Bottoms up or not?

roupaki88 | avasilopoulos@ut.edu | IP: 72.187.242.100So, Hopfully this shows up as a post & not a reply to someones post. Iv been struggling with this site :/ so heres my blog…

Bottoms up?? Or not….

So after week long of debating what to “blog” about… and attempting to make it something worth reading…it wasn’t till this afternoon that I felt like I had something I really wanted to share.
Today I spent my day on Clearwater Beach with some of my friends and since some colleges are still going on Spring Break, the beach was beyond crowded, and off course there was ridiculous traffic (lucky for me I live down here so it’s a 10 min walk :p ). Being the people watcher that I am, it gets interesting on a crowded beach. Unfortunately, sitting behind us today (like 2 feet away from my head) were three (very loud & obnoxious) high school girls (that couldn’t have possibly been a day older than 16) that were drinking along with two nasty college guys that were trying to convince them to go with them. Out of the three girls, even though they were all wasted, the one couldn’t tolerate her liquor as well as the other two, and needless to say, was crying, and yelling random things to the people around her…sadly her friends were also incoherent…but not to the level of the one girl. The one guy was grabbing on her one friend asking if she was in high school and where she was from, followed by his horrible pick up lines of “leme tell you a secret ma, I think your so sexy, no other girl is as hott as you out here…blah blah…leme take you back to our room…” (trying to f*ck underage drunk girls…not cool, at all). Now, I don’t know what ended up happening to the girls (can only hope for the best & that those jerks didn’t convince any of them to go back to their room, since they were obviously out of sorts)…besides the fact that the one guy was also drunk…tripped over me lol walked (more like wobbled) like 4 feet…then started coughing, and spitting up junk.. gross. Looked like he was throwing up, but it wasn’t full blown…(not that you all needed to know that, if your reading)…but turning around and seeing the scared look on the girls face was so sad…till she started throwing up everywhere, and yea I had to turn away.. and we moved our towels. And her two friends were blowing her off, hitting on the guys…not knowing what they were saying. Now first off, let me throw in a disclaimer that I am not against drinking, (and yes iv been drunk…on multiple occasions…buttttt this stories not about me..so moving on) Its just sad how people feel that they have to drink and get drunk for either acceptance, or to loosen up or what ever their reason maybe. Also, you end up looking beyond idiotic being that wasted. I have a lot of friends though that feel like they need alcohol to have a good time when they’re out, which I disagree with. I thinks its fine to drink when you’re having a good time ect., but you don’t NEED the drink to have a good time. (Now here’s a little history on my childhood, but I promise it will all link together with the alcohol story by the end ) Growing up my family has been in the hotel business, and we had a few hotels on Clearwater Beach. Ever since I can remember, I’d spend a lot of time tagging along my dad, mom, uncle, grandfather ect, on the weekends, after school free time, holidays, and spring break running between our hotels & restaurant, pretending to be the little boss lol. Being raised in that environment I got to see first hand the working system, how it is to run businesses, and I believe that’s where my love for people watching began. I remember watching servers and other employees being hired and fired. Servers that would come in for the morning shift smelling like booze from the night before, red in the face or just too high to work. I remember learning bout how bartenders can cheat the bar ect or how some employees had to have a certain amount of their paycheck deducted to be sent automatically for child-care