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

Instant Reaction: VY OUT at Tennessee

Well, this evening, Titans owner Bud Adams announced that Vince Young would not be returning to play quarterback for the Tennessee Titans in 2011, should there be NFL football next year. So, this poses several questions. First, what happens to Vince? Second, what happens to Jeff Fisher? Third, what happens to the Titans QB position? These answers and more, right now.

Now that everyone knows the Titans are getting rid of VY, it really does give Vince a leg up on the so-called "process", in that he more or less will be able to determine his value, and go to the highest bidder, so to speak. This means, if he or his agent think that there's a team willing to spend money, instead of a player or a draft pick or two, for him, it's going to be tough to trade Young away. Something tells me he's going to try to keep the Titans organization from getting anything for him if he sees free agency as a feasible possibility. As a Titans fan, I would enjoy if we could trade him to a team like Denver or Philadelphia for either of their respective backups. I'd even be satisfied if we could get some middle-round draft picks, or even a pick or two for the 2012 draft, from any team interested. As a realist, I don't know if it will work out best for the Titans. I do hold onto the thought, though, that Vince proved himself this year to not be the best leader, and still had to mature a lot. Other teams will look at that one of two ways: either he's not equipped to be on their team, or it was just an environment, and it's worth a player or a couple of draft picks to give Vince a second chance. Here are the top three places I see VY:

1. San Francisco--It seems to me that they have the most to gain from picking up a guy like Vince Young. The Niners will be starting over with coaching, and I daresay they'll be getting rid of both Alex and Troy Smith. At the very least, San Fran will give Vince a shot at earning the starting job. Plus, it wouldn't be a horrible situation if they trade the Titans one of the Smiths (preferably for me, Troy) for Vince.

2. Miami--Maybe Vince can follow the footsteps of LeBron James and take his talents to South Beach. Perhaps he'll be appreciated by a team that has a little bit of a question where the quarterback position is concerned. Hey, I wouldn't complain if I was throwing the ball to Brandon Marshall fifteen times a game...

3. Arizona--Like San Francisco, the 5-11 Cardinals were merely a couple of wins away from earning the NFC West's playoff bid. They drafted Matt Leinart the same year the Titans drafted Young, maybe the Cards were hoping VY would fall in their laps that year...now's a great time to take a chance on him. If Vince was traded, I definitely would rather get draft picks...much better than a guy that takes this s--t too serious.

Next, whatever will happen to Jeff Fisher? I think it is in everyone's best interest that now that Vince is out of the way, Bud Adams lets Coach Fisher run out his contract. He's got one more year; if the Titans have a great season, re-sign the man. If the season's not-so-great, the contract's up, Jeff and the Titans go their separate ways, and there aren't very hard feelings. My only concern is that Fisher will let it get to his head that he's coaching for a new contract, and that has the possibility of more conservative play-calling in certain situations where more aggressive tactics might be needed. But I sincerely think that the Titans should give Fisher at least one more year now that the VY situation is behind us. Quite honestly, I don't know who would be a good replacement should the team get rid of Jeff now, so that's an added incentive to keep him on for another year.

Now the Titans will more than likely be looking for a quarterback going forward. I say, definitely keep Rusty Smith on, and have him work for a possible starting job, but bring in a 5- or 6-year veteran QB that hasn't necessarily started a lot, but is a good talent, to compete with Rusty for the job. I'd like to see either Troy Smith (2006 Heisman Trophy winner from Ohio State, formerly of Baltimore and currently with San Francisco), Kevin Kolb (benched for Mike Vick in Philadelphia), or Kyle Orton (the seasoned Purdue alum tossed around from Chicago to Denver, most recently benched for Timmy T) brought in for that purpose. I would keep Kerry Collins on in an advisory sort of role, maybe do some player-coaching if he's ok with it. The other option is to use that eighth pick in the draft and try to get another Quarterback of the Future. I've rethought my previous blog, and I'm not so sure the Panthers will want to draft a quarterback with the first pick, as they recently (see, last year) invested a rather high pick on Jimmy Clausen. So, that may open up the Titans (the second through seventh positions, respectively, belong to Denver, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Arizona, Cleveland, and San Francisco) to a good QB pickup (or a trade for the fifth or seventh spot, leading to said QB pickup) such as Ryan Mallett (should Carolina pass him up), Andrew Luck (same), Jake Locker (although, with two PAC-10 QBs in the same draft, one of them's gotta be a bust) or Cam Newton. I'm not a big fan of Newton's NFL prospects, but I've rethought my opinion on Luck after that Orange Bowl.

