New Year's

Hi all,

Like Kraj, I don't think I can afford to head out to California for the Rose Bowl, even though it would be amazing. As for New Year's, if Nat Cat is still offering up his house in Columbus, that's my vote. I bet the most people would be able to go if we kept it in Columbus because it's centrally located. Thoughts?

-James

Thoughts on New Years

Hello friends!

As much as I would love to go to the Rose Bowl and see Brittany and Luis, I'm not sure if I can afford to go to Cali for New Year's. At the beginning of my Winter Break, Robbie and I are meeting in Paris and traveling around there for a week then going to Dublin, and that's about all my poor grad student budget can handle. I'm up for going anywhere closer though, as long as Robbie can come... although it's fine for him to wait outside too. =)

Is Chicago still an option?

Related to Beat Michigan Week, I wanted to inform all of you that I will be at Mirror Lake tonight.. on duty representing Student Life. My "primary function" out there is "to monitor the Lake and the surrounding areas for any situations that may be dangerous to the students, watch for anyone who may need assistance and report to the proper agency." Things have changed a lot since undergrad...

I thought you might be interested in this article: Don't Be Happy, Be Worried: Sports Fans Need Dose Of Negative. You can view it at, http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/osumich.htm

Finally, this post was made at about 10:20am... and Michigan still sucks.

101 Love!

Beat Michigan Week!

Hello fellow Sphinx-ters,

Greetings, and Happy Beat Michigan Week! It is the greatest time of year, and I hope that wherever you are, and whoever you will be watching the game with, may Buckeye Spirit find you alive and well. Our beloved Buckeyes have had a great season thus far, and hopefully a victory over those scaliwags from up north lies in the near future. Sportsmanship indeed.

Now as you all know, last weekend, a thrilling victory sent our lads to the Granddaddy of them All: the Rose Bowl Game, to be held this coming New Years Day, 2010. While we do not yet know our foe, many of our Buckeye brethren are already investigating travel options to Southern California for the holidays. Ms. Brittany Yurchkyaskdck recently sent out an email offering her apartment as a possible location for those who wish to make the voyage west.

And so, we have some options before us. And I am hoping to start a conversation so that we can explore said options. An Advance has been called, and Advance we shall. Thus far, the plans have called for us to spend New Year's at Mr. Nat Sheppard's residence, provided we do not pop bottles on the ceiling (cough cough). This option would also include a dining experience at the estate of the link formerly known as Ms. Abbie Brown, who was recently wed, and whose new last name I can't remember at this point. The point is, she's married, and would like for us to dine with her, provided we do not party in her new house after our meal is complete. Obviously, that fifth year of college imparted a great deal of wisdom upon our dear Abbie.

The new option that has materialized in recent days would be a trip to sunny SoCal. Regardless of whether we attend the game or not, the experience of tailgating at the bowl game would be quite pleasant, especially since we were in the 5th grade the last time the Buckeyes played in the Rose Bowl.

I am not advocating for one option over the other. Rather, I am just starting the conversation so that we can explore our options. May the great debate begin!

Finally, Mr. Michael Repasky has requested that I suggest a Thanksgiving weekend gathering for those who are in Ohio for the holiday. Kindly reply if you will be in the region and your schedule permits your attendance.

I am, forever your humble servant,

-Matthew J. Van Jura

President Gee was voted as Best College President by Time Magazine!

Check out the article!

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1937938_1937934,00.html

Greetings from Texas!

Hi friends,

So it's been a while since I posted on here. Things are going alright in Texas for me. My apartment is a huge step up from my campus residences. My roommate is pretty cool. It took him a bit to realize I'm not much of a chatter in the morning though. He cooks a lot of delicious food and actually shares it with me, so that's different from before too. His name is Tyler and he is from Colorado. He's kind of a mix between Jon Avery and my old roommate Mason (Hey Arnold/Football Head). He brings the random/pointless knowledge of Jon with the love of outdoors/randomness of Mason.

