Christmas Break

Well, it was really nice to fly home. But that was a story in and of itself. It was weds night. I studyied and studied and studied and I packed, then wrote and wrote and wrote. I had a philosopy assignment that was fiven on weds that was due thursday morning as my final. That was annoying as well.

For some reason my professor was really weird, He gave us back the previous midterm just that monday. So I went to office hours 2 times, monday and tuesday, and was there for a combined 2 hours before I would have to leave without getting any help because I had basketball practice. So finally I get in weds after waiting 40 mintues. And yes, I had an appointment every time, its jsut that he is so disorganized and takes forever to do anything. So I studied weds morning, went to office hours, stayed to about half of the practice, and on my way back got a call from my football buddy. He was working on his philosopy paper with the other football player and wanted to know if I wanted to join. I was so happy that they called me and kinda lucky cause I had completely forgotten about the assignment. So I went over and worked on it from 6pm to 2am. I did some packing in between.

I will tell you what...that walk, that short walk from south quad to angell hall took so long. I was like falling over I was so tired. I felt aweful, beyond aweful. It was the morning of the 18th, 2 in the morning, and I had been up to this since the first of December, and I felt aweful. Baaaa. Its true that if you are up 24 hours that you begin to act as if you are legaly intoxicated. Well, I had not done that, but the bind and grind of 18 days was way over due on me and I could hardly walk, less much stand strait without sleeping. But it felt good to drop that last paper in the drop box in angell hall.

The next morning was terrible...yet beautiful at the same time. I felt beyond aweful. I had worked so hard for so long and still everything was going down hill and I knew with all the work I had put into everything I still would not do that good in my grades. I haddnet slept any. I had eaten pretty badly. My workouts werent that good. I had over studdied. I had consumed way too many energy drinks. And my body was sore and I had a hurt kneee. Yes, life was miserable...but I had one hope. All soon would be over, in 4 hours in fact, and then I could go home. Home sweet home. So I took a cold shower to wake up. I had a good breakfast and 2 energy drinks. I had a juiced rock star and a can of bawls. And yes, I was standing while studying that morning, just like I had been for the past few days. You see, when you are exsausted and your body is yearning and pleading for rest, your body will do anything in its power to attain that rest. Anytthing. So by sitting down, you are just asking for it. Its almost like lying down, except not. So by standing up, it makes it that much harder for your body to fall asleep. And on top of that, once you start to dose off, you will litterally fall. You dont know how many times I have caught myself halfway on a fall, but you know what? I also cause myself falling asleep. ChaChing! So yeah, I crambed some more of that good ´ol macro economics and walked to Lorche hall to take my last final with a can of Bawls in hand as my only wepon. I went in there, had my game face on, made a couple of prayers and I takled that thing...and that thing was hard.

Now, I dont understand it. I knew that the professor told us that he was making the test hard on purpose. I knew he said he wanted us to miss the questions and that he wanted us to fail. But saying something and actually doing something are two quite different things. I mean, a black sheep can think its white all it wants, but it wont do it any good. Obama can say he will change the economy for the better and then raise taxes all he wants and it wont do any good. Shaq can say he can make all those free throws when it counts and still miss them in the game and it wont help his team any more. Saying and doing are often quite different. But not for this first year Russian Calculas boring pitstained maniac macro economic professor. No, what he says, he means. And that test was freakin hard! Goodness gratious! I wish he was lying on this one! And so yeah...it was hard. But do you know what? I was done. Yes, I was done.




I walked out a defeated yet living hero, and I had just 2 hours before my bus left. So I went to a local Michigan apperal store that was about to go out of business to buy some shirts as christmas presents. And they hardly had anything. Just XXL and XXXL. And a few childrens shirts...and shirts for dogs, but nothing good. It was just in this huge pile of blaaa and fatness. But I made due. I did run into John, a dude in UCO that I had apperantly had told I would eat lunch with him that afternoon but completely forgot till I ran into him and he reminded me. I love when that happeneds. So I found some stuff at another shop, we ate, I packed the last of what I had, and then went out to the buss stop for my bus to Detroit Airport. I got on and it was the begginging of thankfully a very eventless trip back to Texas. The only annoying thing was that it cost me $40 and 2 philosophy books to send my luggage back home. But it was all good. Oh, and I did sit with the entire Michigan State Mens Basketball team from Detroit to Houston (which they ended up upsetting #5 Texas the following day). I talked some trash, told Coach Izzo to be ready for us February 10th, and talked spanish for 20 minutes strait with a dude from Mexico and crused back to Texas. My headphones where really nice. I liked them a lot and they worked perfect on the airport.

