You know...February wasn't at all too bad. My weekends this month have been incredible. On Saturday the ninth I went to New York with Katie and she ended up meeting my folks and the jerks as well. The Saturday after that we went to the University of Pennsylvania for our district conclave. It was great to meet brothers from other chapters and learn about what they do in their chapters. This weekend of course was THON 2008. Just like last year it was amazing, but this time the dancers were people I have been friends with for a good part of my college career. Me and Micah decided to spend the night at Bryce Jordan Center instead of going to the hotel, which was crazy because we really were like the dancers and had no idea what time it was. We did the line dance many times, sung and danced to songs we sure as hell knew we hated (my favorite being Adam suffering through "Blue") and met cool people such as my potential neighbors next semester and Gwen, who I'll refer to as "Micah's friend". Another great Penn State weekend.

-Mikhail

This Texas Ranger Doesn’t Play Baseball

With the rise of the Internet no one person has been given hero status more in the past three years than Chuck Norris. Before I became familiar with Chuck Norris in his current form, I found myself in one of the many dojos where he practiced in Harlem. His hero status has been assumed since he started appearing in his own feature films during the 70s where he of course roundhouse kicks fiends and takes names. In the 80s he had a cartoon show where he lead a team of a couple of kids and a helpful sumo wrestler pal fighting a crazy ninja and some dude with a freakish golden claw. In the 90s Chuck was Walker, Texas Ranger, who was fighting crime (while selling home gym systems at that) when Texas was having some serious issues apparently…for eight years too. Well in this decade Chuck Norris is now a supernatural being that until about two months ago, was greater than God.

One characteristic of the rise of Chuck is his continuous gain of power, which of course was helped by immense training, but was enhanced with the powers of his facial hair. The rise of this hero starts with a really big fall inn a fight scene with Bruce Lee. Not only does Bruce Lee beat him to death, he had hair ripped right off of his chest! In the 1980s he had a mustache while fighting ninjas in The Octagon. While on his Texas Ranger stint he had a full beard hiding another fist. Back to the Bruce Lee fight, no mustache...just wimpy sideburns.

In 2005, Chuck Norris became a phenomenon once again because people were learning more and more about what a brute, unforgiving force he was to humans, nature and pretty much the entire universe. Our beloved crime fighting Texan was not only striking fear into the eyes of criminals, but everything alive…maybe even dead in some cases. The Chuck Norris facts became an amazing hit and of course Chuck Norris being the man he is acknowledged the jokes and was willing to laugh at his own awesomeness.
Unfortunately it was time for another fall, when Chuck Norris decided to show that maybe God actually does have more power than what Chuck Norris gave to him. He began running ads to promote Bible study in schools, which of course to many shows that Chuck Norris may be a God fearing man, but he can snap your neck faster than you can blink. In late 2007, he sued a book publisher for releasing a book of the mythological Chuck Norris facts, which of course makes the threat of “Don’t F*** with Chuck” true because he’ll sue your ass.

Well now that that’s taken care of Chuck Norris has teamed with Mike Huckabee in a line of ads including “Huck-Chuck” facts, which were of course “Chuck Norris Approved”. By the way, this paper would not exist had Harry Truman decided to use the atomic bomb instead of use Chuck Norris, since it was more humane.

-Mikhail

Man I'm tired. Next two weekends should be cool. UPenn next Saturday with the boys. THON the week after that. Good times.

