You Should Drink Alcohol Before Your Class

I was always shy when it came to speaking up in class. If I did not have to saying anything in front of my classmates, I would not. I never liked speaking up in class because I did not want to say the wrong thing in front of the teacher or my classmates and be embarrassed. I especially did not like when classes I took, had a grade specifically for participation, which contributed to your final grade. With participation grades, I had no choice but to contribute to discussions in class.

The Condom Poker Story

Photo taken from Brock University's Twitter

A number of years have passed since the events of this story occurred, and I believe that now is the right time to tell the story of how I crashed a major campus event during my first year at university. My university friends filled some of the details in, as I was too drunk to remember the whole story. Regardless, this story will give a sense of what my mindset was at the time, which was quite different from what I am now.

Muhammad Ali and his Role in the Civil Rights Movement - Part 2

Part 1 is here.

Another event that Muhammad Ali had a big role in, in terms of the Civil Rights Movement was his refusal to be drafted into the Vietnam War. In 1964, Ali failed to qualify for military service, because even though he passed the physical requirements, he failed the mental aptitude test. In 1966, the Vietnam War was expanding, and the United States needed more people for the war effort. The United States decided to lower their test scores for the qualification of military service so that more people could be qualified to take part in the military. These actions left Muhammad Ali eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. army. Ali could do one of two things: He could follow the United States Government and report to Vietnam, or he could follow his heart and faith. His initial concern about entering the draft wasn’t exactly religious or political; he thought he was in danger of having his life turned upside down. But when he first heard that he was eligible for the draft, he stated that he would refuse to serve in the United States Army and was publically considered a conscientious objector due to his religious beliefs. Ali stated that:

"War is against the teachings of the Holy Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger. We don't take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers."

Ali wanted to stay true to his religious beliefs, and not be a part of a conflict that wasn’t his. Ali also enraged the U.S. Government and caused controversy around the country and the world by saying: “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong, they never called me a nigger.” Many people were enraged by those comments and the media were livid over what he said. On April 28, 1967, when the U.S. government called him for military service, he refused to budge. Ali was warned that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a ten thousand dollar fine. When the U.S. government called him again for military service, Ali did not move forward. He was arrested and the New York State Boxing Commission, as well as other boxing commissions stripped Ali of his boxing license. He was basically banned from boxing in the United States. Newspaper writer Milton Gross of the New York Post talks about his refusal of induction by saying: “Clay seems to have gone past the borders of faith, he has reached the boundaries of fanaticism.”

At his trial on June 20, 1967, after 20 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Ali guilty, and he was convicted of refusing induction into the United States Army. Ali was sentenced to the maximum imprisonment of five years in prison as well as a ten thousand dollar fine. He was also stripped of his world heavyweight championship title and prohibited from fighting in state boxing commissions across the country. Muhammad Ali’s couldn’t fight in a boxing match for another three years. Over those three years, Ali fought to appeal his conviction by staying in the public spotlight and giving speeches at rallies in college and university campuses across the country, where there was a strong opposition to the Vietnam War. Ali explains why he refused to fight in Vietnam:

"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?"

In 1970, Muhammad Ali was able to fight again and in 1971, the United States Supreme Court held a trial for Muhammad Ali. The Court of Appeal Board denied Muhammad Ali’s claim to attain conscientious objector status, but didn’t state the reasons as to which grounds were rejected and which were sustained. Therefore, by unanimous decision, the Supreme Court reversed Ali’s conviction of refusing induction into the United States Army.

Muhammad Ali’s refusal to fight in the Vietnam War averted attention from Ali’s racial views and it put him in a position where many people, including whites and white opinion-makers, could relate with him. Initially, Muhammad Ali was looked at with suspicion, especially around the time when Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965 and when he took the persona of the Nation of Islam. But when he refused to be inducted into the United States Army, it started a bond between Ali, and the white liberal media.

