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

Hallowhat?

Boo!

Hey all and welcome back. Thanks for stopping by and reading what This Guy Over Here has to say about life on the Purdue Campus. At my bible study on Tuesday nights through Campus Crusade, we do something called "Happies and Crappies," and so I thought I would implement that into my blog because I like the idea, and it is a catchy way to tell people about what has been going on since the last blog. SO, since last friday, there have been both some Happies and Crappies. I am always hesitant about which to start with, but for today, I will start with the crappies just because they are shorter. My major crappy for this past week is that the New York Yankees lost in the ALCS to the Texas Rangers. I am a Yankees fan, like it or hate it, but I was very disappointed when the pinstripes went down. Anyways, let's get off the toilet. On the other hand, I had a fantastic weekend that consisted of a water park, making lots of new friends, and a skit that was so good it could have been written by the Shakespearean legend himself (or Ronald Dahl).

As the Purdue students have gone through the week, they have probably noticed one of two things. The first is that this weekend is Halloween. That should be obvious. It's the only thing that anybody talks about. What are you going to dress up as? What parties are you going to? What are you going to dress up as? Wait did I already mention that? Oh well, what are you going to dress up as again? It's like a contagious virus that is spread throughout campus. Speaking of contagious viruses, the other thing that most Purdue students should have realized is that this week marked the kick off of Humans Vs. Zombies. Who knew that nerf guns and thin strips of orange cloth could cause such a controversy. As I was standing outside my math class today, I overheard this dialogue:

"AMBUSH!!! EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF"

"Ouch!" followed by a banging noise, and the sound of someone being tackled (this does have a very distinct noise)

"Gotcha. Alright man give me your feed code."

"No way man. You totally got sideshot before you poisoned me."

"Really? You're going to be that guy?" (To which I responded: I'm This Guy Over Here. Not really. But I should have)

They say nerf guns are for children. I think not. Especially with their wicked sideshots that can kill zombies. Anyways. Enough with that. Back to the first main thing going on at Purdue. Hallowhat?! Halloween! When I was little, I used to dress up in these awesome hand made costumes courtesy of my mom and my best friends mom. Now with no one to make my costume, I am a bit lost in the wardrobe department. With so many possibilities out there, it's a bit hard to narrow down the options. However, I have never really understood the idea of Halloween, and that is what I want to talk about for the remainder of this blog. Hallowhat?

Halloween!

Halloween is the one day of every year where kids and grownups alike can dress up as whatever they want to be. According to history.com, Halloween was originally an ancient Celtic practice. It was one day that straddled the seasons of fall and winter, and it was a say where the dead could return to earth. Now that is some scary stuff. However, throughout the centuries, this custom has been watered down to now degradative image that we see reflected in every skimpy and sleezy halloween costume.

The more I got to thinking about Halloween, the more convinced I became that Halloween actually accomplishes the complete opposite of what it intends to do. Halloween is meant to be a time where individuals can dress up and disguise themselves with costumes and extra weird make-up. However, I believe that people already do a pretty good job of putting on different masks to fit in with different crowds in everyday life, and therefore, I've concluded that on Halloween, the good majority of people actually behave more like themselves than they do on any other day of the year. They feel more comfortable being who they really are because people won't judge them. How can they? It's Halloween.

Do you ever think about who first started the idea of trick-or-treat? I always pictured it as a creeper looking to rob a house, only to find that the owner is inside. This owner just happens to have quite the sweet tooth, and so he keeps a giant bowl of candy right next to the door. The creepy guy peeks in, takes a handful of candy, and runs off with his loot. He then precedes to make every other homeowner in the neighborhood feel guilty by showing them just how good of a neighbor the sweet tooth home owner was for allowing him to take some candy. And so starts trick-or-treat. Fact.

I think that sometimes, we as a society don't really think too much about the reasons why we do something. We simply base our actions on the merit of tradition or norm, but what is norm when it comes to halloween? Is it scary movies? Haunted Houses? Maybe. Is it creepy guys trying to rob houses only to come up with a bag full of candy. Possible. Or is it a day in which people are actually the most open and real with each other? I haven't really decided yet, but one thing I do know is that everybody at Purdue will keep on talking about Halloween, and they probably will keep talking for a solid two weeks after this weekend. It's that legendary.

In terms of the future, I emailed the student newspaper, as I am trying to get them to run something called the "Unheard Voices of Purdue." This would be a small section somewhere in the Exponent that would feature blogs or commentaries that are written by Purdue students that are more underground. It would be similar to a "Letters to the Editor" type of thing, except it wouldn't be random one time blurbs but updates on actual sites or maintained social critique. So far I haven't heard back from them, but I'll keep you all updated on any advancements. If you have any ideas for the future, or any topics that you want me to blog about, feel free to leave them in the comments section along with your name, so I can give you a shoutout!

