4/20=Get $...or grow up!

So today is 4/20.  Nothing special about today, right. WRONG!  Today is the day also referred to as the unofficial official "smoke weed day" by cheeba monkies and potheads everywhere.  That's not fair, I don't want to group everyone together so no more name calling. I promise.  Still, that doesn't mean that today isn't the day everyone decides to celebrate their mental addiction to marijuana.  But why? And why do I care?

Well, from what I've heard there are a bunch of different meanings to the date's significance.  I've heard it has to do with how long it takes to get high, how long you stay high, the time Bob Marley died, and something about the actual composition of weed.  Which one is right? I don't know and I don't give a shit.  I don't smoke weed, but that doesn't mean I not in college (wink face?...j/k).  That's something my mom said to me..ya. AWKWARD.  PS- Love you mama! Anyway, I don't care that there's a day cannabus enthusiasts decide to celebrate their life choices, but I do care that non traditional weed smokers act like smoking weed on 4/20 is the coolest thing ever.

Every 4/20 I hear kids whispering about getting high, being high, intending to get high, or finding weed and it pisses me off.  No one give a Flock if you smoke weed! Sure, it was kool and rebellious and different when you were 16 and had lady-bits and cash thrown at youif you happened to posess some weed, but now--especially in college--smoking, obtaining, and just talking about weed is nothing too crazy.  Sure, some may see that as "not right" and use that to say college is for pussy liberal kids who'd rather get high then enter the work force, but who gives a hell?  My opinion:  smoke weed, or whatever else you like, just don't run around bragging about how high you got or how much cash you blew on weed.  I feel that a real pot smoker does it constantly and doen't need to wait to one flippin day out of 365 days to justify smoking weed.  And the people that ONLY smoke on 4/20?  Well, I hope drinking Drain-O becomes kool so you can be the first to bandwagon on that and leave the rest of us to live, and possibly smoke, in peace.  Sorry if that's too harsh.

Funny story, the other night I was hanging around a particular residence hall and no one there knew me.  Me and some friends were standing around and BSing about things only Tom Cruise would understand (Scientology joke?) and a girl asked me "if I could get her some tree?" Tree meaning weed.  Wow! Do I really look like a guy who sells weed? Wait, WTF does that mean? I don't know. No offense to you drug dealers and users out there...sorry.  But ya, I was just shocked that someone would ask me about getting them weed.  Sure, I look ghetto sometimes because I'm from the city, my voice sounds like a turtle-stoner, and I have MANY friends who are quite fond of Dope-A-Whanna but does that mean I'm the "weed guy" or was she just desperate?  Whatever the case was, I pretended to text someone and said, "Sorry, no luck." Ya...I'm THAT kool.

Back on point, weed smoking is kool and all but I just don't give a fuck who does what and when they do it.  I'm not just talking about weed, other drugs, or alcohol that I don't care about; I don't care about ANYTHING YOU PEOPLE DO that doesn't involve me.  Do whatever, just know that I'm not impressed with weed.  Really, it's not a big deal but I just hate when people don't shut the funk up about their 4/20 plans in public.  Go into Chambers Hall and yell "MARIJUANA!!!" and see how many people break their necks staring and judging you.  What a world. Some people belive that 4/20ers need to grow up, while I think you should do whatever you want. I think it's perfectly acceptable to smoke weed, make money doing it, or do whatever the hell else you want to do just PLEASE make sure you don't boast about your endevors. That's all I ask.

College is the last place you can get away with doing stupid and irresponsible things with little to no repercussions.  On that note, smoke up homiez!! This may be the last few years it will be cool.  WHen does it stop being kool to smoke weed?  28. Yes, 28. Why?  I don't know, that's just the way things are...just like the origin of 4/20. Deal with it.  Now after reading this, how many people do you think will quit the whole "weed thing" at 28?  The same people that are bandwagon Penguins and Pirates fans? (Laughs) Only time will tell.

PS-Please don't assume I can sell or get you weed. You'll just end up dissapointed like that girl was last night. And yes, that's the first time I've ever not been abe to satisfy a girl late at night. Zing POW BAMMMM!!!!!

Untimately, I think Daniel Tosh said it best >>>> Skip to 1:10 or watch the whole thing. It's funny!!

1 Week After Kim Ward...

 Last Wednesday Kim Ward, State Senator of the 39th District, held a Town Hall meeting in UPG's Chapel.  Too lazy to read all of this? Scroll to the end for a summary. 

Well over 60 people showed up to the meeting and 12-20 of them were Pitt-Greensburg students. Nice to see people showing up for events here.

