2008 January Archive at Ben, ‘11

Archive for January, 2008

Saturday Spectacular

January 28th, 2008

As this weekend winds to a close, I must say that I am not quite ready for another week to start. I kept putting off my minimal homework and now have to do it late Sunday night. If I had been able to buckle down on Friday, then I wouldn’t have had any work to do, but I was busy with the Health Center then. I’m feeling much better now in case you were worried. Anyways, the work didn’t get done Friday and it didn’t get done Saturday either. However, Saturday was a really fun day.

I slept in and recovered, grabbed lunch, and then headed to the Modlin Center for a matinée performance of Neil Berg’s 100 Years of Broadway. It was an excellent performance, definitely one of my favorites since I’ve been here. It had five singers who had all been in starring roles in at least two Broadway shows. Some had even been in up to seven. They had excellent voices and stage presence. I’m not incredibly versed in the classics of Broadway, but I knew a fair share and really enjoyed them. They sang “All That Jazz”, “Summer Nights”, Don’t Rain on My Parade”, “Over the Rainbow”, “Nothing Like A Dame”, and “Oklahoma”. There were songs from RENT, Jersey Boys, West Side Story, Movin’ Out, Showboat, and Jekyll & Hyde. Neil Berg, the compiler, even played one of his pieces from “Grumpy Old Men” which was amazing. They incorporated humor with “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better” and really made me laugh. I was tempted to buy a CD but never got to it. I’m a fan of Broadway, for most of the musicals, so this was a real treat for me. I wish that I could have taken pictures or video to show you, but I’m not allowed to in the theaters. I hope that they’ll come back next year.

Download I found this link. This group has different singers and
it’s not as good, but it’s a taste.

After that, I went over to the basketball game. I arrived there early and got free nachos from the Rowdies, our sports spirit organization, and just missed getting a Best Buy gift card. We played Dayton. They were ranked 16th in the nation (yes that’s the number that comes after 15 and is usually associated with the title of “very good team”). I didn’t anticipate staying the whole game since I thought it would be over by halftime. When we led 3-2, I thought about taking a picture just to prove that we actually led at one point. Well, that lead continued and we went on a twenty point run.

We jumped ahead early!

Our Men’s Basketball Team vs. Dayton

We shot 3-pointers like crazy. Everything was going in for us. At half-time, we led by over twenty points. I knew that we had a chance and just hoped we didn’t blow it.

We were holding our own against a nationally ranked team!

The last time that we had beaten a Top-25 team at home was eighteen years ago, but we now had another chance. Well, time kept running out for Dayton and we ended up winning fairly handily. We were so excited. Most of the students rushed the court and it was a great game for us. Overall, Saturday was a really fun day for me.

WE WON!!!!

Some students decided to rush the court. We were excited.

Highlights from the Game

I went to church Sunday morning and saw my friend, who is a fellow U of R student who goes to my church, deliver the sermon. She did a really good job. The rest of Sunday was spent cleaning my room, managing my finances, and watching a TV marathon. Now I’m buckling down to work and get ready for a Monday. Have a great week and I’ll check back in soon.

Quote of the Week: “It is amazing how quickly the kids learn to drive a car, yet are unable to understand the lawnmower, snowblower or vacuum cleaner.” -Ben Bergor
Though to Ponder: Why do they put the names of football teams on baseball caps?
Shout Outs: Anyone from my old church or new church

Published on January 28, 2008 in Sports Games and Artsy Performances. 0 Comments

Football and Skulls and Flu Shots. Oh My!

January 26th, 2008

Since I last left you, I’ve been rather busy. I thought that this week could be the busiest of the second semester. However, next week is already starting to fill up. I started out last weekend by going to the home basketball game on Saturday with my friends Jimmy, Buddy, Brian, and Buddy’s family which had come to visit. At the game I saw our newest mascot costume. I think it looks hideous. It vaguely resembles a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robot. It can’t move it’s arms well and can only bounce up and down. Plus, it looks like it’s about ready to topple over. That’s just my opinion though. After the game, Buddy’s family was very gracious and brought everyone out to dinner. It was a nice place and great to get off campus for a while. Thank you Buddy’s family! The rest of the night was spent playing video games and watching lame shows on TV.

