the empty freezer

like NKTOB...

2008-07-17T19:34:00.003-04:00

i'm back. i've dusted the blog off and returned. in my current unemployed state, i've felt inspired to get back on here. it will probably last until i get a job, which at the current rate, could be a while. i did get a job of sorts. the strength coach at ETSU does security for events in this area and i am on board to work the bel cher festival in asheville next weekend. it's some kind of downtown festival with music and art stuff. i checked out their web-site and out of the list of entertainers the only ones i recognize are jaci velasquez, travis tritt, and the wailers. quite a potpurri there. anyways, it puts some money in my pocket and that's what i need right now. i'm getting tired of the professional man of leisure gig. to be truthful, i'm more of a house husband really. i spend my time organizing, cleaning the house, washing clothes, and doing the dishes. and it's even more strange because today i cleaned the house because my parents are coming to visit. since i don't see them much they decided to stop by on their way back to wisconsin from florida. i realized today that my parents have never come and stayed with me since i left home for college. they've visited me, but they've never actually stayed where i live. now they're coming to visit me at my house where i live with my wife. my life will never be the same...

and in the spirit of summertime, here's a little something for you -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25qiZy7vmqY

i must be a racist

2007-04-14T10:20:00.000-04:00

because i don't see what the big deal is, about don imus' comments. he called them nappy headed ho's and the nation makes it out like those poor girl's lives are over along with their coach. several things about this issue bug me. first off, i'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that since they are high level college athletes, they regularly get heckled and called much worse by opposing fans. so to act like this one comment took them by surprise and crushed their worlds' is a little overblown. much, much worse things are said about athletes on a daily basis on talk radio without anyone so much as batting an eye. joakim noah has an endless number of facebook groups dedicated to hating him along with getting attacked daily on talk radio for simply beating people down two years in a row. yet that doesn't bother anyone. second, nappy headed is not that bad of a term. it's not like he dropped the n-bomb. nappy headed means bad hair. joakim noah is very definitely nappy headed and i love joakim noah. that's not a racial slur. sure it has racial undertones but it's not a term that is driven by hate. along with that, "ho" doesn't have the same negative connotations that it had 20 years ago. the term is used loosely all the time in everyday conversation by men and women alike. it wouldn't be too crazy too assume those same players have called each other ho's in passing. if anything, because of hip hop today ho is just another part of our culture's everyday vernacular. sure he shouldn't have said it. yes he was dumb and it was inappropriate. a two week suspension is appropriate. everyone seems to forget though that he is supposedly a "shock jock". by definition that term conjures up a guy who is offensive and slightly off color. i can't believe there isn't a single group defending imus' right to free speech and lack of censorship. what he said was wrong but he should have the right to say it on his own show. turn it off if you don't like it. what really bugs me is that everyone is blaming Don Imus for taking away Rutger's chance to celebrate by bringing all of this negative attention to this issue. Imus didn't bring any attention to this issue. the media did. the very same media that barely covered the women's national championship because no one in america gives a crap. it's not like the whole nation was caught up in women's basketball national championship fever and this comment crashed the party. it's more like the whole nation wasn't even aware that the women's national championship had even happened and they definitely didn't know Rutgers was in it. what exactly were they still celebrating anyway? getting beat like a red headed step child by tennessee. if anyone should be upset in the switch in media coverage it would be tn. who actually won the game. on the flip side this has brought more attention to Rutger's women's basketball than they ever could have dreamed of. they have sympathizers across the country now. they're going on Oprah. they're dominating Sportscenter as well as the regular news. so call me an insensitive jerk but not only did the Rutger's team definitely need to accept Imus' apology but on the contrary they should be sending him a thank you card for catapulting Rutger's women's basketball to a level of prominence they'll never experience again.

one last thing, is it just me or did anyone else catch that the follow-up comment to the nappy headed thing was a description of the game as "the jiggaboos vs. the wannabes"? i feel like that would be considered more of a racial slur than "nappy headed". that might get a guy fired

you'll see me there, i'll be the guy in the suit

2007-01-18T22:26:00.000-05:00

reality hit me again today like a quick underhand flick to the balls. (tim jenkins, you know what i'm talking about) after work today i attended a "chamber after hours" event. yes, it has something to do with the chamber of commerce. we were "encouraged" to attend b/c the business that was hosting the event was in the final stages of transitioning over to our bank and we had to have a strong showing to complete the wooing. this event is basically a little shindig where everyone pays $10 (of course we get a receipt so we can expense it to the company) to have the opportunity to sample hor d'ourves (i'm spelling that from memory, so it could be completely wrong), have a free beer or glass of wine, and mingle with other individuals around town. everyone is in business attire and wearing their respective name tags to advertise who they are with. i realized i am definitely sold out to the man and it would not be inappropriate to call me a "suit". it really kind of sucks. i envy the impossibly ignorant college kids who come in to the branch every day and ask how they can "put more money on their debit card". throughout the course of the evening i of course spoke to no one except co-workers i knew and all we did was talk about work alternating between making fun of customers, trying to top each other with an "i had a customer today who _____" stories, and complaining about not getting paid enough. (on that note yesterday a guy with a seeing eye dog walks into the branch. he walks toward the teller line and stops halfway facing the wall and he is about 6 inches away from it. there's a picture right in front of him so i'm trying to decide if he's looking at the picture or if he just has no idea where he is. if he actually is looking at the picture i don't want to offend him, but on the other hand if he's simply staring at a wall unawares i don't want to let that happen either. so i finally walk over and ask him if if can help him and he says, "no, i'm standing in line", to which i reply, "okay" and walk away.) what i'm saying is, i need to go back to school.

lately i've been watching tv less at night and reading more. for some reason i feel better about myself because of this. i was thinking about it though, is there that much of a difference? it's not like i'm into heavy reading, i've been reading chuck klosterman books. (he writes about pop culture for those who don't know) so, is that actually better than watching the show about the two guys living with the kombai tribe in papua west guinea that i was watching on monday? i learned some stuff from that show. i guess the fact that i'm reading means that i'm actually putting effort into filling my mind with useless knowledge, but is it really superior to television or have we put books on too high of a pedestal? (back to klosterman, i think the reason i like klosterman books the most is because he likes billy joel and he likes to write about billy joel and i love billy joel. i'm listening to glass houses on my record player right now. i own 9 billy joel records. of course i also own 9 elton john records and the greatest hits of air supply)

things i've learned to appreciate in the "real world"

2007-01-13T15:26:00.000-05:00

casual friday

hooks on the back of stall doors in the bathroom to hang your jacket on

our presidents, veterans, mlk jr., christopher columbus, the signing of the declaration of independence, labor day, and memorial day

401(k)

health insurance

paid time off

weekends

National Champs

2007-01-10T00:18:00.000-05:00

we did it! football national champs! what a game. what a performance. nothing against tebow, but it couldn't have been any better than leak having practically a perfect game to finish out his stellar career here at uf. maybe i've gone soft, but i'm even warming up to meyer some after the game. he more than outdid himself with the game plan. i would have never thought he could out coach tressel like that. it was good to see those guys win. they deserved it. guys like leak and dallas and all of the other seniors who've busted their butts and had some tough years to finally win the big one. the reason they came here in the first place. for those of you unable to participate in the revelry down on university ave., you don't know what you missed. have you seen a more dominating performance (well, since we demolished ohio state in basketball back in dec. anyway)? this my friends is why i spent 6 years in undergrad getting my p.e. degree. it was all about timing. it's awesome to be able to say i've now taught or tutored national champion basketball and football players. the game was almost enough for me to forget about the cowboys loss on saturday. almost....

So give a cheer for the Orange and Blue

Waving forever!

Forever pride of old Florida,

May she droop never.

Well sing a song for the flag today,

Cheer for the team at play!

On to the goal,

We'll fight our way for FLORIDA!!

freezer - potential lunch winner

2006-12-17T23:37:00.000-05:00

tonight when i made my usual stop at chipotle for a burrito i noticed the business card drawing bucket at the register it hit me.....i have business cards now. i too can dive into the world of the free lunch lottery. this may just be the single most important purpose of the business card. now i have to bring one with me next time i go.

this weekend was stellar. my buddy chris and i hit sea world, sampled some of the park's beverage offerings, watched the dolphin show, went into the shark exhibit, questioned the safety of the sting ray petting tank considering steve irwin's fate, and finally did the wild arctic exhibit which is by far the coolest thing there. the beluga whale is always entertaining as is the walrus (why they don't have the beatles playing in that area is beyond me). but the highlight of the visit was the polar bear. going back a couple of weeks ago, chris, myself, and a few others had a debate about which animals would fare best in a fight against each other and i said polar bear and chris went with the grizzly. since we were at sea world and there were experts there, we posed the grizzly vs. polar bear question to them and it was unanimous -> polar bear. told you so.

afterwards we watched the cavs.-magic play for free. having sport mgt. friends is finally paying off. after the game we accidentally wound up at the back entrance into the private monte cristo club at the arena trying to meet up with our friend who works with the magic. evidently that was not the entrance for us. we were still able to get in though. we made our way downtown which began with our friend locking her keys in her trunk and ended with us picking up our cars from a towing service in the wrong part of town. that's an entirely different story altogether. on the cab ride to get the cars the cabbie told us about his mistress, a former topless dancer, and then gave chris his phone to talk to her. apparently the cabbie and his ethiopian wife were on the outs, but mel his mistress was everything he wanted in a woman. it was a very long, but interesting night.in two weeks i'm going back with t-bat to watch the magic-heat. we're going to try not to get towed or talk to mistresses.

back from the dead

2006-12-12T21:35:00.000-05:00

for some reason, every day i am less and less enamored with spending time on the internet. hence the lack of action on here. i barely even check out gg.com which used to be a several times a day occurence. lately it seems that time on the couch > time on the computer. so for my pre-christmas resolution i will try to change that.

