Lock-out, Ultimate, Debate
*Lock-Out*
This weekend (Saturday), Campus Ministries hosted a game of broomball at the Georgetown Ice Arena. Now, the Beast went home for the weekend, so I didn’t have any human company most of Saturday. I decided to be proactive about that fact, and invited Oegie to come eat dinner with me.
The dinner was interesting. I made stuffed peppers, as I need to get the peppers out of my fridge, and had wanted to try them for a while. The result? I’m not exactly sure… I wasn’t thrilled with them, but they weren’t too bad… just need some more defining flavors. I also made lemon caper chicken, although I tried to do it in the oven without allowing enough time for the slower cooking process. All of this was with rice, and Oegie was gracious over the unspectacular flavors, and complimentary on the presentation, which I’ll admit was rather daunting considering usual college fare. However, over the course of dinner, the topic of broomball came up, and Oegie agreed to go.
After dinner, we went out to my car, as I was going to drive us there, stopping by Kirkoff to see if anyone needed a ride. Unfortunately, with the temperature hitting 0 degrees that night, my car was rather cold. Therefore, we had difficulty getting doors open… and then we couldn’t get my driver door to stay closed! After ten minutes of fiddling with this, Oegie and I decided to just walk to Kirkoff, and beg a ride for ourselves. We went, we played, it was fun, but nothing noteworthy.
When we came back, Oegie went back to my parking lot with me to see if we could figure out my car, and possibly fix it. We stopped in my apartment briefly, first. In trying to fix my car, we examined the back door on the driver’s side, and how that latching mechanism worked, in order to determine what was different. Regrettably, something went wrong with the examination, and we now had a piece of rubber sticking out of the latching hole on the back car door, a piece that most decidedly should not be sticking out. Therefore, not only would this door not stay closed, but it wouldn’t even shut in the first place, by about two.5 inches.
In the process of this, we called my father, and he said that the best idea would be for us to get some WD-40 and spray that, as our problem was probably cold oil. The WD-40 would then warm it up, enabling it to stay closed, and then we could drive it around to really get it warmed again. He also recommended working it with a screwdriver.
After all this fiddling and calling, we went back to my apartment… and I discovered that my key wasn’t in my pocket. Indeed, I knew exactly where my key was: inside, on the kitchen table. Therefore, I not only had car problems, but I also was homeless for the night. Thankfully, Oegie was gracious and willing to take care of me. Thus, we hiked over to Kirkoff, where we stole the use of her brother’s car from him, and drove down to Meijer. At Meijer we proceeded to purchase a can of WD-40, and also looked in pursuit of a small-sized lock de-ice-er. When we could find no such thing, we asked a courteous and talkative Meijer employee, who informed us that Meijer was out of lock de-ice-er until next year. You’re telling me this on a day of zero degrees? Brill, simply brill, Meijer. However, the conversation was enjoyable, as the employee shared some of his car troubles, and was quite apologetic for the sad state of affairs in the lock de-ice-er department.
Oegie and I thus trekked back to my parking lot, armed with our warm can of WD-40. We valiantly sprayed with no remorse… and nothing. Still didn’t shut, and the back door was still messed up. Admitting defeat, we returned the car to Oegie’s Halo-enthused brother, and returned to her apartment. There, we made one last-ditch attempt by calling the honorable John Hodson. He graciously agreed to meet me at my car around 10:10 the next day, and Oegie made me a lovely cup of hot chocolate that was soothing to both chilled bones and frazzled nerves. The evening was otherwise spent in camaraderie with Leslie (Oegie’s roommate) and Nicole (Leslie’s friend), complete with a movie.
The next day, the others had to leave early for church orchestra, and I simply lazed until John would arrive. However, he must have gotten there a little earlier than he thought he would, as I arrived to find my back door already fixed, and my front door close to it. He was simply working with a screw driver, letting the friction heat it up, and it closed. Reluctantly, but it closed. Ever grateful, I was then able to drive to Campus Ministries, and go to church for a little bit. I walked out in the middle of the sermon, which got a couple surprised looks, but I had to go. To Bingo. The thrill of my life.
