What an interesting week it was for me over Thanksgiving break
It all started out with an all-nighter to prepare for a make-up exam that I had to take before I could leave for break. I felt confident in taking and felt confident that I would get good results from it. I would, however, find out that I ended up getting a 56% on it so I had to settle for my original exam grade instead (which really wasn’t that much better). It was quite a bummer which led me to question whether or not I would stay in chemistry any longer. I’m still thinking about it and am leaning towards staying in chemistry as my overall grade isn’t all that bad. All in all, that was the only gut-wrenching thing to occur during the break. The rest neutralized the bitter taste that was left in my mouth.
After taking my make-up exam, I went to a meeting with my University Studies advisor to discuss my dropping of my chemistry lab. I had taken the course because I thought it was a required to take a lab with the science that I chose. It turned out, later on, that I was wrong and did not really have to take the lab with my science; I would have to take a lab if I chose a major that required one but it would not have to be taken with the science. Unfortunately, I learned this after the add/drop deadline had passed and had to use one of my six withdraws. After a lot of confusion and decision making, I decided to take the withdraw and be done with chem. Lab. Afterwards, following the said appointment, I went back to my dorm to pack up for my return to Richmond for the following week. I also unplugged everything as they required me to do so to avoid any sort of fire hazard that might occur while I was gone. I also cleaned out my fridge so that no food would spoil while I was away. I even scrubbed out the bottom of it and defrosted it just to be on the safe side. After following these, as well as other, precautions, I went to take my stuff out to my parents’ van and then pretty much octuple-checked to make sure everything was taken care of before I left Tech. It was and, after a three hour ride, I was back again in Richmond.
My week at home started out with me and my sister going to view a stand up performance of a famous stand-up comedian that I highly respect who goes by the name of Brian Regan; I had received tickets to see one of his performances as a birthday gift from my mom and dad. Brian Regan is a comedian who has appeared on Comedy Central several times and is one of my favorites. His acts are relatively clean but still leave you rolling on the floor feeling like you’re going to bust a gut due to uncontrollable laughter. His brother also performed in the performance as the opening act. There were a few technical difficulties at the start of the show but everything got fixed and the show resumed as would be expected. Mr. Regan’s jokes includes jokes about holiday traditions, playing with kids, and trying to assemble a barbeque grill as well as many other jokes that made me crack up again and again. I thought it was a wonderful performance and found it to be very funny and amusing as comedians usually are.
Other than the stand-up performance, I spent my Thanksgiving break at home with the rest of my family in Richmond, Virginia; The one thing I liked about being off was seeing them again. I even got to see my brother, Sam, who came down to Richmond from New Jersey on Wednesday. Aside for the feast, which I’ll get to in a little while, we all just laid around, watched football and played board games for the most part. I got to play risk for the first time in my life and actually hung around for awhile until I got clobbered in the end.
Obviously, one of the greatest parts of being home for Thanksgiving break was that I got to partake in Thanksgiving Dinner or in my family’s case, Thanksgiving Lunch (we ate pretty early). There was plenty of food to go around throughout the course of that meal: turkey, ham, potatoes, green beans, rolls, deviled eggs, custard pie, pumpkin pie, and strawberry pie. Even after twelve of us ate at this wondrous feast, there was still plenty of leftovers; we barely made a dent in that large turkey and my dad took the rest of it and put it, as well as the many side dishes, into a numerous amount of containers that ended up barely fitting into the fridge. Then again, if you look at it, there wasn’t anything uniqueabout the whole Thanksgiving meal. As my other favorite comedian, Jim Gaffigan, puts it: “Thanksgiving is a holiday where we do what we normally do everyday, overeat, but we do it with other family members.
The weekend following Thanksgiving, we all gathered around the television to watch the VirginiTech Hokies play a football game against their bitter in-state rivals, the Cavaliers from the University of Virginia. After a slow start take would finally take control of the game with freshman running back, Ryan Williams, having a career day with three or four touchdown runs. Tech ended up winning the game by a convincing score of 42 points to Virginia’s 13 points.That turned out to be the Virginia Coach’s last game as we was fired shortly afterwards. That night following the game I packed up and got ready to go back to tech. I ended up staying up until three o’clock in the morning and felt crappy waking up a few hours later.
