Haunted Hall 2008

I thought this weekend was gonna be busy as hell. Friday was kind of busy, but my plans got cancelled, yesterday. So, it wasn't as busy as I thought it'd be. Friday, I volunteered to be a tour guide for the haunted hall at my college. At first, I really didn't wanna do it. But, after I got a feel for it, I started to enjoy myself. The guy we had dressed as the Joker was perfect. He could take over Heath Ledger's role. It is a shame that Heath died the way he did and he did a fantastic job in his last role, but this guy looked and sounded just like Heath did. At first, his scene was kind of dull, but he made things more exciting when he'd grab me and put a blade near my mouth. I was cool with it, because it worked well. Eventually, to give my voice a rest from screaming, he'd pull the blade out and point it at the group of girls/guys that we were leading. I think that was pretty gutsy on his part. But, everyone was cool with it, so it worked out well. There were about six tour guides on Friday. Maybe even more than that. So, they paired us up. At first, I was with my APM, Audrey. Then, I was with this guy dressed like a rock star. Then, I was paired up with this very gorgeous blonde girl. She was really cool. She said her and I were a good team. I think she really did enjoy doing tours with me. After we were done with the haunted hall, one of the Asian girls, Tina dragged me to a party. That was a lot of fun. I got to hang out with some of the people that live in the same building that I do. They were really cool. One of them kept getting me beer and making sure I was meeting new people. I didn't get back until around 2:45 in the morning. Saturday, I was supposed to hang out with some friends from high school, but one of them got called into work and it was pouring outside. So, we're gonna hang out either this week or next week. I'm not sure which. So, I was able to help out for the haunted hall again. This time, Jason was helping out with it. Nothing against Jason, but sometimes he can be too much. So, it was him and I doing tours at first. Then, the girl from Friday, Danielle came back to help with the tours. So, she was doing tours with us. It would've been nice if she continued to do tours with us, but she went off to do other things. I have a hunch of why she stopped doing tours with us. I think Jason was becoming to be a bit too much for her and she decided to do other things to help out along with getting away from him. I have several reasons why that could be the case. For one thing, whenever Jason made a comment about anything, she would just tear him apart verbally. When she had her feet up on another tour guide (who was a girl), the tour guide's like, "your feet are dirty". Jason said he'd clean them for her and acted like he was gonna pour water on them. She freaked the hell out and glared at him. So, finding out anything about her while he was around, just wasn't happening. Personally, I think I'd have had more luck getting to know her more if Jason wasn't around, but that's just my luck. She did wave at me and asked "how's it going" on my way over here, though. So, she didn't have a problem with me. Overall, it was fun though. Next year, I'm gonna actually be part of the show. Being a tour guide was just my way of testing the waters. That and I really didn't wanna act. Next year, I wanna be more active. Next weekend's Halloween and the Independent show. Halloween'll be cool, but I'll have to put up with my good friends Keith Zimmer and Shaun Cummings. They're alright with me, but they're assholes to everyone else. I still don't think they're gonna make a big impact in the wrestling business. At least I'll have something to do, next weekend.

