The life of a sports fan band reporter geek guy

This past weekend, I visited Asheville, N.C. to witness the Samford Bulldogs women's basketball team win their second straight Southern Conference championship.  While there, I served a dual role for the team.  In one role, I supported the men's and women's teams both as a member of the Bulldog Pep Band.  In the other, I reported the stories for the school newspaper.  At the victory celebration on Tuesday morning, I was talking to our athletic director, Martin Newton.  He suggested that I write a story about having both of these responsibilities.  Therefore, I come to the source I know will get published no matter what (that's the great thing about a personal blog) so that this idea can become a reality.

The preparation:  Possibly around the end of Jan Term, Dr. Smisek sent out the yearly "join the basketball tournament pep band" email.  My response: an immediate "yes."  I went last year and enjoyed it immensely.  This year, though our women's basketball team was slightly worse than last year's and our men's was slightly better though still not exceptional, I expected the same sort of atmosphere as last year's tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn.

In the week leading up to the SoCon tournament, I became more anticipatory and even less excited about it.  I wasn't expecting as much fun as last year's (a six-plus hour drive to Asheville is not quite the same as three hours to Chattanooga), and I really didn't want to be away from home too long.  After all, I had classes to attend and, more importantly, a girlfriend I didn't really want to be so far away from.  Knowing I had committed to go, and after a talk with one of my friends who was also going, I put aside my negativity and prepared for the journey.

Day 1: Friday, March 2 - Our men's game began at 6 p.m. Eastern time that night; as a result, we - the band and cheerleaders - were scheduled to depart at 8:00 in the morning, Central time.  8 o'clock rolled around and the bus did not.  I, as well as many of my friends, just wanted to get on the bus and go back to sleep.  Finally, the bus arrived and we pulled out at around 8:35.  With the late departure, and having to stop for lunch, we made it to the Asheville Civic Center with about an hour until tip-off.  The game was Furman-Samford.

From the start, our team's fans had four times more spirit than Furman's, even though they outnumbered us at least 2.5:1.  Part of that was because their band was playing across town at their women's game and didn't arrive until halftime.  However, the story was different on the basketball court.  Furman advanced to the quarterfinals with a 75-66 win, and the men's season was over for Samford.  Having hoped the improved Bulldogs would at least win one game in the tournament, I was disappointed.  There was still the women's team, though.

During the game, I texted my editor: "Hey JT, I'm at the tournament this weekend.  Want me to cover it for the Crimson?"  After the affirmative response, I emailed Zac Schreiber from sports information: "Zac, I need to speak to Coach Tillette about the game for the Crimson sometime before the end of Monday.  I'm in Asheville as long as the women's team is, and my computer power cord is on the fritz.  Let me know by phone and email so I'm sure I'm aware."

Yeah, that's an interesting story, too.  For the past week, my laptop charger had been working off and on.  I ordered a new one a day or two before I left, so it had not arrived before the tournament.  Thus, I was writing and reporting two stories, potentially completely away from home, with a computer that had a limited charge. This became quite the problem the longer we were in Asheville.  I also emailed Drew Windler, Tyler Hood and Jeff Merritt before my battery dwindled to a dangerously low point, and got in touch with Joey Mullins for my women's story.

Day Two: Saturday, March 3- This was the team to be excited about.  Our women's basketball team, the defending conference champions.  Their regular season was not as spectacular as last year's; still, a fourth-place seeding in an eleven-team league is nothing to scoff at.  The competition was against the Elon Phoenix at UNC-Asheville's Kimmel Arena, where just moments before leaving the hotel, I saw Asheville claim the Big South title on television.  The expectations in the band and cheerleaders was a win, but we sure wouldn't have minded going home early.  The Bulldogs dominated.  For dinner, the fare was a fantastic Italian panini and the disappointment of having to inform Amy I'd be another day getting home, at least.  Without the use of my computer, I didn't do any reporting.  That role took a night off.

Day Three: Sunday, March 4- Today, we faced the top seed in the conference in Davidson.  The general consensus at the Quality Inn was that we would be going home after the game ended at around 2 p.m.  We didn't let the team know that, and as a result, boy, were we wrong.  With our support, the Dogs bolted to a huge halftime lead, and didn't relent enough to let the Wildcats take the game from them.  I think of all the wins in the tournament, this was the biggest disappointment for the band and cheerleaders.  I had to let Amy know that once again, she'd have to wait another day for my return.

