7:10

Good morning everyone! I'm trying to be chipper about this. I'm about to go observe in a school for about 4 hours.... o boy!

A funny thing happened on the way to the Village

Myself and John Degroote, a great friend, we walking through the village on Thursday night at about 11 PM. We met up with a bunch of guys from our fraternity and were hanging out in the upper village quad (behind Apt. B). For some reason I decided it would be both funny and a great idea to shave my head into a mohawk. If you ask me why, I won't be able to give you a logical answer. Anyway, a buddy of mine ran into his apartment and shaved it in the dark by one of the fountains. My hair is kind of afro-ish to begin with, so it looks pretty goofy.

Having a mohawk is almost like a tiny social experiment. Ever since, I feel like at least half the eyes in a crowd are looking at me; and the ones that aren't looking are judging me in some way. I was in an Arby's on Sunday and I looked back at a mother of two young boys. She was scowling at me. Anyone that knows me, would say that I am one of the nicest guys around, I don't do drugs, and I am devoutely Catholic. I feel like people would disagree with all three of these statements based on just my appearance right now. It's humbling, but very frustrating.

Could anybody post on the discussion board what they think about mohawks and judging people with them?

VH1

So, I'm sitting here taking a break from the internet searching assignment eating lunch. I figured I might as well turn on the TV. I'm not the typical guy who just turns on SportsCenter or ESPN to drink in all of the highlights and statistics from the weekend of football. I also don't want to be even close to watching a soap opera. On my basic cable package at Coronado, that basically leaves me with "How things Work" on the Discovery Channel and "Fabulous Celebrity Break-ups" on VH1.

Laugh all you want, I call it a guilty pleasure. It's almost like a trainwreck; what I mean is, once you start watching it, you can't stop. You get sucked into this mess of worthless information about celebrities, some of whom I don't even know, and then you finish the show and realize that you just wasted half an hour. Maybe I should just watch a movie instead.


My roommate just walked in and made fun of me for watching VH1. O well!

weekend in Naperville

I spent last weekend in Naperville, Illinois at a club Ultimate Frisbee tournament called Chicago Heavy Weights. I play for an mixed (which means co-ed) club frisbee team called One Trick Pony. Most of the players on this team are from around the Saint Louis area and 3-10 years out of college. Four of the players, myself included, are still in college. The way co-ed ultimate differs from open Ultimate is that at all time on the field you must have 4 men and 3 women playing. It makes the rhythm of the game a lot different.

This particular tournament is the last big tournament before the postseason series for the club division starts. Ultimate is divided into two seasons: club and college. The club series is in the Fall, and the college series is in the Spring. There were 20 teams in our division this weekend and our ranking was 15th out of 20. We broke seed and eventually finished 10, finishing the weekend with a 5-2 record. What was crucial about the team's performance was that we lost by a combined 5 points in the two losses against teams that had previously blown us out at tournaments in June and July.

A lot of this may not make sense. But the weather was beautiful. It was not even breezy, 80 degrees, and there were no clouds all weekend. I got seriously sunburnt. Being outside and playing all weekend was very relaxing, but at the same time very tiring. Each game lasts 90 minutes. So, if I do the math right, I was running around and playing for about 630 minutes, about 10 and a half hours-which doesn't include time between games. I'll edit this again later

the net gen goes to college

Times are changing. I agree with the article that the college generation is changing, not because it necessarily has to or wants to, it just did. Everything is the world is so digitalized now. Just the other day I saw someone who could not have been more than 12 years old talking on a cell phone to what sounded like a giddy girlfriend. It was unbelievable. Anyway, I think there should be a balance between traditional and modern instruction and technology in the college environment. Obviously, to keep up with the times, college must cater to the technological needs of students and the necessity of their use. Students who wants to enter the workforce must be able to operate technology such as computers and programs. As a teacher I will have to know how to use power points for my classrooms and spreadsheets for my grading. I need to be able to use them without spending time figuring them out first. Technology is a vital part of college instruction.

But, I think there is something to be said about the preservation of traditional instruction and writing. Reading literature and taking notes and writing essays is a skill that must be learned traditionally first. Technology only enhances that skill in word processing form. Maybe my opinion is a little biased because I myself am not always the most savvy with technology; a little uncomfortable if you will. I know books are online. I know classes are offered online. But I will always be a proponent of human to human teaching, written opinions and exercises, and reading out of textbooks. I'll ask one question to end my blog. When the power at school goes out-which it does at SLU- will you be able to read your online text, or hard copy textbook?