Brent Pirolli's

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert rocked… as expected.  Amazing technical ability they have.  Such talent.  Such financing!  They had well over 36 “intelligent lights” (moveable, multi-colored, pattern emitting) and over 80 some can lights with scrollers (color changing)…   Oh yeah… and 2 really cool laser things…  Not to mention the haze machine which makes all the light beams visible.  MAN… beautiful show.  I guess thats what you can afford when you have over $800,000 of lighting budgets.

I’m really startin to dig this acapella stuff…. HAHA.  There is a group called “Hyannis Sound” that is from Cape Cod.  They have a lot of talent.  There is a song, “Lullaby” which is flat out beautiful.  I wish I had been in Men’s Chorus in high school… I just never had the time.  ::sigh:: ah well…

Thanksgiving break is upon us.  I have 2 classes on Monday (in 7 hours) and then I’m done… But I have to stay here till Wednesday to close the building.  Such is the life of an RA.  Sarah is leaving on Tuesday morning.    I’m gonna miss her.  She’s going to Oklahoma with family for a week.  I’ll survive… but …. bah.

OK, off to sleep.

Mood:  Tired but ok.
Music:  Hyannis Sound – Lullaby

I’m lookin for an acapella version of The Who’s Pinball Wizard… if you know of one…. HOOK ME UP!  I think a good shot is one by an acapella group called “Hyannis Sound”… But I can’t find the mp3 anywhere!  BAH!

Mood:  GOOFY LIKE A ……  GOOFY …. THING! 
Music:  ummm… The Who – Pinball Wizard…. duh.

SO… this presentation right… yeah… we give it… and there are 10 people in the group.  We had to speak for 75 minutes… which is like… 7 minutes a person.  I did the intro extremely relaxed, had some audience participation… I obviously had their attention.  From there another group member took over and passed around some demos and handouts… He did good… then came the fallout.  The next two guys get up there and we knew the topic they had… and the material they had… but we didn’t know that they were going to read it all word for word off of the papers they had.

8 pages of reading…. No slides… No breaks… Just nose in the paper… no lookin up…. just reading.  Their 7 minutes lasted 32 minutes.  32!!!  GREAT!  That left the rest of us with NO TIME to present and a LOT of material to get through…   not fun.

So here I am running the slides for them… waiting for the people to stop reading… looking at my distraught group members who are looking at me like, “HOW DO WE SHUT THEM UP?”  I’m smiling and shaking my head… rolling my eyes… tapping my watch… but they don’t see any non-verbal communication cuz their heads are buried in their papers… The instructor is sitting in the back of the room obviously getting annoyed at this presentation.  I’m watching over a month’s worth of preparation go down the drain along with our grade… So I’m thinkin, do I speak up and cut them off?  I couldn’t do it.  They’d think I ruined their individual grade… (Although I’d probably have been doing them a favor!)  So the room has now lost interest and is quickly falling asleep…. litterally.  I saw head bobbing.

When they finally shut up, the rest of the presentation was crammed into a small a space as we could fit it in.  We eliminated the 15 min. Q & A session at the end, and still ran class 5 minutes over.  So now everyone hates us for keeping them late.

ANYWAY, I immediately ran to the back of the room and apologized to the prof.  I explained that we had no clue they were going to do that and assumed it was understood they shouldn’t read straight from the paper, rather should have put effort into their section like everyone else had done.  I was going to say more, but she cut me off and said, “Well Brent, there’s a lot to be said for non-verbal communication, and I saw the faces of you and your group members… I know that it wasn’t planned.”  WHEW!

So I have no clue what grade I’m going to get… I have no clue what the group grade will be.  I’m glad it’s over!  AND I know what to expect from my fellow classmates and who NOT to put in charge of stuff… That was litterally the worst presentation disaster I’ve ever taken part in…. ever.  I just sat there and watched for 32 minutes… as they alienated that room from their surroundings and pushed them off into a state of dreaming.  I was watching a car crash in slow motion and kept wondering if the air bags would deploy or not.  ::sigh::  ah well.  It’s over.

OK, bedtime… it’s 4:40am. :-p  OH YEAH, one last note.  I stayed up with Sarah at the desk till 4am, and took a survey of the drunks coming in.  I asked them all their favorite color.  32 said blue.  13 said green.  and everything else was under 5 votes.  So if you have to guess someone’s favorite color… it’s probably blue…

Mood:  Destressing after tons-o-stress
Music:  Some acapella men’s chorus thing that the counting crows played before they came out… pitch black room, candles on stage… and really cool chorus vocals singing about pinball.

