Shopping

I have noticed that most people don't know how to shop economically. They just go to the store and buy whatever they want and don't pay much attention to the price. Sure, if something is on sale they might buy it even if they weren't planning on getting it to begin with but I would guess that most people don't save nearly as much money as they could if they shopped the right way. I have compiled a list of pointers that I think all grocery shoppers should follow.

• LOOK AT THE AD - Go through it, page by page, and find stuff that is on sale.
• Only buy things that are on sale - I know it may sound tough but if you only but things when they are on sale you will save a lot.
• When something is on sale buy a lot of it - most things go on sale every 3 - 5 weeks so when something is on sale that you either want or need buy enough of it to last for a month or so.
• Just because something is on sale doesn't mean the sale price is good - Sometimes a sale price is only $0.20 cheaper than normal price. Wait until the sale price is a good percentage off. 50% off is really good. 30% off is just about right. 20-15% off is about as low as you want to go.
• Don't go to the store hungry - Eat before you go because if you are hungry at the grocery store you will end up buying more food than you need because you think you need it.

These are only a few rules to follow and there are many more that I just can't think of right now but if you follow them I guarantee you will save money at the store. I spent $30 this week at Meijer with a total savings of $20. $50 worth of food for $30...not bad at all.

Cash Cab

Cash Cab has become a sort of tradition in my apartment so far this school year. It's on every day from 5-7 PM and we almost always watch it while eating dinner. I love to watch it and so do all of my roommates.

I can't begin to describe to you how awesome it would be to get in that cab and go for a ride. I am pretty good at trivia if I do say so myself and my roommates aren't that bad either. I think if all four of us made it on the show we would do quite well...at least $1000. We would most likely go for the double or nothing video bonus question and, hopefully, get it right.

Whoever came up with the idea for the show is a genius. It is so simple, ride around in a cab and get money for answering questions. Ben Bailey is a perfect host for it. Basically everything about the show is perfect, except that I haven't been a contestant!

TV

Television is a huge part of American lifestyle. Millions of people watch TV every night. I am no different. These are the shows that I will be watching this fall.

Monday

How I Met Your Mother - Funny show. Jason Segel is the man.

The Big Bang Theory - Love the nerdy humor in this show.

Monday Night Football - During the commercials of the other shows then full time once they are over.

Tuesday

Tool Academy 2 - Good, old-fashioned make-fun-of-people "reality" show.

Wednesday

Glee - New show, really good.

South Park - I usually forget to watch it but it's hilarious

Thursday

Flashforward - New show that looks really interesting.

Grey's Anatomy - It may be a girl's show but I have watched it from the beginning.

The Office - Quite simply the funniest show on television (Good thing I have a DVR at home!).

Community - Saw it last week and it seems promising (Once again...DVR).

Friday

I don't usually watch TV on Friday.

Saturday

College Football - Duh.

Sunday

NFL Football - Duh.


In between all the TV watching; Freaks & Geeks. Only one season but it is a great show. Through the first 10 episodes at this point. Only eight more to go, so sad.

Movies

In my Introduction to Mass Media class today we received a list of AFI's 100 Greatest Movies. I figured I would analyze the list and share how I feel about it. A complete list can be found on AFI's website.

1. Citizen Kane - Good movie. I have only seen it once and I don't think I got everything that I'm supposed to get but it was pretty good.
6. The Wizard of Oz - Great movie. Classic movie. Included in The Great Movie Ride at Disney World so that's obviously a plus.
11. It's A Wonderful Life - Best Christmas Movie Ever. Watch it every Christmas Eve.
15. Star Wars - Best Cult Movie. I have seen all six and I enjoy them all.
24. Raging Bull - Never seen it but definitely on the list of movies to see.
25. E.T - Scared me when I was a kid but it is a great movie. Also a ride at Universal Studios.
29. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington - Very funny movie.
34. To Kill a Mockingbird - Movie is good but the book is the best. Favorite book.
41. West Side Story - Classic musical. Gotta love it.
46. A Clockwork Orange - Weirdest movie ever but one of my favorites. Need to read the book.
48. Jaws - Best Shark Movie. Best Shark ride at Universal Studios.
49. Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs - Classic Disney. Started it all.
58. Fantasia - Always bored me as a child. Now, great.
71. Forrest Gump - Tom Hanks is the man. One of my favorites.
78. Rocky - Best Boxing movie that I have seen. Always pumps me up.
84. Fargo - Really weird and dark. Good movie though.
99. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - Sidney Poitier. Awesome.

Of course I didn't list every movie on the list. One, because I don't have the time. And two, because I have only seen about a third of these movies.

Now I am going to propose 10 movies that should be on this list but aren't (In no particular order).

1. The Blues Brothers
2. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
3. Shawshank Depemption
4. Saving Private Ryan
5. Field of Dreams
6. Titanic
7. Toy Story
8. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
9. Animal House
10. Blazing Saddles

One more list. Top 10 movies made in the last 5 years (In no particular order).

1. The Dark Knight (2008)
2. Finding Nemo (2003) - Ok 6 years old
3. Inglorious Basterds (2009)
4. The Departed (2006)
5. District 9 (2009)
6. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
7. Crash (2004)
8. Pineapple Express (2008)
9. I Love You, Man (2009)
10. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (2006)

Ok...one more. Best Picture nominees according to me

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2. Inglorious Basterds
3. Star Trek
4. I Love You, Man
5. District 9
   

Time

So far this semester has to be the busiest yet. I have more homework than I have ever had and blah blah blah. Anyways I don't write in this much anymore because I don't have time. So, for all of the zero people who read this I would like you to know that I am going to attempt to go to a once a week format for this here blog. My entry for today is about lists...more specifically top 10 lists.

Top 10 Sports Teams (for me, right now)

1. Boston Red Sox
2. Pittsburgh Steelers
3. Chicago Bulls
4. Detroit Tigers
5. Manchester United
6. Detroit Lions
7. Detroit Red Wings
8. Detroit Pistons
9. Pittsburgh Pirates
10. USA Curling Team

Top 10 Albums

1. The Blues Brothers - Definitive Collection
2. Led Zepplin - IV
3. AC/DC - Back in Black
4. Metallica - ...And Justice for All
5. Queen - Greatest Hits
6. Green Day - Dookie
7. Nirvana - Nevermind
8. Linkin Park - Meteora
9. Michael Jackson - Thriller
10. Kanye West - Late Registration
    

Excited

I have only been working on the Anchor for a few days now and I am already very excited about the future. Everybody that works there seems to be really cool and nice; I'm sure it is going to be a fun year. Although my job isn't very incorporated with the rest of the group I am hoping to land a couple of writing jobs throughout the school year and become more involved and more of an intricate part of the Anchor. As far as my current position goes...I learned a lot today just by fooling around with the computer and have almost everything figured out. Pretty soon the Anchor website is going to be the bee's knees.

I don't even know what to title this entry...it's been almost two months since I have written anything because, honestly, I don't spend much time on the computer during the summer. Today I moved into my new apartment at school and it is great. Everything is pretty nice and better than I expected...the one thing I didn't expect was the odd feeling of living alone in an apartment. I have been home alone for weekends and been roomate-less for days at a time but having your own apartment and being the only one in it is just weird. It is on the verge of being echo-y and there's not even a dog around. Just from being here for 6 hours I can already tell that I never want to live alone if at all possible. Of course I may get used to it but at this point I am not liking the oddness of living in your own place. I suppose that's all I really have to say for now...