Text from Zac Schrieber: "Clayton, how about 2:00, Eastern time, tomorrow?"  I responded with a yes, knowing that I'd most likely be in a public area with band people.  Of course, I much rather would've been in a hotel room with everything conveniently nearby for me to take notes on the conversation, but I had to do what I had to do.  I stayed up late for no reason, and got rested for the hopefully excited day ahead.

Day Four: Monday, March 5- I had a very quiet and late breakfast at the hotel, joining about four others in the group that were the only ones awake at 10 in the morning.  The anticipation began as the word was passed on that Appalachian State's coach wanted to face the Bulldogs in the final, because she said my school's team didn't deserve it last time. That's motivation if ever there was need to be motivated at all.  I was able to find an outlet to work with my laptop charger, and found a public computer in the hotel.  I was able to write up my men's story, sans Tillette quotes, and talked to Joey Mullins about talking to Mike Morris.

We went to the Asheville mall for lunch and time-killing before the 5 p.m. tip time.  I called and talked to Jimmy Tillette in the middle of the mall and roamed around with my band friends until it was time to go.  We had several signs and t-shirts made up for the game, plus red and yellow cards to display when Mountaineers fouled our Bulldogs.  It was with immense spirit the band and cheerleaders walked into the Civic Center arena  that afternoon, and we passed that spirit on to the team while they were warming up.  We wanted this win.

The team wanted the win, too.  They got off to an 18-8 lead and never really lost control.  In the second half, App fought back for an eventual one-point lead, but the crowd support propelled the Bulldogs to recover.  In the band we were screaming and yelling and having trouble matching up with the cheerleaders because we had that much spirit.  In the end, Samford pulled off the 54-43 victory to claim its second straight SoCon title. We were victorious.  I say "we," because I credit the spirit squad (band and cheerleaders) and fan support for being the deciding factor in the girls' win.  Is it egotistical?  Sure, a little.  Realistic?  Most probably.  When they were taking the picture with the trophy, the team called the cheerleaders and band over to be in the picture with them, something that did not happen last year.  So it's absolutely certain that they appreciated our presence.

Back to the bus.  We had pizza and soda (Pepsi, of course, being in North Carolina) waiting for us so we could get home as soon as possible.  Before the game I talked with Joey Mullins and arranged to call Coach Morris around an hour after the game.  I waited an hour, but we were in the middle of a movie.  I waited for the end of the movie and a gas station stop to call the coach, but there was no response.  I ended up writing about ten questions I could ask when he called back, but he never did.  As a result, I never really got to sleep on the bus, though I tried.  We arrived back in Birmingham at around 12:40 in the morning.

Day Five: Tuesday, March 6- Now, it's time to celebrate.  The victory flag pep rally was at 10:45 a.m. and I was there as a band member and a Crimson reporter.  After several rounds of the fight song, I put my horn away to talk to Coach Morris.  I spoke with him and Paige Anderson, and plugged the quotes I received into my story by that evening.  While at the pep rally, I witnessed crews from several stations, including ABC 33/40 recording the event (You can see my critical review of 33/40's report here - I promise it's a lot shorter than my personal blog posts).  At the pep rally was when I had the discussion with Joey and Mr. Newton that inspired this post.  Mr. Newton told me I could be the only person in the nation to be doing the double-duty thing as a reporter and band member, I doubt it's true though.  If you know of any other instances in which this happened, and are still reading this post, leave me a comment.  Otherwise, come back next post.

Until then,
-Clayton

The Catsup Post

Catsup, of course, being pronounced "catch-up".

Cruise Chronicles 4 marked the start of a vast downward spiral for my work ethic last March, a spiral that ended in a 1.7 semester GPA and some drastic changes to my studies.

Before you get out of shape - because, obviously, my school career is of utmost importance to you - I'm still here at Samford, and I hit Dean's List last semester.

However, 2011 was a heck of a year for so many reasons.  First and foremost, I will have been dating the girl of my dreams for eleven months come the sixth of this month.  Herein, you may be able to begin speculating what caused my half-semester-long absence from my schooling.

