Ryan's Blog

Thanks to the song “Seasons of Love” from the popular musical Rent, people know there are 525,600 minutes in a year. Beyond minutes, the song offers a variety of ways to count the passing time in a year: in sunsets, cups of coffee, diapers, report cards, speeding tickets. Though more mundane, I add my own methods to the list: in papers, in word counts, in total pages written. Or at least that’s how I did it a year ago, at the end of senior year. I took the opportunity to feed my penchant for statistics at the end of finals week by pasting together all my papers and counting the pages.

Continue reading "How do you measure, measure a year?" »

Posted by Ryan at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday Notre Dame beat Stanford on the road to finish the regular season 9-2. Right now the team is ranked #7 in the polls. That’s a pleasant change from last year’s unranked 6-6 team, especially considering that this year’s squad has mostly the same players as last year.

For me, it’s not much of a leap to go from thinking about Notre Dame football to reminiscing about my time there. When I lived in Carroll Hall one of the things we associated with football was our 90 foot by 30 foot GO IRISH! banner. We made it from dozens of bedsheets, thosands of staples, and a fair bit of green paint. Before the season’s first home game, and others weather permitting, we hang the banner on the side of the building. It’s quite the operation; we need about 20 guys to hoist the ropes through the fourth floor windows. One time I took a short movie of us raising the banner which I later turned into a 5-second timelapse movie. I posted it here for your enjoyment and to celebrate our 9-2 season. You need QuickTime to view the clip.

Go Irish in their upcoming BCS bowl game (we hope)!

Posted by Ryan at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The excitment and anticipation of the #1 USC vs. #9 Notre Dame football game extended to the southern hemisphere, so we decided to have a game “listen” party Saturday. Emily and Roy, graduates from Marquette and St. Edwards respectively, adopted Notre Dame as their football school. Our friend Stephen lent us his laptop and we listened to the internet radio broadcast of the game, supplemented by Notre Dame marching band music that I brought with me. We even bought two bottled of Simba, the official Bolivian soft drink of the Fighting Irish (the drink I’m holding is Simba pineapple, and it’s substantially more yellow than it appears in this picture).

Unfortunately, the outcome wasn’t quite what we wanted; USC beat Notre Dame 34-31. But those who follow college football know we were 7 seconds and one sneaky play away from beating the best-ranked team in the country. The future looks good for the Irish. ESPN’s Bruce Feldman wrote after the game, “Notre Dame, which came within seven seconds of knocking off ‘the greatest offensive team in college football history,’ is legit.” And, it was fun to feel part of the game when many of my friends traveled to be there. If you don’t know what a football weekend at Notre Dame is like, you should take a look.

Posted by Ryan at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Between my last class and finals week I went home to have my tonsils removed. They had been causing me some problems, and since my health insurance expires once I graduate, this was the only time to have it done. Now, after a 15 minute surgery and 40 doses of Lortab, I am returning home from home.

My mom booked my ticket back to Notre Dame and specifically requested the window seat on the left side of the plane for my connection through Cincinnati. From this seat, you can look out your window as you approach Notre Dame and see the campus. I took a couple of exciting aerial pictures during the airport approach:

In the meantime, there's work to be done. People keep asking, "How are the tonsils?" Well, they're gone. And while my body learns to deal with that, I'll do some healing, write a paper, and study for accounting. Finals week is here.

Posted by Ryan at 8:30 PM | Permalink

Today, like most weekdays, I woke up to go to class. But unlike most days, today felt melancholy.

In the past, spring at Notre Dame has been a welcome change from the frigid winter. The sun returns and people actually want to go outside. But this time, spring also brings with it the end. So today, it was with a certain sadness that I walked down the quad, into DeBartolo, and sat down for my last class as an undergraduate.

As of 12:15pm, when I left Evolutionary Medicine with Prof. McKenna's, I'm done with class. And two weeks from today, when I take my accounting final exam, I'll be done with it all. I know that some people are ready to leave. If it was up to me, I'd keep going to class, writing papers, and taking tests for a few more years.

But there's still some time left. Senior week should be a good time. I already bought a slip-n-slide to keep us busy, and we're getting the volleyball courts ready for action.

On a more upbeat note, I also finished my senior thesis today. Now all the relevant parties have their own copies of "A Critique of Searle's Argument Against Cognitivism" by Ryan Greenberg. My guess is that their copies will end up much like mine, forgotten on a shelf collecting dust. I did learn a lot from the project, though, and I'm glad to have done it. But also to have it done.

Posted by Ryan at 5:47 PM | Permalink

The end of the semester has been packed with activities.

