judge Catholic High School for Boys (the official title) was prominently featured in the cover story, “Best of Philly Schools 2009″. What does Judge, an all boys high school, do better than other Philadelphia area high schools? Lead cheers, that’s what. The cheerleaders, composed entirely of girls from other schools, constitute the only thing worth mentioning about Judge.

In a sport — yes, sport — dominated by Southerners, the members of Father Judge’s all-female “super varsity” squad (made up, since Northeast Philly’s Father Judge is all boys, mostly of students from St. Hubert’s) don’t just stand out for their accents. They stand out for their seamless choreography of back handsprings, back tucks and stunts. The 36-girl team has won Top 10 status since it began competing in nationals in 2005. (Last year, the Crusaders took second.) Their theme song: “Philadelphia Freedom.” You go girls, indeed.

[Best of Philly Schools 2009]

I’m working on a rhube.com makeover. After weeks of downtime thanks to a wordpress upgrade gone awry and a slow-to-respond web hosting company, I’m working on adjusting this theme so that it’s not headache inducing.

I’m 30. All growns up. And yet, this video killed me. Watch the entire 4 minutes. It is worth every wasted second that you will never get back.

Here’s a midterm report for those of you remotely interested (i.e. bored out of your mind).

First, I didn’t bring my camera cable with me, so I can’t post any decent pictures from my summer yet, but there are some extremely poor quality phone cam pics here to help you visualize the events contained in my riveting recap.

The job, or yob (It might be pronounced with a silent J. Some things about the working world get forgotten in b-school.)

The front gate in Emeryville, CA

To give you an idea of what goes on around here, this was how a couple of hours were spent last Friday afternoon: Pixar Motorama. Pixar employees showcased their sweet rides. There are three sets of photos on flickr [1, 2, 3] that captured some really good shots of the vehicles. I was more interested in this custom-made wood-framed chopper:

But this old Studebaker wasn’t bad.

The sports

I managed to hit 2 Phillies games when they were in Oak-town visiting the A’s and caught a Cubbies-Giants tilt the following week. Monster Park is a pretty sweet venue, but the Coliseum… well… the Coliseum sucks. Let’s be honest. Although maybe the fact that kids can hang out on the second deck in right field and smoke massive amounts of weed is one of the selling points. Here’s a shot of Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz moments before a softly hit groundball, a Ruiz specialty.

A whopping 10,000 fans fill the Coliseum

The Box Wars

I really have no commentary that can capture Box Wars, so you’ll have to check out the website yourself. But to answer your questions, yes, I know this person, and yes, he did some serious damage to recycling fanatics. [Box Wars]

It’s not so bad out here…

[someecards.com]

They’re still working on uploading my photo apparently.

You’ll be indirectly contributing to my paycheck this summer. I’m leaving for San Fran tomorrow for a 10 week internship with Pixar. Don’t be jealous.

… but you may caress Thomas Jefferson’s stick.

[The700Level.com]

And with that, I depart for the Eastern Bloc.