The People of O'Connell Hall

So after writing about the Hall Brawl last week I had the idea to do a blog on some of the people I live with here in Denver. I can't possibly fit everybody into this blog so I thought I'd just do quick profiles of three guys for now, and I'll do three girls at a later date (Mostly because I just want to get this published). Maybe I can end up making this a monthly thing until I manage to get everyone on here because it doesn't feel right leaving anybody out. So I thought I'd start up by doing my roommate, Angel Estrada.

Angel (J.J.) Estrada

"To listen is to put ears on your heart..."

When I say this kid has talent, I mean it. He sings, plays guitar, mandolin, harmonica, and I'm sure other instruments, he draws, he paints, he takes photographs, and all of it is sheer quality. The first day in the dorm when he started playing guitar I was taken aback by just how good he was. Very blues driven, but he plays a variety of styles that just sound incredible. Not to mention that he is great at singing with all the songs he plays, and the song that I've heard him working on writing is sounding fantastic so far. He's also probably the nicest guy I've ever talked to, I can't even come close to imagining him saying something mean or even being rude to someone. Angel is super considerate, dedicated, and is probably the greatest roommate I could have possibly had. Plus, going back and forth hiding my "Mr. Bill" bendable figure gets progressively more hilarious... now to find a creative spot to hide it again...

Christian Klein

"Epic Quote"


Okay, I love random bits of knowledge and trivia, so this guy is probably one of the best to talk to in the dorms. Because of this guy we all got excited for the Hall Brawl, marathon'd the entirety of the Lord of the Rings extended edition, and we sucked into a barbecue sauce monopoly. Not going to lie, his family's homemade barbecue sauce is probably the best sauce I've had since I had my Uncle Bill's homemade dry-rub for ribs over the summer. I liked it so much I bought a bottle and sent it back to my family back home, but I digress. Christian is incredible at Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit as well, and is the only kid I know to get to state in the "Knowledge Bowl." (Should have gone twice, but...) That's not to mention I don't think I've ever seen Christian have anything but a smile on his face, and he's always able to joke around and laugh about the day. The Minnesota accent he has just tops off the cheerful disposition, "Guys, I am so stoked for rafting!"


Steven DaSilva

"Life is like a bar of soap; the harder you try to grip it the easier it is to slip away. So don't try and control your life, just live it."

Golfer by trade, child at heart. Steven is always smiling and laughing about something, whether he's getting excited after seeing Despicable Me for the first time, or coloring in pictures of The Incredible Hulk while watching old episodes of Jimmy Neutron on Netflix. I haven't seen him golf quite yet, but so far I know that he ranked number one on the team, the only freshman that had done that well period. Steven is really easy to get along with, and he is tons of fun to play guitar with. One day we just started playing Mr. Jones by Counting Crows in the lounge and it was just relaxing and fun with both of us laughing when we forgot the lyrics. That just lends to how great his taste in music is; from John Mayer to Frank Sinatra he listens to just about everything, including Taylor Swift. He can sure hit those high notes, though. It's pretty impressive... especially when he's singing Taylor Swift or when we're all belting out "Take On Me" on the way to Buffalo Wild Wings.
                                                                                                                                                          




So there's just a taste of the people I live with, the next time I do this I'll focus on the girls and (hopefully) get it published in a more timely manner. It's just been pretty busy around here, and I haven't had a chance to really sit down and write. Still working on getting my hands on a camera, I've got a job with yearbook that I promptly quit because of the workload, written several essays, taken a trip to Vail, dressed as an octopus (again) for Halloween, and we're now on our second day of heavy snow. I'll write another blog this week going into detail on most all of that, and the second "People of O'Connell" will hopefully come soon after. As for now, I'm out of things to say, but I hope you enjoyed the read, and hope that you are having a wonderful time.

The Long Week Behind, a Long Weekend Ahead

So much going on this past week, I wonder if I'll even be able to fit all of it into one blog posting... or even be able to remember it for that matter. It all started with the Hall Brawl...

The Fighting Scots

Our floor, dressed as Scots, and prepared for battle.. or was this afterwards...

So over the  past few weeks or so there were posters for a "Hall Brawl" essentially a giant capture the flag game between the residence halls. Our theme for O'Connell hall (and our allies in West Hall) were Scotsman Warriors or the ancient Celts. Needless to say, the second floor ran wild with the theme, spearheaded by Christian, who also got the advertising for our floor running early on. In all honesty, I'm glad people got excited for it because I don't know if I would have been otherwise... I tend to be a bit too self-conscious and introspected to want to participate in these kind of events.

So we spent last Saturday on our three day weekend searching the outskirts of Denver for outfits for the battle on Sunday night. Surprisingly enough, Wal-Mart didn't have what we needed... but... the 5 dollar movie bin got the best of me... and the 10 dollar blu-ray... but I digress. We eventually ended up at Hobby Lobby going through plaid fabric that somewhat fit in with our team's colors. 10 yards of blue and white fabric, one yard of gold, and a bellyful of Chipotle tacos later we're up in the ping pong lounge making kilts and sashes for our costumes.

