Catch Up Remix

I think I finally realized I can't blog as much as I want to. That being said, I will continue to blog, just not everyday. So to get the fingers used to the keyboard again, I'm just going to give you all a recap of what's happened since my last post.

1. K-State football is back. My last post was about not making the SportsCenter not-top 10. After 4 impressive wins against 3 solid teams, its looking more like the team will be making the Top 10 rankings before a Friday Sportscenter special. Despite losing highly touted Bryce Brown, there was very minimal noise about it, which shouldn't surprise fans who know Bill Snyder. The team has gotten better every week and the defense is the shining achievement of another miraculous turnaround. They are currently ranked 17th and 18th in the AP and Coaches polls respectively, yet go into this week's game against Texas Tech as underdogs. This teams has thrived as underdogs so far and I won't expect any different this week. 
2. I am currently writing sports for the K-State sponsored newspaper, The Collegian. I have only written two Volleyball stories so far but will probably start to get more articles soon. The volleyball team has been a blast to watch and a fun experience to cover. The head coach Susie Fritz is easy to talk to and all the girls are as well. I will continue to cover some volleyball games the rest of the season. 
3. The Packers are 5-0 (so are the Lions?) and the Cardinals are in the NLCS after making the playoffs on the last day of the regular season. 
4. My fantasy football team is 1-4. No wonder I didn't do a league last year. I suck! 
5. School is in full swing. Tests, tests, essays, tests, papers, am I forgetting something? Oh yeah, more tests! Counting down the days to Thanksgiving! 
6. I am also working for the Athletic Operations Department, more specifically I am working for the baseball maintenance crew. It's an easy-going and enjoyable job with good guys and flexible hours, what more is there to ask for? Plus they pay me for it, SCORE. 

That's all I can think of right now, I'll try to be more consistent on my blogging schedule but am making no promises people, I'm a busy man if you can't tell! Til next time, stay tuned people. 

Movie Mania

Ever since The Lion King, I have been a movie person. It started with a small hobby, something to buy time with, but it would grow into something much, much bigger. Thanks to modern-day technology, I can access  thousands of movie options with the click of a button.

For the longest time, I've been a member of Netflix. For those who haven't heard or haven't turned on a TV in the last 5 years, Netflix is basically a more convenient version of blockbuster. Instead of having to go to the store to pick out a movie, you can do it on your computer or even on your gaming console (Xbox 360, Playstation 3, or Wii). There are no late fees, keep the DVD as long as you need to. This feature is probably my favorite, because when I get busy with school and just tied up in a lot of things (aka, I procrastinated a little), I can just keep the DVD until I have some spare time to watch it and then return it afterwards.

Not only can you receive DVD's through Netflix, but they have thousands of movies and TV shows available to watch via an online streaming method (gaming consoles previously mentioned or a computer/laptop). Personally, I stream through my Xbox 360, which is ironic since I bought it to play video games but now I have no time or desire to play video games, so it serves as my DVD player and Netflix access device.

The best thing I'd say about the instant option through netflix is the TV shows. You can watch just about any type of show. If your looking for a funny TV show, your options are pretty wide. Some of my favorites to check out are The Office (first 7 seasons), South Park (14 seasons), Family Guy (8 seasons), That 70's Show (8 seasons), and even Cheers for you old folks. Not looking to laugh, but instead want a serious, suspenseful dram TV show to watch, your in luck. Some popular dramas Netflix offers are Law and Order SVU (12 seasons), Law and Order Criminal Intent, Heroes (Seasons 1-4),  24 (8 seasons), and many more.

The movie side of the instant option through Netflix is not quite as great as the TV side, but there is a lot of great movies available. The best perk is that any movie available on the movie network Starz, is available on Netflix, thanks to a contract between the two companies. So along with a few movies sprinkled into the mix, the majority of the good movies available instantly are mostly older movies. Some of the best older movies I've seen on Netflix include Full Metal Jacket, 8 Mile, Memento, The Beach, Gone Baby Gone, No Country For All Men, Black Hawk Down, Angels and Demons, The Boondock Saints, Shutter Island, among many, many more. So when I say the options aren't as good, that is not necessarily a bad thing but just a not as good thing, if that makes sense.

