The Northwest is a place where you will find a lot of fans of various NFL teams. It can be tough because there's very few Bengal fans to ever find or talk to. Obviously there is the benefit of being able to talk to other fans and learning more in depth news about various teams. I will say that the AFC North is probably the most represented in the area.
Now, I chose to capitalize on the benefit of people not really knowing about the Bengals recently. I was working out at the gym and decided it was time to blast my pecs. The pec blaster 3000 was next to the classroom where a bunch of soccer-moms try to expand their inner child, or whatever yoga is supposed to teach you. I have a pair of Bengal shorts that I wear to the gym and the shirt I happened to wear was my Bengals Training Camp shirt. One of the women saw this and decided to come over and talk to me.
"Excuse me, I noticed that the name on your shirt is the name of a pro football team. I know that training camp is where the players meet. So are you a player for the...*looks at shirt*...Bengals?"
Now if this one of the other 9 times out of 10, I would've simply said no and moved on. Instead, I chose to act on this go with it.
"Yes, I am. My name is Kevin Huber. I'm a quarterback and I'm battling for the backup position this year."
"Oh my, that sounds exciting, who are you battling?"
All I could think to myself was that this was amazing. More satisfying than I ever thought it would be.
"He's a nice guy named Dave Shula. He's a little slow, but he's not too bad if you don't ask him to do anything."
She wished me luck and went back to waiting for her class. I finished up with the machine and left. She talked with her friends and I didn't want to risk one of them calling my bluff and then having to apologize for all the lying.
Truly a benefit of being in a non-Bengal part of the country.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
My funsies at KUNA 2010
I'm sure the first thought when you read the title was, "What the fudgecreamcicles is a KUNA?"
Well, I don't feel like explaining it so you'll have to live with the unknown, or google it. (Coincidentally, blogspot is owned by google, or something to that nature. Now give me my money.) Now to explain to you guys that don't want to do either of the options above, KUNA is a YMCA conference where you 'play' like your in the UN. Schools get a few countries to do research on and dress up with their native attire and create proposals to help better the world. While it's not like we're actually passing them through, it's great for actually learning about other countries. Like, did you know Paraguay is home to the largest BBQ in the world?
So much for world hunger
Also...umm..okay, so I actually didn't learn that much about other cultures, but I'm sure a lot of other people did. But that's not the point. The main reason for these is to socialize and gain new relationships...although I barely did that either. But here's my 3 top...whatevers from the trip:
Disclaimer - We are not liable for your boredom of these stories
Disclaimer II - The text is messed up for some reason, so deal with it
1. Touch Her Boob!
At KUNA, there are usually some...interesting people. Well this is pretty much this in a nutshell. One of my friends and I were going up the elevator to our floor to get a camera and something else she needed. On our way up, a few guys from a private school got on for hell-if-I-know reasons. When we got to our floor, we got off and started to walk to her room (You could have assumed this, but this makes it seem longer and more descriptive). As the elevator door was closing, we heard what was either the voice of God, or much more likely, the voice of the guys on the elevator. They yelled, as you can guess from the title, "Touch her boob!"
After we figured out what exactly they said, we gave each other the 'WTF' look that everyone gets. It wasn't exactly that they yelled it, because I expect stupid people to be stupid. But it was more of a timing thing, if that makes sense. Of course, like any man, I thought it would have been okay if I listened to them. But of course she didn't approve of that and like any gentle-man, I listened to her. The fear of losing my hand also contributed a little bit too....
Well, I don't feel like explaining it so you'll have to live with the unknown, or google it. (Coincidentally, blogspot is owned by google, or something to that nature. Now give me my money.) Now to explain to you guys that don't want to do either of the options above, KUNA is a YMCA conference where you 'play' like your in the UN. Schools get a few countries to do research on and dress up with their native attire and create proposals to help better the world. While it's not like we're actually passing them through, it's great for actually learning about other countries. Like, did you know Paraguay is home to the largest BBQ in the world?