Of course, I'd rather we spend our high draft pick on a linebacker, but there really aren't that many LBs talented enough to be a top-10 pick. I say that with hesitation, there is almost always a defensive player taken high that no one could see coming (see recently: Jerod Mayo, Tyson Alualu). All I know is it will be an incredibly interesting offseason in Nashville. We'll see what happens.

I feel like I should blog again some more.

I think I need to catch you up on my life, and all its many twists and turns.

Number one: College. Many of my younger viewers may ask, "Why, Clayton, how's college?" Of course, now I think about it, many of my older viewers and viewers within my peer group may be wondering the same thing. And my answer to you is: College is great! Here's a flash of my typical Samford week:

Sunday: Wake up, 8:30ish. Why I am up this early after likely staying up until one or two reading Harry Potter or watching college football highlights is beyond me. There is a knock on the door and there is a friend who I arranged to take me to church. The church in question is massive, as are many of the Baptist churches around Birmingham. The service was nothing remarkable, and then was Sunday School. I have not attended a Sunday School session outside of HFUMC since, oh I don't know, eight or ten years ago, probably. It was a very enjoyable experience, I think I might go back just for the Sunday School hour sometime. Arrive back on campus around 12:30, grab some lunch in the caf, then back to the room for an afternoon of NFL football. That's basically what Sunday consists of every week. Lots of football. Then to sleep for class.

Monday: My first class, JMC 200, begins at 10:30. I wake up at about 9 or 9:15, hop in the shower, head to the food court for a chick-fil-a biscuit breakfast, and head on over to class. Take some notes, fight some sleep, and then to Latin. Much of the same, although instead of the "take some notes" part, it's more "try to figure out what in the heck this thing means". Latin ends at 12:50, and that's class on Monday. After Latin, I hit up the caf for lunch, and head back to the room. Once back in the room, I open facebook (which will remain open long into the night), check emails, and get whatever work I have to get done. Today I'll get all my laundry done. I'm thirsty, so I walk to the mini-fridge and pull out a can of Canada Dry Ginger Ale. On this particular Monday afternoon, I pull up the 104.5 The Zone radio broadcast online, because Randy Moss is holding his first media meeting as a Tennessee Titan. I listen to 3hourlunch until 3, and then turn on the TV to NFLNetwork. I throw on my freshly-laundered band t-shirt, a pair of socks, and some tennis shoes, and head over to the band room. I then catch a ride to the gym because I'm playing for the basketball game. I play some music, shout a lot, and eat some pizza. Four hours later, I go back to the room, where I'll play on the computer, watch TV, and do some reading until I fall asleep at about midnight.

On Tuesday, I have one class. However, I am determined to make Convo this morning, even if I sleep through it. I get a can of lemonade from the room, and a chicken biscuit from the food court (I'm trying hard to cut down on my Bulldog Buck spending, I'm fast running out from my Chick-fil-A consumption), and head over to Reid Chapel for the Convocation. Today's convo speaker was surprisingly interesting, a United Methodist clergywoman and yet another great storyteller. Having not gotten my nap or the last four pages of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in, I go to my Tuesday/Thursday class, CP. I get that essay back that I slaved over on the previous Wednesday night. "This is surprisingly well-written," I find Dr. Putt has written on it. "First semester freshmen usually do not write this well. I even suspected plagiarism at first because it is so clearly written! Excellent work!" This brightens up my day immensely, even more than my first convo credit in two or more weeks did. I take about a page-full of notes about Gothic architecture and culture, and then we get out of class at around noon or 12:15. I head straight to the caf for lunch this day, and then after chilling back in the room for a couple of hours, go to band practice. It's our first Christmas band practice, and as I note to the facebook world, "I am fully aware of the irony of the fact that we're practicing Christmas music, and I'm wearing a tshirt and flip flops." The music is different, and moderately challenging. After dinner, I come back to the room, and Patrick is watching the new 30 for 30 film on ESPN about former superstar running back Marcus Dupree. It's a nice little piece, and I enjoyed it. After that, I make sure everything's ready for my Wednesday classes, read some Harry Potter, and go to sleep.

