"Your not my father", "Your right I am not your father, I'm your roomate"

I had a strange happening occur this past Sunday. My roommate had his girlfriend up this weekend, shes a nice girl and i know very well know that its almost the end of freshman year. I had gotten use to this, although i am one to argue that long distance relationships do not work. Well i had to go to a concert for my music in wester civ class, i left around 3 pm, and i saw my roommate and his girlfriend leaving so i figured that he was taking her back home, and it wouldn't surprise me if he decided to stay home, it seems like every other weekend he's home or has someone he knows up in our dorm. Well at this point I am not sure as to whether or not he will come back. Well the day rolls on and, before i know it its bed time, 11:30, yeah i know its early but i do what i do. So at that point i go to my other roommate, we're in a designed triple, i guess hes not coming back, in a sarcastic tone, since it was obviously pretty late to be on the road. Of course like every Sunday night i have trouble sleeping since i stay up too late Saturday night and sleep in Sunday morning. Well I am tossing and turning, and around 2 am i hear our door knob start to shake, like someones trying to break into our room. My heart skips a few beats and i go from being on the verge of finally getting some sleep to an alarm state where i think I am going to have to defend my room. Mind you i had a final in less then 6 hours. Suddenly the door opens and its my roommate and his girlfriend, i think to myself, what the @#$%, its 2 am, did they decide to leave home at 12 midnight? It takes 2 hours to get from his house to Cortland. This doesn't make any sense, so know i begin to think that something might be wrong. Well his girlfriend stays and he leaves so now i am really confused. I come to the realization they are staying and he is dropping his car off at the student lot, that at least makes sense, everything else doesn't. Well around 2:30 he gets back to the dorm, i live in Degroat, so its a walk from 281. Well at this point I'm not happy, unfortunately past experience as told me yelling at him wont do any good. The next morning i learn, not from my roommate of course, but from a friend down the hall that they went to Buffalo for a concert, My own roommate couldn't tell me he was going to a concert? I wanna talk to him and say that when he's doing stuff like this he should at least give me a heads up. I then recall when one night i was trying to sleep and his desk lamp was on, and i couldn't sleep because of it, i first asked him if he could study down in the study lounge. I kept asking then i finally told him to go downstairs, cause i cant sleep, then he uttered a comment. " Your not my father", and my reply was "your right, I'm not your father, I'm your roommate" My question is should my roommate keep me posted on what hes doing, like a concert in buffalo, and hes going to show up at 2 am on the night of a final exam i have. Cause i am not his father, but i am his roommate.

I love you mom

A few weeks back our coach asked a simple question, had we told our mom we loved her. We all sat there wondering where this had come from, and were quite perplexed obviously. Well he went around and asked us, i told my coach that i had said "I love you mom" a few days ago. Well everyone else answered and said you should always tell your mother that you love her because you never know what will happen in your life. He then went on to explain that while he was at a coaches clinic one of the coaches players died in a car accident. Our coach explained how that player was just like us, on his way to a meeting he thought he would make, unfortunately he never made it. Well i thought you know thats true i should really tell my mom i love you, but didn't think things like that could really happen to me or the people around me. A week later, i get a phone call from someone that goes to Cortland State thats from my home town, and he sounds really somber, and me thinks what is going on right now. Turns out there had been an accident, involving alcohol. He mentioned a name which at first i didn't recognize. I knew the name though, just couldn't put my finger on it. Well a few minutes passed and i came to the horror that one of people that passed was one of my best friends sister. Emotion came over me as i began to think that was his little sister, and began to think how he must be feeling right now and i couldn't take it, so i did something i haven't done in a while, i went for a run. And as i ran through the black night i began to think about what my coach had said, realizing that these things that happen can happen anyone anywhere, Well my mom emailed me later the next day, explaining what had happened, and i never got to say i love you mom, well if you look at the title you see where i went and was going with this. Don't forgot to tell you mom you love her, because you never know when it might be your last.

