another day, another intramural championship. our cross-country team ("run like you stole it") was stinkin' awesome today - jesse was 2nd, i was 4th, (ben was 5th), pat 6th, ray & erik at 10 and 11. the girls team rocked, too. the weather may have seemed chilly to the spectator, but to the runner it was perfect.
speaking of the jess-man, we got some good time in the ole' pwd band room. some new songs are brewing with some cool groovebox beats and guitar licks. we're trying to make our sound a bit edgier; a bit more rock. it's stinkin' cool.
steve-o's video is awesome. not for the faint-hearted. ask rick about it.
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thumbs up: cross country: new & old memories
thumbs down: mmm...dishes
quote: "and now, the joke of the day: how do you make a sausage roll? you push it!" -ben evans
today's advice: talk to your professors. as in, swallow your pride, its not a contest to see if you can get through class without going to office hours, because your professors (or at least, most of them) are totally being paid to help you learn and to enrich your college experience.
today i met with a professor for the first time all semester, and it was such a positive experience. we met to discuss a letter of recommendation for my grad school application. it was so cool because he really *cared*. maybe in class professors can be mean and dry and boring, but get them in office hours, and they're totally cool! we talked about digital vs. manual photography for a while, then about grad school and the administrative crap, then about teaching lower vs. higher math classes, and on and on. it was such a good conversation. he built me up a lot and gave me a lot of confidence that i've been missing in myself for a few months.
tomorrow i'm meeting with my favorite professor of all time, he's also one of those people who really cares. i mean, my professors writing recommendations for me are really going to make or break my applications. and that knowing look they give me, letting me know they're going to hook me up, that's priceless.
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thumbs up: relaxing with friends
thumbs down: 9:30am meetings
quote: "grace finds beauty in everything" - u2
and
matt pardi, pastor of h2o church: "hey, what's your name?"
mike edwards: "Albert Strongberth"
MP: really? albert's my real first name! that's awesome!"
i had no idea that matt's real name is albert.
and albert's real name is michael.
a strange thing happened today. it's only ever happened twice before tonight.
here's the scenario:
at the library, getting a drink from the vending area.
i notice a hot girl buying coffee.
as my bottle of mystic tumbles to the bottom of the machine, it makes a very loud noise. glass bottle.
to which the hot girl says facetiously, "we're in the library. be quiet!"
and then it happens.
the close-lipped smile. the smile that this girl is hot and she's talking to me and there's nothing i can do about it. all systems shut down. i can't talk. i switch to auto-pilot, head out of the vending area, up the elevator, where slowly i come back to consciousness.
call it shy. sheepish. it doesn't matter.
the other two times? one was about a year ago. the other was after i got my hair cut short for the first time in over 4 years. a hot girl made a very nice compliment, and i was unable to talk for about 20 minutes.
girls. such a mystery, is their power.
i think justin may concur (re: about a month ago)
on a completely different note, i saw justin on campus today, and the following conversation ensued (as best as i can recall):
ES: hey justin, we won our frisbee tournament last night!
JE: i know, i read your blog.
ES: [anti climatic] oh.
ES: you guys got beat in softball, huh?
JE: yeah, they hit a lot of homeruns, onto the colt diamond even.
ES: i know. i read mike's blog.
JE: oh.
JE: so my camera's in maumee right now! or it was at 6am this morning.
ES: i know you're camera's coming today (blah, blah, blah). i read your blog.
JE: oh.
ES: but it's still really cool.
JE: [anti-climatic] yeah.
consequently, i'm gonna try to save some good stuff so that i'll have something new to talk about when i see you. or we could just communicate via blogs like justin and matt.
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thumbs up: understanding class material
thumbs down: cold weather (although during my run it was quite nice)
quote: in my english class: i was part of a group presentation on a book that had lots of sex in it. we were talking about how jealousy can exist in sexual relationships that involve multiple people. to which a female classmate says, "...ok, look. i'm not gonna go sleep with someone just because i like the way....i dunno, the way he talks about math!" to which i of course interrupted, "hey! i'm a math major and i can talk really nice about math!"
ultimate frisbee champs!! 7-0 regular season!! we won our first game 28-3, and the championship 23-13. it was stinkin' awesome. our team rocked: ray, pat, matt r., eva, sherri, kristene, emily p.,and jenny h.
ray and i relishing in the victory. we're gonna try to bring home another championship in cross-country on friday.
so i was really nervous for the game, i don't know why, it was like before a HS race or somethin. you know the feeling, lots of going to the bathroom, the stomach tinglies, cold hands, etc. then the adrenaline starts flowing and all the sudden we're up by a lot in the game. and you know what else? john reuben witnessed our 16-0 first half of game one.
my supervisor at work has set a surgery date, so i'm gonna be taking over for him starting next week tuesday. i totally am feeling for him; missing three weeks in the middle of the semester will be no easy task. but its not like he's got much of a choice.
tomorrow's my presentation (with two other punk rock girls) on diane diprima. never heard of her? she's a beat poet and author. unfortunately, the book she wrote that we're discussing is pretty much pornography. that makes things a bit interesting. i didn't prepare much because i think the class will be pretty lively. i dunno. i'm kind of anxious to see how it goes (and to get it over with).
i'm gonna crack down on schoolwork tomorrow. sorry if i don't hang out.
andrew's cool. visit his site. and notice the change in the emotion of justin's posts. he getting a nice present in the mail tomorrow.
to continue a thought about professors not being able to count, i think my math prof mis-added my test score, i can't tell because he scratched it out a few times, but i will take the 'a' and run with it.
