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.