Adventures of a Wild Cat

Wildcat Update

2009-01-30T14:08:00.001-08:00

Three weeks of the semester down, fifteen to go. Probably not a good sign that I'm already counting down. So yeah, school's more boring and more work than I remembered it being during Winter break. I'm sure my eight-hours-of-classes-with-only-two-thirty-minute-breaks Tuesdays aren't helping my morale, but oh well.

Aside from the scholastic side of college, things are going swell. I'm captain of the dorm soccer team and part of the Comedy Corner softball team, hooray for that! Both teams have their first game this Sunday, hopefully one of my teams will win. The new kids (of which I am one) are also finally able to fully participate in Comedy Corner, so I've been dedicating some energy towards that as well. The shows have been fun so far and I'm enjoying myself, so it's probably one of the few things keeping me sane here on campus (it's right up there with Vault®). I actually got my first sketch performed on stage, which I shall post here for all your viewing pleasure; this sketch is based on a true story of mine, sadly.

Comp Sci 101

Paul:

Sam:

6 chairs set up on stage

Sam is already seated, Paul sits down in a seat next to him

Neither one talks to the other, students begin filling in to the room, 2 male and 2 females

Paul begins looking around, begins looking confused, as if something is wrong but he can't pin it down

Paul: Awwww crap. (to Sam) this isn't Computer Science 250 is it?

Sam: No, it's Math 112. How did you figure that out just now?

Paul points to the two girls in the class

Paul: (Sighing)Way too many girls.

Lights

It got some laughs from the audience, however, my favorite response by far was a single person yelling "That's it?!?" As they say, brevity is the soul of wit.

Back to School

2009-01-15T19:51:00.001-08:00

So, I've been back for 2 whole days now, and I'm still not feeling it. College seems way more boring now than when I left. Oh well. All my teachers seem cool this semester, though two of them are giving assigned seats in lectures (a 100 student class and a 300 student class) which is absolutely unheard of. My two computer science teachers are awesomely stereotypical. Also, on my way to one of my CS classes for the first time, I knew it was a large lecture class, so I just assumed it was in the largest classroom in the building and didn't bother checking room numbers. After sitting there for a minute or so, I realized something was waaaaay off. After a second of thought, I realized the male/female ratio was about 1:1. I got up, walked out, and sure enough I was in the wrong room. Funny but sad that I knew I was in the wrong place because I was surrounded by cute girls. Once I arrived to my class, the teacher took attendance. I was more than halfway down the list in a class of around 50 people. The teacher was actually getting most of the names right, including some very Asian names (think X's and lots of phlegm). He gets to my name and I hear "Oh boy. Umm... Dustin P-R-E-U-S-S." Yeah. He spelled it out. The guy can figure out Cantonese but an "eu" is too much for him. It's a good thing my last name isn't permanent or anything. Oh wait... damn.

Final Project from Hell

2008-12-17T11:18:00.001-08:00

Wow, first off, I can't believe it's been two months since I last posted something. This semester has gone by crazy fast, especially these last 8 weeks.
Anyhoo, for those who don't already know, I took an introduction to stage costume construction. A class I took for fun, and it was, up until the last three weeks.
For the most part, we would just learn sewing techniques in the lab, but then we had to apply them and make a garment for our final project. Our options were pajama pants (boring), skirts (but alas, no kilts) and vests (ooh, you have my attention). So me, being one of two people in the class with previous experience, decided to do a vest figuring it couldn't be that bad if the teacher suggested it along with pajama pants. Wrong. I ended up putting over ten hours of work (part of which was a non-stop five-and-a-half work streak) into the darn thing while people finished the pj's in three to five hours. I actually didn't get to fully finish it, so I have a bit of a project for winter break. Without further ado, the vest from hell.

On a happier note, the teacher finally gave back the mid-term exams along with the finals (yes, it took him half a semester to grade the mid term) and I got a 99% and a 100%.

I am a costuming badass.

CAL-lous defeat

2008-10-19T15:30:00.001-07:00

Woohoo. So we beat CAL 42 to 27. We're now tied for first in the PAC10. Best part of the game, the student section rushed the field afterward. Gotta love it. I yelled into a few different TV cameras, don't know if I actually made it onto TV anywhere though. Good times though.
That would be the view of the scoreboard from center field. For those of you counting, I have now been on both the football field and the basketball court here at U of A. Who knows what's next!

College Life: Abridged Version

2008-10-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

So yeah... not a whole lot happens that triggers me to think "Hey, I should write a blog post about that!" So I'm just going to shove a bunch of stuff that's mildly interesting in to one post, hopefully producing something of interest.
So probably the biggest thing worth mentioning is that I auditioned for, and was accepted to, the Improv and Sketch Comedy group on campus, Comedy Corner. They claim they are the oldest college improv/sketch group in the nation, which is pretty cool. It's an 7-8 hour a week commitment, so it's a nice thing to fill some time with. I don't actually get to perform onstage until next semester though, so I'm just "learning the ropes" right now, even though I've already done this kind of stuff. So that's probably the most interesting thing I've done all semester.

I'm somewhat reluctant to bring up intramurals, but I did play flag football. Our team went 0 and 4, scoring I think somewhere around 30 point total across those games, and giving up about 150 points to the other teams. So yeah... that was fun to an extent. I ended up having to sit out the 4th game because I forgot to wear shorts without pockets. D'oh. Soccer is coming up though, so hopefully that will go over better than flag football did!

