Eric LeGrand's Interview

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If you are a local, I'm sure you are familiar with the Eric LeGrand story... and if not, I wrote about it here and then again here.

Earlier this week, ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi conducted the first interview with Rutgers defensive lineman Eric LeGrand since he was paralyzed during the football game against Army on Oct. 16.

I've embedded the interview with Eric LeGrand below:

Believe. How can you not?

If the above link doesn't work for you, you can view it by clicking here.

Wishing LeGrand nothing but the best. He's defied odds so far, and I'm sure he'll continue to do the same in the future.

P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Rutgers vs. Syracuse Football Game

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This past Saturday, I attended the Rutgers vs. Syracuse football game, courtesy of winning two tickets through NJ.com's (online version of a local newspaper) twitter account.

I graduated from Rutgers last May, and had not gone to any of the games so far in the season, so this game was also my first game as a Rutgers Alumni.

The first half of the game was quite mundane, but it quickly picked up in the latter half. Unfortunately, we lost.

It was, also, the first home game Rutgers was playing following the game against Army, where Eric LeGrand was paralyzed from neck below.

Here are a few pictures we took at the game:

Sea of Red:

The student section formed the number "52" in honor of LeGrand: 

During their half-time show, the Rutgers Marching Band formed a "52" in honor of LeGrand:

The Fall 2010 semester at Rutgers so far has been plagued with unfortunate events. Read my post about what happened in September by clicking here and October by clicking here. As for November -- right before half time, one of the people attending the game fell at the game and is hospitalized in critical condition with injuries to his head. You can read more about that here. Some commenters on the news article seem to suggest that Rutgers is playing down the story, and all I can is this -- I was just a few feet away at halftime in a crowd of people at the concession stands, and I didn't find out until I was back in my seat later on via twitter.

Hopefully next semester will be a lot smoother.

I meant to write about the game that night, but when I got home my laptop suddenly would not turn on! It was running absolutely fine until before I left for the game, so I am not sure what happened. I ended up getting a new laptop Sunday, but I AGAIN lost everything from my old laptop which is quite annoying.


P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Bad Luck Strikes Rutgers

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What a month for Rutgers! The Fall 2010 semester has brought so much attention (local and national in both of the cases) to Rutgers -- in a negative way unfortunately.

A few weeks back, I posted about my thoughts on the Rutgers freshmen who committed suicide. Since then, the Rutgers community has been hit with a missing student (who was fortunately found safe within a few days and it was deemed to be him leaving in his own will from what I have read) and a devastating injury to one of the Rutgers football players.

In a sport such as football, which is such a heavy contact sport, injuries are bound to be happen. You know in the back of your mind that the worst can happen, but you choose to not dwell on the fact. Unfortunately, it became reality for a Rutgers football player last week as they played against Army.

Eric LeGrand, a junior at Rutgers, took a hit and ended up with a devastating spinal injury that has left him paralyzed from the neck down (at least as of now). While the doctors aren't sure at this point if he'll recover and be able to walk one day at this point, we do all know the road ahead will be a long one and the whole Rutgers community is rooting for a full recovery and praying for him and his family.

Here's a video I found on my local newspaper's website:

In one of the MANY articles I've read in the past week on the top, one of the articles mentioned this irony:

In 2004, Manny Collins and two other players from the Rutgers football team were in a car that was rammed head-on by an SUV going the wrong way on Route 18 near the campus. The injuries they sustained from the car crash led none of the three players to be able to play again that season.

Now the freaky part is that ... LeGrand was injured the same day — Oct. 16 — as Collins’ 2004 car accident. Rutgers had the same record (4-2) then as now and is playing the same opponent (Pittsburgh) in the same setting (Heinz Field) this weekend as it did six years ago following the accident.

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As the Rutgers football team play their first game since the injury later today, all of the players helmets have a sticker with the word "believe" on it in honor of LeGrand.

In the wake of the injury, the Rutgers Division of Intercollegiate Athletics announced that they have establishment the “Eric LeGrand Believe Fund” to support Eric LeGrand and his family. 

