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Hey Guys,

Just a funny as hell video my friend showed me. This guy is so wasted. He kind of reminds me of BK...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZQsA7G0hvQ

Living in a Post-Stadium 110 World

Today is Labor Day.The unofficial and symbolic end of summer for many Americans, Labor Day also marks the beginning of the American football season. Add this holiday to the list of American holiday's that are not usually celebrated in the way they were originally intended. I'm not saying that it is necessarily a bad thing that we don't celebrate the industry and labor sector of our nation for which this national holiday was created for, especially since it was largely a political move in a time of labor unrest/strikes, the red scare, and scary economic times.

And although several schools of all levels have already started, forcing students to end their summers earlier and earlier each year, and the fact that Carleton doesn't start until Sept. 14th, I thought I would take time today to reflect on the past 3 months and to look forward to what lies ahead after summers end: the coming school year.

First, Summer 2k9:
I friggin love summer. When done correctly, a summer can be the best 11ish weeks of the year. Its sad that many grown ups do not have the vacation time that allows freedom to live as they want to, exploring desires, hobbies, possibilities, and places that they do not have time to do when controlled by their jobs. I'm so much happier and relaxed in the summer. Don't get me wrong, I love the school year and being at Carleton. But there is something to be said about having more time, and being in a less stressful environment.

Summer Camp kept me busy, although it was definitely the hardest year, because of new challenges that took the form of new roles/expectations as well as difficulty with supervisors. But I also think that if you stay anywhere in the same manner for 4+ years, you get antsy.

Then camp ended. And the past few weeks were relaxing, but also somewhat difficult. Living with either of my parents is much harder than anticipated, even for this short amount of time. But the weather has been just beautiful and Chicago and Oak Park from the hours of 5:00pm and 9:00pm is just beautiful.

Summer was great. But it is now truly gone. Oh, how I'll miss it. I'd write a eulogy, but I'll know it'll be back.

Now, Junior Year:
In a week, I'll officially start my Junior year at Carleton. As noted above, I will come to a Carleton where Stadium 110 does not exist. Because of this, I will try to live life in a manner that would make Stadium proud - abundant BBQs, Daily Show watching, debauchery in the form of stuffed onesies, all day drinking (to the fullest extent possible), looking classy, etc. [on a related note, I almost bought the StirCrazy that Toto owns... I still may the next time I go to Target]

So, what is Junior Year gonna look like?

• 12 potential freshman on the Swim Team
• A good amount of time in Northfield for Winter Training
• PUERTO RICO for our Training Trip
• BK in Hill
• Alfreddy on 2nd Burton with everyone else in the world who matters
• Me living in Dow in the same room that Paddy Foran and Ted Mullin lived
  
• My new job as one of the Head Lifeguards, meaning a lot of time at West and with Brooke/Andy
• More history courses
• Deciding whether to go through with the Teaching Licensure Program at Carleton
• Taking Piano lessons in the winter
  
• Figuring out about next summer...
• I'm a student rep to the Alumni Council - it may be a resume builder, but it actually might be cool too, we'll have to wait and see.
• Turning 21
  
• Hopefully reading more, eating healthier and flossing

It's going to be interesting year. To be honest, WHO KNOWS WHATS IN STORE? We'll just have to wait and see. Last year, I had no idea what to expect out of Stadium (in fact, I was a little nervous) and look how that turned out.

So Goodbye Summer - see you in 9 months - and Hello Junior Year - how the hell are ya?

Iz A Brand New Poll

Hey All,

Its that time again; time for a poll. Now where many of you are certainly chuckling at the sexual suggestive word "poll", the rest of you are probably pissing your pants with excitement. So do yourself a favor, click an answer, get results, see what BK has "been up to".

Video Games: Because we have a big ol TV, but no cable

Now, I haven't played T.A. in a long time, but this made me think of it and made me laugh.



T.A. may have taken a backseat to Alfredo's panda power attempts at beating really fast drag racers in Need for Speed Pro Street, but I still know (in fact I really don't even know the half of it) that T.A. has a special place in Stadium 110's collective heart.

Breaking down the video game zeitgeist from the past 7 months:

• Sept/Oct/Nov - Call of Duty 4 and only Call of Duty 4 is played... Elliot is amazing, Nonberg and BK snipe, Ted plays a lot, Toto plays very little.

• Jan/Feb - Someone (I think BK) convinces Nonberg to purchase Little Big Planet. We play it all throughout dry season. Tim thinks it sucks, but than plays it and realizes its awesome. We play it until we get to a hard level with bombs and missiles, and we kinda give up. COD4 is still played consistently. Ted plays it much more often than anyone else and somewhere down the line surpasses Elliot as king of COD. We also start playing TA on a somewhat regular basis. Post swim season Elliot starts a game called Oblivion. Fight night may have been played once or twice to settle an old score between two past Casa roommates.
• ALSO CHECK OUT OFF-ROAD VELOCIRAPTOR SAFARI, IT'S AMAZING.
  

• Mar/April - Alfreddy moves in and starts playing Need for Speed Pro Street. When he drag races in a car with a panda on it, the gods smile and everyone is happy. Elliot and Nonberg plays Oblivion a lot. COD is played occasionally.

With 5 weeks left in the term, will the tides change? Will TA get played as much as it did? Will we all whip out our game boys and start playing pokemon instead?
Who knows? Honestly, as it gets nicer out, we'll probably (hopefully) be spending more time throwing around the vortex than getting vortexed into watching Elliot kill cat-begger-lion mages who give him quests and tell him about rumors.