for the update since i've been gone, florida has won an sec championship and worked their way into the bcs title game. i'm extremely excited about both of these. (while i do believe that florida certainly deserves it more than michigan, i think it's mostly due to the fact that urban meyer is a human rabbit's foot. he's the luckiest s.o.b. on the face on the earth. in spite of his ineptness in game situations, everything always works out for him. this is why i truly believe we will win the natl. championship) in other gator news, last weekend i was at a party with a buddy and many other grad students/teachers and who walks in but tim tebow. so many things wrong with that. also, today i showed a certain uf basketball player how to make a deposit for the second time. i just hope that if he hits it big he'll remember and throw a dollar my way.

thank you rutgers

2006-11-10T07:55:00.000-05:00

rutgers came up big and beat louisville last night. that should put the gators in the driver's seat for the national championship. now the gators just have to get it done on the field. we have to play south carolina, fsu, and then arkansas in the sec championship game. all of those are going to be tough. (we also play western carolina, but that's almost a bye week) it's nice to know we control our own fate now. go gators!

after the game last night the commentators on espn were saying the rutgers upset validates the big east, showing that it has depth. yet, when sec teams beat each other it causes them to doubt the strength of the sec. i think the rutgers game proved that west virginia and louisville's offenses weren't as good as the media likes to think. it's amazing how quickly they evaporated when a good defense showed up to play. that's what separates the sec - we have the best defenses in the country.

and there you have it

2006-11-08T23:25:00.000-05:00

well, the democrats have taken over the senate and the house. i think that's mostly a result of frustration with the republicans than confidence in the democrats. i can understand the frustration with the republicans. they haven't done the best job. the question is, what are the democrats going to do about it? none of us have any idea because the democrats platform was "the republicans suck - i'm not republican". they criticized everything and offered no solutions. now that they can't point fingers it'll be interesting to see what they actually do. the only thing we know they're going to push through is a raised minimum wage. all it takes is an intro economics course to know that that's bad for the economy. so with nowhere to place blame but at themselves going forward, i wonder how they're going to do being in charge. something tells me that america's given them a chance, they'll let america down, and we'll be back to republican control in '08. the republican candidate for president should be celebrating this election. it's going to do wonders for his campaign.

here's how to tell a joke

2006-11-03T08:15:00.000-05:00

i almost went to jail

2006-10-24T23:04:00.000-04:00

but it wouldn't have been my fault. i'll explain. i went to miami yesterday for work. i was supposed to stay two nights for a class today, but once we get down there we find out the class was cancelled. so we came back early. we were there long enough for a drive over to south beach for an overpriced dinner at mangos tropical cafe right on ocean drive and a look at the scenery. while driving over to south beach i had a very strange moment. i've been to miami one other time but that was the part near hollywood with my buddy pete, but never to south beach. as we're driving over the bay into south beach i see the bridge to star island and start laughing. my co-worker who's from miami and is driving asks what's funny. i tell him, i know where we are. i've seen all of this before. only when i was here, i was tommy vercetti and i was driving a stolen car. i'd driven those roads in the video game vice city. i was tripping. i kept seeing things that looked familiar from the game. i saw the starlite motel where the game starts. i wanted to walk up the stairs to my room and change clothes. it was a very surreal moment and pretty freakin cool. i felt like stealing a car, shooting a haitian, and running from the cops until i got four stars. the game had come alive. i had a truly magnificent experience in vice city.

moving on up

2006-10-12T07:43:00.000-04:00

i have arrived. i'm living in the lap of luxury in atlanta for a couple of days for work. my hotel room(s) is(are) ridiculous. it's almost disgusting how nice this is. i'm not going back to gainesville. i'm going to live here in the hotel. pictures to come...

living large

2006-09-18T00:15:00.000-04:00

life has taken a nice little turn this past week. i experienced "business travel" for the first time and i liked it. i enjoy renting cars, staying in hotels and eating dinner on the company dime. i was in orlando last week and i'm going back again tomorrow night. next month i'm hitting tampa, atlanta, and miami. here are the hotels i'm staying in - tampa, atlanta, miami.

this weekend was a great football weekend. first off the gators beat fat phil fulmer and the vols at their house. then the icing on the cake was miami lost. and the cherry on top was fsu going down to clemson. and today the cowboys beat the redskins. and in fantasy football, in a move of sheer brilliance last week, i picked up rex grossman off of waivers because all i had on my roster for a qb was big ben. grossman got me 37 points today. life is good.

labor day

2006-09-04T11:50:00.000-04:00

or the absence of really. i'm enjoying my first paid holiday off ever. the first of the many, many i'll receive every year. i'm guranteed 10 bank holidays a year, plus the 15 days of vacation i get each year. yeah, that's right. if you do the math, that's five full weeks of vacation each year. and that's the starting rate. i plan on doing nothing today. laying around, playing some frisbee this evening, and then watching the fsu/ miami game tonight. that's always a tough one, because i hate them both. the hate for fsu runs a little deeper though so i'm hoping for another wide right moment. back to real football though, the gators had a fine showing on saturday. we started slow but ended with a bang. dallas baker had 9 catches for 123 yards and tony joiner had 5 tackles, 1 interception, and 1 pass break up. they're both former students of mine. from my view from the 15 yard line, 27 rows up i was able to capture tim tebow's first collegiate touchdown on video. you can watch it here. i also got a good picture of the ol' ball coach, as seen above.

in a note of sadness, the crocodile hunter steve irwin is dead.

GAME DAY

2006-09-02T12:14:00.000-04:00

it's here. the first game of the year. florida versus southern miss. at 6 pm. i'll be heading over to the campus soon to do a little tailgating hopping and just enjoy the spectacle that is florida football. it's going to be an interesting year. we're loaded with talent and also the toughest schedule in the land. there's a lot to be excited about though. it's the 100th anniversary of florida football and also the tenth anniversary of the national championship. the 96 championship team is going to be honored at the game today. even the ol ball coach is going to be there. i'm excited about the first game. watching them run out of the tunnel with the video of the gators on the scoreboards (the best intro in college football according to lee corso). watching Mr. Two Bits come out and lead the crowd in a cheer. grabbing your neighbors and swaying and singing "We are the boys from old Florida" at the end of the third quarter. singing the alma mater after the win. it's all glorious. you just don't know what you're missing.

We Are the Boys From Old Florida
F - L - O - R - I - D - A
Where The Girls Are the Fairest,
The Boys Are the Squarest
Of Any Old State Down Our Way (Hey)

We Are All Strong For Old Florida
Down Where the Old Gators Play (Go Gators)
In All Kinds of Weather
We'll All Stick Together
For F - L - O - R - I - D - A!!

T.O. practices for second straight day

2006-08-30T17:11:00.000-04:00

that should not be a headline....

get off of the star. thanks george teague.

my favorite t. o. moment. thanks roy williams.

it's that time of year

2006-08-29T22:24:00.000-04:00

i went running in the stadium today. it about killed me. i'm a full 6'4", 220 lbs. now. i was recently told that those were the specs of the perfect man, but i imagine whoever said that had a different body composition in mind than my current one. the more important fact is that the stadium is coming alive again. the grass is cut, the field is lined, the end zones are painted, the seat backs are in place. there are new banners celebrating the 100th year of florida football. it's a beautiful thing. this saturday, the season opens against southern miss. i'll be there in my gator jersey cheering them on. if you haven't been there you're missing out. nothing in all of college football beats a nice muggy, hot, humid home game in the swamp. sorry to those of you who have love for uconn, nc state, whoever else. they just don't compare. it's great to be a florida gator....

c'mon

2006-08-29T22:13:00.000-04:00

it's the one year anniversary of hurricane katrina making landfall. obviously it was a devastating event that destroyed lives and misplaced an enormous amount of people. it is truly something sad and awful. right now on hbo, spike lee's when the levees broke: a requiem in four acts is showing. i won't go into the fact that i think spike lee is a pathetic filmmaker who has yet to produce anything really worthwhile. this new documentary is less of a commentary on the devastation of katrina and more of an attack on white america and the government. this is a sensitive issue and it's nearly impossible to say anything negative about something like this without being a heartless jerk. however, i think lee's film is senseless, irrational channeled anger. i watched a few minutes that focused on where the people of new orleans ended up. it was clip after clip of former n. o. citizens talking about where all they'd been since katrina hit. their voices, along with the commentary by others, was filled with animosity at having been flown and bused far from home. one individual called it a type of slavery, akin to the auction block, selling the black citizens of n. o. to other places. while i was watching i was just thinking how everyone speaking had a roof over their head. they had food. they had clothes. their needs were taken care of. yet that wasn't enough. they wanted more. none of the film that i watched expressed gratitude to all of the aid that was sent to n.o. nothing about the volunteers, the charitable organizations, the financial contributions from around the country. also, where are the documentaries about mississippi? they're still devastated as well. mississppi was actually hit worse. why are they allowed to go unnoticed? for that matter, does anyone at all care about pensacola? the residents of pensacola still don't have all of their houses repaired either. they were hit two years ago. no one cares, no one blames the govt. for that.

everything's different

2006-08-22T21:48:00.000-04:00

a lot has happened in the past week. i'm officially going strong in my training. i'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that i am a full fledged adult. i now have in my possession the keys to two of our (our -> my employer) institutions and a corporate credit card with my name on it. i filled out the application today to become an official notary (on the company dime of course, so i got to use the corporate card). i also applied for a new driver's license and voter's registration card. i'm an ACR now. (that's alachua county resident for those who don't know. that's not usually viewed as a positive thing) for the first time, my permanent address is different than my parents. i'm actually pondering when i should take my vacation days this year; that's a paid vacation too by the way. i also enrolled in an hmo and dental and vision plans. my social circle is made up of masters/phd students and professors. the first year grad students are now the "kids". i'm four years older than them you know. that's what happens after 8 years of higher education. i'm starting a 401k. life has gone from a carefree existence where i still get to say what i want to be when i grow up, to wearing a suit daily to the office and "working for the weekends". it's all very surreal. i'm not yet sure how i feel about it. however, just to keep the irresponsible child in me alive, i went to some thrift stores this weekend to look for records and i picked up a 33 single of ron artest for a quarter. yes, it's as awful as it sounds. the magnum opus that the brawler created in his year off isn't so hot. it does have mike jones though. get lo......

p.s. how bout them cowboys.......screw t.o. and his hamstring

casa de freezer

2006-08-13T01:13:00.000-04:00

i hate the packing part the most

2006-08-05T08:08:00.000-04:00

i'm moving today. i'm actually taking a break from packing right now. i should be packing my kitchen, instead i'm enjoying an ice cold diet dr. pepper and surfing the internet. a procrastinator at his finest. i really despise moving. i counted it up the other day and this is like move 26 or 27 for me, somewhere in that range. keep in mind, i'm almost 26 years old. staying in the same exact apartment for two years straight, as i currently have, is like a permanent residence for me. and today i'm leaving it. pictures of the new place will come.

they can't shut me down

2006-08-02T18:04:00.000-04:00

my internet's been screwed up lately. but now i'm back on. lots has been happening. i've started training for my new job. it's cool. the real intensive training starts next week. the $$$ came in this past week though and made me not miss grad. school at all. i'm moving into my new place this weekend and right now my current apartment is a disaster. it looks like tim jenkins is living with me. this soon will pass. on a side note, why do so many people care about mel gibson's dui? since when did anyone care when an actor got drunk and drove and said something stupid? he broke the rule - you're not allowed to say derogatory statements about any groups of people except christians and white people. especially when you made a movie about jesus.....

thanks coach ada

2006-07-27T18:07:00.000-04:00

some pics of the gainesville crew from our fourth of july bbq. sad to see all of these guys leave. just three of us left out of the whole crowd.

