Thursday, July 31, 2008

This is NOT a bachelor pad!

Okay, I think those last two posts necessitate a response from me, being the only girl living in the house. Now, I'm new to this blogging scene, but since when did the blog that I suggested we create, turn into a bachelor blog?? Uh-uh, no thanks. I am putting my foot down!

I wish I could retaliate, but I don't even know how to upload....so the retaliation will just have to wait. But when it happens, it will be good!

Ahh, the drama of living in a co-ed house. I love u guys :) Just no more cheerleaders or demeaning wife posts please!

xoxo,
Big T

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Dark Knight

So, I saw the new Batman movie tonight. I enjoyed it a lot and I'm sure you will, too. I don't like how much hype it was getting beforehand, though. It makes it really difficult to live up to the hype in my mind. Anyways, in these movies, it's usually the villain that steals the show... like The Joker did in The Dark Knight. Since our house is pretty much full of show-stealers, I'd like to compare the roommates with their popular super-villain counterpart.
  • Brian: The Joker
    This seems like a no-brainer to me. Brian is the mastermind of all pranks, you never really know what his motives are, and he's always pulling off his smirky smile. Plus, they both have unusually bright hair.
  • Falk: Doctor Octopus
    Falk is smart enough to be considered a doctor in my book... I mean, isn't a cpa the same thing as a phd? Plus, you can find Chris working out at the gym so much that he probably has developed the strength of six arms.
  • Theresa: Poison Ivy
    Theresa, like Poison Ivy, is in touch with the plants and the environment. Poison Ivy develops dangerous toxins while Theresa can brew a mean tea. But, don't let her pretty exterior fool you, her seductive ways will lure you in and then take you out. Be careful, gentlemen, this one is up to no good.
  • Gavin: Bizarro
    Bizarro was the opposite of Superman. Gavin does pretty much the opposite of everyone else. Gavin walks when we drive, he sleeps when we all do work, he refuses to eat at a chain restaurant when we just want Applebees... we don't understand him, but that's what we like about him.

Way to go Penn St. and Notre Dame

A little background....

An ESPN columnist did a Top 10 College Logos for a BCS conference. He evaluated logos based on the following criteria:

Cleanliness / Drawability - This category is based on two important purposes of a collegiate logo. A logo should be clean enough to make an attractive car decal or adorn an alum’s golf bag. Additionally, with many Fridays of my youth spent attempting to draw logos to represent the next day’s upcoming NCAA football matchups on the wide-ruled notebook paper in my Trapper Keeper binder, I learned the value of a logo’s simplicity which I’ve termed “Drawability”.

Creativity - This category is basically created to award logos which are more than a combination of the school’s acronym. I recognize that there’s value in a letter-based logo, but for the purpose of my ranking, I wanted to reward artistic creativity.

Recognition Value - Probably the most important aspect of a logo is it’s ability to be recognized as representing that specific University. While my perspective on this category will differ from someone in another part of the country, I tried to assess the logo’s value nationally as best I could.

A 2-point bonus was awarded for logos used on a school’s helmet.

Well done PSU. I'm sure Mickel and Eschbacher would agree with the Top 10 acknowledgment but may argue #9




9. - Big Ten Conference
I can’t tell you how hard it was to drop this logo to number 9. My fear of disappointing Joe Pa nearly influenced my assessment here but I felt I had to be true to the system. So, while I’ve always loved their white helmets with the single navy stripe, my ranking places a premium on the free logo advertising that a helmet can provide causing Penn State to settle in at #9.



Notre Dame jumped into the #2 slot of Non BCS Conferences. Congrats to the Irish for the high ranking...



Their main logo may be an interlocked “ND”, but equally recognizable is this angry leprechaun. The combination of the two logo options for the Fighting Irish creates a powerful branding punch, but based on the leprechaun itself, it falls to #2.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Mouse Pains

You know how in lame kid's movies the klutzy burglars always fall for lame booby traps left around the house? Well, tonight I was both the cleaver kid as well as the klutz. As you all know, I had a run in with a mouse a couple of weeks ago. (I won) . Gavin was already enjoying the fact that I duel it out with random sugar ants, but now I've got mammals I'm battling. So I place a call to the Woodbridge maintenance and request that they take a look at my house and see about resolving the situation. Their resolution was a 4 pack of mouse traps, left on my front porch. Swell. Rather than set the traps out and risk having the ants feast on the bait, I just decided to cross my fingers and hope that the mouse problem had resolved itself. Eh, after two weeks, I figured what the hell, I've only got 3 more weeks in this place, lets set some traps, sans bait. This is my first encounter with traps so I tested the sensitivity of them and wham! smack dab across my thumb, the trap slammed shut! So....morale of the story. Traps work, no need to test them. Now, we'll just see if I actually catch anything...let's hope not.

I can't wait to move into the new place!

-- Falker

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Weekend Recap

So I finished the Summer Associate for the consulting firm I work for. It was straight out of the book "The Firm", right down to them entering my room one night to leave us gifts. Freaky.

Anyway, San Diego rocks, it's 71 every day and 69 every night. The midwestern people at my company are real cool, but the northeasterns sucked as was expected. Harvard and Wharton kids seemed pissed that a sarcastic loser from IU has the exact same job as them. Do you guys get this at your jobs this summer too?

I went kayaking in the Pacific Saturday morning, that was a lot of fun. I was planning to kayak over the border to Mexico, but it was like 19 miles south, and I figure the Coast Guard can kayak faster than me, so I'd get caught.

Fun link for everyone to check out: www.kiva.org. It's used as a way to set up micro-loans to 3rd world countries. I opened an account and funded Sounkar Seydi, who is looked to sell clothing in Senegal. It'd be cool if we all take some money from our internships and loan it out to these types of folks.

Hope everyone else had a good week. My internship is 6/10 over!

-- The Esch