HOME!!!

Sorry again for the lack of updates, I got home on Friday and have just been enjoying life and relaxing. I switched my major last week to business, it will be tough but we will see how it goes. I am really looking forward to Christmas and being with family and friends, a week from today I will head back to Ames to leave next Monday for Phoenix and the Insight Bowl!!! It will be a fun time!!!

I don't really have much to rant about which is somewhat boring but probably better for my health. If I do find something to rant about I will be sure to get it up on here. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and remember what the holiday is all about and get to wherever you go safely. GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Finals...

So this whole taking finals and end of the semester has been taking a up a lot of my time. In case you have been living under a rock or only count on me for your sports/news info (which is absurd and I know the four of you don't) but if you do Iowa State is going to the Insight.com bowl on December 31 to play Minnesota which is an excellent match up. Iowa is going to the Orange Bowl to play Georgia Tech in another good match up, I believe that game is on January sixth or something like that.

I will update with more and other stuff on Friday so look for more then....back to studying. Good luck everyone!!! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Season Review

Is it almost thanksgiving already? Time has flown by the last three months. Who would have thought back in August that Iowa State would be bowl eligible, Iowa would only have two losses, and UNI would miss out on the playoffs. On all but one count probably just those involved with the program, and those drinking A LOT of kool-aide.

I remember the day the players reported for practice back on August fourth, it was a warm humid day. The next day we had media day and the day after we hit the field of dreams for the first practice. We knew we had the ability to win every game on our schedule and I can think of only one game that we didn't prove that, of course that was Iowa. Since then we went 6-6 and became bowl eligible for the first time since 2005 and beat Nebraska in Lincoln for the first time since the late 70's. It has a great ride. Sadly we now have to wait another week and a half to find out where we will go bowling. The best posibilities are the Insight bowl in Phoenix, the Texas Bowl in Houston, or the Independence bowl in Shrevport. My personal favorites are the Texas and Insight bowls, mainly due to who we would be matched up against and where they are at. I just don't like our chances against fast physical SEC teams. We will know all when the bowls are announced on December 6th. Meanwhile the Men's basketball team is 5-0 and the Women's basketball team has only lost one game. ISU continues to lead the Big 12 in athletic graduation rate at 75% which is 15% above the rest of the student body, the football team's graduation rate is at 70% which also continues to rise. Nine Cyclones were also named to the Big 12 all academic team reaching a GPA of 3.0 or higher, great things happening in gods land! GO STATE!!! TRUE AND VALIANT!!!

I have to say I went into the season thinking Iowa was a 7-5 team at best, especially after they barely escaped UNI in the season opener. Depending on your associations you would either say they have gotten lucky in most of their games or they have the right stuff to make the plays when they are needed, I will let you decide for yourself. The hawks are more than likely heading to Phoenix to play in the Fiesta bowl, best of luck guys!

UNI well it's been a tough season and this is a tough one to swallow. After their performance against Iowa everyone thought that would be their only loss on their way to the national championship, it just wasn't to be as the panther lost four games this season. Best of luck next year...just not in the season opener.

I am more than enjoying this time off from school. I have spent most of the time with family and friends relaxing. I am also no longer a Journalism major, I did not pass the English Usage Test which is required. More than likely I will switch to speech communication. Have a great thanksgiving and be sure to tell those who you are thankful for that you appreciate everything they do! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

BS not BCS

Okay I know I have been lacking this week in updating I will get to that tomorrow or sometime this weekend. The big news from this past weekend, ISU won and is now bowl eligible and Iowa lost at OSU. The real reason why I am writing this is because I am very unhappy about the state of the BCS and it's leaders.

I was listening to an interview by Dan Patrick with the Director of the BCS Bill Hancock. This guy is a complete tool and obviously has the big companies in his pocket. When Mr. Patrick asks him why they can't have a "Final Four" playoff between the teams that are left undefeated at the end of the regular season. Mr Hancock basically replies saying that the "Big" teams are the ones that will be in the Championship game and everyone else deserves a pat on the back and a congratulations on a great season while they are shipped off to a less important bowl. He also claims that a playoff would completely ruin the bowl system. DUDE IT WOULDN'T!!! All you have to do is take the teams that are left undefeated from every BCS conference and put them into a play off at these bowls just move the dates around. For example this year you would put whoever wins the SEC (granted they are all undefeated) against TCU, and Texas against Boise State. you could put the SEC vs TCU game in say the Fiesta Bowl and the Texas BSU game in say the Orange Bowl. Hold these games say December 23rd or something after finals but before Christmas. Then you have the winners of those games play in the Rose Bowl on New Years Day to crown a national champion. The only reason why this couldn't work is because the ones with the big money don't want the current system to end and think it isn't broken, or use their money to convince themselves and others that it isn't broken.

Oh keep in mind that this director use to run the Men's Basketball Final Four. If you really want to get your blood boiling then hop on itunes, go to podcast's section and download the November 18th 2009 third hour, the interview starts a couple minutes in. I think this subject would be much more popular and heated in this state had Iowa gone undefeated and ended up not playing for the national championship.

Well how was that for a rant? Moving on. Iowa hosts Minnesota which will be a probable win for them, and Iowa State heads down to Columbia to take on the Missouri Tigers. This is an interesting match up that in my opinion if we show up and play like we can and stay focused we will be able to come out of town with a win and finish 7-5...take that Chizik. GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

p.s. there is no 'z' in Missouri.

Week Ten Review

Well it's been awhile. How has everyone been? Okay so there is only like three or four people checking this but oh well. It has been a busy couple of weeks, so last week wasn't all that busy after Monday but I enjoyed relaxing. Anyway on to football. ISU has suffered a couple tough losses. UNI bounced back and Iowa suffered a fatal blow.

Iowa State has had a tough couple of weeks. Against A&M we were still without our starting running back and quarterback. A&M has a good team that just plain rolled us. This past week well there isn't much positive to talk about other than our defense held OSU to second or third down on most sets. The offense on the other hand hardly ever got going and basically lived off of one big play. Over all the team came out flat and got rolled by a very talented, very fast Oklahoma State team that is quite possibly the second best team in the conference. On the good side we did get starters Austen Arnaud, Reggie Stephens, and Alexander Robinson back. However none of them were at complete full strength which will have to change as an interesting Colorado team comes to town next Saturday at 1:00PM.

UNI well I believe they won, I'm too lazy to look it up or anything.

The hawks biggest loss of the season was not losing to Northwestern but most likely losing Ricky Stanzi for the rest of the regular season. I truly believe that Iowa would have won if they had not lost Stanzi. I have not seen much well any of the game except of the play that Stanzi got hurt, but I hear that they were putting a mostly complete game together which is what they needed to do to jump into the top three, that just wasn't to be though. Blame it on what you may Stanzi, the si jinx, or just god's will. They have a very tough game this week at the horse shoe, especially for an inexperienced quarterback.

11 DAYS UNTIL THANKSGIVING BREAK!!! 5 DAYS UNTIL THE SKILLET CONCERT! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Week Eight Review...

All I can say is WOW!!! What a great weekend for ISU and Iowa. Sadly UNI suffered it's second straight loss, not good hopefully they can turn it around and still make it into the playoffs, it's amazing how we go from thinking they will win it all to hoping the make the play offs in two weeks time.

