my extensive Super Bowl preview extravaganza!!!

pick: Arizona Cardinals
why: because i hate the Steelers.

landing on the front page and home plate

no Idol review today because i'm lazy and haven't watched Thursday night's episode yet. i'm sure everybody here is crushed.

this is a lesson for the children: the above sheet of paper is what a newspaper looks like and while some of the youngans have no idea what news outside of the online world is, this is how old people get their news. anywho, if you look closely at this here newspaper, you will notice that i am on the front page, batting in the left-handed slot with this story.

i wrote the story about the Lanier girls/mercy rule for Thursday's centerpiece in the sports section but it was pushed back to Friday's sports section and then late last evening it was moved to A1. this was the fourth time i've been on the front page but first since December of 2007. i made my front page debut on my first day as a full-timer on a story about biased baseball umpires, made it as a co-author when the Johnston fiasco happened and had a centerpiece about high school football when the 2007 season finished up. today's story wasn't a centerpiece but it's still cool being on the front page, so i won't complain.

even though the front page and sports sections are only separated by the metro/business section today, writing for the two sections are two completely different beasts. the story, which was probably the longest one i've written in a while, was edited thoroughly for sports but when it got bumped to A1 it had to undergo another surgery to make it more reader-friendly because apparently there are people out there who have never watched a sporting event before. one of the big things is question (that we were still debating at 11:15 last night) was whether or not the word "turnover" should be in my lede which was a debate i lost. if my story had stayed on sports, that word would have been in my lede without anyone giving it a second thought but things are different on the front page. weird.

i actually got on the front page twice on Thursday as the teaser topping the page with the legendarily-mustached individual was a teaser to a story about a coach's retirement that was on the front page of sports. whoo.

in addition to getting on the front page (TWICE!), my luck continued onto the wiffleball field on Thursday night. Wiff This softball improved to 2-0 with a convincing 9-2 victory. in the field, i let a leaping catch go right through my hands (embarrassing) but i made it up with my bat, hitting a home run, a triple, a double and a single. yes, i hit for the wiffleball cycle. baller. granted, a triple and a double in wiffleball never comes without the help of the other team but legit or not, i'm counting it. the home run, however, was quite legit and was the first non-inside the parker that i've hit in baseball/softball/wiffleball/kickball/anyball since my little league grand slam as a 11-year-old, which to this point was my only ever home run. now in professional baseball, such a performance would have gotten me a lucrative contract and an endorsement deal with Red Robin but in wiffleball all you get for a win is five wings at Pluckers. meh, still a good deal, yum yum.

oh, and here's something interesting to read: yesterday, the Statesman offered early retirement packages to some employees. i won't be eligible for one for another 32 years but if i was, at least i'd have my wiffleball career to fall back on.

CeCe skips town but not before watching Idol

American Idol paragraph: maybe one of the best cities of the season vocal-wise and i think its safe to say that at least two, maybe three of the girls from this city (Frankie Jordan, Megan Corkrey, Taylor Vaifanua, Rose Flack) will get to the Top 24. they were just really good. and if that Osmond kid gets to the top 24, this competition is over. because you just don't mess with the Osmonds. but the best part about last night's episode was that CeCe had to watch it because it was on in the beauty salon. she said she didn't enjoy the experience but i think she is lying.

and speaking of the girlfriend, she is leaving me. no, no, we didn't break up but CeCe is heading up to Dallas for a few days for an AP teaching conference. and while i am happy for her and am sure that she is going to have a good time, i will miss her. a lot.

luckily, i have plenty of stuff to do over the next few days to keep myself busy. i have a 30-inch centerpiece due today about a struggling local basketball team and as soon as i turn that diddy in i have a double-header of Wiff This softball tonight (we're 1-0!). there is a big basketball game to cover tomorrow between Lake Travis and Killeen and MK has a birthday so i am sure we will doing some celebrating for that. i also have to prep for the Super Bowl (Super Bowl preview coming on Saturday!), prep for my mock trial appearance on Sunday and i'm expecting to get my tax refund soon so i need to find ways to irresponsibly waste my money in a crappy economy.

so that's my schedule for the next couple of days. hopefully i will be so tuckered out at night to even notice that my baby isn't sleeping next to me.

let's sing Happy Birthday to boy bands

today's birthday watch belongs to former Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and N'SYNCer Joey Fatone so this is for the ladies. and this is for everybody else because let's be honest here, any guy who says he doesn't know a couple of boy band songs is either lying or didn't grow up in my house.

like Destiny's Child, i am a survivor

there are like three episodes of American Idol this week so in order not to bore you, TLC will be keeping the recaps to paragraph-long installments until we at least get to the Hell Week episodes, whenever they start...

so here is your American Idol paragraph: i have always been annoyed by the bad auditions because i just don't believe that most of the people actually think they can sing and are instead butchering Whitney song just to get some camera time. but in Jacksonville, you did get the genuine moments where the bad auditions were more touching than the good. first off there was some 16-year-old named Kaneswa (sporting the not a good singer but has a mother who thinks she is storyline) who was pretty awful but was able to walk away from her bad audition/interesting critique with one of the prettiest smiles i have ever seen. then there was Michael Perrelli, who had the lifelong musician story but found out he was nothing without his guitar and after being rejected, told his mother "don't touch me" which led to a mini-scolding from Ryan Seacrest. yikes. anyways, not much talent in Jacksonville (16 total tickets) but the best performance went to either Jasmine Murray (who had a face like Ashanti and actually made a Fergie song sound decent) or Anne Marie Boskovich (who actually had to audition twice because she was more or less told she wasn't slutty enough during the first go-around).

anyways, i am sure that some people are shocked that i am still alive but i want everyone to know that i was able to survive ICE STORM 2009!!! yea, since it was rainy yesterday and temperatures were expected to drop below 32 degrees (!!!), people were freaking out down here yesterday. sporting events were moved up 90 minutes last night and some classes were postponed for a couple hours this morning because of the fear of icy roads. of course, while there was some ice, it seems that people kind of overestimated the impact of the ice storm.

i think the Texas weathermen don't really know how to handle weather that isn't sunny and 85 degrees. remember how Hurricane Ike was supposed to wash away the city of Austin so much that classes and football games were canceled and rescheduled? yea, i am pretty sure that it didn't rain at all that weekend and of the 3 million refugees that were supposed to crash in Austin, maybe 17 of them showed up. Ike did cause a good deal of damage down south but, let's be honest, it did nothing in Austin and this place was pretty much bracing for the rapture.

i remember when i was watching Hurricane Katrina coverage and i couldn't understand how people hadn't taken off before the storm hit. well, now i know my answer. in the past six months, Austin has had two supposed drastic weather disasters turn out to be absolutely nothing so i can understand how someone who is in a hurricane area not want to pack up all there stuff and leave everytime a hurricane warning hits when sometimes those dramatic warnings just turn out to be bi-weekly cautionary tales.

so next time that the temperatures dip below 50 degrees or a rain cloud shows up on the horizon, let's take a breath and chill. everything's gonna be all right... rockabye.

Mr. Feeney, a cow and a tacky Lincoln joke

my guess is that Rob Blagoekjnvkjasfdgnjksn realizes that his career is quickly fading so now he's just having fun. the Illinois governor, who is about two steps away from being fully impeached because (allegedly) selling off a Senate seat is apparently illegal, recently said that he considered Oprah for Obama's open seat that eventually went to Roland Burris.

now i love Oprah as much as the next brotha, she's great, she really is. but i mean, c'mon, what qualifications does Oprah have to be a senator? Robbie B, the best way to prove that you are capable of doing your job isn't talking about how you think Oprah would make a good senator. besides, isn't Oprah is a little too big for Capitol Hill and i don't mean that in a weight gain sort of way. why would Oprah want to go from one of the most recognized celebrities in the world to being the junior senator from Illinois? i mean, i think that you could argue that Oprah is bigger than Obama because there is still a large faction of people in this country (cough, Republicans) who aren't on the Obama bandwagon... who doesn't love Oprah? she gives away cars!

so since Oprah is too busy giving away crap, i came up with a list for Blagojabhsadbfm of my favorite people with Illinois ties. this way, if either Roland Burris or whoever the senior senator is steps down in the upcoming days, Blagojakdjffdsafndkjgnadg has some contacts for who he should sell er, offer the seat to.