The other big thing to do has been football games; we're looking like we might be a force to be reckoned with in the Pac10, so if you haven't been paying attention, start! Could be a good season.

Other than all that, classes are pretty normal, social life is pretty normal (non-existent), and I'm just living weekend to weekend. I'm definitely looking forward to this weekend since I've been busy every weekend for the past month or so. Gonna try and sleep at least 10 hours on friday night. Good times.

2nd Semester Moving In!

2008-08-27T21:18:00.001-07:00

So yeah. Moving in. It went pretty smoothly by my standards. Room is nice, roommate is definitely better than last year's, and plenty of space. Just a couple pics from the room for you guys.
This is all before we moved things around.

This is us pretty much fully moved in. Much better.
So far this semester nothing that exciting has happened. It's funny how quickly college has become mundane. I'm already excited for the semester to be over and I'm only an 8th done with it. Although I did attend my first Wildcats football game, which was pretty fun. We ended up winning 70-0 though, so it wasn't really an interesting game to watch, just fun to watch our team destroy the opposition. It actually was postponed for an hour due to lightning, during which we stood in the rain. Good times.

New York: Day 6

2008-08-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

The sixth, and essentially last day, was by far the best. We started out by heading over to the Met for some early morning art appreciation. The architecture alone there was amazing, let alone the artwork inside. We spent a few hours there and explored a good bit of the museum. The paintings were phenomenal, I was actually amazed at how many really well known paintings they had.Also super cool is this group of fully armored knights in action. Sure it was heavy as hell, but that armor is friggin' sweet. Even the horses are decked out. Must have been Middle Ages bling.
So after the Met we wandered over to Central Park. The size of the park is intense. It's big enough that you really don't feel like you're in the middle of a massive city, which is saying something. We walked all around, but I couldn't pass up a picture with the Mad Hatter. Pretty sweet. He doesn't really look all that kid friendly though.
And last was the absolute climax of the trip. We went to TKTS and stood in line for just shy of an hour to get discount tickets to Spamalot. Spamalot was actually our backup plan because Wicked was sold out. It ended up being an awesome backup plan as it was one of the funniest and most solid productions I've seen. It's even better than The Holy Grail. How many times do you hear about a spoof being better than the original?
All that's left was to wake up the next day and jump on the plane. Thus ends my trip to New York City!

New York: Day 5

2008-08-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

So day 5 was pretty relaxed. We went to Rockefeller Plaza again and walked around that area for a while. I actually missed the Atlas statue the first time, so I was glad I had a chance to see it.

After that, we went back and hung out at the apartment while Dom had a business meeting to go to. We pretty much just chilled and then went to dinner at the Corner Bistro. It's a small bar kind of place that only has 4 or 5 things on the menu. They're famous for their burgers, so obviously that's what I had. Good stuff indeed. They also had an ancient bar and ancient cash register which were pretty neat.The last thing, I don't even remember when I saw this, but it amused me. This is a call box down on the subway platform.
So yeah... that was day 5. Not really much, but we made up for it on the last day.

New York: Day 4

2008-08-16T18:31:00.001-07:00

Day 4 was a lot of shopping and walking around some of the shopping districts and re-doing some of the places I had already been for Danielle. However, it was the first time I had gone in to any of the stores so it was cool to see the insides of some of the stores. During my New York trip, I made a lot of comparisons to my Japan trip, as Tokyo is the closest approximation to New York that I have. It was nice to see this, a merger of the two worlds.We had actually gone to a Uniqlo in Japan, so it was fun to see it here in New York. The clothes in the New York store were fairly similar, but there were more designer type clothes and edgier stuff than I remember there being in Japan. Either way, it was a fun place to go. Also ever-present during the trip were these mobile film studios. I think I saw 4 of them in 7 days, so they're very prevalent.
So these are just the dressing room trailers. There's a whole convoy that comes and sets up in the streets. Generally three or four trailers and then a couple vans for catering and whatnot. Y'know, cause streets in New York aren't crowded enough already or anything. It's funny though because obviously I found this really cool, but all the other people walking down the sidewalks didn't even think twice about them. It's amazing how differently tourists and residents of New York must see things. Like the Statue of Liberty, for instance.
We made a special trip to take the Staten Island Ferry, and yet some people take it every day as part of their commute. So some people literally see the statue almost every day of the week. It would be tragic to me to lose the beauty of this statue to the rigors of the daily grind.
Just another cool skyline from the ferry. Afterward, we had dinner at Otto, one of Mario Batali's restaurants. It had a really cool reservation system where you were given a city name, and when your table was ready, it showed up on an old-school train time board. And that was day 4!

New York: Day 3

2008-08-09T21:45:00.000-07:00

Alright, so at first my reason for not blogging was a really impressive sunburn on my legs. After that, it's been because we've been watching the olympics every night. So, sorry about that.

Alright, so Saturday was all about Fire Island. It's a tiny strip of land off the coast of Long Island. It's about 2 hours worth of travel from Manhattan but you can't even tell you're a part of New York any more.
So Fire Island actually has different little villages, and Dom's house was in South Beach just off the bay side of the island. You have to take a ferry from Long Island to Fire Island, about 30 minutes give or take 5 depending on conditions, and then you pull into a small Marina.This is the marina, looking out across the bay towards Long Island. There isn't really much beach on this side of the island, the focus is on the ocean side.
And here it is, the Atlantic ocean. The beaches were beautiful and not very crowded. Unfortunately there was some kind of jellyfish orgy at some point and the water was filled with jellyfish babies. I ended up only wading in about knee-high into the water because of this. The jellyfish were harmless, but unpleasant. So we got to fire island around noon, and stayed on the beach for 3 or 4 hours (which is how I managed to burn my legs) and then walked around the market part of the community.There were markets, bars, restaurants, bakeries, just about everything you could ever need. It was really a nice lifestyle on the island. After walking around the town, we just crashed at the beach house and some of my brother's friends put on an awesome barbecue later on. After dinner, we caught the ferry back and headed back into Manhattan. Thus ending day 3!