I landed in corpus and my brother christopher, my dad, and Casey and Arce were there to greet the tired yet joyful traveler back home. And after all that studying and staying up late and everything, you figured I would be strait to sleep in my own bed, right? No, I went to Arces House with Casey and my awaited PS3 that my brothers didnt know about and stayed up till 4 in the morning. But that night was a night in itself. I couldnt get the PS3 to work. So I thought I broke that. Then we broke a glass cup. THen we broke the couch. THen we broke the Xbox 360. Then the TV. It was aweful. So yeah. what a first night.

I finally was able to get the PS3 working. It was tight. I just had to adust the settings of the video. The PS3 for some reason makes you adust all types of settings. It wont work automatically, you have to find them out manually. I ended up getting a component cable so that we could see high def on the big screen tv once we got the bulb fixed. It looked sweet. We watched the "forgetting Marshals" Movie on it and it was really really cool. But the audio for some reason was not playing how we wanted. THe component cable went to the tv and the tv to the speakers, and for some reason that was not working so we just had sound come off of the tv itself, sub-par. We ended up getting a high end optical cable 3 days before I flew back and never watched anything with it, even though we tested and it sounded perfect.




Christmas day was fun. Midnight mass was alright, as this was the first year I havent played saxophone at midnight mass since 8th grade. But Christmas day was splended. I got the coolest 4 gifts too. Check this out...





1. The Dark Knight on Blue Ray
2. A Sweet Texas Style belt with a Big Belt Buckle
3. A Signed and framed Michael Jordan Jersey
4. A Rotten Black Banana Peel
...sweet isnt it? I forgot that I asked for a banana peel, but Christopher remembered and said it was a request he could not pass. Haha, they told me to open the box and feel it before looking at it, and I still did not remember about the banana, not even a few seconds afterward till it registered. Haha, it was sweet. Later we played some old school Texas backyard football in the warm weather and then later went to see the cousins out in far like hour Texas, haha. We hung out, played horseshoes, talked about how Texas footall is tied with Notre Dame and coming after Michigan, watched Christmas day NBA (Celtics-Lakers) and chilled with them eating loads of good Texas food. We love Texas here.





The next days were pretty chill. I finally finished my Max Schmeling/Joe Louis boing book...yes, it took me 4 months, ok? But I started my Jessie Owens and Adolf Hitler German Olymipcs books and finished in 1 week...thats right, 7 days. So there is hope for me.

New Years was a different animal. The 31st, Michigan was playing Wisconsin, so I invited some buds, including old school ACA buddie Mark Price, who plays ball for Wheaten University. Unfortunately, Michgian was doing pitiful and of course Arce and Casey were rooting for Wisconsin just to get me mad. The game was absolutely aweful, we had our first home loss, first loss to an unranked team, and our first conference loss all at the same time. But me and Casey and Arce hung out all night going places and having fun till 6:30 am. It was sweet, especially since I got up at 9:30 to go to church. It was a holy day of obligation for Mary, the mother of God. I said, Mary, I am glad you are really my mother; otherwize I would not have come.


The Second of January, a Friday, was my mom`s birthday. We went to B&Js. I hung out with Edy that day and I tried out one of his body building workouts and then we went to eat. We got a pizza full of meat. Well, I stay the night with ed, and we have a good time. I get up in the morning and he was pucking pepper like nuts since 8am. He got sick hard the next day too and accused my mom of trying to kill him (my mom has yet to make any statement upon the issue).





