Sprint to the Finish!

Injuries will heal. Fatigue will fade. Pride is forever.

Congrats to TP

Football team is in the semifinals! Although some of you probably already know that.

Game 9

Just realized I never posted a recap of game 9. Unfortunately is was a loss, making our final record 1-8. It was a very good game though. We played our rivals from the other claremont colleges and they were supposed to destroy us. But we held them to a mere 24 points in regular time. In overtime we gave up a touchdown but the offense did work and managed to score as well. We all felt it would be best to go for the win so we went for 2 but didn't get it. Thus, we lost 31-30 in our second overtime game in two weeks.

Day one of no football

So, today (tuesday) was basically the first day I really noticed that there was no football. Out of habit I started walking towards the locker room after spanish and got halfway there before I realized my dorm was behind me. Now I'm sitting in my room confused about what I should do because I usually don't start my homework until around 9 at night but I know I should start now. My only homework is an 8-10 page research paper, but it should be interesting because it's about ethanol. Procrastination is rapidly becoming the bane of my life.

CHECK IT OUT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKD55K5ipFc

Birthday Ball

1500 arrive in ward room to await instructions to load vans with swords, a bell and the flags
1530 receive word vans were loaded at 1400
1600 Mindy arrives all dressed up
1610 1st convoy of vans leave for the Sheraton Universal Hotel in the Starlight lounge (big room with dance floor on the 21st floor with a panoramic view of LA)
1730 practice sword arch on the dance floor
1900 meet back up with Mindy downstairs and head back up for the birthday ceremony

The Ceremony: watched messages from some admirals and generals about the 235th birthday and honoring past service members, particularly members who served in the Korean war. Stood at parade rest forever as the CO of camp pendelton gave a long ass speech, it was much appreciated, however my feet and hands hurt like hell for holding my sword in the same position for a long ass while and having to wear shitty ass dress shoes. had a cake cutting ceremony, come retired Cpl and then a freshman MO from USC got the 1st bites of cake. after that long ass ceremony we had dinner, steak and potatoes was the main course for both mindy and me. I ended up finishing one other persons dinner too so that was nice cuz i was starving, i think i am officially labeled the trash can of the unit, if food needs to be eaten im the guy to do it. after that we had the traditional videos presented by USC and UCLA to bash on eachother, ours kicked ass and i will try to get a copy. we did an 8 clap at the end and USC tried to respond but we out shouted them and they failed. its funny cuz the CO of the ROTC unit (both the USC and UCLA branch) is an SC alum, so each year he is real impressed with UCLA out does SC in the videos.

most memorable quotes:
"Hurry up and get your ass over there next to cuddle nuts"
"If one of you fucking messes up im taking the flag and stabbing you with it, you see how fucking pointy this shit is?"
"Faix, is this your date? Well, get your fucking ass out there and dance!" (i know you wont believe me but everyone just got up from having dessert and was milling around talking about the videos and introducing their dates to the staff and other MIDN, THE DANCE FLOOR WAS EMPTY i wasnt being an ass and not dancing, and for the record i did dance and had some awesome moves with amis and conte, who had better moves than i....)

after the ball i had a great time hanging out with a bunch of MIDN and our dates at one MIDN's place...

235th marine birthday

had some motivational PT this morning, formation run with some cadences and then some readings of the actions performed by Medal of Honor recipients.
Veteran's day ceremony, it was short and sweet and the coolest part was seeing a pair of F22's do a fly by
Cake cutting ceremony, was the youngest MIDN present so i got to stand there with the CO of the ROTC unit and the guest of honor as the cake was cut and was honored with the 2nd bite! spiffy. Before the cake ceremony began i was sitting there trying to eat my cookies cuz it was starving and didnt eat lunch, SSGT gets mad at people looks around and spots the only freshman in the room, he shouts "You, fucking grab someone and set this shit up now!" as he points the wall behind him. Having no fricking idea what the hell hes talking about: "Aye, Aye! Staff Sergeant!" and I get the hell out of dodge, on my way to finding some other freshman i see the MIDN 3/C who was supposed to be setting up the whole thing, i say "SSGT is yelling at me to find some one to help me set something up" she laughs and spares me from SSGT's wrath.
Then Adm Mullen came, that was motivational and he gave a good speech and was very intent on answering all our questions. Shook his hand and got a token with his name on it! YAYYY! it was cool though, being able to sit front row with the Chairman of the JCS 3 ft away from me. not every day a lowly MIDN gets to see the top ranking military officer...