since they weren’t responsible to do it on their own. But most of all I remember, sitting at one of the hotels front desks during spring break, and watching under aged college kids coming in and out with liquor. One morning, I saw an under aged girl, wrapped up in a bed sheet in the front lobby in tears, stating how she was intoxicated the night before, date rapped, and that all her belongings were gone…not even her clothes left. Stories such as this one and so many more, from finding all sorts of bongs in rooms, to bathtubs filled with empty beer cans, vomit on the carpets, items stolen ect. I remember seeing guys shouting from the tops of the balconies, welcoming random girls to come up drink and party, along with girls hanging over the balconies flashing random guys ect. Though this is all the usual for “college spring break” as a little kid, it was rather shocking and vowed that I would never turn out like these people that I would see day in and day out. (Though, I didn’t hold to my promise…)
Anyways, back to the drunk girl on the beach, just seeing her face today reminded me of my first time being highly intoxicated and how insane it was…(total different story for another time…) and it made me put down my vodka & watermelon filled cup today, just because I was really grossed out. It also made me think, that that’s someone’s lil baby girl…and as I looked around and saw families and children playing, it made me wonder, how the grand majority of the sweet small children, will eventually land up in this girls place, and what kind of example some of us set…Its just disappointing on how our system is, and how much worse things are going to get by the time I have children, and I certainly don’t want my daughter making all of the mistakes I made (which makes me understand why my parents can be rather strict at times), but I guess that’s the only way to learn. Perhaps it’s just me that sees it like this though. Don’t think of me as a hypocrite though, I drink and have drank my share…we all have stories to tell…and I’m not trying to preach that drinking is bad, its just sad when were falling over throwing up and not remembering things the next day (and having a food aversion to anything flavored similar to our drink from the night before…) –a lot of people find it funny, but it really isn’t. *(also as I write this, I’m sitting with my laptop on my balcony, and I can hear my neighbor Emily two houses down fighting outside with her boyfriend…her older sister had died 2 years ago from a car accident involving drinking…and yet Emily continues in her sisters footsteps, not learning from something that major in her life…anyways)
Sometimes I wonder if the USA drinking age has anything to do with the tendencies here of getting drunk or if its just part of the American Culture. Being that I’m Greek, wine and alcohol is a part of our culture. In Greece, there is no real set drinking age unless you are in a strict club in Athens, where the drinking age is…17. Maybe because alcohol is so readily available there, there isn’t as big of a problem with alcohol poisoning. While attending one of my study abroad meetings at UT, the professor lecturing was talking about how the biggest problem with study abroad is that the countries in Europe are hesitant to accept American students in apartments (since dorms aren’t as common, depending on where your going) due to the way American students do not know how to treat alcohol as a social means vs binging. I found some facts on our school website actually about college students and alcohol…
- college students spend $6 billion more on alcohol than regular drinks and books combined.
- 42% of college students binge drink
- 56% of those are between 18 and 20
- over 400,000 students had unprotected sex after drinking
- estimated 100,000 had sex intoxicated unable to consent
- over 300,000 students each year need emergency health care for alcohol overdoes
- over 30,000 are hospitalized for alcohol poisoning

