Onigiri Party 2008!

As 7pm neared, my wife and I were paying a visit to the new Super Walmart on 6th Ave. We quickly departed and headed to the Student Center. Why, you may ask? To have a free Japanese dinner of onigiri and miso soup!

We entered the large, open room and found members of the Japanese Club--President Katie Salter, Vice President Shawn Brown, and Secretary Danielle Labuda among them--finishing setting up.

Several others were there who were not members of the Japanese Club, nor were they Japanese, either. Granted, the exchange students from Saitama University (Yasuko and Shinpei) were present, along with Natsu and Satoko who are also from Japan. But there were at least a dozen others there to eat, drink (Coke products), and be merry with one another. Of course, a party isn't a party without the legendary Maeda Sensei there!

The legendary Maeda Sensei

Just after 7, Katie gave an awesome demonstration of how to create onigiri, which followed by everybody promptly getting in line to gorge themselves on Japanese tabemono (food) goodness!

Katie's smile beams for the camera while Sean meditates before consumption.

Photo Credit: Toshihiro Maeda

Coincidentally, Lost in Translation (a phenomenal movie, btw!) was on TV, meanwhile J-Pop pumped through computer speakers, creating a near-restaurant like ambience. Over the next 2 hours, people met and greeted one another; some by sharing tales of past visits to Japan, and others by dispensing advice on how to prepare for the taste of this new food. It definitely proved to be an enjoyable time shared by all.

Danielle shows Kelsey how to do the "Thriller" dance while Katie wonders, "Wtc, mate?"

Ashley, meanwhile, smiles for the camera.

Katie and Danielle smile for the camera while Sean is still meditating!

Photo Credit: Toshihiro Maeda

Next time around, however, it may be necessary to hold the party as a fundraiser. But it would be a very cheap fundraiser (a buck a piece ain’t bad, is it?)—the Japanese Club must be able to thrive.

The food was excellent and the attendees were a pleasure to be with. I look eagerly forward to our next party and will keep you all posted as to when that will be.

Until next time… jyaa mata! (see you soon)

~ Nick

Short 'n Sweet 'n Good to Eat!

Just wanted to let everybody know that tomorrow night (Saturday, October 18th), there will be an onigiri party thrown by the Japanese club.

It takes place at 7pm at the Student Center.

Note to any other college kids reading this: THERE WILL BE FREE FOOD!!!

Yup, we will be making onigiri amongst other Japanese food, jammin' out to J-Pop, and hanging out 'n having fun!

Come on out and join us -- the legendary Maeda Sensei himself will be there, so if you have any questions about the culture or learning the language, it will be a perfect time to ask. Then again, many students of Japanese (myself included) will also be there to answer any questions you may have as well.

Hope to see you there!

~ N.

Star Party!

It was the afternoon of September 26th, the kick-off of my wife’s birthday weekend (yeah, that’s right… we take it up a notch from birthdays). For those who haven’t experienced birthday weekends before, the short definition is that whoever’s birthday it is, you have to do whatever they want you to do. Of course, this has to be within reason; I’ll be honest, I will not scoop up dog poop with my hands—nosiree. With reason already established in my wife’s thought processes and our two best friends Jessica and Melody joining in the festivities, it was game on for a Star Party at UIS!

We’ve attempted to go to a Star Party before, but were unable to actually attend it as none of us knew how the heck to navigate the interior of Brookens Library; moreover, none of us had the phone number. For those of you who have yet to visit the infamous Brookens Library and its “genius” no-90-degree-angles-anywhere-in-the-building architecture, you quickly feel like a mouse in a maze searching for a big ol’ chunk of cheese.

