Bored

Today was the big day. Ok maybe not that big, unless you consider getting your wisdom teeth out is major surgery, which would put you in the same boat as me. I mean they do put you under for it and it has a chance to end up bad (see facts at bottom). But everything ended up going just fine. I got up around 6:30, hopped in the shower, and headed off to Wichita with my mother. They thought it would be a good idea if she drove and it turned out they were right because I was still in a little bit of a daze when I woke up from the anestethia. I woke up in a different place than I remembered going out at which was NOT OK with me and I was seeing and hearing multiples of the same things. They took me out in a wheelchair to our vehicle which was probably necessary as I had trouble getting into the car alone.

The ride home was quick (mostly cause I was still out of it). The down part was the taste of blood and that my mouth was almost completely numb for about 6 hours afterwards which was definitely way worse than any of the pain (I hate not being able to feel things). After I got home, I made myself comfortable on my couch, took out the nasty gauss, took a lauritab and passed out for about 5 hours.

I woke up to a much better feeling, the feeling of my face and tounge! I was stoked and ready to eat. Oh but wait, I basically can't have anything good to eat (Besides Ice Cream). Soup, jello, gatorade, Dr. Pepper, and pasta is my diet for the next few days. So needless to say when I'm cleared to eat "human food" again I will be taking full advantage of the entire next week.

Other beef I have with this whole ordeal is the fact that I'm stuck at home all weekend basically. Theres nothing on TV during the day, Xbox bores me for too long, and I would just rather go outside and find something to do with people. But I guess I can last for one weekend so my teeth don't criss cross each other later in life or start causing me pain or both. So I'll find something to keep myself entertained, maybe read a book, maybe sleep, maybe watch some movies, and most definitely watch Family Guy. Plus only a week til I'm out in Colorado for a weekend. 30 DAYS TIL MANHATTAN

Anticipation

This Summer has been unlike any other that I can remember. No, I'm not talking about how freakin' hot it is this summer, but about how long this summer has drug on. It's been a real odd experience not being required to go lift, run, or shoot hoops. So with those activities not happening this Summer, I have a lot of free time and lets just say their is not a whole lot to do in Mulvane, Kansas. But we become creative with our hours of boredom and usually come up with something to do. I've recently became obsessed with hackie sack, which is usually what we end up doing on a nightly basis. If it had been a sport, it would be hard to say I wouldn't have played it. I'm not quite a professional yet but I'm working on it with little luck. Some other extracurriculars we do to keep our "ADD"ness in check include volleyball, swimming, and movies. Those four things plus work and eating pretty much have been my summer in a nutshell. This definitely has been the slowest summer I can remember.

I think the biggest reason I think its going slow is due to the fact that I'm going to Manhattan on August 21st and I'm dying to get up there. I've recently found out who my roommate is and it happens that he was from El Dorado, who is in the same league as us at school. He's seems pretty cool so we'll see and I also got my meningitis shot today. All of these things have just been reminding me of going to Manhattan and then I remember I still have over a month in this town, which sucks! But I'll just have to suffer through it. It's not all bad though as I get to hang out with my friends from my class that I won't be going to school with next year before we all leave.

The rest of the summer looks basically the same as I explained earlier except I get to go see the Mountain McGuires (like the nickname?) for a weekend and do something in the area of hiking, biking, float trip, or what ever Travis comes up with. I'm just glad to have a weekend out of this town!

How could I forget? I'm getting my wisdom teeth out a week from today. I'm not too excited about it, I mean I hate the dentist and he lets me keeps my teeth after he's done. This surgery requires I get to go to sleep which I like cause I have a low pain tolerance but it also is known to swell afterwards and be sore for a few days. Plus I can't eat good food, drink out of a straw, or work for two days. Ok the last one I'm good with but the either two don't sit well. And the doctor made sure to reassure me by telling me theres a 4% chance that my mouth will droop the rest of my life and a one in a million chance that I will not wake up from the anesthesia. But I don't trust these odds with my luck.

No Luck

This weekend marked our annual summer trip down to good ole' Oklahoma to see the Turners, who are really close friends for those who don't know. We left Saturday morning and after about 3 hours of reading, (I forgot to bring Ipod and a pillow) we finally arrived. As soon as we walked in the door, Trent and I were out of it, off to the local pool. It was a fairly nice pool with a few pretty decent slides, it was a water park compared to Mulvane's. We swam around for awhile and talked to a few of his friends that worked their and figured out plans for the evening. Then we headed back to see what the parentals were doing. Of course they weren't were they left them last, so we wait.

Well they arrived shortly after us and after hanging around the house and playing with Boomer and Petey, the families dogs. Boomer for Ronnie, the OU fan (Boomer Sooner) and Petey for Trent, the OSU fan (Pistol Pete). Then everyone got cleaned up to go lose money, I mean go to the casino. Well needless to say, I had very little if any luck at the casino, I won $20 off the free play I got and lost that and more on various slot machines. So I decided I'd try my luck on some blackjack, I figure 'Hey, I'm not stupid, at least blackjack takes some sort of strategy'. My logic flew out the window real quick. About ten minutes in, I feel like I'm in "Vegas Vacation" playing the character of Clark Griswold and being ridiculed by the black jack dealer, losing or pushing hands that are won 80% of the time. So after losing about $40 and almost my lunch from the sick feeling I got from losing $40 in the that short amount of time, we decided we had enough "gambling" for one night or lifetime in my case. I'm not quite sure I'm cut out for Vegas?

The rest of the night was pretty calm, Trent and I went to his friends house and hung out for a while and then called it a night. I woke up the next morning to the smell of bacon, eggs, and sausage being cooked for breakfast. Talk about a great birthday breakfast! Oh I forgot to mention today is my 19th birthday and as you can tell I'm super stoked. I'm not doing anything to special, just having family over for dinner and probably hanging with friends later tonight. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, cards/money, or calls! And the countdown to Manhattan begins!