10. Tempest Bledsoe: the 35-year-old actress was born in Chicago but probably got most of her knowledge in Brooklyn where she spent eight years growing up in the Huxtable house.
9. Mrs. O'Leary's cow: the cow would definitely be a force solely because of the fear that she'd light the city on fire if she didn't get her way. plus i think a filibuster of nothing but "Moo"s would be great.
8. Kel Mitchell: if Kenan is still in the spotlight, Kel should be too.
7. Fred Savage: we probably could have gone with Ben Savage on this one too, but let's face it, The Wonder Years was a much better show than Boy Meets World. plus, if we went with Ben Savage there is a good chance that creepy Mr. Feeney would tag along too.
6. Rod Blagojssjfjndjdfjndsjkgn: he's about to be unemployed and could use the work.
5. Michael Jordan: he probably wouldn't be as great as he was with the Bulls but he couldn't be as bad as he was with the White Sox.
4. Steven Q. Urkel: after about 10 minutes into an Urkel filibuster, the opposing side would be ready to cave and give him whatever he wanted.
3. Abraham Lincoln's corpse: Lincoln was able to handle the South so i think he could handle passing some bill about education. plus, the secret service has improved a lot over the last 130 years so i don't think we'd have to worry about another John Wilkes Booth incident.
2. Lindsay Erickson: i'm not sure if you can consider Le an Illinoisian but she's a Cub fan and has family there, so i think we'll count it. plus, if i can get Le in office, i'll have someone to officially try to convert my dream of a National Shakira Appreciation Day into legislation.
1. Kanye West: Kanye West has a Good Life and cares about black people.

i'm not lost, i'm just exploring

so here are some words you never want to hear come out of my mouth: "baby, let's take the back road back." those were the words uttered to CeCe today and she made a huge mistake by not just getting out of Maria and hitchhiking back to her place. but she didn't get out and i ended up driving on some random road all the way to Buda. but at least the drive was scenic.

was i lost? absolutely not. i don't get lost, i just sometimes take a bit longer to get where i am going. plus, i wanted to spend some more time with my baby while songs like Single Ladies were blasting on the new radio station that CeCe introduced me to a week or so ago. so there.

we were out and about this afternoon because we decided to go to lunch and see a movie at the ol' AMC. the selection on Saturday: Frost/Nixon. i absolutely loved this movie and i am pretty glad to see that it got a bunch of Oscar nominations, including a best actor nod for Frank Langella, who was great as Richard Nixon. this movie was better than Gran Torino, better than Notorious and better than Doubt. on my rating scale, i am giving it a $7 mark, which is only one dolla bill below the $8/Denzel threshold that all movies should aspire to hit.

Frost/Nixon isn't a good first date movie or a movie that you should go to if you are expecting two hours full of laughs. hell, it isn't a movie you should go to if you are scared of old people because the theater we went to was full of them and the scariest thing was they all got to the theater somehow which means afterwards they were all finding a way to get home... in cars which is scarier than any horror flick that was showing (and yes, old people driving is easily 100 times scarier than me driving). but i'm a sucker for history and this film was just well done. and unlike Doubt, this was a play that adapted well to the big screen. i think the whole idea of clapping at the end of a movie is somewhat douchey but if i was a clapper, i would have made some noise when the end credits rolled.

did you think i wouldnt talk Idol this week?

TYC didn't blog yesterday so we have a lot of things to talk about today so before we get to the American Idol reviews (Tuesday + Wednesday), let's go over some things bullet-style.

• the company that makes Beanie Babies are putting out Sasha and Malia dolls. suck on that Chelsea Clinton.
• the Oscar nominations are out and i have not seen any of the movies up for best picture... or any of the films that the best actor nominees are in.... and only one of the movies that the best actress nominees were in... so yea, suck on that Hollywood.
• apparently Obama had to retake the presidential oath yesterday so does that mean Obama wasn't president until Wednesday afternoon? was Biden in charge for a day?
• Wiff This opens up its 2009 wiffleball season this evening. i smell a championship.

and finally, let's talk about the Real World for a second because yesterday's episode was causing all sorts of controversy up in the Davis apartment. we're even going to take this off the bullets because there was lots of good material on Wednesday night. there were intense debates between me and CeCe about whether or not you can cheat on someone if they are treating you like garbage and when is a good time to tell your significant other that you are transgendered (first handshake conversation!!!). i, myself, learned a valuable lesson last night that i would like to share with all my male readers out there: its not a smart idea to give a "daaaaamn"-like comment about a reality TV star's cleavage-enhanced wardrobe with your girlfriend sitting right by you. tuck that one away in your mental bank.

so i didn't post my American Idol recap yesterday because i didn't watch Tuesday's episode until this morning. but it, as well as Wednesday's episode, was only an hour long. the last two nights, Idol took us to San Fran (where we learned if you want to get to Hollywood have an annoying laugh, a cute kid or a sick relative) and to Louisville (where we might have had the four weirdest auditions ever in nerd boy, zebra dude, fat MJ and Samuel Mudd's distant grandson)

so here's what i thought about the shows (first seven candidates are from San Francisco, rest are from Louisville), back to the bullets..

• Tatiana Del Toro: how did she get a golden ticket? was it because of her voice? no. her dress? maybe. her laugh? perhaps.
• Jesus Valenzula: how did he get a golden ticket? was it because of his voice? naw. his cute kids with supportive signs? absolutely.
• John Twiford: wasn't that impressed by his five second moment in the spotlight.
  
• Allison Iraheta: pretty sure she squeeked one of the four notes she sang during her clip.
  
• Raquel Houghton: was the most impressive of the three singers shown during the quick lil' montage of people going to Hollywood but like Twiford and Iraheta, she was only shown for 5 or 6 seconds so how can we tell what she can really do?
• Adam Lambert: well, he's from Hollywood so is it that exciting for him to get a golden ticket and say "I'm going to Hollywood?"
• Kai Kalama: how did he get a golden ticket? was it because of his voice? no. his sick mother? yes.
• Joanna Pacitti: loved her mother and Pacitti was pretty good too, which should have been expected since she apparently had a record deal at one time in her life.
• Brent Keith Smith: might be one of the better guys so far this season. should have been given a ticket just for having to listen to the judges do whatever they were doing after his audition.
• Matt Giraud: one and done.
• Alexis Grace: one and done.
• Kris Allen/Felicia Barton/Ryan Johnson/Shera Lawrence: 5 second auditions, easily forgettable.
  
• Leneshe Young: i really liked her. she has a good voice but what she has going for her is her confidence and swagger. she carried herself really well and anyone who can get through with an original song has talent. could make it to the top 24.

that's all. if you are still reading this blog you should treat your self to a cookie and probably get back to work...

so now we have a new president...

a couple things to get out of the way...

1. my girlfriend's dad is a hero. read about it.
2. did anyone notice that Joe Biden was president for about five minutes this morning?
3. who is going to have a bigger impact: Michelle Obama or Joe Biden? the VP v. First Lady clash obviously went to Dick Cheney over the last eight years (although ol' Laura has actually killed someone, Dick just shot an old man in the face). during the Clinton years, i think its a toss-us to say whether Hilldawg or Albert Gore was more significant. my guess is that Michelle becomes a more significant figure because i just see Biden being a behind-the-scenes kind of dude.
4. while Aretha was singing America the Beautiful, i got a text message from CeCe at 10:55 that said "She sounds like you when u sing." a few second later Max said this on gChat: "but she's hit a couple notes during this that sound like you when you sing...and I had to laugh cause all I could see was you singing". i wasn't paying attention to Aretha's vocals because i was focused on that bow she was wearing but apparently i sound like the Queen of Soul. suck it Usher.
5. is that really a poet following Obama? seriously, the crowd goes from super excited with Obama to having to listen to someone's crappy original poetry. great job party-planning committee.
6. in case you were wondering, the above picture is a snapshot of Wallace's internet action during the swearing in. as you can see, i was live-chatting on the gChat during the historic event. not that same as, ya know, being in DC for everything but i'll take it.
7. if i die young and he is still around, i want the old guy who delivered the benediction to do my eulogy. the part where he started listing off colors (excepts include classic phrases like "where yellow is not mellow... white does what is right. awesome)
   

being as 71 of my Facebook friends have updated their statuses in the past two hours, i am going to just assume that i wasn't the only person to watch the inauguration this morning. i mean, i don't know what to say really. i listened/zoned out to parts of his speech so i might have to YouTube it later if i can get my mind-wandering under control but overall, i was mostly mesmerized by the visual aspects of today. it was really cool to see Barack get sworn in as president (maybe him and Chief Justice Roberts can practice before they do it again in 2013) and it was even more awesome to see so many people crammed into the strip over in D.C. that site was something to see and it was beautiful.

who knows that the next four or eight years will hold for us but at least this country has some hope as we head into it. i'm not ready to give Obama Rushmore-status yet and as Obama himself said on Tuesday "greatness is never a given, it must be earned." let's get to it America.

