Bumpkins
From Introduction to New Media
Definition?: A blend of the words "pumpkin" and "bunny".
Alias for Chris Kolmar's Intro to New Media Studies blog.
Originally used by my mom to refer to me, Bumpkins has become one of my many gamer alias. It is also really funny to watch people have to say, "Bumpkins".
Look what I just learned: Yokels, also called bumpkins, are unsophisticated country people.
Contents |
Life and Times
I think two lines best sum me up: I am hungry and I love food. My favorite food is anything Greek, which includes, but is not limited to, lamb, olive oil, and fish. I am also a great fan of good, quality New York pizza. This California Pizza Kitchen stuff is not pizza, it so some sort of fancy bread with cheese and sauce. I miss breakfast sandwiches with a passion. Nobody, other than those in the tri-state area, knows what taylor ham is, but, trust me, it is the best stuff in the world. I also love steak, pasta, soup, certain cheeses, and various other nutritional consumption edibles. I really like the Claremont Juice Co, but I refuse to go to Jamba Juice because Paris Hilton goes there. The biggest problem I find with smoothies is that fruit I love doesn't translate well. Blackberries and raspberries have way to many seeds to ever be an efficient mix for smoothies. My all time favorite snacks are pretzels. I think I dream about food in my spare time, and I can never watch the food channel because I can't get the image of the food out of my mind. In 'n Out is so over rated it hurts, but I could eat McDonalds three times a day. Does anyone remember lunchables? I haven't had them in years, but they were awesome when I was a kid. My mom became a health nut when my brother and I were about ten and she took away all cereal and soda. I never saw frosted flakes or froot loops until I got to college. I was stuck eating corn flakes, kix, and regular cheerios. I am not complaining about the cereal I could eat, I love it to death, but I feel slightly deprived of happy time in my life.
I was born in New York City and lived in Astoria and Osenining, New York until I was two. I have now lived in Mendham, New Jersey for about eighteen years. I am the oldest kid in my family. I attended Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey for all of six years. Because Delbarton is an all guys catholic high school, I do not think I actually attended high school. My experience there was different to say the least. I played soccer, baseball, and bowling for my high school team. I ended up getting all conference and mvp honors for bowling my senior year (I had a 166.6 average that year with a high score of 241). The soccer team won the state championship senior year and I was captain of the JV team junior year when we won the county championship. At the end of senior year, I won the AP Chemistry award; I also took AP Calc AB & AP Calc BC, AP European History, AP American History, and AP English Lit. I was part of the Lumberjack Club, History Club, and multiple community service projects.
In the summer between senior year of high school and starting at Pomona College, I was a part of Operation MoonBounce, a space mission to the moon on which we detonated atomic explosions to change the orbit of the moon just enough to create one extra lunar eclipse every three years. This mission was paid for by Crazy Enough, a photographer who wanted that one more opportunity to photograph a lunar eclipse. I swear this really happened, ask anyone. (I know this is here, but because Crazy Enough gave it so much effort I decided to leave it. Besides, maybe I did go to the moon...)
I am currently enrolled at Pomona College, a small liberal arts college in Southern California. I am part of J-Board, the judiciary council that decides guilt and sanctioning of bad acts on campus. I ran OreoRun when it was operational. I was on the Orientation Committee this past year, and I got a cool t-shirt out of it. I am a Philosophy, Politics, and Economics major, also known as PPE. My former adviser was Peter Kung, but I have since switched to Eleanor Brown because I needed someone in the econ department. I lived in Harwood 2 east side last year, and currently reside in Gibson.
I once had a pet dog named Skye, but he had a heart murmur so we had to return him. I think we have also gone through a hamster, named Lucky, but he smelled bad and no one really remembers him.
I worked at the local movie theater over my senior year of high school and at US Capital Mortages during the summer before my senior year. I am currently the statistician/announcer for the Pomona-Pitzer football, men and women's soccer, baseball, men and women's waterpolo, men and women's basketball team, volleyball, and softball teams. I play many Intramural Sports, including volleyball and waterpolo. I am currently hooked on racquetball; I have only begun to unlock my potential as the next potential racquetball guru.
As far as my heritage goes, my mom's dad is Italian; my mom's mom is Greek; and my dad's parents are Croatian. That makes me 25% Greek, 25% Italian, and 50% Croatian. I am a bonafide mut.
I have used a wide variety of computers in my life time. I started off in the mid nineties with some old Dell that ran something like Windows 3.0. I then moved on to a Gateway P-77 PC, yes a 77mhz processor, in the late nineties. 2000 brought along a Hewlett Packard Pentium 3 - 777mhz processor, followed by a 1.4mhz Dell in 2003. The family PC has stayed the same since the dell, but I received a Dell Inspiron 6000 for college. I detest Apple with a passion because the mouse doesn't right click and their is no scroll function. Do you have any idea what you are missing??? Besides, everyone has a PC and everyone can't be wrong. ;)
I am not going abroad during my junior because I feel like I have been going abroad my entire life. My parents love to travel, so I have been brought around the world without a choice. Places I have been include Italy, England, France, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Canada, Poland, Russia, Estonia and Kentucky.
I figure I could be the poster child for perfect kids that everyone loves. For that reason, it has been one of my dreams to end up on the Real World or to work as a JCrew Model. I happen to wear JCrew, Polo, American Eagle, and Lacoste all the time. Aviators are also a mainstay of my wardrobe. I am ultra preppy because I am from the east coast and thats how I do. I own two pink shirts, two sets of yellow shorts, and one yellow shirt. I also have an argyle vest which is pretty snazy.