The Hunger Games

When I went on my visit to K-State earlier this summer, one of the things each student was given was a copy of "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. They did this because the book is going to be used in many classes and also as a campus activity when they create a reenactment of the book. So after asking a few people if they had read the book and everyone of them saying it was one of the best books they've ever read, I decided to read it. And there was definitely no disappointment, it was a very addictive read and one hard book to put down. With each chapter ending in some sort of climatic moment that keeps you reading to the next chapter, and so on and so on.

The book is based in the future where a Country is divided into 12 districts. The districts wealth go down as the the district number gets bigger (1 being the wealthiest). The main character is based out of district 12 and is basically in charge of taking care of her family. Her father died in a coal explosion and her mother sort of went off the deep end. Every year, every person from age 12-18 have to put their name in a drawing called the reaping and a boy and a girl from each district are drawn. All the kids drawn, are put into an arena and fight to the death until one person is left alive.

Anyone eligible to be drawn can put their name in up to 40 times to earn more food for their family. All of this plays off the ability to eat, thus the name of the book, and the winner of The Hunger Games gets their district lots of money and food as well. This book will make you think and imagine what you would do if you were in their position. It also has a sequel and a third book is coming out. I will be reading the second one ASAP, plus they are making it into a movie! I'd tell you more of the story but I don't want to ruin the story so go find a copy of it and read it, you won't be disappointed.

Pool Time!

I have the great advantage of being done working around anywhere from noon to around 3 on a normal day of cleaning. Which equals out to me being able to swim for about 2 hours a day at my friend Maddie's house. Which in turn gets me a pretty decent tan, for free I might add to those of you who would rather pay to get skin cancer. But being bored and maybe a little bit of the heat getting to us, we get on some pretty random conversations. Anything from top movies, actors, what time period would you like to live in, politics, movie ideas, hottest actresses, what role would you play in any movie, (get the movie theme yet?), and most recently, if you could have dinner with any 5 people in history, dead or alive, who would it be?

Well if you want to make yourself think, try figuring out who your five will be and it will definitely change about every 5 minutes after your preliminary list is made as you will continue to think of new people you would like to eat dinner with. So for shits and gigs I'll give you my five as of now in no particular order.

1. Eminem- If you didn't read my last blog, I am an Eminem fanatic and would love to have aconversation with him to pick at his brain and get a feel of his intellect whichis undoubtedly high, if you've ever listened to his songs their is no doubt that he is very intelligent person.
2. Jerry Seinfeld-Probably one of my favorite comedians/sit-com actors of all time. He'd definitely keep the conversations going with rants of pointless day to day activities! Now I'd thought about having Hitler as one of my five but this wouldn't work out well with Jerry being Jewish and all not to mention the fact that no one can speak German at the table so Hitler is out of the question.
3. Lil' Wayne- Once again, love his music, but I'm more interested on his perspective on life and how he goes about his day to day life. Unfortunately for Wayne there will be no "Purple" to drink at this dinner party.
4. Chris Rock- Favorite comedian of all time! His voice just cracks me up even if what he's saying isn't funny but it usually is. He would definitely be a good compliment to Jerry's rants with his story telling abilities.
5. Angelina Jolie-Gotta have something to look at, right?

Recovery and rebirth of hip-hop

To say that I'm an Eminem (aka Marshall Mathers or Slim Shady) fan is a pretty big understatement. I have followed him ever since his "Real Slim Shady" day's through all of the drama that followed with the fame he got because of the talent he brought to the hip-hop game. He lost his wife to divorce, his best friend Proof due to a shooting, and nearly his life because of an addiction to pills that he started to take after Proof was shot to cope with the depression that came with his death. People started to wonder if the wonderbread rapper would ever be the same or even rap again at all. He went back and forth with retirement and basically went off the deep end. He tried to come out with a new album last year called "Relapse" which Dr. Dre produced and he just wasn't the same and he admits Relapse was trash in his new album "Recovery".

In Recovery he gives Proof, late member of D12 and best friend, most of the credit for him getting his life together and getting clean. He talks about how and why he turned his life around in "Your Never Over" when he says

"Homie I know I’m, never gonna be the same with you/

I woulda never came in this game, I’m going insane without you/
Matter of fact it was just the other night, had another dream about you/
You told me to get up, I got up and spread my wings and I flew/

You gave me a reason to fight, I was on my way to see you,"

which is a dedication song to Proof. He talks about the frustration of not being able to produce raps at the level that he knew he could and how he about came out with a song dissing lil' Wayne and Kanye in the song "Talkin to Myself", which would have ultimately ended Eminem's reputation and career as the world knew it. He admits his struggles were due to the drug addiction, his head wasn't clear at all. But after months of being in a rehab center, he managed to become clean and if you thought his CD "Encore" was good while he claims he was on drugs, "Recovery" blows it out of the water with his genius lyrics and assassin like flow.

He says a lot more than I have included on here, but like most of anything, you can never feel or understand the full effect of something until you try it so I suggest you find a way to get your hands on that CD. Maybe your little brother has it and he'll copy it for you, if your lucky of course. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Two other rappers have also caught my attention this past couple of months, B.o.B and Drake. I

will have separate posts explaining why I think these two (along with return of Em and Wayne getting out of jail) can help to bring hip-hop back to the level of popularity it had in the 90's. But until then I'm out!

You got a friend in me

When you hear the words "You got a friend in me", what do you think of? Well if you know anything about movies your first thought would be Toy Story! If you don't like Toy Story then your probably going to need to go to your local physician and get yourself checked out because something is seriously wrong with you. The Toy Story series is thought to be the greatest animated movies of all time and I agree after being reminded of how awesome they are when I saw the third movie of the series that was just recently released in theaters, not to mention it was in 3D. The series ended with Andy going to college and him having to decide what to do with his toys that brought him and his imagination excitement during his childhood. After the toys are accidentally donated to a daycare center ran by an evil bear that runs the daycare like a prison, Woody saves the toys because of his loyalty to them and to Andy as well. The movie brings something for people of all ages to learn which is a major reason for the phenomena of people that follow it religiously. If you are a Toy Story fan, I would highly suggest popping in the first two movies and see if it brings back memories, if so go and see the third one and complete the one of the greatest trilogies of all times. It will make you laugh and may make you cry but it will remind you of what true friendship means and what the meaning of loyalty is to a tee.