New York: Day 2

2008-08-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

So today was really low-key. Me and Dom just walked around a little more, but more just for a feeling of the city. We went to the West Side Highway, which runs along the Hudson river.
So this is looking across the Hudson at New Jersey. These are actually the only two photos I took today, I kinda slacked off. After this we just walked around what's called the Meat Packing district to check out all the popular restaurants and designer stores. After that, we grabbed lunch at John's Pizza which is Dom's favorite pizza place here. Super thin crust, coal fired, and delicious! Dom accidentally ordered pepperoni and mushroom so I rolled with it. I actually couldn't taste or tell that the mushrooms were there, so it worked out nicely. Then, we went back to the apartment and we both passed out for 3 hours. Not quite sure why. Anyhoo, then we went to Dom's friend's apartment to pick up an air mattress, walked around a little bit more, and then headed to the airport. After picking up my sister, we came back to the apartment and that's the whole day. Tomorrow: Fire Island!

New York: Day 1

2008-08-07T21:04:00.000-07:00

First of all, greetings from the future for those of you back west. First day here in New York and it's already off to a good start. We walked around the neighborhood, checked out the local restaurants and shops and then grabbed lunch at the White Horse Tavern. This place has been around since 1880, almost 130 years. Just thinking of the crazy amount of history this one place alone has is mind blowing. The crazy part is, New York is full of these places. There's an unfathomable amount of history around you at all times. We then proceeded to Times Square for a little bit, where I found two of my Meccas. First was the Toys R Us with the ferris wheel. Nice, big store. And sure enough, they had an RZone. It was funny how similar some things were to the store where I worked in Scottsdale. Lots of games and fun stuff. One crazy thing though was the stack of Wii's just sitting on the ground, unguarded.Weird.I thought this place was awesome, but then we found the next stop.

NINTENDO WORLD!

Yes, a whole store of nothing but Nintendo products. Shirts, wallets, figures, games, food. Everything Nintendo. I could write a whole post on the Nintendo store alone. They had an some stuff on display, limited edition units, and older stuff never released in America. They also had a famous original GameBoy.

It survived an explosion in the Gulf War. The exterior is completely toasted, but it still works perfectly. They actually have Tetris running on it. This is why I never worry about extended warranties on Nintendo Products. After Bush destroys the world, it'll be nothing but roaches playing Wii.
After all this, we headed back to the apartment for a little while. We then headed out to dinner for my brother's friend's birthday, so I got to meet some of his friends which was fun. We then walked back through SoHo and got caught in a sudden rainstorm. And now I'm writing this post. And since it's done, I'm going to bed. Goodnight from here in Manhattan!

Moving Out

2008-07-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

Needed to get this out of the way so I can blog on the trip to New York, so I'm going to pretend that this post was made months ago within a relevant amount of time to my moving out. So here we go!The empty room, emptier than when I moved in, so sad. I have to say it was rather odd being thrown out of my "home" so unceremoniously. Just "oh, you're done with classes? Get out within 48 hours. OK, thanks, bye."
It was like having the van we always wanted! Lots of space, it was nice. Note the backwards hat, that means it's time to get to business.Seeing my entire life shoved into the van brought forth one thought, and one thought only. "If only we could find a river to park it by, I could be living in a van, down by the river."
And there's my sad, empty door. Closed for the last time, ending my first semester at U of A.

The most useless and most clever machine ever.

2008-04-26T11:25:00.001-07:00

It has no use or point, but I want one so badly. How awesome is this thing? I guarantee it's worth the 29 seconds.

I went bowling... on accident.

2008-04-12T17:27:00.000-07:00

This is a long, photo heavy post. You have been warned.

So, instead of sitting around like I would most Saturdays, I decided to go on an adventure. In the start, I was going to walk to a nearby park because there was a library there. I figured I could get some books to read and just chill at the park (the weather is awesome right now). Before I even got there though, I found a few amusing things. The first was some graffiti on the side of a newsbin.
Ok, first off, who picks "Snarf" as their graffiti tag? Honestly? Even if I didn't have another reason to think it's ridiculous, it would still be a terrible name. How can you even try to pretend to be "street" with a nickname like "Snarf?" Anyway, the real reason I had to take this picture is because "Snarf" is the name of the little pet/mascot thing from the old cartoon ThunderCats. See the picture below if you don't know what that is.
Yeah. This is Snarf. Not exactly your ideal thug. However, seeing the name Snarf in graffiti obviously led me to form this picture in my head, which made me laugh a bit to myself. Could this picture be any less thuggish, even if it tried?

Nope, this is practically an anti-graffiti ad waiting to happen.

Along the same vein, I came across Baggins Gourmet Sandwiches (you can probably tell where this is going.)To their credit, it is Baggin's and not Baggins. But do I care?
Nope, I'm goin' with Baggins.This is what happens when I get bored. This is why I like to keep busy.

