Meiser [far left], has created a sports atmosphere that is like no other, at Hartford. Courtesy of FlightZone.org

“Have you looked at my age?” Pat Meiser said jokingly when asked why now was the right time to retire.

About two weeks ago, Meiser announced her retirement as Hartford’s Athletic Director that would go into effect on July 31. After 44 years in the sports world, where 21 of those were spent here at Hartford, Meiser feels like now is the right time to release the reigns to someone new.

“It’s time for new blood, and new ideas and it’s exciting” Meiser stated when talking about what a new Athletic Director can bring to Hartford, “Once July 31comes around I won’t be here and hopefully they’ll be a very strong, talented individual to take this program to the next level, because I really believe Hartford is uniquely positioned to do great things in the mid-major world of college athletics with wonderful students.”

Meiser was brought to the Hartford area many years ago when she was invited to serve as the senior administrator at the University of Connecticut. She also had interviewed with the NCAA in the championships department that was in Kansas City and also interviews with Tennessee for the same position that she took at UConn.

Luckily she decided to stick around, and eventually made her way to Hartford where things only took off for the better.

Over the years, Meiser has seen the school shape into something great and feels that Hartford has developed into something great.

“I am most proud of is that we changed the culture of the student-athlete at the University of Hartford. And that’s been evident by the quality of academic performance of student-athletes as well as the number of quiet-tough conversations that not many people know about.”

These conversations give her an opportunity to create change, whether it’s a staff member or student-athlete.

“Young staff or students that need a wake up call to understand that participating in sports is a privilege, it really is and it can be taken away. We don’t want to do that, but if we have to we will in order to help a student remember what’s really important.”

With this attitude, Meiser has transformed this school into creating a positive student-athlete community where the school has received many academic awards from its athletes.

But there is still so much more we don’t know about Pat Meiser. We know her as the Athletic Director at Hartford, but what else does she have to offer.

“I have lot’s of interests, intellectual interests, interests in the art world. I am definitely interested in the social sciences, I’m interested in the world and worldly issues and for me I feel I have not had enough time and I will be remised if I don’t say my family.” Meiser explains

When asked about if she wants to spend her new free time for herself and with her family she says without a doubt.

“Yeah, and I think one of the things you realize when you get older, I love my job and I’ve worked really hard at it but it’s never been about money or lights for me, it’s about making a difference and you only have one chance to be on this earth and I’ve lost several dear friends in the last couple of years and so I feel like there’s another place for me.”

She feels that one of those places is with her family. Pat is the mother to four adults in their thirty’s and has four grandchildren, one of them who she is very excited to spend more time with.

“I have a special needs grandson that I am really fascinated by, he’s just a wonderful, wonderful boy and I want to be an important part of his ascent into teenage years.”

As July 31 inches closer and closer, we know that Meiser has turned this school and community into a glorious thing and without her, none of this would have been possible.

Thank you for your hard work and generosity during all these long years and hopefully you will pop in once in a while.

Busque put up his career-best in the mile at 4:29.95. Courtesy of HartfordHawks.com

This weekend three University of Hartford Hawk track and field athletes all broke personal records at the teams final track meet before traveling to the Armory in New York City later this month for the America East Indoor Track and Field Championship Meet.

Highlighting performances came from freshman Savannah Brown, not only setting a personal best, but a best for the Hartford women this season with a triple jump mark of 10.68 meters.

Lauren Bossi set a career bests in all of her three events including finishing the 60-meter hurdles in 10.10 seconds, clearing 1.55 meters in the high jump (matching teammate Maggie Fuller), and completing the 500-meter dash in 1:24.01.

Also posting a Hartford season best, junior Tiffany Harrison finished the 400-meter dash in just 58.09 seconds.

Hartford took fourth and sixth in the men’s triple jump with senior Rashawn Providence with a mark of 13.26 meters and sophomore Robert Pepper with his personal best of 13.19 meters.

As the Hawks finished the regular season at the Boston University Scarlet and White Invitational, three seniors set personal best times in their respective races.

Andrew Dwyer, the first time as a collegian, broke the two- minute mark in the 800 meter run to finish 17 with a time of 1:56.15.