I was enraptured, entranced, absolutely crazy out of my mind trying to put words and meaning to the fact that I was, indeed, in love.  From about the first of March until the end of spring break, I could not put a million words, let alone two or three, to what I was feeling.  I think, deep down, I knew, but it took a lot of coercing - mostly from Amy - for me to come to terms with the fact that I had a huge, major crush on the girl that once sat in front of me in CP class.

Well, it was an interesting April.  We began trying to work out our relationship; on April 6 we became Facebook official.  Just like any young relationship, there was a lot of growing and adjusting early on.  My adjusting included putting school on the back burner.

Exams came and went, and we had to say good-bye for the summer.  Amy was off to Costa Rica for a seven-week research project, while I returned home and began to look for a job.

After three days of hard-core searching near the end of  May, I found myself that job.  I was offered a job at the Exxon Tigermarket convenience store practically the moment I walked in.  What followed was two and a half months of gas, hot dogs, and cigarettes (only consuming the first two, but selling all three) and a steady income.

In midst of all the work, I had little time for fun.  I think I was able to get to a couple of different pool parties in Hendersonville over the summer, and I did take an overnighter to Alabama to visit Amy and watch the premiere of the final Harry Potter movie.  Five hours of driving, three hours of sleep (maybe) and another long drive home ended in a seven-hour work shift in which I did my job probably only half as well as I should have.  I survived, though, and life went on.

Sometime during the summer, I made the decision that in order to get through my schoolwork and do so successfully, the Facebook had to go.  And go it did.  With the exception of Fall Break and Thanksgiving (and maybe once to check it hadn't completely been erased), I was completely Facebook-less last semester.  The results showed; as I mentioned, my 3.54 GPA last semester was good enough for Dean's List and raised my cumulative GPA to 3.0.

And thus the Semester of Hard Work and No Social Life began.  Okay, I over-dramatize, but it seems like I had no social life sometimes.  The countless study dates with Amy kept time rolling and before we knew it we had been dating for five, six, seven months.  I had a great class load.  Even the boring gen-ed classes were entertaining enough.  I wrote one, sometimes two stories a week for the Samford Crimson (see my constantly growing portfolio here).  My primary concerns were for myself and my girlfriend, and it hurts me to say I became distant from a lot of other people that were once important to me.  We'll get to that in a while, but let's get the six-week interim between semesters.

I was not able to retain my Tigermarket job for the winter break, so I generally sat around the house throughout January.  I did have an incredibly epic trip the week after Christmas.  I went with three other members and two adult leaders of my scout troop, as well as two scouts and an adult from South Dakota, to Florida Sea Base in the Keys.  For a week, we lived on island time, with our only clocks being the sun and tides.  It was a really relaxing and fun week, certainly a lifetime experience that I will never forget.

Shortly after this, the monstrosity known as Step Sing took over my life.  I arranged the music for Gamma Sigma Sigma and AAA's show "User Friendly", based on the premise of the movie Tron: Legacy.

It's a love-hate relationship, me and Step Sing.  At times I want nothing to do with it, at other times I am beyond thankful for the opportunity I had.  Near the end, most of the hate was directed at procedure and contest results with which I strongly disagreed.  All in all, the love aspect came out on top.

After Step Sing, the theme of my life quickly became Reconnect.  For the past three weeks, I've been trying to resurrect my social life.  The best part of it all is that I'm balancing work with that now.  I've still got a lot of night-before-they're-due assignments, but I crack down on studying when I need to and hang out when I don't.  I've been getting into routines, too.  I clean the room every Friday, go to class during the week and do a combination of working, hanging out, eating and sleeping the rest of the time.  It's worked so far this semester.

Tomorrow, I head for the mountains of North Carolina to support the Samford basketball teams as they seek to dominate the Southern Conference.  Not having much schoolwork, you might be able to expect a post or two with details.  If not, I'll be back blogging tomorrow, next week, next month or, you know, whenever.

Oh yeah, that's one more thing.  I'm restructuring CUBS.  And by restructuring, I mean taking away all structure and just doing what I do: write.  Whenever I have time and/or feel motivated, I'll write on this blog.  And it's probably a safe bet to say I won't write this much in a post very often.

Lastly, scientists reported today that the sky is green, roses are blue and violets are, in fact, polka-dot.

Just checking to see if you were still reading.

