How 'Bout Those Aggies

It's a question I've heard numerous times already this week and anticipate hearing quite a bit more. "How 'Bout Those Aggies?" I easily field the question. "Yeah, Big 12 Champions for the second straight season. How bout that." I usually get an "are you insane" look to which I smile. Sure, A&M is a football school. As long as it's Ladies Football.

Indeed, my Aggie Soccer ladies clinched their 2nd straight Big 12 Championship with a big 4-0 win over Baylor Friday night. Since it was the last regular season game, it was senior night. All of the '06 players were honored in a very emotional pregame ceremony. It was also my last regular season game in the Aggie Soccer Stadium. All my collegiate career I've wanted one of the soccer balls the girls throw out at the beginning of the game, finally on senior night I got one. Ashlee Pistorius threw it to me and then went on to score all 4 of the Aggies' goals. It was a very special night indeed. Getting to hoist the Big 12 Trophey over their heads was a special farewell to the class of 2006 indeed. In addition, it was one of the last assemblies of the Aggie Soccer Hooligans. To go out in style, some of us were invited to play a rendition of dodgeball in the center of the field at half time. Despite some of my fans cheering, "Go Moo Cow!" I lost. I did hit a guy in the face with the ball though. It was a night full of mixed emotions. I hope we do well in post season play. We are hosting the NCAA championship this year. Hopefully if the women play as well as they have been recently, they'll be able to finish the season playing for the national championship before a home crowd.

As for men's football, no doubt what the people that ask "How Bout Those Aggies" want me to comment on. I've written off the rest of the season. I'll be watching them in support, but I won't be expecting much.

Since I didn't have any pictures on Friday. Here are a few from the soccer game.

After the game, the Hooligans celebrate with our favorite Kat. Meanwhile, she holds a bloody knife.

We congratulate my fellow '06er KJ (one of the all-time great goalies) on a great game on Senior Night!

Student Worker Appreciation

I'm so glad it's Friday, I just need a break. Group Projects are driving me crazy and taking up all of my free time. Today at work, we had the annual "Burger Burn" in which CIS shows it's "love" for the student workers. I dont buy it because as I went out there for the third year in a row, all of CIS had already beat me out, not just the student workers. I imagine whoever started this yearly event established it to feed their own face and then said, hey, let's use it as a facade to try and instill a sense of belonging to the student workers. I cant complain though, I like it when they feed me. I just don't see it as Student Worker Appreciation. Not that I need it, Robin shows enough appreciation to me.

The latest polls are out and they me slipping down to the #3 spot in House Horse as I am on a 4 game losing streak, including my first 3rd place finish last night. Clinton is in the lead with 3 wins, Nick's in 2nd with 1, and I am in last with 1. Hopefully this next week I can surge back ahead and impresses the voters.

Tonight is the last regular season soccer game of my college career. It's also the Halloween game, which of course means donning the traditional costumes. Grab a costume and come joint he Hooligans at the game. It starts at 8PM, I'll be the cow.

As for the football game this weekend, I thought we had a chance to pull it out, but Nikki Knight doesn't agree, so my confidence has faltered a bit. Nonetheless, I take A&M by 7. I was listening to the radio earlier this week and Reggie took blame for the recent lackluster offense. He says he knows he's off, but he hasn't felt off his game. Hopefully he'll get his game back and impress the screaming 12th Man at Kyle this weekend. No pictures today, my food is digested and it's time to do some work.

Study Breaks

Sometimes you take a study break and relax. Sometimes you take a study break and end up with egg all over you, making you have to study with no pants on for the rest of the night. Last night there was more of the latter.

That being said, check out this song. Turn it up and Rock Varsity's Horns Off.

A Billion

A billion. That's how many things I have to do today. This week is going to be even worse than last weeks. Thus the blogs will be shorter. I'm loving this great weather! But I'm going to sit inside, do my work, and let y'all enjoy it.

Today I'm Feeling: Busy

On my refrigerator, I have a magnet featuring lots of faces displaying all kinds of different moods and emotions. It came with a little magnetic frame featuring the words "Today I Feel..." The idea is for you to match the frame to the face exhibiting the state that currently describes you the most. One thing that magnet is lacking is a worried face with the word "Busy" under it. My frame would remain locked over that selection if it was offered...that is if I had time to make it to the fridge. In summary, this is going to be a short blog, as I have many things I need to tend to.