7.22.06

2006-07-23T13:26:00.000-04:00

saturday, july 22, 2006 was a fantastic day. the focus of the day was the dashboard confessional concert that night in orlando, but much fun was had well before then. since t-bat is no longer in gainesville and couldn't go with me as was the original plan, my buddy chris and i headed to orlando. our first stop was the lakeridge winery. we did the tour and the wine tasting and enjoyed it thoroughly. next stop was sea world. chris already had an annual pass and i just bought one this week so we thought we'd hang out there before the concert. we then headed to planet hollywood for dinner and then the ghirardelli chocolate place, which was almost the undoing of chris. the cookie/ice cream thing came close to killing him. finally we made our way to the house of blues. john ralston and say anything were the openers. john ralston is a member of dashboard and i'd never heard any of his stuff but i liked it and will probably end up getting his cd. say anything was pretty good. the lead singer had a lot of energy and the band was fun. dashboard was outstanding. they were doing back to back to back shows at HOB friday/saturday/sunday. these are their only florida shows. so because of that chris carrabba's family was there as well as most of his bandmates from every band he'd ever been in and you could tell he was having a good time. they played a lot of old stuff and during the middle of the set he played old songs without the band, just him and his guitar like old school dashboard, which was great. the crowd still sings along fervently and the old songs brought out more crowd support than the new. they added a chick who plays the violin and it actually enhances some of the songs. they played for about an hour and a half. their encore was vindicated and of course hands down. they ended with hands down. at the end of hands down, chris had the band leave and finished the song with just him and an acoustic guitar which made for a good ending. my buddy chris loved it and he didn't know a single song. this was my third dashboard show and i liked it better than the last one, two years ago. all in all it was a very satisfying saturday.

tag this

2006-07-19T19:23:00.000-04:00

i decided today that i should use the scanner in my printer/copier/scanner since it just sits there all the time. so i did. i scanned a few pictures that i have that are in a photo album so i could put them on my computer. then i was inspired to create a photo album on facebook made up of those pictures. go check it out. if you're not on facebook i guess you're out of luck. i'll put a few of them up on here so you can have a taste.

sold out to the man

2006-07-16T10:38:00.000-04:00

yesterday was a big day for two reasons. first off i'm home in graceville for the weekend. had some furniture shopping to do at my grandparents/uncle and aunts. the selection isn't large there, but the price is right. anyway, before we left the house yesterday morning the mail came and in the mail was my diploma for my master's degree. two years of my life rolled up in a little cardboard tube. it's going to stay there for a couple of months until i can make myself pay for a diploma frame. the second event that had meaning yesterday was a trip to the store so i could buy a couple of suits. i walked away with a charcoal gray pinstripe and a navy pinstripe. very impressive. now those two events aren't really a big deal, because they're both post-climactic of the actual events they represent. they are however two more signs that i am fully an adult now and heading to the working world for good. it's funny how when i was younger, probably all the way until 20 or so, i always said that i would never work in an office or wear a suit. how much has changed. it's funny how falling for a girl will make you think about the future, getting a good job and not just a "fun" job, about saving for retirement, about having security in employment. none of this is bad, just signs of change.

there she goes

2006-07-13T17:46:00.000-04:00

i watched my best friend/girl friend drive away in a car filled with all of her belongings this morning and i don't know the next time i'll see her again. it's going to be a little lonelier than i thought over the next couple of years. i'm proud of her though. she's going to be a fantastic coach and i'm just a little jealous of her. i'd love to be a college coach at any level. my world lost a little bit of it's color today. i love you baby.

who cares about futbol...

2006-07-10T07:45:00.000-04:00

italy won the world cup and i'm happy. not because i like italy, but because i hate soccer and now i don't have to see or hear about it for four more years. since when did america pretend to like soccer? i've seen so many soccer jerseys here in gainesville in the past few weeks, mostly brazil of course. yesterday i read lots of away messages about how happy people were that italy won. like they have some sort of attatchment to italy that pre-dates the world cup final. the highlight of the whole thing to me was zinedine "the goat" zadane's head butt in ot. how in the world do you get knocked off of your feet by a head butt? that was awesome. totally retarded on zidane's part, but awesome nonetheless. another thing i learned during the world cup - soccer players are pansies. what a bunch of whiny litle girls. don't give me this gamesmanship crap either, they get hurt if someone bumps into them. anyway, no more soccer for four more years and i for one am glad.

nadal might have a better chance of beating federer if he wore shirts with sleeves and quit wearing those gay capri pants.

it's overtaken me

2006-07-08T16:34:00.000-04:00

i can't resist the temptation of vinyl. records are my new obsession.t-bat found a store here in town called hyde & zeke's that has hundreds of records. she bought me a few the other day there, and today she and i both went and i bought 16 more records. i'm up to 80 or 90 records now. here's the rundown of what i got.

Willie Nelson - The Troublemaker
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Babylon Bus
Neil Diamond - Hot August Night
Frank Sinatra - Sinatras Sinatra
Nat "King" Cole - The Very Thought Of You
Louis Armstrong - The Louis Armstrong Collection
James Taylor - James Taylor
Jean-Luc Ponty - Aurora
Rod Stewart - Greatest Hits
Toto - IV (yes it has africa on it)
Kansas - Leftoverture
Elton John - 11-17-70
Elton John - Empty Sky
Elton John - Rock of the Westies
Billy Joel - An Innocent Man
Billy Joel - Turnstiles

drumroll please.....

2006-07-06T18:29:00.000-04:00

the freezer/t-bat combo are both gainfully employed as of today. i'm a banker and she's a D-I v-ball coach. we're getting our start, heading straight for the top. ballers baby, livin' large!

big news coming soon....stay tuned

2006-07-06T01:16:00.000-04:00

in other news, t-bat bought me a couple records today including a neil diamond lp. sweet caroline is so much sweeter on vinyl.

don't look for the bride and groom

2006-07-06T01:10:00.000-04:00

the future

2006-06-29T22:53:00.000-04:00

i had an interview for a full time job yesterday. i was told i'd hear by the end of the week. i didn't hear anything today so i'm assuming i'll hear tomorrow. on the same note, t-bat has a face to face interview on saturday. both of us could know our immediate futures by the end of this weekend. unfortunately it looks like it's going to be taking us in opposite directions. i'm ready to know. the waiting is killing me. i just need to know something, either way. hold your thumbs....

our little boy's a man now

2006-06-25T21:19:00.000-04:00

i'm back in the sunshine state. after a jam packed weekend of revelry, celebration, and marriage i'm finally back in my room. it was questionable that i'd make it here after the missed flight incident at 6:50 in the am today, but here i am. i have slept less in the past four days than i usually sleep in a night and it was so worth it. the congressman is now married off and the reunion of sorts that was his reception was a great time. copious amounts of fun was had by all who were there. it was good to be back in carolina. i am thoroughly exhausted now. i've had one three hour nap since i got back and i'm loving the idea of bed right now. pictures will be coming soon, i'm too tired right now. (i'm listening to the smith's song "some girls are bigger than others" right now and i'm loving it) for a full wedding recap check out the "this is not a marriage of convenience" post by the stunna. i just want to say thanks to mom and pop congressman for being so cool. we saw the future of freezer and the stunna and our posse this weekend and it's bright. thanks to mom and pop mitchell for being gracious and enjoying our "decadence". it takes some special parents to enjoy the stunna, word, and freezer combined with the rest of the groomsmen. if you weren't there you missed a rousing rendition of you've lost that loving feeling by the groomsman that involved picking up the bride. it was good to see old friends. good times were had by all. time to sleep.....

jackpot

2006-06-11T19:08:00.000-04:00

i've found that since i no longer have to use my computer for school, i rarely bother getting on here. i don't hardly get on the internet at all now. it's actually kind of weird. i guess the biggest appeal was the distraction from my actual schoolwork that the 'net afforded me. i'm slowly getting back with it though. i have some news that i found blog-worthy for sure. nico and i stopped at the goodwill around the corner from us, after our lunch trip to moe's, so nico could look for a desk. i went over to the records because that's what i do when i'm in goodwill. the selection there is usually pretty poor. a lot of rogers and hammerstein musicals, old southern gospel, and a lot of gershwin. today was an entirely different story. i walked out of there with 30 new records @ 49 cents a piece. it was the friggin motherlode. here's the run down of what i got -