Then Sunday came. That evil Sunday. Not only do I have 2 days left, but trying to update my iPhone from firsmware 2.1 to 2.2, and rushing it in the process to go to church with my Dad, I completely bricked my phone. Bricked it hard core. Worse than last time. Much worse. This time, and I guess it is the new iTunes 8.0.8, it wont recognize the iphone unless it is activated, so there is no way to restore the phone. But when I go to restore mode and do it manually, I get error code 21. Stupid! I spent hours on it, 2 by my self in the after noon and like 4 with Edy that night. But it still didnt work. I worked and worked and no good. So now I am using a crappy phone that carlos butchered and have to go to Michigan like that. Haha, but thats how it happened. In an attempt to fix it with downgrading to a old iTunes, I killed my iTunes. Baaa...but that happens, right?

Another big news! I got a job! My summer job is lined up! How many other college sophmores already have a summer job? Anyhow, I worked with the Corpus Christi Hooks last year doing on field entertainment and promotions. You can see some past posts in may and june 08 posts about it. Well, the General Manager, Michael Wood wanted me to come back. I called him Monday, he told me come over, I got to see him and some new friends, met the new guy in charge of tickets and sales, and Michael Wood, was pretty much like, "Spenser, this is Daniel. He worked with us last summer and did an amazing job for us. You should hire him." Pretty much saying, dude, I am the GM; hire him. It was that easy. I got it. So I will be in Texas this summer once again, probobly for the last time, and I will be doing sales, predominately tickets, for the Corpus Christi Hooks. How bout that!

Besides that I played some basketball with some friends from high school and then flew up to Michigan on the 6th of January, a tuesday. I ran into some mexican soccer team that was going to LA to play a professional team and I talked to them a bit in spanish, but nothing much eventful. Got to Ann Arbor nice and ready (and rested from all that sleeping on the plane) and even went to UCO and had a blast in the after party. I am ready for this semester! Bring it on!

Carlos Von Hauske

My grandfather, Carlos Von Hauske, died today, December 10th, 2008. He died peacefully after a quick accident to the head during a prayer meeting at his house. He lived a difficult yet coveted life, and since I was his closest grandson, I felt I should make a tribute to him:


My Grandfather was a man of honor. They called "Don Carlos" for him who walked the street in integrity.

My Grandfather was a man of consistency. Faith could be put into him and he would deliver.

My Grandfather was a man of perseverance. Even though he lost all his money in the peso evaluation, he stepped up to the challenge, and provided for his family.

My Grandfather was a father, to all who met him. Not only his four children, but to every person who saw the love and passion in his soft blue eyes.

My Grandfather was a man of God. He knew his priorities, his goals, and for whom he lived for. He knew his grander purpose in life and lived accordingly. He loved his family, but he loved and lived for God like few have been able to match in this day and age.

My Grandfather was a missionary. He sacrificed time and effort for the good of those around them. He cared for others greater than himself, going out of his way daily for the smiles and the gratefulness, and hopefully the conversion of another soul.

My Grandfather was My Grandfather. His love and compassion as a role model to us Pinedo boys and his never ending cheerfulness will be legendary and an icon for future Pinedos to come. May his soul rest in peace and find that ever loving God that he has always sought. God bless Don Carlos Von Hauske. ¡Te quiro mucho abuelo!

WE BEAT DUKE!!!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WE BEAT DUKE!!!!!

We beat Duke. Yes...well...that is not the full story. It all began last year when we hired Beilein. Ok, that will take too long. Zoom forward a lot of months approximately. We have the worst year in school history last year with 22 losses. Zoom this year. We beat UCLA. Then we play hard with Duke all the way to the end and then loose by 15. 2 weeks later, we are up and running again. Rematch. Head to head. Mike Krzyzewski vs. John Beilein. 35 years experience vs. 31 years experience. #4 vs. Unranked. That was what it was all about. And here we come. We had a good dew days of practice in anticipation of the game. We said, how hard would Duke play? Lets match that...no, lets beat that. Lets take them down.

The band new set of addidas maize uniforms. They look amazing

Coach Krzyzewski behind Nocvak warming up

Me pumped before the game!

90`s Miami Heat AllStar Tim Hardaway with his son Jr. who was checking out the school

Then the game began. I was so excited. I could not wait. During the whole warm up I was excited, from seeing the DUKE on the opponent´s jerseys to seeing the blue D logo to seeing Kyle Singler to seeing Coach K himself, the man who lead out national team to the gold medal this year int he Beijing Olympics. And then it stareted...and we went all out. Jevohn Sheperd started this game, the only differece in the starting lineup, and he did well, as did the rest, in using are athleticism to try to match their talent. We were hustleing and playing very hard. They almost took off in stretch in the first half, but we were able to catch up, take the lead, they caught up, but we were able to go into the half up by 2. This sent the fans crazy.