Put Up or Shut Up

Last night's fight had to be the most disappointing fight this season. I was waiting eagerly for someone to finally shut Junie up. Roli from Team Nogueira was chosen to fight him. During the fight selection, Junie tossed a black belt at him followed with a shove. Here's a little background on that. A lot of people think that Roli didn't really earn his black belt. Personally, I could care less where Roli got his black belt from as long as he kicked Junie's ass. But, everyone was making a big deal about where Roli got his black belt and if he truly earned it or did someone from UPS show up and hand him one. Well, Roli smiled and let the black belt drop to the ground where Junie spat on it. The look on Nogueira's face said it all. I could tell that Nogueira was not pleased at all. He didn't comment on the confessional or on camera, but I know he was displeased with Junie's actions. I thought that Junie was way out of line on that one too. Then, back at the house, Junie's running his mouth, saying that Roli probably wouldn't make it past the first round. Roli's telling the confessional that Junie needs an ass kicking and he's just the person to give it to him. At the weigh-ins, Junie's over by two pounds. At this point, Frank Mir's starting to get frustrated with him. Ever since last episode, I'm not Frank's biggest fan, but he had a point on this one. Junie's got on the rubber suit and he's running on the treadmill. Then, they get one of those pedalling bikes outside and get him on that. He's bitching that his legs are tired. He's not the first one that's bitched and moaned when they're cutting weight. It's like every season has that one guy that can't make weight and bitches when it comes time to cut it. Well, he eventually does make the weight. It's only two pounds. When I was on the wrestling team, there were a couple guys that would be over two pounds, but they'd cut it easily. Ok, now it's fight time. Roli has a chance to prove that he did indeed earn his black belt and he can stop Junie from advancing to the quarter-finals. The first round seemed to be up in the air, but at one point, Junie pulled a Leban and stuck his chin out with his hands down. Roli took advantage and landed a few good blows including a spinning back-fist. Junie didn't like that too much and responded with four hard hits of his own. Then, the round ended. I can't stand it when some asshole gets all cocky and taunts his opponents like that. I didn't like it when Leban did it and I really hated it when Junie did it. I'm sure Mir told him not to do that anymore, because that's the last time he did. Second round wasn't as even as the first round. Roli started to disappoint me. I'm not a MMA expert by any means, but even a fanboy like me can tell when a fighter's not doing something right. Roli wasn't circling around, he wasn't putting up a strong offense, he certainly didn't have a strong defense. I was literally screaming at my television for Roli to start unloading on the son of a bitch. At one point, Junie dropped him. It looked like it Junie was gonna finish Roli in the second round. But, Roli got back to his feet and the fight continued. The fight went to a third round, which pleased me. That meant that Roli had won the first round. Unfortunately, the third round was just about the same as the second round. I don't think I've ever seen punches get thrown that slow in my life. Roli had no power behind his punches. Junie didn't really have an power behind his blows either. Neither one of them looked that impressive. Both of them sucked. At one point, Roli was on his back kicking at Junie's legs. That wasn't gonna get the job done. Roli really needed to unload on Junie, but he didn't until the last ten seconds just like he did in the second round. At the end of the round, Junie was announced as the winner. Junie did show a bit of respect to Nogueira after the fight. He shook Nogueira's hand and apologized for the black belt bit. Nogueira accepted his apology and that was it. Roli was in his locker room with the rest of Team Nogueira. He started to cry, which annoyed me even more. A couple things. First of all, if someone spit on MY black belt and questioned my skills, I'd do everything in my power to beat the hell out of him. Secondly, when someone talks a lot of trash and can't back it up, it's like the ultimate pet peeve with me. Roli was running his mouth about how he was gonna give Junie and asskicking and then he doesn't do a damn thing. Now, he's crying about it. Now, I'm questioning whether he really earned his black belt or not. There's also one in every season like Roli. Even though Leban's my boy, he was one of those guys. He said he was gonna destroy Josh Koschek, but when it was fight day, Koschek took him down and laid on him for three rounds. As a result, Leban lost the fight and he too cried about it. The difference is that I felt bad for Leban, I don't feel bad for Roli. Personally, I feel that Roli should quit crying like a baby and take the loss like a man. As far as Junie's concerned, I'm not worried that he'll win the entire thing. He didn't face a real fighter. I'm guessing he'll get eliminated in the quarter-finals if he doesn't get kicked off the show by then.

