No blog this week due to anticipated elevated levels of tryptophan in the coming days. My medical blog-bot might update you for me.
You think I'm kidding...?
As I write this I'm listening to my Beach Boys station on Pandora. This stuff is amazing! If you don't know what Pandora is, it's a free Internet radio service where you can create your own play-lists. I have tobyMac, The Beach Boys, MercyMe, Dizzy Gillespie, Smooth Jazz, Gavin Mikhail, and Five Iron Frenzy stations. I made Gavin Mikhail a link because he is an amazing piano artist based in Nashville. He's a great guy and I think he can use all of the exposure possible.
So anyway, this week has been pretty busy. So was last week. Last week Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 came out last Tuesday (best game in the WORLD!). Then on Wednesday I had to give a big presentation in my biology lab. Trust me, you don't want to know the topic. I actually want you to be awake to read my blog. It would bore you that much.
Then over the weekend a friend of mine whose in the Army took me to a shooting range to squeeze off a few rounds. To be perfectly honest, it was a blast (no pun intended). I had never shot a real gun before, so it was really fun.
And I'll include another picture just to be funny...
That is what happens when people play with big guns. That was the effect of a 12-gauge shotgun at close range on what of the target backboards. Let's just say that the range owners aren't going to like that. My friend had a key to get in. Members of this range can get in at any time. People don't need to be there. It sounds unsafe, but my friend is very safety conscious. As you should be when handling deadly firearms. You should always practice safe firearm handling. I'll share some rules from the range that you should always practice with a weapon.
1.) Never, EVER point a weapon at someone unless you are in imminent personal danger.
2.) Make sure all shooters on the firing line understand your cease fire signal before heading out to check on targets.
3.) All weapons will point downrange, never point anywhere other than downrange.
4.) Know your limits! Don't fire a weapon if you are unsure of the weapon's handling. A weapons with too much kick-back can be fatal to you and/or other shooters.
Firearm safety is not a joke. I've never shot a gun before last weekend. These are just some common sense rules. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to handle a gun.
Moving on!
This week I've got a big math test AND a lab report due for my biology lab. If you can't tell, I'm no friend of my biology classes. I HATE biology! I thought it would be the easiest of the three choices for core science credit. See, at all state-supported schools (the ones with State in the name, like Ball State or Ohio State), have a core curriculum dictated by the state education department. At least, I think so. Anyway, Ball State has decided that you need a science credit in either biology, chemistry, or physics. I thought biology would be easy. NOT!
Let's get off that depressing topic. Next week gets interesting. As you know, Thanksgiving is just around the corner (weekend). Ball State only has two days of classes, Monday and Tuesday. But our class schedule is Monday and Friday. What?! Yep, it's true! Monday is obviously on Monday and Friday is on Tuesday. We call it Fruesday. It's actually a pretty stupid idea. I don't even know why we have to switch our class schedule around.
Most exciting of all (at least for me), is Tech4U is this Thursday! Tech4U is a technology fair held in the library. It's a ton of fun, because I'm a geek who loves new toys. But it's particularly exciting because I'll be showing off the Microsoft Surface at the event! All because I made the Ball State Maps program on the Surface. Well... I didn't technically make it due to difficulties during last summer, but that's in my Surface-oriented post. But there are plenty of other good reasons to attend the event!
So in closing, I'm ready for Thanksgiving, I want me some turkey and football!
... And remember, Red October is standing by!
And even though the librarian follows me around shushing me wherever I go whenever I say it, this is RealLife at Ball State.
-Joel
So, first as a disclaimer, I missed a week's update last week. I'm sorry, I'll go throw myself in the thresher now. Now for the news... Well since it's been two weeks, there a lot of news to fill you in on. A week ago was Fall Break. Fall Break was technically one whole day. Whoo! One whole day! I don't entirely know why. There's also another weird day-off thing coming up in November, but I'll hold off on that for now. My roommate went home for that weekend so I had a whole three-four days to myself. Not a bad trade-off. My roommate's a pretty cool guy. My first roommate was horrible. To be honest I can't really remember what I did last weekend. So we'll start fast-forwarding through the week.
