Thanksgiving- Part 1

After about a week of mulling and contemplating possible topics, I decided that I wanted to start a section about Thanksgiving, but I have multiple parts to this idea so this is going to be the Thanksgiving Part 1. Tonight I got my first taste of Thanksgiving as the dining courts at Purdue held a Thanksgiving dinner. I was able to go with my roommate and some other friends, and it just made me think about how lucky I am to be where I am at. Saying that, Thanksgiving Part 1 is not going to be one of the typical list and sappy stories about type out the top 100 things that I am thankful for. For one, that is a wonderful exercise and something that you may see in Thanksgiving Part 2 or Part 3, but not in Part 1. This part is going to switch things up a bit and look at things from a different perspective. So tie yourself to the ship, we're flipping this deck.

Before we jump into the actual 'meat' of Thanksgiving Part 1, I'd just like to hit on some of the more recent and relevant things that have been going on up at Purdue in the past week. First and most importantly, basketball season officially kicked off last Sunday night! The Boilers are sitting on a 2-0 record as of now and we all know that the left side of that column is only going to keep going up. Even without Robbie Hummel, I have been surprised by how well the Boilers have played, and I think that we have some serious talent in the freshman class, which is always promising for the years to come.

This week went back to normal temperature wise. Cold. Anyone who was a true fan and endured the hardship of last weekend's game against Michigan deserves a huge round of applause. I hate to mention that I almost left early, but it is true. My roommate convinced me otherwise, and my hands weren't very appreciative when they were frozen as I was walking back. But, all-in-all, it was worth it. Last weekend, I got to sit down with two awesome guys at Greyhouse and just talk about life. You never really know how much you have to talk about until you actually begin talking. It's a cool feeling to make new friends, and an even cooler one when you know that you have so far to go with these new friendships. Anyways, that was a really good time.

The funny thing about Thanksgiving is that for such a seemingly trivial holiday, it has probably had the most anticipation on campus of any holiday, break, or event so far. I've talked to kids who have counted the exact number of classes until they get off, or even the total number of hours until they can leave. As I started thinking about this, I realized that Thanksgiving was actually a lot deeper than I was giving it credit for, especially for those who live away from their families. There are some college students who really haven't seen their families or their friends since they came up here in August, and so for them, this Thanksgiving is so much more than just the usual merry company and tasty food. For others, it's a chance to see relatives that you wouldn't normally see, or a time to just relax and not worry about anything. Whatever your reason for enjoying Thanksgiving this year, make sure that you make the most of it. Reflect on those things that you are thankful for and take time to appreciate all that you have been given.

As I started getting into the Thanksgiving mood, one of the things that you naturally do is start making a list of the things that you are thankful for. Whether you get five things on that list or 100, naming things that you are thankful for or things that make you happy always makes you feel a little bit better. However, for the sake of Thanksgiving Part 1, I have decided to go through and make a list of all of the things that I am NOT thankful for, and then see if I can find ways of why I should be thankful for those things. Because in reality, we should be thankful for life in general. Life isn't perfect. It has its bumps and cracks. But we are living. We are functioning, thinking, breathing, acting, running, laughing, crying, loving, and feeling. We are living. We are beautifully and wonderfully made with care. We are a creation. We are loved, cared for, thought about, cried for, trusted, desired, listened to, honored, and all together needed. So those things that we think we aren't thankful for, well we'll see about those, starting with my own personal list.

I am not thankful for: Waking up.

If you know me at all, you probably know that I am a night owl and that I haaaaaaaate to wake up. I despise mornings with a passion that is hard to match. However, as I was thinking about this terrible action, I had to realize that the act of waking up is kind of like a chalkboard erasure. With each new sunrise, there is a new day and brand new things to accomplish, people to meet, or fun to be had. I really like the chalkboard erasure analogy, because if you have OCD like me, you are/were always upset at the chalk dust/ chalk lines that the erasure just seemed not to be able to get. Even if you erased over a certain area, you could still almost always see a faint outline of what was there before. It's the same way with life. Even though every day is a 'clean slate,' there are still things from our past that linger with us, that we can't quite seem to erase. Nobody is the perfect artist, that is why we each get an unlimited amount of erasures because we can never truly draw the perfect day.

