Ogre₦ation

The question I chose to ask people on campus was, “Do you go to school here?” I got a range of reactions, some confused, some sarcastic, and some totally serious.

The first person I asked gave me the best response. When I asked her if she went to Morningside, she scrunched her face in confusion, then fired back a sarcastic answer of, “No, bro, I just like walking around campus with 50 pounds of books on my back!” She laughed a little when she realized that I might take offense to her seemingly bitchy answer, and actually struck up a conversation with me. The best part about this reaction was the fact that I had never met this girl before in my life; she looked like a freshmen. Her response, surprisingly, was the only sarcastic answer I received and I asked exactly 10 people.

Everyone else gave me the same answer of, “Yeah, what about you?” I made sure to ask people I didn’t know so I could get sincere, spontaneous responses. Some people gave me a look of, “who are you and why are you talking to me,” but gave me polite and friendly answers. Many seemed startled when I approached them out of the blue. Most people on campus keep their eyes down when they pass someone they don’t know, so I feel like I made some people pretty uncomfortable simply by speaking to them.

This exercise forced me to come out of my shell a little to walk up to random students and ask a really stupid question. I wouldn’t call myself shy by any means, but I typically don’t talk to people that I don’t know or like. Judging by the reactions I got, I would say I’m not the only one.

The story of an up-and-coming country music star begins in small town, rural Iowa. The “Music-man” was born and raised in the Hawkeye state, just a short 20-minute drive east of the fabled “Great Lakes” of Okoboji in Spirit Lake. He found himself a long way from home this past summer as he stepped on stage in front of –or behind –the four judges of the NBC smash-hit, “The Voice”.

Casey Muessigmann –pronounced “Music-man” –was born in Iowa City, Iowa, and grew up in Spencer, home of the Tigers, where he attended grade school. Early in his childhood, he showed signs of amazing musical talent that his family adored.

“My love for music started at a very young age. At most family gatherings, I found myself more entranced with the radio than with the actual family,” voiced Muessigmann. “During long road trips, I found myself intertwined more with the radio frequency, than with that of the conversation, and learned several songs out of rote memory.”

His grandmother Judy, lovingly referred to by Casey as Grandma Muessigmann, was a major influence on his early development as a singer. A devout Toby Keith fan, Grandma Muessigmann would have her grandson memorize Toby Keith songs between his visits to her home in Aberdeen, South Dakota.

“Her love for music, along with her undying fandom for Toby Keith led to her pushing me towards country music, and thus, my career ‘started,’” recalled Casey. “Music’s a funny thing, because it reaches you in so many different ways. You know, over time, you just fall in love with it. At least I did, especially when I realized I had a talent for it.”

In addition to being a big fan of Toby Keith, Casey also idolizes another big name in country music, Jason Aldean.

“Every single song connects with a part of me. Jason Aldean has got his redneck side, he’s got his wild side, but he’s also got his other songs. Songs like Back In This Cigarette, Wide, Good To Go, songs that just tug on my heart-strings,” Casey went on. “The display of importance of family and his passion in his music are the exact same way I feel about my music.”

—

In high school, Casey was involved in a little bit of everything, from being president of Student Council, to varsity wrestling, to singing for the school’s jazz, show and concert choirs. Following high school, Casey decided to follow his passion for wrestling and compete collegiately. He got accepted and enrolled at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, in the fall of 2008. As a freshman, Casey struggled balancing his academics with athletics, and failed out.

“I went back home and lived with my parents for another year. I didn’t do very well in my first semester of junior college, either. So I took a semester off and started working part time at a Movie Gallery, when I realized how much I hated shift work. I decided to go back to school.”

Muessigmann enrolled at Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville, Iowa, in the fall of 2009, making the Dean’s List in both of the two years he studied there.

After living back home while attending Iowa Lakes, Casey chose to give Morningside another shot. After being reaccepted, he declared a major in Mass Communications and got involved with the campus radio station, KMSC Fusion 93, becoming a premier color commentator alongside his play-by-play comrade, Jordan Ogren.

“It’s kinda funny, because I went back to Morningside to study mass communications and wrestle, when all along music had been my passion, and I set it on the back-burner,” admitted Casey.

“A lot of people, when they’re a junior in college, are passed the dreamer stage. I’m not. I want my voice to impact people the way that music has impacted me,” expressed Muessigmann. “Most people grow up and they wanna be a doctor, they wanna be a lawyer. I wanna be a musician. I wanna sing.”

Casey is adored around campus at Morningside, especially by the close friends he made in his time there. Many of them would agree the man loves himself some country music.