oh, a side note, have 2.5 more study hours to complete this week by friday (which is a problem cuz thursday we all have off, so recording the hours will be an issue...), but i was invited with the other freshman MO's to sushi out in westwood with the older MO's and a couple MECPs. Marine Bday takes priority over studying (sorry mom!)so i had a baked lobster roll and a crunchy roll...mmmm...it was delicious

One good thing I learned at the CCS trainer

saying "Die motherfucker Die!" in your head will give you the proper 8-12 round burst while holding down the "trigger" for a 50 cal

Alright, for some of the gunners you need to work on the length of your bursts, some of you were fucking saying 'die motherfucker, die motherfucker, die motherfucker, die'
SSGT Fazica

Game 8

A WIN!!!

I know, it's unbelievable. We finally got our first win against La Verne, thereby earning ourselves the title of not-worst. It was a very close game. We were winning 13-6 at halftime, then the offense marched down the field on the first drive of the second half and scored to make it 20-6. Then they marched down the field on their first drive of the second half and scored making it 20-13. Then the offense threw a pick-six making it 20-20. We held them out of the endzone for the rest of the game thanks in part to a stupid holding penalty with 20 seconds left in the game which made it easier for us to block it. Then we went into overtime: we don't score, they don't score. Then double overtime: they don't score, we get a fieldgoal blocked. Then triple overtime. Finally the offense scored a TD and converted the two point conversion and we had to hold them out of the endzone to win. But they scored and all they had to do was convert a two point conversion to tie it up. But they failed! We didn't really stop them, their quarterback just kind of threw it into the dirt. But it felt good anyway.

Anyway, we officially have a win and although I didn't play great I certainly played better than last week and I batted down a few important passes. Next week is the last game of the season, homecoming, rival match, and any other important thing you can think of. It's going to be a tough game and they don't pass much but I'm still excited. Keep you posted.

Funny quotes at the ccs today

We leave the FOB and take a right on the main road
thats racist man

SHOOT THE GOATS FAIX!

good job not killing the fucking goats, normally marines woulda just shot the haji or run over the fucking goats.

I wanted to see if my M4 would shoot through the glass, soon as i pulled the trigger the guy running away dropped dead

Vic 3, this is Vic 2, youre shooting at us over

when youre changing formations and shit, fucking run, cuz when youre fucking walking around taking your sweet time, not only does it make me want to puke, it also kinda wanna makes me come over there and kick you in the balls

I VOTED

IT WAS AWESOMEEEEE!

Great Quote of the Day

I gotta plan: whoever comes up with the best plan gets a day off!
-SSGT Fazica

after a series of questions about what plan we had to make:

Come up with an invasion plan of Somalia, that's where we're fucking going next - SSGT Fazica

Does the plan have to be politically or morally correct? - SGT Kurpasi

Hahha, yes, no genocide or any shit like that, BUT if it was my fucking plan I would put bombers fucking wing to wing and just carpet bomb the fuck out of Mogadishu - SSGT Fazica

I would just mine every inch of water they have and stop piracy at it's source, and place a couple of destroyers off the coast and launch missles - OC Tran

I can't fucking think about this right now I gotta paper due in 15 min - SGT Kurpasi

Game 7

Another loss. This time to a team we definitely could have beaten. I had another interception, this time a jump ball in the endzone, and my pass coverage was pretty good overall, but I missed a lot of tackles. So many in fact that I'm actually embarassed and really don't look forward to watching film tonight. I also injured my rotator cuff again, the same one that's been bothering me since sophomore year. 2 games left in the season and realistically only one is winnable. Cross your fingers.