My Family From BCC

UFC 89 wasn't too bad. I didn't do too well on my UFC Fantasy, but oh well. I like both Bisping and Leban, but I was pulling for Leban, because he's one of the two people that inspired me to watch UFC in the first place. I was disappointed in Leban at the end of both the second and third rounds. He basically put his hands down and shouted at Bisping to hit him. That was a stupid move on his part. I'm not an expert in MMA, but even I know that all it takes is one good shot to the jaw and it's lights out. Leban's known as a bit of a hothead and he must've known that he was losing the fight. Still, I wouldn't be sticking my head out there with my hands down. I give Bisping credit, though. He didn't start unwinding on Leban. He kept the fight at his pace. Halfway through UFC 89, my friends Andy and Jason came by my dorm to hang out. So, we were watching the rest of UFC 89 and Jason had a comment for everything. He acted like he was a martial arts expert and although, we do live in America where you can express your opinion, I wish he'd just shut the hell up and watch the fights. I don't watch UFC, so someone can logically explain the stances, fighting styles, and all that. I watch UFC, because I wanna see people get knocked out or tap out. Isn't that why any of us watch UFC? Then, after UFC 89, the three of us played Andy's RPG (roleplaying game for those of you that aren't nerds like me). We just created characters and had a practice session to get a feel for everything. Today, my grandparents stopped by my college. Although, most of the time they drive me nuts, I was glad for the visit. Mainly, because that meant my grandfather was feeling a lot better. My grandfather has been in and out of the hospital for months. At least one week per month, we'd have to go to Wilson Memorial Hospital, because he was having breathing problems. He sounded good and from what I heard, he's acting more like himself. My grandmother just drives me nut. That's pretty-much it for that. Friday, there was this Masquerade Ball at Cortland. It's a good thing I asked Andy on Wednesday when it was or I'd have missed out on it. My mother overnighted my suit to me on Thursday. I got it in plenty of time. My other concern was getting a mask. Lucky for me that Andy had to get a mask, himself. I got a decent mask for $1.25. Around 6:15pm, I started to get ready. I gave Andy a call to see if he was ready too, but his friend Xena called him and asked him to hang out. Although, Xena has a boyfriend, I don't blame Andy for choosing her over the Masquerade Ball. I was all ready and put in too much effort not to go, so I went alone. Again, I was fortunate enough to run into Kristi first thing. So, I sat at her table. Then, Jason, our friend Liz, and one of Liz's friends showed up. It was a lot of fun, but there's only one thing I would change. There were only about 5 or 6 slow songs and they were all played in a row. The rest were fast songs and some of them almost killed me. I know this will sound really sterotypical and I apologize ahead of time, but it seems like only girls and gay guys can really dance to fast music. It was still fun, though. I heard that Cortland does at least 2 or 3 dances per semester. I'm all for that. Next time, I'm gonna try not to go stag. I did get to dance with this girl, named Erica and Liz this time, but it was a risky move going alone. It's my first year at Cortland and I had no clue if anyone I knew was going or not. Well...Kristi said she wanted to go, but she also said she was on duty, that night. She did go, but she was on duty at 9:00, so she couldn't stay for the slow songs. They didn't play the slow songs until 9:20. So, if I were to change anything, it'd be that the slow songs would be mixed in with the fast ones and there's be more of them. Right now, I'm watching David Archuleta's music video for his song, Crush. It's basically him and his friends hanging out, laughing, joking, stuff like that. It kind of reminds me of my friends at BCC. I hated BCC from the moment I stepped foot on it, but I did meet a lot of great people over there. It's funny, because at first, I was just this smart-mouth kid that didn't know when to shut up. But, things happened over time and I made a lot of great friends. It's like what Chris said, one day. You're friends with someone for so long that they're no longer your friends. They're your family. That's what we are at BCC. We're a family. When I first arrived at Cortland, that's how Kristi described last semester. During the first meeting, Kristi said that Whitaker was like a family, last semester. I feel bad for her and my roommate, Joe, because it's no longer like a family anymore. I'd like to do something about it, but I have no game plan at the moment. Although, I've made a few new friends and they're all good people, they're not like the friends I have at BCC. My personality allows me to be so close to people that I actually have several "second" families. When I was at Hancock, I missed my boys and my actual family badly. I couldn't wait to get out of there. It was also a wake-up call. When I was at BCC, Dan and Chris had my back no matter what. When I was away from them, I got screwed with pretty badly and there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it. It was just a taste of what life's gonna be like when they're not around. I haven't seen Chris in a few weeks and I haven't seen Dan in months. I've talked to them when that situation happened with Kara, but that's about it. I miss those guys, but since Cortland's not as bad as Hancock, I'm pretty content, here. The people are nicer, there's stuff to do, so although I miss my friends, I'm doing pretty good. I plan on giving them a call, this week. That's another thing. It seems like their cell phone's always off. I might try the house phone just to see how those guys are doing. Next month, I have a Thanksgiving break, so I might get to see them. If not, I'll just wait until my Christmas break.