I walked back to the Kirkoff parking lot where I had parked my car, and discovered that my driver door wouldn’t unlock. Thankfully, I had had the foresight to leave the back passenger door unlocked, so I got in that way. Many thanks for my flexibility and acrobatic tendencies, as I could not have gotten into the front seat otherwise in such a small car! I drove to Bingo, and ended up working charity tickets with Paula. While still full of the usual tedium and exasperation, it was also surprisingly enjoyable, as I got to talk to Paula, whom I never did converse with extensively when we were in Interplay.
After Bingo, I returned home, realized I had nothing to do as all my stuff was locked safely inside my apartment, away from me, and drove right back out to Meijer. After acquiring some stuff, I returned to campus and got some Papa John’s for dinner. Once Susan was home, I went over to stay with her lovely self until the Beast finally returned. 24 hours later, I was back in my apartment.
Moral of the story: If I’m going to own a car, I better learn how the hell to deal with it! And I need to not be so dumb with my key…
*Ultimate*
Last week Wednesday, I was getting ready to go to the ASL meeting when I checked my email, and saw that there was a budget meeting going on in Kirkoff for competitive clubs, and Ultimate needed someone to represent. “No problem,” I thought. “I’ll go, just in case someone else doesn’t come, but surely someone else will, and I can go join the ASL club.” I went… and nobody else did. Dave and Mark were there, thankfully, but for other clubs. Dave, however, sat next to me and helped me, pointing out everything I needed to do, and acted as the voice for Ultimate when needed. I was there to simply vote, as I didn’t have any prior knowledge of this - and all the groups that didn’t have someone there to vote for them received one dollar in funding. It was rather interesting, however, to see some of the inner workings for the clubs, particularly as I suspected that I will be doing this for other clubs.
However, turns out I will probably be doing this for Ultimate, too: at the end of Ultimate practice on Monday, I was asked if I would be interested in a position as a captain/officer, helping with the running of the club, and the decision-making. I wasn’t expecting it, but I agreed to do it. Can’t wait to see how that pans out…
After practice, Becky and I were walking out, but we had to step aside for all these girls… turns out the girls were all on the Laker Dance Team, as the parade of girls turned into a parade of drummers! They are performing together tonight at the basketball game, so they were going into the gym to practice for the performance. I said hi to all of them as they passed, giving a few quick hugs. When they passed, Becky and I continued to walk on, but then she turned to me and said, “Hey, do you want to stay and watch them?” We both grinned and ran after them. I ran up to Patti and got to hold her cymbals for a moment (how odd to hold them, when I never thought I would again), which thoroughly confused some of the Ultimate people who were just leaving.
Becky and I stayed and watched them, critiquing and applauding. The drumline did pretty well, from what I can tell, although I’ve never had an ear for that. They looked good, too, particularly Josh with his expressive personality in playing and performing - he’s always amazingly animated. The dance team… pretty good dancers, in general, but they need to get their act together! At any given time, at least a quarter of them were confused or messing up. You can’t give a performance like that…
*Same-Sex Marriage Debate*
Last Wednesday there was a debate over same-sex marriage, held in Kirkoff. The debate was to focus on the civil aspect of marriage. Personally, I wasn’t too satisfied with the debate. The pro speaker, Corvino, was entertaining and clear, but his analogies left something to be desired. I felt that there wasn’t enough depth, and that part of his strategy was to simply win us over by being entertaining. Admittedly, it works really well with the college-age crowd… The against speaker, Stanton, was more in depth and explorative, but I don’t think that his argument fit the debate. The problem was that he was debating from a morally influenced perspective, when the debate was strictly about civil merits. Also, he based the majority of his argument on inherent differences between men and women, which are arguable, irrelevant in civil debate, and had not been defined in this particular debate.
Another thing that I thought was very noticeable was the audience interaction and response. While Stanton tried to present his ideas in as unthreatening a manner possible, some people had obviously felt victimized, and thus attacked him in the questioning afterward. The questioning afterward was nearly completely geared towards Stanton, in effort to make him look wrong and mean, through anecdotally (and not scientifically) related questions. In addition, the audience, who cheered for Corvino and clapped for him, was quiet in response to Stanton, and I saw rude gestures and heard insulting mutterances throughout the crowd. Indeed, I was quite disappointed at the treatment of the audience towards Stanton.
I don’t think that the audience had to agree with him, but they should have respected his right to say it, and they should have been more respectful and intellectual in the questions asked, rather than attacking him. Personally, I disagree with Stanton, and agree with Corvino, but I still feel sympathetic towards Stanton in terms of how the students treated him.
