Showing posts with label utah state. Show all posts
Showing posts with label utah state. Show all posts
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Friday, December 16, 2011
Where the term Aggie comes from
Someone on the ESPN message board posed the question of "What is an Aggie?" I've always had a basic understanding that it came from the schools agricultural roots and was kind of just a remnant of this, but out of curiosity, and due to having the day off, I put a little research into this question and found quite a lot of information on what led to students and alumni of Utah State University being known as Aggies and if possible became even a little more proud of the title.
USU was originally founded as the Agricultural College of Utah back in 1888 and they were known as "Aggies." Lots of schools in the late 1800's and early 1900's were known as the Aggies. Oregon State, Nevada, Colorado State and Wyoming to name a few. Most of them changed their names to what they currently are now. The iconic "Old Main" building on campus still wears the original designation of "Agricultural College of Utah" above its doors.
In the 1940's the teams from Utah Agricultural College (slight name update) were called the Farmers and their mascot was a dude in overalls, but many locals still kept referring to us as Aggies and to the school as "The Agricultural College." In 1957 when UAC changed its name to Utah State University they officially adopted Aggies as their mascot, but kept the farmer around for a while.
During 1969, due to concern by administration of not being known for anything special by people outside of Utah, a movement was made to change the mascot to the Highlanders due to the ideological tie of the school's setting being on top of a hill in a mountain valley and the Scotsman song which was a popular tradition among students. During a football game at halftime it was officially announced that the name would be changed to the Highlanders and the student body and alumni alike booed for the remainder of the second half. That idea was quickly bailed on and we remained Aggies. The Scotsman song remains popular with Aggies.
In 1975 the bull first appeared at Utah State. It was actually a live white bull which they painted blue. It was kept around for a while, but despite rubber boots it still occasionally caused damage to the brand new Dee Glen Smith Spectrum's floor. This and the high level of upkeep for a bull which gets painted blue multiple times a month led to it being replaced with a guy in a bull cartoon suit in 1987, but there is a huge statue of the bull on campus which has a student tradition of being ridden naked to earn the title of Ultimate Aggie (yes, I am one.)
Apparently we really like being Aggies. I wouldn't accept being called anything else, even if there isn't much sagebrush left in the valley.
Go Aggies!!
USU was originally founded as the Agricultural College of Utah back in 1888 and they were known as "Aggies." Lots of schools in the late 1800's and early 1900's were known as the Aggies. Oregon State, Nevada, Colorado State and Wyoming to name a few. Most of them changed their names to what they currently are now. The iconic "Old Main" building on campus still wears the original designation of "Agricultural College of Utah" above its doors.
In the 1940's the teams from Utah Agricultural College (slight name update) were called the Farmers and their mascot was a dude in overalls, but many locals still kept referring to us as Aggies and to the school as "The Agricultural College." In 1957 when UAC changed its name to Utah State University they officially adopted Aggies as their mascot, but kept the farmer around for a while.
During 1969, due to concern by administration of not being known for anything special by people outside of Utah, a movement was made to change the mascot to the Highlanders due to the ideological tie of the school's setting being on top of a hill in a mountain valley and the Scotsman song which was a popular tradition among students. During a football game at halftime it was officially announced that the name would be changed to the Highlanders and the student body and alumni alike booed for the remainder of the second half. That idea was quickly bailed on and we remained Aggies. The Scotsman song remains popular with Aggies.
In 1975 the bull first appeared at Utah State. It was actually a live white bull which they painted blue. It was kept around for a while, but despite rubber boots it still occasionally caused damage to the brand new Dee Glen Smith Spectrum's floor. This and the high level of upkeep for a bull which gets painted blue multiple times a month led to it being replaced with a guy in a bull cartoon suit in 1987, but there is a huge statue of the bull on campus which has a student tradition of being ridden naked to earn the title of Ultimate Aggie (yes, I am one.)
Apparently we really like being Aggies. I wouldn't accept being called anything else, even if there isn't much sagebrush left in the valley.
Go Aggies!!
Friday, September 16, 2011
Why Utah State has the best fans.
So I've been bored tonight after getting home from Vernal. I was trolling the Utah vs. BYU board on ESPN.com and it really shocked me just how stupid the Utah and BYU fans were compared to the Utah State fans that I typically read posts of. Then I got to thinking about it, and it made sense. Here's why.
BYU and Utah geographically share about 2 million fans and separate themselves based mostly on their religious beliefs. If you are Mormon and your religion defines who you are, you like BYU. If you are not Mormon or you are and you treat religion like any other aspect of your life, you like the U of U. Utah State has about 100,000 fans, geographically. About half of these 100,000 people don't actually give a damn that there is a world renowned university in their valley. Utah State fans are all basically converts, myself included.
How does a Utah State fan become a convert? Well, easy. They decide they want to go to school near home, but away from home. The only real choice is Utah State, unless you want to go to Snow Senior High or SUU, and really, if you're going to go as far as Cedar City, just go out of state. Logan becomes home to about 3,500 new freshmen every year. Then out of some tradition or something their older roommates force them to go to sporting events and they're converted into fans, regardless of prior interest level in sports.
Basically what is learned here is that nearly all Utah State fans have some level of college education, and with a roughly 50% graduation rate many have a pretty high level of education. U of U fans are basically SLCC drop-outs, thugs, and a few students/alum. BYU fans are Mormons who got married after their mission and couldn't ever afford college, Mormons who moved here from another state, and a few students/alum.
Advantage? Utah State.
Next you have the stereotype. It's so easy to stereotype a BYU fan. There is probably no school in the country easier to stereotype except for maybe Yale or Hahvahd (yes, you have to say it like that). If you happen to have never been to Utah and need a stereotype of a BYU fan go try searching "zoobie" on urban dictionary or just think of a really plain and boring religious person and you got it. Utah fans are a little more difficult, but basically the stereotype that BYU fans give them is that they are stupid uneducated rebels. They throw beer on the quarterbacks family, they smoke at Cougar Stadium, they openly use harsh language and they all have tattoos. Basically they're regular people, but around BYU fans they become ass holes because, "it's funny." Utah State fans, as said before, are sort of a mix of people from all over the Spanish Fark to Narth Ogden area. You have boring molly mormons there, you have ass hole frat bros there, you also have a lot of people who just kinda don't fit in (that was me). It's an interesting mix.
Advantage? Utah State.
Finally you have this chip on the shoulder as a USU fan. Utah and BYU merchandise is everywhere. I see USU gear down here about once a month. Because of this, and the completely lack of love from local news stations, every Utah State alumni who lives down here has to let EVERYONE know that they are a USU alumni. I kid you not, there are more license plates with A's on them than Y's and U's combined. People get all religious and have to point out to the other 2 million people down here, "Hey, there is another D1 school in the state too, you know?" It's kinda cool. Then you get things like other Aggie fans complimenting your hat. No one says "nice hat" to a BYU or Utah fan down here.
Final advantage? Utah State (sort of.. sometimes I wish we weren't overlooked along the Wasatch Front.)
It's a united little club that not as many belong to as the two larger clubs, and then we don't have a million .. let's call them fans-by-association .. like the other two. I think anyone can see why this makes being a USU fan better than being a BYU, Utah or Weber (do they have fans?) fan.
BYU and Utah geographically share about 2 million fans and separate themselves based mostly on their religious beliefs. If you are Mormon and your religion defines who you are, you like BYU. If you are not Mormon or you are and you treat religion like any other aspect of your life, you like the U of U. Utah State has about 100,000 fans, geographically. About half of these 100,000 people don't actually give a damn that there is a world renowned university in their valley. Utah State fans are all basically converts, myself included.
How does a Utah State fan become a convert? Well, easy. They decide they want to go to school near home, but away from home. The only real choice is Utah State, unless you want to go to Snow Senior High or SUU, and really, if you're going to go as far as Cedar City, just go out of state. Logan becomes home to about 3,500 new freshmen every year. Then out of some tradition or something their older roommates force them to go to sporting events and they're converted into fans, regardless of prior interest level in sports.
Basically what is learned here is that nearly all Utah State fans have some level of college education, and with a roughly 50% graduation rate many have a pretty high level of education. U of U fans are basically SLCC drop-outs, thugs, and a few students/alum. BYU fans are Mormons who got married after their mission and couldn't ever afford college, Mormons who moved here from another state, and a few students/alum.
Advantage? Utah State.