Contributions to the fund are not tax deductible and can be made by sending a check payable to the “Eric LeGrand Believe Fund” to:

“Eric LeGrand Believe Fund”

PNC Wealth Management

Attn: Kimberly G. Kingsland, Senior Trust Advisor

One Palmer Square Suite 201

Princeton, NJ 08542

For more information, feel free to visit http://scarletknights.com/believe/

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What a (horrible) month for the Rutgers community. I graduated this past May so I'm no longer a student, but Rutgers was such a huge part of my life for the past four years -- I can say without hesitation Rutgers is a part of my identity... and its happenings effect me.  Especially because I live so close to the campus.

Hopefully the rest of the semester goes by a whole lot smoother.


 P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Cap and Gown = Graduation Day is Approaching

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So last Thursday I bought my cap and gown, which kind of made it official for me that I graduate in thirty-four short days! How unreal! There are just two and a half weeks of classes left (and I only have EIGHT actual days left of classes!!)

I gotta admit, it didn't really hit me when I bought my own cap and gown, but as I was helping someone else with their cap and gown stuff yesterday (I work at the bookstore on campus)... it hit me then! Everyone who knows me, knows how emotional of a person I am so it won't come as a surprise to many that it made me teary!

I just can't believe how fast the past four years have flown by! It feels like orientation was just some time ago, and yet here is graduation day approaching rapidly.

Not to mention the fact that I HATE changes!

As much as there has been things that have annoyed me like crazy, there are so many things I would not have done or got the opportunity to do otherwise. To name a few off the top of my head:

• going to Rutgers football games (repeatedly!). I don't think it was very likely that I would have gone to so many football games otherwise.. and actually enjoy them.
• going to a rally for Corzine where former President Bill Clinton was the featured speaker.

P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Olympics: Pre Mens Hockey Final

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I'm not a big fan of sports. I watch it rarely. Except for the Olympics (see my blog post about that here), the only time I'm really into watching a game would be when I was watching the Rutgers football games - and that's mainly because that is my school's team.

Realistically, I just don't see the excitement in it considering there's like always some game on and I can already think of countless ways to waste my time that I need to be working on. If sporting events occurred less frequently, their competition level would seem more exciting in my opinion.


So many times I hear from my brothers (and others) they can't do so and so at that time or can't go here then because this game or that game is on- I just don't see why and how something on TV would dictate my schedule. That's just pretty ridiculous. 


But that's not what this blog post was supposed to be about - it was supposed to be on the the much anticipated game with Canada against the U.S... the one i'll probably be watching.

Why? Well, there are several reasons.

I honestly don't think I would watch the final game tomorrow if the pair of teams playing in the final were any other possible combination- considering I've only seen minutes (if not less) of any hockey games so far in these Olympic games.

But I am a Canadian who is now residing in the U.S.. The rivalry could not be any more intense... which leads to a part of the excitement in the competition.

The fact that U.S. beat Canada in the quarterfinals (i think?) adds to it as well to see how this game will play out.

Canada has more gold medals than the U.S. right now - and adding one more wouldn't hurt :).

Canada just has to win!

Anyways, I doubt I'll watch the whole game (I know I won't watch the whole game), but I'll have to catch at least bits and pieces of it.

Hoping for a Canada win,



P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Snow Storm Forecasted

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I don't know about you, but i LOVE snow! Actually, i think that is the biggest understatement ever haha (and anyone who knows me can attest to that). Since i woke up this morning and read/heard that we were expecting a snow storm, i've been anxiously looking forward to it (and hoping it won't dissapoint). My brother, Ayaz, was just teasing me some time ago that we'll probably just end up getting an inch or two of snow (or less), but i hope not! All i ask for is one big snow storm a year... is that really too much to ask? ;)

I just LOVE snow as it's falling, and the white blanket of snow on the ground with a storm/blizzard.... until it gets dirty and slushy. then, it's not so cool. I could do without the incredibly cold temperature that comes with it though haha. I guess part of the reason i love it so much has to do with me growing up in Canada, but i don't know about that since the rest of my family isn't too fond of it (or most of extended family in Canada).

