Welcome Back

Welcome Back to the UIS Campus for the 2010-2011 school year! This year is going to bring lots of new things. All of us are a year older and a year wiser, Chancellor Ringeisen is close to retirement, and UIS is welcoming it’s first ever Men’s baseball team to campus as the Prairie Stars begin their first season as an official member of the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference.

For most students my age, this year is different because we are starting our core classes for our majors. It is an exciting but scary time as I am sure a lot of us have that “OH SHIT!” feeling in the back of our minds. That thought of, “What if I can’t do it?” well, to that I say, a seven year plan really isn’t that bad! We are also on our own out in the townhouses, no more roommates making things uncomfortable when you bring a girl/guy back to your room, just be careful, you still have housemates that don’t really care to hear you making animal noises. One thing to remember when you are in the townhouses is that you are still a part of this campus and student body, so don’t seclude yourself from everyone else. It is easy to do because we are so far away from everything, but make an appearance at a soccer game, drag your roommates down to SLB for late night stars, just do something.

For you underclassmen that are reading my blog, first off, good choice! Second, I have two bits of advice.

1. Don’t go home every weekend, if you do, no one will like you! Not because you aren’t cool or hard to get along with, but because they won’t know you! If you skip out at the first chance you get, you will not be around while everyone else is forming those friendships that make college such a special time.

2. Free food is your friend! Eat as much as you can, nuff said!

I hope you all enjoyed these first few weeks back on campus, I look forward to seeing you all around campus this year. If I don’t know you, introduce yourself…it could be the start of something Magical!

I’ll leave you with this.

- CH

Student Union

In a few short weeks the UIS Student body is going to vote on whether or not to asses a fee that would be used to build a Student Union on campus. There are many pro’s and con’s but no definitive answer. I have no idea how I am going to vote. I would love to see the campus grow and know that a student union is the first step in that direction. I also like the idea of having a store on campus to buy basic things like milk and bread from. However, like many students, I’m hesitant to vote yes and pay $200 a semester for a building that I might not ever set foot in. I guess that I will have to make up my mind sometime in the next week. It will undoubtedly be a huge moment for this campus whether the referendum is passed or tabled, I am interested to see what happens.

Stupid Sports Writers (sigh)

Earlier this morning Peyton Manning was awarded the NFL MVP Award for the fourth time in his career. While I am happy for Peyton and still consider him the best quarterback in the league and top five of all time, I don’t feel that he was the most deserving player. In fact, I don’t think that any of the four players receiving votes were deserving of the award. Manning, Drew Brees, Phillip Rivers, and Brett Favre all had great season, but Chris Johnson put up numbers that will be remembered for a long time. Johnson became only the 6th player in the history of the NFL to rush for over 2,000 yards. His 2,006 yards should have been more than enough to earn the award. Unfortunately, sports writers don’t think about stuff like that. Johnson’s team, the Tennessee Titans failed to make the playoffs this year despite Johnson’s dominant performance. Holding that against the running back, the writers did not give him a single first place vote for the MVP award. In my opinion, that just isn’t right. BrettFarve, who was not even as good as his replacement in Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers , received at least one first place vote…just for being Brett Favre. So I would like to apologize to Johnson for the mishaps of the writers and award him this year’s “I Should Have Been MVP But Got Screwed By The Writers” Award. Congrats Chris.

The Chris Johnson instance isn’t the only thing that the Sports Writers have screwed up recently. Two other cases come to mind. The first being the 2009 National League Cy Young Award and the second the 2010 National Baseball Hall of Fame voting.

In 2009 the National League had a closer race than the American League for the Cy Young award. Zack Grienkewas a no brainer in the AL. In the NL, it was a three-man race between former winners Chris Carpenter and Tim Lincecum and newbie Adam Wainwright. Lincecum led the three in Strikeouts but had the fewest wins of any of the pitchers. Carpenter had the lowest earned run average and the second most wins, but was limited to fewer than 200 innings due to an early injury that kept him in the dugout for a month or so. Adam Wainwright however, posted the most consistent numbers of any of the pitchers. Waino finished the season with a record of 19-8 with a 2.63 era, 212 strikeouts, and lead the league with 233 innings pitched. The most impressive part ofWainwright’s season though was the 26 starts in which he gave up 2 of fewer earned runs. Any true fan of baseball knows that Tim Lincecum was not the most deserving pitcher. Congrats to Adam Wainwright for being the best pitcher in the MLB.