Last Friday, Carroll Hall hosted Carroll Christmas, it's signature event. Last Saturday, we had our winter formal in the Main Building. And last Sunday, I went to a seniors-only Mass and dinner in the stadium press box.

This Sunday, a bunch of seniors went to brunch at Tippecanoe Place. It's a great restaurant in the downtown area, and it was a really nice way to start finals week.

Finals week itself doesn't look too bad. I am already done with 1 of my 5 classes. My senior thesis is due tomorrow. I have exams Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. And then I'm 7/8ths done with college.

The application process with Holy Cross Associates is almost done as well. I turned in my final application last Friday. I've been through the psychological paperwork, clinical interview, and group interview. My final interview is tomorrow morning. I hope it goes well. But as one friend pointed out, the interviewers want to know about me, and I'm more-or-less a certified expert on that subject.

Posted by Ryan at 3:45 PM | Permalink

The short answer is no.

Thanksgiving was a nice break (with plenty of good food), but it was too short to get much work done. And now it's back to work.

There are generally two parts to a really busy week: the week itself and the aftermath, which comes anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks later. Well, the aftermath from two weeks ago has arrived, and it isn't looking bad. My paper on Aristotle and term paper on diplomacy in Chile came back they both turned out well.

My senior thesis, while definitely behind schedule (it's due Dec. 8) is coming along too. I hit some big mile markers in the last 48 hours: 4000 words, 5000 words, and 6000 words. The length is supposed to be at least in the neighborhood of 6500 words, but there is still an enormous amount of work to do.

The application process for Holy Cross Associates is also going well. Last week I filled out 3 hours worth of psychological paperwork in preparation for my clinical interview tomorrow. Why so much work? In the words of one friend: "They want to know if you're nuts. And they want to know if you're going to go nuts anytime soon."

In the meantime, there's always more reading and writing to do. Back to work....

Posted by Ryan at 5:58 PM | Permalink

Rather than just talk about how tired I've been this week at school, I thought I'd give a little demonstration.

Here is a sample of notes that I take during a typical class day:

These are notes from my class on U.S. diplomacy & foreign relations. This class's topic is the first Gulf War. My handwriting isn't perfect, but the words are mostly intelligible and the sentences fit together pretty well.

Now here is a sample of notes that I took during Tuesday's class on Yugoslavia while I was extremely tired:

Not only is my handwriting worse, but you can see tell-tale "sleep marks" on the page (circled in blue). Those are the little random lines here and there that happen when I lose concentration and my pen falls against the page. Plus, some sentences (e.g. the one circled in red) visibly degenerate into nonsense: "Now, without a leader the ... was ... there ... ?" Hmm. That's helpful

Thankfully, I can say this paragraph was by far the worst of the day and the ones following it were better. But I had better get some more rest, or else ... bed ... pillow ... sleep?

Posted by Ryan at 1:55 AM | Permalink

The last several days have been marked by lots of work. I wrote a paper on Aristotle for last Tuesday, a paper on Aquinas and Arnauld for last Thursday, and several pages of my senior thesis on Searle for Saturday. I'm not sure how many sheets of paper are in a tree, but I took down about 20 pages this week. Plus, I had a test in my computer programming class Friday morning and was on duty in Carroll Hall last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Change is in the air. The leaves have changed color and are now, for the most part, gone from the trees. The forecast predicts snow either this week or next. Sadly, the last home football game of the season is this Saturday.

As many seniors are (some more aprehensively than others), I'm looking at the future. It's a rare week that goes by without someone asking, "So...what are you doing next year?" Right now I'm looking at a variety of service programs in South America. One that looks particularly exciting is the Holy Cross Associates program in Chile. The application process is particularly competitive—only 3 to 5 people are accepted to the program each year. I had my preliminary interview earlier this week, and I should hear if I will be one of 12 who complete the application process this week or next.

Until then, though, I'll keep writing papers, taking tests, and enjoying the fall.

Posted by Ryan at 3:40 PM | Permalink

This past weekend started the wonderful procrastinatory tradition at Notre Dame of home football weekends. In fact, we've got three home football games in a row. You would think that pep rallies on Friday, ND football on Saturday, NFL and interhall football on Sunday would be all fun and games, but it's hard work too.

On the upside, Notre Dame's team is having a good showing so far this year. After the season opener loss to BYU, most people were expecting the worst. A couple weeks later, we're sitting at 3-1 and looking forward to a big game against Purdue this weekend.