First off my clones! What a win! We have gotten critisized for being so happy about winning this game when Nebraska had eight turnovers and we only won by two, I'm not debating that fact our defense was definetley the better unit...never thought I would say that. On the same thought it shows how great Nebraska's defense is especially Suh. At the same time it was a great win and a great momentum boost for our team heading into what is now the biggest game on our schedule at Texas A&M. We are now second in the North to Kansas State...that blocked pat hurts even more now. This weeks game is not on TV, but next weeks home game against Oklahoma State (yet another huge game) will be on TV. The slots it has a chance at getting are 7:00PM or 2:30PM on ABC or 11:30AM on Versus, I have a feeling if both us and OSU win this week we will be in the 7PM slot on ABC. It is very hard to not get very excited as a fan right now. It has been several years since we have been in this position, especially to be in great position to win the north. We have to execute and come home from College Station with a win this week though.

The Iowa game on Saturday was classic Big Ten football. It wasn't flashy, it wasn't overly impressive, it was tough, hard, physical football. I don't mean to toot my own horn but I predicted Iowa winning and thought it would happen even when MSU scored late. Iowa always seems to get that lucky play and win. I have to admit I am happy then won, but just once I wanted them to lose so we could have our big day to ourselves. This week they host the Indiana Hoosiers, I still have no clue what a Hoosier is. This will be an easy win for the hawks as they get ready to head to Columbus to take on Ohio State. Good luck this week.

I am trying to get my schedule together for next semester...it is proving to be a bigger challenge than I imagined since the university has decided not to offer some classes, some of which I actually need. I am also required to have a designated area of concentration (DAC) outside of the school of journalism and advertising, I am having a hard time trying to figure out what I want to do with this and what classes to take to achieve this. That's all for now, have a great rest of the week! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

P.S.

Here are a couple of good videos from this past weekend

Post Game locker room
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAcKiMy0Gp4

Welcome back at Bergstrom Saturday night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1UInW3KQs4

Week Eight...

It's that time of week again. I am going to quickly go over this weeks games. For starters Iowa State is heading to Nebraska, I think ISU will have a good showing but will lose to a pissed off Nebraska team 35-21. Iowa is on the road at Michigan State, it will be a close one but I think the hawks improve to 8-0 in East Lansing.

The real reason why I wanted to update was about school. I am currently in a political science class in which the only work you have to do is around 100 pages of reading a week and come to class. I don't mind the somewhat easy workload, it's the fact that the reading is not a normal textbook. The books that we have to have for the class are compilations of essays written by scholarly people for other scholarly people, then I have to somehow interpret it the same why my professor does and be able to explain it that way in class. All we do in class is have a big group discussion about the reading in which he is asking up questions and such, no problem there again it's his job to challenge us. Overall I guess it's the fact that it's another professor that seems to think this is the only class we have this semester, then again it is college. Maybe I should have known this was going to be difficult when he said he has a masters in aerospace engineering, worked at NASA for 15 years, is a lawyer, and has a PhD in Political Science...oh well

I am heading home tomorrow since it's my last chance to get home for the weekend before thanksgiving. I am looking forward to a very relaxing weekend and time with friends. Have a safe weekend all! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Week Seven Review...

Well it was a very interesting week in college football. Staying focused on the state schools. UNI suffered a tough loss at home against Southern Illinois 27-20, that's all I know sorry. Iowa moved to 7-0 with a win at Wisconsin and Iowa State moved to 4-3 by beating Baylor.

Iowa, congrats you are still undefeated. Yet again you won without playing a full game the way you can, that needs to change this week in order to keep your perfect record. Iowa will travel up to Michigan State, this game will likely decide the Big Ten Champion. The first BCS rankings came out this week as well, with Iowa debuting at number six. I believe this is right where they deserve to be. They have beaten some good teams but overall remember they play in the big ten which does not help their case at all. Even if the hawks win out they will need everyone they beat including and especially Iowa State to win a lot of games to make their strength of schedule better. Even if they were to win out I still don't see them in the national championship game. More than likely they will play in the Rose Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl. Good luck this week in East Lansing.

My Cyclones showed a lot of progress this week and beat Baylor 24-10. It was not an entire pretty game but it turned out with the good guys in the lead at the end. There were a couple of downfalls. Grant is still anticipating the snap and pulling back and thus pulling the ball and missing. Austen bruised his throwing hand, he should be back for this weeks game at Nebraska though. The on going saga of A-Robs groin strain continues, a cold night and him running hard was not a good mix as he could not finish the game, He most likely will not practice most of the week but will start on Saturday. You can catch this weeks game on Fox College Sports at 11:30AM. GO STATE CYCLONES!!!

This coming up weekend is my last free weekend before thanksgiving break so I am heading home, it will be a very relaxing weekend with next to nothing to do, I am pumped! I will try and update this later in the week with something or another. Have a great week everyone!!! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Week Seven...

Sorry for the lack of updates this week It has been an interesting week with classes this week. Back on topic all three state schools have big games this week. UNI hosts rival Southern Illinois, Iowa heads to Madison to take on Wisconsin, and ISU hosts Baylor.

First off the Southern Illinois Salukis travel up to Cedar Falls to take on UNI. This will be a very interesting game, much like every game between these two schools. I have been to several of these match ups at the UNI Dome and let me tell you, that is as electric atmosphere as you will find anywhere. These two teams are somewhat evenly matched, I think overall the Panthers will win however it will be much closer than other games so far this year at the dome, much like last week at NDSU.

The hawks will board the busses tomorrow for the three hour trip up to Madison. This one may be a very interesting one in the fact that Wisconsin is poised to upset the hawks. However in my own opinion it may prove to be a close one but the hawks will win it and jump up to #10 in the polls.

It has been an okay homecoming week here at Iowa State. I personally have not had much time to take part in any of the festivities but will be in a pep rally tonight and will be doing bar fights later tonight. Of course that's all before practice at 9:30AM Saturday and the rest of game day activities, my dad will be in the alumni marching band again this year. He thinks I am joking that when we are together all they make is a straight line...he will find out Saturday morning. Anyway onto the game. The Baylor Bears will be coming up here for the game this week. Everyone knows the Baylor of past when you would have to try to lose to them, this is a much different Baylor team, even with several key players out. Their star quarterback Robert Griffin suffered a season ending injury a few weeks ago and is obviously out along with a couple of other players. Their back up qb is still quite dangerous himself and had numerous starts before griffins injury so he is experienced in the Big 12. I think this will be a breakout game for Alexander Robinson, A-Rob has finally been practicing all week and I think he is poised to run wild against a somewhat weaker defense. Our passing game will need to keep improving and Austen will have to make better decisions and better passes instead of pretending he is skipping rocks across a lake. Our downfall though will be our defense I have not seen them but I can't imagine a significant turn around from last week when they let Kansas with albeit an outstanding quarterback have whatever he wanted for most of the game. I am going to predict a Cyclone win to move us to 4-3 on the season and 1-2 in the conference. Next week will be very tough though with a trip to Nebraska...not gonna be pretty.

I have a couple of friends coming over for the weekend. I am excited for this, however I am not sure how much I will be able to see them with a very busy schedule. Hopefully I can catch up with them before and after the game on Saturday. Have a great safe weekend! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Week Five Review...

Well where do I start. UNI continued to dominate, Iowa nearly blew a good first half performance against I-AA Arkansas State, and my Cyclones pissed it down their leg.

I will start with the good news. UNI continues to roll over it's competition. They are still on target to win the conference and make a deep run into the post season, most likely all the way to Chatanooga.

I was not able to see the Iowa game and was very surprised to see that they only beat Arkansas State by three when I got into Arrowhead. I hear the second half wasn't very pretty. This week they host Michigan which will be on ABC at 7:00PM on Saturday evening.

