Boredom at a new level

So I had a final on Tuesday morning and don't have another one until 6-8 PM tomorrow night. The worst part is it isn't even a hard final so I don't have to study for it really. I just have to stay up here for 3 days with absolutely nothing to do all day. All my roommates have left so I sit around all day and watch How I Met Your Mother on DVD.

Which, admittedly, isn't a bad way to spend a couple of days.

I'm ready to go home and see my family and friends.

And this year's Heisman goes to...

Sam Bradford. Shit, better than Tim freaking Tebow. I can't stand that guy. Nobody is that good of a person. I wanna know what he's hiding. I still felt like McCoy was the guy who deserved it. Oklahoma's skill players and O-line are some of the best in the nation (big emphasis on O-line here--they're absolutely ridiculous). Put McCoy, Harrel, Daniel, or even Reesing for that matter in there and every single one of them is gonna put up crazy numbers. McCoy had comparable stats and a higher completion percentage with much less talent around him. Tebow honestly deserved it last year.. that guy was Florida's team last year. This year he had more developed talent and took less of the load, which is what should happen. But the award goes to college football's most outstanding player, and I think Tebow, who finished third, should be honored to be a finalist.

Alright, on to the post game thoughts about the Big 12 Championship... a week later. I had to collect my thoughts. It's painfully obvious everytime Mizzou plays a big time school that even though we have seen tremendous improvements, we are still a long way off. Hey, I'll take it. Competing for the North title every year is a long way removed from getting beat by Nebraska 70-3.

Trenches. That where GP & Co. need to get recruits. Big, huge, strong, angry men that just push people around. If Chase gets protection he can pick apart any secondary. ANY secondary. He's that good, and every quarterback gets better when they have time. On the flip side, defense starts up front. I don't care if we had the Ravens secondary back there last Saturday, if Bradford gets 10 seconds every down to throw the ball, his receivers are gonna get open. You can't put that much pressure on a secondary. Our 'backers are gonna be a good group next year, and our secondary will return the starting corners. Next year we need to see improvement on defense, or Eberflus will have to go. A defense that returns 10 of 11 starters from last year's 11-2 team should not be this bad. And they are bad. I mean, 10 starters returned! At the absolute least, they should be about the same. They took a step backwards this year. To me, that says the coaching is not there.

On a rounder note, the MU basketball team is 8-1 on the year, their only loss to a now ranked Xavier team. The loss can be credited to less than 50% from the line and they lost the game by 4 points. Free points. You gotta knock down the free throws.

Also, a big congratulations goes out to Chase Coffman, winner of the Mackey Award, given to the nation's top tight end. That guy is absolutely sick.

Perfect Christmas Gift

OK, so I know there are a lot of golf fans out there. And that typically, golf has been associated with the older generation... Well, here's the perfect gift for any old golfer on your Christmas list.

It's called the Uro Club, and it is spectacular...
Oh he's not checking out his club, that's right friends, he is taking a wizz right there in the great open outdoors.

Honestly, whatever happened to going in the woods, man? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I love late night TV

Duuuuuuude...

Come on now, seriously.. I can't even introduce this, you just have to watch it.



I laughed for 5 minutes straight.

BlackBerry Review

So I recently purchased a BlackBerry Pearl 8130 for Sprint.


After playing around with it for a few days I have come to a conclusion that it is a worthy phone for my needs. It allows me to put short cuts on my home screen to all my news websites, so I can get my news anywhere I want now, which gives me an attractive alternative to taking notes in class. It's basically the PC answer to the iPhone, but I'm not sure which was on the market first. Anyway... that was sort of a weird metaphoric way of explaining it but I would encourage anyone looking for a new phone to check it out. Much cheaper than an iPhone.

Why do you always do this to me, Mizzou?

Every year, you get me excited for the season, get me pumped up and believing, truly believing this year, at last, is our year. You drag me on 14 hour car trips to see you get pummeled. You let freaking KANSAS drive the field with under 2 minutes to go and let them score an uncontested touchdown. You get my hopes back up, we still have :27 left and two timeouts, this can happen, we only need a field goal. :11 left, we complete a pass then spike the ball... wait, why in the hell did we spike it when we had two timeouts... OK whatever it doesn't matter just need a 5-10 yard pass to get in field goal range, wait, no, we dropped the most crucial pass of the game. And Mizzou, why oh why did you bring me on this emotional rollercoaster just to crash and burn just when the end was in sight? Why, Mizzou, WHYYYY???? You always get my hopes up and then never come through for me.. I'm not gonna fall into this trap again.

So, Oklahoma next week for the Big 12 Championship.