Dwyer also ran the 500-meter for the very first time and finished 12 with a time of 1:09.97. John Busque set his career best time in the men’s mile with a time of 4:29.95.

Jennifer Flores nearly broke a school record in the women’s mile finishing with a time of 5:08.37, a mere .01 seconds behind the current Hartford best set in 2009 by Elizabeth Foster. Overall in the event, Flores finished 14.

The Hawks will now prepare themselves for their trip to the America East Indoor Track and Field Championship Meet at the Armory in New York City on February 23 and 24.

After the New England Championships will take place later that week from the 28 to the first of March in Boston.

The NCAA’s will start two weeks later.

O’Shea’s six goals powered Hartford to its first opening season win since 2006. Courtesy of HartfordHawks.com

Ten different Hawks found the back of the net, led by six goals from junior Kevin O’Shea and four from senior Andrew Cacchio, as the Hartford men’s lacrosse team coasted to a 19-11 win at Richmond in its season opener Sunday afternoon.

Four first-time scorers also highlighted the offense for the Hawks, who scored the most goals in a single game since netting 20 in a win at Brown on Mar. 7, 2012.

Cacchio wasted little time to get the offense going in 2014, scoring half of his goals within the first 94 seconds with the first coming just four seconds out of the opening faceoff.

Senior Conner Yatauro quickly made it 3-0 following Cacchio’s back-to-back goals with 10:15 left in the first, before O’Shea capped off the rally, scoring out of the ensuing faceoff to push the advantage to 4-0 just five minutes in.

Midway through the opening period, J.P. Forester put the Spiders on the scoreboard, but the Hawks answered back as freshman Doug Biondi re-extended his team’s advantage to four with his first career goal 1:25 later.

The rookie finished with a pair of tallies in his debut while former high school teammate Jaedon Henderson also scored in his first collegiate game.

Joining Biondi and Henderson in the first career goal column was Greg Reynolds, a transfer from Southern New Hampshire, and junior defender Brian Monks. Junior Ty Schuldt and seniors Brad Hutton and Tate Klidonas rounded out the scoring for Hartford.

Following Richmond’s Michael Goldberg’s first tally of the contest, the Hawks wheeled-off four unanswered goals to blow the game open at 9-2 just minutes into the second quarter.

The scoring slowed down for Hartford, though, and Richmond managed to close the gap to four at the break (10-6) thanks to a half-ending, 4-1 run.

In the third, back-to-back goals from Forester and Goldberg trimmed the Spiders’ deficit to three, the closest they had been since the opening minutes, with 5:55 left.

Despite the run, the Hawks held off the Spiders, closing out the third period with a pair of goals from Cacchio and Schuldt to boost their lead back to five.

Hartford’s scoring spurt continued into the fourth quarter as four-straight goals, including two from O’Shea, put the game out of reach at 17-8 with 11:03 remaining on the game clock.

O’Shea finished the game with 10 points, a career-high, while handing out four assists to match a personal-best in the category.

The Hawks dominated from start-to-finish, jumping out to a four-goal advantage and never had to look back. Hartford biggest lead of the game was a goal differential of nine.

Richmond was led by a five-point effort from Goldberg, who scored four times and handed out an assist. The Spiders (0-2) were coming off a one-goal loss to No. 7 Virginia.

Grabbing 13 ground balls, redshirt-junior Adam Yee had a stellar performance at the faceoff X, winning 20-of-31 duels, including the first five of the afternoon to help fuel the Hawks’ hot start.

Redshirt senior Frank Piechota went the distance between the pipes, making six saves in his season debut.

Hartford also held advantages in shots (45-29) and ground balls (42-37), committing just 13 turnovers to Richmond’s 24. In addition, the Hawks converted on all but one of their clear attempts, going 14-of-15.

In nine man-up opportunities, Richmond scored five times. Hartford had just two extra-man chances, scoring on one in the third.

Two Spiders played one half each in goal with starter Benny Pugh making seven saves while allowing 10 past.

The Hawks open up the home portion of their schedule next Saturday when they welcome the Bryant Bulldogs into Alumni Stadium at 1 p.m.