On another note, like Andy, I will be going off to Manhattan (aka Manhappenin) this August for college. Last week my parents and I went to orientation at K-state. It was ran by mostly students who were Juniors and Seniors currently at K-state and they gave us a brief preview of what we needed to know about the college before we got there in August. We learned the Wabbash cannonball, the fight song, and the ins and outs of many things located around campus. So for me it was pretty boring as I've been raised a Wildcat from the womb and knew most of these things already. After all of the student-led activities, we met back up with our parents and headed off to lunch then to do the most important thing we came to do, enroll in my classes. I was actually really happy with the schedule I got, mostly because I have one class period before 11:30 a.m. all week which will work perfect for my ideal sleeping schedule of going to bed around midnight and waking up around 10:30 or 11. I'm taking 15 hours which includes an online money management class, psychology, college algebra, U.S. history, intro to leadership, and pre-major orientation. I find out my roommate the first week of July and move into the dorms August 21! So as excited as I was after enrollment, I'm sure it will continue to build as it gets closer and closer to going up there. Other than that, I'm looking foward to seeing friends and family at my big bro's wedding this coming weekend and hope to see you all there.

Windows 101

So for some retarded reason, this summer I decided I would do the unthinkable and get an actual job that requires this new word I'm learning called "work". After about 3 weeks of this "work" I think it stems from the spanish language and translates into sucks ass! Now I understand why so many people decided to become teachers because working in the summer is just straight retarded.

Ok I'll stop ranting on why everyone should be lazy and not work and get back on subject. I work at Fish Window Cleaning, a nationwide company with many different branches all over the country including Wichita. Fish cleans mostly commercial glass and residential glass every once in a while. The way the cleaners (Me) make money in this business is totally based off speed because we are paid based off of commission so the faster we can do a job the more jobs we'll be able to get in that day. Now, starting off cleaning glass is not as easy as it may sound or look, it is a skill that requires much practice and just repetition before you can become a "expert". Once you do get a hang of it though, you can make some decent money for a summer job. These are a couple things that you learn about windows and cleaning them after a couple of weeks of doing it:

1. You will find yourself checking out window size, amount of windows, and type of windows every time you see a store, house, or building when you aren't working. I always imagine how bad it would be to clean that house or building and thank God I'm not working right then. I am also surprised at how many windows you don't notice if you don't clean windows, places you originally thought would be easy to clean end up pissing you off and you never wanting to go back there again.
2. Birds are worthless! I swear that all of those stupid pigeons do is wait til I clean a window and go right after and shit on it. Keep it on the car windows birds, stay off my territory!
3. Cleaning in the heat sucks. It's quite annoying when you mop up a window and then when you pull out your squeegee, the water has already evaporated because it is so hot out. Once again, quickness comes into play and the heat will speed you up or you will streak the glass and make it look worse than when you started.
4. GPS's are a lifesaver. Being a product of my generation, I have no sense of directions, ability to read a map, or where streets go. So I use the gift we got my Dad for fathers day for my own benefit, but he doesn't mind as long as I don't kill myself by going down the wrong side of the road.
5. My favorite part of my job is in between jobs I can listen to sports radio while I'm in the car. Had I not got a job where I was required to get up at 6:30 a.m. (my least favorite part of the job) I would be asleep through all of my favorite sports radio shows (mike and mike, the herd, Dan Patrick, and Tony Kornheiser)

So thats all I got for you, I'll try and get a picture of me in my uniform so you can see me in action!

From Good to Worse

For the second straight year at Mulvane High School, the students have participated in a competition between the Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior classes. The competitions were random and required participation such as wearing a hat, wearing green, or who dressed up for spirit week. The winners were determined by percentages of students who participated in each class. And for the second straight year the Seniors won. The underclassmen will claim the competition is rigged for the Seniors to win but frankly I don't care and either will they when they are Seniors.

The reward for the winning class is a trip to Worlds of Fun at the end of the school year. This year due to budget cuts and our school already being short on money, students were required to pay $20 to go on the trip. The fee was not a problem for our class apparently as over 2/3 the students ended up going.

The trip was set to leave the school at 7 a.m. which is really early for someone who doesn't get the bed til midnight at the earliest and isn't anywhere close to being a morning person. But I didn't care how tired I was or how early it was, I was going to the closest thing to fun in Kansas, Worlds of Fun-which is technically in Missouri but it counts. The bus's were split up with guys in one bus and girls in the other, one downfall of the trip. So we stuffed 50 some 18 year old guys into a bus with limited leg room for 3 hours and we were off.

The trip up went smoothly and as planned something that didn't happen later but that's for later. We stopped in Otttawa to get some food before we hit the park and would be forced to pay $4 for a drink if your thirsty which in my opinion should be illegal. So I ate a pretty large breakfast at Burger King as I was blessed with a little bit of my father's tightass gene. So we loaded back up and before we drove each other insane, the Mamba was in sight. For those who don't know of the Mamba's badassness, its a roller coaster that takes you almost straight up 200 feet in the air and sends you back down at 75 MPH.

As our teachers gave us the "Don't embarrass Mulvane speech", we were more worried about the first ride we were going to ride. For me, it was the detonator, which was fun and all but I had to have the Mamba next. One thing I learned from this trip is that you learn a lot about your classmates. You find out the people who you thought were the toughest people ever were scared to death of roller coasters or the most timid people or what we like to call "Ride Warriors"

The day went fast and 5 o'clock came faster then we could have imagined. As the group I was in tried to squeeze in the last couple rides of the day, we witnessed a middle schooler vomit all over the waiting deck for the Mamba and after that it all went downhill.