There are, however, some downfalls to Netflix. The first being a minor one that has only affected me a handful of times in the three-plus years I've had Netflix, the downfall being scratched or damaged DVD's. In the process of mailing back and forth hundreds of times, DVD's take a beating. Netflix realizes this and has a good system for keeping customers, that being if you receive a damaged disc, all you have to do is go to your online account, click on the "Damaged DVD" icon and they'll send you a new disc as soon as possible. Another downfall is that you have to have a decent internet connection to stream Netflix instantly. This is not a problem for me at my house, because there are only three people possibly using the internet at the same time. Consequently, I can't watch Family Guy during class or even in the library for that matter. At first, I thought this was truly a downfall, but I realized I wouldn't get anything done if I could watch Netflix in class and in the library, so I'm thankful for the 10,000 or so other people using K-State's internet and dedicate my GPA to each and every one of them. The final downfall to Netflix is a more recent one, and that is that they are raising their prices for each option of service. For the longest time they kept their prices constant, but as a result of about every video store going out of business, Blockbuster being the latest and biggest of the video stores, Netflix has started to raise their prices. It's a smart business strategy, with their customers having less options to pursue (i.e. Redbox and???), and I personally still value the service-plan I use more than I pay for it so it's worth it to me.

I'm going to start trying to do a movie review about weekly, hopefully, the movies will either be new movies or older movies I've never seen before. I may even drop a new TV show or documentary into the mix that really caught my attention. I'm starting to get used to my schedule for this semester and am going to do my best to update the blog more frequently.

In other news, I got to see my mother, father, both brothers and my two favorite sister-in-laws for the opening weekend of K-State football. The game wasn't what I was hoping for but that I'll leave that for a different post (maybe tomorrow?). Besides the actual game, the weekend turned out to be a great one, I got to see my family, eat great tailgating food, and just hang out with old friends and classmates. Hopefully, the next game in two weeks, will be better and complete the weekend to its full potential.

Stay tuned people.

Love these people! (Sorry Abby for stealing this picture off your blog)

Back To School

I thought this video was appropriate for my return to school. If only when I graduate, I could take over a fortune 500 company, damn you Adam Sandler. Back to the point, this week was the start of my second year of college. After a year of adjusting and getting used to life on campus, I get to do it all over again by learning how to live off campus. I've learned there is a major difference. First off, no rolling out of bed 15 minutes before class and getting there on time. 30 minutes for that matter.

Today I found out the hard way about the fun of parking on campus. I got up about 45 minutes before my class, showered, ate breakfast and headed out with about 30 minutes to spare. After checking the parking garage, twice, I gave up on it. So my next thought was "what other lot can I park in?". Shoot! I had no idea, so I drove around until I found a lot sign the same color as my parking permit and whipped it in. To no avail, I unsuccessfully circled that lot at least 3 times, no spots. At this point, making it to my first class on time was out of the question. So my next goal was just to get parked, because my gas was about as close to "E" as it can before it starts puttering.

I decided to re-check the parking garage, just in case. Bingo! There is room, for the public, but not students. Fail! I proceeded to say some choice words and just gave in, got a public parking pass ($4.50) and parked. I would like to rant about how it shouldn't be a problem to find parking when you pay the University $7,000 a year but that's another post on its own.

Other than that, school has gone smoothly so far. I like most of my teachers and think I will fare just fine this semester. I have even decided to pick up a part-time job, carrying on the tradition of the McGuire's working for the maintenance division of the athletic department. I will also be, hopefully, working for The Collegian, K-State's school newspaper. I've had way too many people in my major or in my future career field tell me that the sooner you get experience and clips, the better. I will be able to work as many or as few stories as I want. So hopefully that goes well, I'll let everyone know if I get anything published.

No other news here, almost to a week until game day! I need some help with tailgating music, any suggestions are more than welcome.

Ranch

In the 20 years I've lived on this earth, I have ate my fair share of food. From apple sauce to zucchini and everything in between. I've spilt food, thrown food, choked on food, played with food, and even ate it from time to time. What I've found in my strenuous study of food is that there is no sauce or seasoning more universal than ranch dressing. Now, most people will agree that ranch is a tasty addition to a salad or even a smaller group will eat it with their pizza. I however, take ranch to a whole new level, or obsession.

I eat ranch with anything that I can think of. Pizza, salad, wings, chicken, burgers, fries, onion rings, mac and cheese, tacos, eggs, and the list is growing everyday. I don't know what it is about ranch that has me hooked but I don't care. If ranch was a drug, I'd be in therapy for a long time. I'd run an illegal ranch distribution ring and fight off the DEA to the death. If ranch was a girl, I'd marry it or at least dream about it.

