WHAT THE...!?!

MOTHER BLEEPING BLEEPER BLEEP BLEEP HIM IN THE BLEEP I CAN'T BELIEVE WE BLEEPED THAT ONE UP A BLEEPING GAIN! I SWEAR I'M GOING TO HAVE A BLEEPING STROKE! BLEEP MIAMI! BLEEP THE REFS! AND MOST OF ALL...BLEEP OUR BLEEPING OFFENSE! WHAT THE BLEEP IS WRONG WITH US! BLEEP!!!
With a final score of 16 to 14, the Miami Hurricanes beat out my Virginia Tech Hokies, pretty much ending our chances at a Coastal Division Title. I can't even begin to express my anger right now. Lets just say I am surprised that I have not caused any property damage as of yet. Me and my friends and fellow football fans agree that there is really nothing to say. Not only can our Hokies not seem to convert on key plays, but we also seem to create big plays for the opposing team. What's more is that the referees seem to always be against us. There was yet another bogus ruffing the passer call that eventually led to Miami's first touchdown and switched the momentum in their favor. It's just so AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Well, hopefully we'll have better luck next season.

BLEEP!

Feedback on my Feedback

I used to use Yahoo mailing all the time but now I have been primarily using VT's WebMail. Just like Yahoo, the university only allots each person 10 MB. Right now, not even after a full semester, I have a quota of over 404 percent. What's more, I have over 150 unread messages. As I found out while trying to sort through my inbox, one of those messages was the feedback on my essay. As I read over Mrs. Scott's comments, I was pleased to find out that she liked the tone and the structure. In addition, she also got the fact that I was letting out my frustrations at Tech through their idiotic policies.
However, I agree with her that the essay ends too arbitrarily and needs some work. I plan to include another section where I go through the outcome of my judicial review trial. What is also comforting to know is that I don't need to have some big revelation at the end of the essay. I am considering ending things on a more abstract note, such as my view of Virginia Tech after the trial. I have good expectations for my final draft.

Initiating Action on my Initiating Action Project

I have made some great progress on my website and I encourage everybody to check it out if they get a chance. The url is http//sites.google.com/site/righteoushokietickets/

The Power of Petition

In order to convince Virginia Tech's President Steger of the need to change the student season ticket packages, I am going to use a petition. A petition is a document addressed to some official and signed by numerous individuals. The compilation of signatures is used to give a sense of moral authority. Petition's are most commonly made to government officials and public entities. For instance, in the U.S., a candidate for public office who wants their name to appear on the ballot must gather a certain number of signatures from registered voters. Other examples where petitions are used include court proceedings. The initial pleading for a writ of habeas corpus is a petition.
What's really interesting and intriguing about petitions is that in this day and age they can be transmitted via the Internet. This Internet petition can be posted on a website whereby visitors to the website may add their email address or names. While this makes it easy for people to make and take petitions at any time, it also calls into question the legitimacy of the petition. The ease of the process may attract joke petitions, and even false names and e-mails of petitioners.
I am considering either doing a written petition, or perhaps creating a petition on Facebook. While Facebook would allow me to reach out to more of the Virginia Tech community, because I am considering implementing my initiating action project I want it to be as legitimate as possible.

An Unusually Amazing Morning

An early morning breeze sweeps through the three ajar windows directly facing me, cooling the sweat on my arms and forehead. At the same time, the clouds begin to part and the sun emerges. Its rays pierce through the windows’ glass without breaking it and scatter all across the room, causing the off-white paint job to seemingly glow. You can hear the trickle of water droplets as they jump from trees and roofs onto the ground. There is the shuffle of feet as an early morning tour passes through the adjacent courtyard. I can scarcely hear what the student guide is talking about. However, I am bewildered when he tells the prospective students and their parents that the residence hall they are looking at is called Brown. It’s Pritchard Hall I think to myself. I am half ready to yell out the window and set the record straight, but I catch myself. As I look directly up at the ceiling, there is no ventilation pipe right in front of me but an expansive space. I sit straight up and take in everything around me. Instead of the Star Wars and NASA posters that normally greet me, there are magazine cut outs of Daniel Radcliffe and Keira Knightly and other actors, actresses, and models whose names I don’t know; instead of the normal gray carpeting there are wooden floors; instead of seeing my roommate Dave passed out below me on his bed, his legs dangling off the side, there are two other lofts, both occupied, neither of them with Dave; and, instead of my Yankee paraphernalia, there is a dreaded Boston Red Sox flag overhanging one of the lofts. This is definitely not my room. I lie back down in a daze, trying to reason where I may be, when I feel a warm breath upon my neck. I turn on my side, and there next to me is the most beautiful sight in the world; it’s my baby, Louisa. She is still curled up underneath the bedcovers, fast asleep. Her hair is in a ruffle, but still looks extremely cute, and while there is no expression on her face, her cheeks give it a wonderful radiance. It begins to hit me that I am indeed no longer at Tech, and no longer even in the state of Virginia. I’m at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I had been planning a trip up to see Louisa for some time, and I was finally there and we were together again. Things were like old times, and as Forrest Gump would say, Louisa and I were like peas and carrots again. As I sat there, watching her sleep, her eyes began to flutter until she finally opened them wide and stared right back at me. She gave me a big smile and from that moment on I knew it was going to be a great day.