Death

It's been a long time since I have written anything and I don't really have anything to write about except all of the famous people who have been dying recently. It's kind of scary really. My father is 48 now and Michael was 50. I don't know how old Billy Mays was but he can't be over 50 and if he is it can't be by very much. Farrah was an inevitable death, being that she had cancer. Ed McMahon was old at least. Hearing about all of these people dying makes me wonder if anybody in my family is in danger. My dad was overweight his whole life until the past half year or so and it's really great that he's healthy now but I have to believe that those 47 years of being overweight brought his life expectancy down. My grandpa is going to be 70 years old in August and he is still healthy and everything but a lot of people die before they are seventy. My aunt is only like 52 but she has numerous health problems, most pressing is her diabetes, especially since she really isn't doing much to help it. Sure she eats healthier than she used to but she still eats a lot of junk food that she shouldn't eat with or without diabetes. My grandma is turning 68 or 67 or something like that at the end of September and she has been overweight since I can remember so who knows what's going on with that. It was just scary to hear of all of these somewhat young celebrity deaths. Makes me wonder about a lot of people in my family.

Phone

So I got a new phone yesterday. My mom's phone broke so we went to the Sprint store to see what she could do about it and she ended up getting a new phone. Also, my sister and brother got new phones. I am still under contract with AT&T until next month so canceling with them would result in a $200 early termination fee and we didn't really want to bother with that. We had been planning on switching me over to Sprint to join the family plan anyways when my contract was up but now we had a dilemma. Then my mom says, "Why don't you just get the phone with Sprint now and just keep your AT&T phone for the next month then cancel it?" Sounded like a plan to me so I started shopping phones. I really wanted the brand new Palm Pre but it is over $200 and you have to have a data plan with it and it would make the whole bill much much larger so I put the kibosh on that. We already have the unlimited messaging plan for our family and adding that data would be a lot more. So then I looked at the Instinct s30...but that also means you need a data plan, along with any Blackberry. I settled on the Samsung Rant as my new phone. It has a full keyboard, which was my main concern, but it doesn't have any other features that the others had. Now that I think about it though I realize that I don't really need any of those...if I really want to use a touch screen or get on the internet on my phone I will just use my iPod Touch. So far the phones great, and having unlimited texting is fabulous. Using the keyboard to text is so much easier than using a regular keypad. The only bad thing about getting the new phone was having to get a new phone number because my old one is still in use with AT&T. Parting from my extremely easy to remember number, 760-4888, and switching to a new one seemed like a nightmare to me but the new one isn't too bad, 352-3139. Hey, at least for the next month I will have two phones, maybe it will make me look super cool or something...or maybe just a dork.

Reading

Last night I finished John Grogran's "The Longest Trip Home", the second book of his that I have read, "Marley & Me" being the first. I wasn' planning on it but I stayed up until about 1:30 because I couldn't stop reading. I think I ended up reading about 100 pages last night in bed and, surprisingly, I enjoyed it. I used to hate reading, used to loath having to do it for school; now, I actually enjoy reading and have a short list of books that I would like to read over the summer. First on the list is "Tuesday's With Morrie" by Mitch Albom, after that I'm not sure. Getting back to Grogan...I really enjoy reading his books. He blends humor with seriousness like he has been doing it forever. One minute he has you feeling good about something he wrote and the next you are about to cry because something bad happens. Reading a memoir obviously makes me relate a little as I think every memoir does but having it set in Michigan made it more special to me. Once I got to the thrid of three sections in the book I couldn't stop (all last night). It was all about how his parents' health was declining and how he went home and all that happy stuff. I don't know why I'm saying so much about the actual book but I think that everybody should read it as well as "Marley & Me". I think everybody should just read more books in general. There is something special, something homey, something gentle, heart-warming, peaceful, and most of all something calming about reading a book. Sure, watching TV is great, but reading a book is kind of like writing a hand-written letter instead of a printed one, it captures that sense of personal touch that the other just can not, and who doesn't like personal touches?

Ambition

I have been thinking lately of things I have always wanted to do, whether it be a career or a trip or just something random, and now, for your enjoyment, I am going to share all of them.

• Become an actor. I actually think I would be a pretty good one but will never get the chance or any big breaks.
• Be in a band. Working more seriously on this and while it will never happen I can at least practice my guitar and try to write my own songs.
• Become an architect. This was the first thing I wanted to be when I grew up. I was always drawing houses and things like that but was turned off from it when I learned how much real work goes into it.
• Go skydiving. Just looks fun, as long as the parachute opens.
• Write a book. Don't care what kind, probably a "based on a true story" book with the true story being my life.
• Write for ESPN. Having Rick Reilly's job would be an absolute dream.
• Design my own house. I have been working on it for the past two days and am almost done and when I am I will post all of the drawings on here.
• Design and build my own log cabin up north somewhere on a little lake in the middle of nowhere. Little loft up top, 600 sq ft max, real cozy, good family times.
• Rent a lake house for a week with my family. I have known a couple of people who have done this and I really want to do it with my whole family since whole means 9 people.
• Own a Porsche 911. Not much more to add to that, they are just beautiful cars.
• Become at least mildly famous. Enough to where somebody who I have never met before would recognize my name.
• Go on the Price is Right...only with Bob Barker though.
• Go on Jeopardy. Thing I could win, not Ken Jennings sort of stuff but maybe one show.
• Honor my grandfather in some way. A book, documentary, monument...something, he deserves it.
• Watch a baseball game in every Major League Stadium in the US...Canada too.
• Arrange a way for my dad to meet Metallica and my mom to meet Def Leppard. Meeting your favorite band would seem to be a dream.
• Set a Guiness World Record...don't care which one.
• Make enough money so I can buy every sweet item on every infomercial.
• Make my family proud.

Funky-Nasty

Found this while looking at My Chemical Romance's website. A big list of the worst album covers ever and there were a bunch of bad ones but I think this one takes the cake. By far the "worst" album cover ever in my eyes. If only album covers these days were as sweet as they were years ago. Things like this are timeless and I don't know how anybody can think this is a contender on a list of worst album covers ever. Not only is the title hilarious but the mannequins add a sense of creepiness to the whole thing. Tell you what, if I ever make an album and have to pick an album cover I hope it makes a list somewhere of worst album covers...I would be honored.

Cedar Point

Memorial Day weekend...or at least the Sunday of it was well spent at Cedar Point. Getting up at 5:30 am and driving for three and a half hours is well worth it once you get there and the excitement and ecstasy of the park engulfs you. Waiting in a huge group of people for the rope to be dropped and running to the first ride is just plain fun. Going on that first ride, getting to the top of the hill, not being able to see what's in front of you and then dropping while your stomach stays at the top of the hill is just bliss. Even after the first ride the feeling of floating in your chair as you go over a hill is pure heaven. Once you get the first couple popular rides out of the way at the beginning you can just walk around and go on whatever you feel like. Surprisingly yesterday was not a very busy day so besides the Raptor, Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, The Mantis, and The Maverick everything was a 15-20 minute wait tops. The weather was even perfect yesterday, hovering right around 70 degrees with on and off sunshine with no rain in site. The only bad thing about the park was the food prices...yikes! Luckily, there is a pizza buffet about 5 minutes outside the park that is only $7...which is about how much you would pay for a burger and fries...or for $13 you could have a foot long sub from Subway. Anyways, the park was just a blast the whole 12 hours we spent there and by 11:00 that night I was pooped out...until I got sick and almost puked a couple times from eating too much crap on the way there and everything. Overall, great trip to America's Roller Coast, Ride On.

Beat Down

Last night was one of the worst beat downs I have ever taken coaching little league baseball. Besides the 10-11 All Star team last year where we lost 31-3 combined in two games, last night was the worst loss ever. The other team had two huge kids, about the same size as me, and of course one of them was pitching. With the exception of two of the kids, everybody went up there scared as hell swinging at any pitch that looked remotely good. The pitches were coming in so fast the kids cold hardly tell if it was a strike or not so they just swung anyway. Let's just put it this way...there are 18 outs in a normal 6 inning little league game, 15 outs last night were strikeouts...at least most of them were swinging. The kids really had no idea what to do against him and it showed. As far as their hitting went; in the first inning they had 4 hits that, I kid you not, hit within 4 inches of the foul line, all fair of course, so they amassed 2 triples and 2 doubles really quickly. After that the rest of the game was basically a slaughter and we ended up losing 13-0. At least it knocked the kids of their high horse; we had won 4 straight games and I think they thought they were the shit...not quite guys. Hopefully we won't have to endure anymore 13-0 losses this season but if we do, oh well, it's little league, not the major leagues. Oh, and one more thing I had to tell some of my players last night, there's no crying in baseball.