Air Supply - Greatest Hits
Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
John Denver - Windsong
John Denver - Poems, Prayers, and Promises
The Doobie Brothers - The Captain and Me
The Eagles - Self-Titled
The Eagles - On the Border
The Four Tops - Reach Out
The Guess Who - Wild One!
The Guess Who - Live at the Paramount
Billy Joel - Glass Houses
Billy Joel - The Stranger
Huey Lewis and The News - Sports
Dean Martin - I Can't Give You Anything But Love
The Marshall Tucker Band - Where We All Belong
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy
The Oak Ridge Boys - Greatest Hits
Peter, Paul, and Mary
Frank Sinatra - September of My Years
Bob Seger - Smokin' O.P.'s
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band - Stranger in Town
Carly Simon - No Secrets
Waylon Jennings - Greatest Hits
Gary Wright - The Dreamweaver

not a bad haul. the version of american woman on the guess who's live album is amazing. and it's just cool to hear stuff on vinyl. it made my time and basically doubled my record collection. i can call it an actual collection now. it was very good timing. myself and some friends went down to orlando yesterday to pat o'brien's and had a great time singing along to some of the songs i bought today at the piano bar. a high quality weekend without a doubt.

who put this on head games

2006-06-01T23:00:00.000-04:00

i'm working on an application for full time employment right now. if everything goes right, i'll have an interview next week. hold your thumbs....

two of my former students received bids to the outdoor track and field national championships. both are all-americans. sekou made it in the 400m and zan made it in the 4 x 400.

i just downloaded a new ringtone tonight. hot blooded by foreigner. check it and see.

this is one of those test posts

2006-05-31T23:32:00.000-04:00

that i occasionally need to do

blogger is telling me grategatsby.com doesn't exist anymore

i need to know if they think the empty freezer is still around

feel free to delete this anytime

(if it works)

just advertising the goods

2006-05-30T22:00:00.000-04:00

i went home for memorial weekend. t-bat came with me. she was with me, my parents, grandparents (3), uncles (2), aunts (3), and cousins (3) and she still likes me. that's actually pretty astounding to tell you the truth. much fun was had. we had a cookout on saturday, went to the beach on sunday, and shopping on monday. there's a little story from the beach that you all might appreciate. i bought some new board shorts a few weeks ago, the weekend of graduation actually. tim jenkins, butta, and ert were there. well i hadn't worn them yet, because i hadn't made it out to the pool or to the beach yet. we ate lunch at pineapple willy's on the beach, changed clothes and hung out on their beach. well i was pretty proud of my new board shorts, put em on and headed for the water. once i was in the water i quickly discovered my nice new white board shorts weren't really sea-worthy. i put on a show for all of panama city beach. who would've thought that board shorts wouldn't be water ready. i stayed out in the water until my uncle brought me a towel to cover the man parts until i could get back to my spot on the sand. needless to say, next time i wear the board shorts i'll have something on underneath. i'm thinking a nice black thong would look right....

what's in the ceiling?

2006-05-24T18:49:00.000-04:00

i've got an animal living in my ceiling. best guess is a raccoon. that thing is always scratching and clawing and moving around. supposedly they've got someone working on it, but rocky raccoon has been up there since the weekend.

looks like i'll be having an interview for a full time position with the bank in the next week or two. i could know my status in a month or less.

tonight, it's time for more of the world's fastest game. t-bat and i went to jai alai down in ocala last week. we're going back again this week. it's cheap, it's fun, and you get to bet on the games.

this morning in church

2006-05-22T00:04:00.000-04:00

we sang the hymn "depth of mercy" by charles wesley. it made an impression on me. i don't remember having ever sung this hymn before.

Depth of mercy! Can there beMercy still reserved for me?

Can my God His wrath forbear, Me, the chief of sinners, spare?

I have long withstood His grace, Long provoked Him to His face,

Would not hearken to His calls,Grieved Him by a thousand falls.

I have spilt His precious blood,Trampled on the Son of God,

Filled with pangs unspeakable,I, who yet am not in hell!

I my Master have denied,I afresh have crucified,

And profaned His hallowed Name, Put Him to an open shame.

Whence to me this waste of love?Ask my Advocate above!

See the cause in Jesus’ face,Now before the throne of grace.

Jesus, answer from above,Is not all Thy nature love?

Wilt Thou not the wrong forget,Permit me to kiss Thy feet?

If I rightly read Thy heart,If Thou all compassion art,

Bow Thine ear, in mercy bow,Pardon and accept me now.

Jesus speaks, and pleads His blood!He disarms the wrath of God;

Now my Father’s mercies move,Justice lingers into love.

Kindled His relentings are,Me He now delights to spare,

Cries, “How shall I give thee up?”Lets the lifted thunder drop.

Lo! I still walk on the ground:Lo! an Advocate is found:

“Hasten not to cut Him down,Let this barren soul alone.”

There for me the Savior stands,Shows His wounds and spreads His

hands.God is love! I know, I feel; Jesus weeps and loves me still.

Pity from Thine eye let fall,By a look my soul recall;

Now the stone to flesh convert,Cast a look, and break my heart.

Now incline me to repent,Let me now my sins lament,

Now my foul revolt deplore,Weep, believe, and sin no more.

i have returned

2006-05-18T21:35:00.000-04:00

so i've taken a hiatus from the blog. not intentional, it just happened. i haven't spent any time at all on the computer hardly. without e-mails to check for class or assignments to do, it just isn't as necessary. i kind of like it that way. work has taken up more time than i expected, but it still beats school. no homework at night. no books, no papers, no tests. i'm pretty close to working out a job as well. it will keep me here in gator country, but it comes with season tickets so i'm all for it. i'll also get paid $Texas compared to what i've always known so that will be nice. it also sets me up well for a future career. life as a grown-up isn't all that bad at all.....

does anyone else hate that gatorade commercial that shows the soccer clips while playing take me out to the ballgame?

and so it begins

2006-05-10T07:38:00.000-04:00

i graduated. it's real. school is but a memory. i've cleaned out my office, turned in my tutoring materials, effectively cutting myself off from the university of florida for good. it was a good time. graduation was mostly painless. my family came. tim jenkins, ert, butta and i had some laughs and a good time. all of that is over now. i'm getting ready for work right now. i'm starting today. yesterday i realized that today i'm going to work from 9-5 for the first time for the rest of my life. no more breaks, no more summers off, no more semesters in school. today begins the daily grind that will continue for the next forty years or so. kind of makes you want to go back to bed......or to school. guess i'll go to work though.

the freezer, B.S, M.S.

it's going to be a good time

2006-05-03T10:52:00.000-04:00

so later today, tim jenkins, butta, and ert are all heading down here to the sunshine state for a few days. since i have absolutely nothing to do, why not do nothing with some other people? so we're going to see what trouble we can get in to and basically not accomplish anything in the next few days (except that walking across the stage thing, i'm doing that). the only problem is that i'm going to clean my apartment today because my family will all be here this weekend. the challenge will be keeping it that way with tim jenkins here. tim, you gotta stay somewhat clean this time. no trashing my room. oh and the neighbors woke me up at 3:30 this morning with their music. i'm going to complain to the office again in a little bit and throw in the fact that we have vomit on one of our stairwells from one of their lovely friends who couldn't hold his liquor after their party last weekend. if they get loud while the fellas are here, we're going down there ert.......gotta intimidate them a little bit. tell them to go back to miami. everyone from miami should never be allowed to leave, they should all go back. i hate all people from miami....

that's a first

2006-04-30T13:29:00.000-04:00

i'm sitting here typing a paper for my online class and i heard someone knock on the door. i answered it and it's a lady in a sari with some books in her hand. it was the hare krishnas, going door to door. she gave her little schpiel showed me their version of the bible and asked me what i thought and i told her i disagreed with her. she continued talking, telling me that she thinks i'll find krishna similar to christianity and gave me a little booklet about their faith. when she was all done she asked for a donation to the cause. when i said no thanks, she was like how about just a quarter or 50 cents? i said no, and she kept asking. she's got to be the worst missionary ever. i knew christians and mormons went door to door but i didn't know the krishnas did too. i knew there were a lot of them here in gainesville, but i assumed i was pretty safe in my third floor apartment of people spreading their faith. if you're going to go to someones door dressed weird, talking about ancient writings hidden in sanskrit and worshipping goddesses and such, you probably shouldn't ask for money if you want a warm reception. (she's knocking on the door again. i'm not answering this time.) this is the second weird experience i've had in two days with people asking for money. yesterday i was in my car in a left turn lane with the window down and i saw a dude walking down the median. he saw my window down and stopped and asked me for a quarter. i was on the phone with t-bat and i told him i didn't have any change. he was like not even a quarter? and i said no, i don't have any change and i kept talking to tammi. the dude looks at me and goes, "i'm going to kill you". i was like huh? so i looked at him, said, "alright" and kept talking. he continued walking down the median asking people for money. it really pissed me off. now i'm not sure if i should sleep with one eye open or not....

do the work

2006-04-30T09:56:00.000-04:00

so i've been a little busy this weekend. i've been completing the majority of the assignments for my on-line class that i hadn't gotten to. it's been considerably more work than i anticipated. it's made me a little nervous actually about completing it and graduating. failing an on-line course and not graduating would be slightly embarrassing. i got an e-mail from the professor yesterday asking where i was at and i wrote him back and respectfully told him i'd been a slacker and wanted to get enough done to pass with a C. he wrote back and told me if i get the work done i'll definitely get a C. i think i still have a shot at a B, but i'll gladly take the C and my diploma. so i've still got some work to do, but the end is in sight.

on a side note, i'm pretty happy with the cowboys draft so far. i like the bobby carpenter pick a lot. i don't know much about the tight end from notre dame, but i'd really liked to have seen them pick leonard pope from georgia instead. that man is a beast. can't wait for the draft to get started again today. by the way, how lucky was matt leinart to drop to number 10? he gets to throw to anquan boldin and larry fitzgerad and he has edgerrin james in the backfield. not many early first round qb's get that luxury. i'm looking to see my students get drafted today. watch for dee webb and jeremy mincey. raise your hand if you were the college professor of an (hopefully) nfl draft pick..........what, no other hands up? guess that makes me the only one....

