Sunday Reflections

What is going on people! Good, very relaxing weekend. Caught up on all of my TV accept for General Hospital, so you know the drill. If you see me and know anything about the show from the last two weeks, don’t say anything to me about it.

Anyway, its time for those Sunday Reflections and I’ve got plenty of them for this edition.

-I was in the laundry today and saw one of the most mismatched couples I’ve seen in a long time. This guy clearly outkicked his coverage by a major distance. The guy looked like Dwight from The Office and he was with this cute, petite blond. He brought his laptop AND hard drive and was cutting some music or something because while he was working on the laptop, she was listening to the music on headphones. Furthermore, she had on one of his grey sweatshirts and the thing was double her size, so that confirmed their couple status. They were all cuddled up the whole time.

Actually, I shouldn’t say that he overachieved because they did look cute together. She was just hot and he was so dorky looking, but sometimes that’s what works for couples. Plus, she was rocking the sweatshirt, that’s such an underrated hot look for women.

Speaking of that…

-I’ve always been a fan of the high black boots, short dress look on women and have had desires for women in jeans and tank tops, however, this trend of women wearing very, very short skirts that may as well be shirts and colored tights, tremendous.

While every man can look good in a black, button-down collar shirt, every woman can look attractive in tights. It gives the women the freedom to wear a skirt as short as she wants while not exposing herself, everyone wins. I hope this trend continues for another 10-20 years.

-I finally saw Blades of Glory this weekend and I must say that it had moments or two of laughter, but I was mildly disappointed.

-Congrats to the Belmont women’s volleyball team winning the A-Sun Tournament and heading to the NCAAs. Anytime you can make the NCAAs and beat Lipscomb in the process, fun times for all involved.

-Since I lost so much track of time this weekend, I wasn’t able to pick up my language book to learn either French, Italian or Spanish. I got suggestions for all three and someone even left a comment in the post to learn Spanish in Italian, so I wasn’t sure of that one. However, I have made a decision.

J'ai choisi d'apprendre le français. C'est la langue de ma famille et je veux connecter avec mes racines. De plus, les femmes françaises et je peux visiter enfin ma patrie. Rue. Etienne avec la fierté.

-Look forward to some movie reviews from the People’s Champion starting after Thanksgiving weekend.

-I got an answer on why I can’t give water to newborn babies. Apparantly, the breast milk that the baby is consuming is around 80% water, so they get taken care of from that. Plus, if you give the baby too much water, it will dilute the nutrients of the milk and cause the kid to get sick and that’s not fun for anyone. Glad I found that out.

-Last night was good. I saw the Bruins get an excellent win in women’s basketball over Tennessee Tech and was able to connect with a friend during the game, which was straight.

However, after the game, I got home and I saw a message that she was feeling lame for being home on a Saturday night. That wasn’t good. So I told her that she shouldn’t feel lame and should enjoy the rest. Going out and living the party life is fine and all, but I know how hard she works and she needed a chill night, just like I did. You have to be in the right mental state in this life. Plus…

-If I wasn’t home last night, I wouldn’t have been home to see one of the most underrated shows on TV, Austin City Limits. If I’m home on a Saturday night, I make sure to watch this show. Gnarls Barkley are hit or miss for me, but they were on last night. Here’s some of their music:



Also on the show was Thievery Corporation, a group that I’ve gotten into recently. They’ve been around for a while and through Pandora and listening to Massive Attack, I’ve gotten some of its music and like it. Here’s a song from them with live concert footage. If I could see these guys live, it would be on:



-This week was good for me too, because I took into practice many of the things I spoke about last week. I’ve taken time for myself, made some lists and its worked. Its not perfect and they’re will be some bumps in the road, but so far so good.

The main thing that I’ve done however is stop complaining and have no excuses. Since then, I’ve grinded out some good mental focus. Also, eating better has helped too.

-Sorry for not doing an NCAA basketball preview this week. There are just too many conferences, too many teams and I’m directly involved with the sport with my job.

-I’ve received positive response from my Crush of the Day and Random Observations sections of my blog, so they will stay on.

-Notice I’ve gone this far without mentioning Saturday’s game between Vanderbilt and Tennessee. Not happy with the result but life goes on.