I've made a close group of friends so far. It's me, Tyler, and two girls named Kate. We do homework and eat dinner together frequently. They are all classier people than I am. They like to eat better food, drink wine with dinner, and drink microbrew beer. I am definitely known as the cheapest and least classy of the group, which is expected because I fill that role in most groups of people. They are slowly rubbing off on me a bit, so maybe I'll be a classier individual when you next see me. One of the Kates reminds me a lot of Maggie Sweeney, except without the student affairs mindset. I describe her as a sarcastic, mean, yet humorous and friendly individual. We get along well by making fun of others, mainly Tyler. Another similarity he has with Jon. We haven't gone out drinking much so far because downtown is kind of far away and you can't walk there. I hate not being able to walk there. Also bars are expensive and aren't the chill drinking scene I enjoy like house parties. The Drunk James you all know and somewhat love has a lower tolerance now, so it'll be interesting to see how things go in that regard in the future.

There's a solid group of OSU alumni down here. There is a bar that shows all of the OSU games which is amazing. I don't know what I'd do without that. I'm also on a kickball team with some of them through the city of Austin. It's a really social league with everyone on the team being under 30. We bring a couple of cases of beer and drink on the sidelines and sometimes on the field. It's a nice group of friends I'm trying to make outside of the chemical engineering department. We volunteered to run tables at college fairs at local high schools to promote OSU, so that was kind of interesting. It was nice to talk to students about the great things OSU has to offer.

Academically things aren't going as well. The classes are harder than I expected and I spent a ton of time doing homework. If I had to do Stater activities now, I would fail. The students in my classes are also much smarter, so I can't bank on a low curve now. The biggest problem is that I still haven't been placed with a research advisor. I won't take many classes after this semester and will just be working full time in a research lab under one professor, so the advisor selection process is incredibly important. We submitted our top 3 choices, but I didn't get any of them because my 1st choice was really popular and my 2nd and 3rd choices had already reached their allotment with other students that picked them first. I am kind of in limbo right now waiting to hear back from a couple of professors to see if they still have room for another grad student. I'm down to my last 2 solid options. If these 2 don't work out, I'm not quite sure what to do next. I should figure this out by the end of next week, so I'll either be very relieved or very pissed/depressed.

I did go to the Texas-Colorado game this past Saturday because Tyler wanted to go because he went to Colorado. It was interesting. Their stadium is newer and nicer looking but not quite as big. They have a U-shaped design but their south stands equivalent is smaller but with a massive scoreboard (the godzillatron). They don't use nets behind their goalposts which I found interesting. It did get really loud in there because they were playing really poorly against a lowly Colorado team. I was impressed with the intensity of the fans after the game was well in hand however. That is something we don't do well at OSU. Once we are up 20 points, the fans take it down a significant notch. I was curious to see how I would feel at the game. Would I develop some love for my grad school? Not at all. I really didn't care who won. In fact I mainly wanted Colorado to win just to see the devastation on the faces of 100,000 UT fans. I still take joy in other people's misery in case you were wondering.

I got a digital camera before I left for Texas and included some photos below. I think I'm going to put some up on Facebook as well. I know I'm surprised about this as well. The first one is me and the 2 Kate's at the Texas State Fair. This was a fun day filled with fried food and a "Dancing with the Dogs" show (ridiculous) but I was disappointed in the people watching. I wanted hicksville Texas cowboys and I got none. It was the same type of people you'd see at the Ohio State Fair-weak. Tyler took the picture early so I look ridiculous. The Kate on the left went to Notre Dame (also weak but she's not stuck up like most of the Irish) and the one of the right went to Princeton and is the Maggie clone. The next picture is of me and Tyler with some random food mascot from the fair. I think he looks like Steve Nash the basketball player but some people disagree with me. We also purchased Sham-wows which are the things in our hands. They are awesome. The third pic is from the Texas game. The guy one the right is genius who helps everyone with homework. Then its me and Tyler again. Guess how old the next guy is? ........................37 years old!!!! He doesn't look or act like it, but he's in our first year class with us. He has crazy life stories. Then there's Kate again. Check Facebook for some other pictures. Alright I think that's all for me tonight. Hopefully all is well with you all too. Let's get some more posts on here folks. I miss the good times we all had in Sphinx and OSU in general. I'll be back in Columbus for Thanksgiving and around Christmas so let me know if you'll be around then as well. Adios!