So much for world hunger
Also...umm..okay, so I actually didn't learn that much about other cultures, but I'm sure a lot of other people did. But that's not the point. The main reason for these is to socialize and gain new relationships...although I barely did that either. But here's my 3 top...whatevers from the trip:
Disclaimer - We are not liable for your boredom of these stories
Disclaimer II - The text is messed up for some reason, so deal with it
1. Touch Her Boob!
At KUNA, there are usually some...interesting people. Well this is pretty much this in a nutshell. One of my friends and I were going up the elevator to our floor to get a camera and something else she needed. On our way up, a few guys from a private school got on for hell-if-I-know reasons. When we got to our floor, we got off and started to walk to her room (You could have assumed this, but this makes it seem longer and more descriptive). As the elevator door was closing, we heard what was either the voice of God, or much more likely, the voice of the guys on the elevator. They yelled, as you can guess from the title, "Touch her boob!"
After we figured out what exactly they said, we gave each other the 'WTF' look that everyone gets. It wasn't exactly that they yelled it, because I expect stupid people to be stupid. But it was more of a timing thing, if that makes sense. Of course, like any man, I thought it would have been okay if I listened to them. But of course she didn't approve of that and like any gentle-man, I listened to her. The fear of losing my hand also contributed a little bit too....
When we got downstairs, those same guys walked right by us (I'm pretty sure they had some kind of tracking system on me) and started screaming in my face. I'm not sure if it was a private school ritualistic thing, but I think they thought I actually did it because I was smiling when I saw them.
He's smiling.... HE DID IT!!!!!!
He's smiling.... HE DID IT!!!!!!
2. The Roof...The Roof is on Fire
At these conferences, there's always a dance the night before we leave. While this dance, and the mixer before it were boring as hell (Seriously, I watched a kid do math homework instead of dancing), there was this ounce of fun...
About ten minutes into the dance, we hear a bunch of hotel and YMCA employees telling us to leave the building for no reason.... until we see flashing lights all around. A lot of people thought it was a strobe light (Just in case the other flashing lights wouldn't have caused enough seizures). So, the hotel has to get 1,400 kids out of two or three rooms at a fast and efficient rate, like that would happen.
Next, a giant monster breaks the hotel in half
Apparently something really good happened though. When we were walking in, everyone from our school started singing 'Ain't no Mountain High Enough' which was, according to a senior in the school, one of her proudest moments in KUNA. I didn't get that same feel, but at least someone got something out of it.
3. Being Tired
It's normal for a lot of the people to be tired during this because we wake up early and go through long days, but I think I reached a level of tired I've never felt before. The night before our 2nd day, I got about four hours of sleep while also dealing with a horrible headache and no medicine other than a wet rag on my head.
Then I had to wake up and sit through an hour and a half of debating, then 2 hours of an assembly, then another hour and a half of debating, then an hour and a half of another assembly. For most of the proposals, I could have Roethlisberger'd it in approval or disapproval, but I was so tired that I couldn't get my head up, let alone debate. While I spoke a few times, it wasn't really enough to get noticed for anything. I fell asleep once or twice during, and the person sitting next to me fell asleep about four times. One of my friends to the right of me made a conversation with herself in Spanish to keep herself awake.
That's pretty much what happened, along with a few other funsies, but I can barely remember them anyways.
Remember, our mock draft will come eventually, although it might be a while, partially due to KUNA, and partially because we're being lazy. But it'll happen.
At these conferences, there's always a dance the night before we leave. While this dance, and the mixer before it were boring as hell (Seriously, I watched a kid do math homework instead of dancing), there was this ounce of fun...
About ten minutes into the dance, we hear a bunch of hotel and YMCA employees telling us to leave the building for no reason.... until we see flashing lights all around. A lot of people thought it was a strobe light (Just in case the other flashing lights wouldn't have caused enough seizures). So, the hotel has to get 1,400 kids out of two or three rooms at a fast and efficient rate, like that would happen.
Next, a giant monster breaks the hotel in halfAlso, just like in Cloverfield, there appeared to actually be no reason for the alarm to go off. There wasn't smoke anywhere. It just went off, unless a person pulled it for no reason. Outside was chili, and even better, it was raining. It wasn't pouring down, but there was a drizzle which made the entier thing even more fun. While waiting outside, it looked like a giant pack of sheep moving around. All the kids moved around in a huddle, trying to keep each other warm. With the sheep mentality going along with it all, nearly all the kids tried to walk inside at one point for seemingly no reason. The alarm was still going and it was made obvious with a flashing white light still going off on the side of the building and the firefighters had just made it to the hotel. So, while a couple of friends and our teacher watched, they all had to be pushed back by hotel staff. I imagine they had to create a 300-like phalanx at the doors to keep them out.