Cru was at First Presbyterian Church last week which is always a cool place to set up (I'll go more in-depth about Cru later in this very post!). Thursday my biology lab was cut short because the professor has the flu, non-swine version. Oh yeah! About that; since my mom has been bugging me about H1N1 nonstop, once the BSU Health Center gets H1N1 vaccines, I'm getting one (partly just to let my mom have one less thing to be overprotective about). The school has been overzealous in its' own ways of fighting swine flu. Even my church! My catholic church has altered it's ways to fight swine flu. So once the health center gets the vaccine, I'm there. Of course... the terrorist detainees are getting it as well. I'm not going into politics because that is ugly but needless to say, I'm not pleased.
Jimmy John's was also giving out $1 subs on Thursday. Thursday was a pretty good day. I also bought Forza Motorsport 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Guitar Hero 5 last week. In two weeks I'll be lucky to update my blog at all because Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 is coming out!!! I am stoked! Then this weekend was obviously Halloween. Truth be told I'm not a huge fan of Halloween. But I did go to a Halloween party as Eric Clapton only because I was too lame come up with a real costume.
So we're in the now.
"Now You're looking at the now sir. Everything that's happens now is happening now.
What happen to then?
We passed then.
When?
Just now. We're at now now.
Go back to then!
When?
Now!
Now?
Now!
I can't.
Why not?
We missed it.
When?
Just now.
When will then be now?
Soon!"
(That was a Spaceballs reference and the entire link goes to the same clip of that section of the movie. Just to make things clear: Spaceballs = WIN!)
So it's that time again. Time for me to go in-depth on some section of my Ball State life. I said it earlier, and I'll say it again: this week is about Cru. Cru is short for Campus Crusade for Christ. If you can't tell by the name, it's a Christian group. It is one of the largest Christian groups on campus. There's also the Revo (Revolution Church), Navigators, and some others that I can't remember. Cru International has its' own website, but Ball State Cru has it's own site made by some students within the group. It's a pretty multimedia-intensive site so make sure you have Flash and other web browser add-ons installed and updated. I help in Cru by setting up the band for the Thursday night worship service. Cru has various Bible studies throughout the week and a big worship service on Thursday nights.
And there are videos of the finished result here, here, and here. All links will open in a new window/tab so that they don't take you away from the blog so you can... you know... still read it and comment on it if you like!
So that's my most up-to-date musings on my recent departure from my senses. See you next week!
And even though Facebook does the world a favor and deletes my profile whenever they hear me say it, this is RealLife at Ball State!
-Joel
A lot has happened since my last post. There was Parent's Weekend. I've gotten some good material to put in here for another blog or two. Really the main thing that happened was Parent's Weekend. Ball State played Blowing Green over the weekend... and lost... sorry, but BSU hasn't won a football game all season. We went undefeated in the regular season last year. But a lot of ugly stuff happened near the end of last season. As I sit here watching Monday Night Football between the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers, I wonder... why did our football team tank? I'm no football expert, but still. I told you I would talk about my favorite computer, and I will... later in the blog. Oh, I just remembered, I was assigned a homework assignment in a class where I need to blog. "But Joel, you've got a blog right here! Why not use that for your class?" Good question! Why not? Because this assignment is really stupid and I don't want to muck up this blog with worthless bloviating. Sad, but true.
Another little news bit from campus is that Campus Crusade for Christ started a new advertising campaign on campus. I won't go into detail, but it involves orange shirts. Let's just say I'm split on opinion of it.
So for Parent's Weekend my roommate went home to celebrate his dad's birthday. It was pretty quiet in the room last weekend. My parents didn't come down for the weekend. My parents are divorced and neither like to make the 3+ hour drive. At one point I know how they feel. I got a speeding ticket because I wanted to get back to campus because I didn't like making the drive. But at the other time, I hardly get to see them. So I watched BSU lose to BG and watched Notre Dame lose to Fusc (I'll never give Fusc any respect ever).