As for the meeting, to a point it was a waste of time.  Many locals are fairly conservative so anything that came up lik raising taxes was met with a wave of boo's.  This meeting was like watching Fow News and yeling at the TV...it was pointless.  Kim Ward had very little to say, well I guess that's not true.  She talked a lot but there were no REAL solutions mentioned.  There was a lot of banter and repetitive phrases like, "we're working on that, we need to look at that, we're planning to do something about that, we need to change this or that, and I can't do anythig about that."  As far as answers go, no real answers were given. Many questions involving budget cuts or school recieved one of the previously mentioned blowoff answers.  What is she actually doing? I don't know.  I should've asked, I know, but I was afraid that my Hopey-changey-liberal-socialistic views would come through and I would be beaten by Kim Ward's minions.

What did I learn? Kim Ward would "love" to take a pay cut but that would never be passed by her peers.  Thanks to a very passionate questioner, I found that Kim Ward isn't sure about something like an alleged 18% spent on "food".  I don't know if what this man was saying was true or accurate but I do know that Kim Ward seemed to have no clue what that guy was talking about.  Was this guy just crazy? Or does Senator Ward not fully understand something with Governer Corbett's budget cuts?  To me, if this man was just blashing bullshit, or untrue and innaccurate facts and numbers, all over the place like Fox News does, he could just be misunderstanding something? right? But Ward had NO IDEA what he was talking about...not good.  This makes me think that Kim Ward doesn't fully understand everything in the governer's budget and only knows what she supports.

Ways to fix this?  Have elections where political affiliations aren't listed and the remove the option for people to select "straight Dem or Rep".  Force people to actually vote.  I'd be interested to see if people really have a reason for voting the way they do.   Yes, that's it.  A way to measure competence in each voter so the "Duuuurrrrr Republicans! or Democrats" votes don't happen.  Vote for a reason or not at all.  Who could look over these essays?  The members of our prison systems, of course!  Not likely, but I'm trying to make this lively.

Summing up the night:  Kim Ward blabbed for a while and people bitched and moaned for a while.  Ward doesn't seem to have made any changed to her agenda...but she knows college kids, parents and liberals aren't a fan of her or the Corbett's budget cuts (among other things). Progress made?  I don't think any was made...but atleast something happened. Right?

4th Annual Hall Olympics: Day 1 and DONE!

Oh, the Hall Olympics...where do I begin. Last week UPG had it's 4th Hall Olympics and it shows some potential. College Hall won this year, BTW. WOOO Freshmen!!! Anywayz, lets get to it!

First, let me say that I love the Hall Olympics. I think most of the events are at least good at their conception and that RSC, and the students involved, just want to put on a fun event.  Now, I have good and bad things to say in addition to some other comments and my opinions for improvement.  Do I have you're attention? No? Well check out these guys after the eating contest....

deliciously luke-warm hotdogs. WHY?

College Hall eating Champs!

Shaw boys fighting for 4th place

the hotdogs fought back

Now I could sit here and complain about cold soggy hotdogs but I’m not going to because I’m a man. BUT! I’ve decided to stay positive-ish and throw out my thoughts on the Hall Olympics.

First up: events.  The eating contest, in my opinion, sucked this year. Why? Not because I could only eat one mystery-dog before I realized I would puke and not because it reminded me of my youth camp counselor, but because hotdogs suck ass.  In the past there were pizza and wing eating contests, two foods that are awesome regardless of temperature.   Hotdogs on the other hand, not so great.

The scavenger hunt might have been cool, I don’t know for sure because I skipped every event after Monday.  But for the sake of avoiding a backtrack, I’ll just say that the weather sucked ass to go running around campus for a scavenger hunt.  I didn’t want to get a cold a few weeks before finals, sorry.  Also, I think a scavenger hunt would be better suited for the beginning of the year or for freshmen during their Welcome Week.  This would get kids to go all over campus and make friends as soon as their parents let them loose at UPG.

Moving on, Tug-of-War. A classic.  I heard there was some BS with teams winning that lost to other teams but I don’t know because I had no interest in getting all muddy and pulling a rope with 5 other people for a building I’m not going to live in next year (most likely).  I’ll explain this in a little bit.

Next up, the Relay Race and Trivia Game.  If I learned anything from CTF it was that running isn’t my “thing” anymore. Ya, I’m supporting a fat and lazy America…sue me.  You’re probably guilty too.  Only 5 people from every building could compete, from what I understand, and my building in particular only had 2 people show up. I’m definitely glad I skipped that one.

