Puerto Rican tales of kosherness, compassionate conservatism, the War on Terror and the calling.

Friday, September 30, 2005

Up in the mornin' girl and the DJ playin' that song now watcha gonna do?

Today I woke up all by myself without the help of my alarm. The only problem with that is the fact that I set my alarm up for 7:30 and I woke up at 9:15. My Int'l Security class starts at 9 so I had to put the pedal to the metal, put some jeans on (it's been chilly), skip brushing my teeth, and walk about 12 minutes across campus. I would have skipped the class entirely but since attendance is required and I'm already missing 3-4 classes while at the Feast I figured I should at least go and sign in :)

On a positive note, our flag football game was rescheduled to this next Wednesday. It had been originally set for Tuesday but guess what. It's the Feast of Trumpets and Mike and I weren't going to be able to play plus we had 1 or 2 other guys who had class or work for the day the game was sceduled. So Jerad (team captain) emailed the Intramural Director and contacted the team we are playing against and there was one field open on Wednesday at 5:30 so we all get to play and strut our stuff :) I'm happy about that because I really wanted to play and see if we can turn things around with our offense. We played some two hand touch football at the Rec the other night and I got to be quarterback for a bit and I think I've got my throws practiced enough to where I want them. I just have to learn to take out all my nervous energy at the beginning of the game and play with the poise and calmness that I play with after the opening jitters are gone.

I think I've found what awesome Feast gifts I'm going to get for myself. I've been surfing online and I can't wait for Feast to come and all that great jazz. Well, I'm off to class because I intend to make it to Military History on time and NOT fall asleep during lecture. I'll write more later :)

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Who's your daddy?

Today has been a pretty good day so far. I don't remember if I said in my previous post or not what I got on my Int'l Security test but I got a spiffy 98. Good thing for having the questions on WebCT and helping out an overwhelmed college student :) I got the score back from my Politics and Society test that I took on Thursday in which I felt that I completely bombed. The scores were up today on the board outside the classroom with our ID numbers next to the score and I couldn't believe what I got. I seriously felt that I was going to fail that test because of all the guessing I did due to the lack of reading every detail of the material covered in class. Much to my surprise I got an 84 and I was pretty happy about that, but the kicker was the little asterisk at the bottom of the page saying: *Add 6 points to your score*

So if I do my math correctly that would be 84+6=90=A :) Yay!!! I got an A on a horrendous test and I've got to thank the Man upstairs, the people who did really horribly on the test, and the people who didn't take the test at all. My military history prof says that you should always thank the people who never show up for class or the tests because since they take the F then that means our scores get bumped :) It's beautiful I tell you, beautiful.

I've talked to two of my professors about the fall Holy Days and so far they seem cool with it. I got my debate schedule changed because of Atonement, although I've got to do it by myself but I think I'll be ok. The cute Polish girl on the other side of the argument though said that "we're going to kill you..." :) As long as she keeps lookin' cute then that's all right by me ;) Ok, I don't know who will get this reference but if you know your tennis then you will. The Polish girl has a Sharapova look to her...not bad if I say so myself :)

I've got a take home test that is due tomorrow for American Military history. It shouldn't be too bad if I actually start working on it right now. I only have to answer 3 of the questions in essay form so it's not excruciating plus I talked to him last week and he doesn't want a term paper-like essay.

I'm torn though between doing that paper right now and working out and watching Gilmore Girls tonight. I'm also wanting to get paid already because finances are tight. The FBI is among the agencies coming tomorrow and they're always in the need for linguists so I'm going to read some more from their site so that when I talk to them I'll be able to ask some intelligent questions :) Seems like a plan then!

Sunday, September 25, 2005

A Week In Review...

