What type of college program do you want to work for?

What’s up everyone? Hope things are well for you.

Sports Illustrated had an interesting article on its Web site about the top-25 Division I schools in athletics for the 2007-08 season. Here it is: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/sioncampus/07/01/2008-top-25-ncaa-rankings/index.html?eref=T1

It was similar to the Director’s Cup which is compiled by the Collegiate Directors of Athletics, which uses a complicated point system based on how each school’s athletic team places in its respective national championship. Of course Stanford won the Cup for the 14th consecutive year.

The Cardinal finished second in the SI standing while Arizona State took the title. The article does a good job of breaking down how they came up with the standings so I won’t repeat it here.

The article did get me thinking about some of the schools on the list and made me wonder how some of these programs dominate everything and some are lacking.

I’ve never been to Stanford but I heard it’s an amazing place. The crazy thing about that program is that they win at everything, have such high academic standards and are a private school. Usually high academics and private school equals struggles in some sports (see Rice, Northwestern, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and some others). In the last 15 years, Stanford has been to a baseball College World Series, a men’s basketball Final Four and a Rose Bowl. That’s incredible.

I’ve actually been to UCLA, North Carolina and Georgia, the number 3-5 schools on the SI list and I understand why they do so well. UCLA is like a college heaven on earth. Amazing weather, beautiful people, tons of things to do, I didn’t want to leave. The campus was also so beautiful and I saw every type of hot woman possible.

UNC and UGA were just as majestic with a southern twist. I wanted to sit on a bench, grab a cup of iced tea and just chill. Hot women there too.

The rest of the list has typical schools. I was glad to see Virginia on there because first my cousin went to law school there, I got wasted there when I visited there as a high school student and it’s a fun place overall.

I think about these types of things (not the drunken nights) when I look at colleges that I may work at in the future.

I’ve had this conversation with some of my fellow grad school classmates. What type of athletic department do you want to work for? Sometimes the bigger the school you work at and the bigger the financial stakes, the potential for the abuse of integrity is higher. I’ll put it this way. The stakes for a team in the Pac-10 or the SEC is a lot higher than a mid-major conference like the Atlantic Sun or the SoCon.

I’m not saying that all schools in major conferences cheat or that mid-major teams don’t bend the rules.

The thing is that when there are such high financial stakes in place, things can happen. I’ve spoken with people in compliance departments at schools and they’ve told me that they couldn’t work at certain big schools because they know that some illegal things are going down.

When the difference of millions of dollars for your athletic department comes down to winning a BCS bowl game, a conference championship or making it to the Sweet 16, that can be a recipe for bad things.

I know that personally, I would like to work at a school that is competitive in as many sports as possible. As much as I like college football, I like “Olympic” sports as well. However, if the school that I’m working for compromises it integrity to win championships, I’ll have a problem with that.

I know this was a random post. I’ll expand on some of these thoughts another time.

Here’s some John Fruciante, guitarist from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. As much as I love Omar Rodriguez-Lopez from the Mars Volta, John is on another planet guitar-wise. It’s funny that those two men collaborate on musical projects all the time.

The thing I like about John is that he’s versatile. He can give you heavy guitar riffs, acoustic melodies, soul, blues, jazz and everything in between.

I want to work for an athletic department similar to John. Versatile, flexible, willing to compromise and able to play anything, anytime well.

Good fight, good night.

Worthless Major?

I was watching one of the morning shows today before going to work and there was a story on the Princeton Review’s latest ranking of the top colleges in the country. They talked about dorms, teachers, parties, all of that stuff. This got me thinking about my undergrad days. When I was applying to schools, I just wanted to get into a nice place that was far away from the northeast. I grew up in the NYC and still rep it today, but I wanted to get away. I wanted no part of schools in New York, Boston, the entire New England area and Connecticut. Philly was a possibility, but nothing came of it. I ended up going to a school that had warm weather, beautiful girls and free SEC sports, I was down. You mean I can go to the Florida football games and Kentucky basketball games for free! Where do I sign up?

I also gave y’all a link about the 10 most worthless majors: http://www.holytaco.com/2008/06/03/the-10-most-worthless-college-majors/

My ultimate major at Vandy was number four, but at least I didn’t major in Latin, Film or Religion. I studied Latin for six years before college and wanted no more of that. There are only so many ways you can read about Claudius or Caesar. Homer was solid though. I really don’t like films then or now, so that was out. Religion, I question my faith on my own. Paying thousands of dollars to do it back then wasn’t happening.

When I first entered college in 1999 (wow, its been a few years!), I had to frickin clue what I wanted to major in. I was excited to go to a good school in a nice city and everyone was nice. I wanted to be a lawyer for some reason. I guess it sounded cool and it got my family off of my back. Actually, lets take it back a few years to get a concept of why I ended up majoring in English in college and how it was pointless.

The first career that I remember actually wanting to have was an engineer. My mother worked at an architecture firm and I got to talk to some of those guys and their jobs sounded cool. Plus, they got to work on lighted tables, who didn’t want that as a kid? OK, maybe only me, but you get the idea.

I wanted to design sports stadiums. I would sit at the dump known as Shea Stadium where my beloved Mets played as a kid and even then I knew the stadium stunk. I would wonder why they’re weren’t seats in right center or why there were some bad seats with terrible angles to home plate, things like that. I decided that I would design revolutionary stadiums with roofs that could be retractable. The scary thing is that I was thinking this stuff in like 1988 right before the SkyDome opened in Toronto with the first retractable roof. I’m not saying I’m a genius, but I should have gotten a patent or something.

However, I started to not like math and geometry and that’s kinda important for an engineer, so that career was out.

Next, I moved on to wanting to be a surgeon that would perform procedures on athletes. I figured that athletes get hurt all of the time and need someone to take care of them. However, once I found out how long medical school is, I was out. I liked helping people but I didn’t want to be in school until my late 20’s.

BTW, I’m 27 and in grad school now. Real smart on my end.

However, wanting to help people still stuck with me and I decided around high school to be a psychologist. They always seemed to help people when they were down and I was always told that I was a good listener, even though I didn’t really pay attention to them.

So, I headed to college with the intentions of becoming a psychologist, probably for athletes. Sports have always been a central theme in these career decisions looking back on it now.

I registered for Psychology 101 and sat in a big lecture room with around 100 of my closest friends and didn’t understand a darn thing. I remember stuff about cognitive dissonance and maybe one or two other things. I talked to psych majors and they told me that the major gets better but my desire wasn’t there.

I then decided to get into sociology because I wanted to go to law school. I worked at the Vandy law school library and enjoyed myself there. I liked talking to the law students and I would actually read about the cases they were studying, which excited me. It was recommended that I study sociology as an undergrad to prepare for law school.

However, I was in an entry level sociology class and I still remember the teacher’s name, which I won’t reveal here, and I didn’t like the class at all. I was a sophomore by this time and I couldn’t imagine myself doing this for two and half more years.

At Vandy during that time, you had to declare your major by the end of sophomore year and I was getting stuck. I took some English classes and had some of the prerequisites taken care of in that major. I really couldn’t afford to stay at Vandy more than four years so I needed to pick a major that I could finish in that allotted time. That’s how I decided my major.

For years, I thought that this was an unwise choice and it kinda was. I really should have majored in Communication Studies, which I ended up picking up a minor in, because those were the classes that I really enjoyed. I liked taking courses in public speaking, rhetoric, communications, and things like that. I wasn’t interested in poetry, British literature and other things that I did with my major.

Was the major worthless? It’s mixed for me. My job now entails me having to use the skills that I learned as an undergrad. I have to edit published materials and write as a public relations director for an athletic department.