In other exciting news, Carroll Hall's football team (ranked 14th of 14 teams) defeated Siegfried's football team (ranked 1st of 14) today. In his victory posture, Coach Vince Versagli bears a close resemblance to Coach Willingham. Well, at least a passing resemblance, right?

Onward to a week with an exam in U.S. Diplomacy and C++ Programming!

Posted by Ryan at 11:33 AM | Permalink

Not since days long past has this blog been host to complaints about the irregularity of weather in the Midwest. Break out the champagne glasses because today is that day again. Yesterday, light rain gave way to a gorgeous afternoon that peaked at about 60 F degrees. Today, I sit at my desk watching white snowflakes accumulate on the ground in the "28, feels like 15" weather outside. To answer the question raised in the subject: not in thy weather, for sure.

In other news, I set a personal record this week. Email used to be a fun task, and hearing "You've Got Mail!" evoked thoughts of Christmas morning. No more. Thanks to my increased involvement with Scholastic, I received over 100 non-junk emails and sent more than 60 in the past 5 days. I'm sure this count pales in comparison to business executives and secretaries everywhere, but it seems like a lot for a student.

Temperatures are low, but spirits are high. This week Scholastic's annual Sarcastic issue comes out, which is our one chance each year to pretend we work for The Onion. Moving right along....

Posted by Ryan at 12:24 PM | Permalink

An editorial I wrote to The Observer, ND's campus newspaper appeared in last Thursday's issue. You can read it online here

Posted by Ryan at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's been a wild ride, but I'm done. Today had its victories and defeats.

Victory: In what he called "an act of great mercy," my philosophy professor cut the length of my exam in half. Instead of 6-10 pages, it only had to be 3-5 pages. I stayed up until 4am, woke up at 10:30, and finished my paper by 1pm, 4 hours ahead of schedule. And that was the last of school work for some time.

Defeat: I took nearly $400 worth of books to the bookstore and waited in line for about half an hour. The cashier then looked at my books and had the following conversation with me: "No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. We'll give you $2.50 for this one." I told them to keep the book and not to waste my time with a receipt ? I would have had to stand in another line to redeem it anyway. This is a new university bookstore low. The worst part is that the books I told to sell back aren't even worth keeping. My economics textbook has intellectual gems like this one, pointed out by my former roommate David: "The expected inflation rate is the inflation rate you expect." Brilliant.

Victory: We successfully de-capeted our dorm room, which took an effort so gargantuan that I won't even try to describe it here. However, this leads to...

Defeat: My room doesn't bear any resemblance to the home we made it during the school year. And on top of that, my roommates are trickling away one by one, which we are all sad about. I was the first to arrive at the room in late August last year and I'll be the last to go. Though classes are done, I'm staying during Senior Week to work on Scholastic.

So tired...must rest...

Posted by Ryan at 9:48 PM | Permalink

Two things that bother me:

• Excessive use of exclamation points!!!!!
  
• Using the same letter tooooooooo many times

I am sooooo close to the end. So far I've finished four classes, leaving my economics and philosophy exam. And then I'm halfway done with college. How about that. It's a little disconcerting to talk to people who are going abroad next spring and say, "Well, see you senior year!"

Good things deserve attention, so here is my plug for the latest good things I've seen. X-Men 2 was awesome. My roommate David bought 35 tickets for us. It's definitely an action flick, but it's also thought-provoking and just plain lots of fun.

Second, I am a self-confessed Apple fan, but their new music store is just too cool. Right now it's only available to a select crowd—people with Macs running OS 10.2 and iTunes 4—but I think the idea is really going to catch on. You can buy any of over 200,000 songs for $1 and then download instantly, play, and burn 'til you can't listen any more. I've chipped in my couple bucks already for the latest ear candy.

In all likelyhood the next time I write will be 53 economics questions and 6 pages of philosophical writing later. And then I'm done. Halfway.

Posted by Ryan at 12:57 AM | Permalink

Easter break was excellent: work, play, food, redemption. Sean, Chris, Kate, and I stayed here in South Bend which gave me plenty of time to rest. We watched Stand By Me, Almost Famous, and the third season of Friends. Yes, the whole thing. Easter morning we went to brunch at my roommate Michael's house which was fantastic. And, Mrs. Busk gave me lots of coconut cake to take home, so I couldn't have been happier. Then, Chris helped me break my Lenten video gaming fast by playing several hands on Yahoo! Spades. To finish off the day, we got near-front row seats at the student Easter Mass at the Basillica. The Folk Choir busted out some phat Easter grooves, as the young folk these days might say.

