Let me start off by stating that this summer has been one of the best summers I have ever had. I feel that every year of college that ends the summers keep getting better and better. I will not be able to jot down all of the awesome and fantastic adventures I have went through this summer, but I will touch down on the highlights.

The summer all started off with a very random and amazing opportunity that arose at my local hair cuttery and salon. I was asked 3 months prior to the last day of school if I was interested in helping them out with advertising gig they were doing. I replied with yes and they told me to grow my hair out. I came back home after school ended and they spiffed me up for the Fashion/Modeling advertising show they were putting on. It was an awesome experience because I got to model 350$ blue jeans and a 200$ suit jacket. They also gave me blue extensions and gave me a crazy hip new haircut. The food and drink were free and my family also joined in on the festivities.

From there I attended 4 concerts. I saw Matisyahu and the Beach Boys at the Ravinia in Highland Park. Also I saw Neil Diamond with my family and OAR.

I went to the first ever minor league between the Kane County Cougars and the Peoria Chiefs at Wrigley Field. The game got rained out but it was still cool to have great seats in bleachers (my 1^st time) at Wrigley.

From Wrigley I settled down to a relaxing game of whirly ball. Just kidding whirly ball is far from relaxing. It’s a mix of bumper cars and basketball. An awesome game I played with my friends in Chicago.

There are so many other adventures I endeavored in. I will clue you in on those adventures later in this month and the school year. Until then my loyal readers I leave with this quote of a book I have been reading (yes I read). It is an awesome book and I highly recommend it.

“The challenge is to always do what is right and good and true, even if others don’t appreciate it. Making the world a better place can’t depend on applause. You have to keep striving, no matter what, because if you don’t, many of the things that need to be in our world will never get done” - “Anyway, The Paradoxical Commandments” by: Kent M Keith

Whirly Ball in Chicago

Friends are what make summers great!!!

Once again I would like to state that anything can happen during a period of time here at North Central. This week was another exciting adventure. I went to see Iron Man on Saturday. Thrilling and action packed overall great movie, and I’ll give it 2 thumbs up. I love Marvel Comics and have loved all the Marvel movies that have come out. I’ll give it the Toy recommendation to go and see this one.

Sunday I went to the 1^st Annual (Cardinal Dance Company: Showcase). It was an awesome show, and it was great to see my friends dancing on stage and strutting their stuff. When I was in high school a lot of my friends were involved in Orchesis, which is just like a dance recital with more of pop dancing. This recital went very smoothly and I’ll give a shout out to a fellow Blogger Nick Guido on a great job of MC’ing.

Monday I went home for Memorial Day to see my family and friends. I went to the usual park we play ultimate Frisbee at. It was nice to see my friends again and catch up with them. After ultimate I went back to my house and played some bags and Bachi ball. My Dad and mom barbequed some hot dogs and hamburgers and we all feasted. As a loyal reader I will tell you that “Family” is the number one thing in my life. Without them I would not be the person I am today. North Central is a great and wonderful place, but I would have never made it here if it were not for them.
Quote of the Week:

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck

The Simpsons : A Family Among Families

Whoa is me! What a week, full of papers, projects and presentations. But I’m writing this to tell you I made it out alive and I got high hopes for finals.

Thursday, CUAB (College Union Activities Board) had a new and very interesting show for us students. It was called the “Last Lecture” and basically in was a combination of students votes for a professor to give a speech that he/she would give if it was their last speech to ever give students. The votes were all tallied up and Professor Caliendo was chosen. I do not know much about Professor Caliendo, but I found out he is a big part of the Political Science department, and students love him in the classroom. His speech was titled “love Apathy and the Devaluation of Intellectualism.” He made a lot of great points and I took note of them and feel that a lot of the speech I could relate to myself. Overall he did a great job and I look forward to CUAB hosting it next year.

Friday rolled around and it was the annual Springfest Bags Tournament. Me and my buddy once again teamed up and decided to risk our crown for yet another bags tournament. We had won last year and knew how it ran so we helped out the Res Life with the rules and set up. There were a total of 16 teams and we ended up on top once again. We received 2 ten dollar gift certificates to Chipotle. We hope to take our skills into the next bags tournament at the end of the year.

SPRINGFEST SPRINGFEST, what an awesome day it was. CUAB did a fantastic job of getting great bands especially “Hair Bangers Ball”, which is an 80’s, cover band and basically right up my alley. They had the dunk tank again this year and my baseball coach went in. Yes, after 5 throws I got him along with all the other 40 players. SPRINGFEST is not only great because of the bands, but also everyone at North Central comes together for this one event. It was great and something I will never forget.

This weekend will be hard to top, but you always have to try.

Quote of the week:

“Hero’s get remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart, kid, and you’ll never go wrong.” - Sandlot

Springfest 07′

Mothers Day and Y-ME Breast Cancer Walk

This weekend was a great one let me tell you, filled with family and memories. To finish up on how siblings weekend went, in the words of my little brother Dan “that’s how we Toys’ do it.” He was ecstatic and I could really tell he enjoyed himself this weekend.