Let's go boys. We can do this. MIZ ZOU RAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alive and kicking

Unfortunately, the title of this post is referring to racism in America. Thankfully it is not a widespread attitude but it still prevalent enough to make me a little disappointed. I mean 15 minutes after Obama won the election a girl updated her facebook status to say "I can't wait for my hard-earned money to go to all the lazy (racial slur)." It was rather satisfying to see that many people jumped on her and yelled at her for the comments, and she changed the status.

Then last night, I found a story on the Internet about Texas backup linemen Buck Burnette, who was kicked off the Texas football team for his facebook status. After the election, he changed his status to "All the hunters gather up, we got a (racial slur) in the White House." Link here:

http://www.nowpublic.com/sports/buck-burnette-kicked-texas-football-team-racist-facebook-comment-about-barack-obama

How stupid do you honestly have to be? I mean this is the PRESIDENT of the United States, we're talking about, and you are gonna essentially put out a death threat to him? He's lucky he just got kicked off the team with no legal trouble pending.

Anyway, I sincerely hope that Obama does a wonderful job guiding this country and fixing some of its problems. I have confidence that he will. Not just for the fact that I want America to get back on track anyway, but so that hopefully some of these ignorant people will learn to look past the color of a person's skin and see who they really are. Some things will never change, though.

My political compass

Your political compass

Economic Left/Right: -4.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.21

http://politicalcompass.org/test

I found this website that gives you an estimate of where you stand on the economic and social left/right sliding scale. It's no new information really, if you know where you stand on the issues, but still sort of cool to see where you stand in the likes of Ghandi, Stalin, or Hitler.

I was happy that Obama won, however, the reactions to the election of many of my friends was very discouraging. It really showed who knew their stuff and who went into the voting booths blindly and just bubbled in the circle mommy and daddy told them to bubble in. It was pretty sad. I talked to many people about the results, and the ones who actually understood the issues were tended to be the more level-headed ones who were willing to give Obama a chance before saying America is going to Hell. I had people telling me Obama is a socialist who wants to give hard working peoples' money to lazy bums on the street. Puh-lease. Even a tiny bit of research proves this false. First of all, he's giving tax CUTS to middle class families. The increase is going to 250+ income households. Now I am in NO way saying that those people are not hard-working. That sort of money does not come easily in this world. I was just pissed at the fact that the people making those comments were not close to being in that bracket, and were going to be receiving the benefits of the cuts. I am completely open minded to the opposite opinion, but freakin do your research and understand what you are talking about before you make statements based on no verifiable facts and that you can't back up. Don't be ignorant.

OK, so whew. Calm down and breathe. Now that I can get off my high horse I can honestly say there are many things that I make ignorant statements that are based more on emotion and perception than verifiable facts. It proves we all have room to improve, I guess.

I'm looking forward to the next four years.

Election Day

Well I am off to vote soon. It will be nice to not have to see or hear a political ad every commercial break on tv or radio after today.

In other news, my neighbor bought a bb gun yesterday. He then proceeded to use one of our chairs on the porch, prop a flattened cardboard box up on it, pin a target he drew on computer paper to the cardboard, then shoot at it for the greater part of an hour. I think the trailer park behind us is starting to rub off on him.

DISCLAIMER: the above was supposed to be an attempt at humor, and I know that not every person in a trailer park is a redneck. Just the majority.

Anyway, this Saturday is the last game at Faurot Field this year. The last game there ever for the likes of Chase Daniel, Chase Coffman, William Moore, and the other seniors on this team. Their class has been phenomenally successful at MU and in large part helped to put Mizzou football on the map. It should be a great game; November night game, Senior Night, Blackout Game, etc. all make for a wonderful atmosphere.

Another interesting fact: the seniors on this football team have taken turns wearing the number 25 during different games throughout the season in honor of Aaron O'Neil, who collapsed and died during a voluntary workout in 2005. He would have been a senior this year, and his family will be on the field during the senior presentations on Saturday. I think these guys have done him a great honor.

That's all for now. Peace

Obama at Mizzou

Barack Obama is coming to hold a rally at Mizzou on Thursday. It should be a fun experience. I will go and listen to what he has to say, even though my mind is already made up. It should be fun to see all the people drinking the Obama kool-aid there. Hopefully there will be free T-shirts. I am in need of an Obama shirt.

As I go through life in college and am really starting to figure out who I am, I am finding more and more that while at times I like to be the life of the party, so to speak, more often I would rather sit back and let the people who like to talk go ahead and talk. Hmm, that was an awkward sentence. A long one, too. Even though I support Obama, some of the interest I have in going is just to see how gung-ho some other people there will be. Those are the "kool-aid" drinkers I referenced above.

