Blog 68

I woke up today feeling terrible. I think it might be because of the night I spent in a house with no heating and no blanket. Actually that's definitely it. I got up at 7 to go to math, and I managed to stay awake for the first 25 minutes, but then it got really bad and I just went to sleep. I woke up at the end of class and then went to the Thompson library. At this point I was done for the day, but I had made plans to go get lunch with a friend on campus later, so I didn't want to leave and come back. I went to the map room at the library and slept for about two hours, then went and played cards with some people from my school on campus. Later I went out to lunch with my friend KC who has a lot of swipes left and not a lot of time. We went to Fresh Express, and I thoroughly enjoyed my first time there. They gave me more food than I could finish though. I went home after that and I've just been sitting around feeling terrible, and I'm just about ready to go to sleep. I have class early tomorrow, and theres nothing worse than being sick and having an early class. My first day back from Thanksgiving break was a snap back to reality. That is the absolute last thing I wanted out of today, but its what I got. Tomorrow will be a better day!

Matthew

Blog 67

Well, Thanksgiving break is over, and I am sad. My brother flew back out to Rhode Island for college this morning, but my uncle and aunt are here to stay until Wednesday. I liked having four days off more than I liked what I did with those four days. I feel refreshed and ready to finish the quarter strong. Just think, in two weeks we'll be done until 2011. If that doesn't give you drive to work your ass off for the next two weeks, then I don't know what will. Think about it; Christmas is in less than a month! So is New Year's! This is the best time of the year and I want to enjoy it with peace of mind. I want to know that I did the best that I could in all my classes.
Yesterday, I stayed the night at my friend Mitch's house, like I do two or three times a week. I went to sleep super tired, so I didn't realize how cold it was. I woke up at about 6 in the morning freezing cold. There was no way I was going back to sleep so I just drove home. The worst part was that I was super tired and I had to scrape all the frost off my car's windshield. Anyway, I went home and slept for an hour or two, then put WALL-E on, watched it for about an hour, and then fell back asleep for a few hours. Then I had lunch with my brother, who left for Brown University this morning.

Matthew

Blog 66

Well, I didn't do this blog yesterday. To start off, GO BUCKEYES. Michigan didn't stand a chance from the point Jordan Hall returned that kickoff for a touchdown on. I had breakfast at a friends house before the game, and then we moved on to someone else's house to watch the game itself. We had about 15 people in a pretty small living room watching the game. It was a good atmosphere and we had lots of fun. Its a great house to just hang out at, and after we were pretty far up I went into another room to chill while the game was going on. After watching the game, I went to Raising Cane's for some really good chicken. Then I had to go home. Every year me and my friends make lots of trips to Easton to get in the Christmas spirit, and literally every year since we started I have missed to first trip. It happened once again! My uncle was flying into town from Seattle so we went out to dinner with him. Unfortunately, when I met back up with all my friends, they were all saying I had missed one of the best nights they have had in a while. We still managed to have a good time though. We went to two of our friends 18th birthday parties, where there was lots of dancing and hanging out on the porch. It was a really good party and I was really tired by the end. I have been going to a lot more parties recently, and I have been having a good time even though I still don't drink.

Matthew

Blog 65

Tomorrow is Michigan vs Ohio State. I would go so far to say that not only is this rivalry the best in all of college football, it is the best rivalry in all of rivalries. Anything can happen in the Michigan Ohio State game, and that is why it is so incredible. At one point Michigan came into the OSU game undefeated six seasons in a row, and lost five of those games. The same has happened going the other way, although I like to ignore those years. Nothing is set in stone coming up to this game, and the intensity from both teams always leads to an exciting game. There is such great tradition with the game too. Every year I go to a friend's house, whose parents make breakfast for about 40 people, and we all just hang out before the game. Then once game time rolls around everyone goes their separate ways to watch the game. I try to avoid campus post-game because of all the violence and rioting that goes on. Basically, I'm excited for yet another installment of the greatest rivalry ever.
As long as we shut down Denard Robinson on the ground and start putting up points early, this game should be in the bag. Although, as I said, anything can happen. Jim Tressel hasn't made a habit of losing to Michigan, and he won't start tomorrow! I don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan, I'm from Ohio.

