Trip To Indy

This week was action packed, action packed! So muched happened in so little time. So there were three big days this week: Thursday, Friday, and Sunday

Thursday we had UCOffee, the last one of the year and pretty big since we havent had one since january. So I had some big things planned. I was going to do one of my signiture DP the Great magic routines, a rediculous awkward dating video, and a salsa routine. The salsa was the biggie. Filming was filming and I got John Hughes to do the editing for me because I knew there was no time for me to do it. So that helped a lot. We ended up working on it tons monday, then some on tuesday and some one weds. We had it down pretty good. It started with Bethany and Mark doing some routine that they had coreographed, then they finished and me and Rina popped in between and did our thing. After that the girls had a mini thing anfd then me and Mark had our little Thing. THen we switched partners and danced in unison, then we switched partners. And then after that Mark drops Bethanie on purpose and takes Rina from me and did this sweet areal move and then I go pick up Bethany for this sweet pose at the end and then get tackled by her boyfriend/my roomate Brad. It was quite the ending we had planned, haha. In fact we added Brad on Weds and we had him work on this sweet aria move himself with Bethany were she ran towards him and jumped and he grabed her waist and brought her up in the air so that she would be parallel with the floor. It was funny because they couldnt get the mechanics down so I tried it with Brad and got him on thefirst try perfect. Its a pretty sweet move.

This week was so packed with basketball as well. now that the season was over we were getting ready to go to the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis, indiana. We had a huge win over Minnesota that you will remember from my last post,w hich we really needed to get into the tournament, but nothing was finilized until selection sunday and a win in the first round in the big ten tournament woudl almost seal our chances for the Big Dance. We were preparing for Iowa, so it looked like we had a good shot. So we had practice, then my scout stuff, then other things for th etournament that I had to do. on top of that I got like 10 calls during UCO on weds from Coach Mahoney and his son trying to make a video in tribute of theseasionrs. So I had to walk him through all the steps on how to make a video on a mac and how to edit music and insert it and how to find pictures online and everyhting. Thank God for my iphone because during that meeting of which I missed half of it, I was able to make mutlimple phone calls, text messages, send emails, and get online. I also found some free wifi to help me go fast. Amazing to productivity one can do. But of course I knew that things wouldnt finish as they had hoped, especially when I got a call from coach at 11pm saying that his son, Doland, had gone to bed and couldnt figure out how to save it as a movie file. So Coach saved it to a thumb drive which means it wouldnt work on any other computor since all the files are on that computor. So of course the following day coach gives me the stick, tells me to open what I can and finish the files before he leaves for Indy at 5pm. So there I am trying to get this movie to open with imove and it wouldnt. But I was able to find all the pictures that he had had and they were alll super pixilated. I think he saved the thumb nale versions on google instead of the actual picturtes. So I reverted tot he only thing I relaly knew I had left: make it all over. So I searched for each individual photo that he had in the list and saved them at full size and put hte photos together with smooth transitions and titles and some other speicail effects. I also found two music tracks in the folder so I trimmed them up and put them into one track to fill the whole thing and after working hard at it for about 2 and a half hours I had a full little movie. It was simple, jsut liek Doland had in mind, but it had everything that he wanted. I saved it as a .mov file and put it on the thumb drive and I was a asavior once more. Thank God I didnt have to edit that awkward dating movie.

So Thursday came and the first game against Iowa was that day. i went to Crisler to watch it after I ha all my work done and what a game. We destroyed them. It felt so good. I was also able to lift and then I found one of my new favorite hobbies: shooting. Wel, I already knew I liked to shoot, but I used the rebound gunner that will rebound balls for you and shoot them back at you. It was so relaxing. I was at the top of the key and with the music on and no one else around I was just catch and shoot, catch and shoot. Swish swish swish swish. It was awseome. I loved it. And then we finished them off by liek almost 30, 73-45. Peedi was on fire being 100% in the first half and making our first like 16 points int he game. It was sweet.

sorry about them all being Manny,
he had all the cool action shots

The team knows they played great
and should make the NCAA
Tournament Bid

I finished everything with basketball and was all pumped for the night. I was so so busy that day though running around and getting things done. I had planned to leave Friday morning to go to Indianapolis with 3 other managers to watch the game against Illinois, who was a very good team, for a chance to get to the semifinals on saturday. SO I had to pack and organize and make sure vehicles where good and calsses were exsempt and were got get money for the trip and the whole enchillada. But I also had to get ready for UCOffee. SO I ended up being real late as I got all my stuff prepared for the night and showered and meet up with the girls. We went over with me pumped and ready to perform.