The reverse of that is that I’m in graduate school now for sports administration to learn things that I could have done as an undergrad. That’s not the school’s fault because the English professors were great or the major’s fault, that’s on me.

If I knew that I wanted to be a sports executive as an undergrad, I could have majored in business and then interned at the athletic department or a professional team like the Titans, Predators or Sounds, all of which were present when I was in school.

Now I get to interact with those people as a grad student today. Life is a cycle man.

However, going through all of my experiences made me find what I really liked. If I stayed an engineer since I was eight years old, I would wonder about some other careers. I’ve had the fortune to work in so many different fields that I know what I like and don’t like.

And I think that should be the general message taken from articles that talk about worthless majors or the top colleges in the nation. I had no clue what I wanted to do as an 18-year old and still have doubts today. I hope the kids entering college today give themselves a chance to change and be unsure.

If you know you want to be a doctor as a teenager and target a school that will prepare you best for that, props to you. However, I know a lot more people who were like me.

What are your thoughts on your college major and has it helped your career or not? I would like to hear your responses to this.

For now, here’s some Minus the Bear and Pantera that I was listening to while writing this post. Bands on the opposite end of the spectrum. After reading this post, that shouldn’t surprise you. Enjoy.

Zen in the gym

I had an interesting moment today in the gym.

I’ve written in the past few days about accepting myself and becoming content with my state. Hopefully some of you have read some of the stuff and found inspiration or whatever works for you.

Usually when I hit the gym, its intense stuff. I don’t want to talk to anybody, I want to stay focused on my goal and look very mean. I go into it with the intentions of getting all of my negative emotions out and channeling it towards positivity.

I was doing my usual cardio work, abdominal exercises and then I started doing dumbbell curls for my biceps. I finished a seated set and then just stopped for a moment. At this stage, I’m usually still mad and ready to rumble, however, something was different about today. I wasn’t mad.

I had no anger or aggression built up inside me anymore. As I mentioned in my Sunday Reflections a few days ago, I’ve let a lot of stuff go, including my intense desire to work out to destroy a body I don’t like. I like myself.

I finish the rest of my workout but just have a calm way of approaching it. I’ve never had a true feeling of acceptance of myself like this before and it’s scary.

I’ve used the negativity of my life in the past to drive me to do good things. Whether it was family issues, self doubt, jerks I’ve confronted personally, I’ve taken these things and made them positives.

What happens when those negatives leave you? Actually the negatives will never go away because I’m human. I just don’t feel like acknowledging them anymore because they cause pain.

I’m still going to approach my life, including my workouts, with the same intensity I’ve always had. That’s jus the way I live. But instead of taking those negatives and letting them enter me, I’m going to try to stay focused on enhancing the positive.

For some reason, when I was in the gym a Billy Idol song came on. I think it was Eyes Without a Face, but screw that. Here’s Flesh for Fantasy. My favorite is the classic guitar riff and the famous line: face to face and back to back see and feel my sex attack! As a kid, I was confused by that line, but I got older and got that line. I'll even throw in some Rebel Yell! Enjoy.

Cleaning out the Links, Part II

Time for me to clean out some more links for your enjoyment:

-One great thing that I’ve come across recently is the SI Vault. Sports Illustrated has archived all of their back issues on to a Web site so that you can see every article written. Here it is: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/

I’ve read stuff by Frank Deford, Curry Kirkpatrick, Ralph Wiley and so many other legendary writers. Sports journalism has truly changed over the years. Here are some interesting articles I’ve bookmarked:

Here was an interesting article on Pat Summit that appeared in Sports Illustrated in 1998. Despite the fact that I’ve grown to dislike that orange community college in east Tennessee, I respect Summit. I don’t like the university that she works for, but I acknowledge her. Anyway, here’s the article: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1012132/index.htm

Here’s an article on Tom Seaver in the middle of his dominance for the Mets: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1086339/index.htm

Here’s an article on the UnClutch nature of Magic Johnson. I had a talk about this with my boss, which I’ll discuss in detail on a post later this week: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1122425/index.htm?eref=sircrc

-Another topic that I will discuss later this week is how potentially worthless my English degree is. Here’s an article on the 10 Most Worthless Majors: http://www.holytaco.com/2008/06/03/the-10-most-worthless-college-majors/

-While I was a pretty smart dude back in my elementary school days, I would always find time to play games to get rid of the monotony of classes. Unlike high school or middle school for some when you can change rooms and subjects every hour, elementary school was just sitting in that one room going over the same stuff everyday accept for gym and lunch. Here’s a list of the top-10 Indoor Games: http://theloveofsports.com/index.php/site/comments/top_10_indoor_games/

I was king of the number one game on the list. I was good at number six and eight as well. Number nine, not so much.

-Here’s a listing of SI.com’s Top 25 College Programs for the 2007-08 season: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/sioncampus/07/01/2008-top-25-ncaa-rankings/index.html?eref=T1

It’s like the annual Sears Trophy that’s given out to the top overall college athletic program. I don’t understand why Arizona State or UCLA doesn’t win in every sport, yet Stanford does. I’ve been to UCLA and it’s like heaven on earth.

-Here’s a funny link to the Top 10 Annoying Things about Facebook: http://www.collegecandy.com/haha/10039

I have to be honest, as a Facebook addict, I violate one or two of these.

-Have you ever wanted to order a custom championship belt just like your favorite wrestler or combat fighting champion? Check here: http://www.azstarnet.com/accent/248887

And if you don’t think that I’m going to have at least one of these in my life, you’re playing yourself. I will have one and battle my future wife in competitions for ownership of it. This will keep the marriage active and competitive, which is all you need. Oh yeah, a good pre-nup as well. Just kidding, or am I?

That’s all for now. I didn’t give you a preview of this week of the blog yesterday, so here it is:

Tuesday: Why did I major in English?

Wednesday: Maybe something about college athletic programs or the values of pimping. Either one works for me. Tell me which one you want to hear about.

Thursday: Do we view our superstars differently now for winning or not winning championships?

Friday: MMA Review

Saturday: Whatever I damn well please.

Sunday: Sunday Reflections

Here’s some Mars Volta

Sunday Reflections

It’s funny that I had a clip from Chasing Amy, one of my favorite movies ever, on this blog this past week.

Long story short, it’s a movie about a guy who meets a girl who’s a lesbian, he puts it out there that he loves her, they decide to date each other, he finds out about her very active sexual past, they break up, etc. I’ll have a clip below from the movie explaining the title.

Looking back on this, I’m wondering what I’m chasing in my life.

I was on my Facebook account Saturday morning and I came across pictures of an old college female friend and her vacation pictures with her boyfriend. I used to like this girl when we were in school and we have kept in touch over the years. I don’t have any romantic feelings for her now. So, I see the pictures and the first thought is jealousy. I’m jealous that she has found someone in her life and looks happy on her vacation.

I became reflective and thought to myself that I’ve never found a woman in my life to have a relationship with and became depressed. I began to blame myself and came to the belief that I’m not good looking, don’t have a good personality and no woman would ever want to spend time with me.

And also, while I see a lot of people meeting special people in their lives, getting married or developing potentially life-long relationships with their boyfriend or girlfriend, I’m watching Kevin Smith clips on the internet and playing video games till 2 a.m. alone.

All of these emotions hit me at one moment and that sucked to be honest with you.

My next step was looking directly into the mirror and looking right at myself. From this, I learned two life lessons, one of which I’ve mentioned on this blog numerous times.