Moving on to the ISU game. We can only blame the loss on ourselves. The last play ultimately lost the game but it was not a bad kick at all, you could hardly call it a low kick, the KSU player that blocked the kick is 6'4" and has a 38" vertical...don't forget he was fully extended, basically he was way up there. That play aside we lost this game, the offense was hardly there all day and lived off a few key plays. It is beyond me why we keep giving Austen Arnaud the ball to run, he is a great QB but has a tendency to fumble, not only does he fumble he never gets his head back into it, not in practice not in a game and the entire offense usually follows his lead. Thankfully this week he was able to throw a deep pass into the back of the end zone that our reciever was able to catch. At that moment for once we thought this was our time, for once we got the lucky break, we got that big play to win the game, only for a few minutes later to receive another kick in the balls. What can we say this is Iowa State. On the bright side we have the coaching staff and players that do not accept this, we deserve better and they take full responsibility. Another bright point came from a very disappointing play. K-State was driving and had a pass play in which their receiver was pushing our corner all the way down the field and then fell out of bounds when the ball was over thrown...the ref decided to call pass interference. To say the least all of our fans/team/and coaches were extremely upset with boo's raining down players getting in eachothers faces and several of our coaches screaming at the ref with coach Rhoads following him out on the field and throwing his hat on the ground. Needless to say K-State now had a first and 10 on the 15 or something like that. Our defense showed what it had with boo's raining down after each play coaches continuing to scream at the ref...the defense held and forced K-State to settle for a field goal, I am very happy with this since I never expected this defense to do that. We have to do the best to put this hard loss behind us because this week we have to go down to Kansas...not going to be a fun game. You can catch it on Versus at 11:30AM on Saturday.

I will be heading home this weekend and watching the last home coming game at Armstrong field, it will be a sad day but hopefully the team can keep up the spirit and improve to 7-0, GO LIONS!!! I probably won't update until after next weekend so good luck to everyone and have a great weekend! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Week Five Preview

Here we go...Week five is here already which means there is another week of non conference and conference games. ISU heads to Kansas City to take on Kansas State at Arrowhead Stadium. UNI will host Indiana State for Family Weekend, and Iowa will host Arkansas State.

The first pick will be incredibly easy. Iowa is simply going to roll over Arkansas State, so hawk fans if you don't even want to go into the stadium and you just want to start your pregame drinking for the Michigan game next week feel free. That's about all I have on that topic.

Indiana State will bring a decent team to the UNI Dome. This game may start close and it may just be a blow out from the begining. It's hard to tell but either way UNI will win.

Now for the game that I am very excited for. Iowa State and Kansas State decided to play their games the next two years at Arrowhead Stadium, ISU is the "hosting" team this year. I have never been to a NFL stadium so this will be really cool being able to go behind the scenes and march on the field. The weekend will be very busy as well. The ISUCF'V'MB will be leaving Ames at noon on Friday. We will then practice at a high school in Kansas City before heading out on the town Friday night. Saturday morning we will get up and head to the stadium sometime around 10:00 I think. After pregame gigs and doing the game we will then head to a high school marching band competition to do an exhibition performance. That performance won't be until after 9:00 Saturday night so we are not supposed to get back to Ames until 3:00AM Sunday. Getting back to the game. This could be a very interesting game. I really hope our team plays well because if they get some more confidence and get a W out of this game we could run the table next week at Kansas. A couple notes on ISU this week,we are a little beat up. One of our star defensive linemen tore his acl last saturday and is out for the season, also one of our star wide recievers broke his fibula in practice on Tuesday and will undergo surgery for that on Friday. Even with those two key players out I still think this game is winnable for the Cyclones, I am going to predict a 31-21 Cyclones Win. We will see how this goes though.

Did I mention that I have a busy weekend. After we get back at three on sunday morning I have to be up and on my way to work by noon. After working the soccer game I am taking my girlfriend out to eat and to WICKED in Des Moines. So basically with the exception of sleeping I will be going from Friday at around 8:00AM until around 1:00AM Sunday. It will all be worth it though and it's shaping up to be a great weekend. I will hopefully update with the review of the weekend by Tuesday night. Have a great weekend! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Week Four Review...

All I can say is wow. There are several reasons for this. ISU played Army and the pagentry with that was enough to be amazed and proud to be an American. After that I get back to my room to find that Iowa was about to upset Penn State. I didn't really get to see any of the game so I can't judge the game. Don't forget about that team from Cedar Falls either, you know that team that nearly beat and should have beaten Iowa. UNI beat Misouri State in it's Gateway Conference opener.

I will start with the Cyclones. ISU had many events planned for Saturday saluting the army and thanks to the weather they all were able to happen. I will post links to videos of Saturday but overall there were several cool things going on. Every hour on the hour they had a howitzer cannon on display and going off on the Jacobson Plaza (the new east concourse), there was also an army experience on south fourth street, and 75 minutes before game time a couple of Army parachutists jumped into the stadium. It was a weird feeling when we started to play the national anthem and to see the Army football student managers snap to attention and salute. After the national anthem there was also a flyby of four black hawk's in formation, I love planes but this was probably one of the coolest flyby's I have ever seen. After the first quarter 13 freshman in the ISU Army ROTC program took their oath as well. After the game was over and the Cyclones won both teams took several minutes talking and such at mid field and then both teams went down to the corner where the army fans and band were and sang what I assume was their alma mater, go figure when they finished they all yelled beat Navy. It was an awesome and humbling sight. These truly are some of the best men and women in the world, I say women because it was also really weird to see cheerleaders at attention. Moving on this week we head down to Kansas City to take on the Kansas State Wildcats at Arrowhead Stadium, it should be a really fun weekend.

Now for the big news of the weekend. Iowa went into a very wet happy valley and upset then #5 Penn State. Now as I said before I didn't see much of this game at all. I know your 4-0 but really hawk fans your chances of getting to the national title game are slim to none, even if you go undefeated. I know your all going to be out with pitchforks for me saying that, but look at reality. You play in a week conference, Ohio State has already lost to USC who has also lost to Washington. Outside of Penn State, Ohio State, and Michigan there isn't really anybody else that good in the Big Eleven this year. Basically it would take Florida, Texas, losing at least one game for you to be in searious contention for playing for the title. More than likely you will play in the Rosebowl against USC and sorry more than likley get your asses handed to you. By all means prove me wrong.

UNI continues to show that they are one of the best teams in the FCS and in this state, don't forget that fact. They won again this week and continue on their path to winning the title. As I have said before, this is the year for the panthers to win it all.

Oh and there is also a certain Linn-Mar football team that is also now 5-0. I hope to see them get win #7 or something like that at the homecoming game I will be at. Anyway my week is pretty much over already which is a good feeling. I now only have five classes, three marching band practices, and 68.5 hours left till we leave for Kansas City. I will update on the weekend outlook on Thursday along with how this weekend looks for me. Have a great week! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!


here is a couple of video's from this weekend
highlights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilhu13hYwz8&feature=channel
tribute video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhOA9RCyrnU&feature=channel
Army singing after the game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WTRCznbJkg&NR=1
And we were winning between the third and fourth quarters...so it's Sweet Caroline Time! Just ignore the guy singing off key...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUt0AAlw1n4&NR=1

Week Three Review...

It was a great weekend for football in the state of Iowa. The Cyclones won 34-14 over Kent State, the Hawks beat Arizona 34-17, and the Panthers beat someone I don't feel like looking up 30-0. Don't forget about those Linn-Mar Lions either, they had a come back win against Cedar Rapids Washington 41-28 or something like that.