I currently have 4 projects I'm working on for class... It's quite overwhelming. In between group meetings, class, growth groups, and working on those projects, I have found time to cause mischief. Monday night involved playing on Heavy Machinery in the parking lot. They've been reroofing the building across from ours and therefore decided to leave a piece of machinery in the 3 parking spaces right in front of my apartment. So of course, we had to play on it. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but since I was never one of those little kids that owned the "Awesome Construction Vehicles!" videos featuring Hard Hat Sam, I simply called it a tractor. Afterwards, we watched the Astros lose that heartbreaker. A better game to watch was the one on Wednesday, which ended with us yelling "Astros win the pennant" and attempting to form a dogpile in the hall. It is also official that my Penny will be working down the hall from me for one of my favorite coworkers, Lori. She's actually going to be working in my old office... The one they kicked us out of and formed into 3 seperate offices...hmph. But I am excited about that. This week was also the first week of the House Horse season. It's a game we invented using Nick's little basketball net I bought for his birthday. I won the opening game, Clinton took the second. So I do find time to have some fun amongst the most busy semester I've ever had.

This morning was a very special 7AM version of Friday Morning Breakfast with Chris. It was moved on account of Audra. We had a decent turnout of 5, including Kevin in his first trip to Sbisa. Work's been pretty good. We had a birthday party complete with Fajitas and Fun. And now I've discovered that CIS has a version of instant messenger which allows me to chat with my SIMS dawg, Dana. But now I'm going to start to bring this blog to a close for the week and work on my presentation for Tuesday. Soccer game, 7PM tonight vs. #24 Colorado. It'll be a good one. So, go. Meet at Rumours at 5:15. This weekend is also our first non-televised away game which means I'll have to watch the live stats update on espn.com. I'm slightly concerned about this game. We have the capability to beat them good, but I doubt we'll achieve that. Especially on the road. That's why I'm taking the 4 point underdogs, Kansas State to beat us. I also see t.u. rather effortlessly putting a halt to Tech's undefeated season. And for anyone that cares, I'm taking Nebraska over Mizzou in a close one.

One last thing for this Photographic Friday. My week in pictures (all of which you've probably seen due to Facebook's new photo album feature):





















































Peace out kids, keep it real.

Life Lessons

Today's entry is going to be directed to my younger readers. I've learned a lot of things in college. A lot of important life lessons that I could only learn through experience because no one told me what to be expecting or how to handle certain situations. So I'm going to document some of the learning experiences that I've had over the past couple of weeks. Hopefully y'all will heed my advice and learn from my mistakes. But I know some of you out there are stubborn and will ignore these warnings and go out there and have to learn on your own, through your own experiences and mistakes. I wish I could prevent you from doing so, but all I can say is good luck...

We'll start in my Organizational Behavior class a couple of weeks ago. I always like to buy used books, not only because of the price difference, but also the previous owner highlights all the important things. Well this book was not only highlighted, but it had notes written out in the margin. The notes aided me in studying, the highlighting aided me in reading. Obviously with all these mark-ups in the book, the previous owner had to be brilliant! I was lucky to have this book. As my prof lectured, I was following along in the text, noting the highlighting and helpful notes. The prof then shifted class from lecture towards more of a discussion. To begin, she asked a very specific question. I don't remember exactly what it was, but I do remember the exact answer was written down in the margin of my book. Thanks book pal! I glanced around the class and saw that no one was going to venture a guess, so I raised my head and recited the answer from my book. The professor squinted her eyes, slightly frowned and responded. "No. No, that's not right." Normally when presented with a wrong answer, she responds with, "Well...let's talk about it." But no, apparently this answer was so far off, it wasn't even worth discussion. I looked back down at the book, breaking eye contact with my professor, wanting to place the blame on the previous owner. You punked me good ma'am (or sir with girly writing). Lesson Learned: The person that owned your book before you probably wasn't the professor.

