Nate Woodbury

Composition #3

Sybil Priebe

                                                UNPLAGUED INJURIES

There was a time when I thought I was invincible.  The common phrase; “That will never happen to me”, was a something I always reminded myself.  I thought it in all areas of my life, as if nothing bad could ever happen to me.  Especially playing sports.  I saw people get hurt on T.V. and have seen players on my own team hurt themselves.  But I always felt that I was somebody different and nothing remote could ever go wrong. ….Until tenth grade football.

According to the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, “More than 10 million sports injuries occur each year. Most sports injuries are due to either traumatic injury or overuse of muscles or joints. Many sports injuries can be prevented with proper conditioning and training, wearing appropriate protective gear, and using proper equipment.”

The worst injury that has ever happened to me was a sprained middle finger.  If you have never jammed a finger then you must be HEE-MAN.  I played football for almost six years so it should be rather surprising to some that I have never had a serious injury.  Football players are constantly getting banged up and miss games on regular occasions.  I played quarterback on offense and free safety on defense so I was used to getting hit every play on the field.  As the season was got under way, I felt like I was in the best shape of my life.  I had spent the whole summer conditioning and lifting with the team up at the high school, so I had high hopes for an excellent year of football.  We were on a roll and playing well after winning our first two games, and getting ready for our next opponent, Hopkins.  They were also 2-0 and surly psyched for the game against us. 

            The game started and we had the ball first.  We drove the length of the field, and had a first and ten at the Hopkins 20 yard line.  The call from the coach was a quarterback sweep, which was for me to roll out and try to turn the corner and gain as many yards as possible.  I snapped the ball and sprinted towards the sidelines.  As I neared the sidelines I noticed a number of Hopkins players closing in on me.  I planted my foot to turn the other way and was hit by an opposing player.  My knee buckled as I fell to the ground.  I experienced the sharpest most horrific pain of my entire life.  I rolled around on the ground and can remember feeling light-headed because the pain was so severe.  Even though I had never been seriously injured before I knew that this was bad.  It felt like my knee was separate from my body.  I stayed on the ground for a couple minutes while some trainers checked me out and toyed around with my knee.  I tried to explain what happened but I couldn’t really remember how or what hit it was that caused my injury.  I didn’t fully know until I saw film of the play a couple days later. 

            My mom drove me to the clinic where I limped into a doctor’s office.  He fiddled around with my leg and looked to see what I could and could not bend.  After doing this procedure he concluded that I probably tore some ligaments in my knee, but he did not know which ones.  To figure this out we would need to x-ray take a picture of my knee.  After a week had passed I went into the doctors office for my CAT Scan (I think some fancy x-ray machine).  After taking multiple pictures of my knee he concluded that I tore my medial collateral ligament.

            Two very important ligaments, the medial and lateral collateral ligaments, are located on the outside of the knee joint and help to stabilize the knee from side-to-side. These ligaments are commonly known as the MCL and LCL ligaments. The MCL stabilizes your knee on the inside of your leg, and the LCL stabilizes the knee on the outside of the joint. MCL ligament injuries most commonly occur when the knee is hit on the outside (like my circumstance in a football game), or when a lot of force tries to open up the knee like a hinge on the inside. When the force that the knee has to absorb is more than the ligament can handle, the ligament will not work properly by either tearing away from the bone or tearing apart in the middle.  The diagram below, courtesy of Knee Solutions, explains where the Medial collateral ligament is in conjunction with the knee.

A Grade III MCL injury will allow the knee to open up a significant amount, somewhere between 1 and 1.5 centimeters. These injuries can take a long time to heal; often requiring a hinged knee brace for as long as six weeks before the knee feels like it is strong again.

            The pain that for the next 2 weeks was almost unbearable.  I slept horribly and was forced to wear a huge brace that wouldn’t allow my leg to bend at all.  I hobbled around school on crutches and was forced to miss the rest of the football season.  I was completely crushed.  I could not believe that something so sudden could change my life possibly forever.  How would I know if this could hinder my athletic career?  How would this effect my basketball season, which was about to start up in less than a month?    I had so many questions to ask and I knew that there were no definite answers.