I feel like I'm running out of stuff to say. Does it seem like that? Like I'm just 'listing' off things in my average school day? Well I'm happy to say that this week is a good week already because not only do I not have my biology lab on Wednesday, but I also don't have biology lecture on Thursday! It's gonna be a good week Sluggo... (that's a Ron White reference)
Unrelated to Ball State, I have to say this. This past Sunday the Carolina Panthers played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Tampa Bay. Roughly 10 seconds before the end of the second quarter Carolina punts the ball to Tampa Bay. The punt returner is Clifton Smith, the return blocker (gunner) is Dante Wesley. Wesley is shooting down the field like none other. Seeing the rushing defender, Smith tries to call a fair catch. Before Smith can even get his hand up to signal fair catch Wesley lays into Smith at full force. As in, this wasn't just a dirty hit. This was a full force, leaping off the ground, taste my shoulder pad attack. Smith was knocked out for a minute or two. Wesley's shoulder pad hit Smith's throat. Smith also got a concussion from it. Both benches were emptied as every single Buc player wanted to get a piece of Wesley. The ref ejected Wesley and was fined today. The NFL suspended him for one game without pay (I think it should be two), and fined him $38,750. It was the dirtiest hit I've seen in a good long time. It was ugly. Here's a link to the YouTube video. I shudder watching that video. It was just as bad as when Kevin Everett of the Buffalo Bills was almost paralyzed playing against the Denver Broncos. Now, there are a couple of differences there. It is painfully clear that Wesley intended to hit Smith. Whether he wanted to intentionally injury him, I don't know. Kevin Everett, the Broncos didn't intentionally try to hurt him. It was just incredibly bad luck the the hit injured him. Wesley puts out a couple of punches on the Bucs players that were trying to charge him and throws a tantrum because he was ejected from the game. What a jerk!
So now for the little dilly on my favorite computer. It is indeed $12,500 unless you buy the software to make programs for it, which makes it $15,000. It's called the Microsoft Surface. It is a touch only computer. It runs Windows Vista underneath the Surface shell program (it's meant to run Windows 7 as the core). Here are some pictures:
Sorry about the blurriness. I tried to take better shots but this was the best I could get.
Here's a video teaser of the Microsoft Surface. The great thing about that video? I've done everything in that video! I love it!
There are two Surface units open to the public here at Ball State. The one you see here is in the Digital Complex in Bracken Library. The other is in the office of the Center for Media Design. Don't worry, all links will open in new windows/tabs. There is a total of three Surface units at Ball State. The third one is not allowed to be shown due to licensing agreements. The third Surface unit has software that was developed by a professional company out in California. We can't be seen as trying to steal credit for the programs. I actually called this company for a little bit of help in developing my own program for the Surface. See what Ball State can do for you if you get involved? Oh, I almost forgot! Here's a video of me playing with the Surface in the library. Like I said before, I think I am hideous in front of the camera.
Well, there's my entry for the week! I hope you enjoyed it. It gave me a good excuse to play with the Surface! I will see you next week after Fall Break.
And even though the BSU Women's Volleyball team spikes the ball at my face whenever I say it, this is RealLife at Ball State.
-Joel
So last Sunday I got an interesting email. A Journalism 105 professor wanted me to speak to her class about blogging. Her rationale was that since the BSU blog team are all famous bloggers for the school... wait... what? Famous bloggers? I'm sorry, I just have to laugh about that. We're not famous in any way. Me least of all. If you're reading this, I really appreciated speaking to your class and look forward to trying it again next semester, but I think you gave us more hype in the email you sent us than the school has! It sure made my day! I even got some pictures of the class that me and Lindsay spoke to. Yeah, I wasn't the only speaker to talk.
(Yeah, I know there's some overlap.)
I also went to an event called Fields of Faith. It's put on by a group called Fellowship of Christian Athletes. It was... okay. It wasn't really geared towards college students. It was more for high school students, and last time I checked I'm not in that category. Due to the pictures coming from the class I talked to, I won't be having a Ball State famous location/icon. Next week won't necessarily be a BSU icon or anything, but it's my favorite computer of all time (so far). It is by Microsoft, and costs about $12,500 per computer (if you don't buy the Software Development Kit which adds another $2,500). This is a short blog entry, I know. I like putting some depth into my posts, but I just really don't have anything good this week. It was boring, what can I say?