This will be at my wedding!

I'm kidding of course, as much as I like ranch, if it were to go away I wouldn't have to worry about how I would cope. This is because the disappearance of ranch from the world would ultimately result in the end of the world. Let me connect the dots for you naysayers. Without ranch, the salad business goes in flux. When the salad business goes out, buffets are the next victim. No one wants to eat a buffet without a salad, right? Once buffets fall apart, Las Vegas goes down with it, no one knows what to eat and the city falls apart. With no gambling, people don't know what to waste their money on. People start going bankrupt at a all time low. Our country would start to make money instead of digging the debt even deeper. At this point in time, the world is at a place where no one can handle themselves. People are overwhelmed with boringness and nothing to complain about in terms of the government. And Justin Bieber disappears forever. As much as some may wish for some of these things to happen, they will never happen in this world, so them occurring obviously means that the world will blow up from confusion. It's science.

As you can see, I obviously have way too much time on my hands. A blog about ranch that leads to the end of the world? Yes I am ready for school to start. I need to get in a regular routine of going to bed and waking up. But I'm sure as soon as school starts I'll be ready for a break, it's the nature of the beast. Can't have your cake and eat it too, right? Other than school and trying to find some work to make some money, my life is been pretty bland lately, which is not a bad thing. Other than that, I'm just anxious for football (professional and college). Stay tuned people.

Technology Fail

Usually I would consider myself very technologically savvy. However, in the last week I have gone into a "technologically challenged" state. Fortunately, I have lots of time on my hand due to the fact that I'm done working for the time being and will have about a week to fix my technology headaches.

The first problem that occurred was probably the more important of the two, but I still am more mad about the second one. The first was a problem that resulted from my procrastination (see "Procrastination Pro" post) and the fact that I own a MacBook Pro. As I have explained in a previous post, I am a procrastinator to the core. The final paper that makes up 40% of my grade in the Composition 2 class I took this summer ,via Cowley County Community College online courses, was put off until the final 3 days before it was due. Keep in mind that the paper had to be at minimum 7 pages, so this was no small task. This part of the problem is not what really set me back in the end as I finished the day before it was due. However, I was going on vacation to Arizona the day that the instructor would be grading the papers. So if anything were to go wrong, like he was unable to download the document you sent him, I wouldn't have known until I got back. The thought of bringing my laptop on vacation for this very reason did cross my mind but I assured myself that there would be some sort of computer use at the resort we were staying at. Of course there were no computers, just free wifi. Free wifi only helps when you have a laptop to use it with. FAIL! After finding this out, I just had to cross my fingers and hope for the best. Hope that he received the papers and that he was able to download them without any problems. Not so much. After getting home from vacation, I made sure to check my e-mail first to see if he had e-mailed me about my paper, hoping to see my grade. As it happens, he was unable to download it in the format I sent the paper to him. This is the one downfall to having a MacBook, you have to remember that the formats you use Microsoft word will not always work with other, inferior operating systems ("Cough" Windows). I proceeded by immediately sending him the paper again in a more convenient format but was disappointed two days later after finding out he never received the e-mail. FAIL! Luck for me, my professor was very understanding about the situation and the heartaches of running an online class. He allowed me to re-email him my paper, almost two weeks late, with no penalty. So after all this frustrating and hair-pulling computer issues, I got my paper graded and my mind at ease. As Borat would say, "GREAT SUCCESS!".