-That’s it for this week. I had one or two more thoughts I wrote down but I left my notes at a friend’s house, so what can you do. Here’s what to expect this week.

Monday: An updated top-five. No Crush because they all will be crushes

Tuesday: NFL Review and the Crush was on a show whose title contained “Girls” that was on in the past 10 years.

Wednesday: Thanksgiving Reflections and this Crush is British and starred on my favorite-ever legal show several years ago. The show is still on the air and repeats on Fox on Sunday nights. In fact, I’m watching it and her right now.

Thursday: While eating turkey and come epic pie, I will introduce a new section mentioned by the People’s Champion. It will be called the Throwback Crush. It explains itself. This first installment will be a fun one and I have one clue for you because when the teacher pops a test, I know I’m in a mess but if I have it in tomorrow it will be all right…

Friday: MMA Review and the Crush will be sports-related

Saturday: Wildcard

Sunday: Reflections

Until then, good fight, good night. Here’s some more Thievery Corporation to take you home.

Sunday Reflections

What’s going on everyone. Some music from Minus the Bear to listen to while you read.



First, major apologies for not writing as much on this blog as I promised. I was on the road for work and had to take care of that along with schoolwork, which was lame but had to be done.

However, being on the road was an excellent time for me to reflect on my life and where its going. I’m not going to get into massive details about some changes and focuses that I want to put into my life but they are positive. I had some thoughts like improving my diet, being healthier, improve my career, stuff like that. I even came up with some messages to remind me of these thoughts. Want to hear some, here you go:

-Be a bastard but not an a-hole
-Be nice but not a pussy…cat
-Enjoy life and accept you
-Remember my tapout (long-time readers know what I mean)
-Don’t accept another’s bulls*it
-No complaints/No excuses
-You deserve nothing

And finally…

-One moment, one meal, one life at a time

There are several more but you get the idea.

The main thought that I ended up taking from the trip was that I don’t spend enough time on myself. I work so hard and this isn’t an excuse or complaint because I chose this life to life. I like work and I like school but I’m getting to the point where I don’t like either one because I spend so much time on both of them.

This is just like the statement about pizza I heard from somebody or saw in a movie, no idea. Almost everyone likes pizza and its cool to have it. However, if you have it everyday, you will start to not like it and begin hating it.

I like my job and I like school but I also have to like myself, if that makes sense.

It wasn’t a good trip because the team lost but I was happy to get away from Nashville for a few days and contemplate some stuff.

OK, on to normal Reflections.

-When interacting with people in my life, I’m starting to realize that I’m starting to not really care about their lives. There are exceptions such as hearing about the spawn of the People’s Champion, interacting with Amber or hearing Joan curse all during a class and things like that. However, I really don’t care about you that much. I don’t want to hear about your kid, I don’t care about your fantasy team, actually take that back, I do care about the fantasy, I don’t care about how drunk you got that night, I don’t care about your boyfriend/girlfriend/lover, you get the idea. I used to be the guy who would be a great listener but I’m tired of hearing all of that stuff.

-Congrats to Vanderbilt finally getting a sixth win in football and going to a bowl. But several thoughts. I don’t want to hear one damn congrats from somebody about it. I didn’t make a tackle, throw or catch a ball. I can’t stand it when fans play the “we” card. You didn’t do a damn thing.

The wins are nice and it will promote the school but the reality is that the team stunk for the past 25 years and was playing at an unacceptable level. Fans will say that the followers of the team deserve this moment of glory, but this isn’t true. Fans, including myself, don’t have to follow the team. You can choose to put your support to another team that wins more, being a fan is optional.

I feel happy for the team and that’s it.

-I feel compelled to write about an interaction that I had with a girl that I mention here quite often but you don’t want to hear about that crap, so I’m going to keep it moving.

-Time for me to get to my Crush of the Day, who is another member of my top-five.


Maria Menunos…solid contributor to the team.

-I’m frickin done with Arsenal for this season. How do you win at Manchester United last Saturday and then play like dogs against Villa at home this week. Embarassing!

