Sunday Reflections

What’s going on peoples? Its time for that Sunday Reflection.

Music to listen to: School Days by Stanley Clarke




Came across this song on Pandora on my Jaco Pastorius station and if you don’t know about Jaco and even the Weather Report, YouTube some of that music as well in your free time.

Anyway, this song appeared and I liked it and have been looking up some Stanley Clarke songs and now have to find the School Days album and appreciate all of the music. Enjoy the song. Also, props to the Old Grey Whistle Test. When I was a kid and see these old videos, I always thought it was the Old Grey Whiskey Test and never understood why they would call the place Whiskey.

Crush of the Day: Cougar week concludes here with my two final entries. While it may seem that I only have an attraction to light skinned women with dark hair, that really isn’t the case. I enjoy the company of all types of women. However, I’ve always liked older women as well. There’s a reason that my dating rule is five years younger and ten years older. There’s a method to it. So if you’re a lady between the ages of 22 and 37, you know where to contact me. Just kidding because the Tapout is still on but when its off, just remember.

OK, on to the Crushes



Lucy Liu has been on my bench for the top-five for some time so I have to acknowledge her this week. She’s a New Yorker and been a solid actor in various projects such as Ally McBeal on TV and was tremendous in Kill Bill and the underrated Lucky Number Slevin in the only movie of Josh Hartnett that I approve of. Actually, Black Hawk Down was the business, so that makes two movies.

Anyway, Lucy makes the list.

Crap, just looked up Josh’s movie list and its not as terrible as I thought. 40 Days and 40 Nights wasn’t bad and Sin City was excellent, even though his part wasn’t huge in it.

OK, this is supposed to be about the Crushes. Congrats to Lucy.

Since it’s Sunday, here’s another Crush!



Michael Michelle has to be the hottest person named Michael ever. Ladies, I ask you, who competes. Michael Bolton, George Michael, Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan, Michael Buble, help me out.

Anyway, Michelle has been in some solid roles as well. I remember her most from New Jack City and ER. She was also in the underrated movie, The Sixth Man, seriously. I enjoyed it a lot. She reappeared on House a year or two ago and looked great in that as well. So congrats to her as well.

-What a week for Kentucky men’s basketball. This situation is interesting because going to undergrad and graduate school here in Nashville has allowed me to become good friends with several fans of Kentucky basketball. I’m from the NYC so to see a college program get the professional sports treatment is still fascinating to me. As much as I’ll try to understand fans of major southern entities like Kentucky basketball, Alabama football, Auburn football, LSU football and Tennessee football in this area, I’ll never completely appreciate the passion of having a college sport be the most important show in town for an entire state. In New York, when the Giants or Jets football season was over, we moved on to the Knicks and/or Rangers and then finally to the baseball teams.

As far as the actual firing of Gillespie, I get it and don’t get it. I get it because Kentucky basketball should be better than it is. I get mad at fans who have programs that at their peak are a Sweet 16-type program and expect their team to go to the Final Four. Kentucky is a Final Four program. Indiana is a Final Four program. UCLA is a Final Four program. When those teams don’t make it to the Final Four every four or five years, their fans should be pissed. Also, as fair or unfair as it may be, you do have to act a certain way as the coach of Kentucky, especially in that state. Being a confirmed bachelor hitting the town is not the way that Kentucky wants to see its coach act. Also, you can’t be bad to the media.

I don’t get it because you gave the guy two seasons. That’s setting a bad precedent for your program. Now, you have to be extra patient with the next guy you bring in even if he isn’t the best fit. If they’re not careful, this can turn into Notre Dame football where you’re paying a man too much money and you’re forced to keep him around despite wanting to get rid of him.

Who takes over the post? It isn’t going to be Billy Donovan. Why do I think this? I’m not the first guy to say this but with Anthony Grant taking the Alabama job, Florida doesn’t have its prime replacement anymore. I’m sure that Grant called Donovan down at Florida before taking the Alabama job and asked Billy if he was going to Kentucky. If Billy was going to Kentucky, Grant would be in Florida. However, that won’t be the case.

John Calipari also won’t be the coach. One thing that Kentucky should be afraid of is NCAA violations and possibly probation. Remember the late 80’s Kentucky fans, yeah, not fun times. Calipari has not only been pinched at one of his old spots, UMASS, there is some shady stuff going on at Memphis, I don’t care what anyone says. He’s too slimy and dirty for Kentucky in my opinion.

Travis Ford is an interesting option. Sean Miller is an under the radar candidate. Don’t overlook Jamie Dixon as well, even though if I was him, I would be looking at that Arizona job big time. Well, I think that Mark Few is taking the Arizona job so that may be out as well.

Isn’t the coaching carousal fun?

-The NCAA Tournament is down to the Final Four. I’m sticking with North Carolina, who I’ve taken from day one. Connecticut didn’t surprise me. I would have picked Pitt over Villanova if I did a full bracket. Respect to Michigan State from the crappy Big 10. They proved me wrong. I still don’t trust that conference but I should trust the Spartans in the future.

Tom Izzo. How could I forget him as a candidate for Kentucky. He has to look at it even though he has a pretty nice set up in East Lansing.

-I caught up on TV big time this week and am up to date on all of my shows, accept for House and General Hospital.

-There was no MMA Review on Friday because it was honestly a slow week in the sport. Speaking of MMA…

-Three of my favorite type of events are taking place on Wednesday night and I can only do one, check that, I’m obligated to one because of work.

1) The frickin UFC is coming to Nashville and I can’t go. When I found out that a UFC Fight Night was coming to Nashville, I was so hyped about it and it made me so excited. I love mixed martial arts so much and haven’t had the chance to see an event live and the top organization in the world is coming to my city and I can’t go. Furthermore, one of my favorite fighters, former WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit, aka the Natural Born Killer, is fighting in the main event. This would have been a highlight of my year going to this event. However, I couldn’t do that because…

2) The frickin USA men’s soccer team is playing at LP Field on the same night in a World Cup qualifier. You have got to be kidding me. I love soccer and would have had a blast at the game. I would have tailgated with some buddies, eaten some good food, even possibly volunteered at the game like I did for the Under-20 World Cup matches this summer at LP Field. That would have been tremendous to attend. Witnessing international soccer live is amazing. However, I couldn’t do that because…

3) Belmont is hosting Vanderbilt in baseball, so you know what that means.

I’m not mad at anybody at all because all three events are completely separate from each other but I was hoping that the karma police would have put these three at separate times. Like why couldn’t the Fight Night or soccer match been on Thursday? Those are the breaks in life and I will attend many more MMA fights and soccer matches in my future, just not this Wednesday.



I saw that En Vogue is reuniting. This is tremendous news. I had a huge crush on all four of these beautiful women back in the early 90’s, especially Dawn Robinson, the second one from the left. I still remember the first time that I saw the video for Giving Something He Can Feel as an 11-year old boy and having funny feelings, if you catch my drift. When the video for Free Your Mind came out and Dawn busted out in the catwalk with the curly hair and rocking the fierce look, I was sold. Not only will I buy the new album out of principle, I may have to attend a concert to see if Dawn is available. Don’t test me, I will make a road trip if necessary.

Furthermore, all four of the women in that group were smoking, still to this day. Maxine gets plenty of love, but Cindy was fine and Terry may be the most underrated hot singer in a female group ever, no joke.

-I spent a lot of this weekend watching a WWE DVD on Brian Pillman and was reminded how tremendous of an athlete and wrestler he was. Speaking of WWE

-Wrestlemania is next Sunday!!!! If any of you know of a location to watch it, we can get a viewing party going and make it happen.