Blog 64

Thanksgiving dinner is over. Main course and dessert have both been served and now I can put those is my past. I didn't eat anything except for three peanuts leading up to the meal, so I was very hungry. So much of everything and we only finished about half of the food. We had nine people over at our house and it was a good time. I was so full after the main course that I laid down on the floor in my living room and fell asleep. Someone woke me up when it was time for dessert, so all that basically happened was I ate, slept, and then ate more. Now I'm going to make it so my whole day was eat, sleep, eat, blog, sleep. Its only 9 o'clock and I am ready to pack it in for the night. I'm not doing any Black Friday shopping tomorrow. Well, I actually might go out to buy stuff, but I don't have any plans right now. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.
Today I got a letter in the mail from OSU. It turns out that it was my acceptance letter! So, unless my plans change, I will officially be a Buckeye in the Autumn quarter of 2011! I was pretty excited about this and still am, but I know that I still need to finish all my other applications. I think there will definitely be something different about going to OSU as a college student as opposed to how it is now that will be very cool, so I guess I'll see you guys around campus next year!

Matthew

Blog 63

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us. I had one of the longest days I've had in a while today. I was planning on skipping class this morning, but I decided not to. This turned out to be a bad move because I ended up leaving early and going out to breakfast with some friends in my class. Then I ran into a friend of mine on campus and we went to Cup O' Joe and got hot chocolate and then I drove him home. After that it was about 11:15 and I decided to go home for a while. After chilling at home for a while I went out to lunch at Thai's Asian Bistro with a friend, and it was incredible. I'd never had it before, but its only 6 or 7 dollars and you get given so much food, and its really good too. After I was done with lunch I went to my friend Luke's house to play some video games, and we just hung out for a while. Luke's roommates are some of my favorite people to be around, and I really enjoyed going over there. After I had been at his house for a while I hung out with my friends Sam, Daniel, and Ben and we hung out for a long time. We ended up playing Clubs Trump, which is easily the funnest card game I know, and I pulled out the win. Soon after that my best friend came over and we chilled for a few more hours, and then I headed home. When I got home, I was greeted by my aunt and brother, who had both flown in from their respective homes. Now I'm tired and getting ready for Thanksgiving, so I'll try to check in tomorrow.

Matthew

Blog 62

So, I'm sitting here in my room and, instead of being at Mirror Lake dying of hypothermia, I am writing a blog. Battlestar Galactica in class today wasn't too bad. I didn't like it as much as I liked the first time we watched it, mainly because I was so tired and kept almost falling asleep. It was pretty exciting for when I was awake, and the way that we found out all the people who were actually Cylons at the end was really well done in my opinion. We saw all the stories come together and fit into the main story arc, which I thought was very cool. I also really like the way they turned Earth into a sort of myth, and it becomes something that relates to real life. It lets us think that the Battlestar Galactica ship is going to show up any minute, in completion of their long journey to find our legendary colony. It was a cool addition to the story.
I really think the episode could have been a lot shorter, a lot of it seemed drawn out and it had long standstills at times. At least now if I ever hear someone talking about Battlestar Galactica, I'll have some basis to interact with them. I might, but probably won't, watch it again with a friend or something, especially if we feel a need to totally nerd out, which we can all use every once in a while. I'll see you guys when we get back from break!

Matthew

Blog 61

I had a nice, long day today. I got up to go to Calculus where we had a review session that left me feeling good about the midterm tomorrow night. After that I decided not to go to Classics and I just took the bus back to my car and drove home. I chilled at home and napped for a little bit, but then I started feeling like a couch potato so I went for a run. I ran four miles around Clintonville, and I really enjoyed it, although not at the time. At about mile 3 I started really feeling tired. I felt like I was about to throw up two or three times, but it was fine in the end. I loved the feeling of being exhausted for the rest of the day though, and it makes me feel accomplished. After I got back I went to my friends house to hang out. We were having an early Thanksgiving dinner there with all our friends at 6, but I got there at 4 just to hang out with all the guys there. I picked up one of my friends from the dorm and went to the grocery store to buy a pumpkin roll for the dinner. We got there at 6 and had a truly delicious meal. Everything was good that was on the table, which is nice for me because I usually pick and choose what to eat from the table. After we all had dinner, we just hung out for a few hours chilling by a bonfire. Then I came home to write this blog, and now I'm going to sleep.

