How I got involved in student government

Yesterday, I got asked an intriguing question by FlyingAcorn. Why exactly did I join student government? The simple answer is that I got suckered in by free pizza. The more complicated version involves pizza, but goes on into meeting all sorts of interesting people. Without a doubt, I've met some of the hardest working people on TU's campus.

First week, freshman year I go to get some free pizza in the lobby of my dorm, LaFortune House. Hmmm, looks like they're going to have a meeting afterwards but that's okay. What? I'm now a community service chair?!? Aw snap. At least I didn't volunteer to become the treasurer.

However, I got snookered into being the vice president. Our previous one resigned because he didn't want to go to the RHA meetings. The Residence Hall Assocation was the umbrella organization for all hall governments. They threatened to cut some of LaFortune's funding if we didn't send a representative soon. After a long, awkward silence I volunteered to go to one meeting. As you know with these things, you go to one and you have to go to all of them. The consolation prize was getting to be the veep.

A few weeks later, it turns out we needed a senator to represent LaFortune for the Student Assocation, i.e. the offical overseer of all student organizations on campus. What the heck, I might as well do a write in candidacy. It turned to be a tie. The run off vote turned out to be a tie. We then had a mandatory Senate meeting so they could decide between the two of us. The other guy didn't show up, so I became LaFortune's senator by default.

I got plenty more summary that I could do, but I really haven't answered Heather's question at this point. Let me espouse a bit of bitterness first. I don't like parliamentary procedure. I don't like a majority of the people in student government. I certainly don't like how the system works.

So what do I like about it? I get to know that I'm at least putting in a say on the hundred plus dollars of student fees that I pay. I like to know what's going on around the campus. Most of all, I'd like to think that I'm making a difference on my college experience.

My public schooling experience

Peering into the well of introspection, I see that it's a bit dry. Hmmm, tomorrow is the first day of the academic calendar for Fort Smith Public Schools. I suppose I should sum up a little about my experience in them, since I did spend my whole public education in that system.

For kindergarten through third grade, I went to Raymond Orr Elementary. Not too much to remember there, except for the people I met like my old friend who's going to become an Episcopal priest. In fourth grade, I moved to Beard, where I went to grade school through the sixth grade. I made some more good friends and won three straight geography bees (yet again why I know so many world capitals).

My junior high years, seventh grade through ninth grade, were spent at Ramsey. To me, these were the worst years. Kids can be really cruel at this age. You were old enough to know things, but no one had a car to go anywhere. It was still pretty cool as I got to befriend Andy and Maph. I got second in the Sebastian county spelling bee in my eighth grade year. Along with the hot tempered Adam Tabakin, I helped the Math Counts team to two state trophies, a fourth place one and a second place one. I also managed to win a first place trophy in a state algebra contest.

At Southside I got to know Jameson and Mike better. I knew of my roommate Howard at Ramsey, but the first time we really got to talk was in Mrs. McBride's Spanish II class of our sophomore year in high school. In high school I got my first hint that I would do too much when I tried out a bunch of stuff. I became embittered working at Carmike Cinemas during this time as well. Some of the highlights include being an Asian farmer in Oklahoma!, doing extemperaneous speaking for forensics, and winning a state calculus competition. Capturing a science bowl championship and regional MVP were my most successful achievements in my somewhat illustrious Quiz Bowl career (though I haven't tried Academic Bowl in college due to burnout).

I could pull out a whole lot more stuff out of my paper journal, but that's all I can think of at this point. The Ft. Smith system could be surprisingly good because it was able to attract a number of good teachers. There were a lot of problems, mostly due to the fact that the state system is terrible. I've heard that the administration often mismanages the money. Whatever the case may be, you can call me one of their pure products.

That's not necessarily a good thing.

A little about my Quiz Bowl days

Talking about my public schooling has brought back memories of my Quiz Bowl days. So let me set up Quiz Bowl stories from my heyday. First, I should say that I was a bit of an unknown because there was no Quiz Bowl program at Ramsey (our GATE teacher was too lazy to do it). I managed to make enough of an impression on Mr. Ford and Mr. Bartlett to start out on the junior varsity team.

Let me explain a few of the rules of Arkansas Quiz Bowl. Each team has foru players each, led by a captain and has alternates to sub in between rounds. It's split up into four rounds. The first and fourth rounds consist of twenty tossups, worth ten points each. The second round consists of ten tossups, but when one team answers one it gets to answer a four bonus questions worth 5 points each (only that team gets to answer). There are only four bonus categories, so when the fourth tossup is answered that round that's it. The third round is called the lightning round. There are three categories, and the team that is behind at that point gets to choose first. You have 60 seconds to answer 10 questions worth ten points each. Any incorrect responses in the lightning round bounced back to the other team. A team earned a 20 point bonus for answering all ten correctly in the alotted time.