Jobs

The job market sucks. I have been trying to get a job since I got home on April 29th and haven't found anything. Sure, I had an interview at Sears but they were looking for somebody with more sales experience. Other than that I haven't heard back from anybody. I have tried calling back the places to energize their hiring routine but they just give me some line of crap about how they are looking at all the applications and will call back when they have finished. Look, if you aren't hiring just say so. I don't need to call a bunch of employers and here the same load. Just tell me the truth instead of making something up about how the hiring person isn't there or how you just hired a bunch of people two days ago so there aren't really any positions anymore. This week, probably today or tomorrow, I have to call back Bob Evans, Celebration Cinema, and Papa Johns. If I don't get a job at any of those then I really don't know what to do. As soon as I get my ass in gear and clean up I think I am going to drive around all day and apply at whatever place I can because I am getting desperate.

Not everything has been bad though. For the past week and a half I have been doing construction for the same guys that built the addition onto my house but it's nothing permanent. A week of picking up shingles and a day installing a door got me about $300...not bad, I know, but I would still like to have a reliable job for the rest of the summer. Also, I would rather not pick up shingles the whole summer because it really sucks. I know, beggars can't be choosers but I really do think I am not made out for a ton of manual labor. I work with my brain, not my hands, or at least not my hands in a big pile of old shingles.

Sadly I have even applied at Burger King and McDonalds to no avail. If the three applications I have going right now and wherever I apply today fall through I still have the fall-back of going to my aunts everyday and doing whatever odd job she needs me to do. Hey, at least it's tax free cash money.

Music

I went to the Hey Monday, Cobra Starship, Metro Station, All Time Low, and Fall Out Boy concert on Friday in Ypsilanti, Michigan and I had a blast. More importantly though was the introduction of All Time Low to me. I had heard of them before but never heard any of their music and since the concert they have basically been the only band I have listened to. As soon as I woke up the next morning I got all 4 of their CDs...two LPs and two EPs. I just really enjoy listening to their music and am really glad that I attended the concert.

Also, I have recently started to play more guitar than usual. Now that my room is all cleaned up and ready to go for the summer I had the chance to really sit down by the computer and look up guitar tabs. I don't really know any whole songs yet but I can play along to most of a small handful of songs. The other day when I was learning songs I mostly stuck to 80's hair metal and thereabouts. I learned "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by the Scorpions along with "The Zoo" by the Scorpions and "We're Not Gunna Take It" by Twisted Sister. I also learned how to play most of "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" by AC/DC which is especially statisfying to me because that band, and Angus Young more specifically, is the reason I taught myself how to play guitar; I wanted to be able to play their songs. I know some riffs and intros to a lot of songs and most of them I have stored away somewhere in memory and now that I am playing more and more I am realizing that I really can play the guitar pretty well if I just practice the song enough. For the most part a lot of rock songs are essentially the same as far as chord progression and chorus and verses. My friend Drew also started to play guitar about the same time I did and we both tell each other about the latest songs we have learned. Unrealistically we would love to start a band but neither of us can sing and we don't have a bass guitar or a drum set. I know that drums can be kind of confusing and complicated sometimes but they can also be simple. If I had a drum set where I could practice I think I could become fairly decent at them. We also have the problem of writing songs. I have been experimenting with some writing of my own with the guitar but nothing major has come out of it. Just a couple of chorus parts and maybe an intro or two. I also try my luck at writing the lyrics to songs but I only have one song that would even be considered acceptable at this point. I'm sure if I put more effort into all of this it may come along a little faster but to say that we are going to start a band any time soon or at all is a pretty far stretch. At least if we do we already have a name...Rakers of Ravage, or RoR for short. Maybe we should just stick to Wyld Stallyns.

King James

Lebron James is now the NBA's MVP. He wears number 23...Michael Jordan anybody? No. Lebron James is not as good as Michael Jordan was or still is now. James may be more athletic than Jordan ever was but there is no way in hell that you can tell me that Lebron is better than Michael. Yes, Lebron soars through the air like Jordan did. Yes, Lebron is obviously the best player on his team and, apparently, in the league. Yes, without Lebron the Cavs would be nothing just like the Bulls would have been without Jordan. But...Jordan is still a better basketball player than Lebron. James is only 24 so he definitely has time to improve his game but I doubt anybody will ever be as good at basketball, just plain skill wise, as Michael Jordan was. Lebron can race down the court and dunk it from the free throw line or drive past 4 defenders and slam it home or even block 360 dunks but he can't hit that shot. Whats that shot you may ask? None in particular, but I know that with 15 seconds left in a game I would take Jordan over Lebron anyday. And you may also say that Jordan had a better supporting cast than Lebron does but has Lebron won a title yet? All he has done is won an MVP...which is a single player award. If the Cavs go on to win the NBA Title this year then you can come back and bring the supporting cast argument up. As of now the Bulls with Jordan are better than the Cavs with Lebron. If Lebron can bring home 6 NBA Championships to the Cavs with the teammates he has now, then I will admit that he is a better player than Jordan. Until then I am going to continue to idolize Michael Jordan and keep memories of Space Jam in my head...don't see Lebron taking on the Mon-stars do ya?

Bothersome

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything but I have a big list here of stuff that has been bothering me lately.

First, swine flu. Everybody needs to settle down. It's the flu people. You get sick, poop some, puke a little maybe, feel crappy for a couple days and then you are fine. The only reason there are a bunch of Mexicans dying is because they don't have good water or health care.

Second, the NFL Draft. I about scratched my eyes out while trying to watch ESPN the whole week leading up to it. It was like I couldn't even watch my sports highlights, it was just NFL Draft. That weekend was hell too...all they could talk about was the Draft and frankly, I don't care. I don't even remember any of the picks besides Stafford at number one for the Lions. They need to settle down about the whole draft thing and get rid of Mel Kuiper Jr., he is such a dork.

Third, jobs. I have been trying to find a job now for like a week and I haven't found anything. It's like nobody is hiring. I apply at the places that say they are hiring and I don't hear anything back. I call them back, they say they will let me know. I even had an interview with Sears and nothing. As of today I resorted to applying at Burger King and if that doesn't work I guess I will have to apply at Taco Bell and Wendy's too.

Fourth, FinallyFast.com commercial. I realize that they are selling computer tech support to people that probably don't know much or anything about computer but come on! They show an Apple notebook blue-screening which just plain does NOT happen. Macs don't blue screen, they don't have the option of blue screening, it's not programmed into them, it just can't happen. Windows computers blue-screen. If they are going to try to sell their sketchy computer "performance test" I think they need to do a little more research for Steve Job or Bill Gate's sake.

Fifth, AT&T. I have had an AT&T phone for almost 2 years now (July will make it 2 and I can't wait!). Pretty much since I got the phone I have had trouble with dropped calls but now it's just rediculous. I will drop a call...have to turn my phone off and then back on just to get service again...call the person back...and then drop the call again in like 10 minutes. It really is just rediculous and I can't wait to switch to another company.

And finally Sixth, Chevy Malibu's from the late 90's. I have a 1998 Chevy Malibu and it is a complete POS. There is rust all over it, espeically under the gas cap. The transmission is starting to fail me. I have had to have the brakes replaced like 5 times. The secutirty system constantly thinks I am trying to steal the car and the only way to fix it is to sit there with the key in the car for 10 minutes until it turns off, which can be very annoying and troublesome if I really need to get somewhere. Also it sounds like it's going to fall apart when I drive it on the highway. I took my sister to her youth group yesterday and she asked a perfect question to go along with this and I quote, "Why does your car make so much noise?". Basically it has been a piece since I got it and still is but it's all I have to work with so I have to deal with it.