After my parents drove me to Tech and dropped me off, I got all my belongings in and said hello to friends in my dorm and welcomed them back. Shortly after that, I realized that I had no food as I had emptied out my fridge the previous week. After shopping around at Wal-Mart for a couple of hours, I got the necessary foods that I would need for the remaining weeks of the semester. And here I am now, finishing up the blog, being the great procrastinator that I am, before the ten o’clock deadline. It was a great Thanksgiving break and I look forward to cracking the books one final time before closing out the semester.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
My active weekend
Today, I had one of my most productive, exciting and active weekends during my tenure here as a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Here is how it unfolded.
It all started out on Friday morning. I woke up at 7:30 in the morning and had to think quickly as my first class that day, General Chemistry, started at 8:00 in the morning. I needed to get dressed and have breakfast in the next five minutes so I could get to class early and, in the extra time, do my math homework that I forgot to the previous night. I managed to finish it right before the professor started his lecture (lucky me). I then went to my math class and it was from there where things got pretty hectic. I found myself in a bit of a time crunch after I left McBryde Hall where my previous two classes were held. I then had to move to Shanks Hall where I had an appointment with my English professor where we would discuss the rough draft of my English paper where we discussed how I should tweak it to make it better for my final copy. After than was said and done, I then had to make the long journey of to the medical clinic where I had another appointment, this time with a psychologist. We talked about my learning disabilities and how to cope with them as well as how school and college life was going for me. After that, the stressful part was over. From then on, what I did with my weekend was up to me. I chilled out for the time being and had lunch and chilled out some more. Later on in the afternoon, I went to the ATM to get some cash and then I took a bus the Wal-Mart in Christiansburg where I did my grocery shopping for the week. I got to read a very peculiar book during the trip on the bus; it was called, “Tales from the Virginia Tech Sideline”, a book filled with stories about the lives about Tech players and members of the coaching staff. After I got off, I took a cart and looked around the store for a while. I then got a bite to eat at the Subway and read more of my book for about half an hour. I then resumed my shopping and got the stuff I needed for the week. I then went back to my dorm and watched a little bit of television while I reorganized my room a little bit.
On Saturday, I woke up a little later than usual but that did not matter to me. I woke up with a blueprint of how I would spend my day. I went and took my laundry and took my dirty laundry with me as well as my detergent and some quarters and put my laundry in the washing machine in the Slusher Wing laundry room. There was a lot of it as well, I almost had to stuff it into the machine but, nonetheless, managed to get it all in. I went back into my room to watch some football on television and then I went back to the laundry room with some more quarters and a dryer sheet. I went and took my laundry out of the washing machine and put it into the dryer. I took it out about an hour later; some pieces were still damp because I had put in so much into the dryer. I then watched some more football. I was not able to watch the Virginia Tech game against Maryland as it was not being broadcast on television. Instead, I listened to it on the radio and the Hokies did not disappoint; they won by a score of 36 points to 9 points scored by Maryland. That was okay and all but the real treat came two or three hours later. As the Virginia Tech game was wrapping up, I could not help but notice on the ESPN sports ticker that Stanford’s team was winning against the University of Southern California in dominating fashion. In the end, Stanford would go on to crush USC by a score of 55 points to USC’s 21 points. I posted a comment about it on facebook to which a friend of mine who is a student at USC replied with a rather nasty word. After hours of smashmouth football and reorganizing my room, I went and did my math homework (I usually do my homework on Sundays which made me feel even more well accomplished). I then went to reorganize my room a little bit and went to bed and got a good night’s rest.