Oh! I will say that me and my roommate went to a bar in the Village called Motini's. Motini's is a more upscale bar than all of the other bars in the Village. I did indeed have a drink while I was there. I am of legal drinking age! I will be the first to tell you that I treat alcohol with incredible delicacy and respect. If you don't respect something, you're bound to abuse it. Both of my parents went through AA, they are super anal about me drinking. Well... I did make it 21 years without drinking! I think I have a pretty good track record so far! If I break my drinking habit down to a rate of number of drinks per unit of time, I'm at about one drink a month! I think I'm doing okay. And the drinks were low key drinks, they didn't have a large amount of alcohol or a powerful alcohol in them.
If there is one thing I want to impress upon you, don't abuse alcohol. Drink responsibly, drink legally, drink intelligently. Thank you and goodnight!
(Now for my proper farewell message:)
And even though Shafer Tower's cement seems to weaken causing it to lean in my general direction whenever I say it, this is RealLife at BSU.
-Joel
Hello everybody, how are you? I'm kinda ticked that I have to try and write this blog post a third time. Words of wisdom: try not to hit certain keystrokes that make your web browser reload the page. You'll lose all your work that happens to be in text boxes. Well anyway, I've had a busy weekend (seeing as this is in the middle of the week!). There was a 4 a.m. fire alarm in my building. Yep, a freakin' FOUR AM FIRE ALARM! A 4 a.m. fire alram in the rain and 40 degree wind... did I mention it was at 4 a.m.?! Anyway, I had an InQsit test later on Friday (I'll explain InQsit later). Well needless to say I made the test and passed it. Later on Friday night there was a Cru event called Barn Bash. It was loads o' fun! Barn Bash is just what it sounds like, a big social event in a barn. It has a country theme (if you can't tell from the title). I even danced! And I am nowhere near social enough to dance, much less in a group of people! I have a picture that is not the best of me, but then again which one is?
Not the best picture of me... but anyway! Barn Bash was fun. On Saturday at noon was the homecoming football game vs. Toledo. Ummm... we won't go there. Notre Dame played later that night and won in overtime (whoo!). Now, about Notre Dame. In my video file this week I'm wearing a Notre Dame hoodie. I'm the biggest ND fan around. But here's the caveat, if I had advanced knowledge of everything I know about now about BSU, I would choose to go to BSU other any other school, even if offered a full ride to any other school. I love Ball State. I just love Notre Dame too, but I wouldn't go to school there because BSU has left that good of an impression on me.
Now, on to the BSU landmark of the week! This week's landmark is the tallest structure on campus (not to be confused with the tallest building which is Teacher's College which is the tallest public access building). This week it's Shafer Tower, the bell tower on campus.
Here's my video of Shafer Tower. Shafer Tower is all of 150 feet tall, dedicated in 2002 (that was only five years before I got here!). Due to lack of planning by the build team, the tower literally had to be built twice. The cement they used the first time was defective so they had to deconstruct and and reconstruct the tower. I've heard (but never confirmed) that shafer Tower was supposed to be a clock tower, but we didn't want to compete with Purdue in the "tallest clock tower in Indiana" category. So the places where the clock faces would've gone just show Benny, the same icon that is on all BSU letterheads. The tower has 48 bells that ring at 15 minute intervals during the day. For special events a musician will play the bells. There's a stairwell in one of the legs that go up to a room where you can play the bells.
Well, that's my blog for this week. I would've posted on my normal Monday, but I got angry with this website. Word to the wise: don't refresh any web pages where you do extensive work in text boxes if you haven't saved. I've also decided to come up with a catchy ending phrase; some phrase or something that I end my blogs with. If you listen to Car Talk on National Public Radio, they enter all of their breaks and end of the show with a catchy (humorous, self-depreciating) phrase. So here's my first try:
"And even though Frog Baby throws a frog or two at me whenever I say it! This is RealLife at Ball State."