The forecast has changed from 12 inches, to 1 or 2 inches, to currently being at 8-14 inches in the span of less than 12 hours... so we'll see how that plays out. Currently, it is forecasted that the snow will start around 1 or 2 A.M. and get heavier around tomorrow evening, and end by Sunday 6 AM. We'll see how that changes and progresses. It's already started snowing in Virginia and the surrounding areas (even though it was forecasted to start tomorrow sometime), so the snow is definitely coming... just not sure how much of it!

anyhow... let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

On a side note, things i'm looking forward to in the next few days: 1) tomorrow is the bowl game for the Rutgers football team (the last RU football game i'll watch as a RU student); 2) monday is my last final for this semester (i hope the snow doesn't mess with the exams schedule on monday since it is supposed to snow until sunday morning); and 3) which means winter break starts monday evening and i'm off from classes until jan 19, 2010 when classes resume (which will be my last semester for my undergraduate degree! :/ ). Not quite sure how i feel about that just yet - i'm excited about being done, but have mixed emotions about it as well... so we'll see.

Snow, Classes, RU Football

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It FINALLY snowed today for the first time this season! When i read in the newspaper a couple of days ago about the forecast for snow for today, i'll admit i got super excited for it - but i didn't really think it would end up snowing... or that if it did, it wouldn't snow a lot and definitely not stick (considering it was almost seventy degrees two days ago).

the rain this morning, however, quickly turned into wet snow... and then snow that stuck... so we have a nice blanket of snow outside! I LOVE snow as it is falling and the blanket of white snow on the ground, until it starts getting dirty. it was only an inch or two of snow, but it was great nonetheless. I hate the cold temperature that comes with the snow, but LOVE snow - i guess because i grew up in Canada (actually i don't know about that reasoning since the rest of my family is not so fond of snow).

On a different note, this coming week is my last week of classes - just days more days of classes! I also have two of my exams on thursday, and i will be done with exams and all on december 21st. As the semester draws closer to an end and the fact that i had my senior photos yesterday, the realization that i have only one semester left at Rutgers as an undergraduate is finally hitting me. I can't believe how fast the past three and a half years have gone by, and i'm sure my last semester will go by just as fast.

Ttoday was also the last rutgers football game of the regular season ( the bowl game happens in a few weeks). i didn't get to go to today's game even though it was a home game, but it was a great game.  it would have definitely been nice to have gone, considering it was my last game as a student, but oh well. it may be just as well considering the weather and the temperature - risking getting sick right before finals would not have been too great. anyhow, we played against west virginia university (who has beat us every year since 1994, unfortunately). we didn't win, but the game was close with the final score being WVU - 24, RU - 21.

Thoughts: Registration, RU Football, LSATs

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It's so unbelievable, but i registered this past Monday (November 9th) for my last semester as an undergraduate at Rutgers University! I can't believe it! It doesn't feel like I have been here for so long (three and a half years at this point!) and now am just months away from graduating in May. While each individual semester has seemed to drag on forever, it has in general flew by pretty fast. It hasn't been the easiest few years by any means, but i can honestly say it has been worth it. The roller coaster ride with the combination of the stress, challenges, agony, and the feelings of accomplishments have been nothing short of interesting, to say the very least.

I can't believe how fast time is flying by! I've been meaning to write a blog post on my mom's hospital stay/surgery from the beginning of October (over a month ago!), and i just can't seem to get some free time together. Hopefully in the next few days i will since i finally finished my midterms, papers, and projects this past week. Besides a few papers and a project, I don't have much extra school work due until the final exams period which is about a month away.

I also got my LSATs score back near the end of October, and i didn't do nearly as well as i would have liked or as well as i thought i would have done with all the studying time i put it. Needless to say, i was (and still am) quite frustrated and flushed. For the first few weeks, i was pretty upset (quite an understatement). I'm going to retake the LSATs in February and see how i do. People have been telling me not to let it get to me, but after all the studying, how can i not let it to get to me? It's something i've been thinking about and aspiring towards since the eighth grade! I know if it's meant to be, it'll work out... and if it's not... that's alright too... but i CAN'T just not give it another try. i guess i'll re-evaluate once i get my scores back from the LSATs from February and see what i want to do. I've been in the law school frame of mind for so long, that the thought that it may not be for me is quite upsetting. I'll be off for about three weeks in between the fall and spring semester that starts mid January so i'll have to get some hard core studying done then to prepare for the February LSATs.

