• More tech stuff in the next week; CES 2012 is here (and I’m not there, ugh) and so naturally I’ll be scrutinizing everything related to digital cameras, ultrabooks, and Android tablets and cell phones of all kinds. No, I will not look for a 3D TV for you.
• More food stuff…for instance, did you know that the Cici’s on Archer closed? yep, that it did. I’ll also take a stroll to The Smokehouse (occupies the former Rue Bar on Main Street), and I’ll FINALLY get a chance to go to Leonardo’s 706 with SOMEONE. (I don’t know who, but I’m dragging them there with me).
• More food stuff will be happening at the same time that I try to lose weight….god help me. I’ve already lost 5 pounds though so that’s a good start I think. But I gotta do better.
• I have parted ways with my Nikon D40…truth be told, I loved it…but not enough. It has served me well, but will go to much more deserving hands. The iPhone 4S will take over as my ultra-portable shooter and the Canon PowerShot S95 will take over as the “main camera”. Have to admit, though, I’m definitely eyeing the T3i soon enough.
• A friend of mine and I have made a pact to make sure we go out as often as possible. I’ve made this claim many times before…but hopefully this time it actually works. Maybe, sort of.

If I told you there was something that just felt different about this semester coming up, you’d probably say to me “well duh, Sey, it’s [most of] our final semesters of school”. And while that’s true and all, there’s already a bit more heaviness to that thought than I, well, thought.

I’ve been more than fortunate enough to still keep in contact (or at least keep tabs) with people from as way back as elementary school (shoutout to all my Keeth Cougars who read this blog). Granted, Facebook and Twitter help, but people could very well have just ignored me if they wanted to do so. The same sentiment applies to those in middle school (shout out to my Indian Trails peeps). And as for my Seminole High peeps, well, let’s just say college for me has been like the sequel to Saved by the Bell for the most part, haha.

But naturally, whether I end up staying in-state or going out-of-state, whatever my plans may be, other people have big plans too. We’re all, as surprising as it may be to imagine for some people, going to have lives, careers and families to take care of. While college still meant a return home, for the most part, the real world doesn’t afford that opportunity for some now. And while that doesn’t mean an abrupt end to communication by any means, it does mean a marked decline in that communication.

Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about that. And maybe, maybe just for once I have realized that I should stop thinking about it. After all, I can’t stop it right?

Humans welcome and sometimes relish familiarity, but they also crave adventure. We covet consistency, but desire for a metamorphosis and transformation.

And that’s what makes this semester so difficult…I’ve learned so much about myself, others, and the world at large in just these past 3.5 years alone (and I can argue that it’s really just been this past year). Most of what I’ve learned has been positive, but a sizable minority of it has been not necessarily negative but rather than disappointing. All experiences, however, have been invaluable.

It makes this semester that much harder because it puts me in an uncomfortable mind. Do I try and get myself to change now, and risk putting myself in a different light? Do I remain the same and just wait until my new start to go about these changes?

To put it in completely geeky terms…in other words I can’t decide between whether I want to do a beta version of Sey Hee 3.0 (I consider 1.0 up til beginning of high school and 2.0 high school til now), or just keep 2.0 around until I start the next phase of my life.

Of course, again, there’s always that part of me that says why you overthinkin, man? And it’s true, I really am overthinking it. So what I hope for, ultimately, is that this final semester of mine goes as smooth as possible.

That, my friends, is my ultimate wish. I know it won’t come true…in fact, it’s already hit some moments from almost right when the year began. But those have been set aside…and I hope that no more really happen. I wish for amends to be made, scores to be settled, and misunderstandings to be reconciled. These are bold wishes, at best, and are probably impossible.

But humans dream of achieving the impossible. And, as far as I know, I’m still a human.