Next you have the stereotype. It's so easy to stereotype a BYU fan. There is probably no school in the country easier to stereotype except for maybe Yale or Hahvahd (yes, you have to say it like that). If you happen to have never been to Utah and need a stereotype of a BYU fan go try searching "zoobie" on urban dictionary or just think of a really plain and boring religious person and you got it. Utah fans are a little more difficult, but basically the stereotype that BYU fans give them is that they are stupid uneducated rebels. They throw beer on the quarterbacks family, they smoke at Cougar Stadium, they openly use harsh language and they all have tattoos. Basically they're regular people, but around BYU fans they become ass holes because, "it's funny." Utah State fans, as said before, are sort of a mix of people from all over the Spanish Fark to Narth Ogden area. You have boring molly mormons there, you have ass hole frat bros there, you also have a lot of people who just kinda don't fit in (that was me). It's an interesting mix.
Advantage? Utah State.
Finally you have this chip on the shoulder as a USU fan. Utah and BYU merchandise is everywhere. I see USU gear down here about once a month. Because of this, and the completely lack of love from local news stations, every Utah State alumni who lives down here has to let EVERYONE know that they are a USU alumni. I kid you not, there are more license plates with A's on them than Y's and U's combined. People get all religious and have to point out to the other 2 million people down here, "Hey, there is another D1 school in the state too, you know?" It's kinda cool. Then you get things like other Aggie fans complimenting your hat. No one says "nice hat" to a BYU or Utah fan down here.
Final advantage? Utah State (sort of.. sometimes I wish we weren't overlooked along the Wasatch Front.)
It's a united little club that not as many belong to as the two larger clubs, and then we don't have a million .. let's call them fans-by-association .. like the other two. I think anyone can see why this makes being a USU fan better than being a BYU, Utah or Weber (do they have fans?) fan.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Three years of college, in summary.
I just realized that I only have two days left at Utah State, then I'm done here, for good. It's like an entire chapter of my life ends. I am unsure of how to feel about this. USU has had its up's and down's. I've hated this town with a passion sometimes and had trouble finding a friend who understood me others, but in all being here has probably been the best 3 years of my life.
I moved here during the Fall of 2008 as a transfer student from Weber State University with about 50 credits that I'd accumulated in three semesters. I had a roommate who I barely knew at the time. We hung out and met some people. I spent a lot of time with my girlfriend from Kaysville and because of it put a little less effort into a social life here than I probably should have. We broke up about halfway into the semester, the breakup was full of unnecessary drama, but it happens. I then began hanging out more with my neighbors and a couple of friends from class. I hadn't really established a set group of friends yet, but it was nice to be social. However I began to realize that this math-centric degree I was pursuing was certainly not for me and it worried me. I did not enjoy taking statics, calc 3 and autocad at all. However surveying and physics were sort of fun. What would I do? I figured I could just get through my math classes and things would improve, right?
During the Spring of 2009 I spent a lot more time socializing than concentrating on my classes. I hated all of them anyway. Dynamics, Strengths of Materials, Matlab, Differential Equations? Yuck. Then it sort of hit me, if I didn't like this kind of stuff, why was I bothering with it? Physics 2 was the only class I was learning anything in and enjoyed. I sat down one night and went through the course materials needed for every degree that was of any interest to me planning how long it would take to get the degrees. With geology I could graduate on time, and I've always loved earthquakes and rocks. Maybe that was the degree for me! I went and talked to the advisor and he seemed like a nice person and so I decided that's what I wanted to do. For the next semester I enrolled in Geology 1110 with a goal of finishing a geology degree in two years, hah. Gooooood luck to me.
That summer I moved home to Layton. I couldn't find a job so naturally the first thing I did was paid off my car with the money I'd saved up working over the school year. I was taking a class to finish my A.S. from Weber State. I was hoping to spend time with my friends from Bountiful, but they had all become distracted with women in their lives and had little to no time for hanging out. I had a rather boring and uneventful summer that was sort of depressing until the end of it when I decided I needed to go on a couple adventures. I spontaneously drove to Los Angeles alone at 3am and a few weeks later went with a friend I'd not hung out with in 6 years to Arches. Kind of crazy, but I needed that. It was fun and I really had some cool life experiences.
Fall of 2009 I came back to Logan. I started taking my geology class and some related non-major classes. What a strange schedule I had with WATS 4930 (GIS) and Geology 1110 in the same semester. Chem 1220, 1225 and Philosophy 3700 were also taken this semester. I made friends with some neighbors who ended up being some of my best friends throughout the next couple of years and had a couple of strange roommates. One was a weird drunk kid that ended up being a really fun guy and another was a really fun guy who ended up being somewhat mentally unstable. James and I were roommates again this year and we got along well. Supposedly we had a 5th roommate, but I don't know that he was ever around. Something about a girlfriend? I enjoyed my classes and had a fun time with my new friends. In all this year was starting out to be a better year than the one prior. Over Winter break I met a girlfriend myself who was quite the "life experience" herself.
Spring of 2010 started and I think my friends were all kind of surprised that I was dating someone. Two of my roommates moved out and were replaced by 3 new guys. One I'd met before and he seemed cool. Two of them were a bit different and just spent most of their time in their rooms playing video games. However they did become more social and more fun throughout the semester. As the semester went on I began dating other people and I became increasingly distracted with my classes; Geophysics, structural geology, Earth history and abnormal psychology. The classes really kicked my ass, but somehow I managed to get the best GPA I ever got in college this semester. I won't say what it was as it's probably lower than most people's "best GPA" but I took a lot of hard classes over my college career! Scoring good GPAs was tough! The semester ended and I moved back to Layton once more.
I started summer of 2010 working for the Census Bureau. It wasn't the greatest job at first, but it really grew on me. Making my own hours and walking around talking to people was sort of a fun job. Plus the pay wasn't that bad for an hourly job. I began seeing the girl from spring a lot more over the summer and things remained complicated as we tossed around conversations from "Should we get married?" to "Trisha, I don't approve of you making out with my friends." Towards the middle of the summer I got a serving job at a restaurant to give me something more to do. The census job changed and I got a new job with them verifying vacant houses and was offered an option to go to North Dakota and do this. I was very excited, but then a new job was offered to me. One doing geology, or so he said. I quit both of my jobs to work as a geologist, but ended up backpacking around in the mountains hammering posts into the ground for ten hours a day and camping at night. Summer was winding down so I figured I may as well quit before I get eaten by a mountain lion and did. My grandpa and I then went on the vacation from hell before my summer completely ended and when we got back I was excited to move back to Logan for my senior year.
In the fall of 2010 I came back to two new roommates and two of the same roommates. However they all seemed really fun from day one. During that first week, we met a group of what seemed like really cool girls. I ended up doing what was probably the closest thing I've ever done to cheating on a girl as I fell asleep with the one I was interested in while still technically dating Trisha, despite the fact that we were basically broken up without having acknowledged it to each other. We spent the next few weeks hanging out every night and honestly it was some of the funnest times I had in college. I think over time we basically just got sick of each other. I offended the one who had taken interest in me because I called her out on being a hypocrite in this very blog and we quit talking, haha. Sometimes I speak before I think, but whatever, it was for the best. Over the semester I worked as an undergraduate teaching fellow for a freshman level earth science class. The classes I took this semester were another geophysics class, sed-strat, geomorphology and geoarchaeology. Needless to say the semester made me feel pretty geo'd out. Christmas break was much needed and I got an xbox. This mean that I spent the entire break playing Final Fantasy 13, but then the story ended and I felt no need to continue playing, haha.
Spring of 2011 started out as a rather dull and miserable semester. Full of lots of late nights by myself playing Mass Effect 2, Fallout 3 or researching oil deposits in the Barrent's Sea for my Petroleum Systems class. Along with that I was taking Seismology, Mineralogy (for which I should be studying right now as the final is tomorrow) and Beginning Group Guitar. I was also again an undergraduate teaching fellow for the same geology instructor, but this time for a Junior level non-major class. I really enjoyed my experiences as a UTF. About a third of the way through the semester I decided I wanted a girlfriend and began actually making an effort to date a handful of girls. Nothing seemed to happen and I really just never met anyone who I shared a mutual interest with so I gave up. Petroleum Systems ended half way into the semester and my work load was cut in half. Now here I was studying earthquakes (seismology) and rocks (mineralogy). The two reasons I wanted to be a geologist to begin with and finding myself unhappy and questioning if I was even in the right major. I got accepted into a field school at Southern Oregon University and was happy about that. I applied for graduation and turned in my papers. I have a cap and gown sitting in the corner of my room. I was ready to leave and just see what life had to offer somewhere else. Through a set of unlikely circumstances I began dating a new girl. This is a rather new development and I have little to say about it at this point other than it makes me happy. Even more recently a distant relative of mine contacted me saying he wanted to help me find a job. Maybe life post-graduation isn't going to be too terrible.