We left North Central at 5:00AM in the morning to get back to my house to depart for the Y-ME Breast Cancer Walk. My mom, my little brother and I registered for the walk about a month ago and raised 700$. We arrived at 7:00AM down in Grant Park and got lucky finding parking where we did. Let me just tell you I have been through bad weather, but this was by far the worst. 30-35 MPH winds with pounding rain and the Lakes cold front. But all in all there were about 10,000 people there and I was told they raised over 3 million dollars. The weather was not anything compared to the memories we made and the effort we put toward a good cause.

I’m not sure if that weekend is beatable, but I’m pretty sure that Springfest, yes I said Springfest, is going to be awesome once again this year. Every year I look forward to this event sponsored by CUAB (College Union Activities Board) where Bands come out to championship plaza and rock out all day. The events they have there change every year, but mostly dunk tanks, free food, and free gadgets. It a great time and I’m totally looking forward to it once again. I’ll let you know how it goes this weekend.

Quote of the Week:

“You miss 100% of the shots you do not take” – Wayne Gretzky

Basically take a risk in life and live it up.

Our Team for the Breast Cancer Walk was

“Mama Toy and here Boys”

Well let me just start off with this last weekend has been one to remember. Friday I went to North Central’s Theater Department’s showing of the Laramie Project. 8 students from North Central played the parts of 66 cast members. It was amazing and I thought they did a superb job.

After the show I decided to support the race for the cure of cancer and I walked down to Merner Field House where Relay for Life was going on. This event draws in tons of North Central students every year and raises tons of money. They played awesome music and people were dancing the night away. Included in this extravagant event a bags tournament was behind the scenes. I decided to join with my buddy. 32 teams signed up and we made it to the final four. The final four games were played on my own bags set and my buddies bag set (The one who designed my bags set). We ended up making it to the championship and winning it. It was an awesome night and I wish I could have stayed later, but it was already 3:30 AM.

This weekend I’m looking forward to my little brother Dan coming out and living it up with me here at North Central. North Central is having little siblings weekend starting this Friday and there will be so much to do. From a free movie and free food, to Midnight at Merner and a ton of other activities. I can’t wait.

Quote of the Week

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift.”–Steve Prefontaine

Well I’ll just start off by saying that anything can happen in life. If it’s from attending an event and seeing a buddy you haven’t see in 2 years, or attending a free showing of the movie “21” through North Central. Yea 21 it was awesome. It’s about students from MIT going to Vegas and counting cards playing Black jack. It’s thrilling, exciting, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Did I mention it was free, I have never seen so many North Central students at an off campus event ever. The theatre seats 330 and it was at full capacity looked like.

Other than the movie classes are going well and summer is around the bend. Baseball on the other hand hasn’t been going that great, but I’m sure it will turn out for the best we just to get that confidence and hitch in our step back.

In other news I know it came out awhile ago, but I just recently saw Juno. Great movie, I thought the meaning behind and the lingo used in it was fabulous. I highly recommend it.

Do not worry Ill be back again with another superb blog, but until then I leave you with a great quote I recently found on my day calendar.

“You Have to Expect Things of Yourself Before You Can Do Them” - Michael Jordan

heres a picture of me and some North Central friends at the Sox game. ohhh by the way if you did not know I am a loyal and true Sox Fan. GO SOX!!!!!

Once again North Central never ceases to amaze me. From the faculty to the students, to my team mates, to my new accommodated face book friends. I love it here and wish I could stay here and pull a Van Wilder, but I can’t. That is why I have gotten my name out and around this great town of Naperville.

Recently there was a Physical Education conference held at Naperville North High School. I received an e-mail from one of the faculty in the education department saying I should volunteer and help out. So I e-mailed the PE department chair and told him I could help out. I was at the check in post and saw a lot of the teachers in which I observed for over at Neuqua there. I got the chance to sit in on some informational sessions throughout the day and took a lot from them. But one of the main reasons I volunteered there, was not because it was free, but to network. The PE career is a very sought out career and a lot of time it helps when you know people, as I have stated in past blogs.

Along side with the PE conference, I was recently finished up my job opportunity on North Central’s Search Committee for a new Director of the Library. I was lucky enough to meet many department chairs and board of trustee members at North Central through this committee. Also I met the Vice President of Faculty as well. It was a great experience and very eye opening.

But all in all finals are coming up and it’s down to studying. The baseball coaches have given us a little leeway for finals which is awesome. But come Wednesday @ 10 AM its all baseball. We go to Florida for spring break and stay in Orlando. Unfortunately this year we are taking a bus down there, but it will be an experience let me just tell ya. So off I go into another great week here at North Central.