-Clayton

NEW WEBSITE!!!

http://clayton4ever.tk

Here’s the coolest website in the history of the world.

Not really, but it is pretty nifty.

It came about as a bit of a joke/competition/etc

One night as we were playing the lyric game I posted a link as a lyric. The link was http://mattl.tk, and created by Merrol Hyde (and fb lyric game)’s own Marton. You’ll have to follow the link to understand what happened as a result, because I’m not telling :P But anyway, Marton, being the nerd and lyric game player he is, then created another site, posting it on my facebook wall with the comment, “Bonus Points?”

I didn’t give him any points, and he has also been outnerded. By the one and only David.

I told David and Andrew all about this story, and David decided, “Hey, I could make a ten million times greater site than that.” So began his task of building an astounding website that would make me sound conceited talking about it. As clayton4ever.tk continued to grow with each Barack Roll, cat, and spork, I became more and more impressed. So, it’s definitely not done improving; like ye olde faceybook, it’ll probably be making constant changes.

If you have any comments about the site, shoot us an email at clayton(at)clayton4ever.tk. Or, if you want to get directly in touch with the wonderful webmaster, he has a separate address which is sitemaster(at)clayton4ever.tk. Or you can always feel welcome to leave a comment on the blog.

Toodles, for now.

-c

hmmm...well I said I'd be getting back to this...

Oh well, a lot's gone on in the past two months.

First, I graduated (yay). That was pretty sweet.

The birds flew the coop within about two weeks. But it was fun watching them while they were here.

Chicago won the Stanley Cup, and nobody cared.

Christopher was in Grease, and did a phenomenal job.

VY got in a bit of an altercation while I was at Orientation. And CJ still needs to sign a contract.

The college football world began a conference shakeup, with Nebraska going to the Big Ten, and the Pac-10 taking away Colorado. Now the Big ten has 12, and the Big 12 has ten...confusing.

Choir tour was absolutely Gleeful and amazing. Will never forget the experience, or the new TV musical comedy addiction.

Went to an Astros-Giant game. Tim Lincecum beat Roy Oswalt in a 3-1 pitchers' duel.

I got texting. Pretty sweet.

LA won the NBA championship again. They beat my Celtics in a very intense series.

The Red Sox got over their April slump and are looking at the AL Wild Card spot if the season ended today.

Lebron James signed with the Heat. Hmmm...about time for football season, right?

Just got done with VBS. Great week, good fun.

Also, the fam is doing well with our flood recovery downstairs renovation.

I'll blog separately about a couple of these.

Get ready, cause here we go.

-cth

Sounds Recap

So, my buddy David demanded that I blog about the game we went to on Saturday. So here it is:

the Sounds won 9-3.

That's about as much sports was included in my Saturday night escapade. But I'll kinda give you the slight play-by-play.

Beginning of the month- Dad: "Hey, Clayton, you want to go to a baseball game?"

Me: "Absolutely!"

Fast forward to Friday Night. Storms. Flash Flood warnings (yet again). We're not sure if we're going to end up going. (in the middle of this, we had a fried laptop hard drive, and the Lyric Game start was being postponed). Saturday morning, working on flood relief, the sun began to shine. However, it was short-lived; The rain and thunder started coming at around 3 in the afternoon. So, it was decided that I'd take Christopher to go see Iron man 2 (big whoop). We get back from dinner at Which Wich (good sandwiches), sun's back up. We're going to the baseball game! Mother and Christopher don't come, two extra tickets. We take Todd and David. Which is where the story really begins.

You have to get to know my buddy David a little better. David's like my little brother. Basically, he is. We go to church together, and our families used to carpool to and from school. David's a pretty intelligent and funny guy, although he's got a naturally loud voice and is often incapable of letting things go. David's the type of guy that has a problem with something, and makes sure everyone knows it. His big thing right now is against texting. Anyway, now that you David, let's continue on with the story

We get to the general area of Greer Stadium, have to park all the way at the science center. That's fine, long walk was good for us. Many laughs were had, Gingerbread men were quoted, and we might've started Rick Rolling by that time. Oh well, we get to the gate at the start of the second, GA was right there. so didn't have to go far at all once we got there. got a Sounds hat to show some Nashville pride, and also to add to my growing collection of ballcaps. The park played good music (except for once when they went off track and played Party in the USA, which by the way brings Marshall Brewer to mind every time I hear it now...beware, don't click on the link unless you want to be mentally scarred), some songs many more times than once.