“I’ve known Casey since I was seven years old. Every time I would ride with him in a car, he would start singing along to whatever was playing. Casey knew every song that came on the radio,” remembered fellow Spencer native and Morningside roommate, Tyler “Kac” Kacmarynski.

“What I remember most while living with Casey was he would always sing along with the radio while in the shower. We would all stand outside the bathroom listening like a free concert,” said teammate and roommate, Andrew Anthofer. “His obsession with music literally means just that. He had music playing at all hours of the day.”

After his first semester back at Morningside, Casey finally decided to move his move his passion for music to the main burner on his life-stove. Accompanied by his father, Jon Muessigmann, he embarked on a journey to chase his musical dreams in Chicago, Illinois, where auditions were being held for season 3 of the NBC smash-hit program, “The Voice.”

“Casey is such a sweet guy and is amazingly talented. When he told me about trying out for The Voice, he came to our apartment and sang a few songs, asking for the opinion of my roommates and I on which one he should sing,” said long-time friend and current Morningside student, Blake Schany. “We all agreed he melted our hearts,” Schany said with a blush.

After auditioning in Chicago, Casey received a call back from the producers of the show, asking him to participate in the “Blind Auditions” for judges Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Cee-Lo Green, and Blake Shelton in Los Angeles, California.

“Music is definitely a huge part of Casey’s life. I mean, he risked everything for a shot to make it big and it paid off for him,” said wrestling teammate, Carter Tegeler. “His passion and obsession have definitely showed me that even though your goals can seem so far away at times, if you have that desire and obsession to reach them, nothing is out of reach.”

After months of waiting and voice training, Casey took the stage behind the backs of the judges. In his black 10-gallon hat and cowboy boots, he sang his rendition of “Sweet Home, Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, showing off his southern rock charisma and a voice packed with soul and passion. During his performance, Casey managed to turn some heads, and a couple chairs, ultimately selecting country music star, Blake Shelton, reserving his spot on Team Blake.

“I’ve never been so excited and emotional in my entire life. It was literally a dream come true and I can’t even begin to tell you how blessed I am,” said Casey. “I just thank God everyday for the talent He gave me and the drive to succeed I’ve been blessed with. I’m just loving life right now.”

With his dreams finally becoming reality, the “Music-man” is now focusing his obsession on writing his own music down in Nashville, Tennessee, where he currently resides. Living each day as if it were his last, Casey Muessigmann is on his way to reaching his goal of making it “big” in the music industry. Casey continues to live life following his own personal motto, “Dream big, live big.”

“My love of music is something I can only describe as ‘overwhelming.’ It’s an obsession. It’s a curse and a blessing all rolled into one. It’s the alarm clock ringing in my ears when I wake up, and it’s the melody of a Jason Aldean song when I lay my head down at night. Music has become a part of my life in such a way, that I just can’t imagine life without it. Music has literally become a part of my soul.”

Literary: Ask not what recycling wasted food can do for you. Ask how it can change the way we produce valuable chemicals that contribute to everyday life. The latter question can be answered simply; turning food waste into solid gold! Ok, not gold. How about succinic acid?

Almost 1.5 BILLION tons of food goes to waste around the world each year, and it probably wouldn’t shock many to find out that the U.S. is responsible for 40% of that number. For you mental mathers out there, that’s about 600 million tons of food wasted by ‘Mericans alone. Talk about pride in one’s country.

Carol Lin, a biochemical engineer from the City University of Hong Kong, is developing a way to recycle organic food waste into usable biofuels and other chemicals such as succinic acid. For those of you who don’t know about succinic acid, –don’t be shy to admit it, because I sure didn’t –it is a key component of biodegradable plastics and is also used in all kinds of things ranging anywhere from laundry detergent bottles to car parts to food additives.

The current method of producing the acid using petrochemicals is detrimental to the environment, leaving behind a harmful carbon footprint. Lin’s new kind of biorefinery would eliminate the harmful byproducts using bio-based processes, already being looked into by companies in Europe, Asia and the U.S.

Because food waste rots quickly, the biggest challenge is transportation. Another issue is the fact that for every ton of food waste processed, only 81 kg of succinic acid is produced. Now take into account manufacturers’ demand of 44,000 tons each year. The hard part is building a facility large enough to work with that kind of volume. That’s a whole lot’a garbage, folks.

Allen Hershkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council it is important to keep up the effort of a cleaner tomorrow. “No single undertaking is going to address all the waste we generate,” said Hershkowitz. He’s right, but we need to start somewhere. For Mother Earth’s sake.

Quote: “No single undertaking is going to address all the waste we generate,” said Allen Hershkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Don’t tell that to Carol Lin, a biochemical engineer from the City University of Hong Kong, who had discovered a more environmentally friendly way to produce biofuels and other valuable chemicals using that stale, half-eaten muffin in your garbage from last Sunday’s brunch.