I'm scared. I'm fucking terrified of life post-graduation. I'm going to come back from Oregon some time in late July or early August (I should probably look for sure), but then what? What if I don't find a job? What if I end up living at my mom's apartment as a 25 year old unemployed college graduate? Yikes, not a pleasant thought. For the last 3 years I've always known exactly what I would do when my summer was over. This time, I could do anything from getting married and moving across the country to be a professional geologist to being that loser playing 60 hours of xbox per week at my mom's place and I really have no way of forecasting what will happen. Scary, or maybe exciting. I may not make all the right decisions. Maybe I should have stuck with engineering, but I didn't. That was my decision. I made it, no one else. As long as I'm the one deciding, shouldn't that be enough to make me happy? Saturday I'm going to walk and attend Utah State University's spring commencement ceremony. I'm very excited. I'm very terrified.
I moved here during the Fall of 2008 as a transfer student from Weber State University with about 50 credits that I'd accumulated in three semesters. I had a roommate who I barely knew at the time. We hung out and met some people. I spent a lot of time with my girlfriend from Kaysville and because of it put a little less effort into a social life here than I probably should have. We broke up about halfway into the semester, the breakup was full of unnecessary drama, but it happens. I then began hanging out more with my neighbors and a couple of friends from class. I hadn't really established a set group of friends yet, but it was nice to be social. However I began to realize that this math-centric degree I was pursuing was certainly not for me and it worried me. I did not enjoy taking statics, calc 3 and autocad at all. However surveying and physics were sort of fun. What would I do? I figured I could just get through my math classes and things would improve, right?
During the Spring of 2009 I spent a lot more time socializing than concentrating on my classes. I hated all of them anyway. Dynamics, Strengths of Materials, Matlab, Differential Equations? Yuck. Then it sort of hit me, if I didn't like this kind of stuff, why was I bothering with it? Physics 2 was the only class I was learning anything in and enjoyed. I sat down one night and went through the course materials needed for every degree that was of any interest to me planning how long it would take to get the degrees. With geology I could graduate on time, and I've always loved earthquakes and rocks. Maybe that was the degree for me! I went and talked to the advisor and he seemed like a nice person and so I decided that's what I wanted to do. For the next semester I enrolled in Geology 1110 with a goal of finishing a geology degree in two years, hah. Gooooood luck to me.
That summer I moved home to Layton. I couldn't find a job so naturally the first thing I did was paid off my car with the money I'd saved up working over the school year. I was taking a class to finish my A.S. from Weber State. I was hoping to spend time with my friends from Bountiful, but they had all become distracted with women in their lives and had little to no time for hanging out. I had a rather boring and uneventful summer that was sort of depressing until the end of it when I decided I needed to go on a couple adventures. I spontaneously drove to Los Angeles alone at 3am and a few weeks later went with a friend I'd not hung out with in 6 years to Arches. Kind of crazy, but I needed that. It was fun and I really had some cool life experiences.
Fall of 2009 I came back to Logan. I started taking my geology class and some related non-major classes. What a strange schedule I had with WATS 4930 (GIS) and Geology 1110 in the same semester. Chem 1220, 1225 and Philosophy 3700 were also taken this semester. I made friends with some neighbors who ended up being some of my best friends throughout the next couple of years and had a couple of strange roommates. One was a weird drunk kid that ended up being a really fun guy and another was a really fun guy who ended up being somewhat mentally unstable. James and I were roommates again this year and we got along well. Supposedly we had a 5th roommate, but I don't know that he was ever around. Something about a girlfriend? I enjoyed my classes and had a fun time with my new friends. In all this year was starting out to be a better year than the one prior. Over Winter break I met a girlfriend myself who was quite the "life experience" herself.
Spring of 2010 started and I think my friends were all kind of surprised that I was dating someone. Two of my roommates moved out and were replaced by 3 new guys. One I'd met before and he seemed cool. Two of them were a bit different and just spent most of their time in their rooms playing video games. However they did become more social and more fun throughout the semester. As the semester went on I began dating other people and I became increasingly distracted with my classes; Geophysics, structural geology, Earth history and abnormal psychology. The classes really kicked my ass, but somehow I managed to get the best GPA I ever got in college this semester. I won't say what it was as it's probably lower than most people's "best GPA" but I took a lot of hard classes over my college career! Scoring good GPAs was tough! The semester ended and I moved back to Layton once more.
I started summer of 2010 working for the Census Bureau. It wasn't the greatest job at first, but it really grew on me. Making my own hours and walking around talking to people was sort of a fun job. Plus the pay wasn't that bad for an hourly job. I began seeing the girl from spring a lot more over the summer and things remained complicated as we tossed around conversations from "Should we get married?" to "Trisha, I don't approve of you making out with my friends." Towards the middle of the summer I got a serving job at a restaurant to give me something more to do. The census job changed and I got a new job with them verifying vacant houses and was offered an option to go to North Dakota and do this. I was very excited, but then a new job was offered to me. One doing geology, or so he said. I quit both of my jobs to work as a geologist, but ended up backpacking around in the mountains hammering posts into the ground for ten hours a day and camping at night. Summer was winding down so I figured I may as well quit before I get eaten by a mountain lion and did. My grandpa and I then went on the vacation from hell before my summer completely ended and when we got back I was excited to move back to Logan for my senior year.
In the fall of 2010 I came back to two new roommates and two of the same roommates. However they all seemed really fun from day one. During that first week, we met a group of what seemed like really cool girls. I ended up doing what was probably the closest thing I've ever done to cheating on a girl as I fell asleep with the one I was interested in while still technically dating Trisha, despite the fact that we were basically broken up without having acknowledged it to each other. We spent the next few weeks hanging out every night and honestly it was some of the funnest times I had in college. I think over time we basically just got sick of each other. I offended the one who had taken interest in me because I called her out on being a hypocrite in this very blog and we quit talking, haha. Sometimes I speak before I think, but whatever, it was for the best. Over the semester I worked as an undergraduate teaching fellow for a freshman level earth science class. The classes I took this semester were another geophysics class, sed-strat, geomorphology and geoarchaeology. Needless to say the semester made me feel pretty geo'd out. Christmas break was much needed and I got an xbox. This mean that I spent the entire break playing Final Fantasy 13, but then the story ended and I felt no need to continue playing, haha.
Spring of 2011 started out as a rather dull and miserable semester. Full of lots of late nights by myself playing Mass Effect 2, Fallout 3 or researching oil deposits in the Barrent's Sea for my Petroleum Systems class. Along with that I was taking Seismology, Mineralogy (for which I should be studying right now as the final is tomorrow) and Beginning Group Guitar. I was also again an undergraduate teaching fellow for the same geology instructor, but this time for a Junior level non-major class. I really enjoyed my experiences as a UTF. About a third of the way through the semester I decided I wanted a girlfriend and began actually making an effort to date a handful of girls. Nothing seemed to happen and I really just never met anyone who I shared a mutual interest with so I gave up. Petroleum Systems ended half way into the semester and my work load was cut in half. Now here I was studying earthquakes (seismology) and rocks (mineralogy). The two reasons I wanted to be a geologist to begin with and finding myself unhappy and questioning if I was even in the right major. I got accepted into a field school at Southern Oregon University and was happy about that. I applied for graduation and turned in my papers. I have a cap and gown sitting in the corner of my room. I was ready to leave and just see what life had to offer somewhere else. Through a set of unlikely circumstances I began dating a new girl. This is a rather new development and I have little to say about it at this point other than it makes me happy. Even more recently a distant relative of mine contacted me saying he wanted to help me find a job. Maybe life post-graduation isn't going to be too terrible.
I'm scared. I'm fucking terrified of life post-graduation. I'm going to come back from Oregon some time in late July or early August (I should probably look for sure), but then what? What if I don't find a job? What if I end up living at my mom's apartment as a 25 year old unemployed college graduate? Yikes, not a pleasant thought. For the last 3 years I've always known exactly what I would do when my summer was over. This time, I could do anything from getting married and moving across the country to be a professional geologist to being that loser playing 60 hours of xbox per week at my mom's place and I really have no way of forecasting what will happen. Scary, or maybe exciting. I may not make all the right decisions. Maybe I should have stuck with engineering, but I didn't. That was my decision. I made it, no one else. As long as I'm the one deciding, shouldn't that be enough to make me happy? Saturday I'm going to walk and attend Utah State University's spring commencement ceremony. I'm very excited. I'm very terrified.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Aggie Sports
With a 3 point jump shot hitting nothing but net by Brad Brown and a subsequent block by the same player the clock hit 0:00 the last Aggie sports event that I will ever attend ended. Wait, who the hell is Brad Brown? *shrug* Apparently he has chemistry with my friends or something.
