I’m a little heartbroken. Football’s over, which means the sports I watch on purpose are done until the fall (I’ve fallen asleep to a baseball game several times). The festivities culminated last Sunday, in a super event of epic proportions. At least, that’s the way things were supposed to turn out. I’m not sure what changed this year, but the most exciting part of the big game was, according to this blogger, when the lights went out. At our party, the jokes would not stop, and bets were made on how much longer it’d take.

Some friends and I did have a small get together. We all brought a dish. I’ve never had so much cheese dip nor as many desserts in my life, because that’s everything everyone brought. But it was still nice. Then, to the background noise of the biggest football game of the season, we played online quiz games. Before we knew it, the game was over.

The commercials weren’t very memorable.

What happened?

Did you know Poland has the 5th most tractors on any country on the planet?

That’s from one of the quiz games I played.

Anyway, I’m not sure what made this year’s football showdown so not important to me. Maybe it’s because both teams came from opposite coasts, causing me to be completely neutral. I tried to be a 49ers fan. They had a great comeback, or so I’ve heard.

Missed it.

It’s a Winter Wonderland. I’m walking in it, and my shoes are getting soaked.

Late last year I wrote a post about the snowy weather ruining the school year. I complained about the way the roads would be, how cold it would get and about the fact that I hate soup.

It is currently 45 degrees out, and has been raining all morning. Allow me to apologize for my hasty analysis of what this winter would bring.

Unless I’m forced to make awkward conversation with people on the bus, I’m probably done discussing the weather. There is no formula to describe what it will bring. You can’t count cards and anticipate what Iowa weather will be like. It’s all roulette. From now on, I’m just going to wake up, look out the window, say, “Oh,” and carry on with my day.

There is no meteorology major at the University of Iowa. There’s nothing amazing about the daily weather. I get it.

Breaks are always welcome, but the 5 week winter break we just had really started to draaaaaaag after New Year’s Day. Regardless, it’s great to be back in ye grand ol’ Iowa City. It’s been so cold, I’ve actually taken to wearing scarfs. They’re functional and stylish!

Here’s an overview of what happened within the last 5 weeks, in case you decided to make like a bear and hibernate in a cave.

• We learned that tragedy leads to finger-pointing rather than cooperation.
• We rode up to the fiscal cliff, then instead of falling over, hopped on to a glider. We’ve got a little while before it becomes worthy of major news attention again.
• The world didn’t end, which is wonderful considering that I decided to not invest all my money in scratch off lottery tickets.
• A cluster of holidays happened, reminding me of the generous person I should be but give up on soon after.
• The ball dropped in New York City, but NO ONE had champagne in Times Square.
• Alabama beat Notre Dame, and we experienced the controversy one man could cause by complimenting a younger woman on national television (although she later commented that it was a nice gesture).
• The 49ers and Ravens are going to New Orleans. You can join them in the Superdome if you’ve got two grand to drop on a ticket (and a lot more to buy gumbo).
• People only care about certain sports when they involve controversy. I had forgotten cycling was a thing.
• Obama was inaugurated for his second term in office, except this time the crowd in DC was a lot smaller. I probably wouldn’t have gone either. IT’S COLD OUT!
• I purchased 3 new appliances. A blender, crock pot and electric kettle. My life is becoming overrun with convenience. I hired a robot to write this blog.

I probably forgot something, don’t be shy in telling me what.

Happy second semester!

Adam

Last weekend, I drove out to the suburbs of Chicago to visit my grandparents. The visit was pleasant, and while I was sad to go, that feeling was soon lost in a sense of bitter humor as I forked over eight more dollars (close to seventeen round trip) on the Illinois tollway to get back to my state of free highways and corn.

So now that the elections are officially over (Florida finally joined the party! More importantly, who cares?!), I have to ask: Where did the politics go? Where are all the fiery Facebook posts? The political ads? The local news covering something that mattered? It seems we all stop caring once it’s no longer a competition, once we no longer have the need to butt heads with our neighbors. What does that say about the rest of our political system? At it’s core, is it a crummy action movie we turn on in the background for noise? Politicians take it seriously while we ignore what’s happening.