• Lose weight (20 pounds in a good few months…already lost 5).
• Make sure to be more open about my feelings rather than being so passive-aggressive.
• I refuse to be a pushover (kind of related to above resolution).
• I resolve to be more social and not clam up so easily in social settings where I’m not the most comfortable.
• At the same time, I hope to spend more time to myself, because I’ve learned the importance of self-reflection and, in general, the serenity that comes with alone time sometimes.
• Medical School. Enough said.
• An ongoing one: I’ll try not to take everything so personally…although I can’t help it sometimes.
• I resolve to be more confident about myself, confident about the things I do and the decisions I make.
• Blog more…I’m not blogging nearly as much as I used to. But the posts will be more informative AND will be more scrutinized for accuracy (or at least backed up with verifiable facts).
• In general, I’m going to be more on top of my shit….I’ve realized that I’ve been really prone to giving misinformation unintentionally lately and that’s gotta stoppp. Even in this crazy world of communication, misinformation and miscommunication are still as rampant as ever.
• I’m going to finish my book. No matter what.
• Take more pictures.
• That’s it.

(image taken from Civilization’s website).

No, this isn’t Sid Meier’s Civilization that we’re talking about here. Civilization is a quaint little restaurant that is situated almost in the middle of nowhere. I could tell you it’s on NW 2nd Street in Gainesville, but it would take you probably forever to find it (its address is 1511 NW 2nd Street though, if you must know).

Civilization is very unique in that it is the only co-op restaurant in the southeast United States (or so it claims). What does this mean? Basically, the community (or some members of it) own the restaurant and make decisions about it democratically. Investments are also made by the community, thereby removing all influence and dependence of banks. (for more info: http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall09/white_j/index.html)

But enough about co-ops, let’s get down to the restaurant level. Parking is ample, and makes the restaurant seem bigger than it actually is…because, I’ll be honest, it’s not that big. It has very high ceilings, which makes it all the more inviting (unlike the Jones, which seems dark and damp), but the actual square footage seems about the same. You could be waiting some days for a good 20-30 minutes…but we managed to get in with no problem around lunch.

For our office group outing, we went off the lunch menu. The specials board is nice and centered in the dining area, and there was a soup that probably a good third of the table wanted (cream of portabello mushroom).

As nice and centered the specials board was, it wasn’t very much updated. The soup was already sold out (can someone enlighten me how soup sells out by noon? yes, this place is open for breakfast, but it still doesn’t quite make sense to me). And to think I was gonna get a bowl of it.

So, anyway, I “settled” for the flank steak sandwich. This is from their website:

Broiled marinated flank steak topped with caramelized onions,
white cheddar, and habanero mayonnaise on a baguette

Awesomeness, in picture form. (Also, I love my iPhone 4S).

What they should have added was “it’s a chockful of awesomeness”. Seriously, the description doesn’t do it justice…granted, looking back, maybe there was more cheddar and more mayo than habanero, but there was still a bit of spice in the whole sandwich. The steak was cooked wonderfully, and the meshing of the baguette + onions and everything else was just immaculate.

The sandwich also came with “fried potatoes”, to which the smart-aleck might go “uhh yeah french fries, ever heard of them?”. But  no, they were like french fries but with a homefry twist, if you will. Golden/orange-brown fried goodness surrounding fluffy potatoes = whee.

My friends/office workmates had an avocado melt (was deemed alright, but not sensational), pumpkin and garlic soup (two thumbs up), Florida Cobia burritos (great) and an egg salad (a regular ordered this one, so it’s good). I should also take the time to mention that everything made is from local and organic products.

The only turn-off was the price…$10 for a sandwich never seems fair, even if it was 1) flank steak 2) local/organic 3) with a side of (frickin awesome) fried potatoes. Other than the restaurant being situated in Gainesville-nowhere, I can see the price being a turn-off for most students too (definitely recommend coming during lunch rather than dinner). I understand it’s a co-op, so prices need to be a little more reflective of this fact, but still it seems a tad unsettling.

I will say that they have a nice selection of drinks, including Cheerwine for all you Southern folk (although this is not new, Cheerwine is slowly making its way into UF as well).

Also, service was alright…it wasn’t the best (we’d go sometimes 10-15 minutes without servers realizing I was out of water 20 minutes ago), but it wasn’t the worse. They do have a rule where no more than 4 cards can be presented at the table, but the guy was nice enough to handle all of our cards. I wouldn’t call it attentive service, but I’d call it passable. If you’re a stickler who wants to be the center of your server’s attention, however, you will be pissed.