This all reminds me of a book a read entitled The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chopsky (sp?). I see a lot of myself in the main character, but have learned a lot from the book as well, mostly to be sure that I don't spend my ENTIRE life sitting by and watching.

Anywho, I have a test coming up Thursday, and I have yet to start studying. Peace out, yo

Uncle Again

Well this weekend was another good one. The Tigers finally righted themselves and destroyed the Colorado Buffaloes 58-0. While it was good to shut out the Buffs, it just lent more evidence to the existing stigma that the Tigers can destroy the lesser teams in college football, but when it comes time to play the big boys, they fall apart. The home upset by the Oklahoma State Cowboys was not a fluke, they were the better team. Still, the Tigers have come a long way from the old days where now the fans, and especially the team, is expecting to win EVERY game. GP has this program going in the right direction, and the big wins will come.

Even more importantly, though, my sister had her baby at 8:54 on Sunday morning. I drove back to visit for the day, and the little guy sure is a cutie. I'm excited to have another nephew around, I'll get to enjoy all the things about having another little baby all over again. It's gonna be a great Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season!

I drove 14 hours for this?

So this weekend I made the trip down to Austin, Texas to see my Missouri Tigers play the Longhorns. I went with two of my friends here who are from Texas, and it was a really fun road trip. Except for the fact that Missouri got rolled 56-31. Oh well, it just shows we still have a little bit to go before we are really in the top echelon of college football. We'll get there though, Pinkel has this team moving in the right direction and, while I don't agree with some of his play-calling, he has the overall program up and running. It makes me happy. I can take consistently good seasons with a few bad losses as long as the program as a whole is moving upward. At least we're losing to teams we're supposed to lose to and beating teams we're supposed to be beating.

So now it's back to school activities. We are officially past the half way point in the semester. % more weeks till Thanksgiving break and 8 more weeks till the semester is over. It's been flying by. I try to soak it all in because I love every minute of it and I know I'll wish I had more time when I graduate.

Anywho, just a short update now, I'll be back later
--The Comeback Kid

Back to the Grind

After a fun weekend with my family, it's back to work. I went to my cousin's wedding this weekend and had a good time. I haven't seen my mom's side of the family in a long time, so it was good to reconnect with them. I hope that I will be able to go out there more frequently in the future.

The low point of the weekend, by far, was Mizzou losing to Oklahoma State on Saturday night. Oklahoma did get beat by Texas, which is good for us. We play Texas on Saturday and if we come out of Austin with a win it will go a long way to get us back into National Title consideration. I think we are certainly capable of doing it, but whether we will or not is (obviously) yet to be seen. I don't even wanna talk about the loss on Saturday night, I'm still trying to recover. Bottom line is we choked. Credit to (I'm a MAN) Mike Gundy and his Cowboys, they were no question the better team on Saturday. That's why the game is played, boys and girls. Mizzou wins that game 8 or 9 times out of 10. Oh well, on to Texas.

So today I got out of class at 12:15, and it was nice to come back and have lunch, relax and then get started on some homework. I'm in the middle of another relaxing period, just started some laundry and considering going to Wal-Mart.

Our draft for our fantasy basketball league is tomorrow night so that should be exciting. I'm not a big follower of NBA basketball but it's a group of my friends so it should be fun if nothing else. Also a good distraction from studying. That's ALWAYS a plus.

In one week, arguably the most anticipated video game for Xbox 360 comes out. It's called Fable 2, and basically you are the hero of the world of Albion and you save the world from bad guys. OK, horrible summary of the game but it's not out yet so I can't really say. All I know is the original Fable, for Xbox, was a ton of fun. I guess I'm just a video game nerd. Whatever, I'm okay with it.

My sister is due to have her baby son on the 21st. I'm definitely excited for him to come! Having another baby around will make the drive back to St. Charles a lot shorter and much more attractive to me. One of my roommates is going back this weekend, but I'm not sure I will or not because I have a test on Monday for a class I should be doing better in. I guess I'll decide later.

Alright I'm on to do some math homework. Wish me luck! Talk to you later

---The Comeback Kid

It's Really Hot

As I was thinking more about my last post I figured out that I have found the answer to one of the greatest questions in life! This question, of course, is what is the meaning of life? The answer, at least for me, is to lead a life that is beneficial in the furtherance of society. That's it. This answer appeals to me because I feel that it can be implied to a great variety of people. Even people with seemingly boring jobs play an important part of that company. Hopefully, that company is doing things to help society and humankind.

Don't get me wrong. I know the views and opinions I have expressed here lately are full of holes and not as profound as I make them seem. They are simply my thoughts and opinions as I go through my education and young life. But then again, the point of a blog is to post your thoughts and opinions, isn't it?

