keep austin weird

A few weekends ago I rode my scooter down to Austin and, wow, let me be the first to tell you, that place is good. And I mean real good... As we approached to city, which actually looked like kind of hilly and Calfornia-esque but not really, I was stunned to see real steel buildings, and a lot of them. I wasn't completely expecting just a bunch of farms, but I thought it would be closer to that then what I saw. UT's almost-too-big football stadium was pretty neat to actually see in real life. The capital building looked cool too, not much to say about that though. The Tiesto concert, which was straight off-the-wall-bonkers-nutty, was a nice little preview of the weekend to come. The combination of hippies, cowboys, guidos, wild animals, cops, normal people and midgets on sixth street was something I might never forget, and I'm truly grateful I had a chance to experience the weird of Austin, which I always heard so much about, first hand. It was sweet. The weekend went too fast; I just wanted to stay in Austin and with the weirdos instead of drive back to DULLas. The city was popping with excitement from Friday afternoon, throughout the weekend, all the way until Sunday afternoon, where people were still roaming sixth street.

Maybe if we start slowly started shutting down Greenville every now and then we could get it to be a little like sixth street. The atmosphere here in Dallas, however, just wouldn't compare. I'm not sure if anywhere will.

BADeries

Now I'm no Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison, and I'm not trying to imply that I am by any means, or even anything close to them, but last week I had an unfortunate experience involving technology, ultimately leaving me questioning technology as whole. Last week my friend popped the movie "Friday" into his Xbox foolishly thinking that we were going to be able to watch it... and boy he couldn't have been more wrong. What was he thinking right? He grabbed his Xbox controller, which also serves as a remote to the system, tried to turn it on but, to our shock and dismay, it didn't work. He tried a few more times before eventually forfeiting, leaving us clueless with what to do. Not being able to watch the movie, which we didn't take lightly at all, because the batteries in the controllers were dead built up a hatred toward batteries in the pit of our stomach, and even though that day is in the past, I've still been wondering-- why haven't we figured out anything more advanced than batteries? I was sitting in a room with a nice tele, an expensive Xbox, even a fifteen dollar movie, but the cheap, tiny batteries are the only things not working and preventing me from watching the movie.

Not even just that incident though, I just feel like I need batteries a lot and no one has them... They always find a way to be hella inconvenient and the problems and stress they cause far out-weigh their benefits. I'm not really sure why Energizer thinks they can say that that bunny is still going because Energizers are good for a week or two at most. At least most people get a whole month with Duracell. Something needs to be done about batteries in general- we all know that they are going to get replaced with something much more convenient... hopefully it comes sooner rather than later.

Bonaroo: The Pride of Tennessee

Though the city of Manchester doesn't serve much of a purpose in an already somewhat irrelevant state such as Tennessee, I'm sure their residents are ecstatic to call it their home while Bonaroo is in town. The four day extravaganza is one of the biggest music festivals in the country every year. Fittingly, the bands, DJs and rappers are some of the biggest in out country too: some of this years most well known performers include Dave Matthews Band, Jay-Z, and Kings of Leon. These oh-so-appealing headliners follow other superstar performers from previous years like Pearl Jam, Tiesto, and Metallica from back in 2008, and Phish (who played two shows), Beastie Boys, and the one and only- Snoop Dogg, who puts on quite the lovely show.

What's even cooler than the few mainstream headliners is, in my opinion, the one hundred plus other groups and artists that plan on preforming. The lineup is overflowing with different types of genres; festival-goers who want to bounce can watch rappers Nas, B.o.B, or Wale lay down a fresh flow, techno-heads and casual listeners alike can enjoy the beats of Bassnectar or Deadmau5, or for those who just want to take it easy and "kick it", jam bands Umphrey's McGee and The Disco Biscuits are scheduled to perform.

It's hard to to even imagine something as cool as this actually happening, but Bonaroo and the nice people of Manchester did it, have done it, and will keep doing it. June is right around the corner... go get your ticket now!!!!!

