More Honors, More Appearances...It’s what I do!

So last week you read about me capturing a gold medal in CollegeSurfing.com’s “Web 2.0 College Olympics” thanks to my pretty fantastic Twitter skills. Well, the hits just keep on coming because I’ve got more accolades to tell you about this week as well.

Only this time, it’s the students of the Butler University Student Foundation (BUSF) that really deserve the credit (I only had a small paw in the matter) as they were recently awarded the Outstanding External Program Award at the CASE ASAP District V Conference for their efforts to include the campus and community in throwing a birthday party for me every year...also known as “Blue II’s Birthday Bash.”

They received the award on Feb. 27, 2010 in Bloomington, Ind. and were deservedly recognized in front of their peers.

Background info…CASE ASAP is comprised of student alumni associations, student foundations and similar organizations at more than 300 CASE member institutions. Its goal is to foster and enhance student involvement in all areas of advancement—from alumni relations and communications to fundraising, marketing and related areas.

The Outstanding External Program Award is given in recognition of “a program that is designed to involve more than just your organization such as your campus, alumni, and prospective students.”

District 5 includes schools from Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. By winning at the district level, “Blue II’s Birthday Bash” will be considered for the national award for Outstanding External Program, which will be presented at the CASE ASAP Network Convention in Kansas City this August!

Congrats to our BUSFers and Go Dawgs!



If I do say so myself, the “Blue II Birthday Bash” (Fri., March 26, 2010; 11:30 a.m.) is a wonderful campus event and certainly one that I’m quite fond of given that I’m the center of attention! There’s usually a large card that students sign for me, tons of cupcakes and cookies and of course photo opportunities with yours truly! Besides the part where they make me wear the birthday hat, it’s great time!



And again this year, we are letting the kiddos (big and small) join in on the celebration thanks to a special coloring page. Feel free to download the coloring page, print it out, color it in, and send me your best birthday wishes too!

You can access the coloring page here: http://www.butler.edu/alumni/BlueBdayCard.pdf.

So outside of collecting more trophies and planning for parties, I’ve just been busy either making appearances, or making plans to make appearances. My social calendar is filling up so if you want to see me, try and hit up one or all of the following events: (all times ET)


-BU Green Screen Video Shoot- Thursday, March 4th, 3:30 p.m.; Jordan Hall.

-Horizon League Tournament Pep Rally - Friday, March 5th, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.; Circle Centre Mall food court.

-Horizon League Tournament – Saturday, March 6th, 6 p.m.; Hinkle Fieldhouse (ESPNU at 8 p.m.).

-Horizon League Championship – Tuesday, March 9th, 6 p.m.; Hinkle Fieldhouse.

-Bulldog Club of Indiana Show – Saturday, March 13th, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.; Tipton Co. Fairgrounds.

-Eco Dawgs Video Shoot – Tuesday, March 17th, 2 p.m.; TBD.

-BU IM Basketball Championships – Tuesday, March 23rd 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.; Hinkle Fieldhouse.

-BU Admissions/Early Registration – Friday, March 26th, 9:30 a.m.; Reilly Room – Atherton Union.

-Blue II’s Sixth Campus Birthday Party – Friday, March 26th, 11:30 a.m.; Starbuck’s – Atherton Union.

-Butler Blue II’s Sixth Birthday – Saturday, March 27th, all day.

-BU Admissions/Early Registration – Saturday, March 27th 9:30 a.m.; Reilly Room – Atherton Union.

-BU Admissions/Early Registration – Thursday, April 1st 9:30 a.m.; Reilly Room – Atherton Union.

-BU Admissions/Early Registration – Friday, April 2nd, 9:30 a.m.; Reilly Room – Atherton Union.

-The Price is Right (game show) – Friday, April 2nd, 11 a.m.; CBS-TV.

-BU Biology Club Dog Show – Friday, April 16th, 5:30 p.m.; HRC Lawn.