Yours truly decided he'd start being a real creeper/jerk/loser/smart alec/loudmouth/idiot/etc about the second he got out of the car. Therefore, I think I might have worried David slightly. Anyway, the reading club thing that I used to do was there; they had a shirt that read "got books?" eventually I got to responding to each shirt, saying "Yeah, I got books." This quickly turned into an impromptu lame pickup line---"I got books, you wanna come to my place and see 'em?" There was a memorable moment, possibly in the sixth or seventh inning, in which I saw a trio of teenaged girls, shouted, "Look, it's Justin Beiber!" and they looked. That quite possibly made our night right there. Another time I made a complete fool of myself was jumpin' on it to Apache. If you've never seen me dance, be glad. It was atrocious. "Sweet Caroline" was a sweet moment, it's not everyday you get to scream "bum, bum, bum" and "so good, so good, so good" with 9,000 of your closest friends, especially at a baseball game. David's and my themes throughout the night were Ludacris' part in Beiber's "Baby" ("When I was thirteen, I had my first love..") and Rick Astley (never gonna give you up, etc). Knowing what we know about David from earlier in the blog, you can only imagine how many times the two came up in a 4-hour stretch. Speaking of stretch, we sang a particularly nasty rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the Stretch.

There was a fireworks show, in which there were many pop songs played. After the show, the car ride home was filled with quotes from the greatest kid's cartoon television show of all time, more rickrolling, and one more Ludacris reference. David trying to call his mom about a gazillion times, and her finally calling his dad. Great memories; hopefully we'll get a chance to get to another one before i leave in the fall.

it's been a while...

happy march everyone! there's some stuff I want to talk about today...mainly sports, but hopefully some more important stuff too...

firstly, congratulations, william hayes, you're the titans' new starting defensive tackle! i think he'll do fine filling the hole left by albert haynesworth, who i'm still having trouble seeing in a redskins uni. cutlers mad at the broncos for trying to trade him for cassel, who the pats franchised away to the chiefs. speaking of franchised, the titans are still waiting to sign bo scaife, but as we all know by now, "wait" is mike riendfelt's favorite word during free agency.



in my top five list, we've resigned collins but lost haynesworth and brandon jones. we have not got anyone from anywhere else. so we're just losing players. what is mike riendfelts problem!?!?!?



so anyway, what else was i gonna talk about?



my life is pretty crazy right now...school, church, scouts, you know, the normal times about four. i actually have homework now, and i'm getting more piled on every night. it's not really good, especially since i enjoy putting stuff off as long as i can. latin and precalc are the big ones. hopefully i'll get it all taken care of soon.

just finished the latin outline...waiting for the printer to work...and for itunes genius to update...

so i should talk about all the stuff going on at church...everyone's getting excited about safe sanctuaries...well...mostly everyone. drive group's dwindling at best and once the policy's in place we will be in jeopardy of not existing at all. choir's getting to be easier than it's been in a while because we're just singing songs from five and six years ago which i already know for the most part, and because i'm getting alot better at reading, that helps too.

speaking of reading, i'm doing the pit orchestra for hello dolly @ jpII. the music is really easy, once i figured out, "hey, i'm playing in like six songs. and they're all in C# so i'm basically playing everything sharp. wow this is lame. but fun!" i did all county last weekend (was it really just last weekend?) and i'm ready for more extracurricular sax!

i alluded to something i did recently in the last paragraph, and practically alluded to another. the first would be all county the second (though not chronilogically) is bye bye birdie.

all county was extremely fun. there was alot of inside jokes that me christopher and brionna allude to twice or three times daily during band class. andrea also went, but she skipped out of band this semester to take accounting. swagger was a big inside joke, and so was the first chair tuba/downbeat/etc. oh and justin.

secondly, christopher and dad were in bye bye birdie last month and i was at six of the thirteen showings of it, i think most of any non-cast member, musician or director, other than mother. it was a really good show everyone who missed it missed a good one.

i don't think i've had a post yet this year...i lost my job and dad is officially unemployed as of last night so the economy's hitting us hard.

other than that, life's pretty much the same...

well consider this blog over.