The next problem I had was more of my stupidity then it was technological confusion. My Ipod, that I've had for about 3 years, has music on it from my previous computer which has since bit the dust. I've always wanted to get the songs off my Ipod and get them onto my new laptop so I would have them in case anything were to happen to my Ipod (i.e. losing it, breaking it, or accidentally losing all the songs on it). Turns out, I ended up doing the last of those examples in the process of trying to save my music. Kind of ironic right? Theres a program to do this, it's called JailBreak and it's suppose to be a simple process. Not for me, when I tried to run the program, it told me that I needed a newer version of the Ipod firmware. I updated it and tried again. To my surprise however, when I updated my Ipod firmware, Itunes took the liberty of erasing all of my music that I had previously had on my Ipod. FAIL! I knew I should have listened to the South Park episode that was a satire of the Itunes terms and agreements that nobody reads but just clicks agree to. If I had, I might have realized that it said in Bold letters, "By updating your firmware, all previous music, videos, and apps will be erased so make sure to back up your data before updating" Problem was that  I couldn't back up all my music because it wasn't all from the same computer. So after an ambitious and confident attempt to Jailbreak my Ipod, I lost almost all of my music. Fortunately in today's age, you can get music with the click of a button. Whether it be Itunes, mixtape websites, or P2P downloading applications like Frostwire, getting music has never been so simple and fast to do. Consequently, I have been rigorously downloading music to refill my Ipod before I go back to Manhattan, because the radio can't keep me entertained for more than 30 minutes. I am currently at about 350 songs, which is about a 1/3 of the songs I had previously but I have confidence I can get this done and have an even better collection of songs than before. As long as I don't delete them all off my computer (knocking on wood).

That is all I got for now, only 5 days until I move back to Manhattan for my second year at the Kansas State University. Stay tuned.

Procrastination Pro

If procrastination was a sport, I'd be all pro first team. If it was a disease, I'd be the case study. If there were PA (Procrastination Anonymous) meetings, I'd be running them, at the last second. My name should be next to the dictionary definition of procrastination. I'm a procrastinator, always have been. It's one of my faults as a student and as a person in general. The saying "why put off what you could do today" goes more like this for me, "why do today what you could put off". Unfortunately, this method really stresses my time and mind when nearing the end of the semester or in this case the end of a class.

This summer I took two classes, trigonometry and composition two. Both of them were online classes and I decided to wait until the last day or two to do the major chunks of the classes (the final and a research paper). So this is why I haven't blogged recently, because my procrastination pushed me towards focusing on finishing my classes before my vacation. Long story short, I got them finished and am happy with where I finished in the classes.

More importantly, my mom, dad, and me are taking a vacation in about 7 hours from now. And I still haven't packed, imagine that. We are going to Scottsdale, Arizona for 4 days. I am not sure what our vacation will consist of besides playing on some beautiful golf courses. But other than that, I am not much of a planner, so I figure we'll do whatever we can find when we get there. I will keep you up to date on what we've accomplished when we get there.

Other than that, work is wrapping up in about a week (thank God!) and I've invested in my own tennis racquet. Unfortunately it didn't help me against my 50 year old dad, who seemingly beat me in his first time out in years, go figure. Hope I have better luck in golf, but I'll need a lot of luck. But for now, and I mean right now, I have to go pack for this trip before the plane takes off.

Stay tuned, I'll be updating more frequently now with no classes and limited work people.

Trying New Things

The saying "you don't know if you like/dislike something, unless you've tried it" can hold true for almost anything. Sports, food, movies, books, TV shows, drinks, people, and even clothes. Ok maybe not clothes, we can usually make a good judgement of what we'll look like in foreign clothing. But the saying can still be true for almost anything else, except drugs kids, JUST SAY NO! Trying new things that you previously thought you could never like, could end in the polar opposite. For example, here are a few things that I've tried lately that I thought I'd never like, and ended up enjoying.

1. Mushrooms: When I was a kid, I wouldn't touch mushrooms. I'm not sure the exact reason but I think it had to with the fact they grow almost anywhere. I never realized as a kid that you don't eat the mushrooms that grow in your yard, but avoided them none the less when I did. I started, like a lot of things, eating mushrooms at college. It started on pizza and has grown to salads, steaks, fajitas, and pitas of course. 
2. Physical activity: Ok, I realize I have played sports and have been active for almost my entire life. But that physical activity wasn't for the purpose I use it for now. Before, going to the gym was a part of getting ready for games, a place to hang out with friends and most importantly a place to get away from school. Now, physical activity is a way to manage stress. I don't have any games to get ready for but it still can be a place to hang out with friends and a place to get my mind away from a huge exam or midterm. 
3. Reading: Don't get me wrong, I've always enjoyed reading a good book but never made the time or effort to do so regularly. I am now trying to do so. My reasoning towards making this attempt is that I've always been told that a good writer has read many other writers' works. Also, reading can broaden your mind and inform you on ideas that you never would have been exposed to otherwise. The third reason goes along with the second, and that I'm trying to specifically read sports related books. Since I want to get into sports writing, I figured the more knowledgeable I am about said sports, the better writer I'll be (hopefully).  I'm currently reading the book written about Derek Jeter, called The Captain. I'll let you know how it is. 
4. Frisbee Golf: Considering we have a frisbee golf course in our back yard, not literally but basically it is, it would make sense that I would have tried playing it before say...a week ago. But as it is, I just started playing after years of watching people fling frisbees behind my house. Why after all this time you ask? Boredom mostly, but boredom that led to a new game I play so I'm not complaining (at the moment). I'm not great at it, yet, but I am better already than I am at regular golf (not saying much) and it's a cheap sport. All you need is three frisbees: a driver, mid-range, and putter. That is of course if you keep the frisbee out of the trees which I have had trouble doing so far. 