Whether you liked all the media attention and propaganda during the election or not, it got you to care about something. You discussed (sometimes incoherently) the issues with your friends and Facebook acquaintances, and you probably read the paper more. You paid attention to something. Obviously, always having political commercials on would drive us to the brink, but would it be the end of the world to do some of the arguing for ourselves? If we controlled more of the discussion and cared about something, Washington would probably run a little more smoothly.

It’d be a little outdated for me to wear this. Why is that?

Tomorrow is your last day to exercise your voice, productively, in American politics. If you haven’t been lured into voting early by the many opportunities to do so on campus, get ready for the rush that is voting on election day. It’ll be messy and crowded, but it’ll be worth it!

Democracy in America is the best system of government on the face of the planet. We enjoy freedoms many other countries, even those as developed as our own, don’t get. However, we’re a broken and messy system. Democracy has grown from several thousand Greeks screaming at each other in a stadium into a giant, misinformed, argument between 300 million individuals which includes (but certainly is not limited to) the fabrication of lies, finger pointing, and eating Big Macs. That’s American Democracy.

Here’s an analogy. Imagine you’re driving your little brother to the hospital to get vaccinations. He’s getting these vaccinations so that he can be allowed in schools, get an education, and then lead a better existence as compared to what he’s attained in his current four year old lifespan. However, he refuses to see your point of view, and does everything in his power to ruin your plan (including kicking, screaming, and creating Filibusters), because all he sees is the 5 seconds of pain during the shot.

You represent one political party (it doesn’t matter, take your pick), and your little brother represents the other. That’s why nothing gets done, the debt goes up, and news sources make money playing the blame game.

There’s no simple fix to anything. There simply can’t be in a situation involving over 300 million people, and almost equally as many different factors. However you vote on November 6 (and please do), make sure you’re hoping to promote unity and teamwork within our nation, and not just trying to kick the other side in the pants.

I’m a little late with the blog this week. This last weekend was busy, but I admit that today is a totally free day for me, and I’m just getting this up. I think I’ve found the biggest danger to my college education…

It’s not debt from tuition, nor is it the weather (best wishes to anyone affected by current weather conditions), nor is it hunger.

It’s AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”

It’s actually a collaboration of a number of things. For starters, today is the wonderful break in my week where there’s nothing going on. Minimal classes combine with sleeping in, add a pinch of distraction like Netflix or Facebook and… VOILA! A whole day wasted. Today, I went so far as to do dishes to avoid doing homework (although… they really needed to be done…). Luckily I have an open evening to get my act together, but it’s about time.

Be careful with the free time college life provides you with. Because block scheduling with classes starting at 8 and extracurricular stuff that run until 12 hours later no longer exist, you’ll be tempted to do the polar opposite. So don’t be like me, do something today.

Maybe go vote?

-Adam

Halloween is upon us, and it’s important to get the most that you can out of the event. Now, while it’s key to dress up like your career aspirations (I’m surprised by the number of girls that want to be police officers, nurses, and bumblebees!), there are other steps you should take to maximize the holiday before you get old…and have to give actual kids candy.

1. Go trick-or-treating. Obviously. There’s a lot of residential area in Iowa City, Corralville and Cedar Rapids. If you’re feeling up to it, there’s no funner a way to earn a bag full of candy…and make people roll their eyes!
2. Get to a haunted house. Yes, you’ll know it’s fake. Yes, you’ll feel like you wasted 20 bucks walking through a barn (a normal part of Iowa culture), but you’ll get to tweet about it and Instagram every cheesy moment. Plus! You’ll get to feel brains in a bowl (I didn’t know brains were so much like spaghetti! Yum!)
3. Watch a scary movie and get scared. Get scared to the point where it throws off your sleep schedule. There are so many “Paranormal Activity” movies out, they’re like “Normal Activity” for me. I’ll be watching anything with Chucky in it. I watched that movie when I was 8 and that stuff sticks…
4. Carve a pumpkin. Make art out of it. When else is it culturally acceptable to butcher bad tasting vegetables? (Is pumpkin a vegetable? Nope…it’s a fruit…either way, now’s the time when it’s O.K. to play with your food…are pumpkins really food?).

Booo!

Know the feeling you get after conquering something you thought you never had a chance against? Like at the end of most action movies, where the protagonist is sitting outside the ambulance, a bandage on his arm where he was shot during countless shootouts/chase sequences, and he’s totally chill talking to the commissioner or something? I’m buzzing on that feeling right now.

