It's snowing outside right now. All the snow is piling up and is all light and powdery. We might have a white Christmas this year. Tomorrow the high temperature is supposed to be 10 degrees and isn't supposed to snow. All of the snow on the roads will freeze overnight, which could hinder the professors' ability to get to class tomorrow. Especially the ones that live in Cedar Falls and Waterloo. Too bad every assignment is due online so I won't be able to "snowball gamble" on doing my assignments. Snowball gambling is the act of not doing one's homework in the slight chance that class will be cancelled. This is my last required blog, so I have that going for me.

The semester is almost over. I only have one more day of class and then finals begin. It arrived so fast, I don't know if I'm ready for the semester to be over. I am ready for Christmas break to begin. It will be nice to have a couple weeks off without having to worry about school and what I should be doing, but am not. I need to study for my finals now, although the only ones i"m really concerned about are Chemistry and Biology. My Spanish final won't be too bad, But I will experience my first college finals and will be able to mentally prepare myself later for finals to come. I'm getting ready for the shock that will come from my first tests.

Last Thursday, my future roommates and I gave our presentation to live in Löhe next year. I plan on living with Alex Gheysens, Jesse Kielman, Michael Bowden, Jesse Smith, and Brandon Hornback. We gave our presentation on Holiday Shoppe and our project plan for next year is highlight local non-profit programs. Like most busy college guys, and in my own personal manner, we put off working on our project until the night before we presented. We also went to the movie night on Wednesday and didn't get much sleep. We still delivered our presentation well. We find out on this Wednesday if we will live in Löhe nest year or not.

I'm realizing how hard getting behind on work is. I still have four blogs to write before midnight. It turns out, life would have been easier if I would have written the blogs when they were due. The problem was that my life is boring and I find it hard to think of something to blog about. Most of the time I just procrastinate and don't have a lot of free time to do fun things because I would feel bad about not doing other work. I also tend to prioritize work wrong. I do the easy work first or very last and no matter what I tend to get bitten by my lack of motivation. I need to continue to work on this problem.

I work at Crawdaddy Outdoors in downtown Waverly. Normally I work two hour shifts two days a week and a four hour shift one day. Once a month I work a seven hour shift on Saturday. My Saturday to work was the last one. It was the busiest day I've ever worked. I woke up at 8 and biked to work. it was so cold I felt like I would freeze 'Day After Tomorrow' style on the way. There were constantly people in the store and we never really seemed to get a break. One of my co-workers and I also had to build a trailer in the back room, which took all day and still isn't finished. We went back and forth between building the trailer and helping customers. When we tried to close at 4 o'clock, there were still customers in the store who thought that their shopping was just beginning. Luckily they left and the day ended. It was a little stressful.

I went and saw Hunger Games: Catching Fire with my sister on the first Saturday of Thanksgiving break. It was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Catching Fire was my favorite book of the Hunger Games trilogy and I was looking forward to the movie. My sister was excited to spend time with me when I came back and I was excited to spend time with her too. We went to the movie and the theater was packed. It was the busiest theater I've ever been in. At the end of the first book, there are the beginnings of uprisings in some of the districts. Catching Fire picks it up from there. President Snow goes out of his way to try and kill the main character, Katniss Everdeen, and she makes him look like a fool again. Of the few good movies I've seen recently, this was the only one that made me forget I was watching a movie and immersed me in the storyline.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. My family and I went out to my great-aunt's house like we do every year. We arrived at around 12:30 so I was late to lunch. I still ate the delicious food that was already on the table, I just didn't eat with the rest of the men as is the norm in my family; men eat first, women and children second. After I finished eating, I went upstairs to hang out with two of my cousins that I always hang out with. We talked for a long time and then got bored. We decided to walk around the farm fields. Eventually we found a storm drain that went under the highway. One of my cousins and I climbed all the way through to the other side. We went back to the house until we got bored again and went to Wal-Mart. The black Friday sales didn't start until 6 pm, but people were lined up at 4:30 when we went. It was insane. I went back to the house until my mom said we needed to go so she could do some shopping at Younkers. She dragged the rest of my family to go black Friday shopping. It was a good Thanksgiving, until, of course, the black Friday shopping.

The book I'm choosing for my final project is Timeline. The reason I'm choosing this Michael Crichton novel because I've seen the movie a couple of times and really enjoyed it. I would like to dive into the greater details of the story involved in the book and would like a refresher of the story. I understand that this novel will be more difficult for a final project than some of Crichton's other novels, but now I have an excuse to read this book. I have to make time to read Timeline now that it's homework, especially since I have very little leisure time to read for fun any more.