So the Counting Crows concert was cool… Uncle Kracker was the opening act… he sucked.  He’s a studio artist so his songs weren’t all that great… and on top of that, his lyrics BUG ME SO MUCH!  Have you ever listened to the man’s words on “Follow me”?  Yeah… check it out:

“I’m not worried bout the ring you wear
Cuz as long as no one knows than nobody can care
You’re feelin’ guilty and I’m well aware
But you don’t look ashamed and baby I’m not scared

Won’t give you money
I can’t give you the sky
Your better off if you don’t ask why
I’m not the reason that you go astray and
We’ll be all right if you don’t ask me stay”

OK…. so not only does he brag about and encourage having this affair… but he shows no remorse, then tells her he won’t provide for her AND that he won’t stay (so he’s using her for sex…)…. …. great.  Stinkin punk… no wonder he’s a cracker… But anyway, after the suckfest of 45 min, there was a 30 min break and then Counting Crows played.  They put on a great show.  Awesome lighting… Good sound… Great showmanship… I always enjoy their concerts.

THEN, sarah and I came back and went to zzas… late night food… and had a conversation about our relationship.. and as we’re attempting to have this serious, deep, awkward conversation… everyone and their brother stopped by to say hi to us!  It was really funny.  At first we were like, “Oh HI!” and all polite… but eventually we were just like… “OK… nice seein ya, buh bye.”  Then we explained what was going on… and we were laughin… but it was interesting.

SO, Sarah and I are doing great.  We’re both happy and stupid over each other.  It’s fun.  She rocks and I can’t understand why she finds me attractive in the slightest, but I’m not complaining!

I’m getting a digital camera for Christmas… YES!  I picked it out and stuff.  FUN STUFF.  I’m all psyched bout that.  ok, bed time.  I have a huge presentation to give tomorrow!!!  Wish me luck and be prayin that I don’t screw it up too bad!

Mood:  Tired but hyped. 
Music:  Counting Crows – Long December

Man… it’s been awhile since I’ve updated.  I’ve been SO stressed outl lately… I was on duty friday night, and I dealt with more situations than anyone I’ve heard of in one night… We had 6 incidents with a total of 19 drunks doing stupid things, fighting, breaking policies, vandalizing… ::sigh:: THAT night sucked… cuz then, not only did I have to confront all of them, but I had to write them all up and stayed up until 6am doing paperwork.  Then I got up the next day for work at CedarCreek… had services there, came home, worked on a powerpoint presentation for a group project presentation involving 10 people, slept for a few hours, got up for work at the creek sunday morning, came back for an hour for lunch, went BACK to the creek for new community since the tornadoes cancelled it last time, then came back and worked on the powerpoint more, slept for a few hours and got up for monday classes…. ….. THERE WENT MY WEEKEND!    Not even an hour to myself for relaxation or recreation…. BAH!

CedarCreek’s New Community service was cool though.  We baptised over 50 people and sang a lot of praise songs… we hung out in total celebration.  It was COOL!  To see these people, whose lives have been changed… thank God for his grace… and for them to be obedient in front of everyone and get baptised… with a thousand people watching and singing… and cheering for them…. man… it rocked.  On the technical side, it sucked… I was running cables, wires, adapters.. up until the last minute to get all the equipment working… That’s never fun.  Yet somehow I thrive on that pressure….    I don’t get it… God wired me up real strange…

Yeah so anywho, today (technically yesterday now) was monday… I took a test in Marketing 300 which I actually think I did well on!  YEE HA!  First one for that feeling… and I need a good test grade in there… BADLY!  And I finished that powerpoint presentation that was stressin me out… We present wednesday.  MAN… try organizing notes from 10 people on the same topic… talk about SUCK!

Tonight (since it IS tuesday) I’m going to see Counting Crows in Toledo with my every so lovely yet strange sense of taste (cuz she likes me) girlfriend… Miss Sarah Kuntz!    and props to her brother Josh for successfully impregnating his wife Erin…. way to go dude… and way to go for your little dudes… one was a great swimmer… … ….. …. …. ok… definitely moving on.