The storms that the weathermen had been predicting had arrived in full force. We saw a few cloud to ground strikes of lightning and casually started to make our way to entrance to leave. That casual stroll turned to a full out sprint after a bolt of lightning struck a roller coaster inside the park about 100 yards away from me and set a building on fire. We ran through the rain which felt like rain on steroids. We got on the bus safe and sound and ended up having to wait on students who were closer to the lightning strike as the park was keeping them in a storm shelter. We got our missing students after about 30 minutes and at that point everyone was on edge. The storm was massive and was going straight up our route home, the turnpike. We tried to go around it and took about an hour detour around Kansas City to avoid the heavy rain which was a failure at best. Our driver couldn't see anything which forced us to go 40 MPH the whole way home. After seeing 2 semis tipped over on the side of the road, students were seriously worrying whether we would make it home alive. We got to a break in the storm and stopped at a rest stop, one of many stops, and got some food and filled up with gas.

Well the satellites for the credit card machines were down at this rest stop so we had to wait an hour for them to get back up before we could fill up the busses-made me wonder what the world would really be like if electronics failed. Our bus driver had a terrible and stinky accident. As she was filling up the bus with gas, somehow the gas shot back out of the tank and all over here-remember that busses take diesel. So she changed into new clothes but that didn't eliminate the stench. Not to mention that there are 50 guys on a bus with all the windows up that just ate a week's worth of junk food and McDonalds, so things got gassy.

Our next dilemma was the other busses windshield wipers broke down (which doesn't bode well in a storm) and their bus driver couldn't figure out how to fix it. So their idea of fixing it was the other bus would just follow our bus closely so we would block the rain. So if you weren't freaking out by this point you were about to be. We had just received a phone call and were told the turnpike at El Dorado was closed because multiple semis were tipped over and that the storm we were about to hit had already produced a tornado. The bus was hot and tensions were high, there was almost three fights and the students were about to take over the bus themselves.

Well as you can tell we made it home safe and sound, I didn't write this on the bus before I died but after a 7 HOUR trip from Kansas City to Mulvane, I was surprised I didn't. All in all, the trip was worth the hassle, it was a great way to spend with the people I have grown up with forever and many whom I will not see after we go to college. If nothing else, it will be a great story to tell and grow as its told for years to come.

Prom Recap

So this weekend was one of most important weekends of this small town as about 90% of the town came to watch the Juniors and Seniors walk in for prom. This year I went with a group of 23 seniors and 1 Junior (poor guy) to prom. My 1st Date, Oh ya there is more than one, was Taylor Parsons and my other date, due to a track meet where her date couldn't make it back, was Lauren Caldwell. The day started off just fine, while all the girls were getting ready since 9 a.m. , I was sleeping until about 12! Just another reason being a guy is much cooler than being a girl. From then I watched some Family Guy (Side note, I have my Dad watching this now and he loves it, who would have known?) and then played some call of duty until about 2:45 p.m. Pictures were at 3:30 in English Park. Deciding where to take pictures about started World War III between the girls and when I tried to step in and help by suggesting we just not take pictures, they didn't take me too serious. Well pictures went about as well as possible when trying to get 24 people to show up on time and then get them lined up to look at about 40 cameras. Luckily we got through pictures fairly quickly and finally got to get away from the parentals.

Our mode of transportation was a party bus! If you've never seen or rode on one, its pretty much a dance floor on wheels with 2 stripper poles on it. Dancing on this became difficult with our driver taking offense to not slamming on the brakes or peeling out. Once again the girls were about to have a throw down over whose Ipod to listen to and what song we wanted to play as we walked off the bus at the high school. Finally everyone decided on a song ("California love" Tupac and Dr. Dre) and everything was fine again.

We ate at P.F. Chang's which is definitely the best Chinese restaurant in Wichita so I was pumped! We got right in with our reservations and had a gay black man for our Waiter. I had the Sesame chicken which was delicious and other than some food getting mixed up, this went fairly well and we were set to head back to the school.

We arrived at the high school about 8 p.m. and walk in went beautifully after about a zillion pictures. Then finally the fun began. The first half of the dance was disappointing mostly because of the song selection but the last half made up for it where the DJ's finally figured out some decent songs. Charlie Hansen and Megan Bryant were crowned homecoming queen and king. By the end of the dance I was sweating profusely after "breaking it down" to the best of my abilities (which are not good).

After prom was surprisingly a big disappointment. For three years, after prom had been an awesome experience with dodge ball tournaments, 3 vs. 3 bball tourneys, ping pong tourneys, guitar hero competitions and much more. This year had none of these and had limited activities and was poorly organized. But as usual, we made the best of it and ended up having some fun. We played blackjack and I got to see which of my friends I would want to take to Vegas and which would lose it all there. Then finally the prize giveaway started and as usual I didn't win anything big. No TV, Xbox, Fridge, or grill. Nope I won the game Cranium. Oh ya and a box of hot tamales (which I don't even like) so the wait for the prizes was also a disappointment

Overall though, the night was a great success as we all had a great time. I will try and get more pictures up on here and facebook later when I can get my mom's camera. For now these will have to do.

P.S. 15 more days of school!

Prom Recap

I'm backkkkkkkk!

Well well well, how long its been since I've been on and filled in the tons of people that follow my blog (or like 3). But thanks to you few that do. I can't really put my finger on why I haven't been updating my blog exactly. Way too busy? Maybe, Don't have anything really to blog about? hmmm kind of, Laziness? Probably a little of that. I'll just say that's a combo of those three but I'll give it a try now.