Denzel Theater presents: Glory

Name: Glory
Year: 1989
Three-Sentence Synopsis (w/ spoiler!): Denzel (Trip) is a runaway slave who enlists in an all black Civil War regimen that also includes Morgan Freeman and two white officers in Ferris Bueller and the guy from the Princess Bride. the all-black regimen gets the rough end of the deal until Ferris talks his way into some battles, the first of which they dominate. the Massachusetts 54th is the first regimen to attack some beach-front confederate camp and they get their butts kicked and Denzel dies but gets an Oscar for his trouble, making Glory the first of two Oscars that Denzel will win for a film he dies in.
Clutch Quote: "Gonna come a time when we all gonna hafta ante up. Ante up and kick in like men." - Morgan Freeman
Rating: 4 out of 5 (Denzels, not stars)

Next on Denzel Theater: The Manchurian Candidate

avoiding my industry as i celebrate my past

it's 11:58 in the morning and i am still hanging out in the apartment. now, this isn't that unique of a circumstance but since CeCe is here, something must be going on. yes folks, it's a holiday and a great one at that because its MLK Day. holla. don't know who MLK is? wikipedia him... or finish the 3rd grade, either one works.

i am going to try avoid watching/reading the news today because i don't think i am going to be able to stomach the 5,000 stories comparing Dr. King and Barack Obama that are surely going to be published today. now i am very proud of what Barack has accomplished and i am excited for both tomorrow and the next eight years (i am president of the Sasha and Malia fan club after all) but i guess i just don't view Obama as a civil rights pioneer. i don't know what it is, but i just see what MLK did and what Obama did as two completely different things and i just don't think they are comparable. maybe (well, probably) that's just me but i don't put the president-elect in the same category as MLK, Malcolm or Jackie Robinson. so settle down media, tomorrow is Barack's day, let's leave today to remember Dr. King.

since i will be avoiding the news, i will be finding others ways to entertain myself. i know for sure that i will finally be watching Glory so i will post my review later. i also need to vacuum my apartment, go grocery shopping and do some other things to prep for the week so we'll see how that goes.

i will leave you with this. great speech.

that Urkel character is quite Notorious

after i got off work last night and grabbed some food, i went over to CeCe's and kicked it while watching some Nick-at-Nite.

on the N-squared was a few episodes of Family Matters from the first season and i could tell they were from the first season because Urkel didn't appear in either episode. do you know what's worse than an episode of Family Matters with Urkel? an episode of Family Matters without Urkel. man, that show was pretty terrible. the thing is i used to think that show was the greatest thing ever but now when i watch it, i can't believe the awfulness. that show is so awful, it's awesome and i love it. if CeCe would let me, i would watch the show, record it and then watch it again after it was done. why isn't this show on DVD yet!?! it lasted nine seasons. if Punky frickin' Brewster can have a DVD collection, then so can Family Matters. and while we're at it, let's release the final two seasons of the Fresh Prince, its been like four years since season four came out.

and speaking of the Family Matters, i saw this trailer today. apparently Eddie Winslow is in the movie as it Turk from Scrubs.

last night i rocked it with the Winslows, today i hung out with Biggie. i went to the matinee showing of Notorious (not the Notorious posterized above) this afternoon and i've got to say that i really liked the film and of all the films i've seen in the last few months -- Gran Tarino, Doubt, Role Models -- i think that Role Models was probably the only movie that i liked more than Notorious. for a somewhat no-name cast (Angela Bassett is the headliner), the acting was good and i felt that i got a pretty good look into the life of Christopher Wallace. and while the ending was predictable (he dies) and the script was probably somewhat slanted (Puffy was the executive producer on the film), i still think it was a good movie and i am going to give it a $6 rating, which is good since i paid $5.50 to get into the afternoon showing. plus, it had a great soundtrack to fall back on.

the odd thing is i remember when B.I.G. died. like, i wasn't into rap when he went down (my parents would only let me listen to Will Smith's lyrics back in the day because he rapped happy) but i remember seeing them wheeling his dead body away on a stretcher or something. i think i was watching CNN. i think that's why i liked this movie, i love learning, i love history and i love movies that portray history. it was kind of like a visual history book... with Hypnotize blasting in the background.

two things to add on the movie. first, Derek Luke is quickly becoming one of my favorite young actors. he was excellent in Friday Night Lights and he was good in Notorious portraying Puffy, who came off as kind of a douchy yet nerdy and good-hearted genius in the flick if that makes any sense. also, if this movie is any bit accurate, i do not want to ever mess with Faith Evans. that girl can fight. damn.

is Dubya really the worst-ever president? c'mon.

last night Dubya said farewell to the nation and will spend the next few days packing up his things before Obama moves in on Tuesday (i wonder if he doesnt flush the toilet or something on the way out just to spite Barack). i got to listen to the speech on the radio as CeCe and i drove to dinner last night and it was a boring but nice lil' speech. so long, adios, sayoonara, peace out cub scout, blah blah blah. i am excited for Obama but i have a bad feeling that he won't be giving us moments like these. or contribute to memorable moments like this one.

as Bush prepares to get out of the Oval Office, everyone has been spending time debating whether or not he's a good president. and that's fine and dandy to an extent. however, the mouths i don't want to hear "George Bush was the worst president ever" coming from are the mouth that belong to my peers. as i've mentioned before i hate the "worst ever" tag but i just feel that when its coming from a bunch of know-it-all 20-year-olds it reeks of so much arrogance and stupidity.

us saying that George Bush is the worst president ever is like Little Girl saying that the Jonas Brothers are the best musical group of all time. while the three Jonases may seem like the best band she's seen in her short 15 years on this planet, the argument doesn't hold up because it has no historical context. most of us have lived through four presidencies (Reagan, Bush v. 1.0, Clinton and Bush v. 2.0) and have really only been aware of our surroundings since the latter part of the Clinton era. how can we really say that Bush was the worst president ever when really know nothing different. the same things that were said about Bush were said about Clinton when he left office because all we knew Clinton as was the guy that was lying about messing around with his mediocre-looking intern. i am guess that the majority of us aren't history majors so probably most of the anti-Bushers out there don't have much context within the history books so shut it.

and yes, i know that his approval ratings are historically low but guess what, so are the numbers for a Democratic-run Congress and i don't see people labeling that as the worst Congress ever. approval numbers are a measure of popularity, not value. George Bush might be the most unpopular president ever but that doesn't make him the worse. let me tell you something, the worst-ever president doesn't get two terms. period.

now don't get me wrong, i am not a Dubya fan. i voted for (yikes) John Kerry in 2004 and i would have given Gore my vote in 2000 if i had been old enough. i have disagreed with his foreign policies, the wars and the way he handled Katrina. i am also none too happy with the way his administration has handled issues with minorities and the homosexual community. but, then again, that also means that i have different ideological viewpoints than most of the Republican party. doesn't make them bad, it means that i don't agree with them.

i think its going to be how interesting to see how history treats Dubya. on paper, JFK was terrible in office but because he took a bullet and died early he was put on the Heath Ledger plateau and was given unearned legend status. look at Jimmy Carter, he was so bad that he was challenged by a member of his own party in the primaries when re-election time came around and was then beat soundly by Reagan in the general election (Reagan won 44 states and 91% of the electoral votes)... yet today, he is one of the most respected men in the world. on the other hand, LBJ did great things in office (including many things associated with the civil rights movement that are incorrectly credited to his predecessor) but because of Vietnam, he is routinely vilified.

so yea, i get it Dubya sucks. but he didn't get us into a war we lost (LBJ), wasn't impeached (Andrew Johnson and Clinton), wasn't forced to resign (Nixon), didn't oversee the greatest collapse of the United States economy (Hoover), didn't turn his back on the blacks he promised to help and then further insult them by showing racist movies at the White House (Wilson) and he also didn't nearly trigger World War III/invent the term voter fraud (JFK). Bush isn't the first guy to be given the "worst-ever" tag and i doubt he will be the last and in eight years when some uppity Republicans are saying the same thing about Obama, i will say the exact same thing i am saying today.