It seems like just a few months ago I headed off to Romney Stadium to attend my very first Aggie sporting event. I was pretty excited. I put on all of my gameday gear and walked across the street to our football stadium to get my seat. I watched as my team got down 7-0, then they tied it up at 7-7 and then the score was 17-7. The problem is that I had just moved to Logan from Salt Lake(ish) to begin my Sophomore year as an Aggie. I was wearing red and being a stupid Sophomore I thought "my team" was still the team I grew up liking, the Utes from the University of Utah. Anyway I had better things to do than watch sports, I left after the first quarter and went to hang out with my friends from Bountiful who had come up that night to see me. We got dinner and played Starcraft. Later that night I saw "my team" had won 58-10.
Two weeks later another big game was happening at Romney Stadium. BYU was coming to visit. Being a U of U fan I had always hated BYU, so I bought a Utah State shirt basically just to show that I wasn't supporting BYU. Utah State was coming off of a 2-10 season and was off to a stellar 0-2 start so far so I expected another 58-10 like result. At halftime the score was 34-0 for BYU, I wasn't too disappointed really, I was just there to be with my new friends. All the obnoxious BYU fans had dispersed their uncreative stolen blue color through our blue which Utah State has been using since the 1800's and had began copying the chants that all of the USU students were doing, but I didn't much care. I had no loyalty to either team. It just reassured me that the U of U was far superior to BYU and that they had the most annoying fans in the country.
Then something happened. This sophomore QB came in and scrambled around making all these huge BYU defensive players miss and he threw an off balanced pass to the corner of the end zone which was caught with one hand by some dude who didn't look like he belonged in a football jersey. The stadium erupted as if they'd just won the game. I clapped, but I was a little weirded out as to why everyone was so happy that we were only losing by 27 now. The game completely changed though, over the next 15 minutes it was almost as if they guys wearing blue were the better team. The white ones were still playing their starters, but they weren't moving the ball and USU was getting first downs. Then the skinny new QB got hit by someone twice his size and shrugged it off. He dodged two more players and began running. Making three more players miss before he was forced out of bounds after gaining 20 yards. I was so excited! A few plays later Utah State scored again. They were only down by 20 with ... oh shit, 4 minutes left. For four minutes though I was so excited to be an Aggie fan. We lost the game 34-14, but as I left I noticed that all the Utah State fans were laughing in the faces of the nationally top-10 ranked Cougar fans and taunting them about their 20 point win. Well that's stupid, but I liked these people. As football season went on we won 3 games at home and I was there for them.
People kept telling me basketball season was a whole kind of different event though. I didn't really care, watching Utah State beat teams like Idaho and NMSU in football was fun for me. Besides, USU had just lost their greatest player ever to graduation the year before. I wasn't really a huge fan of college basketball anyway. When I went to Weber State during my Freshman year I watched Weber State beat Utah State the year before and that was cool, but whatever.
I missed the first few basketball games because of work, but finally there was one I could go to. It happened to be against Weber State. I had come around to feeling like an Aggie so I wore my Weber State sweatshirt and my Utah State t-shirt. I had a few people make fun of my sweatshirt on the way to the game, but it was black so I don't think many realized it was WSU apparel. Before tipoff I took it off so I could wear blue with everyone else and sang the Scotsman and the school song with everyone too. Inside I didn't really care who won. That was until tipoff when I realized just how much fun college basketball could be.
The crowd was insane. They were loud, annoying, rude, crude, funny and everyone was in sync. It was so exciting! After a few minutes I joined in telling the Weber State players that they sucked. It was halftime and I was pissed that the game I had originally not cared about the outcome in had my Aggies down by 5. The second half was like a whole new story though. They had to come shoot the ball against the hoop where Utah State's student section is. They couldn't make anything and USU ended up winning by 10. A few days later the Utes came to play. There was no question on what color I was wearing this time, Aggie Blue. When Utah State's sophomore forward tipped in a missed shot at the buzzer to put the Aggies on top 66-64 I was ecstatic.
Over the next three years there were a lot of great (and some bad) memories in Aggie sports.
During my Sophomore year there was the time I showed up late to the Nevada game, after bombing a test, Nevada was up by a few points, but as soon as I found standing room Utah State went on a tear and the Spectrum was louder than I had ever thought possible. Over the semester we kept arriving earlier and earlier for each game, until finally we were standing out in the cold for hours waiting to just get inside so we could sit for another hour. Another time my mom came with me to a basketball game and just about had the time of her life. There was the time 4 of us sat around a customer at Chili's who had a smart phone, for about 20 minutes, to get updates as USU came back from a 13 point deficit to beat NMSU on a 15 footer by a then sophomore guard. I recall the first time I rudely pointed out who the winning team and losing team were, as if there really was any question about it.
As a Junior there was the time I finally quit hiding my eyes when Louisiana Tech dropped a pass that should have been a touchdown and with it dropped their comeback hopes. The time I went to a game in Ogden to see the Aggies beat Weber State on their home court by 6. The time BYU came back to Logan for the first time in 5 years to start off with a 10-2 lead only to later have us chanting, "Up by 20" at them. The only time I ever walked home from The Spectrum to see a white A over Old Main as St. Mary's beat us by 5. Once I came to Logan over Christmas break for a basketball game to find that I had no one to go with, I reluctantly ended up going alone, and met a girl who changed my life - if only for a moment. I remember the first hockey game I went to where we beat Boise State 10-3. There was the time when Utah State was losing the WAC tournament championship and I was so pissed all I could do was turn the TV off and make out with the girl I was with that night to forget about it.
In my senior year, I recall driving to Jackson for a geology trip we sat in shock listening to Al "the hysterical" Lewis give the play by play as Utah State played BYU in football and touchdown after touchdown was scored until the score was 32-3, advantage Aggies. Another basketball game against Weber State in which we were down by double digits only to rally back in true Spectrum fashion to win by double digits. Along with my friend, I began to become someone people noticed in the Spectrum as we got on TV every game with our silly signs. I went on a date a few weeks ago with someone I had just about nothing in common with, so instead of caring my roommate and I checked our phones every 10 minutes for score updates as the Aggies took on St. Mary's again, this time in San Francisco. They rallied back from a 12 point deficit to win by 10 and end the 19 game home win streak of the team that did the same to us the year prior.
Tonight it all came to an end. I didn't have the greatest seat. Section K, Row 11 (how appropriate), seat 13. I saw all sorts of people I had gone to games with over the past and saw various ex-flings like Amanda, Marlee and Trisha. I was there with James, my sidekick through 3 years of Aggie sports. I was there with other friends of mine Miles and Ryan. There was the typical random cute girl I had invited to feel like I had friends of the opposite gender sitting next to me. I got to see the Seniors who I had seen in every basketball game that I had been to receive framed jerseys. When Idaho came to shoot free throws and I was so excited to see what another Senior, Wild Bill, had planned for his last game I was surprised as the entire front row was wearing costumes that Bill had worn throughout the past 3 years while he stood there in just his regular gameday clothes. I got various texts and calls about my sign which read,
W U Y
Proud to have been an Aggie
U-state
I suppose I was on TV again. We avenged a loss to win a 4th straight WAC title, we all rushed the court and jumped around as I saw the nets get cut down for my 3rd straight time. Maybe I wasn't part of the team, but as I am finishing my degree this year, I couldn't help but feel like I was personally part of the greatest class in Utah State history.
When all the Seniors began leaving the game one by one and that unheard of Freshman named Brad Brown hit a 3 pointer and blocked a shot it felt so appropriate. My time in Logan is almost done. I'm grateful for that, but wow it was a fun ride. There is still two away games, the WAC tournament and the NCAA tournament (not to mention two months of classes), but my last game, as a student, at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum is over.
After the court rushing, my friends and I left. We went and got dinner and played Starcraft. In some ways not much has really changed, but as cheesy as this sounds, in other ways Aggie sports have changed my life. I've had some of the greatest times of my life at Aggie games, had conversations with people I didn't know about nothing but Aggie sports, I own no less than 7 Aggie shirts, I've written an entire blog about the fun of university sports and you just read it. I've been depressed and unwilling to even leave my apartment and dragged myself to a basketball game only to leave feeling happy and like I had 10,269 best friends, most of them just didn't know my name.