After Muhammad Ali’s retirement from boxing in the early 1980’s, The United States began to recognize Ali’s achievements inside and outside the boxing ring. In 1996, Muhammad Ali was chosen to light the flame at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a proud moment for him and the American people, as around 3 billion people around the world watched him light the flame to start the Olympic Games. In 2005, Ali received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony, and the United Nations Association of Germany awarded him the Otto Hanh Peace Medal for:

“Outstanding services to peace and international understanding, especially for his lifelong commitment to the American civil rights movement and the cultural and spiritual emancipation of black people throughout the world."

To this day, Muhammad Ali has devoted himself to humanitarian efforts around the world, as well as supporting education efforts of all kinds and encouraging people to respect and better understand one another.

Today, Muhammad Ali represents the living personification of Martin Luther King Jr’s message that all people are deserving of love. Sports Journalist Kevin Izenberg described Ali’s life:

“Ironically, after all he went through, the affection for Ali is largely colour-blind. Late in his career, he developed a quality that only a few people have. He reached a point where, when people looked at him, they didn't see black or white. They saw Ali. For a long time, that mystified him. He expected black people to love him and crowd around him, but then he realized white people loved him too; and that made him very happy.”

To sum it all up, Muhammad Ali just wanted to be loved and accepted by everyone. To himself, he was just a man with an opinion. In the 1960’s, America found it hard to accept anyone of colour, but now in this day, people have realized the things he had to go through to get to where he is. His greatest contribution was his ability to rally the African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. Ali never took crap from anyone and had a sort of an in-your-face style, which can be argued that it sparked the black people to stand up for what they believed. Ali stood up for certain principles: that equality among people was just and proper. He gave Black Americans a purpose to stand up for themselves. Ali stood up for his principles and sacrificed a lot for them. You can’t call someone a great man just because of what they achieved, but also what that man had to go through to achieve something. Muhammad Ali was a great man, because he inadvertently became a civil rights pioneer. He was a shining symbol of rebelliousness against an unreasonable social order.

Muhammad Ali and his Role in the Civil Rights Movement - Part 1

I've contemplated sharing this for a while, but I am finally going to share this piece of writing. This is my history essay that I have written when I was in my first year at university. I have written this essay around March of 2010, and it was the creation of many hours of research that I have personally put in. I can't remember what grade I received, but I'm sure it was a solid A-minus. It's nice to see the differences in my writing from then to now, and to see how far I have come along.

I have not changed the content in any way for this post. Everything is the same as it was when I originally submitted the essay. The only alteration I have made is the removal of references. If anyone wants to know the references I have used, I will be happy to provide those in a separate blog post. Due to the length of the essay, I have broken it up into two parts. Part 1 is below, and Part 2 will be posted tomorrow. Any comments are greatly appreciated.

The 1960’s were a time of unrest in the United States. There were protests across university campuses opposing the Vietnam War. A generation was starting to find a voice. The 1960’s were also the height of the Civil Rights Movement, where black people were trying to fight for equal rights to their white counterparts. Many leaders stood up to the cause of fighting for equal rights, such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, but there was one recognizable figure that used his popularity to stand up for what he believed and gave a sort of hope for African Americans during these tense times, and that man was Muhammad Ali. He was a young, brash man, who provided a great example on how to be an individual protester by speaking about his beliefs and his dislike for racism in the United States. Muhammad Ali played a big role in the Civil Rights Movement by expressing his views in certain events he was a part in, such as his affiliation to the Nation of Islam, as well as his opposition of the Vietnam War. His example rallied the African Americans to fight for black pride and black resistance against white domination, as well as for the equal rights they truly deserved.