1. Baseball- Baseball didn't start how I would have liked but we have been playing a lot better as of late and are looking forward to the rest of the season and what it hold for us (hopefully another trip to state!). Specifics? Ok we lost our first two games to Wellington. No one hit the ball well and we didn't pitch and play defense well enough to make up for our lack of hitting. We then proceeded to lose our first game to the Hill (Rose Hill for you non-Mulvanians) but made it a game after nearly being run ruled, the game ended 12-8. The next game we finally got the monkey off our back and won the game 8-5. That sparked us for our next double header where we swept Circle, winning 3-0 and 14-3. We have Andover next Monday and hope to continue our winning streak into league play.
2. Wind- This goes back to baseball and baseball SUCKS in the wind. Another reason I hate Kansas weather, if its not snowing, raining, or sleeting...it is blowing wind straight into my face in left field. It actually gets annoying every time you look up for a fly ball and your hat flies off and blows to the fence! Maybe I'll need to find a way to keep my hat on my large dome. Superglue? not worth it. Or the wind could just stop f'n blowing like I'm in a hurricane! But that would mean some other crappy weather is coming so I'll just deal with it I guess
3. Scholarships- there these sweet things where if you fill out some forms and write an essay, the group your filling it out for will give you FREE MONEY. My mom and me (with a lot of help from my mom but I've helped) have been filling out about every scholarship I think is out there. I guess she wants to pay for the least amount of college as possible. But there is a catch. You have to use the money your awarded for school. So even if I do get one, it's not going towards my summer fund so I can achieve my ultimate goal of not getting as my mom would call it "an actual job". I guess watching little kids 3 hours a day and mowing a lawn once a week doesn't meet her standards of this thing she calls a job.
4. Tick-Tock- Time is counting down towards, barring I don't do anything too dumb, graduation! I think I have 23 actually days of school and 39 total days until my last day at the place I'll be so sad to leave being the high school....not.
5. Its that time- Oh how I love warm weather! I can wear shorts, cut off t's (show off the guns), and of course its tip-ten weather. I've played tip-ten ever since I can remember. I played with all of Travis's friends when he was in high school and have played ever since. My friends and I have taken it to a new level now and when we have money (not often) will play it for money. If I win consistently, is that considered a job? I'm not asking

This is about all thats going on right now in my life, I know it is excting, but other than this I need to start a persuasive research paper and have no idea (aka motivation) what to do it over, so if you have any ideas or spare research papers laying around, feel free to let me know.

Miscellaneous March

I don't have anything in particular I want to talk about so I'll just put some random things I have done or am going to do in March....

1. I recently watched a somewhat old movie by the name of "Hurricane". I got it from Netflix, which I'm addicted to. The movie is about an African-American boxer, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who was falsely imprisoned by a corrupt police force and judicial people in the state of New Jersey. He was sentenced three counts of murder and wrote an autobiography while in prison "The 16th Round". Another African American from that area who was somewhat adopted by a group of Canadians to prepare him for college, read the book and was moved by it. He visited Rubin in prison and these three Canadians get Rubin a hearing in the supreme court where he is ordered to be released. The movie is however one sided as there are still questions about whether Rubin was really innocent or not. Either way, great movie, watch it if you haven't seen it.



2. One downside of doing everything you do on a couch (eat, sleep, read, computer, watch TV, play Xbox, or homework) is that you lose things and it takes me getting off my lazy butt to find them. I think I'm going to tie a string around my phone and attach it to my wrist because that thing gets stuck in between cushions and lost in blankets daily (very annoying).



3. I have way too many hobbies: I play Xbox, read books occasionally, watch about 5 TV shows a week, any sporting event, watching movies, being on the Internet, read 3 sports magazines (ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Sporting News), and still try to fit in homework somewhere in between. I'm trying to figure out which hobby I want to set aside for a while as I've become terrible on time management this semester but can't figure it out. Maybe I just need to figure out how to multitask more efficiently?



4. Basketball finally is about to mean something: Mostly in the NBA as the playoffs approach in the beginning of April but NCAA basketball begins the greatest tournament in sports in about 2 weeks. I will be filling my bracket out to perfection or nowhere close to it, probably the latter.



5. March also means MLB baseball is on its way. This also means fantasy baseball! Oh yeah, I should probably add fantasy sports to my hobby list. I'll probably get in more leagues than I know what to do with, hoping that I may actually win one of them.



6. Spring break- Colorado = as Borat would say it "Great Success". As much as I hate being in the cold, I would honestly rather be skiing in the mountains than being on the beach any day. Although I do want to take a cruise sometime, I'm thinking a huge family one too, I wonder who'd throw who off the boat first?



7. After Spring break means only 7 more weeks of school for me!

Oh and for those of participating in the annual "McGuire Big 12 Tourney Challenge", you can make your checks out to Corbin McGuire, I also accept cash.

On to the next one

So last night capped off my final basketball game as a high schooler, and as I will seriously miss playing the sport of basketball, I will not miss the drama and baggage that came with playing it these last two years. Now its on to baseball: Dill Pickle seeds, batting practice, taking some pop flies, shagging balls, sometimes a little goofing off, and most importantly dew time are all the great things that come with playing baseball. Dew time, for all of you who don't know, is when after practice everyday, someone on the team goes and buys a case of mountain dew. Everyone with a truck pulls up and we make of circle of trucks and sit to drink our dews and talk, argue, mess with the softball players, or play "death hack". Death hack in a nutshell is just a game with a hacky sack and the goal is to hit someone with the hacky sack. It can get very intense and usually leads to arguments and more yelling.

Last year, all of us were bored sitting around during dew time and the softball players had gone to eat and some had left their cars at the parking lot. So we decided that we would move Taylor Parsons in between two trees. So we all picked up the back end of her car and rolled it into the grass between two trees. Well later when she came back and freaked out that her car was in between two trees, she made a break to steal Tyler Springer's car, so he decided he was going to steal her car as well and park it on a huge mound of dirt in the sports complex. I don't know how her Honda civic made it back down from the hill but it did by some miracle but needless to say she has a new car now. The softball girls would later retaliate with water balloons, all of which I dodged I might add.