-James

Adventures in Baby-Sitti...Er, Being a TA

I love being a teacher. Well, 95% of the time. I just want to share the fun things that I have faced as a TA in the past week.

Fun Thing #1: Being sexually harassed via writing assignment

You read that correctly. Apparently these little miscreants think that sexual puns are totally okay to include in written work! Like this little gem from a company-memo writing assignment that was turned in by one Jay W. (original grammar and spelling included):

"Receiving a double Doctorate degree in Journalism as as well as Adult Film Editing and Directing, Ms. Holter...brings a wealth of talent as well as un-tapped potential. She also has a great deal of assets and a vast array of knowledge just waiting to be penetrated. (Signed) Jay W. 6969 Pork and Cork Drive, Intercourse, PA."

If you were wondering, the lovely Ms. Holter wasted no time telling me that her charming partner worked as a bartender at Sandy Beaver's Bar & Grille.

Fun Thing #2: Being told that I got a grade "wrong" by the paper's author

So I have this overachiever in my class who apparently thinks that I, as one with degrees in both communications and English, don't know as much about grammar as he does. Which he proceeded to tell me, in front of a group of students, after class today. Apparently, he lifted a sentence straight from the news article he was supposed to summarize, and I edited said sentence for clarity because, to put it bluntly, it was a grammatical clusterfuck. By doing so, I managed to ruin the "meaning of the sentence" and the "irony of the author's point" and I shouldn't have done so because "it came straight from the article." Well, okay, Hemingway, but if it came straight from the article and you failed to cite it as such, then you are guilty of plagiarism as well as hubris. BOO-YAH.

Love and miss you all,
Annie

Call Back interview in Cbus

Hellooooooo friendlies,

So I have my first call back interview for a real live paying job this coming week. I'll be back in Cbus on Wednesday night and have my day-long interview on Joseph's birthday. I'm staying in cbus for the weekend for the game festivities.

Those that are near or coming home from far, lets hang.

School starts tomorrow so I'm going to go cry for a bit before I start reading Finance of Real and Personal Property :(

Kissess

-A

New Year's Eve!

Hey friends -

I talked to my parents about hosting 20+ party animals for a few nights to welcome in 2010, and they are cool with it as long as nobody pops bottles and sprays the ceiling or throws large dildos into light fixtures. They were very clear that those are the only two things we can't do. They will be home... but they can do a pretty good job of staying out of our way.

I'd be down for Chicago too, but Columbus seems like it would be the most central location for everyone, and much cheaper, not to mention my parents live within a 5 minute walk of Park Street, and lots of other things to do in the Short North. If there's interest in buying one of those VIP New Year's packages for those ultra classy YP bars, we could look into getting a group deal. And if you haven't heard yet, there's a new place called "The Social Room" going in on Park Street that is going to be Columbus' first members-only bar... like you have to pay a monthly membership to even go in the place... dibs!

Just putting an offer out there - we can finalize plans during Homecoming weekend if not before! Love you all!

YIBASLFASTTASTSASFOO,

Nat

Good News Fuckin' Friday!

Howdy! I feel today is Good News Fuckin' Friday, where I'm spreadin all the fuckin' good news!

1. PAUL GOT A JOB! Today Mr. Barash was offered a 6 month contract at InterSport in Chicago. Our Brother now knows what he is doing for awhile and doesn't have to watch "Hung" anymore to learn to be a gigalo.