A word to the wise: Once you arrive at UIS, get your bearings (at least know which way is north). Okay, now… to get to the Star Party, go to the SOUTHEAST corner of Brookens Library. You will eventually see a stairwell marked “Observatory” from outside the building. Now that we’ve got that settled…

It should be known that my wife and I, well, we’re geeks. Geeks are those who are interested in technological/electronic/large-on-a-universal-scale type stuff. Nerds are those who are ridiculously smart. Okay, fine. I’m a geek, my wife’s a nerd. We’re interested in our universe and everything contained therein. Our friends are neither geeks nor nerds, thus I hereby apologize.

*ahem!* On September 26th, we found the observatory and walked up the stairwell, making it to the second story when we ran into a rather large group of people mainly consisting of young children. The walls of the stairwell leading up to this point were absolutely covered with photographs and literature about the universe and the scientific processes used to discover the information (light refraction, the color spectrum, etc.).

There was a guide explaining the information, translating it so that all who were present could understand it, which was wonderful for beginners in the world of astronomy (pun intended, sorry).

We were ultimately led outside to the observatory, which was an outdoor seating area in the shape of a rectangle, surrounded by 7 foot high walls and rather dim, red lights. In the middle of the rectangle stood an array of 3 or 4 telescopes of different sizes and powers. Along the western wall was the “Mother Telescope.”

The guide then told us the reason behind the red lights (sorry, you’ll have to attend to find out), and where the telescopes were pointed. The “Mother Telescope” was pointed at Jupiter, where an interesting phenomenon was occurring: one of Jupiter’s moons was visible, along with its shadow which could be seen on Jupiter’s surface. After being informed, nearly everybody got in line for the “Mother Telescope,” so I decided to check out the smaller telescopes, one of which was pointed toward a group of stars called M15. Through the telescope, it appeared to be very small fuzzy oval. For a second, I questioned my vision, but no—it was actually fuzzy. The guide standing next to the telescope informed viewers that this particular group of stars was, in fact, not a galaxy, but that it was a globular cluster about 30,000 light years from earth. Here’s where I can teach you something.

Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. A light year is simply a measurement of distance that light travels over the course of a calendar year, which is over 5.865 trillion miles. So, if you’re driving 70 miles an hour, it would still take 9,564,579 years to travel only 1 light year. The space shuttle, according to various sources (one being (http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/InnaSokolyanskaya1.shtml), can travel about 17,000mph. It would take the Space Shuttle 39,383 years to travel 1 light year.

Because M15 is 33,600 light years from earth (http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m015.html), it would take the space shuttle 1,323,287,671 years to get there. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?

The amazing thing is, M15 is in our galaxy! With that said, it isn’t even close to being the farthest visible object humans have discovered; that distinction belongs to quasars, which are nearly 10 billion light years away (http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/ast99/ast99212.htm).

Between those quasars and Earth, there is a ton of interesting stuff to learn and admire out there: the Super Earth, the sun becoming a red giant and enveloping Mercury, Venus and Earth (not to fear, this isn’t going to happen for billions of years), or my favorite thing: The X Structure at the Core of M51 (my thanks to Louie Giglio)!

"X" Structure at Core of Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/exotic_collection/pr1992017a/large_web

Credit: H. Ford (JHU/STScI), the Faint Object Spectrograph IDT, and NASA

The Star Parties teach you quite a bit in a very short amount of time. If you wish to learn astronomy on your own, I highly recommend attending a Star Party and taking notes!

I have been informed by Professor Martin, the Assistant Professor of Astronomy/Physics, that there are going to be two more Star Parties this semester: Friday, October 17th and Friday, October 24th from 8-10pm. They are open to everybody and are F-R-E-E! Of course, they operate on a “weather permitting” basis.

If you cannot make it to either of the two remaining parties this semester, fear not! Traditionally speaking, though not set in stone yet, the Astronomy/Physics Department start throwing Star Parties again after spring break and last up through the end of April.

If you have any further questions about these awesome events, feel free to contact Professor Martin at 217-206-8342.

See you out there.