Now, all random silliness aside. Ok, maybe not all random silliness. But no more sandwich wielding hobbits, I promise. So I ended up getting to the library after all this. I walk in, and it's... quaint. It's one room, not very big, and I'm the only college age person there. Everyone else is 40+ or under 12. Obviously, I felt a little out of place and ended up leaving almost instantly. I realize Scottsdale has spoiled me, but this place was really old-school, and the cliental were an interesting group of people. I then walked around the park for a bit, very large, very green. Pretty much what you imagine when you think of a park. Don't know quite what I was expecting, but I was a little disappointed.
Then, I left the park and saw a video store. But what's that? They carry video games? Be still my quivering heart! So obviously I ran there as quickly as possible.Even better, it's an independent establishment. Inside was awesome. In one section, it was just like a Blockbuster, but then they had all the old VHS classics and all these great shows you can't really find in physical format any more. The video game section was severely lacking, but I applaud them for at least offering something. But then a bright yellow sign caught my eye. There was even more upstairs. But wait a second... what's that long word on the sign?
Oh my god. It says Japanamation. I haven't heard that word used in years. Ok, so maybe it's just an old sign they haven't replaced. The term anime has been in use since early 2000 and this word is plain archaic. So I checked out the section to see what they had.Sure enough, there it is. Another sign, of the temporary sort, sporting the same word. Again, I give them props for carrying the stuff, but at least use a better word. This word is borderline offensive to some. Also, a true mark of the independent establishment, was the adult video section. It was right next to the entrance and checkout desk, so I couldn't sneak a picture, but it was there. The thing that irked me though, video games and dirty movie rentals: same price. That doesn't seem right to me.
Anyway, having reached my destination, I was going to turn back. But I kept spotting cool little independent restaurants, cafe's, stores, and businesses. So I just kinda kept walking. And walking. And walking. I spotted this sign at some point, it made me laugh. Thought I'd share. Since I'm such a great photographer, I cut off the part of the sign saying it's a car wash
Are there really people questioning when they're going to get a new detail service? Was there some technological breakthrough in the car wash world? I just cannot wrap my head around how this sign would be necessary. And then I walked some more. And then some more. And then "Holy Crap! It's the bowling alley!"
Now, the idea of a bowling alley doesn't surprise me. However, it's 3 miles away. I walked 3 miles without even thinking about it. So I figured I'm never gonna get out here again, I might as well check it out. So I walked in, checked out the prices. Oops, I just paid for 2 games. Oh well, it sounded like fun anyway. I ended up throwing a 125 and a 140. Could not throw a consistent ball though. Having your own bowling ball is kind of a curse, because you can't bowl properly without it any more. Darn you dad!
Then, I noticed a music/thrift store across the road. *Gasp* it sells video games too! Only this place sold retro games. NES, SNES, Genesis. Awesome! It was as close to Japan as I'll probably ever get in Tucson. Was too amazed to take any pictures, sorry. At this point, I realized I really needed to head back. But on the way back, I found an Arby's! I didn't know there were any near campus, so I grabbed lunch there. Delicious. Anyhoo, then I really did head back. The last thing that caught my attention was a cool fountain sculpture.
Pretty cool. It's outside a church, hence the theming, but all the symbols on it were pretty cool. Wait a second...What's that just below the 6-point star in the center? At worst, it's a depiction of why Clinton got impeached. At best, his groin is just worship-worthy. Either way, can't say it belongs on a church sculpture. Unless his groin is holy, in which case it's totally cool.

Comedy Corner

2008-04-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

So, last weekend (I know I'm a bit late on this one) was the S.I.C.K. (Southwest Intergalactic Comedy Kermis) event here on campus. There was a free improv performance on Friday in the Student Union that one of my friends from ASU came down to perform in. So I was able to hang out with him for a while and I got a free comedy show from three different comedy troupes. And, I found out there are actually two improv groups on campus, the one I tried out for, and then Comedy Corner. So hopefully, between the two groups, I'll be able to get involved one way or another. Then, on Saturday, there was another performance put on by Comedy Corner and Second City. I had no idea who Second City was, and this event cost $10, so I almost didn't go. Then, I got there, and Comedy Corner did a pretty long sketch that was pretty disappointing. At this point, I wasn't too happy about paying $10 for something my sketch troupe in high school could have done. However, it turned out Second City was a professional, touring comedy group and they were amazing. So it ended up being worth the $10 in the end. On a side note, before I went to the Second City performance, I got dinner at Taco Bell, and got the best order number ever. This is mostly for Doc, so don't feel bad if you don't get it.
So if you don't get it, "335" is the sequence
used to morph in Power Rangers: In Space/Megaranger.

Crazy people sure like Jesus

2008-03-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

For the past 3 days, there has been at least 1 person standing in front of the administration building, Bible in hand, praising Jesus and preaching to pedestrians. Do these people not understand how ridiculous they appear? The first two days weren't so bad, as it was one person. Today, there were 3 or 4, including one holding a big banner with something to the effect of "Warning to Masturbators, Adulterers, Liars, Drunkards, Cheats, Sluts, Homosexuals, The reckoning is coming!" which I found especially funny because that pretty much covers everyone on campus. Also, the first two days, everyone pretty much ignored the people. Today, whoo boy. Big crowd surrounding him, the whole day. Don't know if the people are actually interested in his evangelism or just looking for entertainment, but either way, they're giving him exactly what he wants. Crazy stuff. I've already had religions hawked at me 3 times since I've been on campus, it's actually pretty annoying. I don't go around inquiring about other people's religions, so I wish they would grant me the same respect.