I am not thankful for: freezing cold temperatures.

I do not think it is humanly possible to enjoy the feeling of your fingers being so cold that they could snap like toothpicks. Buuut, think about it. If we didn't have cold, we wouldn't know the feeling of snuggling up next to a fire with a blanket and some hot chocolate. We would never get that awesome feeling of being wrapped from head to toe in a blanket. We would never see the wonders of snow, or the joys of building a snowman or other great things that accompany freezing cold temperatures.

I am not thankful for: people who do not listen.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone who you are clearly trying to talk to is not paying attention to you whether it is on purpose or not. The "ahem, clear throat, cough twice" trick can only be done so much until you just want to grab the person by the front of their shirt and demand that they listen. Buuut, think about it. These people who annoy us so much by not listening are the ones that teach us just how important it is to listen. This goes along with the concept that we never truly know how important something is until we actually want or need that thing. Listening is a huge skill that we take for granted, and I am sure that we all have at one point in time been the person that is just too busy to listen. Well, now we may not be!

This list could go on, and I am sure that each and every one of you have things that you are not thankful for. However, as I quickly found out, if you look back at those things, you can begin to realize and piece together ways that you are in fact thankful. Even the most minute actions that seem to get us down can in some way be taken for a positive light. I guess it all comes down to perspective. We have the ability to cast our own perspective on life, and because of that, some of us are a lot more thankful than others. So on this Thanksgiving day, before you sit down and make a list of the things that you are thankful for, make a list of all of the things that you are not thankful for. As you make this list, you will soon realize that there aren't as many things that you might have thought. So many 'problems' that we experience are so trivial compared to what most people go through on a daily basis. We are not thankful that we have to ride our bike when others can drive. We aren't thankful that we can only afford to eat at these restaurants while our neighbors can eat at these nice fancy ones. At least we can get something to eat. So make your list. Mull it over. Think about how each thing that you are not thankful for actually helps you in your life, and think about where you would be if you didn't go through what you do.

So, that basically wraps up my thoughts in Thanksgiving Part 1. I know that it isn't Thanksgiving yet, but trust me, I only have 9 more classes or 13 more hours of school work until break! Make sure that this weekend you live with purpose and be safe!

Closing tip for the week: This weekend, Inception is playing at the Stuart Center on Friday and Saturday night. If you haven't seen this movie, I would recommend going to go see it. Students are free with their student ID's, and it is definitely worth it!

Closing quote for the week: "The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving." ~H.U. Westermayer

Throwing up the NW333 and riding a wheelie with the Easy Rider,

Signing off,

JD

The Spirit Of Adventure

Off we go! Hello everyone and welcome to the new segment of This Guy Over Here. Today’s topic is the spirit of adventure and what that entails. Before we begin with that, just wanted to talk about how things have been going in the past week. Yesterday, the temperature peaked at 70 degrees, making it one of the warmest November 9ths in the past 15 years. It was like we had gone through our mini-winter and the new spring was here. However, the worst is still to come. We all know it, so lets soak up these last few rays of sunshine while we can.

On Monday, I had the opportunity to eat lunch with two Old Masters. The Old Masters program is a student-based organization on campus. Every year they bring back 10 individuals who received their master’s degree from Purdue University. These ten people have all made a relatively large impact on their industry, environment, or peers. The two individuals that I got to eat lunch with were Linda Huff, and Bob Peterson. Both were fabulous people; however, I really got into talking with Mr. Peterson, and it was actually through our discussion that the idea for this blog topic came up. If any of you have seen the movie Up, Finding Nemo, or Monsters Inc, then you offhandedly know who Bob Peterson is. He was a voice in all three of those movies, including Doug the Dog in Up. He was co-director of the movie Up, and was a Screenwriter for Finding Nemo. As we talked about his career, and some of his movies, we really got into the question, “What constitutes an adventure?” And so, in response, let’s go on our own adventure!

To infinity and beyond!