Cowb Chick

If theres one thing that I don't understand, its people who have never been to Cowboy Chicken.. The only things worse than people who haven't been there are people who don't like it and people who have never even heard of it! Are you new? Im usually there a couple times a week, maybe five or six times for a good week. Located in the little strip mall at the corner of Greenville and Lovers resides the best restaurant in the entire country and probably the world, in my opinion of course... Steve's too. Anyways, this restaurant has been flying under the radar for as long as I can remember- a few seconds away from campus, a hella cheap menu, lightning quick service, and super tasty chicken all add to the experience that Cowboy Chicken offers everyone who walks through their door, even if they walk in on accident. They re motto is- bet you can't leave with a not completely full stomach, which I certainly cant say Ive ever done! HA!

Personally, Im an advocate of the breast, leg, thigh combo, white meat for sure. For around seven dollars, you can take home all of that chicken, two "wild west" sides (the green beans are super fresh, mashed potatoes are overrated though), and even a soft, warm roll, which really accents the rest of the food. One more thing- make sure that you don't waste your money on a drink.. just say your going to get a water and put some orange soda in the cup. I recommend the experience, as a whole, the Cowboy Chicken offers... "bet you cant leave with a not completely full stomach"!"

SMU or Maimi (OH)?

A good friend of mine is struggling on one of the biggest decisions in his life as we speak, however, many may think it's not a tough call in the slightest. My friend, a senior in high school, is trying to decide what college he should spend the next four years of his life at. He applied to eight schools and was accepted to all of them, but quickly narrowed his options down to two- SMU and Miami University in Ohio. He has gone back and fourth for weeks now and has done the research on both schools, but still hasn't decided, and frankly I don't know what is taking him so long; the choice seems easy to me.


In his defense, my high school is, for some reason, a gateway to Miami of Ohio. Every year somewhere around fifteen students, give or take a few, venture to Miami University while only around three or four come down to SMU. Sure its all relative, and kids from the midwest have a tendency to want to stay in the midwest, but the choice between these two schools couldn't be more simple. Miami is located in the city of Oxford, Ohio, a small city about thirty miles away from any "big" city with not much to do. The winters are frigid in Oxford and the athletics at Miami are subpar, including their football team who is annually one of the worst teams in Division I. Contrarily, SMU is located just outside of downtown Dallas, an up-and-coming U.S. powerhouse of a city with endless opportunities. With generally nicer, warmer weather and a football team who is on the verge of cracking the top-25, I don't see how anyone could chose Miami of Ohio over SMU. Even though it really comes down to what he wants in a school, I don't see how anyone could turn down what SMU has to offer.

True Madness

For the last few years, the NCAA Basketball Tournament has been somewhat generic and the Final Four has consisted of mostly the top seeds. This year has been much different-- The 5th seeded Butler Bulldogs took down the 5th seeded Michigan State Spartans for a trip to the Championship game in yet another nail-biter on Saturday.

This tournament has been chalk-full of games that have gone down to the wire. In fact, there were more overtime games in the first round of the tournament this year than in the whole tournament last year. Teams such as Ohio, who upset Georgetown in the first round, Northern Iowa, who upset Kansas in the second round, and Butler, who has surprised the nation by making it to the final, have made this years tournament special and one that will go down in history. Butler will face off against Duke tonight, who beat West Virginia in last Saturday's semi-final. If Butler is able to pull yet another upset to complete their magical run, they will be one of the biggest underdogs to win the tournament, which would be an ultimately fitting ending.

SMU LAX

Yes folks, its that time of year again. Its spring time and that only means two things- allergies and lacrosse. Unfortunately, here at SMU, half of the school doesn't even know we have a lacrosse team. Granted, its not a Division I sport and we are in the state of Texas where lacrosse takes a back seat to rodeos. However, I think that the school could do a better job of publicizing the team. Its very ironic that all of our practices are held in the sweet football stadium, yet most of our games are played on the intramural field. Furthermore, on the field there aren't even any bleachers, which is a shame because lacrosse shouldn't have to be watched at field level. For those of you who do know that the lax squad exists either from reading this blog or before reading this blog, come out to a game!