Bepko’s 16 points were not enough to secure the win. Courtesy of HartfordHawks.com

The University of Hartford women’s basketball team lost to the University of New Hampshire Wildcats 76-71 in overtime on Sunday.

With the loss, the Hawks have dropped their last three games, all of which were against teams in the America East conference.

The Hawks already played the Wildcats once during the season, which resulted in a loss.

Neither team managed to gain a major lead through the majority of the first half as the lead bounced back and forth with neither team holding more than a two-point advantage at any given time.

With a little more than five minutes left in the half, Hartford broke the 19-19 tie off of a three-point shot from freshman guard Morgan Lumb.

Freshman guard Deanna Mayza picked up an assist off of the shot.

The Wildcats responded by going on an 8-0 run which ended with a score of 29-25 in their favor with about a minute and half left in the first half.

This included two three-point shots from the Wildcats by senior guard Kelsey Hogan and senior guard Sarah-Marie Frankenberger.

The Hawks went on a 5-2 run to end the half, being down by one point with a score of 31-30.

The second half started off in a similar manner as the first had. The score went back and forth several times before the Hawks managed to build on a two-point lead to take their largest lead of the game up to that point with a score of 47-39 off of a 9-0 run.

The Hawks managed to maintain their lead through the final seconds of the game at which point the Wildcats managed to tie the score at 62-62, which sent the game into overtime.

Hartford managed to take the lead at the beginning of overtime off of two straight baskets.

Junior guard Amber Bepko scored first off a layup which was soon followed by a jump shot from senior guard Alyssa Englert, which came after the Wildcats scored two consecutive free throw shots which left the score at 66-64 in Hartford’s favor with a little less than four minutes left in overtime.

The Wildcats then went on a 8-0 drive to take a six-point lead with less than a minute left on the clock.

Hartford junior forward Cherelle Moore managed to cut the deficit to four points off of a layup with less than 30 seconds in overtime.

The Wildcats managed to hold Hartford to three points through the end of the game to get the win. Lumb and Bepko each scored 16 points over the course of the game.

Senior forward Milana Gilbert scored 11 points while Moore scored 10.

With the loss, the Hawks record falls to 6-6 in the America East conference and 9-16 overall for the season.

The Hawks will continue play on Wednesday at home at 7 p.m. against the UMass Lowell River Hawks.

The Hawks won their previous game against the River Hawks which a final score of 80-76.

Campus is a very interesting place the last few weeks of the semester.

Along with the new “blanket” of snow, everyone is bundled up to hide from the cold as the season changes into winter.

But for the majority, people seem shut off and not as sociable as they are the rest of the year.

There seems to be a dazed and glossed look over everyone’s face and all they want to do it is just get from point A to point B without any distractions.

If there are conversations, they are quick, brief and will probably be forgotten by both participants five minutes later.

All of this drag and sleep deprived time of year is what we all like to call finals week, or “hell-week” for some people.

It seems like at this time of the year, every single professor decides to pile on a decent amount of work, or you have no free time on your hands, from work, school and other activities.

Of course, procrastination has a little something to do with this pile of work we have in front of us and it seems like all of it is due tomorrow.

However, all of this time should not be spent in the library with our faces stuffed in our books trying to memorize one last definition for a 300-question test.

We all need and especially want some kind of way to release all of our stress that has compiled over the semester and is finally showing up at the worst time possible.

There are millions of ways to get rid of stress, go get a massage, listen to music, sleep or just chill out for a bit.

But for some people like myself, there is a need to exert this stress.

We need to just release our energy and make ourselves not feel, as down and there is one way that works every time.

Sports.

Whether you are watching, playing or even reading something to do with sports, there is this sort of feeling that you can get of relaxation and all of that stress you may have had is all gone.

Now, people may argue that if you follow a bad sports team, they will just add more unwanted stress to you at times.

As a Bills fan, I can agree with that statement, but sports is such a broad topic that it doesn’t mean that you have to watch a professional team to relieve your stress.

But, for most teams there was a point when your team was good and has memorable moments to watch on YouTube.

Whenever I’m feeling bad or stressed out, I’ll go watch the Bills 32 point comeback against the Oilers in 1993.

Go outside or to a gym if you want.