Right now, I'm trying to put together some ideas for my final Core project. We just read the Tao Te Ching which, aside from being good, means I have read the three most published books ever: the Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita, and the Tao Te Ching. I also read Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation, which I thought was very good (there are a fantastic number of superlatives in this post). Here's an excerpt about the danger of being an individual:

I have what you have not. I am what you are not. I have taken what you have failed to take and I have seized what you could never get. Therefore you suffer and I am happy, you are despised and I am praised, you die and I live; you are nothing and I am something, and I am all the more something because you are nothing. And thus I spend my life admiring the distance between you and me ...

7 class days left, and only 2 papers, 2 projects, 1 exam, room inspections.... It will be a very long and short seven days.

Posted by Ryan at 11:57 PM | Permalink

There's a song by the Ohio Players which expresses the general musical theme that "your love is like a rollercoaster, baby." After this week, I've come to understand that "your love" should be interpreted as "South Bend weather." No joke. This Wednesday we hit 85F, which broke the record 82F in 1976, when my mom was a senior at ND. How about that. People have commented on the sad state of affairs that has lead to extensive weather commentary in this blog. No more, I promise. I'll just suck up what South Bend has to offer.

Here's a story for you: every year Fisher, one of the dorms at Notre Dame, hosts the Fisher Regatta. It's a boat race across St. Mary's Lake and Carroll Hall has won the past three years running. Unfortunately, last Friday before the race, it came to our attention that someone had stolen our boat. In fact, a group of Fisher guys sunk our boat in the lake. What I am about to relate (quickly) to you is a series of events that is sure to go down as legend.

We rescued our boat at 1:30AM the day of the race and began extensive repairs: recaulking, structural reinforcement, and drying with box fans. Through some minor miracle, Carroll's entry was ready to race in the Regatta about 12 hours later. After powering through its first heats, Carroll's flagship beat Fisher in the finals of their own Regatta to bring home victory for the fourth straight year. Could it be any sweeter? Yeah, if there were pictures.

Tomorrow is the last day of classes before Easter Break. We're closing in on the last few weeks...

Posted by Ryan at 11:02 PM | Permalink

It's on the late side, so this one's a quickie. I classifiy this weekend under the title "Eliminate Residual Stress From Previous Week." Mom and Dave visited for the weekend so Elizabeth and I had dinner with them Friday night. Shortly thereafter, the all-star crew of Sean, David, Michael, Chris, Kate, Margaret, Elizabeth, and I held a private jam session in 207 Carroll. Dave brought the guitar funk while some of us showcased our singing talent (Sean, Kate) and others their complete lack thereof (me). "Wee-ooh, I look just like Buddy Holly."

Saturday night Lance was good enough to cook for a couple guys from Zahm and me. Then, Dong and I unleashed the fury and wrath of our mad ping-pong skills on Lance and Johnny. Not a pretty sight for them.

Warning: anyone who does not have plenty of time to waste should not follow this link provided by my roommate: Zookeeper. The surgeon general says playing may be hazardous to getting any work done at all.

My sister says she is going to disown me because I don't call her enough. Erin, if you're reading this: I won't help you with anything ever if you disown me. And I definitely won't call. I think that's fair.

Posted by Ryan at 11:07 PM | Permalink

After four days of preparation, I am ready for my economics mideterm tomorrow. Unfortunately, my philosophy midterm tomorrow is going to be a little harder. It's a take-home test, though, so hopefully that will give me some extra time to figure things out.

We're reading The Color Purple in Core. My favorite quote from the book: "I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it." The book is amazing; it's a powerful story and so well written. I've been under a time crunch, so I was very thankful I read the book in high school and brought my annotated copy with me.

Not too much else has been going on, so that's all for now.

Posted by Ryan at 10:23 PM | Permalink

Another week of school dead ahead! I'm not quite sure why I waited a week to write again. Two possible reasons: (1) Scholastic and (2) Scholastic. I was up until 8:40AM last Wednesday finishing the last Scholastic issue under the old staff. That wiped me out for awhile. I had a logic quiz Thursday which went pretty well (I think) except for a couple stupid mistakes.

Sean, Margaret, Elizabeth, and I went to the Olive Garden and Chicago Saturday night. Chicago was awesome! And the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake at the Olive Garden was a transcendent experience (it was unanimous).

My roommates and I have been keeping track of our sleep the past week for statistical purposes. The latest results with the average nightly hours of sleep are in:
Chris - 9h 14min
David - 6h 47min
Michael - 7h 51min
Ryan - 6h 48min

This week: two exams, one paper, and parents visiting for the weekend. On that note, it's time to get back to work.