the end of an era

2006-04-27T11:36:00.000-04:00

i woke up this morning and didn't go to class. yesterday was the last day of class for the semester. but it's much bigger than that. i woke up today and didn't go to class and i will never have to go to class again. i'm done. i still have a few assignments for an on-line class to finish up, but that's all that's between me and my master's. one week from saturday i'm walking across the stage which will officially signify the end of my van-wilderesque career (and it's definitely been a career) in higher education. for the past 8 years i have been a full time student. eight consecutive years of classes and tests and papers and projects and being broke and having little to no responsibility. well, it's all over now. i've been to BCF , CU, and now UF. it's been a long ride, but i'm finally ready to get off. in those 8 years i've been to three schools, had three majors, lived in two different dorms, three houses, and two apartments (not counting the summers). i've had summer jobs as an intern at a church, a construction worker, a waiter, chick-fil-a, room service at a hotel, and a bank. i've accumulated 207 credit hours, and will receive two degrees. those two degrees that have taken me eight years, are in p.e. and sports management. some would say that those aren't the most challeging majors. the best part is, because i switched my major after my junior year of college, i took 171 hours of required courses. the first electives i've ever taken were this semester. i was a freshman for three semesters, a sophomore for a year, a junior for two years, and a senior for two. that's just undergrad. i've had senioritis as long as most people stay in college. i am now 7-8 years older than a college freshman. i'm sure my mom's glad that i'm finally going to get a job and probably get married. and it's time. for the first time in my life, i don't want to go to school anymore. i've had my fair share.

it's actually real

2006-04-25T21:54:00.000-04:00

i got my cap, gown, and hood yesterday. one more day of classes, one week and half til graduation!

he says he rules you frylock

2006-04-24T18:03:00.000-04:00

i was having a discussion with several other grad students in the college of health and human performance this weekend. it was mostly master's students and one phd student. the phd student was saying how he didn't think it was fair that a phd is the only degree that changes your title (from mr. to dr.) his opinion was that names should change in steps as you get your degrees. he thought you should get a different title for each degree. i told him that i was fine with not having a name change as long as i was allowed to end all sports discussions from now on. for instance, let's say i'm at a sports bar and i'm watching the game and some random guy disagrees with a call and i say that the call was correct. right when the guy starts to tell me i'm wrong, i would just interrupt him and say, "sorry, but i'm the master here. that makes me right." the only way for him to continue the discussion would be if he too had mastered the subject. or if the table next to me at a restaraunt was having a sports discussion and one of the people involved asked another guy's opinion, i'd just butt in and be like, i'll take this one guys. don't you think that would be great? i think that would be awesome. starting may 6th i will now be the ending point in sport management related conversations. that's how it should be. and if someone disagrees with me, i'll just tell them that i have a degree that says i'm the master, you will treat me as such. any thoughts? bennyj, butta, and tommy johns, i know you guys would be down with this. you too soon tim jenkins. same goes for killa j.

sports musings

2006-04-23T17:24:00.000-04:00

the latest episode of real sports has a story about a swimmer. not a normal swimmer though. the guy (i don't remember his name) has swam in all 5 of the world's oceans. that's right, he's swam in the arctic and antarctic oceans. his hobby is swimming in cold water. really cold water. 32 degree water. and he wears only a speedo. he says wet suits are for sissies. he swam an entire kilometer (2/3 mile) in the antarctic ocean like that. and to top it off, in the arctic and antarctic ocean's there are killer whales and polar bears. a physiologist is studying him, because he's something of a marvel. the physiologist discovered that when he arrives at the water he's going to swim in, his body temperature actually rises when he looks at the water. i find this fascinating.......and retarded.

on the sports reporters today, they said a new story says that the new york yankees support six other mlb franchises through revenue sharing and that they generate 27% of all revenue in baseball. so how can people hate them? and again, george steinbrenner is a genius and one of the best sports owners ever.

there were 45,200 people at our spring game yesterday. last year we had 58,000. yet last year espn broadcasted south carolina's game (which had 28,000 they claimed) and this year espn's spring football story was about the youngest clausen kid attending notre dame's game and how he's going to verbally commit to them this week. they seem to have forgotten that we had timmy tebow playing in our game (leading his orange team to the win while going 15-21 for 197 yards) with the largest crowd in the country watching.

spurs 122 - kings 88 in the first game. spurs are going to win it all again!

finished

2006-04-20T18:39:00.000-04:00

i found out today i passed my last and final comp! i still have some work to do before the semester's over, but it feels like it's done already. 5 for 5 on comps.......didn't have to redo a thing.

ahhhh, football

2006-04-20T17:08:00.000-04:00

this time of year is what i think of as the dead time for sports. it's the time of year when sportscenter is dominated by baseball, golf, nascar, and hockey "highlights". well, we still have the nba but that's it. it's the time of year i hate. but there is one bright spot. spring football. they were striping the field today, getting ready for the spring game. the orange and blue game is saturday and i'm pretty excited about that. here's to sports other than baseball!

where's the hate?

2006-04-19T21:17:00.000-04:00

so i'm doing some schoolwork and i have the tv on as usual. there's not much on so i was flipping through the channels and stopped on vh1. it just happens to be the glaad media awards show. (for those of you who don't know, glaad is the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation) as i'm watching this and reading about pride awareness week events here at uf this week and the gay rights movement in general, i'm struck by how misleading it is in my opinion. the thrust of these events and shows and actions are to fight against the constant "discrimination" that gay people apparently face daily. it is my personal opinion that gay people in many ways, are one of the most privileged communities in america today. consider the amount of attention homosexuality garners. most estimates say that gay people make up anywhere from 1-4% of our population. do you know any other segment of society that small that has an awards show on a major mainstream cable network? do you know of any community that small that has their own pride weeks and events at every major university and city across this country? stop and think about it. there are gay bars, gay clubs, gay travel agencies, gay cruises, gay pride weeks, gay publications, gay olympics, gay neighborhoods and communities, gay churches, and the list goes on. disney world even has a gay day. there are businesses and companies that are specifically for gay people all across this country. now i have no problem with that, but i'd say that does not show a pattern of widespread discrimination and hate. in fact i'd say that for it's size, the gay community is one of the most celebrated segment of our modern day society. there is an actual effort to push gay people to the forefront of our society, through the media. the glaad media awards is an example of this. now in contrast those who call themselves christians in this country are a huge segment of our country. but could you imagine mtv or vh1 hosting an awards show for positive accurate portrayals of christians in the media? i doubt it. what this says to me is it's not about dollars and sense here. there aren't enough gay people in america to justify a show tailored for gay people during prime time. it's obviously more than business, it's an effort to promote homosexuality. which is fine, but again i'd say that it doesn't show discrimination. there's a lot of talk about hate, but it seems like nothing but love to me.

the swamp is the other way

2006-04-18T13:40:00.000-04:00

now yesterday this gator, who was apparently lost, decided to cross the street in gainesville. not just any street, 34th street, a major road here in gainesville. (tim you can see the wall we painted behind the cars) the gator crossed the road and walked into a vacant condo that's being renovated and hung out until an alligator trapper removed him.

i don't know about you guys, but that gator looks like he has really long legs.

quick trivia question for you - what's the only kind of alligator you can't outrun?

a FLORIDA GATOR!

HAPPY EASTER!

2006-04-16T17:36:00.000-04:00

it's a celebration....

2006-04-07T22:31:00.000-04:00

so i went to the national championship celebration/pep rally in the o'dome tonight. it was a little crazy. it was filled to its capacity of 12,000 with more people over in the football stadium watching on closed circuit tv. it was nuts. this town has lost its mind. earlier in the day i got a picture with the national championship trophy. that was sweet. the coolest part of the night is when they pulled a cover off the floor and instead of the normal orange and blue floor was the actual final four floor! apparently the champs have the option of buying the floor if they want it and the gators wanted it. so the uaa ponied up $70k for the floor and we're going to play on the winning floor for years to come. they're going to sand it down and repaint it for next year's season. after the whole thing was over i was able to sneak my way over and get a pic with my former student adrian. he tried to leave for like 30 minutes and couldn't away from the mob. celebrity on a level gainesville hasn't known since '96. all of the sophomores said they were coming back in the fall tonight too, but we shall see. joakim noah said it best, "the gator boys are really, really hot right now"

what do you think?

2006-04-07T00:57:00.000-04:00

i don't know if any of you have heard of or watched hbo's new show "big love", but it's about a family of polygamists in utah. the man of the house has three wives. it's an interesting idea to say the least. what i found intriguing was an interview with one of the women who plays one of the wives on the show. here's a little excerpt from the interview. see what you think.

HBO:Did you think the idea was really off the wall?

Ginnifer: "Oh absolutely. When I first read it, I had no idea in the world that there was still polygamy in the United States. I knew that in the history of every religion, there was a way to procreate and spread the religion. But I didn't know that it still had any sort of religious thesis. Doing the research, I started finding essays by women for whom the marriages are the answer to their emotional and religious needs. It's just another alternative lifestyle, something that's purely good for some people. So even though it's outside my moral frame of reference, I really sort of fell in love with the idea for certain people. I made such a full turn, I don't even think of it as off the wall."

almost there

2006-04-06T18:20:00.000-04:00

i'm working on my last and final comp right now. it's only 6:20 and i have already started writing so i'm several hours ahead of where i'm normally at the night before the paper's due. i'm almost finished with grad school. i've been in higher ed. forever yet it really doesn't seem that long. even though i can't really remember not being in college so i guess it has been awhile. i've applied several places, but i'm starting to think i'm going to have to go the internship route. i'm going to apply for internships in academic advising at austin-peay and utah this weekend. i should have a really good shot at getting an internship. a full-time job may be hard to swing. these aren't your normal internships. bachelor's degrees are required and master's preferred for both of them. they just don't pay that well and it's one more year of a temporary living situation, but it won't be too bad. we'll see what happens. gotta get that paper done......

IT'S GREAT TO BE A FLORIDA GATOR!