The first one was that for me to love someone else, I must first learn to love myself. I looked in the mirror and was happy with the person that I was seeing. I’m in a good mental and physical place in my life right now. My life isn’t perfect but I’m very blessed. I’ve made strides physically and I’m a good person. I like my personality and have truly been acting like myself the past year or so. I’ve always had two major kinks in my personality. First, I try to please everybody because I fear rejection and I’m passive-aggressive. I’m trying to be honest with people and not worry if they like me or not. I’m happy with my progress on these things. If I haven’t met a woman who can accept me for who I am, that’s not my fault or women’s fault in general. That’s just the way that life has worked out for me.

The second thing that I realized when looking in the mirror was why I was comparing my life to someone else’s. I’ve stated here numerous times that one of the main rules that I live by is to not compare my life with another. I realized that my college friend is living her life the way she is and I shouldn’t be ashamed of mine.

I then went to the gym and got a good cardio workout in thinking about all of these things. What I realized also is that I’ve been selfish in my prospective of life.

I try to be liberal and accept everyone for who they are yet struggle with accepting me, if that makes sense. I become not happy with myself and therefore envy others who seem happy.

While I was working out, I saw Amber. Once again, for those of you unfamiliar with Amber, here are some posts she’s been mentioned in: http://pourtoutpancakes.blogspot.com/2008/06/update-on-workout-girl-if-you-see-this.html and http://pourtoutpancakes.blogspot.com/2008/04/this-is-what-i-get-for-trying-to.html

During my entire interaction with her the past few months, I’ve never truly felt happy that she was dating someone back in her hometown and not me. Sure, I’ve told her that I was happy for her but haven’t completely meant it. Why did I feel this way?

I’m on the elliptical machine thinking of this and why was I reflecting my emotions towards hoping for non-happiness of others.

I then had a moment of clarity. Amber is a friend who has become dear to me. So what if she’s not interested in me as a boyfriend? She’s happy with her boyfriend and I’m happy that she’s happy.

We then talk with each other and I looked right into her eyes and asked her about her boyfriend. I found out about his international travel, musical interests and other things. For the first time in my life hearing someone else talking about their partner, I wasn’t jealous. I started talking about the girl I mentioned on my Sunday reflections last week: http://pourtoutpancakes.blogspot.com/2008/07/sunday-reflections-sunday-reflections.html

I then told Amber about my morning and talked to her about never having a serious girlfriend at 27, playing video games, etc. She then did something that I’ll never forget.

She looked right at me and told me that it’s OK.

Many people tell me that my lifestyle is ok, but I usually ignore it on the premise that they are telling me this to not be mean. However, Amber honestly told me that I’m just living my life and it’s all good. I was also cool with my lifestyle and I thought it was all good.

My all goods were all coming in sync and I felt fortunate to have Amber in my life.

We continued our conversation and was happy with myself and more importantly, the happiness of others. All of the jealously and envy that I had for other people’s dating lives went away and I felt clearer and so free.

I finally stopped chasing the lives of others and focused on staying home and working on my own. I finally loved myself.

If you’re familiar with this blog, you know that I have moments of happiness and sadness, sometimes both at the same time. In a few days, I can become sad again.

However, the feeling that I have right now isn’t happiness or sadness. It's acceptance.

Yeah, I’m 27, live in a small apartment, take pride in my video game skills, am little on the pudgy side, love my General Hospital, like my Kevin Smith movies and other things as well. I am who I am and now love who I am.

I can honestly say for the first time in my life, if I’m single my entire life and never meet someone special, I’m OK with it.

Wow, that was some deep stuff. Sorry for taking you down that path, but that’s what Sunday Reflections makes me do.

I’ll have some good stuff this week for you as usual on sports, movies, TV and life in general.

For now, I leave you with two clips from Chasing Amy. The first one is the actual speech from Silent Bob explaining the title and my post tonight. The second one is what you can tell a potential girlfriend one day. The clip doesn’t show it but she ends up kissing him in the end.

Have a good week everybody!

MMA Review

Welcome to my second installment of the Friday MMA Review.

Once again, even if you aren’t a mixed martial arts fan, you can like this post. I try to speak in generalities to give you an idea of what’s happening in the MMA world today.

This past week has some outstanding fights that were enjoyed by all. This Saturday, Elite XC will have their second network TV event on CBS, which I will watch with high anticipation. I think that the best way to do this is to list each fighting organization and give you my thoughts:

Elite XC: On Saturday, we will get to see the rematch between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith for the middleweight title. These two guys gave an excellent effort in their last fight and it ended unnecessarily. However, Lawler is the better fighter and should win this one easily.

Jake Shields and Nick Thompson square off for the welterweight title as well. Shields should take care of business in this one.

Don’t get persuaded to not watch these fights because it’s not the UFC. Lawler is no joke and I think would give Anderson Silva a run if they ever fought. Shields is legit too and would be an even fight against Georges St. Pierre.

Finally, Nick Diaz squares off against Thomas Denny. Diaz should win this fight if he stays away from the bong! Ha, I make myself laugh sometimes. Seriously kids, stay away from the weed.

UFC: Last Saturday, the UFC had their Fight Night event featuring the main event of Anderson Silva vs. James Irwin. Silva looked sick. People kept talking about how Anderson was moving up in weight from middleweight to light heavyweight and that would be a problem. I didn’t see that happening because Silva is a big and lanky guy anyway and carries his weight evenly. He looked pretty much the same physically. He made James Irwin look like an amateur. Silva wants to go back to middleweight, but I think he should stay at light heavyweight if you ask me.

The rest of the card showed some interesting stuff. I love Brandon Vera and his potential. He a minority, has a good personality and usually has a fighting style that’s aggressive and exciting. However, he has looked weak in his last few fights and his recent win against Reece Andy was troublesome. Hopefully he can get his stuff together at light heavyweight and I just heard that he’s fighting Keith Jardine, which is interesting.

Frankie Edgar and CB Dollaway looked good in wins. BTW, Dollaway’s finisher, the Peruvian Neck Tie, is classic and may have to be my nickname in the future.

The person who looked the most impressive however besides Silva was Cain Velasquez in his win over Jake O’Brien. Cain is an impressive heavyweight who has a pleasing style to view. The UFC is starving for some new heavyweight contenders and Cain may be that guy in the next year. His potential is amazing.

On Saturday, Spike is replaying UFC84 which featured the title fight between B.J. Penn and Sean Sherk. I won’t be watching that because I’ve seen the event already,

UFC 87 on August 9 is shaping up to be an outstanding PPV with GSP facing Fitch for the welterweight title and some other good bouts. My preview of that will come closer to the event.

Affliction: The main event was both a good and bad thing, but you can blame Fedor for that. The man is a beast. Fedor is the man and no heavyweight is going to stop him. He made Sylvia look like a little kid out there fighting.

Arlovski looked good in his fight as well and I believe that he’s going to fight Fedor later this year, which is a fight that everyone wants to see and would represent progress in the heavyweight division.

There were two intriguing parts to the event. One, look at the salaries that some of these guys got: http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/CSAC-Sylvia-Arlovski-Lead-Affliction-Paydays-13758

The fact that Sylvia made $800,000 for that fight is crazy. Those figures are straight salaries and don’t include potential percentage of PPV profits and endorsements. Affliction won’t last long if they keep paying guys those salaries. However for MMA fighters in general, this is a good thing because they can use those figures when they negotiate new deals with the various fight leagues and the pay has increased.

The second thing about the event was that the fighting took place in a ring and not a cage. Since there isn’t a fight coming up next weekend, I’ll break down why this is a big deal. The cliff notes version of this is that one of the two main reasons that Fedor will probably never fight in the UFC is because of the cage. I’ll break that down more next week.