The magic trick was sweet and simple. It was a mentalism one of me predicting 3 events in sequence and then revealing them at the end. it was really good and I know they all enjoyed it. Bugged me because my mom just send me my battery charger for my camera. But I had just charged it 2 weeks and I haddnt been using it at all. So I fugured I was fine...but now, because not 5 minutes into the routine by battery dies...and that sucked so bad because now I wasnt able to record me, the salsa routine and the comedy act and Ashley playing the violin and the music by will and the illegal immigrants band. I coudlnt film anything and it was really annoying. And on top of that I got so many more calls with basketball. I had to keep texting and calling the whole time for this and than and then the managers and the coaches wanted me to go to the office to get smomething and send this and that to the recruits. It was nuts. And then at the end Mark came over from his exam and we got ready to do the salsa rountine. But that was an event in itself. The Awkward Dating Video Here

Me warming up the crowd before my Magic

So I told you already of the basic game plan of the routine. Mark and Bethany were going to start and then me and Rina were gonna come in. Well, things kinda went nuts haha. I was with Mark int he back and they announced that we were going to do a slasa routine. So I ask Mark were Rina is and he told me to go up and around to the other side adn wait for her by the door. So I ran over, but then when I got by thedoor I see mark there moving some of the instruments out of the way and Rina wasnt comming and I text her and wait and wait and then they start singing the ABCs on the piano or something and I really had to pee and Rina wasnt comming and nothing was hapening and I didnt even know if Bethanie was ready. So i ran ove to the bathroom that was right there and started to pee until I heard the salsa song begin and I was like great Corn so I finished up really fast and ran out the door to the side of the stage and there was Mark looking at the audience all smiling and stuff and then Rina went out and like did a little twirle and a bow and I heard "Daniel! Daniel!" so I thought I had to go out and introduce myself too so I go on the floor and do my little DP hey yeah move and then get off the floor adn watch and then I hear Rina say to me "Dance with me!" and I was like oh geez I guess I have to dance! So I walk over real smooth and begin our routine and int he midst off everything that went by so quickly I totally changed the routine at the end and kept going with material that was uncooreographed and it looked real good. Now I wont say that I messed up and I wont say that i intentionally changed it either, but I will say that things change without me noticing and instead of being like, oh, I messed up, or oh, how do we get back to the routine, I accepted it and embraced it and made the best of it. Its kinda like life: you must accept what you are given and make the best of it. Hahaha. So thats what I did and it was awesome. The rest of the routine worked out for the most part and I was looking good in my outfit. Both me and Mark were wearing kaki pants and I had my ncie mexican shoes and we had black pin stripped shirts that were open with a white undershirt underneath. We had our hear slick and it was good. And the girls had all dressed up and did their hair and had some nice dresses for the thing, but I dont even remembered what they looked like.

So I talkd to my buddies afterwards and told them all about the game that I was going to go to and stuff and then said by to the girls who were going to go on a women´s retreate and then had to take off with Bethie. She brought me over to Crisler to get some stuff and thent o the office. I finally got back to my room to see the historic Syracus win in 6 overtimes. I got to see the 3rd-6th overtime and it was intence. So intence, but it kinda became a joke as they kepted being tied and tied.

I didn't go to class at all. I just had morning prayer ate and packed up. Andrew was supposed tinpick me up at 11:15 and then josh and Steve at 11:30. Well he was so where to be found and a large part badto do because I had his phone. He left it at crisler the night before. He finally came right atlfter noon because he had to bring his room mate to he emergency room for cutting his finger with the razor. We finally left and it was a bunch of fun. We talked a lot of basketball and other things. We stopes at mcdonalds for the first time in forever with me. Then I got 2 full throttle juices or ehatver at a gas station only to find them really dirty.