Lets start with the good guys. Going into the game ISU had the nations longest active road losing streak at 17 games, basically if we didn't win this game we didn't deserve to be called a football team. Kent State was battered and bruised. The game started off with the teams trading touchdown drives after that it was pretty much all Cyclones. We looked like a pretty good football team (for the third game of the season) in the first half at least. The second half we still showed signs of improvement but also started to get tired and allowed the golden flashes to score another touchdown. Coach Rhoads quickly addressed this in the locker room and it will be an item they will improve on. Moving on to this week's game, we host the Black Knights of the United States Military Academy at West Point...aka Army. This won't be a push over but it won't be too terribly hard either. Army poses a couple of interesting match ups. First off they have a six foot ten tight end...that's a lot of highth on the line and down field. Second of all they have a six foot ten 283 pound WIDE RECIEVER, the guy played left tackle for them last year. That will be a once in a lifetime experience. Other than that it shouldn't be too bad, I would chalk this one up as a win for the good guys and move us to 3-1 heading into the Big 12 opener against Kansas State in Arrowhead Stadium.

I didn't get to see a ton of the Iowa game but from what I did see they looked improved and more like a hawkeye football team. The teams looked even but the hawks quickly put that to rest, especially in the second half. From here the hawks head out to Happy Valley Pennsylvania for a Saturday night showdown with Penn State. Now I know you are 3-0 but hawk fans...GET OVER YOURSELVES! Even if you go 12-0 you won't be in the BCS Championship game,okay you may come close if Texas and Florida lose a game but other than that you won't, not to mention you got your butts kicked by and almost lost to an FCS school...sorry. Good luck this week, I will be watching for your score at our game.

UNI continues to dominate it's foes. I know they lost to Iowa but anyone who knows anything about football knows that they should have won that game. This is UNI's year to win it all. I really hope they do too. I again don't feel like looking up who you are playing this week but good luck!

If I had to define Linn-Mar's season so far in one word I would say WOW! The Lions are a whole new football team and are out to prove it to anyone in this state. They are now 3-0 and I believe they were ranked #8 in the state going into last weeks game against Washington. I am looking forward to seeing the Lion's in action again at Armstrong field for their homecoming game on October 9th. GO LIONS!!!

That's about it for now. I may post again later this week with thoughts going into the games. However I have one quiz on Friday, along with two tests and a paper due on Monday so next weeks recap post may be late as well. Have a great week! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

A Day In The Life...

Of an member of the ISUCF"V"MB. Okay first off I will clarify what that means The ISUCF"V"MB is the Iowa State University Cyclone Football "Varsity" Marching band. Well now that that's clarified your probably asking where the junior varsity band is, well they are in Iowa City, and Lincoln. Just kidding its a joke that we have. The Cyclone Marching Band picked up the "Varsity" back when they were REALLY bad it was in the late 70's (yes I know they went to a couple of bowl games then too) I believe it was in the Wooden or Majors era and the team was getting completely demolished in the game and the band was cleaning the stadium after games to help pay for some trips. After the was over the band cleaned the stadium and then went to the locker rooms (which they had been told they could use) to shower before leaving for Kansas City to perform at a Chiefs game the next day. While they were in there the coach walked in and said "You guys get have to get out of here this is the varsity locker room." Well a smart mouthed band member (go figure!) said "We are the Varsity band!" Well it the stuck and now we are "The pride of Iowa State. The Iowa State University Cyclone Football "Varsity" Marching Band!" If you want to know more of the story and know my dad, ask him he was in the band at the time and was present when it happened.

Okay so a day in the life. I will start off with a normal school day. We go to class all day (well most of us) and then we have practice that starts right at 4:30PM and ends at 5:50PM. Five days a week we do that, doesn't sound like much time does it. It really isn't and it goes fast which is why we work very fast. We are required to have all of our charts (the things that tell us where to go on the field) and music marked prior to practice to help practice along. As a freshman you audition during your summer orientation. We start band camp a week before school starts and have pretty much 8-12 hour days of practice then. Game day's are...interesting.

For the most part on game day's we meet a few hours before kickoff for morning practice. This past weekend for instance we had an 11:00AM kick, which meant morning practice started promptly at 7:00AM at the Bergstrom Indoor Practice Facility...in full uniform. Personally this meant I had to get up at 5:45 to get dressed and meet my ride at 6:15 to get a little closer and then walk the last mile or so. At morning practice we run through music, as well as the halftime and pre-game shows several times. After that we play for the Cyclone Spirit Walk, which is when the team gets there. That is SUPPOSED to be two hours before kick off however our team likes to be early so it was approx 2.5 hours before kick off this week. After we do that we eat, do another quick warm up and pep rally before stepping off to the stadium about an hour before kick off. Our march to the stadium is probably around 3/4-1 mile. After we do the whole game thing we wait for a bit and march back to Hilton. On a normal game day this is about seven to eight hours after starting and about five hours since you last sat down. Our next home game will be a little weird though. We will meet at 11:00AM practice for an hour and half take pictures then we are off for two hours until we resume the rest of game day with the Spirit Walk.

Even though we get free trips, food, and into games being in band is no cake walk. Practices and game days are a ton of fun, but strict. If we are even five seconds late to anything you are an alternate for the next game. On game day's we are required to have our uniform completely on from when we leave our room till we get back when the game is over, no exceptions. This is not fun especially when it is hot. We are also not allowed to use phones at any time during any practice or performance. Swearing of any kind is strictly prohibited as well. Violation of any of these will result in becoming an alternate. This may sound a little too strict and obsessive but there is also a reason why we get hundreds of e-mails and comments from not only Cyclone fans but from the general public and fans of opposing teams that wish their bands conducted themselves as well as we do.

Overall band is a tough but more than worth it. The friends and relationships that you develop in such a tight group will last a lifetime and they really do become your family. I have several favorite parts of band from marching in front of a packed house at Jack Trice Stadium to yelling "GO STATE!" one of the best though is singing the Alma Mater of Iowa state "The Bells of Iowa State" after every practice and performance with my band family. Every day is truly a great day to be alive and be Cyclone! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

A video of Pregame...not very good sorry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vLkssP6ePY
A video of the Drumline from our visit to Cedar Rapids last year
A little fun prior to a game in 2007. It's good but you have to see it in person to understand the power of 350 members.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CalXTr7qc7g&feature=related
A video of us at Linn-Mar last year...very rainy night so we didn't march to save the field
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TddETplq66k&feature=related
FIGHTS!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgsdqrXNzDo&feature=related
Us singing Bells after the game this past weekend along with Drum Major Dan Heinz's Dismissal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xnRASaqjyg
On our march to the stadium this past weekend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xGKm_rdaMM&feature=related
Another video of our march to the stadium this past week...the guy with the hat on backwards at the start of the video towards the bottom...ya that's my dad with my mom next to him
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tELKnL28e4c&feature=channel
The all of those from that person are from last weekend...I am done now...for real

GO CYCLONES!!!

Week Two Review...

Well before to many people jump on my back and start bashing my Clones I would like to come right out and say that we did play terribly, we were never really there mentally and just never put anything together. There are not many positive things to take from the game for the Cyclones, however I guarantee you the team is currently watching the tape (I am writing this just after two on Sunday afternoon)after they watch the tape from yesterday they will start watching the tape on Kent State. We have four days to prepare and get re-focussed on winning. I found a really good quote earlier today.
"If you can't accept losing, you can't win."-Vince Lombardi

Never let anyone beat up this great university. Always always always be proud to be a Cyclone no matter what! There are so many reasons other than what happens on a field or court to be proud and honored to be a Cyclone and part of the Iowa State family!