The second half was nuts. We played so hard, earning each point. At one moment in the game, it seemed like Duke was pulling off, because they were finally making a few buckets. They were up by 3. And they kept pushing us around. Just then Zack Novak, our freshman guard shot a gutsy 3 pointer from the corner and sank it to tie the game. The crowd went nuts, but that was pale in comparison when we got the ball back, pushed the ball up the floor quickly and Manny pushed it to him for another 3 pointer! It was nuts! And at that moment we had control of the game. They could not stop us. DeShawn and Zack could not be stopped in their shooting. Manny kept driving at will. And even our small guard, Kelvin Gradey, showed his stuff as Duke could not even get close to guard his quickness. We havent seen that yet from Kelvin the past 2 years, but he really used his speed, and it was obvious they couldnt guar anyone of us. But they had talent. And that was evitdent in the last 3 minutes when they just started draining shots, including 4 3pointers in a row to make the lead only to 4...yes, we were up by that much.

There is me watching the shot. Pretty cool, eh?

Can I say anything more? Everyone believes in Beilein now

Then when hit some clutch free throws, from Manny, DeShawn, Kelvin, and C.J. Lee, to finish the game...but that is not the important part. With 1:90 left in the game, Will, teh head manager, turns to us and says "Ok, guys, no IF we win, we got to make sure we have all the towels, clipboards, pens, stats, and everything else because these people are gonna storm the court..." Just then the dude standing in the front row with the body paint said "We are gonna run over and kill you guys!"

Then it all happened.We had the ball, a few seconds left...Will ran onto the court towards the block M in the middle with like 6 seconds before the game was over...I hurdled the chair in front of me...and then it was all over. I was engulfed into the huge wave of...people, as the tempurature sky rocketed from 76 degres to a cool 120 degrees as people where just all over me. I was sucked tot he middle as people were just going nuts! We sand hail to the victors and its grea tto be a Michigan Wolverine and tons of other stuff. People were jsut going nuts! I could see some of the players struggling to get out. Will, when he ran out of the court, ran strait face to face with Coach Krzyzewski and actually helped him get out of the stadiu to the tunnel. I was having a bomb. And yes, I held on to all them towls, them sweety and nasty towels, that were pressed hard to me the whole time. It was amazing. We just beat the #4 team in the country...again...within 2 weeks! At home! And our sold out crowd who has been starving for good basketball for over a decade and was suffering from the worst football season in school history were just eating it up! It was so cool to see! And the students! The students were all over it! They are the ones that will bring this program to life. As the "In Beilein we trust" Poster was rocking and everyone was watching Beilein talk tot eh interviewers on the megatron, everyone new this was for real. We beat Duke. We beat them with a legitimate 8-point win. We are the only team in the country that has beaten 2 top-5 teams! And we did it in 2 weeks! And we are unranked! And we just came off of the worst season in school history! Yes, we did it. It was for real. No hoox. And I was a part of it. I helped it. I made this team better, every day, comming to practice, working hours on teh hardwood and in the office, with players individually during non-practice hours, doing all I could to help our team improve. So many of those palyers I have helped, even before the game! Manny with his free throws, DeShawn with his jump shot, and Zack Novak with his 3s, all the day before did I go over individually. I heped this team. I was appart of the team. And we just won...and I was all over it...



Us managers hung out afterwards at the basketball office to get the stats done and then talka bout the game. We realized this was the biggest win of our careers. Yes, this is big for our resumé. We were a part of it. Wow. So nuts. We were calling people and savoring the moment along with our snadwitches from Pizza House. It was glorious. All night, nothing to think about but that great win. I had so much fun during the game and then after it, that it was so so SO good! Michigan Basketball is Back! And its here to stay! Go Blue!

Missed the action? Check out ESPN highlights. Sport Illustrated article. Michigan Daily section. Its time to start paying attention to the Wolverines.

Dont forget to comment! If you just read this, say hi! Did you see the game? Did you hear about it? Anything! Let us know! Comment on the bottom of the post...look for the pencil image. Ok! Thanks!