Matthew

Blog 60

Thanksgiving week is upon us. I think I might take this time to figure out my day by day schedule, and all of you will know where I'll be at any given point this week! This holiday marks for me the beginning of my favorite time of the year; the period that begins on the day of my first Thanksgiving meal and lasts until New Year's Day. So, here I go:
Monday: I have Calculus in the morning, where I will definitely go and pay attention because of the midterm (see Tuesday). Then I might go to Classics, but there is little incentive to continue attendance because the only remaining assignments are a quiz that will not count for anything, a final that I do not have to take, and a paper that I already have enough information about to write. Then, I will go home, make myself look nice, and go over to my friend's house to eat a Thanksgiving Dinner with some great friends from my church.
Tuesday: Go to Calculus recitation, pay attention. Might go to Classics (reasons above). Go to English in the afternoon and watch Battlestar Galactica. Then I will go home to study and come back to campus at 6:30 to take my third Calculus midterm. Afterwards I will go to church and debate whether or not to jump into Mirror Lake.
Wednesday: Go to Calculus, zone out beyond belief. No class in Classics. My aunt and brother are flying in for Thanksgiving, so I might go and pick them up. Possibly going for a run with some friends and maybe watching Harry Potter.
Thursday: Turkey Day! Spend all day at home, end up regretting what I do to my body.
Friday: Possible Black Friday shopping, but maybe not. Friday is still up in the air.

I just wanted to make sure you guys knew what I was up to this week in case there is an emergency and you need to reach me.

Matthew

Blog 59

We're already almost at 60 blogs. Isn't that crazy. It seems not very long ago when we were just starting up our blogs. I remember when we were first doing them I was really dreading it, but once I got into a rhythm it was fine. Now I have what seems to be Senioritis with the blogs. I never want to do them and have no problem turning them in late anymore. I don't really mind as long as my final grade in the class is good. I still haven't gotten back my Commonplace grade, but I'm not too worried about that. The way I see it is that since I'm not doing ARP revisions, I'm either going to just revise Commonplace or just let it stay the way it is, hopefully the score is high enough to justify the latter. I'm really excited to not have classes Thursday or Friday. I need a good break from school, especially since I have a midterm on tuesday night in math. I'm still trying to decide whether or not to go to the Mirror Lake jump Tuesday night. I hear its fun, but I also hear that you need to quite intoxicated to stay in the water for very long. Some of my friends are going to try to put a sailboat in the water, so that could be really fun if it gets cleared by everyone along the way. Let me know what you guys think about Mirror Lake jumping. Also, Go Buckeyes!

Matthew

Blog 58

Another Friday. Another missed blog. I am getting to a point of apathy with the blogs anyway, and my grade will hopefully be high enough to excuse a few late or missing blogs. Last night I went to a bonfire at a friend's house and had a really fun time just relaxing by the fireside. There was a lot of buzz concerning Four Lokos, a drink which is banned so the supply remaining is all that will get made. People are going out and buying cases and cases of these, even though you'd think people would stop drinking something that was banned by the government. Apparently one of these drinks has the equivalent of something like 6 beers, 3 cups of coffee, and an energy drink. That does not sound like my cup of tea, but I don't drink anyway so it makes no difference to me.
I'm really excited and nervous about the Iowa game. They're a good team, but I think if we play like we did in the second half against Penn State, we should be golden. I really hate watching the Buckeyes play sometimes, just because I always feel like we have so much riding on the game. When we're always expected to win its no fun when we do and its crushing when we lose. Thats why its better to be the underdogs, and thats why I love watching the Cleveland Browns. If we lose, then that is exactly what I expected, and if we win it is reason to celebrate!

Matthew

Blog 57

Alright, so we watched the Battlestar Galactica thing in class, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a lot more exciting than I thought it would be, but I think it would have been better if we had some background knowledge on the show before watching it. I can't really remember everyone's names, but I think its cool how they have a lot of different stories going on at the same time, all of which are affected in some way by the Cylon attack. We have the story of the programmer who gave the Cylon baby killer woman the defense codes, the story of the father stepping down, the story of the passenger ship, the story of the plane that picked up survivors, and the story of the commander's son coming out to Galactica. I'm sure as the show goes on that all the stories are going to come together, and it should be pretty exciting. I really don't mind watching science fiction in a casual mindset, I just don't like how involved with TV shows people end up getting. I definitely won't mind finishing off Battlestar Galactica in class on Tuesday, and I'm glad we'll probably have our commonplace paper back by then so I can get started, because Lord knows mine was terrible.
Anyway, I'm going to get some sleep tonight. I mean real, 8 hour sleep. I'm excited.