On a quite different note, this past Thursday i also went to another Rutgers Football game - RU vs USF. Unfortunately with everything going on, it  was only the second game i have been able to attend this season (i went to the RU vs. Howard really early in the season). I was hoping i would be able to attend more considering it's my last year as a RU student, but oh well. Hopefully, i'll at least be able to go to the last home game of the season against West Virginia. RU vs. USF was an amazing game, and i had a great time - so even if it is the last game i attend as the student, it was great. The final score was RU - 31 and USF - 0. I was hoping for a great game with a huge win, but i didn't think the ranked USF team would end up not scoring at all!

September at a Quick Glance

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So i've been MIA from blogging recently (for like a month!), but that's because a lot has happened (and has been happening) that has been keeping me quite busy!!

Anyhow, i took my LSATs this morning! The morning started off rough with having low air pressure in one of the tires of the car... and when i eventually got to the building where my exam was... there's a note telling us to go to a completely different building. I mean i go to Rutgers, so getting to the other building wasn't such a big deal for me... but for everyone that came to take the LSATs at Rutgers but doesn't actually go to Rutgers... it was a challenge! One kid, candidly, suggested it was actually a practice logic game to help our brains focus :). Thank goodness i left early to leave ample leeway time.

I've been sick since monday, so i didn't get too much studying done in the week leading up to, but i hope i did fine. If not, i can always retake them in December... i hope i don't have to though! I HATE being sick ( i KNOW no one likes being sick!), and this constant weather change is driving me crazy... and is definitely the root of me being sick.

On another note, i began my senior year of college early this month! I can't believe i am a senior in college... where has the time gone?! I remember my first day of school ever, starting second grade in canada once we moved there, then seventh grade when i moved to new jersey, starting high school, then college... and now it's almost over! I really wish it would slow down a little! To think that in May, i will be a college graduate is AMAZING and weird!

All of this, of course, means that i have started looking at law schools and have began the process that goes along with it (letters of recommendations and whatnot), which has been a little nerve-wracking. All of it seems so surreal.

Oh, and Rutgers Football season is well underway as well! I've only been to one of the games so far... and haven't really been following it to well this year because of the time constraint, but it's still been fun when i do get the chance. Hopefully i'll get a chance to go to a couple of more games this season... especially since it's the last year i'll be a student here.

Week in Review

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First of all, I want to wish you and your family a very Happy New Year. I don't know about you, but it doesn't feel like a new year is beginning because time is literally flying and no special events seems to have that much of a significance anymore because of what's going on everywhere in the world.

Other than that, things have been pretty busy here. My dad's sister and her family were visiting last weekend from Canada and today my dad's brother and his family came down from Canada as well - so it's been a lot of family time. During that time, we celebrated my aunt and uncle's and my cousins' anniversaries too - so that was a lot of fun (Happy Anniversary Javed Chachoo and Anna; and Shakil Bhai and Popi Baji).

Monday was the Rutgers Football bowl game, and it was a good and very close game - but we pulled off a win :) . Now the football season is really over for the year. :(

We got more snow yesterday, and even though it is not sticking, it is still fun and really pretty to look at it... but the cold and wind with it is too much!

As you can guess, I've not been getting much studying for LSATs, so I really got to work on that for the remainder of the break.

A Great End to a Great Season and "Bon Jovi Kid"

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Last night was the last game of the Rutgers Football 2008 Season, and it was amazing! The weather cooperated mostly, the atmosphere was great, and the game itself was a blowout. At the end of the first half, we were winning against Louisville 49 - 0! The final score turned out to be 63 - 14.

There was this adorable kid (Nicholas) at the game .. who was going crazy and got really into the music during one of the breaks.. and it was sooo cute. Thankfully, the kid's father put it up on YouTube, and I have embedded it below. The video doesn't do this kid justice, but here goes:


In this next clip (Jourdan Brooks being tackled by his hair),you cant almost feel it.. as if it was your own hair:


I can't believe the season is over! I am definitely going to miss the excitement.. for another like nine months!

Rutgers Football

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Rutgers football season has officially begun!

Olympic Highlights

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The highlights of the Olympics from my point of view so far:

Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Final in swimming: in what was a very exciting race, Jason Lezak helped secure another gold medal at the end of the race. According to the Yahoo! Sports Blog (I know - I can't believe I was on it either!),

"When he dove into the pool as the anchor of France's 4x100-meter relay team, [Alain] Bernard had a .60 second lead over American Jason Lezak. Even though the 32-year old Lezak is one of the best sprint freestylers in the world, the .60 lead held by Bernard should have been insurmountable. Bernard held the world record in the event. A world record holder with a sizable lead... you do the math."

