Good news and bad news...

The bad news is that this is the most boring sports period of the entire year. No football (even off-season stuff) until August or so, baseball means nothing until the All-Star Break and (usually) the NBA could dissolve tomorrow and I wouldn't know about it for 12 years.

The good news is that this year the most boring sports period is actually being quite entertaining.

For some odd reason I haven't quite grasped yet, the Celtics are really starting to draw me into the NBA a little bit. I've grown up under a household where the belief is that organized basketball ceases to exist after the college level, and the NBA simply represents a bastardized shoot-till-ya-miss version of the game. While that still basically holds true, at least now there are some storylines. You have the ongoing saga of Prince/King James - depending on where your allegiances lie -, good Kobe (the team player who has never gotten a break until the overdue MVP this year)/bad Kobe (the convicted rapist ballhog), and now the "dynasty in the making" Celtics. It's all good stuff and has kept me interested in what is usually the playoffs that just won't end.

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Then there are the surging Redlegs which, dare I say, have looked like a solid all-around baseball team lately, let the knocking on wood commence. For the first time in years, the pitching rotation shows signs of not being finalists for the MVP award of opposing teams, there is some homegrown youth that is making a definite impact, and the team doesn't look like it is just going through the motions everyday.

Maybe all those years of crap are starting to pay off, in the form of the crazy-high draft picks we garnered. It's still far too early to tell, but Jay Bruce has adjusted favorably to the MLB. At least one of Bob Castellini's questionable trades has paid off in the form of a previously unproven pitcher by the name of Edison Volquez. Maybe getting rid of Hamilton rather than say Dunn, or even Griffey wasn't the best move for the future, but realistically I doubt the Rangers would have even been interested in either or both of them.

Needless to say at this point, for the first time in my life I have reminded myself of when the Red's are on TV, made an effort to watch them, and planned at least a few nights in the bleacher seats because, let's be honest, I'm still a poor college student. This isn't the first time the Red's have had an early season boom, but it is the first time that it feels like it may not be completely smoke and mirrors or plain dumb luck. I'll be the first to admit my baseball wisdom is lacking in all areas, but it just feels different, if nothing else.

Here's to optimism.

$129,000 is the new $50,000

I love Time. I used to read it a lot when I had a study hall and could just go to the library and, well, read Time. Not so much anymore though.

The love is still there, as shown through this pretty cool article on essentially international health care, something I honestly care little about (I know I'm a terrible person). However, good writing can make me want to read just about anything.

Basically, some Stanford economists have gone back and looked at the price insurance companies are willing to pay for "quality life" for one year (currently $50,000), and discovered that with basically inflation, the true number should be nearly three times that.

My take: it would be greta if every single man, woman, and child in the world could somehow be promised $132,000 in health care, if the need arose. Probably not so feasible though.

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In related news, NPR just did a segment on "This I Believe," called "What is the True Value of a Human Life?" They interview Kenneth Feinberg, who had to decide the amount of monetary compensation families of 9/11 victims and the Virginia Tech shooting victims would recieve. Pretty thought provoking stuff.


Overall Conclusion: [Yakov Smirnoff] In Capitalist America, money own you! [/Yakov] No but forrealsies, it is scary to think that the government can use money you don't have to control your healthcare, quality of life post-retirement, and most outlandishly, your grieving process.

The conversation went something like this

In fye (holy crap so expensive), Stinky and I, talking about music.

Me - "Eliminate one of these three" Holding out Stevie Ray Vaughan's Greatest Hits, Garth Brook's Greatest Hits (his new 2 CD/DVD one), and Tool's Schism DVD

Stinky - "I dunno... they all kinda suck."

"Ok. I guess I'll put Stevie Ray Vaughan back" It was the most expensive one, I was trying to stay under my gift card limit "You at least respect him as a musican though, right?"

"Eh, can't say I like him."

"Yea, sure, but I mean, you respect him, right? He is like one of the greatest guitarists of all time..."

"Eh, not really."

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

At this point I stomp back, grab the SRV album, throw Garth in some random area. I think I may have made a small scene.


"Never say you know anything about music again."


Moral of the story, never tell your girlfriend that she should never speak of a topic again. If you do, don't expect her to hold your hand. Corrollary: I probably should have just put the Schism DVD back. Yea... that was dumb...

Until then though, suck on this:

SeeqPod - Playable Search

Disclaimer: Stinky really does have a good music taste and stuff for the most part. Hopefully either a) She stopped reading this months ago or b) She will take this well :)

Another side of me

No, not in the creepy kind of way.