Once again, yesterday I found myself in Organizational Behavior class. The teasing of my classmates had subsided, I began to think I could rebound from my previous embarassment. I sat in class, listening intently, still following along in my book. Today however, I was going to do some highlighting of my own. I took the highlighter from the girl next to me. It was a clicky highlighter, requiring that I press the button on the end of the marker to deploy the bight yellow tip. As I pushed the button, the loud Click-Click disrupted the room. I whinced. "Whoa...that was kinda loud." I whispered to my neighbor, the highlighter's owner. The professor stopped speaking, turned to me and recited a line I haven't heard since middle school, "Chris. Do you have a joke you'd like to share with the class?" I was taken by complete surprise, but immediately folded my hands together and replied "No." Which was the truth. Probably the best thing I could muster up would have been a short story about a loud highlighter. But this was my fault. I was unprepared and thus once again became the target of my classmates' laughter. I good joke would have no doubt appeased the professor and alieviated the stress of my classmates. I would have been a hero. But I let everyone down. Lesson Learned: Always have a joke prepared for class. You'll never know when you'll need it. I'd encourage you to write down a joke in the margin of your text book, not only will it help you when you're put on the spot. Perhaps it will help the future generations that purchase your used text book.

Heed my advice kids. Together, we can enrich each other's lives.

I Like Picture Books

That's about what I expected from the football game. A large margin of victory over a bad OSU team. The good thing was that our offense began clicking, our defense finally played a full 4 quarters and my margin of victory prediction was big enough for MB to win the weekly contest at work and a Best Buy gift card. I also rose 9 places in the Texags Pick Em ranking to #15...out of 1061 people. I'm a total champ this week.

Yesterday was Strike-A-Thon, the Zeta's annual breast cancer fund raiser. I gladly supported the event, even though it was run by a sorority. They did raise over $50,000, so I'm impressed, good work Zetas. Our team, the Pink Pirates (reppin the Breast Cancer awareness in our pink shirts) consisted of Tiffany (Cap'n Smitty), Nick (Seadog), MB filling in for Gage (Peg Leg), Penny (Half Pint), and me (Cap'n Krunk). We bowled good enough to not get the worst team award, but not good enough to get any other type of award. And in my second game, I did manage to score a 156, if I may promote myself a little more. The rest of my day, till after 9 was spent in some good Growth Group time.

Today, Tiffany and I were in the MSC. I was trying to leave, but she got distracted talking to the Aggie Wranglers, so I wandered over to the next table to look at the open photo album that was displayed. As I leaned over to look at the photos. the girl that was stationed behind the table, set her text book down and greeted me. I looked at her, smiled and returned the "Howdy." She asked me if I was interested in the Golden Key International Honour Society. "Well, I don't really know much about it." Somewhat of a lie... In all honesty I'd never heard of it. "Well, do you have any questions?" She asked. "Actually, I don't really know anything about it. I just came over here to look at your picture book." This was probably the time that the girl should have realized that I probably don't belong in any sort of Honor Society, let alone one that is spelled "Honour." That extra U is definately too fancy (or British) for anyone that was attracted to the table by some colorful pictures. However, since she showed a lot of effort in setting aside her studies to talk to me, I decided to let her give her speech. She told me all about it, telling me that it was by invitation only, the member benefits, scholarships, plus all the other things that make the Golden Key International Honour Society as snobby as the name suggests. She asked my major and when I told her marketing, her only reaction was, "Oh. I had a roommate that was a business major." Business...very broad. Obviously the GKIHS doesn't get many Marketing majors. We're too busy "singing and dancing in class" to be taken seriously I'm sure. Nonetheless, I ended up signing up for membership consideration, allowing them to check my records, my grades, and my pedigree. So if I'm as above average as the rest of the Society, then I suppose I get one of the coveted invitations. Which of course I'll accept. But even if I'm not elite enough to make the cut (I doubt there are too many Cap'n Krunks that make the cut), I can still brag about my College Football Pick-Em Skills...

Your Buddy List is For Buddies!

Whew...what a week. It's finally Friday, but it's no time to bum around. As my tally of group projects rises to 3 in addition to my individual project, it's time to buckle down more than ever. But of course, there's time for other things to. Like Tulane soccer at 7PM and Midnight Yell. And of course it's football weekend, so there goes my Saturday. OSU is our last sure win...which I'm not sure that even a "sure win" is something I can claim. But after this game, I'm very hesitant to predict any more victories. Maybe beating down on the lowly Cowboys will be the confidence booster that we need. Doubtful. Sunday brings growth groups of course and this week, bowling for breast cancer. The Pink Pirates are going to wreck shop. Watch yerselves.