Variation of “Waste Not; Can old food really be repurposed?” by Alice Park. Time Magazine, Sept. 10, 2012.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2123317,00.html

If a complete stranger came up to you on the street and offered you a can of soda, would you accept it? Would you take a can from an open soda case sitting out in public with a sign asking you to take one?

I attempted to give away, can by can, a 12-pack of Mountain Dew to anyone that would accept one. I gave some to friends, some to classmates, and some anonymously while observing from a distance. I received a range of reactions, mostly skeptical.

I began by offering people I passed on campus a can each. Some gave me a response of confusion but accepted the drink anyway. I gave away 7 of the cans this way, all to people I knew, but not good friends. This made it much more likely to receive different reactions. The most common reaction I received was a skeptical, “why are you just giving this to me” kind of look. This came from almost everyone I personally gave a soda to.

To give away the remaining cans, I placed the case of Mountain Dew on the front steps of the Olsen student center with a sign reading, “PLEASE TAKE 1.” I observed from a bench about 20 feet away pretending to be minding my own business absorbed in my computer.

This was the fun part of the exercise, because it’s interesting to watch people’s reaction to something like a free case of soda sitting, unattended, in the middle of foot-traffic. I witnessed a range of reactions this way.

The first person to take a Dew walked up the steps, read the sign to himself out loud, then said, “One!” as he took a can and put it in his bag as he walked inside. He seemed pretty comfortable with the idea of drinking the abandoned beverage later on.

Next came a guy and girl together, and I can only assume that they were a couple. The boy read the sign aloud and excitedly took 2 cans. When his girlfriend saw this, she exclaimed, “The sign says to just take one!” Her male friend gave her a look and said, “I grabbed one for you, too.” Then they both went on their way. What a gentlemen.

The remaining two cans remained untouched for quite some time, even during a period between classes where students were flooding in and out of the building. They were eventually scooped up by two loner students who silently walked up, took a can, and walked away without a single look back or uncertainty.

The most interesting part of this exercise was definitely the reactions of the people that did NOT take a Dew. This includes anything from someone reading the sign and otherwise completely ignoring the free soda, to a couple of students who actually approached the box, bent over to take a can but stopped mid-stretch, then turned and walked away empty-handed.

There were also a number of students who I overheard talking to their classmates. I heard questions like, “Please take one, what they just don’t want that dew anymore?” and, “Why do they have pop everywhere?” This last questions makes me wonder if my fellow classmates had attempted the same anonymous giveaway that I did.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/26/opinion/seymour-armstrong-appreciation/index.html?hpt=us_c2

Neil Armstrong’s upbringing.

Neil Armstrong’s training for the moon landing mission.

Neil Armstrong’s new fame, post moon landing.

Other aspirations Armstrong may have had, but never pursued.

From take-off to landing of Apollo 11.

Of the list, I would most like to write about Neil Armstrong’s upbringing. I think it would make for a great story to showcase how he became the hero he was, from how he was raised to anecdotes of his younger years. People only know Neil Armstrong based on his accomplishments as an astronaut, but did he grow up dreaming of working for NASA? Maybe he wanted to drive a fire engine or catch bad guys behind a shield.

The practice of telling stories dates back to the beginning of mankind. Storytelling is a way to inform, express one’s opinion, alter the opinions of others, or simply to entertain.  We need stories because without them, much that has happened in the past would be forgotten. A story can live on forever as long as there is someone to tell it and someone to listen. However, if a story is not passed on, it dies with the beholder. Some stories are more valuable than others, but all stories possess an emotional and historical value that may benefit others in the future. Carry on, storytellers, for the past ceases to exist without you.

The Morningside Mustangs scored big by recruiting Jeremy Gardner, one of the most successful golfers to ever play for Chadron High School in Western Nebraska. The name Chadron may ring a bell to some for the small town is also home to Chadron State College.

“Jeremy is a really impressive golfer. He’s got a lot of talent,” said his roommate and fellow golfer Andrew King, who added, “He’s a pretty swell guy.”

Jeremy’s golf career in high school is a pretty impressive one. As some would guess, Jeremy discovered his love for golf at a very young age.

“I started my golf career when I was about five because my whole family played.  I didn’t start taking it too seriously until middle school when I started to play in Nebraska panhandle tournaments.  My eighth grade year I got on the Nebraska junior tour and played on that the summer before my freshman year,” said Jeremy.

Coming into high school as a freshman, Jeremy was widely regarded as what some would call a golf prodigy. To make a long story short, he didn’t fall short of expectations.