2006-04-04T01:09:00.000-04:00

'Neath the orange and blue victorious, our love shall never fail. There's no other name so glorious, all hail, Florida, hail!!!

navigating the ways of women

2006-04-02T19:41:00.000-04:00

here's a little story on how not to talk to women if you want them to like you. on saturday nico and i and some other people went to gator's dockside to watch the basketball game. we got there three hours early to get a table and since we were there for so long we started talking with girls at the table next to us. nico, being his normal self is trying to flirt with them. he's talking to this one chick and he tells her she has "pretty eyes". apparently the girl can tell he's full of bs and says, well what color are they? nico says "brown" and the girl's like, no they're green. he got shot down so fast it wasn't even funny. the moral is, if you tell a girl she has pretty eyes you've got to know what color they are.

oh we back

2006-04-01T14:07:00.000-05:00

i'm still alive. it's been too busy lately to get on here and write anything. lots going on this week. there was a test in micro, so i've been putting in some serious tutoring time every night with my athletes, but i think it paid off this time. i made a quick trip as a chauffer to tampa last night and got to see my old pal, aj so that was cool. in the past week i've been able to meet up with him, jeff, justin, cartee, and bethany - all good friends from my BCF days. those were good times back then and good times meeting up with them again. i missed out on a good time with some good friends last night, but thanks for the phone call guys.....my bad for not answering.

we're down to the last month of school. may 6 i'm all done with a master's degree. crazy to think about. so far i've mastered the search part of the job search. now if i could get going on the job part it would be great. so along with a degree, unemployment might follow. it seems like i could have made it to unemployment with a lot less education.

the gators continue their run to the national championship tonight. i personally think we're the best team in the country and should win. whether we will remains to be seen, but we are the best team. no one's as deep as us or as versatile as us. we can beat you any way you want to play. george mason's had a nice little run and they're a sweet story but it all ends tonight. i'm going to go ahead and go out on a limb here and say that not only will we win tonight, but we're going to win by double digits. noah and horford are simply too much inside for a couple of 6'7" guys and we'll take care of business on the perimeter. george mason is pretty much a team just like villanova with less talented players. so the same result should be expected - gators come out on top. watch out for our lone senior, #4 adrian moss. he's the leader of this team and he was my student last semester.

everyone should be watching little people, big world. i'm taping it tonight @ 8.

they're all gone

2006-03-22T13:49:00.000-05:00

it's official. every last player from the cowboys super bowl teams of the nineties are gone. they cut larry allen today. i know he was going to cost a lot, but i'd like to see him around for a little while more. the dude is amazing. espn said that, "Thus, this decision likely cuts ties between the club and one of the most dominant blockers in NFL history." that pretty much sums it up. no keyshawn johnson, no le'roi glover, and now no larry allen this year. and we added freaking t.o. i might not watch football this fall....

thank you amazon.com

2006-03-20T19:44:00.000-05:00

i just ordered some stuff from amazon.com this weekend. bury my heart at wounded knee should be here tomorrow and fdr's folly: how roosevelt's new deal prolonged the depression shortly after that. and today i ordered the life aquatic criterion collection for $5 and some change. now that's a deal....

0-16

2006-03-18T10:26:00.000-05:00

that's what i'm rooting for this year if the cowboys sign terrell owens. it looks like they've come to an agreement and if he plays for the cowboys next season i hope they lose every game that he steps foot on the field. i dislike him more than any other football player in the league. there's no way i'm getting over him posing on the star. i hope he has a career ending injury in camp....

commence to jigglin'

2006-03-16T18:02:00.000-05:00

ma$e will make you dance.....

north carolina was a good time. tim jenkin's birthday party was a success. the group of people in that room may never be assembled in the same place ever again. the creek has changed, yet somehow stays the same. all in all it was worth the trip.

sippin' on some sizzyrp....

2006-03-05T23:22:00.000-05:00

the oscars officially mean nothing now. two of the members of the distinguished three six mafia now possess an academy award. they won for best song in a film for "it's hard out here on a pimp". these are the guys who gave us masterworks like "sippin on some syrup" "ridin' spinners" and don't forget "a$$ 'N ti&%*#s". wow. that's really all i can say about that. wow.

i just want to go on record saying i hate the oscars. now, this is nothing new but i want it to be known. first of all, i never like the winners. this year's theme seemed to be forbidden love, with king kong and brokeback mountain cleaning up. king kong is up there in the top five for worst movies i've ever seen in a theater. seriously, peter jackson i want my money back. the next thing that drives me crazy is how all of the actors seem to think that what they do matters in the big scheme of things. i have news for you, george clooney has never changed anyone's life. nor has a gay cowboy, or a giant gorilla, or anything else on film. you guys provide us with distractions to entertain ourselves. you do not contribute to society. and on top of that, they talk about how films speak out against societal ills. i actually heard them mention homelessness in this patting each other on the back session. how can people who live in homes the size of palaces and eat $50 hamburgers have the balls to say they care about those in need? honestly, let's be real. you're rich, you're talented, you're entertaining and that's where it ends. you are no greater than that and you leave no stamp on history. basically, the oscars epitomize the shallow, materialistic culture that is modern america. they could probably feed the entire country of rwanda for a day on the amount of money that will be spent on after parties tonight. don't tell me what you do matters. did anyone else catch all of the shameless promotion of watching movies in theaters instead of at home on dvd? pathetic....

fire it up

2006-03-04T15:13:00.000-05:00

my buddy jeff sold me some of his records and i got them in the mail today. i'm pretty excited about that. thanks again jeff. here's what i got.

Boston - self titled (it's got more than a feeling on it)
Miles Davis - the man with the horn
Miles Davis - bitches brew
Amy Grant - age to age
Billy Joel - streetlife serenade
Billy Joel - 52nd street
The Beatles - 20 greatest hits
The Beatles - love songs
Willie Nelson - partners
Wang Chung - mosaic
The Beach Boys - spirit of america
The Beach Boys - endless summer
The Beach Boys - m. i. u. album
Barry White - let the music play
Joan Baez - diamonds & rust
Linda Ronstadt - greatest hits
Lionel Richie - self-titled
Tina Turner - private dancer
Frank Sinatra - sinatra sings......of love and things
Ray Charles - modern sounds in country and western music

why being a grad student in florida = great

2006-03-04T15:10:00.000-05:00

yesterday, i worked in my office until about noon. i decided i was tired and wanted to go home and take a nap. and since it was about 85 and sunny, nico and i went out and took a nap by the pool for about an hour and a half. the ability to blow off the afternoon and sleep outside in march is what i'm going to miss about school....

no barry, no.....

2006-03-01T14:18:00.000-05:00

2006-02-26T17:57:00.000-05:00

it was on again with the fellas downstairs this weekend. they decided to have a little party again on friday night. i threw the medicine ball on the floor when they got loud and they came upstairs to tell me they were having a party. i told them i didn't care, i wanted to sleep. this was at about 11:30 at night. they said they'd turn the bass off and they did for a little bit. but then they turned it back up and i called the cops. this time though i told them i wanted to be contacted by an officer. so when he called me, the guys downstairs had quieted down again, so i told him not to come. at 1:30 they cranked it back up and woke me up. so i called the cops again. the cops came and shut it down. the cop called me afterward to let me know what happened. he told me they were smoking weed, because he could smell it and that they sprayed him with air freshener and were really belligerent. that's not the way to cozy up to a cop. so he gave them both a warning. that means if there is any noise from their apartment in the next 90 days they'll each receive a $125 fine and it escalates each time after that. the guys asked the cop if i was the one whole called them and he said i don't know, probably. and then he told me the highlight of the conversation. he told them he was going to go upstairs and tell me how i had both of them by the balls from now on. so we own those guys. i'm 100% confident that they will have another party. at the first hint of noise i'm calling the cops and these guys are going to pay, literally. and then i'm taking it to the office to try to get them evicted. ahhhh, sweet justice.

deja vu all over again

2006-02-24T00:38:00.000-05:00

i was just here two weeks ago. it's 12:37 am and i'm up working on my comp that's due tomorrow at 5. for a guy about to get his master's, i'm really dumb. i've had two weeks to do this, yet i have this unnatural aversion to starting schoolwork until i have that last minute pressure squeezing the paper out of me. i simply cannot do work without the pressure of a deadline. i'm completing my 8th straight year (8!) of higher education and sometimes it seems like i haven't learned a thing. if i was really smart, i'd be typing my paper right now instead of this post. but that's not the kind of guy i am folks. right now i'm wasting time on here, drinking vanilla caramel tea with soy milk, listening to elliot smith on vinyl, and trying to write about how four sociological theories view the issue of amateurism in college athletics. i'm not sure what that says about me. if you've got any interpretations i'd be glad to hear it. until then, i've got a paper to write.......oh, and a project i have to redo before my class at 8 am. a paper alone is simply not enough....time to flip the record over and get cranking. or maybe i'll take a 20 minute nap. i am kind of sleepy....

i sure hope so

2006-02-23T23:35:00.000-05:00

i just heard some great news on espn. the patriots did not name adam vinateri as their franchise player so he becomes a free agent. john clayton said that if he doesn't work out a long term deal with the pats, don't be surprised if he goes to the cowboys. this would be awesome. vinateri is the greatest player by far, in my opinion, on the entire pats team. his leg won way more games than tom brady's arm. i really would be glad if the 'boys got vinateri....

did you hear what he said

2006-02-22T21:38:00.000-05:00

bryant gumbel that is. did you hear about his thoughts on the winter olympic games that he shared on hbo's real sports? i hadn't either. my buddy bennyj told me about it during a phone call tonight. here's what he said -
"Count me among those who don’t care about them and won’t watch them. In fact, I figure that when Thomas Paine said that “these are the times that try men’s souls,” he must’ve been talking about the start of another Winter Olympics. Because they’re so trying, maybe over the next three weeks we should all try too. Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the winter games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won."

amazing isn't it? not that he said it, but that we haven't heard about it. we all know about rush limbaugh's comments about donovan mcnabb that got him fired. (Rush said that he thought Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb has always been overrated because liberal sports reporters are blinded by a desire to see a black quarterback succeed.) i would put gumbel's statement on par with limbaugh's, yet there haven't been stories about it. i have however heard the accusations of racism by the black speed skater towards his teammates. i haven't really heard any particular evidence supporting that, just an accusation. yet, it's given media attention and credence. it seems to me that we've developed into a culture where white people are overly sensitive of making any kind of racially charged statement for fear of retribution while black people are free to speak unchecked. this extends to all forms of media including tv, movies, newspapers, music, sports, and definitely comedy. this is a shame. now maybe i'm an ignorant fool, but i honestly do not believe in the widespread racism towards minorities that is so often perpetuated in the media. race is not always the motivator. the race card is tossed out way too frequently and carelessly it seems to me. considering the speed skater situation isn't it possible that the guy's teammates are just jackasses? or perhaps they're jealous of the guy's success? or maybe even the guy himself is a jackass? why is race automatically the reason for conflict? i don't get it.

she's lucky the bear wasn't hungry...