Muhammad Ali was born as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in 1942 named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., to a working-class family in Louisville, Kentucky and began his boxing career at age twelve. He began to fight in the amateur ranks in boxing, and quickly became a rising boxer, having an amateur record of one hundred wins with five losses. He participated in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy, where he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division by beating his Polish opponent. After he won the gold medal, he returned to his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, where he experienced the racism that was gripping the United States. He thought that he was going to be treated like a champion because he won the gold medal, but he was refused service at a “whites-only” restaurant, and then fought with a motorcycle gang. Disgusted by the racism and hardship he had to deal with, Cassius threw his gold medal into the Ohio River. What he did was an act of defiance, and it was a stand to the mistreatment of blacks in the United States. That single action is the beginning of his fight in the Civil Rights Movement. That action is what also intrigued Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X to invite Cassius Clay into the Nation of Islam.

After Cassius Clay’s first heavyweight bout with Sonny Liston, where he finally became the heavyweight champion of the world for the first time, he revealed that he had become a member of the Nation of Islam, and had changed his name to Muhammad Ali.  He got the name Muhammad Ali from the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad believed that the name Cassius Clay was “a slave name” and wanted to change his name to represent a slave-trader, rather than a slave-liberator. It is widely assumed that Muhammad Ali was attending Nation of Islam meetings even before his match with Sonny Liston. This obviously sparked controversy in the United States, and few people accepted his new identity. He was hated not because he was black, but now also because of his newly found religious beliefs. He became a member of the Nation of Islam when the United States were looking at the Nation of Islam with suspicion, and even with hostility. He didn't help his cause with the white public of the United States when he started to flaunt and express his religious views. When talking about his new name, Muhammad is quoted as saying:

“Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it and I didn't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name – It means beloved of God – and I insist people use it when speaking to me and of me”

Muhammad Ali became the most visible spokesman in the Nation of Islam, and those teachings became the core of who he was at the time. He spoke on a variety of issues. On the integration of white and black people, Ali says: “We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all.” On the issue of inter-racial marriage, Ali says: “No intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters.” On the issue of brotherhood, Ali says: “We're not all brothers. You can say we're brothers, but we're not.” On the need for a separate black homeland, Ali is quoted saying:

“Why don't we get out and build our own nation? White people just don't want their slaves to be free. That's the whole thing. Why not let us go and build ourselves a nation? We want a country. We're 40 million people, but we'll never be free until we own our own land.”

These views presented by Muhammad Ali were views that he felt strongly about. Ali embraced his black heritage when many African Americans were trying to run from it.

Obviously, the media, as well as white Liberals and black Americans came down hard in Ali and his views. Tennis great Arthur Ashe gave his opinion on Muhammad Ali’s ties to the Nation of Islam, saying:

“I never went along with the pronouncements of Elijah Muhammad that the white man was the devil and that blacks should be striving for separate development; a sort of American apartheid. That never made sense to me. It was a racist ideology and I didn't like it.”

Former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson also added his opinion on Muhammad Ali and the Nation of Islam:

“I've been told that Clay has every right to follow any religion he chooses and I agree. But, by the same token, I have every right to call the Black Muslims a menace to the United States and a menace to the Negro race. I do not believe God put us here to hate one another. Cassius Clay is disgracing himself and the Negro race."

Another former heavyweight champion, Joe Louis chimed in with what he thought as well: “I've always believed that every man is my brother. Clay will earn the public's hatred because of his connections with the Black Muslims.” It seems that many people had something to say to oppose Ali and his religious views, but to many others, Ali is viewed as the prime symbol of black pride and provided a resistance to an unfair social order by preaching something that was different from mainstream values.

Part 2 is here.

The Story of a Man Named Dave

I've well documented, whether on Twitter or on this very blog, that my first year at university was probably the most entertaining and the happiest time of my life so far. Most of the people that lived in my dorm were a delight to be around, and to get to know. However, with all the great people I met, there were a couple of people who lived at my dorm who were a bit odd. I am going to tell the story of one such person that I've regularly encountered in my first year at university.

These are my experiences interacting with a man named Dave.