There have been studies done that when you work out or do some sort of exercise, endorphins are released into your body that make you feel a lot better than you did a few hours ago.

The great thing about going to this school is that we have access to a free gym with all sorts of equipment.

So, when you get done with a few hours of studying in the library, instead of moping on Facebook how much you hate studying, go do something about it.

You don’t have to know how to lift weights; everyone knows how to use a treadmill or a bike.

So put some sweats on and take the minute or so walk to the gym and put a smile on that frowning face.

If you like the aspect of teamwork, then take some other stressing out buddies and head to the intramural court and play some pick-up basketball or soccer.

But keep in mind that it’s just a game and that you’re playing for fun and if you decide to whine and complain about a foul or a basket then you shouldn’t even be playing in the first place.

The point of playing a pick-up game is to just take a break from the real world and have a good time with your friends.

I can tell you from experience that after having rugby practice right after class, I just forget all about my school worries and have a good time doing something I like with my teammates.

Even if it’s just for two hours out of the day, I feel so much better and can continue on with my day.

I know that you may not like to sweat, but in the end it’s worth it to make your body and especially your mind feel better to make you feel better.

And if exercise isn’t really your thing, go play some sport videogames.

Grab a friend of yours, throw in NBA 2k or Madden and forget about all your worries and stress.

Watching your favorite team throw down for a few hours as you control them can put a smile on anyone’s face.

We all know how cool it is to make ourselves in video games and watch us dominate whatever sport that game is about.

I’ve even made myself a wrestler in a WWE game and just can’t help but laugh when I choke slam some random guy.

As much as some people don’t want to admit, everyone has been stressed at one point during finals week, and with the bulk of the tests and essays coming up everyone needs a pick me up.

So go pick up that ball, racket, controller and put some sports into your life.

You won’t regret it.

Harrison managed to squeak her way into the record books by .07 of a second. Courtesy of HartfordHawks.com

This past weekend the men and women’s track teams competed in the University of Vermont tri-meet.

The Saturday meet saw junior Tiffany Harrison and senior Erik Quitzau achieve school records for the Hartford indoor track and field teams in their season opener against Vermont and Merrimack College.

Harrison posted her school best mark in the women’s 300-meter dash, while Quitzau turned in his record time in the men’s 55-meter hurdles.

Both of the teams finished third at the meet as the women scored 32 points while the men had 25 of their own.

“The team has been training hard over the last few months and today we got our first chance at competition,” head coach Steve Walsh told  HartfordHawks.com after the meet. “The freshman got their first taste of collegiate competition and the upperclassmen continue to improve. With two new school records and some outstanding performances, we had a great opening to our indoor season.”

Harrison was a main contributor to the women’s points as she won both the 300 and 400-meter races.

In her record breaking 300 race, she posted a 42.49 finish, which was just .07 seconds ahead of the previous Hartford-best time, which was set by Priscilla Appiagyei in 2010. Harrison also finshed atop the 400-meter dash, finishing with a time of 59.91 seconds.

Junior Sam Crisafulli and freshman Savannah Brown also posted event wins at Vermont.

In the women’s 1,000-meter run, which saw Crisafulli pace around the track in 3:03.24.

Brown turned in a win in the women’s triple jump, bounding to a mark of 10.32 meters in her first meet as a collegian.

Brown finished ahead of teammate Ally Thatcher, who finished second in the event with a mark of 9.82 meters.

On the men’s side, Quitzau turned in a time of 8.24 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles, which was just .01 seconds better than the mark set by Cody Adamson in 2011.

With the victory, he ended the meet in fourth place.

Lawrence Williams, another freshman, also posted a win in the 400 in her first college meet.

She finished the race in 49.30 seconds, and placed third in the 300.

Senior Rashawn Providence took first place in the triple jump with a mark of 13.48 meters.

Freshman Jordan Crump-King and sophomore Robert Pepper both placed in the jump as well with jumps of 13.35 and 13.16 meters, respectively.

Hartford has one more event on its indoor schedule prior to winter break. The Hawks will travel to Boston, Mass. for the Jay Carisella Invitational this Saturday.