Our new mascot. Sorry for the bad quality.

The basketball game which we lost.

Eating at Topeka’s with Buddy’s family and my friends
The waitress thought it was Buddy’s birthday, so he got plenty of cake.

Sunday brought church and then football. The Packers could not pull out another miracle win this year. It made me sad. I watched the game and made my chili cheese dip and ate my cheese curds. My friend tried cheese curds for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed them. I also fit homework in late Sunday night.

What goes better together than football, cheese curds, and calculus?

On Tuesday, I attended a really cool performance at the Modlin Center. It was presented by LA Theater Works and they read the script of “The Battle for the Pentagon Papers”. I didn’t know whether I would like it since it wasn’t exactly a play, but rather them standing at microphones and talking with a sound effects table behind them, just as it would be on radio. I was thoroughly impressed. It was humorous, entertaining, and very well-done. The talent was also very high. John Heard, the dad on Home Alone, was one of the cast members along with several others who frequently appear on TV. I will admit that one of the main reasons that I went was to say that I’d seen John Heard though. I liked it so much that I stayed after for a Q&A Session. The main thing I’ve learned from these events is that if it costs money, it’s going to be good. I was bored one day, so I calculated the costs of all of the Modlin events that I’ve gone to and will go to this semester. The tickets would cost the average adult $409, but I only paid $32 since I’m a student here.

The cast of “The Battle for the Pentagon Papers”

Wednesday was ridiculously busy. I had classes from 8:15 until 2:25 and then a presentation on the LURE research which I plan to do this summer. The main research shown in the presentation was on the human mind’s ability to solve logic games. It will investigate humans and computers and sounds very interesting. Did you know that some schools weight the score of the 25 minute logic section on the LSAT as much as the students GPA over the four years in college? Yeah! Wow! So this research would be pretty important. A cabinet meeting clarifying our plans for the Super Bowl Party that we are hosting followed the LURE presentation. I then made a quick appearance at the women’s basketball game and headed to a Leadership Forum called “Taking the Nation’s Pulse”. I really enjoyed it. Our Jepson School of Leadership Studies hosts about one forum a month and brings in prominent professors and experts from around the country. This week’s forum had professors who specialized in demographics, Hispanics, and religion speak on and answer questions regarding the upcoming Presidential election and the constituency. One of the teachers even visited my Leadership class the next day. It was rather interesting. Finally, I went back to my room and relaxed… and then did homework.

We’ve consistently had cool temperatures and we did get snow.

Speaking of homework, it’s continued to be very manageable. I don’t have as much this semester and I’m managing my time better. I’m really liking my Foundations of Leadership class. The teacher is great and looks exactly like Tina Fey. She’s very passionate and very smart. Math is taking a while for me to catch back up in. My mind has been a little slow in remembering everything and shifting styles, but I’ll get there. Sculpture is still going well. It’s a lot more tiring than I thought it would be. I have two hours of focusing on one thing. We take a small break, but it can wear you down. I was surprised.

After the first day of working on my skull

After Day 2. It doesn’t look much different, but I did a lot of work.

Also, I did a lot of work with Admissions this week. I received training for two hours on Thursday and I start giving tours in February. If you recognize me, feel free to let me know. I also hosted a prospective student for a few hours on Friday. I showed him around and took him to lunch and one of my classes.

Finally, I was feeling under the weather this week. I had to work on transferring prescriptions and visiting the health center. The people at the health center were very nice and helpful. I’m much better now and it was very simple. However, they did convince me to get a flu shot since I do live in a college dorm, so I am now somewhat sore as I am typing this. Oh well. I should probably get some sleep and I’ll let you know how the rest of the weekend goes.

Thought to Ponder: If bread is square, then why is sandwich meat round?