Hope that's enough complaining for the two people or so who read this thing. Beggers can't be choosers but I think they can be complainers.

Exams

As of now I am half way done with my exams for this semester. I would like to think that I have the two hardest ones behind me but I'm not sure. My history exam is looking harder and harder by the second, not because the information is difficult to remember, but because I have to write an essay from 5 different topics so I have to have information ready for each one of them in case that is the one on the test. All five could be available on the test or maybe only one, the professor won't tell us, so I just have to prepare for all of them and hope the one I am most prepared for is available to choose from. Other than that I am not worried about history, I just have to study a bit and refresh my memory of the Crusades, Renaissance, and Middle Ages as a whole. I also have an econ exam tomorrow, macroeconomics to be exact, and it is definilty going to be the easiest of all of my exams. I should only have to spend an hour or so studying for it to be prepared. It's one of those tests where the prof just recycles old questions, maybe re-words them a bit, and spits them back out on the final. Come 3:30 or so on Wednesday though and I will be free from school for 4 whole months, crazy, I know. I will literally be done April 29th and don't have class next semester until September 1st. Over 4 whole months of summer vacation, if getting a summer job is considered a vacation. Although, I don't have school and not to many real responsibilites yet so I suppose it is a vacation. 24 hours from now I will be starting my first exam and about 27 hours from now I will be finishing my last exam, putting everything in the car, and hitting the road. Mama, I'm comin' home.

Little League

Yesterday was opening day for the little league that I am a part of. I coach a 11-12 year old baseball team and our team sponsor is Cracker Barrel (pretty sweet I know). After enduring a parade with the truck full of animals I had to wait through one rain delay and a huge schedule dilemma before my game even started. The game actually went pretty well, better than I thought it was going to go, that's for sure. The kid I had pitching lasted the whole game, all 4 innings of it until it started raining again and we just called that game. He allowed basically 1 run an inning which isn't too bad for little league. My team's hitting was the problem; with only 1 run in 4 innings our productivity was minimal at best. The first two guys got on and I was thinking, great, we are going to be just fine, and then the next 8 batters proceeded to strike out; so all 3 outs of the first 2 innings and the first two batters of the 3rd inning were all strike outs, and when that happens, it makes it kind of hard to score runs, although, our only run came in the 1st inning off of stolen bases and passed balls. The 4th inning was actually pretty good batting wise. We had the bases loaded with no outs....but...we didn't score. One kid got thrown out trying to go home on a passed ball. One kid was out on a force play at third. The last kid struck out, just following the pattern I suppose.

This year is looking pretty good though. I was without one of, if not the best, players in the first game yesterday so when he is there we will have a lead off hitter and a shortstop/pitcher/catcher. Also it looks like I have about 4 to 5 solid pitchers which is good because you usually need 2 to 3 pitchers per game and once they pitch in one game, for me usually on Tuesday, they can't pitch in the second game, Thursday, but they can pitch again the next week. So if I can get them on a 2 pitcher per game schedule with one pitcher available for relief I should be straight. Fielding also looks very good. Solid 1st, 3rd, short, center field, and catcher so my important field positions are covered. Hitting is my one concern this year though. Last year my team had a problem with striking out a lot and it looks like they will this year as well. As long as they go down swinging I am happy though. Better to swing and get out than stand there and look like a fool.

Mac

I used to be an avid supporter of PCs. I used to tell everybody that Macs were too expensive and not worth the bother. I used to think that Macs were for hoity toity smell-me's. Now that I am sitting here trying to fix my mother's PC and just recently got done playing around with me girlfriend's Mac I may be swaying a bit. Yes, Macs are very expensive compared to PCs...but maybe it's worth it. I work at tech support for my school and hardly any Macs come in, which might be because less people have Macs, but I think it's actually because Macs have less problems than PCs...especially Dell. Every Dell computer I have ever seen has been a peice. At least half of the computers that come in to work are Dells. The combining Dell and Windows is like combining white people and dancing, they just don't work well. Windows has so many problems compared to Mac. My girlfriend's Mac runs flawlessly and is honestly more enjoyable to use than my Windows computer, which I happen to enjoy and have had hardly any problems with. Tell you what, if I had $1300 to drop on a new computer I would be all over a Mac. Funny thing is I saw a Windows ad on TV where a guy goes into a Best Buy and has $1500 to spend on a computer and he says something about the Mac being too expensive. Are you kidding me? He could have bought the Mac and still had money left to spend on other things. There is no way on God's green earth that I would go to Best Buy with $1500 for a new computer and now be walking out of there with a Mac, no way.

Jr

Ken Griffey Jr is one of my favorite baseball players. He has over 600 home runs, 400 now with the Mariners, and he has done it clean...as far as we know. He hasn't taken steroids to get all of his numbers, he is just a good player who loves playing the game. If he hadn't played so hard when he was younger and hurt himself so much I honestly believe he would be the home run king instead of Barry Bonds. I loved watching him play as a kid and now that he is back on the Mariners I love it again. I really don't know what else to say about him and this post was kind of a waste. I am watching Sportscenter and they just showed highlights of the Seattle game so that's what sparked my interest in the subject. I just love the way he acts when he hits a homerun; drops the bat and just kind of stares at the ball as he walks a couple steps down the first base line...I think I am going to start doing that walking around campus.

Anchor

Today may have been the beginning of a beautiful friendship...between me and the school newspaper. I applied to be either the Sports editor or Voices (Columns) editor and had my interview this afternoon. My hopes are high that I impressed next years chief editors and will get one of the jobs. Working for the school newspaper would be such a great opportunity, especially since I want to become a journalist. In all honesty, I would love to be a column writer for the paper but I believe all of those positions are taken, so editor it is, not that editor is a bad job, just more responsibility...once again, not a bad thing.

In other news...nothing is really going on in my life. I don't really have anything interesting or pressing to talk about. I'm pretty much just waiting for school to be over so I can go home, coach Little League, and find a summer job. Hopefully, all goes well, but if not, here's looking at you, summer.

School

Now that there is only two weeks left of school everything seems to have slowed down...a lot. I have a presentation and an essay due on Thursday and it seems like the last two days have lasted forever. Part of my thinks that these two weeks will fly by and I will be one my way to summer in no time, the other part thinks a little different. Also, I seem to be tired all of the time too and I don't know why. I have slept 8 hours for the past couple nights and haven't really done anything physically straining, I just feel tired. Maybe its the weather, stupid rain. No matter what it is I just want school to be over so I can go back home and look for a job that I won't get. Today's forecast...gloomy.

The Masters

As I heard on some TV show on Sunday morning, "There are only three things you do on Easter, go to Church, eat food, and watch the Masters" (actually I don't think the Masters are always on Easter weekend...have to figure that out). Seemed like a pretty good list of things to do on Easter to me. I skipped out on the first one, but I definitely ate some food, and definitely watched the Masters. Just like everybody else, I was rooting for Tiger to come from behind and win, and it actually looked like he was going to until he hit that tree on the 17th hole. And all you can really say is that he tried hard and came up short because even though he didn't win he still shot 4 under par on Sunday and still had a pretty damn good round. Phil Mickelson...probably another story. Talk about terrible putting! This guy missed a couple 5 footers that would have given him the lead, especially that eagle put on the 14th or 15th. True, he did have a pretty good round as well, but I feel like he had a better chance to capture the lead then Tiger. And don't even get me started on Kenny Perry...this guy had the lead, in his hand, covered in gold and green jackets, and he choked...big time. Bogey's on the last two holes to go into a three man playoff and then totally falling apart on the second hole to give ol' Angel the win was pretty pathetic to watch. Now, I play golf myself and am in no way better than any of these guys, but I honestly think I could have done almost as well as he did on that second playoff hole. And I wonder what size jacket Angel wears...probably not as big as Craig Stadler or John Daly. The most interesting thing from the Masters I saw on Sunday was Asian Cowboy Shingo Katayama...a solid 3rd place finish, I wonder if he rides panda bears instead of horses?