Macoupin County Special Olympics 2008

It all started with a familiar tune sounding at 6:30: my alarm. This was the earliest I had woken up in a very long time, so it was a little rough. After the rest of my morning routine, I eventually hopped on my bicycle headed to an event I volunteered for. The only catch was, it was at Beaver Dam State Park, and I had never ridden there before.

My best friend, Google Maps, told me it was about 12 ½ miles to my destination. I wrote down the directions and headed to the park. It was a pretty cold morning, maybe upper 40’s, if that. Then again, the sun hadn’t had much time to warm up this earth of ours. Heading south along a dirt country road, the sun flashed like a strobe light in between the tassles of corn. I’m just thankful I wasn’t an epileptic, or else surely I would have had a spell.

I saw a herd of cows that all looked at me as I rode past, which was funny.

Oh, how I love cows!

I also saw a couple of deer leaping through a field of thigh-high brush. It looked like “Flipper” Anderson diving over the linemen, only minus the flip. And yes, there was a moment when I had to call my mother-in-law because I couldn’t find this one particular road. Come to find out, the road I saw on the map and road by another name I saw were actually one in the same. I hate it when that happens!

As I neared the park, I also saw a squirrel fall about 30 feet off of a tree and bounce when it hit the pavement. Without missing a beat, it jumped up and ran up and over the hill. When I crested the hill, I saw a squirrel dead off to the side of the road. I hopped off my bike and stared at its chest to see if it was moving—it wasn’t. Then I got a stick to poke it and see if rigor mortis had set it—it hadn’t. I flipped it over to see if there were any sort of tire or teeth marks on its body—there weren’t. The point I’m trying to make is that I don’t know if it was the same squirrel or not. Strange stuff…

The ride actually was 17.6 miles long, which rather surprised me how “off” Google maps was. Upon arriving, I met up with Kelly, a longtime friend of my wife’s, who was in charge of the event. Apparently I showed up just after they finished setting everything up. Perfect timing! So, we just sat and waited for the athletes to arrive, and boy, they came in droves!

There was a huge group from Jerseyville, some from Girard, and of course, some from Carlinville. Everybody was divided into teams by color. I was on the pink team! Woohoo!!

I was in charge of pushing a wheelchair-bound man by the name of Gary. He was involved in a near fatal car wreck at the age of 18, which left him quadrapalegic. He was a very nice man with a hilarious sense of humor. His “one-on-one (caretaker),” Mandie, was a very nice woman as well. It was definitely a pleasure to hang out with both of them for the day.

The event was started by ceremonial balloon releasing, which was neat to see so many dozens of balloons at once.

There were several events that the athletes could partake in: a soccer ball kick, softball toss, horseshoes, basketball shooting, and of course, redneck golf.

After attending most of the event, we had a sack lunch which was followed by an awards ceremony. It was really fun to see their reactions when they got a new hat and a trophy. The smiles on their faces were absolutely contagious!

Only 2 and a half hours later after the event began at 10:45, it was already over and the groups headed home for the day. Meanwhile, I was faced with a physical dilemma of my own: riding back home! Already excrutiatingly sore from the student/faculty basketball game from the night prior, and pushing around a 170 pound man in a wheelchair after riding 17 miles on a bike, I was a little sore.

Before my journey, I thought that something more than my pop-tarts and granola bar and mt. dew for lunch would be necessary to give me the sufficient energy to survive. *laughs* Okay, it wasn’t going to be that bad, but still… I stopped at the restaurant at Beaver Dam State Park after hearing several people rave about how good the food was. I ordered a grilled beef tenderloin sandwich… and a 20oz. bottle of… well, you know. As I waited for my food, I decided to go snap a couple more photos of the beatiful lake.

True to everybody’s word, the food was delicious!

The ride back was cut short about 3 miles, as I decided to test my fate by riding on Shipman Blacktop instead of heading back the way I came. The road I wanted to get to was only 1 mile down the busy highway, so I gave it a go. Not a single car passed me, which was nice.
The rest of the ride was very beautiful, but not very eventful.

