College "Education"

This is sort of a continuous posting cycle I get into. I should call it "Things I Learned While Learning Other Things", because this is stuff I realized while "educating myself" here at a University.

1- People can be very lazy.

I understand that this is definitely a stereotypical college thing, but I know some people that make slugs look energetic. My suitemate doesn't know that Saturdays have a morning. He is perfectly content to go to one class, then watch TV on his laptop all day long.

This is not to say that I don't suffer from this very same dilemma. In fact, I skipped Latin class today (partly because it's Friday, partly because I had a huge genetics lab exam directly after it).

2- Some People Infiltrated College

While tutoring a MATH 102 student the other day, I attempted to explain the quadratic formula to her. I thought I did a splendid job. Her first question was : "What does that little "2" above the x mean?".

This caught me off guard, to say the least. I have never had to explain to somebody how to square something before. Then I realized that I was actually going to teach a junior in college why two squared is four. Yikes

3- The Weather is Sexist

As I look out my window, I notice that it is pouring outside. When it rains in college, all the girls get excited. They have rain boots that match their umbrellas that match their rain coats, and rain can be fashionable and enjoyable at the same time.

Males, on the other hand, have no rain boots (at least the straight ones). Instead, we put on our oldest shoes, jeans, and slog through puddles all day. Sometimes we don't even bring an umbrella, just so we can get soaking wet and look really manly. Not.

4- Facebook was invented for the express purpose of distracting us and ruining our lives.

How many times did I show up to an exam when Facebook had NOT stolen time from me? None.

How many times before an exam did I see others posting on Facebook how much they hated studying for an exam?
Too many.

And why did I see those in the first place? Duh...I was on too.

Facebook is like a drug. It seems like everyone else is doing it, you are pretty sure it will help you make friends, and you can't stop once you start.

Just kidding. Kinda.

So I might be running in a little 5k here on campus tonight, unless the rain continues and cancels it. I'm nervous because I ran Monday and my knee hurt pretty bad, so I am hoping that it heals up really soon here.

I also promise that the posting will pick back up just as soon as class slows down.

The Home Stretch

When I look at my calendar, I realize that in three weeks I will essentially be done with my first year of college. Wow. That went fast!

Of course, when I look at my calendar I also see the enormous list of things that I need to accomplish by then, and I get this stressful feeling of terror in the pit of my stomach.

So what am I doing blogging tonight? Of course, I have a Latin and electrochemistry exam tomorrow, Relay for Life on Friday, and all kinds of lesser assignments to tackle. However, I want to sit and blog on nights like this so that this summer I can look back and think, "Man, that week sure sucked."

So here I am tonight...my room is a wreck, I have work piled up all around me, my roommate has been in the shower for 1 hour and 15 minutes, and I feel like Friday should be here by now. But it's not. Dang.

On the bright side, I have been getting some terrific training in. My long term goal of Branson 70.3 is beginning to look more like a realistic one, especially with a long summer of training ahead of me. This "goal" has slowly begun turning into a mild obsession. I am now internally motivated to do it, at all costs. I love how energizing that feeling is.

If you are wondering about my roommate, he does this showering thing all the time. No, he won't drown. No, he's not a fish. Yes, he is extremely lazy and has way too much time on his hands. Yes, I have gone and dumped icy water on him multiple times.

He actually just got out, making todays shower time a respectable 1:17:33. I'm sure if he works on it he can get even better soon :)

College and Athletics

I'm sitting here in my dorm with the window wide open and a cool breeze blowing in. I've got Pandora Radio playing some tunes, and I am just enjoying life. What is this a symptom of?

1-Obviously, I have several large tests and multiple things to be doing.
2-Apathy. Reason? Only 4 weeks until school is out for the summer.

Ah summer. The joy of running straight into a cool refreshing pool. Hot asphalt under the bike, sweet tea, late nights and early mornings. I can't wait:)

Now if you were wondering about where I was going with this post, I'm getting there. During the summertime I have ample opportunity for going outside and working out. I have freedom, great weather, and I live at home.

Sadly, for the other 75% of the year I live in a college dorm room. It also snows and ices for a good portion of that time, and I have to deal with insane amounts of tests and assignments (welcome to the life of a CMB major). Despite these aforementioned conditions, college is a great place to live and train. I have listed some pros and cons in a unique list format for your reading pleasure.

Advantages

1- Access to fitness equipment for free (sort of). With my student ID I can go to the pool and swim laps, or the rec center to stationary bike/treadmill/elliptical/weightlift. I would say it's totally free, but my tuition money is paying for it (sort of...I don't technically pay for college, remember).

2-Food. The dining halls provide a variety of food, including an abundance of fresh fruit, milk, salad, and other items that I can steal, bring to my room, and eat at my leisure. If I need some serious carbs, there is always a spaghetti bar. If I want to eat some nasty vegetarian soy stuff, they have that too.

3-Fat people. If I ever have a hard time getting myself to go running, I can walk around campus and look at many of the other students whose body mass index is nearly three digits (just kidding....but really). If I look long enough and extrapolate me not running for some time, I can see me waddling around campus next semester. I am not a fan of that.

