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It's summertime again and that means freezie pops. Okay- freezie pops are an all year commodity, but the only true time to enjoy them is in the 90+ degree heat. When that cold ice hits your mouth it feels like relief. Relief from the heat and relief from whatever else is bothering you. The hot air melts the ice and allows for easy access of the popsicle. You can not just chew on the ice; instead, the ice must melt in your mouth unlocking the flavor from the pop (cherry, raspberry, lemon, pineapple, green, pink...). By far the best part of the experience is the melted juice at the end after the ice has melted. The concentrated artificial flavoring is still ice cold and as refreshing as ever. There could be no better ending to a delicious freezie pop than a gulp of liquid perfection. What is the price for this small piece of joy? About 5 cents a pop! I doubt you can find a better bang for your buck for summertime bliss.

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My mother has been running our church's blood drive for the past several years. Every year she asks me to give blood, but I refused to donate because of my running. This year I could not say no to my mother's request. I drove down to Virginia Beach and signed up for a time slot. I got to wait in line for an hour while I kept getting more and more nervous. My whole family was there to support me- even my father was checking on me as he donated two times what I did. Giving blood was not a problem. My nervousness was misplaced. I will have to donate blood more often from now on. I may never catch up to one of the men at the blood drive who has given 11 gallons of blood (88 pints). If I gave one pint of blood every 8 weeks it would take me 13.5 years (that would be overdoing it I think). I hope to at least donate twice a year if I am able.

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My sister, Katie, has a wonderful blog where she talks plenty about the sun and summertime. I too enjoy the summer heat. Today we went to college creek and played some Frisbee. It was a good time for everyone until the fuzz came. The state ranger came and started checking every cooler for alcoholic beverages. We did not have anything of that sort, but the other police action did affect us. They started towing illegally parked vehicles. One individual in our group was the first to get towed. After a nice ride in the truck and a $150 ticket, she got her car back. The towing ended the fun and it kept me from getting to sun burnt. I hope you got to enjoy your Memorial Day as well. Have a great week.

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I ran my first race in a while this morning. It went about as expected for a week and a half of training. My thought going in was to be happy with anything under 34 minutes. I ran about 34:20. I am definitely not happy with the outcome. These next few weeks will be a lot of fun trying to catch up on my fitness. I need someone to keep me on a schedule and shooting for a real goal. Anyone up for the challenge? No experience necessary. Payment in pie and appreciation.

I hope to get back into this kind of shape.

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Sometimes I can really be a mean teacher. I don't allow any nonsense and kids mostly listen. Sometimes I can lighten up a bit and allow a little bit of fun. I am learning slowly when the two strategies work. Kids also know-- actually they know better. There is something scary about that.

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Today Amber, Tyson, and I had a nice cookout. You could say it was in celebration of Amber completing the MCAT or you could say it was to enjoy some good food. Tyson and I will be doing a lot of cooking together this summer and I look forward to some delicious food. We will have to do some experimentation in the kitchen. I can expand my baking skills with a few new pies.

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Amber and I took a break this afternoon to play some Frisbee Golf. It turns out that practice makes a big difference in playing this game. Amber is used to trowing a Frisbee to someone, but Frisbee golf (frolf) demands a completely different approach. My game is still improving after only a few months of practice. By practice I am speaking of the few times that I have thrown the Frisbee in the direction of a target either on campus or out at New Quarter Park. Sometime this summer I will have to play down at Newport News State Park. I used to run regionals for cross country around the course, and now I will have to use the park for one of its intended purposes.

Find some way to enjoy the weather this week. Start something new for the summertime.

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This evening was another great episode of Glee. Yes, I'm a Gleek and tonight I was very pleased by the subjects addressed. The theme for the week at school was Lady Gaga. As you can imagine, this lead to a penetrating discussion on homosexuality. I was impressed by the use language to highlight a real issue in our society. The writers were not afraid to push the boundaries of everyday SitCom world.

After a wonderful hour of television, I was pleased to have the hens over for an hour of lively discussion. The hens are slowly leaving the 'burg for bigger and better things. Skeeter, Tyson, Amber, and I had a good time with this eclectic group of ladies. Their personalities work with everyone I know and it has been a lot of fun hanging out with them this year.

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It's time to start up the old Blog again. My life is at a turning point and I want to document all of my failures and triumphs from here on out. Okay, more failures than triumphs. I hope you will enjoy my stories. Mostly, I hope they help me get out of the hole I'm in now.

For today:

I stumbled upon the Hulu page for Doogie Howser M.D. yesterday. This show portrays a young Neil Patrick Harris as a 16 year-old doctor with unbelievable brainpower and social skills. I think that Doogie could solve all of my problems from my stress fractures to my lack of motivation at times. This show has everything I like in a television program-- witty humor, intelligent dialogue, 90's computer typing...

Doogie teaches me and he will teach you too!

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In a way I am going to miss living in my current house next year. My life will be simplified, but at what cost. My friends will probably be scattered throughout the country and I will have to find new people to have intellectual discussions with. Okay, maybe not always intellectual. Where will I find the folks in this world who will listen to my rambling and then actually respond to it? I won't get harassed when I cook bacon or even when I open the mail. I look forward to living in peace and cleanliness. Those reasons will outweigh my need for companionship. Right? Or will I be on the phone with my old running buddies just to remember the old times? I try not to dwell in the past or bother people that have more important thing to do than talk with a babbling fool. Next year will be exciting for many a reasons. Leaving this house with the bond I have to it and its inhabitants is not one of those reasons. It has been nice 304.