Finally, as many of you have realized by now, at the end of every blog, I include a line about how I "throw down The Rock." In case you didn't know, this was a reference to my roommate, Evan Staton. It was originally the nickname that I had given him for the purposes of this blog; however, my dorm floor has come up with something a bit more classy, and so from now on for all extensive purposes, you will see that I refer to Evan Staton as Mr. Easy Rider (The Mr. is not always necessary, it just gives it more flair).

That's it, and thanks for reading the thoughts of This Guy Over Here.

Closing tip for the week: If you ever need a really pathetic way of getting out of class, go to the corner of Martin Jischke and third street where the dorm hall Meredith sits. There is a tree out front, and on this tree are some berries. These berries smell like an awful throwup, especially when they are smashed. Saying this, scoop some up, go to class, crush some of these berries right outside your building and make sure that you get some residue in your shoes or on your fingers. Make sure that your hair is ruffled, and you look like you just woke up. Walk into class coughing, and tell your teacher that you are sick and that you are throwing up. The smell will confirm it. You will get to miss class, and you will get brownie points for dragging yourself to class to tell your professor personally that you were sick. Double bonus.

Closing Quote for the week: "There once was a man that was never born. He was made." ~ Me.

Think about it.

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

Signing off,

JD

Click!

Welcome to the wonderful world of West LaLa. This Guy Over Here is bringing you the latest news on campus, as well as some social critique. For some students, this week consisted of setting up meetings with advisors and trying to figure out what classes to take next semester. Some stood in line on Tuesday night for reserve basketball tickets, whose value went down significantly with Hummel's injury. Other's are still trying to figure out how to differentiate this week from any other week previous. As I'm having lunch and simply observing people in their everyday life, I wanted to talk about something that I have been mulling over about. It can be defined in this one sentence: "how do you be someone that other people want to follow?"

This seems like a pretty easy question right off the bat. Many people would simply answer that if you are nice, polite, and intelligent, people will want to follow or listen to you. However, to those people I am quick to bring up that sometimes the nicest people can't persuade even the dullest person to follow their cause, because there is something almost scary about a person that is too nice. Even the most polite person still has trouble gathering a following at times, and the smartest people in the world can't always find people to back up their causes. So how can you insure that others will willingly follow and support you?

It is a combination of different skills, and this combination has to be finely tuned. Imagine each different characteristic or attribute as a knob on a giant control panel. You can mix and match the values of these knobs, and therefore, you are given an endless possibilities of possible talentry. Some people may be really good at public speaking, but they lack in the one on one conversations. Others can be really personable, but they can't communicate to a large group. The trick to being someone that other people want to follow is by finding the right combination of settings that your "knobs" should be set on. So how do we find this combination?

Well first of all we need to practice. Practice makes perfect right? Well not necessarily, but it does make your further attempts a lot easier. But then we stumble along the problem of how do you practice different lifestyles? We don't wake up one day and decide to adjust our character to certain degrees. So, I want to lay out the three most important characteristics to monitor and practice in order to make other people want to follow you.

1) Confidence

This is the most important character trait, and it is also the hardest because in today's society, confidence is so easily mistaken as ego. There is a huge difference between ego and confidence; however, we can cross over from one to the other without even knowingly trying. It is a known fact that people follow people who seem to have their life together. People are attracted to people who are confident and sure of themselves. Note that the last statement does not read that people are attracted to people who are so sure of themselves that they do heed advice (egotism). The confidence factor is one of those traits that has to be just right. You have to be extremely confident and comfortable with yourself, without coming across as egotistical, and that is very hard to do.

2) Funny

This trait is something that you either have or you don't, because everyone knows how annoying the person is that tries to be Mr. Funny. For those of us who did not get the funny gene, we are at a disadvantage, and therefore have to find other ways to make up for this lacking. However, lacking the ability to always make people laugh is not a bad thing. If you are the class clown, the funny person, or the person in the group that everyone turns to for a laugh, then it is much harder to be taken seriously. Also, if you are that person, being funny almost becomes an expectation, and that can be a lot of work in and of itself. Saying this, people usually tend to follow individuals who make themselves feel good.

3) Intelligence

People listen and respect individuals that are intelligent. However, like confidence, an intelligent person can very easily come off as being cocky or even belittling. People with above average intelligence also have to figure out ways to communicate this intelligence in ways that everyone can understand. Only then can they really be an effective leader. If we took a group of high school students and sat them down in a Astrophysics lecture being held by the Director of NASA, they wouldn't necessarily want to follow this speaker simply because of the intelligence of the lecture.