This weekend (Saturday), Campus Ministries hosted a game of broomball at the Georgetown Ice Arena. Now, the Beast went home for the weekend, so I didn’t have any human company most of Saturday. I decided to be proactive about that fact, and invited Oegie to come eat dinner with me.
The dinner was interesting. I made stuffed peppers, as I need to get the peppers out of my fridge, and had wanted to try them for a while. The result? I’m not exactly sure… I wasn’t thrilled with them, but they weren’t too bad… just need some more defining flavors. I also made lemon caper chicken, although I tried to do it in the oven without allowing enough time for the slower cooking process. All of this was with rice, and Oegie was gracious over the unspectacular flavors, and complimentary on the presentation, which I’ll admit was rather daunting considering usual college fare. However, over the course of dinner, the topic of broomball came up, and Oegie agreed to go.
After dinner, we went out to my car, as I was going to drive us there, stopping by Kirkoff to see if anyone needed a ride. Unfortunately, with the temperature hitting 0 degrees that night, my car was rather cold. Therefore, we had difficulty getting doors open… and then we couldn’t get my driver door to stay closed! After ten minutes of fiddling with this, Oegie and I decided to just walk to Kirkoff, and beg a ride for ourselves. We went, we played, it was fun, but nothing noteworthy.
When we came back, Oegie went back to my parking lot with me to see if we could figure out my car, and possibly fix it. We stopped in my apartment briefly, first. In trying to fix my car, we examined the back door on the driver’s side, and how that latching mechanism worked, in order to determine what was different. Regrettably, something went wrong with the examination, and we now had a piece of rubber sticking out of the latching hole on the back car door, a piece that most decidedly should not be sticking out. Therefore, not only would this door not stay closed, but it wouldn’t even shut in the first place, by about two.5 inches.
In the process of this, we called my father, and he said that the best idea would be for us to get some WD-40 and spray that, as our problem was probably cold oil. The WD-40 would then warm it up, enabling it to stay closed, and then we could drive it around to really get it warmed again. He also recommended working it with a screwdriver.
After all this fiddling and calling, we went back to my apartment… and I discovered that my key wasn’t in my pocket. Indeed, I knew exactly where my key was: inside, on the kitchen table. Therefore, I not only had car problems, but I also was homeless for the night. Thankfully, Oegie was gracious and willing to take care of me. Thus, we hiked over to Kirkoff, where we stole the use of her brother’s car from him, and drove down to Meijer. At Meijer we proceeded to purchase a can of WD-40, and also looked in pursuit of a small-sized lock de-ice-er. When we could find no such thing, we asked a courteous and talkative Meijer employee, who informed us that Meijer was out of lock de-ice-er until next year. You’re telling me this on a day of zero degrees? Brill, simply brill, Meijer. However, the conversation was enjoyable, as the employee shared some of his car troubles, and was quite apologetic for the sad state of affairs in the lock de-ice-er department.
Oegie and I thus trekked back to my parking lot, armed with our warm can of WD-40. We valiantly sprayed with no remorse… and nothing. Still didn’t shut, and the back door was still messed up. Admitting defeat, we returned the car to Oegie’s Halo-enthused brother, and returned to her apartment. There, we made one last-ditch attempt by calling the honorable John Hodson. He graciously agreed to meet me at my car around 10:10 the next day, and Oegie made me a lovely cup of hot chocolate that was soothing to both chilled bones and frazzled nerves. The evening was otherwise spent in camaraderie with Leslie (Oegie’s roommate) and Nicole (Leslie’s friend), complete with a movie.
The next day, the others had to leave early for church orchestra, and I simply lazed until John would arrive. However, he must have gotten there a little earlier than he thought he would, as I arrived to find my back door already fixed, and my front door close to it. He was simply working with a screw driver, letting the friction heat it up, and it closed. Reluctantly, but it closed. Ever grateful, I was then able to drive to Campus Ministries, and go to church for a little bit. I walked out in the middle of the sermon, which got a couple surprised looks, but I had to go. To Bingo. The thrill of my life.
I walked back to the Kirkoff parking lot where I had parked my car, and discovered that my driver door wouldn’t unlock. Thankfully, I had had the foresight to leave the back passenger door unlocked, so I got in that way. Many thanks for my flexibility and acrobatic tendencies, as I could not have gotten into the front seat otherwise in such a small car! I drove to Bingo, and ended up working charity tickets with Paula. While still full of the usual tedium and exasperation, it was also surprisingly enjoyable, as I got to talk to Paula, whom I never did converse with extensively when we were in Interplay.