later,

-cth

Turkey Day Blog

well...thanksgiving's going well...titans absolutely destroyed detroit, but i lost the family backyard football (in the front yard) game. what can i say, my brother's just more athletic than me...oh well

everything's going great


not much more to say

happy thanksgiving everyone!

florida rant (blog one of who knows how many tonight)

so i'm sitting @ work w/ nothing to do..so i'm blogging...

my first topic is the florida gators...

can't say much becase they are three times better (yes i did the math, 42/14=3) than my vanderbilt commodores...but i've gotta say what i've gotta say...

first, my favorite thing about the gators fans is that it seems the only thing they know how to do in a football stadium is the gator chomp. sure, the've got varying speeds (even during the same pep band song), but that's about the only variation on the thing. i was so tempted to do a tomahawk chop, but refrained...at least tennessee fans can sing in the same tempo...but anyway, it started getting annoying and i didn't see much of the game...five minutes at most...

now that i've gotten that out, i really don't have much more to say...pretty much, tim tebow is a beast...Tebow:college football::Michael Phelps:olympic swimming...he's got a hard task ahead of him in the nfl though...traditionally former heisman winners (Jason Campbell, Chris Wienke, and ERic Crouch for example) and former Florida qb's (chris leak and rex grossman, for example) have had troubles in the bigs...

i had a load of fun mouthing off with a florida fan i had never met before...i said "tim tebow's overrated!" just to get a rise out of someone...he said "Yeah, does vandy even have a football team? or is it just vanderbilt high school!" i couldn't think of a comeback fast enough...so that was that...i guess it was all for the better...

anyway, i'll continue to root for my vanderbilt commodores, pulling for an 8-4 season and a trip to the peach or liberty bowl...maybe even cotton or outback...but definitely a bowl game...

next blog: how bout them (wyoming) cowboys!!!

stuff

titans are 8-0!!!!!! i'm super pumped and ready to see the bears get destroyed. it's gonna be no contest...grossman won the game for chicago last week, so naturally he's gonna suck this week. he's consistently inconsistent! so anyway, it's great...election's coming up today and i don't have a favorite i'm gonna go along with what everyone here says...mccain wins tennessee, obama wins the nation. i'll be playin around w/ the magic map on cnn.com...here's the link: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/calculator/. we'll see what happens...blog to come probably thursday on the result...all i know is that whoever wins, he's my president, and i will support him. so that's the long and the short of it.

iverson traded to the pistons, billups goes to denver...really i don't care about the nba until the playoffs...and then only with mild interest...so it's really no big deal to me.

otherwise, guess everything else is going just fine, visited tech on thursday and wasn't all that impressed...but i got out of school, so it was worth it! saw several mhms grads and that was nice. halloween was fun and so was this weekend....but now that i'm thinking saturday, i'm thinking college football, which reminds me...

FULMER'S LEAVING UT!!!!!! that was very shocking. that man has been the face of tennessee football for two decades now, and his leaving means that that will no longer be the case. i'm more of a vandy fan now, but it still hurts. firing a coach with several conference championships and two national championship appearances after one bad season...even though they tentatively have one of the best recruiting classes in the nation for next year...doesn't make sense...next thing you know they'll fire bruce pearl for not making it to the final four. oh, well, stuff happens...

vandy plays florida next week...make it four losses in a row...after a 5-0 start...classic vandy football in the second half of the season. until next time, i'll be rejoicing, comiserating, and remembering some more stuff to write about...

-cth

and another blog...

starting off...i'm pumped that the phillies will be winning the world series tonight. it serves the devils right for beating boston. also, code blue tonight for the titans game! i'm already wearing my light blue polo/long sleeve tshirt combo at school. calico jersey's going on as soon as i get home. GO TITANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! biggest game in titans history since super bowl xxxiv. only this time we're gonna DOMINATE!!!!!

so my weekend consisted of this
schs lost on a last second failed two-point conversion
vandy got smoked by duke (sure, it was only 10-7, but that's getting smoked when you play duke as badly as vandy did)
ut got destroyed (which i didn't really mind, they're not ranked, and bama's better anyway)
and some random nfl stuff

so really, all either disappointing or merely trivial games. didn't even care that i was watching the london game...didn't realize that that was this week anyway...guess it's always raining there...cause it was a pretty sloppy game last year too if i remember correctly. commish goodell wants a nfl team in europe i disagree...eight teams would have to travel oversees one week and one team would have to travel overseas eight weeks. so i dont think thats a great idea...sorry comish.

fall fest at church yesterday...nothing too extravagant, but i liked it nonetheless. think i forgot to mention in my last blog that i'm not too excited about the choir tour show this year, and we STILL don't know where we are going on tour! we performed a really cheesy song from vbs yesterday during the service...everyone in the congregation loved it...i can't stand it. but anyway, this week's gonna be normal outside of the game tonight...i'll get another blog out thursday maybe....