One more "game" we have in Dew Time is after your done drinking your mountain dew. You must see how long you can stand on your empty can. Now you may think this is impossible but surprisingly the record held by Justin Parton is over 13 seconds with all of his weight on top of his empty mountain dew can. My goal is to beat that...doubting it though.

So there is a brief summary of what goes on during and after baseball practice, I'll try to get some pictures of the dumb stuff we do during this season

Drumroll...

Well yesterday was the last of my college visits that I will probably use and I went to, of course, Kansas State. The day started with a 7 a.m. wake up call, which usually I'm not a pleasant person in the morning but today I didn't care because I was that excited to get to Manhattan aka Manhappenin. After two Jr. mcskillet burritos-not sure why they go rid of the regular mcskillet burrito-I took a nap and read my ESPN magazine and by that time we had arrived in Manhattan ready for what the day had in store for us.

It was actually a near perfect day as far as the weather, about 40 degrees, sunny and no wind. So the day was set as we checked in, got my free shirt, and then set off on our campus tour. Our guide was pretty good, especially at walking backwards and saying the word "Wild" about 20 or so times. After seeing about everything on campus, most memorable being the dorms and student union where we saw two basketball players in Rodney McGruder and Wally Judge. After the tour, I met with with an admissions advisor who was in one word, awesome. Answered every question I had and was interested in what I wanted to do later in life and what was important to me on a personal level. My next trip was to the Arts and Sciences building to meet with an advisor from the Journalism and Mass communications building. She was also excellent in giving me an idea of what type of classes I would be taking and to start thinking about what type of minor I would like to take because it is required for a JMC major to have a minor as well.
This would conclude my "official visit" but not my day in Manhattan.

As my family always does while in Manhattan, we went to Varneys because you can never have to much purple, right? I got a new pair of sweats and annoyed my mom into buying Travis a sweet Saint Patty's Day/K-State hat, your welcome Travis. We then decided to walk down the street to see if our friend Fitz was in his office. He was and he gave me some great perspective on why I need to go to K-State. One of them was that K-State JMC major offers a broader area to study in every area that a journalist will work in: Writing, broadcasting on TV and radio. He said this is important because he does all of these things and so do most people in the Sports Media Field. Another compelling reason for me to go is to prove to Fitz that there may actually be a decent softball player in the McGuire family. He also said that after a couple years of schooling I could work with him and get some great experience in the field and start building my resume.

Fitz told us to go to back across town to campus to see the Dole Building, this is where they do most of the video and radio broadcasting for students. The main guy in charge there gave us a tour of the place and it was pretty cool to see what these students, that work for him, were doing with video editing and pretty much running their own TV show. Seeing all of this kind of put K-State over the top for me.

The last leg of the day was my favorite because we were going to watch the K-State/Nebraska game. We got their pretty early to watch the team warm-up and were surprised to see the team having a "Dunk Contest" which was pretty entertaining. Entertaining enough for me to record about 2 min. of it on my phone. The game was very exciting, more exciting than I had hoped but a win is a win so I'll take it.

I slept most of the way home as I was tired from the long day. Later that night as I was about to go to sleep, I was thinking about all of this deciding on a college thing and it wasn't as hard as I'd thought it would be. It wasn't necesarily one particular thing that swayed me to K-State but a combination of a a lot of things and I think it just felt right when I was on campus. I could see myself being there next fall and that was huge for me. So as I'm sure you all have figured out I will keep bleeding purple and attend K-State next year!

You Tube is my addiction

So lately my I've been on you tube so much that it should be my homepage. I have been watching/listening to music (We need a stereo downstairs!) while playing Xbox or doing whatever. But the majority of battery being used for my computer is being used watching videos on the secret society called the "Illuminati" and other conspiracy theories behind historic events such as 9/11 or the JFK assassination. Now I'm not saying that 9/11 was a set up or that all of the things on you tube are true but there are some signs and things that they point out that really make you think, which is the main reason I watch them, I love sitting there and wondering what if this is the real reason that a certain thing happened.

My sudden obsession with the "Illuminati" came from watching the movie "Angels and Demons" based on Dan Brown's book (also wrote The Da Vinci Code) and if you haven't seen the movie or read the book, I strongly encourage you to at least watch the movie and if you have time, read the book, I am currently about 100 pages in and can barely put it down. The story is based off the clash between the "Illuminati" and the Catholic church aka the clash between science and religion. In this case the Illuminati believe in science not religion and are back on a vengeance against the Vatican to kill future prospects to be Pope. The irony is they use a scientific invention ("antimatter" aka big bomb!) to threaten the foundation of one of the largest religions in the world. If you want the rest of the movie, watch it! I can't tell you too much or it will ruin it.

Now the Illuminati, from what I've learned in my hours of watching and researching things on the Internet, are a wide based secret society that believe in a wide variety of things like Science created everything, the Devil is the real god, the bible is a lie, and many other things. To clarify I DO NOT BELIEVE IN ANY OF THESE THINGS! I don't want people thinking because I believe or suspect some of the things that Illuminati is said to have been involved in that I believe the Illuminati's beliefs are right.

One of the branches of the Illuminati is the group that "sold their souls for fame", this group includes Jay Z, Eminem, Beyonce, Tupac Shakur, Kanye, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and many more. I'm tellin you, just type in Illuminati into you tube and you'll b on there for hours but it is kind of interesting because they provide in some cases overwhelming evidence against these people. Jay Z is the most convincing one that I've seen. Just to list a few songs that are Devil related...(Devils and Lucifer) and in his new song Empire State Of Mind he has a verse that's a shot at Jesus saying "If Jesus paying Lebron I'm Paying Dwayne Wade" meaning he's doing the opposite of what Jesus is. His signature hand gesture is also very similar to the symbol of the Illuminati (triangle with eye in it), I'll post some pictures. Eminem also has a newly released song called "My Darling" talking about the Devil coming back to claim his soul which he sold for his rap career, listen to it its actually a very interesting song (side note, "Careful what you wish for" by Eminem is also great, new as well). Now I won't go on about each of these people, if you want to learn more just google it or YouTube and you'll see that this stuff is everywhere, whether it is true or just a coincidence? I don't know but I'm aware of it and will take it with a grain of salt and go with it. But here are some Illuminati pictures and symbols random things....