The hardest part of being a leader is making other people want to follow you. Sure we can all go out and tell the next 50 people that we see that if they back us up on this or that then they win $100. But that's not real leadership. True leadership comes when others join with us simply because they like the direction that we are headed in. It's as simple as that.

This relates to us at college, especially at a big college like Purdue, because with close to 40,000 students, what are you personally doing to stand out and be a leader? Are others around you willing to follow you based on these characteristics above? These are not the only characteristics of leadership by any means; they were just the three that I thought were most relevant and useful. So be a connector. Branch out. Find out what makes you uncomfortable and do it. Adjust your personal knobs so that you can be the best you that you can be!

I came across a bit of exciting news a few days ago, but it was just confirmed today. My blog will now be hosted on boiler.camp.us and so I will be blogging for two different sites, but if you are used to reading on here, don't worry blogs will still be on the way. I am hoping that this will help expand my readership and get me more involved with the students of Purdue.

Closing tip for the week: Hicks Undergraduate Library was voted one of the best places on campus to study. There is a reason for this. It is AWESOME! Go there and check it out if you haven't been there yet. If you have, I am sure that you would agree with me. If not, go to a psychiatrist.

Closing quote for the week: "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." ~ John. C Maxwell

Throwing up the NW333 and throwing down The Rock,

Signing off,

JD

Carpe Diem

Sieze the day. A phrase that has been steady throughout the ages. Sieze the day. A way of life that exists on the purpose of spontaneity. Sieze the day. A saying that gets really really annoying if you keep repeating it after every sentence, but is still so true that it needs to be said after every sentence. Hello and welcome. Today is Sunday and I am about to start my team building meeting for engineering; however, I had a little bit of free time so I decided to fire up the comp and jot down some of the thoughts/events of the weekend.

The first thing that I would like to bring to the attention of anyone who reads this is the campaign called Swipe out Starvation. It is being run by Campus House at the moment; however, it is really more of an idea that we are trying to make happen on campus. Basically the idea is as follows: Every student at Purdue that has a meal plan gets a certain number of meal "swipes" per week. Yet, every week, students find themselves coming up with a certain number of swipes left over that they do not use. This is especially true of holiday weeks. Sure, Purdue already has a system where you can go to "On-the-Go" and get food that is definable to an equivalent of a meal, but some students do his and still have extra swipes, or they do not want the extra food and therefore swipes go to waste every week. What if we could not let those swipes go to waste? What if we could take the equivalent of food or money that is involved with one swipe and find a way to turn those equivalencies into tools to help those around us who are less fortunate. The Swipe out Starvation campaign is going to aim to do just that. There have been some concerns raised, and these concerns are a main reason why this is still an idea and not a project; but hopefully, it will soon be a experiment, and then a project, and finally something that is installed into everyday life at the Purdue campus. That is just a heads up of a new project that is relevant to all of us here at Purdue.

So moving onward.

If you have been on campus at all in the past week, you have seen the 'Maker' campaign that is popping up all over the place. I am a maker. I like the general idea; however, someone told me that the school was trying to get their name changed from Boilermaker to maker. I am totally against that. The cool part of the saying right now is that there are so many words/phrases that go with maker, i.e. difference maker, peacemaker. Boilermaker fits in that category, and therefore symbolizes that we are all of those phrases that are associated with 'maker'. Don't change the name.

If you saw the 'maker' campaign, you were probably around to hear the tragedy that befell all purdue students and fans alike this weekend. The news hit the student section of the football game in the 3rd quarter and spread like a wildfire. Just after we had gotten over the ACL injury that Robbie Hummel suffered at the end of last season, that ended his season along with the hopes of Purdue basketball, this happens. This season, with Johnson back and Hummel back and healthy, Purdue was ranked in the top-5 for pre-season polls. Yet, nothing gold stays, and last saturday during a practice, in one second, Robbie Hummel single handily destroyed all Boilermakers dreams and hopes of a National Championship when he re-tore his ACL. I am not blaming Robbie, and we will still have a good team, I just know a lot of grown men that cried themselves to sleep on Saturday night (I was not one of them. Maybe)

Well it's time for my meeting. Thanks for reading and feel free to post any comments. Hope your week is fabulous!