Finally we have dodge ball.  I love dodge ball so much all I’ll say is dodge ball. Dodge Ball.

Now for my opinions.

Event times were all over the place but they were usually in the middle of the afternoon between 3 and 5p.m.  Many people have classes then so I feel like that hurts turnouts for residence halls.  Maybe if the the events all happened at the same time every day it would give the event some degree of regularity and people wouldn’t be surprised when events happened earlier or later.  If someone missed an event on Monday then the next day they would still know the next day another event would happen at the same time.  But I guess you can’t pick perfect times for everyone to participate and there are 5 days of events so some others just have to pick up the slack for those who can’t participate.

What are the residence halls that have won the Hall Olympics in the last 4 year? Answer:  The Courts and College Hall. That’s it! ( If I’m not mistaken. Brian, please feel free to correct me here if need be.)

Why? Because they have the most people living in them and the most underclassmen.  I’ve lived in Westmoreland Hall for 2 years now and turnouts are always low for us.  I think it has to do with the number of students who are graduating, playing sports, or not returning to the halls they represent that are the big problems.  If I’m not living in Westmoreland next year, why should I want to win a “special prize” that I’ll never get to enjoy?  If I’m graduating, why should I care about winning some unknown prize?  If there were prizes for individuals for day-to-day participation and awards like MVP and Most Honorable Competitor then I think attendance would go up.  Not announcing the prize and labeling it as “special” makes me think my mom is trying to make a ten-year-old do a task and if he’s a good boy he’ll get a “special surprise” for it.  Why not just tell us what there is to win?  Maybe that would get upper class men to show up.  Athletes have crazy schedules and I get why they blow off the “Mystery Olympics” but maybe that could change.

I chugged almost 3 liters of pop for the Pop Slop and one trooper, Hillary, puked.  She ate 9 hotdogs and chugged pop till she puked.  How she ate 9 I have no idea.  We were DQed and received 0 points.  Only 3 people came out for Westmoreland Hall last Monday.  All that discomfort for nothing.  If anyone else wanted to win they were gunna have to do it without me.  The poor turnnout by my building made me realize that no one cared and without a lot of people many of the events aren't fun...especially if you get your ass kicked.  So I said fuck it, if anyone else wants to compete they can do it without me...I'm not going to waste my time for a lost cause.  Crazy Idea: Make scoring like Quiddich in Harry Potter. Every event is worth 100 points then the Trivia game is worth 1 billion points.  lets award intelligence over eating abilities and physical conditions. Lol, who expected a Harry Potter reference here? I didn't!

SGA is really pushing to make Homecoming a “tradition” at UPG but I think the Hall Olympics is a better example of “UPG doing UPG”.  Like the NFL or the NBA, it took a while for the idea to catch on and develop but they turned in to awesome organizations.  I think the Hall Olympics is a young event that, with some tweeks here and there, could become a lasting tradition that could build memories for our students.

Enough of that sappy crap, here are some guys puking again!

Again....because I could

Robert Shaw Hall: Steps Deaths Down 80%

That's right, less people have died from falling down the steps of Robert Shaw Hall this year than last year (WOOT!).  Last year 78.5 students (one student is now paralyzed from the waist down so I count that as .5) died compared to this year in which only nine students have fallen to their death.  "But WHY, C.J.?" is what you're probably yelling at your screen. Well, calm down, sip some doughnuts and eat some tea and I'll explain it all to you.

Robert Shaw, or RS as I will refer to it, is typically the one residence hall with the most alcohol violations...or The Courts.  Anyway,  last year there were 666 alcohol or drug violations in RS so it only makes sense that almost 79 students became "Shwasted", or too messed up, and stumbled down the 43 concrete steps that lead to the lower parking lot.

"We tried installing a slide a few years ago but we're pretty sure that just facilitated more sloppy deaths," Officer Baconpigglez said. "We even tried installing a ball pit at the bottom but that only made kids jump into it from ridiculous heights and die on impact.  Our last idea was to install one of those chairs that carries people up stairs...we asked the university to install it in the Fall of '09 and it's still under construction. Like everything else here, construction jobs never gets done on time."

Even after knowing how many people die every year, students don't seem to be fazed.

"I know some dumb assholes have died here, but that doesn't scare me!" Fannyben Dover, freshmen, said. "I just avoid those steps...unless I wanna show off my new underwear."

While this was a huge problem last year, it seams like a solution has just fallen from the heavens.