-I really need to catch up on my television from the past few weeks. So if you watch One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, Chuck, The Game, The Office, General Hospital, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Life on Mars, Entourage or Boston Legal, don’t talk to be about these shows for the next week until I get caught up.

-OK, that’s all for tonight. Here’s the schedule of posts for this week, including clues on who my Crush of the Day will be. All of the Crushes have been mentioned more than one on my blog…

Monday: Coaches getting fired in college football and the crush is a musical artist
Tuesday: NFL Review and the crush is an actress who shares a common interest with me and has two family members who are famous musicians
Wednesday: College basketball preview and the crush plays a major role in my favorite show on Sunday nights but doesn’t appear as herself.
Thursday: Cleaning out the Links and this actress is rumored to be currently involved with an NBA player who just won a gold medal in the Olympics and she is from Nebraska
Friday: MMA Review and I have two crushes for this day. One of them is prominently involved in MMA and the other one is an athlete
Saturday: Updated top-five. It’s time.
Sunday: Reflections

Good fight, good night and more MTB:

Sunday Reflections

What’s going on, its time for those Reflections:

-I’ve been really felling the music group UNKLE lately and was bumping Lonely Soul and want to share it with you below. Just remember that knows that there is no secret to living just keep on walking and there is no secret to dying, just keep on flying.



-I voted on Thursday morning for the next President of the United States. I voted for the ticket that contains a White Man! It was a good feeling to exercise my right as a US Citizen and all but whoever wins the election, this country still has a lot of work to do. I’m looking forward to Tuesday night though. Hopefully my vote matters, if you know what I’m saying.

-Halloween was an interesting time for me. First, I decided weeks ago that I wasn’t even going to try to dress up and go out. As I stated here about a week ago, I’m over going out and hitting the town on a consistent basis. So you know I want no part of Halloween when everyone and their brother is out there. Furthermore, in this age of Facebook, I’ve already seen some pictures of some of my friends that were interesting to say the least. I didn’t want to be put in that position.

So I decided to give out candy because it’s a fun activity, I get to interact with happy children and it helps me make up for not being able to trick or treat as a kid. My mother wouldn’t let me go out there and get candy which I can kinda understand because we didn’t live in the nicest neighborhood.

The thing that always confused me was that I was also not allowed to give out candy to kids that would come to our home. It was so bad that I was told to be quiet and act like we weren’t home so that kids wouldn’t knock on our door. That was not fun at all.

So for the past few years, I have made a concerted effort to give children candy and make their time great.

I saw some cute kids and that was great, however, there were some older kids ruining the fun. If you’re older than 13 trick or treating, that shouldn’t be allowed. The bad part is that after I give candy to some little five year old who deserves candy, here comes these hooligan teenagers right behind them. That puts me in an awkward position. I can’t tell the teenagers no or maybe I should have. Your thoughts on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

-I had a pretty isolated week even by my standards this week, especially considering that I stayed in both Friday and Saturday night, which allowed me to watch some good basketball and great college football which was good.

The best part of my sports weekend was seeing Georgia Tech defeat Florida State and Georgia get the crap kicked out of them by Florida at the same time. The Jackets are now 7-2 and none of the fans, including myself had any idea of this happening. The Gators looked real good and this is going to give Vandy trouble this Saturday. Also, that Texas/Texas Tech game was great as well.

-If two out of my three favorite NFL teams faced each other in the Super Bowl, who would I go for. That’s easy, Giants over Titans and it isn’t even close. I adopted the Titans around 1999 when I started living here. The Giants are the team that made me fall in love with sports and influenced my life the most. Easy call.

-I’m caught up on all of my shows finally! I’m up to date on General Hospital which has been odd. I know some, ok all of you don’t watch this show but I have only one question for you? If you’re dating someone, you’re not married but engaged and expecting a baby and she is nine months pregnant, do you plan a wedding? Who does that? You can predict what happens. Robin goes into labor during the wedding, baby may be sick, potential bad times.

And I don’t want to hear from you really religious people out there saying that you have to be married to bring a child into the Earth. You should have thought about that before you starting having sex. Have the baby, get settled, wait about six months and then have the wedding.