Grade: A-/B+

Pros: Damn good food, need to try more of it.

Cons: Bit expensive for lunch, not very punctual in updating availability of menu, service is flaky.

No, but seriously, by the time UF students come back to Gainesville, the restaurant landscape will become somewhat different, and every restaurant is going to be affected.

First off, Smokehouse, a new “Gourmet BBQ” place on Main and 2nd, will be formally open to the public by the time we all come back from break. Just looking at this Gainesville Sun article, I can tell why it’s called a gourmet BBQ place (“white cheddar mac with pecarino romano”??? really? I almost expect truffle oil at this point). Entrees range from $8-18.

If cheaper, more down-to-earth BBQ is your calling, David’s BBQ is opening another location on (nearly the extreme) east part of town, right near The Jones Eastside. While it’s still somewhat far out from campus, it is definitely closer compared to their first location (located in the middle of a forested nowhere).

Tijuana Flats on Archer is finally shaping up to open in Late January. While parking around that area is still always atrocious…at least there’s parking available (unlike the Tijuana on University where you basically have to be on campus to eat there in the lunch hour, since parking is either metered or city-sticker only).

To top it all off: The blue laws regarding alcohol and liquor on Sundays are no longer in effect. That means, starting this Sunday, Sunday
Fundays are for real this time; it’s up to you to take advantage of them.

On a blog-related note: to the asswipe who keeps on rating each blog post as one-star lately, just stop. I am genuinely trying to run a respectable blog here and it’s obviously alright if you don’ t like some posts…but I know when someone’s genuinely not happy with a post versus when someone is just putting one star for the heck of it. If you really don’t like the posts, leave a comment.

Med school applicants canvass the entire country, trying to strategize and decide which medical schools apply to. Girl Scouts probably use iPhones for all I care to divy up the neighborhood.

Med school applicants filling out secondaries for each school is like girl scouts trying to visit each house in a neighborhood.

Each school has its own personality, just like each owner of each house.

When a girl scout knocks on a door, it’s like you submitting your secondary to the school. The owner of the house peeping through the peephole is like the admissions committee taking a look at your credentials.

If the committee likes what they see, they grant an interview. If the resident of a house or dwelling is curious about what a little girl is doing at their doorstep, they’ll open the door. Otherwise, they won’t open the door/the committee will simply wait, and wait, and wait. The girl scout keeps ringing, just like the med school applicant keeps on furiously sending updates to the schools.

When/if the owner/committee opens the door, the girl scout must convince the owner to buy the cookies. Of course, this is analogous to the med school applicant’s interview.

Ultimately, if you manage to convince the committee, you get an acceptance; likewise, the Girl Scout gets the person to pay for delectable cookies.

The End.

I know what you’re thinking.

“It’s no frickin’ surprise he went iPhone, he’s an Apple fanboy.”

And yes, you’re right. I am an Apple fanboy. But you also have to consider that I’m really just a geek at heart. I love all electronics as long as they do their job and serve a purpose that I need to have served…another semi-prerequisite is that they have to be affordable, which sometimes excludes Apple products for all I care.

Let me run down the products I own, prior to the iPhone, and you’ll see how all over the place I am:

• Mac Mini 2009 model – Love this little desktop…it may have laptop innards, but it still is pretty darn fast. This Mac Mini is what could’ve just satiated my Mac/Apple needs.
• Lenovo X220 – I was REALLY considering the MacBook Air for the longest time. After all, it’s pretty darn light, has good battery life (at least the 13″), and of course has Mac OS X. But honestly, I’ve been a fan of Windows 7 as well (not as much a fan of Win8 yet), and I didn’t mind switching back to Windows, if only for portable purposes. And the value that I got on this X220 was astounding: 8GB RAM, 160 GB SSD, 2.3 GHz Intel i5, etc. all for $799 (+3 year on-site warranty). A pretty damn good deal if you ask me.
• HP Touchpad – got it on a fire sale. Now I understand why tablets could be considered useful. It’s not to say I won’t get an iPad/Android tablet, I will…but I enjoy the touchpad for what it’s worth to me right now.