A close game is 40 points or less, because that's a swing of two tossups. In Arkansas style Quiz Bowl, you could "blitz" so speed was rewarded. Blitzing meant that you could say two answers that were related to each other. This was most often used for the title of a book and its author. Forever etched in my memory is a tossup where the opposing Northside captain buzzed in when the moderator got as far as "A dog named Buck", and she nailed it with Jack London, Call of the Wild.

My sophomore year, I knew geography and had random math abilities. Whatever I learned from my science classes, I remembered. During this time I picked up various chemistry and biology facts, and I started memorizing the periodic table. Yes, at one time I knew every element by its symbol and number. I began to pick up Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology as well. By the end of the sophomore year, I got to start for the state qualifier team along with our captain David Terry, Lauren Weigand, and Daniel Fleming. Unfortunately, we ran into a brick wall against Fayetteville at Regionals that year.

In my junior year, I focused more on history and Shakespearan plays (his lesser known plays were a surprisingly popular topic). However, we were hampered by a sort of a captain controversy. Weigand felt that she was entitled to lead us because she was the best (although many theorize you never should have your best person as the captain since he or she may not listen to anyone else). Fleming felt like he deserved to lead us because he served a year of jv duty as captain for that team. Personally, I thought Fleming should have been captain. In the end, Fleming did what was best for the team and relented his captaincy. It was not meant to be as we ran into a razor sharp Russelville at regionals.

In my senior year, I was determined to shore up our weaknesses. Since Adam Tabakin moved to Virginia, I was the default choice for captain. John Drymon was more of a debater, and Mitch Dooley wasn't captain material. Andy became more and more involved with drama. I picked up the literature, opera, music, and art lists. A change in coaches helped us, as Mr. Adams and Mrs. Loewen were a bit more serious (Mr. Ford and Mr. Bartlett were really fun, but they didn't have the time to devote to it). Sometimes, I became a one man wrecking ball. I remember a team called timeout against me because I answered 6 tossups in a row. The best game I ever had was against Benton at the Northside Invitational, where I answered ALL of our team's tossups. My teammates literally said they weren't going to buzz in because they were afraid that I would know it and they didn't. We actually advanced passed regionals that year, but we met a bitter end at the state tournament. As you can guess, I'll probably write about that some day when I get over the bitterness.

The only problem with spending so much time on something that I was good at was that I got burned out by the end of my senior year. Having said that, I really enjoyed my times in Quiz Bowl.

Why I chose TU (thanks to a scheming roommate)

Why did I choose to come to TU? Well, when my parents visited Tulsa, they saw the huge letters TU in the football stands. It was like a sign from providence, since my family name happens to be Tu. Seriously.

Actually, I thought I was going to end up at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville since I was in eighth grade. I remember it was the eighth grade because a girl named Jeri Riley asked me where I wanted to go to college. She was surprised that I would be willing to go to Fayetteville because she thought I could probably go anywhere I chose. But I grew up calling the Hogs (whooooooooo, pig suey!). My sister went there, and my uncle overcame the difficulties of being a refugee and graduated there. Plus, I wanted to stay close to home. Recall that 9/11 happened during my senior year, when I was pondering over my college choices. In another life, I would have only applied to U of A.

But, in this life, a guy named Howard Windrow Vernon convinced me to at least show interest in another university. He had a brother and sister who graduated from Tulsa (Ann happened to be a Marshall scholar). C’mon, Daniel, you never know. Fine, I guess it couldn’t hurt to go visit another university even though I’m 99.9 percent sure that I want to go the Arkansas. I was going to do an early decision for the Razorbacks. But on that fateful day I signed up for more info about the Golden Hurricane.

I visited Tulsa’s campus, which was much flatter than the hills of Fayetteville. The football team embodied terribleness, but the basketball team played well at that point (the reverse is currently true). The engineering school seemed to be capable enough. Coming from a small town, I liked the smaller school size compared to Arkansas. As a National Merit Finalist, Tulsa was willing to pay for all of my tuition, room and board. No questions asked, no interview or anything. All I had to do was pay for books. On the other hand, Arkansas was going to pay for me to go to school.

I mulled over this decision, and I prayed about it. While I had plenty of time to transfer down the road, I’m not the type of person who likes change. It was a one shot deal for me. If I went to Arkansas, I would have an awesome roommate in Andy and be able to cheer for the Hogs. If I went to Tulsa, I’d room with the guy who convinced me to at least take a look at Tulsa (I’d surmise this was Howard’s plan to get a good roommate all along).