Not even a week before Chris Johnson was snubbed of even a single first place vote, Roberto Alomar and Edgar Martinez were kept out of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Alomar, who is arguably the best second baseman to play the game since Joe Morgan has never been a favorite of sports writers. It must have been the famous incident in which Alomar spit in the face of an umpire that kept him out, because anyone who looks at his career numbers knows that he should have been a first ballot guy.  If his 2724 career hits or lifetime .300 batting average aren’t enough, the fact that his 10 Gold Glove awards are more than any other second baseman should be. As for Edgar Martinez, the case against him is obvious, he never played a defensive position in the major leagues. However, he does play a position. He is the Designated Hitter which was adopted as an official position by Major League Baseball in 1973. Since its inception, no person has been better at the position than Edgar Martinez. One of the most important stats in the game is On-Base Percentage, Martinez finished in the top ten 11 times in that category.  His lifetime OBP of .418 ranks 22nd of all time. That means that out of every baseball player ever, Martinez was the 22nd best at getting on base. That is an unbelievable stat and that the Baseball Writers of America Association overlooked such an amazing feat is beyond me.

I have a solution though…..

Split the votes into three different parts, allowing the Writers, the Players, and of course the fans to vote. The writers votes would be worth 45% because they are the ones with the most in-depth statistics and while it might not seem like it at times, they do know what they are talking about the majority of the time. However, writers are known for holding grudges against players for giving a bad interview or something along those lines and then don’t give them full credit for their achievements. The Players would also get 45% of the vote because lets face it, if there is anyone who knows how amazing Chris Johnson’s 2,006 rushing yards are, it is one of the other 90 or so running backs that carried the ball in 2009. Finally, the last ten percent of the vote goes to the fans. There is no doubt that the fan voting part of this vote would be skewed, but that is why it is such a small part, however, if the fans got to vote for the Hall of Fame, Roberto Alomar would be in and it would give writers an idea of where the fans stand on letting steroid users into the Hall of Fame. I believe we could fix a lot of errors with this new system, but then again, what do I know….I’m just a pissed off fan.

December at UIS

It has been quite some time since my last blog entry, so I decided, why not procrastinate studying for finals just a little bit longer and send a Holiday message to my readers.  So, since I don’t want to bore you all with a blog about what Christmas means to me, or how I am filled to the brim with Holiday Spirit, I thought I would write about some of the fun that I have had at UIS since returning from Thanksgiving Break.

First off, on December 1st the new season of Scrubs premiered on ABC. In honor of the old series, I decided to give this one a shot. It failed. I am not a fan of show continuing after the main cast leaves, and this is just another example of why that will never work. JD and Turk are back, yes, but its not the same show without Elliot, Carla, Janitor, Kelso, and Ted. While they weren’t the main characters, they still helped make the first 8 seasons of Scrubs one of my favorite TV shows of all time. After the first six episodes of season 9, Zach Braff is supposedly leaving the show for good. At that point, I will be done watching for good.  Along the same lines, but a more positive note, since returning to school I have taken part in a few Scrubs/homework marathons with friends. We just choose a season and watch as many episodes as we can before getting so tired we can’t hold our eyes open any longer. It is always a great time.

Another great thing that went down this December was the Casino Night held on campus by the Student Activities Committee. It was a night full of fake money, prizes, and winning. I went into the night just looking to have some fun and wound up raking in the artificial money via Texas Hold’em. It was a ton of fun. At one point in the night I was up over 60,000 chips, the majority of which I won playing cards. My friend Zach Berillo was at the same table as me from the beginning. I cleared him out three different times. It was hilarious. He would win a big hand and take out 1 or 2 people at the table and then I would play a hand against him and take the pot. I also cleared out two other friends but not for all of their chips like I did Zach. At one point, there was another guy at the table who was the chip leader and he accused Zach and me of cheating. It was hysterical. I had a great time. Unfortunately, I didn’t walk out with any prizes other than the pride that came with playing such a great game of poker.