Kept going. Had fun in the car. We stopped just outside of Indy and I found bawls! Ahhh! So so good! A d they had the rootbeer knew too. In cans and bottles! Feels like heveh. So I got 2 of the root beers one original and some new stuff called pure energy. Re root beer tastes just like ibc. Pure energy tastes like orange bawls. Pretty good. I have already spent $20 on energy drinks and bawls today...wow.

Everything a man would ever want:
Pure Energy and a pair of Bawls

We got in the city and we were looking for josh's reporter uncle hotel and we in The most getto área in Indy. So getto. The Indiana womens prison was right there. There were dudes who looked like they haddebt taken a shower in a year. There were crack ladies walking on the streets and it was nutty. Steve liked it though. We just went back to the Conseco filed house and parked in a structure. We walks over saw BT and eddie George and walked in and it was awesome.






The game was annoying. We were competeative in the first only down by one at the half. I got this big pecan ice cream which was a mistake because I couodn finish it before the second half started and it was super sweet. But then we got tired in the second becase of the game the day before against Iowa and they were hitting teir shots and we weren't. Really annoying. And then we fell apart and were down by 20. Then we made a run fir it and got within 7 and then stu missed a transition quick 3 and manny turned it over andrhey hit another shot and it was all over an we lost 60-50.






But the night was not over. Us 4 went over to a pub really close by called oreileys. It was alright, nice spot. I was really upset for a while. I lost my game of pool even though I was up the whole game. Andrew and josh went to move the car and ended up getting no where with hotels until matt dupree gave us one because the roof fell on him in his so they changed him to another and gave him a complementary party suit. But this is completley unofficial. Unofficial. We did not get get a room from Matt, ok? They finially came back with Will and aj and mikey and it was all over. Mahoney was already there and tom was there and everyone had a good time talking and just having fun. By now Steve already had 6 of those big things which was the equivelent of 3 beers. He spent all his money in beers last night. Haha. I saw steve to over to talk to this group of people and so I followed him and before I knew it I was friends with 2 guys from Indiana and one from purdue who were all 32ish and it wad aweomse. They loved me. We talked a long time about everything to sports to eceonomy to college and the tournament. Then AJ And steve and andrew joined us and we talked Michigan and Indiana basketball and then I did some coin magic fir them and they loved it. Us managers were gonna leave and so we got will and mikey and AJ with us ad left. They guy has my numberto meet up with me next gear. He told me good luck, keep what you are doing and enjoy life while you are still in college.



Us 5 had a blast walkig down the street to stake and shake and wow it was so so so good. I cant believe we never did this before. We got here and my thing was so good. It was like a burger with toast and wow. It was a pretty getto old school place but all good. We lauged so hard. It was a great night and I was glad I was able to stay with the boys out there. We really ahd fun times and great memories. Too bad we lost, but hey, we should make it to the tournament.




Video of Indy Pole Here Soon....

Which is the next thing that happened this week that was huge: Selection Sunday. This is the big day, when nothing else matters and all focus is on CBS. Well of course I was completely loaded. I had practice in the morning. Then I had to run, yes, run over to St. Mary for Chatechism. Then I ran back to south quad to take a shower and change. And then I did a fast walk back to Chrisler, just in time to get my blue brother hood shirt on and enter the stadium with the team. I sat there on teh edge with the team in the middle. And the the anticipation started...and it took forever, and ever. They went through the first 3 sections and down to the last one...and we waited and waited and literally there were 3 spots left and finally they called us! And people were going nuts! And the team jumped up as if from a cannon and were going bonkers and I joined in the fun and after all that Beilein got the mic and said "wow, after all the excitment...anyone know who we are playing?" No one knew. Hahah. But we are the 10th seed playing 9th seed Clemson on Thursday in Kansas City Missouri, and hwo knows where that is. Apparently its somewhere in the middle of the US, in one of those unimportant states. Its 12 hour drive and immediately all the managers wanted to go and I was hesitating a little bit because of the drive and since I just got back from Indy and I had an exam and papers and stuff, but they were all 100% convinced, so I guess I might have to do some re-planning, dont you think?