Matthew

Blog 56

This week I'm starting to feel glad the quarter is nearly done with. I'm going to be really relieved when I turn in the Commonplace paper tomorrow and we have basically smooth sailing from that point on, even while I have stuff to worry about in other classes. It will be a challenge to keep remembering to do the blogs everyday even when my other classes, especially math, are just getting to the finals and stuff. After I got home from school today I did my practice memo and then did a lot of revisions to my Commonplace paper. Then I felt like I deserved a break and slept for two hours. This got me thinking, does two hours count as a sleep, or just a nap? I told a few people I napped for two hours, and they said that would be more of a sleep, so I would like my English class' opinion on this matter. Regardless, it was awesome and I feel really awake and ready to work right now even though its midnight. Tomorrow should be a pretty easy day. I have a math quiz in the morning that doesn't really count for anything because I am satisfied with my five highest quiz scores so far, and only the five highest count. Then I have a Classics quiz that is always really easy and then I just get to come to English class and watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica while all I will really be doing is commenting on all your blogs for an hour and forty eight minutes. See you guys tomorrow!

Matthew

Blog 55

Go Ohio State! Watching Jared Sullinger play makes me really proud of my school district. My home high school is Whetstone High School, and he plays for Northland. I've seen him play and I've even met him a few times, and one of my friends even blocked him in a game. Now I get to see him on the national stage, shutting down people who were specially picked from high school to play for their colleges. Not only that, he chose my favorite team to play for! His first two games at Ohio State ended with him getting double doubles, and he scored 26 points and got 10 rebounds against the number 10 team in the nation. For a freshman that is unheard of! This guy has such a presence on the court that he also sets up his teammates to put up big numbers. Keep in mind, we are only two games into the season and he's only going to get better. I am going to try to get my hands on some tickets, because this kid is too good to not see in person.
In other news, I had a pretty long day today. I didn't end up going home until 10:15. Tonight I went to Steak 'n' Shake for the first time ever and I must say I had no idea what I was missing. I got a peppermint shake that was incredible. I'm not excited for when I'm a college student and I can't drive anywhere, because I probably wouldn't be able to get all the way out to Steak 'n' Shake very easily. Let me know how you guys have handled not having a car.

Matthew

Blog 54

Another blog totally slipped my mind yesterday, and the day before. Actually, I remember as I was working on my commonplace paper yesterday, I was thinking every couple of sentences, "Once I've done some work on this, I'll do my blog for today!" However much I lied to myself, I obviously did not follow through and I doing it no while I'm supposed to be doing something else. Yesterday I had my banquet for the soccer team, and that was a lot of fun. We had one of our parents make a highlight video for everyone on the team, and we also made a montage of all our goals. It was good to see all the guys from the soccer team that I had not seen for a while. We passed out a bunch of awards for the team, and I won an award with my friend Matt Barnum called the Brian and Bryan Award. Its for two people who were good friends with everyone on the team, and I was really glad that I won the award. The craziest thing is that both the people who won the award have the initials MB and we both have a sibling named Jamie, although his is a sister, and they have both done a little bit of education at Brown University.
A girl walked into my class today with a South Butt jacket on and I thought that was really disappointing. Why would someone spend so much money on something that is not even funny? People these days don't know what to spend their money on.

Matthew

Blog 52

Go Buckeyes! I went to the game today because I managed to buy a ticket from one of my friends. I can't buy tickets because I'm technically not a student at OSU, I'm just enrolled in the academy program. Today was awesome though. I went up to a friend's house before the game and watched some other Big 10 match ups before we headed down to the Horseshoe. The group of people that my ticket was with has six people in it, and three of them lost faith and left at halftime. Me and the other two guys stayed until the end, and it was so much fun. There was a Penn State fan two rows behind me and we made sure to make him regret sitting in the student section without OSU colors on. The best moment of the game was when Pryor threw the ball into the end zone and it bounced off Posey and Sanzenbacher caught it; we were going wild in the stands.
After the game one of my friends with way too many swipes took me to the Mirror Lake Creamery and just told me to get whatever I wanted. I ended up getting two or three swipes worth of food, but he said that it really didn't matter because there was no way he could finish all of them. I'm excited to be a full time student with all those swipes, and by that time I'll have a Buck ID that can get me into the RPAC as well!