It seems the second wave of IM viruses is circulating. I thought afte last week, they were done. But nope, I got several more last night. Kids, if you get an IM from a friend saying, "hey there check out these pics lol," then don't click on it. Actually, I don't care if you click on it, because when you get the virus and it IMs me from your screenname, I'm not going to click on it, so I'm safe. You know what? I actually do enjoy when people get these viruses because it allows me to see who has me on thier buddy list. Hey, I'm not really your buddy, why am I on your buddy list? Just because I confirmed you as a friend on Facebook, doesn't mean you can get my screen name from there and put me on your buddy list. You don't ever talk to me, so obviously I'm just listed on your buddy list for you to send viruses to. At least say hi to me before you try to infect me. It's only polite.

Here's a story that Logan told me yesterday. And my rendition of it http://artpad.art.com/?iod355bg8ic. Enjoy.

Photographic Friday!
Yeah, I know this is a rarity. Here are some pictures Karen sent me.



















Yeah, I look like a goofball. This is in Kyle before the Texas State game, the day I got my ring. That's why I'm showing the ring off...I am not rubbing my belly.













This picture is in the special Jasper picture frame I made for him.













Here's a really good shot of Kyle that Karen got before the Texas State Game.

My Studies, My Studies. My Studies...Not My Studies.

I've got a big bad MGMT test in about 6 hours. I'm not looking forward to it. I'm somewhat prepared, but you never know what this guy's gonna throw at you. This is probably the most work I've ever had to do for school. That story that things get easier as you get further along with school. Not true. Perhaps the people that say that practiced studying as they came up, so now it's a piece of cake to sit down with a book and learn. I always slept through study practice, so it's always a struggle for me to focus and be able to memorize things, let alone actually learn them. Well, I'm going to look at these management notes while Tiffany spouts out facts about liposuction...

Adjectives

I'm back from the weekend.

Frightfest was spooky.
The game was crappy.
Ticket pull this morning was rainy.
FMBWC was tasty.
Chris today is busy.

Friday, Glorious Friday!

Wow, have you been outside? It's beautiful! I just want to go outside and play all day. And by play, I mean it in the recess way. Nothing in particular. Run, slide, hide and seek, maybe even skip. But instead my youthful side is locked in this building with me doing work. I wish he'd help off with my responsibilities... After work it's group project, then the soccer game at 7.

My day began with FMBWC and then a nap. After my nap, I needed a shower so I could head to work not smelling like bacon and eggs. In the shower I was shown a very positive sign. All week I've slowly been leaning more and more towards Nikki Knight's pessimistic outlook on this weekend's game. I've always had faith in our guys, but this weekend I just didn't think we could pull it off in Colorado. As I finished my shower and turned the water off, I turned around to where the foam letters spelling out "C DUB" had been. I noticed that some of the letters had slid down the wall and now rested on the floor. Those letters were CU. And what was stillhanging on despite the weathering they had taken? "D B." It all made sense. Clearly, I was being told that CU would fall and our DBs would hang tough. My faith is renewed. The Ags will do it!

I guess I'm going to have to wait until the end of the night to see if they do in fact pull it off. I'm recording the game on the DVR so I can watch it the second we get back from Six Flags. I'm hoping I can make it through the dayy without hearing the score. Speaking of Cable... I hate COX. After a lengthy discussion with them in person yesterday, we were making no progress. We told them to cut off all the channels except the extended basic so that I could record the game this weekend. And after that, we'd be looking for a new cable company. Clinton reminded them that treating their customers badly, poor service, and not being able to get a hold of them is not a good way to retain customers. I agree.

Have a good weekend! Gig 'Em Ags! And go outside and play!

No Sleep Till...Brooklyn

Shout out to the Beastie Boys with this title. It encompases the theme of my day thus far and it's definate party music since my day has been a party. It started out in my shower, one of the 2 "party showers" in my house. My roommates decided to use Nick's birthday presents of shower crayons and foam letters to decorate the shower. There are colors screaming good morning from every direction on the shower wall. It's quite glorious. I decided today I would eat a pop-tart and drink some milk, probably a healthy alternative to the Full Throttle I've been counting on every Tuesday/Thursday to keep me awake. I was under the impression that I didn't really need the FT to keep me awake and going on this early morning, that it was all in my head. Well I was wrong.