Selection sunday clips:



Watch CBS Videos Online

The YouTube ones will be on soon once the site is back up.

My dad And Bro in Michigan!!!

This past week, the first week of October, has been super busy. And instead of doing homework right now I wish to retell what a fantastic week this has been.

I guess I can start on Monday. Funny thing when I got to practice on Monday morning, Beilien asked me to program his new digital addidas watch because he had no idea how to read the tiny instruction booklet. No problem I said. It took me a while to get everything properly, but that nice watch of his has the time and date, plus a quick button to the chronograph, and also 5 timer setting for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, and 5 minutes. I showed him how to swap through times and settings. It was pretty tight showing Coach Beilien personally.

Thursday was UCOffee. Now, its kinda a combination of a talent show/get together. We have people come to chat and drink coffee and goodies and get to meet new people while we have some entertainment in the background. Well, John asked me to be EmCee. Of course I took the job not realizing how much work I had to do this week. I ended up being able to quickly script the show once I got all the acts together Weds night. I had to go get pictures for the basketball team right before that, but I ended up having plenty of time to get from Crystler Arena to Campus Chapel and set up. It was a hit. We had a lot of performances from wanaa be magic acts to performances by the “Illegal Immigrants” to John´s awesome video to Ben´s Wake me up when My midterms end, to my magic trick (of course) to tons of fun in between. I even had some good joke to pull off. It was awesome. I had a blast leading the event and I am sure everyone who went had a grand time.





On Friday, I also had a busy day. I had no practice in the morning, quite the break, so I could stay and have prayer meeting with some dormtroopers (us fellow UCO people in the dorms). I went to my dumb econ discussion class, only to realize I knew way less than I anticipated. Now I am really scared of my econ midterm on Tuesday. Later on I went to the gym, only to notice on my way back that I had an hour less than I thought I had. I quickly took a shower, changed into dress clothes and ran over to see Joe Dumars, hall of famer, NBA 2 time champion, and president of Basketball Operations for the Detroit Pistons, come do a talk on leadership and the Michigan League. It was really good. This guy is amazing, probably the most respectable Gm in the NBA today. He stressed character and integrity and working and surrounding yourself with good people whom you can trust to get the job done correctly. After the speech he let the floor up for questions. Right when it was my skill and character for him choosing pro athletes, Q&A was over. What a bummer. But I ran into this awesome dude who was sitting right next to me the entire time. His name was Roberto, really cool for a classy black guy. He was in the Ross School of Business here at UofM. He wanted to get into the sports world so I shared with him all the things I knew of it and he was impressed by how much I knew and have been doing. He was a really really nice guy and hope to see him soon.


At this point I was starving because I rushed over from workout and hadn’t had lunch. I walked over to East quad at 3pm to grab lunch before check in started at 3:15 at perpoint commons for the Kenisiology Networking session. Right when I am finishing eating, Will, the head manager, callls me. “Yo, DP, can you meet one of the coaches a the Student´s Activities Building?” That is next to the Union. I told him my time crunch and he said I was the first one he called. I said sure, believing everyone else to be busy and well. So the next thing you know, people see this dude running down the street with a nice blue long sleeve button up shirt with kaki slacks and Mexican style brown shoes running down at quite a good pace with a black bag in hand. The afternoon is beautiful and it is a restful Friday, besides this dude running way out of place. I got there only to find coach Jackson and Matt to call the meeting off because of practice time infringement. So I then ran over to peirpoint commons at 3:35 out of breath, sweaty, and having to fix up my dress clothes. After that I went in and talked to some people.