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At the start of every month I seem to want to blog again, but it just fizzles out as the days pass. Here it goes once again.

This is my latest disgust with the education system: the iTouch. One of the Physics teachers I have run into has a class set of iTouches he got from a grant and he showed me exactly how he uses them in class. There are several apps that can come in handy during Physics experiments or discussions about any number of hard to grasp concepts. Plus, these apps are fun and actually correct. That is more than can be said about prob-ware of old. These handheld computers can collect data and then the teacher can simply use another iTouch or a computer to analyze the data as a class.

Oooopppps. No he can't. The school will not allow the iTouches on the local network via wifi internet. It is a "security issue". How unbelievable is that. Teachers can allocate (on their own time) these wonderful devices that keep students engaged and gaining knowledge, but we have to limit their use to basically impractical demo status. This is an outrage and something needs to be done. I will try my best to get to the bottom of this issue and come back with a more concrete reason than "security issues". By the way- there are no "security issues" with iTouches connected to the secure/limited school network.

Aside from the school stuff, I have been reading C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce and Chapter 5 is especially insightful. If you read this blog Brandon take five minutes and read this chapter if you haven't already.

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I have been in a discussion with Tyson lately about whether or not debeaking hurts chicks. I heard that it does not hurt the birds and it actually helps them to be less aggressive. Tyson shrugged off this explanation and was certain it caused great pain to the chicken. I did not disagree, but I did want some proof for one of the positions. I am glad to say that I have some closure on this issue. It turns out that it does hurt the chicken and the reason is not even good. Chicken that lay eggs are packed into cages with several other chicken and that is why they are aggressive. In fact some alternatives to the debeaking are giving the chicken more room or feeding them some grubs. These seem like solutions that make thee treatment of chicken more humane. The video below shows the debeaking process and I encourage you to check it out and see if cutting off nerves like that would hurt you.

Chicken Debeaking on YouTube

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Listening to John Pence and David Adley on the radio has made me think about the state of radio right now. Radio is so unoriginal right now. I get so frustrated with the music selection that I find myself searching from station to station for 10 minutes at a time on a long drive. Usually I just listen to my iPod in the car and Pandora at home. I'm not even a big music person. I like anything as long as it is not the same crud over and over again. I hope local stations, or at least national online radio, can have a resurgence in the next few years before we loose all the talent in this country.

Part of me wonders about my upbringing with music and how that has influenced my taste. I listened to country and The Fox until I was in middle school (I miss the local touches like Block Party or Live Music Weekend). After that I started to listen to my own music some. The first time I heard rap was in my garage on a bike trainer. My classmate "shared" a "copy" of Jay-Z's Blueprint with me. My parents will probably be a little shock to hear about that (or maybe not). By that time I was in 9th grade and probably too old to make my own music decisions. I believe that any music I like has been shaped completely by my parents. But do not worry... I am glad my parents liked quality music for my taste to grow from.

Highlight of the radio show: Adley on the phone!

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I thought I would be able to hold off and write a blog about how the Tribe beat the ODU Monarchs. Unfortunately, no story exists. The William and Mary Tribe did not beat the ODU Monarchs. Instead we lost in upsetting fashion. The game was a heated battle between the inside minded blue team versus the sharp shotting white team. This battle was won around the hoop not on the perimeter. With 7.0 seconds remaining we ran a play to tie the game with a desperation three point shot. The shot looked good, but slipped out as the crowd moaned in disappointment. Oh well, next time Tribe.

My hope is that the students here at William and Mary do not look at this as a complete failure. There were 7,000+ people supporting the teams in Kaplan Arena. The fans did a great job of keeping the team in the game and it even felt like we were carrying the team over the last few minutes. Please keep coming to the games and cheering your team on. I have never enjoyed a Tribe home game more. With the whole campus' support we will definitely perform better. Also, I special congratulations to my man Hess for actually bring the ball to the hoop. Do it more and do it stronger. Go BlockHess Nasty!

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I have neglected to blog for quite some time now and I want to get back into the game now. Classes have started back up and I am energized after my first real break in a year. The end of last semester was difficult, but I look optimistically to the future. If nothing else can motivate me, maybe looking for a job will get my butt in gear.

During my time back in Williamsburg I have already found my biggest distraction during the day. I have been finishing my runs right before noon everyday. That seems to be a good time for right now because I can eat lunch while I'm stretching and kill two birds with one stone. During the exact same time my favorite game show is also on local cable channel 2. This is highly problematic because it runs at 12:00 and then again at 12:30. This is one hour of my life that should be spent doing something productive. Instead, I put my life on hold as families feud over answers to questions answered by 100 random people. My answers are successful most of the time and I feel smarter than the contestants. It is instances like today when I forgot about Michael and Phenomenon as John Travolta movies that keep me watching day after day. Luckily I will be heading into the classroom soon with lunches away from the television. Otherwise, my life might not ever move on.