Miss Pennsylvania is a shoulder devil

i had a dream last night that had me thinking about ethics so let me fill you in. so i was driving with one hand on the wheel while my other hand was out the window pushing a shopping cart (i guess i still had the shopping cart on my minds). eventually i got distracted or something and let go of the shopping cart which bounced down the street (i was on a hill), dinging up some cars and eventually causing a three-car accident featuring a rich person's car, an average car that lost a wheel and an old beater that wasn't going to make it out of this accident. whoops, my bad.

so it looks that Progressive is going to be getting an ugly phone call and my insurance rates are going to skyrocket. enter Maura Judkis. in addition to blogging about the environment, entertaining me with random links on the gChat and writing killa haikus, MJ apparently has time to act as one of those shoulder devils, which i guess isn't a surprise since she roots for the Steelers. who was playing the role of my angel? no one, God left the goodness up to my over-analyzing and OCD psyche.

anyways, MJ tried in vain to convince me to just bail because i could get away with it and no one would ever know that i caused the accident. besides, nobody died so how bad was the accident? she almost convinced me but i just couldn't get over the fact that i ruined some poor person's lone mode of transportation so i think i was about to go admit to the accident but then i woke up. dream over.

so here's my question. if you caused an accident that was worse than a lil fender bender and you could split and for sure get away with it, would you bail or would you be held accountable for the damages?

i will be back later with my sayoonara to President Bush and my feelings about people under the age of 30 evaluating his presidency.

a big change is made in the way i live my life

on my way home from work today, i had to stop by Wal-Mart to pick up some things but we'll get to that later. as i pulled into the parking lot, i saw an open spot buuuuut there was a shopping cart in the middle of the spot so that was a no-go. then there was another spot that looked open but as i approached, the spot was also approached by some lady. only problem was this lady wasn't in a car, she was just dropping off her shopping cart in the open spot.

i mean, c'mon! is it too much to ask someone to walk 20 feet to the damn designated area for shopping carts? there are like 40 at every Wal-Mart! what is your excuse? are people going to break a sweat with a few more steps? was the lady late for a hot date and didn't have an additional 15 seconds to spare? as i drove around trying to find a new parking spot, i saw like 15 shopping carts just scattered across the parking lot and honestly, i am just amazed by the laziness. wow.

anyways, i had to buy some food containers, toilet paper and laundry soap. i also picked up some Gillette body and face wash. now, i've always been a bar soap kind of man (i aspire to be in a Dial For Men commercial) and its a lot less gross to rock the bar soap these days since i share a shower and soap with myself instead of five other Davises. but ya know, i'm ready to mix it up and i am opting for the foamy body soap now. i will let you know how that experience goes.

oh, and Dubya is giving his farewell address tonight. i was worried that the speech was going to throw my DVR a curveball but the speech is at 7:00 so it wont mess with the return of the Office and the CSI episode that i've been looking forward to for about a month will only be delayed for 15 minutes. enjoy your final minutes in the spotlight George and thanks for not messing up my Thursday.

the Clef Hangers and Olivia invade the Idol

too. much. David. Cook.

that's really all i have to say about the non-golden ticket part of the audition. that and the case of episode opener Chelsea Marquardt. Chelsea's plight is why people should just never listen to their parents. ever. the girl doesn't think she is that good of a singer but her family insists she is and convinces her she is great and so she goes on American Idol and butchers this song. she then has to endure Randy laughing throughout her song (which makes me wonder if that was edited in because if that's me, i'm done at the first giggle), Simon comparing her to a cat falling to its death, Kara complimenting her on her beauty (yay consolation prize) and then Paula telling her to dust her shoulders off. next time, just ignore you parents, they just don't understand.

• Ashley Anderson: despite picking a Leona Lewis song and then messing up the lyrics (which Simon helped write), she sailed through to the Hollywood round on her voice. i didn’t see the American Idol in this audition nut maybe we could see a top 24er if she doesn’t go all Wayne Brady and doesn’t forget the lyrics.
• Casey Carlson: my former sports editor at the Montana Kaimin was named Josi Carlson. maybe Josi and Casey are related but even if they aren’t like fourth cousins, i'm sure Josi has as much of a shot to win the title as this girl with an extra “L” in her name.
• Von Smith: had a powerful voice but good Lord, i have a bad feeling we are going to be treated to a lot of Michael Bolton soon. boy needs to reign it in and settle a little bit.
• Michael Castro: he won't get as far as his brother.
• Matt Breitzke: i don't think dad is going to be apart from his kid for too long.
• Jessica Furney: a small-town girl who i think is unique enough to make it to at least the awkward elevator stage.
• India Morrison: i was kind of surprised that she made it. but Blake Lewis made a big run with a decent voice because he could mix up his arrangements with his beat-boxing so maybe India can do some things with her rapping so who knows?
• Jamar Rogers: like the Von guy, this dude needs to reign it in a little bit.
• Danny Gokey: the recently widowed Gokey was much better than his best friend (Jamar Rogers) who went right before him. doesn't have the look but has a good enough voice and story to make a run if he makes it to the top 24.
• Anoop Desai: i am going to be biased here but Anoop is obviously my early favorite here. why is this obvious? well, the guy looked familiar and as soon as he said his name i immediately remembered that Anoop was the lead last year with the UNC Clef Hangers, an a cappella group out of the University of North Carolina, which if you've read my blog, you know i am a huge fan of the Clef Hangers. the kid is good and i'll be shocked if he doesn't get to the top 24.
• Asa Barnes: his daughter reminded me of Olivia from the last two seasons of the Cosby Show, which isn't a good thing. as for daddy, unlike the guy i wrote about yesterday, he didn't butcher my favorite MJ song so we'll see how well he does. for some reason, African-American males have done horrible on this show since Ruben took the crown in 2003 and i don't think Asa was soulful enough to buck the trend but maybe he just needs to sing a different song to showcase his skills because its tough to fully prove yourself on a Michael song.
• Dennis Brigham: a little dramatic (well, very dramatic) but he had a nice voice.
  
• Lil Rounds: loved her.
  

so that's that. 27 tickets were given out and of the 13 they showed, i thought that Danny, Anoop, Asa and Lil were the best of the Kansas City group. is there a winner in this group? my vote is with Anoooooooooop... who they just showed looking dejected after a Simon slam in a preview for Hell Week so that prediction could be quickly proven incorrect.

we'll see. looks like they are doing four cities next week so we should have a lot to talk about. stay tuned.