As a freshman, Reaves has started in four of seven games, while averaging 4.1 points. Courtesy of HartfordHawks.com

The University of Hartford women’s basketball team played three games over the past week.

The Hawks had a two game losing streak going into the first game, which was on Tuesday night against the CCSU Blue Devils.

The Hawks took an early 5-4 lead at the start of the game off of three free throws from junior guard Amber Bepko.

The Blue Devils responded with a 10-point scoring streak, which gave them a 14-5 lead.

The Hawks managed to cut the lead deficit to seven points off of a three pointer from freshman guard Morgan Lumb but quickly fell behind again on a 7-0 run from the Blue Devils resulting in a 25-11 lead in favor of CCSU with about seven minutes remaining in the half.

Senior guard Alyssa Englert scored the final basket for the Hawks in the first half with about four and a half minutes remaining on the clock.

But the Blue Devils got another scoring streak, as they scored 10 unanswered points to go into the half with a 40-20 lead.

The Blue Devils started the second half by extending that lead from 20 to 30 with just over five minutes played.

They maintained the lead throughout the second half and on two occasions stretched the lead to 36 points.

The game ended with a score of 82-50 in favor of the Blue Devils.

The Hawks then went on to play the University of Missouri Tigers in the first game of the Miami Thanksgiving Tournament.

Hartford junior guard Shanise Bultron started the game by making a three point shot to give the Hawks a 3-0 lead.

The Tigers responded by scoring their first six points of the game.

Bultron then scored her second three pointer of the game, which tied the game at six.

The Tigers then went on to gain a decisive lead after a 16-2 run that resulted in a 29-15 lead.

The two points scored by the Hawks came off of a shot by Englert.

The Hawks and Tigers then traded baskets back and forth leading to a 35-22 lead for the Tigers going into the half.

The Hawks scored the last basket going into the half off of a shot by senior forward Taylor Clark.

The Hawks came out of the half on a scoring streak as they had two 6-0 scoring runs within the first five minutes.

The first of these included a pair of layups from senior forward Milana Gilbert, and the second were all shots taken by junior forward Cherelle Moore.

With just over 15 minutes remaining in the game, the Hawks managed to close the score deficit to six points with a score of 43-37. Moore made a free throw, which decreased the Tigers lead to five points.

The Tigers would then go on to have an 8-0 run which ended with a score of 53-38.

Bepko then made a jump shot, which ended the Tigers scoring streak and cut the deficit to 13 with just under 11 minutes left in the game.

The Tigers then went on a scoring streak, which ended with a score of 68-40 with just under a minute and a half remaining in the game.

The Hawks were able to score five points with just under a minute remaining, but ended up losing with a score of 68-45. Four of the Hawks final points were scored by Moore, who ended the game with eleven points.

The Hawks played the second game of the tournament against the St. Francis Terriers.

Hartford opened the game with a three point shot off of the tip by Lumb.

She went on to score another three pointer within the first two minutes to contribute to the Hawks early 8-2 lead.

The Terriers then went on to score eight points to take the lead with a score of 10-8 with just over 15 minutes left in the half.

The Hawks responded with a 7-0 run which gave them the lead for the rest of the half.

The Hawks went into the half with a 33-29 lead. Englert opened the scoring in the second half with a layup.

The Hawks went on to gain an eight-point advantage off of a three point shot by Lumb with a little over 12 minutes left in the game.

Hartford went on to lose the lead from a 13 point run by the Terriers, which resulted in a 49-44 lead.

The Terriers went on to win the game with a score of 59-49.

The Hawks will continue play on Sunday at former America East competitor Boston University at 1 p.m.

Hartford will look to bring in fresh talent to improve the team from past years. Courtesy of HartfordHawks.com

Seven student-athletes, have officially signed their National Letter of Intent to play softball at the University of Hartford next spring.

This makes the largest recruiting class, head coach Diana Consolmagno, has brought in since she was appointed head coach in the summer of 2010.

The class of 2018 players consist of three infielders, an outfielder and three pitchers. Alex Saharek (Wethersfield, Conn.), Jamie Soles (New Egypt, N.J.) and Brittany Wallace (Salem, N.H.) will take control of the infield, while Lauren Sustad (Merrick, N.Y.) will catch all of the fly balls in the outfield.