Matthew

Blog 51

The reason I didn't do this blog yesterday is simple; Nazi Zombies. I don't know if any of you are familiar with the Call of Duty games, but a new one just came out with a new installment of the Nazi Zombies game mode. In my opinion, this by itself is more fun than the rest of the game. The concept is that you're in a theater during some kind of zombie apocalypse. There are four windows initially that zombies slowly break down and come through, and you and your partner have to survive for as long as possible. Last night we actually got four people together and we managed to make it to the 11th round. As you go into later rounds, there are more and more zombies and you gradually move around the theater by paying credits you earn to open doors and get new weapons. One of the keys to doing well is finding the mystery box. The mystery box gives a random weapon, anything from a weak handgun to the ray gun, which kills anything in one hit. It is always a challenge to find the mystery box though because every time you play it changes location. Also, its nice because teamwork is absolutely essential. Without a teammate, it is totally expected that you would lose in the first two or three rounds, simply because there are too many zombies coming in and too many windows to watch.
I think I've effectively made everyone in this class think I'm a nerd, and however true that may be, I think its time to stop. For any of you who get a chance, do the world a favor and kill Nazi Zombies!

Blog 50

Today was a pretty good day, really glad we didn't have class. I stayed over at my friend Mitch's house and  I watched the movie Dawn of the Dead for the first time. For any of you who haven't seen it, it is a really good movie with lots of good action and drama amidst lots of zombie killing. After I watched that it was about 4:30, which was the latest I've stayed up in a really long tie, so I just went to sleep. In the morning I went for a run with a couple of my friends around campus, and we ran on a route that my friend had calculated to be a 5k, so it was a pretty exhausting run. For most of today I was just sitting around, napping, and watching TV, which may sound like a boring day, but thats exactly the kind of thing I like to do after I've been active for a day or two.
I submitted my application for OSU last night, which is pretty exciting. Now I just have four or five more to do, depending on what I feel like. I really am content with going to OSU, but my parents want me to make sure I have options when the time comes to choose where I'm going to college. I don't really see the point because I already go to OSU and if something's not broken, why try to fix it? However, I guess some of the schools on my list are stretches, so I might go if I get in.

Matthew

Blog 49

I am really excited to not go to class tomorrow, and I realize that me not making it out to class on Tuesday means I'm missing an entire week of English class and, to be honest, I don't mind very much at all. Right now I'm watching Notorious, a slightly fictionalized biography of Notorious BIG. Its a really good movie and he really does have a crazy life story. Also, he made some really influential hip-hop songs during his career. The movies not over yet, so I can't really blog about what I thought about the movie yet, but maybe that will be tomorrow.
I scheduled for next quarter, and I am only taking ten credit hours at OSU and then one class at my high school. The OSU classes are Russian 250 and Astronomy 161, which I am in with two of my friends. I am really excited for Russian and it should be a pretty easy quarter. I also just submitted my OSU application, so thats one application off the check list.
I've decided that I haven't been meeting enough new people in all my college classes, and whats the fun in just going to class without having any friends there. So I'm going to try to work on that next quarter, and even the remainder of this quarter. That's all!

Matthew

Blog 48

Well I missed class today but evidently the blog assignment is different from the syllabus. Can someone let me know what we're meant to blog about for the next few days?
I got my ACT score in today and I ended up with a 32! This is a one point improvement over last time and this means I can qualify for a full ride to OSU. This is exciting for me because I was really hoping to make it over my previous score, and I did. Things have just generally been looking up for me recently, and I can't really say why. I'm doing well in all my classes and I just don't feel the same stress that I usually have in my life. I'm going to be really glad when the quarter is over, but there are some things before that to look forward to. I really love Thanksgiving, and my aunt and uncle are flying in from Seattle to eat with us, which will be really fun. Also, one of my better friends who goes to Boston University is coming back for the break, and I'm really excited to see him. Whenever I hang out with him, we end up jamming with whatever instruments we can find lying around. He's a really good guitarist, and I play a little bit of whatever I can find lying around. Usually the only person I can jam with is my mom, but I don't always enjoy that. Also, what's better than eating too much food with your family?