Tip for the week: At the football games, buy one of the bottomless cups. It may be a bit more expensive at first, but if you save it, you can bring it back into the later games. I have done this the past two weeks and saved $21 dollars on drinks. You may have to sneak the cup in, and if you get caught, this guy didn't tell you anything. (I am not supporting crime, just enlightening the Purdue students)

Closing quote for the week: "Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week." ~Spanish Proverb

Throwing up the NW333 and throwing down The Rock,

Signing off,

JD

Myth Debunking: Pumping some Iron

So Purdue's fall break is over which means that we actually have to go back to class now. The only good thing about break being over is that we only have a three day week which is always nice. Professors think that just because we came back from break we are suddenly rejuvenated. We are the complete opposite. Well most of us. Nothing too exciting has been happening since I returned to Purdue. I've been studying quite a bit, catching up on some homework, and I even made it to the gym a couple of nights ago. Since I like to point out common roles and norms of society, I had a great time coming up with a list of the average people you will see at your local gym. They are as follows:

1) The really strong guys who grunt/ make loud awkward noises.

Okay so your arms are twice the size of my head. Congratulations. While you were busy trying to catch up to Arnold Schwarenegger and taking your steroids, I was out being a bit more productive with my life. It's perfectly okay to work out but unless your going for the Strongest Man In the World competition, it's not something that has to consume you to a point where you look like Hulk Hogan or other wrestlers from WWE. As for the steroid use.. no we won't even go into that.

(I am not inferring that every really strong person uses steroids. Just the good majority of them)

2) The awkwardly strong girl

Guys love girls that are in shape. Key words: in shape. Not the girls that can bench press more than us. I mean come on if you want to take that approach, chop off your hair and call your self Mike (sorry michelle). There is a fine line for women between what guys consider working out, and actually working out. As tricky as that may sound, there is a difference. Be careful girls just how strong you get, because that is something that guys get easily offended at, and that is where most of the allegations of steroids and beaver tranquilizers comes from.

(Again, unless you are competing for the Strongest Female in the World, which I am not even sure if that exists, then you should really moderate your workouts.)

3)The weak guy who always tries to do more weight than he should.

So for a really long title, this role is actually pretty common and pretty self explanatory. There is always one gentleman; one young guy who thinks he is really stronger than he is. I know I know you are thinking how will I ever get stronger if I do not try more heavier weights. You're scared because sometimes you can't lift the weight that you go up and you are now thinking that you are this person. No, that is not necessarily the case. This person is more clear-cut. He usually doesn't visit the gym very often, and therefore he does not know proper gym etiquette (look it up). If you do at any time feel like you are becoming this guy, or you know that you have been in the past. I would recommend going and getting the second lightest set of dumbells and cranking out a quick 20 set. This shows that you can do some lifting, while not being so degraded to have to lift the lightest set.

4) Marathon Runner- The guy/girl that runs on the treadmill... FOREVER!

Whenever you go to the gym, there is a guy or a girl, sometimes both, who are running on the treadmill when you get there, and they are still running when you leave. It's like they are running every second of every day, on this journey to be the next Forrest Gump. The first problem with this is that they hog the treadmills. Good for you marathon man you can run for hours on end, so go outside and run and leave the treadmills to those of us who actually need them.

5)The Averagers.

Basically, most of the other people fit into this category. They are the people who just go to the gym because it is something to do. They run, they life, bike, whatever, but they don't get super serious about it. It's more of a hobby for them than a lifestyle. There are so many more roles inside this category, but it would take too long and be too annoying to describe them all. Some of them include: the sweaty guy, the Stair master, the Ab pro, and the Wanderer. However, when taken at a larger angle, all of these people are really just common goers, who are there without fail.

Now I have described some of the pretty common roles at the gym up on Purdue's Campus; yet, these are the common roles for most gyms. The people change but the roles are pretty consistent. How do you know if you are falling into one of these roles and what can you do about it? Well, the first thing would be to ask your friends. The second would be to video tape yourself working out. Just kidding. Don't do that, we don't need another Richard Simmons workout video out there floating around.

So next time that you go to the gym, if ever after reading this, you will know the common roles that people fit into. You may even be able to try and pull out some of this knowledge in a really pathetic pick-up line to the hot girl who is currently on the treadmill like

"Look, I know you're a marathon runner, so I am just going to run next to you and maybe by the time I turn 25 we can have a drink somewhere." Perfect. But seriously, guys that try to go to the gym just to get a hook-up are pitiful. It's a place to exercise, not to date.

That's about all I have for today's blog! I have to run to class so I'm going to wrap this up with the usual stuff, but I hope that everyone has a fabulous weekend and I will post something within the next week!

Closing tip for the week: For all of us people who live from Meredith and farther west (Shreve, Earhart, McCutcheon, Harrison, Hillenbrand), I am sure that you are all perfectly aware of this, but if you aren't then this will be helpful. There is a back entrance to the CoRec that makes things so much easier and quicker. Look it up

Closing thought for the week: "I don't like going to the gym because I don't like being with people I don't know in that intense environment. " ~Utada Hikaru

Throwing up the NW333 and throwing down The Rock,

Signing off,

JD