I guess pretty soon it's going to be time to move on in life and try to become something important. Maybe graduate school, maybe a career, maybe I'll go bohemian and burn all my worldly possessions, but a part of me will always be a Utah State Aggie.
It seems like just a few months ago I headed off to Romney Stadium to attend my very first Aggie sporting event. I was pretty excited. I put on all of my gameday gear and walked across the street to our football stadium to get my seat. I watched as my team got down 7-0, then they tied it up at 7-7 and then the score was 17-7. The problem is that I had just moved to Logan from Salt Lake(ish) to begin my Sophomore year as an Aggie. I was wearing red and being a stupid Sophomore I thought "my team" was still the team I grew up liking, the Utes from the University of Utah. Anyway I had better things to do than watch sports, I left after the first quarter and went to hang out with my friends from Bountiful who had come up that night to see me. We got dinner and played Starcraft. Later that night I saw "my team" had won 58-10.
Two weeks later another big game was happening at Romney Stadium. BYU was coming to visit. Being a U of U fan I had always hated BYU, so I bought a Utah State shirt basically just to show that I wasn't supporting BYU. Utah State was coming off of a 2-10 season and was off to a stellar 0-2 start so far so I expected another 58-10 like result. At halftime the score was 34-0 for BYU, I wasn't too disappointed really, I was just there to be with my new friends. All the obnoxious BYU fans had dispersed their uncreative stolen blue color through our blue which Utah State has been using since the 1800's and had began copying the chants that all of the USU students were doing, but I didn't much care. I had no loyalty to either team. It just reassured me that the U of U was far superior to BYU and that they had the most annoying fans in the country.
Then something happened. This sophomore QB came in and scrambled around making all these huge BYU defensive players miss and he threw an off balanced pass to the corner of the end zone which was caught with one hand by some dude who didn't look like he belonged in a football jersey. The stadium erupted as if they'd just won the game. I clapped, but I was a little weirded out as to why everyone was so happy that we were only losing by 27 now. The game completely changed though, over the next 15 minutes it was almost as if they guys wearing blue were the better team. The white ones were still playing their starters, but they weren't moving the ball and USU was getting first downs. Then the skinny new QB got hit by someone twice his size and shrugged it off. He dodged two more players and began running. Making three more players miss before he was forced out of bounds after gaining 20 yards. I was so excited! A few plays later Utah State scored again. They were only down by 20 with ... oh shit, 4 minutes left. For four minutes though I was so excited to be an Aggie fan. We lost the game 34-14, but as I left I noticed that all the Utah State fans were laughing in the faces of the nationally top-10 ranked Cougar fans and taunting them about their 20 point win. Well that's stupid, but I liked these people. As football season went on we won 3 games at home and I was there for them.
People kept telling me basketball season was a whole kind of different event though. I didn't really care, watching Utah State beat teams like Idaho and NMSU in football was fun for me. Besides, USU had just lost their greatest player ever to graduation the year before. I wasn't really a huge fan of college basketball anyway. When I went to Weber State during my Freshman year I watched Weber State beat Utah State the year before and that was cool, but whatever.
I missed the first few basketball games because of work, but finally there was one I could go to. It happened to be against Weber State. I had come around to feeling like an Aggie so I wore my Weber State sweatshirt and my Utah State t-shirt. I had a few people make fun of my sweatshirt on the way to the game, but it was black so I don't think many realized it was WSU apparel. Before tipoff I took it off so I could wear blue with everyone else and sang the Scotsman and the school song with everyone too. Inside I didn't really care who won. That was until tipoff when I realized just how much fun college basketball could be.
The crowd was insane. They were loud, annoying, rude, crude, funny and everyone was in sync. It was so exciting! After a few minutes I joined in telling the Weber State players that they sucked. It was halftime and I was pissed that the game I had originally not cared about the outcome in had my Aggies down by 5. The second half was like a whole new story though. They had to come shoot the ball against the hoop where Utah State's student section is. They couldn't make anything and USU ended up winning by 10. A few days later the Utes came to play. There was no question on what color I was wearing this time, Aggie Blue. When Utah State's sophomore forward tipped in a missed shot at the buzzer to put the Aggies on top 66-64 I was ecstatic.
Over the next three years there were a lot of great (and some bad) memories in Aggie sports.
During my Sophomore year there was the time I showed up late to the Nevada game, after bombing a test, Nevada was up by a few points, but as soon as I found standing room Utah State went on a tear and the Spectrum was louder than I had ever thought possible. Over the semester we kept arriving earlier and earlier for each game, until finally we were standing out in the cold for hours waiting to just get inside so we could sit for another hour. Another time my mom came with me to a basketball game and just about had the time of her life. There was the time 4 of us sat around a customer at Chili's who had a smart phone, for about 20 minutes, to get updates as USU came back from a 13 point deficit to beat NMSU on a 15 footer by a then sophomore guard. I recall the first time I rudely pointed out who the winning team and losing team were, as if there really was any question about it.
As a Junior there was the time I finally quit hiding my eyes when Louisiana Tech dropped a pass that should have been a touchdown and with it dropped their comeback hopes. The time I went to a game in Ogden to see the Aggies beat Weber State on their home court by 6. The time BYU came back to Logan for the first time in 5 years to start off with a 10-2 lead only to later have us chanting, "Up by 20" at them. The only time I ever walked home from The Spectrum to see a white A over Old Main as St. Mary's beat us by 5. Once I came to Logan over Christmas break for a basketball game to find that I had no one to go with, I reluctantly ended up going alone, and met a girl who changed my life - if only for a moment. I remember the first hockey game I went to where we beat Boise State 10-3. There was the time when Utah State was losing the WAC tournament championship and I was so pissed all I could do was turn the TV off and make out with the girl I was with that night to forget about it.
In my senior year, I recall driving to Jackson for a geology trip we sat in shock listening to Al "the hysterical" Lewis give the play by play as Utah State played BYU in football and touchdown after touchdown was scored until the score was 32-3, advantage Aggies. Another basketball game against Weber State in which we were down by double digits only to rally back in true Spectrum fashion to win by double digits. Along with my friend, I began to become someone people noticed in the Spectrum as we got on TV every game with our silly signs. I went on a date a few weeks ago with someone I had just about nothing in common with, so instead of caring my roommate and I checked our phones every 10 minutes for score updates as the Aggies took on St. Mary's again, this time in San Francisco. They rallied back from a 12 point deficit to win by 10 and end the 19 game home win streak of the team that did the same to us the year prior.
Tonight it all came to an end. I didn't have the greatest seat. Section K, Row 11 (how appropriate), seat 13. I saw all sorts of people I had gone to games with over the past and saw various ex-flings like Amanda, Marlee and Trisha. I was there with James, my sidekick through 3 years of Aggie sports. I was there with other friends of mine Miles and Ryan. There was the typical random cute girl I had invited to feel like I had friends of the opposite gender sitting next to me. I got to see the Seniors who I had seen in every basketball game that I had been to receive framed jerseys. When Idaho came to shoot free throws and I was so excited to see what another Senior, Wild Bill, had planned for his last game I was surprised as the entire front row was wearing costumes that Bill had worn throughout the past 3 years while he stood there in just his regular gameday clothes. I got various texts and calls about my sign which read,
Proud to have been an Aggie
U-state
I suppose I was on TV again. We avenged a loss to win a 4th straight WAC title, we all rushed the court and jumped around as I saw the nets get cut down for my 3rd straight time. Maybe I wasn't part of the team, but as I am finishing my degree this year, I couldn't help but feel like I was personally part of the greatest class in Utah State history.
When all the Seniors began leaving the game one by one and that unheard of Freshman named Brad Brown hit a 3 pointer and blocked a shot it felt so appropriate. My time in Logan is almost done. I'm grateful for that, but wow it was a fun ride. There is still two away games, the WAC tournament and the NCAA tournament (not to mention two months of classes), but my last game, as a student, at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum is over.
After the court rushing, my friends and I left. We went and got dinner and played Starcraft. In some ways not much has really changed, but as cheesy as this sounds, in other ways Aggie sports have changed my life. I've had some of the greatest times of my life at Aggie games, had conversations with people I didn't know about nothing but Aggie sports, I own no less than 7 Aggie shirts, I've written an entire blog about the fun of university sports and you just read it. I've been depressed and unwilling to even leave my apartment and dragged myself to a basketball game only to leave feeling happy and like I had 10,269 best friends, most of them just didn't know my name.