Dave looked like your typical nerd. He was a rather tall fellow, almost Frankenstein-like. His skin was pale white, and the blushes on his face were as prominent as the glasses he wore. He always dressed in the same cargo pants, like he was about to go camping, and he was always hunched over when he walked, like Quasimodo. His freakiest feature was his fingers. I can't describe it in words, but this popular YouTube video easily expresses what it looks like. His voice was as deep as the bottom of the ocean, like a lonely blue whale yearning for a soul-mate.

Dave was a fourth-year student at university while myself and almost everyone else in the dorm were first-year students. All throughout his university career, he lived in a dorm, and it surprised me why he wouldn't live off-campus after his first year. I can only speculate, but maybe he wanted to try to get to know new people every year and build some friendships, but as I got to know him throughout my first year of university, he turned out to be quite a bizarre individual.

Whenever my friends and I were doing something in the lounge, whether it be playing cards or video games, Dave would walk in and observe what we were up to. Sometimes he would just walk out and not say a word, while other times he would try to strike up a conversation with us. Even though the commonalities between us and him were small, he was included in the activities that we did. As we got to know him, he became more comfortable with the rest of us, and we were exposed to some of the strange things that he did.

A couple of times that we ate together, Dave would order a sub and then proceed to apply an insane amount of mayonnaise to his sub. Every time he took a bite of his sub, a big gob of mayo would drop from his sub (or his mouth) onto the paper the sub was originally wrapped in. That's pretty disgusting, if I do say so myself. When we would order pizza, he would take a slice from the pizza box when he wasn't even half way finished eating the slice already in his hand, which is a bit greedy in my opinion. When it came to girls that he didn't like, he would call them "wenches" like we were living in a time when pirates dominated the seas. A phrase that he regularly says is "You've gotta be fucking me" which is a variation of the popular phrase "You've gotta be kidding me" (though I'm pretty sure no girl wanted to fuck him). I got the feeling that his presence in the activities my friends and I did made everyone feel uncomfortable, but no one had the guts to speak up about it, except behind his back.

Dave was also an avid drinker, and it seemed like every evening, he would always have a can of beer while we were all hanging out in the common lounge. Most of the dorm-mates have not seen him drunk, but I remember the distinct time when I've actually seen him drunk. One night, my friend and myself were playing Zelda in the lounge, and he would come in and watch us play while helping us out with the quest and pounding beers. He ended up getting drunk, and kept referring to the Song of Time as the "SOT". Whenever Link was in danger, Dave would angrily tell us to "play the SOT". This may not be the most entertaining drunk story, but let me emphasize that despite drinking beer every evening, you would never see him actually get drunk. It would be like watching the Aurora Borealis.

Most of the interactions with Dave are whenever we would play Super Smash Brothers on the old N64 in the common lounge. Dave would play along with us, and because no one really liked him, everyone would try to eliminate him from the game early. Whenever I played Smash with him, I always made sure that I get him out first. He had names for the characters I always used. For example, he kept calling Pikachu "the rat" (Sidenote: Pikachu is a mouse), and he kept calling Yoshi "the constipated dinosaur", which is true, to be honest.

He would also get angry when he gets eliminated from Smash. On a couple of occasions, he would throw the controller on the ground and walk out of the common lounge. There was also another incident that would live in first year infamy. My friends thought I had a bit of a rivalry with Dave when it came to Smash. One day, after I again crushed Dave, I blurted out the following line:

"I don't consider you my rival, I consider you my bitch."

I never meant to actually say those words, but Dave was upset, called me some names, and then stormed out of the common lounge. After he stormed out, everyone started bursting out in laughter. I regret saying those words now, but I guess it acted like a release of what everyone thought of him. Nobody really liked him.

Looking back at all of these interactions with Dave, Dave was actually a nice guy and tried to fit in. But his awkwardness, behaviors, and mannerisms made everyone feel uncomfortable. No one really had the guts to tell him their feelings toward him directly, so we all shunned him in a passive-aggressive way. At the end of first year, I could see why he lived in the dorms for his entire time in university, and I think it was because he couldn't get along with his dorm-mates in prior years. It's quite sad thinking about it, and from time-to-time, I wondered what he would be up to now.