On the other hand, Congrats iowa. You bounced back from barely escaping UNI and came to Ames and pounded us into the ground. You had a great game plan and you executed it nearly perfectly. Good luck with the rest of your season, you have a couple tough weeks coming up with Arizona State visiting Iowa City next week and then I believe you go to Happy Valley for a Saturday night game on ESPN. I think you will win this week, but I am thinking Penn State will get the W.

UNI absolutely destroyed SDSU winning by something around 60 points! Great job! The panthers will win many games this year and I believe (and hope) that they go deep in the playoffs and hopefully this year finally win the National Championship!

I am wiped from yesterday still. Thankfully my parents took my girlfriend and I out to Valentino's after the game yesterday, after which we both took a nap. I only slept for about two hours, she basically slept from 5:30PM yesterday to 9:30AM today. I was able to catch my second favorite college team The USC Trojans beat The Ohio State Buckeye's in Columbus. If you missed it you missed a great game. Anyway I am waiting for washing machine's to open up so I can do my laundry. I am going to update sometime this week on what a typical game day for the ISUCF"V"MB is like along with what it's like to be in it so look for that. I hope everyone has had a great weekend and has a great week! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Week Two...

Are there any big games this week?

Just kidding. Unless you have been living under a rock you know that this is the week of the big game. Iowa State vs. iowa. If you can't tell I am a little biased, however I believe I have a good view of both sides. The last week has been interesting for both teams. Iowa State had a player arrested, and with true Cyclone fashion he is no longer a Cyclone. Some hawk fans are all excited that one of our guys got arrested, he was arrested once and was kicked off the team...the way it should be. Oh and he has also never played so you have no advantage off of this incident. On the iowa front one of their players has been having some health problems, to the extent he has even been in the hospital some this week. There are numerous rumors about what the problem is some say it is a heart problem and some say it is a thyroid problem, either way my prayers are with the kid I wouldn't wish anything like that on my enemy. The rumors are that he will likely miss the game this week...likely is too open ended for me to completely believe. The guy was one of their best players and arguably the best player between the two teams. However his hole in the offensive line may make it a little easier for us to stop the run game, then again it is our defense so that will be interesting.

Overall I believe the key to Iowa State winning the game will be them stopping the run and isolating moeaki (sp?). If we do this I believe are offense and special teams are good enough to put points up on the board to BEAT THE HAWKS!!!

On another hand don't be that fan. Don't be the stupid idiot that just cares about how he thinks his team is the best freaking thing on earth, cause even if your rated #1 it's just a game. If ISU loses people will heckle me like no other. Go ahead but I would rather not win this game and find out more weaknesses in our team. On that note, my prediction is ISU 27 iowa 18. Stay safe. GO CYCLONES!!! BEAT THE HAWKS!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Week One...

Well...week one of the College Football season is officially in the books. There were some surprises, some scares, and outcomes you would expect. This is the best part of college football. You have to come every week and play your heart out for the school that you love to have success.

I will start off with my Iowa State Cyclones! So we played the North Dakota State Bison, they have only been in the FCS for a couple of years now but have already scared several Division I schools, I believe coming into this game they were 1-3 against D 1 schools and the losses were never by more than a touchdown or something like that. It was an overall good game. We were able to find some strengths and weaknesses while not completely showing everything that we have. The defense needs some work, the biggest thing is there is no major leader however this seems to be slowly changing as they forced NDSU to kick several times with their backs against the wall, and force a couple of turnovers. The offense looked very good and had a few things to iron out.

I was also able to attend the iowa vs uni game this past Saturday. It was an interesting game and I learned a rule I didn't know existed. A caller to a post game radio show put it seemingly perfectly "iowa came to scrimmage and uni came to play". Or at least that's how it seems. UNI kicked Iowa around for a good part of the day, especially on the line which is iowa coach Kirk Ferentz pride and joy. The game came down to a a last second field goal by uni with them trailing by one. The first kick was blocked...however it didn't cross the line and was recovered by UNI. Since it was only first down they could attempt another kick, with the same result however it went past the line and was recovered by the hawks. Now I don't care who you are or how good you think the blocks were the UNI kicker hadn't been getting the kicks up from contact all day, every single kick would barely make it over the line so it was almost a waiting game for a kick to get blocked. Overall Mike Hlas put it perfect in his column on Sunday with the headline of "A game the better team didn't win".

In terms of upsets need we say more than the Oklahoma Sooners getting upset by BYU. You can partially blame this on Sam Bradford being taken out due to an injury early in the game, however mostly on just out right good play by both sides that ultimately ended up with a BYU upset win. By the way if you haven't heard I believe Bradford is out indefinately due to some kind of shoulder injury. I still think that the sooners have a chance to give Texas a run for their money and possibly battle for a Big 12 Title and maybe even a chance at the Rose Bowl which is the BCS Championship game this year.

On another note...IT'S IOWA WEEK!!! Which mostly means we play eiu and well I do as little school work as possible, speaking of which I have a paper to write...better get on that. Anyway I hope you all come to the game or watch it on TV and cheer on your favorite team, but PLEASE don't act like a stupid fan and ruin it for the rest of us. Yes it's a great rivalry arguably one of the best in college football but you don't have to be a stupid fan. Go ahead support your school but see the game, if your team sucked at something freaking admit it and be a good fan, not one with your head up your ass thinking that your team is the best damn thing to walk the earth, if your Florida or USC or Texas then you have that right...almost. I know everyone has those kinds of fans but please but the beer down and talk rationally and truly about what happened on that field. Please stay safe as well, the last thing I want to hear about is some drunk mistake that hurts or possibly kills someone. Thank you and use your head...most importantly...GO STATE!!!! BEAT THE HAWKS!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Today...

Is the day we have all been waiting for, it's football season! The team has been practicing for a month now and are more than ready to start hit some guys that aren't on their own team. We have been throw some troubled times but we just have to remember the words of arguably the best football coach ever. "It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up." Vince Lombardi. It's go time.

If you can't tell I am pumped, we have the chance to surprise a lot of people this year. Every single game on our schedule is very winnable. We have been beaten up and knocked down. Now it's time to stand up as Cyclone Nation and prove who we are and we are not to be forgotten. It's time to kick some bison ass back to Fargo. GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Senator Kennedy

I have never been extremely interested in politics, to the extent of until the last election in which I was able to vote I had basically no interest in it and did not care. The name Kennedy is almost synonomous with politics, the extent of my knowledge of the Kennedy's was that a couple of them were shot and the whole family was involved in the government. That being said all I can't tell you what Senator Ted Kennedy has done over his tenure as a Senator. I have heard he stood up for a lot of reform and such things and that he has also killed someone and never served any time. Most of that happened before I was born or even in elementary school, so I am not here to debate and rant on those things.

I got on KCRG.com and read their story which was very good and respectful (I believe it was an AP story). Sadly I scrolled down and looked at the comments expecting some people to be saying RIP and such things, those people were there however they were in the minority. The majority of the people were saying things about how he killed some girl and never served time and that he never really did anything. I understand all that he is a politician, a public figure not everyone is going to like him. However there were several more people that took it to the next level and talked about wanting the video that accompanied the story to be a video of him "swirling around the toilet and taking his last breath and get sucked down into hell" or something very close to that. This just completely DISGUSTS me! Are you searious? How sick and demented do you have to be to take pleasure in watching ANYBODY die!? You people are absolutely disgusting and one of the reasons why our culture is so messed up. Grow up!

I am praying for the Kennedy family for all they have been through and for these sick people. GO CYCLONES!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Studying?