I guess pretty soon it's going to be time to move on in life and try to become something important. Maybe graduate school, maybe a career, maybe I'll go bohemian and burn all my worldly possessions, but a part of me will always be a Utah State Aggie.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Utah State, Hey! Hypocrisy all the way!
Go Aggies, Go Aggies, Hey! Hey! Hey!
Okay that's an incredibly cheesy title, but it gets my point across. Utah State is full of hypocrites. No, this isn't a catch all as there are plenty of people who are not hypocrites, but man - so many students here are. This blog is going to sound like it's ripping on females, but it goes both ways and trust me, I know this. Unfortunately the examples I have are all based on females as I'm a guy and that's what I date.
So I was chatting with Ryan last night about girls here and like, I've known this for years, but it sort of hit me like a brick wall. My university is the most hypocritical university not named BYU in the country. Speaking of BYU, let's start there. Utah State students love to make fun of BYU. LDS and non-LDS alike. I feel there is nothing wrong with non-LDS students or even regular laid back LDS students making fun of BYU as making fun of BYU is both fun and incredibly easy. However, the super molly mormon girls and boys of this wonderful community do the exact same thing. I have a problem with this as they are basically just BYU students who moved to Logan to have a sliver of normality to their college years.
Despite what the self-appointed God's children in Provo like to claim about Utah State being a safety school for BYU, BYU is NOT a hard school to get into and I know more than one person who turned down a full-ride scholarship to the Y to come here simply because they liked the atmosphere better and the program they were interested in wasn't business or multi-level marketing.
Anyway, now that that is out of the way - there's a joke, "What did the BYU coed do when her boyfriend put in an R-rated movie? She put her bra and panties back on and left in disgust." Wanna hear a funny story... so a few weeks ago this girl didn't want to watch Saving Private Ryan with our friends, so instead we went to my room and ... "stuff." Fail. Basically the joke applies to Utah State girls too. Of course after a couple months of indulging themselves in the normal ways of life they always feel bad and have to end the normal healthy relationship they've been having with you. Some of them even go the BYU rape route. (BYU Rape is when you consensually fool around with someone in a sexual manner but then pretend after the fact that you didn't want it because you don't want people knowing that you're human and have urges just like everyone else that you occasionally give into. Instead, since you are such a dirt-bag, you think it is better to lie about the whole scenario and try to place all the blame on your partner.)
I love how it's just perfectly okay to pick and choose which doctrines of your religion you want to follow. Mormonism really reflects Catholicism in some respects. In fact I've been trying to do this for the past 8 years of my life. It started when I was 16 and I decided that I didn't need to go to church to be LDS, then around 18 I decided a good LDS kid could mess around with girls and drink now and then, in my 20's I changed and stopped those habits (mostly) but throughout this time no one really considered me a good LDS kid. Even today I go to church semi-actively (maybe not so much the past monthish), I do a pretty good job of avoiding alcohol for a university student and read my Joe Smith literature. I've even avoided excessive amounts of sexuality since basically my west-coast fling. However, because I'm open about my life and don't really hide it none of my friends consider my a good Mormon when many of them read their scriptures less, do just as much with the opposite gender and have tried alcohol themselves. Why do I not understand how being open about it to everyone makes you "less-mormon" than hiding it.
Once about two years ago I dated this girl named ... let's call her Shorty. She was really easy. The second time we made out we had our hands down each others pants and the remainder of our relationship was about like this. Shorty was not a virgin and was quite proud of this fact. On multiple occasions she would try to get me to sleep with her. While it was tempting and she was certainly cute she had cold sores and I'm not taking any chances when it comes to herpes. Seriously, that's like the number one reason I never slept with her, herpes scares the crap out of me. Well, that and despite being really cute, her body looked like she'd never worked out in her life. Anyway, Shorty and I broke up - her citing that she needed a "Good boy, like Greg." Greg was my 25 year old (at the time) roommate who was an RM and married the first girl he ever kissed. What.. the.. fuck..?
Two months later she was dating a frat bro. Seriously, this is the crap kind of element one has to choose from to date up here.
You know, I just went back in my blog and edited out "what the fuck," but then I realized the purpose of this blog is to complain about that kind of attitude, so I put it back. I am sick of people being offended by the occasional appropriately placed curse word. Grow up. Guess what, life is rated R. If you can't deal with it, take the easy way out - move to Provo. It really is absolutely ridiculous though that people will get offended at a word. Now at the expense of possibly adding excessive profanity to my blog post (If you're easily offended, skip ahead to where it says "end profanity" and if you're not - you've been warned.) take this for example. If I tell the average Utah State student, "Yeah, that's fun to do while sexing." They will laugh at my use of the word "sexing." However if I were to say "Yeah, that's fun to do while fucking." They will gasp in offense. Where is the difference? I said the exact same thing. The only difference is that USU culture tells you the word fuck is offensive and you know that you have to react how USU culture expects or you won't be accepted by your friends who do act within the USU paradigm. You have no real reason to be bothered by the word. God isn't bothered by the word. You just had someone you respected at some point in your life tell you that fuck is an inappropriate word and that you shouldn't ever use it. Guess what - if you're in a job interview you probably should not say, "Fuck yeah I'm interested in working for you." because you will sound like a moron. In fact in most conversations there really is no real reason to use the word fuck, but every now and then, the most appropriate word to use is fuck, and you should fucking say it.
//end profanity//
I had a friend tell me the other day, "My bishop always says, 'What is more important right now than marriage?'." (Holy punctuation chain.) Uh... seriously? You're going to ask the top quarter in intelligence of the 18-25 year old demographic what is more important than marriage? *dramatic inhale for effect* How about growing up, learning to live life on your own, becoming self-sufficient from your parents, having a job, keeping a job, doing well in school, staying committed to school semester after semester, finding out what you want to do when you grow up, taking the classes you need to achieve that goal, staying out of debt, eating healthy, staying in shape, creating lasting friendships, creating a professional network and staying away from drugs? Though.. I mean.. I suppose compared to marriage those are all pretty much pointless.. if you're an idiot. Oh wait, no I already pointed out that these are for the most part all incredibly intelligent individuals, hence why they are in a student ward in a town which is home to a top tier national public land grant university.
What is more important than marriage? Sir, you are a dumbass.
You're probably wondering how this all ties into my rant against hypocrisy. Well, have you seen that "Provo, Utah girls" spoof on the Katy Perry song? Yeahhhh... again with the Utah State students acting exactly like BYU students. Hey ladies, if I wanted to date a marriage hungry fiend I'd have lied my way into BYU. Now don't get me wrong, not all Utah State girls are hypocrites - in fact one I've been crushing on the past couple weeks seems quite the opposite of this despite being fromUtah Valley hell - just a large enough majority are that it's quite bothersome.
I could go on about stories of hypocrites I've dated, but I'd like to at least stay on speaking terms with some of my ex's and not use examples from their personal lives - so I'll just stick to my example of Shorty who, by the way, ended up marrying the frat bro (dead serious.)
Okay that's an incredibly cheesy title, but it gets my point across. Utah State is full of hypocrites. No, this isn't a catch all as there are plenty of people who are not hypocrites, but man - so many students here are. This blog is going to sound like it's ripping on females, but it goes both ways and trust me, I know this. Unfortunately the examples I have are all based on females as I'm a guy and that's what I date.
So I was chatting with Ryan last night about girls here and like, I've known this for years, but it sort of hit me like a brick wall. My university is the most hypocritical university not named BYU in the country. Speaking of BYU, let's start there. Utah State students love to make fun of BYU. LDS and non-LDS alike. I feel there is nothing wrong with non-LDS students or even regular laid back LDS students making fun of BYU as making fun of BYU is both fun and incredibly easy. However, the super molly mormon girls and boys of this wonderful community do the exact same thing. I have a problem with this as they are basically just BYU students who moved to Logan to have a sliver of normality to their college years.
Despite what the self-appointed God's children in Provo like to claim about Utah State being a safety school for BYU, BYU is NOT a hard school to get into and I know more than one person who turned down a full-ride scholarship to the Y to come here simply because they liked the atmosphere better and the program they were interested in wasn't business or multi-level marketing.