The newest pitchers for the Hawks will be Kristen Andrews (Commack, N.Y.), Kelsey Bird (Franklin, N.H.) and Kiersten Coho (East Freedom, Pa.)

Andrews was a dominant force on both sides of the ball at Commack High School, with a 1.78 ERA as a junior this past spring and batting an astounding .433 batting average.

With 26 RBI, Andrews was appointed All-League and All-Division for the second time in as many seasons while leading the Cougars to back-to-back Suffolk County League 1 titles.

An infielder, Saharek, a member of the varsity squad at Wethersfield High School, she has served as the starting catcher and clean-up hitter for a team that has made three-straight Connecticut Class L tournament appearances.

Saharek’s .492 batting average has been a part of back-to-back CCC North Championships as well. A three-time recipient of the CCC North All-Academic Team award, she has earned All-Conference recognition from the CCC North the last two years.

A member of the softball team at New Egypt High School, Soles batted .427 last season, scoring 26 runs while driving-in 12 more on 32 hits.

As a middle infielder, she has compiled an impressive .998 career fielding percentage and is a two-time BCSL All-Conference honoree who took home First-Team accolades in 2013.

During her career, Soles has also earned All-County Second-Team, All-State Group 1 Third-Team and Trentonian All-Area Team recognition while leading the team to the title game of the New Jersey Group 1 state championship in 2012.

Coho, a right-handed pitcher, hurled 140 innings last season for Claysburg Kimmel High School and recorded 155 strikeouts while allowing just 34 runs.

Finishing the campaign with a 1.15 ERA for the District 6 Class champions and PIAA quarterfinalists, she earned a spot on the All-State First Team.

Hartford will start this season with the Hampton Tournament in Virginia. The games will start on Feb. 28 with the first matchup against Columbia at 11 a.m.

As all my friends know, I don’t have the best luck when it comes to picking professional teams.

For the most part, my favorite teams from the four major professional sports are never the ones who win championships, make the playoffs or even have a winning record.

These teams are the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Bulls and Oakland Athletics.

Just so we’re clear, I am at the minimum five hours away from one of these teams because Buffalo is about five hours away from my home in Albany.

I’m not going to get into the details of how I became fans of these teams, but the jist of it is that I followed the teams that my dad liked.

For those of you who follow the sports world, you should know that these teams haven’t always been at the top of their leagues.

I know the A’s and the Bulls have had winning seasons these past few years, but the A’s can’t get out of the first round of the playoffs and Derek Rose is basically done because of his knees.

I have been accustomed to losing and disappointment for my whole life.

Besides the Jordan era, not once has these teams won a championship and gave me the ability to be proud of saying I’m a fan of one of these teams.

I’ll give you a quick scenario.

Once a year for a good seven or eight years, my dad and I would go to Buffalo to see a Bills game with a whole bunch of fans through some kind of group.

We would get up around three or so in the morning, get dressed, drive to the pick up spot, get on the bus and off we would go for the long five hour bus trip.

Upon arriving, we would have some cold pizza, do a little tailgating, get some gear and walk around.

Finally, the game was about to start and we took our seats in the frozen metal stands, as we try to stay bundled up from the freezing Buffalo weather.

And after three hours of losing all feeling in my hands and feet, the Bills have added yet another “L” to their record.

Instead of getting to hang out and check out the city, we have to rush back to the bus and drive back another five hours to just wake up the next day and still be disappointed.

Now, does that sound like fun to you?

Of course not.

Spending 10 hours on a bus, just to watch your team lose year in and year out.

This would seem like a waste of time to most people, but to me, it’s the life of a fan.

In order to be a true fan, you must endure the hardships with your team, no matter how much you want to cry and scream at the television.

The best thing you can do, is to hope for the best and wait for the next game.

As an A’s fan, I can speak truthfully about this.

Two years ago, I was about to give up on them.

My dad even was, and that’s saying a lot.

But even though I tried to, I just couldn’t give up on them and luckily for me and my dad, they ended up making the playoffs at the very end of the season.

I know that one of these days the Bills will eventually make the playoffs, and could quite possibly win the Super Bowl.