One person used to work as an assistant coach for the Detroit Lions and is now a Lawyer for the NFL. Another worked for the Detroit Pistons/Palace of Entertainment until he moved over to work with 3 different leagues. This last guy I talked to was amazingly nice, and quite a resume as well. He went to the NBA Management training program and after that worked in creating the WNBA in 1997. After doing that for 3 years he went over and joined this first year Athlete Relation program which does player contracts and personnel for new athletes coming out of college. He is currently doing Wolverine Alums Amani Toomer, Chad Henne, Adam Kraus, and Adrian Arrington. Nuts! He was super nice. The things I learning from this network are: The NFL has really really good internship programs for students (so maybe an offer with the Dallas Cowboys wouldn’t be such a bad idea), that it is easier to go from Team Operations to Business part of the franchise than from the Business to Team Opps, and that if I keep with the basketball team, that is the best way to get into team opps in the future. I also was told to keep smaller leagues in perspective because they are easier to move up in. Anyhow, at that moment I got a call from my dad, telling me that him and my brother were at the Law Library waiting for me…

I rushed over and met up with them at south quad. I quickly brought Christopher up to my room, changed into my basketball gear, and we drove to Crystler Arena. We got there right when the team was finishing up a scrimmage. Then we had voluntary shooting. After a short meeting with the managers about the following day and the 2 tailgates we had to man I went with my brother and dad to Cottage Inn to eat some good pizza and show Skunk the good life. We got a lot of good talking and good catching up, so that was really special. It was so cool to have Christopher here in the land of Maize and Blue. That was the first thing he commented on: the huge difference of not seeing a single maroon or burnt orange any where but filled with the blue and maize. Haha, so true. This is not Texas anymore.



After that, it was already dark and getting cold. I took them to Steve and Barry´s so that Christopher could get a new Michigan Football Shirt. Then we went to St Mary so that my dad could meet a few people at the pancake night that had just started. There weren’t many people but he got to meet Father Tom and Devon. After that he took off. He did bring me my old books and notes from my philosophy class in high school. So I read over the Crito again and took some notes for my paper. After that me and Skunk went to get some bubble tea and then went to North Campus for some reason to see some friends. Some of my friends were in and other were out. I was amazed by how many of the nerds lived in the identical rooms from the year before. Hahaha. Then I saw Eugene, my good buddy from t he end of the year last year. He is working a ridiculously a lot right now. Christopher thought he was a cool guy. Then we meet up with Will and Ashley and we went on the bus together down to Central to go to pancakes. At this point it was already midnight. I got to introduce my bro to them and they instantly welcomed him. We talked a lot about UCOffee and they were both disappointed they had to miss my magic trick (haha).

We got to St Mary and we played this ridiculous funny game in which you had funny things you had to do and curses to uphold as well. If you didn’t hold the curses, you lost the curse, and after 3 down, you lost the game. My first one was yelling like a sergeant with everything I said. I did a really good job for a while. Then I lost it when a friend of mine came in and I was talking to her. I cant believe they called me on it. Devon was doing alright, but not that good. He had all these things he had to do if people made noises. Will was doing terrible and wouldn’t last a full round before he lost his curse. Ashley did pretty well. She had to swat flies every time she talked and did a good job on that, and after she lost that she had to say “not funny” every time she laughed, which was every few seconds. I ended up getting a combined 3 voice curses. I had to talk in a high pitched voice, had to hick up while I spoke, and had to make an echo with my last words. It was nuts. We had a blast and Christopher had a good time too. After some dancing around, skunk was tired so we retired for the night like at 2:15 am.