Anyway, this week is going to be another very busy one. While I don't have any tests, I still have 8 essays to write for my honors class. It is not going to be very fun. Plus I don't know why but it is blazing hot in my room. It kinda sucks. Well, after hanging out with some friends most of the day after my classes, I have yet to do any schoolwork, so that's next on the agenda.

Peace out

---The Comeback Kid

Great Weekend

This has been a brilliant weekend. The movie on Friday night, the 52-17 (should've been 52-10 except for garbage time TD by Nubs) demolishing of Nebraska at their own stadium, then a visit from my sister and her fiance and my nephew today. We went to Harpo's, which had good food and was nice to just sit there and talk for a while with them. It was really good to see the little man there. He is getting so big! Everytime I see him he is bigger and you can just see him starting to figure out the world. He is definitely a special little guy. It's going to be a lot of fun to be part of his life and help him grow into a good person. I'm looking forward to teaching him all the stuff the weird, funny uncle teaches kids. Along these same lines, my other sister is due to have her baby boy at the end of this month. The holidays are going to be a lot of fun this year. I'm soo excited!!

It was good Harpo's was sorta empty today, I can see it being a great place to go and watch a Tigers game but if it woulda been crowded today the visit would have been a lot less enjoyable.

Thank goodness that last week is over. It was for sure a stressful one. It's been nice to able to really relax and enjoy this weekend as much as possible. I still have a few little homework things to do, but such is life. You are never truly finished with everything you have to do.

In one of my classes, we are reading "The Happiness Hypothesis," and I came across an interesting quote while reading it:
"What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind." --Buddha
This really struck me as a huge revelation. So much of our life is formed by our perception of events that happened. We all know people who think that everybody is giving them "the look." They live continually angry and stressful lives because they think that every person is out to get them. Or when people take no responsibility for their actions. Every failure in their life is because of somebody else's actions. Not even that, but just the simplest everyday encounters when we have conversations with people. If they are in a good mood, we assume that the conversation was good. If they are a little ticked off, for whatever reason, we attribute their mood to something that WE did or said. People always want to think they are so much more important than they really are. Our actions are, in the grand scheme of things, insignificant. We are ONE person, on a planet of BILLIONS of people, on ONE planet, in ONE solar system, in a vast universe of BILLIONS of solar systems.

Don't get me wrong, I know the impression I just gave off with that is one of extreme pessimism. But it's not. I am simply saying a SINGLE human life is ultimately insignificant. The human race, as a whole, is extremely important. Life will go one without a single person among us. Even if the person is very influential in whatever field you like to think of. Inevitably, their work will be carried on by another person. I guess what I'm getting at is this: A human life is but a single molecule in the Arch, or Eiffel Tower, or whatever tall building you chose. The lives we live today lay the foundations for lives to be lived in the future. Think about it, this makes sense, I promise. How many of our modern inventions are based on simpler mechanisms invented 2,000 years ago? Shit, for that matter, look at how much difference the wheel has made in today's society. And that was invented as far back as 3500 BC. It really is true that most parents' dreams and life's work is just to make sure their children live a better life than they do.

Anyway, I just thought that quote was pretty inspiring. To me, at least. I guess most people would say the whole insignificance of life thing is pretty dire, but it gave me a whole lot of motivation and perspective on life. Make of it what you will.

Welllll, I fear my time has come to get my act together and get some stuff done.

Buenos Nachos!

---The Comeback Kid

Nick and Norah

I saw Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist tonight with some of my friends. It was actually pretty good. It's a love story like pretty much every movie nowadays but was fairly accurate in capturing how teenage/college relationships really are. Anyway, I recommend it so I won't ruin it.

Thank goodness this week is finally over. Talk about a lot of stress being lifted. I'm excited for this weekend. Tonight was a good start to it. Then tomorrow we have the Missouri Tigers #3 ranked football team going into Lincoln, Nebraska and shucking the Huskers on their home field. (haha get it? SHUCKING?? Cuz you shuck corn? and they're the CORNhuskers?? shit I'm funny.) And then on Sunday my sister and her fiance are coming up for a baby shower here so I'll get to eat lunch or dinner with them. And then in one short week I will be on the East Coast watching my cousin get married.

Well, time is short here, I'm getting ready to go out. I'll be back tomorrow. Or, I guess technically it's later today.

Adios friends

---The Comeback Kid

I can see the light

So I for sure got my ass kicked by both of my tests today. The good news is that they are finally over. Now I just have to write a paper on the similarities and differences between William James and Daniel Wegner (SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE), which won't be terribly hard if I can manage to stay awake, and finish some meteorology homework.