-BU Admissions/Early Registration – Friday, April 23rd, 9:30 a.m.; Reilly Room – Atherton Union.

-BU Admissions/Early Registration – Friday, June 4th, 9:30 a.m.; Reilly Room – Atherton Union.

-BU Admissions/Early Registration – Friday, June 11th, 9:30 a.m.; Reilly Room – Atherton Union.


And those are just the events on the schedule right now! I’m sure there will be more as the spring is always a busy time for me on campus.

Of course, you can typically spy on me any other business day on my live web cam (“Blue2TV”) as I hang out (read: sleep) in my Jordan Hall office. Feel free to tune in between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on most days. Simply click here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-life-and-times-of-butler-blue-ii

Okay, I think that’s about it. Take aways from this installment include, my birthday, the coloring page, my calendar of appearances and my web cam. As always, my Twitter account will keep you posted on the rest of my escapades until the next blog posting.

May the month of March be exceptionally kind to the Bulldogs!

Go Dawgs!

Blue II

Already a December to Remember

Thanksgiving 2008 is in the books and we are now officially amidst the Holiday Season. That automatically means things get busy as I’m sure you’ve probably already noticed. For me anyway, there’s been no Thanksgiving hangover. It’s been nothing, but Holiday hustle and bustle for me. But what’s new? I’m always busy, so I’ll just get to the good stuff.

Flash back to Saturday and it was the Butler versus Evansville men’s basketball game at Hinkle Fieldhouse where the Bulldogs looked strong in a convincing victory over the Purple Aces. This game was memorable for me for a couple of reasons.

Here’s the first item: Shelly Rabideau, who works in Butler’s purchasing services department by day and assists with the game day will call on the side, is famous for baking and bringing homemade chocolate chip cookies. For this game she put forth a little extra effort and made me some special peanut butter cookies with dog-safe ingredients in a recipe she got from Three Dog Bakery. I loved them! She even made enough for me to take some home so I’ve been enjoying them every night this week. Thanks Shelly!

The other reason that the Butler/Evansville game is memorable is because the State of Indiana Governor, Mitch Daniels was in the crowd and I was able to get my picture with him Thanks for the pic, Mitch!

Oh yeah, America’s Best Frisbee dogs also performed at halftime of the Butler/Evansville game and while I did enjoy the performance, those dogs only have one trick...catching Frisbees…so I’m not even going to waste my time on them.

After the game, my folks and I headed up to Wabash, Ind. for a second Thanksgiving dinner with my mom’s side of the family. Besides scoring a little more good Thanksgiving grub, I was able to experience the season’s first significant snowfall on Sunday morning. Between 2-4 inches fell in Wabash County on Sunday morning so I went out and enjoyed that just a little bit. I’m alright with the snow, it’s fun to play in, but as you’ll see in the video, when I just want to go out and do my “business” the snow is less than ideal.



Speaking of videos, it’s been drawn to my attention by my esteemed colleague, Brad Ward, that I’ve uploaded 102 videos on YouTube (currently only 97 show up on BlueTube, but five others were added in the favorites from a different account). From those 102 videos that have been uploaded over the last nine months I’ve had 30,348 total views; or about 110 video views a day! Not bad for a Bulldog!

So what does all of that mean? Nothing. However, I’ll do my best to have my dad record anything and everything and throw it up on my YouTube page because clearly some of you out there are enjoying watching that stuff. Fine by me, that’s why I do what I do.

In addition to video, I also do photo shoots, as you may remember from the video and pictures from my post last week. I finally have some of the official pictures from that and they are posted below. Feast your eyes on that!

(Photos by Brent Smith)

Pretty good stuff, huh? How many dogs do you know that could do that? I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy…took some serious restraint to not tear open those nicely wrapped boxes and completely devour that cake, but I finally got to enjoy the cake so it was worth the wait and temptation. Not to mention, thanks to my discipline the pictures turned out pretty sweet looking too!