2. TODAY IS MY LAST DAY! I have officially made it through my summer associate position at Roetzel & Andress. PS: The Supreme Court of Ohio librarians officially hate me.

3. DAPHNE WAS IN TOWN THIS WEEK! and we went to the Sloppy Donkey.

4. THE SLOPPY DONKEY HAS HAPPY HOURS...WTF! NEW BAR AT SKYE BAR...MCFADDENS HAS NEW OWNERSHIP

5. MATT VAN JURA HAS SURVIVED ALMOST A MONTH BACK IN VERMONT!!

love you, miss you, h8 law.

finished!

Hello!!!

In case anyone was ever wondering if I would ever finish college...I DID IT! Finally...last Thursday! So all 24 of us have degrees now! I am currently at the beach with my family celebrating with some yuengling--however I will not end up face down on the hotel floor this time....although with my brother here...that is a possibility.

Miss you all!

Love from the beach,
Abbie

Best E-mail Ever!

Soo, I'm sitting at work again with nothing to do and I am perplexed how one email can send my emotions and sentiments into a frenzy. I absolutely love how "connected" we are to each other. Within1 minute after I finished reading Ben's email, I have four gchat windows in my face. I miss you all dearly once again. I became used to seeing everyone's faces over the past three weeks. Pretty soon, Anji will leave cbus and Robbie will go back to Spain and I will be waiting for the next opportunity to see everyone again.

I love how we never waste a moment. Vanji was back last week and so was Robbie and that turned into a game of "Make Robbie Puke", which consisted of me and Josh Harraman "overcelebrating" the occasion by buying him countless shots. (And yes, the next morning he reported that he pulled the trigger).

LETS ADVANCE! Homecoming will be amazing! Plan on coming back! Just knock everything off of your schedule for New Years, because if we are here at Nat's or in Chicago it will be fun. Lets go to Boston! Hell, next year for MLK weekend block that shit out too!

Katie summed it up when she compared recent emails from Greg (the sick bastard), MJ (savin' the world already), and Ben (Parties R' Us! first customer) emails. This is truly why SPHINX is SPHINX.

PS: If you do not already have Twitter....get it and check out all the great pictures that have been put up from the past three weeks.

JC3

Advances

Sphinxers -

I agree with Daphne and Repasky that we should plan an advance very soon. Chicago works for me :) So does Boston. I don't really care where we go, as long as I get to see all of you.

I think Homecoming is a GREAT time to get together, and hopefully we can do that. I'm not sure about Thanksgiving, but New Years would also be awesome. However, IF I end up staying with Intersport, I probably will NOT be able make it, as I will have to work at the Under Armour All-America Game in Orlando (as I did last year). So we will see.

I'm so glad that a lot of you are doing well. I miss all of you, and am so glad that I got to see a lot of you at Ben and Jessica's Wedding.

As always, if you're in Chicago randomly, I'd love to see you!

Paul

Sawatdee khap!

"Hello!" (if you're a guy, Sawatdee kaa, if you're a lady) in Thai.

First, congratulations are in order to those who are newly-minted graduates of The Ohio State University! Congratulations to those who are almost done except for Unit Ops! Congratulations to those who have finished a first year of work! Congratulations to those done with their first year of graduate school! and for anyone else, Congratulations for being Extraordinary!

Second, apologies are in order for everyone who I have not been able to see or be in contact with this last year! And special apologies for not being at the wedding of Ben and Jessica! From the sound and sights, it seemed like an amazing time!

Third, a quick update is in order for those wondering why I'm dropping Thai phrases. This summer, I've been working at an internship for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at their regional office in Bangkok. My job is to develop an internal plan to help their organization prepare for a flu pandemic. While the work is mostly in the office, I have been able to do some site visits to see IOM's resettlement and migration health programs along the Thai/Burmese border. Photos from these visits and other adventures are up on Facebook to view at your leisure.