American Idol returns and completes my life

i finally got around to watching the season premiere and i am going to hit you up with my observations. i know i said that i was going to cool it with the Idol this year but i've decided that staying away from fast food was a big enough resolution for me in 2009 so deal with it.

there was lots of pre-audition material on Tuesday night but I guess you’ve got to fill some space. I liked the Israel Kamakawiwo'ole-sung montage at the beginning and the part they showed of the pre-teens reacting to last season’s finale was priceless (I didn’t know someone could love David Archuleta THAT much, sheesh). it took a while to get things started but once they did, all cylinders were running smoothly.

there are two big changes this season coming to the early stages of the competition. first, there is a fourth judge on the panel in songwriter Kara DioGuardi but i think it's going take a little while to develop feelings on her because she was kept a bit under wraps on this episode. but she did have a few standout moments and i really do think that she called a contestant a bitch so i guess any judge that can spar with a contestant like that is good in my book.

secondly, there was reportedly supposed to be less bad auditions this year but that didn't stop people like X-Ray, a very poor (and tone deaf) man's Barry White and Sexual Chocolate from slipping through the cracks. i am also unsure if its a bad omen that the first audition was some kid with a huge afro butchering my favorite Michael Jackson song. i used to love the bad auditions because i thought that they were genuine but after William Hung got rich, i just believe that all these pretenders are just acting in exchange for some camera time. it's become a tiresome part of the routine and i'd rather spend more time with the golden ticket getters so i know who they are when they get to Hollywood.

onto the winners that they did show in last night's episode:

• Emily Wynee-Hughes: i thought the first golden ticketer was good singing Barracuda but I think she would be even better with a band. If she could get past the a cappella part of the competition, she could be a force in Hollywood.
• J.B. Ahfua: kid had a nice voice but he could be a next round casualty if he doesn't grow a personality.
• Arianna Afsar: out of all the Phoenix contestants, i think she is the biggest threat. when i first saw the 16-year-old Arianna i said to myself that she was "cute as a button" which is the exact same thing that Kara said a minute later. plus, she has a good voice and she already had the old ladies voting demographic locked up if she does make it to the voting stages of the competition since she created that adopt-a-grandparent program. my favorite contestant of the opening night.
• Michael Sarver: had a surprising voice but i wasn't that blown away.
• Stevie Wright: she was Kara's early favorite and Paula compared her a bit to Kelly Clarkson. i didn't see it but she had a decent voice and since the judges like her, i am going to assume that she is going to make it at least to the final round of the Hollywood stage.
• Katrina Darrell: well, the bikini-clad singer got a golden ticket but she pissed off the two female judges so her trip to Hollywood should be a rather short one.
• Brianna Quijada: good personality but she will need a miracle.
• Deanna Brown: unique voice but her eyes bothered me.
• Cody Shelton: blah.
• Alex Wagner-Trugman: doesn't have the look of an American Idol but there have been other finalists that didn't have that look. i liked the kid's voice but he just seemed so nervous and those nerves could undo him in the next couple of stages.
• Scott Macintyre: this is going to sound jerkish of me but if this guy wasn't blind, this would have been just a pretty good audition. the problem with him is that this is a competition that is much about entertaining as singing and i just don't see how you can entertain with a handicap like blindness. yes, Stevie and Ray made it in this business but Stevie and Ray had soul were also making money in a different genre. the guy is good but i just don't know how well he is going to translate onto a different stage especially when American Idol loves to hold theme nights (remember the awful salsa theme of a few years back?). that being said, with the way that Fox played this guy up last night, there is no way this guy doesn't make it to the final 24. that is one spot that we know was filled on Tuesday.
  

so apparently 27 tickets were given out in Arizona and they us showed 11 of them. like i said Scott Macintyre is probably the safest bet to make it to the stages where his fate is held in America's hands but i still really liked that Arianna girl and i wouldn't be surprised if Emily Hughes doesn't become more than just a name on the figure skating circuit.

Wednesday night, AI heads off the Kansas City, home of David Cook, the 2008 winner. maybe they can drop him off back home and leave him there.

Gran Tarino is definitely no Hotel For Dogs

Saturday was date night and so CeCe and i went to the Clay Pit for dinner and then to the movie theaters to watch Gran Tarino.

before i get to my review of the movie, let me tell you an even more tragic tale. it's the tale of a guy who likely went home by himself on Saturday night. we were sitting at the Clay Pit waiting for our table (hint: call for reservations when you go to nice dining facilities on the weekend. we did and it saved us a 90 minute wait) and we noticed a guy in a white shirt who was there with a girl. both of them appeared to be in their late 20s and i am going to just guess by the way they were interacting that they weren't a couple. as the guy energetically tried to impress the lady with some story, i think everyone was more interested in his unzipped jeans than his flailing arms. all my male readers out there, i am about to hit you with some knowledge so sit back and soak it in... there are three things that you should always remember to do when you finish up in the restrooms: shake, zip and wash. anything short and you are asking for trouble. i wanted to help the guy out and tell him but my lovely date advised against it so the dude was left out in the Clay Pit waiting area to fend for himself.

after we left the white-shirted man to a night of inevitable loneliness, we ate dinner and it was a pretty good meal. i will also say this about the Clay Pit, this has got to be one of the few places i've eaten at where the leftovers still taste good after a day or two in the fridge. yum yum.

as for the Gran Tarino, i am going to rate it as a solid $6.00 movie (i may have to soon readjust my scale from maxing out at $8 because i paid $9 a ticket on Saturday). of the movies i have seen recently, i liked it more than Doubt but i personally thought my money was better spent at Role Models. Gran Tarino was oh k but i thought at parts it was just unintentionally funny and there was way to much laughter in that theater for a movie that wasn't a comedy. i liked the script and the cast, which included a short appearance by the guy who played Junior Brown in Coach Carter, was alright. but although Clint Eastwood was good, he wasn't Million Dollar Baby good. and speaking of MDB, i should watch that movie again, its a good one.

the best part about the movies, of course, is the previews and after sitting through 15 minutes of previews, i wanted to see this upcoming movie while CeCe gave her vote to this flick. only thing is i wasn't that interested in her movie and she wanted nothing to do with mine so i guess we won't be camping out for those movies. but i think one of our next movies will be either Slumdog Millionaire or Frost/Nixon. i also want to see The Wrestler and i am pretty excited for the soon-to-be released Biggie film that comes out on Friday.

but the movie of 2009 may be this one. can you say multiple Oscars?

oh, and American Idol debuts tonight so i'm sure you can guess what i will be blogging about tomorrow. be prepared.

a professional bowler and Cornholer i am not

it's still a couple of months away from intramural softball season and a week away from wiffleball season and while there could be a potential conflict with those two seasons overlapping (my allegiance is with the softball) i am ready to go. but in order to keep in shape for my nine-month intramural sporting calendar (ha!), i am having to find ways to keep active during the winter months and yesterday was a pretty busy day.

first, i introduced CeCe to the sport of Cornhole. if you're unfamiliar with the c-hole, you pretty much just throw a beanbag across a parking lot onto a board. if you land it on the board, its worth one point but if you get it into the hole, that's a three-pointer. as CeCe will attest, there are a bunch of other little rules that i forget to mention but whatever, if you want to come play with us, we (well, Emily) will fill you in. so we played a couple of games over at Seth's apartment and i think i went 1-2 and in the game i won, i was on fiiiiiiiire and i was cornholing it left and right. holla. CeCe held her own for a beginner too so i think after a couple more times playing it, we will be ready to dethrone Seth and Em as the top Cornhole couple in the world.

eventually it got too cold for the Cornhole and since Seth's apartment was being used by his roommate for her guitar lesson, we went bowling.

let me explain something about bowling, i grew up in a bowling alley. well, not really but sort of. throughout my childhood, my dad was a bowling regular at Firesides Lane and was once even president of a local bowling league. if you search through the relics of the basement back home, i am sure there are still a few of his bowling trophies down there. so i spent many mornings being drug to the bowling alley to either hang out in the alley nursery or watch my dad and his friends bowl. good times.

but i was into baseball, not bowling. so when i would go bowling, i would just embarrass myself and shame my father. there was the one time at Sean Thom's birthday party when i thought it would be smart to not wear bowling shoes and go bowling in my socks... which, of course, led to me dropping a bowling ball on my toes. there was the other time when i wasn't paying attention and had my fingers crushed in between balls on the bowling ball return. and when i wasn't getting injured, i wasn't that great either. i sucked in the youth bowling deals that i was entered into and i think i was in college before i broke 100 without the bumpers. Pete Weber i am not.

anyways, yesterday i had an actual good bowling day. behind back-to-back strikes in the like the 5th and 6th frames, i rolled a 112 in my first game. i am unsure if that's a career high, but i am sure it's close. there were six bowlers in our group and although my back-to-back strikes temporarily put me in the lead, i choked a bit down the stretch and finished third. but hey, third place is worth a bronze medal and still gets me onto the medal stand so suck it. in my second game, in which we had seven bowlers because Anna joined the group, i crashed back down to Earth and rolled a 89 which was good enough for fifth place. but still, while my average of 100.5 isn't going to get me on the PBA it is something that i take any day of the week.

while i was doing decent, the bowlers on the lane next to me were knocking down pins left and right. you could tell the two guys were semi-pros or in a league and were spending their Sundays on the practice lanes. one of the bowlers (who was often getting annoyed with us because we kept walking up to bowl while he was getting set to bowl, which is pretty bad bowling etiquette) ended up a couple pins short of a perfect game and i've got to say, it was something to see. the dude had strikes in his first nine frames but then on the tenth frame went 8, spare, 9 to finish with a score of 270-something. i felt bad for the guy that one bad shot cost him the biggest achievement in bowling. and even though we didn't know him, all the guys in our group hurt with him when those two pins remained standing on that 10th frame.

so i had a pretty busy Sunday and capped it off perfectly with a group dinner at the Red Robin. it was a great day.