Disrespectful

Junie still didn't get kicked off. I still think he'll end up getting kicked off the show before the season's over. He didn't do anything stupid after the last week's episode. There was something that happened that I didn't really agree with. One of the guys on Team Mir decided to take it upon himself to pull practical jokes on the guys from the other team. Like, taking their clothes and saran wrapping them to their beds or freezing their underwear. Before I go any further, I'll just say that when I was at Hancock and the guys were taking my stuff from my room, I thought it was disrespectful and I wasn't too pleased. No one has the right to take anything out of anyone's room that's not theirs. Unless they have permission, they shouldn't be in there at all. But, the guys from the other team are good natured and for the most part, they just shook it off. Then, the Team Mir prankster put itching powder on their beds. From personal experience, itching powder's not fun. When I was in 6th grade, some asshole put it down my back. It's annoying as all hell. It feels like something's poking you in the back repeatedly. Well, some of the guys from Team Nogueira thought that was crossing the line. Their retaliation was putting sardines in Team Mir's bed. I never had any encounters with sardines, so I don't know how effective that would be. Well, a couple nights later, Efrain was about to pass out on a bench in the UFC gym. Nogueira asked him if he was tired. Efrain said yes and he couldn't sleep because of the itching powder in his bed. I'm not sure how accurate that is. After a while, the itching powder wears off. I'm not sure it would be still active the next day after it's been used. Well, Nogueira seemed concerned that his fighters weren't sleeping because of these pranks. Nogueira's accent...when he talks, it's kind of a calm, relaxing tone. Well, he wanted his fighters to sleep especially when one of them would be fighting the next day, so he talked to Frank Mir. Basically, he asked Mir to talk to his team about the practical pranks that were going on in the house. Mir was like, "hey, it's not me. It's them." But, Nogueira pleaded for Mir to talk to his guys, so Mir said lazily, "no practical jokes, tonight." That blows my mind, because Nogueira respectfully approached Mir about his concerns and Mir just ignored him completely. I'm sorry, but I find that really disrespectful. As a coach, you should make sure that your guys are acting the way an adult would. That's part of the freakin' job. Nogueira and his assistant coaches didn't like Mir's way of talking to his guys, so they went up to the house to talk to the guys. If Mir not paying attention to Nogueira wasn't bad enough, his team was just as bad. Nogueira and his assistant coaches tried to round all of them up to talk to them, but they just did their own thing. So, they had to talk to them in small groups. Even then, some of them claimed that they didn't do anything and that's partly true. Not all of Team Mir participated in the prank war. Same goes for Team Nogueira. But, even if you weren't part of it, you should still hear Nogueira out. I didn't judge Frank Mir as harshly as I did with Matt Hughes, because I didn't know too much about him. Now, I'm really pulling for Team Nogueira. Although, I've basically liked Nogueira from the start. Frank Mir and his team are all disrespectful and none of them deserve to win. Unfortunately, Team Mir won and now Frank has control. I hope Team Nogueira gets it back, next week. Junie's gotta fight and I hope to hell that his opponent knocks his freakin' head off. Junie did apologize to Mir for his actions and said "it won't happen again." Funny...that's what he said after that night at the house. "It won't happen again," he said. Oh, it will and it'll probably get him kicked off the show. I have a $10.00 bet on it.

New Friends And Old Ones.