I was horrified at the thought of not being able to compete.  My whole life I had been one crazy, energetic kid who was constantly playing sports.  Now, I was merely a spectator.    Over the last ten years I had been falling all over the place, but I had always gotten right back up.   Now I would have to learn how to handle, staying down….at least for a little while. 

For the next month I was assigned to rehabilitation periods with my strength training coach.  Physical therapy and rehabilitation can often be the most important part of the treatment for a knee injury or after a knee surgery. This is the part that is up to you, and as hard as physical therapy is, only you can make the difference between having success and ending in failure. There are many different physical therapy exercises designed for different injuries and surgeries. The first steps in rehabilitation after a knee injury or a knee surgery are to regain the strength in the muscles that move your knee, and also make sure that your knee is able to move freely through a normal range of motion. Recovering lost strength and range of motion is a gradual process so I wanted to make sure I didn’t get impatient and discouraged quickly.  My left quadriceps was already so much smaller and weaker than my right one so it worried me a little bit more than usual.  I hoped everything would be in shape for basketball season, which was right around the corner.  After doing weeks of rehabilitation, I thought, the pain was finally dieing down.           

My knee got a lot better at first, and then when I started walking around and doing more extensive exercises again it seemed to get dramatically worse. I was having a lot of difficulty kneeling, or getting up again after I had been kneeling, and if I walked around extensively, my knee would swell significantly. The swelling usually went down overnight, but my knee was too sore to play anything, and after a while, even walking was slightly uncomfortable. There were certain positions that I just couldn't put my knee in, because I thought that it would get "stuck" there and I wouldn't be able to straighten it out again.  Gradually my knee, my knee regained more and more strength and I could see myself playing ball in just a couple weeks.

My doctor then fitted me with a state of the art knee brace that had huge knobs at the hinges.  It was rather uncomfortable wearing it at first but I got used to it as I wore it more often.  My doctor cleared me to start working out in the brace so I took it to the gym and ran up and down lightly for the first time in about a month and a half.  It felt so refreshing and exciting.  After all those agonizing rehabilitation sessions to be able to fully extend my leg finally and begin a new “life”. 

I was able to play basketball that year, just as long as I wore that knee brace.  That brace may have done more harm than good to my opponents because the knobs on the side of the brace would bang against peoples knees.  People would be flying all over the place screaming because it hurt so badly.  After about four months, I could feel no side effects of the injury and was worry free.  It was definitely a journey and a half getting to this point but it makes you feel all the better once you get there.

This injury really made me realize how quickly something can vanish or be taken away from you   It allowed me to put things in perspective, and know that I need to live each day out to the fullest because you never know exactly what’s in store for the future.    I no longer feel like I am invincible or that I things could never happen to me.  I know they can, and chances are they probably will happen again in the future.  At least I know now that I can handle anything that gets thrown at me. 

Nate Woodbury

Composition #2

Sybil Preibe

                        Woody’s SportsCenter

I have never imagined that I could have my very own web page.  It always seemed like another world out there, where I could travel to and explore, but way to complex and confusing to actually make my own.  For the past 5 years I have relied on people to update their sites to keep myself and the rest of the world entertained.  Now the tides have turned and it is my duty to keep the World Wide Web on their toes.  For my site I wanted to make sure that my focus was on something important to me.  Something that was my passion and that I would love to do.  I thought about a number of possibilities, but none of them jumped out at me like Sports did.

            Sports have always been a passion of mine.  Ever since I can remember I have always been running around and kept very active.  I fell in love with sports from the very beginning.  I have played basketball since I was in first grade and am still playing here at North Dakota State University.  I have played football since I was in fourth grade and participated in Little League baseball for six years, and continued to play house league ball in high school.  I’m completely infatuated with sports and there couldn’t be a better topic for me to do a web page on.  There is something about the thrill of competition that has reeled me in and never let me off the hook.  Whenever I read the newspaper, the first thing I look to grab is the sports section.  When I turn on the T.V., the first thing I try to figure out is what game is on.  It’s especially crazy in the fall and winter because I am such a big football and basketball fan.  I have been to the Final Four for three years in a row and hope to continue the streak as long as I possibly can.  Sports create such a care free atmosphere where I can sit back and relax and not worry about the daily stresses in my life.  You can make them into a social event or you can be on the edge of your seat cheering your heart out 