Today I had the privilege of visiting Stone Gate Elementary School in Zionsville, Ind. to read a book to my cousin Lauren’s kindergarten class. Lauren happens to be the student of the week this week and as a result, it was her chance to invite a special guest to come to her class and read a book of her choosing. Naturally, she picked me to join my dad and her mom and the book was If You Gave a Cat a Cupcake. Lauren’s mom did the reading and I did the tricks. We also handed out my READ! bookmarks to the class. Good times! Thanks for inviting me, Lauren!

Speaking of reading, not only can our Butler Bulldogs play a mean brand of basketball, but they read a good book every now and again as well. This week you can dial up starting freshman forward, Gordon Hayward (pictured) and hear him read “Roly Poly Puppies” on the Indianapolis Public Library line at 317-275-4444. It only takes a couple of minutes and its fun to do, so dial it up and have a listen.

As I mentioned to open the blog, we are currently amidst the Holiday Season and that means, gifts, presents, prizes, treats and much more. I love it! The fun has already begun as Linda Cooley, the secretary for the Political Science Dept. has already brought me an early gift…a tin full of little Three Dog Bakery peanut butter snacks. They are delicious! Thanks Linda!

I think I also have a “Secret Santa” as I mysteriously had one of my favorite Build-A-Bear teddy bears show up in my office. Thanks to whomever left that for me. I’ve already claimed it as my own and I’m enjoying it very much! I hope this is just a prelude of much more Holiday cheer to come my way! I must have been a good boy this year and made it on Santa’s “nice list.”

I got a couple of other great items this week thanks to Butler grad and owner of Your Image Works, Mary Shaw, who was able to find some shirts that actually fit me. With such a barreled chest and skinny hips, it’s hard to find clothes that fit, but thankfully, Mary came to my rescue. I now have a custom Dawg Pound shirt to wear to the games and a special Butler recycle shirt for Butler’s Eco Dawgs program. I’ll have more to report later about the Eco Dawgs thing…this shirt is just the beginning, but I can tell you that “Butler Blue is going ‘Green!’” Here are some pics of my new threads…

Tonight I’m headed back to campus and over to Hinkle Fieldhouse for team pictures with the Cheerleading squad and I also got a couple of photos taken with the new mascot costume. You may remember their picture from last year contained a bulldog that was not the author of this blog. That’s all I’m going to say about it, but if you search the blog you can find my opinions on the matter. I’m excited that they invited me back and I’m happy to get my pics with the squad and the new mascot. Here's a few shots from tonight...

And don’t forget, that new mascot costume still needs a name and we’re asking you to help us select that new name. The Name That Dawg! mascot naming contest runs through Dec. 7, so don’t delay…log on to http://www.butlersports.com/ and place your vote today!

Talk of the new mascot costumes has reminded me of a story my dad showed me on FoxSports.com the other day about “Mascots Gone Bad.” You can read all about it here: http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/pgStory?contentId=8824820&MSNHPHCP&GT1=39002#sport=COLLEGE%20FOOTBALL&photo=8824504

Let’s hope that myself nor my esteemed costumed colleague don’t make this list any time soon!

Finally, I want to invite all of you dog and cat owners to the Furry Friends Holiday Open House this Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008 from 1-4 p.m. at the southwest corner of 49th Street and College Ave. One of my partners and sponsors, City Dogs Grocery, is located there along with building dwellers Claire Corbin Photography and The Paw Patch Veterinarian Hospitals. They’ve all teamed up to offer pet photos with Santa, treats, raffle goodie bags and discounts on their products. I’ll be there to support City Dogs Grocery and you should come on out as well!

Don't forget to tune in to ESPNU at 8 p.m. ET tomorrow evening to watch the men's basketball team take on Cleveland State who was picked first in the pre-season Horizon League poll!

Go Dawgs!

Blue II