(GASP)

I'm writing my last blog entry for Lit and Civ II. This has been such a fun class. My only regret is not going biking with Dr. Dan. This class has taught me a lot. I've learned a bit about transcendentalism, a little about water, and a little about someone elses way of life. I'm very happy to take this class. My favorite part of this class was reading the errors in grammar/spelling. I personally enjoy laughing. I wish I could laugh all the time. I recommend this class to anyone that is willing to learn and read. The readings were not even that bad especially if we paced themselves. If I could do anything different I would definitely try to read ahead of time instead of waiting till sunday nights. I could have done a lot of other things with that time...like study O-chem.

Speaking of o-chem, I'm almost done with my first semester of it (huzzah). it's been a bumpy ride. I can say that I learned a lot in that class as well. The sad thing is that my professor told the class on the first day that we will forget 99% of what we learn in that class. I think he is right too. I can feel some of the knowledge leak out of my head. I look forward to doing second semester though. People always talk about 2nd semester lab. Upper class men say "it's sucks". Professors say "it's a blast."

The two organic professor's I've had this year have been awesome. They have great personalities. They learned my name very quickly. The teacher for lab is apparently a great raquetball player. I wanna get on the court with him. The teacher for lecture was very cynical. I learned so much from the both of them and I will miss the laughs. yes the laughs were good.

The are two people that I've known for 5 years that go to TCU currently. I can always laugh with them. They are probably my closests friends here. Sadly we do not get to hang too often, but when we do, sides are split. I make time for them.

This year I've learned that we make time for what we want to do. There is not enough time in the day to do everything we want. We have to take time from somewhere. Sadly that comes from sleep. I wish the government, or world powers would just extend the day by a couple of hours. It would be so helpful. But I've learned this year that we do not get many things that are helpful that we do not get.

I'm sorry that this post is kind of all over the place. It's almost 1:00 AM and I still have studying to do. I am just grabbing thoughts as they figuratively jump across my mind.

The most important lesson that I am learning this year is time management. It is extremely important for any successful adult. I've got to be able to learn how to plan activities, homework time, meals, and sleep. This would make me a much better student.

All in All it's been a good a good year. I learned that I'm capable of things I never thought I could do. Like function running of 4 hours of sleep after driving 5 hours. Maybe I'm a superhuman. Or maybe I am  not  a human being. (GASP)


again please excuse the fact that this blog is all over the place. I promise I thought about what I was gonna say before I wrote it.

TATA for now

So today is the last time mohammed and I meet. Since he does not have a final tomorrow we can talk for longer than we have for the last couple of times. To make this seem complete, we met at the same place we did the first time. It was kind of bitter sweet to meet him at star bucks for the last time. There is a chance we'll meet at some other time. Like if he's back in Texas or if I'm in michigan. Sadly this is tata for now. We talked about what mohammed will be doing for the break. He explained that he will spend some time with his family. I asked him about his nephew, whois multilingual. Mohammed explained that he is doing great. I asked if he learned any new languages lately and mohammed said no with a chuckle.
Mohammed and I talk TCU football for a bit. I explained to him how upset I was when I learned that we were not going to the playoffs. I told him that I was so upset, that I did not want to do any school work at all. Mohammed told me that he did her about the news, but he definately did not take it the same way I did. I was in the mind set that all is lost, and I would rather be just sitting in my room than hanging with my friends and getting the bad news.
I asked Mohammed if people in Saudi Arabia get as excited about soccer as I do about sports. He said yes. He refereed to a picture that he showed me at our second meeting and he also explained that the fans are crazy. People paint them selves, pain their houses, and get into fights over some teams. This was good to know because I would have been slightly embarrassed if Americans were the only people that commit those types of acts of team spirit. Now it's okay because everyone does it.
I asked mohammed if he's started buying clothes for michigan yet. He told me that he has some, but not enough for a person that will be living their.
Since the holiday is coming up that means one thing for me. TELEVISION. I told Mohammed that my favorite TV show is definitely "game of thrones." He said that he had heard of it but had never actually watched it. He told me that his favorite American show is probably Ellen. I'm happy to hear that. I love ellen!!!! She's soooo funny.

After talking about television, mohammed and I wrapped up our last meeting. We did the hand shake/hug thing. I was very sad.

Union

Today Mohammed and I got to meet at Union grounds. This is actually the first time that we met on TCU campus because he does not live on campus. Usually I meet him somewhere that is close but off campus. It's easier to find parking that way.
Today was probably the first time that we talked about myself most of the time. We essentially talked about what my family does during the holiday. I explained how it's a bit of a toss up whether we go to my grandmother's or grandfather's house. They are no longer married so it's hard to split the time during the holidays. Often, grandfather will have a small gathering before christmas day and my grandma has a gathering on christmas day. I explained to mohammed that it usually works for the best when my family does it that way.
Me being me, I brought up sports in our conversation. (SURPRISE!!!) We talked about basketball. I explained to him that the mavericks are the home team in this area. We also talked about the unfortunate situation that is occuring with our men's basketball team. They play at an off campus site. Because of that, the number of games that I attend will be very small compared to last year. I may have missed one big 12 home game last year. This year I will be lucky to go to one.
I kind of wish that mohammed stayed next semester so that we can go watch a game together. Or even so he could watch me play rugby. But he's moving on to bigger and better things. And I cannot be angry at him for that. Tomorrow Mohammed and I meet for the last time before the semester ends and he's off to michigan. i will definatelhy miss him.

We dem boyz

So today Mohammed and I had another brief meeting . He told me that he is very exhausted from dead days. We got to watch the cowboys for a little bit. It was good to see that he retained some of the information that he learned when we ate at fuzzy’s. He remembered how much a touchdown is. It may have been because the cowboys had only scored one touchdown. But I was just excited for him to remember. I explained to him that this game is a must win for the cowboys. I told him that the eagles are our arch rivals. I’m not sure if we will win as I write this blog entry.