The Crapshoot that is the Student Lottery

I just came back from the Virginia Tech, University of Maryland game, and the first thing I have to say is great job Hokies! What's even more astounding is that Darren Evans ran for 253 yards, breaking the record of 243 yards set by Mike Imoh in 2004. I'd also like to thank my friend Ana Snelling for giving me a ticket to the game. Without her, I was sure to have paid 50 dollars for a ticket or perhaps even been forced to watch the game in the confines of the 4th floor Pritchard lounge, alone. I definitely owe Ana a favor, if not multiple favors, because this is not the first time she has come through for me. Thanks again Ana!
The uncertainty of me attending tonight's game brings me to the topic I've chosen for the initiating action project. As a freshman at Tech, you cannot sign up for a student season ticket package. Instead, individual game student tickets are issued by means of an online electronic lottery. The first frustration I have with the student lottery is that most of the time you never know when a game has opened up. Because there is no listserv or email notification, you have to constantly be checking the Hokie Tickets site. If it wasn't for reminders from my friends, I would have surely missed the deadline for signing up. Secondly, the lottery is open to all Tech students, not just freshmen. Even though an upperclassman may have a ticket to a game through their student season ticket package, they can still sign up for a chance to win another free ticket through the lottery. This definitely seems unfair to us freshmen. Thirdly, even though Tech has a whopping 30,000 students, Lane Stadium has a capacity of over 66,000. Why can't the university guarantee tickets for all students.
I am planning on writing a letter to Dr. Steger asking for a change to the student lottery. I will propose a new system where each student has the ability to go to each game so long as they pick up their ticket some time in advance. If their tickets have not been redeemed after that time they will be put up for sale. Included with this letter will be a petition signed by current Tech students calling for this initiative. I know I speak for all my fellow freshmen when I say that we are fed up with the current lottery system. It's time for change.

Change At Last

As we sat there watching the returns, we did so in disbelief. Obama had not only secured the Northeastern states that the Democratics usually won uncontested, but he also had gotten New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and the battleground state of Ohio. It was nearing the 11 o'clock hour and the closing of the polls on the West Coast. At that time, Obama was up in Florida by a difference of 2 to 3 percent, and had pulled ahead in Virginia by 10 or so thousand votes, which continued to climb with each minute. We were all glued to the television and our computer screens as we crosschecked information from all the various news organizations. All of a sudden, Pete tells me that according to Yahoo the AP declared Obama the winner of Virginia. Although nobody else could verify this, in my state of utmost excitement I texted everyone I knew to give them the news. For the first time since Lyndon B. Johnson, Virginia had gone blue. It was astonishing, and exciting to say the least. What had happened, though, was to pale in comparison with the news that was only seconds away. We watched as CNN finally broke the news about Virginia. Right on the heels of that they declared the battleground state of Florida to be awarded to Obama. I was in a hysteria of happiness as I grabbed my phone ready to call my girlfriend Louisa to tell her that he had this, that we had this. However, in the time it took me to grab my phone adjacent to me, the clock struck 11, and, although expected, the AP declared Obama the winner of the state of California and its 55 electoral votes. On the screen, a set of new words rang out. Obama is the 44th President Elect of the United States. It all seemed to hit me like a pile of bricks. I dropped the phone I had just picked up and fell to my knees on the verge of crying tears of sweet sweet happiness. I grasped my friend Ana and embraced her in a hug that I'm sure couldn't have been too comfortable for her. It had happened! The once improbable, unthinkable dream had culminated in the now famous chant of Obama and his entire campaign: Yes We Can!

Trick or Treat: A Halloween Away from Home...Part 1

The span of time between late October and late December is one of my favorite times of the year. There are so many holidays, including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, et cetera. The first of these holidays, Halloween, is in fact not a holiday at all. It is the evening before All Hollows Day, also known as All Saints' Day. Nowadays, it is celebrated with activities such as trick-or-treating, costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies. This year was my first Halloween away from home. For a time, I didn't know exactly what to do. Was I supposed to go trick-or-treating in the dorm? I hadn't gone trick-or-treating in years, even before heading off to college. Did people still dress up? Perhaps it was considered too childish at our age? I guess in the end, I knew in my heart of hearts that the one thing we would be doing, like most all other college students, was partying.
My friends and I were going to head to the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity in Christiansburg. They were hosting a Halloween party that was going to last from 10:00pm to 3:00am the next day. We all coordinated our outfits. Instead of having a bunch of disjointed costumes we all decided to dress up as one of the parts of the Pacman game. We had four ghosts, Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Pete, and the honor of Pacman was bestowed upon yours truly. For the ghosts we bought solid-colored t-shirts from Michaels and then cut out a series of triangles all the way along the bottom to make a zigzag pattern. We also stuck two googly eyes nipples length apart on the chest. For my Pacman costume I had a yellow solid-colored t-shirt, but instead of doing any cutting or embroidery, I simply stuffed two massive pillows between the shirt and myself creating the roundish plump physique I was trying to portray.
When it was getting to be that time, we headed to the cage and loaded into my car. We drove from 460, got off the for downtown Christiansburg, took a left on Yellow Sulfur Road, took a right onto Janelle, and then, I missed the last turn onto Cinnabar. I drove a little further, until we came to a somewhat abandoned looking warehouse, where I thereby proceeded to make a uey. As I did this, there was a loud explosion, and the car was rocked and keeled over to its right side. The car resisted moving forward and gave a loud screech as if in agony. It was at this point that I realized we had a flat tire. To be continued...