Category Archives: Iowa State

Iowa State

Johnny Joiner

In the last few months I have really considered joining more groups and organizations in an attempt to be the slightest bit more active in my communities. Strangely enough I consider myself to be a member of the communities of Boone, Ames, Iowa State and FUMC.

Today I sent in checks to join two groups from two of those communities.


03-09-08

Next time you clasp eyes on me (unless you see me tonight, tomorrow or the following day depending on the speed of the USPS) I will be a Methodist Man and a member of the Iowa State Alumni Association.

While I was tooling around the Iowa State Alumni Association website I found a new must have item for this fall’s tailgating season. Check out this sweet baby:



According to the online store:

A portable cast iron rack that rests on your barbecue grill and sears Iowa State logos onto grilled meats. This season’s hottest tailgating item! 11×13” with handles.

I would point out that with my Alumni Association discount, they are practically giving this baby away at 38 bucks.

I’ve already had to discussion with a fellow Cyclone grad about doing a couple test runs with this sweetness on the Computer Mine grill this summer.

As far as joining groups and organizations go, I’m still giving some consideration to joining the Boone County Historical Society. I’ll have to give that matter some more thought.

Andree, Baier, Basketball, Faust, Football, Iowa State, Russell, Willy

Spring Game

I started my Saturday by stepping on the basketball court at Beyer Hall for the first time in over a year. To be more direct, it was the first time I have stepped on any basketball court in over a year.

On the court with me was Andree, Russell and Baier. We had been planning this game for over a month. Through a series of e-mails I might have built my basketball skills up to them based on the baller that I was in my youth. I was not the only one though. Russell gave himself the nickname The Open Flame. I believe he also gave himself the nickname the Big HuHot. He also gave himself the nickname The Big Nome de Plume. However, he decided to rely mostly on the nickname The Open Flame. I tried to get him to wear a head band with flame design, but he only indicated that he would “work on it”.

I did not want to be outnicknamed, so in the tradition of some of my friends, I chose to give myself the nickname The Almighty. This was mostly based on the fact that Andree claims that the only thing that could make him cower is being in the presence of The Almighty.

There was doubt that I would be able to live up to the nickname, but through our first three contests I lived up to the nickname and more. I opened up the outside game early, then I showed off my post up moves. Then I cracked out the dribble penetration. Finally I showed off the passing game.

After three games, I was The Almighty. I was undefeated and everybody else had felt the bitter taste of defeat. Then my years of eating bad food and not exercising caught up to me. I ran out of steam. I didn’t fare so well in the last couple of games, but no need to dwell on that.

After the basketball game, Baier and I met up with Willy, Faust and Bret in lot B6 for a little tailgating. I had brought my grill over, but I was a bit concerned that it would not fire up. That fear was not necessary. The grill fired up and we knocked down a wide assortment of meats and a pasta salad that Baier had made. A couple other gents joined us and we made our way to the spring game. I posted some pictures from the Spring Game in the Snapshots Gallery. You can get there via the picture of the link below:


Spring Game

IOWA STATE FOOTBALL – 2008


I have some observations from the Spring Game, but I don’t really put any stock in the Spring Game, so I won’t bore you with any of that information.

Animals, Event, Iowa State, Jeff Daniel, Yin

VEISHEA

VEISHEA was cold. A little bit miserable. However, there were some highlights. It took me awhile to see them because I was pretty upset that the good fried cheese curd stand was not there, but I eventually got over it. Who am I kidding? I’m still fuming about it.

I did take some pictures after I ran into Jeff and Yin.


04-13-08
Smokey, Jeff, and Yin

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Me, Jeff, Smokey, and Woodsie

04-13-08
Jeff

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My friend Willy would call these people nerds, but he is a nerd. Who is he to judge?

04-13-08
Jeff took this picture of me.

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Jeff and the Astronaut

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Crane

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Crane

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Crane

The highlight of VEISHEA for me was seeing the crane in Lake Laverne. I’ve been told that it is a little bit weird that the crane was a highlight for me.

Football, Grandma, Iowa State, Still Life, Teresa

ISU Football

My grandma is going through the herculean task of downsizing her possessions. She recently gave a bunch of yarn to Teresa. When Teresa was going through the yarn she found our grandpa’s Iowa State football season ticket from 1979.

I started attending Iowa State football games with my grandpa in 1983. I’ve had season tickets ever since. I was very interested in this ticket.