Ok so I should really try to update my blog more than just once a week. I find it difficult because I want to but I'm not getting around to it though and then I have to post a massive summary of my week. So in that tradition here I go :)
Well this was one of those "I can't wait till this week is over because it is horrendous" kind of week. I had 2 tests this past week, one on Thursday and the other one of Friday. The Thursday test was on my Politics and Society class and I know it would have gone better if I had read everything I was supposed to read. We have two textbooks in that class, one focusing on a lot of theory and sociology/politics stuff and the other one is about taking sides on controversial U.S. political issues. I read most of the theory stuff but figured that I could get away with the pro/con side of the issues because since I kinda know what's going on with a lot of the issues I could make educated guesses on those questions. BIG MISTAKE I tell you! The questions were phrased in a very incomprehensible way so I was left to purely guess, hope for the best, and make it up the rest of the way with some hard work. I have a debate coming up in that class on the 11th of October and I'm going to make sure I do my best :)
So Friday's test was for my International Security class and a lot of us were worried because there was a good couple of hundred pages of reading and it was not easy to comprehend. We have review sessions every Wednesday for that class and our TA's told us to check out WebCT because since we're able to post questions and the answers that can be used for the test if they are good enough. So all during the review session the TA's kept recommending us to check WebCT because they were going to use some of the questions. On Thursday night I tried to do some of the readings for the test but just went to bed at about midnight, woke up at 5 and went to WebCT to basically memorize the questions and the answers. Since my test was at 9 I had a good solid 4 hours to read the questions over and over and try my best. So I went to take the test and I was very grateful that 90% of the questions in the test had been on WebCT. Word for word, nothing changed from the questions that had been posted so that was a gimme test to make sure the GPA stays up :) Yay for me and much thanks to the Man upstairs :)
To add to the week's stress and frustration was that we had our intramural flag football game on Thursday again. We felt pretty sure that we could win this game since we have a stout defense and our offense can explode when it wants to. On that note, we started the game on defense and I'm covering the guy on the outside and since the QB never throws to my side of the field I let my guy get behind me and much to my surprise the ball was thrown and my guy was for all intent and purposes wide open. The ball was overthrown and we dodged a bullet with my coverage but I hoped that the QB would be overconfident and I could bait him on throwing it again to my side. It worked because on the next play the ball was thrown to my guy on a post pattern and I was able to jump in front of him, tap it to myself and intercept it. It was my first interception and we got to play on offense and I was able to scramble and run for some yardage but I threw an interception, basically negating what we did on defense. That's how the game basically went. Our defense is stout, in 3 games we've only allowed 3 TD's but other than in the first game, our offense has yet to click consistently. It didn't help that I threw 3 INT's this game and our other QB threw a couple as well because there was basically no blocking from our blockers. I mean, as soon as the ball was snapped I had to get rid of the ball and it's not a good thing when you have the wind blowing against you and the ball just floats in the air. Bad combination. We had a couple of nice chances down the field on some deep throws but if there were a difference of a couple inches we would have had a couple of TD's. Oh well, we hope to practice this week and try to get some plays down and a basic understanding of what the blocking should be like just so we don't have to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off. We need to win the next one so we can move on in our march for the championship. We've got the defense, we just need to score some points :)
I'm glad for weekends because I'm able to do nothing and be lazy for the most part until I got to work at 5. I get to miss the best games though but that's ok because at least I'm getting some $$$ for my trouble :) I should start writing for my take home test for my modern American military history class. It shouldn't be too hard since it's a take home exam and we have the whole weekend and a couple days because we turn it in on Wednesday. I don't think anything else has happened, although there's a Social Services career day on Wednesday and I saw that the FBI is going to be here. I know they are always in the need for linguists so I'm gonna check them out to see what they have to offer.

And the quest for what to do after college continues...

Saturday, September 17, 2005

What an experience!

Well I'm back from watching my first ever musical and I have to say that it was pretty amazing to see! Seeing Miss Saigon in person was more than I expected because you get transported back to the place where all the events happened, South Vietnam. I know I might sound weird for saying this because I'm a guy, but if any of you guys want to reach out and experience something different, watching a musical of this quality is great! Great acting, wonderful sound, great soundtrack, and an amazing storyline.
I'll sum up the storyline for those of you who are interested. It's the story of an American soldier and a South Vietnamese woman who meet each other in the midst of the Vietnam War. It's a love story entangled in the middle of this war setting and it's wonderfully played out. They are able to marry and as he is able to leave Vietnam he is able to secure her papers so that she can leave as well but because of the mayhem of trying to evacuate the Vietnamese during the U.S. withdrawal she is left behind. He later makes a new life in the states while she continues to struggle because of the horrendous conditions in the new unified Vietnam. She has the soldier's child (he does not know this) and she tries her hardest to let him somehow know that he has a son. The problem is that after 3 years he is married to another woman in the states, has made a new life and now a critical decision faces him and his wife... I'll leave it at that for you guys and if you're interested you can try watching it or listening to the soundtrack :)