-cth

quick blog

titans are 6-0!!!! after dominating kc 34-10 with over 300 yards rushing, there is no doubt that the titans are once again the best team in the nfl. chris johnson and lendale both had career long td runs in the fourth, and i don't think the defense even tried like the last half of the fourth quarter cause we had such a demanding lead. so that's that point

next: vandy's dropped their last two, one expected, one not. this saturday's homecoming vs. duke, which i'm pretty sure we're gonna win. then we'll be bowl eligible for the first time in, well...quite a while.

got three a's and a b (chemistry) on my report card today, so i know what i need to work on.

backpacking was amazing. hiked in six miles and out six, so i was EXTREEMELY exhausted come sunday afternoon when i got home. other than that, not much more to comment on, so until next time...

-c

a blocked punt! to beat the cowboys in overtime! and other football stuff

to start off, I CAN'T BELIEVE that VANDERBILT lost to MISSISSIPPI STATE!!!!!!!!!!!! that and the red sox going up 1-0 over tampa in the alcs were the only news i had this weekend, thanks to being in the middle of nowhere at an amazing retreat (more to come on that). so anyway, po'd in one way, elated in the other. after the vandy game, the next football i got was at 1:30 pm sunday...cause i fell asleep while i was unpacking...so i watched a bit of indy destroying the ravens...and then the new york titans (still cant get over brett favre in navy and gold) defeating the woebegone (retreat memory!!!) cincinnati bengals 26-14. here's what marv lewis was telling his boys in the fourth quarter:

ok, we're only down six points. the other team's driving...lets' hold 'em to nothing defense, but don't use any timeouts cause we'll need them later..."

after the titan's td:

"well, we're down twelve now, but we can still come back...just don't use more than one timeout...cause we'll need them later..."

for what? the week 10 bye???? neway, enough for that game.

next game: falcons-bears.

just another reason the bears aren't playoff-worthy again...yet. they should've been defending all the receivers double-teamed but jenkins was able to get the catch made and out of bounds with one second left. and then more elam heroics...but really that's commonplace now...bottom line: good game, fantastic ending, and can't wait to see the falcons make the playoffs (whenever they do). matt ryan is the new face of the falcons franchise. he's a better player and person than mike vick.

texans-dolphins.

matt shaub is the best qb to ever play for the houston texans. not only did he set a passing record for the texans, but he got the game winning score rushing. pretty sweet. good game again.

cowboys-cardinals.

awesome ending! and that play in the first quarter where romo lost the ball after being called down...totally a fumble. whatever the refs were thinking was wrong. so that was sweet

rams-redskins.

congrats rams on your first win. firing linehan was probably the best move they've made for a while.

red sox

game 3 of the alcs tonight. series tied 1-1 time to come home to boston. can't wait to see my boys win it all. go red sox!!!!!

retreat

it was awesome. started out friday evening celebrating joes' big 6-oh. connecting with friends was great. then we had a good night's sleep.

saturday was great. "boom chicka boom" started the day, then a lot of activities. tossed footballs, frisbees, and flying rings. lots of discussion, both religious and non religious. then went to the nursing home in dickson. guy with demientia told us a story...twenty times...it went kinda like this.