Levi prepares his "War-Garb"

Sunday night comes, and it was cold. We all got really into it, getting ready, putting all kinds of face paint on, just having a fun time with it all. Thanks to Pearl for putting the hand prints on our faces and being our "make up artist" of the night. As we're getting ready, one of the RA's from Desmet marched a bunch of his residents through our hall taunting us, next thing we know, we're following Joe the RA through the halls of Desmet yelling and screaming in our kilts.

After that, a few more minutes of laughing, yelling, and getting the adrenaline going before marching out to the Quad to play capture the flag. It felt like it took forever to get the rules explained... in the cold... in shorts and a kilt... but finally, we got to begin.

Ian getting us excited

Those cheating bastards.

Hell, we still won, and everyone cheated really, but still the point remains. The worst one had to be the guy with the home-made nun-chucks who just ran around beating the hell out of people and telling them to "suck it up" and "kiss his ass." Was that the guy Dillon punched in the stomach? ...I don't quite remember, but that was pretty funny anyway.

It was actually a lot of fun, and once we got running the cold wasn't really noticeable.  When people played right and got into it, it was just intense running around the quad with inflatable "swords" trying to nab the gigantic flags representing each hall. I really don't remember how we ended up winning it, I was always on the right side trying to get the flag that was surrounded by literally twenty people back to back. Though, one girl on our team passed out because of a heart condition, so that brought things to a halt, and I felt kind of bad that everyone almost immediately crowded around. There were apparently a lot of people hurt, but I'm not really that surprised given the fact that we were given weapons and given free reign over the whole quad.

It was a great night though, a really nice way to blow off steam and act like an enraged Scotsman for an hour or two. Can't wait to do it again next year. I love our floor.

Here's to you guys

Exams, Idiot Professors, and Otherwise

Okay, my Intro to Microeconomics professor has an odd way of teaching an intro class. So we get this project, right? To write an "Engagement Letter" to a legitimate company highlighting problems with their marketing strategy and otherwise. Not too bad, right? Now let's back it up a little bit.

This is an introductory class. We haven't learned about market strategy or how to analyze exactly how to fix a company. Also; why are they asking college kids to fix their problems? College kids just beginning to learn all of this by the way. Not only that, but our professor refuses to really explain to us how to write this letter. He gives us a vague idea and then docks us points when we get it wrong. The hell kind of teaching is that? Then he blames us for not understanding even though we ask questions that he fails to even answer. Don't even think of asking him through e-mail he won't answer. Ever. That's even leaving out my group who refused to listen to anything I had to say to contribute... even when I could prove I was right in what I was trying to do. Lunacy. All of it.

Other than that, the week wasn't so bad, just long and tiresome. Only managed to have one exam out of all of my classes, and I'm pretty sure I knocked it out of the park. At least I hope so.

The Long Weekend

Now that everything is out of the way, I've got a four day weekend ahead of me. If I want, I can head to Vail with some friends, just sleep the weekend away, work on yearbook pages, or just do whatever pleases me most. This post was a bit bland, I'll spice it up once I'm able to get pictures that are actually my own... or when more interesting things happen. Oh shoot, I forgot about the bonfire and the volleyball game.. I could always add that next time... Anyways; I hope you enjoyed the read, and hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Ready for the long weekend. Colorado is not prepared for this.

*Special thanks to Emma Shewmaker and Peyton Lunzer for their Facebook albums I shamelessly stole from

Starting Out

So I've been living up in Denver at Regis for almost two months now and I have to say, things have been going well, better than they've been for a long time. I feel so connected to everyone on my dorm floor here in O'Connell, and everything just sort of fits in to place. My classes have been going well, much tougher than high school but I'm really loving the challenge of adjustment and adapting to the new style of learning. I really do love learning, even if I do complain about homework, and it's so nice to be involved somewhere that encourages that manner of thinking. I look forward and I keep seeing all of the great things to come to me here in Denver, but then I have to gut-check myself and get back to the now. I like that idea, living in the now, being in tune with the present.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing this blog is just to kind of organize my thoughts of the week, give people a taste of what I think, how I feel, and so on and so forth. And maybe some of my friends from Texas will check in every now and again to see how I'm doing, or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. As far as pictures go, I'm going to try and get a camera for myself at some point soon. It'll make this blog much more interesting I think. The picture at the top wasn't taken by me to be completely honest, it was taken by my mother who is a professional photographer. I was present when the picture was taken, however, so that's got to count for something, right?

That's all I've got for now, I should really think of going to bed soon... or at least pulling an all-nighter working on my next essay for Honors. I hope this was an interesting read at the very least, and I want to keep up with this as much as I can.