... but i might get rid of 40 friends for a Big Mac

i was doing some Facebook stalking today and i came across this interesting link on the page belonging to William Oram. yip, it appears that in addition to virgins, Burger King is going after people with too much popularity on the 'Book. now i currently have 1,116 friends on Facebook and i could probably afford to trim a little bit of the fat off my friends list but luckily for everyone (because everyone knows that having me as a Facebook friend is a pretty huge honor) i gave up fast food for my New Years resolution and i also think that Burger King tastes like garbage. but if those two variables weren't a part of this equation, i think this would be one of the few people that i wouldn't be sacrificing for some frame-broiled beef.

comparing the value of Facebook friendship/keeping my New Years resolution with mediocre hamburgers has been the only thing to keep my mind off of the Chipmunks today. if you saw my post yesterday, you will know that i talked about the ol' Chipmunks and gave a top 10 of my favorite new-age hits from some guy posing as A, Big Simon and Teddy. the only problem is now i can't get their voices out of my head and i think i have played their 80s theme song in my subconscious about 300 times since i got up this morning. it's getting to be a tad bit annoying.

the Chipmunks represent a golden age in my life, an segment of time when family drama and worries about bills and finances were non-existent. instead of thinking about the industry you work in collapsing around you, the only think i really needed to worry about as a child was how to avoid cooties (the answer, poison the girls... which is something we once attempted when we tried to pick these berries we thought were poisonous so we could bake them in a cake for the girls. we were eventually caught and even though we couldn't actually cook since we were 6 or 7 and i still think those berries weren't actually harmful, the neighborhood parentals took none to kindly to the idea of manslaughter. spankings ensued).

i think the best part about being a kid was the ability to watch cartoons without being mocked. how much did i love my cartoons? i once forced my t-ball team to forfeit a game because i refused to go to the game until Captain Planet was over. unfortunately, Captain Planet ended each day at 6 p.m., which was the same start time as one of our games and by the time i got to the field, the forfeit had already been announced. bummer.

back in the day, Nickelodeon was king as was the Disney Channel. i loved getting up early on Saturday mornings and coming home from school to watch cartoons. and we had good cartoons too, none of this Dora the Explorer nonsense. eventually we grew out of our cartoon phase and moved onto serious pre-teen dramas like Hang Time, the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and The Famous Jett Jackson but i will always remember my roots, i know where i came from (500 block of Clark, represent!).

so without further ado, here are the top 10 cartoons of my childhood.

10. Rugrats
9. Adventures of the Gummi Bears
8. Reading Rainbow
7. The Chipmunks
6. Ducktales
5. Doug
4. Chip N' Dale: Rescue Rangers
3. Darkwing Duck
2. Captain Planet
1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

a Friday with Alvin, Simon and Theodore!

what's a good way to spend a Friday night? annoying the girlfriend with your newest obsession. yes folks, i recently found the Chipmunks channel on YouTube. you all remember those cuddly Chipmunks? who wasn't kicking it on Saturday mornings with Alvin, Simon and Theodore back in the day?

well, apparently all it takes to make the chipmunks is a fast forward button on a tape recorder. and thus some genius has taken some hit songs, heightened up the voices and put the creations on the World Wide Web. i think it's awesome. CeCe, however, was less than amused when i told her that i am going to spend the next 30 minutes coming up with a top ten. enjoy.

10. One Call Away (by Chingy)
9. Touch My Body (by Mariah Carey)
8. Take A Bow (by Rihanna)
7. Love In This Club (by Usher)
6. Butterfly (by Crazy Town)
5. Iris (by the Goo Goo Dolls)
4. Truly, Madly, Deeply (by Savage Garden)
3. Can I Get A... (by Jay-Z f/ Amil and Ja Rule)
2. You Got It Bad (by Usher)
1. Bust It Baby, Part II (by Plies f/ Ne-Yo)

sporatic three-week vacations are not fun

Blogger is being strange today so that's why the font (normally, we rock the Arial) may look off today. my OCD is really annoyed right now but i've gotta fight on.

anyways, on my last post, i linked to a CNN slideshow of Sasha and Malia's first day at their new DC schools and it appears that CNN wasn't the only media outlet interested in the lil' Obama's first day at school. the Daily Show did a great piece on the media frenzy and you can watch it on the giant box below. the "ask your parents" comment about James Meredith was great.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Ordinary Pupils

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

so a couple of days ago i was blogging about my college selection process and i mentioned that my teachers had a little strike during my senior year. MK asked me about it and i realized that i haven't really talked about it on the blog, so here goes.

during my the fall of 2002, my teachers went on strike for three weeks over issues with their pay and benefits. i remember the weeks leading up to the strike, everyone was worried about whether the strike was going to happen and whether or not our football season was going to be messed up since our coaches were, well, teachers and wouldnt be allowed to cross the picket line to coach us. but luckily, our football team was a couple fries, a few McNuggets and a small soda short of a happy meal so by the time Nov. 7 rolled around, we had been done with football for a while.

when the strike first happened, it was awesome. i mean, it was like a vacation in the middle of November! some kids took off for the ski slopes and some slept in. me, being the great kiss-ass that i was, marched on the picket line with my teachers, did some TV interviews (i did an awful lot of interviews during my senior year for some reason, i think the Billings media was fascinated by an African-American male who was somewhat well-spoken and wasn't wearing baggy JNCO pants) and even got my picture in the Gazette.

but then the strike reached its second week. and its third week. it sucked. we weren't in school and there are only so many things you can do on an unplanned vacation. we couldn't go anywhere because every night for the entire three week stretch the strike was reportedly so close to being settled so we couldn't leave town because of a fear that school would be back in session the next day. we also couldn't have the aid of our teachers who would be crossing the picket lines if they did their, ya know, jobs and helped us out so getting letters of recommendations and advice for college was out the window.

we saw lots of ugly behavior during that time. our volleyball team nearly didn't get to go to state that year because their coach was a teacher and was being pressured not to cross the picket lines. those girls had worked their way to being the top-ranked team in the state and eventually the teacher's union got over themselves and i believe the Broncs ended up taking home a bronze medal even though the strike did cost our cross-town rivals their seasons. we also got to see our teachers act like children as the elementary schools opened back up during the strike with substitute teachers which led to demonstrations at the elementary schools. so the striking teachers would gather to hoot and holler at the "scab" teachers, apparently unaware that the little kids understood the bad words that were flying out of their mouths.

eventually, like two days before Thanksgiving, the strike was settled. unfortunately, it was settled at like 1 in the morning so most of the kids in the city had no idea they had to be back in school until they staggered out of bed the next morning and saw the newspaper. also, like i said, it was right before Thanksgiving so we went to school for a day and then had Thanksgiving break which is not that exciting of a vacation when you've been out of school for three weeks.

since we missed so much time, we had to make it up and in order to make sure our graduation days weren't messed with, the school district butchered up the school calendar. gone was most of Christmas break and all of spring break. gone was all of the second semester vacation days except for Memorial Day, which coincidentally fell on the Monday of our last week of school so what was the point? also, just for fun, they added four days of Saturday school. yes, school on a Saturday. fantastic. one of the Saturday school days was on the same day as one of our annual TWIRP dance, so girls were freaking out while trying to squeeze hair appointments in between chemistry and Spanish class. it was great. i went to like four classes that day and bailed in favor of a nap. a boy has to have his rest if he's going to be bumpin' and grindin' all night.

the best part about this ordeal was i think the deal that the teachers got wasn't that different that the one that was originally proposed. so we essentially went through a months worth of drama for nothing. it was a very strange November for us Billings kids but at least i have some pretty sweet senior year memories to look back at.