-Mikhail

So yesterday I went to New York for the day and it may have been one of the best 12 hour spans I've been in the city. Our time in there started with my first ride on the PATH stopping at where else but the in progress World Trade Center hub, which is a crazy sight in that you are right in "Ground Zero" watching people build stuff there after the reckoning the Cloverfield monster did. We went to Chipotle's for lunch although it was the first meal for most of us. Then we went canning at our respective spots having initially moderate success. We took a break and went our separate ways for the most part. I ended up going home where I had a nice hearty meal and then took a nap only to wake up to my brother playing Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest on a N64 emulator. Six o'clock hit so I went back to meet up with the others. As it should be no surprise to anyone, cluster-fucked weekend service left us waiting at each stop while "traffic" cleared. We finally met up at Times Square where the characters finally started to appear including my favorite "I GOTTA SLEEP, GOTTA EAT, GOTTA SHIT, GOTTA COOK BREAKFAST MAAAAAAAAAN." While trying to figure out our next canning locale, we heard about a bar that serves as an underground Penn State Alum spot. We head down there and low and behold you can spot a banner that says "Welcome All Penn State Nittany Lions" We imediately think this is incredibly awesome and that about ends the trip. The entire time (especially after leaving my folks place) I thought that soon enough this is how life's going to be for me. Whether it'll be other trips to day trips to New York from school or after graduation, when I'm living far from my current home and just stop by to say "Hi!" to my family. Also this day helped to give me an idea of where to find fellow Penn Staters after my time at State College is done. Best Saturday so far this year and definitely top 10 lifetime.

-Mikhail

Friday night we had our usual brotherhood development starting at TGI Fridays and then at this pool hall. As we were leaving we decided to go to my friends place to just hangout some more. On the way there our newest brother Steve turned on his GPS to take us on our way over there. The GPS kept implying that we go straight ahead for about 6 miles, when our first and only possible turned was a little more than a block down. We took the only route we could go still "following" the GPS. After a couple of more turns out of our alleged way, Steve decided to restart the thing. So he did put in the destination and the same map came on. He looks through again and somehow then realizes that it was running on demo. Before he realized that we ended up on the right road that takes us straight to school on a complete stroke of luck.

-Mikhail

Well back to the 'burg Sunday. The break has been great, much better than last year's. I'm hoping the semester flies by while at the same time slow to enjoy.

-Mikhail

Bored as usual on this second (well now third) day of the newest of years, I began looking on Facebook, as I normally do when I'm bored, and started reading notes people have written for themselves on ways they're going to improve themselves for the upcoming year. I think this practice is the most arbitrary in "life-changing maneuvers" because you literally have decided that January 1st, 2008 is the day the rest of your life begins as opposed to it being the result of a personal event and/or epiphany any other time of the year (unless yours happened to have come around New Year's...Orl Korrect for you). With that said, instead of presenting ways I'm going to better myself this year, I'll submit to you a list of things for 2008:

• Somehow hover over a 2.0 GPA for my entrance to major requirement...pretty difficult with my 3.33 cumulative.
• Have a great time at THON considering it'll be the last with Harrisburg.
  
• Somehow manage to get a PS3 for when MGS4 comes out. (this should be higher on the list, but didn't think of it until now)
• Start a physical journal one which people can write their thoughts in as well, maybe just for the year as its gonna be one of these big transition years. (this was an idea I got from a great brother of mine Joe Marks)
• Intern somewhere (hopefully with David Letterdude or any other show network or cable)
• Work at The Door for a 5th straight summer
• Take time to go somewhere thats more North than Boston, more West than State College, more South than Charlottesville, East? not much there except Long Island...I guess I could go there too.
• Start life at University Park :-)

Well those are things certainly. Surely there's more to be covered, but I think I hit the points I know are coming up. As I sure learned last year more than ever, life is fuckin crazy. There's always something that is going to be changing and this year more than any other I remember, I'm expecting lots and lots of changes not only in my own life, but in the lives of the people around me and of course the country. So this is 2008, the year of things and stuff.

-Mikhail

Well the year is finally at its end. I don't remember a year where things were just as incredibly erratic as they've been. Honestly I've felt maybe every conceivable emotion this year particularly more amounts of rage than ever. Of course it wasn't all that, I also feel that people appreciate my association with them more than ever, this was definitely felt most all summer while working at the Door. Equally, I've never appreciated the people in my life more than ever, especially my family and friends at home since I spent such a long time away from them this semester. School couldn't have been any better especially now that only a semester is in my way from the nirvana of higher education: University Park. 2008 is gonna be great, with all kinds of SIH!!s and "shake that bear"s ahead.