Anyway, now that that is out of the way - there's a joke, "What did the BYU coed do when her boyfriend put in an R-rated movie? She put her bra and panties back on and left in disgust." Wanna hear a funny story... so a few weeks ago this girl didn't want to watch Saving Private Ryan with our friends, so instead we went to my room and ... "stuff." Fail. Basically the joke applies to Utah State girls too. Of course after a couple months of indulging themselves in the normal ways of life they always feel bad and have to end the normal healthy relationship they've been having with you. Some of them even go the BYU rape route. (BYU Rape is when you consensually fool around with someone in a sexual manner but then pretend after the fact that you didn't want it because you don't want people knowing that you're human and have urges just like everyone else that you occasionally give into. Instead, since you are such a dirt-bag, you think it is better to lie about the whole scenario and try to place all the blame on your partner.)
I love how it's just perfectly okay to pick and choose which doctrines of your religion you want to follow. Mormonism really reflects Catholicism in some respects. In fact I've been trying to do this for the past 8 years of my life. It started when I was 16 and I decided that I didn't need to go to church to be LDS, then around 18 I decided a good LDS kid could mess around with girls and drink now and then, in my 20's I changed and stopped those habits (mostly) but throughout this time no one really considered me a good LDS kid. Even today I go to church semi-actively (maybe not so much the past monthish), I do a pretty good job of avoiding alcohol for a university student and read my Joe Smith literature. I've even avoided excessive amounts of sexuality since basically my west-coast fling. However, because I'm open about my life and don't really hide it none of my friends consider my a good Mormon when many of them read their scriptures less, do just as much with the opposite gender and have tried alcohol themselves. Why do I not understand how being open about it to everyone makes you "less-mormon" than hiding it.
Once about two years ago I dated this girl named ... let's call her Shorty. She was really easy. The second time we made out we had our hands down each others pants and the remainder of our relationship was about like this. Shorty was not a virgin and was quite proud of this fact. On multiple occasions she would try to get me to sleep with her. While it was tempting and she was certainly cute she had cold sores and I'm not taking any chances when it comes to herpes. Seriously, that's like the number one reason I never slept with her, herpes scares the crap out of me. Well, that and despite being really cute, her body looked like she'd never worked out in her life. Anyway, Shorty and I broke up - her citing that she needed a "Good boy, like Greg." Greg was my 25 year old (at the time) roommate who was an RM and married the first girl he ever kissed. What.. the.. fuck..?
Two months later she was dating a frat bro. Seriously, this is the crap kind of element one has to choose from to date up here.
You know, I just went back in my blog and edited out "what the fuck," but then I realized the purpose of this blog is to complain about that kind of attitude, so I put it back. I am sick of people being offended by the occasional appropriately placed curse word. Grow up. Guess what, life is rated R. If you can't deal with it, take the easy way out - move to Provo. It really is absolutely ridiculous though that people will get offended at a word. Now at the expense of possibly adding excessive profanity to my blog post (If you're easily offended, skip ahead to where it says "end profanity" and if you're not - you've been warned.) take this for example. If I tell the average Utah State student, "Yeah, that's fun to do while sexing." They will laugh at my use of the word "sexing." However if I were to say "Yeah, that's fun to do while fucking." They will gasp in offense. Where is the difference? I said the exact same thing. The only difference is that USU culture tells you the word fuck is offensive and you know that you have to react how USU culture expects or you won't be accepted by your friends who do act within the USU paradigm. You have no real reason to be bothered by the word. God isn't bothered by the word. You just had someone you respected at some point in your life tell you that fuck is an inappropriate word and that you shouldn't ever use it. Guess what - if you're in a job interview you probably should not say, "Fuck yeah I'm interested in working for you." because you will sound like a moron. In fact in most conversations there really is no real reason to use the word fuck, but every now and then, the most appropriate word to use is fuck, and you should fucking say it.
//end profanity//
I had a friend tell me the other day, "My bishop always says, 'What is more important right now than marriage?'." (Holy punctuation chain.) Uh... seriously? You're going to ask the top quarter in intelligence of the 18-25 year old demographic what is more important than marriage? *dramatic inhale for effect* How about growing up, learning to live life on your own, becoming self-sufficient from your parents, having a job, keeping a job, doing well in school, staying committed to school semester after semester, finding out what you want to do when you grow up, taking the classes you need to achieve that goal, staying out of debt, eating healthy, staying in shape, creating lasting friendships, creating a professional network and staying away from drugs? Though.. I mean.. I suppose compared to marriage those are all pretty much pointless.. if you're an idiot. Oh wait, no I already pointed out that these are for the most part all incredibly intelligent individuals, hence why they are in a student ward in a town which is home to a top tier national public land grant university.
What is more important than marriage? Sir, you are a dumbass.
You're probably wondering how this all ties into my rant against hypocrisy. Well, have you seen that "Provo, Utah girls" spoof on the Katy Perry song? Yeahhhh... again with the Utah State students acting exactly like BYU students. Hey ladies, if I wanted to date a marriage hungry fiend I'd have lied my way into BYU. Now don't get me wrong, not all Utah State girls are hypocrites - in fact one I've been crushing on the past couple weeks seems quite the opposite of this despite being from
I could go on about stories of hypocrites I've dated, but I'd like to at least stay on speaking terms with some of my ex's and not use examples from their personal lives - so I'll just stick to my example of Shorty who, by the way, ended up marrying the frat bro (dead serious.)
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Signs you go to Utah State
In no particular order :
You have been walking to or from class and passed by a tractor.
You think the "French Fries" are a valid reference point to use when giving directions to Freshmen.
At midnight under a full moon rather than thinking about werewolves, you're thinking about who you could make out with on a statue.
You have no idea what the lyrics to your alma mater are, but you know the Scotsman!
You consider walking to class a workout.
Anything over 10 miles away is too far if you're not spending the whole weekend there.
You've dated someone who won't go out to dinner with you on Sunday night, but will wake up with you Monday morning.
You have shot zombies.
You've been in a class with someone wearing a plaid shirt or leather, who thought it looked good.
50% of females when asked about their major will respond, "Elementary education"
50% of males, when asked about their major will respond, "Well, it was engineering, but now it's business."
You have watched a movie outside in September and been freezing.
It snows during finals week, every year, both semesters.
You know what ward-prayer is.
You have cleaned the sink and greatly enjoyed doing so.
You consider a basketball game a 5 hour event.
You'd rather drive all the way across the state to watch your basketball team, than walk up the hill to watch your football team.
You have or know someone who has ridden a bull naked.
You complain about pollution, don't want your county to enact vehicle emissions standards.
In January you envy places with clean air, like Los Angeles.
You have never legally driven over 45 mph in your current home town.
The Wasatch Mountains are on the west and you actually know that.
The LDS temple in your town is older and far more beautiful than that of any other town with a university.
You have never been drunk at a college party.
Your school has a building for the Geology major, but not a building for any of the Humanities or Social Sciences.
You have absolutely no idea what your mascot is supposed to be, but everyone kind of pretends that it's a bull.
It has been 0*F and sunny at noon.
You think the 500 or so Asians at your school of over 18,000 make it "diverse."
Your schools gym is about as old as the school itself, but it has 3 new engineering buildings.
You have seen pigs on campus.
You like to point out who the winning and losing teams are, even after a 50 point win in which there really was no question the entire game.
Sledding down Old Main Hill is a graduation requirement.
Your friends facebook status updates begin complaining about how much they hate winter in late September.
It snows for 5 months out of the year, but you have only seen 2 snow plows in your entire college career.
You are in college, but you can't remember the last time you went to Denny's.
You have been walking to or from class and passed by a tractor.
You think the "French Fries" are a valid reference point to use when giving directions to Freshmen.
At midnight under a full moon rather than thinking about werewolves, you're thinking about who you could make out with on a statue.
You have no idea what the lyrics to your alma mater are, but you know the Scotsman!
You consider walking to class a workout.
Anything over 10 miles away is too far if you're not spending the whole weekend there.
You've dated someone who won't go out to dinner with you on Sunday night, but will wake up with you Monday morning.
You have shot zombies.
You've been in a class with someone wearing a plaid shirt or leather, who thought it looked good.
50% of females when asked about their major will respond, "Elementary education"
50% of males, when asked about their major will respond, "Well, it was engineering, but now it's business."
You have watched a movie outside in September and been freezing.
It snows during finals week, every year, both semesters.
You know what ward-prayer is.
You have cleaned the sink and greatly enjoyed doing so.
You consider a basketball game a 5 hour event.
You'd rather drive all the way across the state to watch your basketball team, than walk up the hill to watch your football team.
You have or know someone who has ridden a bull naked.
You complain about pollution, don't want your county to enact vehicle emissions standards.
In January you envy places with clean air, like Los Angeles.
You have never legally driven over 45 mph in your current home town.
The Wasatch Mountains are on the west and you actually know that.