GIVE THEM NOTHING!
GIVE THEM NOTHING!Apparently something really good happened though. When we were walking in, everyone from our school started singing 'Ain't no Mountain High Enough' which was, according to a senior in the school, one of her proudest moments in KUNA. I didn't get that same feel, but at least someone got something out of it.
3. Being Tired
It's normal for a lot of the people to be tired during this because we wake up early and go through long days, but I think I reached a level of tired I've never felt before. The night before our 2nd day, I got about four hours of sleep while also dealing with a horrible headache and no medicine other than a wet rag on my head.
Then I had to wake up and sit through an hour and a half of debating, then 2 hours of an assembly, then another hour and a half of debating, then an hour and a half of another assembly. For most of the proposals, I could have Roethlisberger'd it in approval or disapproval, but I was so tired that I couldn't get my head up, let alone debate. While I spoke a few times, it wasn't really enough to get noticed for anything. I fell asleep once or twice during, and the person sitting next to me fell asleep about four times. One of my friends to the right of me made a conversation with herself in Spanish to keep herself awake.
That's pretty much what happened, along with a few other funsies, but I can barely remember them anyways.
Remember, our mock draft will come eventually, although it might be a while, partially due to KUNA, and partially because we're being lazy. But it'll happen.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
My Horrible Experience at Beef O' Bradys
As the Lounge creates it's first mock draft (It's gonna be good. Don't get too excited because I see you getting a little uncomfortable over there...), I figure I should post some filler stuff until it's done. So here's my horrible trip to Beef O' Bradys.
Now I hate Beef O' Bradys with all of my heart in the first place. I always feel uncomfortable and the food is always cold despite waiting for 3 hours to get my food. This trip was no different either. From the beginning, I knew it was going to suck too. My mom randomly picked me and my dad up and said, "I want to eat and sleep." Sort of like what a dog does all day, except she wanted to do it all within an hour. When we got there, we had to stand around for ten minutes because there were a bunch of drunk idiots there despite UK beating Eastern Tennessee by 28 at the half, if I remember correctly.
We sat around for five minutes until our waitress finally noticed we existed and she finally got our drinks. She was nice and effective but she did have one fatal flaw... She was one of the people that refills drinks every 5 seconds. Even though I asked her multiple times to not give me a refill, she brought one out anyways. I drank a little bit just so she didn't feel like it was entire useless to give me one, but after I got it to about 3/4th full, she refilled it again. While you guys are probably saying, "Stop being an ass, David. She's only doing her job," I told her every time she even hinted to a refill to not give me one. It seems menial, but I hate that kind of thing.
Also, as I was saying before, there was a half of a restaurant full of drunk UK fans that cheered as loud as they could for EVERY. SINGLE. SCORE.
UK was up by more than 20 for every second after I got there, yet they wouldn't stop annoying the...diddly poo out of me. Even worse was that there was a great upset going on with Ohio and Georgetown on one television, but it was on the other side of the place. CBS had to be horrible as well and not change the game despite Marquette and Washington playing in a great game. So while it's not Beef O' Bradys' fault, it was still annoying.
The food was still cold, although I already expected that. it was a new version of cold though. It seriously felt like they didn't even cook the food and just left it out to thaw for the day. My seat was uncomfortable as well. Good news for all though --- Afterwards, I got to have a medium sized chocolate shake from Dairy Queen.
Now take this useless article and love all over it.
Now I hate Beef O' Bradys with all of my heart in the first place. I always feel uncomfortable and the food is always cold despite waiting for 3 hours to get my food. This trip was no different either. From the beginning, I knew it was going to suck too. My mom randomly picked me and my dad up and said, "I want to eat and sleep." Sort of like what a dog does all day, except she wanted to do it all within an hour. When we got there, we had to stand around for ten minutes because there were a bunch of drunk idiots there despite UK beating Eastern Tennessee by 28 at the half, if I remember correctly.
We sat around for five minutes until our waitress finally noticed we existed and she finally got our drinks. She was nice and effective but she did have one fatal flaw... She was one of the people that refills drinks every 5 seconds. Even though I asked her multiple times to not give me a refill, she brought one out anyways. I drank a little bit just so she didn't feel like it was entire useless to give me one, but after I got it to about 3/4th full, she refilled it again. While you guys are probably saying, "Stop being an ass, David. She's only doing her job," I told her every time she even hinted to a refill to not give me one. It seems menial, but I hate that kind of thing.