"God said i don't know what you stole, but whatever it is both of you, you and the thing you stole, wherever i am, both of you will be also. it's written in red, and i believe every word of it. and then i turned the page...and two women walked down buck nekked. and two minutes later, three more women walked down buck nekked. i had to put three cloths on 'em and take their shoes off. and i turned the page and one of 'em said well i don't want you to take my shoes off. and i said i don't care what you don't want, i've been demanded to take your shoes off and i'm gonna do just that. not later, but right now. and it was written in red and i believe every word of it. and then i turned the page and whatever you stole, both of you wherever i am you will both there be also..." and on and on it went.

so after that we went back to garner creek and hung out and ate some more, then bonfire, and matt christopher and i played an awesome game of apples to apples. the favorite word/phrase was "my body." the first green card we drew while christopher was in the shower was "sensual", and the first red card was "my body". it just continued from there. the best play though was on the green card "temperamental" and i put down the red card "women" great cause it was all guys playing and we shared the same sentiment. so that was fun.

sunday morning was worhip. then we left and got home, football, and today. got a shot and blood drawn. not fun, but it was necesary. had an awesome time playing with the birch babies allie and aubrey, and the eaton twins josh and andrew, and judy jones' granddaughter sarah. all little kids. but also enjoyed some quality time with the youth at the retreat: christopher, matt, lyndsay, jonathan, and tristan. and the youth leader from rehoboth philip. so it was all good. until next time.....

-cth

it's been a long time...

well...i was at fall fellowship this weekend (any wa-hi-nasa arrowmen that missed it missed a great weekend)...and had a blast...almost got sick chugging root beer, but had a great time nonetheless...it's been a while since the last post, and i've got to comment on the titans 3-0 start, after dominating houston 31-12 about vy, well...let's just say i like kerry. but i wish vince the best and hope he can get back into the game and start winning for us. vandy's 4-0 after defeating ole miss i heard, and ut lost to the gators something bad. and the brady story!!!!! wow...i think that cassel's the new brady....he'll go down in the first game of the season six or seven years from now after winning an mvp or two and maybe a super bowl...and some new draft steal will get his shot...and so the circle will continue...as for brady, he'll be traded to a mediocre team for draft picks, and retire after journeying around the leauge for the next six years...with only the 50 td mark to his name...which will eventually be broken by brett favre when he gets an amazing receiving corps up in new york...i predict around 2028. maybe even in the 22nd century...but brett will break the record...and then win the super bowl after he has broken every other passing record he has yet to break. then finally he will retire and his jersey number will be the first retired by the entire nfl. which is what he's wanted all along...







but anyway, on a more serious note, and switching to baseball, it's really fitting to see that the yankees won the last game at yankees stadium. even as a red sox fan, i think i was pulling for a new york victory sunday night...i think everyone wanted them to win, even the orioles they were playing against. meanwhile, other teams are gaining ground on the sox in the wild card race, but i think that we'll get the spot after it's all said and done.





school's been going pretty alright. we made a commercial in multimedia advertising a fire extinguisher, and seth hearld played the part of billy mays. he was pretty embarrassed when the class watched it, but billy was his idea. anyway, we're working on a music video (probably) now, and we don't know what song we're going to create a video on



my newest frustration: limewire. there's a song i really want to download (all summer long by kid rock) but they don't have the right version on itunes, and whenever i try to get on limewire on my computer it opens up itunes...and when i go to limewire.com to download it again, the website is blocked. so basically, i'm having some problems and don't like it.



in other news, i just learned that matt millen got fired, and the sox made the playoffs!!!!!!!!! so it's all good.



drive group's going well, and i've got something printed out to be bashed at eikon tonight....but it's all good still! can't wait to share it. don't know what's for dinner tonight, but i won't be eating it for a while...the marathon known as PECAN SALES is about to start with a bang for me. i'm going forty pounds tonight...as long as david mccoy stays out of the race...i have christopher's stuff too but he doesn't realize.



so, we have this awesome new sub at mhms. we're not sure what her real name is, but she's been introducing herself mostly as annabell lee. apparently she's got seven masters' degrees and is three classes away from earning the rest of them...but that's just the start...we're not sure what's up with her, but there are plenty of speculations...we had an awesome time screwing around in band yesterday...because she didn't even know everyone was playing sharp, flat, or in a completely different key, and it took jake jones for her to realize we (the sax section) were going too fast. it was really hilariously fun! she says she practices guitar 20 hours a day, yet she can't play mr. clark's....because it has classical nylon strings...she is supposedly a great classical guitar player....messed up, man, messed up!



i'm a life scout now, so i'm thinking of ideas for my eagle project. any outside-the-box ideas, let me know!



and maybe matt cassel isn't the next brady..................