For Fedor, the main reason that he isn’t in the UFC is that it really doesn’t work with his business plan as a fighter. If he signed with the UFC, he would have to exclusively fight for that company. Fedor makes a lot of money fighting for various federations in Europe and Asia, specifically Japan and they don’t do business with the UFC.

If he wanted to fight in a sambo tournament in Russia or do a New Year’s Eve fight in Japan and make high six figures doing it, he can’t do it in the UFC because it’s an exclusive deal.

I was just happy to see the man fight in America. He needs to fight more in general and from what I’m hearing from his camp, this is going to happen.

That’s all from me, enjoy the fights and I hope to hear from some of you after Saturday.

Here’s a video showing the painful side of MMA.

Cleaning Out the Links, Part I

Hey everyone, I really don’t know what to write about today on the blog. I’m going to the Family Guy post by the end of the week and I have my MMA Review on Friday.

Other than that, there isn’t anything in particular that I want to write about. I could always do one of my patented, “I’m alone and lonely and why do women not like me” posts, those are a blast for everyone to read. It’s even better going back and reading some of them. However, today, I won’t do one of those posts.

I’ve been clearing out some favorite links on my laptop recently and want to share some of them with you for your enjoyment.

-Here’s an interesting article on the issue of modern kids being coddled: http://www.newsweek.com/id/133103?GT1=43002

I remember when I was in fifth grade and would take the New York MTA bus to my elementary school. It was good times!

-This actually came up when I stopped by my office recently. We were talking about different college athletic programs like Stanford try to balance athletics and academics. I came across this ranking comparing programs with top-15 teams and its ranking in the US News report. Both are up for interpretation, but its worth a look: http://elite50.stack.com/top50.aspx

-A good Web site that provides lists with nice links is theshiznit.co.uk. Here’s their list of the top-50 funniest movie scenes ever: http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/feature/the-50-funniest-movie-scenes-ever-with-videos.php?page=4

This scene has always been a favorite from an underrated movie. Black Rage!!!:



Another list that they had was the top-50 fight scenes ever. Sick stuff. There are the usual ones from action flicks, sports movies and some kung fu: http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/review.php?id=242

Here’s the kick ass battle between Nameless and Sky from Hero. Recommend this movie so much.



-Here’s a link to the 20 Gnarliest Torture Devices of All-Time (potentially NSFW): http://folk.ntnu.no/erlenkra/Daily%20Radar%20Feature%20-%2020%20Gnarliest%20Torture%20Devices%20of%20All%20Time.htm

Personally, I want no part of The Rack, The Head Crusher, The Judas Cradle or The Saw. The Burning at the Stake is an oldie but a goodie if you ask me.

-Here’s a great way to handle a heckler if you ever become a standup comedian (potentially NSFW, bad words are used): http://www.topsocialite.com/how-to-handle-a-heckler-like-a-pro/

-Speaking of Kevin Smith, here’s him discussing his involvement with a potential Superman movie. It shows you how frickin crazy Hollywood is at times. Bad words are used:



-Here’s a list of the 20 Hottest Women from the 1990’s. I would have given up my allowance, all of my Mets gear and every single one of my Super Nintendo games for women number five and four back in the day: http://www.topsocialite.com/the-20-hottest-women-of-the-90s/

That’s part one of me clearing out my links. I’ll have some later installments in the next few weeks. See ya’ll around.

My latest top-five women list!

Hey everyone, its time for me to update my top-five list!

For those of you new to the concept, these are the five women in the world that I would like to hang out/date/share a hug/attend an epic box social with and everything in between.

Ashley Judd has been on my top-five list since the late 1990’s but it was time for new blood. So, Ashley is the head coach/general manager of the team.

Here's the criteria.

1) All women are eligible. I don’t care how you look, your age, your race, whatever. Anyone is welcome. I don’t care if you’re married, have kids, single, a lesbian, it’s all good. This is all taking place in make believe land.

2) To be in the top-five, you must serve time on the bench. There are no direct promotions into the starting lineup on my watch.

3) The bench can only have 30 women on it. I have to have a limit.

3) Even this is mostly based on looks, you have to seem to have some personality about you. Multi-talented women are always welcome.

OK, some ladies were on the bench the last time I made this list, but they have been demoted to the minors. They won’t get kicked out of bed, if you know what I mean, but they just isn’t room for them. Here are the following women off the bench:

-Sasha Cohen (figure skater)
-Logan Tom (volleyball player)
-Jennifer Aniston
-Morgan Fairchild
-Aisha Tyler
-Swin Cash

Ok, folks. Enough with the foreplay, here’s the list:



1) Maria Menounos. Physically, she’s amazing. Nice body, dark hair, nice skin tone and a thousand other attributes that I don’t want to get into. This is a family-friendly Blog. She’s Greek, from the northeast and has the ability to be on all types of TV shows from Today to Entertainment Tonight. She’s a decent actress and a good interviewer. Maria is also a producer and director, so she’s multi-talented. She’s into charity work and actually has a cool story of her getting into shape because she was unhealthy in her younger days. Also, she’s an athlete and competed in an AVP (professional beach volleyball) tournament.


2) Sarah Chalke. I usually don’t go for blondes, but I had to have Dr. Elliot Reed from Scrubs, one of my two or three favorite shows all-time, on this list. While it’s important to have diversity in your career like Maria did to make the top-five, I also respect growth. If you watch the first season or two of Scrubs, you wouldn’t call Sarah a hottie. However, as the show developed, she went from dorky stick figure to cutie in good time. She’s Canadian and just became a US citizen, which is awesome because our kids would have dual citizenship. We could watch hockey and curling while listening to a Rush album! Very happy about that. She’s fluent in German. She was on Roseanne back in the day, which I don’t know is a good or bad thing. A negative is that she’s in those crappy Hanes commercials now, but she looks good in them so whatever. She’s into charity work as well.


3) Gabrielle Union. She’s definitely the star and would serve as team captain. She is stunning, has a sick body and the best skin I’ve seen on a woman in a long time. I’ve been a fan of hers since Bring it On. Oh come on, all of you have seen this movie, don’t hate. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska, so you know we could go to a college football game together, it’s in her blood. Doing research on her, I found out that she dated Jason Kidd. Interesting. Anyway, she has a degree in sociology from UCLA, so she has brains. She was in Love and Basketball, respect. Her acting resume is solid and everytime I see news on her lately, she’s at some party so you know she can get down.


4) Mila Kunis. She’s definitely the defensive stopper on our team and our glue player who makes everything else go. Born in the Ukraine, she was not only funny on That 70’s Show, she is the voice of Meg Griffin on the funniest show on TV, Family Guy. She was just in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a funny movie. She’s Jewish, which is cool. She speaks several languages as well.



5) Ciara. Welcome back to the list! She was off the starting lineup last time, but she has worked hard and gotten her spot back. I’ve mentioned her before on my Blog and has always been a favorite. Maybe this was the reason I kicked her out of the starting lineup:



However, this recent picture redeemed her:


Her musical career speaks for itself. She’s from Atlanta, my former residence, so she gets points for that. She’s an excellent dancer and is in Nelly’s new song, Stepped on my J’z (that’s actually how the song is spelled) and looks tremendous in the video. Her acting is OK. I even sat through that volleyball movie she was in on MTV called All You’ve Got (I had to look it up). To be real, she’s in the starting lineup mostly for looks.

As owner of the team, you have to make some tough choices. Here were the ones who didn't make the starting lineup but are on the bench for the future:

Serena Williams
Katherine McPhee

Let’s welcome the new bench players! They will pick up their uniforms in the locker room:


-Vanessa Williams. I saw her in Nashville recently and she was naturally beautiful in person.