            Sports are hugely popular not only in the United States but throughout the world.  Many headlines and top stories today are related to sports.  Many of the top ratings among television programs of all time are involved with sports, such as the Super Bowl.  In Europe and South America, soccer is so popular it has even provoked riots that have resulted in deaths.  There was a Venezuelen player that accidentally kicked a ball into his own net, and was shot and killed following the game by his own fans.  Now that’s an obsession!  Sports gambling is also a huge business in Las Vegas where people lay thousands of dollars on their favorite teams to win.  Athletes, college or pro, have been harassed and badgered by these “bookies” who challenge the player to “throw” the game in exchange for money.  Just a couple of years ago, a player at Arizona State was caught “throwing” a basketball game. The University found evidence that the player was in contact with the bookie, and was suspended and the bookie went to jail.  Sports are always under the spotlight.  Whenever a player is arrested or charged with a crime, the whole country knows about it.  Everybody knows athletes.  That is a large reason why athletes get paid such a ridiculous amount of money.  They bring in so much money with ticket sales, endorsements and merchandise, they fully deserve to be paid that much.  People have become so obsessed with sports it has turned their life into one big “SportsCenter.”

            I started Woody’s SportsCenter using Tripod’s web page design.  I had heard that is quick and easy to do, and also free.  I was completely clueless while starting the web page because I’m not very good with computers, but was able to catch on fairly quickly. Tripod allows you to make your site with a variety of tools.  It gives you the possibility to add photos of your choice and quick links to make your site as creative and interesting as you want.  You can also download music of your choice to make things even more extravagant.  If your computer has enough power you can even download video clippings or movies. 

            Since my site is entirely on sports, I try to include some of the best stories from the sports world.  It can get especially hectic in the fall because all four major sports are either finishing up their seasons, or just getting under way.  Some of the things that make it rather difficult to do is keeping up with all the sports.  I didn’t really narrow down my choices down to one site.  I just like so many different sports, I wanted to make sure I was involved with as many as possible.  I have to admit that I am a little biased towards basketball because that is my favorite sport, and I put a lot more time into that than the others.  Another problem that I came across was downloading music on to my site.  To do that you have to first download songs that you want onto your computer using a music based search engine.  Some examples of search engines are Napster and Kazaa.  Once you have downloaded the songs of your choice, you must relay that to your web page using the web gems icon.  It was rather confusing for me, and it took a while for me to get the hang of it.  These are all just minor problems that I came across.  The good far out weigh the bad.

            The best part about making my web page is that I get to design to my specific liking.  There isn’t anyone telling me what to put on there.  Everything you see is from me and what I think is interesting.  There are always new exciting things going on in the sports world you could cut and paste stories and pictures all day.  I’ll give you an idea on what I go through on a daily basis.  Sunday Octerber 27:  The Aneheim Angles won the World Series so there was an enormous amount of stories and information about the game.  I went to Major League Baseball’s official site and downloaded some cool pictures and a couple neat stories.  You copy and save any given picture you want, go back to your web page and click on add pictures.  It will then give you the option of where you like to add this picture. Another huge story, Emmitt Smith, of the Dallas Cowboys set the professional football record for career rushing yards.  I went to the National Football League’s official website and got some great pictures of Emmitt celebrating his new record.  These two events were huge stories in the papers and on television, so I kind of felt it was my duty to put them on my web page.  After that I felt it was necessary for my site to have a picture of myself.  What better way for my readers to get to know me, so I went to our athletic website here at NDSU.  Its called gobison.com and I added my picture from the basketball file.  Most people think I look like a cave beast but I think it looks pretty bad ass.  Then I decided to spice up my site a little bit and throw a little hip hop music into the background.  I think its especially fun for me to be able to put stories up about our basketball team here at North Dakota State.  The season is underway now, and I’m thinking of starting an online journal to let people know how the season is going from the perspective of a player. It should be fun.