Its week 10 and funny enough also my 10^th blog and 10th quote

“Live for today. Yesterday’s history and tomorrow’s a mystery.” – Unknown

Living for today is a lot easier with great friends. this one of my best friends Steve who is in my own words “is da man”

This week was a very hectic week with more tests, more essays and more projects due. But as usual I made it through alright. Every week here at North Central is different. Some weeks I have tests, essays, and projects and other weeks I have just have tad bits of homework. But for some odd reason this week I have everything all in one.

Thursday was Valentine’s Day and as usual, I was looking around campus to see what was going on. I found out that there was a raffle for tickets to see RENT, a superbly rated musical in downtown Chicago. I went to the raffle and actually won 2 tickets for the show. I took my girlfriend to see it on Valentines Day and it was awesome. Great music, a free ride there, and it was also very cheap through North Central. I totally recommend seeing this show and also bringing some along to enjoy it with.

As Saturday rolled along I found myself in a position that my whole day was going to be booked. The baseball team has recruits stay over night and we had 14 on Saturday. We first took them to the North Central Men’s Basketball game vs. Carthage. WOW what a game. They lost by 1 point and the kid who made the winning shot, man what a shot. The kid was the leading scorer of the conference and a freshman. You have to tip your cap sometimes. But after the game we took our recruits to Giordano’s and stuffed our faces with delicious pizza. (and by the way it was even better because it was free)”Remember free food is always a plus and it’s always better”

But recently I have gotten myself into an old habit; I borrowed Season 6 of the series Smallville. I use to watch when I was in high school with my family, but after coming to college I haven’t kept up. Now I have that chance about 40 free minutes a day to watch one of my favorite TV shows. I recommend the show if you like action and super hero activities.

This week’s quote I thought was a great one from Willie Worsley. Willie recently came to North Central during Martin Luther King week and spoke about the tough times he had growing up and playing basketball in the south. Willie Worsley was one of the 1^st African American on the Texas Western College Men’s Basketball team to win the NCAA championship.

“Never ever cut yourself short in life, you choose your path, No one can take your dreams away from you” - Willie Worsley

This week we started baseball practice, and let me just tell you it was exhilarating. Our new coach is very organized and gets right to the point kind. Practice runs smoothly, and the team has jelled a lot.

Other than practice I have signed up for doubles badminton. I use to play a little in PE class in high school, but not got competitive. Its great game and we play every Sunday from 8-11pm. It’s a great work out and a lot of FUN! FUN is key in anything you do. Most of the time I feel that people only do activities or events because their friends are going to them or participating in them. When in reality you should go because you want to go, and it might be FUN.

Speaking of FUN, the Super Bowl was on last night and let me tell you, it was awesome. I love close games and I like when the underdogs come away with the win (Especially against the Patriots, because I’m sick of Boston winning everything). I went to my buddies place back home, and had a variety of great super bowl foods. Ranging from hot dogs, Italian beef, Asian ribs, BBQ wings, and so much more. My friends family owns a chain of fast food restaurants in the Chicago land area, so lets just say the food was legit.

But midterms are coming up this week for me and I got to get studying because college is not all fun and games. Oh and hopefully this weekend I can update you on how “JUNO” the new movie and “There will be blood” is all about. They were both are nominated for best picture so we shall see.

But as usual I got a quote for you. Here’s a life long quote to take with you into the future

“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment; be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes.” - Ramblings of a Shadow

Me and my brothers, all played “the 2 Best Sports Ever” (Football and Baseball)

Tip for all incoming new students or prospective students thinking about coming to North Central. Always attend the Alumni Events, because they supply the best food around campus, and as a college student food is always good and even better when it’s free. For example I attended the annual Hall of Fame in Merner Field House yesterday night. It was a overwhelming experience event because you can see what the former athletes had accomplished and what they are doing to present day. They talked about how North Central impacted their lives and led them to these great accomplishments.

I was lucky enough to meet Ken Ritter (The greatest hitter to ever step foot on Zimmerman Field (Baseball Field)) literally if you don’t know much about baseball getting 1/3 hits a game is good your hitting a .333%. He went 2/4 a game meaning that every two times he got up to the plate he would get a hit at least once giving him a .500% batting average. Let’s just say he’s legit. But that wasn’t it like I said the food was amazing like always. Upstairs in Nichols Gym they had an ice sculpture with all the inductees names engraved in and shrimp all around it. Then they had sliced ham on a skewer and little finger food desserts. It was awesome and FREE!

Food is always a big thing to me because I always go quantity over quality. In college I have learned it is not worth going to sleep with an empty stomach especially when the food was free.

Any ways we start baseball practice in exactly a week from tomorrow and I’m psyched. “Let’s get it on” so until next time my loyal bloggers “Good night good fight”

Alfred: “Do you know Why People Fall Down? So They Can Learn to Get Up” – Batman Begins

Crowd of over 8,500

Johnstown Pennsylvania AAABA Tournament 8-4-06