I can't put more than 4 new things on my plate at a time without something falling off, and who wants that. So this all I'm taking on for now but I do have somethings I'd like to at least try in the future. Things like cottage cheese (yucky), watching less TV (not likely), and going to church more regularly (hopeful) are some things in the batters box for me. We'll see if I strike out or hit a home run on my new hobbies, hopefully the latter. Until then, stay tuned

The Big 2-0

I don't remember my first birthday. I don't think anyone does. So you can imagine how my 20th Birthday felt this Monday. If you imagined it felt transcendent and a leap out of teenage-hood and into adulthood, you were way off. My 20th felt like any other day, minus being treated like a king at home, but just because the day wasn't as significant as it's supposed to be doesn't mean the year leading up to this day was insignificant. Because it wasn't. I can honestly say that in the past year, I've grown more intellectually and matured more than any other year of my life.

This growth came with experiences and change. The change was moving out of my house to go to college and "be on my own" for the first time in my life. Sure, I wasn't financially on my own but I was on my own in about every other category. So I figured I'd make a list (I love lists) of things I had to do/learn to do while on my own. Hope I didn't forget anything.

• I had to wake myself up for class: This was a learning process, I used the snooze option on my phone alarm a world record amount first semester. Needless to say that I missed a few classes. But I figured out a system to wake myself up. I started to put my phone far enough away from my bed that I can't reach it but close enough so that I can hear it. This scheme has worked well so far, beside the occasional 'wake up, grab phone, run back to bed!'. 
• I had to learn to study: For real! I knew how to "review" from high school, but never truly knew how to study until my first college exam, more specifically after my first exam. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to school so bombing a test really hit me hard. But I made adjustments, changed my time maintenance, and learned how to be successful in college. 
• I had to learn to manage my time: Napping all day doesn't work. Playing Xbox all day doesn't work. Watching Netflix everyday doesn't work. Doing all of these things when you have time and have taken care of other more important issues (papers, studying, etc.) does work. This was a huge key in having success in school. 
• I had to learn to live with someone else: I forgot what it was like to have to share a living space with someone else, let alone a 20 square foot room. But I'm a pretty easy going person to be around and got lucky enough to get a pretty good roommate so this was not a hard area to change. 
• I had to learn to keep in shape: I don't care who you are, everyone stresses and everyone has a different approach to dealing with their stress. Some drink, some run, some lift, some smoke, some read, some just bottle it inside but everyone deals with it somehow. How you deal with this stress determines how healthy you'll be. I tried a multitude of things to deal with stress but the best stress reliever I found was working out. It felt good after a long day of class or working for a class to go sweat and get everything off your mind. 
• I had to learn how important family really is: Not being able to see my parents everyday was a bit weird to me at first and there is only so much a phone call can do. You can catch up and talk about what has been going on in their lives but there is just something different about seeing their faces. So I try to take advantage of anytime I get with my family, one of the best things I have ever done. 

I'm sure I missed some things I missed but I got a whole year to gather my thoughts for next year's birthday wrap-up. P.S. Only 364 more days until my 21st birthday! I'm thinking Vegas trip, who's coming with me?

Weekend Wrap-Up

For the first time in my somewhat short life, I got the opportunity to dog-sit. I've babysat before but never had to watch dogs, so didn't know what to expect. Logically, I thought it would be much easier to watch two dogs than actual humans. Now I wasn't wrong, it is easier, but it's definitely no cake walk. I learned a few tricks about taking care of these dogs, if I were ever to have to do it again.