And of course in my favorite sport - gymnastics:

In the women's team final, the U.S team finished with a silver medal as the Chinese dominated the game throughout. My favorite was undoubtedly the Chinese performance on the last rotation in the floor exercise as it was incredibly great and they had so much fun with it. It was absolutely amazing to watch. In the Women's Individual All-Around Final: American Nastia Liukin won the gold, American Shawn Johnson won the silver and Chinese Yang Yilin won the bronze.

Then, in the individual competitions:

U.S. gymnast Nastia Liukin and her rival He Kexin get the same exact score on the uneven bars, but of course this is like the one sport that only awards one gold. With the IOC tiebreaker rules, Kexin won the gold medal, leaving Liukin with the silver medal. I read in an article that the reasoning was that: "Both scored 16.725, but He got the nod because her execution marks were closer to a perfect 10 than Liukin’s." I found that pretty unfair - if they both got the same score, they both should have received the gold medal, like in most of the other sports. What is even more wrong is that Kexin had more visible mistakes!

Throughout the gymnastic competition, there was talk if He Kexin was even old enough to participate and it'll be neat to see what comes out of that report. Several reports have He being as young as 12 years old.

And now onto specific people:

Michael Phelps: Outrageous. Wow. Incredible. I don't even know where to begin with him. 8 gold medals, 7 world records.. what a week for him! With the eighth gold, Phelps eclipses Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals and seven world records set at the 1972 Munich Games.

Earlier this week I read something on the Yahoo! Sports blog (I know - I STILL can't believe I was on it either!) that I found to be so true:

The biggest accomplishment for Phelps might not be the eight golds, or the seven world records or the $1 million bonus from Speedo. The greatest feat for Phelps was that, for one week, he turned everyone in America into a swim fan. People who couldn't tell you the breaststroke from the butterfly were hanging on each of his races, cheering on Phelps like they were lifelong fans.

I mean I am definitely not a sports fan in general, except for watching Rutgers Football games and the Red Sox here and there, but I got really into swimming this week. The excitement was incredible.

Usain Bolt: Jamaica's 21-year-old Bolt breaks own world record to win the gold medal in the 100m dash without even trying finishing at 9.69 seconds.

Constantina Tomescu: a 38-year-old Romanian runner, won the marathon with like no competition. Her closest competitor at the end of the race was 22 seconds behind her as she held a steady and large lead for a good part of the marathon-- and for sometime in the race she was even leading by over a minute. At 38, she is the oldest Olympic marathon winner.

Dara Torres: Proving that age is but a number, 41-year-old Dara Torres, lost the gold medal and won the silver medal by one-hundredth of a second — the same margin that helped keep possible for Michael Phelps to break Mark Spitz’s record. Torres won the silver medal in each of her three races this week.

And finally, Bob Costas himself as the host. He is incredibly funny and such a great host. I've definitely enjoyed his remarks throughout.

The idea of the Olympics is so incredible: to watch the best of the best from each country compete with one another. Even people like myself, who aren't into sports at all, get so into it.. it's amazing.

What I love even more is how for two weeks it's like a bonding time. With each of our increasingly busy schedules, it's been neat to make time to sit as a family every night to watch the Olympic events together.

Weekend Update

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Saturday afternoon, Rutgers played their bowl game in Toronto, Ontario against Ball State and won :). Ray Rice is supposed to announce within the next few days if he is going to leave Rutgers a year early to enter the NFL draft. I can't believe I have been actually following football (just Rutgers Football) and have even gone to many games..who would have thought?

As of Sunday evening, Barack Obama is leading Hillary Clinton (his closest competitor in New Hampshire) by ten points in New Hampshire with its primary being on Tuesday! That is definitely great news for Obama. Super Tuesday is just a few short weeks away, which is where 19 states hold their primaries or caucuses for both parties plus three Democratic-only caucuses and one Republican-only primary. With a total of about 2075 delegates possible that day, we will most likely know at that point who the nominees will be for each party.