So we are going to start by defining adventure. What is an adventure? How does one go on an adventure? Why do we go on adventures? These are all questions that I hope to answer. According to dictionary.com, adventure means participating in exciting undertakings or enterprises. Merriam and Webster define it as the encountering of risks. Personally, I think it is a little hard to put words to something as flexible. Merriam and Websters definition actually leads me to my first point, which is: Do we have to be encountering risks to experience an adventure?

Hollywood has done such a good job of tying together adventure and risk that the two seem almost inseparable today. We are raised in this lifestyle that tells us in order to have adventure, or in order to have fun, we have to take risks. Now backtrack here a bit. Taking risks is a sketchy topic, because we want to encourage the youth of today to take risks and try and fail to grow and mature. However, there are some risks that shouldn't be taken, some that actually lead to peril and harm, and some that aren't really risks at all but stupid behaviors. Does adventure come with risk? Sometimes. Does it have to? Not at all.

The second misconception about adventures is that you have to go somewhere to have an adventure. This is completely not true. The reason why people tend to find that they are more adventurous as they travel is because they have a limited amount of time in that set location, and everyone wants to make the most of the time in a new place. Sometimes we get caught up in living life that we forget that we can still find and experience adventures in our own backyards, neighborhoods, or dorms. The adventure shouldn't be defined by the place but by the person.

The third misconception that people have about adventures is that you personally have to do something that is outrageous and or so irrationally different in order to truly have an adventure. What we need to realize is that sometimes, the greatest adventures comes when we don't do anything. The world moves at such a fast pace. Granted, it moves faster in some places than in others; yet, sometimes we get so caught up in the rotation that we fail to simply stop and take in the wonderful things that are happening all around us. Another way to experience a great adventure is to just listen. So many people have so many absolutely wonderful things to say and share; we just never take the time to get to know them and to listen. I always like to say that you learn twice as much everyday as we do now if we actually listened.

We've grown up in an age where when most of us think of the word adventure, we instantly begin to think about fictional movie characters such as Indiana Jones. Seeing as many of us aren't going to be going through the Temple of Doom, how do we manage to get adventure into our everyday lives? See that's just it though.

Our everyday lives are our adventures. I believe that everyday is an adventure in and of itself. We aren't guaranteed that we will be here tomorrow. We aren't even guaranteed that we will be here in the next hour. So why not make each and every day an adventure in and of itself? This doesn't mean go out and do stupid activities, and then blame this guy because I said that you should live as if life could end at any time. Obviously there is a strong line between living vicariously and living irrationally. If we focus on making each and everyday a new adventure, we will get the most out of life, and we will be happy.

For all of you gamers out there, I just got Call of Duty Black Ops today. So far, it is legit. Too legit to quit. I got to go out to eat with my mom today which was a nice way to spend a Wednesday afternoon. If you haven't yet today, tell your parents that you love them. That's basically all I got. Have a great week, and thanks for reading the thoughts of This Guy Over Here. Feel free to leave a comment or write me on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/bobbalockinosmagockin

Have a wonderful week!

Closing tip for the week: As many of you have probably heard/ seen, there is a dining court in the basement of the northern most part of Cary Quad. This is only for the student athletes, and many of you may be disappointed because you realize that you will never have the opportunity to dine as the athletes do. Think again my friend. If you sign up through the Dining Court system to do reviews on the dining courts and their service, you are guaranteed at least one meal in this super exclusive restaurant. It's obviously well worth the trade off of a couple of pages of reviewing the dining courts.

Closing quote for the week: 'Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." ~Andre Gide

Throwing up the NW333 and speed racing with the Easy Rider.

Signing off,

JD

Welcome makers, all. I've been trying to think about what to blog about, and so in the meantime, while I am still thinking, I wanted to give a recap of Halloween weekend up at Purdue. To my knowledge most of the students managed to survive Halloween weekend, but the same really can't be said about the Purdue football team. I mean 93 points in two weeks? I know that there have been injuries and all, but we are a Big Ten School. We should at least be able to compete.