"When students drink Four Loko energy/alcoholic drinks they pass the fuck out," Baconpigglez said.  "It's hard to party hard when your heart is beating irregularly.  We've actually only had 16 alcohol or drug reports from RS this year, so it makes sense that only nine people have did this year.  While I can't condone underage drinking, I would recommend that students chose to drink Four Loko for their own safety."

But are Four Loko and not drinking really the only possible solution?

"I just go down the wheelchair ramps," Salvator Lammi, one of the students who died last year, said. "I don't wanna be safe and hold the railing like a bitch and people will make fun of me. I'm already dead so I can take my time going places...plus I don't wanna fall down those steps and die again. That wouldn't be good. My parents would be so mad at me if I died again."

Saddly, Four Loko's have been banned in PA so the number of deaths at RS might be on the rise.  You could also just avoid the steps or hold onto the railing for safety.  After all, you don't want to have to explain to your parents how you died...do you?

"I stocked up on 'Lokos' a long time ago, so I'm safe for the rest of the semester," Dan Ermann, senior, said.  "Now I'm gunna go drink one and pass the hell out. l'chaim!"

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                    APRIL FOOLS!!!!!

CTF! WTF?

What's he Grinning about? Victory?

Last night SAB held a capture the flag event.  Sounds fun, right?  Well, it was...but I kinda forgot what CTF involved when not using Battle Rifles like in Halo or a TAR-21s like in Call of Duty.

POV of what you missed last night. Minus the beach, ocean, and nail polish.

The game was organized very well by SAB, as usual.  Well, there were a few problems, but I'll get to that in a minute.  About 16 people showed up to run around in the cold on the soccer fields and play CTF, half of these guys were soccer PLAYERS who are 10x more athletic than the average college student. After the first game we realized that a team made up of soccer players wearing cleats was WAYYYY too unfair so teams kept being rearranged.  After the first game I realized just how out of shape I am...ahhhh, reality.  The soccer field was, for the most past, dark as hell with only the lights from the library and the radioactive glow of glowsticks to help me see.  Playing at night was a fun twist which definitely added to the game.

When advertising an even, the most important thing is to tell people the right information, right?  Well, I have to admit I was a little confused last night thanks to all of the different times I was told CTF started.  The March 2011 calender say the event started at 9:30 at Chambers Lawn.On that same calender, the "Highlight Reel!" says that CTF started at 9 p.m. on the soccer fields.  Finally, a salmon-colored flier went up that said to meet in the Bobcat at 9:30 and that we would play on the soccer fields.  Ya, a little confusing if you ask me.  I can only assume this happened due to poor communication and luckily the salmon flier was the right one.

Did this have anything to do with why only 16 people played? I can't really say.  Maybe people didn't want to run around in the cold or maybe people don't want to play an intense running game late at night.  The cool things about kickball and dodge ball is that you don't have to be tremendously athletic to be good.  With CTF, if you aren't fast then you're shit outta luck.  While CTF is a cool idea, it's not the player friendly eternal sport.  Like golf, you don't need to be in great shape but you do have to have some kind of coordination and skill.  This is why I think the turnout was so poor...but what do I know?  I'm just "that guy" from Pitt-Greensburg.

Final thoughts: Fun event and well organized (minus the inconsistent times and meeting locations), but it isn't a game for everyone...especially that guy who was chain-smoking right before the first game started. Hahaha, he didn't last long.

Kickin' UR Balls

 

Kickball kicks ass,I'm just gunna roll that one over the plate, and last night proved to be no different.  Well, it was "Old Skool Kickball", or whatever the hell they wanna call it, but it was really just plain old traditional kickball.

Seriously, why the hell is it called "old skool"? Is there a "new skool" version of kickball?  Better yet, why the F@ck is "school" spelled with a GD "k"!?  Does that make it kool?  So kool it needs a "k" for kool?  Whenever the "old skool" was, could they not spell back then, or were they just stupid?  This is a college for words'-sake! Have some respect for the language! Americans are all ready half-illiterate and their vocabularies are shrinking by the day...don't add to the retardedness.  "But I digress", as Suggie B. likes to say frequently.

Last night approximately 40 people, both boys and girls, showed up to play kickball and everyone had a good time.  Surprisingly, there were no bad sports and it was a really nice way to forget about school work for a few hours.  of the two teams, RED and YELLOW, YELLOW managed to come from behind and smoke the RED team.  Even though me and the other RED players lost, we all had fun.

SAB organized another great event and they did manage to fix the problem I mentioned before about the winning team receiving t-shirts.  For this event, they marked hands for teams and gave out headbands that had to be presented to receive a shirt.  This ensured that everyone on the winning team received a shirt first and the losing players could get a shirt if there were any available afterward.

