The On Deck Circle

I am plastered. The world should know this. I have attempted a blog once before drunk, but I saved it for a hungover editing session. Today, I am not granting myself such a privilege (unless I look tomorrow and this is just awful).

Foremost, the world needs to respect the gangster of one Warren Hopwood. GMIL, which I will explain shortly, is his brain child, a joke he turned into a reality, and an experience that I will remember as one of the highlights of my time at Queen’s University.

Tonight, the boys from 7 Wellington (Paul, Derek, Pat, Sean, Erik, and Warren, all loyal ODC readers) hosted GMIL – the Great Men in Leadership conference. It was initially, I believe, a response to QWIL – the Queen’s Women in Leadership conference. From a sarcastic comment or two, it grew into the possibility that a male-oriented leadership conference could, in fact, exist. Enter the genius that is War-Hop. He has been working to plan this night since December, collaborating with fellow men (including yours truly) on ideas and logistics to create a conference that was unparalleled across cultures. I am proud to reveal that ODC was a keynote sponsor and we got a serious plug in at one point.

For the first time, the social belief that male domination in leadership roles is a bad thing was torn down. The crew responsible brought in three speakers, all of whom reflected on the importance of non-traditional leadership in business (and life) today. While the focus of the speakers was not primarily on males, the overarching theme of the Alpha Male as a traditional view of the leader was discussed and criticized, instead paving the way in our minds for a new type of leader.

I won’t bore you with a detailed review of the speeches because anyone who has read this far probably attended the conference.

From the speaker sessions, we headed to 7 Wellington for the ‘case competition.’ When I look back on my University days, this night will stick out because of this event. In teams of four, we had to polish off a 2-4 of beer cans (Lite beer not accepted) as fast as possible, with the five fastest teams advancing to the second round, where they would present their solution to an actual case.

The case involved an employee being confronted with a situation in which he was intoxicated and facing sexual potential with his sexy boss. We’ve all been there, and all will be again. The kicker was that the subject was engaged to a woman already, with a child on the way. The five teams that finished their 2-4 the fastest got to present their case to the crowd with prizes on the line.

My group consisted of myself, Dan, Josh, and ODC writer Stu, with ODC writer Alex playing the role of coach. We were called The Pecan Sandies, because it has two meanings. What’s the other? Well, you know…it’s sexual. We want the parents to think it’s okay for the kids to bop with us.

We showed up 10 minutes late, thus giving ourselves a serious disadvantage. We persevered, though, finishing third for time. It should be noted here that Josh turned in a drinking performance for the record books, polishing off nine beers (four by funnel) in just 20 minutes. Josh was truly the MVP of the evening, and after a strong presentation by Dan and I, we were robbed of an entrance into the tie-breaking Flip Cup final. While we lost unfairly, the night will not be forgotten.

From Josh’s epic drinking performance to Stu’s weak showing, from Mike’s balls being shown to 99% of the attendees almost puking from forcing copious amounts of alcohol into their systems at a rapid pace, the night was one to remember.

We headed to Smijie’s afterwards, where I became fixated on Kobe dominating the Raptors on TV. Sure, women showed up, but I was uninterested – they were all taken, anyways. I didn’t want to blog tonight – the GMIL review was to be saved for a sober time – but on the walk home, friends encouraged me that the post would be more heartfelt drunk. I agree completely now, having wrote this, and I want to sincerely thank all of those responsible for one of the most memorable drinking escapades of my four years at Queen’s.

To everyone involved and those who couldn’t make it, I drunkenly love you all.

I expect to regret this tomorrow, but just so this has some actual value, I’d like to link to Drunk Jays Fans (for their alcohol-influenced Jays coverage) and Hardwood Paroxysm (for creating and hosting the extremely successful Kobe Bryant Blog Day).