Lastly, to put in my two cents for future reunions. Whether or not an advance to Boston, for the heck of it, materializes, a standing invitation to stay with me in town is open! I have a spacious apartment with two roommates and plenty of couches/floorspace close to the BU campus. There is, however, a soft expiration date. Starting in January next year, I will be going into seclusion in order to study for the first step of the medical boards in April, which, Ben would probably attest to if he weren't busy with newlywed life, is something that will occupy more than a little of our free time. So, in short, let's try to meet early and often, and I think that smaller reunions are a great way to stay connected (although the excitement of a big to-do like New Year's is exciting too!).

That's all for me, thanks for reading, and hope you are all doing well! Drop me a line (gTalk mjaung, Skype msjaung), and wishing to see yall soon!

I hate my life...

...but I love you all. (Or should I say "y'all" in honor of our recent foray into Kentucky?)

I should be working on my written final that's due at 4 p.m. today. Anyone know anything about the post-World War II racial policies of West Germany? Anyone? Buehler? Yeah, I figured. I apologize to everyone who desired my presence in the past few days (okay, I'm pretty sure it was just Joey) - I've been stuck on my computer writing stuff I don't care about. Like 20th-century German history. Seriously, why did no one try to talk me out of this?

Anyway, I second Daphne's suggestion of New Year's in Chicago. I've never been to the Windy City, because driving through it on your way to World Dairy Expo totally doesn't count, and as many have pointed out, who better to ring in the new year with than Sphinx?

On a side note, next week begins that wonder of agricultural promotion, the Ohio State Fair! I suggest you all come visit me and my crazy, cow-loving family in the Gilligan Building, have a beer, meet the girls - that sort of thing. I'll probably be showing on Saturday morning, and let me tell you, I look hot in white pants.

(That is a blatant lie. No one looks hot in white pants.)

I love and miss you all, and am all the more depressed because I live within two miles of many of you and am too lame to do anything. Sigh.

Later, kids!

-Spechtacles

advances

i agree with Repasky... I am on a high when I'm with you and a low without you. In short: 101 makes me manic depressive.

My opinion on advances...
I think Homecoming would be a good idea. I know for sure I'll be in town that weekend and I believe I heard a few other people talking about it when we were in Lexington, too.

I'm thinking we should do something fun for New Years too. There's no other group of people I'd rather spend New Years with than you guys! What if we went downtown at one of the hotel gatherings in Cbus? Or maybe a night in Chicago? I think there are some really great options for an awesome celebration. I'd be totally willing to coordinate that effort.

Also... if anyone wants to see Leah find her husband (beard included) and get away from the cold weather wherever you are... come on down to Athens in the winter! It's beautiful, warm, and there are 100+ bars within a 6 block area. In short: damage could be done.

Miss you and love you!
xo,
Daph

Fall Advance

Howdy ho knuckleheads,

Hope all is well and this post finds you in good health and in good spirits. For those of you I had the pleasure to see, it was fantastic. I came to a realization during my drive back to Richmond two weeks ago... SPHINX is like the "sex" of organizations... you always want it, can't wait to get it, do everything in your power sometimes to have it, and then, I'll be damned if when you get it, you forget to wear protection and it just doesn't last long enough :) and then BAM you're out seraching for it again... Hence this post.

So... our next advance... when and where folks? Me and the big man - JC3 - were battin' around some ideas today and I wanted to put this 21st century, enginerding technology to good use and bring it up for discussion:

- Homecoming Advance - reliving our glory days?

- Go to Boston for the hell of it Advance.....

- Thanksgiving Advance, because, who needs family when your drunk with friends?

- New Years Advance - anywhere really...

Well...let's get to deciding this in a hurry... I need to plan shit out months in advance, getting into my old age and all...

Too-da-loo Siblings

hey buddies. just want to see if this works. holler at your boi.

i am bored at work. merp.