            In the future I plan to continue my website and try to make it as fun and interesting for everyone.  Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to get some fan interaction involved.  Possibly put some polls online for fans to participate in and rate different things.  Right now my site is made up of entirely pictures and stories.  I want to eventully add some videos of some historic moments in sports.  I want to make things more colorful as well.  Everything is a little too blan for my liking. I will make things a little bit more creative to get people hooked and want to come back.  So far, everything has been a lot of fun and I thouroughly enjoyed this project.    The sports world will continue to go on and create interesting story headlines.  Its my job to integrate them into my website and make it interesting.

Nate Woodbury

Composition, Tues-Thurs

Sybil Priebe                 

“Weblog?” “What? I don’t get it.”  “What are you talking about?”  “What the heck is a weblog?”  From the moment I heard that infamous word, questions have flooded my mind.  Why is my composition teacher talking about weblogging?  Shouldn’t she be talking about Shakespeare or something?  I really didn’t know what to expect.  In fact, it took me a couple days to get a good feel for what I was going to be doing for the next couple months.  My own Web journal, where I can talk about whatever I want?  It sounds kind a cool!  Kind a like my own website or web page.  So I guess you can say I have been investigating webloggs for the past month, and here is what I found.

            Unless you unexpectedly come across webloggs on the Internet, you probably wouldn’t hear about them unless from word of mouth.  It has not been around very long at all and that’s why many people haven’t heard of it.  They are growing more and more popular as we speak, but still are not the most well known commodity on the net.  They have no rules so you will find bloggers that write about anything that is going on.  Whether it be sports, relationships, or they just had a bloody nose, anything passes.  No one is correcting your grammar mistakes and pointing out that your not writing in complete sentences.  You can be the sloppiest writer in the world and no one will care.  What I think makes them pretty sweet is that you can find somebody that has the same interests as you, and your have a surfing companion for life.  You can keep in touch and write back and forth about each others blog.   It allows you to check out what other people have to say and express your individual voice at the same time.  In some cases this turns out to be rather interesting.   

            Some people find it to be the coolest thing in the world to rant and rave about whatever is going on in their life.  If their boyfriend isn’t treating them well, or maybe they just are having the darndest day at work ever.  Whatever it is, people love to talk about their life.  I have to admit I have done the same.  Its fun.  It makes you feel like someone actually cares about your life.  When in actuality, nobody really cares that much.  Webloggs are flooded with these kinds of journals.  You just have to have the patience to sift through them and find bloggers that actually have something interesting to say.  Many writers have expressed their concern with this issue by making a big stink over it.  One writer, John Dvorak, of PC Magazine ranted that “few blogs were insightful, many new webloggers were getting into blogging for all the wrong reasons.  They were wannabe writers who were looking for ego gratification.”  Another writer, Mark Bernstein, wrote an article giving ten tips to anyone who as blogging.  In it he states that you need to “Write for a reason,” and to “Write tight”.  As in to not elaborate on things that don’t need elaborating.  I fully agree with this man.  Get your point across but make it short and sweet.  Dennis Mahoney writes how to tell between an amateur blogger and a professional blogger.  “A professional writer writes:  New York is magnificent in the spring.  An amateur writes:  I know this is a cliché nowadays, especially after 9/11. But I live in New York, which is much cleaner and safer now because of Giuliani, who really ought to be president after handling the crisis so well, and I know I’ve had some issues in the past with the mayor’s handling of the NYPD in regard to African American’s and his war against sacred religious icons and feces (hello? Freedom of expression?), but when all is said, but when all is said and done, New York, as maybe the best example of the ‘melting pot’ etc. is a great city, especially when it starts getting warmer and people go outside more, like around March or April.

            Other people love to blog and find it very amusing to right about whatever crosses their mind.  People are able to try new things and different styles.  More or les, have fun with their writing.  Camron Barret of CamWorld loves everything about Weblogging.  “I hope the craze continues as more and more people discover the power of a regularly updated site that reflects their own unique personality.    It definitely helps in brainstorming for new ideas by checking other bloggers that are writing about the same material as you.  There’s nothing nicer than being able to look at other peoples info and stem from their thoughts.  Of course I would always credit the source from which my thoughts came from. 