School has started again and of course this means studying and doing homework. So far it's not too bad...however it's only the second day of school. I am supposed to be doing some reading on the United State Constitution to discuss in my Political Science class tomorrow, not very exciting so I am delaying that. Other than that everything is going very well.

Marching band is going tremendously well and I can't wait for next Thursday (September 3rd) for our first game against NDSU. So far we have all of our pregame show on the field and half of our first half time show. The excitement is building as we start a new era in Cyclone football! I have also decided to change the name of my blog to "True and Valiant" my favorite words in the Iowa State alma mater "The Bells of Iowa State".

I am still taking opinions and such on the podcast that a friend and I may be starting. Other than that I hope everyone including all my friends are having a great start to the school year, if you haven't started yet safe travels and good luck to everyone, I want to see you on Labor day weekend! GO CYCLONES!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Summer is...

Coming to an end. In just eight days I move in and band camp starts. However I have already been in Ames for almost a week now, even though I have been going back and forth from home, the farm, and Ankeny. I normally wouldn't do this much driving and traveling but...I have not gotten less than 31mpg on a tank and the highest I have gotten is 42mpg, for some reason I have started to like driving more. Anywho, football practice is going well and they team shows a lot of promise for better days to come in Cyclone football, not to mention the entire athletics department.

I was going to update with a rant on the Marion Police Department...but it was summer and I got busy and forgot, now I have decided it wasn't a very good rant and is no longer relevant. I promise to have more rant's though.

A friend and I have somewhat decided to start a podcast where basically you can e-mail us with basically anything you want to hear us talk about/discuss/hear our point of view and we will. We have not yet decided on a name or anything so I will let you know when we do that and when we start. Does this sound good or interesting? Something you would want to listen too? let me know please! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Vacation Update 2

Okay so as you can see from the previous post I am writing this on the way back from my trip to Colorado. This one was with my family. Last year my mom and dad went out to Estes Park for a week while I was in school and my sister was working. They loved it and we decided to go back this year. We stayed at a friend’s condo in Estes; right behind the condo was fall’s river. If you have ever been to the mountains their rivers are the sizes of our creeks with (depending on the time of year) maybe five times the water flow.
We were set to leave on Saturday afternoon after my sister got off work, well I woke up with a sore throat went to the doctor and was told I probably had strep throat. We decided to not leave until Sunday morning and drove all the way out that day. I had been to the west side of the Rockies before for white water rafting; I fell in love with the Estes area immediately. In case you don’t know Estes Park is right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, needless to say it is an absolutely beautiful area; again if you have never been there GO!
The park has some amazing hikes for any level of fitness, however I do highly suggest going in the morning before the trails get too crowded especially if you love the outdoors and the peacefulness, my dad and I went for hikes three days and were there around 8 and it was perfect. Friday morning my dad and I went fly fishing in the park as well. We hired a guide from a local shop and it was a great experience, he was very helpful and taught us how to properly fly fish. I only caught two fish (a brown, and a greenback cut throat) and my dad caught a cut throat but didn’t know it and it got away. The rivers were quite hard to fish due to the warm weather they have had lately that is rapidly melting the snow melt from higher up in the mountains and glaciers; they have also had an abnormally high amount of rain which raised the rivers even higher and faster. My mom and sister went on a horseback ride Friday morning as well and said it was great.
Downtown Estes Park is an old style with a bunch of different shops and stuff. There are also several great restraunts ranging from American, to Chinese, to Italian. There is also a river walk through downtown along the falls and then the Big Thompson Rivers which meet in downtown. I was able to take a lot of pictures on my phone and parents camera which I will put on facebook when I get the chance.
We left Estes on Friday afternoon and went down to Loveland for the night and stayed with my mom’s aunt and uncle. We went out to dinner to with my mom’s cousins and their family, I didn’t even know these people existed so that was kind of awkward and weird. We are now on our way back (I am writing this on Saturday afternoon the 27th as we get into Iowa).
I will have another update later this week on some rants I have so look for that one. Have a great week! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Vacation Update 1

Sorry it has taken so long to update this. Summer has been amazing and I have been very busy. Since school has gotten out I have started to work two jobs, one doing some light construction/handyman stuff with a guy, and another delivering meals on wheels for the Witwer Senior Center, both have their positives and negatives. I have also started to donate plasma every once in a while, of course I am also interning in the KCRG weather lab again this summer.

My first trip took me to Florida to surprise my girlfriend. Her father approached me a few months ago and asked if I would be able to fly down to Florida to see her. He was doing this as part of her graduation present and bought my plane tickets. The opportunity was enough for me to accept but then I got to fly! I had never been on a commercial plane until this trip, I have been on many smaller private planes like my uncles Beech Craft Bonanza V-Tail. If any of you really know me you know that I love to fly, I was very excited for the trip and the flight.

When I got down there her dad (who bought the tickets) went to Tampa Intl. to pick me up…I was at St. Pete Clear Water. Oh well it was a funny start to an awesome trip. We met up with her and the rest of her family at Universal Studios in Orlando, she was in the bathroom at the time so I just sat down, needless to say when she saw me she was very surprised and started to cry (if you are either of our friends on facebook you can see the pictures there). The rest of that day and the next was spent at Universal, surprisingly I enjoyed even the stuff I don’t like (such as the doctor seuss stuff). Since I was only able to be there for basically two days we went to Cocoa Beach the next morning for a few hours before she took me to the airport to fly home.

If you have never been to Florida or the Orlando area GO! I love the warm muggy weather and crazy afternoon storms that pop up rain for an hour and it’s gone.

As you can see from the title of this blog this trip was not the end of my summer travels. My next update probably sometime Monday or Tuesday I will talk about my trip to Colorado (which I am actually writing this on my way back from…Nebraska is boring). I hope the rest of your weekend is great!!! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Right or Murder...

I was just watching the news and saw a story on a Minnesota teen that has a form of cancer, his parents will not allow him to take chemo therapy. They claim that it will most likely kill him and he has a better chance of living taking another form of treatment advocated by religious groups. His mother and him have now disappeared, they were last seen at a court ordered x-ray, which showed that the tumor had grown. The court has also issued an arrest warrant for his mother.

This caused me to think, should the court get involved in the treatment of a child, is it the parents and child's right to decide how to get treatment even if it's rather unproven. Or is it murder for them to choose the route that they believe will cure him, even though doctors say it wont. This is not the first time this has happened, I do not know the results of those but I will do some research and let you know.

What are your thoughts on this? Should the Court get involved and force him to take chemo? Please leave comments or e-mail me at jbcook89@gmail.com. GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Rain rain...

Go away! I need money! So my main job this summer is doing some handyman type stuff, which we obviously cant work outside in the rain, so I don't get to work and don't get paid. I am calling Biolife today though, I can sit and play on the interwebs while they drain my blood out of me and pump it back in.

School is done finally, I am sorry for not updating this the last couple of weeks it was kind of intense. It's done and I have all of my grades back and they were good, I am also now off academic warning which makes me very happy. I love being home and not going to school for the first time in eleven months, but I do miss ISU and my friends there. Not to mention only 104 days until the first football game!!!

I don't have much to say, so leave comments or something for me to rant about or talk about. Hav a great weekend!!! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

VEISHEA...

Was this weekend. It was the most amazing weekend ever! Some may say that this is the one time that Iowa State has a real party and there is actually something to do, I beg to differ. Those people also usually think that VEISHEA is one big drunken party. A good portion of the people that end up starting things are from out of town. Yes there have been bad years when things got out of control, but overall VEISHEA is a great tradition that has a ton of history, and there is much more to do than drink.