1. Distractions: If you need to get something accomplished, get the dogs out of the room, or keep them occupied, give them something to keep their mind on. For example, bones work perfectly; one bone can buy you an hour of peace and quiet. Food is also another distractor, unfortunately they eat their food faster than Hummers eat gas, so time is limited. Chew toys also can work, but most of the time they'll want you to play with them, so it defeats the purpose. 
2. Walks: These dog's have a lot of energy, so they need somewhere to burn this energy. I found that fetch is a never-ending game so the best way to constructively use this energy is to take them on walks. There is a catch though, if you value both your arms, you will take them one at a time. Luckily I could only find one leash so this was my only option but I am happy it was because one was probably all I could handle. I say walk cautiously because every time a squirrel was within sniffing distance, it turned into a run.

Ok so I didn't learn that many tricks but granted I only watched them for 3 day's, you can't expect much. Anyways, my Brother and Sister-in-law hung out with me the first night I was there. We went to their local pool, which was really nice. I embarrassed my self on the diving board, as usual, and worked on my tan at the same time. We grilled at the house, got frozen yogurt at Green Apple (delicious), and watched the movie Cedar Rapids to finish the night. The next morning, my brother took me golfing at a golf course called Falcon Ridge. It was a really neat golf course and felt like a course that you would see in the Lake of the Ozarks because of all the hills and elevated tees/greens. It was a good time though, even though neither of us played real well (although I did beat him for the first time). After golfing, we had to get some of their fallen limbs cut up and out of the back yard. So we fired up the chain saw, looking like "Tim the tool man Taylor", and went to work. By the time that was over, they were headed out of town and I had the house to myself. I then preceded to take a good nap to acquaint myself with the house, as is normal right? The next few days went by pretty quickly, after seeing some friends from college and just relaxing, it was time to go back home. This weekend was what I needed, a relaxing getaway from everything and a couple of loyal dogs to play with. Can't ask for much more.

I plan on being lazy today and just watching TV and maybe a movie or two on our country's birthday. Than it's back to the grind of 6 a.m. wake ups tomorrow. Oh and only a week and a year until I'm 21! Who say's it's to early to start a countdown? Cause I'm not listening. Stay tuned

Wants and Needs

We all have wants and needs, and I know where you think I'm going with this and that there is a difference between what we want and what we need. But I'm going to throw you a curveball. I'm going to indulge you in my wants and what I need to get them, feel free to send me any of these items if you feel then need. So let's get this wish list started.

1. Ipad 2: Not the original, not that I know the difference between the two but as a product of my environment, I want the latest and greatest item on the market. Companies like Apple know this of course, as they hold off certain upgrades on their products like the Ipad for later versions; to give people like me something to look forward too. Unfortunately for Apple, I don't sleep with money so I'll dream for now but I'll think they'll survive without my business...for now. 
1. Need: A lot of extra spending cash mostly would help, a winning lottery ticket wouldn't be bad either. 
2. Summary: Not sure what I would use it for other than playing on the internet and reading books occasionally but let's just say me getting an Ipad 2 is about as likely as Ron Artest (or Metta World Peace) and Chad Johnson trading names. 
2. 3D TV: This one I haven't completely made my mind up yet. On one hand you bring the TV even more to life than the 1080p HD TV's that look so real you almost try to walk in the TV. On the other hand I hate wearing those 3D glasses at the movies for 2 hours, I don't know how I'd deal with them for entire football game. Maybe I'll hold out on this one until 4D TV comes out and the prices go down

1. Need: More money than I feel like spending and more 3D channels to come out, ESPN and the Discovery Channel won't cut it! 
2. Summary: Count me out, I'll have to be convinced by a friend whose an impulse buyer with money and experience the whole thing to decide if the whole hoopla is worth it. 
3. Less sleep: I've always been a person who doesn't deal well without a lot of sleep. It's like my crack, I'm just not the same person if I'm tired or just waking up. This results in many naps and lots of soda to wake me up. This results in loss of free time and loss of other things I would like to do such as: golf, read a book, read the paper, catch up on the latest music, watch movies, Netflix, work out, and write up til the last two days where I'm going to start prioritizing time to keep my blog going, I promise!
1. Need: Vitamins? I've heard they give you energy throughout the day but haven't every taken them for more than a week, but I'm thinking of trying them again and seeing how I respond. Or maybe a sponsorship from 5 hour energy, Jim Rome, that means you. 
2. Summary: As I doubt Jim Rome will be sending me energy supplements, I will try the vitamins thing and will get back to you on that one, but giving up naps is not an option. 
4. A better Golf game: I didn't start to get into golfing until after I graduated high school and really didn't get serious until I got into college. After you give up strapping, lacing, and Velcroing it up; Flag football, pick up basketball, and slow pitch softball can't completely fill that void. So I did the next best thing, try to play a new sport. Unfortunately, Golf is a time consuming, expensive, and frustrating sport. And did I mention addictive? Maybe it's just the competitiveness in me but I love going out and playing now; it's enjoying when you hit the ball where you actually want to and frustrating when it feels like you've never picked up a club in your life. Playing badly in golf is like losing money gambling, you think you know what your doing and can fix it but most the time you just over think yourself. 
1. Need: More spare time, spending money, and or a better attitude about the game. 
2. Summary: I don't see myself making significantly more spare time and money so I try to just go out and have fun and keep my competitive drive to win, off the course. 
5. Manhattan: Do I need to say more? It only took about 9 months to get me hooked. Between Pita Pit, So Long's, Pizza Shuttle, football games, basketball games, tailgating, parties, Orange Leaf, Aggieville, Varneys, the Wabash, and all the great people there, I can't imagine going to school anywhere else. 