Bottom Line: The Old Skool was krazy, kool and funK. See, it was so fun I had to ADD a "k" to fun. Now that's pretty kool if you ask me...or lame.  It's hard for me to call.

Put a Lid On It...It's For Your Own Good

So I was sitting on the commode(funny word for toilet) the other day and I remembered the whole "poop cloud" thing I heard a while ago and never thought it was true.  After some research, I learned that the "poop cloud" is actually called the "aerosol effect" which is the result of flushing ones toilet causing a mushroom cloud of toilet disasters(poop and other bad things) to fly all over the room.







In these two videos you can see what the aerosol effect is.  Also, you can see a possible solution to the problem with a toilet seat called the PUREFLUSH.  So, after finding all of this I looked at my current bathroom in Westmoreland Hall and got a little angry.

My Bathroom: Covered in micro-Poop everywhere

There are many things wrong with this picture. Here are the big ones I noticed. They are:
1.) There's no toilet lid for the seat
2.) The toothbrush holder is within arms reach of the toilet
3.) There's a shelf ABOVE the toilet


If you're using the toothbrush holder mounted to the wall in you room then it's VERY likely that you're brushing your teeth with a poop covered toothbrush.  Sorry, I had to bring it up.  You can't cover the toilet because THERE'S NO LID to keep the mushroom cloud from happening. YUCK!  I also have to mention how strong these toilets flush.

They could suck a bowling ball along with your waste left from a Chipotle trip with no problem(don't get the hot sauce...it's bad news).  I've flushed the toilet and felt water splash onto my feet on many occasions. YEA...real nice. Want another example? My bathroom-mate drinks a lot of protein shakes and he usually has a liquid poo a few times a week.  When he flushes, liquid poop and God knows what else sprays up and gets all over the bottom of the seat...which is a really nice thing to find whenever I lift my toilet seat up.  I hate to make a big deal out of something so minuscule but I can't pinch this one off and flush it away.


What do I want? A lid for shits' sake! And it's not even for the poop and bacteria that is being spread, it's so I can be sure nothing falls into the toilet that my roommate and I have on that shelf.  Not to mention it's a wire shelf so things can slip right through if they're the right size.

I wouldn't be so angry if no one had a lid for their toilet, but some people do.  The Villages and Courts both have a lid for their toilet seats, and both represent the best and worst places to live on campus(more on that later).  Westmoreland Hall was built AFTER the Villages were, so why the F@ck don't we have lids? Was it a cost issue?  It only makes sense to put lids on toilets just to be cleaner and ensure that only the things the belong in the toilet go into them.  Robert Shaw and College hall has a different kind of toilet situation so I get why they don't need a lid, but we definitely do. WTF UPG?

What do you guys think?

I wish they sold this in Pittsburgh

I've been a fan of EpicMealTime for about a month now.  The food they make would make a 50lb balimic girl want to go on a diet of....puking more?  Ya, they make you not want to eat anything remotely unhealthy and shock my brain to a point where I immediately want to go to the gym. 

The latest creation: A Superbowl 45 tribute sandwich to Ben Roethlisberger.

PS-Enjoy the Superbowl

Forget Ramen Noodles and Buy a BOAT!

College students eating Ramen Noodles is nothing new, but there's a cheaper and healthier alternative that I bet most of you just laugh at.  The alternative? Why it's the Pasta Boat, of course!

 

 

The Pasta Boat looks like another POS you see on late night infomercials that prey of the fat and the restless.  If you don't live in the Academic Villages or the University Courts then a stove top is not available and cooking your own pasta is out of the question, or at least it was. I saw ads for this thing and it had my interest, but I was skepticall.  I finally decided to buy one when I saw it at Walmart for $10 and I was really surprised by it. IT WORKS!!!

The P.B. allows you to make up to five pounds of pasta at one time and that's crazy considering one pound can feed a family of four!  It takes under 20 minutes to make any amount of pasta and it takes a little while to learn how long it takes to make some pastas cook thoroughly.  Pasta sells for about $1 a pound and jars of sauces can cost you up to $6 at the most, which will last a while.  Pretty cheap, eh?