Democrats take a stand on something...

i haven't blogged about this yet but it's come up in conversations with CeCe so why don't y'all read about my opinions on the Roland Burris situation. here's a quick Danny-style recap for those of you not in the know: pretty much Burris is being blockaded from joining the Senate because he was appointed by Illinois governor Rod Blagovlongunpronouncablename, who is currently under investigation for allegedly trying to sell the open seat, which once belonged to this dude. Capitol Hill has gotten all uppity and self-righteous and don't think that appointment should be valid because of who did the appointing.

oh k Senate, it's time to get over yourselves. the appointment was a legal one and last time i checked, it's not your job to be above the law. i mean, i guess i can understand why you'd want to blockade a legal appointment but shy away from raising a fuss when your ordinary corrupt white senator who either plead/was found guilty to a crime wants to come back to work (Ted Stevens, Larry Craig). Bladkjjadanggjkfbjxvcjnvich isn't stepping down anytime soon so are you going to continue to rob Illinois one of its two voices in the senate? i mean, c'mon. Roland Martin had a good opinion piece on CNN today and i pretty much agree with everything he says. time for this nonsense to end but from a state that brought us the Cubs and in a roundabout way, this girl, i guess we should have expected this drama.

in other political news, like a week ago, i saw CeCe reading this this article about Obama's increasing annoyance with the media and it was an interesting read. also, the soon-to-be first daughters are going back to school so as president of the Sasha and Malia fan club, i think its time for a CNN slideshow.

a good day with some time in the barbershop

this is going to be a free-wheeling blog so keep up.

first up, TYC wishes a happy birthday to frequent commenter Blair Shiff.

i've had a pretty good day and it's not even 11 in the morning yet. i woke up next to a beautiful girl, just found out O Hai(ku) is active again on the Internet and i got to drink some orange-fused strawberry Sunny D at breakfast. i then went to the bookstore and bought Native Son, which is my favorite book of all time and my old copy is currently in some box that is hidden somewhere in the big blue house. i am pretty excited to read that.

i also have last night's episode of Without a Trace waiting for me in the DVR, Real World: Brooklyn debuts tonight and i get to eat dinner at Trudy's. this good day just keeps on getting better.

i have already watched my DVR'd copies of Scrubs (two episodes ran last night on its premier night on ABC) and i've got to say that i am relieved. last season was just so terrible but both episodes last night were great and the second episode (entitled "My Last Words") was a reminder of why Scrubs is such a great show. the episode was built on emotions but had its funny moments which is what made the show endeering during its first few seasons. i mean, for Pete's sakes, they work in a hospital, it can't be 100% giggles, hyjinks and unbelievable storylines. this was probably the best episode since the "My Lunch" episode in season 5 which was odd since four of the main characters (Dr. Cox, Elliot, Dr. Kelso and the Janitor) were not in the episode and Carla only appeared for 15 seconds. but yes, it was an excellent episode and hopefully the show follows this formula for the remainder of what appears to be its last season on the air.

today is the first Wednesday of the month so that, of course, means its time for a trip to the barbershop. sitting in Robert's chair before me was an elderly black man who decided to stick around and shoot the breeze with us after he was done. i have got to say this, i love old people. i don't think they should be able to drive but i love listening to them, they are just so full of insight and history.

as i sat in the chair and had my hair cut, i listened to this old man tell stories about his friendship with Earl Campbell and talk about the greatest running backs of all time (one of which was this guy who i met in Chicago). he also talked about how he and his brother weren't allowed to go to the University of Texas and how his brother instead went to Stanford and now roots passionately against the Longhorns. it's odd to see how far we've come over the last 50 years or so but fascinating at the same time. i loved just sitting there listening to the old man and listening to other people who joined in our conversation and took it to places that included the Buffalo Bills, Prime Time and Oklahoma State football. it was great and that's why i love my barbershop and don't mind paying $20 every two week to get my hair did. this is an experience that you just wouldn't get at a Cost Cutters in the mall.

and here's a random tidbit for you: i share the same barber as Texas wide receiver Quan Cosby. and apparently Robert had Quan in his chair today like 30 minutes before my bi-weekly appointment. so Longhorn fanatics, if you want to rub my head, it would be almost like rubbing the head of guy who went off in the Fiesta Bowl. oh, and Alan wrote a good profile on Quan the other day, read about it here.

this is the story of EIGHT strangers...

now that the holiday are out of the way, as Americans, it's time to get back to our normal routines. and by normal routines, i mean its time to start watching the TV. yes, after a few weeks of repeats, it's time for our favorite TV shows to come back into our lives with brand new episodes! whoo. my viewing starts tonight with the return of Scrubs, which is heading over to ABC this year and will hopefully be better than the disaster that was its final year on NBC.

lets take a quick look at my schedule to see how hard my DVR will be working over the next few months. i am hoping that i won't be spending all of my time watching TV but having a bunch of episodes recorded will be nice for downtime when i get it. oh, and this mini-schedule doesn't even include my newest addiction (and CeCe's newest annoyance): nightly Family Matters re-runs on TV Land!

Monday: How I Met Your Mother, CSI: Miami
Tuesday: Scrubs, American Idol, Without a Trace
Wednesday: Real World, American Idol
Thursday: The Office, CSI

i do love myself some HIMYM and the Idol but the show that i am getting pumped up the most about is the 21st season of The Real World, which debuts tomorrow. i have been a devout fan of the Real World and Real World/Road Rules Challenge series since Real World: San Diego was broadcast during my freshman year of college. and even though there have been some awful seasons with terrible casts (Philly, Denver and most recently, Hollywood), i will still watch hoping that the newest episodes can recapture the magic found in the great seasons that were Austin and Sydney. i don't know what it is about Real World, maybe its the fact that after seeing these idiots on screen for a couple of months, i always am reminded that i have a pretty good life.

Robyn sent me a link this morning to a website that gives cast bios of the Brooklyn housemates and oh man, i think this could be a good year. first, there are eight roommates this year which is, of course, a step up from the seven that usually bicker and fight with each other. then you look at the bios and realize that there are going to be some compelling storylines. there is a transsexual, a devout Mormon from Utah, a devout non-Mormon from Utah, a prude beauty queen (who spouts the motto "it's easier to get into heaven than Devyn." awesome), the gay-turned-straight with an abusive past, an Iraqi war veteran, some weight-lifter and some other guy that might as well just be Jose from the Key West season. oh man, there is going to be some drama! i am tuning in every week.

more hoopla over the Whopper Virgins than me

UPDATE: today, one of the few good shows on ESPN (Outside The Lines) ran this story on that Nevada kid that kinda made up a college scholarship offer last year. a really good watch if you've got a few minutes to spare.

over the weekend i spent a lot of time watching all-star football showcases. on Saturday, i covered the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and then on Sunday night, myself and Max watched the first half of the Under Armour All-America Game on the ESPN.

the games are mostly laid back but there is one thing that always annoys me about these games: the college selection bits. you've probably seen one a time or two in your life if you are a sports fan. some 17-year-old kid stands at a table with a couple hats in front of them, answers a few questions before reaching for the University of Oklahoma hat before pump-faking, throwing on the Miami cap and yelling "I'm going to the U!" it's pretty much a rite of passage for a high schooler.

the only problem is that ESPN made it almost unbearable to watch last night. the way they did it on Saturday in San Antonio (it was broadcast by NBC) was alright but that judgment could be off since i was in the press box and the sound was a bit sketchy. but watching the Under Armour game on the TV game last night was awful and i don't know how the guy ESPN had doing the commentating got his job but he made those selection bits into the longest three minute segments of my life. it was so terrible, i can't even describe it accurately, you just had to have been watching it.

