Hey potential Clarkies, current Clarkies, Cougars and all other readers. I’m officially here to let you know what the deal is in my realms of Clark. If you need a better idea of what those realms are, check out by bio. Before we get the 411 on recent stuff we have some catching up to do.
Earlier in the year fall baseball took place. For those of you who are interested in baseball keep reading, otherwise skip to the next paragraph. For all those who are interested, fall ball is a shorter season than our spring season and it is more of an experimental experience. Every year in the fall we have practice 4 days a week, usually Friday through Monday, and then we have a double header in early October. It’s basically a way to stay loose after summer baseball, to reorganize our team, and to see what our freshman class will bring to the table. There are only two official games, but we play around three or four inter-squad games. We also go to the field on our own during the off days to stay in tune. Last big thing in the fall is that we hold an alumni game for the graduated players, followed by a barbeque. This is a lot of fun because we get to see our old friends again.
If you are Catholic, the following may be important to you, but you do not have to be Catholic to join the following group. If you are not interested in Catholicism, you may rather skip to the next paragraph. In the NEWMAN group (on campus Catholic group) we have held two Clark masses in which student members of the group do the mass and there is a casual dinner for Clark students in the parish center’s gym immediately afterword. We do a Clark mass once every month in addition to masses on holy days of obligation and seasonal parties. Our seasonal parties are a Christmas party, a Mardi Gras party, and an Easter egg hunt. I myself am in this group and one of the starting infielders is the Treasurer for the group. There are two other baseball players that attend mass with us every weekend, but they are not officially part of the NEWMAN association. NEWMAN has meeting every week, typically on Sundays in addition to mass. We meet in the University Center on the third floor, but the church we work with is St. Peter’s which is on Main Street (2-5 minute walk from the dorms).
The following regards one of Clark’s bands. If you don’t care for ska music, disregard the following. My roommate from my first year is the new drummer for the campus ska band Lamp Attack because the old drummer is currently in the stud
y abroad program. He keeps me informed on what the band does on a weekly basis. I play the drums myself so we like to talk about music quite a bit (I’m a big fan of Travis Barker of Blink-182 and John Otto of Limp Bizkit if you want to start a conversation with me). Anyway, the band has started to perform off campus locally in addition to playing in the grind in the University Center. They play songs from Real Big Fish, Streetlight Manifesto, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and they put together a reggae version of a Blink-182 song. I was skeptical when I heard about this because it was one of Blink-182’s fast early songs (begins with a “dam” and ends with a “nit”), but they pulled it off very well. I am also told that they are to begin recording soon. They have recorded for a school CD in the Grind last year, but I think what they are doing now is making a demo. Now ska, though fun to listen to, is not my favorite genre, but I must say they sound really good, so I’m excited to see how that works out.
For the most part, that catches us up on everything, now for the recent stuff. Now that baseball is over, the team is hitting the gym again. We go on our own time simply because it is easiest that way. Working out cannot be made mandatory for the teams at Clark due to NCAA Division 3 rules, but it is expected of you as a college athlete. It’s been tough so far because I got out of shape over the summer due to a minor injury, but I’m toughing it out. A lot of guys on the team are getting stocked up on protein shake
s and supplements too, but we have to be careful that they do not contain and substance banned by the NCAA, so the selection is limited. We are also getting organized to get our yearly apparel and fund raising for our Florida trip. I don’t know if any of you readers have taken sports trips before, but I must say it’s a lot more fun playing your sport without having to do schoolwork immediately after. Also, we stay in the nicest houses I have ever seen a college team stay in, and some how it costs less that a hotel. For the second year in a row we are staying in houses that fit around ten players each, everybody gets their own bed, and each house has a patio completed with a pool and a hot tub. Last year one of the houses also had a game room. Also, last year one of the alumni from our team invited the team over his house for a barbeque with a professional chef. That was definitely the best barbeque food I have ever had. I would love to do that again, but I know it is difficult catering to thirty people. As you can see, the team is closer than any fraternity you will find, and the friendships go back a long way.
On to scholastics, the so called “important” part of college (kidding with the sarcasm). If you don’t care about this part then skip this paragraph, but if you decide to skip this part, why are you looking at colleges anyway? Regardless, every semester I find that I have two or three classes that I do well in and then one miserable, psychotic realm of torture of a class (exaggeration). I am doing ok though. The first year is usually the hardest, but once you adjust to the different lifestyle things fall into place. I have completed all of the liberal arts requirements and all the prerequisites I may need to go into engineering for graduate school. I am currently working on finishing my Entrepeneurship minor and gradually completing the requirements for my math major. The Entrepeneurship minor I find to be relatively easy and even enjoyable. It is a lot of group projects and management skills.
Note for potential Clarkies: The math major however, is very challenging. If you are interested in math you will find that some of the classes are very difficult and that you may only understand 60% of the material. Luckily, the professors know that math is a hard major and almost every class has some sort of curve. This is the part of college classes that differs a lot from high school. In high school, a 70 out of 100 on an exam is typically somewhere around a C. In a math class in college, depending on the difficulty of the class, a 70 can range from the usual C to a B+, and at times even higher. The goal of most of these classes is not to know every little detail of a textbook, but to have a solid general understanding of the subject.
Well, I feel as though this is a good place to pick up next week. The following posts may be more useful because they will be on current events. If you have any questions just shoot me an e-mail. If you have any comments, post them up. Lastly, if you skipped every paragraph of this post because you had no interest in them or simply because I told you so, than you and I probably wouldn’t get past exchanging names in a conversation and I am essentially useless to you (totally kidding), but who knows, sometimes opposites attract. Stay tuned in, there are some fun things coming up in the next few weeks. Like what you ask? Oh, I don’t know, HALLOWEEN!!!
posts by Kevin
- Pre Thanksgiving - November 20th, 2009
- Class Registration Week - November 13th, 2009
- Halloween and Other Stuff - November 6th, 2009
- "Hell Week" - October 30th, 2009