I got to Zimmer's class (possibly the most boring class that I've had to sit through), took out my crossword, and realized it was Thursday. Those of you that are acquainted with the Batt's crossword will know what that means. As the week progresses, the difficulty of the crossword progresses. By Thursday, it's too hard for me to do. So after I filled in the blanks of the 10 answers I knew, I looked at the clock and realized I still had an hour left in this chair. That was the time that the realization of the dependence I had on Full Throttle hit me. My eyes grew heavy, the lecture grew boring. I glanced around the room of 20 or so students and saw 2 others attempting to sleep. The first was face down on the desk. Not very discrete. Good I won't be the only one... The other was a girl with her head resting on her arm, face pointed towards the notes laying on her desk, but from my position I could clearly see her closed eyes. I opted for this girl's strategy. I looked down at my notes, closed my eyes... I managed to get a couple of winks of some quite terrible sleep, I'm not sure exactly how long I was out. It was long enough for my professor to go over a mere 2 slides, but knowing this prof, that could have taken an hour. I glanced up at her and her eyes caught mine and held them in a stare as she lectured. I quickly pulled away and returned them to my notes. A few minutes later, she released class and I confided in my neighbor, Sarah that I hadn't stayed awake the whole time in class and I was thinking about going upstairs and finding a place to sleep for an hour or so. She told me that it was a good idea and good luck. then we parted ways.

Deciding the 4th floor was a good floor to try, I walked to the end of the hall, further than I had ever traveled before. At the end of the hall, there was one of Wehner's padded benches sitting beside a table that was surrounded by chairs on the other 3 sides. I got comfortable, set my alarm on my cell phone and closed my eyes to rest. Soon enough though, I heard voices around me and I opened my eyes, looked around, and realized it was party time once again. There were 7 or so kids sitting around me in the other chairs about to start a group meeting. Although I was taking up 1/4 of the table space, I decided I probably wasn't invited. So I pakced up and moved on down to the WCL. I'm still in need of a nap and I'm not sure when that will come. I still have 2 classes to make it through and a probable pop quiz in this next one. Oh well, I'll make it through the day. But probably not awake.

Short and Sweet

It's way hot in here. Normally they keep it 20 below for the printers. But now I'm sweating. And Xerox 2 is looking at me panting. Other then that, there's not much going on. The Pink Pirates signed up today to help breat cancer research by joining the bowling tournament. I'm sure we won't dominate. Hopefully Penny will carry our team though. I have an article and some slides to read for class now. What I really want though is a nap. Class goes until 7PM. We play the sips in volleyball at 6:30 tonight. That upsets me. My prof is such a 2%er. Apparently being sleepy makes me write short sentences. I like short sentences.

In place of more rambling by me, I've decided that this would be some good outside reading. Mainly the title. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,171358,00.html

Perspective

I hate COX (My 3rd call, 30 minutes and 3 transfers should be enough to get my bill back to the price it's supposed to be...nope apparently not)
I hate the Full Throttle Machine that gave me Sugar Free instead of regular (I feel your pain now, Nick)
I hate the melted chocolate in my left pocket. (But I like that it rhymes).

I'm thankful that I get a nap at 2:30.
I'm thankful for a win over Baylor.
I'm thankful for my awesome Growth Group tonight.
I'm thankful that T Murph wasn't seriously injured last night.
I'm thankful for all my friends and family.
I'm thankful for my Lord Jesus for humbling himself from God almighty to the lowest of men, living his life as a humble servant, and dying for me.

Let's switch focus from the first list to the second one...

Noteworthy

“Nick Cleavelin, version 22.0 was released today,” as Clinton’s away message reads. So I’d like to start out with a big Happy Birthday to my roommate, Nick! You’re old. Tonight we’ll celebrate with 25 of our good friends in MGMT. Then we plan on gathering up some of our other friends and hitting up Olive Garden for dinner. Nick’s mom ordered the biggest cookie cake in the entire nation for Nick’s birthday. Seriously, it takes up like half of the kitchen table. Even Nick was overwhelmed by the amount of cookie and I've never seen Nick intimidated by food before.

Another notable event coming this week is the annual trip to Six Flags and Fright Fest… It’s like Karen’s favorite thing in the world to do. So, road trip to Arlington this weekend, I’ll bring the soundtrack. What I’m most excited about is the stop we’ll make at Taco Bueno! Yesterday also marked Penny and my 3^rd Monthaversary. Quite notable as well.

My parents came into town Friday evening and we partook all that gameday weekend had to offer. The game didn’t go as I’d predicted or hoped, but we came out with a win. Surprisingly it was our offense that held us back and our defense that kept us in the game. Nonetheless, my family had a great time and are now big Aggie fans. They really enjoyed our traditions and the atmosphere and are now hoping to return in 2 weeks to watch us BTHO OSU. Whoop!