So don’t call me an Apple fanboy, per se, just call me a fan of good technology that might be a little Apple biased.

But why iPhone? Let me go through the things I had to consider (in priority order…this is how I considered these things at the very end):

• durability
• battery life
• camera
• app selection
• flexibility of customization
• other features

Now remember, I’m pitting the iPhone against the Galaxy Nexus here..this isn’t your cheap Android phone that’s free after rebate or what not. This is the phone that Google wants to lead the way for the next generation of Android phones (and consequently the next version of Android, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)). I’m not going to go too technical into the specs, like RAM and processor, for both phones…just know that both phones have dual-core processor. But I will go into the standout specs for the phones:

• iPhone – 8 MP back-lit sensor, 1080p video, FaceTime and iMessage, retina display
• Galaxy Nexus – 5 MP (no shutter lag), 1080p video, always going to get the first updates for Android, 720p display, 4.6″, NFC (basically means you can use credit cards via your phone)

Durability

The iPhone 4S, while has great overall build quality, is also fragile because of its glass back and front. Of course, that means when Humpty Dumpty takes a tumble, the screen itself may be fine…but the glass won’t be. It’ll look like you broke the camera because your face was ugly on a particular day (don’t worry, it’s not ugly, it’s just a bad joke).

The Galaxy Nexus has some sort of fortified glass on the front…meaning key scratches are almost no longer a thing of the past. However, there have been reviewers saying that the plastic casing for the phone could have been better; they don’t say it’s necessarily bad, but they do expect better out of a $300 phone. If it feels like the Galaxy S II/Epic 4G touch, I kind of agree…but it’s not a breakable plastic by any means. The Nexus, however, does have a plastic battery cover to which you feel like the clips might break upon a good amount of pressure when you put it back in; the way you have to put it back in reminds me of people making ravioli or dumplings.

In addition, I have pathetically small hands. The iPhone 4S fits nicely in my hands. The DROID RAZR, which is 0.01 inches wider than the Nexus, felt awkward at best. Granted, the contour of the RAZR and Nexus are probably going to be different, but still.

Winner: Galaxy Nexus, but still has some flaws.

Battery Life

The iPhone 4 was credited as having the best battery life (or almost close to it) that a smartphone could have. The iPhone 4S, for whatever reason, didn’t fare so well. Some reviewers said it had stellar battery life, others said it had crap battery life. On a theoretical basis, iPhones should do slightly better because of less screen real estate and NOT having to deal with a 4G radio (which undoubtedly will gulp major battery life). It, of course, does not have a replaceable battery; Apple claims this helps battery life in a major way. I tend to believe them: Apple’s MacBook batteries, ever since being integrated, have done much better than their PC counterparts, meeting or besting most competitors in both MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. iPhone 4S battery life, we’ll say, lasts about a day, maybe less.

Reviews coming in from Europe about the Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ version (basically equivalent to AT&T and T-Mobile here in the states) say that the Galaxy Nexus does last a good day or so under moderate use. But this is with HSPA+. On Verizon, we can see these wonderful battery life figures drop a good four or five hours at least; tell me one phone on Verizon that’s 4G-LTE that can last you 1.5 days, and get back to me. People will argue for on day’s end that the Nexus is superior because it has a removable battery. Here’s a problem: there’s a reason for that. Battery life is expected to be crappy and that’s why they provide removable batteries. If a cell phone company had faith in the battery life of a phone, they’d integrate their batteries and seal them. Instead, they rely on the consumer to make that additional investment for that extra battery.

Winner: iPhone (on principle)

Camera

This one was a doozy. I used to be avid in photography, and still am kind of. I love taking pictures on my phone because I live by the adage that the best camera you have is the one that’s with you. Of course, at the same time, the camera must be good enough…or you might as well not have a camera on your cell phone.

I was excited when I heard about the Nexus coming to Verizon for two reasons: pure Google software experience (no skins like TouchWiz or Sense (Samsung and HTC, respectively)), and because Samsung was making the phone. Samsung has good experience with camera sensors, as seen with the Galaxy S II offerings  and other, various Samsung phones.