1. Need: Wait, longest month or so of my life! Don't get me wrong, I love being home and getting to spend time with the parents and all my friends who came home, but it'll definitely be time to go back when August rolls around. Did I mention I can't wait for football season!
2. Summary: I can't wait, it's going to be the bees knees. 

Welp, I've ran out of things I want, mostly because all I can think of is Manhattan now, good thing I did it last! Stay tuned people

Miracles Do Happen

Believe it or not, people do surprise me everyday, or at least every once in a while. Sometimes I even surprise myself. My Father, who is not a technological junkie by any means is starting to cave into the 21st Century or lose his mind, I'm not sure which one yet. It started when he started learning to text, the next step was digital cable (may have been the last person to do this), and now he has entered the world of Facebook. The first two took some convincing, mostly because I wanted a DVR and don't love talking on the phone for simple questions. This last jump was probably the biggest "are you OK Dad?" moment I've had since he made a taser out of an outlet. So we began his initiation into the social media world on his work laptop and of course it has probably the first internet explorer to ever come out. We battled with the antique computer for a while and finally he threw up the white flag and we went to the real computer, aka "The Mac". At this point I was doing everything on the computer, but mostly just asking him "Do you wanna be his friend?" and he answered all of them "Yep", with an occasional "How many people could possibly have the same name!". The real reason or the one he wants us all to believe that he is getting on Facebook is to find the group page for his High School Reunion. So after searching through cyberspace and finding enough of his classmates to make him ready to stay off the computer for another month, I felt I accomplished my good deed of the day. Maybe I can start working on him about an HD TV or maybe a smart phone? Baby steps, that's how I'm approaching this process.

Other things: I recently got the opportunity to sit in on the radio show "Sports Daily" with Bob Lutz, a columnists for the Wichita Eagle, and Bruce Heardle, who works for KWCH for their sports broadcasting department. Thanks to a good family friend, Jackie Wise, I was lucky enough to experience  something that I'm wanting to get into and meet people who are in the business that I'm going into. The coolest part about the whole experience was Bruce and Bob, they were real guys, down to earth and genuinely gave me advice and answered any questions I had. I also got to see how a talk show works from behind the radio waves and there is definitely more to it than meets the ears. This experience really reaffirmed my belief and dream in becoming involved in sports writing and now radio as well. It has motivated me (again) to start blogging and I forgot all my information for my other blog so I did the next best thing and started a new one.

This weekend was also a family fix it trip in good ole Manhappenin. My Mom, Dad, brother, and sister-in-law, and me all made the trip to fix up our rental in Manhattan that I will and can't wait to be living in this Fall. We worked, ate So-Long's and Orange Leaf, worked, slept, worked, golfed (poorly), worked, ate Pita Pit, worked, nap, worked, ate at Coco-Bolo's, and visited Varney's. Between the five of us, we made probably 7 trips to Target, 3 trips to Menard's, 2 trips to Home Depot, and sprayed ourselves with water 20 plus times with my Mother leading the contest in that category. The house looked 10 times better than we got there but still needed some more work. But there is no amount of work not worth the trip to Manhattan so I'm sure I'll "sacrifice" and volunteer myself for another fix-up trip.

Remember that miracles happen everyday, open your eyes to the world and you'll see them. What will happen next? Stay tuned