I woke up Sunday morning even later than I did on Saturday morning. I had to do a little bit of work in preparation for the wing program class in which I was enrolled in but not before looking to ESPN to see the rankings and see how far Virginia Tech would rise and how far USC had fallen. The Hokies had risen to 16th in the AP poll while USC had fallen to 22nd; that was an ultra-gratifying sight for me to see. I then went to D2 to get a bite to eat. I then went to the Tech Bookstore to start looking at Books for next semester’s classes. I then thought about going to the other side of the drillfield to look around campus and become more familiar with my surroundings but I saw the sun was starting to set and decided to head on back to Slusher and make the trip later. I had dinner and then I started work on this blog assignment. In the middle, I stopped and attended a meeting that focused on steps and instructions for leaving the residence halls for Thanksgiving Break. Shortly after that, I went back to finish my blog post. While finishing, I was interrupted by one of the classmates in my seminar class who wanted me to write a page for the introduction of the wing program paper. So I did the page and sent it to him via E-mail. So here I am finishing up this blog which I can now say is finished. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
It all started out on Friday morning. I woke up at 7:30 in the morning and had to think quickly as my first class that day, General Chemistry, started at 8:00 in the morning. I needed to get dressed and have breakfast in the next five minutes so I could get to class early and, in the extra time, do my math homework that I forgot to the previous night. I managed to finish it right before the professor started his lecture (lucky me). I then went to my math class and it was from there where things got pretty hectic. I found myself in a bit of a time crunch after I left McBryde Hall where my previous two classes were held. I then had to move to Shanks Hall where I had an appointment with my English professor where we would discuss the rough draft of my English paper where we discussed how I should tweak it to make it better for my final copy. After than was said and done, I then had to make the long journey of to the medical clinic where I had another appointment, this time with a psychologist. We talked about my learning disabilities and how to cope with them as well as how school and college life was going for me. After that, the stressful part was over. From then on, what I did with my weekend was up to me. I chilled out for the time being and had lunch and chilled out some more. Later on in the afternoon, I went to the ATM to get some cash and then I took a bus the Wal-Mart in Christiansburg where I did my grocery shopping for the week. I got to read a very peculiar book during the trip on the bus; it was called, “Tales from the Virginia Tech Sideline”, a book filled with stories about the lives about Tech players and members of the coaching staff. After I got off, I took a cart and looked around the store for a while. I then got a bite to eat at the Subway and read more of my book for about half an hour. I then resumed my shopping and got the stuff I needed for the week. I then went back to my dorm and watched a little bit of television while I reorganized my room a little bit.
On Saturday, I woke up a little later than usual but that did not matter to me. I woke up with a blueprint of how I would spend my day. I went and took my laundry and took my dirty laundry with me as well as my detergent and some quarters and put my laundry in the washing machine in the Slusher Wing laundry room. There was a lot of it as well, I almost had to stuff it into the machine but, nonetheless, managed to get it all in. I went back into my room to watch some football on television and then I went back to the laundry room with some more quarters and a dryer sheet. I went and took my laundry out of the washing machine and put it into the dryer. I took it out about an hour later; some pieces were still damp because I had put in so much into the dryer. I then watched some more football. I was not able to watch the Virginia Tech game against Maryland as it was not being broadcast on television. Instead, I listened to it on the radio and the Hokies did not disappoint; they won by a score of 36 points to 9 points scored by Maryland. That was okay and all but the real treat came two or three hours later. As the Virginia Tech game was wrapping up, I could not help but notice on the ESPN sports ticker that Stanford’s team was winning against the University of Southern California in dominating fashion. In the end, Stanford would go on to crush USC by a score of 55 points to USC’s 21 points. I posted a comment about it on facebook to which a friend of mine who is a student at USC replied with a rather nasty word. After hours of smashmouth football and reorganizing my room, I went and did my math homework (I usually do my homework on Sundays which made me feel even more well accomplished). I then went to reorganize my room a little bit and went to bed and got a good night’s rest.
I woke up Sunday morning even later than I did on Saturday morning. I had to do a little bit of work in preparation for the wing program class in which I was enrolled in but not before looking to ESPN to see the rankings and see how far Virginia Tech would rise and how far USC had fallen. The Hokies had risen to 16th in the AP poll while USC had fallen to 22nd; that was an ultra-gratifying sight for me to see. I then went to D2 to get a bite to eat. I then went to the Tech Bookstore to start looking at Books for next semester’s classes. I then thought about going to the other side of the drillfield to look around campus and become more familiar with my surroundings but I saw the sun was starting to set and decided to head on back to Slusher and make the trip later. I had dinner and then I started work on this blog assignment. In the middle, I stopped and attended a meeting that focused on steps and instructions for leaving the residence halls for Thanksgiving Break. Shortly after that, I went back to finish my blog post. While finishing, I was interrupted by one of the classmates in my seminar class who wanted me to write a page for the introduction of the wing program paper. So I did the page and sent it to him via E-mail. So here I am finishing up this blog which I can now say is finished. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Is 2009 another 2003?