I tried to explain the phrase “we dem boyz” to mohammed. I think he started to get it at the end. I essentially told him that it is a common saying among cowboys fans.

All in all, it was a good meeting with mohammed. He’s been pretty pressed for time. Same for me. But I look forward to meeting with him tomorrow so we can get these meetings done. 

Starbucks with Mohammed

Mohammed and I talked about rugby today. I was explaining that it is in a way a mix of soccer and football. But it was difficult. He is not very familiar with football. But it is easier to equate rugby to football than it is to soccer. But sadly I am not very familiar with soccer. So it took an extremely long time. Since I am just learning the game it was difficult to answer some questions for me.

Talking to him I learned just how little I know about the game. I started about  2 months ago, but I wish I knew more.

We spent almost 30 minutes talking about rugby. Eventually we started talking about Michigan. He says that he is ready for this semester to be over so that he can move on to the next chapter of his life. I asked mohammed. Mohammed has been very busy with finals and being in Michigan often so he had to leave kind of early. I hope I am able to talk to him a few more times before the semester ends.

                                                                                                                                                 

2nd Conversation With Mohammed

Mohammed and I met at Fuzzy’s today, Sunday. It had been a while because of our conflicting schedules. He travels often and I’m pretty busy with school and other activities, but we make it work. I arrived at Fuzzy’s and got my food first because I knew that Fuzzy’s takes a long time to make their food. I thought I had the perfect plan. But it did not work out.

Mohammed had a hard time finding a parking spot, which I did not anticipate. So he was about 10 minutes late. He did not even want anything to eat. I even offered to buy something for him if money was an issue. But he told me that he had eaten at Fuzzy’s before and did not enjoy it. He told me that his favorite Mexican restaurant is the one that is next to BJs on Hulen. (Sounds like I have an idea for our next place to meet.

So I quickly ate my food because I did not want it sitting in front of him while we spoke.

I asked Mohammed what his favorite sport was and he told me, with no hesitation, soccer. He was very excited as he showed me pictures of the stadium on his phone. He told me that people go crazy during those games. He told the name of his favorite team but I cannot remember the name of it. I asked him if he ever watched any F.C. Dallas games, but he does not usually watch MLS (major league soccer).

Mohammed spent Saturday in Dallas. He explained that the Arab restaurants in Dallas are a lot better than the ones in Fort Worth. He also told me that he spent some time in Michigan over fall break. When I asked about his business up there, he told me that he was visiting the University of Michigan because he plans to transfer there next semester. I was kind of sad when I heard of this, even though I’ve only spoken to him twice in person. I asked him why, and he told me that his Saudi friends have told him their experiences were not very good at TCU. Mohammed told me that his experience at TCU has been difficult, and he feels that it will better and easier for him at Michigan. I’m glad that he will be finishing the semester but I am bummed that he did not enjoy it. Mohammed also explained that the Saudi population at Michigan was a larger percentage than at TCU. I told Mohammed that I am sad that he hasn’t had a great experience at TCU but happy that he is moving on to better things.

After this Mohammed and I caught the end of the Cowboys game. While we were watching the game he told me about his first experience at a TCU game. Since he did not know the rules, he told me that he simply would cheer when everyone would cheer and “boo” when others booed.

I am very glad that he was able to be there to watch the Cowboys win. I explained some of the general rules of the game. I explained why the Cowboys kept running the ball at the end of the game.

Hopefully Mohammed and I can meet each other this coming Friday or Sunday. Maybe I can convince him to remain a horned frog. 

BALL IS LIFE

So I’m in a fantasy basketball league. I was roped into it last year buy some of my coworkers. It is a pretty time consuming activity especially since it is one of the longer fantasy seasons. But I enjoy it. I think of it as something that keeps me plugged into the outside world. It gives me a reason to watch one of my favorite sports. I watch basketball all the time. I know a bit about the game, but fantasy is another beast. It takes into account a lot of things that most people do not get to think of. Like minutes played, missed shots, and missed free throws. All of these combined goes into a total amount of points that a player receives.  

I would be a liar if I said that I was very good at starting off. I made many mistakes. Like drafting players that seemed good in real life, but they were 3 star players in fantasy. I made trades that were not very conducive to the success of my team. At one point I was at the point as to which I did not care. Other people in the league new that as well.

Luckily my former boss took me under his wing and gave me pointers on how to make decent trades that would end up in my favor. BTW I say former boss because he resigned from his position. I don’t want readers thinking that I was fired or quit. But eventually I got the hang off fantasy. Sadly, I was a bit too late. I was already in second to last place in the league. There was a “loser’s tournament” that I did well in. I was making moves like a champ. I would send trades just to spark people’s interest and pull it before they got to accept or decline it. When they would send the same trade and I would deny. I’m such a tease J .

One time there was a slight schism in the league and the current league manager was essentially voted off the island. Since I was the new guy in the league and had no biases, I became the league manager. That is not necessarily a position I can put on a resume but that is still a lot of responsibility. But I feel that I handled it like a champ.

Then it came time for this season’s draft. I had a no B.S. mindset. This is not a game. BALL IS LIFE. My draft order did not allow me to have a great position but I still got a solid balanced team compared to some other players. Now people send me trades and I carefully think about them. I consider the quality and the name value of the players that I could potentially receive in a trade. I used to look at their points for previous games. Then I learned that players have ups and downs, even the all-stars.

All in all I learned a lot while going through the whole fantasy cycle. I think that this year will be a much better experience compared to last year. I’ve already started off better compared to this time last year. I may not be first, but I will definitely give them a run for their money.