So yeah, Sarah is gonna be Aunt Sarah soon… HAHAHA… that’s fun… AND the baby COULD be born on my birthday!  The due date is July 22nd (I think) and my B-Day is July 17th… (I think we all know what I’ll be rootin for on that day…)  “COME ON BABY… COME ON BABY…”  nah… actually I’ll be out boozing it up cuz I’ll be 21…. HAHAHA… JUST KIDDING!  I’m not gonna drink… Don’t freak out if ya know me… and if ya don’t know me… then… yeah… know that I don’t drink… er something…. … … my eye hurts!  It feels like I got punched… but I didn’t… so …. I’m gonna blame Sarah and say that she punched me…

OH YEAH, I saw Tom Conlin in concert on thursday… great as usual… mellow guitar, all accoustic, great voice… love that show.  Check out his website if ya want…  www.tomconlonmusic.com

Friday is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert too… mad props to that.  Sarah and I get to get all dressed up and go like civilized college students… HAHAHA… it’s gonna be FUN! 

OK… I’m tired… must go… word.

Mood:  Less stress… still lots to do.
Music:  Tom Conlon – Over My Shoulder

Hip Hip Horay for Tornados!

I drove with Sarah to CedarCreek for our New Community service on sunday night to baptize over 60 people… but alas… we cancelled due to the 4 tornados on the radar!  BAH!  I drove through em!  Weenies.    I was like… “they’re going 35… I’m going 75… we’ll outrun em.”  SO here I am going 75 in the rain looking for tornados while jamming to loud thumping Good Charlotte – Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.  HAHA!  Quite a site.

I felt bad for Sarah though.  She was freaked out cuz she’s not used to bad weather like that and I stayed in the auditorium helping them stop leaks, pump out water, and other fun stuff, BUT, the auditorium is probably the worst place to be cuz of the open roof sheet metal stuff… And I (the oblivious boyfriend) didn’t notice that it was a problem with her until after the storm passed… whoops.  But ANYWAY, she was fine and I apologized and she forgave me cuz I’m dumb.    Then we drove back to BG in the wake of the storm, took sideroads after a while cuz the interstate was a parking lot due to overturned semi trucks (on the road we had just travelled… heh heh).  We watched “Behind Enemy Lines” (good movie) then ordered pizza and played “Sorry” and “Uno” with a buncha people from Offenhauer’s Staff.

On Thursday night a bunch of peeps from h2o went out to see “The Ring” after the service… I liked it.  Some didn’t… I loved the intensity.  WELL DONE RING DUDES!

Events of this weekend worth mentioning:
1) Third Day has a song called “When the rain comes.”  We did that at CedarCreek.  Great tune with accoustic guitar…
2) Jess Bernard and Jayson Smithers are engaged now!  He proposed on the cruise they went on with her parents.  She’s got a real purty ring made from Jayson’s grandma’s diamonds… The date isn’t for a year and a half yet since they want to finish their degrees up first.
3) I got my scheduling fixed and am good to go!  Freakin yeah for the nice lady in the tech building who rushed on my paperwork!

NOW, I’m about to sleep cuz I got 3 hours of sleep last night… and it’s 2am now…. and I got up at 8am…. words…. text… it’s all a blur… so…. I’M GONE!

Mood:  TIRED!
Music:  Sheryl Crow – Soak Up The Sun

Scheduling for classes SUCKS!

You’d think that after they finally get Web Registration working here at BGSU, that scheduling would be easy…. NOoooooooooooooo…. not for me…  See… there’s this little thing called “Matriculation.”  That means, I have to meet certain requirements by my junior year before I can take any other level 300 or 400 classes.  So I did that.  I Matriculated… but does the system recognize that?  NO!  I have to fill out forms now which will take up to 5 days to process.  “What is the big deal?” you ask.  WELL, I am SUPPOSED to have priority registration.  That means that I register a few days before the other 18,000 students at BG so that I can get into the classes I need to be in to fit my schedule as an RA.  SO, if I wait 5 days…. I’m actually registering BEHIND everyone.  …. …. …. SON OF A B!  So now I will have to fight my way into all my classes…. override forms… wait lists…. BLAH BLAH BLAH!  I HATE THIS CRAP!  … … … ok… venting over.  ::deep breath:: 

ok.  ok.  ok…  I’m better.  Little bit of Dashboard Confessional and I’m calm.  So last night I tried to watch Orange County on our movie channel cuz I’ve never seen it… but about half way through a resident knocked on my door informing me that she wanted to kill her roommate… … ok…. movie off…. BAH!  Plus I’ve got some other guy residents fighting now… …. stupid …. people…  It’s about time for people to start freakin out.  We’ve just passed mid-terms, people are getting frustrated with school… tired of being here… and the weather is starting to suck (which keeps them inside more), so they’re all snapping at each other like little pirhanas…

On the plus side, I found that I only need 17 more classes to graduate.  4 of which I’m taking this upcoming semester.  That leaves 13 for my senior year.  One of which is my co-op…. so 12… one of which is a 1 credit class… so…. 11… and a wuss class… like… swing dancing with Sarah… or Hockey… heh heh… hockey would rule…  BUT, if I don’t take my one credit hour course this upcoming semester, then I won’t be a senior… i’ll have 89 hours… I need 90… hmmm… hockey IS offered… we’ll see

ok… off to school work land.  BAHHHHHHH I need to play some GTA3 and release my anger on some unsuspecting pedestrians…   sooooo evil….. but soooooo good.  It’s like the crack cocain of video games.  You know it’s wrong but just can’t stop using it.  If only I had the time to use it…. FREAKIN BAH!