-I had a good conversation this past Friday with an unlikely source. I was having lunch in a common eating area on campus, sitting at a table alone, watching TV when an acquaintance from school sat down next to me. I cross paths with her a lot and we talk about general things, nothing serious.

So we’re talking about various things, her boyfriend, my work, basketball, etc. when she mentions songwriting and how she has started to do it again after a long layoff. I started talking about getting back into writing and reading books, which all of you have noticed with me writing on this Blog constantly and the Sports Book Club.

So she’s talks about how she wants to get into singing and doing ministry and spreading the good Word through music and even doing missions. That sounded cool to me and if you knew her, you could completely see her doing this type of stuff.

She then asked me what I was doing with my interests. I told her about graduating in May and applying for jobs, etc. However, I started to realize that I wasn’t truly pursuing what I wanted to do, especially in the sports industry. I’ve never grown up wanting to be a professional athlete, but I wanted to be a sports journalist. Instead of wanting to become the next Patrick Ewing, I wanted to be Mike Lupica or Peter Vescey or Ralph Wiley or Sam Smith or Dick Schapp.

Sports Reporters and Outside the Lines on ESPN was appointment TV for me as a kid. Real Sports on HBO was the same way.

Reading these sports books the past few months has begun to peak my interest in the sports publishing field, whether its magazines, newspapers, books, even Blogs.

Anyway, all of this is going through my head while speaking with her and this made me reevaluate my career path. I know that I need to work to make a living, but if you don’t enjoy it, its not a life worth living. All of the things that I’ve learned in graduate school will be valuable to me in the future and even now but I don’t know if I’ll take the same path as my classmates after graduation.

You know that you’ll know more about this when I figure it out. So, a random lunch encounter made me think about my journey.

That’s going to be all for me. Longer Reflections than I expected but when I start, I keep going. You can expect an MLB baseball preview at some point this week, along with possibly a Show that Used to be the Business and maybe even an NBA Review thrown in there, even though that may happen after the regular season and combine with a playoff preview.

Also, if any of you have topics that you want me to write about, please tell me, I’m open to writing about anything.

Cougar Week Continues and an Observation on Divorce

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Crush of the Day (Cougar Edition) and an Observation on Restaurants

Hey everyone, its time for another Observation:

Music to listen to: Everywhen by Massive Attack



One of my favorite Massive Attack songs, so beautiful. Speaking of beautiful…

Crush of the Day: Diane Lane

We’re continuing Cougar week with Diane. She’s a solid contributor to the bench of my Top-Five and I always give priority to my bench players. Diane seems like that really attractive mother/older sister of one of your friends that you talk with and one day you realize that she’s really attractive. It’s a sneaky hotness. Plus, she makes the list for Unfaithful. Her role in that is worth being named a Crush.

Observation: Restaurants

One of my new pet peeves that I’ve developed recently is people talking about restaurants. This is similar to my issue with people constantly telling you to watch a television show. I even documented it here: http://pourtoutpancakes.blogspot.com/2009/01/sunday-reflections_18.html

Similar to what your child is doing, I really don’t care where you had that great pasta dish last night.

It seems like people always want to be on the cutting edge and be part of the best meal ever.

I can think of numerous times when I’ll say that I had, for example, a good burger at Place A. Well, Slappy then has to tell me about the time he had a burger at Place B. I didn’t ask you about Place B. Stop trying to prove your own self worth by trying to reaffirm your experiences by bringing down mine.

I really don’t like people telling me what to do in general, so you know darn well that I’m not going to accept them telling me where I should eat.

Furthermore, stop busting out with your knowledge of alcohol. This goes into two categories.

Wine: Less familiar with this but dude or ma’am, I really don’t care that you like that red wine from the Napa Valley, age whatever. I like wine but don’t get into a dick measuring contest with me about it. Sorry, I mean, male private part measuring contest.

Liquor/shots: Once again, don’t tell me about some darn shot you learned down in Cabo called Tiger Shark or Pink Teddy Bear, etc. Just give me that shot of Jaeger or Vodka and leave me alone.

I’m not a big fan of restaurants in general. Honestly, I find just as much enjoyment going to a chain place like Chili’s or TGIF as the expensive steakhouse. A good meal is a good meal. I’m more impressed with learning about a new recipe that I can try on my own in my own place and make it for someone or myself.

I guess in the end, just stop recommending where I can get the best dessert or where I can find the best chicken soup. I'll find it myself.

Random Observation: Online Dating

I’m going to try something different for this week with my Observations. Instead of spouting out five or six in one posting, I’m going to focus on one and elaborate more on it.

Music to listen to: Flat Beat by Mr. Oizo



One of my favorite music videos ever. If I was ever a baseball player and had to have a walkup batting song or pitching song, this would make the top-five for consideration.

Crush of the Day: Julia Louis-Dreyfus

This is going to be Cougar Week here on the Blog. What is a Cougar, you ask. Well, it’s an older woman that you find attractive and want to spend some extra time with. Cougars are interesting because at my current age right now, I’m right at the age where I’m getting a little too old for the women in their early 20’s but I’m right at the solid age for women in their mid-30’s. Fun times for me indeed.

I’ve had a huge crush on her since Seinfeld, so this one is a given, especially since she’s come back into relevance with the New Adventures of Old Christine on CBS, which is actually a funny show.

She attractive, funny and rich! Seriously, look her up. She’s an heiress to a billion dollar company. That sounds like a winner to me.

This Observation is on online dating.

I don’t know how it came up but I was speaking with the People’s Champion and this topic came up. We were talking about my tapout and alternative ways that I can possibly meet women.

We talked about going to social gatherings like church, speed dating, which I seriously want to try at least one. I think that would be a fun time.

Online dating came up and not only do I not oppose it, I’m practicing it right now.

Yes, I’m an online dater. I’m hanging my head in shame…heck no I’m not. There is nothing to be ashamed at for doing this.

Its something that I did at the suggestion of a friend and its been interesting interacting with women from around the country without actually meeting them face to face accept for the rare occasion.

Here’s how I look at it. Currently, my social circle really consists of my co-workers and my classmates at school. Those are small circles, especially when some people cross over into both of them. I live hours away from my family so they aren’t a consistent source for me.

I think for someone to be successful in dating, actually, let me take that back.

What do you define as successful in dating? Is it having numerous sexual partners in a set period of time? Is it finding someone that you can start a family with? Is it someone that you want to have as a friend to spend time with no physical intimacy? Or is it someone you want to enjoy an evening with once in a while?

All of these and many others are acceptable answers for success. I’ve felt at one moment in my life at least one of them was my goal. What do I define as successful dating? Glad you asked.

I don’t believe in successful dating in terms of numbers. I don’t have to have X amount of dates over a set period of time. I also don’t have to reach physical or mental thresholds with a woman to make it a worthwhile experience.

Really, for me, I look at it as being a minor league baseball player trying to make it to the major leagues. Let me explain.

For years, for whatever reason, whether it be focusing on school, low self confidence, bad luck, etc. I didn’t date at all. Not in high school, not in college and not even after I graduated from that.

I don’t know the reasons why, but I don’t like to look back at my past in this regard and strive to move forward. Long story short, its like I’ve finally been signed by a minor league team, granted at an older age.

While some of you may have reached the major leagues at 21, 23 or even 18, I’m still learning how to play the game at 27. I’m finally learning how to swing a bat properly, make defensive plays, etc. Of course, this means I strike out a lot and make tons of errors.

This baseball analogy does fit, just work with me.