I know it's about 5 years too late, but I would like to apologize for my conduct towards you. I genuinely hope you are living a nicer life.

What I REALLY Thought About My Graduation Ceremony

So, yesterday, I finally graduated from Brock University and attained my undergraduate degree. Look, I am very happy that I finally attained a Bachelor's Degree, and the 4 years of hard work finally paid off, but I really have to say something about the actual graduation ceremony that took place yesterday morning. It had to be one of the most boring ceremonies I ever took part in. Time for me to break it down.

The stuff before the graduation ceremony was pretty standard. I walk into the university, I go collect my gown, I stand in a line, and we all walk into the gym where the ceremony is taking place. The seats are all really close together so it was a little bit of a tight squeeze to sit in between two lovely ladies (not that I'm complaining). Once we were all sat down, then came the procession of the faculty and the chancellors of the university where they were wearing these odd-looking robes and hats, like something that was from the medieval times. I know it is tradition, but it just looked a bit ridiculous and it reminded me of how court cases  were carried out in England in the 1400s. I was humming the theme of "The People's Court" at the time.

Once all that ended, the ceremony started with the addresses of the chancellor, vice-chancellor, and various members of the faculty. You know how it is, they start telling their life stories, and offer some pseudo-inspirational bullshit such as "you are the continued life-blood of Brock University" and "you are a shining beacon to the world" (Note: I can't remember what was actually said, as I was probably half-asleep). The addresses, though were meant well, were very mind-numbing and would have put the most energetic child to sleep.

Then finally came the presenting of the degrees to the various graduates, in which they were presented two at a time. Any awards that the new graduates had were also announced. I did feel a bit sorry for the graduates who were partnered up with other graduates who basically had fan sections cheer their hearts out when their name was called, and the other graduate who barely got any applause when their name was called. I thought that the presenting of the degrees was finally a good way to move around after sitting through the insanely boring graduation addresses. When my name was finally announced, all I kept thinking to myself was "don't trip, don't trip", and thankfully, I didn't! Everything went very well.

After that, the chancellor said some parting words, the faculty and graduates proceeded out of the gym, and the ceremony was over. If I were to sum up this graduation ceremony in short, this is what I will say. The graduation ceremony was a wonderful occasion, but going to it felt like a chore. If my parents didn't have a say, I never would have went. I essentially went only because of them.

Side note: I would like to thank everyone who congratulated me on this accomplishment, whether in-person, on my mobile, or through the various social networks. It was a bit rough at times, but it was all worth it for a piece of paper that said I completed something.

My Thoughts and Experiences of My 4 Years at University

So, it has come to this. It's over. I can't help but think that my time in St. Catharines and going to Brock University has went by so fast.

A bit of background on why I came to St. Catharines to live for almost 4 years. There were circumstances back home that would have made my life impossible to live if I stayed home and commuted to a local university. There were people in my high school that tried to make my life a living hell, which I have long since cut from my life. Also, there were some other frightening experiences that I have gone through, that made me want to get away from everything. I made too many mistakes, I made too many enemies, and I certainly made the wrong friends in high school, and what I truly wanted was a new life.

I got that opportunity at a new life, a new me, when I accepted my offer to go to Brock University in September of 2009. For me, it was an opportunity at a fresh start, and an opportunity to forget the wrongs of my past.

When I arrived at residence for the first time, it definitely wasn't what I expected. I was never that good at making friends, and for the first few weeks, I had to repeatedly come out of my comfort zone to try to make friends. It wasn't easy, due to my social awkwardness at the time, but ultimately, it was for the best. I remember the distinct moment when I legitimately felt accepted by my new residence friends, and it came during a competition at the end of the first week of university involving all the halls from all of the residences of university, where I apparently successfully guessed the height of the CN Tower for my hall. Reading up on my random trivia in my spare time certainly paid off.