Personally, I fucking HATE Ramen Noodles.  Please don't tape me to a flag pole until I can explain.  Ramen Noodles have over 860mg of sodium which is terrible considering that's all from just one little cup or packet.  Nutritionally, these noodles are terrible for your health and the servings are pretty small.  Sure, they cost about $1 a piece but so what?  That doesn't make something "good."  Plus, I hate seeing those faded green pees hat are all weird and wrinkled in addition to the other odd colored vegetables. You can make your own pasta without all of the preservatives and it can actually be cheaper.  So the next time you want Ramen Noodles, remember that there is an alternative to our noodle needs that is just as cheap, and it's better for you.

Screw you, Freshmen Fifteen!

Here are Ramen Nutritional Facts

Old Skool Dodgeball Awesomenessessesssss

A lot of people came out.  Surprising for a Tuesday night

 In elementary school the only thing you could play when the weather was bad was dodge-ball.  I have a lot of good memories of playing with old friends and taking out my pre-teen aggression on everyone that stood against me.  Ahhhh, memories.

Steve explains the rules.  Break then, HE EATS YOU!!

The event was run very well thanks to Steve Satterlee and the guys and gals of SAB.  Everything went well and there were no crybaby or bullshit moments which almost never happens when playing dodge-ball.  Approximately 60 people played five games and there were about 20 spectators scattered throughout the bleachers, including the super-awesome night RA Brice Kertoy as well as the mega-fly Suggie B. Check out fellow UPG blogger Suggie B. HERE.

Dodge-ball will never change. SAB refs kept games fair

Players decide who to target next

 There are two types of people that play dodge-ball: the strong and the weak.  As sick as that might sound, it's true.  Players with strong arms, good hands and a desire to win always tend to be more aggressive and play the best.  Other players try to stand as far away from the action as possible and never even touch a ball with usually doesn't help a team towards winning.  Not being aggressive in dodge-ball is like playing a game of pool and just holding a cue stick and occasionally moving some balls around...it just doesn't make any damn sense.  Of course, this is what I thought of dodge-ball before today and I was surprised to see that the same rules that applied to 10-year-old kids applied to college students as well.

The team I was on, the odd numbers, consisted of many student-athletes including many members of the baseball team.  I would've been pissed if I were on the receiving end of a ball thrown by a pitcher that throws a fastball at 90 mph, but since they played on my side I couldn't have cared less.  The baseball guys were pretty responsible and didn't throw their arms out but they still managed to kick ass.  We had a bunch of hard throwing and aggressive players in addition to the baseball players and that probably explains why our team won four of the five game.  Even though there were many mud holes being stomped, everyone seemed to have a good time.

Girl In Blue Shirt, or GIBS, was a MVP

The only real negative thing to say about the event was the availability of t-shirts.  SAB had shirts made up for those who participated but they ran out of the shirts almost immediately.  People that didn't play grabbed shirts and the sizes available were kind of a letdown. With a game where a lot of guys were probably going to show up to it doesn't make sense to only have only 10 or 15 larges and only a handful of shirts bigger than larges.  Luckily, Steve is the awesome guy that he is and he gave me his 2X that he stashed away in his office, but other people weren't.  Still, it isn't like not getting a shirt kept anyone from having a good time, but some students did leave a little disappointed.

A champion celebrates his dodge-ball dominance

Superbowl Bound

Tonight I had the privileged to watch the Steelers make it to their eighth Superbowl in franchise history with about 15 random people in my dorm room.  Fans in my room ranged anywhere between die hard fans and casual Pittsburgh sports supporters that were all friends with my other roommates, Jessie and Miles.  I'm not 21 yet so I can't go out to bars for games and it's hard to find a similar setting at Pitt-Greensburg on a Saturday or Sunday evening but I think I've found one.  TV lounges usually draw decent crowds but I've never watched a Steelers game on campus with so many people before. I honestly think that watching the last two games with a big group of random fans and roommates were the best Steelers experiences I've had all year. 

I can't wait for Feb. 6!!

Anyone have a good story  about watching the Steelers at UPG?  Leave a comment.

PS-Mendenhall is awesome as well as Antonio Brown, Heath Miller, Big Ben, Adrian Redman and the entire Defense.

Getting Your Money's Worth

Typical distractions that make all book titles look like this. Photo by: C.J. Simpson

I remember how much I used to love snow days in grade school.  I usually spent my time playing sports, playing video games with friends or snorting pixxie stixx (only did that once and I leaned my lesson) and not doing homework or studying for the next big test.  So, if I told you I spent many nights praying for a snow day six hours before a paper was due I bet no one would doubt me.