I've decided that the Humans vs. Zombies isn't worth actually dying over. I stopped playing the game after severely rolling my ankle while chasing after a human. I was convinced that I had broken it. While chasing the human down a narrow flight of stairs, I began to lose my balance and jumped down the last few stairs. When I landed, I rolled over and put all my weight on my ankle. After giving up on chasing the human, I went back to the Mensa to finish eating dinner. I looked down at my ankle to see a golfball shaped lump on my ankle. I was able to walk on it until late at night. I went to my friend's room on Vollmer 3 and asked my group of human friends to bring me an ankle brace one said I could borrow. They made me hobble down three floors and over two buildings so they wouldn't be attacked. I stopped appreciating the game after that and gave up. Eventually I starved to death and am no longer in the game. It was fun while it lasted, but not worth an actual casualty.

Last Wednesday night, I worked from 9 pm to 10:15 pm, I was working by kayaking in the W. There was a kayaking demo in the W. Only three people showed up, so I was able to get in a boat and paddle around for a while. I was a little disappointed that the demo was scheduled at the same time as Eucharist and I had to miss the Halloween sermon, but I enjoyed kayaking in the pool. I practiced kayaking techniques like leaning the kayak on its side to turn, and even tipping the boat completely over to practice escaping and getting back into the kayak if it were to roll. The demo was part of the sustainability week and was brought in by the organizations in charge of running the sustainability week.

This weekend I went to Illinois to go rock climbing and camping with my sister's venture crew. We went to Mississippi Palisades Park just across the Mississippi river. We were able to hire a couple guys who owned a rock climbing excursions business in Chicago to come help us out. They supplied the ropes, carabiners, shoes, and harnesses. They were also familiar with the good spots to climb in the park. The insurance disclaimer they made us sign was the first time that I didn't need a parent's signature on a form like that. I had a great time climbing all day. I climbed three rock faces without falling once. I know that my ability to climb without falling was driven more by fear that I would have to restart from a lower position than I was. On the second-to-last wall I climbed I got about halfway up and my leg was shaking so bad, I thought I was going to throw myself off the wall. I climbed one more wall after that and was so fatigued that I barely made it up the wall. We spent the night at the campground at 20 degrees. It was the most fun I've had in a while.

Last Wednesday, instead of attending class, we attended sessions to learn about different directions in our future. The two sessions I went to were about the leadership minor and grad schools. The leadership session was presented by three students in the program. They talked about their experiences in the program and the classes involved in earning the leadership minor certificate. I don't feel like the session helped me make up my mind one way or the other on whether or not I want to take up the minor. I still have to think about it. The first grad school session ran ten minutes late and the second session started late. The professor talked about the requirements needed to get into grad school, different doctorates and told us we could talk to him with any questions. Our session was shortened and we didn't cover everything he had planned. I don't feel like I learned everything offered.

My sister has been a participant in a program called Barbizon for about six months. The program is a modeling agency with programs to help develop modeling and acting skills as well as confidence in those participating. Today she graduated from the program. Last week she asked if I was coming home on over the weekend to watch her graduate. I didn't know this was happening this weekend until my sister texted me. I wasn't planning on going back because fall break is approaching and her graduation was late today. Lucky for her, I had a friend who had to work this weekend and was able to bring me back tonight. I didn't tell anybody in my family that I was coming home and surprised them one by one. My dad responded by shaking my hand instead of giving me a hug. My mom hung up on her friend to say hello to me. My sister came home from the high school football game late, and when she walked in the door I yelled to her from the basement. She dropped everything and ran down to see me. She was the most excited to see me since my outlook on coming home was bleak when she asked if I was coming home. I enjoyed my time home this weekend. I was unable to cram everything I wanted to do into the weekend so I'm looking forward to seeing friends when I go back for fall break.

Outfly finally happened. Last Wednesday morning, a few softball girls decided it would be a good idea to fake dorm storm for Outfly. My trust was broken. Finally, the next morning I was greeted by the promised text that was the true beginning of Outfly. We stood around the bell for a long time before Outfly was officially declared. Michael Brown, one of the captains of the Ultimate Frisbee team, one the costume contest by wearing a Gumby costume. After breakfast, I went back to bed for a couple hours until the Ultimate Frisbee scrimmage began at 10:30. That was the most fun I had all day. After lunch, I spent time on the inflatables until the challenges began. I participated in two challenges before I left for work. Outfly was an unique experience that I wouldn't have had anywhere else. I knew Outfly wasn't a myth to encourage prospective students to attend and pull one over on first year students because my visit to campus was on Outfly last year. I had a lot of fun.