Championship

It was over as soon as it started, Michigan State had no chance against North Carolina last night. Within a couple minutes UNC had a double digit lead and they never looked back. Everybody around campus was buzzing about the game, most being from the state of Michigan meant they were all hoping for a green and white victory...not this time. Carolina Blue was just too overpowering and too skillful for the Spartans. Sure, they Spartans had a ridiculous amount of turnovers, most of them unforced, but the loss can't be blamed on that; the Tar Heels were just plain better last night. Michigan St. started out the game shooting terribly, something like 30% at one point, while North Carolina was shooting about 60% at the time. By the end of the game, though, it evened out with shooting percentages of 40 and 46% respectively. I don't think shooting percentage was the story of the game however, I think Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, and Wayne Ellington for the Tar Heels were the story; they accounted for 58 of North Carolina's 89 points. I personally believe that Ty Lawson, with 21 points, 8 steals, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds should have been the most oustanding player, but it was the most oustanding player of the Final Four, so Wayne Ellington recieved it. Also, the Spartans were in foul trouble early in both halves so they couldn't be as aggressive as they really wanted.

Even though the game was essentially over in the first 5 minutes I watched the entire game and still found it entertaining. Once UNC got a 20 point lead the game was good because MSU pretty much kept the deficit at around 20 points, so at least it was competitive in that respect.

To follow up on my bracket I finished in the 96th percentile on ESPN and finished first among all of my friends on Facebook. Overall, a pretty good year and a pretty good bracket. Next year I'm pulling for St. John's Red Storm baby!

Nothing

I'm sitting here and I can't think of anything to write about. Besides the NCAA tournament nothing of significance, to me at least, has happened in sports all weekend. The Masters are coming up this weekend and that should be great, hopefully Tiger wins. The NCAA tournament game is tomorrow. I want MSU to win because I am from Michigan, yet I want UNC to win because I have them winning in my bracket, so I guess either outcome will please me. The women's NCAA tournament championship is Tuesday and UConn will probably win by like 20, which is good because a perfect season is always interesting. The MLB season started tonight and the rest of the games will be tomorrow, I think, unless some aren't until Tuesday. This is always a good time of year for sports, ya know? The baseball season has just started so we have like 6 more months of that, the NCAA tournament is winding down, the Masters is this weekend, the NBA and NHL regular seasons are coming to a close so the race for the playoffs is getting tight. Unfortunately there is no football, soon enough though. I know a lot of people who don't like watching baseball, but I just love it, especially during the summer when Baseball Tonight is on every night and Sportscenter is dominated by baseball. The only bad thing about baseball starting up is that I can no longer play; this will be my second spring with no baseball and it's getting to me already. Last year wasn't too bad because it was the first time, but I'm thinking that pretty soon I am going to have to join a slow pitch softball league or I will go crazy. Sure, coaching Little League helps me cope but I need some real, on the field action. I am coaching with my high school coach this year...that should be interesting, me being the manager and him the coach. A real reversal of roles seeing that I didn't play very much during high school. Anyways, the itch to go out and play catch is killing me right now, I need my arm to be sore from throwing, I need by mouth to be raw from eating sunflower seeds, I need my hair to me matted down from a cap every night, and most of all I just plain need baseball.

See how a post about nothing turned into something...great isn't it? Speaking of great...it would be great to go to Iowa and go to the real Field of Dreams...have a catch with the old man...cry a little...go home...sounds great. My philosophy with this blog...if I write it, they will come.

Cartoons

I just came across a huge list of cartoons from the '90's and I just have to make a list of all the ones I used to watch...a * next to it means it was one of my favorites.

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles *
• Pinky and the Brain
• Gargoyles
• Batman
• DuckTales
• Animaniacs *
• Darkwing Duck
• Dexter's Laboratory
  
• Rugrats
• Captain Planet
• Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers
• X-Men *
• Hey Arnold! *
• Doug *
• Aaaah! Real Monsters
• Dragonball Z
• Rocko's Modern Life
• Biker Mice from Mars *
• Bonkers
• Garfield
• Johnny Bravo
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Spider-Man
• Street Sharks *
• Tailspin *
• Timon & Pumbaa
• Ren & Stimpy
• Aladdin
• Courage the Cowardly Dog
• The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Recess
• The Magic School Bus
• 2 Stupid Dogs
• The Angry Beavers
• Goof Troop
• Arthur
• Beavis and Butt-head
• CatDog *
• Celebrity Deathmatch
• Cow & Chicken
• Ed Edd n' Eddy
• The Wild Thornberrys
• Pokemon
• Marsupilami
• Action league NOW
• Kaablam!

Besides animated series I also liked to watch...

• Fresh Prince of Bel Air
• Home Improvement
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers *
• Spin City
  
• Seinfeld
• Friends
• All That
• Kenan & Kel
• Solute Your Shorts
• Double Dare
• GUTS
• Legends of the Hidden Temple

There are probably many more that I just can't think of fight now but, jeez look at that list, I don't think I could list that many shows that are on right now. We had it good growing up in the '90's, now all of the shows for kids are stupid...I guess as a 19 year old that would make sense though. 20 year olds during the '90's probably thought all of our shows were stupid too but I love them to death. If only for one day I could go back to the '90's...

Like

What is up with the fascination with the word like these days? It seems as if people use it as a spacer, when they don't know what else to say they figure they can just throw it in there and take up time. Instead of saying umm during a presentation or speech people turn to the word like now. Like also seems to be the stereotypical word for the ditsy blond who doesn't know how to speak right and only talks about shopping and boys; I was like yeah and then he was like no and I was like whatever and he was like fine, so I went shopping and I found like the most gorgeous shoes like ever! And I know that may seem like an exaggeration, but trust me, there are people out there like that and when I hear them speak it makes me want to plug my ears with wax. Some people just need to learn how to talk for God's sake! Learn how to use grammar the correct way and don't insert the word like into your story 50 times. If you can't talk for five minutes without using the word like, maybe you should stop and think before you say something, and then you can continue to talk, like ok?

Perfection

Perfection. What comes to mind when you think of that word, in a sporting aspect? When you think of a perfect team or a perfect player, what comes to mind? Only the Miami Dolphins can claim to be the perfect football team, sure the Patriots won 18 straight a couple years back but they lost the Super Bowl. I suppose you could say the expansionary Buccaneers and the 2008 Detroit Lions were perfect...losing every game in a season. Besides the NFL there are plenty of instances of perfection in sports. The '95-'96 Chicago Bulls are the closest thing to perfection in the NBA since there are 82 games in a season and I doubt any team will ever win all of them, but the Bulls won 72 out of 82, not perfect, but pretty damn good. NCAA basketball has had it's fair share of perfect teams, The UCLA Bruins of the early 70's, with back to back perfect seasons, are the epitome of perfect. Of course the Bruins were also perfect in twice before that in '64 and '67, which is awesome, but not back to back like in '72 and '73. Everybody knows about the Indiana Hoosiers perfect season in 1976 thanks to a particular movie of the same name. NCAA football has so many perfect teams that the list would be too long to put on here and after a while would get boring. No golfer has ever won all four majors in one year since the Masters was added in the 1930's, Tiger had his own Grand Slam when he won the four majors in a row, but he did it over two seasons. Now, though, there is a perfect team in the making. The Connecticut Women's Huskies have dominated almost every game this season and are skating through the NCAA tournament with ease. They won the ACC tournament easily, so easily in fact that they doubled the other team's points in the final...ridiculous. Hopefully in a week we will have one more team to add to the small list of teams that can bask in the glow of the word PERFECTION.