Matthew

Blog 47

Alright guys, I'm feeling nice and not tired because of the hour that we gained for sleep, so this should be a pretty painless blog entry. First off, ACT scores start coming in tomorrow, so I'm pretty excited for that. No matter what happens, I'll have a score I'm content with that will let me get into OSU. I worked on my OSU application today and all I have left to do is find out the exact date of my graduation and then press the submit button. I get to schedule my classes for next quarter on Wednesday, and I'm pretty excited for that. It should be a good quarter; I won't schedule anything too hard because I am glad that I am passing Calculus with a pretty high score in the class. Things have generally been going pretty well this past weekend, and I hope I can keep that up.
I read an article today that my friend posted on Facebook about head injuries in the NFL. If you haven't been following, there has been a huge crackdown on helmet hits in the NFL and people are getting lots of fines. This is pretty recent, but there is a coroner who has been examining NFL player's brains for a long time who has basically been shunned by the NFL because they do not like the implications of his findings. I always love reading a long article because I feel well educated and accomplished when I finish.
That's all I have for today, but I leave you with a great new song my friend sent to me. Very chill and folky.
Blitzen Trapper - Furr

Matthew

Blog 46

Have any of you guys seen those Formspring things? I think that formspring is one of the worst ideas our generation has come up with. I don't have enough ideas about it for 250 words, so feel free to comment on this short introduction. Letting ANYONE anonymously ask questions is such a tremendously terrible idea. People can EASILY be harassed online and there is no way to block people or stop it.
In other news, I find out about a concert I might go to tomorrow. Ben Folds is playing at the LC and I think it would be really fun to go. My brother has seen him in concert 3 or 4 times and says that he is a really good performer. Hopefully I can find someone to go with me before the show tomorrow.
Yesterday I took the SAT in the morning, and then I was done for the day. I did not want to go out and do anything so I just went over to a friends house and did absolutely nothing from about 1:30 PM until 2:00 AM, at which point I went to sleep. I can honestly say it was one of the best days I've had in a long time, because even though we weren't doing anything, I didn't want to do anything. I woke up too early to take a test that was too long, so I felt like I deserved a day of zero-productivity, and that's what I got. Eight more words to go, and I'm done.

Blog 45: Whoops!

I realized the blog for yesterday was the title exercise, so I'm doing that today. The title for my paper is "A Great Divide". I kind of like this even though I came up with it in class when she told us we had to write it on the board. However, it sounds like its too vague. So, I think I'm going to with something like "The Rich's Understanding of the Poor". However, I also don't like this, but I thought of it in about 30 seconds, so I'll probably end up finding another one. Anyway, here is the opening paragraph to my commonplace paper, subject to change,

Picture a celebrity. This celebrity comes from a rich family, has tons of money, and hasn’t really worked for anything in their lives. They live in Beverly Hills and get paid millions of dollars to live their life in front of a video camera. One day this celebrity realizes that they aren’t in tune with the lower class, and they have a change of heart. They start to donate to charity, give speeches to the lower class; maybe even visit a third world country. After they have started this huge public campaign to help out the lower class, they start to proclaim that they “get” the lower class. In reality, all they really did was address the problem in ways that made their own image look better. They still do not know what it’s like to not know the next time they will eat, live on minimum wage, or not make payments on a house. All they know is what it’s like to give money to the lower class and talk to them in impersonal venues. The only person who really benefits is the celebrity; people are more likely to adore them because they have shown a care for the lower class. 

I promise it makes sense in the end.