Movies & Media
My favorite serious movie is American Beauty and my favorite funny movie of all time is Old School. Silence of the Lambs is the all time best horror / thriller movie; is it possible to beat the combo of Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins? I am an avid fan of Kevin Smith. Other favorites include The Big Lebowski, Curious George, Stranger than Fiction, The Girl Nextdoor, The Usual Suspects, Pulp Fiction, Finding Nemo, Little Miss Sunshine, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to name a few.
I may or may not be hooked to facebook, Digg.com, and ESPN. Not to mention NYTimes.com and mlb.com.
I have owned Nintendo, Sega, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Game Gear, Game Boy, Playstation, Playstation 2, Dreamcast, and Xbox. I have beaten two many games to remember, but my favorites of all time are Pokemon - Game Boy, Mario Brothers 3 - Nintendo, Super Mario - Super Nintendo, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Sega, Final Fantasy 7 - Playstation, Super Mario 64 and Zelda- Nintendo 64, and Knights of the Old Republic 2 - Xbox.
I have also been addicted to a computer game, or two. Namely Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun (I got to rank 73 in the USA server), Diablo 2 with the expansion pack (I got to rank #1 on the European server for a week), and World of Warcraft (Still in progress...). My first alias for these games is Kolz, followed by Wangero (The name of a character from Winesberg, Ohio...I think), and Bumpkins.
My favorite TV Shows of all-time include Seinfeld, because it is the best show ever made; House, who doesn't love this dude; The Office (US version), I think I am Jim in a past or current life; and Heroes, the real person version of X-Men; X-Men, I would so be comic book Rogue; South Park, I grew up with these guys; Curb Your Enthusiasm, I am just starting to learn how much of a freggin genius Larry David is.
My AIM s/n is Kolz13, Kolz being a nickname and 13 being my lucky number. My old s/n was Comer1314, comer is to eat in Spanish, but looks a lot like Kolmar, and 4 was my baseball number, 14 was my basketball number, and 13 was my soccer number. I don't think I have touched AIM in over a year as face to face meetings seem to make more sense when the people you would talk to live two doors down.
I have read some good books in my time, but a lot of really good books recently. These books include The Tipping Point, Blink, Freakonomics, The Right Stuff, and The World is Flat. My classic favorites are The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick. I also read Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is slightly disturbing, but very good. I just finished Diamond Dollars, a book about the economics of baseball. I doubt anyone has read it, but I enjoyed it immensely.
I will be the first to admit that my style of music is strange, ugly, and yet poetic. I am basically stuck somewhere in the 90's and 80's, with a little easy 21st century flavor. Who doesn't love 90’s music? My favorite artists include Kelly Clarkson, Weezer, Gwen Stefani, No Doubt, Ratatat, Guster, The Proclaimers, OAR, Eminem, Jack Johnson, and many many more. But my current favorite-ist are the Gorillaz, so good, so, so good. The worst song ever written is This is Why I'm Hot; is this dude serious???
Family & Education
My mom and dad went to Colgate for undergrad. My dad went to Cornell Law School for grad school and my mom went to Yale Divinity School for grad school. My younger brother will be attending Yale University next year. He is currently enrolled at Delbarton School. I have one cousin that went to Wake Forest, one that currently attends Marist College, and one that will be attending Tufts University next year. My other cousin will be attending the University of Vermont next year.
I have family in New Milford, Connecticut; Yorktown, New York; Singer Island, Florida; and Fort Myers, Florida.
My family holds jobs across the entire spectrum of job holding. My dad was a real estate lawyer, but is now a business consultant. My mom is crazy and has here on business called Shinning Light Reiki, LLC (I could explain what reiki is, but no one really cares. Lets just say she is slightly insane and leave it at that.) One of my uncles works for IBM, the other is a doctor at the New Milford hospital (more specifically an anesthesiologist), and my third uncle is an electrical engineer. I think one of my aunts is now a teacher and I know my other aunt is a Real Estate Agent in upstate New York. My third aunt also has a job, but I have no idea what it is. My grandfather on my mom's side was in the navy during World War II and then became the owner of a chain of laundry cleaning stores in New York City. My dad's dad was a POW in Italy during WWII before joining the alliance troops in Italy. He then worked for the Lily and Verne catalogue (I think). Both of my grandmothers were teachers in their time.
Going back a little ways, my uncle attended Johns Hopkins University and my aunt attended Syracuse University.
Hobbies
Baseball is God's gift to earth and the Yankees are baseball perfection.
I have like over 10 hours of video from random stuff we did in high school. I started to put some of the stuff on YouTube, but I haven't uploaded anywhere near everything I have.
I wish I was versed in taxidermy and home remodeling.
Rants
A kiss only counts if there is an emotional feeling behind it. Two girls "kissing" on the lips for attention does not count as a kiss.
A hookup requires tongue.
Collins is by far the best dining hall.
If you can't name 90% of the starting lineup for the Red Sox then you are not allowed to ever say the Yankees suck.
Asking someone out to lunch on facebook does not mean I want to date you.
Apple is 18.34 times worse than PC s
Saying "I will be there at 5:00" does not mean "I will be there at 5:15".
If you live in New York City then you are from New York City. If you live in Rochester then you are not from New York City. The same applies for all other cities. Be proud of where you are from and don't try to be something you are not.
Napoleon Dynamite was horrible and anyone that tells you otherwise is wrong.
On a attractive scale of 1 - 10, any relationship that involves people more than 3 points apart must have some secret rumblings behind it. i.e. - a 4 could never date anything above a 7 without extenuating circumstances.
My Top 5 States in order - New Jersey, New York, California, Florida, and Illinois.
The Matrix should never have been made into a trilogy.
Whats the deal with old people?
I prefer butter to cream cheese on my bagels.
