Start of Season

I recently had my first official team practice for swimming. Needless to say I slept like a baby that night. On the first day of practice our coach decided to give us a test set, which was 7x100's on 1:25 then descending interval for every set, which went through 4 times. With a 300 in between every set that comes out to 4,000 yards. That was more than I've swam combined since I've been at school. Everyone was beat after that, and then we finished off with an extended sprint set. If anyone doesn't know swimming, 1 lap is equal to 25 yards, 2 is 50, etc. So 4,000 yards is equal to 160 laps. We ended up doing about 5,500 yards, so all in all it was a god day.

On other news, I'm going home on Thursday which is pretty exciting. I haven't seen any of my family in a month, and I'm going to surprise them by coming home unannounced. Hopefully all goes well.

No computer

The worst thing that could have possibly happened to me just did. This is not a lie; as I was doing my CPN homework, my harddrive on my macbook crashed. With no warning or sympathy it froze, shut off, and that was that.

After panicking for about 3 hours I finally called mac, and I learned many things. 1) they have the WORST customer service in the world, for the sole fact that you need to pay for it. 2) Their protection on equipment SUCKS. Mine was only for a year. So now a new harddrive is going to cost 700 dollars. Awesome.

Besides the fact that I don't have 700 dollars to buy a new harddrive, I also lost all of my schoolwork files, Itunes files, pictures, etc. It is just a really shitty situation and I would advise all of you to get insurance for your items.

Guest Speaker...c'mon

Last night, my sports team was required to see a guest speaker. The name of it was "Tapping the Keg of Truth." Being on a sports team, and being forced to go, I thought it was going to be an educational show on drinking in college. I was wrong.

First of all I just want to say that this show had no educational value at all. It was pointless and stupid, and the man is a comedian more than informative. I feel like the whole time he was just plugging his book and trying to make everyone laugh. He mentioned alcohol a couple of times, but none of what he said made me not want to drink and do better in school.

He played dumb songs that he made up on his guitar, and often joked about things that weren't that funny. He went out into the crowd and tried to get them involved, but that was just a ploy to waste time and try and win the audience over. With the heavy loads of work, especially in my CPN class, I was wondering why we were forced to be there.

All in all it was a pretty silly presentation. The guy used vulgarity and talked about sex to get the attention of college students. I wish I wasn't forced to go see him, and I'm kind of mad it wasted two hours of my life that could have been devoted to school work.

Pressure

I am finding myself very pressured these days. Tests are starting to pop up, athletic teams are starting, lack of sleep never helps, trying to be in good shape, and many other things tend to have a snowball effect and just make me feel overwhelmed sometimes. Here I sit, at 843 and I can barely keep my eyes open. This isn't fun.

It's funny how in college you really live for the weekend. I guess it is because on the weekend there is no pressure. No class, no tests, not as much practice for teams, and just a lot more downtime. On the weekend you can go out, have fun, party, hang out with friends, and just escape from the hardships of college. 

I also how I am so tired that this is the only thing I can muster up in my brain. I am supposed to be a successful college student, and the only thing I can think of to write a blog about is that I'm tired. Some student eh?

I guess pressure is sometimes good. Pressure makes or breaks us. It can make you suck or can make you great. If you can handle academics, athletics, and everything in between, I'm sure you will be successful and happy. But if pressure gets the best of you, your grades will show it and I'm pretty sure most teams require certain GPAs. Hopefully everyone handles pressure for the better.

Finally!

Finally! After years of suffering through all of this Patriots are the best team ever crap, they have finally got what they had coming to them. In the first game of the season, the Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, who is also the best in the game, was hit from the defense awkwardly in the leg, and tore his acl. When hearing this information, I immediately smiled and knew that this was the end of that annoying dynasty.


Being a Yankee and Jets fan for the past, say, 5 years has been horrible. The Pats have been the most dominant team in football, and we all know about the Red Sox two World Series wins since 2004. Even this year with the struggles of the Yankees and the reality that they will not make the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, this Tom Brady injury was a breath of fresh air. It means that the Patriots will not be going undefeated for the whole season. It means that Tom Brady will not break any QB records for the season. It means hopefully that the Jets can win the division.


Maybe this year will be different for the Jets. Maybe we can make the playoffs this year and pull off a run similar to the Giants of last year. One thing is for sure, Tom Brady will not be making an impact on the game. I'm sure every New York fan is sick of seeing teams from Mass. win, and this is just the thing that we needed.

Drinking Age

Reflecting on my past weekend, I started wondering on wether the drinking age should be lowered to 18. I feel like it all comes down to this simple fact; kids that are under the age of 21 are going to drink. There's no stopping it. Whatever law or rule that is in place cannot change this and this is why I think it should be changed. 

Let's think about our struggling economy for a second. Over the past year, the price of liquor has gone up immensely. Think about how many kids aged 18-20 would be pumping money into these stores, and lets not forget about how much bars and clubs would benefit from this age group's money. 

Also, wouldn't it be a lot easier for college campuses if they didn't have to deal with all these rules about drinking. Hell, they could even have parties on campus with supervision to make sure no kids drink to much or get hurt. They also wouldn't have to deal with the police, which I'm sure would make everything a lot easier.

I'm not saying that my opinion is right, but all in all, I believe that the drinking age of 21 is silly and we are all kidding ourselves if we think that kids aren't underage drinking. 

Too young to die...

After recently seein The Dark Knight in the movie theatres, it's hard to comprehend that Heath Ledger is really dead. His role as the Joker in that movie is iconic and will be remembered as the greatest villian in a movie ever, and that's not because of the situation. He stole the movie, and took the role to a new place, and will probably get an Oscar nomination for his role.


It's kind of hard to get away from the actor. When I was flipping through the channels yesterday, 10 Things I hate About You was on. The day before that, A Knights Tale was on, and the day before that, Brokeback Mountain was on. It kind of makes you sad everytime you see this actor on the screen because every performance he did was better than average, and the reality that we will never see it again is upsetting.


If you think about it, don't we all know someone personally who died too young? And if not personally, just someone who made an impact on our lives that passed at a young age. It just makes you think about a lot of stuff in your life, and for me anyway, it makes me appreciate things a lot more.


I guess all we can do is celebrate Heath Ledgers life by watching his films and talking about how great of an actor he was. I personally believe that he deserves the Oscar for his role as the Joker, and I believe that will solidify his name as an icon.

Michael Phelps

I was reflecting on this past summer olympic games, and I realize how big of a summer it was for swimming. Michael Phelps has single handedly put swimming on the map as one of the bigger sports in the country. As a swimmer, I know that it isn't that big compared to baseball, basketball, or football. But in other countries such as Australia, swimmers are considered celebrities, and are even more recognizable than movie stars. 

To comprehend what Michael Phelps did by winning eight gold medals, you have to look at what he did for the past four years. He dedicated his whole life, he didn't work, he didn't have much of a personal life, to just swimming. Putting in hours and hours in and out of the pool to train his body to just survive the grueling schedule of the olympics is a feat in its own. 

He is simply the greatest swimmer there ever was, and I will even go as far as saying the best athlete ever. Nobody has done what he has done in their respective sport, and I believe it will be a very long time before we see another great like Michael Phelps.