I make mistakes like contacting women that I’m interested in too often. I misinterpret interaction with women sometimes as her being interested in me when its just her being friendly. I’m still trying to learn to see when a woman is interested in me and to take advantage of it. These are my strikeouts and errors.

The point is that I need to continue to get at-bats and play the field if I’m going to get better. This is where online dating comes in.

Its not my only source of meeting women. I have friends who have friends and that works sometimes. I go out to events, which I really should do more of.

The key is that I’m not going to be successful if I’m sitting at home and not being proactive, or for the analogy, sitting on the bench.

Ultimately, what am I trying to say? I don’t look at success in dating in tangible terms. I’m not looking for a particular type of woman to become my girlfriend, wife, cuddle buddy, friend with benefits, etc.

I don’t have any expectations. I may not meet that “special someone,” which is a bull crap concept by the way, online but maybe I will. You and I don’t know that. The important thing is that I get to the field, step in the batter’s box and hit a home run and not singles, if you know what I’m saying.

Ha, you see what I did there, with the home run meaning…ok, I think I’m done here.

What are your opinions on online dating or alternative dating practices in general? Do you even consider online dating alternative?

You can keep it anonymous in the comments section if you want, that’s fine.

Sunday Reflections

Its time for those Reflections:

Music: Cicatria by The Mars Volta



Listen to the second part of this video as well. Maybe the best drumming from Jon Theodore

-Had an OK weekend. I was on the road in Jacksonville, Fla. with Belmont baseball. The trip was good, even the bus ride down there was fine. When we traveled to Spartanburg, S.C. a few weeks ago, I really struggled on that trip and felt uncomfortable the whole time. This trip, which was hours longer each way, was calmer for me. I got a lot of reading done on my third book of the Sports Book Club, speaking of which…

-I hope some of you are at least halfway through Boys will be Boys by Jeff Pearlman. The review is coming up in about two weeks with hopefully an interview or some correspondence with Pearlman. I’m already on book number three of the Club, so I’ve become a reading machine lately.

-This week was also the first baseball meeting between Belmont and Vandy. This is always a strange game to work for several reasons. First, Vandy is my alma mater so I obviously have positive feelings towards them, especially the baseball team. If I had to place a hierarchy on my favorite Vandy sports, it would probably be men’s basketball, baseball, football, women’s basketball, women’s soccer and then tennis.

I always have a spot for the baseball team because when I was attending the school, the program was just starting to improve and I wanted to be a part of seeing it grow. Its like taking in a stray dog who is weak and then feeding him and taking care of him and in about two years, he’s running in races and competing in shows.

Anyway, this conflicts with my current position at Belmont as an SID. I work for the school but I’m also a student and will be an alum in about a month, which means that I care about Belmont athletics as well.

To make matters even weirder, I do work with Vandy athletics so I know many people in that department. Their SID is a good buddy of mine, I know the marketing staff, shoot, Meggie, who is probably the most loyal reader of this blog, works in the operations staff for Vandy baseball. She was the first person I saw when I arrived at the stadium. Strange stuff.

Furthermore, all of the Belmont baseball players know that I’m an alum of the school so they give me crap the whole week of the game. They ask me if I’m cheering for Vandy to win or make sure that I’m not wearing Vandy colors, etc.

I tell them that when the two teams face off in any sport, I want Belmont to win. This is actually true. I will always have love for Vandy, but I’m more connected with Belmont at this point of my life, especially with the athletes and coaches.

I don’t know one Vandy baseball player personally. I know their names and faces because I’m a fan but that is it. I’m close with the Belmont baseball team because I travel with them and I consider some of them friends. Its one thing when you’re watching a game and you don’t know the players and coaches. You just watch the game and want to see some good action. Its another thing when you’ve shared stories with a pitcher or met the parents or girlfriend of the outfielder. Its that way for all of the sports at Belmont for me. So while I’m not allowed to cheer for a team because of my job, I do have some rooting interest in a player or two.

So when Vandy won on Wednesday by beating Belmont, I was neither happy or sad because my job has trained me to feel neither and for the sake of all things considered, I was happy with that emotion.

-I’m excited that ‘Pancakes,” the weekly event that inspired this whole Blog in the first place, will be returning for the next two weeks. I’ve been so busy this semester between baseball and traveling on Thursdays, I haven’t been able to have ‘Pancakes’ at my place. However, I’m free the next two weeks and looking forward to it.

-I’m actually glad that I’m not allowed to fill out a NCAA Tournament bracket for basketball because after seeing some of the results from this weekend, I would be in trouble. Here are some Observations within my Reflections in relation to the Tournament so far.

-I’m done with you Wake Forest. If I was filling out a bracket, I would have probably picked Wake to make it to the Final Four and they end up losing in the first round.

-I was wrong about Syracuse and Duke. I still think that both of them will lose their next games but I also thought that both of them would lose in the second round. Duke kinda should have because that officiating against Texas was shady. Speaking of which…

-Maybe I’m mad because I’ve been telling everyone and their mother that Western Kentucky was going to the Sweet 16, but how can the referees miss the WKU player AND head coach calling timeout with one second to go. That was terrible.

-CBS should invest in doing a split screen when all of the games are going on at the same time. The games are staggered for the rest of the way so they aren’t necessarily going on at the same time now but for next year, they may want to look into that.

-I just had my first of two fantasy baseball drafts and problems are already arising. I had some major technical issues and missed the first five or six rounds and that was bad. I have players that I don’t want and my team is weak. Not happy at all but its salvageable. I’ll just have to work harder in that league, however, 75% of fantasy sports is the draft and I’m lacking in this league. Hopefully I can do better in my other one.

-Still trying to catch up on my shows. I’m caught up on One Tree Hill and currently watching Chuck so I’ll be good for tomorrow. I still am behind on House, General Hospital, Life on Mars, The Office, Gossip Girl, Scrubs, The Game, Fantasy Factory, I Love Money 2, Rock of Love Bus, For the Love of Ray J and probably two or three others. If you’re a fan of any of these shows, don’t mention what happened in them to me, please.

That’s all I have for you for tonight. I’m in town the whole week so there will be more Blog opportunities for me.

I have a slight case of writer’s block right now so I’m open to suggestions for topics I should address here.

Until then, good fight and good night everyone.

MMA Review

Its time for that MMA Review:

-First, my prayers and thoughts are with the friends and family of Charles “Mask” Lewis, the founder of the premier MMA sports wear company, TapouT.

I’ve always had respect for the pioneers of this beautiful sport and Mask was definitely one of them. When I first head about his death, it saddened me greatly. His energy was infectious and I admired how he gave so much of himself to the sport. The thing that I ultimately respected about the guy was shown on the TapouT show on the Versus channel. Everytime one of his sponsored fighters won or lost, he treated them the same way.

There have been many tributes to him written and I recommend that you do a search and look at them for yourself. Here’s one from Loretta Hunt of Sherdog.com that I found enlightening: http://sherdog.com/pictures/event/the-man-that-was-mask-16626

-Here was the highly entertaining exchange between Rampage v. Evans



I think that Rampage pulling out of this fight was a good thing for the UFC and MMA fans overall. Machida has deserved a title shot for a while and now he gets his chance against Evans on May 23rd. Now, the winner of this fight gets to face a recharged Rampage probably around September or November. This is good for everyone overall.

-I missed Sengoku this time around because I’m on the road on business, but I heard that King Mo did his thing. I like Mo and think that he has the potential to be a major force in MMA in the next few years. I like his advancement in the sport and he’s getting the chance to fight more in Japan. We all know that he will probably end up fighting for a North American based promotion like UFC or Strikeforce, but he is gaining experience right now.

I’m also frustrated that I wasn’t able to watch the first round of the featherweight tournament.