The LDS temple in your town is older and far more beautiful than that of any other town with a university.
You have never been drunk at a college party.
Your school has a building for the Geology major, but not a building for any of the Humanities or Social Sciences.
You have absolutely no idea what your mascot is supposed to be, but everyone kind of pretends that it's a bull.
It has been 0*F and sunny at noon.
You think the 500 or so Asians at your school of over 18,000 make it "diverse."
Your schools gym is about as old as the school itself, but it has 3 new engineering buildings.
You have seen pigs on campus.
You like to point out who the winning and losing teams are, even after a 50 point win in which there really was no question the entire game.
Sledding down Old Main Hill is a graduation requirement.
Your friends facebook status updates begin complaining about how much they hate winter in late September.
It snows for 5 months out of the year, but you have only seen 2 snow plows in your entire college career.
You are in college, but you can't remember the last time you went to Denny's.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Zombie Apocalypse
Last week these was an outbreak of a virus on the Utah State campus which spread to the student population turning those infected into mindless flesh eating zombies.
I'm serious.
Anyway, it all started Monday when this kid who was a zombie began uhm.. feeding on humans. No one suspected it at first until the people who were bitten began mindless rampages on others. Many of the students began arming themselves with guns andsock balls throwing knives. On the way to class we would all watch each others backs and always travel between buildings with caution. At night humans would meet up to try and find and accomplish goals around campus to secure resources to combat the zombies. Many humans were turned into zombies and began attacking and trying to eat their friends.
Friday night a helicopter was to arrive on the field behind the towers to extract the survivors, but we had to make it from the block A to the Geology building, past the Ag. Science building, past the fries, NR building and engineering complex. Through the art sector of campus and through central campus housing. This area was crawling with hundreds of zombies. My group of 15 or so survivors began the journey. I shot many of what were once my friends and saw some of my friends become zombies. Once about 10 of us made it to the field we joined other survivors in holding off the waves of zombie invasions as we protected the helipad. A few of use escaped. I was lucky enough to be one of the survivors. Then wewent to Village Inn escaped the quarantine zone and celebrated with french toast.
Seriously though, Humans vs. Zombies is pretty intense. It's a glorified game of tag mixed with a Nerf war. What can be more fun that shooting zombies with Nerf guns? That's right, nothing. There were about 800 players originally of which maybe 650 played the game. At the end there were probably 70-80 humans left. I, along with a couple of neighbors, were among the survivors. I must admit I'm quite proud of this. I must have shot no less than 40 zombies over the week (they respawn after a few minutes,) it was rather intense. Sneaking to class, packing a Nerf pistol everywhere you go, meeting up with people for missions, humans vs. zombies is a well thought out and intense game.
Today I went to the Wellsville's to measure section. I found about 10 trilobites and must have stumbled across 100 brachiopods.. of which I only kept a few. There were some amazing fossils in the Spence Shale formation though. Kind of a crap way to spend your Saturday, but whatever. Beats sitting at home or watching Utah State's football team get slaughtered. They actually won today, but had I been there they'd have likely found a way to lose. They can run up a 31-3 lead on BYU when I'm in Wyoming, but can't even score on Hawaii when I go to the game.
On a more serious note (translation : quit reading if you're not interested in my life) I'm sick of being so damn nice all the time. Tonight I had plans with a friend. Nothing specific, but we'd discussed playing on Saturday night the prior 3 nights. I get back from the Wellsville's around 6:30 and my friend had decided something more exciting than hanging out with me came up. I was rather irked, but I played it like it was cool and just got off the phone. I sat and thought about it for a while and how normally I just let things like that go and decided I was sick of being so nice when the courtesy isn't always returned. I thought about it and in a tactful way let her know that it wasn't acceptable to use me as the "in case nothing else comes up" plan. It felt really good.
I wasn't really annoyed, I ended up watching the Jazz game, hanging out with my roommates and going to see some neighbors later tonight. I just felt really proud of myself for being confident enough to express that I am not a backup plan... in so many words... I don't really remember exactly what I said. I also felt proud of myself for being mature and tactful about it. Maybe this is part of growing up, haha. Earlier this week I did a similar thing with another friend that did something to annoy me. I didn't get angry, I didn't get all butt-hurt. I simply let her know that I didn't appreciate how she decided to act towards me and that was it.
If I compare this to how I may have acted in my late-teens or early-twenties I really like how I've changed. I am seriously proud of myself for how I handled a handful of situations this week that I would have reacted much differently to in prior years. It's nice to just stay cool, but let people know how you feel anyway. Totally beats overreacting or ignoring the situation altogether. Now if only I could learn to treat school the same way. Whenever I do bad on a test I either get depressed or just play it like I don't care. What's the alternative to these? blah. Well daylight savings has been good to me, but it's 2:22 (even with my extra hour) and I need to get to bed as I've not slept more than 3 or 4 hours the past 3 nights, though I have cheated and had a nap or two, and apparently my eyes are bloodshot because of it. Bye!
I'm serious.
Anyway, it all started Monday when this kid who was a zombie began uhm.. feeding on humans. No one suspected it at first until the people who were bitten began mindless rampages on others. Many of the students began arming themselves with guns and
Friday night a helicopter was to arrive on the field behind the towers to extract the survivors, but we had to make it from the block A to the Geology building, past the Ag. Science building, past the fries, NR building and engineering complex. Through the art sector of campus and through central campus housing. This area was crawling with hundreds of zombies. My group of 15 or so survivors began the journey. I shot many of what were once my friends and saw some of my friends become zombies. Once about 10 of us made it to the field we joined other survivors in holding off the waves of zombie invasions as we protected the helipad. A few of use escaped. I was lucky enough to be one of the survivors. Then we
Seriously though, Humans vs. Zombies is pretty intense. It's a glorified game of tag mixed with a Nerf war. What can be more fun that shooting zombies with Nerf guns? That's right, nothing. There were about 800 players originally of which maybe 650 played the game. At the end there were probably 70-80 humans left. I, along with a couple of neighbors, were among the survivors. I must admit I'm quite proud of this. I must have shot no less than 40 zombies over the week (they respawn after a few minutes,) it was rather intense. Sneaking to class, packing a Nerf pistol everywhere you go, meeting up with people for missions, humans vs. zombies is a well thought out and intense game.
Today I went to the Wellsville's to measure section. I found about 10 trilobites and must have stumbled across 100 brachiopods.. of which I only kept a few. There were some amazing fossils in the Spence Shale formation though. Kind of a crap way to spend your Saturday, but whatever. Beats sitting at home or watching Utah State's football team get slaughtered. They actually won today, but had I been there they'd have likely found a way to lose. They can run up a 31-3 lead on BYU when I'm in Wyoming, but can't even score on Hawaii when I go to the game.
On a more serious note (translation : quit reading if you're not interested in my life) I'm sick of being so damn nice all the time. Tonight I had plans with a friend. Nothing specific, but we'd discussed playing on Saturday night the prior 3 nights. I get back from the Wellsville's around 6:30 and my friend had decided something more exciting than hanging out with me came up. I was rather irked, but I played it like it was cool and just got off the phone. I sat and thought about it for a while and how normally I just let things like that go and decided I was sick of being so nice when the courtesy isn't always returned. I thought about it and in a tactful way let her know that it wasn't acceptable to use me as the "in case nothing else comes up" plan. It felt really good.
I wasn't really annoyed, I ended up watching the Jazz game, hanging out with my roommates and going to see some neighbors later tonight. I just felt really proud of myself for being confident enough to express that I am not a backup plan... in so many words... I don't really remember exactly what I said. I also felt proud of myself for being mature and tactful about it. Maybe this is part of growing up, haha. Earlier this week I did a similar thing with another friend that did something to annoy me. I didn't get angry, I didn't get all butt-hurt. I simply let her know that I didn't appreciate how she decided to act towards me and that was it.
If I compare this to how I may have acted in my late-teens or early-twenties I really like how I've changed. I am seriously proud of myself for how I handled a handful of situations this week that I would have reacted much differently to in prior years. It's nice to just stay cool, but let people know how you feel anyway. Totally beats overreacting or ignoring the situation altogether. Now if only I could learn to treat school the same way. Whenever I do bad on a test I either get depressed or just play it like I don't care. What's the alternative to these? blah. Well daylight savings has been good to me, but it's 2:22 (even with my extra hour) and I need to get to bed as I've not slept more than 3 or 4 hours the past 3 nights, though I have cheated and had a nap or two, and apparently my eyes are bloodshot because of it. Bye!
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