Fight Club

This past weekend in the wee hours of the morning i witnessed an exceptional film, Fight Club. Starring Brad Pitt, and Edward Norton. The movie follows the main character and his inner struggle as he goes through the rigors of daily life and how he becomes bored and has to resort to fighting in order feel. From this "Fight Club" is spawned. Brad Pitt is the man as usual, and if looks could kill well Mr. Brad Pitt would be a serial killer. I know what some of you may be thinking, shame on you for waiting this long to witness this spectacular film, i apologize, but its better late than never. Back to the movie, Edward Norton narrates throughout the film and don't ask me how but it works, it works really well. Nortons' character loses everything in his apartment, and decides to live in a house that the devil would pass up on for a home. He starts seeing this girl who is a nut and that creates a bag of turmoil. This movie is so great not just because of the lineup of characters and dialog , although both are phenomenal, the movie basically holds a mirror up to society and you realize how material things have taken hold of our lives and how the things you own really own you. It strips the human of material things in the movie. It makes you really sit back and wonder about how the things we own today own us, ex. cell phones, could any of us really get by with cell phones, well at one point we did, but not anymore. And computers, how would you get by without having a laptop in your room, or for that matter without a computer on campus, well there was a time when there were no computers on college campuses, but that time is obviously long gone. Fight Club is an outstanding movie, and if you haven't seen this movie, then you owe it to yourself to witness a landmark in pop culture. Thats all folks.

Warm Weather

We are finally getting rid of old man winter! The past week's weather has been exceptional, and i have taken advantage of it. Iv spent the week playing whiffle ball in the quad, playing catch and using lacrosse sticks for the first time, my high school did not have lacrosse i played baseball. Not only did i play in the sun, i worked in the sun. I took the time yesterday to study for a biology test out in the quad. Our campus feels like a real campus, you know, the ones you see in movies where kids are playing ultimate Frisbee and sitting with there laptops, books and blankets on green painted grass under a shadow of a tree. I wonder if the spring time effects our overall performance, exams, papers, relationships, roommates, dating the whole nine yards. Its strange to think spring has come to this fast, seems like yesterday i was reporting to football camp in the middle of august in the sweltering heat not knowing what to expect, and now were on the verge of prepping for exams and May is less than a month away. Hopefully with exams coming up i can get out alive and in one piece.

Arlington Road

I saw a great movie the other day, Arlington road. Its interesting because the movie came out in 1999 and its on terrorism from within the united states. The move stars Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins, Tim Robbins is the main guy from Shawshank Redemption. Its based on the main character, Jeff Bridges, suspecting his neighbor, Tim Robbins, is a terrorist. Its got so many twists and turns your head will want to spin. The ending is quite the shocker. Well anyway i guess the reason i cared to mention the movie is the eerie timing of the movie, how it came out only two years before 9/11, yet the paradoxical theme is that instead of having terrorism come from some far away place, its actually right in our backyard. I mean today people want to stereo type and say that just because that guy looks Muslim he is a terrorist, well if were going to start throwing these assumptions around, you might as well suspect the guy that delivers the mail every afternoon. There are people born and raised in this country with a long lineage of family from the U.S that are just as capable, remember the Oklahoma City Bombing? I agree that we should obviously be wary of our borders cause there are a lot of people that do not like America. But we should remember that a lot of those people live and have family that lived in America for a long time. Maybe its a cliche that is passed around too much but i feel like these times right now are truly frightening, considering the global climate crisis, the economy and the actions the United States has decided to take considering global affairs. Hopefully with elections coming up things will change for the better in the following years.

Fitness

Well my metabolism has finally met its match, after spending almost 2 semesters at college iv finally got the picture. I need to eat healthy. Yesterday at spring football practice i found myself short of breath when i generally wouldn't be. I was upset at myself and took a look in the mirror after practice and realized i wasn't satisfied with what i saw, so its my intention to correct my wrong ways for starters, no more bacon. I realize that my diet as included bacon in almost every meal, well no more bacon im cutting that out of my diet. And second one of the worst things probably to eat on campus is the grande at the dragon grill, it is a double bacon cheese burger, just looking at it makes u feel out of shape, of course it is delicious. For now on its pbjs instead of cheeseburgers, iv been making sure to take my vitamins now, and at least try to complement a fruit or vegetable with each meal, of course carbohydrates and proteins have always been apart of my diet, and they still will, im just going to change how i get those, so instead of getting my protein from a burger, its from peanut butter. So thats it, I am @#$% pissed and fed up, iv increased my strength in the off season but it's time to improve my fitness. Of course this wont happen over night, it will take some time, so you if you see me on campus breaking my diet by eating a cheesburger, feel free to walk over and lift the burger from my fingers and drop it in the garbage.