“I was one of eight other people in Chadron High School history to be a four year varsity letter winner in golf,” Jeremy added.

Unfortunately, Jeremy’s state run his senior year was hindered with a serious case of mononucleosis.

“My senior year of high school our golf team was supposed to challenge for a top spot in our district after we placed 2^nd in the Western Conference.  A week and a half before the tournament I got sick with mono and was extremely weak and tired as an effect. After a front nine score of 39 our team score was right in line for a 2^nd place finish behind the eventual state champs.  Because of the mono I didn’t have the energy on the back nine as I ended with a 50, for an 18-hole total of 89.  Our team finished 4^th, three strokes out of 3^rd place.”

Since Jeremy is an intellectual fellow as well, maintaining a 3.85 GPA in high school, golf wasn’t going to be his main focus in college. Morningside’s prestige was what really influenced his decision to study in the great state of Iowa.

“I decided to come to Morningside because of its academics and I would get a chance also to play golf at the college level, which was second on my priority list.  I also liked how class sizes were smaller and felt like a family environment.  When I came and visited it just felt like home I guess. I was asked to be in Honors, but I turned it down because I didn’t want to have too many classes as well as golf during my first semester of college.”

“Jeremy’s one of my closer friends on campus, and he’s a great guy, very outgoing, and from what I hear, a good golfer,” raved fellow student Weston Burkhardt. Koty Turpen was quick to add, “Yeah, Jeremy’s my boy. He was one of the first guys I became friends with here.”

When asked if he was enjoying his first semester at Morningside, Jeremy excitedly said, “I really like it here at Morningside, and I really like the golf program. Going to Morningside was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

Derrell Johnson-Koulianos is pretty much S.O.L. after getting arrested for running a drug house earlier this week. DJK was the best receiver Iowa has ever had and would most likely have been drafted in the top 2 rounds of the NFL Draft this coming April. He can kiss that all goodbye after this incident.

I thought this was a good article considering how upset I am about Koulianos being an idiot. I’m an Iowa fan and was a big fan of DJK’s until this incident. I hope he has fun wasting his talent serving his prison sentence.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5899032

Morningside College scored big by recruiting Jeremy Gardner, one of the most successful golfers to ever play for Chadron High School in Western Nebraska. The name Chadron may ring a bell to some for the small town is also home to Chadron State College.

“Jeremy is a really impressive golfer. He’s got a lot of talent,” said his roommate Andrew King, who added, “He’s a pretty swell guy.”

Jeremy’s golf career in high school is a pretty impressive one. As some would guess, Jeremy discovered his love for golf at a very young age.

“I started my golf career when I was about five because my whole family played.  I didn’t start taking it too seriously until middle school when I started to play in Nebraska panhandle tournaments.  My eighth grade year I got on the Nebraska junior tour and played on that the summer before my freshman year,” said Jeremy.

Coming into high school as a freshman, Jeremy was widely regarded as what some would call a golf prodigy. And to make a long story short, he didn’t fall short of expectations.

“I was one of eight other people in Chadron High School history to be a four year varsity letter winner in golf,” Jeremy added.

Unfortunately, Jeremy’s senior year state run was hindered with a serious case of mononucleosis.

“My senior year of high school our golf team was supposed to challenge for a top three spot in our district after we placed 2^nd in the Western Conference behind my 6^th placing 79.  A week and a half before the tournament I got sick with mono and was extremely weak and tired as an effect. After a front nine score of 39 our team score was right in line for a 2^nd place finish behind the eventual state champs.  Because of the mono I lost didn’t not have the energy in the back nine as I ended with a 50, for an 18-hole total of 89.  Our team finished 4^th, three strokes out of 3^rd place.”

Since Jeremy was an intellectual fellow as well, golf wasn’t going to be his main focus in college. Morningside’s prestige was what really influenced his decision to study in the great state of Iowa.

“I decided to come to Morningside because of its academics and I would get a chance also to play golf at the college level, which was second on my priority list.  I also liked how class sizes were smaller and felt like a family environment.  When I came and visited it just felt like home I guess.”

“Jeremy’s one of my closer friends on campus, and he’s a great guy, very outgoing, and from what I hear, a good golfer,” raved fellow student Weston Burkhardt.

When asked if he was enjoying his first semester at Morningside, Jeremy excitedly said, “I really like it here at Morningside, and I really like the golf program. Going to Morningside was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

The NFL and players’ union are still going at it and can’t agree on much of anything about a new collective bargaining agreement for the 2011 season. There will probably be a lockout like the last time this happened about 30 years ago.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81c9c61f/article/nfl-disagrees-with-unions-estimate-of-lockout-economic-impact