Mood:  stressed
Music:  Dashboard Confessional – The Brilliant Dance

“Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize your neighborhood
And whoever shall be found
Without the soul for ‘getting down’
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse’s shell

The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty-thousand years
And grisly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The EVIL of… The THRILLER!”
                                 -M.J.

heh heh heh… Halloween… gotta bust out the Michael Jackson.

ANYWHO, It’s been a LONG time since I’ve had the time to update this thing… man so much has happened…

Let’s see, we’ll start with Halloween… A bunch of us dressed as the monks from Monty Python that bang their heads with boards after chanting… that was fun.  We got in the top ten in the costume contest at H2O.  Unfortunately we lost to a big yellow box.  Stupid Sponge Bob.

Then Friday the 1st, Sarah and I went to Oxford, OH for the Miami Univiersity vs. BGSU hockey game.  After 3 hours of driving…. and great conversation… we arrived on campus around 4:45pm.  We met Drew Wood and his friend Wes there and played about 8 or 9 holes of disc golf before it got dark.  The course there is AWESOME!  HUGE holes… lots of par 4 and 5… Massive trees, hills, stone bridges, valleys, streams… very cool.  I was shooting a +1 when we had to quit.  Boo. So we bid adeau to Drew and Wes and split. 

Then we met up with Sarah’s brother Michael and his chick friend and we all went to Arby’s for dinner.  THEN, off to the game.  So here we are sitting in the middle of the Miami student section in a sea of red and white… wearing bright orange colors.  In the second period BG scored first to make it 1-0… Sarah and I jumped up and I yelled, “YEAH!” and we started clapping… then realized that thousands of fans were staring at us… HAHAHa… so we sat down and I got skittles thrown at me.  heh heh heh… I deserved it.  I’m the guy that has the nerve to sit in the middle of the students wearing colors and loudly cheering against them… I almost kicked my own butt out of principle.  Not that I regret it… I’d do it again.  But I can see that I was a jerk to everyone else. 

We lost the game 3-2 in the end, which sucked, but went back to Michael’s apartment and said “PEACE OUT” and left.  The 3.5 hour drive back rocked.  Sarah and I had so much time to just talk.  We got stuck in a traffic jam (thus adding the .5 hours) and had some really great bonding time.  Around 1:30am we stopped in a Waffle House for … ummm… breakfast?  fun times.  Sarah is such an awesome woman.  I love her so much.  Why in the world she spends time with me… I will never fully understand… Maybe I should tell her that I really DON’T know Tom Cruise… …. …. naaahhh…

Over the 2nd and 3rd were the CedarCreek services.  Good stuff.  Kraig Mackett and I had a good time.  Kraig ran the sound board and I ran the video and computer.  Kraig and I are technical nerd/psychos, so when we start talking nerd, look out.    During the first service on sunday, everything went psycho.  The projector got funky lines in it, the in-house video system lost all audio and replaced it with buzzing, the video audio had a loud hum in it, and we were totally confused since it all worked up until 10 minutes before the service.  So we roughed it out that service and fixed it for the next one.  Stupid ground loop in the equipment somewhere…  

Saturday I got a lot of RA work done… Bulletin boards, signs, etc.  Sunday night Sarah and I watched the Red Wings game.  We tied Dallas 3-3. The St. Louis Sucky Blues (yes that’s part of their name) are in first place and I’m kinda ticked… stupid blues.  Ah well, they still don’t have the Stanley Cup… and haven’t …. ever….

Kraig informed me that ComWave is supposed to install internet service to our building tonight… probably done by now… so I have to go in and set it up now…. SO WITH THAT… Word.

Mood:  Feeling odd… I have a lot to do, but I’m good.
Music:  Creed – One Last Breath

Well, thats it… no more cool looking site… I’m poor and my free premium trial is gone.   Ah well, I’ll survive. 

So life is really good right now.  I’m mildly stressed about a few things (housing for next year, group project for TECH 302, RA Programming Events, CedarCreek hours for next year…)  But I’m taking it all very well.  God has given me a great peace over stuff lately.  Yay for that!

