Getting Things Started

Well, another week is up and running. This week will feature my first rehersal for the second semester of OU Nightly as well as a guy's weekend at the Sullivant Retreat Center.

I recently acquired Kevin Max's new album, The Imposter, and I must say, it's a LOT better than I thought it would be. His first solo album was awesome while his second left something to be desired. But after previewing the new one and reading some reviews online, I thought it wise to check it out. Suffice to say, I wasn't disappointed. I don't really know how to put my finger on it, but this album adds a little more mainstream rock while keeping Kevin's unique style and choice of lyrics. You don't have to be a dc Talk fan to enjoy any of their solo albums. That said, if you know anything about or have heard anything from Kevin, I definitely recommend checking it out.

That review is free, by the way. ;) So this week, we're starting rehersals for OU Nightly. They're just little 5-minute jobs and will stay that way even as we starting airing next week, but it's a good way to start and lead into a full-blown half-hour newscast. The meteorologist position will be held by myself and a fellow named Keith, who is a junior I believe. Carrie, the meteorologist I worked with last semester (also a senior, graduating in May) has moved on. She's taking more classes this semester and has already landed a position at Channel 9 up in The City. It's a spot she gets to keep even after she graduates. Pretty sweet if you ask me. Hopefully I can get some good broadcasts here at the beginning of the semester so I can compile another tape, finish up my resume, and get my face out to some stations.

This weekend, us BSU fellas are holding our annual guys weekend up at the retreat center. What's on tap? Well, I can't tell you ALL the details, but we have Dave Mitchell coming to speak on men's purity, we're going to probably eat a lot of pizza, and I'll admit it, there's going to be a lot of Halo. I love the ladies but sometimes you just need a weekend to get away from everything and hang out with the guys. I can hardly wait.

As it turns out, my ballroom dancing class was cancelled last night, so I didn't get the chance to continue on what we learned last week. Hopefully it will resume next week. I did get to work out today in my fitness class, however. We all performed a fitness test to gauge how in shape we all are. It's safe to say I'm not very. I'm already sore from my workout today. The last part of our test was to see how fast we could run/walk a mile. I'm not going to tell you how long it took me, but I certainly didn't run the entire mile. I'm just not that fit and in shape. Hopefully, by the end of the semester I will be, but we'll wait until that time comes. Now that Friday is going to be a day I'll be adding to my workout, I'm hoping to be physically fit by the end of the semester and carry that into the post-college world.

And let us not forget that March 12 is a day I'm very much looking forward to...

Workin' it

Man, it feels good to get that first workout in. My M/W Individual Fitness class is one I am so thankful I have the opportunity to take. Even after the first day of preliminaries and paper work, I knew it was going to be awesome. Then today, on only our second day of class, we are already turned loose to workout.

Now I have to be honest, I haven't been to the HHC since they remodeled it 2 or 3 years ago. With the way my schedule always worked out, I was never able to get consistent time there or set up a schedule that I could hold myself to. Enter Individual Fitness. Now 2 (and hopefully 3) days a week, I have a set time to workout. Today, I started with 35 minutes on the elliptical ... going a distance of 3.19 (miles, I would assume). It felt so refreshing to work out again.

To add to it, this is my only class on Wednesdays and on Mondays I share this class with only ballroom dancing, which isn't until 5:30. So at 1:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays, I work out and while we are required to do cardiovascular training during our allotted class time, afterwards, we are free to workout how we wish. I'm hoping to use that time to do some weight training or just grab a basketball and go to one of the 8(?) basketball courts available and shoot some hoops.

I never thought I'd find myself itching to go to class like I do this semester. Hopefully I can use this to develop some habits and keep the workouts going even after I graduate.

Individual Fitness

I had my first fitness class today. I wasn't sure what to expect going into it. And before we started, I noticed how out of roughly 25-30 students in the class, there are probably 7-10 guys. The rest are girls. That was a little disheartening but it's no big deal. The class is just a pass/fail class, so no stress at all. This class is basically what I've been waiting for all during college. All we're going to do is meet, sign in, and work out for the designated class time. During the class time, we are required to focus on cardio rather than weight training ... which was specified in the class description. The class meets on M and W and is my only class on Wednesdays. So I figured that I'd do cardio during the class time and then after signing out, work on some weights since I'll have the time.

I have really been wanting to have a scheduled workout time while I was in college and I haven't done so since my freshman year. Now is a great time to do it. And we're required to keep a log for part of our grade ... so that'll help a lot.

Wednesdays are going to be gooooood.

And here's yesterday's Foxtrot comic strip. If you're not a Star Wars fan, it won't be funny. Otherwise, it's downright hilarious...

A month and a half later...

... I decide to update. I got out of the habit whilest I was at home over the Christmas break and just never made the time to sit down and put the time in.

Being at home was extremely nice, especially after the semester the led up to it. That was probably the hardest/busiest semester of my college career. Nevertheless, I finished, and in a much better way than I thought I would. Two As, two Cs, and a B. Overall, a 3 average for the semester, which is WAY more than I expected. Something like that is always welcome.

As I said before, but being at home was awesome. I had a great month with the family ... the last Christmas while I'm in college, and I got to hang out with my brother all the time. And for some reason, it was really hard for me to leave and come back for this semester, even though I knew this semester was going to be 64 times easier. It's just hard knowing that after I graduate this semester, college life is over. I'm slowly starting to realize that reality.

All that said, it seems ironic that I'm ready for this semester to start and end. I think it's going to be a fun, exciting semester and I'll have more time to get things done and hopefully do a little more than I did last semester. All of my free time last semester seemed to be school work and studying. Hopefully, that's not the case the semester. Classes like Mesoscale and Radar and even Capstone are going to require a lot of work, but then classes like Individual Fitness and Ballroom Dancing are going to allow me to have some additional fun.

I'm adjusting to my new roommate pretty well. I had a lot of misconceptions at first, but after meeting him and talking with him, he's pretty laid back and friendly and easy to get along with, so it shouldn't be bad at all. We're both pretty different people but that's always not a bad thing.

I'm ready for this semester to get itself going and I always say this but I will try to keep this blog running.

And I'm eagerly awaiting March 12. The 6th season of The Sopranos airs. Yeah buddy.