I have a little side hobby in digital art and post some of my work over on a little website called Deviant Art. It's a fun little site where anyone of varying skill levels, from honestly pretty crappy to professional can post some of their work and recieve some good encouragement, constructive criticism, or just the pleasure of anonymously (well, as much as the internetz offers at least) presenting a different side of them.

I tend towards the "honestly pretty crappy" and "pleasure of presenting (relatively) anonymously" side of things. But hey, it's still fun.

Some of the stuff has already been posted here, some of it a few of you will recognize from a certain school publication, other of it just plain sucks. Even a blind squirrel strikes oil sometimes though (or finds a nut, whichever comes first), so check it out maybe.

I'll tack it to the good ole' sidebar from now on so as to ease the hassle of stalking.

When you see it, you'll shit bricks. (idk... some internet mimi, like the chick in the drew carrey show. yes. that scary...

I got a car (again) today...

Some youtubes to commemorate the occasion

The part where I review popular media.

Hmm, where to begin...

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Forgetting Sarah Marshall

I can't remember if its Sara or Sarah, but honestly I really don't care. That is a great summary of the entire movie. Forgetable. The musical parts were actually very well done (the main character is a songwriter for a crappy TV show, who his ex, Sara(h) Marshall, is the star of), and there was a girl that looked a lot like what Michelle Rodriguez would look like if she wasn't such a tomboy (see: better than the Jessicas.). Other than that, your everyday young adult comedy.

As sort of a side note... it seemed like the director was on some kind of a weird mission to make Americans not feel as creepy about seeing penises on camera. It was odd, like the first time he showed it there was just a quick glance, then as the movie went on that glance evolved into nearly a complete scene of just naked dude. Sweet, but no thanks. I think I may need to go on a Hawaiaan retreat just to forget that now....

2/5 awkward moments

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Death At A Funeral

Why are British comedies so damn funny sometimes? People sometimes refer to America as being a little brother of sorts to England/UKoGBaNI. It shows best in our sense of humor. UKoGBaNI brought us The Office, America brings us Flavor of Love. UKoGBaNI brings us Death At A Funeral, America brings us Weekend at Bernies. But I digress...

Seriously, this is a funny movie. Full of black humor (my favorite) since, well, it does take place at a funeral. There are the normal characters like the cranky old uncle that nobody wants to take care of anymore, the wildly successful brother that nobody ever talks to anymore, and even the more contemporary "funeral crasher". However, this takes it a step further and throws in the guy-who-accidentally-took-major-hallucinagens and the gay-lover-of-the-dead-father-nobody-knew-about.

Good times. Many lol moments, which are rare for me when I'm not watching The Office. Recommended

5/5 Bangers and mash

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Rome: Total War

I can't really think of anyone who would really care about this one for two reasons. One, about 95% of you aren't nearly as big of a nerd as me (yes, that is meant to sound condescending, so THERE) and two, this game has been out for almost five years now, so that train has come and gone.

But anywho, this game really, really rocks my socks. It is like Civilization meets Dynasty Warriors meets Starcraft, minus all the excessive stuff nobody likes about those games. Plus Spartain warriors, which at that point is just icing on the cake.

Basically, you are the supreme dictator for life (a position I am always attracted to) of one of history's great empires. It is your goal to rule the world, mainly through conquest by using your armies of men and animals (like horses and elephants and stuff) that can number into the thousands. It all makes for very good visuals, like Lord of the Rings type battles. The tension is all heightened by a pretty impressive soundtrack (for a video game...) and sound effects. Destruction has never been so fun.

It is also what has held me back from buying my ps360, which my bank account appreciates.

5/5 Onager smashes to the walls of Sparta

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That is all for now. Since I obviously suck at keeping updated, I am thinking of stockpiling massive short quips, and putting a timed release on them so there is at least something new to look at. No, this doesn't take the place of my glory, I'll still post actual blogs just as much (relative term) as I do now. In the end, it'll work out well for both of us.

It's not you, it's me. I dunno why I said that, it just seemed like a good thing to do.

The part where I review popular media.

I gotta get my weight up...

Literally and figureatively.


Figuratively

As I anticipated, with the end of the school year came a sharp decline in the will to do anything involving, well, anything. That has basically included this sweet ass blog. Lo siento.

Literally

With that incredible (and admittedly, somewhat annoying) influx of having no current direction in life (the pool opens memorial day... until then, I'm basically like a big rotting stump..), I have tried to seriously focus on working out. I'm talking, NFL combine preparation working out.

It actually feels pretty good. So far this week has been more of a restore status quo kinda thing since I haven't done much since before finals week, but I have already done more cardio than I have in all of 2008 combined. With the latest 40 cent increase in Texas tea, I have seriously honest-to-god considered taking my insurance money from my car (it got totaled last summer, long story, mildly interesting, maybe for another blog post) and plunking it down for a road bike. I feel like it would kill two problems at once.