Also, as I was saying before, there was a half of a restaurant full of drunk UK fans that cheered as loud as they could for EVERY. SINGLE. SCORE.
WE'RE BEATING A 16 SEED!!!!!!
UK was up by more than 20 for every second after I got there, yet they wouldn't stop annoying the...diddly poo out of me. Even worse was that there was a great upset going on with Ohio and Georgetown on one television, but it was on the other side of the place. CBS had to be horrible as well and not change the game despite Marquette and Washington playing in a great game. So while it's not Beef O' Bradys' fault, it was still annoying.
The food was still cold, although I already expected that. it was a new version of cold though. It seriously felt like they didn't even cook the food and just left it out to thaw for the day. My seat was uncomfortable as well. Good news for all though --- Afterwards, I got to have a medium sized chocolate shake from Dairy Queen.
Now take this useless article and love all over it.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
So what now Bengals?
Following a 2008 season in which our beloved team went 4-11-1, they surprised the fan base with an offseason that was extremely unusual. We had some big contributors during our down year, like Cedric Benson and Chris Crocker. We were actually able to re-sign them and hope to build upon them. Then we brought in a big free agent and actually signed him, which wound up being Laveraneus Coles. We added some quality players in Roy Williams and Tank Johnson. These guys turned out to be solid additions to our team and become solid vet presences that we needed.
We arrived at the 2009 NFL draft. An event in which leaves Bengals fans scratching their heads with multiple questionable moves. This time around was completely different. The Bengals needed an offensive tackle and they took one. Sure he came with question marks, but the Bengals took the gamble on him. Then we took an amazing linebacker, a 1st round DE who fell to the 3rd, one of the best TE in the draft, a solid center, the #1 punter, a solid cornerback, and the D2 Harlon Hill (Heisman in D2) winner. Bengals fans were amazed because we could actually give our draft an "A" on paper. It obviously led to fans having high expectations for the team.
Well that 2009 team wound up going 10-6 and win the AFC North, which included a complete sweep of the AFC North division.
We obviously had our issues with the team because our offense struggled to put teams away and let some bad teams hang around. It showed that we still had a lot of work to become a complete team.
Now we've entered the 2010 offseason. Once again, we re-signed some key free agents, like Tank Johnson and Roy Williams. Our big 2009 pick up, Coles, was a disappointment, but the team decided to release him instead of the usual method of keeping people around when they can't help. Well we replaced him with another big free agent, Antonio Bryant, who is supposed to help our dismal passing game. Once again, we're actually trying to fix our problems.
Even though the team continues to employ Bob Bratkowski, the team did one of the most impressive acts. They beat the Washington Redskins front office. A battle which allowed us to retain Mike Zimmer. The man who has turned our defense into our strength.
So we retained an important coach, re-signed some key pieces to our defense, and brought in a receiver to help fix the passing game. An almost repeat of the 2009 offseason. So what now Bengals?
Are you going to give us another solid draft or are we going to return the project/"potential" picks of the usual times or are we going to continue our move forward? We have a big season ahead of us. It's time to step up out of mediocrity and return to the glory days of the Bengals.
We arrived at the 2009 NFL draft. An event in which leaves Bengals fans scratching their heads with multiple questionable moves. This time around was completely different. The Bengals needed an offensive tackle and they took one. Sure he came with question marks, but the Bengals took the gamble on him. Then we took an amazing linebacker, a 1st round DE who fell to the 3rd, one of the best TE in the draft, a solid center, the #1 punter, a solid cornerback, and the D2 Harlon Hill (Heisman in D2) winner. Bengals fans were amazed because we could actually give our draft an "A" on paper. It obviously led to fans having high expectations for the team.
Well that 2009 team wound up going 10-6 and win the AFC North, which included a complete sweep of the AFC North division.
We obviously had our issues with the team because our offense struggled to put teams away and let some bad teams hang around. It showed that we still had a lot of work to become a complete team.