At least tomorrow's Friday. Then I can sleep in for two or three days. This week has been so hectic and tiresome I'm having trouble getting motivated to just finish out the last little bit I have.

I was talking to a friend of mine today that hadn't registered to vote, and I asked her why she hadn't. She said that she "didn't feel educated enough" to vote. I didn't understand that comment at all. So, wait, you can get on Facebook and look at pictures of people you don't really know for hours, but you can't take 10 minutes a day to read a paper and learn about the election? I mean, come on. I am by no means a political scientist and don't claim to be. But, really, it's appalling that so many people just don't give a shit. I mean, there are soooooo many things out there to take an interest in; the war, Darfur, immigration, abortion, I mean the list goes on an on. And take a second to think about it... by voting you are taking an active stance to try and change some of those things. I dunno, it just seems dumb that people don't go out and vote. The uneducated story isn't workin for me, I'm just not buying it.

Here's a video I found sorta funny about not voting. it's a PSA so don't expect much:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1832128

My cousin is getting married in a couple weeks. The wedding is out on the East Coast, and I'm really excited to go out there and see all of my family for a couple days. I have not been out there in 3 or 4 years, I think, so I can't wait to go. The only downside is that I'll be missing the Mizzou vs Oklahoma State game. Both teams are ranked now and we both can keep winning it should be a top 15 or possibly even a top 10 matchup. It's set to air on either ESPN or ESPN2. I love night games in Columbia. The game has already been sold out it's really gonna suck to miss it. But I'll get a group of people together out there and show them what Chase Daniel and Co. are all about.

Wellllllllll it's high time I get some pizza rolls and get to writin and researchin.

Check back later

---The Comback Kid

Hey, Mikey, I think he likes it!

Okay, so I was skeptical about whether I would get into the "blogging" mindset. Clock it, 2 hours since the inaugural post and I'm back for more.

The picture with the title of the blog is of the Goldrush game last year at Faurot Field. Uhhh, memory is failing me here, but I think we played Nebraska. Yepppp, yeah we did. And if I'm not mistaken, I THINK we won something like 41-6. I don't know. It was such a long time ago I'm having trouble remembering..... uh huh. That was the score. Here's proof:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngr7apc6_hY

Brilliant stuff. Quality is not as good as you would hope, but that game was unbelievable. 73,000 outrageous fans there, the atmosphere was unreal. Now, this week the football Tigers go into Lincoln, where they have not one in 30 years. The media has been saying that all the time, but honestly, WHO CARES? The fact is that in today's college football, tradition is counting for less and less everyday. Don't get me wrong, it still matters. But the Nebraska fans out there who make the claims that they'll be back because there's just so much tradition in football there is a load of crap. These are 17 and 18 year old kids here, names like Tom Osborne don't mean anything to them. Especially in this age where on any given Saturday you can watch 5 or 6 different college football games, the players today just want to go where they can get playing time. The 85 scholarship limit has given college football a new face and a level of parity that has never been experienced before. Gone are the days when the Cornhuskers would recruit the 3 best running backs just so the Tigers or K-State or whoever else wouldn't get them. It's time for new powers to arise in the various conferences around the nation, and it's a beautiful thing.

In summary, I like college football.

Alright, I better get back to studying for now. Plus I'm feelin a steamin plate of pizza rolls comin my way.

Don't worry, I'll be back.

---The Comeback Kid

The First Entry...

What a colorful, illuminating title, huh?

A professor once told me that newspaper stories that had titles or lead sentences that started with the words "the, an, or a" were the most often skipped over stories. The experiment was pretty extensive, with people wearing special glasses that tracked their eyes over the paper as they read.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, don't skip my blog. It's my first one. It's beautiful. Cherish what I have to say. Haha, joking. Sarcasm is hard to convey over the internet. That's gonna be rough for me, but I'll try to make it painfully obvious when I make the attempt at humor here.

This blog was created in response to a need to have a break in studying. I knew college was tough, but I had four tests this week, a quiz in the only class in which I didn't have a test, a paper due Friday, and a homework assignment also due Friday. Talk about LAME. Who gives homework to a lecture hall of 450+ students? The best part is that the grades for the first homework in the class still haven't been posted, and the homework was collected 3 weeks ago. Who creates that much work for themselves? Weird.

Anywho... I guess I should get back to my exciting, wonderful, laugh-a-minute night of studying. This wasn't a great first post but I only had a limited amount of time in which to do it. They'll get better as time passes, I didn't want to set the bar too high on the first attempt.

That's all for me, peace out.

---The Comeback Kid