You might be saying: oh it’s because the Nexus has less megapixels that you’re hating on it. Ladies and gentlemen, # of megapixels don’t matter (much). I have a Nikon D60 that’s 6.1 megapixels that takes far superior pictures compared to your $200 Canon PowerShot with 14.1 megapixels.

But if you look at the pictures (just google samsung galaxy nexus sample shots) and juxtapose them to iPhone 4S shots, you’ll see a stark difference, especially in low-light situations. My dumbphone camera could take better pictures than what the Nexus does at night, it really could.

Yes, the Nexus offers “no shutter lag”, and it’s pretty damn fast. But it really comes at the expense of focus (sometimes), and overall picture quality (especially at night)

My logic is this: if I’m going to be paying $200 for a smartphone, it might as well have a good camera right?

Winner: iPhone, easily.

App Selection

No winner/loser can be given here, only because of my bias. I owned an iPod Touch before so, naturally, I wanted all the apps I had already downloaded/bought to still carry their value. This, however, wasn’t the main reason. The main reason that was under scrutiny was medical school. The quality of apps for medical students is simply unparalleled in iOS; Android apps are complete and utter crap right now. Android apps as a whole, however, are for the most part fine. Yes, people will tell me that Facebook is utter shit on Android but, besides that, things seem to be fine on the app front.

Where apps are really hard to come by, however, is for Android tablets…and I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask for some seamlessness between tablet and phone (iMessage would aim to do that very well…except only to fellow “i” users). But tablet apps for Honeycomb are sorely lacking…Ice Cream Sandwich aims to help tablets out considerably, as the new SDKs and APIs for ICS are set so that programmers can easily accompany both platforms. As it stands, however, it’s not really bearing much fruit. Apple really is the only one that can deploy their mobile operating systems to their products in a cohesive pattern (iPhone/iPad/Apple TV), and that’s not a fanboy speaking here.

Winner: iOS.

Flexibility of Customization

Here’s the thing: iOS SUCKS at customization, no doubt about it. Unless if you jailbreak, there’s no way to really customize actual icons/themes, unlike in Android where customization can run rampant…even if rooting is necessary. But rooting seems less…taboo for Android people compared to iOS for whatever reason. I personally don’t like jailbreaking because knowing myself I really don’t feel like I’d be able to perform the jailbreak that well.

Winner: Android by a country mile

Other features

This is where the Nexus really came to shine…but the problem is there’s not much usefulness in these extra features yet.

NFC, in general, allows for a lot of things (it stands for Near Field Communication). You can transmit data between phones, just like Bluetooth, but you can also securely make credit card transactions at stores, for instance (google “google wallet’). For the Nexus and ICS + NFC compatible devices, you can do “Android Beam”, which is like the app “Bump” in a way. You can put up a web page on your phone, bump someone else’s phone, and they’ll get that same webpage. Bump an app, and the other phone will get a link to Android Market for that map. The problem is that the VAST majority of phones don’t possess NFC technology….yet. Also, Google Wallet is facing stiff competition against ISIS (for you UF folk, it’s not tear-your-hair out ISIS), which is a consortium of carriers and mobile phone makers trying to make their own online wallet system.

Most Android phones also have SD expandability (storage expansion in other words). But let’s think about this for a minute. Most of these phones that have this capability are  low end Androids with little on-board/internal storage though, as we’re starting to see some high-end Androids neglect it (famously, the Galaxy Nexus).

The Nexus/ICS software has a nice panorama mode that is not built-in to iOS software; that being said, there is definitely third-party stuff that helps out with that. Android also really has improved in the appearance front with Ice Cream Sandwich.

My final decision could be phrased in the words of a reviewer, of whose name I don’t remember sadly, but he said something along the lines of: Ice Cream Sandwich (the new Android software) was what made the Galaxy Nexus great…not the actual phone itself. My cue is similar, except that while iOS is somewhat hampered…the quality of apps is unusually great, and the hardware (albeit fragile) is still very durable and of top-notch overall quality.