During this time, I kept a journal for my psych AP class. I’d flip back and forth between the only two colleges to which I had applied. Then one day my insight clicked in. I knew if I applied early enough I could get an awesome room in LaFortune (in fact, Howard overnighted our rooming request). I’d feel much more comfortable with the smaller school, though I would have to give up Grade 13. It’d be a fresh start, and I’d be doing what I want. I’m glad that I chose Tulsa.

Okay, I’m not going to lie; with my last name, I just couldn’t resist the irony of going to TU.

The awesomest bowling style ever

I've been busy with the Leadership weekend for the BSU. I enjoyed seeing old faces again.

Unfortunately, I was really tired throughout most of it. I've recently picked up a really bad habit...thinking too much before sleeping. Before I know it I'm picking up less than four hours of sleep a night. Could someone comment on a cure for me?

I'm not up for introspection in my current state, so I'm going to touch on a light subject. We went bowling yesterday, so I got to use my amazing stutterstep technique. I would describe it in three steps. First, I dance a little in a twinkletoes fashion to set myself. Then, I fling the ball forward with a backhanded forward motion, relying on my wrist to keep it straight. I finish it off by arching my right foot up and hopping on my left foot to avoid the foot fault.

On second thought, only those who have seen it can describe how great it is.

The problem with my style is that it's fairly difficult to actually control the ball. My aim has to be straight, but a little off center for maximum effectiveness. Because I rely on a backhanded motion, I can't really put any side spin on the ball. My wild, exaggeration finishing motion often pulls my ball too far to the left. Yesterday, I started off with a strike but I followed that up with a double gutter. I ended up with six gutterballs, but I finished with triple digits at 102. That's not too bad.

It's like Stevo says, I should keep my style because I like doing it. After all, it can't be that bad of a style if it was inspired by Fred Flintstone.

The past looks toward the future

With this post, my xanga and livejournal are officially time synched.

Today is the first day of my classes. Fortunately, my first class isn't until 11:00 so I have plenty of time to sleep. If Brahm's Lullaby can't put me to sleep, nothing can.

Well, I'm going to do something different today. I'm going to use the past to look at the future (not to speak in cliches, but I'm going to be a broken record and say that there's a reason I'm a history major). In doing so, I could look like a complete genius or a complete fool.

One time, in my psychology AP class, the king of the sandlot Mr. Mahaffey asked us to tell the class something about different about ourselves. I stood up and said that I was going to be valedictorian of my high school class. Well, at least when you've been told that since you were five years old you begin to believe it. You see, Asians happen to be very superstitious people. Did you know you can predict your children's future by measuring your front doorway? My parents measured mine with a certain feng shui ruler and found that they would have a valedictorian in their house. Coincidence, or self-fulfilling prophecy, you decide.

Do you know what being valedictorian means? Duh, Daniel, you graduated first in your class. It must mean that you worked many long hours studying night after night to obtain that position. It must mean that you have abilities that are rare to find in this world and hard working attitude. It must mean you did something the best out of the five hundred people in your graduating class.

Wrong. It means about nothing. Sure, it's nice to have the honor and accolades (and the thousand dollar check in my case). But my slate is wiped clean right after that and that four plus GPA goes bye bye. Suddenly, I wondered why I worked so much to be number one. Then it hit me, I did it for the praise of others (Phil, now you know why I said I knew I would enjoy His and Her Circumstances). Because, in reality, I'm a very lazy person. I'd rather sleep my days away than fight for a cause.

In two more years, all the work I did for my undergraduate degree will fade away to obscurity. Yep, in ten years my employer will care approximately one iota about my GPA in college. He or she will care not about the fact that I graduated as a valedictorian from my high school. Only in the major pro sports world do people pay for potential. In the real world, people pay for results. People pay for what you will do, not what you can do.

So when I walk across that stage in the Reynolds Center, I'm going to have no regrets about my choices in college. Sure, I may complain about them but I will not have any remorse. By then, I will have taken the path of my own choosing. Right now, it's just starting to become clear what I must do. I always wondered why Gideon hesitated before doing his work in the Book of Judges. It was because he was afraid, afraid of the walk God set out for him. So I am duly reminded that when I cross that stage, I will be accompanied by many friends and observed by my family and many well wishers. Until then, I must patiently piece together the jigsaw puzzle that was, is, and will be my life.

However, I can't shake the sinking feeling that the Daniel two years from now will have a great laugh at my expense.