The rest of my first year went a lot easier after that. I was doing decent in school, I was firmly entrenched in a circle of friends, and I was always meeting new people. Though at times, my first year of university and living in residence felt a bit like high school, because people were still stuck in the immature high school mindset (myself included sometimes), the people in university were much easier to approach and talk to than the people at high school, which was very cliquey. The first year of university was the last time I really got to be a bit immature (it showed in some nights), and it set me for some growing up in the subsequent years of my university career.

When second year started, I made the decision to live by myself, which baffled a lot of my friends, but it was the best decision I ever made. I can't stand living with others, and I keep hearing stories about ruined friendships over roommate issues, which is something I don't want to have happen to me. Living by myself also forced me to grow up and truly fend for myself, which was something I relished, and made me learn a lot about what I wanted. There were a couple of drawbacks about living alone. One of these drawbacks trying to keep in contact with my friends, and at times, I felt like a burden to them. Relating to this, the worst part about living alone was the constant loneliness every night. Some nights, it was manageable, but other nights, it destroyed me emotionally. There were some nights that I wished that someone was around to talk to. If you are going to live alone, be prepared for the emotional pain that comes along with it, but I managed to get through it.

Second year, school-wise, was a lot tougher. I was originally accepted to Brock to do accounting, but with every day that passed, I was losing the passion to finish my accounting degree. I was struggling with classes and nearly failing them to the point where I pretty much lost it and demanded to myself that I needed to change. There was also some events that took place back home which made it unlikely that myself and my family was going to pay for my tuition for the rest of my time at university. With all that going on in my life at the time, I thought my life was finished. Second year was easily the worst time for me at university.

Third year came along, and for some reason everything started to change. I got out of accounting and looked for something within the business profession that I enjoyed, and I found it in Information Systems. With that, my grades started to improve significantly. To be honest, I don't really remember much from third year, other than trying to improve my grades and trying to keep in contact with friends.

In order to try to graduate in 4 years, I chose to take courses in the spring/summer. Coming off a generally positive third year of university, I was optimistic about this, even if it meant staying in school a couple of months and missing out on some sunny days. That spring turned out to be the spring of re-acquaintance for me, which was absolutely fantastic. That spring was also the time where I began to really delve deep into who my real friends were here at university, and who I thought were good friends but ended up being worse than I thought they were. Living in St. Catharines during that time had a major flaw, being that the vast majority of my friends went home for the spring/summer, so loneliness hit especially hard for me at that time.

Fourth year could not have been any better for me. I was taking courses which I enjoyed and was doing incredibly well in, I was doing independent research in the hopes of attaining new skills which I also enjoyed, and I was continuing to be social, which helped my general mood. With all this fun I was having these days, it's hard for me to come to grips with finally having to leave for good. I'll leave some general thoughts about this entire experience.

When I first came to university, I was young and stupid. But now I am four years older, four years wiser, and finally grown up. There is the possibility that I will end up going back home and potentially face my own demons from my past, but I think I will be able to handle it now. All I can do now is try to look forward, and try not to think about my past. I've met some great people here, probably some of the best people I have met so far in my life, and it was a welcome change from the negativity that surrounded me in my high school years. I also believe that I have gotten exactly what I wanted from this entire experience, in terms of an education, and in terms of hopefully building long lasting friendships as well. Looking back at all of this, there were some things I could have changed, but it is what it is. I am glad that I didn't have to commute from home to go to a local university, because I craved true independence, and it was what I got.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone I've ever met in my four years at university who has made a positive impact in my life, from the first weeks of residence, to the parties and bar nights, and beyond. You have truly made me feel welcome and loved, and for that, I am eternally grateful. You all were everything and more...

Until the next time we may meet, I say, goodbye, and take care of yourselves.