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