If you want to drink and get trashed go right on ahead there are plenty of bars and house parties, just like every other weekend. If you don't want to do that there are plenty of other things to do, the whole week. VEISHEA starts on Monday and the first real event is on Tuesday night with a comedy competition known as VEISHEA says I'm funny. This year Wednesday night had a hypnotist, and Thursday night had Cyclone Idol hosted by Mario Vasquez (From the fourth season of American Idol) and Battle of the Bands. Friday had concerts from 6pm to 2 am along with a guy known as the "Regurgitator", a Lumberjack show, a Carnival, and Taste of VEISHEA in two spots on campus. Saturday has a parade and more family oriented things on central campus along with a concert at night. There are also more concerts on a different part of campus from 7pm until 2am. This year the spring football game was also on Saturday afternoon, I hope this becomes a tradition. Saturday evening also had a Comedian by the name of Bill Burr and other live entertainment acts. One of the best parts of the entertainment is they are good, they have all toured around the world and been on shows like Letterman and Leno. Friday and Saturday nights also have an all you can eat pancakes for $3 on from midnight until 3am on central campus.

VEISHEA was started in 1922 and is named after the five original Colleges at ISU. I encourage everyone to come sometime and bring their families, it is a family event you will see kids at almost every event. Overall I hope you see what VEISHEA is all about and will respect it more for what it is instead of how the media portrays it.

Fifteen days until summer!!! Have a great week! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Life is a...

Highway. Okay that has several meanings this week. I bought my first car this weekend, I have had use of my parents cars for several years but this one is my own. It is a 1997 Honda Civic that is in excellent condition, it has everything that my parents and I wanted in a car. I wanted good gas mileage, a good car, and a sun roof. It has a five speed manual transmission, so I will learn that, so far it's going well I just have a problem getting going but after that I am good. I am looking forward to driving it and having my own car.

The second meaning is that this semester is going FAST!!! I am done for the semester three weeks from tomorrow, that's right summer starts at 2:00 P.M. on May 5th!!! If you couldn't tell I am pumped for summer. I just have to figure out when and how to get my stuff home, I think I have most of it figured out though.

This week is also VEISHEA! I have two tests on Friday which is very stupid but oh well. The spring game is this Saturday afternoon at three, it will be interesting. It has been a good couple of weeks of practice, the team is showing a lot of signs of improvement towards the fall. I think a lot of people will be surprised with how the team plays.

That is about all for now. I don't know how much time I will have to update in the next couple of weeks. I hope everyone has a great week! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

I have nothing...

As the title states I don't really have much to say. I would like to thank Jim for correcting me on a tweet I made last Friday. My meteorology professor was going over the most missed questions from our last test and one of them was something like, "If the temperature decreases and all other factors are held constant relative humidity will..." well he tried to tell us that the rh would decrease. I don't know how someone that's going for their doctorate can make this mistake...oh well.

The car search is still continuing, hopefully we find a car that we like/is in our price range and our mechanic likes, mostly it's the mechanic holding us back. I do want to know if they are bad vehicles but my god it would be easier to find a car that he does like.

Spring practice is going well, the spring game is next Saturday the 18th, which is also the Saturday of VEISHEA.

That's about it for now, I will be going home this weekend for Easter and to say goodbye to a friend that is taking an internship in the middle of no where Nebraska this summer. Let me know if there is anything that you want me to talk about or anything I love feedback! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

My middle name is...

Random. Sorry that pretty much sums up this post. First off I would like to apologize to anyone that did not like my comments on the last post, I did not do a very good job of removing myself from the situation, sorry.

Spring break was AWESOME!!! I even made some money and will hopefully work with that guy more this summer! I had a lot of fun hanging out with my girl friend and friends last week just relaxing and having fun together, it was very enjoyable. On Wednesday night I went to an Eagles concert in Davenport with a couple friends, all I can say is it was EPIC by far the best concert I have ever been to, it was worth every cent. If you enjoy their music and ever have a chance to go see them I strongly urge you to go, even if it is expensive you will not regret it. They were the only band and played for a solid three hours.

I guess it is time to get back to school though. It was pretty hard to leave after such a fun, enjoyable, and relaxing week. I keep trying to tell myself that I will be back for the WHOLE summer in six weeks, that is easier said than done though since that seems like a year away. I am really looking forward to the summer if you couldn't tell. I have been here basically since last June. I did have a week off in August, another in November, and of course this past week along with three weeks for Christmas, but that just doesn't seem like enough. When you have been at school for basically nine months with another month and a half left you start to get burned pretty quickly. Hopefully I will have a car by then as well, my dad and I started looking for one this past weekend (if you have a good used car let me know). I found one on Craigslist, but no response from the seller yet.

I think that is it for now. Spring practice starts on Tuesday so that should mean work, however I have not heard yet from my boss, oh well. If you were Wondering VEISHEA is the week of April 13-19, the spring game is that Saturday as well. That is all for now, have a great week! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Why?

A certain Cedar Rapids TV station reported last night that a Linn-Mar high school basketball player was cited for having a disorderly house. There was drinking going on, however he was not drinking nor did he supply any of it. I am not going to make this into a everyone hates Linn-Mar post, quite frankly that's nothing new.

This is going to sound wrong but he was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. If it would not have been his house he would have been released with no charges or citations. Some people say that he has to sit and he is done. This is also wrong according to state and school policy if he did not test positive for alcohol then he did nothing wrong. This makes it completely up to coach Robertson on what to do, I imagine that would include not starting Wednesday night but we will find out.

I do not know how this got reported. I understand yes a star high school basketball player had a party that there was drinking at and that is somewhat of a story, but the story was not reported well in my opinion. In my own opinion if you are going to report this you better report every other high school party that gets broken up by the cops in which athletes are present, it happens at every school INCLUDING private and christian/catholic schools. I think a better way to report this would have been in a story outlining how much of a problem it is.

How do I know all this? I just graduated from Linn-Mar and due to the anti-alcohol and drug organizations I was part of I have had several conversations with school officials about what school and state policies are and what the consequences are. Being a recent graduate I also know that this happens at every other school and if you think it doesn't or that there were not students or athletes from other schools at that party you are blind and ignorant. Most of these players are on club teams and are very close friends even though they go to other schools. Basically just because it was a party at a house of Lion player doesn't mean there were not people from other schools as well.

I do understand the situation and that it happened the weekend before state. None of us will ever know the entire situation or what happened. For all we know he tried to get the people with the alcohol to leave. Overall I believe this situation has gotten blown WAY out of proportion. If given the chance I would love to sit down with the reporter who did the story and just discuss everything, and yes I would be calm and understanding of all points I would just emphasize that the all the facts were not reported which is causing this to spiral out of control, if by chance anyone at that station reads this I would like to hear your side of this as well and will be in Cedar Rapids next week if you would like to meet. Other than that I hope the boys can put this behind them for now and play some great ball in Des Moines. GO LIONS!!! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Spring is....

In the air! Today was AMAZING!!! It got to around 72 today here in Ames, and my roommate complained about being hot. I wanted to respond with something along the lines of "Then I think you could take off 3 or 4 of your layers" but I decided not too. This is the time of year that we finally start getting warmer and have nice warm days and cold nights. In fact as I write this it's 8pm and the temperature is already 49 degrees. If you want to know why this is take a basic meteorology class, or ask me sometime when we both have time and you know you will be interested, once I start it's hard to stop.