What does this entail, you ask? Well, there is the focus on both lifting and cardio as I already mentioned. Also, in an effort to keep oh I dunno, improving?, on my mind, I got a nifty little piece of freeware called Even Fit that can track all the stuff I do, from strength training, to running and biking, as well as my calorie count and resting heart rate, if need be. Being that I'm somewhat of a science nerd, and a lot of a numbers freak, "quantitative data on my own body really revs my engine" (put that on t-shirt).

I have consciously drank more water this week than I did all school year. Right now I'm chalking that one up to not having a coffee pot sitting next to me 6 hours out of the day, but the benefits are still there. I've also gone out and bought steak and tuna and stuff to grill because a.) Grilling is my only hobby in life other than video games, two) I love steak and III.) Protein is good or something, I dunno.

I figure I have until about June 6th-ish until I have a full time job, and with how long I have been at the same level (See: all school year) a lot of ground can be made if I just seriously focus on it. I'm somewhat stoked.

//And yes, that picture has nothing to do with anything. I'm more just asking if I look most like a chinese communist ruler? Stewie Griffin would be so proud...

Dunzo.

Yep, done. The most stressful thought of the next three months will be waking up in time to walk down to work, which consists of making sure kiddos don't drown in < knee-deep water.

I think I'll survive.

The agony is just steaming off my well-tanned body

In other news, I don't even like Nine Inch Nails, but I'm kinda a fan now. I guess they just decided "screw it, they're gonna pirate it anyways," so they are giving away their new album completely free. Over their own websit. In a variety of file formats. It's like a nerds wet dream. Actually, no. The wet dream would be this setting some kind of precident for future artists whose work I actually like anyways...

A big grassy ass goes out to Trent Reznor and friends.

Oh Joyous day

Only have one exam left, which I need to completely bomb to get anything less than a B in the class, so I went ahead and sold the books for the semester

PS360 fund: >$400.00

Huzzahhh. Now I just have to find a place with GTA IV in stock and I just may throw down the largest stack of Jefferson's ever. In my entire life. I mean... that's like.... 20 Jeffersons...

Or like... 40 Hamiltons...

jeez..

That's a lot of moneys...

Creepy...

Read this.

Extremely creepy stuff. Serial killer gang, or strange coincidence of college kids being drunk and swimming?

Be sure to listen to the radio interview here, too.

Tell me what you think...

Brand Nizzle.

Talk about a "it's finals week and I don't want to write about music in films anymore" post... but anywho. A Behind the Music of sorts, if you don't mind...

Brand New (band name) rocks. No, they aren't new. No, they don't have a CD coming out anytime soon, though I did find some new singles/b-side tracks, one of which is youtube-d at the bottom. What they are though, is really good.

You want to talk about a band that reinvents itsself? How about one that gained popularity for its pop/punk single (Jude Law and a Semester Abroad) back in 2000, and has since come to a song called "Jesus Christ," about...well... who the hell knows what.



^^Listen to these two bad boys. Just the first 30 seconds even and you'll get the idea, even though both are solid in their own right.

Seriously, give them a chance. It kind of surprises me that they haven't had more wide spread popularity, maybe the "emo" tag wards them away from mainstream fame. Some of their songs are crap, sure, but not many. Especially as you progress forward, just check the allmusic reviews for each album, clearly one reviewer is sold.


Just to give you an idea of the evolution, I'm going to separate bits of each album into three separate seeqpods

Your Favorite Weapon:

SeeqPod - Playable Search



Deja Entendu (The whole album, expect one song, which is live...):


SeeqPod - Playable Search

The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me (winner: most Badass album title of all time, only selections here again):


SeeqPod - Playable Search


Lots of stuff here...and I'm sure you will all for the most part be like "wow, this sucks ass" the first time you listen. Just give it some time if you are curious. A lot the draw is lyrical.

And yes, Your Favorite Weapon is a very average album, I know.

The Best Advice Ever

From some pretty OK teachers. I'm kind of hoping that there really are other people whoh read this, because if not, it would be a sick and twisted kind of post-graduate brown nosing.

And I ain't down wit dat.

Ahem (Paraphrasing. sorry, not exactly a titanium trap):

"I smoked once in college. I had one cigarette and I liked it a lot. So I knew I should never do it again."

-- Seriously... think about that for a second. Profound I tell ya.

"If you want to save your GPA, sure maybe you should drop the class and move down. But if you want to progress as a person, I think you should stay in the class, try to learn, and not worry about the grade."