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thumbs up: frisbee team. nice stinkin season
thumbs down: 5 days of school *in a row* - why don't they give us a break on wednesday or somethin?
quote: "how do you guys throw like that?!" - a guy not on the winning frisbee team
&
"yeah, i'm not going to class. i'm going to pick up my camera. that test sucked anyway." - hastings, who started to turn around about 10 feet from the stairs that lead to our math classroom
ultimate frisbee, 5-0. we won against a verrrry good team tonight 15-12. tomorrow we start the second round of playoffs, and if we win, the championship game too.
ok, that out of the way, let me give a shout out to eva diedrick for 1) emailing me to remind me to turn in the intramural cross country form (and get the form and fill it out and call lots of people looking for P#s) and 2) for just being cool. and for giving ray a wet willy at bw3. ok, so i actually gave him the wet willy, but she gave me the idea.
props also to the frisbee team for staying in the game when we were down 12-11 and playing some awesome defense, and offense for that matter. i was gettin pretty competitive and made that known to a few teammates, all in good spirit fellas.
i skipped my eng 300 class to go to the captains meeting for cross country. at least my priorities are in order.
and i cease to be amazed at my math and physics professors. they can whip out theory like its nobody's business (and it really isn't) but can't do simple math. my physics prof was stumped by 2*9 + 2*1. for those of you keeping score at home, the answer is 20.
to see a picture of the man himself, visit my phi psi delta page, linked on the left.
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thumbs up: "that's a dumb team name" (that's seriously the name of the frisbee team)
thumbs down: 1 hour after eating at bw3
quote: "lets have a staring contest. can i stare at the wall?" - emily davis
&
"is your brother jeff schroeder? you look just like him!" - a random frisbee guy on the other team
after an intense game of 3-on-3 ball, we said bye to the hales until christmas. it was awesome seeing them, although they were really busy so i wasn't able to get much good bonding time with jeff. i'm sure i'll we'll get some good talks in december.
at 'men's group' we had some pretty relaxed conversation. i came to a nice realization about some of the worries i've had. you see, about once a day, i zone out and stare out the window or something and think about the future...grad school mainly. maybe i think about it so much because i can't really control it. i mean, i can apply to schools and stuff, but i can't convince them to admit me or anything.
so while i was talking to the guys about that, i suddenly remembered a verse that hit me really hard last year: phillipians 4:6. "be anxious about nothing, but in everything, through prayer and petition, make your requests known to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will be upon you in Christ Jesus" or something to that effect.
what i realized is that i want to go to grad school after next fall. maybe it will take me 2 years to get my masters. maybe 3. maybe i'll be in maryland, pennsylvania, colorado, california, virginia, ohio. maybe i'll get my doctorate. maybe i'll get a few degrees at a few different schools.
the point is that we don't have to know what we're doing for the next 5 or 10 years. i have a dream i want to go after. and i know that God's gonna do what's best for my life. SO WHY WORRY ABOUT IT! why not just go after it?
phil, mike, and jesse: you are the coolest guys i know. nice work in H.H. sorry i couldn't be there.
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thumbs up: seeing the roommates again (q-4, nice work pat!!)
thumbs down: responsibilities
quote: "and hey, I choose my company/by the beating of their hearts/not the swelling of their heads/
besides/i'd rather forget the days we spent/than try to stay afloat in shallow water" - saves the day "sweet fracture"
i've officially decided that i want to wait a few years after i'm married to have kids. spending a day with ten kids aged 5-12 will do that to you. don't get me wrong, i love my cousins, but wow. seriously. but on the bright side, i watched osu thoroughly destroy san jose st. (while noting that bgsu won, too). it's too bad michigan (and miami, fl won.
tonight i made little commercials with brad, ben, anthony of course, pat and matt. we got some good slop on tape, but unfortunately were unable to edit our footage because the camera was only compatible with windows machines. which is ridiculous for two reasons:
(warning: a windows rant follows)
1) imovie is much, much better than 'movie maker' for windows. it's incredible how much movie maker sucks. (on a side note, while i was searching for drivers on sony's website, windows xp crashed because it couldn't believe how much is sucks either).
2) who uses usb for video streaming? anyone who uses dv knows the standard is firewire; usb quality is ridiculously poor.
what was sony thinking? usb-streaming with a windows machine. it's as if you broke your right hand and have to learn to write with your left. the quality is much lower and it takes a lot longer to end up with a decent product. (ok, so i just made that analogy up. it's not that bad, is it?)
(end of windows rant)
oh yeah, i've got to give props to tim for finishing 5th on his cross country team today, running a personal best for the district course, and making it to the regional meet next week! tim's at the homecoming dance right now with my roommate's sister, hopefully having the time of his life. knowing him, he's probably doing 'the worm' in front of his friends.
tomorrow we say goodbye to the hales until christmas. it's been a fun weekend hanging out with them. getting schooled in basketball and frisbee, but holding a little class of my own on the finer points of football and soccer. perhaps a game of trivial pursuit could settle this...
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thumbs up: anthony's "caprione family"
thumbs down: windows (c'mon, seriously)
quote: "do you know what being constipated means? it's when you can't take a crap!" - brad, my 12 year old cousin giving the younger cousins the low-down on the realities of constipation