In better light, the basketball season kicks off tomorrow night as the Boilers take on Indianapolis at Mackey Arena. You always know its basketball season when it starts getting so cold that your basketballs in your garage become deflated, and your backboard turns into a rock hard slate, that gives no love for the bank (if it wasn't this way already). Basketball season is always a time of excitement, because it is something that defines the people of Indiana. It has a certain ability to make nothing else seem important for a brief period of time. It can fill a gym, break hearts, or be the cause of long road trips. It can turn some people into insomniacs or unite any group of people it comes in contact with. My high school coach always used to say that basketball was so special because with only five players on the court at one time, it is the sport where the individual represents the greatest amount of the team: 20%. He forgot doubles tennis, but it was still a meaningful quote. So this winter season, go out and catch a game if you haven't ever been to one. For those of us who grew up with the rock in our hands, stay loyal. It's a wild ride, but it's so worth it in the end.

To the batmobile.

I said earlier that I wanted to recap on Halloween Weekend, and some of you may be scratching your heads, because in my last blog I mentioned that the fact that people would continue to talk about halloween after it was over was going to be extremely annoying. However, I am not really talking about Halloween in general, just the best/worst costumes that I saw. You know someone has to do it. If you wore any of these costumes, I am sorry, and I am not trying to offend anyone. I am just going off of what everybody thinks.

So we will start with the best costumes, and very quickly move into the worst, because let's face it, a lot of people just didn't even try.

THE BEST HALLOWEEN COSTUMES OF 2010

1. The magic genie lamp from Aladdin.

After careful consideration, I decided that this costume took home the crown. It met all of the requirements of a great costume. It looked good, it was creative, it was relatively cheap, and most of all, it was semi-clean yet effective at the same time. I give mad props to the man who thought of this, and if I had enough money, I might have even created a shirt to award you for your awesome accomplishment. But, that didn't happen, so you will have to settle for a shoutout.

2. The Napolean Dynamite Crew

This is a group of my friends that go to IU, and I have to give out the second place ribbon to them. Not only did they come up with a very original idea, but the costumes are near perfection. Once again, all the requirements or greatness were met in these costumes. Even though the magic genie lamp from aladdin takes the top spot, you guys were a very close number two, and bravo for the laughs. From left is Kip (Mark Lottes), Napolean (Alex Bryant), and Deb (Jessica Daniel).

3. Steve Urkel

So I was at McDonalds on friday night around 2 in the morning, and guess who walks in? Steve Urkel. Literally. Well not really, but his costume was so perfect that it could have been. He had the suspenders, and the large glasses with the hairdo and all. Kind of on a side note, the word hairdo always makes me think of the word up-do, which then leads me to want to watch Can I Have Your Number. 'Xcuse me can I talk you for a minute Steve Urkel. I stood in Mcdonalds with my miniature McFlurry and fries, I knew what I had to do. I had to get Urkel’s autograph. I then decided against it, and walked back home in despair and self-pity. It is a decision that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

4. Fake Cop

So as my friends and I were walking to Mcdonalds on friday night, we passed by this fantastic foursome of drunkeness. They were yelling, flipping off cars, laughing obnoxiously. Basically, they had it all going on. Anyways, we passed without much of a problem. A few loose handshakes were exchanged. If you have ever tried to shake hands with a drunk person, you know how awkward this can be. We had continued walking for a bit, when I looked back over my shoulder and saw this cop approaching the foursome. My group stopped for a second to watch the ordeal. From where we were, the cop looked legit. He had the handcuffs, the hat, the crisp uniform, and even a holster with what looked like a weapon. Long story short, the cop was actually fake, but since he fooled me, it deserves a spot on the top five list.

5. Bomb Squad

The bomb squad will wrap up this years top five best halloween costumes. The beauty of the costume was in the design. The costume appeared to be pretty much hand made, and they were puffy. It's like they stuffed pillows into their sweatshirts. By this description, it doesn't sound very cool, but the best part was that across their chests, they had bomb squad in these white letters. With an all black costume, the bomb squad writing was the hit of the black light party. Also, there were four of them. I am always a sucker for costumes that require multiple people. It is always so much better than the one man stand.