-Some quick links to articles of interest. Here’s an excellent interview with John McCarthy, who many of us know as the premier referee in MMA. However, he has expanded his work to include running an MMA gym, teaching refs and partaking in the continuing regulation of the sport. Good insight: http://sherdog.com/news/articles/18-questions-for-john-mccarthy-16629

Another one is an eloquent article by my man Matt Serra about the legislation of MMA in New York State. If that happens, I’m going to the first show, no matter what: http://www.newsday.com/sports/custom/boxing/ny-opser206075531mar20,0,3962198.story

-I know that some of you may find the whole BJ vs. GSP saga to be nauseating but I actually don’t mind the whole process at all. If MMA is going to continue to legitimize itself as a sport, this has to happen.

The whole event will probably make BJ look like a sore loser but he has the right to file a complaint if he feels that he was cheated in the context of the fight. Personally, I’m a big fan of BJ and think that he lost the fight fairly but the charges that he’s bringing up are legitimate and should be listened to and acknowledged.

-March Badness card. I’m intrigued to see Bobby Lashley fight but it would have been more fun to see him kick the crap out of Ken Shamrock. Now he gets to take out Jason Guida, that joke. Now, I probably won’t look to seeing these fights.

-Ken Shamrock needs to hang it up, seriously. When it gets to the point that you’re getting pinched for steroids at this stage of your career, its time to move on. Restart the Lion’s Den, train some people but your days as a major draw are over. You haven’t won a legit fight in years and I’m not counting that win in February.

That’s all for now.

Random Observations and a Crush of the Day

Hey everyone. Sorry that I haven’t posted since Tuesday, that wasn’t intentional.

I’m coming to you live from Jacksonville, Fla. Because Belmont baseball is playing at North Florida this weekend. Long bus ride but surprisingly not bad. I had a rougher trip going to USC Upstate in Spartanburg than here and that trip was about two hours shorter. However, we did get to our hotel at around 1:30 a.m.

Let’s get to some Observations.

Music to listen to: “Either Or” by Little People



Chill song to relax to and People’s Champion, you better play this song while reading this post.

Crush of the Day: Eva Mendes

When I was doing my research for the Crush of the Day for St. Patrick’s Day, for some reason I came across a picture of Eva Mendes and remembered how cute she was. So now, she has the honor of being named my Crush of the Day.

Oh, I now remember how I came across her. I was looking at an NCAA Tournament preview and saw something on Cal State Northridge, who lost to Memphis yesterday and was graced with the presence of Eva for a time.

-Jay Cutler really needs to fall back because he is looking like the bad guy right now. He’s burned his bridge in Denver. Congratulations to becoming the new QB in Detroit.

-I’m glad that some of you are starting to leave some comments on the Blog. I completely encourage it. I look forward to what each of you are telling me and thinking.

-I tried to have a male Crush of the Day a few days ago with Colin Ferrell. First, don’t expect that every time I do a Crush but I do have female readers who need some love as well.

I guess Colin wasn’t as appealing as I thought, because Meggie sent me this link about her thoughts on him. I had a feeling this one would come up, especially since we’re both huge Family Guy fans.



-Also, interesting comment by “Nick” about my non-positive feelings about Memphis athletics. One of my points was that I didn’t like Memphis because they wouldn’t play Vandy, my alma mater, in men’s basketball. Nick responded that they won’t play in men’s basketball because Vandy won’t play them in football.

I don’t know if that’s completely true but I can see that. I should have made clearer that I’m not happy with both athletic departments for not playing each other more in all sports. It’s a natural opponent and I think that both fan bases would like to visit each city for the contests. So, good call Nick on that one.

-I hope that some of you have been using my NCAA Tournament bracket tips.

-I was walking around campus one day and noticed a cute girl. Quick tangent, my school’s talent level isn’t terrible but not great. Its average and this one was slightly above average so she looked really good but she may have been bumped up because of the other girls she is being compared to. Anyway, so I see the cute girl and she was with three guys who looked less than appealing. I’m not going to call them losers but I wasn’t impressed.

This seems to be a trend I’ve seen lately, at least on college campuses. The really cute girl with two or three average looking guys. Here’s my theory.

One of the dudes is the boyfriend, that’s a given. The other guy is the best friend of the guy and he has a girlfriend of his own that’s probably out of town or lives somewhere else. This is all good because he’s not going to steal his best friend’s girl and he probably has a girl of his own. The third dude is the one you should be worried about. He is the single one who doesn’t have many friends of his own and one of the other three people felt sorry and invited him to hang out with the rest of the gang. That dude will try to steal the girlfriend at one point, it will happen. Or he will pick a fight at a social event that will make everyone uncomfortable. Watch out for that guy.

-We had some interesting movie choices for the bus ride down here. Disturbia was a decent choice even though if they called the police about one hour into the movie, it would have cut all of the drama out. Also, the movie started slower than you would want. Role Models was very funny, shockingly funny. That little black kid was ridiculous. We also saw Taken, which I’d seen in the theatres and liked that one as well.

-OK, that’s it for now. And since I did this post in the morning, have a good fight and a good day.

How to fill out an NCAA Bracket (for entertainment purposes)

Hey everybody. This post is about how you should fill out your NCAA Men’s Basketball bracket. However, there are one or two things that I want to hit on not related to that topic so this is a mini-Random Observations.

Music of choice: The Sun Goes Down by Thin Lizzy







Tremendous song by one of the most underrated rock groups of all –time and since we’re winding down St. Patrick’s Day, I needed to put an Irish group on here that isn’t U2. No beef against those guys but good Irish music has been coming out for a long time besides U2.

This song is haunting and Phil Lynott, the lead singer and bassist, looks so tired and beat up but that’s what makes this song so honest.

Crush of the Day for the Ladies: Colin Farrell



I have some female readers of the Blog and I aim to provide for my readers so this is for them or you if you’re a lady and reading this, or a gay guy, whatever.

Crush of the Day: Heather Graham

I tried to find someone of true Irish descent but we’ll settle for Heather because she’s cute and had an excellent character arch on Scrubs as Dr. Clock, so props to her.

OK, on to the bracket. I’m not officially filling one out because I’m not allowed to because of my job. I can’t enter a pool for gifts or even if there aren’t any gifts. I do a bracket on my own to see how I would do and keep it to myself. Therefore, I’m not going to tell you who I have winning the whole tournament or making my Final Four, etc.

However, that doesn’t stop me from helping some of you out when you’re filling out your bracket. I usually do OK with these. I get at least two Final Four teams a year and have even picked a winner or two. I didn’t have Kansas last year, but I had UNC, Memphis and UCLA in the Final Four.

Here are some tips when you’re doing your business.

Here are some tips when you’re doing your business.

1) Never ever base your picks on the “experts.” I’m not going to call anyone out in particular but don’t pick a team based on what you saw an analyst said on TV or what you read on a sports Web site. Everyone has their own opinion and you should as well. That’s why I don’t look at one prediction from someone else before I personally fill out my own. Only until then will I look at other people’s picks.

2) Don’t do the whole “everyone is picking team A to beat team B so I’m going to pick team B.”

3) Don’t use any of the following criteria to pick one team over another:

a. Who has the best looking players and/or coach
b. Who has the better looking uniforms
c. Which team is in the city I’ve had more fun in.
d. Who has more players from a certain area, race, age, you get the idea.