-Candice Parker. Look, I know that she’s a Vol and that should get her eliminated from any list of mine as a Commodore. However, she is beautiful, an excellent athlete and my niece’s favorite player, as documented here: http://pourtoutpancakes.blogspot.com/2008/04/why.html. She does get docked some points for being engaged to Sheldon Williams. That dude, really?!?


-Sarah Evans. Solid choice and she’s engaged to a former national champion-winning quarterback. Roll Tide! I can’t believe that I said that.


-Selita Ebanks. Docked some points for being engaged to Nick Cannon at a point but now she’s dating my boy, Osi Umenyiora of the SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS, THE NEW YORK FOOTBALL GIANTS! Major, major points for that. Oh yeah, she’s a Victoria’s Secret model. That counted for something too.


-Rosario Dawson. I feel bad that she was not on the original bench. I just forgot about her. Tall, tan skin, funny, she is definitely a candidate for the starting lineup next time around. She kicked butt in Sin City, has a multi-cultural background, born in the NYC, very active in community service and just see the movie Alexander for the rest of the reasons she’s a winner.


-Nikki “Hoopz” Alexander. I hate having a reality star on this list, but she is cute and does play basketball. She will definitely be on the end of the bench and will only be used in blowouts if we’re winning or losing by a bunch of points.


-Persia White. Very underrated woman on an underrated show. Girlfriends is a good show and Persia plays my favorite character. The tattoos are hot, beautiful skin tone, excellent hair, I’m a fan. She is also strong into human and animal rights, so her head is in the right place. She’s also a musician. Good qualities all around.


-Diane Lane. First, I love older women. She seems to have that quality of a dignified woman who knows what she wants. Also, Unfaithful was a tremendous film.

-Julia Louise Dreyfus. Another older woman that I wouldn’t mind spending time with. I had a huge, huge crush on her when she was on Seinfeld. I don’t know what it was. I think it was seeing a funny woman on television. Humor is such an underrated quality in a woman and it’s a turn-on for me. She’s doing a great job on her current show on CBS, which is a funny watch BTW. Plus, she’s loaded financially both from her career and her family, so she’s got money. Can’t argue with that.


- Yvonne Strahovski. She may be unfamiliar with many of you, but she crossed my radar recently from being on one of my favorite shows, Chuck. She’s Austrailian and has the sexiest accent. The trip is that on Chuck, she plays an American and hides the accent. I remember the first time I heard her speak on a talk show and I flipped out. She plays a secret agent and yeah, she’s hot. Also, she’s fluent in Polish. Please watch the show or look at some episodes online and you will understand why she’s on the bench.


-Kate Beckinsale. She should have been on the original bench.


-Charlize Theron. I just saw Hancock and she makes the bench just on that performance alone. Being from the motherland, aka Africa, is a plus.


-Kristin Kreuk. Underrated. Another Canadian, so respect there. Potential sleeper to move up on the team, but I need so see some more from her.

Here’s the rest of the bench:
Rachida Jones (actress on "The Office" - toughest omission from the list)

Eva Mendez-actress

Sophia Bush (second toughest omission from the list)
Jessica White-model

Alicia Keys (was on my original top-five list several years ago)

Stacey Dales - basketball analyst ESPN

Michelle Kwan- figure skater

Bonnie Bernstein- sports analyst

Tatiana Ali (original crush from "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air")

Lucy Liu- actress

Kelly Hu- actress

Amy Lee- lead singer Evanescence

Jaclyn Smith - actress from Charlie’s Angels

Jada Pinkett-Smith - actress

That’s it. I would love to hear your opinions on my list and suggest some women for the team.

If marriage is like this, why get married? (Football edition)

I came across this article a few days ago and I’ve wanted to address the topic before and this is a good opportunity to.

The article was on Deadspin, which should tell you immediately that it shouldn’t be taken seriously. I recommend taking a look at it before you read my thoughts on it. Here’s a link: http://deadspin.com/5025638/your-nfl-season-brownie-point-calculator

OK, hopefully by now you’ve at least skimmed it. The basics are that this guy feels compelled to make a list of items that he can do for his wife to watch football games in the fall.

I’m going to list each of the items that can be done for the wife and give my thoughts.

First, I have several things to say. I’m single and never had a serious girlfriend. I’ve also don’t have any children. My opinions may be limited to this scope, but it’s the prospective that I have.

Second, in general, if your wife is giving you crap for watching a football game, seriously reevaluate that situation. If you can’t take a few hours to watch your favorite team play a ball game without getting crap from your significant other, that’s a shame on you moment.

OK, here are the tasks:

1) Stealing Gossip Magazines from the gym or doctor’s office: This wouldn’t be an issue because I read that stuff all the time. Yeah, make fun of me for caring about stuff going on in the Hills or Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. It’s a guilty pleasure. I’ll still read Sports Illustrated but throw in a People magazine in there as well. No problems here.

In relation to this, get your girlfriend stuff she likes once in a while. While you’re picking up that case of beer or getting those nachos, get some stuff she needs, even the unfun female hygene items, if you know what I’m saying. Don’t be selfish.

2) Take the kids out for a full morning/afternoon by yourself: First, IT’S YOUR FRICKIN KID! For someone who grew up with a single mother, it’s a shame that spending time with your kid can get you brownie points.

Kids are a pain in the ass at time, I know, but its your family. I personally enjoy spending time with my nieces and nephews, taking them to games, going shopping, stuff like that. I like shopping at A&F or Claires with my niece. Don’t hate.

BTW, a good way to pick up women is to have a little kid with you. They’re better than dogs! If you don’t have a wedding ring on, most women will know that you’re not married. Even if they think its your kid, most women are fine with dating a single parent so that shouldn’t scare them off. If you interact with the kid well, it shows your nurturing side, but it has to be natural because women can see through an act.

3) Doing some random chore without her having to ask: Clean up after yourself, wow that sounds like such a challenge!

4) Watching her favorite tv show/movie with her: Ladies, here’s something you may or may not know. That TV show/movie that your significant other complains about not liking, he may actually like it! Don’t let him fool you into thinking that he completely despises watching Project Runway or Grey’s Anatomy or America’s Next Top Model or whatever female-driven show is out there.

I can watch any show or movie, find the hot chick in it and be content. Most guys can do the same.

Anyway, spend time with your lady. As cool as it is to stay up till 1 AM playing video games or watching my soap operas and court room shows, any girl that wants to watch anything with me is fine in my book, whatever it is. Besides, she’s probably put up with watching Sportscenter and stuff she’s not interested in. Balance.

5) Doing Taxes: Do them together, you have to check your money. DTA, kids. Don’t trust anyone, wife, girlfriend, baby mama, none of them.

6) Planning some sort of special dinner, birthday party or brunch: If it involves food, I’m down with planning it. This shouldn’t be a problem at all.

7) Conceiving and completing some sort of godforsaken house project: I have many skills but housework isn’t one of them. If you want me to build you a deck or make a counter, that’s not going to happen.

However, I know my limits. As I learned from my sister-in-law Angie, never, ever make a promise to a woman that you can’t keep. If you say that you’re going to mow the lawn in the morning, make sure that you do it. It makes life easier.

So if the wife wants me to do something I’m not good at, I’ll just tell her. She married me, she knows what’s up.

8) Fixing something without having to call a service to do it: Read above.

9) Going out on couple dates where wives are best friends but the husbands have little or nothing in common: First, every guy has something in common with another guy. It can be sports, movies, tv shows, music, something.

I don’t think that spending time with others should be a way to get in with your wife. Just tell the wife that you don’t like doing couple dates and work on a compromise.