-Mikhail

Holy shit! What am I still doing up!?

-Mikhail

So last night we spent a good part of the night hanging out with the our brothers Shippensburg. It was a wonderful time hearing stories about various mishaps including broken ankles, extremely hairy asses and a very numb penis. It's always good to hear stories that happen at other colleges because somehow they always seem relevant to your experience where ever you are.

-Mikhail

Interesting day today...I overslept and woke up 25 minutes late for my EARTH final, which was no biggie since I finished with time to spare anyway. On the way to class I noticed the ice storm did some work on campus, giving all the trees and glass a nice cool protective coating. After that I spent most of the day in front of the TV watching this George Mitchell report unfold. It was interesting in that for the most part everyone found out at the same time about the names that were in it. On my way to ECON I was told class was cancelled so I headed to the library where I finally downloaded the report. I skimmed through it myself for a couple of hours, reading the accounts about players that I'm familiar with. Jason Giambi's was interesting in that he was one of the few that was an isolated incident at the beginning of his time on steroids until he of course met Greg Anderson putting him in the BALCO picture. I think that may be the only reason why he can talk about it because there were no other parties involved and whenever he did them it was at home instead of being connected to Radomski, McNamee, Jason Grimsley or Canseco. There was one part that almost seems comical and I'll provide that excerpt from the report:

"During the 1998 season (around the time of the injections), Clemens showed McNamee a white bottle of Anadrol-50.[386] Clemens told McNamee he was not using it but wanted to know more about it. McNamee told Clemens not to use it. McNamee said he took the bottle and gave it to Canseco.[387]

[387] McNamee stated that he showed the bottle to Canseco because he thought that Canseco was knowledgeable and he felt comfortable approaching him. According to McNamee, Canseco volunteered to take the bottle."

Well I don't where the next step will go, but Michael Wilbon couldn't have said it any better in that it is an embarrassing day for baseball.

-Mikhail

I don't know what kinda posting schedule I'm on but here goes my story. This weekend has been a great representation of this entire semester. Good times with great people, something incredibly ridiculous that we all knew may have happened and did, and of course me not having my camera on me to capture such a wonderful moment (really should have grabbed it when I went back to get my ping-pong balls). Anyway, I'm really glad that I was able to share that time with the people I did. One thing is for sure, I gave out as many hugs last night as I have all semester combined.

-Mikhail

The semester is finally winding down. I just finished my last problem set for economics, have a few more parts to do for my portfolio on Louisville (which is actually an interesting city), memorize my scene for theater and start working on my final presentation on game shows for pop media. Other than schoolwork, life is alright. Nothing overwhelmingly special going on, but have what is looking to be a good weekend ahead. Home in 2 weeks :-)

-Mikhail

Damn I hate days like these when a mountain of work piles on to one day, especially since I'll have to stop for at least an hour to watch House. Oh, well thats college.

-Mikhail

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about going home for next week. I'll have been away from home for almost 3 months and honestly never been more happy to be going back. The time here of course has been as interesting as ever meaning there's lots of material for a book to be published sometime. On Friday as soon as I get home, I'll be getting ready to go to my cousin's wedding which will be interesting, since I've never been to one. I'm more than ecstatic about seeing my awesome family and definitely sometime with the jerks as well.

In recent news, my weekend was pretty bland at best. Friday night I saw Dan in Real Life, which I lilked quite a bit. On Saturday I watched alot of college football since no one else was around to entertain. Much later in the night, I went my friend's place and drank, but the time there was brief and pretty awkward (perhaps this will be one of those stories for the book). Sunday was much of the same except football on the professional level and for the night time working at the Night of Giving, where I ended up buying a nice sweater. Hopefully this week goes by quickly and with some good times before Friday.