4) This is business, Pt. 1. Don’t pick your favorite team if they stink. If you’re an alum or fan of for example West Virginia, don’t pick those guys to go to the Final Four because you wish they will. For an even more realistic example, say you’re a fan of Cleveland State. You’re hyped and excited that you beat Butler to make it to the NCAAs. You want your team to win several games and make a run, so you put them in the Sweet 16 to be cute. Well, slappy, when your boys get stomped by Wake Forest and the Demon Deacons possibly make a run to the Final Four, those are valuable points that you’re losing. So don’t be cute, Stephen F. Austin or American fan. Pick your team to lose, this is business.

a. Don’t pick against a conference. Look, I’m the first to tell you that when I refer to Big 10 (11) basketball, I always call it crappy Big 10 (11) basketball, just like crappy ACC football. Those are my emotional opinions. However, if I think that Purdue is going to make a run, you bet I have no hesitation to pick them to win some games. I don’t like the style of play and I don’t think that any of the teams are good honestly, but if say Michigan State has an easy road to the Elite Eight, take that pick.
b. Don’t pick against coaches. If I saw Bruce Pearl , John Calipari and Krzezewski (in that order) hurt in the middle of the road, I probably wouldn’t stop to help them. However, you or I shouldn’t let our dislike for a coach get in the way of seeing that their team can make a run. I can’t stand Memphis for so many reasons that I won’t get into them here. But long story short, I don’t like their style of play, don’t like their players, don’t like their coach, don’t like how they play in a crappy conference and pad stats, don’t like how they won’t face Vandy in men’s basketball, don’t like their city of residence, etc. Other than that, they’re ok. However, in my bracket, I have them making the Elite 8.

5) This is business, pt. 2. Don’t pick against your rival team or any team you dislike. I can’t stand Tennessee, Duke, Memphis, ETSU and some others in that order. If I think that Tennessee is going to win the national championship, I’m marking it down on my bracket even though I dislike them with a passion. This is about picking winners, no emotion

a. Don’t pick for your conference. I went to an SEC school, love the conference, all of that stuff. There was some crappy basketball played in it this year. Don’t pick LSU to make the Elite 8 because you want to see the conference do well. Pick them because you truly think that they have the ability to make it that far.

b. Don’t pick for a coach. Even if you feel some special connection with a coach, you went to a lecture he was doing and you had a chat, he’s the same religion as you, he coached one of your kids or neighbor’s kids in a camp, you get where I’m going with this. Along those lines, don’t go for the sentiment pick. Don’t pick the old guy or the minority guy or anything like that because you feel some emotional connection.

6) Mascots matter. If you’re torn on a pick, look at the mascots. Here are some potential teams who can make a difference because of their mascot, good and bad.

a. Beware of birds. Birds are traditionally weak unless its something like an Eagle. So Louisville, beware of them. However, some Jayhawks won a title last season, so this theory may be questionable.
b. Land predators are always good. So Wildcats, Tigers, Bears, Jaguars, Rams, Wolves and all of the variations of them, lean towards them. Some to stay away from included Turtles
c. Human mascots should be proceeded with caution. I’m looking at the Utes, Mountaineers, Cowboys, Hilltoppers and some others are worrisome, especially the Native American ones. The only exceptions are…
d. Devils, even the contradictory ones. Perfect example is Wake Forest. Now the mascot is a Deacon, so he’s spreading the Word, and yes that’s Word with a capital “W.” However, he’s a Demon Deacon so is he spreading the bad Word or the good Word or are you a Satanic worshiper and consider the Demon Deacon’s word to be good while a Christian may consider it bad.
e. If your mascot is a vehicle, its curtains for you.

7) Look at the last 10 games the team played in a positive and negative way. If they’ve been playing well, that’s good but even if they’ve been struggling, they’re still hope. This was a sloppy way to segway into my next point.

8) Don’t take too much stock into conference tournaments. Be careful of the following teams that made runs in their conference tournaments that may inflate your belief in how good they are:

a. Louisville for winning the Big East
b. Cleveland State for beating Butler
c. USC for reaching Pac 10 final
d. Mississippi State for winning pedestrian SEC
e. Maryland
f. Oklahoma State for beating Oklahoma
g. Florida State for beating UNC
h. Duke for winning ACC. They do this every year. Win the ACC Tournament, look great, lose in either Sweet 16 or not even make it out of first weekend.
i. Syracuse. They will have no legs after tough week at Big East Tourney.

9) GPAs don’t matter. Some people like to look at GPAs or APR ratings to make their choices. This is basketball people. Not saying that smart kids can’t play and the less smart kids on paper will win every time but this all takes place on the court. Stay away from that thinking.

10) Beware of one man shows. You can’t win the whole thing with only one super player. So beware of these teams:

a. The biggest example of this year is Oklahoma with Griffin
b. Arizona State

11) You have to play some defense. There are some Web pages out there that can give you some stats on this stuff but if your championship pick doesn’t play defense, be worried.

12) Guards rule. It’s a guard’s game this time of year.

13) Location, location, location…doesn’t matter as much as you think. If you’re good, you will be fine. I think that you should look at the time of the games and date of the contest. Example is Mississippi State. They played Sunday afternoon against Tennessee to finish off playing four games in four days. Now they have to travel to Portland, Oregon and face Washington on Thursday. That’s a tough turnaround. Look for things like that. However, this may be the biggest factor of them all…

14) Motivation. You’re dealing with kids 18-22. If they feel slighted or disrespected by their seed, who they’re paired off with to face, media members, fans, opponents, etc. this can be a big motivation for them to stick it to everyone and shock the world. This also goes the other way. Let’s pick a random team like Marquette. Hard core NCAA fans know about Utah St., however, a lot of these kids don’t know about them. Marquette has been facing all of those elite teams in the Big East all year and now you give them an unknown entity from the WAC? This isn’t only for Marquette, I can apply this to several other teams as well.

Those are some guidelines for you to use or not use. Enjoy the games, I know that I will.

Random Observations and a Crush of the Day

Hey everyone. First, sorry that I didn’t do a Reflections yesterday. I let Mr. Cranky come into my realm for the first time in a while and that made me not want to do anything. That shouldn’t be an excuse for me to not write on the blog. So instead of Reflections, those are reserved for Sundays, I have some Random Observations.

Music of the Day: Melting Chariots by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez



Crush of the Day: Connie Britton

Props to the People’s Champion for reminding me of her. I’ve tried to watch some episodes of Friday Night Lights this year when I have the chance and while its not appointment TV for me, its entertaining.

However, I know that the most beautiful woman on that show isn’t Minka Kelly and her terrible Texas accent , the coach’s daughter or the other girl with the short blond hair, its Connie. I’ve been a fan of hers since Spin City and its good to see her starring on a good show.

-St. Patrick’s Day always brings back one of my favorite memories and yes it involves alcohol. One spring break in high school, I was part of a college trip to schools in the Mideast area. So on St. Paddy’s Day, we arrive at Georgetown at night, so the coeds were already feeling the spirit. I’ll never forget when a really attractive blonde came up to us and told us welcome to Georgetown and invited us to get drinks with her. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending how you look at it, our chaperones were there and made sure that we didn’t partake in the activities. However, we did get some drinks at the University of Virginia.

Oh to be 16 and drinking on college campuses. Fun times.

So even now, while I don’t partake in the St. Paddy Day festivities (just like drinking games, if you need an excuse to drink, shame on you), I still have fun memories of the events.

-Let me elaborate on that one. I don’t find interest in getting drunk on all of these holidays, whether its St. Paddy’s Day, Cinco De Mayo, Fourth of July, President’s Day, Boxing Day for my Canadian readers, or any other ones that I’m forgetting. First, you really shouldn’t be getting drunk, its overrated. Second, if you do decide to drink too much, don’t be a pussy…cat about it and just do it.