03-01-08

One of the more interesting things to me about this ticket is the price: $36.00. To renew my season tickets this year the price of the ticket is $300.00. For the right to even renew those tickets I have to make a $1,000 donation to the Cyclone Club. I don’t think the term inflation begins to cover it.

Art, Brog Frog, Football, Iowa State, Music

Jack Trice Wallpaper

2 Comments

My friend Shawn is a badass graphic designer. He recently made a new wallpaper featuring Jack Trice. You should know who Jack Trice is and if you don’t, then I have failed you as a friend.


01-31-08

He is the man in this statue.

Jack Trice was the first African American to play sports for Iowa State. During the first half of his first game, Trice suffered a broken collarbone. He continued to play during the third quarter, until he was thrown on his back and trampled by three Minnesota players. He died three days later. Four thousand students and faculty members attended his funeral service on central campus.

Before the night of the game he wrote this letter to himself on some hotel stationary:

My thoughts just before the first real college game of my life: The honor of my race, family & self is at stake. Everyone is expecting me to do big things. I will. My whole body and soul are to be thrown recklessly about the field tomorrow. Every time the ball is snapped, I will be trying to do more than my part. On all defensive plays I must break thru the opponents’ line and stop the play in their territory. Beware of mass interference. Fight low, with your eyes open and toward the play. Watch out for crossbucks and reverse end runs. Be on your toes every minute if you expect to make good.

Below is a small version of Shawn’s Jack Trice Wallpaper.




Some other exciting news about Shawn (the former drummer of UnHingd) is that he has a new band up and going. They have yet to pick a name, but they are planning to be playing a show near you by April.

Blogging, Event, Iowa State, Music, Politics

Edwards on New Year’s Day

I’m very excited to announce that I got FTP capabilities back on my website. I’m hoping to get into a pattern of throwing up at least a brief blog every day. We’ll see how that goes. This is perhaps the end of the long blog era, but more pictorial blogs are the hope.

Below are some pictures that aren’t very timely. They are pictures that I took at an Edwards rally on New Year’s Day. He has since went on to finish 2nd at the Iowa Caucuses and 3rd in the New Hampshire Primary. I didn’t caucus for Edwards. I caucused for Obama, but I have a Political Science Degree from America’s premiere land grant university collecting dust in a box somewhere, so I like this kind of stuff. I went to see a few other people, but I didn’t take any pictures or the pictures turned out to be unacceptable. You might have noticed a picture of Giuliani a few blogs back that I transformed into something more acceptable.

Incidentally, that degree that is collecting dust in a box somewhere. I only owe about 1800 smackers on it now. I’ve almost paid off my brain. In fact, if everything breaks just right, my brain will be mine in February. The US Department of Education will own me no longer.

I will finally be able to appreciate the lyrics from that old Pearl Jam song:

The selfish, they’re all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

Here are some pictures from the Edwards speech:


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Derrick, Faust, Football, Iowa State, Jay, Johnathan, Willy

A Great Saturday

Many great things happened on Saturday.

Iowa State beat Kansas State
I got to take my nephew Johnathan to his first ever Cyclone football game.
I got to tailgate with the Fausts, Willy, Jay, and Derrick.

Then just to put icing on the Great Day Cake:

Kansas put up over 70 points on Nebraska< Navy beat Notre Dame for the first time in 43 years. Don't just glide over that last sentence. Think about that for a second. Notre Dame had beaten Navy 43 straight times. It is hard to fathom losing anything 43 straight times. To put it in perspective, the last time that Navy beat Notre Dame, Kennedy was still President. I do have the pictures from the ISU victory posted. All you have to do is click on the picture of the link below:


ISU vs. Kansas State

Football, Iowa State, Movies

Oklahoma

“It had been a wonderful evening and what I needed now, to give it the perfect ending, was a little of the Ludwig Von.”
– Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange)

If all things are relative, the loss to Oklahoma on Saturday felt like a win since it was an incredible improvement over the Texas game. I have to admit to feeling pretty good when I left Jack Trice. I did not listen to Beethoven on Saturday night though. I mostly sat around thinking about how I left some necessary documents at work and then fell asleep.

Unfortunately, there are no moral victories. Iowa State did lose. My Beethoven CDs still collect dust. I did however get the pictures from the game up on the website moments ago.

Iowa State Cyclones vs. Oklahoma Sooners