10) Not being a golfer. I’ve never played golf, so I’m not the best reference for this one.

It’s cool if you want to hit some balls once in a while, but my goodness, if you spend every waking moment trying to play golf instead of being with your wife, once again, reevaluate your situation.

It goes both ways, if you don’t abuse playing golf all the time and just want play a few holes once in a while, go ahead and do it. She has to be understanding of your hobbies. Balance.

11) Finishing all of the Sun Chips: This considered something that will get you less time watching football.

If you’re sharing some food with your wife, don’t take all of it. Even better, you can get some food for her and some for you. I like to eat and hopefully your wife does too. Nothing annoys me more than some girl that acts like she doesn’t want to eat. Have that burger when we’re on a date!

Those were the ones mentioned in the article, but let me finish with some final thoughts.

First, get frickin TIVO!

Second, a lot of these potential problems can be solved with two things.

1) Communicate with your girlfriend/future wife about some of this stuff before you get married and have kids. I’m going to work in sports for the rest of my life. It’s a grueling profession that takes your time and you make minimal to no money. It sucks for relationships, but all of my future girlfriends and maybe wife will know of this stuff at the beginning. I’ll lay it out for her so she’ll know what’s up.

I also like sports in my spare time. So, if I’m watching some crappy WAC football, she’ll know that its just part of my personality. Besides, I’ll TIVO the game, wait till she goes to sleep and watch the game alone, without commercials later.

2) Compromise. Sports are fun, but they shouldn’t be the most important thing in your life if you decide to get married and have kids. Please don’t let a most likely crappy football game weaken your bond with your family. Just catch the highlights on the NFL Network or ESPN.

Also, incorporate your wife/girlfriend into your sports. Don’t treat it like it’s a separatist event. I love explaining to women the rules of any game that I’m watching with her. Teach her some stuff and she may like the sports and become a fan. Then, you can watch the game with her, hence you get your sports fix and you spend time with her. Perfect.

However, if you’re hell bent on watching every single game with your buddies, then don’t get married or have kids.

I may never get married or have kids because of my sports career. It will be lonely, but I know that this is the life that I’ve potentially chosen and I’ve accepted it.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Here’s some clips from the Office, that’s what she said!

Sunday Reflections (Sunday Reflections Version)

Ok, final reflection for this Sunday night.

I had a good conversation with Rob, a good buddy of mine yesterday. He’s been out of town the past few months training and was back in Nashville. We were just talking about life and staying focused.

Of course the conversation turned to women, like it always does and both of us stated that we were not going to focus on women because we have major priorities coming up in our lives. He has his athletics and I have school and work.

I really want to dominate this year at Belmont and in the Nashville sports community. This will be my final year of school and I graduate in May. Until then, I want to continue making major inroads with all of the sports teams and organizations here, as well as continue to do a great job at Belmont. I really owe it to the athletic department, my co-workers, the coaches, student-athletes and myself to give a maximum effort.

I’ve lost focus on this, but it’s coming back.

It’s a trip because when I mentioned Tuesday before last that I wanted to talk about something personal: http://pourtoutpancakes.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-stray-cat.html. Of course it was about a girl, which is unfortunately typical at times for those of you who read this blog consistently.

It’s really bad, especially since she’s dating someone else and I really shouldn’t even be concerned about her in the least. She definitely isn’t concerned about me in a special romantic way. Anyway, I thought that she was mad at me and that we had a falling out.

Funny thing happened thought after that. I talked to a female friend named Watson and we discussed my situation with this girl from the very beginning and all of our interactions to get an objective opinion. After talking with Watson, I decided that I couldn’t let my emotions get entangled in someone that wasn’t available to me and would never date me.

Don’t get it twisted; I know that I’m a good guy who has many qualities. She’s a great girl too also. She just doesn’t like me in that way, which is fine. She obviously has an interest in another guy, is happy in that situation which makes me happy for her.

I was doing so good to not get emotionally attached to this girl, but it happened, I’m human. However, after our interaction that night and speaking with Watson, I was over it.

So I saw my lady friend earlier this week and we talked and interacted like we normally would. Much ado about nothing I guess on my end, but it was a good release for me. We’re cool now.

You can’t force something that isn’t there and I was talking myself into forcing myself into her life, if that makes sense. She doesn’t want me in her life in that way, but she has helped me on many levels.

I’ve actually improved my interaction with and learned more about women through speaking with her. She’s taught me how to become a better listener. She’s improved my eye contact because she has beautiful eyes to look at. She’s taught me to not just place women in structured categories because she crosses over many of them. She’s taught me that there are actually women out there who like sports the same way that I do and would potentially stay up and watch WAC football, mixed martial arts or West Coast Conference basketball with me. She restored my faith in the Midwest, even thought the baseball team she likes I can do without (just kidding if she reads this). She’s even taught me that curse words from a cute girl can actually be awesome.

Overall, she has shown me that there is a woman out there for me who will actually like me for me. I’ve been completely honest with her and acted like myself, no bullshit. The curse was for her. I could have never said that in my entire life until now.

Usually with women, I’m putting on a front and trying to act different. I can honestly tell you that I haven’t tried any lines with her or acted weird. I’ve been completely myself with her and its been great. This blog wouldn’t be as honest as it is and I wouldn’t have been able to deal with my true feelings of life if it wasn’t for her.

There’s a woman out there for me, it just isn’t her. I just have to continue to live my life and hopefully that special someone will emerge.

Speaking with Rob has brought these emotions full circle and I’m ready to emerge a better man.

This week, I’ll have posts on the following topics and others:

-Why if marriage is like this, why the hell get married? Here’s the article/story I’ll base my post on for a preview: http://deadspin.com/5025638/your-nfl-season-brownie-point-calculator

-Updated top-five women (I promise)

-Favorite Family Guy moments (I also promise this one)

-MMA Review on Friday

For now, here’s a cover of No Quarter by Tool that I was listening to while making this post. I also had some Massive Attack playing. Its always mellow music on Sunday nights for my Reflections. Have a good week!

Sunday Reflections (Josh Hamilton edition)

I was going to write a post on the amazing season that Josh Hamilton is having this past week for the Texas Rangers.

For those of you unfamiliar with Hamilton, here’s a quick recap. He was drafted out of high school first overall in the 1999 draft by the Tampa Devil Rays. He was a five-tool player who was projected to be one of the best players ever. However, he dealt with drug addiction and alcoholism and was out of the game for a few years. He hit rock bottom, but found religion and cleaned his life up. Slowly he started playing baseball again and made a nice impact with the Cincinnati Reds last year. He was then traded to the Rangers in the off-season and is leading the major in RBI’s and is having an MVP caliber season. As an exclamation point to his great start to this season, he had a record-setting performance in the Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium earlier this week.

OK, you’re caught up. It’s a great story that has inspired a lot of people, even those who don’t follow baseball. However, there are some haters out there.

Some want to see Hamilton stick it out for a while longer before we completely say that he’s cured of his addictions. That’s fair I guess, but those people need to realize that he’s going to be an addict his entire life and he will never be completely cured.

Some are saying that he plays in a hitter’s park and Ian Kinsler and Michael Young are just as valuable to the team. That can also be a fair estimation.

Some are saying that Milton Bradley is having a better season and isn’t receiving the same attention because he’s Black. J.A. Adande of ESPN.com had the nerve to make this statement on First Take.

First, here’s a fair prospective on Milton’s and Josh’s story here: http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-star14-2008jul14,0,546313.story

In the end, I realized something.

First, even though a successful Vandy alum, Skip Bayless, is on the show, I need to stop watching First Take.