To my surprise I was finally beat with a maturity stick early on in high school and I started doing my work and all that good scholarly stuff.  Now that I'm in college, I wonder how students feel about snow days. There have already been three delays this semester out of 13 total days of classes held so it's possible for many students to be behind already.  Sure, only classes before 10 a.m are canceled for delays but that can still affect students with early class schedules (I'm talking about all the science nerds out there) but the winter is young and so is this semester.

So what do you think about canceled classes? How many canceled classes does it take for it to go from  being awesome to annoying? Do you feel like your money is being wasted?  Should you get a cash refund for lost time? (Like that would happen)  Are there any Professors out there that cancel class or show up late too much?

Sorry, but I'm all Palined Out

I'm sick of hearing about Sarah Palin every day for one stupid reason after another.  I knew I felt some way about all of her nonsense but last night Steven Colbert summarized every thought I've ever had of the woman in this video.  Enjoy.

Thoughts? Comments?

Forever Getting Fatter?

I saw an infomercial the other night that I completely forgot about until now.  It was for a product called Forever Lazy and yes, I'm pretty sure it was concieved by the devil.

Essentially this thing is a $20 lightly insulated unitard that comes with "free footies" (pretty sure they're just socks).  Hmmm, sweats or this ridiculous thing?  Decisions.

Really America?  Apparently wearing sweatpants AND a sweatshirt is too damn complicated for some lazy asshole out there so they(He, She, I?) decided to make things "easier" with a one-piece fleece.  How are clothes difficult?  God,  I thought I hated Snuggie commercials but at least those people were by themselves. In this commercial they act like hanging out with friends dressed up like a baked potato wrapped in tin foil is kool. If I ever walked into my friend's house and found him or her wearing one of these I'd probably tar and feather their ass.  For Christ's sake, you don't have to take it off to take a shit! WTF!! 

My biggest fear with these things is that parents will see them on TV, the internet, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc. and think, "Hey! This would be great for little Billie!  He goes to college so he must love looking like a sloppy bastard who can't manage to put on actual clothing to stay warm.  I better get two in case his sister wants one too."  Please parents, don't buy these for your children, especially if they're in college.  Traditional clothes are a lot cheaper and far less embarassing...or at least I think so. 

Sorry Forever Lazy, encouraging Americans to be even more lazy than they already are is just throwing more gasoline on the fire that is the obesity problem in America.  Thanks for that.

Steven Colbert also mentioned the Forever Lazy on his show last night.  Here's the Link

Mark Dignam comes to UPG

Irish singer and songwriter Mark Dignam performs tonight at 8 p.m. in the Village Hall Coffee House.

Check out his Website and Music for more information.

Tuesday Nights Done Right: The Social Network

A pretty big crowd for an event on a Tuesday night

It's a new year and the Student Activities Board has a new game plan for attacking boredom at UPG: Tuesday Nights...Done Right!  The new idea is to have fun and interesting events on Tuesday nights because they typically tend to be the most boring, I assume.  I hate to be an asshole over wording, but were Tuesday nights done wrong in the past?  If so, then why have they all of a sudden decided to do them right? I get that they're providing entertainment on a lame day of the week but I can't stop laughing over little things like this.

The lineup for this month is "Say What? Karaoke" which was last week, tonight they showed "The Social Network", next week there will be "Old Skool Dodgeball" and on Feb. 1 there will be many intense games of BINGO.  Aside from the lame MTV show that was canceled when I still thought Pok'emon was kool, they all seem entertaining.  Now that we're on the subject, lets talk about tonight's movie.

It's not surprising that a movie that has grossed $94, 077, 470 and just recently won four Golden Globe Awards for best drama, director, screenplay and score would attract a crowd.  About 40 students showed up to watch the "The Social Network" in the warm and dry Ferguson Theater.  Raffle tickets were also given out to all who attended for a chance to win a Social Network poster, one before the movie and one afterward.  When the movie was over everyone got up and made there way out and didn't seem to care about a poster that I'd only want to hang up if there was something more ugly on my wall like a hole or blood stains.  So did anyone win the second poster? I'm not sure because  I just wanted to get the hell out of that theater like everyone else. 

A lucky student receives her poster

On to the actual movie, this isn't a review. "The Social Network" was good...what else can I say about a free movie? The sound in the theater was okay and broke up on a few ocasions but it didn't ruin the movie.  The computer that hosted the movie had an alert pop up that reminded all of us that there was an update for iTunes and Safari and momentarily interrupted the picture. It remained on the dim screen for a couple of minutes until someone was able to to run up and close the pop-up windows.  The minor technical difficulties really were't that big of a deal and I don't feel like I missed anything but it was a little annoying that little things like that came up.