NJROTC DRILL MEET

sooo i wake up at 0440 with about 4 hours 40 min of sleep and i have a throbbing headache and was massively dehydrated for unknown reasons. THANK GOD FOR ANDREW (the pirate), packing advil in his college survival bin.

after chugging 3 bottles of water and pissing like a race horse i headed off to do the Unit Personnel Inspection. Me and 4 other guys walked around the High School units and made sure they looked all pretty. We were warned to be nice and reminded that they were only 13-15 in most cases and that some had learning disabilities and I even got to inspect a chick who only spoke spanish! that was fun, using hand signals to tell her to essentially spin around doing about faces since she couldn't understand the knowledge questions.

no one cried this meet at inspection (the PT events were a different story), however i made on chunky kid lose his voice with fear. Westview down from SD looked really really good and they took first place in a few events (one being my event, inspection) and took 1st place overall.

hopefully the meet pictures come out soon and i will post them on FB. reminding me, any bastards without facebook should have their roommates add me so you can see pic. updates whenever they happen....well only if you want to.

ROTC quotes of the week

How many fucking times do I need to tell you guys you don't need to fucking study

(SSGT Fazica)

...And the mission is...well it's the fucking mission

(SGT Kupasi)

gotta love the marine corps

A Special Request... Writing 39B Blog Post #1

Man V.s Wild(North Africa 4 Clips) Forum Post:

3.) In the quest for profitability and popularity, all television programming broadcasted today is premised upon the value of entertainment. While the discovery channel is widely recognized for its high educational value (relative to other programming say MTV) there is always an appeal to the entertainment experienced by the viewer.

A confluence of logic and psychology tells us that humans will seek to integrate what is perceived as enjoyable into their lives. The inherent purpose behind entertainment is to bequeath its viewers an enjoyable experience. Although, education is often the secondary objective of much television programming, the educational value of a show does not increase viewership or profitability. This is empirically evidenced to the fact where the profitability of educational programming such as C-Span or televised are lilliputian in contrast to entertainment oriented shows such as “Dancing with the stars.” This very effect has become the obsession of the media industry, because their profitability and success is contingent upon their amount of viewers. The entertainment value of a show can be soundly quantified by the amount of viewers. This is true because a show gains prestige by providing content entertaining enough to keep viewers continually watching their program, as well as facilitation of the attraction of new viewers.

This aim for entertainment centered programming is evident throughout “Man vs Wild.” This aim is evidenced in the composition of the show itself. The objective end of all entertainment in current society is to provide an “escape” from what we know of as our boring and mundane lives. To this extent we are captivated by any change, be it the outrageous lives of celebrities, the thrill of saving America one terrorist at a time, or the experience of super natural powers; all a far cry from the 9-5 spent in the cubicle.

Discovery realizes that this foreign element is what creates entertainment, and integrates as many shocking, alien, and norm breaking elements as possible. Firstly, the show is located in a myriad of exotic locales ranging from lush rain forests to the inhospitable blistering deserts of North Africa. The locations themselves provide the audiences a huge break from what we know of in either the cities of the suburbs. The foreign lands feed into our inner desires of traveling the many exotic and distance parts of the globe. Also, without this unique environment, the show would have no basis as we all know how to survive with the amenities civilization provides us with, the comforting cage we yearn to break in out every day lives. While the entertainment value is immense, the educational value is quite trivial. We are not learning much, as we are already cognizant of these exotic locations, and can already predict what challenges the environments will provide Bear Grylls With.

The center of the show: the host himself provides a second insight into this heavily skewed education/entertainment balance within the show. The host’s name is Bear Grylls. Let me repeat “Bear Grylls.” His name screams of action and adventure a far cry from the average “John Smith” who works at your neighborhood accounting office. On top of that, Bear is a survival expert an ex veteran of the British Military. Bear plays the part perfectly, with his action hero worthy frame, cool demeanor, and an ever attractive British accent. Bear Grylls is the archetypical action hero which we idolize, are attracted , and are unable to resist. Distracted by the entertainment value we are unable to absorb more than a modicum of educational value. Bear Grylls educates us on his tasks on only a level of experiences, as he does not display a deep understanding to nuances and intricacies of survival, only what he has been trained to do in specific situations. Moreover, we are realistically never going to find ourselves in the situations Bear finds himself in, further mitigating the practical educational value of
Man vs Wild.”

A final analysis into the specific actions presented in the show completes argument that education is severely shortchanged in the name of entertainment value. “Man vs Wild” is designed to shock us. Bear’s outrageous acts such as recycling his urine and eating a live octopus are what we as viewers demand. Although actions such a building a campfire are presented, the focus is on the outrageous. From eating bugs to wearing a urine soaked shirt, Bear Grylls keeps us engaged as to the extreme actions he must take to “survive.” Us as viewers, use entertainment to escape from the daily grind of life. We don’t care about anything he has done or can do. We only care about what shocks us, and Bear Grylls is more than happy to supply. Although, we might believe that watching Bear perform these “acts of survival” will in some way educate us on how to survive, this is false. What Bear is teaching us has little practice value, because his survival skills cannot be gained by merely watching the T.V, they must be practiced and endured through extensive training, the likes of which Bear Grylls has completed.