Even though it’s only a dream and a hope right now, it could one day become a reality.

To those fans who only cheer and root for their team when they do good, and not really care or want everyone fired when they do bad, you guys are the worst.

You make sports and teams that you like not fun to watch anymore.

Either be a fan and stick with them through everything or don’t be a fan of any team at all.

I’m talking to you New York and Boston fans.

Yes, your teams have been known to win many championships.

But don’t pull the same thing every year with everyone wanting Coughlin to be fired or have Eli benched because of a poor start.

Once he wins a few games, I know you’ll be back in the palm of his hand.

And Boston Celtics fan, I really don’t hear you doing too much talking with the pathetic team you have this year.

All I hear is Ray Allen betrayed us just so he could get a ring.

Guess what, he went to a team that wasn’t going to collapse and lose their coach in the next year, and won a ring.

Boo hoo, get over it.

If you complain about your team doing bad for a year and you aren’t a Cleveland Browns fan, don’t come crying to me, because I couldn’t care less.

So, if a team that you follow isn’t doing too hot right now, don’t worry.

As long as you stick with them, something good will eventually come out of it.

We’re hearing about all these cool things that the latest technology is able to do, but honestly I find it just flat out scary.

On one side of the token, we are complaining about the unemployment rate and then flip of a switch we are raving about the newest machine, which can complete the work of ten men.

Well, that’s ten jobs that just got flushed down the toilet.

Why are we so obsessed with creating robots instead of keeping people employed?

There is now technology that can make beef without using any meat from a cow.

Google Glass is the latest fad, but what purpose it serves I really couldn’t tell you. Why do we need a voice-commanded computer screen right in front of our eyes for?

So we can check our Facebook while we’re walking to class? No one should want to take their hands out of their pockets during winter. Not only does the device look ridiculous and create a new threat to driving, but don’t do anything we need done, and yet people are spending $1,500 a pair.

We can clone things. How scary is that? Stewart Brand tells us that there is now technology that can bring extinct species back into existence by inserting their saved DNA in existing animals’ reproductive systems. But once they give birth to the extinct creatures, what happens? The newborns do not have parents of their own kind to follow and learn from. And what if the ecosystem has adapted to life without these extinct species? Will they be able to reintegrate?

I’m all for saving endangered species, but I’m not so sure about de-extinction. We have already screwed nature up by killing off these animals, but now we are going to alter the reproductive patterns of living species in order to try to reverse our error? DNA is not meant to be altered with. Why can’t we leave it alone and focus on the things that really matter?

Where is the technology that cures cancer? AIDS?

Amazon is coming out with Prime Air, which flies packages from the warehouse to your doorstep in thirty minutes using these UFO-looking machines. Can they sense when an object is in front of them? I guess we’ll find out when they start killing birds and smashing people’s windows.

Why is this necessary? If you need something in thirty minutes, here’s an idea: Don’t order it online! Go out to the store and get it! The money you might be saving by purchasing the item online will be surpassed in the shipping fee that these little UFOs will undoubtedly cost.

It makes me sick.

Cars can parallel park so that people can become less competent drivers.

Programs can spell check so that people can become less competent spellers. Pills can make you lose weight so you don’t have to adapt a healthier diet.

Machines can pull and push and dig and turn and mix and lift so that people don’t have to perform physical labor.

No wonder there is a demand for engineers these days – because instead of demanding exercise or what used to be ordinary intellect of human beings, we are demanding the creation of machines that can do everything for us.

It’s also no surprise that we are a lazy, obese and unhappy nation in general.

Every day we get one step closer to living in the futuristic world portrayed in the Disney-Pixar film “Wall-E,” in which the humans live on a huge spacecraft where robots do everything for them. Machines dress them, brush their teeth, and deliver food and entertainment to them so they never have to get out of their chairs.

Everyone is fat and greedy and yet always unsatisfied because they are not getting any fulfillment out of life.

This is what we are becoming. We are so used to this lifestyle that it is impossible to reverse it completely and get rid of all this technology.

Imagine a world without it. You may not be able to watch your favorite TV show or text your friends about every aspect of every day of your life, but you would be healthier, humbler and most likely happier.