-Mikhail

MacBook is back in my hands with a bonus repaired top case. Now I gotta remember everything I had in here.

-Mikhail

Step 3 - Return

Product return pending (05-Nov-2007)

That was quick, I sent it in just on Friday. Well good to see things are about to come back to normal, maybe. Home is 11 days away, now that I've delayed my return just one day as to not miss any turkeys that may be cooked next Thursday. The call I made to Amtrak was rather amusing I'd say. The gent that helped me out with was real cool, definitely sounded like an old coot, which is what I imagined most Amtrak workers would be. You'll have to hear me explain this in person as it doesn't do him any justice in print, either that or call Amtrak yourself and have a reservation to change.

-Mikhail

It's safe to say this has been the most difficult weekend I've ever had. To start, in preperation for Saturday's events, on no evaluation of mine, we left at 4AM for State College to wait in line for College Gameday. Aside from a 2 hour nap earlier on Friday, I didn't sleep at all so I was up for about 30 hours straight noting that I've never fully gone 24 hours. I did get on television a few times (with help from my awesome banana costume), but it was just kinda boring being there even with our crazy pride + ESPN. We got lunch downtown and at the Creamery and on the walks to and fro people are saying "Hey Banana!" or singin "It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time" which was really cool. Sometime later we did some tailgaiting having nice bits of deep-fried chicken and turkey.

At about 2.5 hours before kickoff we're waiting in line and the gates open. Everyone is bumrushing to get in (which can be seen in the photo gallery here) and we all just get pushed in by the crazies behind us. Then the game itself was just...wow. As my buddy Jonny Mack put it "I've never seen the student section as pissed off as it is." and he was right. After a promising opening drive, the defense got trampled and we couldn't get anything running on offense. After our glowstick experiment failed, tons of ripped pompoms went in the air resulting in kind of a blizzard. Really cool looking, but didn't help at all.

Finally I get back at 2, meet with my theater teacher to work on my monologue which went very well. At around 4PM today, my MacBook literally died. I'm in the library now trying see what the issue is and from similar stories, it looks like I've had a hard drive failure. From the countless stories I've read in the forums, recovery is possible, but kinda hard considering my lack of an external hard drive and of course my financial circumstances. So from this point on expect little to no internet interaction from me until at least Thanksgiving or if I get the situation handled at an Apple Service Provider (which is in Mechanicsburg and not a terrible drive for whoever I go with). This is going to suck serious ass and I'll be sure to put updates here or on Facebook of things.

-Mikhail

Last night, while bored, I decided to read another essay from Greg's end-of-summer present Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas and the article happened to be about lead singer of The Smiths, Steven Morrissey...although known more by just his surname or Moz since he went solo. Well it wasn't so much about him, but rather his new fan-hood of young latino folks. I found it so funny considering my semi-recent discovery of the Smiths and my status as a young latino. Its funny because the article is about a Los Angeles area Smiths/Morrissey convention in which the majority of the attendees are latinos in their late teens to early 20s and a few more pasty looking white people that saved by The Queen is Dead. Its a great article that I wish I could find online, but trust that its an interesting read.

-Mikhail

For the weekend which was supposed to be my untold homecoming, it ended up being really well spent. Friday night we had our Kappa Sigma semi-formal which turned out really well. The after-party was rockin, finally got my Flip Cup game going and got amazingly trashed. Saturday got up early for the Undergrad Open House which went well considering the grogginess due to the night before. Gave my first tour which went alright and went home and watched Penn State beat Indiana. I fell asleep right after the game and then a few hours later went canning for THON on 2nd Street where the drunken citizens of Harrisburg entertained and filled our cans. Also talked to the jerks as they got totally wasted, which was also fun adding to my great night. Had a really good night of sleep and woke up to do more canning at 1 today at the Hershey Outlets. Less drunk people, more kids and candy, but we also had the lion for a little while which is always entertaining. Then Red Robin for dinner and thats pretty much it.

-Mikhail