Brosif Bowls

12-11-17

#myDecemberGoal

Brosif Bowls

            Tonight was our end of the year celebration for the MSIS ambassador team. We gathered in IU’s bowling alley for dinner featuring coconut shrimp, pizza, and chicken and then had fun showing off our bowling skills.

            It had been awhile since I last bowled, but I soon remembered how fun of a time it can be. First off, I love how I can slide all over the wood floors in my shoes. I moonwalk, spin around, and do whatever my feet can handle on the slick surface. I also enjoy the bowling follow through. If you don’t know what this is, it’s when you release the bowling bowl down the lane and end with your arm pointing up towards the ceiling while one of your legs glides behind the other. It’s one of the weirdest stances in sports, but feels so cool if you can pull it off.

            Towards the end, some guys and myself tried to see all the different ways we could have the bowling ball travel down the lane. We experimented with crazy amounts of spin which made the ball go maybe 1 mph. We also did the classic grandma roll, where you bend at the knees and push the ball with both hands right down the middle of the lane. A new one that I learned involves a pin that gets stuck in the gutter. You intentionally bowl a gutter ball but try to hit the pin that was already stuck in the gutter in hopes that it will ricochet into all the other pins. It worked once and I was amazed.

            With so many adult things happening lately, it was fun to be reminded that I can still act as a kid and enjoy some bowling. There’s not a better feeling than rolling one right down the middle of the lane and hearing the pins collide as you realize you got a strike. CRASH! X.

-Brody

Snap, Crackle, Pop

12-10-17

#myDecemberGoal

Snap, Crackle, Pop

When you get stressed, do you have a stress reliever that you do without thinking? For me, I have three situations of stress and three interesting stress relievers.

The first situation is when I have something to do as a deadline but it’s not really that hard to accomplish. I usually stick a piece of traditional trident gum in my mouth and get to work.

The second situation is when I have a deadline and the work is hard to accomplish. This could be a tough homework assignment, an exam, or a project. My go-to stress reliever during these times is cracking my knuckles. I also do this when I get nervous. Without a doubt, I’ll randomly look down while I’m doing my homework to find that I am trying to pop every possible knuckle that my two hands have to offer. If I recorded myself, I could be the snap, crackle, and pop jingle for Rice Krispies cereal.

The third situation is when I have had a tough day but still have work to do or I'm worrying about something in the upcoming days. This is usually when I hit the snacks. Stress eating is weird because whenever I do it, I feel like I’m a super hero in the making, fueling up to conquer the upcoming battle. However, this vision quickly disappears after the snacks run out. All that happens is my stomach expands and the stress seems to as well.

To conclude, whether you’re stressed because of schoolwork or life events in general, I hope this post allows you to know that you’re not alone. I feel like we worry because we have all these dreams that we want to make happen but not enough time to see them realized. However God says in Matthew 6:27 “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” This verse always puts life into perspective for me and helps me to remember what actually matters. For me, that’s loving God with all my heart and knowing that Jesus gave his life up for me so that I might someday experience eternal love. Remembering that is the greatest stress reliever of all.

-Brody

The First Snow

12-9-17

#myDecemberGoal

The First Snow

            Open….close…open…close..open. Fully open. My covers greet me good morning as I rub my eyes until the sand particles that always nestle in their corners disappear. I pop my head up and look out my window. Flurries of snow are parachuting through the air and tops of houses have their own blankets of white. It’s the first snow.

            This morning I awoke to the first true snow of the year. It was beautiful. What I love about snow is the peace it brings. Everything becomes silent and pristine. If I were to rate the seasons, I would put winter second. My favorite is summer but winter is definitely above fall and spring for me. It’s a time when I celebrate both the birth of my savior and the joys of the past year. It’s when I wrap up a semester’s worth of hard work and begin a new one. Off and on, the snow taunts me with both its white beauty and slushy ugliness. It’s when I ask people, “Do you want to build a snowman?” All in all, it’s a dynamic and demanding season that never fails to remind me of all that I’ve been blessed with. What a wonderful time of year.

-Brody

             

Balling in the WIC

12-8-17

#myDecemberGoal

Balling in the WIC

            If you go to Indiana University, you will come across a building called the WIC. It stands for Wildermuth Intramural Center and it has two pools, multiple dance rooms, and of course 10 basketball courts. How can basketball-crazed Indiana expect anything less?