Wednesday is the day I buy my Harry Potter tickets. There's some finagling with Fandango, but eventually everything works out and I'm ready to go. Both of my Wendesday classes included getting tests back. My JMC grade, though not stellar, is still a solid B, which I will take. In Latin, I was expecting bad things from the test, but I end up earning a similar B. While in Latin, unbeknownst to me, there is a bit of a flash-mob rave dance in the caf in order to advertise tomorrow night's freshman class rave. Sadly, I miss it. After lunch, I head to the library to put in a couple hours of work-study time. In the end, I am not able to continue, and I end up staying for only an hour and a quarter. Dinner is yet another caf affair, and I return to the room with just enough time to watch yesterday's episodes of both Glee and NCIS. After my hour and a half of online TV dosage, I head to my small group meeting. It's a particularly good group meeting for me, and I do a little more reading before I go to sleep.

Thursday is a triumphant morning. For the first time in over a month, I am able to wake up in time to get to the caf for breakfast! I also make it to Convo, which is a very nap-worthy lecture about the church in China. Perhaps it goes too long, for I am still in a lethargic state when CP rolls around. The Renaissance is the topic of this class, and it goes until about 12:10, I think. I go back to the room for a 30-minute power nap (haven't had a good one of those in a while, either...) and then lunch in the caf. An hour and a half after I get done with lunch, and it's band practice time again. I'm not really feeling too well during practice, but I manage, and suffer through a small dinner just to keep my appetite regular. By the time I get ready to go to the aforementioned rave, I'm feeling much better and ready for a fun night of dancing. Well, except for the fact that after about forty-five minutes of constant jumping and moving, etc, I felt like my lungs were about to explode, so I headed back to the dorm for a couple puffs of the asthma inhaler and I was generally back to normal. Great dance, then I feel like staying up even later to get in some Harry Potter reading. I decide that I'm not even going to eat breakfast Friday morning, as I only have one one-hour class that day. I go to sleep, exhausted from an exciting day.

On Friday, I stumble out of bed a little before ten, take a shower, and find my way to my JMC class. It's a nice lesson about cable, I jot down a few key points, and class ends. I head to the caf, and have about an hour-and-a-half long lunch (not so much eating as the social aspect of lunch in the caf). After lunch, I spend a while in the room, before choosing to throw in a little bit of work-study in the library before it closes at 5. After I finish in the library, I run into Corey and Clayton playing frisbee. I play with them for a while, and then we all three head up to the caf for dinner. There we meet the likes of Patrick and Josiah, and after a nice evening meal, we decide to head up to the volleyball game, Senior night, at the gym. We are joined by Jamieson and Red Sea points leader Throck (it's a nickname, his last name's Throckmorton). We watch the volleyball girls fall to Georgia Southern 3 sets to 1, but in a valiant effort nonetheless. Some fingerfoods follow, and then Patrick and I so choose to head back to the room and chill for the rest of the night. I find myself, once again, in the midst of a very good Harry Potter Book (Goblet of Fire, which I've been working on the majority of the week) before going to bed once again.