Tiger

Did anybody really doubt that Tiger Woods wasn't in the running on Sunday? Just because he was down 5 strokes going into the day and was playing in only like his third or fourth event since his knee surgery did people think he would not be his usual Sunday Tiger? Was the possibility of a missed birdie putt on the 18th green running through anybody's head? Doubtful. Everybody knew that he was going to storm back to win the tournament. I never saw Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer play golf so I can't really compare them to Tiger, but as far as I am concerned, Tiger Woods is the best golf player, period. When Tiger didn't play after the U.S. Open last year nobody watched, no-bo-dy. I know that I didn't, and nobody I knew did either. As a matter of fact, I never even watched golf highlights. Since he has been back the ratings must be skyrocketing. The Masters in two weeks are going to be the highest rated golf tournament in a long time, guaranteed. Tiger Woods is golf; just as Jerry West is basketball, and I would even go as fas as to say that a silhouette of Tiger Woods should become the new emblem for the PGA. I can not think of any other sport that would take as big of a hit as golf did from the loss of a single player, except maybe swimming with Michael Phelps. The four major sports (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL) would still survive with the loss of one star player, and most other sports really aren't that popular anyways. Men's tennis has Nadal and Federer, lose one and you still have viewership. Women's tennis has both of the Williams sisters. As we saw however, golf can not lose Tiger Woods, and I can only imagine that the smell me's in charge of the PGA are wetting their pants over the return of Tiger, especially after this weekend.

More Brackets

I was doing fabulous after the first two rounds with 15 of the 16 teams correct. After last night however, only 5 of 8 teams correct. Memphis really killed me as I had them going all the way to the finals, but luckily not winning. I am still at like the 91st percentile on ESPN so I suppose I am not doing that bad. With only 3 Final Four teams left, one of them being Michigan St. over Louisville, I will be squirming in my chair the next two nights. The only pick I have left that I am confident in is UNC over Oklahoma, but even that pick can easily be wrong with Blake Griffin, I mean the guy hit his freain' head on the backboard last night while he was dunking the basketball, he's an animal! Pitt over Villanova isn't looking so hot, especially after Pitt's performance against Xavier and Villanova's spanking of Duke.

Everybody on TV keeps talking about chalk too, ovbiously there is a context, they aren't just talking about chalk, they are talking about chalk in the sense that of the 8 teams left, only two of them are not a 1 or 2 seeds, they are 3 seeds. Some people are complaining that the tournament hasn't been exciting or there is no real Cinderella but I don't mind really. As far as I see it, the selection committee got it right. All of the 1's and 2's are supposed to be left in the Elite Eight. People should stop complaining about no Cinderellas and be glad that only the Big Boys are left...they are probably just bitter that their brakets aren't doing very well.

Foofball

Is the NFL serious? I understand safety is a concern but when that concern weakens the integrity of the game I think that's when you say it's safe enough. Yes, safety is important, but at the same time, football is a contact sport. People play football expecting to get knocked down and roughed up, and sometimes they even get hurt, oh my! When you watch tapes of old football games those guys are out there tearing each others heads off. They are not all that concerned about hitting the quarterback too hard or in the wrong spot, they just want to knock him down any way they can. In today's game players can't hit people to hard, or in the head, or below the knee, or too late because they will get a penalty and a hefty fine in the mail.

So the five rules that were past are as follows:

• The initial force of a blindside block can't be delivered by a helmet, forearm or shoulder to an opponent's head or neck. An illegal blindside block will bring a 15-yard penalty.
• Initial contact to the head of a defenseless receiver also will draw a 15-yard penalty.
• On kickoffs, no blocking wedge of more than two players will be allowed. A 15-yard penalty will go to a violating team.
• On kickoffs, the kicking team can't have more than five players bunched together pursuing an onside kick. Breaking this rule would draw a 5-yard penalty.
• Prohibits a defender on the ground who hasn't been blocked or fouled directly into the quarterback from lunging or diving at the quarterback's lower legs.

So there will be no more electrifying blind side blocks by wide receivers. I suppose the second rule is actually a good one because sometimes defenseless WRs get rocked by defensive backs after the pass is incomplete. So much for the wedge! No more than 2 players? That is just ridiculous, even Devin Hester won't be able to run back kick-offs for touchdowns anymore, no blocking. Also, so much for late game comebacks by trailing teams because they will never recover and on-sides kick now. But the worst one of all, the ultimate siss-i-fication of the NFL is the "Tom Brady Rule". This next season the quarterbacks may as well just keep the red jerseys from training camp and wear them all season.

WBC

Now that the World Baseball Classic is over and Japan has won it, again, I feel like the whole thing is somewhat predictable. And I realize that most sports are like this anyways, I mean there are certain teams that are good every year and have a chance to win every year but it seems as if the WBC is definitely like this. If Japan or Korea doesn't win it then the USA or Venezuela will. It was nice to see the Netherlands go as far as they did this year but other than that everything else went pretty much according to plan. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the WBC is boring or pre-determined or anything; the game last night was very exciting and you could see the honest and pure excitment that both sides were exhibiting while rooting for their team. I would have been happy to see either team win because they both played hard.

It's not even the WBC that is dominated by these countries either. Watch the Little League World Series in August and you will see the same teams dominating (of course half of the teams in the whole tournament are from America so that may be a little uneven). The quarterfinals are usually between two American teams and Japan and Korea or Japan and the Caribbean. So maybe the WBC isn't predictable or anything, maybe the people who live in those countries and play baseball are just that much better than the people who live in other countries and play baseball...but then I guess that would make it predictable for those teams to succeed now wouldn't it.

NCAA update

After the first two rounds I am actually sitting pretty. I have 15 of the 16 remaining teams correct, with Villanova being the team I didn't have in the Sweet 16. As far as the first round goes I missed 4 games I think...I actually called all of the upsets except Cleveland St. but I did pick VCU to upset when they didn't. I am in the 99.4th percentile of the ESPN braket challenge which is good enough for a rank of 27,800, at least I'm doing better than Obama.

The games this year have definitely been exciting, especially the Siena, Ohio St. game and the VCU, UCLA game. Both of them were very interesting and down to the wire, I only got one right, but that's OK. I suppose the tournament is going as planned...of the 16 teams left only two are not supposed to be there, as in not ranked 1 through 4, and only Arizona at 12 is really a stretch since Purdue is a 5 seed. The only games I am nervous about coming up are Purdue, UConn and MSU, Kansas; I have Purdue moving on past UConn but the way UConn has played so far makes me think that that may have been a bad move, and after only winning by five against the 10th seeded USC Trojans today I just don't know if MSU has enough to beat Kansas.

Also, I have been lacking as far as posting goes and that is because this past week was my Spring Break and when I am at home I don't get on my computer as much and I was also on vacation for a couple days with no computer access, terrible, I know, but anyways, hopefully the frequency of posts will go up here in the upcoming weeks.

Bracket

Sunday was the glorious day when the college basketball brackets were revealed and this year I honestly was not that excited. I haven't really followed college basketball much at all this year, which is unfortunate when I filled out my bracket because I was clueless on about half of the games. For the most part I just picked the higher ranked team...or lower I guess, the better team, how about that? Of course I had my fair share of upsets from 9 seeds all the way to 13 seeds. I think I had all 1's and 2's in the Final Four. Last year I did really well; I got every final four team correct and got like 7 out of the 8 Elite Eight teams right, except I think I got both of the teams in the final game wrong.

Anyways, the whole point of the post was to talk about the bracket. In the Midwest I like Louisville, Arizona, Kansas, and Michigan State to make the Sweet 16, with Michigan State advancing out to the Final Four. In the West I like Connecticut, Purdue, Missouri, and Memphis with Memphis going to the Final Four. East has Pittsburgh, Xavier, VCU, and Duke in the Sweet 16 with Pitt going to the Final Four. Finally in the South I like the top four seeds, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Syracuse, and Oklahoma with UNC going to the Final Four. As far as the Final Four goes I like Memphis and UNC to make the championship game with North Carolina winning it all 69-63.