Virginia Tech’s football team has now lost two contests in a row against Georgia Tech University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. These two losses have eliminated Virginia Tech not only from the national championship but also from the championship race in the Atlantic Coast Conference as well. From being ranked as high as fourth in the polls to being ranked twenty-second in the polls today after their most recent loss to North Carolina. This makes three losses on the season for Virginia Tech to go along with the five victories that they accumulated, the first loss was against the University of Alabama in early September. That makes them one loss short of last year’s record when they suffered four losses. One has to wonder where the Hokies go from here. More importantly, are they doomed to suffer the same fate as that of the 2003 Virginia Tech team where they were flying high but then suddenly came down to earth with a thud?
In the 2003 College Football Season, the Hokies had a fairly talented team and were ranked in the top ten in all of the pre-season polls. In their first six games of the season, the Hokies appeared to be one of the elite teams in the country. They demolished all their competition and were never considerably challenged throughout that said span; one of those victories included a fifty-one to seven rout of Syracuse University, a team that had defeated them in the two previous years. Their next opponent after that six game span was West Virginia University, a bitter inter-conference rival of Virginia Tech at the time (Virginia Tech was in the Big East Conference along with West Virginia until they [VT] moved into the ACC a year later). West Virginia’s record at the time was a dismal one with two wins and four losses; they did, however, push the University of Miami (ranked second in the country at the time) to its limits in one of their previous games, thus showing that they could be a nuisance for any team. Tech did not view West Virginia as a threat, they believed it was going to be an easy win. The game between Tech and West Virginia took place on Mountaineer Field in the city of Morgantown, West Virginia. Throughout the duration of the game, tech played sloppily and gave West Virginia ample opportunities to do whatever they pleased whether it was on offense, defense, or special teams; in the end, West Virginia defeated Virginia Tech soundly by a decisive score of twenty-eight to 7. The Hokies would rebound a little over a week later with a rout of the second ranked Miami Hurricanes by a score of 31 to 7 and would rise in the rankings all the way up to number five and back in the chase for the national title. This reprieve would be short-lived, however, as the Hokies played and lost to a fairly talented team from the University of Pittsburgh in the game’s final minute. That loss would officially end both Tech’s national title and Big East title hopes as that was their second conference loss of the season. The miseries would not stop there, the struggles for Virginia Tech would continue for the rest of the season. The following week against Temple University, a team with a record of one loss and eight defeats, went down to the wire in what should have been a relatively easy game for Tech. In that game, the two teams could not settle the decision in the original sixty second duration, the game would have to go into overtime. Even then, Tech would be lucky to get out alive as they won on a missed field goal attempt on Temple’s behalf in a final score of twenty-four to twenty-three; that would be the last victory that Tech would enjoy, it would all be downhill from there. The Hokies, ranked twelfth, faced Boston College in their final home game of the season. After going back and forth throughout the game, Boston College scored the winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter, setting Tech back yet another loss in the season. Tech capped their overly disappointing season with a loss at the hands of their heated in-state rival, the University of Virginia. Tech was ahead in this game and had an opportunity to put the game away early in the third quarter with a blocked kick that was returned for a touchdown. That touchdown was called back for a penalty and Virginia ended up getting a first down and would score on that drive. They would score a couple more times to take a twenty-eight to fourteen lead. The Hokies would score another touchdown in the fourth quarter and attempted to stop Virginia on their next possession. That, however, proved to be unsuccessful as Virginia ended up faking their field goal attempt in order to get a first down (which they did); they would score and go up again by two touchdowns, winning by a final decision of thirty-five to twenty-one. Tech’s four losses greatly reduced the quality of their bowl game. Instead of going to an important January bowl, they instead played in the Insight Bowl in late December against the University of California-Berkley. The contest was one that went back and forth with both teams going up by as many as three touchdowns at some point in the game. Tech would return a punt for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, tying the game up at forty-nine points each. Any hopes of victory would be dashed, however, when Cal got the ball back. They would get into field goal range with just a few seconds left in the game. They would kick the field goal and ultimately win the game by a score of fifty-two to forty-nine. The loss dropped Tech to a disappointing record of eight wins and five losses.