This is actually the smallest I saw the crowd today.
The preacher is there in the white shirt next to the chair.
He was here from at least 10 AM to 6 PM.
Doesn't he have something better to do? Like a job?

Also went and wrote an essay in the library, which turned out to be a good choice, cause I pumped out a 1200 word paper in about an hour. Went to the top floor since I figured it would be the least busy, and was greeted by a decent view of the stadium. Just thought I'd share.

The Brawling Begins

2008-03-09T23:35:00.000-07:00

So, the game that got pushed back roughly a year and a half finally came out for the Nintendo Wii. Of course, I am talking about Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Walked into Walmart at midnight, got in line, had a copy about 20 minutes later. Sure beats camping out at a Best Buy in Mesa for 2 hours before the store even opens. Yeah, my friend who did that wasn't too happy to hear how easily I managed to snag a copy. Also ran into another high school friend at Walmart, who I also camped out with for the release of the Wii. We meet at the nerdiest possible times, gotta love it. Needless to say, this is what I'm going to be doing for both this week, and for spring break next week. Party on.

Websters definition of "Sexy" needs to include this picture. That's right, 3 copies.

Wait what? A pond?

2008-03-02T20:32:00.000-08:00

To start, I had read something about a pond somewhere, and that it was pretty near my dorm. Never saw it before though. I figured it had gotten destroyed for a building or some project at some point. However, the girlfriend decided to come visit me on campus for a few hours. We ended up bumming around campus and just doing whatever. Sure enough, on the way to Jack in the Box (a trip I have made many a time) there's just a pond chillin' there, like it's no big deal. So we checked it out, and ended sitting down to eat on a bench by the pond.

Jamie and the pond. Sounds like a book title or somethin'.
Turtles!

I think I found myself a new spot for chilling, and possibly studying. Hanging with the turtles is a lot more fun than one would think. And there are goldfish too, but the pictures of them didn't turn out so well (the water was really murky). But yeah, passed by the area at least a dozen times, never noticed this pond before.
On a side note, I've been working on a group Spanish presentation, found out one of the people in my group is ranked in the top 10 for hurdles in the Pac-10, and one of the others lived in Macedonia for 4 years. Who knew?

Shaq, LeBron, Dwight Howard All-Star Dance-Off

2008-03-01T20:11:00.001-08:00

If you don't think the Shaq trade was good after watching this video, then nothing will ever convince you.

Basketball: Finale Flop

2008-02-28T18:36:00.001-08:00

Despite our best efforts, we lost our first game of the play-offs, meaning we are done. We actually played really well. The end score was 39-35, pretty heart breaking actually. We only had 5 because 2 of the team decided to ditch the game for the U of A vs USC game. They had 7 or 8. So had we had those 2, who are both fairly talented, plus the ability to sub out, we probably could have won. For the sake of my own psyche, I'm going to blame our loss on them, and not me. Today was also the first day that I actually felt good enough to do anything physical, but now my body is punishing me. I've been coughing pretty bad ever since the game, and it's beginning to give me a pretty decent headache. Anyhoo, sorry I haven't been posting much. My life is pretty boring these days.
Edit: Forgot to mention. The team we played also wore white shirts. We got the lucky honor of wearing the pennies. After grabbing the pennies, we all noticed they were... moist. The ref told us they had just been washed. We all said, cool, and thought nothing of it. Until we put them on. It was instantly obvious that they had not just been washed, they had just been worn, by very, very, very sweaty people.

B-Ball Blow Out

2008-02-20T09:43:00.001-08:00

So, yesterday was our last "regular" intramural game. The only thing left is playoffs. However, seeing as how we lost last night yet again (our worst loss yet, 22-40) I don't have too much hope for the playoffs. Surprisingly, the team is thinking of putting me in as point-guard, which makes me kind of excited. Our current point-guard is good, but needs to be in a better scoring position. During warm-up, he'll usually make 60-70% of his 3-point shots. During the game, he'll make one or two. Also, he can be a little selfish with the ball, making drives and shots that don't really make any sense. And the other guys know that I'm not a big shooter and prefer to pass, which is what they're looking for. So next week actually might be kinda fun. I am actually beginning to feel confident in my competency for playing too, I actually know what's going on most of the time. It's an interesting feeling. It's been a fun experience though, and I think I'm gonna play indoor-soccer in the upcoming months (I think it starts late March). Apparently the Yuma team is really good, and took 2nd or 3rd in the advanced league last time. Definitely looking forward to getting back to soccer.

Madina Lake Concert

2008-02-18T16:24:00.000-08:00

Just a picture of the venue. This is actually My American Heart.

So the concert was last night, and I already have my hearing back. Don't let that mislead you though, we rocked hard. Andrew's uncles (identical twins) are the vocalist and bassist for the band, so we got free tickets. Needless to say, I'm not gonna turn down free tickets to a concert. We missed the first 2 bands that played, but we saw one before Madina Lake, and the headline band after Madina Lake, Aiden. Madina Lake definitely rocked the hardest out of any of them. They had confetti cannons, balloons filled with confetti, the singer dove into the crowd a few times, had people crowd surfing. It was awesome. Then came Aiden, a whiny, emo/goth, "my life is so miserable" band that just sucked. There are a million bands just like them, only the other bands do it well. Then we got to meet Andrew's uncles and talk for a bit. Heard an interesting story involving them and Coheed and Cambria (another American band that has been gaining popularity lately). Damn, wish I was a rockstar.