Quote of the Week: “Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes.” -Frieda Norris

Shout Outs: Buddy’s family because they are kind enough to read this, Louis in Michigan (my prospective student), the Admissions Office staff who reads this and somehow knows everything about me, the nice people at the Health Center

Published on January 26, 2008 in Sports Games, Campus Events and Artsy Performances. 0 Comments

First Impressions

January 19, 2008

January has found me back at Richmond and starting a new semester. It’s been a week and time is continuing to fly by. I haven’t done a lot of activities outside of class this week, so I’ll just stick to classes and my life in general.

I got back to Richmond late on Sunday night. I caught the end of the Giants’ game and saw them victorious over the Cowboys. Now, my Packers have home field in the NFC Championship Game. I tried to unpack after arriving here and get everything situated. I brought back some decorations for my wall and, most importantly, cheese curds. No one here knows what they are and I live half an hour from the Cheese Curd Capital of the United States. I ‘m trying to spread some Wisconsin culture.

CHEESE CURDS!!!

Yum! Cheese Curds. The picture doesn’t do it justice.
My new decorations on my wall

Gretel, my goat, adorns my wall now.

I picked up my textbooks on Monday morning and have already listed my old ones for sale. I began my classes and am really pleased with my schedule. I have three classes on Monday and Friday, four on Wednesday, and one on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They’re almost back to back, so I don’t get much rest, but then I have a long period of time to study. Here is an overview of my new classes that I’m enjoying:

Sculpture: 8:15 on WF: I have no artistic talent, but need to take an art class for a general requirement. I hear this class is easy and I think I’ll enjoy it. We’re beginning with basics and none of us are very good. Our first project we’ve started is a skull. Mine is actually resembling one right now. We’ll see how long that lasts. I’m excited for this class and think that it will be a lot of fun, even though it is early in the morning.

Calculus 2: 10:25 on MWF: I was very excited and nervous about this class. I didn’t plan to take math after high school, but here I am. My teacher was one of the chaperones on the Chicago trip and she talked me into it. I’m fairly rusty, but have covered a good chunk of the material already, thanks to my awesome A.P. teacher in high school. I’m keeping up and it’s less work than I anticipated.

CORE: 12:00 on MW: I didn’t care too much for this class during first semester, but the books are much more interesting during second semester. Our class canceled our meeting time on Fridays and are just meeting longer on Mondays and Wednesdays. However, we didn’t check the rooming assignments, so we’ve had some issues. It’s all worked out now. We are currently reading “Confessions” by Augustine and I’m finding it very interesting. I also am still dealing with a grade issue from last semester in this class. She’s changing it to what it should be, but it’s taking a while. Still, I earned a spot on the Dean’s List for first semester. I don’t really know what this means. I think it’s based on GPA.

Macroeconomics: 1:35 on MWF: I’m continuing the Business route with this class. I arrived to class to discover that the teacher is from Nepal and I can hardly understand his English. He is a visiting teacher, originally from St. Cloud State, near where I live. He seems very nice, but he is rather random. Anyways, we took a pretest on GDP, inflation, unemployment, securities, and such. I don’t know hardly anything about it, yet pulled the third highest grade out of eighty students with 20 out of 30 right, and I thought I was guessing. That’s always encouraging.

Foundations of Leadership Studies: 12:45 on Tuesdays and Thursdays: This is my first and only class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I get to sleep in. The teacher is really exciting and I think that this class will be a lot of fun. It’s discussion based and energetic. It’s hard to explain what we do. Just like Women and Gender Studies doesn’t teach you how to be a woman, Leadership Studies doesn’t teach you how to be a leader. We explore different types of leadership and what each means. We look at examples and analyze everything. I’m excited for it and think that the teacher is really awesome. As of now, I’m still planning to minor in Leadership Studies.

Stress Management: 4:15 on M: This is my last Wellness requirement and only lasts six weeks. However, the teacher is really nice and made the class interesting. Oddly, this could be my favorite class (possibly since I don’t get homework). I learned that I do have a lot of stress, but not quite enough to be unhealthy (I was one point shy). Also, I achieved twenty of the twenty-eight characteristics for a Type-A Personality, so I guess that explains a lot about me.

