Rock Out with Your NHL Lockout

So the NHL is on the brink of having its 2nd lockout in eight years.  This is an absolute disgrace, there are supposed to be more talks today about CBA but the owners are declining to meet.  This comes at an awful time.  The NHL seemed to be making a comeback in terms of being relevant again.  The cinderella story of the LA Kings drew tons of fans to start paying attention to hockey even in non NHL markets.  But instead players and owners being greedy and can't make a decision on how to get the season started.

TWO times in eight years, why would they not make the last CBA at least double digit years? The big dispute this year is the distribution of money.  Players say they are getting screwed over salary and owners say the teams are losing money.  The last proposal was a 50-50 split but the NHLPA and Donald Fehr, declined.  And today (October 25th) is the deadline each party set for having a full 82 game season, and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

As a huge hockey fan, this is unfair to so many people.  First the fans, we love hockey and we are gonna miss another year of the NHL.  All of out favorite players are going to farms teams that are rarely televised and over seas to the only threat to the NHL the Russian KHL.  It is not fair to us that we don't get to enjoy the sport.  Secondly the players, this is their career!  And with the lockout there are a lot of players that aren't superstars that have no other means of living.  That 4th line center that had steady paycheck no longer has that and is looking elsewhere for income.  Lastly no one ever thinks about the workers at the arenas.  The custodians, concession workers, broadcasters and cameramen, everyone involved in organizations.  What do they do? Once again that is their job, and with our economy and high unemployment rate it is difficult to find income for some of them.

So on behalf of all of NHL fans, PLEASE come to an agreement and lets drop the puck.

Story Ideas

1.) WittFest is obviously the most anticipated party/campus holiday on campus and who performs is very important.  So I was curious who the students want to see, and within reason.  And I think it would be nice to start early, because earlier the better.

2.) Campus Parking; Everyone knows how small the campus is and that walking is always an option but when you have a car you obviously tend to drive more and when one decides to drive to class whether they just don't feel like walking or because they are late, there isn't adequate enough parking for students.  Dorm parking lots are always full, and teacher parking lot is off limits and if you take the risk you are almost guaranteed a ticket, so the question is, should there be more student parking closer to academic buildings or suck it up and walk?

3.) Phones during class; Are phones becoming a problem for teachers and students.  Technology grows rapidly everyday with new apps for phones, and different ways of communicating with people is it harder for students to teach and is it effecting students grades?

BEEEEEER!!!

So there is no secret that drinking is the single thing students absolutely love to do no matter what day of the week it is.  I didn't start drinking until the spring semester of my freshman year and now I drink every weekend.  Some people may think that that is a bit extreme but you may need to walk around campus on Wednesdays, Fridays, or Sundays.  There are students drinking everyday no matter the occasion.  "NO CLASS THURSDAY EFF IT LETS RAGEEEE!!!!!!"  Um bro its only Tuesday?  Maybe this stuff happens because of the people I hang around with but I'm sure other people do it too.  Wittenberg parties heavily for only having about 2000 students.  We live for weekends, holidays like St Patties Day, and things WittFest.  And its college so why not, we only have four years in the glorious city of Springfield so lets have some fun while we are here.

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

More than halfway through my glorious college experience her at Wittenberg there have been some things that I have absolutely loved about it and some things I could have lived without.  I enjoy football,  my friends, and opportunities Witt has given me so far.  There are not many things I haven't enjoyed but one of them for sure was Public Speaking freshman year.  I bet everyone is thinking, "Oh I would have hated it too, I can't stand talking in front of people".  Nope that was not the reason why I absolutely dreading going to that class.  Reason one, the professor.  She was not a Wittenberg professor, she was an adjunct from Clark State and she may be top 5 worst joke makers of ALL TIME!  It was so awkward when she made a joke and you were forced to laugh.  Another was that she graded a 100 level course as if it was like a senior thesis determining the rest of your life.  It was ridiculous, and this all may be because I always made a point in my speeches to poke fun of when she said we could Skype her if we needed to contact her, but hey who knows.  She was also one of those teachers that read directly from the book, also known as death to students.  Forget paying attention, I had a hard time not falling asleep.  God bless her, she tried and so did I, she kept her job after evaluations, and I got a D, so I guess she won the war.

World Domination

There was a recent study done by an ESPN writer saying that soccer is the number growing sport in America between ages 17-22.  This is not very surprising to me, I mean with the growing popularity of FIFA video games and the frequent airing of English Premier League games, there will be a lot of attraction to something new.  But I don't believe this will be just a fad.  The EPL may have the best athletes from around the world competing in it.  They have players from literally every corner of the world, unlike many American pro sports.  This may be one reason why it is so popular in the US because of our "melting pot" mentality.  So this makes me think how the globalizing of American sports is going.  I know that the NFL has had some games in England but they haven't had any great games, that would make fans want to consistently watch the NFL.  Baseball in general is very popular in Asia and South America and the MLB doesn't seem to attack any other areas of the world.  The NBA has discussed playing games overseas vs international teams and count them as regular season games.  They have also talked about adding a European division to the league.  And finally the NHL, hockey is much like baseball, they already have strong popularity in many European countries, such as Russia, Germany, Sweden, and Finland.  It seems to be that globalization of sport is becoming more of the popular thing to do and why not.  It makes the leagues and owners more money to improve their product for the fans.

Blogerooski

For many of us, this is the first time we have had to write in a blog format.  Personally I like writing blogs, the problem is that I want to write about sports all the time and that is not a possibility right now. But me and one of my friends from Ohio State are working on something and I would like to get started writing for some other sports blogs in the internet atmosphere.  Blogs I think are a great way to gets things rolling for young writers.  If you read some of the top blogs online, they are just as good as newspapers or as articles on other reliable news websites.  They get interviews from important people which make them look even better.  But I think blogs help our class out tremendously even if some students don't like them.  The more we write the better we get.  We learn more about our grammar, and learn how to use our creative voice properly.  I love the idea of blogs, I hope I can write more so I can get something started somewhere after college.

Show Your Colors: Red or Blue?

With the election coming up the presedential race seems to become more important everyday.  But here at Witt it doesn't seem that way.  To me Witt doesn't seem like a very politically active campus.  I know that the college republicans and yound democrats are on campus but I dont see them advertising or trying to make any changes to campus.  But it does seem that the student body and the faculty seem to be more liberal than conservative.  Look at cars in the parking lots and see their bumper stickers, look at water bottles to see the decorative stickers on them.  Even look at your timeline on Twitter or your Facebook news feed, and more often than not you will see more pro-Obama posts than pro-Romney ones.  It may be that people in society are more proud to be a democrat rather than being a republican.  To me it seems that republicans are portrayed as the bad guys, stealing from the poor and giving to the rich, and that the democrats are the good guys helping those in need and making everything right, but I know that's not right, each party has its flaws.  Witt does seem to lean more towards the democratic party, but that just may be because of social stereotypes.