Helped Andrew post these flyers all over campus, I think I'm officially a groupie now.

Just a quick video of Madina Lake. Yeah, that's the singer, practically stepping on the crowd.

The frenzy that is my friday night

2008-02-15T23:45:00.001-08:00

For those of you worried that I'm partying too hard here at college, this post is for you. So yeah, Friday night. What did I do? I played 3 games of NBA 2k6 on XBox with Andrew, 3 games of racquetball down at the rec, and drew (drawed? who knows). Woohoo. I think my brain just said "hey, use me please" until I finally did, cause for some reason this picture kept popping up in my head. So instead of ignoring it like I usually would, I sat in my room and drew. You don't know partying until you sit in your room, at your desk, and move a pencil around a piece of paper. It's like homework, but prettier.

The offending picture.
I am going to a concert on Sunday though, so my weekend won't be without some excitement. I hope. Anyway, expect a post on the concert, seeing as how that's the most entertaining thing I have on my schedule for the rest of the semester.

Basketball: Revisited

2008-02-12T23:16:00.001-08:00

So, our team played again today. And we lost again today. The refs weren't calling any fouls on the other team, and they were taking advantage of that. But to be fair, they outplayed us as well. They had solid shooters and some really solid passing and screening. Final score was 26-32. At least it wasn't a blowout or anything. A little disappointing, but it's still a good time regardless of the outcome.
Also, it was free pancake day down at ihop, and anyone who walked in got a free short stack of pancakes. So, being college kids, we got 25 people from my dorm together and drove down to the local ihop. Fun stuff, I'm sorry I didn't bring my camera. I ended up leaving the same amount in tips as I would have payed for the short stack, so it kind of defeated the purpose, but I couldn't bear to screw the waitress on the tip.
Also today was the first ACM meeting of the semester. ACM is the computer science club or organization or something like that, they really haven't been too clear on any of it. I don't even know what ACM stands for. I was there for about an hour (Had to leave a little early) and still had no idea what the club/organization/brotherhood/cult thing was about. There were some textbook nerds there though. Holy crap. Like, the nerdiest people you will get outside of a comic convention or a renaissance fair. Not sure if I'll continue going. It's seems like a valuable resource to get in touch with other comp-sci majors, but at the same time, I have no idea if that's what ACM is even for.

What just happened?

2008-02-07T23:33:00.000-08:00

So, I come back from playing Racquetball with my friend at about 9:30. My friend is a desk attendant, so we start talking. Then a few of his friend come up to the desk, they begin talking about the on-campus improv group, The Charles Darwin Experience. I mention that I did improv back in high-school, they kinda flip out. Turns out, auditions were in 30 minutes. I'm sitting there sweaty, in my gym clothes, and they're all urging me to go tryout. Wow. So I give in to peer pressure, run upstairs, shower, get dressed and run back down with just enough time left. Then they don't show up. Crap, did I miss it? Turns out it started 15 minutes later than they had though. Phew. About 6 people come down, but only 2 others were gonna try out. We head out, go through the audition (it went alright, I got a few good laughs) and here I am. Waiting for the call if I got callbacks or not. I don't really expect to, but it would be crazy if I did. You always forget what it's like to wait for that cut until you're in the position again, and you realize how much it sucks. Wish me luck!
Update: Didn't get the call back, which is a little disappointing, but not at all surprising. There's always next semester!

If only...

2008-02-07T17:45:00.000-08:00

So there's a Chinese place right next to the domino's that has the larg, 1 topping pizza for 6.49 special called "Lucky." I had been wanting to check it out for a while, so Andrew, his friend, and I went last night. The food was pretty good, I ordered General Tso's chicken, which I've never had before. It was a little lacking, but I'd order it again. Definitely planning on eating there again. The place is kind of a hole in the wall, no real ambiance or decor. There's a fountain all by itself, and some asian-esque things on the walls. However, it's all worth it for one of their slogans, which is "Eat Lucky, get lucky." Heck yes. While this proved to be false advertising, it was still pretty damn funny to see.

Basketball Blues

2008-02-05T22:58:00.000-08:00

(Sorry it's blurry, took it on my phone)

So I just got back from the first game of intramural basketball. We lost, but not by too much, the guys still have hopes of progressing in the end-of-season tournament. To our credit, the final score was 22-26, and we played 4 vs 5 - we had no subs while the other team had around 10 players- for a good 3/4 of the game. So had one of our players not gotten injured early on, there's a pretty good chance we would have won. Needless to say, we were all disappointed, and once again, I contributed almost nothing to the team effort (though I did score 2 points) . I really don't know if I have the drive to go practice and try to improve for only 3 more games (or I guess just for the sake of improvement). It's rather frustrating, I have to say.
On a more amusing note, not sure if anyone knows about or has been following the internet's war on Scientology, but it has hit campus and I had to make a note of it as I've taken a bit of interest in the topic. There's a group of people from a popular website who deem themselves "anonymous" and they have been fighting Scientology through technological means for the past few weeks. It's really quite amazing considering this group usually hacks people's myspace accounts and crashes websites for fun. So there's a protest of Scientology on Feb. 10, and these flyers are all over campus.

U of A... hockey team?