After Bingo, I returned home, realized I had nothing to do as all my stuff was locked safely inside my apartment, away from me, and drove right back out to Meijer. After acquiring some stuff, I returned to campus and got some Papa John’s for dinner. Once Susan was home, I went over to stay with her lovely self until the Beast finally returned. 24 hours later, I was back in my apartment.
Moral of the story: If I’m going to own a car, I better learn how the hell to deal with it! And I need to not be so dumb with my key…
*Ultimate*
Last week Wednesday, I was getting ready to go to the ASL meeting when I checked my email, and saw that there was a budget meeting going on in Kirkoff for competitive clubs, and Ultimate needed someone to represent. “No problem,” I thought. “I’ll go, just in case someone else doesn’t come, but surely someone else will, and I can go join the ASL club.” I went… and nobody else did. Dave and Mark were there, thankfully, but for other clubs. Dave, however, sat next to me and helped me, pointing out everything I needed to do, and acted as the voice for Ultimate when needed. I was there to simply vote, as I didn’t have any prior knowledge of this - and all the groups that didn’t have someone there to vote for them received one dollar in funding. It was rather interesting, however, to see some of the inner workings for the clubs, particularly as I suspected that I will be doing this for other clubs.
However, turns out I will probably be doing this for Ultimate, too: at the end of Ultimate practice on Monday, I was asked if I would be interested in a position as a captain/officer, helping with the running of the club, and the decision-making. I wasn’t expecting it, but I agreed to do it. Can’t wait to see how that pans out…
After practice, Becky and I were walking out, but we had to step aside for all these girls… turns out the girls were all on the Laker Dance Team, as the parade of girls turned into a parade of drummers! They are performing together tonight at the basketball game, so they were going into the gym to practice for the performance. I said hi to all of them as they passed, giving a few quick hugs. When they passed, Becky and I continued to walk on, but then she turned to me and said, “Hey, do you want to stay and watch them?” We both grinned and ran after them. I ran up to Patti and got to hold her cymbals for a moment (how odd to hold them, when I never thought I would again), which thoroughly confused some of the Ultimate people who were just leaving.
Becky and I stayed and watched them, critiquing and applauding. The drumline did pretty well, from what I can tell, although I’ve never had an ear for that. They looked good, too, particularly Josh with his expressive personality in playing and performing - he’s always amazingly animated. The dance team… pretty good dancers, in general, but they need to get their act together! At any given time, at least a quarter of them were confused or messing up. You can’t give a performance like that…
*Same-Sex Marriage Debate*
Last Wednesday there was a debate over same-sex marriage, held in Kirkoff. The debate was to focus on the civil aspect of marriage. Personally, I wasn’t too satisfied with the debate. The pro speaker, Corvino, was entertaining and clear, but his analogies left something to be desired. I felt that there wasn’t enough depth, and that part of his strategy was to simply win us over by being entertaining. Admittedly, it works really well with the college-age crowd… The against speaker, Stanton, was more in depth and explorative, but I don’t think that his argument fit the debate. The problem was that he was debating from a morally influenced perspective, when the debate was strictly about civil merits. Also, he based the majority of his argument on inherent differences between men and women, which are arguable, irrelevant in civil debate, and had not been defined in this particular debate.
Another thing that I thought was very noticeable was the audience interaction and response. While Stanton tried to present his ideas in as unthreatening a manner possible, some people had obviously felt victimized, and thus attacked him in the questioning afterward. The questioning afterward was nearly completely geared towards Stanton, in effort to make him look wrong and mean, through anecdotally (and not scientifically) related questions. In addition, the audience, who cheered for Corvino and clapped for him, was quiet in response to Stanton, and I saw rude gestures and heard insulting mutterances throughout the crowd. Indeed, I was quite disappointed at the treatment of the audience towards Stanton.
I don’t think that the audience had to agree with him, but they should have respected his right to say it, and they should have been more respectful and intellectual in the questions asked, rather than attacking him. Personally, I disagree with Stanton, and agree with Corvino, but I still feel sympathetic towards Stanton in terms of how the students treated him.