THE WORST HALLOWEEN COSTUMES OF 2010

1. Yourself

This costume seemed to be in high demand, especially amongst the guy population. This may be because it is so much harder for a guy to find a decent costume than it is for a girl. When a guy dresses up as himself, they give off the impression, "I am not creative enough to come up with a costume, or I am too self-concious to allow myself to be in a position where people can laugh at me." Lame! You have to at least give an effort. So because of this, anyone who did not dress up, and still went out, officially sported the worst costume this halloween.

2. Referee

Let's face it after a while, almost every costume gets really old. However, one costume that got really old forever ago was the referee/blind referee combination. On Halloween, creativity is awarded and similarities are treated like always a bit awkward. For example, on Friday, I saw three Waldo's from Where's Waldo. How am I, the common citizen, supposed to know which one is actually Waldo, and which two are the fakers pretending to be Waldo to throw me off of his trail? It's tiring business. So when I saw at least 6 referees in one night, I realized how over worn the costume was and so that is why it takes the ranks as the number two worst costume for 2010 Halloween.

3. The Animal (Any)

Again, it is always good to try and stay away from costumes that cause a general sense of confusion. On Saturday night, I was standing next to this girl that was dressed in what appeared to be a cheetah costume. She was one of the few girls that wasn't grinding all up on somebody, so the guys swarmed to her like white on rice. The best line of the night by far though was said by one brave lad who approached cheetah lady. He prepared himself, got the confidence, and went up to this girl and said: "Nice Cheetah costume. Do you want to dance?"

To which the cheetah lady responded, "Um, I'm a leopard." And boom goes the dynamite. His entire night was over just because cheetah lady decided to sport a highly confusing animal costume. I saw an array of other animals as well. There were cows, and dalmations, and other cats, a dog, and a fish just to name a few. The animal farm came out as the number three worst costume. And that's that.

4. Robbie Hummel's hurt ACL

Okay so this was a complete way to cop out and not really dress up, therefore it had to have a spot on the top 5 worst costumes of 2010. Maybe people thought they were going to be witty and funny and save money. What you really did though was make everyone cringe a little bit more inside, and remind us about how you like to laugh at broken hopes and dreams. Way to go.

5. Jersey Shore Cast

Ah the infamous Jersey Shore Cast. There were three problems with these costumes. The first is that nobody actually likes the show outside of watching it. Everyone watches it because their friends watch it, but it's definitely not something that you try to replicate in everyday life. Two, for guys, unless you are as buff as Paulie D or Ronnie or whoever, then you most likely went with the fake abs and muscles costume from some local Halloween Store, which just reads total doucher all over it. And finally, what girl really wants to be snooki? I mean she's short, fat, and is just overall nasty! Blah, it gives me the wiggles just thinking about it.

Because I only took the top 5 of each, I could not include all of the costumes that I thought were either very good or really bad. However, I have included a list of notable mentions for the best costumes of 2010 from the weekend. They are:

Hulk, A Lego, Bed Intruder, Scuba Steve, Indiana Jones, a Sim, Maverick from Top Gun.

If you feel that your costume was extremely awesome and was not put on here, please leave me a comment letting me know, or drop it on my facebook page:

(http://www.facebook.com/bobbalockinosmagockin) and after careful examination from my panel of judges, I will decide whether or not to update the current rankings!

Oh and a special congratulations to the Napoleon Dynamite Crew. You officially are my first picture that has been upload onto my blog page. Great work guys.

Thanks for reading the thoughts of This Guy Over Here. Have a frabjous week!

Closing tip for the week: For those of you who don't know, the Purdue Busing system actually offers a very neat opportunity to know when buses are going to arrive at your bus stop. Each bus stop has its own individual 'code', and if you text BUS and then the 'code' to 25252, it will tell you when the bus is going to next arrive at your stop. It is super helpful, especially on cold mornings!

Closing thought for the week: " I bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween" ~ Anonymous

Throwing up the NW333 and ghost riding with the Easy Rider,

Signing off,

JD