I was waiting for my stat lab to start today and was looking through some weather stuff on my phone and pulled up the visible sat elite image. These visible images basically just take a snap shot and anything that reflects the suns radiation shows up. Due to this you can see snow and even sand. With the warm temperatures today you could see the rapid snow melt in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Sometime this weekend check out this website http://tinyurl.com/ (You have to do it during the day however). This is one of my favorite things to watch when storms are developing because you can really see them build. There are numerous weather websites that I check regularly and get my information from as well. Another one of my favorites is the iembot monitor. Basically you pick which NWS office you want to monitor and it shows all of the watches, warnings, and advisories as they issue them. It also shows the storm reports they receive as they enter them into the system. Check it out at http://tinyurl.com/5gef93

Other than that I mostly just look at models and stuff. One last descent website is weather underground at wunderground.com It's loaded with ad's which makes it annoying though. Speaking of weather my Meteorology class has been going pretty well until this week. Our old professor decided he was getting behind on his research and now we have a grad student that speaks in a monotone voice teaching the class. This doesn't make learning about thermodynamics any easier by the way, which I will spend some time studying over spring break...yay.

I want to congratulate the Linn-Mar girl's and boy's basketball teams on their great seasons and advancement to the State tournament. The girls won an UGLY game against Xavier on Wednesday to advance to the semi-final round on Friday to play second ranked Ames. It is beyond me why the girls athletic association matches the two top teams in a semi final game, oh well. Hopefully my Lions win tomorrow and advance to the championship game on Saturday night so I can go! The girls are 24-0 and deserve to win it all, good luck girls!!! I got to see the boys play last Friday night against Xavier, it was well an interesting game. Xavier is a great team that came out and took it to the Lions when they didn't come out of the gate and play, however the second half was completely different. With about two minutes left the Saints put in Kyle Jacobe (spelling?) Kyle has leukemia, Linn-Mar played defense and the Saints kept giving him the ball until he scored. When Kyle scored Linn-Mar called a timeout and Kyle came out of the game crying while every person in the gym gave him a standing ovation for several minutes. Some people would not want to be recognized like that but that is what sportsmanship is all about. The boys play Cedar Falls Wednesday night at 6:30, this will be a very good game since the Tigers beat the Lions in the regular season finale and then beat third ranked Kennedy to get to the state tournament, both wins however were in Cedar Falls. I think the Lions will win that game in a close one, lets hope. That's all I have for now. GO LIONS!!! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Welcome to America...

Okay so my little rant this week is about people coming to this great nation of ours and not knowing, well a lot! I am not saying we should lock them all out and keep them from coming here, especially since almost all of us are decedents of immigrants. I just think that they should have a firm prior experience with the English language. Trying to communicate with someone who has had little formal English education is extremely difficult.

I am mostly speaking from an educational point of view, meaning that they are coming here for to get an education and live for an extended amount of time. My roommate claims that he took English classes before coming here, he may have but they were not effective. Having communicated and had friends from around the world through foreign exchange student programs I have noticed that students from Europe almost perfect English and adapt to not only traditional English but our slang terms as well. Then there are people from Asia and the Mid-East, who have obviously had a less then stellar English education.

As I previously stated I don't mind that they come here just that communicating with them is very difficult. Several times I have tried to communicate simple things like "light switch" with my roommate and he had no clue (he actually started looking under his bed, I tried not to laugh). Then the other night I was already in bed and my phone needed to be charged so I asked him to hand me(he was still awake) the cord for it which was laying on the floor. He had absolutely no clue, so he handed me my hat that was laying by it. So I tried saying cable, that didn't work either. I eventually said black long thing and he handed it to me saying, "Oh you mean link". I tried not to be a jerk, so I kindly said "In America it's a cable or cord." He looked at me like I didn't know what I was talking about. I don't mean to say that I am not adapting to help him learn, because I am. I just don't think that me calling everything by how he learned them will help him when 99% of Americans will never call that object that in their lives, myself included its just how we are. So now I am not going to baby him I have decided to be as blunt and nice as possible because it is the only real way to learn at this point in the game.

Okay enough of that rant. Classes are going pretty well. The first round of tests are over now and professors can start reporting midterm grades tomorrow. The only class I am struggling with is English, I like to write just not in "academic format". That's about all I have for this week. I am interested in knowing what you guys think of my writing, and maybe suggestions for future posts. I am also on twitter follow me at twitter.com/jbgcook if you follow me you can see what I am thinking and doing everyday! Very stalkerish! Haha anyway I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend. GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

What goes up...

Must come down. Okay I am sorry but that is all that I could come up with. I feel bad for writing that after the event in Buffalo last night. I found out about the crash via twitter at around 11:20, I turned on CNN and saw their coverage, they mentioned that it was snowing at the time so I pulled up a website that I like liveatc.net and someone had already posted a recording from buffalo tower around the time that the flight went down. On the recording you hear the pilots (specifically the first officer since it's a commercial flight) contact the tower like normal. The controller then gives them new vectors, and they don't respond. After several call outs you can tell by the tone in the controllers voice he is fearing the worst and opening up that binder with emergency procedures. He then asks other flights in the area if they could see the aircraft, none could due to their position in the air and reduced visibility with the snow. According to the controller he went down around the marker (it's an aviation term referring to something that pilots use to navigate). He then asked other flights about the icing conditions in the area, all flights reported icing mostly on the descent.

Although the exact cause will not be determined for some time, my guess would be icing with a possible engine problem. The biggest mystery at this time is that the flight crew never called out any mayday or notified the tower of any icing or problems at all, they just crashed. Thee FAA and NTSB were able to recover the flight recorders this morning and were going to start working on them this afternoon.

Being an aviation geek I have never been afraid of flying. Everyone always hears that it's safer then driving to the grocery store, it is though. There are thousands of flights every single day just in the United States, not many crash at all and even less have fatal endings. Commercial pilots are required to go to "school" every nine to twelve months to go over emergency procedures and practice them in the simulator. These tests go over everything from engine failure on takeoff to no thrust landings. If they don't pass they don't fly. Pilots are also required to go through a through physical every six months (or something close to that). Overall the next time you step on that plane you can feel at ease these are not just some people that were taught how to push buttons and manage an autopilot system, they are trained professionals that take great pride in transporting you and your family while give you a taste of what they love, flying.

There are several things that I love about flying. I love being up there, the view of everything form above is amazing! I have never been on a commercial flight but have been on several private planes. My uncle owns a Beechcraft Bonanza V-tail, I love it! I also enjoy the challenge of flying, landing is simply a controlled collision with the earth. I hope to one day get my pilots license and own my own plane, we will see on that. Here are some good aviation jokes, you may need some knowledge aviation knowledge to get some of these. http://www.retzer-land.co.at/flyamphibs/pg-fun.htm

The Iowa legislature is considering a new law that would completely ban the use of cell phones while driving. I believe that a complete plan is stupid, a better option would be a hands free only law. I am one of those people that finds it easier to text while driving then eat, and it is easier. My parents of course greatly frown upon this, ooppss. If we ban cell phone use while driving we better ban eating, listening to the radio, using a GPS, looking at scenery and talking to others in the vehicle as well. I find those things no less distracting then talking on a cell phone.

Guess what!?!?!?!? MY CYCLONES WON!!! Okay so the men finally won, I don't care if it was against Colorado and we lost to them (somehow) already. I was in the pep band for that game and I am starting a petition that I need to play more so we will win, I have gotten a few more games. The women's basketball team has won two big games, and barely lost to #2 Oklahoma earlier this week. On Sunday they host #14 Texas at Hilton for the Pink out game. The team will be wearing special Pink uniforms and shoes, I imagine they will later be auctioned off in the auction section of cyclones.com

I had two tests today, one next week in meteorology. I am going home this weekend as well to see some people. I hope everyone has a fantastic valentines day weekend! I will try and update next week. GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!