When I got home, I crashed for a good hour or so before working later that evening for 4 hours. It was a very fun event, and I look forward to volunteering once again next year!

The Big Game

Japanese class had ended as I begin my strut to the TRAC. Strut turned to walk, walk turned to shuffle; I was nervous as ever. I hadn’t played on a basketball team since fourth grade – that’s when everyone started growing, and I…well, I didn’t. But that’s okay… small stature, huge heart I say! :)

I put my books into my car and walked into the TRAC where I found a few people on both sides of the court already shooting around. Cool. The north-side bleachers were out and a couple of students were already seated comfortably awaiting the action.

I showed up about an hour early to get plenty of warm-up time in, and to meet my teammates. I was by far the shortest male on team by far. However, I think I may have been taller than the two women on the team, “Socks” and “Speedy.” Again, say it with me: small stature, huge heart! That’s right.

Our coach was Bubsy from 99.7FM, which was cool. He was a nice dude looking to win, but also wanted to have fun. The first half went very well as we headed into half-time with a good lead. With about 2 minutes left in the game, our lead had been as great as 12 when things started to take a turn for the worse. By the time the buzzer sounded, the other team had tied it, forcing us into a 3 minute overtime.

Overtime went…not so well for us. We ended up not winning 51 – 57. However, if it weren’t for the experienced players: Diesel, M-Dub, and Stretch to name a few, it could have been much worse.

However, I would like to point out that absolutely no faculty played on the opposing team which surely would have secured our win. Honestly, I have no hard feelings at all… it was a very fun game. Although, I do think that at least one current faculty member should play on the team, if only for at least a couple of minutes, so as to incorporate all three facets of the opposing team: Alumni, Staff and Faculty.

As for points scored, I had a big ol’ goose egg. But I did have several assists, which I’ll gladly take credit for. Fellow friend (and opposing player *grr*) Jeremy Wilburn sunk a 3 from darn near half-court, which was awesome. Once the ball made its trip through the net, he pointed to his fiancée’ in the stands. It was ridiculously cheesy, but very fun to see. Lord knows I would have done the exact same thing if my wife was in the stands.

Yup, basketball is most certainly not my calling. Though it was fun to participate, I think I’ll choose to remember and relive my championship game winning RBI single from a recent softball tournament instead. As for next year, I reckon I’ll cover the student/f.a.s. b-ball game from the stands. After all, it’s only been an hour and a half since the game ended and I’m already sore.

And I have a 12 mile bike ride bright and early tomorrow morning as I am helping out with the Macoupin County Special Olympics which should be very fun. I’ll let ya’ll know how that goes.

Hope all is well with everyone out there.

~ N.

Student vs. Faculty B-Ball Game!

So, what do we call it?

The Young vs. The Old?
The Inexperienced vs. The Wise?

Regardless, the students were invited to play in this awesome event. The blurb in the invitational e-mail which stated “No athletic ability required” was definitely noticed by yours truly; subsequently, I signed up to play. Not to worry, I’ve been practicing… sort of.

Upon signing up, I’ve looked forward to this game being played for fun. However, I’ve been informed by a classmate of mine whose boyfriend played in the game last year that both teams really go at it; it’s competitive, not fun. This really irks me.

Of course, no team wants to lose, so some competitiveness is obviously in order. But we are not being paid for this, we are not being graded on this, and come October 3, it will be a memory already somewhat faded. Play for the moment and play for fun, I say. I can only pray my teammates will feel the same…

So when does this event go down? Tomorrow night:

Thursday, October 2nd
7:00PM at the TRAC

Feel free to come out and cheer for us students, and pray that Nick “Paxson" Hanscom, the 5’5” 140lb. mass of hyperactivity from Seattle, drains just one “three” for the team.

For those who can’t make it, please, I beg you, please watch the Vice-Presidential debates and pay attention to what is said. Come November, vote with your brains and not your hearts. I don’t care who you vote for, just vote.

Thanks all!

~N.