Notice Eye in triangle, very key

U.S. money and Illuminati?

Lebron and Jay Z, notice hand symbol

If I didn't interest you at all with all this nonsense, at least watch the movie "Angels and Demons", if you don't like that then I don't know what's wrong with you....

Countdown to...

So as many exciting and important days come closer and closer, I've gone as far to start a countdown to each of these events in order of importance.

1. Graduation- (3 months, 7 days, and 14 hours) 12 years of 8-3 can start to wear on you after a while and it has definitely started to hit me this semester. I'm almost to the point of ripping post it notes with the # of days til graduation off every morning, so you could say I'm pretty pumped to get that diploma!



2. March 1st-(21 days, 14 hours) This day will be a day of relief as it is the first day of baseball! Don't get me wrong, I love playing baseball but I've never been this excited to pick up a ball and a bat and just start a new season. This will be nice because the season, if it goes anything like my previous three, will be enjoyable. I won't dread going to practice and will have some fun with it. Anyway, this is also when I hope to have picked or to pick the college I will be attending next fall.



3. Spring Break! ( 1 month, 4 days, 14 hours)- Now I know there are certain people who think this should be number 1-you know who you are-but this is a close 3rd if that makes you feel any better. I can't wait to be able to get out of Mulvane for a few days with now worries of school or sports and just hang with family, rock the slopes, and have some fun of course. Hopefully this year will be a spring break to remember for good reasons not for a snowboard flying off our car going 70 MPH on a highway in Denver, although that was quite humorous.

These are the only things on my mind right now, when these things are all over then maybe I'll think about what happens next, maybe?

Stillwater!

So the plan was to take my first college visit to K-State this Monday but unfortunately they weren't having visits on Monday and informed us that we needed to give them 7-14 days advance for a visit. We then proceeded to see if Oklahoma State (my other college option) would let me come take a visit on such short notice, no problem, we got an entire days worth of tours and advisement meetings set up and were set to go!

As I walk upstairs like a zombie with my eyes halfway closed ready to go, my father informed me that it wouldn't look good to wear sweats to a college visit, so I angrily went back downstairs and changed into some jeans. I continue on after eating a bowl of cereal (captain crunch) and then get into the infinite. 2 hours later I wake up in Stillwater and become the navigator of our car-not sure why we have a GPS?

We eventually find our parking garage and walk to the Alumni Center to check in. After about a 30 min wait because as usual we are EARLY, precious minutes I could have been sleeping, but anyway we get a little introduction spiel by some guy from Undergraduate Admissions and a corny video. Following this we go on a tour of the campus, which was by far the nicest campus I've ever seen granted I've only been on about 4. Our guide, a student, should probably not give tours for a living, he definitely did not like the cold as we went through about every building to warm up. The one thing out of this tour that stuck out at me was their Rec Center. It was like 4 stories, with anything you could think of from swimming pools, basketball courts, racquetball courts, running equipment, weights, ping pong table, and even a rock climbing wall. The best part of this is that coming here is free for students!

As we were walking through the Rec Center, who would have guessed we would run into Mr. Trent Turner, coming out of his dance class, damn PE majors. So we talked to him and we later met him for lunch with his roommate, Butch. I was very surprised to find all the dining options that are available for students, over 40 different places. I also was interested in the system they used to pay, the students have a card that works kind of like a debit card where a certain amount of money is put on the card and is just deducted when you pay for your meal. On a side note, I had some sort of chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, some noodle stuff, and a roll and later some ice cream of course and it was delicious!

So my next tour was the tour of the living facilities (dorms), we had two tour guides this time and these guys were awesome! We first went to the older dorms. They explained these dorms were where you would most likely meet more people and have more fun because you wouldn't be in your dorm all the time but you would be in your "floor entertainment room" with everyone else on your room doing just about anything. We then went to the nicer dorms (The Suites). They had their own living room and anywhere from 2-4 rooms and up to 2 bathrooms. They explained these dorms had the opposite benefits of the first dorms as a lot of people don't leave their dorms to meet new people. The last dorms we went to were the Village, I think these were my favorite because it was a great mix of the other two dorms as you did have your own room but all the people on your floor would be in your major so they could help you with any problems.

Our next trip was to the Journalism building to meet with a student advisor to talk to about their Sports Media program. Wow! I've never been that impressed about something in a long while! Our guide was not only hot but was also a Sports Media major, and had an internship with ESPN where she worked with "Baseball Tonight". She took me around and showed me all the equipment and technology which she said was tops in the nation in this program. She also told me that Oklahoma State is one of 3 schools in the U.S. with an actual "Sports Media" major. I then met a couple of professors and listened to them talk about what they teach, each one was very interesting. Our guide then explained a "Sports Media" club she joined in which she got to drive around Bobby Knight and make money for it. All of these things and many more that I haven't included are the reason Oklahoma State really impressed me and actually surprised me.

I still am not any closer to making a decision on where to go next year but I do have an idea of what type of questions to ask Kansas State when I visit them within the next couple of weeks, I hope to decide before baseball begins and hope its not as difficult to decide as I think its going to be?

Hell Dorado

So lets just say I haven't had the best luck with finding things in the town of El Dorado or for that matter, getting out of El Dorado. To start, about the start of November, Stephen Saldivar (Sal) and I were on our way to watch Mulvane's Cross Country team go for there 3rd Straight State Championship. After a short stop at the mall to buy some things, we were on our way, with about an hour til the race started so I'm thinking we r good on time. Well we get into El Dorado with about 30 min til the race was about to start and thought we were on route to the correct area....After about 4 phone calls to my father trying to figure out where I'm at and where I need to go, I'm thinking I'm getting warmer. Well after driving around El Dorado lake for about an hour, we finally managed to find the race site, just in time for the medal presentation. I'm going have to blame this trip on the faulty directions I was given before heading up there.