This weekend hasn't been too bad. Friday could've been a little better. I went out, because it was Friday and I really didn't wanna spend the night in my dorm. So, I went out. Nothing major happened. I hung out with Shaun and James again. I ended up going back to Shaun's apartment for a little while. I tried to catch a bus back to my dorm, but both buses passed me, so I asked Shaun if I could stay at his place. He said sure, but he felt bad, because he ran out of blankets. So, I didn't sleep...at all. Around 6:40 in the morning, I went to the bus stop to see when the buses were supposed to come around again. At first I thought they were coming around 7:30 am. Then, I looked closer and saw they should be coming 8:05 am. Well, around 9:00, I was tired of waiting and just walked back to my dorm. It wasn't that far of a walk, but it would've been nice to have taken a bus. I fell asleep for a good five hours. Then, I ran into one of my new friends that I've met, since I've been here. His name's Andy. We hung out and watched a few episodes of the Boondocks. I've never seen the Boondocks before, but I've been missing out. The only real complaint I have about it is that they drop the "N" word a lot. Although, the racist black guy was funny as hell. Andy had to do homework, so I went to get food. I hung out alone in my dorm for a bit, then went to get a milkshake. I ran into Andy again, but this time, he wasn't alone. He invited me to hang out with him and his friends for a few hours. I was all for that. It was Saturday night. Who the hell wants to spend Saturday night alone? So, I met his friends, Frankie and Josh. We rented this old 80's horror flick called Evil Dead 2. Man, I forgot how bad 80's horror flicks were. This one was pretty bad, but I'd still like to see the first and third ones. Tonight, I might get to see TNA Bound for Glory. The key word is MIGHT. It's up to James' friend. Lately, the WWE Pay Per Views haven't lived up to the hype. I hope TNA doesn't fall in the same trap. This past week, I read old LJ posts of one of my old friends back in high school and part of college. He was pretty pathetic back then. It's funny, because he took great pleasure of laughing at my pain when things weren't working out with Ashley. Then, his girlfriend broke up with him and he became a big emo bitch. Not only that, but he'd try to force himself on every girl he came across. His reputation suffered after a while. It's also funny, because he'd always think he was better than me. We were good friends, but it's like...dude, are you serious? People know his rep and they know mine. So, if given the choice of who they prefer, I'm very confident that they'd choose me. I have several circles of friends. He has like one or two. Not only that, but I'm creating a new circle here at Cortland. Most of the people that know him, don't really like him. He feels like he has no limits when it comes to girls. He pretty-much degrades them, but claims he has respect for the female race. It's very funny when he finds a girl that he likes that has a boyfriend. He'll talk down to the boyfriend and try to be this alpha male. Then, when the girl finally tells him that he has no chance in hell, he'll go all emo. I bring this up, because for years, he's acted like this alpha-male and it hasn't really paid off. I can't count the number of times that several people wanted to kick his ass. Basically, I'm better than him. I'm just disappointed that it took me this long to finally realize that. Normally, I wouldn't say I'm better than anybody, but in this case, I'm a hell of a lot better. The best part is that everyone knows it.

Drunken Junie

The Ultimate Fighter was interesting, last night. Well, not really interesting. It was a shining example of why some people shouldn't drink....EVER! Junie got ridiculously drunk and was trying to start a fight with anyone and everyone. Seriously, grow the hell up. Another guy, called Shane also got drunk and as one of the guys eliquently put it, "he held his liquor like a 12 year old girl". Seriously, he was pathetic. Dana White came to the house and basically told those two guys to start acting like men. He didn't kick anyone off the show yet, but he did make Shane fight in the next fight. He fought some guy called Efrain Esqudero. He's from Team Nogueira. Efrain won the fight, which made me very happy. Junie started running his mouth, so Efrain smiled, pointed to him, said something back and Junie jumps over the cage to go fight him. Everyone held him back, but honestly. How freakin' stupid can you be? Dana White gave him a second chance that he really didn't deserve and he's still acting like a jack-ass. In fact, that's exactly what Dana called him. He said that when Junie drinks, he's a jack-ass. I give Dana all the credit in the world. He believes in second chances. Looking at some of the previous seasons, some of the guys he gave second chances to, really didn't deserve them. Well, anyways. The episode ended with everybody holding Junie back and telling him to calm the hell down. I'm pretty sure he's going home, next episode. He damn well better. The guy's nothing but trailor-park trash. How many times is Dana gonna let him act like a complete jack-ass? Even better, maybe Dana will make him fight next, because I know there's not one person on Team Nogueira that can't beat him. He's pissed off a lot of people in the house. Especially on Team Nogueira. I've noticed that the coaches aren't seen as much as the last two seasons. That's because there's no entertainment there. The entertainment's Junie acting like an ass and the rest of team retaliating. I know this will sound alarming, but I'd love to see Matt Serra and Matt Hughes coach from opposite sides again. I'd love to see Matt Serra humiliate Hughes again. The asshole deserves it. In fact, I heard from his own mouth that he may have two or three more fights left in him, then he's retiring. Let's see...George St. Pierre beat him again, last year. So, he's looking at only one or two more fights. I hope Serra's his last fight. I know Matt Serra can beat him.

High School in 2003.