2006-02-21T21:46:00.000-05:00

i bet her kids never talk back to her. i'm not sure why this was on espn.com. i guess because the kids were playing hockey.

six simple words

2006-02-21T13:36:00.000-05:00

made my day. they came in an e-mail from my dept. chair and it said -

"Congratulations! You passed your first comp. "

four more to go....

a beat down

2006-02-20T19:28:00.000-05:00

i felt like ron artest tonight. my suspension is officially over. i'm off the intramural black list. only i was suspended for two games, not the whole season like artest. that's a small difference in our situations. tonight, in my first game back we only had four players. that makes it difficult to win. especially when the other team has four guys who could dunk......hard. and dunk they did. every possession was a fast break almost. for them, not us. one guy tried to come down the lane and dunk on me straight up. that i could not allow. i put the ball straight to the floor. it was awesome. somehow we still managed to score 51 points. the bad part is the other team had 87. i had somewhere over 30, a career high. i felt like ron artest once again, the post-trade to sacramento artest that is. or maybe a little like kobe.....

i'm not entirely sure, but i think i really like bode miller. oh, and i still hate nascar.

college life with the boys in a nutshell....

2006-02-17T16:28:00.000-05:00

on his way

2006-02-17T16:15:00.000-05:00

it's almost impossible not to like this guy. one of the happiest people i've ever known. he's a guy that wanted to be friends with everybody he ever met and usually it worked out. now he's taking it international and will try to befriend the entire country of taiwan, just as soon as he teaches them to speak english. i talked to him on the phone last night and he headed out today for the far east. enjoy your time there buddy. it's the experience of a lifetime. stay safe d-ray.

in loving memory of....

2006-02-16T17:59:00.000-05:00

ert called and gave me the sad news today. our dear pal, iknignaught the fish, passed away today. he was a darn good fish. iknignaught was a friend, a fighter, and most of all a survivor. i mean that literally, he survived several death matches with other beta's, as well as being seasoned with some fish seasoning while in his bowl, a cold sam adams being poured into his tank, and an attempt at flushing him down the toilet when i mistakenly thought he was dead. i purchased iknignaught from wal-mart about two years ago (along with ur. ur and old blue did not survive the death matches) and kept him until i left CU, when i handed him over to ert's care. this fish deserves our sympathy, compassion, and respect. he was a darn good fish. koko, i appreciate the sympathy call. i suggest that we all have a moment of silence in iknignaught's honor tonight. to the best fish a guy could ever have, the fish that could not be held down, i'm gonna miss you buddy.

R.I.P. iknignaught

2004-2006

in the mail today....

2006-02-16T17:50:00.000-05:00

i got the info for registering for the regalia for graduation. it's not really important, but it's one more reminder that school is almost done. i like that.

world domination

2006-02-14T13:38:00.000-05:00

the fighting camels are leading the nation in scoring at 83.7 a game. right ahead of duke, washington, east tennessee state, memphis, and uconn. freaking incredible.

“When I took the job nearly 3 years ago, I was of the mindset to play an up-tempo style,” said Laing, who has adopted many of the offensive principles he has learned from one of his coaching mentors, Don Maestri of Troy University. “We’ve finally put together over the course of time the ingredients to let us do that. Saying that we were going to play fast wasn’t press conference talk, or recruiting jargon, it is the way we play.”

hi-o!

i don't have a girlfriend, but i do know someone who would be mad at me for saying that

2006-02-14T13:17:00.000-05:00

happy valentine's day. this is an amusing holiday to me. i personally enjoy it. girls though love/hate it. what i find funny is deep down they all love it. yes, all of them love it. there are two kinds of girls - those who love valentine's day and those who say they don't but they really do. they just say that because they're bitter that they don't have anyone to celebrate with and really they're wishing, dying to have someone to spend valentine's day with. those "single awareness day" girls are the ones who can't get a date so they resent those who do. dumb girls. so remember that, every girl loves valentine's day.

the days are getting longer

2006-02-13T22:10:00.000-05:00

for some reason, finishing my first comp. has given me this enormous sense of accomplishment and i have this feeling of freedom, like i'm finally caught up with all the work i need to do. somehow i've managed to hide the fact that i have another one due next week from myself. (and another one two weeks later, and one more two weeks later, and the pattern continues for 8 weeks) i have spent the good majority of my evening last night and tonight tutoring my athletes for their first test in micro on wednesday. i'm hopeful that my effort will be fruitful. and since i've spent so much time on this course, i believe that i've studied more for this class than any of the classes i've actually taken for myself. weird.

so mine and t-bat's valentine's date was outstanding.everything was awesome, the atmosphere, service, bread, steak, wine, mashed potatoes, it was all fantastic. (i particularly enjoyed the crazy old woman in the booth behind us. she was decked out in some gaudy, but expensive dress, fingers covered in bling, and giant sunglasses. the restaurant is really dark by the way. i think she was stoned and that's why she was wearing glasses. she seemed a little loopy.) by far the best steak i've ever eaten. this is probably because it's the nicest restaurant i've ever eaten in. it was worth it, but it's not going to become a habit any time soon. not until i start making $texas like future ert.

in a brilliant display of being an outstanding girlfriend, my lady bought me the first season of scrubs for valentine's day. that's a darn good gift. and a darn good girlfriend.

in a side note, i've actually started to enjoy getting up at 6 am every day. i've been doing that so i could fit everything i needed to do into my day. the days are surprisingly long when you get up that early.....

i haven't slept for ten days, that would be entirely too long

2006-02-11T13:30:00.000-05:00

my first paper is finished and turned in for my comprehensive exams. i stayed up all night thursday working on it. it was due friday by 5. i started it thursday. i had three weeks to write it. who needs sleep anyway? it was about the effectiveness of the organizational structure of the uaa here at uf. now you can see why i didn't want to get started on it. really boring. one down, four more to go.

it just occurred to me yesterday when i was talking to a friend that i'm registered for an online class this semester that starts in march that i know nothing about. i wonder if i'll get an e-mail or something.....

i'm taking t-bat out for valentine's day tonight because i have to tutor on tuesday night. we're going to mark's us prime, a steak house downtown. it's supposed to be like a ruth's chris. it should be good.

i'll get to it......later

2006-02-09T15:54:00.000-05:00

so i'm working on a paper right now. a big one actually. it's the first of my comprehensive exam papers. instead of sitting in a room taking tests for several hours in a row, the old way of doing comps, i now have the option of writing five 2500 word papers every two weeks throughout the semester. i'm writing the papers. the first one is due tomorrow by 5. i'm not even close to done. i really should get just one paper done early, before i end my academic career. in a twist of irony, i have to stop at 6:30 for a tutoring session with one of my guys. slightly amusing that i, the man with horrible study habits, will be helping another person study. so in the spirit of procrastination i'm going along with my pal tim jenkins request and this is the result:

Three Names You Go By:
1. Freezer
2. JFreeze/J-Rod
3. my real name.....that's four names

Three Things That Scare You:
1. girls with big sunglasses
2. not finding a job when i graduate
3. looking back in thirty years and realizing i haven't accomplished anything resembling greatness

Three of Your Everyday Essentials:
1. sportscenter
2. breakfast
3. toothbrush

Three Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
1. glasses
2. my house shoes......house shoes will enhance your life, get some
3. a long-sleeve t-shirt of an organization i'm a member of

Three of Your Favorite Drinks:
1. diet dr. pepper - any form
2. caramel apple cider
3. orange juice

Three of Your Favorite Songs - at the moment:
1. girl - beck
2. seen it all before - amos lee
3. sometimes you cant make it on your own - u2

Three Things You Want in a Relationship (other than Real Love):
1. a friend
2. security
3. a hottie

Two Truths and a Lie:
1. i've always wanted to be a royal canadian mountain policeman
2. i once owned a hanson cd
3. i have jerry falwell's autograph

Three of Your Favorite Hobbies:
1. napping
2. reading/learning..........what i want, not what i have to
3. sports

Three Things You want to do really badly right now:
1. graduate
2. sleep
3. get in shape

Three Places You Want to go on Vacation:
1. ireland
2. san diego
3. africa

Three Things You Want to Do Before You Die:
1. do something reckless, like quit my job and move to africa
2. have children and a happy family
3. understand what being a christian really means
4. get a phd.......i'll have four things if i want to

Three Ways that you are stereotypically a Chick/Guy:
1. i had a disagreement with t-bat yesterday b/c she asked me what color her hair was and i said brown. she asked what kind of brown and i said brown, there are no kinds of brown in my world.....
2. i will watch any sort of competition as long as they keep score
3. i don't buy my friends gifts for birthdays, christmas, etc. because it's unnecessary and i probably didn't know it was their birthday

Three people I would like to see take this quiz:
1. jeff watkins
2. bennyj
3. micah

that's what happens when you own someone...

