Nate's Blog

Nate Langel

Remsen, Iowa

Sophomore
 

Major: Elementary Education
 

I love my wife. I'm interested in breakfast, lunch, dinner, Lord of the Rings, C.S. Lewis, schoolwork (occasionally), Peanuts Comics, geeky computer stuff, loud music, pizza, ice cream, racquetball, and ultimate frisbee. I enjoy long walks on the beach and making sun tea.

Yesterdog Newbies

Nov 14, 2009

Last night marked a historic milestone in my life as a Grand Rapids resident. It was my first Yesterdog experience.

Yesterdog is a hot-dog restaurant that everyone you ever comes to Grand Rapids absolutely has to eat at at least once. Supposedly. And so, after work last night, Jim (a full time tech-support guy, he's never eaten there either, but he lives in Muskegon...) and I drove down to Eastown to scope it out.

It's not a particularly clean or attractive joint. As my boss at work would say, "It is what it is." Nevertheless, you can't help but like place. It's got signs and posters and little 4x6 pictures of people wearing Yesterdog t-shirts at locations all over the world covering about every inch of wall space. I thought it was neat.

And after a long evening of fixing ethernet jacks, it was fantastic to sit down and eat a messy hot-dog.

I made the transition from a first timer to a fan about halfway through my second cheddar-dog. Mmm.

Satisfied,

nate

No Super bowl rings, but we get a sweet t-shirt

Nov 12, 2009

The ultimate frisbee team that I play on won the intramural championship tonight. Below is a picture of me and the one of the team captains.

 

It's been a short but fun (and victorious) season. I really enjoy playing ultimate.

Athletically,

nate

Fruity Cucumbers...

Nov 10, 2009

I can handle the whole “a tomato isn’t a vegetable, it’s actually a fruit” idea, but today in Integrated Science for Elementary Teachers, my understanding of fruit was crushed like a halloween pumpkin two weeks into November.
 
It turns out that most of the things I call a “vegetable” are actually scientifically classified as fruits. Cucumbers, pumpkins, peppers, green beans, corn- all fruits. A few non-fruit examples are potatoes (they are “tubers”), carrots (roots), and broccoli (a flower head). 
 
On top of this fruit/vegetable paradigm shift, the scientific classification of “berries” (a type of fruit) includes kiwis, watermelons, cucumbers, grapes, peppers and bananas. Blackberries and raspberries are scientifically “drupes” and not berries.
 
Maybe you knew all this already but in case you don’t believe me you can read about the scientific definition and classification of fruit here.
 
I guess when it’s all said and done, “vegetable” isn't even a scientific term and everything I thought I knew about fruit is fallacious.
 
The process that the professor took our class through to clear up these misunderstandings was the most important thing I learned today. We started by dividing into groups and observing (and eating in my case) produce samples from the grocery store. We listed the characteristics of each and tried to classify them as fruit or vegetable. But the close we examined the characteristics, the less distinction there was between our separate groupings. 
 
 
After that, our professor explained the scientific definition of a fruit (a ripened ovary that contains the plants seeds). Since we had just been observing and describing (and eating) produce examples, us students had a framework in which to understand the new definition, and it made sense to us.
 
Instead of the usual “tell then show” approach, we are learning that the “5 E” method (Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, Evaluate) is more effective in teaching scientific concepts. 
 
I’m still not sure I completely have my head around cucumbers being fruits, but I’m getting there.
 
Have a fruitful day,
 
nate

Pep Band Premiere

Nov 7, 2009

Though we played at Midnight Madness a few weeks back, this afternoon was our official debut at the girls basketball game against Trinity Christian. We had a lot of fun and our director was pretty happy with the way we sounded. We played pre-game, half-time, and a few songs after the game was over. In the future, we’ll start playing for timeouts in the middle of the game as well.

In between our playing time, we formed a pep band based crowd section and cheered like crazy for the girls team. They played really well in the first half, not as well is the second, but still handily won the game 72-66.

Our pep band plays again next Saturday. I’m excited for it already.

 

I wore my sombrero from Futbol Fiesta last Monday. I'm thinking about getting it out for every game this season. Now if only our band played Oye Como Va...

Over and out,

nate

Just out of curiousity

Nov 4, 2009

I'm curious as to who is reading my blog. Please take this quick, two question survey.

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Keep on rockin' in the free world,

nate

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