So just as a re-cap, I’m not here to state whether drinking is right or wrong, or how much is too much (because it varies from each person). Just throwing my feelings out there for the day based on what I saw at the beach, and how over I am of people finding it hilarious when other people are piss drunk, because its not funny for the person that’s dealing with it and the consequences that can arise.

Mar 30, 6:26 PM (cyn6 reposting comment)

What the F#@k?

I saw this commercial for WWE Wrestlemania yesterday.After watching it all I could think was What the Fuck? The biggest vs the best?To me it’s more like 440 pounds vs 146 pounds and 7 ft. vs 5 ft 7 in.  How could this match even be a match.On the up side the WWE did get me curios enough to want to buy it. It is entertainment, it is what the WWE wanted me to do when they put such a match together. Hence and it being staged I didn’t buy it.  

finding out who’s REALLY got your back the hard way

So there is always those situations when you go out at night with all of your buddies and things start to happen between your boys and other people for numerous reasons like they kept talking shit to you for no reason, they were hitting on your girlfriend or a person is so drunk that they don’t know what they are doing and they just want to start shit just for the hell of it.  Even though when you go out you always just want to have a good time and don’t want any of this to happen because it always ruins the night.  So all of my buddies and I went out this weekend and we had a great time until the end of the night.  The night was already over and me and my thre other friends were just hanging out near the exit waiting for some other people to leave.  My friend said that he was going back inside to look for them.  After not coming back after awhile we were wondering where he went.  My buddy’s friend that he works with there came over to us and said that there was a fight in the back parking lot so we thought that we would go over and just watch because we didn’t have anything to do with it.  When we got there my friend came out of a huge group of people with a ripped shirt, only one shoe on and did not have the hat that he was wearing that night.  Apparently what had happened was that one of our other friends was talking to this kid and they started to push each other around and then my friend that had come out with his shirt ripped stood up for our other buddy and punched the kid in the face. Then he got thrown to the ground and was getting punched and kicked by a bunch of kids and our other friend that he stood up for did not even help him or try to get him out of the situation, he just stood there and watched.  Our other friend then tried to pull him out of the pile and eventually did.  When we had arrived the whole thing was already over and when I had found out what had really happened I was really pissed that I was not there to help out but I could not do anything obviously because I was not there but we were all really pissed at our friend that the whole thing started over and my friend stood up for him and then didn’t even try and help him when he needed it.  When something like this happens it is a huge let down and an insult because that person that we thought was our good friend and stood up for did not help when his friend needed it and that is a huge kick in the face.  It’s just very disappointing to me when a person you thought was your good friend doesn’t back you up when you need it especially when you just stood up for him.   I feel really bad for my good buddy and it just shows when you find out the hard way who really has your back.  Protect and always have your friends back no matter what.

Scaredy Cat!

New from Associated Press, a cat is discovered caught in the walls of a house in between drywall in Gilbert, Arizona. The homeowner claimed you could hear it make noises through the wall. Wayne Berkowitz, the homeowner, contacted a local construction company for workers to come to the home and cut holes out of the ceiling. He plans to get in touch with an animal control center to set up traps and hopefully catch the cat and remove it from the house safely. It’s amazing to me how the cat could survive after being stuck in such closed quarters for an extended period of time. With no sign of food or water, it’s lucky to still be alive. How could a cat get mistakenly get “built” into a house? Before the drywall is put in, the frames are built which is what holds up the house. There’s no walls built yet; there’s just its skeleton. I would hope whomever was the overseer for the construction of this house would pay more attention to what all is being put into it. There’s a video of the home posted on YouTube if you want to check it out! 

Don’t forget the Sunscreen!

I usually don’t volunteer for things, but when I heard about this opportunity, I was quick to get my name on the list.

Last week these three guys came to my Production class to talk about a Film Festival here in Tampa. The Sunscreen Film Festival. Immediately I thought- Celebrities, movies, food and after parties? I’m there! So I went to their website and signed myself (and a friend) up to volunteer. We ended up having to work on Saturday, the closing night. So there we were, on our way to the Vinnoy Renaissance Hotel in St. Pete, not really knowing what to expect. We had heard that John Travolta was going to be there and that’s pretty much all we talked about the entire way there. When we got there, we found ourselves in a crowded and hectic atmosphere, there were tons of people, mingling in small crowds, laughing at each others jokes and talking about how great their movies were. I felt totally in place. Unfortunately I wasn’t there for my acting debut–rather, to sell t-shirts.  So after (failing at) selling t-shirts for an hour, one of the Festivals organizers, FRANCESCO! (what a great name) let me and my friend just kind of hang out. So we did. We went in to see a couple of movies like this awesome documentary that I loved called WHY WE WAX that talked about why women undergo the masochistic torture of a brazilian wax. It was genius! Then we walked around, talking to some people (but really were on a mission to find John. Travolta, that is) After a while our friend FRANCESCO! called us. “Hey girls, you think you could like set up like two or three posters in this room for when we have the awards?” So me and Kat left the fun, bohemian scene and went and set up three posters advertising some brand of vodka I had never heard about. Then it was award time! We still hadn’t seen John. So the guys who created the festival went up to the stage and gave a loooooooong list of thank yous and then moved on to give out awards. They did best Florida film, best music video, best documentary and a few others. It was a lot of fun to be able to be there and see the people who won–some of them pretty big names apparently. And after the awards, it was party time! But that’s a whole other story.

In the end I didn’t get to meet Mr. Travolta. Apparently he had been there on a previous night. But I did get to meet other interesting people who love what I love, which is movies. And hey–I also got a free T-shirt.

A Great Day

If today you thought you had a bad day then stop for a second and think about this.  It could be worse. Why? All you have to remember is these three things: you have food, you have shelter, and you have education.

1. Cities around the country are reporting record numbers of homeless people entering shelters or sleeping on the streets.