Matthew

Blog 44

Alright blog world, this is the worst time to do one yet. I have the SAT Subject Tests at 7:45 tomorrow morning and there is and I would rather do anything than this blog right now. Usually I have some new music topic or TV show to talk about, but today I'm just blanking. I got my math midterm back yesterday, but I forgot to blog yesterday so you guys didn't know! Sorry to leave all my emotionally involved readers in the dark. My original score for the test was a 76, which is decent considering the class average was a 74, but after I looked over my test my score was fixed and made to an 80. It seems like they rushed a lot of the grades. Someone else from my high school's original score was a 69, but they caught two grading mistakes and got it bumped way up to a 94. I think they may have just gotten really tired grading all of them or something. The big upside of my math class is that if I do well on one more quiz, then my recitation score for the class will basically be a 100.
I got to hang out with one of my friends I haven't seen in a while today. It was really fun to reconnect and I forgot how much fun I have whenever I'm with him, so thats good. It seems like he wants to go to Ohio State also next year, so I'll look forward to hanging out with him a lot on campus.
250!

Matthew

Blog 42

Progress on the Commonplace draft is minimal. I copied and pasted one of the parts of the blog entry we did in class last time and then added two paragraphs. I've got a good chunk of free time tomorrow where I'll try to knock that out.
Today I knocked out a big part of my OSU application. All I still have to do is find my social security number and write a 300 word essay. It will not be hard to write a 300 word essay about why I want to go to OSU at all, and I won't have incorporate any lies into it, unlike almost every other paper I've ever written about why I deserve / want something. OSU is where my friends are, its where my home is, and its also a great place to learn. Not to mention the 50% off tuition I get because my dad is faculty.
I revisited an album I had lying around and was very pleased. Its called "Around the Well" and its by Iron & Wine. Its a compilation of previously unreleased songs and b-sides that never really reached his audience. Its his longest album and it has some really great songs on it like; "Belated Promise Ring", "Kingdom of the Animals", "Love Vigilantes", and some other pretty famous songs like "Such Great Heights" and "The Trapeze Swinger". Most of his previous albums contained a really specific theme, but since this one has been in making for his entire career, the listener really gets to experience the whole spectrum of Iron & Wine, from his early, lo-fi, muted sound to his more bright modern material. Definitely worth a listen and it serves as a good introduction to Iron & Wine if any of you are interested.

Blog 41

Blogs always have a way of hiding themselves from my mind until I am warm under my bed covers.
I took a math midterm today, which is really one of the worst things to have any day. I'm not bad at math, but its just such a trek to get to campus at night. My test was at 6:30 and since I don't live on campus I had to drive all the way down, pay $4 for parking, and then take a math test. I think I did pretty well on the test except for one of the questions. I did the whole problem in a way that I realized was wrong the instant I turned it in, but then it was too late, I wasn't allowed to redo any questions because I had "officially turned it in". I definitely didn't do as well on this one as I did on the last, but with a curve I should be able to finish the class with an A. I also got my ARP score back today and I got a 35/40. This is better than I expected. We had the work day last thursday and that is when I added two or three pages to my second draft. I then had the ARP on my to do list for a few weeks until friday rolled around and I realized I hadn't done anything. I added one more paragraph of utter BS and turned it in, expecting to get something like a 20 or 25. I'm not complaining though.

Blog 40

Alright, well the Giants just won the World Series and I decided that this is officially the world series that I have cared the least about ever. Neither of the teams were one that I root for, and it was basically domination by the Giants throughout. No exciting seventh games, just blowout after blowout. Oh well, maybe next year will be better.
I think I've talked about my love of folk music a few too many times on these blogs, but I think I'm going to add yet another rant. For any of my avid blog readers, of which there are probably zero, you might know that I really like a guy named Josh Ritter. Well I just got his newest album and it has a really good song on it called "Change of Time". I've been investigating to find out if he'll ever get near Columbus, and I found a possibility. He's playing on November 15 in Cleveland, and I'm actively trying to convince any of my friends that he's good enough to warrant a road trip. So far I have been very unsuccessful. From what I hear he is a very good person to see live, but I guess I might get to find out for myself. Also, I found out far too late that Bob Dylan on his Never-Ending Tour is doing a show in Columbus on Thursday at the Schott. Maybe its good that I don't see him so that the lasting image of him in my mind is a young revolutionary rather than an old man with a truly terrible voice. Also, for any one who wants to get a one night incredible introduction the world of Folk Music, there is something for you. My family is friends with Bill Cohen from NPR and every year he does a "60's coffeehouse" where he goes through all the huge folk icons in an incredible performance.

Finally, here's a video that proves that music used to be so much more than it is now.
Bob Dylan - Mr. Tambourine Man