What else has gone over here in Iowa? Well I had 2 great phone conversations Friday night. I was able to talk to Kristen for a while and then to Annie as well as talk to some people online (gotta love multitasking :)). We had Mr. Wells up from Kansas City this Sabbath and he gave a sermon on Trusting In God and it was pretty good. Mr. Wells is sometimes hard to follow but he did a really good job with today's sermon. I think I got a lot out of it. He talked about how we not only need to trust God when there are good times but we have to trust Him especially when times get tough. He mentioned how trusting God means depending on God for our protection, salvation, and deliverance. It was really encouraging to hear :) (Plus, Mr. Wells told me I looked sharper than I had before, I guess it must have been the new haircut and the aqua tie I was wearing today, lol :P)
Anyways, this week things a looking stressful because I've got my Politics and Society test on Thursday and then I've got my International Security test on Friday. Oh and we have Career Day on Wednesday when all these companies come to the coliseum and do an expo and are offering internships, co-ops, full-time jobs, so I'm gonna go to that and see what is available. Plus, I've got work tomorrow night, Monday night, and Thursday night. Study time is far and few in between. I've got another intramural flag football game this Thursday too and I think we'll do better than we did this past week and win. We just gotta change up the pace at QB a bit with some scrambling, running and passing and show 'em who's boss :)
Pretty busy and heavy week planned out so I hope that I can survive it. Oh, and as I was doing my Bible Study this morning I figured out that my debate on whether America should restrict immigration is scheduled on the Day of Atonement...not exactly the news I wanted to know. I hope the prof is able to understand (cause it's kinda hard to change the dates on a debate) and maybe move it up for the class period before Atonement. Here's to some much needed Godly intervention on this week's affairs :)

Friday, September 16, 2005

Burger King, Home of the Whopper What's Your Beef?

You know I have to start off my subject line with a reference from Fresh Prince! It's classic I tell you, classic! I think I'm going to start requesting my Feast gift to be every season of Fresh Prince on DVD, I can never get tired of watching that show even if I've seen an episode 50 times, which I have before and know every line :P

So I haven't blogged in a week and I'm gonna make this one kinda short since I have to go to class in a bit. I'll post some more tonight with more detail. We had our intramural flag football game yesterday and we had about 12 people on our team this time. We can play 7 at a time so we had people to sub in and out but I played the whole game cause I don't get too tired and I just like being on the field all the time :) I played receiver the whole game this time and caught a couple of passes and our only touchdown. The other team had only 6 on their side but basically had 3 good guys and 3 decoys. We played them close by playing some good defense but our offense was inconsistent. Since the QB gets rushed almost every play I was thinking of maybe lining up at QB for a couple of series to change the pace and scramble, run if the lane is open (which it was because the other team was playing a soft zone) or pass if the guy is open. After the game Jerad (our team captain and stud receiver) and I talked and said that I should have gotten in on a couple of plays at QB just to keep the defense off balance. Oh well, we still got plenty of games left plus these are like preseason while sorting out which teams should be in certain divisions. It's fun to play intramurals.

Oh and on a cultural note, I am going to be attending what I think is the second greatest musical in the world. Miss Saigon is going to be here in Ames this Saturday night and since I like the soundtrack and the storyline, I figured I should be educated and see the performance since it's like almost across the street from me. It's going to be great, I'm excited. It's the first real high quality musical I will be attending. So who knows, maybe I'll be able to see Phantom of the Opera in Broadway this summer or in the coming year :) More details later!

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Domination? Sure, but there's more to life than that