-I still haven’t filled out my NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket for several reasons. First, I’m not allowed to do one because of my job. OK, I guess that takes care of that.

Actually, I look at the bracket and make some observations about who I think will advance and stuff like that. In fact, I need to give you my analysis of how to fill out your ballot. Expect that tomorrow.

For now, I guess I’ll take Morehead State in the play-in game.

-I went to a presentation tonight and I realized that I graduate in two months. Time is flying.

-The “tapout” is still in effect, even though it gets harder to keep it in tact. I was taking care of my business as usual today when I was talking to a lady friend. I’ve been debating if I should pursue this, which would violate my “tapout” but we started talking about our activities this week. We have an event of common interest on a night in the middle of the week and I asked her if she was going to be at it. She mentioned that she was having dinner with someone that was in town for the night and wouldn’t be able to attend it. I mentioned that nothing says friendship and dating like the event and she responded that she would have gone if he wasn’t only there for the night.

And that my friends is why the “tapout” will stay in tact.

That’s it for now, its bedtime. Until later, have a good fight and a good night.

Random Observations and a Crush of the Day

Hey everyone, hope you’re doing will in your life. I’m doing well. My professional life is keeping me very occupied but its been fine. As long as I have my alone times and am able to relax and reflect like right now, it is all good in my world. Lets hit on some Random Observations.

First, to that anonymous person who laughed at me for looking like Al Roker, if I run into you in a dark alley, I will take you out with an omoplata (look it up if you don’t know) and then end it with some ground and pound, old-school style.

Actually, I’m not mad at that. However, don’t leave anonymous posts. At least make up a creative code name that you and your buddies will only get.

Music to listen to: Genesis with Abacab


I know that I keep putting Yes and Genesis songs on this blog like I’m a 50 year old man and I know that half of these songs were done before I was even born, but they speak to me and relax me. Hope they do the same for you.

-Crush of the Day: Eliza Dushku

She’s an underrated hottie for several years now. I’ve been meaning to see her new show Dollhouse but it comes on every Friday night and that’s a bad time for me with baseball season. I remember her most from Buffy the Vampire Slayer like most in my generation but she was also good in Bring it On and many other projects. She fits my requirements for looks, age and other things. Respect to her. She might crack my top-five bench, speaking of which…

-I know that all of you are waiting for my updated top-five and it will be done within the next few weeks. But I want this to be interactive, so I’m willing to take suggestions from each of you about who I should include. I’m always open to suggestions. I will say this though, the Peoples’ Champion wants me to include Jessica Simpson and Minka Kelly. There is no chance that Jessica will ever make the list. She has the looks but the other stuff will not even come close. Minka is cute but she has to do more work.

-I’ve enjoyed watching all of the conference tournaments for men’s basketball the past week and a half. Its always enjoyable to sit in the office and see everyone playing. However, one thing that has been bugging me, actually two things.

1) I seriously dislike having these tournaments in domes. All of these arenas look half empty and it takes away from the atmosphere. I was watching the Georgia Tech/Clemson game this afternoon and it sounded like no one was there. Even watching Arkansas and Florida at this moment, two teams with strong fan bases, the arena atmosphere seems bland. The Big East, Big 12, Pac-10 and even the Big 10 do it properly among the big conferences with the proper type of arena.

2) Can we just pick one location for each tournament. Here’s where I would have the tournament every year from the major conferences and some other ones as well that I know how they operate.

Big East: New York City at Madison Square Garden. Perfect city, perfect arena, destination spot for all of the fans and media members. I’m glad that they haven’t been tempted to move this thing to Boston when Boston College was in the conference or Philadelphia.

SEC: Atlanta at Phillips Arena. Why the heck is the tournament in Tampa, Fla. this year in a dome. What a joke. The football championship is already in Atlanta, everyone likes to go there, easy to get to, etc. It’s the unofficial center of the SEC and they keep moving it to Nashville and Tampa and that’s just not going to work.

ACC: Greensboro, N.C. I was talking with the Sager and Mr. McMahon today about this because they support ACC schools. I told them that I think that the reason that they don’t have it in Greensboro every year is to make it seem like the conference isn’t North Carolina-centric. Not the school, the entire state. However, it is what it is, especially when it comes to basketball. That tournament is all about playing that championship game on Sunday afternoon at the Greensboro Arena. I still remember seeing Wake Forest make that run to win the tournament and see Randolph Childress carry that team to the title. I’m not even a fan of that school and I still remember that. You’re not going to get that at the Georgia Dome.

Big 10: Conseco Fieldhouse in Indy. They have it right.

Pac-10: Staples Arena in LA. Perfect.

Big 12: It’s a tie between the Ford Center in Oklahoma City where this year’s tournament is being held and Kansas City. Both locations are solid.

Mountain West: Its always in Vegas, keep it that way.

Atlantic Sun: Nashville, Tenn. At the Curb Event Center (yes, I know that’s a cheap pop but its true).

Southern Conference: Charleston, S.C. Why was this year’s tournament held in Chattanooga, Tenn. Someone needs to explain that one to me. Charleston is a destination spot for everyone to come to and it just works.

Atlantic 10: Atlantic City, N.J. Love it.

MAAC: Love that its in Albany, N.Y. every year. For my southern readers and I think most of you are, the MAAC is like the Atlantic Sun or OVC of the Northeast. All of the schools are similar in size and even religious affiliations. My school of choice was Iona College and even St. Peter’s because of my high school Latin teacher. Yes, I studied Latin in school.

America East, NEC, Patriot and some others: I like that the championship game is held at the arena of the higher seed. It would hurt the economics to hold an entire tournament in a neutral site for these small conferences. Furthermore, it looks cool on TV to see those games and it must be a blast to attend.

Ivy League: And finally, the only conference I think that doesn’t have a conference tournament and I get that and respect it. I like to reward the regular season as well. I don’t take as much stock into the conference tournaments as some others may.

I don’t think that an average team can win a game or two in the tourney and all of a sudden they’re NCAA Tournament worthy. I also don’t think that a really good team should be penalized for one loss. For this year, I don’t think that Pittsburgh, Connecticut (if they lose, which they are as I’m typing this), Oklahoma, Kansas and even when North Carolina plays tomorrow should have their seeds dropped significantly by losing the first game of their conference tournaments. Their body of work in the regular season shows how good they are.

Can’t wait to do my do’s and don’ts for filling out your NCAA bracket next week.

-Just watched an episode of ER and it reminded me of how good of a show that was when it was in its peak. Its actually not a bad show right now. When it was the best show on television for a good five-six year run, it was a pleasure to watch. I’ll do my ode to it when its over in a month. Speaking of tonight’s episode…

-Not to give it away, but the episode was about a brain dead teenage kid and his grandmother (played by the awesome Susan Sarandon) having do decide if she was going to let him die and donate his body organs. Well, she does (crap, that gave it away), and it was sad and all of that stuff.

It made me think about this. When I die and trust me, that day is coming, I want all of my body parts to be used for transplants. What good is my heart going to be in the grave. Give away my eyes, bones, limbs, tendons, kidneys, liver, lungs, brain, give it all away. I’d want to help someone else live life and its also creepy for my liver to be in someone else and that’s cool.

-Just saw Dumb and Dumber the other day and it still holds up. Funniest movie of the 1990’s? Discuss.

-I’ve finally watched all of the episodes of Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory on MTV and while Rob and Big was the buddy show of this generation, Fantasy Factory is pretty darn funny as well. I haven’t laughed out loud so much in a long time . Love it.

-OK, that’s it for now. This wasn’t supposed to be as long as it was but when I start writing, I just keep going. Talk to y’all later.