2008-01-31T22:45:00.001-08:00

So University of Arizona has a hockey team. It's just a club, but we still have one. Go figure. Andrew invited me to go with a bunch of the guys from his dorm, so I, having nothing better to do, tagged along. Good thing I did because it was an amazing game. Plus, it was against ASU, so I had to be there when we shamed them. However, ASU was ahead the whole game. We went into the third period 1-4. We end up scoring two goals, bringing it to 3-4. 26 seconds left on the clock, and we score. Game goes into a 5 minute, 4 vs 4 overtime. Less than a minute in, we score and win. Crazy stuff. The best part was, after every one of our goals, the whole stadium chants "He shoots, he scores! Hey goalie, you suck. It's all your fault. It's all your fault. etc..." Fantastic. I ended up very happy I went, one of the best $6.75 I've spent my whole life.
Also, for those of you curious, I did do laundry today, but nothing worth noting. Other than each "laundry room" is exactly that. A room with one washer, one dryer. I was expecting a few more than that, something more substantial than I have at home.

My (not so shiny) new toy!

2008-01-30T19:21:00.000-08:00

Today, I bought me a bike. Found it on Craigslist yesterday, contacted the seller, and took the deal.It was $50 for the bike, a lock, front and back lights, and a bicycle pump. Awesome. Plus, the girl I bought it from said it had never been ridden, I figured she was just trying to make it more desirable. No, aside from some dust and dirt, it looks like it has never been ridden. But of course, my first time riding it, I mess up the gears and make the chain fail off. Off to a good start. Got it fixed though, so can't complain. The front tire might have a leak though, not sure. While we're on a transportation topic, check out my insoles. Pretty impressive, if I say so myself. Gonna need a new pair mom and dad. That's about all I have worth writing about, life has settled down considerably. I do have to do laundry tomorrow, so maybe I'll blog about that, who knows.

Rainy Daze

2008-01-27T14:20:00.000-08:00

First really rainy day since I've been here in Tucson. It's just a constant light drizzle though, so I can still walk without too much issue. However, because it has been raining non-stop, there are some sizable puddles in the streets. As I was walking back from lunch/breakfast at Jack in the Box, a cop car sped through a puddle as I was walking on the sidewalk. Fortunately I saw it coming and got as far from the road as I could, but the cop still managed to soak my shoes. Also, Jamie decided to come for a day visit, so I saw her for an hour or so, her best friend is also down here so she's been hanging with her. But man, if I thought regular Sundays were boring, rainy Sundays are way worse. Also, 2 photos from an adventure yesterday.This is the statue (for lack of a better word) that sits in front of our Student Union, which is supposedly supposed to mimic the U.S.S. Arizona. Anyway, once the wind blows hard enough, it jingles, which is cool. Until you realize what's jingling. The things hanging between each of the points of the cross are dog tags of (I think fallen) soldiers involved with the U.S.S. Arizona. So if you're around that thing when the wind blows, it's pretty depressing.
And then this is the behemoth that is the Gould-Simpson building, where the computer science department is located. This is the building I took all those scenery shots from, from the 7th and 9th floors.

Shopping Trip Adventure

2008-01-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

Thursday being my day with only one class, I decided to do something productive with my time. I dared to venture into the "ghetto" that I've been told appears the second you step off campus. My reason? A real grocery store with real prices. I found a Safeway that's only like 5 blocks off of campus. Could I make it there safely? Well, I did, and this is the scene I was greeted with (careful, these pictures are extremely graphic).
Don't let the run-down exterior fool you, it's actually nice on the inside.
It was a horrific neighborhood. They even had a church... how can anyone live like this?
But seriously, wow. I can't believe how ridiculous people are. The neighborhood was nice, I followed a major road to get there, and it was as nice as any Safeway down in Scottsdale. Now for my booty.
This is probably the best thing I've seen since I've been on campus. They don't sell bread on campus. I've been wanting a dang peanut butter sandwich for a week. In fact, I am eating one right now. I think I'm going to make my shopping trip a weekly thing, just so I have something to do on Thursdays.
Update: Just did the math on a PB sandwich. 30 cents. Nice.

McKale, with picture!

2008-01-23T20:20:00.000-08:00

Played basketball in McKale again today. Got a picture (with my phone unfortunately). Played with some of the guys who are gonna be intramural with me. However, I think we have seven now, all of which are significantly better than me, so I'm gonna try and sit out of as many games as possible. Getting picked last during basketball is a rather rude awakening XD Needless to say, it hurt a bit, so I don't really feel like keeping the team back. They say it's just for fun, but we're all male so you know inside they're all competitive and hoping to win. So I would rather not hamper that. Plus, I don't really enjoy looking like an idiot in front of a bunch of people. Also, I left my shampoo and soap in the shower yesterday and have no idea as to where it would have gone. So I'm sweaty, stinky, and without the proper materials to undo said conditions. Awesome.

Spanish Homework

2008-01-22T12:12:00.001-08:00

Watching this video is literally my Spanish homework. We were given a sheet of lyrics with blanks to fill in. Awesome. For anyone curious, it's Sabes a Chocolate by the Kumbia Kings. Kinda catchy actually.

First Day Off

2008-01-19T15:10:00.001-08:00

So none of my teachers gave any serious homework, so I have the whole three-day weekend pretty much for myself. For today, I decided to finish my self-guided tour of the campus by checking out the northern part of campus. Pretty much all that's there is the medical facilities, however, they are huge. Had to take three pictures to get all of it.

I also ran into the first Catholic Church I've seen here on campus. So if I ever feel the need to attend a mass, I know where to go now.