I found out in my one-on-one with my boss (a bi-weekly meeting to discuss stuff), that I most likely won’t be getting fired at the semester…. so that’s good… lol… not that I was ever worried about it, but apparently we get evaluated at the semester and could be fired…. HAHAHA… I guess like 10 RA’s get fired a year… that’s about 5% of them.  Anyword, I’m good.  Anyword… I just made that up… you like?

Things are going great with Sarah and I!    Her parents were just up here last weekend.  We hung out Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.  We had dinner on saturday at Bob Evans in P-burg, then lunch at Pisanello’s in BG on Sunday, followed by a trip to Meijers for fun shopping!  Her parents rock.  I guess her mom really likes the comment I made one time about her.  I apparently said that she, “Freakin rocks,” and that made her all happy… heh heh… and her dad is very awesome too.  Sarah’s very lucky to have such cool parents.  (And I’m freakin lucky to have a girlfriend as cool as Sarah!!!)

Still thinkin bout housing for next year.  I find out in November the budget of CedarCreek… will it be possible for me to work full-time?  I hope so.  If so, I can get an apartment!  Ooooh Ooooh… Joe Holzhause offered for me to live with him next year… so that’s a possiblity now.  We could find some place off campus and have a swingin bachelor pad!  OW OWWW!  er… something.  So now my options are:
1)  Live with Joe (verified)
2)  Live with Matt and two other guys (unverified)
3)  Live with Richie Dible and Matt Robinson (unverified)

::Sigh::  I don’t know yet.  OUCH! I just sneezed and my teeth hurt!!!!!!  stupid wisdom teeth… moving all my teeth around… causing sore gums… bah!  January 2nd the day will be mine and you’re history!  er… the day will be the drugs’ that I’ll be on… but either way, I’ll triumph over you yet!

Friday is Nov. 1st and Sarah and I are taking a trip to Oxford, OH for the Miami University / BGSU hockey game.  Her brother goes there so we’re gonna meet him and watch the game.  I REALLY hope we win, cuz I’m wearing my BGSU Hockey jersey, shirt, and hat, and sarah is wearing her BG hockey shirt and hat… so we’re gonna stick out like sore thumbs in that arena.  We’re gonna meet up with Drew Wood down there too… and Luke and Sara might be going too!  heh heh.. Drew invited us all to a rousing Disc Golf game beforehand, but we won’t be able to get there until 6ish and It’ll be getting dark.  BAH!  I wanted to play soooo bad too.   SOMEDAY.  SOMEDAY I will tour the state playing all the courses I can!

ok, it’s 2am and I have to spend some time with God and get to bed.  I have a meeting at 11.  word.

Mood:  Taking a licking but I keep ticking
Music:  Kyle Gray – Drive me

Yeah, so my free trial of Xanga Premium is about to expire in 4 days… so buh bye to the nice lookin site and back to plain old suckfest of colors… ah well, I’m a college student in the ministry… How can they expect me to have money?

Tonight Sarah and I watched Josh and Erin’s wedding video.  Josh is her older brother.  They just got married in June and so I got to see all the fun stuff…  Like Sarah singing her song at the wedding.  Sarah sings great…. …  like a song bird cooing a …. …. … dude that likes songs… HAHAHA… I’m so smooth.

I just found out that SHANNON MURPHY reads my site… PROPS TO HER!  Haven’t seen the girl (besides last sunday) in months and don’t talk to her ever… but for some strange reason she likes me enough to read up on me.  So to Shannon, I bid this cry:  WHUSSAAAAPPPP!?!??!?!?!??

I’m thoroughly enjoying my palm pilot organizing my life… Props to that.  Less sticky notes and paper schedules = easier to understand where I’m supposed to be and what I should be doing there.  Lets face it folks, I’m dumb.  I know that.  So I need all the help I can get.  I’m so pathetic that I’ve shown Sarah how to enter stuff into my palm pilot so that when… not if… when I forget to do it, she’s got my back.  Once again, you rock girlfriend!  No literally… girlfriend.  heh heh… ok, I’m only proving my “dumb” point mentioned above so I’ll switch topics now.

Counting Crows on November 19th!  OW OWWW!  THEN, a show I’m even more psyched for… Trans-Siberian on the 22nd!  Freakin yeah for them.  ALRIGHTY, It’s almost 2:30am and I’m on duty and need sleep.  Word to your mother.

Mood:  Really happy and feeling worshipful to God 
Music:  shhhh…. it’s after quiet hours!  no music!