Womens sweatpants

The other day while shopping, yes shopping, with my roommates at the college store we can across some black sweatpants, they said Cortland on them and were soft, we all thought it would be neat if we got the same kind. The lady at the counter looked at us kinda strange when we were checking our sweatpants, well we get back to the room and first notice something strange that there is a string for the waist, something we haven't seen before in sweatpants, and trying them on was odd and very uncomfortable. Well we look at the receipt and it turned out they were for females, needless to say we were baffled. My thing is the other pair of sweat pants that we were looking at which turns out were guys were not as soft as the girls, why? Why cant guys have sweat pants with a nice soft fabric, i just don't understand, could someone please enlighten me on this topic cause i seem to be at a lost

No sleep till brooklyn

Why cant i sleep, i swear to god i wish there was a machine that just put me to sleep, although there defianltly is. Is all because on the weekends i decide to stay up till 4 in the morning and wake up around 2 in the afternoon, so when i have to be up at 6 am for mornnig lift for football, i have gotten then about 2 hours asleep, its not a whole lot of fun let me tel you. To make matters worse later that day around 4 pm my body decides to shut down and take a nap so sleep for 3 hours and then cant go to sleep when i would like in the evening, so the same cycle starts over again. And of course my day is just non stop like anyone else's, and i tend to stress over lil things and think way too much. Im just voicing this because i need to know if im the only crazy person out there who thinks way to much, which in turn does not allow them to sleep, add this to my weekend sleep habits, and it makes for one night of no sleep. I guess the beastie boys could not have said it better when they said, "no sleep till Brooklyn"

Foo Fighters Concert Adventure

This past weekend was quite the experience for myself, earlier in the week my friend who goes to Syracuse said he had a ticket for me to a foo fighters concert in Binghamton, the week went by and Friday finally arrived, i went to down to the station to buy my tickets for a bus down to Binghamton, and was heart broken when a sign on the window said all greyhound buses for the day had been canceled. I called my friend in Syracuse and told him the news, being the honor student that he is he decided to look into this dilemma he reports back and tells me the Grey Hound is back on, so I am ready to go right? I arrive at the station for a second time to purchase my ticket, this time the door isn't locked and I am able to speak with a lady at the desk, i ask her if the buses are back on, she says no! I'm taken back by this and begin to rack my brain around this, so i tell her, my friend in Syracuse says the buses are back on. "Oh well what bus do u need?" the lady asks, i tell her i just need a round trip from here to Binghamton, "OHH" she says "That bus is running". Excuse my French but what the hell!!! She told me all buses were canceled. Is the bus from Syracuse to Binghamton not a bus? Why would she say all buses were canceled, when not all of theme were? If it not had been for my friend i wouldn't have gotten a ticket for that concert. Oh yeah, so my friend prior had told me the bus had left Syracuse, and she tells me yeah the bus hasn't left yet, i was like are u sure because my friend is on that bus and he said it left? Im pretty sure his vision is decent enough to tell between moving objects and still objects. Anyways i get on the bus go to the concert and i got within a few feet of the lead singer, Dave Grohl, pretty amazing. After the concert we have some time to kill before we catch our bus so we wonder around Binghamton, hit up the local Denny's which is delicious at 1 in the morning. Then we invade numerous gas stations in search of diet coke and Mentos, i think u see where this is going, we illegally cross a highway and and try to set off the the Mentos and diet coke, one of his friends that came along from Syracuse gets splattered with diet coke. We call a taxi and arrive at the bus station around 1:40 for a 1:45. So 1:45 passes and its really cold, were waiting out side because the station isn't open at this hour. Well it gets to about 2 o'clock and were starting to get a little worried, where could this bus be? Suddenly an old ragged man approaches us, asks if we have money to spare for a mentally disabled veteran. I literally did not have any money to give, but if i had i wouldn't. The acting job was about as good as Nicole Richie's i was not about to give this old man who is just to lazy to get a job or go to a homeless shelter a motive to barter future persons at this bus stop. Well were waiting and finally after 2:30 the bus arrives we start jumping up and down as were freezing at the moment. The bus arrives in Cortland, i arrive to my empty room, my roommate has gone home, again, for the weekend i am alone, and i say, what a night!