Later on that same weekend, I was bored and looking for something to do. Instead of finishing up my studying, I decided it would be a better idea to go over to a friends place and watch the entire first season of Entourage. Now, I had seen episodes of entourage before and really liked them, but now, I think I might be addicted. It is amazing. Comedy, drama, nice cars, and gorgeous women always make for a good show, and this is one is no exception.  In season one, which unfortunately only lasted 8 episodes, we are introduced to the main characters of the series and get a feel for what they are like.  My favorite character is Ari Gold. Ari is played by Jeremy Piven and is the loud mouthed agent of Vincent Chase. My favorite scene in season one is when Ari goes nuts on another agent that is trying to steal Vince out from under him.

That was awesome. It won’t be long before I catch up on every episode.  The best part of the show is the bond the guys within the “Entourage” have. Each one is unique in their own way, but they are all best friends. Have you ever thought about who would be in your Entourage? I know that I have, unfortunately, I don’t think that I will ever be a movie star living in California and dating Scarlett Johanson. Then again, if I ever am, what have you done to deserve to live off my fame and fortune?

Other than that, December has been filled with Final Exams, putting final touches on already too long papers, and Stress. Ahhh yes, stress. However, the Christmas break is close at hand. It won’t be long before I am at home sitting by the brightly lit tree playing some X-Box or Nintendo wii with my little sister. I am looking forward to this break, and it cant come soon enough!!!!!!

Rain Rain Go Away…after we finish this game.

Rain. It seems like that is all it ever does anymore, it’s always raining outside. I personally dislike any form of precipitation whether it is rain, hail, snow or anything else you can think of. There are only two instances in which I actually enjoy a little rain. The first being thunderstorms. I can’t count all of the times when the power has gone out while I was sitting at home, utilizing every electronic gadget I own in an attempt to be entertained,  to suddenly find myself sitting in a dark, quiet room with zero distractions. It seems like only then that I take the time to curl up in a blanket on the couch of my families living room and get lost in a good book. Looking back, it is those times when I feel most relaxed. When the only technology I am using is the battery-powered book light attached to the spine of my copy of a Harry Potter novel, and the only noise I hear is the rain pouring down outside and the occasional burst of thunder. My cat curls up on my lap in search of protection, because to him storms are scary shit.  To me, storms are soothing, and for that reason, I don’t mind them.

The other instance in which I enjoy a little bit of rain is a bit more “Manly” than curling up on a couch with a book about a boy wizard. In this instance, Myself and a number of friends gather in the rain underneath the lights of REC Park at UIS and indulge in a game of football. It had been raining for about a week straight so the ground was nice and wet, there were a number of puddles on the field. The light from the basketball courts stretched just far enough to cover our football field. We split up into even teams and what happened next was amazing. For the next hour and a half or so we were kids again. We didn’t care about a thing. Our minds weren’t focused on GPA’s or homework assignments. We were out there to have fun, and that is what we did.  It was so wet, you couldn’t pivot without slipping. If you were to dive for a ball or slide for the first down, you would slide forever. The ball was so slippery, it was almost impossible to catch, let alone throw.  Towards the side of one end zone, there was a puddle of water, almost a little stream. There was one play where the ball was thrown deep towards the end zone.  I ran as fast as I could down the sideline and just as I had almost caught up with the pass, I hit the giant puddle and slid. It felt like I was on a water slide. The muddy water splashed up into my face and over my head, covering my body. The game was great. There was no kept score because no one cared about winning or losing, it was too much fun.  After we ended the game, we decided that the results were to epic not to capture. The field was destroyed. Each of us was covered from head to toe in mud, water, and grass. Since we had done so much damage to the field, we were afraid that if the picture were posted too soon, someone might have an issue with us playing again (cough*KW*cough). That is why this blog is being written nearly a month after the event took place. I think the dust has settled and everyone has moved on. The picture below is of the guys that decided to stick it out until the end.