I found that me and my girlfriend were the only people to laugh at many of the little jokes in the movie.  Maybe our laughs drowned out the laughs of others, maybe no one else got them or maybe we are the only people comfortable enough to laugh out loud for real instead of through a text message. LOL. 

I think it's awesome that SAB was able to show a really popular movie on campus a week after it was released on DVD.  The only down side was the lame poster raffle...I'm sure someone wanted them but people like me could care less about a posters.  Still, it was a good time.

As tickets are drawn students can't wait to leave

Photos by: C.J. Simpson

Reflections and thoughts on MLK Day

It's been a while since I've actually thought about what today means for America.  Things started off small but I may have gotten a little carried away.

Photo by: Associated Press

Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for racial equality and firmly believed that all men are created equal and  thanks to him, many court cases and many other civil rights activists his dreams  became a reality...sort of.

Today the phrase, "All men are created equal"  originally mentioned in the Declaration of Independence has taken on a new meaning.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. intended the phrase to mean all on mankind is equal and not just the white men who owned land like the Declaration of Independence originally meant.  America was literally split on this idea and of equality and there are still traces of it today.

Now when I hear some people say that "all men are created equal" it's almost like they're only saying it for themselves and implying an "except if..."  All men are created equal except if you're gay, Muslim, Mexican, female and in some places if you're black.  It's like there are people out there that feel that they have the sole power to distribute civil rights amongst Americans people that fall into the "everyone else" category.

Women and African-Americans generally make less money than white men do but I'm sure there are many exceptions.  If you're Muslim, or even look Middle Eastern, and live in America then I'll bet someone has called you a terrorist or some other ridiculous name in the past 10 years.  Mexicans seem to always be regarded as illegal citizens that steal jobs and undercut American labor. Gay people in America are treated like they're almost not even people that don't deserve the same rights as everyone else. Now that gays can openly join the military it's time for other thing to change as well.

The federal government still doesn't recognize gay marriages but five states and Washington, D.C allow gays to marry in some way.  Some say that gay marriage destroys the value of marriage but I think that's all bullshit considering anywhere from 40%-50% of all marriages end in divorce ( http://www.divorcerate.org/ ).  Gays have the right to be as miserable as every other married couple, right? Maybe we're doing them a favor after all...

After taking all of that in I couldn't stop thinking about the idea that America is a melting pot.  This idea has increasingly become less and less popular and now I can see why.  Really, America is like a glass of water with honey and oil poured into it: it's all within the same glass and everything is very close together but there are still many distinct lines that separate them all and some are put above others in society.

We're all people that deserve to be treated exactly the same regardless of who you are or what you look like.

--On a lighter note: Look at the American Dream.  We all want to be remembered and MLK has a fuckin' day set aside to remember how awesome and influential he was.  How many of us are bold enough to admit that we have the same types of dreams as he did?  Better yet, who is actually going to do something to make their dreams a reality?  I guess only time will tell.

Who am I?

Well, simply put: I'm that guy from Pitt-Greensburg.  I haven't always gone by that name but over the past three years I've noticed that the name seems to follow me.

My real name is Charles J. Simpson III, but most people just call me C.J.  I'm currently a junior undergrad student at The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, or UPG, studying journalism and English Literature.(Woooo! Books!)

I've lived on campus every year and have had experiences with almost everything Pitt-Greensburg has to offer.  I have been involved with RSC, SGA and several other clubs over the past few years. Most recently I was the assistant editor of The Insider for the Fall 2010 semester. I'm also involved with The Insider this semester and my blog will be like an extension to it. On this Blog I'll talk about college stuff, do some event coverage and post up anything I think is cool or a good subject for conversation.  There are several things that I wish I knew before coming to this campus, or college in general, and I plan to showcase just that.

I'll look at kool things to do on and off campus as well. These things are so kool that no other kool person with kool shoes and a kool car will be able to comprehend because of their koolness.  Hell, things are already so kool that I have to spell cool with a "k"!  My advice and opinions come from experiences of either myself or others close to me and trust me, they're always entertaining.  Pretty kool, right?


I plan to have updates every Tue, Thur. and Sat. or possibly Mon., Wed, or Fri. as well.  It's hard to keep a solid schedule because college life usually manages to get the best of me but I'll do my best to stay on some sort of posting pattern.  So if you go to UPG, are considering attending UPG, are going to any other college, have friends that go to UPG or other colleges, have children that attend UPG or just want to be entertained for a few minutes then please check back for more updates.

Sincerely,

That Guy from Pitt-Greensburg