As a faltering U.S. economy, skyrocketing housing prices and reduced government services force people from their homes, agencies are scrambling to find ways to provide shelter and assistance to a growing and changing homeless population.

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty estimates some 3 million men, women and children will be homeless for at least some part of 2002.

“I suspect it is going to be a record increase this year, as it was last year,” Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the organization said in a Washington Post interview. “And it really does have to do with the economy, mainly loss of jobs and loss of wage-earning power.”

2.

Ø   In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called “absolute poverty”

Ø                          Every year 15 million children die of hunger

Ø  For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years

Ø  Throughout the 1990’s more than 100 million children will die from illness and starvation. Those 100 million deaths could be prevented for the price of ten Stealth bombers, or what the world spends on its military in two days!

Ø  The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving- Since you’ve entered this site at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will die this year.

Ø  One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5. United Nations Food and Agriculture

3.

                              Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

      Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.

These facts are to demonstrate the problems in the world and to also give you a reason to be thankful you even had a DAY even if it was bad.  Ah, but what do those facts matter anyways.  This is just one jerks opinion of what should make someone thankful.

My first (interesting) post

i’m struggling with an interesting topic to write about, so i’ll write about something dear to my heart…my thursday night.i take these bitches for granted and, in all honesty, they really are fantabulous. they were great, right up until thursday night at 12:40AM when my body decided to force itself upon the tile of the spartan grill (face first! of course). needless to say, i spent that night in the hospital. they ran tests upon tests on me and plugged me with an IV and needles and took blood samples and cat scans, but they didn’t know WTF was wrong with me. i even tested negative for alcohol, so no cool stories for my grandkids here.a story is never really that interesting unless there are (at least) one of three things involved (cue savaglio): babies, sex, and cute animals. well, i have one to add to that…unexplainable blackouts! how interesting would it be to hear about how fucked up my grill was?!i believe the cause of my blackout was a lack of hydration and nutrition. i hadn’t eaten for the past 8 hours and all i had was beer in my stomach (but it didn’t show up on the blood test ha!). so, i was in the spartan grill and i decided to sit down at a computer because i felt a bit nauseous while i waited for my dinner. once it was ready, i had to get up and pay for it (while my friend carried the food). then suddenly, i couldn’t hear anything. it was like the following day of a concert, when your ears are still ringing and buzzing. i stumbled a bit and hit my noggin on the counter by the sweet tea machine. my friend, Alan, grabbed me and asked if i was ok. of course, i said yes. i stood there for a second while he went to get me some sprite (because i kept asking for it). by the time he came back, i was on the floor…out cold. i hit the tile so hard, that my bottom retainer (which is cemented to my teeth) came out. i was down for about 2.5 seconds (or so i’ve heard). a small pool of blood formed, along with a small crowd.during the ride to the hospital, alan rated gave me a rating on his fuckedupometer of a 6.5 (a 9 was a stabwound). my top four teeth were pushed inward towards my throat at about a 70* angle and the bottom four were pushed inwards a little less. my two middle teeth are chipped forming a tiny V and my k9’s are chipped, but not as bad. the following day, my mom came and picked me up and brought me home for an appointment with an oral surgeon and he realigned my teeth. i was sedated for an hour. luckily, he said my teeth bones weren’t damaged and i could keep my teeth. i guess that’s a happy ending.  until my next post,watch out for those unexplainable blackouts…they’re rampant!chase   

What We’re All About

It’s been more than 20 years since I was an undergraduate college student. Yet, after having spent most of my adult life teaching writing to undergraduate college students, both everything and nothing have changed since I was sitting on the other side of a lecture podium. To paraphrase a “writing teacher” colleague; “if I knew everything about college students, I would know everything about college students.” Therefore, this forum has been opened to them, a select class of undergraduates struggling to master both my unique and derivative interpretations on the subject of writing. The only instruction was to write about something they find “interesting” and to post at least once a week. Therefore, I have no idea what might potentially follow this post. I’m rather curious myself. My only hope is that it will paint a small picture of who they truly are, and either dispel or enlarge some of the adjectives and stereotypes that currently define them.