But I think this is a general commentary on my sports viewing.

I’ve watched less ESPN, CSS, Fox Sports and other sports networks right now than ever in my life and I’m enjoying it a lot. That’s why I want no part of the ESPY’s tonight.

I still go to my five or six sports Web sites, which are usually cnnsi.com, espn.com, foxsports.com, deadspin.com, biglead.com, sherdog.com, mmaweekly.com and a few others. I’ll maybe catch SportsNite on CSS, SportsCenter, PTI and Jim Rome is Burning on ESPN. That’s it.

I used to watch sports channels for hours and hours, but its overkill. I value the opinions of others, but I get overwhelmed. I also got tired of hearing about the steroids in sports and all of the negative things in sports getting way too much coverage.

I understand why all of these shows exist. There’s an interest in it and everyone has an opinion. Heck, some of you are reading my blog for my opinion on sports topics.
This does relate to Hamilton.

Instead of watching the over analysis of a good story, I’m going to just enjoy it on my own and you should too.

For now, here’s Josh doing his thing at the Home Run Derby.

Deadspin_July15
by bsap11

Sunday Reflections (MMA Review Edition)

This weekend was a good time for mixed martial arts with two major events taking place.

I’ll get to this more on Friday with my MMA review, but I’ll give you a quick review.

I saw the entire UFC Fight Night, which was a decent event. Anderson Silva did what was expected by defeating James Irwin. Silva did look thicker as a light heavyweight, but he really looked the same. The scary thing about Anderson is that he was a super huge middleweight and a solid sized light heavyweight. If he wants to stay at 205, he definitely can.

Brandon Vera is one of my favorite fighters, so I was disappointed in his performance. He got the win, but you can tell that even he knew that his performance was sub-par.

The rest of the fights were ok. I’ll give you more Friday.

I didn’t see the Affliction card, but I did go to my sources and saw the Fedor/Sylvia fight. Not much here to say but Fedor won.

I’ll see the rest of the fights by Friday and have more info in my MMA review.

Until then, here’s are two video montages of MMA action.

Sunday Reflections (Batman version)

I saw Batman: The Dark Knight this weekend. See this movie!

I don’t want to give away too much because I know some of you want to see the movie soon, but it’s definitely worth a view.

I will say that it’s probably the best “superhero” movie ever, including all of the Supermans, Batmans, Spidermans, X-Men movies. To be fair, Batman is my favorite superhero ever and it’s not close.

The great part of this movie and the last Batman movie is that they were prequels and showed the early stages of Batman. The movie shows his dark side.

Batman is a damaged dude dealing with the death of his parents. Gotham City/New York City is not a happy place and is often depressing. I grew up there; I know this to be true. Criminals harm people and kill innocent humans. Dark Knight deals with this.

The problem with the last few Batman movies before the excellent last two installments, Dark Knight and Begins, is that they treated this stuff like it was child’s play. The movie studio seemed more interested in making Batman a cartoonish character and selling some toys. And no disrespect to Val Kilmer and George Clooney, both of whom I enjoy in the right type of movie, but those guys aren’t Batman. Michael Keaton was solid in his movies.

The great thing about these two movies is first, Christian Bale. He fits as Batman, both the suave Bruce Wayne and the crime fighter. I just believe him. Also, the supporting cast has been excellent in the past two movies, but Dark Knight is stacked. BTW, I liked Katie Holmes in the last movie and I don’t know why she didn’t do this one. Bad career move.

Aaron Eckhart is solid as Harvey Dent, the District Attorney who is trying to fix Gotham. Michael Caine is back as Alfred, which is great. Gary Oldman and Maggie Gyllenhaal do good jobs, even though I’m not the biggest fan of Maggie. I also wanted to see more of Morgan Freeman as Lucious Fox, but if you see the movie, you understand that he just doesn’t fit into this move like the last one.

And of course there’s Heath Ledger as The Joker. My goodness, amazing, amazing performance. We’ve seen Heath in a lot of movies over the years, so you know how he looks and sounds most of the time, especially with the Australian accent. Let me tell you, you have NO idea that Heath Ledger is the Joker in the movie, which is a very, very good thing. The entire time you’re watching his performance, you’re saying to yourself, this may be one of the best acting jobs I’ve ever seen.

The Joker is deadly, sick, deformed, funny, captivating, sympathetic, lonely, loving and about a thousand contradictory adjectives all in one. His imbalance is riveting to watch.

Some may say that Ledger’s death has been exploited to promote the movie and I see where you can go with that. You may say that the cast and others’ reviews of Ledger’s performance was enhanced to get ticket sales. But the talk is legit.

Oscar talk is not hyperbole; Ledger deserves to be in the discussion.

The plot was a little confusing at points and the ending kinda leaves you saying, OK, what’s going to happen next. I guess that was the way for them to loophole the next installment of Batman, which can happen now because a new villain emerges. Once again, I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll leave it at that.

Check out the movie if you have the chance.

I was going to leave you with the Batdance song from Prince, but listening to it again, that song was awful. What were you thinking Prince?!? You’re better than that!

Instead, since Family Guy is on right now and it has the original Batman, Adam West, on the show, here are some clips of Mayor West in action.

Sunday Reflections (workout)

I got some good workouts in this week, just continuing to get into shape. I don’t expect to become a superstar bodybuilder, but I’m just trying to get healthy. I love heading to the gym and getting a good sweat in and focusing on my tasks.

When I first used to go the gym consistently, it was in college a few years ago. My school had a great gym facility and I would go in there and do some cardio and lift some weights for the heck of it. There was no focus, no dedication. I would do some lifting and then eat some unhealthy stuff at the cafeteria. It was just a cyclical process that produced non-positive results for me and this would just make me unhappy.

Through the years since then, I’ve had times of heading to the gym consistently and not really producing the results that I want. Thinking back on it, I didn’t accept the process of working out like I do now, which includes in and out of the gym.

The three biggest mistakes that I would have in relation to my workouts was that (1) my diet before and after my workout was unacceptable, (2) I worked out angry and (3) I let a scale determine success.

Let’s start with the first one. I’ve been able to produce some positive and tangible physical and mental results the past two months because I stick to a relatively stern diet during my required workout days, Monday-Friday and optional Saturday. First, I drink a full gallon of water that day. It looks funny for me to carry around a plastic container full of water wherever I go, but I must keep my body hydrated and continue to have fluids in me. The eating plan is pretty simple. Wake up in the morning, have some water, eat one banana or fruit in general, have some water, lift, have some more water, eat a bowl of oatmeal about an hour after lift, water, have a light dinner of a grilled meat, pasta and vegetables, minimal seasoning on the meat, have some more water, relax, water, if I get hungry at night I’ll have another bowl of oatmeal, stop eating food by nine PM and then get some rest. There are of course variations to this, but this works for me.

The second one, I don’t work out angry anymore. I used to go into the gym and try to get out all of my aggressions in a negative manner. That would burn me out and this wasn’t a good thing. Now, I try to channel my negative emotions into positive focus for my workouts. I may have my IPod on in the gym and look like I’m going to punch out the first person that talks to me, but its focus on my goals/tasks for that day. The song rotation on my IPod would be songs that made me pissed and think of all the negative things in my life. Now, there are some songs that have good, reflective music. Some Pantera is still in there, but not as much.

Which brings me to my third former mistake.

I used to check out the scales everyday to see how much weight I’ve lost and let that be a measurement of my success/failures in the gym. I do go on a scale once in a while to see where I’m at and there have been some positives. I’m around 30-40 pounds lighter then I was in college and since I’ve started working at Belmont in August of last year, I’m down about 20, sometimes 25 depending on my water weight. People come up to me and tell me that I look thinner, which is appreciated. However, no disrespect, it’s in one ear and out the other.