Shows that Used to be the Business II

Its time for the second edition of Shows That Used to be the Business. I present to you…The Fresh Prince of Bel Air

First Memory: I remember waiting for Monday Night Football one night and flipping the channels and seeing Will Smith acting on a show. I wasn’t a huge fan of his music but I was aware of his work. Plus, I was nine at the time and very impressionable. I decided to give the show a chance and it became a talking point of my generation that I could talk with all my friends about. Good times!

Favorite Character (Main): Its easy to go with Will on this one because he was one of the coolest TV characters ever. The guy had charisma, was funny, talented, apparently good looking for the ladies even though I thought he always looked goofy.

I could place a vote for Carlton because I was so much like that dude, it wasn’t a joke. I used to wear the sweaters, like that chessy music, had no success with the ladies, had cooler cousins, the whole deal. I was even called Carlton back in the day because of the “proper” way that I talked. I have to go with him.

Wait, props should go to Uncle Phil as well. I actually found more enjoyment from him than any of the other characters. In the end, I think I’ll go with Carlton.

Favorite Character (Secondary): This is a tough one to distinguish. Do you consider someone like Jeffery a secondary character even though he was in every episode or is someone like Jazz fit this category. Or does anyone outside of the Banks family considered secondary?

If we’re going to go with Geoffery (yes, I had to look it up on the Wiki to get the proper spelling), that’s fine. He had so many one liners about Uncle Phil’s weight, I would look forward to each and every one of them. He always brought something to the table. Plus, his real name is Joseph Marcell. That’s an awesome last name.

However, I never really considered G a secondary guy, so we’ll go with Jazz.

On a side note, credit has to go Will Smith for showing loyalty to his boy and getting him on the show. Will could have turned his back on him and told him to kick rocks when he started acting. However, he didn’t and we were rewarded with Jazz. Everytime he got thrown out of the house was funny. Tremendous stuff.

Also, props to Cornflake. If you don’t know who that is, look it up, he was tremendous. Also, Will and Carlton’s high school basketball coach was funny as well. “Pass it to Will” became a running joke among my friends on our basketball team.

Least Favorite Character (Main): Aunt Vivian never rubbed me the right way, both actresses. I didn’t like her character at all honestly. However, she did show faith in the children and let them live their lives. But that’s even too hard on her.

The best part of the show was that there wasn’t a weak link in the cast. Everyone had their moments to shine.

Least Favorite Character (Secondary): Once again, tough choices. I will say that I didn’t like the rest of the Banks family besides the main characters. Whenever an aunt would visit, I wasn’t down with that. The only exception may have been Will’s grandmother.

Eye Candy Factor: This was a strong, strong category for this show. Let me tell you this, when the show was on from the ages 9-14 for me, lets just say that I began to acknowledge things in the opposite sex.

First, we had Ashley. I had a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE crush on her. It wasn’t even funny. I wanted to date her so badly. She was around my age so when she was going through things like starting to date, learning about sex, going to a different high school then she wanted, the whole deal. When Ashley dropped of the private high school to go to a public one, I had those same feelings at my private school. This made her even more attractive to me. She was attainable. I will always have a place in my heart for Tatyana Ali.

However, lets not forget Hilary. She was FINE on that show. Only now watching the repeats do I notice how good looking she was. I was in my Ashley daze but didn’t even acknowledge Hilary. Karyn Parsons can still get it any day of the week to this day.

We also had Tyra Banks, Nia Long, Lela Rochon, Vivica Fox, Robin Givens, Naomi Campbell, Stacey Dash and many other women make appearances on that show. Will’s dates alone were worth watching the show.

I guess for the ladies, we had Will but I thought dude looked goofy so I don’t know. You ladies readers of this blog are going to have to help me out on this one.

Theme song out of five stars: 5 out of 5. It covered everything that you want. It told the concept of the show, you got to see the humor and message of the show. Plus, Will does the song himself. You can’t mess with that.

If you don’t believe me, its below:




Dude, I tried to do that hook shot that missed in my school yard. I even tried that move when Will does that skip before he goes to the front door. Come on, I know that you tried it too.

Of course, I knew every word to the song, that goes without saying.

Favorite Moments:

-Anytime Will used a pickup line. He was the one to teach me that if I could rearrange the alphabet, can put you and I together.

-Ashley learning to play the drums.

-When Ice Trey visits and falls in love with Hilary. Props to the Don Cheadle cameo.

-When Geoffrey poses as the poet at Bel-Air Academy.

-The whole Kiss My Butler episode, when Naomi Campbell guest stars.

-When we learn Uncle Phil is a pool hustler

-When Carlton spends a few days in Compton.

-The episode with Queen Latifah

-When Will get stuck in the earthquake with Tisha Campbell

-When Bel Biv Devoe tries to shoot their music video at the Banks’ house. Amazingly funny episode.

-When Will battles Allen Payne from Malibu Prep for the Georgetown scholarship.

-The game show episode, you know which one I’m talking about.

-When Will and Carlton become strippers.

-When Will comes back with braids in his hair and wearing clothing that makes him look like a prisoner. Good message in that one.

-When Bel Air Prep goes coed and Ashley looks amazing. She had my heart at that moment.

-When Carlton almost gets married to his ex-girlfriend because she’s pregnant for us to learn that he’s a virgin. Been there. The virgin part, not the knocking up an ex-girlfriend.

-Will and Carlton going camping. Enough said.

-When Carlton and Will trick Geoffery into thinking that he won the lottery.

-When Carlton gets addicted to Will’s pills.

-When Will graduates and has to sing with the little kids to earn his diploma.

-When Carlton finally loses his virginity. I think many of us out there were watching this and were applauding. I know that I was.

-When Will and Carlton try to join the fraternity.

-When Ashley tries to become a musician.

-When Will poses as Ashley’s father to that fine teacher. She was smoking.

Episode archs that stick out:

-Will’s father returning to the picture. I had and still have father issues so when Will’s dad came back into town and was promising to do special things with him, I was relating to that stuff. When Will’s father leaves to go trucking and leaves Will behind, that was emotional. When Uncle Phil has to tell Will about it, I was crying the first time I saw that episode. Even now, if I see it on repeat, its emotional.

-When Will got shot. Another emotional episode. I liked how the show would have serious elements to it to go along with the humor. You really don’t see that much anymore. When Carlton goes into Will’s hospital room and shows him the gun, wow. When Will takes the gun from Carlton and starts crying, I was right there with them.

-When Trevor, Hilary’s fiancé died. The reaction of everyone looking at the TV when Trevor had his bungee cord accident, priceless.

-Ashley asking Will about sex. I saw this episode a few days ago and inspired this entire post. Here you had Will, ladies man, being asked by his little cousin who he loves dearly to talk about sex. Good message. Of course this is a parallel to something I’m doing in my life with my younger family members, including a niece. That show was on the mark.

Least favorite moments: The whole final season and a half I was not liking the show as much. Several moments stick out.

1) The changing of Aunt Viv. Didn’t like it but the original actress wanted to leave and the character was important to the show.
2) Will getting engaged. Look, I love Nia Long, but this didn’t work for me.


Non-realistic/WTF moments: I think that the show was pretty realistic and didn’t have some random moments where I was confused.

Actually, let me take that back. Besides us having to believe another woman as Aunt Viv, they age the young kid like five years over one summer. Who green lit that one?

Level of personal obsession: I’ve mentioned it all above. I was hooked on this one.

Cultural impact: From the music, clothing, dancing, greetings, this show hit a nerve for all cultures and races. Everyone could relate to the show.