Now we've entered the 2010 offseason. Once again, we re-signed some key free agents, like Tank Johnson and Roy Williams. Our big 2009 pick up, Coles, was a disappointment, but the team decided to release him instead of the usual method of keeping people around when they can't help. Well we replaced him with another big free agent, Antonio Bryant, who is supposed to help our dismal passing game. Once again, we're actually trying to fix our problems.
Even though the team continues to employ Bob Bratkowski, the team did one of the most impressive acts. They beat the Washington Redskins front office. A battle which allowed us to retain Mike Zimmer. The man who has turned our defense into our strength.
So we retained an important coach, re-signed some key pieces to our defense, and brought in a receiver to help fix the passing game. An almost repeat of the 2009 offseason. So what now Bengals?
Are you going to give us another solid draft or are we going to return the project/"potential" picks of the usual times or are we going to continue our move forward? We have a big season ahead of us. It's time to step up out of mediocrity and return to the glory days of the Bengals.
Monday, March 15, 2010
The dangers of home schooling
Being a 15 year old on the interwebs all day is pretty confusing, huh? Well, it's because I'm homeschooled. While I don't mind the idea of home schooling because a person can get a better education than public schooling, it does have a few flaws which have bleh'd me.
Secondly, I've had pretty much no social life for the past 2 years. I have a few friends that I hang out every weekend, but during the weeks I'm reduced to sitting around browsing the internet and occasionally texting someone who I pick randomly out of my phone. Think of it like the big wheel on The Price is Right.
Cmon! It'll be Kaitlin today!
But the worst thing about it, for me at least, is that my mom has absolutely no idea what she's doing. The system I do is called ABEKA, which is a homeschooling system that teaches through videos of an actual class in a private school in Florida. It's a good system with one fatal flaw, if a student needs help, they have to ask their parents for it. While I would hope most parents know most of the criteria their children are learning, my mom barely ever does. When doing algebra 2, here is a normal conversation:
Me - "I need some help on this problem"
Mom - "Watch the video"
Me - "I did, but I still don't get it"
Mom - "Okay then..." *Looks at problem, book, and answer* "I don't get it. Here, look at the answer and work on it from there"
I have no idea how that is supposed to help me...at all, but I'm supposed to deal with it. Also, and I don't know how this one was thought through, my parents work ALL THE TIME. When we have to send our things in, it's almost always late and almost always a mess. Although I have good grades, it's because I'm a smart cookie, not because of my amazing teacher's skills.
Dayum, I better get back to public schooling soon. I know I said public schooling is idiotic, but it'll at least get me out of this crap.
First off, I'm comparing it to public schools. That's like comparing any normal person to that 'not quite right' kid named Ephrem.
Hey ya'll
A public schools' job is too pretty much prepare a person for a 9-5 job and not complain about it.Hey ya'llSecondly, I've had pretty much no social life for the past 2 years. I have a few friends that I hang out every weekend, but during the weeks I'm reduced to sitting around browsing the internet and occasionally texting someone who I pick randomly out of my phone. Think of it like the big wheel on The Price is Right.
Cmon! It'll be Kaitlin today!
Me - "I need some help on this problem"
Mom - "Watch the video"
Me - "I did, but I still don't get it"
Mom - "Okay then..." *Looks at problem, book, and answer* "I don't get it. Here, look at the answer and work on it from there"
I have no idea how that is supposed to help me...at all, but I'm supposed to deal with it. Also, and I don't know how this one was thought through, my parents work ALL THE TIME. When we have to send our things in, it's almost always late and almost always a mess. Although I have good grades, it's because I'm a smart cookie, not because of my amazing teacher's skills.
Dayum, I better get back to public schooling soon. I know I said public schooling is idiotic, but it'll at least get me out of this crap.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Welcome you crazy fools
Alrighty then, so I made a blog.
This is pretty much gonna be for whoever wants to see a bunch of random postings about whatever is going on in the authors' minds or Cincinnati Bengal related news (That means you!). So be prepared for my horrible writing skills and, hopefully, a lot of updates. There should be about 4-5 authors, including myself and this shizzzz actually gets started.....now.
This is pretty much gonna be for whoever wants to see a bunch of random postings about whatever is going on in the authors' minds or Cincinnati Bengal related news (That means you!). So be prepared for my horrible writing skills and, hopefully, a lot of updates. There should be about 4-5 authors, including myself and this shizzzz actually gets started.....now.
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