It's a nice enough looking place. Might stop in if I'm ever in the area again.
One thing I didn't realize is how Tucson is surrounded by mountains. If I'm not mistaken, these are the Catalina Mountains. Pretty good scenery in my opinion.

Painted on a garage of a house I passed on my walk (I ended up walking about three miles). Thought it was cool enough for a picture.
This stuff is part of the sidewalk for a good one-to-two miles of the sidewalk. Sometimes it switches sides of the sidewalk, sometimes it zigs and zags. Didn't know why, so I figured I'd follow it.
Yeah. It just ends at a rock. I was hoping for a pot of gold or a snake head or something interesting. Nope. That's pretty much the definition of lame.

Of All the Times...

2008-01-18T22:06:00.000-08:00

Of all the times to forget my camera! So the guys I met invited me to go play basketball at McKale. I was under the impression McKale was the dorm with a basketball court outside of it. Lo and behold, McKale is actually McKale Memorial Center, the basketball court where the U of A team plays their games. So of course, I don't have my camera, and here I was playing basketball on the best court in Tucson. Sure, I have it all the times I walk to class or go eat and never have anything to take a picture of. Sonofagun. But I got invited to play intramural with them, so I have an intramural basketball team now. I'm the worst on the team, but I figure with a little practice I won't be terrible (Dad, I'm gonna be looking for pointers when I come home). However, the guys want to make basketball a weekly thing, hopefully I can take pictures next time.

Second Day of Class

2008-01-17T22:37:00.000-08:00

Another low key day. My stomach is returning back to normal and I ate about as much as I usually would. Only had one class today, nice and easy. Devney came down on a work trip and took me out to Cold Stone in a big ol' white hummer that almost didn't fit into the parking garage. College life is already seeming normal to me, I'm actually pretty surprised at how quickly I got comfortable with everything. I also have almost all of my accounts and what-not set up and taken care of. So everything is going pretty darn great. Just gotta make it through tomorrow and I get my three day weekend. I'm already living for the weekends. Doesn't take long does it?

These pictures are from the ninth floor of the science building.
It's almost worth being a comp-sci major for the view from this building alone.

First Day of Class

2008-01-16T16:11:00.000-08:00

Today was pretty good. Got to all my classes on time or early, all my instructors seem decent (although ratemyprofessors.com says otherwise on one of them). Still haven't made any friends, but I keep running into high school friends, which is nice. But I'm in a dorm full of strangers, surrounded by strangers in all my classes, and am trying to be friendly, so I'm sure I'll make a friend eventually. The campus is actually really nice, haven't run into a mean/rude person yet. And although the buildings are rather bland (red brick and concrete) the architecture and scenery aren't too bad. I have to say I was skeptical the first few days here, but I'm starting to warm up to college life. Nothing worth taking photos of today, so no pictures to post. However, there's a dorm get-together tonight so there may very well be another post on that. Lastly, feel free to comment on my posts. It would be nice to have a little confirmation that someone is reading these other than me!

CatCard

2008-01-15T19:47:00.000-08:00

Is this not the most awesome ID photo ever? It looks like I'm standing on the wall the way my hood and hair are positioned. Woulda been nice if the photo lady had told me I looked like I just got off the special bus. And I gotta live with this for the next (possibly) 4 years. Sweet.

Orientation - Day 2

2008-01-15T17:44:00.001-08:00

Day two flew by. Really not a whole lot to report. Everything is pretty much taken care of. My adviser said not to worry about math and to just make sure my scores get sent over. So that was my biggest worry off of my shoulders. Got all my classes set up, and I'm not taking math or English, so this will be an interesting semester. My classes are: and intro to computer science, spanish 102 (I tested out of 101, woohoo), Justice and Virtue, and Philosophy and Perspective of the Individual Mind. Pretty neat stuff. Also hung out with Trevor and Andrew, two of my friends from high school. Had a good time and learned some good stuff that they don't tell you during orientation =). Just to finish, I thought I'd share the awesome view from the ninth floor of the science building (where I met my adviser today).

Orientation - Day 1

2008-01-14T18:50:00.000-08:00

First day completely on my own. Scary? Check. Awesome? Double check. Smooth? Check. Despite my nerves and worries, today went absolutely fine. Don't have my math placement figured out, but hopefully it'll get worked out. My adviser didn't seem too worried.

Figured I should start the day with breakfast, so I found this bagel place on Google. Walked there, about 10 minutes away, got my bagel and milk and left. I decided to keep walking around and get acquainted with the campus. Took my first bite of the bagel, and despite my best efforts, could not swallow it. You never really realize how nervous you are until you have to eat. I ended up shoving it in my pocket and having it for lunch. Anyhoo...

Found this during my evening adventure, you can't see it, but the football stadium is behind this sign. Thought it was kind of a cool shot, might try to get it when there's some light out.
My first sit down meal here at U of A was, you guessed it, at Jack in the Box. Stomach still can't handle anything standard, so I just wanted some simple chicken strips. Worked out well.
On the note of firsts, this was my first adventure on my own here on campus (on Sunday). I was thirsty and wanted some snacks, so I walked down to 7-11. Man am I living the high life.

Moving In

2008-01-13T16:17:00.002-08:00

My first day on campus, thought I'd upload some pictures of my new home.

These are of the front of Yuma Residence Hall (my home).
This is what you see when you walk in the door.
My desk.
My bed (top bunk baby!)
My in room sink (living in luxury, you're jealous, I know).

And my closet, which is way bigger than I had hoped. I actually feel like I didn't bring enough clothes because it's so empty.