The whole goal of this isn’t to be thinner; it’s to achieve a healthier lifestyle both physically and mentally.

Having less weight has some tremendous benefits of course for my future. Long story short, if I want to live longer, I need to lose more weight. I’m also not going to lie and tell you that I don’t look in the mirror and check myself out sometimes and see the progress. It’s noticeable. Also, the ladies notice also, which isn’t the worst thing in the world.

But the working out is just part of a longer process. I work out, eat right and try to achieve a balanced life so that I can be healthy and build mental self-confidence. When I work out and feel nutritionally sound, it makes me feel better, I work better at my job and I’m a better person overall who can make positive contributions to this world.

However, all of this is a process. So when someone complements me on my body, I pretty much ignore it respectfully because I know that this whole thing is a lot more than being able to fit my jeans better or wearing smaller shirts. The physical benefits are just a monetary result of striving to achieve a greater being.

I would also get mad if I had a bad workout and let it ruin my day and let it affect me. Now, I realize that I’m human and I will just try to do better the next time.

Will I ever find this being? Maybe, maybe not. But I’ve come to this resolution.

I’ve also slowly come to grips with my body. I’m never going to be skinny; I just don’t have the body type for that. I have a large frame. I’m also a few inches shorter than I would like to be. I’ll be 6’2’’ one day, right?

Its funny that smaller guys come up to me and say that they wish they had my frame and I tell them sometimes I wish I had theirs.

It’s really about self-confidence and working with what God gave you physically and accepting it mentally. That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m not perfect with this concept, but I’ll keep trying.

For now, here’s a song that I listen to in my final stretch at the end of every one of my workouts. I still listen to some heavy rock music during my workout, but I also like to throw some slow tempo songs in there too for that balance. Tears for Fears was the truth back in the day.

Sunday Reflections (with a twist)

Sunday Reflections are going to be different this week. I starting writing on some topics and they are getting lengthy. As a result, I’ll incrementally post each topic separately throughout Sunday night.

I also cleaned out some of my favorite Web sites over the weekend and found some interesting videos. This one is of the best moments of the verbal warfare of Michael Scoot and Toby on The Office.

Friday MMA Review

Hey everyone, I’m going to try a new segment on Fridays called “Friday MMA Review.” Just like Sunday Reflections, hopefully it becomes a sensation and the nation awaits for its post. Cool logo, right!

This Saturday is a big day in the world of mixed martial arts.

First, prayers are with Rampage Jackson right now while he tries to get his life settled. Unless you’ve been under a rock the past few days, Rampage, the former UFC light heavyweight champion who just lost a fight this past Saturday, has had some incidents the last few days and is currently getting mental treatment in a hospital. The entire MMA world hopes he gets well because he’s a good guy and a great fighter. Just hope he gets better.

OK, on to the events. The new MMA promotion, Affliction, will launch its first pay-per-view event, Banned, this Saturday. The main event includes former Pride promotion champion Fedor Emelianenko (try saying that name fast ten times in a row) and respected top-10 heavyweight and former UFC heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia. Fedor is pictured below.

Fedor is considered by many, including myself, the top heavyweight in the world. Some even consider him the top pound-for-pound fighter. Another guy can make that claim. I’ll get to him later.

The thing about Fedor is that he has excellent speed for a heavyweight and if the fight gets to the ground, he's a machine. He can submit you in any position and his ground and pound is legendary. He also never loses his cool and stays calm the entire time. The facial expression you see in the above picture, he stays like that the entire time. He can't be broken.

The thing about Fedor that makes this fight exciting is that he hasn’t fought someone major in over a year, Matt Lindland. Furthermore, the last time he really fought a top-10 guy who was primed was Crocop in August, 2005. He will definitely get a challenge from Sylvia.

Many people don’t like Sylvia because he’s a big, tall, lanky guy who you want to be more aggressive with his size. He’s 6’7’’ and weights a legit 265. I actually don’t mind Sylvia.

The added thing about this fight is that Fedor will be fighting in the USA for only the second time in his career. The hardcore fight fans, which I guess I have to put myself in this group, know all about Fedor, but a lot of people who only know about UFC fighters or Kimbo Slice and are marginal fans may underestimate Fedor because he looks bored all the time and pudgy.

Don’t let his looks fool you. He is a bad ass and no joke. Also, he may be only 6’0’’, which is short for heavyweight, but height makes no difference to this guy.

Who do I like in this fight? As much as I like Fedor and think the world of him, I’m going to take the upset and pick Sylvia. For someone like Fedor who is used to fighting several times a year, a year layoff is a big deal. Also, everyone underestimates Sylvia, but love him or hate him, he’s a legit fighter. I think Tim frustrates him to a decision.

The rest of the card is very solid.

You have heavyweight Andrei Arlovski, another former UFC champ, against a solid fighter, Ben Rothwell. If this fight was three years ago, the Pitbull aka Andrei kills Rothwell. However Arlovski hasn’t been the same lately, so it really depends on which Pitbull shows up.

Another former UFC heavyweight champ, Josh Barnett, faces Pedro Rizzo to round out the heavyweights, while former UFC light heavyweight champ Babalu and that same Matt Lindland are on the card.

This is a good first card for any promotion. You have Fedor and the rest of the fighters that I’ve mentioned.

Of course, the current king of the MMA world, the UFC, wasn’t going to sit back and just let this PPV go off without competition.

The UFC has responded with a free fight night on Spike. The main even is a match between current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and James Irwin in a light heavyweight match. Silva is pictured below.

For those of you unfamiliar with the weights, the max pounds for middleweight is 185 and for light heavyweight is 205. So, Silva is moving up one weight class.

Many consider Silva, including me, the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Anderson can do it all. His stand up fighting is sick, especially with the mui thai clinches and knees. His ground game is legit, being a jiu jitsu black belt. He has good defense. There are really no weaknesses in his game.

Irwin is a legit light heavyweight and not a pushover. If Irwin happens to win this fight, even if the odds are against him, it wouldn’t be completely shocking. However, I see Silva winning this fight.

The thing that people forget to remember is that Silva “walks around” at around 210-215 even when he’s fighting at middleweight. The extra weight won’t be as big of a deal for him as other guys trying to move up a weight class.

The rest of the card is decent. I’m looking forward to Brandon Vera’s debut at light heavyweight against Reese Andy. Vera was getting too small at heavyweight and I think he can make a decent run in another weight class. He has to get past Andy first.

Hermes Franca is also facing Frank Edgar. Franca is a fun fighter to watch and hopefully he can put his steroid past behind him.

So there are two questions, which event should you watch and what does this mean for the state of MMA?

First, try to watch both of them because each of them have quality fights in them. I’ll probably watch the UFC event from a bar or home and then use some other sources for the Affliction show.

This is a really, really good thing for MMA. The UFC can’t be the only place where fighters can practice their craft. A monopoly in MMA is a bad thing. This is why we need the WEC, Elite XC, Affliction, Strikeforce, Dream in Japan and some other promotions. I want to see as many interesting fights as I can.

As for Saturday, we get so see probably five of the top heavyweights in the world fight on one card, including Fedor. The guy is that special. On the other card, we get to Silva expand his horizons and his claim as the top fighter in the world. And it’s free!

Give these shows a chance or just talk to me on Monday, because as some of you know, I’ll talk you to death about it. Until then, here’s some Fedor highlights! The frist song on the video is his entrance song, which is the best in all of MMA and maybe in sports in general. War Fedor!