November Top 5

My top 5 returns!  Mainly because the past couple months apparently haven't produced 5 sweet happenings...

Here's the quick preview, in no particular order - actually, yes, in order.

5. getting to karate (for one night only)
4. finishing some crucial homework
3. Megadeth
2. seeing old friends
1. Thanksgiving

5. Getting to karate (for one night only)

I decided to show up relatively unannounced since I wasn't entirely sure I'd be available.  It was fun working with Mr. Hawkey and thinking about different interpretations for Naihanchi San, but at the same time, my passion and drive are still nowhere near the level they've been before.  I wonder if I just still need more time out or if I've grown out of that stage of my life.  I'm hoping the former is true, because thinking I'm done with karate is a scary thought.


Regardless, I need to find some energy for it before January when I substitute at Riverview for two months.

4.  Homework

I'll be the first to admit this sounds lame.  But I finished a web design that I'm actually pretty happy with (http://www.adambockler.com/web/blog/index.html), and got a paper done way ahead of time for my communication law class that I'm proud of.  It's due Thursday, but I finished it awhile ago and have been proofing it for about a week now.

3.  Megadeth

I've missed several opportunities to see Megadeth in Chicago in the past.  I probably could've seen better opening bands, but I'm glad I didn't have to make the drive.  Instead, they played the Exhibition Hall at the Peoria Civic Center.  We caught the tail end of Machine Head who sounded pretty nu-metal.  This is the first concert I'd been to in about 2 months, so I'm excited I got to see another sweet band.

2.  Seeing old friends

Dog the Bounty Hunter was playing Wednesday night at 9 as I was half-comatose in front of the TV in my room when one mustachioed Joe Maubach sent a text saying he was at Old Chicago.  My body was telling me no, but I hadn't seen Joe for a long time and was curious to see who was with him.  Joe's party crew included former MMA alums Russel Boulton and the Ruder brothers, Aaron and Andy - none of whom I'd seen within the last year or so, I'd guess.

As they wound the Winter Tour, we got the chance to catch up.  It's weird to know Rusty is out of college and has a job as a teacher.  Man, are my friends getting old?  I still felt like a youngin' when he was talking about his job.

But it was great seeing them.  I hope we can all catch up over winter break, too, as that's a group that I don't see often enough and would love to chill with more in the future.

1.  Thanksgiving

Can I just say I freakin' love this holiday?

My cousin got married in September so my family was in town, but I didn't really get to hang out with any of them, so I was really looking forward to Thanksgiving.

After work, I went over to my aunt's in Washington to down 3 solid plates of food, played some poker, got tagged in 100+ pics on Facebook taken on my uncle's Macbook Pro, played Wii with a few cousins, and briefly saw some friends.  A+ day

If parts look weird on this...

I'm converting over to a new layout that I made. It's not spectacular, but I want to be able to say I designed a blog theme and had a legitimate use for it.

I'll have it finished by Tuesday.

Spring 2010 Schedule

My spring schedule was finalized this morning. Woo!

All my classes are on Tuesday and Thursday.

RLS 200-01 Contemporary Religion in the United States
Fuller
9-10:15

COM 360-01 Digital Journalism
Netzley
10:30-11:45

IM 313 Intermediate IM Authoring
McGill
1:30-2:45

COM 302 Computer-Assisted Reporting
Netzley
3-4:15

IM 465 Advanced Web Design
Mr. Staff
6:30-7:45

It'll be a long day on campus. Once again, web design did battle with teaching karate at Metamora and Germantown, and won.

Let me know if we have any classes together.

It's nice out today

So I thought I'd post about things I'm stoked about...

I'm going to Ireland in May. I don't think that made the blog yet. I should probably shave sometime soon so I look like I normally do for my passport picture.

The Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis is less than a month away. Our team is titled, "The Return of the Holiday Heroes: The Team Formerly Known as Team Slayer." This is my first race, and I'll be dressed as The Punisher, apparently. So I've put karate on the back burner, so to speak, and I've been running more lately. And the best part of that day will be going to Bloomington afterwards to celebrate Festivus.

I've got some papers/projects due. I'm looking forward to the end results, but finding the time to squeeze them all in won't be so fun.

I'll tentatively be the substitute karate instructor at Riverview Grade School on Wednesday nights. It will be good to teach for awhile, and apparently it's only six or 8 weeks.

The Men Who Stare at Goats was pretty good. I went with Aaron, Sara, Natalie, and Billy. I haven't seen Bill or Natalie since August, so it was a different experience hanging out with them again. Something other than the usual dudes I hang with.

I helped one of my bosses, Scot, set up roof trusses on a garage this morning. My arms are pretty sore already and I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked to, so working at the store tonight should be interesting.

Doing side jobs is sweet. It pays, it's something different, and it's been relatively fun so far.

I'm going to try and start blogging more so posts are more detailed and less random. One of my goals is to write reviews of wrestling DVDs when I get done watching them, because I noticed on TNA's Ultimate Matches flick, I had a lot of random thoughts and questions that I wanted to get out. So, whenever I watch a new one, I'll be sure to collect all my opinions and post them. Currently I'm watching season 8 of Scrubs, so it may be awhile.