Childhood

I'm sitting here watching an old home video of one of my family's vacations to Disney World. Even though I am almost 20 years old now I still love Disney World and would go back in a heart beat so watching old videos of Disney World is wonderful. Anyways, watching them just brings back so many great memories. I can remember so many things that we used to do at Disney, all of the different places we would go too and just how much fun it was. I really can't describe how I feel when I watch those old videos of us at Disney, trying to sum it up all I can say is that I miss my childhood. It really was magical to go to Disney World, and I know that may sound cheesy and it is their pitch to get you to go there but when you are 8 years old Disney World is bliss. When I watch them I don't know whether to cry, or laugh. So many things rush through my head when I watch them that it is almost overwhelming. I guess this wasn't really a good topic to write about here because I can't really accurately describe what I am even talking about, I just know that I absolutely loved Disney World as a kid and still absolutely love it as a young adult and can not wait until I get to go back.

Two Terms

In my local newspaper there is a section where high school seniors pick topics to write about and submit them to the paper and they publish three of them every day or week or something, I'm not exactly sure how it works. Anyways, this morning the topic they were writing about was whether or not the United States President should be able to stay in office past two terms. After reading their responses I found that I was opinionated on the topic and since I can't write into the paper and have them publish it I figured I would write it down here.

George Washington set a precedent when he stepped down after two terms in office. This became an unwritten rule that was never broken for about 150 years. FDR was the first person who dared to defy Washington. After FDR made the White House his home for 16 years the government finally decided they should do something about it. Since the United States is a Democratic Republic it only makes sense to pass an amendment to prevent any President from running for a third term. No matter how loved a President is he or she should not get more than eight years in office. Even if Obama makes America fall in love with him and everybody is joyous and prosperous for the next eight years, we should still elect a new President in 2016 (this is of course assuming Obama will be re-elected in 2012). One of the seniors wrote something to the effect of impeaching a president who is doing a bad job...of course refering to George W Bush, but if he was doing such a bad job then it seems he wouldn't have gotten re-elected, and yes, he may have gone downhill once he was re-elected, but it seems like if so many people hated him and made fun of him as Presiident than Kerry should have been elected in 2004. Anyways, I believe that even if a President is doing a phenominal job at running the nation he should only be able to do that phenominal job for eight years. If we allow Presidents to start running for three or more terms then not only will we have to revoke an amendment but we will also have to wrestle with the idea of a tyranny, which I'm sure will never happen and it just an exageration.

Scores

I am not a huge fan of orchestral music or anything like that but I do seem to have a knack for movie scores. As I am writing this I am listening to the Dark Knight soundtrack and honestly I love it. It's nice to listen to music without lyrics and be able to appreciate the instruments that are playing. Most music nowadays is just electronic sounds mixed together with somebody singing about non-sense. Relaxing is a good word for it, especially while doing homework. It just seems to fit perfectly; The Dark Knight and homework.

Anyways this post will be short because I am about to leave for Spring Break...even though I am not going anywhere. Just back to good ol' Kalamazoo for me. At least it is a nice break from school and I can just lay around and do nothing. Maybe the sun will be out and I can go outside in mid 40's weather instead of mid 80's like all the other rich people at school...bastards.

Things I Wish I Could Do

There a plenty of things I wish I could do...so I figured I would make a list

• Speak another language besides English
• Play the piano
• Write for a living
• Change my phone service
• Get a new phone
• Write music
• Control my junk food intake
• Go to many places, ie. Hawaii, The Caribbean, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia, California, New York City, Mayan Temples, Egypt, and Key West.
  
• Be in a band
• Open up a restaurant
• Write a book about my grandpa's life
  
• Become an actor
• Design my own split-level house
• Go somewhere for Spring Break
• Be an Olympic swimmer
• Meet a lot of people, ie. Michael Jordan, Kanye West, AC/DC, Metallica, Jim Rice, Bill Cowher, Linkin Park, Jim Carrey, Dave Chappelle, Will Ferrell, and my grandpa Ralph's dad.
• Own a little cottage on a lake and have a boat
• Get a second chance at playing baseball more in High School
• Right all the people I have wronged
• Get a job relatively close to graduation

There's more to add I just can't think of anything else right now...........

Netherlands

It is so refreshing and nice for a baseball team not from the Caribbean, USA, or Japan to be doing well in the World Baseball Classic. The first time I saw that the Netherlands baseball team beat the Dominican Republic I was shocked. I talked about it with some co-workers at work for a good 20 minutes because none of us could really believe it. It was amazing that, not only did they beat the DR, they pounded them, not in score because it was only 3-2 but the first game I think the DR had like 2 hits or something like that. So, I figured this time the Dominicans would be angry about the last loss and take this game more serious and beat the pulp out of the Netherlands...nope! The game was scoreless until the 11th inning when the DR scored one run in the top of the 11th on an error by the Netherlands right fielder. And wouldn't you know it the same guy that committed the error in RF was the same guy who knocked in the tying run. After an error on a pick-off attempt the same man was sitting on 3rd base. Then, on a grounder to 1st base, he scored and the Netherlands came out victorious and showed the whole baseball world that they are a force to be reckoned with. Now that they have beaten the Dominican Republic twice they are advancing past pool play and going to Miami to play some more. Afterward, during the post game interview the Netherlands coach teared up a little when he started talking about how lucky his was to coach a team like this, and boy is he right. It would be great to be the coach of a team who was never given a chance to beat the Dominican Republic in pool play...and definitely not given the chance to do it twice, with the second game being a pool championship game. Most likely the biggest upset in WBC history, the Netherlands two wins over the dominant Dominican Republic will be remembered for a long time...and the Cinderella story isn't over yet, we still have more games to watch to see how it all plays out. As the Dutch would put it, Ga Nederlands!

TO to Buffalo

Well, I definitely didn't see it coming but I suppose it's a good deal. I just don't know if TO will be the number one WR in Buffalo, especially with the year Lee Evans had last year. And like I said before, I don't think TO will be happy being the number two receiver. The acquisition of definitely puts Buffalo in the running for the AFC East though...I suppose they were last year too until they melted down the second half of the season.

Double Dreams

It is not very often that I remember my dream(s) when I wake up in the morning. Today, however, was an exception. When I finally woke up this morning at about 11:30 AM I realized that I had remembered two dreams. Now before I go ahead and tell you about those dreams I am going to need to give you some background information. First, my grandparents on my mother's side live next-door to us. Second, my family has a yellow lab named Gator that is about 8 years old now. OK, now that you know a little bit more I can continue on with the first dream.

The first one was actually very strange because somehow I discovered a cave in my grandparents backyard next to their garage. I usually park over there when I am at home so I found it one day when I came back because there was a big whole about 10 feet from the end of my car. I went over to it and figured out it was a cave. So I went back to my house and told my parents what I had found and that I was going down into it. I don't really remember much else about it except that at some point my mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, and me were all down in the cave looking around. I also remember that I was out of it to do something but was getting ready to go back down and measure how big it actually was, but then the dream ended.