-- Some chemguy way back in junior year. Something about a rather cranky math teacher on tenure giving me a couple bad quiz grades and me asking him if it would hurt to just drop the class. I still remember my grades for that class every quarter: C, B, A, A. I guess I learned something.

"If you really want to not have any more teen pregnancies give every kid in high school a car, a job, and something to do after school. They won't have time to have sex."

-- One of those off-topic days in the school paper that once was. Really, you can't argue with that much. And trust me, I love to argue.

They don't seem as profound when I try to recite them anywhere from a 1-2 years later. The point stands, you learn a lot from people outside of biology or chemistry or... publication/photography/ad-sale?

And I could rattle on even more about other stuff like Catholic guilt, that trap door guy in everyone's head (and how one person killed him), Olympic curling, coaching sports teams that suck (but don't you dare say they suck), raising money a couple pennies (and s***load of calls) at a time, just plain having a hobby outside of your job, or making sure your job is your hobby.

But I won't. Probably because the only people reading already know about that.

See, I do remember some stuff you teach :)

//creepy foreshadowing on the picture there...and yes.. i do always look that retarded.

Guinness is good for you!

Seriously.

I thought I would treat myself after a long semester of classes to a couple pints of the black stuff rather than, oh I don't know, getting shlammered (add that one to the list of choices, achilles) on some cheapy American light beer.

So I did. What came of it you ask? Ohhhh I don't know, maybe just the first morning in two weeks where I didn't have the slightest remote thought of cutting off my nose, tearing my tearducts out, and just ending it all in a blaze of allergy-ridden glory! (That was intense...)

Sure, maybe the "feel good" effect is pretty much purely psychological. But hey, apparently it has a fairly low alcohol content, and in turn, low calories!!! Seewwwwwperrr (as guys who care about the calorie content in their beer would say).

To top it off, they have some really well done commercials (without even venturing into the land of "BRILLIANT!")

Allergy Update:

Since I'm sure you all care.

Nasal sprays are worth worshipping. I just saw that the quickie mart below me sells one (Fast Acting! nonetheless) and hooooleeee crap. Air is sweet.

Now just to hope that I'm all better by three days from now, or else there's that whole dependence thing...

College Buildings

Yes, with a capital B. I'm talking the buildings that define a college.

Example:



You'll find a picture of that bad boy on all the letterheads and stuff. Why of course, it is the church. What respectful Catholic university wouldn't have it's church as it's iconic building!? Oh wait... shit. Zingerrrr. In their defense though, imagine the shit-storm that would arise over covering the roof of the entire church in gold. Good times, I'm sure.

What other buildings are there? I'm sure OSU has one, but I really don't know what it is. Miami? UC? Your school/alma mater?

For P-town, I propose the bridges over Sharon Rd. Unorthodox, sure. But maybe that's why...

The answer to "Why do we have history class?"

So you don't look like a complete moran in front of the entire internets like this guy:

Wait... shit

Know your history.

Almost out of the storm

And I would feel a heckuva lot better if I wasn't on the verge of a sinus infection. Question: is it good if you alternate which nostrel is stuffy? Like, it seems like it would be more damaging if it were just one for a week rather than both, every other day, for a week.

The weather is nice, I only have three papers to write (that's not for Saturday) and I'm in a generally good mood.

The cherry on top: There Will be Blood (watching it as I type) actually is not a bad movie at all.

I hope everyone is having a cheery day

Woken Up by an Earthquake last night

See, you DON'T have to move to Cali to say that!! That was really kinda cool though. Since I was in North Carolina on Spring Break when all those big tornadoes happened this is like the first cool natural disaster that I have ever been a part of!

Honestly though if you ever want to feel what a minor quake feels like (I'm guessing it was about a 1.0-er if that for me) go try to sleep on a huge tour bus. The swaying back and forth on the bus on the highway is the EXACT same feeling. That's not necessarily a good thing either. Trying to sleep on the "third story" (highest bunk) of a tour bus with no windows to look out but a huge swaying back and forth is far from comforting.

That was my cool news of the morning though. Hopefully there will be a good aftershock too.

I am alive.

Sorry, this week (and then weekend) is busy. Next week is the week between end of the semester tests and then finals, so hopefully it will be a little more calm. And my allergies to the month of April have finally arrived.

Sweet.

Saturday is Wheels for Kids Day, a cute little (actually, not little at all...) event that freshmen New Engineers fund, plan, and carry out. For the past semester the class (of roughly 35 people) has fixed about 160 bikes, ranging from Lexus pre-owned to scrap yard. The scrap yard ones we get to completely take apart piece by piece then separate into metal and non-metal to be recycled and all that good stuff. Fun side fact, my subsection group is "donations." I just can't get away from it.

Anywho, next week will hopefully be better