Posted by Ryan at 8:03 PM | Permalink

I'm just moments away from the end of the weekend. It was a good one. Friday after I finished my paper and was ready to crash, I found myself in the situation of not having time to do that. Here's the story:

When I got back to my room after work, Sean called and let me know it was time to put Plan X into action. Plan X, of course being the plan I came up with a few months ago which involves me dressing up as a waiter and serving him and Margaret in the dining hall. It was a short notice situation, but thanks to my roomie Dave I was even able to throw together a menu in the alotted 15 minutes. Swell job, Dave! Right as I was ready to step out the door, I got a call from my uncle PJ who met up with me for dinner at the dining hall. We got a chance to talk in between my bouts as a waiter. I'm pretty inexperienced in the field of waitering, but thankfully Sean and Margaret were able to make it safely through my server debut. (Although I almost took Margaret out with a glass. Oops.)

Later that night I watched The Emperor's New Groove (again!) at P.E. That movie is quickly replacing Zoolander as the movie of the semester. Speaking of which, my roommate Chris and I have formed Z.A — Zoolander Anonymous — with the stated goal of gaining control over our unfortunate tendancies of using Zoolander phrases too much, appling Zoolander inflections to our speech, and flashing Blue Steel and Magnun far too frequently. Now that we have accountability partners, we should make some progress.

Saturday brought preparations for the Junior Parents Weekend luncheon, which went off without a hitch. Sean and I lended a hand for the second year in a row (although he was more involved than I, and Dave stepped in as well). All I can say is that we are not helping at all next year when it's our luncheon. I also met with the ASBTPC or Alabama Spring Break Trip Planning Committee so we could (you guessed it) plan our spring break trip to Mobile, Alabama. I put myself in charge of producing the Road Rules Alabama video of our trip. We'll see how it goes.

Also: I saw The Ring Saturday night with Elizabeth, Marie Christine, and Chris. It was cool, but not nearly as scary as I heard it was. (There was one pretty freaky part near the end ? watch out!) Sunday means preparation for the week. Scholastic time is here and we're getting down to business. The long week ahead means I need to get started now, either with homework or sleep. We'll see which it is.

Posted by Ryan at 11:10 PM | Permalink

Oh my. This afternoon I just finished an 18-hour block of time where 12 of those 18 were devoted to writing my philosophy paper. I shut down the Como study lounge and crawled into bed at 5:40 this morning. Then I picked up the ball again at 11:30 after Spanish and wrote, wrote, wrote until 4:30 in the afternoon. I'm a little tired, but the extreme fatigue won't hit until tomorrow. Thank goodness it's the weekend. Unfortunately, I'm likely to have nightmarish thoughts of Descartes' clear and distinct perceptions running through my head at least until Sunday.

Amount of work to do this weekend: lots.
Amount of time to do it in: moderate.

Posted by Ryan at 7:02 PM | Permalink

It seems I forgot how long it takes me to read Descartes: about 5 pages an hour. Fortunately, I was able to plow through several hours of reading today. Unfortunately, I had to skip my tap class to do it. Boo. I'd say I wish it were Friday, but that means my paper would be due sooner.

I got my practice GMAT scores back today; I did pretty well, but it turns out that I haven't taken a math class relevant to the test in the past 3 years or so. Thankfully I have almost a year to brush up on those fun algebra tricks. Kaplan offers a few prep methods: $30 book or $3000 class. Hmm...which option would the smart business student pick?

Two words and a number that make you cringe in the morning: "Daytime high: 23?F." That's South Bend in the winter.

Goal for tomorrow: go to breakfast so I can pick up some coffee to help me make it through the day. As Benny Franklin said, "Late to bed and early to rise makes you ridiculously tired."

Posted by Ryan at 11:44 PM | Permalink

Busy, busy, busy. Monday is here and already I can feel the weight of my Friday philosophy paper bearing down on me. Fortunately, that means I'm getting things prepared. I hope to have a outline of my paper ready for tomorrow so I can discuss it with my professor. Will idealistic goals yield realistic results? Only tomorrow will tell.

In other news, I went to a luncheon with Joe Garden, a writer from The Onion today. He was very entertaining. In his words: "I hope my sheer charisma is enough to carry me through this speech, because, as I mentioned, I only got 2 hours of sleep last night."

The Scholastic staff is working double-time to crank out ideas for our Sarcastic issue coming up in about a month. (For those who don't know, Scholastic is the campus newsmagazine I work for; Sarcastic is our annual parody issue which is written much like The Onion. For those who really don't know, The Onion is America's premiere satirical newspaper.)

Time for some weekly phone calls to check up on the family.

Posted by Ryan at 8:08 PM | Permalink