2006-02-08T22:08:00.000-05:00

i'm in my office on campus right now. not because i want to be, but because i have to be. the internet at my apartment isn't working right now. the people in the office told me this afternoon that some work was being done and they had disconnected the line, but they assured me it would be taken care of. well, it's not. either that wasn't really what's going on or the repair man just decided it would be funny if he didn't connect the line when he left. either way, i'm stuck in my office doing work.

i'm really starting to hate south carolina. what's the deal....

if you didn't know, mark cuban owns phil jackson. phil's such a crybaby...

i don't have it

2006-02-07T13:38:00.000-05:00

this is my niece, sarah grace. she's looking for something in that picture. i'll tell you what it is. her tent.... she got a little tent for christmas. while i was there, we played in the tent and she really liked it. well, around the time i left missouri her parents put her tent up because there wasn't room for it along with her other new toys in her room. ever since then, she thinks i took her tent. that's reasonable logic for a two year old. i dissapeared around the same time her tent did, so it would make sense. only, i didn't take her tent. yet every single time i talk to this kid on the phone she asks me where her tent is. this morning i had a voice message from her asking where her tent is. now this little misunderstanding could be straightened out by my brother. but he thinks it's funny so he's perpetuating the myth. he's encouraging this idea that i stole from a little kid. if you ask me, good parents don't lie to their children. it's going to bite you in the rear at some point. so micah, tell your kid the truth and quit blaming me. and grace, one last time, i do not have your tent. your dad's got it...

what it is

2006-02-07T13:22:00.000-05:00

i had my meeting with the intramural ga. i'm suspended for two weeks and only in basketball. i can still play softball. i thought that was reasonable. i have been keeping an eye out for those two fellas around campus though. they were really mad.

this week is ridiculously busy. lots of stuff due, not a lot of time to do it. may 6 cannot get here fast enough. bring on the real world. tim jenkins tells me it sucks. i'm sick of school. i guess the only option left is to win the lottery and retire to a bungalow on the beach in costa rica, drinking out of coconuts and surfing all day. i'm totally down with that option by the way.

the super bowl was awful. the officials missed some key calls. i was pulling for the 'hawks.....

how bout them gators......dominating all sports. #1 in baseball now.

camels aren't too shabby themselves. still hitting the long ball.

the rest of the story

2006-02-01T00:08:00.000-05:00

alright, here's the ejection story. monday night i was playing in an intramural basketball game. i'm playing with some of my grad school buddies and some people they know. we weren't very good. we had trouble moving the ball around the perimeter and we had a lot of turnovers. we got beat by like 10-15, i'm not sure because i didn't really catch the end of the game. so it was late in the second half and you could tell the refs just wanted to go home because they weren't doing much. they called one foul on the other team for the entire second half. i don't know about you, but i've never played an intramural team that only committed one foul in a half. so after several consecutive possessions of ours that we were fouled pretty hard with no call i got a little frustrated. so i got fouled yet again with no call and when the guy took the ball from me and they didn't call the foul i pushed him in the back, to the ground. i didn't really push him that hard but i pushed him in the direction he was running so he went down pretty hard. well i got an immediate ejection and the guy and his buddy both came after me trying to fight. it doesn't end there though. so after the paperwork on my ejection was finished i was told to leave the building. i did and tried to apologize to the guy and he told me to get the f#$k away from him, so i was like forget it dude. i walked out to my car and as i went to back out the dude was there with his homeboy looking for a fight. i told them to leave and they started banging on my car roof and hood. that pissed me off so i pulled back into a parking spot to go notify the rec people what happened. well they chased me down again and had to be restrained by some friends. they kept trying over and over again to fight, but i wouldn't go for it. so finally i went inside and their friends got them to leave. i have been watching my back walking around campus though.

now i have to have a meeting with an intramural ga before myself or my team can play again. and the best part is, i made the list. check it out. i let the hustlin quakers know and they told me they were going to print the list out and hang it up. apparently they don't know and respect the fact that i'm a quaker down here. that's unfortunate.

p.s. i'm watching a special on FAU basketball and matt doherty and just saw some quality footage of the carter dome. i got it on tape too. we don't make espn that often....

some more for you

2006-01-31T22:21:00.000-05:00

the newly resurrected abortion discussion has once again brought the issue to the forefront of my thoughts. today i decided i'd actually look up the case on lexis nexis to read it for myself. i found it very interesting. here's some particularly notable excerpts. this is info from the decision of the supreme court...

"a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy is not absolute, and may to some extent be limited by the state's legitimate interests in safeguarding the woman's health, in maintaining proper medical standards, and in protecting potential human life"

"the unborn are not included within the definition of "person" as used in the Fourteenth Amendment" science has advanced since 73, i don't think you could reasonably make this argument in 06

"from and after the point in time when the fetus becomes viable, the state may prohibit abortions altogether, except those necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother" once again, science has come a long way. it's settled scientific fact that viable human life begins at conception. the way i read this, all a state has to do is enact legislation stopping all abortions except in the case of the mother. maybe roe v. wade doesn't have to be overturned.

"White, J., joined by Rehnquist, J., dissented, saying that nothing in the language or history of the Constitution supported the court's judgment, and that the court had simply fashioned and announced a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, had invested that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes, whereas the issue of abortion should actually have been left with the people and the political processes they have devised to govern their affairs."

"Rehnquist, J., dissented, saying that (1) the record, which did not indicate that the appellant was in her first trimester of pregnancy at some time during the pendency of her lawsuit, did not establish the appellant's standing to litigate the issues involved, (2) even if it did, the court, eschewing the Fourteenth Amendment's history, had mistakenly relied on the "compelling state interest" test, (3) the decision to break the term of pregnancy into three distinct terms partook of judicial legislation, (4) the fact that a majority of the states have had abortion statutes for at least a century indicated that a right to an abortion was not so rooted in the traditions and consciences of the people as to be ranked "fundamental," and (5) the statute should have been declared unconstitutional, if at all, only as applied to the appellant's particular fact situation rather than in toto." did anybody else catch that? rehnquist felt that the supreme court's decision created a right that did not exist and basically amounted to judicial legislation - a.k.a. legislation from the bench or activism? straight from a supreme court justice my friends.

hadn't done that before

2006-01-30T19:58:00.000-05:00

i got ejected from intramural basketball tonight. the game, the building, and the league pending a meeting to discuss my behavior. details to come....

stories from class.....

2006-01-28T15:40:00.000-05:00

here's a story from basketball class this week. in my basketball II class on tuesday i let them play knockout as a warm-up activity. everything was going well as expected. there's this one guy who shoots and misses and the ball goes out to the perimeter on the right side. the next guy shoots, misses, but the rebound stays right by the rim. so the guy has the ball right under the basket and the first guy is coming in from the wing. the guy under the basket goes to shoot his gimme lay-up when the guy comes in from the wing, DUNKS on the guy before his lay-up goes in, knocking the guy to the ground and keeping himself in the game. i've never seen anything more humiliating on a basketball court in my life. there were a few snickers but most people acted like it wasn't a big deal. it was though. he got dunked on........in basketball class........playing knockout.........knockout.....

just in case you didn't know....

2006-01-27T15:34:00.000-05:00

that photograph song by nickelback is one of the worst songs to ever be played on the airwaves........nickelback owes my ears an apology.

tonight on c-span

2006-01-25T22:07:00.000-05:00

i'm watching the speeches on allito's confirmation on c-span2 right now as i do my school work. (the voting is 49=Y and 23=N right now. straight down the party lines) john kerry just finished talking about how he's not qualified to be a supreme court justice because he would shift the ideology of the supreme court to the right. orrin hatch is speaking right now. he brought up a good point, the american bar association unanimously voted to give allito they're highest, most excellent qualified award to be a supreme court justice. this isn't a right wing lobbyist group, we're talking about the aba. they interviewed over 300 people who knew allito in their research for the recommendation. hatch said he has the most legal experience of any supreme court justice nominee in the last 75 years. sounds qualified to me. and they keep saying he won't agree that roe v. wade is well-settled law. i'd say that it's only 30 years old, it only passed with a 5-4 vote, and it's been constantly challenged and is still debated at every level of govt. today. not exactly set in stone. here's to allito getting confirmed and roe v. wade being overturned....

fuzzy math

2006-01-25T21:08:00.000-05:00

this picture was in the alligator yesterday. this was the caption, " As storm clouds loom overhead, Sara Hanson, president of Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood, picks up makeshift crosses of pressed wood and red plastic hangers. Vox erected the "No Choice Memorial" on Monday on the Reitz Union North Lawn to represent the 240 women who die every day from unsafe or illegal methods of abortion." no choice? seems to me that every abortion is a choice. the only abortion that happened without the mother deciding it, is a miscarriage. an illegal abortion is a choice. even bigger though, 240 women die each day from an unsafe abortion huh? well what about the 3,753 babies that die by their mother's "choice" every day? that's just in the u.s. worldwide, there are approximately 126,000 babies murdered by their mothers every day. seems like a lot more than 240 to me. and yet, the pro-choice people insist that we must have legal abortions to save lives. explain that to me....

hey girl

2006-01-25T16:33:00.000-05:00

girls will wear anything. they're dumb like that. has anyone else noticed that girls are apparently allergic to backpacks now? they all carry over-sized purses around campus. it's not really a purse, it's more of a bag i guess. but they're usually designer and are large enough to hold their cell phone, make-up, and one notebook. they're ridiculous. just put on a backpack. you're at school. no one is impressed with your bag. also, there's a high correlation between girls carrying bags like these and also wearing over sized sunglasses.

and what about those tiny sweaters? they're not really a sweater, more like a part of a sweater. it's got long sleeves and that's about it. it pretty much is a sweater for your arms and shoulders. why? they don't look too bad i guess, but i just don't get it. who convinced girls to wear things like this?

never ever shake a baby

2006-01-22T17:57:00.000-05:00

yesterday i went to the mall and express was having a sale. i got a pair of dress pants, a dress shirt, a t-shirt, and a tie that would have normally cost $210 but i got it all for $45. now that's a deal.

they had their suit coats on for $30, normally $230. nothing in my size though. that sucked.

found these at home

2006-01-22T08:29:00.000-05:00

little freezer. what a kid.....

jay bilas, you were so wrong my friend

2006-01-21T20:33:00.000-05:00

St. Johns - Pitt 55-50

Georgetown - Duke 87-84

Florida - Tennessee 55-52 (11:32 left in the second half)

so far so good......

*knock on wood*

tommy johns, this is for you.

2006-01-20T16:48:00.000-05:00

yes, that's right.....it's a little person

sorry dogs...

2006-01-19T18:39:00.000-05:00

but apparently parrots are man's new best friend....