            In high school, all my composition teachers ran the classroom virtually the same way.  We would read lots and lots of material and write papers about how we reacted to them.  Although I really enjoyed my teachers, I never fully enjoyed the class.  I hated to write and couldn’t wait for the class hour to be over.  I felt like I was more or less being forced to write.  It wasn’t coming natural to me.  With blogging I take a different approach to writing.  I feel like I have much more freedom and creativity in my writing.  I don’t have to worry about silly punctuation errors or if its long enough.  I just simply type what I feel is necessary.  Simple as that.  It lets you relax and not have as many worries that might come with a traditional paper. Even if blogging isn’t an assignment for I feel like its my duty to check and see if anybody has written anything on my site.  Another thing I like about using weblogs is that we use it for both assignments and our own little web journal.  I get the privilege to type a paper out and then vent my frustrations about it if I want.  Most peoples weblogs, all they are is journals, but you can let it have multiple purposes if you want.  How exciting!

            At first I was a little hesitant about random people that I don’t know reading my material.  I don’t think that I am a terrific writer so I didn’t feel so secure knowing that journals could be critiqued and destroyed.  Once you look beyond that and figure how many people are doing the exact same thing that you are doing,  it makes it a lot easier.  Collaboration is something to fall back on if you ever cant find some interesting things to write about.  Most bloggers welcome people’s opinions and allow you to take what you want from it. With the class, I have found it very convenient to be able to go to my teacher’s weblog and get all the information and assignments each day of the week Throughout the class so far, I have enjoyed blogging because it allows me to voice my opinion on whatever is on my mind.  And I don’t need to feel ashamed about it.  Everyone has their own viewpoints on what to do and how things should be run, but you are your own ruler with this new web toy.  You can take as far wide as you want.

            I really think weblogging should be considered for classroom use.  I think it would allow for better collaborations in writings and teachers could correct your papers and give you feedback with just the click of a button.  You obviously can’t do everything on your blog but it allows you to switch up everyday routines.  I think students would enjoy writing more and create a better classroom environment.  Technology is improving everyday and we need to start taking more advantage of it, and there isn’t a better way to do it then by using a weblog.

            Overall, I think weblogging is a great idea and hopefully the word can get out how unique and creative it can be.  Not only can you use it for your own personal journal, but you can also be like us and use it to do assignments.  I really like how my teacher uses hers to post her assignments.  It makes it that much easier to stay on the ball and get what needs to be done, done.  Teachers should definitely think about using it as part of their curriculum.  Blogging is definitely a terrific tool to use.

Alrighty we have just a couple days left in the semester and boy has this year flown by.  I cant remember the last time i felt like every day, every week was 5 minutes long.  Im sure that just what college does to you and its the best time of your entire life.  Which is true so far, I have had the best time of my entire life and I have met so many cool and interesting people.  Classes went well, social life is doing just fine.  What else could be better.  This class turned out to be one of my favorites by far.  This wasnt one where i simply was a speck of dirt in the room- I have a voice here and am able to express it.  My teacher was awesome, I thought she made everyday an interesting one and definitely is a "people person"  Hopefully i will get my act together and register for her  class next semester. Wow, I have found ways to procrastinate thati never thought were possible.  Im pretty sure there isnt one other freshman who hasnt registered yet.  Number one new years resolution for this year: Stop procrastinating.

Well we just finished up our first week of basketball practice and to say the least-It sucks!!  Its so hard and grueling, I dont know if I can finish the season out.  Its only been a week and Im already complaining.  And to think we have five months left of it is terrifying.  Hopefully it will get better once the games actually start.  Yesterday, my coach threw a ball at my head and hit me in the face.   I guess I wasn't doin a drill properly so he took the liberty to throw a basketball at me.  Everyone was laughing histerically-except for me.  I was pissed off. I could not believe he did that.  There is nothing I could say to the man so I just carried on with practice as usual.  I thought I was in terrific shape but I guess Im not because Im completely dead tired at the end of every practice.  All the guys on the team are a lot  of fun and make everything worth while.  The weekends are always a nice break in the action.  Ill let you know how things go for the next couple weeks.