Would this show work in 2009: That’s a tough one. I think that the issues are relevant, but there has been such a crossover of races and cultures into the rich, “Bel Air” culture. I’m not saying that Black people are all over there but its not as taboo to see rich Black people in our lives. I think that the show did send a message that a lot of us are the same no matter what our backgrounds are.

That’s all. Hope you liked this. I leave you with one of my favorite moments ever from the show.

Reflections on a Monday

Hey everyone, its finally time to start blogging again! I had some computer troubles and hopefuly they’re resolved. Since I didn’t do a Reflections on Sunday and I always say that I won’t miss a Reflections, here are my well…Reflections, Monday edition:

-Spent the weekend in Spartanburg, S.C. for some college baseball. Nice stadium, beautiful weather and the team that I cover won two out of three games, so good times all around.

There was an older gentleman at the games and he was one of the most annoying hecklers to the umpires that I’ve ever heard. Every single call was met with a complaint. At first I thought that it was funny but then it got extremely annoying and took away from enjoying the game. I asked people around there who he was and they just said it was an old man who showed up to the games. He wasn’t cursing or anything like that but he just wouldn’t stop.

-On the way to Spartanburg, we watched Step Brothers. It was a funny movie and there were some moments which were even beyond the realm of decent. Some of the quotes were so crude but I ended up laughing at all of them. I recommend it.

We also watched The Patriot, which I didn’t get but it was ok I guess. I was sleeping during it and reading some books. Speaking of which…

-Finally finished Boys Will Be Boys for the sports book club. I’ll save my opinion of it for the review. I still need to contact Jeff Pearlman to see if he’ll talk about his book to the Pourtout Pancakes Nation.

-The whole Rihanna/Chris Brown situation is just sad for all parties. I reserve judgment on these types of stories until all of the facts are out but domestic abuse is something that can never be condoned under any circumstances.

-Twitter. I can’t do it. I love doing the blog because I get to expand on thoughts that I have. Facebook is good because you can keep in touch with people and the updates are fine. However, with Twitter, why would I want to leave sentences of gibberish? Maybe I’ll give it a chance in the future but for now, I’m not going to do it.

-I wasn’t sure if the gym was going to be open early this morning, so I stayed in and caught the Today Show, which is always enjoyable TV. Speaking of that show…

-If one more person tells me I look like Al Roker, I’m going to go off on them and not in a nice way. I’m at the Vandy vs. Arkansas game on Sunday, sitting in the press room when some jackass comes up to me and tells me that I look just like Al Roker. Well, whopptie damn doo! I didn’t know that! Thanks for telling me that. I’m sure that the family would be proud.

It’s a pain in the ass looking like that guy, seriously. I’ve had people yell at me from across the street about it. I’ve been told that I look like the guy in every city that I’ve lived in at least four or five times. Thank goodness I don’t live in the NYC anymore because its even worse up there. It was to the point that I wouldn’t go near the NBC studios for fear that someone would want me to be on the show or something like that.

Its not the fact that I look like the guy. Al seems like a nice guy, no beef with him in particular. It’s the perception of him being the jolly, fat black weatherman. I’m not like that perception at all and I’m pretty sure that Al isn’t even like that in his personal life, or he may be and that’s fine too.

Being told that I look like him makes it seem like I’m going to be Mr. Happy. I’m not a mean guy but I’m also not happy all the time.

Of course, I don’t tell people all of this when they tell me that I look like him. I usually just accept it and move on but it does get me irritated at times.

So the lesson for tonight is to be careful when you tell someone that they look like a celebrity, it may not be a compliment in the end.

-I’m excited that the NCAA Basketball tournament starts next week. I don’t think any of my favorite teams will be in from the men’s side. Georgia Tech is terrible, Belmont lost in the A-Sun Tourney and Vanderbilt isn’t going to make it.

-One Tree Hill needs to stop this. I rush home from errands and I turn on the show to only see a repeat. Let’s get some new episodes going CW!

-The Tapout is still on, even though I slightly attempted to step out of it earlier today.
I was talking with someone today over some business and I asked her if she wanted to get something to eat after we were finished. She declined and that was fine by me because I really didn’t care either way.

-Alex Rodriguez (I refuse to call him by that terrible nickname of his) needs to take a lesson in looking humbled and clean. I think that people don’t like him because he looks like a phony. He always looks tanned, clean haircut, shirts and pants matching a little too much. I think that his metrosexual nature hurts him, especially in a sport like baseball.

I’m not saying what he’s done is right or wrong but it seriously wouldn’t hurt him to just look and act normal, like someone you would go to the corner pub and drink some beers with. He’s the last type of guy that I would want to hang out with.

For his sake, I hope he comes back from this injury not trying to be perfect. Loosen up.

-Some quick MMA thoughts to finish this out.

I was not surprised that Rampage beat Jardine. Looking forward to Rampage vs. Evans or as Rampage called it “black on black crime.” Now that’s funny.

Shane Carwin is no joke. He beat the crap out of Gonzaga.

That’s all for now.

MMA Review

Hey everyone, its time for that MMA Review. Let’s get to it.

-UFC 96 looks like an OK card that I won’t actually see because of work. However, if I wasn’t occupied with that, I would probably pay for it to see the fights.

The main event of Rampage against Jardine is intriguing, even thought the fight honestly doesn’t make sense. We’ve been told or can assume that this was supposed to be Rampage vs. Rashad Evans but the champ wasn’t able to do it physically, which is ok I guess.

The conspiracy theorist out there have said that the Rampage/Evans fight isn’t happening right now because Rampage has some legal issues to take care of and the last thing that the UFC needs is their light heavy champion in jail. So to keep the events moving, we get this fight today.

I think that Jardine is a good fighter, has a unique style and all that stuff, but Rampage is the better fighter. I also thing that Rampage is focused on getting hit title back and he knows that this is the first step towards that path.

The other fight from this card that holds interest is Shane Carwin vs. Gabriel Gonzaga. I like this fight because it presents value to each fighter. Carwin gets to step his game up and face elite competition. Gonzaga will face an individual who others are acknowledging is a potential champion and by defeating him, he becomes a prime candidate to face the winner of Mir vs. Lesner II.

We know a lot about Gonzaga but less about Carwin. We know that Carwin will be the larger guy and probably more explosive but Gonzaga is more experienced and skilled. I’ll take the veteran in this one.

-The pay-per-view that I’m really looking forward to is UFC 98 which will have Mir vs. Lesner II and finally, Serra vs. Hughes.

I must preface this that Serra and Mir are two of my favorite fighters, along with B.J. Penn and Rampage, so my interest in these fights are of course very high.

-Good to see the UFC going to Germany. Wandy vs. Rich Franklin is one that I’ll have to warm myself up to honestly.

-Not to make this UFC-centric, I’m actually looking forward to the Bobby Lashley and Ken Shamrock fight.

OK, short MMA Review. Just wanted to get a thought or two out there for y’all. Later

Apologies

Hey everyone, I'm coming to you live from beautiful Spartanburg, S.C. enjoying a Belmont baseball game. This is a pretty nice place. I'm taking plenty of pictures and they will be on Facebook. I'll probably post some here on Sunday.

Sorry peoples that I haven't blogged this week. My computer crashed on me and that's never fun. However, I should still have some stuff out there for you, so my apologies.

Hopefully tomorrow, I can have an MMA Review for you by tomorrow to preview the UFC event on Saturday. I also need to give you a new edition of "Shows That Used to be the Business." I hope to have that one for you on Saturday or Sunday at the latest.

Of course on Sunday, you know that the Reflections will come. Hope all is well for y'all and talk to you later.