I really like the show How I Met Your Mother. I believe I might have blogged about my love of the show already, but season 8 was recently released on Netflix. I spent about three days watching fake relationships crumble in the Fall of Break ups. I watched the most drawn out and intense proposal ever thought of that was designed as a play to pick up girls and called "the last play I'll ever need". A relationship blossoms between Robin and Barney. Today, October 13th, is National Suit Up Day based on the show. I was unable to participate in the suiting up as I don't have a suit on campus. I was disappointed. I'm all caught up on the show now and I don't know what I'll do after the show is over

On Saturday, I went to my first home football game since coming to Wartburg. I should have been to more since my roommate is a manager and has the schedule hanging on our wall. This was my first free home game Saturday since school started. The game was exciting to watch and kept the fans on the edge of their seats, even though the fans were disappointing. There was no enthusiasm in the crowd and it was silent in the stands. The Knights scored in the first minute of the game, having jumped on a muffed kick off return. As the game progressed, the comfortable lead we had at the beginning reversed itself long enough to worry about whether or not we would win our homecoming game. It was nice to win this homecoming game since my high school got annihilated this year. As the game continued and we took the lead again, my mind began to wander, I chatted with friends, and lost track of what was happening in the game. I remembered why I don't go to many games. I'm not athletically gifted and most sporting events tend to bore me.

How I Met Your Mother season 8 has finally been uploaded to Netflix. I have a new reason to procrastinate as How I Met Your Mother is my favorite television show and I have been deprived of the show since finishing watching season 7 almost eight months ago. I feel an emotional connection to the characters and I feel like they are really my friends. The show is life-consuming and addicting. I don't what I'll do after season 9 when I need a How I Met Your Mother fix. I will probably go into withdrawals. An unhealthy portion of what I know about relationships and how people work comes from knowledge I learned from the show. There are a lot of life lessons taught in the show.

Last Thursday night on my way home from work, I was riding on the bike trail. As I was approaching the bridge, my co-worker and I saw three large mammals standing in the middle of the bridge. We assumed they were big dogs, but as we came up on the animals we saw that they were deer. When we came within a bike-length of the deer, one of them jumped over the bridge railing and into the river. The other two deer took off in a reasonable direction down the bridge away from us, but the brave little deer thought the only option to avoid us riding our bikes past it was to jump in the river. My co-worker and I were in shock at the site of the deer potential giving up on life to stay away from us.  We stopped to see what happened, and that's when I found out that deer can swim.

Today I realized that it is not easy to get homework done with other people in a study room in the library. I found it extra difficult to finish my blog entries with Zach Rider also trying to get work done. Although it was difficult to finish work, we had quite productive conversations about Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, and the theological idea of living forever. The internet is also greatly distracting, but I was still able to get work done, even if one of my blogs took an hour to write.

I'm appreciating watching Jurassic Park as an adult. When I watched the movie as a kid my thought process was "cool, look at the dinosaurs." Now that I'm older, I understand more of the movie. I watch the movie more for the character development and the scientific ideas. I'm disappointed with the lack of the application of physics in the movie. When the kid falls off the ledge in the car and doesn't break any bones or anything, I was disappointed, which sounds bad that I would wish ill on a kid, but I'm really just upset by the lack of reality in a movie about cloned dinosaurs. I also find it fascinating that the female doctor can tell people are dying without seeing anybody actually getting killed. the movie fascinates me even with the discrepancies involved in the movie.

I found the Vonnegut piece, 'Harrison Bergeron', was particularly interesting. The story took the idea of eliminating competition and individuality. Anybody who was smarter, stronger, or more attractive than most people was given a handicap by the Handicapper General. In this future society, the Handicapper General takes the place of the President and the Surgeon General. As I was reading the story, I thought that maybe the piece was written in response to recent societal changes on the views of competition including participation awards and 'No Child Left Behind.' I then found out that the 'Harrison Bergeron' was written 40 years before 'No Child Left Behind.' I was amazed at how accurate Vonnegut's piece has the potential to be in the future.

Procrastination

I'm quickly discovering just how bad procrastination is. By going home this weekend, I wasn't able to touch my homework that I have been putting off until the last minute. I also recognize that my planner doesn't do me any good unless I actually look at what needs to be done. I've resolved to begin spending at least an hour every night working on homework because it has been a very long time since I have experienced what it's like to not have any homework and the rewarding feeling that comes with completing everything. My time-management skills are horrendous, but I will improve them. I will start by writing more in my planner besides just my homework so I know a schedule that I need to work around. I will force myself to work on the other steps necessary for success. The first step to recovery is admitting there is a problem.

I found Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement address particularly interesting. Other than declaring that he never graduated college and was successful because of it, the address made excellent points about how life should be lived for the individual and not by the standards of society. He enforces the idea with his stories of being a drop-in student, and how everything he did as a non-official student was the best decision of his life. I found it particularly interesting that this piece was chosen for our required reading because a first-year could take the speech as instruction instead of an anecdote for living life to your own needs.

The value of an educated life is immeasurable. An educated life molds and develops contributing members of society. Educated people have the ability to form their own opinions on important subject matters such as political and religious ideals. An educated person forms his or her own thoughts based on information from multiple sources and make decisions that best benefit the well-being of society.
The pieces that we have read in class support my opinion on an educated life. Plato states in Allegory of the Cave that the enlightened, or the educated, are responsible for sharing their knowledge with those who have yet to be enlightened. Giamatti values liberal education above all else. The writings we have read support the idea that an educated life is a better life.