International Year of Stadium 110 - Day 11: The Clock Wall

This post is a little bit overdue, but last week Stadium 110 installed the first two clocks of our official clock wall.

The story of the inspiration for this said clock wall goes something like this:

On the eve of the second day of the international year of Stadium 110 the men of stadium 110 enjoyed a night on the island known as Mai Fete. There was much merriment all around. With a hunger rumbling in their stomachs they returned to their spacious abode and consumed gyro pizzas delivered to their very door by a local establishment specializing in the preparation of pizza pies. Having filled their stomachs, the men of stadium 110 proceeded to conversing on the important items of the day. In the discourse of their conversation a question arose. The question was not unique to the eve, and in fact it had been posited in several different forms during previous conversations. The question was: "I wonder what BK is doing right now." This question led, as it is prone to do, to the question: "What time is it in Moscow." The men of Stadium 110 pondered this question for a significant amount of time before discovering the answer. A short time after this exchange I, your humble narrator, was struck with an idea that could forever vanquish the aforementioned situation. This idea was the world clock wall. It was proposed that on the wall of the Stadium 110 clock room there could be placed two similar looking clocks. However, the time that could be read from the two clocks would not be identical. In fact, the time on one of the clocks would read the local time in Northfield, Minnesota. But the time on the other clock would read the local time in Moscow, Russia. With the local time in Moscow forever displayed on the wall of the common room of Stadium 110, the men of stadium 110 would no longer have to ponder in exasperation the answer to the question: "What time is it in Moscow right now?"

And so, approximately one week ago we procured two clocks and hung them above the likeness of Bob Dylan that is displayed in our room. An image of these said clocks follows as proof of our endeavor.



We hope that our clock wall will bring us closer to our absent roommate.

AND THE WINNER IS...

Now to talk a bit about the OTHER competition that occured in the past couple of days besides nationals...

Of course I'm talking about the "Favorite Stadium 110 Resident Poll."

After a tense two weeks or so, the Results are in...

(drumroll please)

The winner with 26 votes is... BK!
2nd goes to Toto with 23 votes.
3rd - Yours Truly with 14
4th - Ted - 13
5th - Nonberg with 6


There have been some reports of foul play, however nothing has been confirmed and no one has admitted cheating. However, one thing is certain; with the favorite resident now not living in the room anymore... who will now be the favorite resident? Will 2nd place Toto take his assumed position at the top? Or will Alfredo, our soon-to-be-roommate sweep in and win the hearts of tens of people to win the title.

Stay tuned and find out.

Also, keep an eye out for our next poll - coming March 30th, 2009.

The END of an Era

You're probably thinking, "The end of an era? WTF mark... " I THOUGHT THE ERA JUST BEGUN! (I know you think in caps...)

well it's really the dawn of a new era, a new world order, as BK's post below so eloquently described. And that is what I need to talk about:

So as Tim, Sydney and I left for the airport (Sydney so graciously drove us to the airport in alfredo's car because my father is a fascist when it comes to my grandma's old honda accord), we said our farewells to Toto and BK in Sayles. And BK goes, "This really is the breaking of the fellowship..." As I continued to go about my transitional travels from Sayles to the Alfie's Car to the Airport to Chicago, I couldn't help but think of this analogy. I (independently) realized that the 9 members of The Ocho could potentially fit the mold of Lord of the Rings members perfectly... I also (independently) considered Johnny V as Gandalf and I had some other great non-fellowship/ocho members as well. (Examples: Will Kruesi as Bilbo and Little Orphan Annie as Arwen, and I even had someone for Gollum)

So i've got this great, creative idea now that I think is awesome. "I'll just blog about the analogy when I get home! What a great entry it'll be!" But I get home and what do I find? No internet at my dad's house. Poop. "I'll go out and run some errands and see some friends and it'll be up when I get back."

It wasn't back.

So I wake up this morning. And what do I find? BK STOLE MY BLOG POST IDEA. The emotions flood over me -anguish, pain... the need for revenge...

But then something happened. I took a deep breath, walked to my window, waved to the tree trimmer that was in the tree DIRECTLY outside my window at 8 am this morning who I had flicked off after he woke me up. I soaked up a few of the pleasures in life - the 60ish degree breeze coming through screen windows as Belle & Sebas play in the background, the feeling I got after watching the "Cartman Goodbye" clip that BK provided, the fact that Tim had seen F.M.C. in the airport, the prospect of Inos for dinner tonight, and of course, that "moustache feeling" that everything will be okay.

The thought came into my mind last night as I headed home from my evening activities that I wasn't going to go home to stadium, and it made me a little sad. But there is adventure, glory, and a little bit of R&R for The Ocho in the next coming weeks. So enjoy your spring breaks and get ready.

Black Lights, White Tees, and a farewell to BK

Last night marked the end of an era in Stadium 110. Our very own BK is saying farewell to the dwelling and the people he loves to pursue his studies in Russia. He will be missed. As sad as BK's departure will be, the members of Stadium 110 saw him off in grand fashion.
The lights that once contained boring florescent bulbs were transformed into beacons of hope for those who demanded that their white articles of clothing (and teeth) glow. As the black lights flooded the room, so did the people. Around 11:00pm the common area of stadium 110 was filled with friends, pseudo acquaintances, and the completely random person looking for a party.
The biggest highlight of the night was not the awesome black lights or the fact that people were dancing on tables, but the pornographic scenes occurring right next to BK's desk. These people were not simply doing the bump and grind, but dry humping the bejesus out of each other. Positions like doggie style, reverse cowgirl, and the always evocative legs behind the head were performed.

So with all that said, not only will the black lights remind our room of BK, but the dirty dirty things that were occurring beneath them.