The next morning I got up and did some work. Me and skunk went to Crystler at noon. I didn’t have to work at the alumni tailgate till 2pm. So pretty much I had to stand there and man the recruit tailgate for 2 hours along with 14 other guys. It was really cold, and I was freezing in my polo and pants. Even though Christopher had a sweathsirt, he is fresh from Texas, so I got him permission to sit inside crystler with my iphone to stay warm. My dad later came to pick him up while I did the Alumni tailgate and he brought my brother with him to the Law School Alumni Tailgate. My dad said he ran into people he hadn’t seen in 20+ years. They got my 2 tickets validated and they entered the park. I was still at the Alumni tailgate. The food catered there was soo so good. They had these bacon macaroni and cheese that was the best I have ever had and these barbeque ribs which were superb. I got in the stadium with 15 minutes before kickoff at 3:15. But that was an adventure in itself. I gave my dad both my tickets. I didn’t have any tickets. But since the last 3 games I hadn’t even got my ticket scanned or even looked at, I figured I would be fine. Well, at the Alumni tailgate, they were asking for tickets. I was like, this is not a good idea. So I grabbed to orange juices and a water (no, a diversion was not my plan), and walked out of the tailgate and around to the empty recruit tailgate tent. I walked in crstlyer with the approval of the usher who knows my face. I walked around and got into the stadium. Step 1 done. Now I had to do the equally hard part of getting into my section without the ticket. Like I said before, every time thus far, I didn’t even have to show it because I suppose my shirt stated that I was with the team. But this time they asked for it!....I fumbled around in my pockets and pulled out my Miami (ohio) ticket, a 3 week old ticket, an with my smooth misdirection and subtle display of the ticket, he let me right on through! Score! I rushed down so happy but wanting to get there before the opening kick off and to join my friends and family. They were all happy I made it sound and the game started.


I am not going to say much about the game because we did really bad against the Fighting Illini, but I did have a good time and know it was quite the experience for my dad and brother to be on row four of the student section with the band next to us and 250 people short of 110,000 in the stadium shouting at the top of their lungs. We had an ugly 45-20 loss, but it was still fun. I am sure Christopher will never forget that experience.
After the game we rushed over to South Quad. The game took 4 hours and it was 7:30 by the time we got back. We ate a light snack and walked over with the guys to Martha Cook to have a Lords day with the girls. It turned out to be a good Lords Day, and it went from good to fantastic once my dad spoke. He talked about future goals and listening for God´s plan day by day. He made a great encouragement to us students and told many applicable stories of when he was going through school. He even talked about one of his clients he just finished up with in Ypsilanti which was a great example of how we can minister to people while on the job. It was really good and I know everyone appreciated my dad talking. He is just like me, or should I say, I am just like him. Once he gets started, he just takes off talking about this and that, this story and another, and tying it all together and what not. It was great and he even talked to a few privately after his talk. I am really glad he got to take this opportunity while he was here and only wish more people in UCO and St Mary could take this opportunity.

Afterwards we walked on the calm chilly night to State Street to go to a salad shop for some late food. Us 3 got to talk a good while. I really enjoyed having their company that night. I took them back to the dorm and showed them some videos of UCOffee and some projects that I have gotten done since I left from Texas. Its kinda funny, because I have only been gone like 5 weeks from Texas. But it feels like I just saw them the other day. So much has happened since I got here that I didn’t feel the time pass away. But it felt so out of place to have Christopher here in Ann Arbor. But it was so goood. I am glad he came. We crashed for the night once the other guys got here.

My dad was supposed to come at 8:30ish on Sunday morning to eat some stuff and take off with Christopher for the airport. But my dad didn’t show up and his phone was off. I got some philosophy work done for my paper, and about 9am my dad shows up with some starbucks coffee and pastries. His phone charger didn’t work last night and ran out of battery. It was great to have him here. He was dressed in his “casual attorney attire” and we talked some and drank some coffee. This morning was the best because we had some energy and had a peaceful morning with the rest of the dudes asleep. This morning was probably the best time I got to spend with them because of the peacefulness and the energy we had. I really really enjoyed having them come this morning. We took one final picture and then I helped them go to the car in front of South Quad. It felt so good to have them. I hugged and waved goodbye and came up to my room. I hadn’t had time to miss them at all since I have been here or since they got here. But for those few minutes after they left I really got the feeling of missing them. Especially my dad. He is so awesome. I love my dad so much. I wish he could see all the things I am doing here and that he could get to know more of my friends and influence them like he has me. Wow, I had a great time.

Well, I just decided to waste an hour + of my Sunday morning to write all this to you. I have a busy schedule now. I have a paper to write for tomorrow and I have to go to a econ102 review session from 12-2 in an a little bit to go over my midterm that is coming up. And soon I have my sport management midterm too. So wish me luck.
Thanks Dad for coming up to Michigan and bringing my awesome brother. I had a fantastic time. God bless –Daniel Fransisco