Saturday gets a late start from me. I wake up shortly before 11, shower, watch some college football, and then head to the caf for brunch. There are some conspiracies regarding a birthday party, and I head back to the room. Corey comes in, I end up taking a run to Taco Bell with him and Zach. After we get back and while we are consuming our Taco Bell, Jamieson enters, detailing us about a certain prank to go down. I spend a large part of my afternoon on that effort after my weekly phone call to the parentals. After dinner, I anxiously await the next step of the prank, but we are foiled by someone close to a victim. I have a nice facebook conversation with this un-named source, and find myself compromised somewhat in the war of pranks that is happening throughout Samford. I suppose it feels a little like when countries entered the World Wars a while after they started. I await my just rewards. Meanwhile, I watch the fourth Harry Potter movie, and end up having to stop after a while, because it is so horrendous. I then watch the South Carolina-Florida and Alabama-Mississippi State games before catching the ridiculously awful ending of the fourth Harry Potter movie. Around this point, Patrick returns from the dorm lobby, and we watch SNL and some football and basketball highlights before he calls it a night and I turn to this, my blog.

Well, that's a sample week. Now that you know that, I'll just go on about some trivial stuff...

1. CUPCAKES. And I'm not talking about that thing that looks like a muffin but is much better. I'm talking about teams, like Louisiana-Monroe, like Georgia State, like the University of freaking Notre Dame, that college football teams play two, three, seven games against each season. Those ones that scream "easy win, let's get in here, play a little ball, throw our bench in, and get the hell out of here" on the schedule. It disgusts me. Every team in the SEC has played at least three, and while I'm a big fan of the SEC, I think they need to play easy-win teams that are a little more competitive by name, like Big Ten and ACC schools. Those of you that have been following all my crazy facebook action know my obsession with cupcakes and their complete lack of benefit.

2. We've got Randy freaking Moss!!!! Thats right, boys and girls, Randy's a Titan. Get excited, it's going to be a great ride in Nashville for the second half of the season, and--dare I say it?--playoffs?!?

3. Oh, I gots me a youtube channel now! You can find me at http://www.youtube.com/user/churdle76. I may or may not eventually be posting videos, but it's really just a thing for me to use for comments or liking videos or stuff like that.

4. And I've also gots me a tweeter!! Although I myself am not a twit, and do not tweet, I felt like I should get a twitty-thing to follow some other twits that like tweeting. So if you want me to add you to my followees, tweet me up @churdle76. If you want to add yourself to my followers (or, as I prefer, twitstalkers), just do whatever you do to follow a twitty type by searching the same tweetie-name.

5. What else, what else? Oh, I'm annoyed by Christmas coming before and above Thanksgiving again, I'm in the middle of a little No-Shave November action, and I get some more money in the bank this week. Also, my midseason NFL Picks are as thus: Titans, Texans, Colts, Jaguars AFC South; Steelers, Ravens, Browns, Bengals AFC North; Chiefs, Chargers, Raiders, Broncos AFC West; Jets, Patriots, Dolphins, Bills AFC East; Falcons, Saints, Bucs, Panthers NFC South; Packers, Vikings, Bears, Lions NFC North; Rams, Seahawks, Cardinals, Niners NFC West; Giants, Eagles, Redskins, Cowboys, NFC East. Playoff seedings will be Jets, Steelers, Titans, Chiefs, Ravens, Texans in the AFC; Giants, Falcons, Packers, Rams, Eagles, Saints in the NFC. Wild Card games: Titans over Texans, Ravens over Chiefs, Packers over Saints, Eagles over Rams. Divisional games: Ravens over Jets, Titans over Steelers, Eagles over Giants, Packers over Falcons. Conference championships: Ravens over Titans (you don't know how much it hurts me to say that), Eagles over Packers. To keep to my original pick of Super Bowl Champion, Ravens over Eagles.

Oh, last but not least, congrats to the San Francisco Giants for bringing home the World Series championship for the first time since your west coast move over fifty years ago.

That's it for now, folks, I'll be back with more action sometime later.

-clayton

Five Reasons Why....

With all the hype surrounding next week's SEC title game, I thought I'd offer my reasons why Alabama is going to defeat Florida.





It's big, there's no denying that. The biggest Conference championship game since before 2003 (that's how far back ESPN.com goes, and I don't feel like going any farther) features 1 vs. 2/3 (depending on the polls). Tim Tebow's last SEC football game. The Alabama-Florida game, televised live at 4 eastern on CBS Saturday, is a match of Olympian proportions. These are my "Five Reasons Why...." Alabama will be the next SEC champion.