Today was our first intramural flag football game and I have to say that it was fun and we actually won too! My friend Jerad put the team together and we had exactly 7 players on the field. The thing is that about 15 minutes before the game started 2 of our guys (Mike Dorothy was one of them) didn't bring the student I.D. cards that they need in order to play. So off they go in my car to get their cards and we had to start playing with only 5 of us against the other team's 7. You can play as long as you have at least 4 guys on the field...it's just that it's a challenge to cover that much of the field with only 5 of us and we're shorthanded at that too.
It actually wasn't too bad because we were able to contain them on their first drive by playing a New England Patriots' kind of zone and we got the ball back. We had a touchdown pass called back because of a penalty so we ended up punting the ball and they proceeded to score on a deep pass when they started on offense. Right at that time Mike and the other guy finally arrive (I'm not joking, it seemed like they took a half hour to get back) and we started on offense and were actually playing pretty well but didn't score. I was alternating at quarterback with another guy and I completed a couple of passes and scrambled around for some first downs but I did my "Jake Plummer stupid play of the game" with a poorly thrown wobbly deep ball interception which was returned for a touchdown. The thing is that I had the whole field in front of me with nobody near me and I don't know why I decided to chuck the ball instead of run like Vick for the first down. Oh well, instead of going to halftime down 7-0 we were down 14-0.
New half means new start and we got our game face on and just went on a prolific scoring spree. I jammed my shoulder on one of those scrambles when I dove for the first down so the other guy started quarterbacking and I started playing receiver. Then out of nowhere we start throwing deep bombs do Brian and he catched ALL of them, hands of glue I tell ya. Everyone was working for us. Short passes and running for the first down, long deep passes, 2 point conversions...and on defense they couldn't score on us and I think we ended up with 35 points or something like that. 35 points in the second half alone! So yeah, great game and got some good exercise out of it too :) I'm telling ya, we played like the Patriots whenever they fall behind and then start clamping down and playing serious :)
The NFL kicked off tonight too with the Oakland Raiders playing the New England Patriots so I was stoked for that! I also got a job on campus too just yesterday. I start on Sunday and I've got to go by tomorrow and do some payroll stuff and get my uniform. I work Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays and it's about 14 hours a week so it ain't too bad. Plus I think the pay is $7.25-$7.50/hr. so it helps out to pay my bills and all. The thing is that I work Thursdays from 6:00pm-9:00pm but our intramural games are at 6 as well. Hmmm, quite a dilemma there too but I hope they'll let me work something out since they like their students to participate in university clubs and organizations (and believe it or not, flag football is part of involving yourself in the community :)). So let's see what happens there.
On a more somber note, I would like to ask you guys to please pray for Mrs. Blackman, our deaconess in the Des Moines congregation. She suffered congestive heart failure and is recovering slowly. Mr. and Mrs. Blackman have had a very, very rough summer due to the fact that she suffered a stroke in May and Mr. Blackman suffered a heart attack not too long after that. They're the pillars of our congregation in Des Moines and are such an example for young people like me, plus they have done so many nice things for me and have helped me out in numerous occassions. I've stayed over at their house many times and we've seen the past 2 Super Bowls too (Mr. Blackman has a huge big screen TV). They need your prayers and I know they would appreciate it too. Thanks guys, it's been a rough year for a lot of us but I firmly believe what it says in God's word.

James 5:14-16: "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

You make my liver quiver

If you're a true nerd and a fan of the best 90's show ever, you know that my subject line comes from Will Smith in Fresh Prince of Bel Air :)

Beautiful weekend I tell you, just plain beautiful! The social event of the end of summer/beginning of fall was amazing! Lisa Wilson and Ben Kreyer's wedding was wonderfully done, beautiful in every way, organized, fancy yet simple all at the same time. I'll admit I started crying during the wedding, what can I say I'm an emotional guy :) Plus, I consider Lisa as being an older sister and now she's married and it finally hit me! Mike and I got to help with the parking and greeting people for the wedding and we even got our picture taken too. I was just happy to help out in anything and it was great to see so many people from all over the place. There were people from a bunch of congregations like Omaha, Kansas City, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Virginia, Kentucky, Wisconsin...all over the place I tell you!
After the wedding of course there's the reception where people let loose and have tons of clean kosher fun :) Hey when there's a bar selling beer for a $1 at the reception, you know it's awesome!!! :) There was some good food but I was still a bit hungry afterwards but then the dancing started and that was a blast, at least for me. The music was a little bit of everything, country classics along with Goo Goo Dolls, Hoobastank, swing music, disco, funky dance music...great selection all around. I even put to use the moves I learned while at camp...yep I even did some polka (and I'm Puerto Rican which means I'm not supposed to do stuff like that :P). Loads of fun along with great conversation with people like Scott and Steven Bashes, Richard Pomicter, and a lot of people who were there.
So the wedding and all that fun stuff took up much of the weekend and I just acted lazy on Monday. Didn't do too much even though the school readings are piling up but I'm getting some of it done, just at a slow pace :) Oh I just remembered to mention that Mr. Monson's sermon on the Sabbath was wonderful. Josh already mentioned it and it was about overcoming which is what this Christian life is about. There will be good times but there will also be bad times and you have to put your reliance and trust in God that He will see you through, He will guide you, and even carry you through some of the most difficult times of your life. I've always had a saying and it goes like this, "Life is all about ups and downs, it's how you pick yourself up from the downs that matters most."
Anyways, I hope you guys had just as much of a great weekend as I did. Keep safe and I'll be talking to you guys later.

*Off to be productive for the day*