So my most recent trip to El Dorado was definitely the most entertaining of the two trips I've made their this year. Our basketball team decided we we're going to go up to the Butler vs. Barton basketball game to watch Tyler Springer (played for Mulvane last year and played very well in this game, scoring 8 points). So Sal, Taite Pulliam (Tyler's Girlfriend), Maddie Wise, Nick Lockwood, and head up to El Dorado. As we get bored of listening to music and have nothing better to talk about, Nick pulls out his Ipod Touch and decides we are going to play Truth or Dare. This isn't the regular Truth or Dare, this is the sexual version and if you haven't played it before I would recommend it for a night full of friends it can serve as a laughing tool for the whole night. You won't believe some the things this game comes up with, most of which are too inappropriate to put on here.

After we are done playing our game we arrive in El Dorado and find the Butler County Gym. While listening to three different people tell me three different places to park, I decide to try to park in the back (bad decision). As we pull into the parking lot, we see the Barton basketball bus, so we think we should go park in the front, however where supposed to get there? So Maddy says we should go through this alleyway that could lead to the front parking lot? Ummm not completely true. As I drive up this alleyway, bypassing the sign that said "authorized vehicles only", the concrete I started driving on turned into the sidewalk and eventually grass, and as it turns out, we had found the entrance. As people are walking by my car on each side, I'm trying to turn the car around on their front lawn, this was quite comical if you were there.

Finally we parked (in the back) and watched the game. Unfortunately, Tyler's team did not win but he played well. After the game, we go outside to find that is so foggy you can't see ten feet in front of you, so I'm thinking what else could happened to me while I'm in El Dorado. We all load up and begin our trek home. But as everybody tries to figure out how to get out of this parking lot and we try everyone's choice and don't find our way out of the parking lot for about 15 minutes, and thank God that was the last of our woes on the road...

Sports in 3D, What is Next?

So if u didn't like seeing the seat on peoples' faces or the brand of underwear they are wearing while watching HD television, or even if you did, it gets better. ESPN plans on unveiling their new 3D, yes like the movies, channel for sporting events this summer. The first sporting event they plan on showing in 3D is the World Cup.

Now if you're not too experience at watching soccer, you need to know that these people take soccer more serious than any American takes football, basketball, and baseball combined. Its almost a given that someone in the stands is going to the hospital from a fight breaking out in the stands. Not only that, its not out of the norm for beer bottles (after they've been drank of course) too be thrown on the field, at players, coaches, referees, ect..

Although I have only seen one 3D movie (A Christmas Charol), I'm not exactly looking to watch soccer balls/beer bottles to fly out of my TV at me, it just doesn't seem like that would make the game more enjoyable. I mean, when HD came out, I ignorantly said "What so special about it, I bet you can't even tell the difference", and oh how wrong I was. I've fallen in love with HD games, although I haven't guilted my parents into that one yet, its a work in progress. But anyway just like about anything else, I'll give 3D sports a chance but I just don't see myself paying extra to get a channel that I would have to wear some goofy ass glasses to watch, shouldn't they pay you to do that.

My next thought is what can they possibly come up with next? We've went from, well my parents have, adjusting an antenna from 3 different channels, having the 'little brother' change the channel on the TV, to a basic cable package of 30 some channels, to about 70 some channels, to up to like 1000 channels, HD television that requires a new TV, and now 3D that also will require a TV which is probably why I think 3D sports will catch on, especially in the economy we're in and the insane price of TVs already.

That's my thoughts on this possible future craze, so for now, I'm out.......

Funny but wrong

While listening to the "Mike and Mike" morning radio show, they were talking about the what the NFL could do about the teams resting their starters at the end of the year (nothing). But their assitants had come up with 8 things the NFL could do for fans that go to see a game where the starters are not played, not serious as you'll see but I just couldn't help but laugh at these, so I thought I'd share them with you.

1. The NFL could let you spend 3 hours in a shed with Mike Leach.


2. Brett Favre will play for the team of your choice next year.


3. You will receive "dirty" text messages from Tiger Woods



4. Join in a poker game with Gilbert Arenas, remember a "gloc" always beats 2 pair



5. Receive Nets season tickets or their face value of $3.68






6. You get to coach Notre Dame in a bowl game once Brian Kelly leaves



7. Bengals Chad Ochocinco will change his last name to your zip code in French


8. You get to play in an NFL game, just look at our last winner, Curtis Payner

Once again, these may not be completely right to say but they were all in good fun and as a joke on the NFL and these people.

Bold Predicitions for 2010

These are my, in some cases, very bold predictions for 2010, don't call me this time next year if I'm wrong.

• Tiger will be back for the masters and go winless all year, I don't think he will bounce back from this and will go down as one of the biggest let downs in sports history. I really don't hope this happens because he is the only reason I watch Golf but I don't know if he's going to be able to take someone yelling "Cheater" in his back swing when he freaks out for cameras clicking.





• Bama' will win football title: They are more physical and are on a mission as we saw in the SEC championship where they beat in my opinion the second best team in the nation.





• Kentucky will win NCAA basketball title: John Wall will be second freshman to lead his team to an NCAA title.




• Los Angeles Lakers win a second NBA title in a row, this time against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kobe Bryant receiving the MVP, Lebron opts out for free agency, signs with Miami heat to play with Dwayne Wade





• New York Yankees win the World Series again, against the Philadelphia Phillie's....again.





• San Diego Chargers win the Super Bowl over the Dallas Cowboys. Phillip Rivers gets MVP





• USA wins world cup......that's way too bold, I'll take Spain.