The best part of the night wasn’t the actual football game. It was afterwards when all of us decided to run the length of the field and dive head first into the giant puddle and close our eyes as we slid towards the back edge of our end zone. We were carefree, and had been provided with a 100% natural slip ‘n’ slide. Who wouldn’t take advantage of that, even though the risk of injury was probably sky-high? The worst part of the night was going back to the dorms, realizing that we had made a huge mess, and having no choice but to clean the entire bathroom at around 11 o’clock at night. None of us cared though. The night that started out as nothing but a boring end to another rainy day on the UIS campus, became a memory that all of us will share for years to come. Definitely worth it.

What a disappointing Halloween.

I don’t know about you guys but this Halloween was a huge bust for me. It all started on Thursday night….let me give you the run down.

Thursday night was supposed to be the Haunted Trail at UIS, but due to rain, it got moved to Friday night. The issue with that is that I was going to be leaving school to head for home on Friday morning. So, instead of going to the trail on thursday night, I had to improvise…..we will discuss my improv in another blog…it is to epic not to have its own post. So needless to say, Thursday turned out to be a great night and what I thought was going to be a great Halloween weekend.

Friday afternoon I arrived at home, got my haircut, watched Batman and Robin on Stars and then went to dinner with my parents at Imo’s pizza. So again, things are starting off great. But then, I decided to go hang out with some old friends from high school. We drove around looking for something to do but couldn’t find anything that really got us even remotely excited. This is where the weekend went downhill. Instead of staying home and sleeping (which would have been a good idea) Me and two other guys decided to take a late night trip to the nearest McDonald’s, which is about a 20 minute drive. After we got back to town, I was so bored it almost hurt. Nothing about the night was what I had hoped it would be.

I finally woke up Saturday morning, or should I say afternoon, at around 12:30. I knew that today had great potential because every year my family has a big chili dinner at our house and the entire family comes. However, the night again turned out to be very disappointing. Most of the family couldn’t make it because they were either sick or too busy, my grandma had to leave early, and there were hardly any trick-or-treaters that came by the house.  So, the Halloween party wasn’t all that great. After everyone cleared out of the house around 10:00, I went back out on the town with some friends. We were again looking for something to do, and failed miserably. We wound up using 7 rolls of stolen Toilet paper to TP one car. It was fun while it lasted but only took up about 20 minutes. Sounds like tons of fun right. So, I went back home and went to bed.

Now, Sunday should be good right…Wrong. This day continued what has been the worst Halloween weekend so far. I went out to lunch with my family, which again was a good start to my day since seeing my family was the only bright spot in this otherwise ominous weekend. However, the food made me sick. It sucks. So, I decided to watch the Rams v.s. Lions football game. Now let me make this clear, I AM A RAMS FAN, but this is one game that I absolutely did not want them to win. I am almost positive that the Rams and Lions are both going to finish their seasons with 1 win a piece. So, a Rams victory over the lions, gives the lions the first pick in the 2010 draft. So, I want the Rams to lose so that they are almost guaranteed the number 1 pick. And wouldn’t you know it, the Rams win. Un-freaking-believeable. The one game that I root against them, they win. So, my day continued to go down hill. Through on some homework and some relationship issues and you have just about as bad a Halloween as you can get.

I have to look on the bright side of things though. I got to spend a lot of time with my family that I miss and I got to keep a lot of the left over candy. Not too shabby I suppose.

Research Papers

Suck

Fall is here (and so are midterms)

I love the Fall! I love Fall Weather. I love the fact that my three favorite hollidays are all in fall. I also love that my birthday is in fall.

For me, from around September 20th - December 31st is the best time of the year. Here is why.