Take this hint: If you come out to a game, stand on the third floor of the Moody Garage and watch out of the window! You'll have the best seat in the house! Check out the SMU Lacrosse Schedule and come out to support the 'stangs!

Not Quite a Miracle

Former NHL star Jeremy Roenick called Sunday Night's game between the USA and Canada, "the most important game in hockey history", and I couldn't agree more. Two bordering nations parked themselves in front of their televisions to watch the final event of the action-packed 2010 Winter Olympics. The Canadian team came into this years games as a huge favorite, and for good reason with players such as Sidney Crosby, Jerome Iginla, Patrick Marlauea, Joe Thorton, Jonoatan Toews, Rick Nash, Eric Staal, Dany Heatley, Ryan Getzlaf, Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer, Roberto Luongo and Matin Brodoer... just to name a few. The underdog American squad, with players such as Patrick Kane, David Backes and surprising star goalie Ryan Miller had a group of skilled young guys who were hungry to take home gold. The Americans looked promising in the preliminary rounds beating everyone they played, including Canada. They breezed through the playoff games until the final, which happened to be a rematch against Canada.

Though the outcome was disappointing, the game itself was fantastic. From the first face off, even someone who doesn't follow hockey could tell these guys were in for a battle. The final was hard-fought, clean, and super exciting all the way until the very end, an end that became an instant classic. Down 2-1, the USA's Zach Parise scored off a rebound with just 24 seconds left to send the game into overtime. The Americans took all the momentum into the locker room, but came out of the intermission a little flat and it cost them. A few minutes in, Crosby took a pass from Iginla and put it past Miller to secure the gold for Canada.

Of course we all wanted to pull the upset of the powerhouse Canadian team at their own sport, but the effort and success of the young Americans should be very much appreciated. We must remember that Canada was the heavy favorite, considering their team is unfairly good and all these games have taken place on their home turf.

No matter the outcome, this game was a great step for the sport of hockey in America. Unlike the Stanley Cup (hockey's equivalent to football's Super Bowl), the Gold Medal game only comes every four years rather than every year, and its not guaranteed that the USA will be in it. Even more important than that, this game was the one time hockey, non-hockey fans, and everyone else in the country came together and pulled for one team. Rather than rooting for the Sharks or Ducks or Blackhawks or Red Wings, everyone was pulling for the USA. Sunday's instant classic was a great day in hockey history for Canada, and yet still a step forward for hockey in America.

In Don Tapscott’s Grown Up Digital, the generation of current teenagers, also known as the “Net Generation”, draws concern from adults about their lifestyle and possible future. One popular concern for the Net Generation is that we are “violent”. “Just look at the two youths who commited mass murder in 1999”, Tapscott writes. Though true that the tragedy at Coumbine High School can be linked back to the two boys “incredibly deep involvement” in violent video games, it’s unfair to include our whole generation in such an instance. These boys involvement in this game was extreme, unlike the vast majority of those who play these types of games.

Hella Tragic

Northern California; home of the Golden Gate Bridge, half of Lake Tahoe, cows, and the words "hecka" and "hella". Growing up in beautiful Sacramento, CA, the word "hecka" has been a part of my vocabulary since I left the womb. "Hecka", equivalent to “hella”, either meaning "very" or "a lot of", was a common word used by all of my friends since as long as I can remember. I eventually graduated to "hella" when I hit junior high where we could say the word without getting in trouble.

Life was good until moving to Chicago after freshman year, where I could no longer use my true diction. I quickly came to find that these simple-minded midwesterners had never been exposed to as extensive of a vocabulary as those of us in the Northern California. Now, every time is said “hecka” or “hella”, I would usually receive a puzzled look like there was something on my face. Chicago wasn’t ready for my foreign terms, so I was ultimately forced to cut down on the “heckas” and “hellas”. I adapted to life without these crucial words of my childhood and life was once again good… until I came to SMU.

Unfortunately, my roommate happened to be from Southern California. Unlike my friends in Illinois, my roommate was familiar with “hecka” and “hella”, however not only does he not use them, but there are few things he hates more than those two words. Instead of a puzzled look, I now just receive straight anger and hatred. Hella rough huh?

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