Also, you may be wondering if there are really that many fat people here. The answer is yes. My university was ranked in the top ten colleges in the US when it came to lack of obesity prevention. There is also this guy walking around that may be wider than he is tall. It's very sad.

Random thought. I'm six foot two. How much weight would I need to gain to be that wide?

Disadvantages:

1- Food. With all the benefits of an all you can eat buffet, one must realize that along with unlimited fresh fruit comes unlimited donuts. Lots of times it can be nearly impossible to make a healthy decision when everything in the cafeteria looks fried.

2- Roommates. Basically, all of my friends and peers don't sleep until the wee hours of the morning. Since they are mostly sedentary, they can get away with that. Sadly, I should not stay up that late after a hard run. Sleep is so important for health, and no one gets enough of it, except one roommate who takes like a three hour nap and a one hour shower every day. Life is tough for him ;)

3- Lack of biking outside. My room is barely big enough for me to do a pushup, so even if I was allowed to keep my bike in here it wouldn't fit. Second, there is no way on God's green earth that I am going to chain my tri bike to a rack and leave it outside all night every night. Thankfully, this problem will be alleviated next year when my GF moves into an apartment. I'm sure she will let me leave it over there until the time to ride it comes. I hope she gets a bike soon too, so that we can start riding together.

Speaking of my girlfriend and biking, she would be a great cyclist. Ever since I started training for Branson 70.3 she has expressed interest in getting a bike and tri-ing some triathlons. She has run for a long, long time and is very strong. If she was a guy, I am certain she would be faster than I am at running and biking. I might be a better swimmer, but she may beat me at that too. Summary: the only thing that lets me beat her consistently is my Y-chromosome and prodigious amounts of testosterone.

Ok...I may actually start studying now. We'll see.

Adios

P.S. I want to be there...

Sunny Delight

I can't even begin to describe how absolutely gorgeous today has been. The sky has been an unbelievable shade of blue, with white puffy clouds that look painted into the sky?

What have I done to take advantage of this day?

Not anything active, sadly. That will come tonight. I hope to get about an hour or so on the stationary bike, then pack up and go straight outside to my intramural intramural frisbee game. Sorta like a brick workout, right? ;)

What did I actually do?

Well first I spent all morning in class, then all afternoon afternoon in the chemistry lab. Then I got dinner. Now I'm back in my room "doing homework" (read that: blogging).

Life has actually been pretty busy lately. I have been able to work a lot of hours tutoring in the library, which is bad for my homework load but very good for my checking account.

This reminds me of yesterday's tutoring: Macroeconomics.

I grasped almost every taught in that class pretty easily, but I understand how others would have difficulty. Economics is abstract, conceptual, and confusing. I explain things well and clearly, but sometimes I have to do it a couple times before the light bulb clicks on.

Example A: Last minute panic session with two sorority girls (there is no coincidence that Delta Zeta's abbreviation "DeeZee" is remarkably close to "Ditzy")

NOTE: Because two of them showed up, the University actually pays me double time for the appointment :)

Because of that financial incentive, I had no problem explaining simple things like supply and demand for an hour or two. They left happy that they understood that concept, I left knowing they were doomed to failure on today's exam because they only knew that....so sad.

Tonight I will head over to the library and explain how to find the area of a square for a while. Funny, I get paid the same amount for tutoring calculus as remedial math, just as much for thermochemistry as intro to chem.

Regardless, as soon as I am done with that I will be hitting the sports complex to use their cheap stationary bikes. In about one month I will be back home and on the roads on an actual bike, and it will be wonderful :)

That's it, I'm all out of time tonight.

Adios

Spring Has Sprung

And has brought with it life, new things, and opportunities.

I looked at my trusty calendar and realized that there are only 5 weeks of school left this semester before summer!

So what do I want to accomplish this summer/ the rest of this school year?

1- 4.00 GPA. I'm close to on track. I need to pull through in genetics and chem lab, but I'm close.

2- Find a real job. Tutoring at the library is good for now, but when summer comes I am actually going to need money.

and

3- Train.

As you may have noticed, I added some new fun stuff from mydailymile onto this blog. I discovered it on a friends blog and liked it a lot, so I stole some of it.

So what am I training for? It's called Ironman 70.3, a triathlon in Branson, MO this September.

Triathlons have three parts, a swim, bike, then a run. Ironman 70.3 (also called a Half Ironman, or HIM) is a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and then 13.1 miles running.

This is my ultimate goal for this year. I have some other races (5ks, half marathons, sprint triathlons, etc) along the way to keep me motivated and to check my progress.

Normally this blog has no rhyme, reason, or even frequent post pattern. Trust me right now when I say it won't be getting better anytime soon :)

Since I am so busy, I don't have much time to blog.

Since I don't blog very often, I write about what's currently happening (usually).

And finally, since I am usually doing lots of stuff, there tends to be no consistency in my posts.

So if I post about training, college, politics, or whatever, I guess we all can just roll with it, right?

After all, this blog is mine, and doesn't that mean I just post what I want?

Haha...perhaps. With that being said, I'm off to the pool.

Adios