            This evening I went with my roommates and played some pickup basketball there. Here’s the thing about basketball at the WIC. If you are super talented or are an actual IU athlete, you’ll most likely be playing on courts 1 or 2. If you don’t fall into that category, you try to find the next court open. Soooo, my team and I eventually found a court other than numbers 1 and 2 and started playing. I think it’s hilarious to see the different playing mindsets of college students. Those who played in high school still play with fundamentals. Then there are those players who just shoot every chance they get. And of course, there are the ultra competitive players who can’t fathom not winning.

            We ended up playing five games, and we won four of them. It was a fun time. One of my favorite moments was posting up down low and scoring even though I was shorter than everybody there.

To conclude, this post was just to give you a head’s up of what to expect if you ever find yourself balling in the WIC. Here’s to the beginning of a slam-dunk weekend.

-Brody

Too Much Football

12-7-17

#myDecemberGoal

Too Much Football

            Football is my favorite sport. However, let me enlighten you on why nowadays there is too much football. To begin, let’s count the days when football can be watched. It's currently Thursday night, and the NFL first introduced a game on Thursday night starting in 2006. Friday nights are obviously designated for high school football. The long tradition of college football Saturdays is also notorious. Sunday is when most of the NFL teams play. Finally, Monday Night Football is the NFL’s primetime game of the week.

            If you’re counting, then you’ll realize that there are 5 out of the 7 days of the week in which you could watch football. That’s too much. At some point, when you eat too much candy, it starts not to taste good anymore. This is also called the Cheez-It effect. Eventually, if you have too much it becomes tasteless. Specifically, the NFL needs to sacrifice some profit and just pick one day. Good things come in 3’s. Friday, Saturday, Sunday is all we need for our football fandom. Go Colts.    

-Brody

Bright Lights of Bloomington

12-6-17

#myDecemberGoal

Bright Lights of Bloomington

            One aspect I love about December is the Christmas lights. If you ever go to Bloomington in the winter, then you have to check out the downtown square. The city hangs up Christmas lights from the top of the courthouse that sprawl out and attach to the roofs of the neighboring shops in each direction. When you walk under them, you feel like you are under a floating tent of lights. It’s beautiful.

            My other favorite lit-up area is the union on campus. The university hangs two vertical candles that span the whole wall of the union, top to bottom. The candlestick part is red and the flame is yellow. It’s pretty incredible how large these displays are. These are just two examples of Bloomington's bright December, and I can’t wait to see the city pop up with more lights as the month continues.

-Brody

(Courthouse Canopy of Lights)

(Candle on the outside of the Union)

Potato on Potato

12-5-17

#myDecemberGoal

Potato on Potato

            When’s the last time you’ve had a can of Pringles potato chips? Today I went to the grocery store which meant that it was time to continue my recent tradition of trying all the Pringles flavors. If you don’t know, Pringles has tried to put any and every flavor onto their chips. For example, some recent flavors I’ve tried are “Dill Pickle”, “Pizza”, “Honey Mustard”, “Buffalo Ranch” etc.

            So what was the lucky flavor I selected today? It was called “Loaded Baked Potato.” It sounded better than “French Onion Dip.” I didn’t think anything of the name until I got home and took my first bite. As the crunch moved from my teeth to my taste buds, I realized something crazy. Pringles tried to artificially flavor a potato onto a potato. Let me say that again. Pringles tried to ARTIFICIALLY flavor a baked potato onto a potato chip.
            To me, this is a potato scandal. Pringles tried to cover up their creativity mishap by saying it was a “Loaded” baked potato flavor. Thus, they tried to add some cheese and sour cream in there. I wasn’t fooled though. The only difference between a baked potato and a potato chip is that one is usually served hot on a plate and another is usually served at room temperature in some sort of can or bag. Therefore, the only real thing Pringles needed to do to accomplish their baked potato flavor was put little toaster-like heating strips inside their can so that the regular potato chips could be served hot like a baked potato.

            My Pringles journey this semester has been tasty. But after trying the loaded baked potato flavor, I am beginning to think that the flavoring bonanza by Pringles has gone too far. The only reason I'm not outraged after this taste session is because at least they still tasted like potato chips.

            To conclude, if you were to come up with a potato chip flavor what would it be? If you’re interested, here is a list someone made that ranks most of the Pringles flavors: https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/ranking-every-pringles-flavor-reviews-of-all-29-pringles-flavors Whatever your tasty concoction is, please don’t say loaded baked potato. That flavor is just a load of *$#!.

-Brody