I am a huge sports fan so late September into October is the best time of the year for me. Baseball season is getting down to the last few teams in the playoff race, College football is in full swing, the NFL is reminding me why I love college football so much, and Hockey season is just getting underway. It is the best time of the year to be a sports fan. There is always a game on T.V. or a Highlight that you havent seen yet that will keep you entertained.  Along with sports, the weather during this time is amazing. It is the type of weather that allows you to wear what ever you want and still be comfortable. It’s Amazing. Fall also brings in the Holliday season. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are my three favorite hollidays with Christmas leading the pack. I love getting together with family. Its always a good time. And of course on November 27th of each year I celebrate my birthday. I am still convinced that it should be a holliday but apparently the President doesn’t think that my “Reaching a higher level of Awesomeness than any man or woman before me has been able to achieve” is a good enough reason to declare a national holiday. but then again, he’s just the president…what does he know. Anyway along with all of that good stuff, there unfortunately is some bad stuff. The bad includes me gaining weight because of the excessive amounts of candy and baked goods I consume during the hollidays. Cold season…yeah, I have one right now…it sucks but is easy to overcome (mind over body….stop being sick and focus on being more Awesome). And of course these lovely months bring about Midterms. Midterms kick my ass every semester. First semester of Freshman year, I failed two of them. Im not sure why that is but it happened. It doesnt really make much sense to me. I think I will blame it on how great the beginning months of Fall are….they cause my mind to wonder aimlessly. Daydreaming is a bad habit of mine. One of my Idols is notoriously known for his daydreams….

So..yeah…If you feel like you aren’t prepaired for your midterms don’t worry…it’s not the end of the world. Just think…they aren’t even as bad as Finals!

“There’s No Place Like Homecoming”

What a week it has been.  From Monday until right now (8:01 P.M. Saturday) I have had more fun than you can imagine. Lets go through a run down of the week.

MONDAY: The pep rally. Last years pep rally was nothing exciting at all. It consisted of Free T-Shirts, Cheerleaders, and a few corny jokes. This years pep rally put last years to shame. It all started off with the Free T-Shirt which always gets my attention. After getting the shirt, I sat in the bleachers with my friends expecting the same crap that happened last year, but surprisingly, that’s not what I got. Instead, we got to watch The Show Off Show. These guys were hilarious. All of their jokes and tricks really kept me interested; which really wasn’t that big of a challenge considering the alternative was homework. I give these guys credit though, they were pretty funny. After you combine that show with the Legacy dance team, Cheerleaders, and the performance of Jai Ho it made for a fun experience.

TUESDAY: I was feeling kind of lazy on Tuesday night and decided to stay in. Don’t get me wrong, it was still good because I accomplished a lot of homework

WEDNESDAY: The Neo – Futurists were on campus last year but I didn’t go see them for some reason. So, this year I decided to check it out. I am really glad that I did. They performed 30 short plays in 60 minutes. Some of them were funny, some sad, and some just very random. All in all, it was a good time.

THURSDAY: The night of the Homecoming Dance. I have never been big on dancing. Im not good at it and don’t really enjoy it all that much. But I had to go to this dance. The reason I had to go is because my good friend Justin Bournes was nominated for Homecoming King so I had to go and support him. Needless to say, He Won. I was very proud of Chocolate Bear. He deserved to win, he has one of the best personalities of any person that I have ever met. I am glad that I can call him my friend.

FRIDAY: Bellermine University Winning the Homecoming game was not the ending that many of us saw coming to what was otherwise, a seemingly perfect night. My day started Friday at around 2:30. I spiked my hair, colored it blue, and painted my face to show support for my friends on the soccer team. At 4:00 I went and watched as the captains of the UIS soccer teams smashed some pumpkins (the pumpkins represented the Bellermine Knights).  After the pep rally, I joined the other Blue Crew faithful in the student section at Kiwanis Stadium to watch the Lady Stars. Our ladies played tough but the final outcome wasn’t the way we wanted to start the night. After the game was over, my friends and I went and enjoyed some free food, most importantly, OREOS! After the food it was time for the most important part of the evening, the Mens Soccer Game. I cannot explain how awesome the fans at this years game were. I don’t think that I have ever had that much fun cheering for the soccer team. It was clear that the presence of Blue Crew could be felt in the Bellermine locker room. We definitely got into their heads and in doing some, provided our guys with the energy and drive to play their hearts out. My two good friends on the team, Michael Waldo and Chris Rajcic, both showed Bellermine that we dont mess around. Waldo absolutely crushed a kid with a slide tackle. When I saw Mike’s little body sliding across the wet grass and take the kids legs right out from under him, my heat melted. It was like the first time I heard the Beatles, absolutely Magical. The best part though, was when Waldo received a yellow card and walked away smiling, the little shit knew exactly what he was doing when he creamed that kid from Bellermine; and he enjoyed doing it.  Chris was in a shoving match with another kid. When we (blue crew) noticed that the kid was up in Chris’s face, we started chanting RAJCIC RAJCIC RAJCIC RAJCIC eventually leading to the other kid getting a yellow card. It was a very intense game. Unfortunately, Bellermine came out on top in the end. After the winning goal was scored in overtime, the Bellermine team tried one more time to break our spirits but ended up falling flat on their asses as the ran over to mock us, therefore giving us more fuel to mock them. The night ended with a firework display that lit up the sky or the UIS Campus.