To keep track of all of these classes, I am staying in the library and buckling down. It’s working well and I’m finishing my lighter homework load quicker. I have next to no homework this weekend. I work hard on Friday afternoon and early evening to make it even easier. I was all alone in the library on a Friday, but I got work done.

The library is packed on Friday afternoons. Well, it should be in my mind.

My homework has been modest thus far, but I’ve kept busy contemplating or filling out six applications that are due soon. For most of them, I’m just applying and seeing what happens. They are:

Orientation Adviser: I’m volunteering to come back early this summer and help the new freshmen move in, adjust to life, and navigate Orientation. It should be a fun time if I’m accepted.

Resident Assistant: I highly doubt that I will be an RA next year. I could use some money, but it’s time-consuming and I think it would constrict my liberties more than I would wish.

Summer Tour Guide: I will most likely stay on campus this summer and I might serve as a tour guide. I really enjoy that sort of thing and don’t have many reasons to go back to SUBWAY in Wisconsin. I’m just keeping my options open.

Spring Break Service Trip: I don’t know my plans for Spring Break, but I’m applying for the Disaster Relief team that will travel to New Orleans to help rebuild it after Hurricane Katrina. A lot of UR students sacrifice their time in order to go down there and help out as much as they can.

LURE: I am excited for LURE. It stands for Long-Term Undergraduate Research Experience. It is a program specifically for Freshmen and Sophomores to do math research over the summer. It’s a one of a kind experience and actually pays well. I would stay on campus for ten weeks and work alongside math professors on one of six projects. I really want to be accepted into the program that studies how the human mind solves logic puzzles and dealing with artificial intelligence in computers. It’s very difficult to explain and competitive to get in (which is the main reason for me being in Calculus 2), so wish me luck.

Here’s more info:
http://mathcs.richmond.edu/research/lure.html

Here’s what the groups are each studying:
http://mathcs.richmond.edu/research/lure_research_groups.html

Lakeview Living and Learning: Several of my friends and I are applying to live in the brand new dorm (it opened last week) next year. It will house several Living and Learning programs. I’m applying for Campaign 2008. We would live together in this amazing dorm, take a class on electoral campaigns together, do campaign activities outside of class, and lots more. We would have a teacher serve as an advisor and it’s cool. This is very competitive, so I’m hoping my friends and I get accepted and live together. It’s a great opportunity and I’m excited. I never thought I would do one of these programmed housing, but here I am. Once again, wish me luck.

Here’s more info:
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/univhousing/housing/livelearn/political.htm

As you can see, I have a lot of decisions coming up, but this semester is treating me well. I’m enjoying it and am able to relax a little more. It’s 4:00 AM right now, so sleep is not really changing, but I’ll recover by sleeping in. That is if I can get to bed. There is honking and shouting outside my window as people are returning from fraternity events. That’s college life for me.

The weather here has been a little rainy and cold, but I’m surviving. It’s better than back home in Wisconsin where they’re going to reach 45 degrees below zero wind chill tonight. And that’s in Fahrenheit.

I did have a Student Government meeting, attended Bible study, and watched Gone Baby Gone at the movie showing on campus, but it’s been quiet otherwise. The main reason that it’s quiet, though, is due to Rush Week. The fraternities and sororities are accepting new members and it’s crazy. Emotions are running high and all of the guys are.. ummm…. “getting to know the fraternities better”… every night this week. I am not rushing or pledging. It costs $700 a semester and I don’t have any need for it. However, a lot of guys meet new friends and Greek Life is a perfect fit for them. Only 28% of guys are in fraternities. I thought that was a little low, but then I found out that you have to have a 2.5 GPA to join. I’ve heard that about half of my hallway is academically ineligible for that right now. That’s just what I’ve heard though. I guess first semester already caught up to them. I’ve just hung out with friends and avoided the rushees until they come back to the dorm.

Quote of the Week: “80% of the final exam will be on the lecture you missed and the one book you didn’t read.” -Unknown
Thought to Ponder: If shampoo comes in so many colors, why is the lather always white?
Shout Outs: John for the ride back from the airport, Sarah since you actually said you read this, Green Bay Packers