truthfully, i am just annoyed that football players get all the love. where was my moment? in April of 2003 when we all were at the Free Spirit Conference in D.C., i think there should have been a journalism all-star game and it could have been broadcast on MTV (if they can do Miss Seventeen and The Paper, they could do this) and called the 2003 USA Today Jumpin' Journalism Showcase. at the JJS, they could have interrupted the proceedings to show me at a table, flanked by my parents with Kurt Loder asking me the tough questions. on the table would be hats to the University of Oregon, Montana, Northwestern and the University of Chicago. i would have reached for the UO hat, paused and then grabbed the UM hat and said "I'M GOING TO THE ZOO!" then there would have been a bunch of applause and maybe Monte would have come out and we would have done a chest bump or something.

instead, i applied to UM first because it was the only application that i wasn't going to need help with which was key since my teachers were, well, striking during that key month of November and were not working. when i was accepted at UM, it became very apparent that their financial aid package was much better that what Northwestern or Oregon were going to offer if i was accepted there so i decided to go to Missoula. i remember when i made my decision, i walked from the dining room into the kitchen and simply told my parents that i was going to Montana. i don't think i even owned any Griz gear to sport the next day at school. booooooring.

and another thing. some of the selections at the Under Armour game were done against this lame backdrop that was sponsored by Burger King. the background isn't what's lame though, this is what's lame. how does this work? how do you travel to these remote locations with hamburgers? are you saying that the Whopper Virgins liked the microwaved hamburgers from your location better because, lemme tell you something buddy, everything from McDonalds tastes like crap when you zap it in the microwave. i don't know about you but i am calling bullcrap on this marketing campaign. not that it matters though since i'm not allowed to eat fast food anymore anyways.

well, shoot. Burger King and memories of my lackluster college selection have gotten me all fired up. i think i am going to go simmer down now. holla.

me and Wendy's are going through a divorce

well, another New Years Eve has come and gone and from what i can remember, it was a pretty fun event. i had a good time out with the gang and then CeCe, who has to be the best girlfriend in the world, took care of me after i was through celebrating 2009's birth. there are some pictures on the Facebook of the festivities so go check them out.

anyways, with the ringing in of 2009 comes the customary telling of resolutions to enrich one's lives. some people give up smoking while others promise to join the gym. the only problem is we're a lazy bunch of people and usually by February, Joe Smoker is back to his pack of cigarettes a day while Joe Belly is spending all of his time in his recliner, munching on pork rinds and guzzling down quarts of chocolate milk. granted, i am no different as i think every year i promise to lose weight and get in shape. and while i always start off great (i think at one point last year, i had lost over 20 pounds), those 6 a.m. calls to the treadmill eventually take their tole and i am usually slacking badly at the end of the year.

i think this year, i am going to make a resolution (and yes, i am making this resolution four days into the New Year, bite me) that will have an impact on my body but pertains mostly to my wallet. i think in 2009, i am going to bid farewell to the fast food. now this is usually something i do just during Lent from time-to-time but i think this could be a good thing to spring into full-time.

first of all, it can't be that healthy to be constantly downing double quarter pounders from McDonalds. sure, that greasy beef is delicious to the taste buds but i am beginning to think my digestive system and other parts of my body feel differently. secondly, i am 23 now and i think its time i start acting like an adult. i have a very good job and i take home a moderate paycheck every week but yet, my savings account is nothing to brag about at the moment. granted, my current savings balance has a lot to do with the hit that Christmas took on it but it could still be better.

one of the biggest bank account culprits has been the time i've spent away from my kitchen. i spent this morning looking over bank and credit card statements and according to those statements (which don't include whatever i spend paying with cash, which isn't much since i don't usually carry cash but probably accounted for something), i spent just under $3,500 this past year eating out... and that didn't include what i paid for at the bars. now while those numbers are high but they aren't completely freaking me out because when i look at that figure, i see fun times that i had socializing and hanging out with friends and i also figure in the road trips that i had for work in which i was reimbursed and the spendy trips i had this summer. so whatever.

however, what i would like to see dwindled from that aforementioned four-digit number is what i spent at fast food joints in 2008, which was $676.72. that doesn't seem like a lot when you look at the total bill but when you consider that each trip to McDonalds or Taco Bell probably cost only between $3-$7, that means i was hanging out at those fast food windows a lot. now i didn't count places like Taco Shack or Freebirds into my fast food numbers because i refuse to give those places up as part of my resolution because they are delicious. although being as i spent nearly $400 at Freebirds this year, maybe i should include it into the resolution... but its like a three minute walk away from work, what are you going to do?

the sad thing is, i know how to cook. so, starting today, January 4, 2008, i am making a resolution to start taking more trips to the grocery store and less trips through the drive-thru. now granted, i am probably going to sneak a hamburger every now and again because of road trips and late-night post-downtown snacking binges but i think that if i can cut my fast food production by about 80 percent, both my wallet and my stomach will have a pretty good 2009.

McFarland commitment sets up good NYT story

for those of you who are wondering, i opted for Coach Carter as my third movie of the afternoon/evening over Varsity Blues. although it isn't on the official soundtrack, this song is in the movie and it's a good one.

i have a story running in the Statesman tomorrow about the All-America Bowl and in it there should be a quote from a kid named Jamarcus McFarland who is a highly-regarded recruit on the defensive line. anyways, Jamarcus verbally committed to play college football the University of Oklahoma on Christmas, which triggered this story to run in the New York Times. the writer, a freelancer named Thayer Evans, had written a good story about McFarland in June and this one is even better. of course, Longhorn nation got pretty pissy about this article but that should have been expected and they can deal. seriously, if you are at all interested in college recruiting (or just sports journalism in general), read these two stories. college recruiting is a shady, yet interesting, business.

Remember the Titans had a damn good cast

as i've mentioned before (i think), football season ended a couple of weeks ago. but on Saturday, i will likely be covering my final football game of the 2007-08 school year when i head on down to San Antonio for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. but i'm not here to talk to you about real-life high school football, i'm here to talk about cinematic high school football.

i think since the end of football is near, i should celebrate by watching some high school football movies. also, the girlfriend is hanging out with friends today so i have nothing better to do.

first in the ol' DVR player (aka the Playstation Dos) is Friday Night Lights, the film version of the classic book that i need to read again because it's definitely been a few years (say, nearly six) since i've read that one. the film is a good one and Derek Luke, of Antwone Fisher fame, is just great in this film. i think emotion-wise, this might be one of the best football movies ever because how people treat high school football in this movie is no joke. the emotional part of it aside, whoever was the film editor in this movie needs to never get a job in Hollywood again and all you need to do is look at the final montage/sequence during Permian's second loss (error one, using the same play twice) to know what i'm talking about. also that whole accuracy part was basterized a teeny tiny by Hollywood but apparently a 34-28 loss to Carter in the state championship game sells more tickets than a 14-9 loss in the state semifinals. hmm.

the movie and book were about Odessa Permian but the team they lost to in the championship/semifinals had a story that was just as interesting. the Dallas Morning News did a pretty good story about it a couple of months ago, read about it here.

i think the next movie will be Remember the Titans. now, the writing in this movie is boarding on the side of terrible as i'm sure the PG-rating hindered some of what they wanted to do (i'm sure there were a couple of N-words said during that season). but there still is no excuse for that dance scene during the warm-ups. i mean, c'mon. the football-playing scenes in this movie are only oh k. but still, Remember the Titans is undoubtedly my favorite movie of all time. for one, it has Denzel in it. secondly, the whole civil rights movement is kind of important to me so i do like myself some cinematic-ness where white and black folks are getting along. thirdly, i had to have seen this movie like 516 times in high school as i seriously believe it was the only movie the school board approved for bus trips.

did you know that in addition to Denzel, Remember the Titans also casted Donald Faison, Ryan Gosling, Kate Bosworth and Hayden Panettiere? plus, that big guy from that Earl TV show is in the movie too. Denzel + really good cast + questionably written script = movie that i will forever love.

another side note, the championship trophy for the game i'm covering tomorrow is named after Herman Boone, the coach that Denzel portrays in the movie. maybe i will get to meet Coach Boone, which, since its like only two degrees of separations, means i'd pretty much be shaking Denzel's hand.

after hanging out with the Titans, i might watch Varsity Blues (which unlike the first two movies is not based on a true story) or maybe i'll switch it up completely and watch Coach Carter since i am now in basketball season. who knows, life is full of possibilities.