Funny how the the world is put into perspective

Last night i was stressed. I have a test psych coming up that i was studying and loads of hw that i still had to finish. I was leaving the library and i still had more hw waiting for me back at my dorm. As i was leaving i looked up and saw a man with a small bag of empty cans going through the recyclables with a flash light, he looked up at me with a expression of complete shock and petrified fear. I immediately realized he was homeless i kept walking thinking about what i had seen. The man was petrified that i would do something to to his small fortune he had. He most likely was going to find a safe place on campus to call home for the night, hoping the night would not be too cold. I was pissed about having hw and exams, this guy was trying to find a place to sleep tonight. I actually have a chance to make something of myself. Of course last night was the lunar eclipse i looked up and realized this when saw most of the moon covered in blackness except for shred of light at one end. And at that moment even though i realized i was in hell and prolly wouldst get out for a few more hours there was till hope. I could claw my way and get out the black night that engulfed me, it was that series of events that gave me the motivation to get my work down and on with it. Of course the motivation wore off after a few questions, but at least realized the overall goal that we are all striving for. That little crescent of light that is there, that if your reading this blog then you have a chance just as i do to find the light. Unfortunately for that homeless man that light has dimmed a long time ago and his world will always be in a dark blackness.

Clemens and McNamee

This whole situation between Roger Clemons and Brian McNamee has made me sick. My first problem is that why is a situation of this matter on capital hill? Are there not more important problems that are in our country besides whether or not a trainer injected a player with steroids? Poverty, education and our troops overseas our more important than the conflict Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee. These congressmen must have something more important to do then oversee this trial. What i can't understand is why cant one of these men tell the truth. One of these men will go to jail for perjury and yet they continue to dig a hole deeper into the ground. This problem is not just localized to athletics. It is a problem nationwide. Our nation seems to have a problem with the truth. Now i am not on a soap box here stating i do not lie, i do. It seems that many a times "we cant handle the truth" This identity of our nation and lying creates an atmosphere where its almost impossible to believe one and one has to always be on guard. This car has the best mileage or this food is the best for you, or better yet this politician is best for you. I find it increasingly more difficult to believe anything presented to me. As one who went through the college football recruiting process i was constantly conflicted with what certain coaches were telling me about my status as a recruit and other schools. It made my process of selecting a school very stressful and defiantly affected my play in basketball that year. We will not know who is telling the truth in the Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee case for while. This case only exemplifies the nations inability to be tell the truth. Until people start telling the truth, it will be our duty as citizens to be skeptics of everything we here and say.

Should many be punished for the actions of a few?

Ring ring, its 6 am on a Tuesday morning and my cell phone is going off. I set my cell phone alarm to 6 am for a 6:30 am workout. A workout our coach decided to implement the night before due to one of our players not going to study hall. Later that morning our prof in bio is lecturing the class because someone stole equipment from the bio lab. My grades are good enough so that i don't need to go to study hall, i do not steal and did not steal any lab equipment. So why was i waking up at 6 am and why was i being lectured on stealing, and the ethics that we as members of a society have. I did nothing wrong and have proven myself as a good upstanding citizen. Looking back i remember the first thing i said this morning was "explicative" (insert players name), i was very unhappy and upset with this player for only allowing me to obtain 5 hours of sleep. We participated in a grueling workout that left everyone gasping for breath. I looked around the room and saw the rest of my teammates in pain just i was. I then began to obtain a perspective on what was going on around me. I was working with my teammates and there was something in the sweat we polished on the hardwood floor that made me realize although we were being punished for the action of one. The players and myself in that room were working together, our coach had one drill where we carried the player on our back for a certain distance. We were learning to work together, and everyone was clearly working till the point of exhaustion. After the workout justice seemed to be served, the player who didn't do his study hall was emptying his stomach, only thing was it was through the oral cavity not the other. I have to admit that my feeling was not the same in the bio lecture, of course i knew that this lecture on the ethics and society didn't pertain to me so i realized i shouldn't be angry or upset. I had followed the rules and as long as i did i wouldn't really have to listen to an angry prof lecture me on ethics. Ethics which I already understood are an integral part of society.

Can you believe the media?