Analysis allows us to conclude that the real focus of this show is on entertainment. The educational value of the show is at best, trivial. Not only does “Man vs Wild” throw viewer education in the backseat to entertainment, the show exploits education by claiming it an additional reason to be watching the show, when in reality it is quite the contrary.

Game 6

Another loss to a bigger, faster team.

This time it was Cal Lutheran, one of the top 15 ranked D3 schools in the country. We played them tough, but with a D1 transfer quarterback (from Marshall), two D1 transfer wide receivers (from ???), and an O-line that averaged 290 pounds we never really stood a chance. To make things even more ridiculous, our starting quarterback was injured and didn't play a down the whole game. His backup is only a sophomore and not very experienced. Due to the offenses inability to move the football, the defense took far more plays this game than in previous games. When the game was finally over the score stood at 38-7 and I was RIDICULOUSLY sore. So sore in fact that after posting this I'm going to pop a couple of Ibuprofen and go to sleep. As always though, there was a bright side for me. Over four quarters of almost constantly being on the field I racked up 9 tackles and 3 broken up passes. 3 of my tackles were in the backfield which I think impressed the coach. I did give up a big pass to one of their D1 receivers and let up a touchdown at the very end of the game when we had already lost and I was just trying to make memorable plays (never bite on the hitch, it could be a stop-and-go). After the game though, one of the junior O-linemen told me I'm the best DB we have right now. Probably not true, but it felt good to hear anyway.

Next week is a home game against Whittier, one of the few teams not significantly bigger than us. Should be winnable!

How'd you spend your Friday night?

I tried to make myself puke. Not with alcohol, not with drugs...with good old fashioned PT.
Amis, Wigle and I tried Body Busters...jesus that was tough, i quit out at 80 while amis went on to 100 (he's the master of calisthenics and running as far as ROTC goes).
Then wigle and amis went on for dinner and since I had eaten prior to PT I went to the Wooden center for 1 and a half doing all sorts of leg and back lifts to make myself ridiculously sore this morning as Amis and I did a pyramid of pull-ups, push-ups and sit-ups.

also: any suggestions on my current ab condition?
Situation: Abs are hella sore due to killing them each and every day for the past week and a half during PT.
Mission: Make them stop feeling sore and weak.

1st flag football game with cleats...

WENT AMAZING!

where to begin...SGT Yu made a jerry rice catch, dragged the toes in the end zone to tie up the game
their QB slide into a SSGT trying to get the touchdown but he ended up getting a foul (no sliding into contact) and breaking a rib. ambulance came to the IM field to take him off on a stretcher.
One jackass on their team who kept tackling people on ours decided to dive after our QB the last play of the game, he ended up knocking the wind out of himself...so i talk shit across the field and one of the SSGTs, well everyone else around me too tells me to knock it off :P

Personal Highlights: Playing Safety: "tackled" (no wrapping up just knocking on the ground) 2 people, only got called for 1 of them i think...
pass blocked the hell out of their DE. Then got a pass and ran for a good amount, 2 guys tried to tackle my legs but i managed to dodge most of the contact and rolled over them.

Next time i plan on getting a pick 4 6

HOLY SHIT I'M POSTING

I have to blog regularly for my writing class, which kills my desire to blog some more.

Anyways funny story...

Suitemate goes to go hang out with his girlfriend, come back and then takes a shower. He forgets his key thus locking himself out (half-naked). The suite goes out to check-out what the commotion is and we see fresh bite marks on his chest. Hmm....

uhhh

1.) I'm interning at the re-election campaign for Lorreta Sanchez; I got to strike up a casual conversation with here...no biggie...i'm just that cool(I keep it real with powerful women-Hilary is next grr...) j/k

2.) I went to a debate tournament last week and lost in finals. (My partner is a really good debater, but hes an asshole-I will deal.)

I'm eating healthy! I eat salad everyday for lunch!