-Joel
This is my first in depth blog post. I've been gathering some photos and video to put on here, that's why it's taken so long. I've also been busy with projects and papers. Unless you major in sleeping, you're always be busy at some point with projects and papers. I try to put that off as much as possible (because who actually wants to do work?!). I'm usually hanging out with friends or playing Xbox LIVE. The projects and papers really get in the way of that! But for the most part life here is nice. I celebrated my 21st birthday a week from yesterday (my birthday is Sept. 20th). I don't feel any different now then I did a month ago. Ball State will send you an email about the potential dangers of drinking. Not that my parents haven't been warning me for a couple months now anyway! But this blog is about life at Ball State, and that it shall be!
I said in my very first blog post I would bring you celebrities of BSU, and my first one is here! Benny as she is called (full name being Beneficence). She was sculpted by the same person that did Lincoln's statue in the Lincoln Memorial, Daniel Chester French. On the day I was taking this picture, I actually wanted to take a video as well (which I'll link later). There was a guy trying to take a nap on such a beautiful day. I feel self-conscious enough on camera, much less with someone I don't even know. Ah, that video! Here's a link to that video right... here. There are five pillars around Benny representing the five Ball Brothers. There's a building on campus named Ball Communication (where you will spend your life if you're a telecommunication major). The Ball brothers also founded Ball Brothers Glass. The urns on top of the pillars do NOT contains any remains. The remains of the Ball Brothers are buried in Beech Grove Cemetery. The five Ball Brothers were: Lucius, William, Edmund, Frank, and George. Next week I'll show you the pet project I worked on last school year.
So that's all I really have right now. I've got to limit my BSU celebrity content to one per post or I'll run out of subject real fast! I've got a pretty busy schedule, I'll try and keep my updates to every Monday. If you have any questions or comments... well then post a comment! I am on Facebook, but I'll pretty much ignore anybody I don't know on there. If you have a question, someone might have that same question and I should answer it on here, not Facebook. I'll also try and post pictures and such from my other activities, may it be Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ), sporting events, or me and my friends being complete idiots (usually I'm the idiot). So that's all I got for now! I look forward to comments, questions, and hope you look forward to next Monday!
-Joel
Hello everyone. I'm
Joel and I will be your blogger for the coming school year. Please keep all
hands and legs in the ride at all times, because it will be one heck of a ride!
That's what Ball State is; a whirlwind of people, places,
lessons, and experiences. Where else can you encounter a gorilla in the main
food court? Where can you find a guy that makes every Friday a campus-wide holiday?
No where else, that's where! I could go on and on about BSU in one blog entry,
but I'm going to try and break it up (helps with digestion). Over the year I
will detail the highs, the lows, the trials, and the tribulations of student
life at BSU. I can give a virtual tour of the notable campus locations. Local
(and national) celebrities associated with Ball State.
The thrill of victory (and agony of defeat) with the various sports teams I can
follow. I'll show you how BSU is not only teaching you, but putting you into
places where you use what you learn, sometimes in the same day! Strengths of Ball State?
We got ‘em! Weaknesses? Who doesn't have them? I can't say BSU, but I can say
that BSU doesn't have a lot of down points. I will say this as perspective:
knowing everything I know now about BSU, if I was given the chance to go to any
school all costs covered, I'd still choose BSU. It's the friends, lessons, and
opportunities that Ball
State's given me that I
know other schools can't offer. Take this blog for example. Where else can you
find so much technology and social networking? One of the projects that a
professor of mine is really invested into is called iTV, Interactive TV. Think
of iTV as being the home page for your TV. When you turn your TV on, you get a
customizable screen showing only what you want. Weather, sports scores,
breaking news; you add or remove what you don't want. The bottom scrolling
ticker on the screen will also show only what you want. Me? I was a programmer last school year spring semester for the Microsoft Surface. Check out a video here (the link will open a new window so you don't navigate away from this page). That is only one of many, many learning opportunities, immersive or otherwise,
offered here at Ball
State. So stand up, come
follow me.
-Joel