Check out these great vids on the storm of the court. Yes, I know, I blew it, I should ahve filmed it...but hey, I was trying to stay alive, ok!! Haha, check these out. It was load, and AWESOME!

Thanksgiving and tough week at school

Well, thanksgiving was comming up and everyone was gonna go home...but me. I was stuck here...but things turned out not too bad. It was great for the break. I needed a break. I was falling apart. And things where only going to get worse afterwards. I have 2 solid weeks of hell and then I get to go back home the 14th for the first time since August. It is code named the Fortnight of Hell. So anyways...

I was loaded with basketball. Had a bunch Weds. Thursday we had practice int he morning. Then we got off the after that. I went to the Seromics for thanksgiving and it was a bunch of fun. I had a good time with the pies and stuff. Also, the little boy Juan Pablo is awesome. Me and paulina and Natalia went to go see Walle at night and then snuck in to see the last 30 minutes of The Dark KNight. Awesomeness. I cant wait till it gets out in BlueRay. Haha. I was so glad. I spent the night there, got up early friday, and then go to practice...again.

We had practice and walkthrough friday nigth. And it was fun. I am so tired right now, I dont remember what happened, it was too long ago and I am tired, hahaha. But afterwards we had to go to the office to get this newsletter for coach Beilein done. Apparently the manager who was suppose to get it done didnt come the last 2 weeks so it was not done. SO I took the burden and got to work and got a few to help me out and it was good stuff. I also got these sweet posters up for our game goals and stuff. Dang, I am leading the way in the second wave of managers. Its kinda cool.







Then Saterday we had our game against Savannah St. This game was crazy. For one, we hardly had any managers at all because of thanksgiving break, so I had to go up and film. But the game itself...oh what the drama! We had terrible practices leading up to the game, so I anticipated us stinking, but I had no idea this bad! You wouldnt have htought we had beated #4 UCLA the week before! We came out terrible and them awesome. We were missing everything and they were making everything the whole first half. They were making ugly buzzer beating shots. Everything. In fact they only missed 6 shots the first half, going 71.6% from the floor and 100% from 3s (6-6). So we went into the locker room quite...down by 20...yes, down by 20 to a terrible terrible team.




We came back in the second half and had a 15-0 run. The rest of the game we were trying to inch up on that 5 extra points. Finally in the last minute we were able to make it. Then, before you knew it we were tied with 30 seconds left in the game and they had the ball. Yeah, it couldnt get any more intense...but wait, it did. We fouled them 3 times in a row so that they kept having to take it out of bounds (cause we were not in the penalty). The last throw in there was 3.5 seconds. Well, as they pass it, our freshman Zach Novak (remember this dides name... this 2-star is gonna help our team a lot, just wait) lunged and tipped the ball out in front of him...only to grab it himself and run down the court at full blast next to Manny Harris to finish the game with an emphatic two handed dunk at the buzzer!...only for the ball to bounce out of the rim after time had expired! Yes, that is right, we could have won the game at the buzzer with a game ending dunk and ...it went out...so then we go to overtime. It gets better...

Overtime, we are doing pretty good but they are staying with us. Freethrows were huge for us this game. There we roll. We are winning by 2 points. A few seconds on the clock. They have the ball. As the clock rolls down and they are using up the clock, one of their players takes a ballsy contested shot at the short corner over our players to sink nothing but net with 5 seconds left to tie the game. I was for sure thinking we were going to have to suffer more...but, well...just listen.

(Zack Novak`s tip for the steal with 3.5 seconds left)

We pass the ball in, notice, with 5 seconds left, to Manny Fresh...he dribles once, tosses the ball half way through the court to DeShawn Sims at the women´s 3point line and shoots immediately with 0.8 seconds over one guy...and...and...nothing but net at the buzzer! The players jumped all over him and we finished a scare to a terrible team. Yes, we were down by 20 to Savannah St. But you know what? We know now that we can come back from a 20 point deficit and still win in 20 minutes. So over all good. Next...Duke, thats right, Duke Rematch 12/6. You be ready and square...

(DeShawn Sim`s shot with 0.8 seconds for the win)

(Our team extatic after the win)

BigTenNewtork Highlights