Obviously, I haven’t been shot or shot at, I haven’t faced any real physical danger at all.

My midterm sequence is all done.

It is quite the relief. No more four hour nights (I’m too much of a sissy to pull all-nighters, it’s never worth it), no more coffee overdoses, and no more stressing over the fact that I should have tried harder the first half of the semester. It is done amigos.

Despite my content and nostalgia over my accomplishments, it’s probably time to set some goals for this next half-semester.

No more putting off studying, missing homework assignments, waiting until the night before, skipping classes, not talking to professors, not studying a little bit every night, abusing caffeine to fix my mistakes, pretending watching MythBusters on Netflix is learning, staring at the wall, consistent late nights, SparkNoting, starting my homework time with the easiest assignment, making excuses to get Froyo/Starbucks/Candy, Tweeting about the election and then analyzing the retweets for an hour, taking a 1:1 study time/break time ratio, planning next semester/month/week/day instead of doing my work, daydreaming, kite flying for 2 hours at a time, tandem bicycling all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge-then over it, watching Arthur because it’s “important” to revisit my childhood the 2 nights before a paper is due, finding excuses to make things I’m not going to eat, rationalizing my bad diet with stress, not exercising, talking to my fish, complaining even though I know the lack of effort is my fault, and wishing Facebook would go away on its own.

There, that’s everything…

Although…I haven’t really wasted my time on Netflix in a while…

Maybe I’ll start tomorrow.

-Adam

Mmmm…pretend sleep

Reader,

Dearest Reader,

Dearest Kindest Reader,

It’s really cold out.

Hope you’ve been bundling up. If you got sick…I’m not sure what I’d do with myself (besides shower you in scalding chicken soup).

Besides the weather, something else has been giving me chills. Sitting down today, I added up this next weak, taking into consideration tests, papers, smaller tests, homework, etc.

I’ve got 5 midterms!

Wowzers! How did that happen?

But I’ve got no fear in my heart. Instead, I’m keeping a can-do, Sunday warrior type of mentality. I’ve got a list of ways you can make up for being a bad student (scratch that…a normal student…) with what precious time you’ve got, and trick your professors into thinking that you’ve been keeping up with the work.

1.) Get some coffee. Obviously. I’m not saying you should make a pot, chug the whole damn thing, and then stay up all night, unable to do anything with the jitters. Instead, make a pot for the evening, and have a cup an hour, depending on how you handle caffeine. If one cup keeps you up all night, great, you save money. If you can’t drink coffee, too bad (kidding), instead, get some black tea. You have to drink 4 times as much to get the same caffeine, so get ready to waste time making trips to the bathroom.

2.) Note cards are your best friend. You have no time to sit down and fully comprehend stuff. You screwed that pooch. Now, you only have time to pull out key terms (or if you need to know what happened in a reading, Google “What happens in _(reading title)_?”) , stick them on a piece of paper, and then memorize that information for a brain dump come test time. Physical note cards are great because you can take them with you anywhere (feeding table, the bus, bathroom), but websites exist that let you make virtual cards, and even play games with the information.

3.) Accept your fate. Really, you should have kept up with your work. If you’re completely worried that you’ll know nothing on the test AND, you know why, it’s probably too late to really learn anything. You can still salvage the grade, it just won’t be pretty.

That’s all the advice I’ve got. But what are you doing, wasting your time reading this blog? And what am I doing? Wasting my time blogging?

Nothing happened this week, really, nothing.

Here’s a recipe for chili I figured out.

Really Manly Chili (serves 2-4)

Ingredients:

• 1 Pound Ground Beef
• 6-8 Strips of Bacon (depending on how manly you’re feeling, feel free to use more or less)
• Pepperoni(as many as you want)
• A jar of spaghetti sauce
• Various other sauces (I used 1 tbsp mustard, 3 tbsp bbq sauce and roughly 2 tsp of hot sauce)

Prep:

In a medium sauce pan, heat the beef for 3 minutes. Slice the raw bacon into smaller bits, and add them to the mix. Heat until the ground beef is cooked thoroughly. The bacon will also be cooked correctly in this time. Add the pepperoni.

Stir in as much of the spaghetti sauce you want, I used half of a jar, or roughly a cup. Mix well. Stir in the other sauces. Reduce the heat, cover, and let simmer for an additional 12 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve with toast or crackers.

Yum.

-Adam