The question that I am trying to ask is this: is this Tech’s fate for 2009? Will they get their act together and finish off their now-watered-down season and win the rest of their games and finish strong or will they continue to fall apart at the seam and lose another one or two games? As for me, I would choose the former over the latter for sure. I do not want to see them collapse like I saw them do so in ’03, that’s too painful to watch a second time. If they can go the path of the former and in the rest of their games, then that’s a good thing. If they go the path of the latter, however, then Tech has some things to work out. Honestly, I have noidea of what is going to come of all of this, the future is quite murky.
In the 2003 College Football Season, the Hokies had a fairly talented team and were ranked in the top ten in all of the pre-season polls. In their first six games of the season, the Hokies appeared to be one of the elite teams in the country. They demolished all their competition and were never considerably challenged throughout that said span; one of those victories included a fifty-one to seven rout of Syracuse University, a team that had defeated them in the two previous years. Their next opponent after that six game span was West Virginia University, a bitter inter-conference rival of Virginia Tech at the time (Virginia Tech was in the Big East Conference along with West Virginia until they [VT] moved into the ACC a year later). West Virginia’s record at the time was a dismal one with two wins and four losses; they did, however, push the University of Miami (ranked second in the country at the time) to its limits in one of their previous games, thus showing that they could be a nuisance for any team. Tech did not view West Virginia as a threat, they believed it was going to be an easy win. The game between Tech and West Virginia took place on Mountaineer Field in the city of Morgantown, West Virginia. Throughout the duration of the game, tech played sloppily and gave West Virginia ample opportunities to do whatever they pleased whether it was on offense, defense, or special teams; in the end, West Virginia defeated Virginia Tech soundly by a decisive score of twenty-eight to 7. The Hokies would rebound a little over a week later with a rout of the second ranked Miami Hurricanes by a score of 31 to 7 and would rise in the rankings all the way up to number five and back in the chase for the national title. This reprieve would be short-lived, however, as the Hokies played and lost to a fairly talented team from the University of Pittsburgh in the game’s final minute. That loss would officially end both Tech’s national title and Big East title hopes as that was their second conference loss of the season. The miseries would not stop there, the struggles for Virginia Tech would continue for the rest of the season. The following week against Temple University, a team with a record of one loss and eight defeats, went down to the wire in what should have been a relatively easy game for Tech. In that game, the two teams could not settle the decision in the original sixty second duration, the game would have to go into overtime. Even then, Tech would be lucky to get out alive as they won on a missed field goal attempt on Temple’s behalf in a final score of twenty-four to twenty-three; that would be the last victory that Tech would enjoy, it would all be downhill from there. The Hokies, ranked twelfth, faced Boston College in their final home game of the season. After going back and forth throughout the game, Boston College scored the winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter, setting Tech back yet another loss in the season. Tech capped their overly disappointing season with a loss at the hands of their heated in-state rival, the University of Virginia. Tech was ahead in this game and had an opportunity to put the game away early in the third quarter with a blocked kick that was returned for a touchdown. That touchdown was called back for a penalty and Virginia ended up getting a first down and would score on that drive. They would score a couple more times to take a twenty-eight to fourteen lead. The Hokies would score another touchdown in the fourth quarter and attempted to stop Virginia on their next possession. That, however, proved to be unsuccessful as Virginia ended up faking their field goal attempt in order to get a first down (which they did); they would score and go up again by two touchdowns, winning by a final decision of thirty-five to twenty-one. Tech’s four losses greatly reduced the quality of their bowl game. Instead of going to an important January bowl, they instead played in the Insight Bowl in late December against the University of California-Berkley. The contest was one that went back and forth with both teams going up by as many as three touchdowns at some point in the game. Tech would return a punt for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, tying the game up at forty-nine points each. Any hopes of victory would be dashed, however, when Cal got the ball back. They would get into field goal range with just a few seconds left in the game. They would kick the field goal and ultimately win the game by a score of fifty-two to forty-nine. The loss dropped Tech to a disappointing record of eight wins and five losses.
The question that I am trying to ask is this: is this Tech’s fate for 2009? Will they get their act together and finish off their now-watered-down season and win the rest of their games and finish strong or will they continue to fall apart at the seam and lose another one or two games? As for me, I would choose the former over the latter for sure. I do not want to see them collapse like I saw them do so in ’03, that’s too painful to watch a second time. If they can go the path of the former and in the rest of their games, then that’s a good thing. If they go the path of the latter, however, then Tech has some things to work out. Honestly, I have noidea of what is going to come of all of this, the future is quite murky.
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