My second dream was even stranger because it was in a house that I have never been in before. I have no idea who's house it was but it wasn't the nicest. Anyways, my dog was there along with some body's pit bull....along with 4 snakes. Now...I really have no idea why there were 4 snakes in the house but it was scaring the living day lights out of me because I am scared of snakes. Anyways I somehow ended up on a recliner in full recline mode and the 4 snakes were under me. The pit bull was next to the chair on the ground growling at the snakes like he wanted to tear them up. My dog, Gator, was lying down behind the chair sleeping. What happened next though surprised the hell out of me; the pit bull lunged at one of the snakes and killed it. Then he did it again, and he killed a third one. But before he could kill the fourth one it had already gotten behind the chair and bitten my dog on the neck...it was a King Cobra snake. Right after the snake had bitten my dog the pit bull came and finished him off. So i frantically searched for a phone to call the police while my dad, friends Drew and Tom, and brother, Bob, all went out the front door to the hospital. Now that I think about it I don't really know why they were going to the hospital but oh well. So I got a hold of the police and told them what had happened but the call got cut off. So I went to get my shoes because I was going to run to the police station while my Tom's brother, Andy, stayed with the dog. Once I finally got my shoes on a burst out the front door I saw a police car drive by and starting flailing my arms in the air to get his attention. I finally got it and amazingly he turned around and another police car was driving by and he stopped too. They walked up to me and for some reason my sister, Emily and one of her friends were with the police. As we were walking in the front door her friend asked me why it was such a big deal that my dog was dying. It actually amazes me how detailed my dream was because I can remember how I answered that question; I was so sad and hysterical that I was crying and trying to talk at the same time so nothing I said was really understandable. I was basically mumbling non-sense in short increments between my sobs and breaths. And, unfortunately, that is where the dream ended because I woke up.

I know that those were pretty long descriptions and it really doesn't make any sense as to why I would talk about my dreams, but I would say that I am just genuinely happy that I remembered not one, but two of my dreams and can tell them back with such detail.

Warm Weather

It's amazing how many people get outside and do stuff on the first day of good weather in the spring. Today it was around 60 degrees in the afternoon and there were tons of people outside. People were wearing shorts and t-shirts and everybody felt the excitement of spring approaching. After three to four months of below freezing temperatures, snow covered grounds, and little to no sunshine a day in the low 60's with some sunshine is like heaven. It feels so nice to just walk around outside and now have to shudder from the cold or have the bottoms of your jeans get wet from snow. It's nice to see more then two minutes of sunshine at one time and have there be a breeze that doesn't chill you to the bone. Hell, 60 degrees is like a heatwave in Michigan during early March, but if it was 60 degrees at the end of September everybody would be getting their sweatshirts out because winter is coming. If it was 60 degrees in Florida everybody would be grabbing their jackets and stocking up for the end of the world. It's just funny to see how relative weather really can be.

TO

As of a little while ago the Cowboys released Terrell Owens...so who will pick him up? Maybe the Lions will try to, I mean why not? What could the Lions possibly do to their team to make it any worse? All jokes aside I believe somebody will definitely pick up Owens as soon as possible. Yes, he may be in his mid 30's but he is still one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. And yes, he is a cancer that can easily infect any team he is on but for some struggling teams that may be a risk worth taking. I personally believe the Broncos, Chargers, or Falcons could be possible new homes for him. The Falcons have a great young quarterback in Matt Ryan but no real super star wide receivers, but I don't know if they will want to take the risk in signing Owens or want to spend the money he will demand. The Broncos definitely have some solid wide receivers right now and a good quarterback in Cutler but they may not want him because they already have a sufficient wide receiver crew. The Chargers have the star quarterback, the star running back, and even a star tight end, so why not add a star wide receiver? Knowing my previous prediction skills as far as where players will go, Owens will probably end up with some other team I didn't even think of...oh well. I think he needs to go to a team where he will be the star receiver though because if he has to share duty with another receiver he will not be happy and start trouble with his new team. Wherever he ends up Owens will most likely still be in the headlines throughout the upcoming NFL season.

Housing

So today is the day I find out if I got into an apartment for next school year or not...and the anticipation is killing me. We applied for a 4 person apartment and 2 of my co-workers did as well and one of them has already found out. She actually got the apartment she wanted so that gives me hope that maybe I will too. The other guy has a lot of credits (where you live is based on credits) so we are thinking that he is a shoo in for an apartment. I'm sitting here waiting though, hoping that I at least get into one, even if it's not my first choice. Just for fun I have my email set to play a gong when I get an email so I am waiting for that spectacular song to come out of my computer speakers...nothing yet though. Mortal Kombat here we come.

Grim Job Prospects

The economy sucks right now, plain and simple. And from what I can tell it seems like it is only going to get worse in the oncoming months or years. Newspaper journalism is already a hurting profession because of the internet but a bad economy only makes it worse. Lucky for me I want to be a newspaper journalism...happy day. It really makes me nervous to think that what I want to become once I graduate from college may not even be a possibility. What if I get my degree and intern at some newspaper and write for the school newspaper and when I try to get a job they say sorry try again later? What if I can't find a job for years after I graduate? Scary stuff...

Iverson vs Billups

Just as with the Lions, I am from Michigan but am not a huge fan of the Pistons. They made a trade only a few games into the season that baffled many, me included. Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess for Allen Iverson seemed like a stupid trade for the Pistons to make. Give up your team leader and a valuable big man for a player that has nothing to show for. I never really liked Iverson when he was at Philadelphia and I don't like him as a Piston either. I still feel like the Pistons made a mistake with this trade but when you look at it statistically, player to player at least, it seems they didn't. Billups is averaging 18.7 ppg as a Nugget and Iverson has 18 ppg as a Piston. Billups has about 6 assists per game while Iverson has about 5. They both see about 36 minutes or so a game and they both shoot about 42%. So just looking at the numbers they seem to be identical players but if you look at team numbers Billups seems to have the advantage. Denver is 39-22 this season while Detroit is only 30-29. Of course the other players on the Nuggets could be better than the other players on the Pistons and this could also be the reason for the difference in record between the teams. Personally I feel that Billups is a better player than Iverson by himself and is a much better team player than Iverson and the team records seem to back me up on this, yet look at personal statistics and you really see no difference. I guess we will have to wait until the end of the season to see who comes out better when it is all said and done.

Rubik's Cube

I was thinking about it and I realized just how wonderful a Rubik's Cube really is. There are only 6 colors, nothing else to worry about. You have to know certain patterns and algorithms to solve it and once you know them it's just a matter of doing them in the right order. If only everything else in life were as simple as a Rubik's Cube (I know that may seem like an oxymoron: Rubik's Cube and simple, but for somebody who can solve one the comparison holds true). If only relationships were like a cube...spin it this way, turn that way, make the colors match up and all better. Simple; 9 squares on each side, 6 sides, make each side of 9 squares the same color. I just wish I knew how to solve relationship problems like I know how to solve a Rubik's Cube. And unfortunately I have had this blog for like 2 days now and it seems to be some what of an obsession for me...which is in fact unfortunate because I'm sure nobody reads this, so it's like talking to myself...guess I better go back to solving my Rubik's Cube.

Detroit Lions

So over the weekend I saw that QB John Kitna was traded by the Lions to the Cowboys for CB Anthony Henry. As a Michigan native who is not a Lions fan I suppose I was happy to see those words crawl across the bottom of my television screen because anything that can help the Lions maybe win a game is always a positive. The puzzling thing though is what were the Cowboys thinking? The Lions were pretty much ready to release Kitna since he was on IR for half of the season last year with a minor injury...so the Cowboys decide to trade a decent CB for a whiny, old QB to back up Romo. Granted, Kitna is better then Brad Johnson, but why the trade? I don't know but at least somebody is trying to help out the Lions. Not being a Lions fan I found it quite ammusing that they were the first team in NFL history to go 0-16 but I'm not somebody who gets off on other peoples misfortunes. It's nice to know that the Lions are trying to improve their team and maybe win a game next year...I personally think the front office needs adjustment before Detroit can ever be respected as an NFL threat. Maybe with their two first round draft picks (one of them from the ever friendly Cowboys) they will draft somebody other then a WR and build up the rest of their team. Who knows, maybe next season they will have a winning record...let's not get too optimistic though.

About Me

So I am starting this blog because I am currently attending college in Holland, Michigan and am working towards a degree in Communications, focusing on journalism, so I thought a blog would be a good way to start writing some and see if anybody pays attention. As of now I am planning on becoming a sports writer so hopefully this blog will steer towards the sports world...but I'm sure it will veer off track every once in a while depending on what has me going on any particular day, in fact it may be more about everyday life then sports. So hopefully this goes well and at least one person pays attention to me.