1. Alabama can play close, and come from behind to win. As evidenced by Friday night's Auburn game, the Tide knows how to come back from behind. In Florida's closest game (23-20 over Arkansas), they needed the help of some poor officiating calls to win.



2. Speaking of officiating...After getting that help against Arkansas, Urban Meyer decided that the refs weren't performing up to par. He criticized them. And got punished by the SEC. If the game is at all close, which it most likely will be, look for the refs to punish Urban too. There could be a controversial call or two going in Alabama's favor.

3. Tide wins with turnovers. Unless you're the New Orleans Saints, a positive turnover margin is a must-have for winning a football game. Bama's is a +15, while the gators have a margin of only +8 for the season. I'll take the Crimson Crusaders on the turnover battle. Their +15 is even more impressive when they're doing it in a close-game situation. I would expect the team that dominates its opponents more to have a better turnover margin.

4. Florida has a bad character record. from Brandon Spikes' on-field incident (look at the link, in the first line of the fourth paragraph, horrible grammatical error) to the most recent off-field driving violation, the Gators don't seem to be dedicated to playing clean ball. Sure, Bama has recently been on probation, but their offenses were seemingly minor compared to eye-gouging and drunk driving. The affect on the Championship will be merely through the media, but I still have a problem thinking that the arrest of a starting D-lineman will not help the Gators on the field at all.



5. Bama has more names. Sure, Superman wears Florida blue, but he's one person. And last time I checked, there's no I in team. Nope, still none. Sure Brandon Spikes is a force on defense, but the gators at this moment are out of big game receivers. If Percy Harvin hadn't gone pro, this argument would be a moot point. When I think the Crimson Tide, I think McElroy, Ingram, Julio Jones, Leigh Tiffin (he's the kicker, and he's pretty dang good if you don't follow them), Rolando McClain, more athletes. And the fact that Bama can convert these superstars to play together as a team, that means a lot. And as I mentioned here, when a team doesn't revolve around one (or two) players, they win.



Because I've been thinking....Random Ruminations:



>Were Colts coach Jim Caldwell to retire today, he would be the winningest coach to go undefeated with one team (Wally Lemm went 10-0 with the Oilers after they fired Lou Rymkus in 1961).



>I'm worrying about the WTA. It took them two and a half months to fine Serena Williams for her September 12 tirade. Perhaps it's the worst-run professional organization other than the NBA (with dress code Nazi David Stern) or MLB (are steriods really against the rules? are you sure? because everyone's still doing them).



>Is this the end for Tiger "Count Olaf" Woods? A series of unfortunate events seems to have descended upon the great golfer. Maybe it's Jack "Don't call me Nicholson" Nicklaus's way of telling Tiger, "I'm the best. you won't beat my records. If you try, I will beat you. Or your knee. Or your car."



>The Titans aren't going to the playoffs. Until they are in contention in week 17, I won't say that they will.


>As if anyone was in doubt that this would happen ten weeks ago, Charlie Weis is officially no longer the coach at The Dame of Notres. Shocker. As soon as they started discussing potential candidates to replace his job (about three weeks ago) I knew he was done.


>In other no-longer-coaching news, Bobby Bowden retired two days ago. This officially makes JoePa the greatest old man in football.


>And I'm not done yet! Bill Walsh made it to the Hall of Fame with a 102-63-1 record coaching the 49ers (including 3 Super Bowl victories). His successor, George Seifert, coached the Niners to two more championships, more career wins, and a better winning percentage for the seven years he was the coach in the Bay Area. He is not in the Hall. This needs to be amended.


>I'm surprised Dennis Dixon kept the Steelers in the game against Baltimore. It impressed me that the Oregon product wasn't phased throwing to people wearing the same jersey they wore when he completed his first NFL pass.

As we get nearer the playoffs, I will post all you possibly need to know about them.

-cth