Team Nogueira drew first blood with their win over Team Mir, this week. There's one guy on Team Mir that's most likely going to get a lot of the attention. His name's Junie Browning. He got hammered on the first night and did a full circle of emotions. He went from being all happy, to being pissed off, then depressed. He grew up in a trailor park and for the most part, looks like a punk. The guy's a loose cannon. I got ten bucks that says he'll get kicked out before the season's over. I went home, this weekend. I stopped by BCC to see my friends, but there wasn't hardly any there. I wanna go home two weeks from now, so Stacey and I can hang out. I'm not sure how well that's gonna work out. Worse case scenario, I just see her over my Thanksgiving break. As for hanging out with Christina, that's gonna be a bit harder. If I had some way of getting to Binghamton and back to Cortland for a night, it wouldn't be a problem. For the time being, I'll just give her a call once a week. I'm gonna try to hang out with a friend from high school, this week. Her name's Beth Hughes. No relation to Matt Hughes. In fact, Beth's a lot better than him. It's funny, because when she first moved to Harpursville, she couldn't stand me. I will admit that I wasn't the most pleasant person around her. Things changed as the years went on. We got along fine in 11th grade. 2003 was a fun year. I wouldn't say I was popular in high school, but everyone got along with me alright. As is the case with most high schools, the homecoming court is usually just a popularity contest. The same people are on it year after year. It gets boring. I knew a lot of good people that actually deserved to be on it, but they'd never be, because the popular crowd reigned supreme in that area. Luckily, I was on their good side. My friend Don Edwards approached me one morning. "Vote for you. Let's get some underdogs on, this year," he said. I expressed my concerns with it, but he assured me that I was good to go. "The entire football team's voting for you. It was our idea," he assured me. I thought nothing of it at the time, but I was showing off in gym one day and I did this taunt that a wrestler called Booker T does. It's this kind of break dancing move called the spin-a-roony. Some of the guys from the football team saw this and started laughing. They asked me to do it again, so I did. They encouraged me to do the spin-a-roony during the pep-rally. Hulk Hogan had returned to wrestling around this time too. He always rips his shirt off during his entrance. So, the football team wanted me to do that as well. Soon, the entire school was all in on it. I went to Broome Tioga BOCES in the afternoons, and that's when the pep-rally was. Fortunately, the Principal liked me. He helped me make it to the prom later on. The bus picked us up early. I headed to the gym and my grade gave me a short applause. Oh man, it was great. They were chanting my name throughout the entire thing. They saved my name for last when the 11th grade homecoming court was announced. When my name was called everyone jumped to their feet. Not just our grade, I mean EVERYONE. I did the spin-a-roony and ripped a shirt that I put over my Hulk Hogan T-shirt. I was led over to the others. The ones that were already over, were laughing hysterically. The female that was elected was Roxanna Rinker. She was a beautiful blonde girl. Obviously, the seniors were the ones that got the glory at the end. They're the ones that are voted in for Homecoming king and queen. Still, it was nice to be part of the homecoming court. After I danced with Roxanna, I ran into Beth and asked if she wanted to dance. She said sure and led me to where she was hanging with her friends. Then, she said she'd be right back. She had every intention of coming back, but her friends told her that all of them were leaving for Denny's. I didn't know this until Monday, but I was cool about it. Hell, I made it on the Homecoming Court. I had no reason to be upset. Later on, the prom was coming up. I didn't get to purchase a ticket in time. Luckily, there were guys that bought a ticket, but didnt' wanna go, because their girlfriend's dumped them. Since, I was well liked by the Principal, he helped me out there. He returned their money to them and sold me a ticket. I went stag, but it didn't bother me any. There were several girls that went alone too. So, it wasn't like I had no one to dance with. During the dinner portion of the prom, I was sitting at the same table as Beth. In fact, we were sitting across from each other. Out of nowhere, she asks me to dance with her just once. I was like, "it's funny you mention that. At homecoming, I asked this really hot girl in a purple dress to dance with me and she sort of...left before we could." She laughed and apologized again, but I told her it was cool. So, we did dance. Then, during the Prom court, everyone voted both of us court jesters. Even my English teacher said if he were to vote for anyone for Homecoming court, it would've been me. He loved picking on Beth, so that would've been his second choice. The school just went with that. After that, I started to have a small crush on Beth. I haven't seen her in a few years, but she's all for hanging out and catching up on things. So, I'll call her this week and see what day's good for her. I'm not 100% sure, but I think she's single now.