Lets face it. The television is the largest and most important media outlet. Messages are bombarded at us everyday in order to buy a product, vote for a candidate or eat at a certain restaurant. But what can we believe? Should we simply disregard everything we see on television has nonsense or the other end should we believe everything? A place in the middle is most likely the best place. One has to remember that when we are watching T.V. what is being sold and supported. Obviously a program that endorses Nike will support Nike. Another program that supports Adidas will support Adidas. When it comes to buying products one should look at the facts, customer reviews are often helpful as long as there is not a motive for them supporting a certain product other than it is efficient. One may have asked at one time who should i believe Dan Rather's or Tom Brokaw? One's station may be very supportive of a certain political party and in turn may deliver news that is skewed in order to favor that party. One can look at NPR, national public radio, it has been known that the station generally speaking holds a liberal view. Not to say they will deliver false news. But they will generally support liberal views whether it be on the show, car talk or midday magazine. One has to be open to different news outlets, remembering that T.V. stations such as FOX and radio stations such as NPR will support different ideas, and one should find a spot in the middle when looking what to believe. Its obvious that the media plays a large role in our daily lives, one should always be somewhat skeptical and always chinks in the armor. If you cant find anything wrong then most likely it is a reliable source. But if you continue to find faults and unreliable sources then there is something wrong.

Humans and the Enviorment

In the past 150 years humans have been polluting the earth with toxic materials. We have done considerable damage to the world around us. The big question is for how long will we be around. We must remember that on earths time line we only encounter a tiny blip. There are no guarantees that humans will thrive on this planet for the rest of time. Some might say that our end as human beings is near an end. What cant be done to ensure we stay a little longer on this planet? Everyone doing the little things can help conserve the environment and lessen our impact. Turning off the lights when your not using a room, and taking the time to recycle. How far should we take our efforts? It has been suggested that our diet could effect the environment. To produce meat has an effect on the environment, next time stopping by the local burger joint should we indulge in a salad instead of a big fatty burger? It seems that people are much more scared of global warming after witnessing Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Al Gore cares about the environment, although he flies his own personal private jet which has considerable repercussions on the environment. Should he think about flying couch next time he takes to the air? One thing i wonder is the trend in the past 50 years of humans impacting the environment. I also wonder if we have decreased our impact since global warming has reached a world stage? I hope that efforts are being made to find an alternative to oil. I have heard of such energy source where in one house there would be a bio tank that could fuel the house. How close are we to this energy source being commercialized. Of course these alternate energy sources need to be affordable. Then there is the question of job placement. If we were to abandon oil where would those people work? Would this problem be solved by the creation of new energy sources? As apparent there a lot of questions when it comes to humans and the environment. The underlying truth is that it will require the efforts all peoples in order to live on this planet for a little longer.

Education

I find it interesting what has happened with education in the past 500 years. Today everyone in Western Society has a chance to obtain an education, with few exceptions. 500 years ago, generally speaking if your parents were peasants, you would be a peasant. There was not a whole lot of mobility. So one would say that today we have a better education, or do we? Yes today everyone learns, but your are put into a learning style and for the most part you do not have a choice as to how you will be taught from ages 3 to 18. There are learning styles that are not conducive to a classroom setting. 500 years ago there was freedom in how one could think. One should look at the inventors during the renaissance time and the influences they had. It is my belief that today we have many minds that are going to waste inside the classroom, where as 500 years ago those minds might have been able to progress. How many Da Vinci's have we lost? How many Shakespeare's failed out of high school. Once can only ponder if we are executing the correct educational system today.

Ape Man

Does some kind of ape man exist? Or are we living in a society where an old myth is perpetuated into a reality? Thousands of sightings have been reported throughout north America, especially in the pacific northwest and parts of Canada have been hotbeds for Bigfoot sightings. The big question is, is there something roaming throughout the forests that we are unaware of? Or are these tales either attempts on certain peoples of fame or late night drinking adventures? Physical evidence of a Bigfoot is scare, of course there is the Patterson film, which as been debated since its initial appearance. And a more recent film is the freeman footage, shot by a man while hunting. While these films may provide evidence supporting Bigfoot, they only raise more speculation, how were these men able to encounter Bigfoot while most expedition's are lucky to come across a foot print? The best evidence supporting Bigfoot may not be any kind of visual evidence but a recording of a 911 call in the 1990s in Kitsap Peninsula, Washington. The call is intriguing. The man calling 911 had reported earlier that someone had killed his dog. The man never actually uses the phrase Bigfoot or yeti, because he didn't want the person to think the call was a prank, suddenly the man is startled, and he states the "thing" is looking at him. Whatever the creature is it runs off into the night never to be seen again. Now the question is why would someone try to hoax a Bigfoot in this fashion, there absolutely no physical evidence, so anyone worth there salt and that wanted to make some money would have come up with something better than a 911 call.