SATURDAY: Today is Saturday and to me, it has been the best day of the week so far. I had so much fun hanging out with friends and doing different things around campus, but today my family came to visit. I am not like most college kids. By this I mean that I enjoy the company of my family. I got to spend the day with a few of my favorite people in this world Mom, Dad, Sister, and Grandma. My family is the most important thing to me and since coming to college I dont get to spend that much time with them. This day was special for me because over the summer, the anchor of our family passed away because of cancer that took over his body. My Grandfather was the person in the family that everyone turned to for advice. He was a man whose presence was felt as soon as he entered a room. He was intelligent, Compationate, Funny, and Loving. He was the man who every other man is trying to become. I feel that my words aren’t doing any justice in describing the type of person he was. Today meant so much to me because I finally realized something. On Easter Day this year, I went in to say good- bye to my Grandpa for the night. At that point, I didn’t realize that it was the last time I was going to get to have a conversation with him. As I sat on the edge of the bed, He asked me how I liked my first year of college at UIS. I gave him the generic answer “I really liked it, but it is nice to be done for the summer.” After that, My grandpa reached over and grabbed my hand and rolled over to face me.  At the time when we were having this conversation, He was so sick that it was a struggle to breathe, let alone speak. But, My Grandpa managed to take my hand and pull himself around to where he was facing me. He then looked at me and said these exact words ” Cody, I couldnt be more proud of you. I have always been here to lend a hand to anyone that asked for it because I feel like that is my purpose in life. I believe that you are going to do the same thing. You are going to do well for yourself and I am not worried about you, but I want you to remember that people are always going to look up to you for advice and support and I want you to remember that there is never a wrong time to help a loved one.” This is the point in the conversation when I started to ball like a little child. The point is that today, as I was walking around campus with my family and would stop to say hi to a friend, the words that my Grandpa spoke really hit home. I realized that while sometimes college isn’t my favorite place to be and I am constantly complaining about it, I owe it to my friends and family to be here. I owe it to my Mom and Dad for all that they have given me. They have supported me in all of my decisions and encouraged me to do my best. I owe it to my sister in order to set a good example for her as she gets closer to attending college. I owe it to my Brother because, this is going to sound like I am being an asshole but, because I have been able to learn from his mistakes and take his advice when deciding what to do. I owe it to my friends because without each other, this place would be that much worse. And I owe it to my Grandma and Grandpa because they have given me so much over the years without asking for a thing in return.

So, even though Homecoming only comes once a year and the rest of the time we find a lot to complain about…we are all in college for a reason, the fun is just a footnote.

This is not a retraction…

So, I am already doing another post. This is a little bit sooner than I expected, but I am going to have fun with it.

Here’s the deal. Shannon Szalinski was not too happy with me after I called her out in “Dedicated to Charlie Dobson”. I guess her reasoning was good enough. However, she demanded a retraction, and as this title clearly states, she did not get what she wanted. Instead I am going to issue a public apology and we are all going to pretend that apology and retraction are in no way even remotely close to being the same thing. So, for all of my blog readers including Shannon, I have recorded an apology and added it to this blog.

 

 

HAHAHA well, I hope you all enjoyed that apology as much as I did. I guess that is all I have to say for now. If you are reading this and have something that you would like me to blog about, just leave me a comment and I will see what I can do. Thanks for reading.