I know I’ve missed out probably on numerous minutiae, so feel free to give your opinion in the comments section, and I will kindly respond (after finals).

Let’s get down to business though (and not to defeat the Huns): Urban Meyer‘s definitely taking the job at Ohio State. No ifs ands or buts around it….I don’t care how many times he denies it, he’s going there. In some immediate sense, I understand his denial because it will, at least somewhat temporarily, keep the press out of his home for a few days while he spends some time with his family.

Which gets my next point: family. One of the main reasons he “decided to leave” was because of his family (which stemmed from his big Kahuna reason being his health). I still believe him, but I don’t like how he made it seem like he was taking an extended period of time to be with his family. We all knew he was going to come back to coaching some day, even if not in Gainesville. But he made it seem like he wanted to settle down for a bit longer to be with his children and his wife. But let’s be real though…if I’m not mistaken, I think both daughters are now in college? When your kids go off to college, we should know better than to think he’s going to “spend time with them” heavily. Yeah, sure, his daughters are involved in collegiate sports (at least one of them is) and yeah, maybe he wanted to go to their games and such. I’m not saying he’s not a loving parent, not at all. But I guarantee you that no matter what, he would do his best to make it out to his daughter’s games even if he was coaching at UF. If he didn’t, well then maybe that “good parent” claim can be more scrutinized. My point is this: whether it was one year or five years later, we’d still be giving him shit about the family excuse.

Where I’m having issue with some people is everyone knocking him by saying he was lying about health issues…especially with him coming back so early. Now I don’t have any inside information about his real health issues…but assuming what we did hear is true, let’s be real: he had some chest pain/minor heart problems that were greatly exacerbated by stress. I faced these similar issues when I was hospitalized senior year of high school with what we’ll call a hypertensive crisis (220/160 blood pressure, if you must know). After being put on medication (still on it to this day), and learning ways to reduce stress (I know that seems impossible, but believe me I’m better this time around), I got back to my normal routine. If anything, we should’ve smelled something funny in the water when he took a travelling ESPN analyst job. I don’t think being a commentator or analyst is THAT much easier than being a head coach…sure there’s much less stress in one sense, but there’s a different kind of stress that exists in the TV world too. But my point is this: health problems can be recovered from with time, medication, and certain management techniques. Don’t knock him because you think he’s lying, knock him because of the way he exited, and the way he had to be sneaky about it. I understand that there’s confidentiality agreements and galore about this stuff…but kind of like how Lebron handled Cleveland, I felt like Urban could’ve handled this situation better.

Don’t portray Urban as necessarily a big fat liar…be thankful for the fact he brought two National Championships to our doorsteps (even if he may have done it with Zook’s recruits). But you can call him a quitter…that’s the more appropriate term, I think.

And at the very least, he’s not going to a school in the SEC. Be thankful for that.

• The libraries seem to be a little more packed than usual, even for an exam week. Which leads to my next subject…
• …I don’t care about SG elections anymore. If the opposition doesn’t want to put in a full-fledged effort, then they don’t deserve the 1.5 hours I spend actually looking at platforms and seeing which are more viable. If you really must care, it’s the same old song: extended library hours, some weird new platform issue, yadda yadda yadda. I haven’t seen a “Student Party” person outside Turlington…and anyway they just stick to themselves. I’ve seen Unite people actually go up to people and at least try to carry conversations and shake hands with people. You might not like Unite, but they still at least are trying to make it LOOK like it’s not a monopoly. Here’s a hint: approach some people. Most of them don’t bite, I swear. Heck, if you actually approached some Greek folk, they might actually warm up to you too.
• Speaking of which, what kind of f**king name is “Student Party”? Obviously originality isn’t in what I’ll just generalize as “the opposition”‘s repertoire. Here’s a thought: CHANGING NAMES A MULTITUDE OF TIMES WITHIN A FEW SEMESTERS WON’T GET YOU SHIT. Students, at best, get confused. If I hear one whine come out of any member of the opposition, you’ll hear my lovely response here mainly because you guys didn’t put in ANY effort (not even a dog). (mainly because noone will see it).
• And by the way, you’re not fooling anyone with your logo. While it’s not a direct rip of UF’s current logo for their Facebook page, your logo is obviously as original as your name.
• In fact, I hope Unite wipes you clean. You guys were doing so well two years ago, you just had an immature candidate. Then last year you had a great candidate but the most discombobulated front ever. And now you just plain suck.
• OK enough election talk, I obviously still care about it…only enough to go on such a tirade. SushiCHAO, the next brainchild from the people who made Mochi and Bento, will be coming in October. This restaurant is basically the marriage of the Mochi ounce concept (seen in other yogurt places around the country obviously, but I’d like to think Mochi started it here) + Bento’s great (or mediocre) food. You pay a set amount per ounce of food…and there are take-out windows, and it’s open late. It’ll be the only late-opening Asian place on University, and will go head-to-head against other late-night eateries. I’m excited, to say the least.
• I’m anxious and nervous for the ‘Bama game. Our pass defense still looks anemic, although we have at least done a decent job containing the receivers…but they were against either cupcake teams or not-high-caliber SEC teams. ‘Bama is the obvious first major test…if we can pass them, then I truly think the sky’s the limit.
• With regards to the rest of college football…UCF, I have simply three words for you: you screwed up. You screwed up your only chance to join the Big East in a very convincing fashion by 1) losing to FIU 2) losing to BYU the way you did. I don’t think this means you WON’T get into the Big East…but if you do get in, it’s more of a desperation call from the conference rather than a “we’re impressed by you” call because the Big East, like every other conference minus the SEC seemingly, is hemorrhaging right now. As much as I hate to admit it, USF deserves possibly better.
• That’s really all for now. ::yawn::

Fast forward to 6th grade in middle school. My mom was still taking me to school even though we definitely lived at least walking distance to Indian Trails. I got there at my usual time, around 8:55; first bell was usually 9:15 so it falls perfectly in line with me being way too early as usual. When I got there, I went up to the second floor of building 6, just to go to my locker. When I get at the top of the stairwell, however, I run into my good friend Andrew and he tells me that something happened at the World Trade Center…an explosion of sorts, possibly a plane. I remember thinking to myself “oh it’s an accident, I’m sure everything will be fine”.

By the time I entered homeroom, however, I knew things weren’t going to be OK. Another plane had crashed, and you could start to see the worries in teachers’ faces. The morning anchors on all the major networks started to speak in a tone you rarely hear: shock, horror and great anxiety. All of us were glued to the TV; not a single person was doing anything else otherwise.

There they were…these two towers, the towers that, along with other skyscrapers, help symbolize New York, completely damaged and seemingly helpless. The usual questions raced through my mind: how? why? An incredibly scary thought then raced through my mind and stayed constant for the rest of the day: my uncle sometimes had to work at WTC. Was he alright? Would 9/11 be the day that he unluckily entered WTC and possibly not come out?

I don’t remember the exact timing of this next paragraph, but I”m pretty sure it was early in the morning (or before lunch). My math teacher, Ms. Bratton, was already known by this time in school as one of the strictest teachers in all the land (and, in fact, I still consider her one of the strictest teachers I ever had, second only to my AP/IB chem teacher Ms. Brennan). But she did something that, at the time, all of us found extremely controversial: she did not turn on the TV. She did not even make a mention of anything going on. She simply started teaching. Noone dare ask her directly, but it was definitely a focal point of discussion upon leaving the class that day.

A lot of people might be asking, “my God, that’s so anti-American”. And at that time I would’ve agreed with you. Looking back, however, I think she did what she thought was the right thing: to take our minds slightly off the events of that day and to try and maintain some sort of order as much as possible. She was already doing what President Bush, then-mayor Giuliani, and countless others implored us to do a few days after 9/11: resume our normal business and show these radical Islamists that nothing will stand in our way. In retrospect, she should be commended for her patriotism and perseverance.

The day boiled on and my worry increased for my uncle. When my mom picked me up, I asked her immediately about her brother and she told me that he was fine, that he didn’t have to go into work there that day. With that out of the way, actual fear started to creep in. What about an another attack? When would these guys, who I had never seen or heard of before, stop?