-As much fun as being “tapped out” from dating has been, oh and trust me, spending everyday of my life working full-time and taking three graduate-level courses at the same time and working every weekend day has been a blast, there are still moments of lonliness at times. It’s only natural.

I always say that I’m too busy to date someone but that’s crap and anyone who tells you that is lying as well. If you meet someone that you like to be with, you will find a way to date them. You may not see them everyday and spend all of your time with them, but you would make an effort to date that person.

I think that people really say that to make themselves avoid the reality that they are lonely, have no one to spend time with and hide behind their school work or job or whatever for an excuse. I’m not throwing stones at a glass house or however that phrase goes, I’m in the same boat.

I like playing my video games, watching sports all day, going to class and my job but if I met someone that actually wanted to date me, I would sacrifice all of those things in a minute.

Unfortunately, I haven’t met anyone yet in my life that wanted to date me and I end up feeling like George Costanza below:



I thought about that clip watching Seinfeld one day and it always makes me laugh, no matter how bad I’m feeling because I understand where he is coming from and I think all of us have this feeling at least once in our lives as well.

This really isn’t a sympathy plea. I’m alone and have accepted it. I can die tomorrow and never experience love and if that was what was meant to be, I can’t fight that and have to take my fate. None of us can force anything that isn’t for us. I'm not perfect and no one is trying to date me.

Once you reach adulthood, you don’t deserve anything in your life. You don’t deserve the home you live in, the car you drive, the job that you have. You especially don’t deserve love and companionship. You have to live your life, work hard for what you want and hope for the best. You can die right after you read this post, you can be homeless in a moment.

One of the saddest things that I've seen in a long time is seeing a homeless man wash his clothes at my laundrymat. It depressed me and any of us can be that guy soon.

If you come across a companion that wants to spend time with you, consider yourself lucky and take advantage of it. Because the reality is that you will most likely go through your life with no one special to share it with and die in solitude.

That sounds cold but is the truth and since I’ve accepted this, I’ve had a clearer prospective of things in my life and been happier.

-This week, I’ll blog about some stuff. Have a good week and as always, good fight, good night.

Sunday Reflections

Its time for those Reflections…

First, to appease some of you like the People’s Champion who don’t play my music videos on my posts because its at the end, here’s the video now.

I was bumping some excellent progressive rock from Yes, Pink Floyd and Genesis this weekend. I wonder which one is better? I smell a potential post…

Here’s Home by the Sea (parts 1 and 2) to play while you read my Reflections below:



-So Vanderbilt lost its first football game of the season on Saturday at Mississippi State right after I wrote last week about how they have changed my prospective as a sports fan: http://pourtoutpancakes.blogspot.com/2008/10/am-i-still-sports-fan.html

Now, I don’t believe in jinxes because I believe in the Jesus and that’s good enough for me, but I’ve been very, very hesitant to elevate the team beyond what they are. They are a good team…not very good or great, they’re good. They are 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the SEC which is nice. The team heads to Georgia next week and they should lose that game. That’s being honest. I look to the next game and that’s it so don’t expect me to talk about Duke, Wake Forest, Florida or Tennessee because those games are later.

However, don’t let this seem like I’m unhappy with the team. I’m very happy with the team because as I stated in that piece last week, I lived through two two-win seasons. This is like heaven to me.

-BTW, props to Georgia Tech for being 5-1 this season. I still represent for the Yellow Jackets who travel to Clemson this upcoming weekend. Maybe they can ring the final death knell of Tommy Bowden at Clemson. He has to be released after this season, right?

-I’m glad some of you enjoyed my new format for my NFL Review. Its easier to write and I’m sure more easy for you to read and comprehend. Look for it to stay for a while.

-My Beaman is finally reopening tomorrow! I’ve been doing some workouts while my workout facility has been closed because of the Presidential Debate but its not the same. Now everything will be there for me to take care of business. I guess this is a good transition to an update on “Workout Girl”



You know when you see that picture, it can’t be a good thing. Actually, it isn’t all bad. I’ll explain.

It all started on Friday night when I was attending a women’s soccer match and I realized that I hadn’t heard from Amber in a while. Darn, I have to introduce her to some of you unfamiliar with her. Read these three posts and you’ll be caught up: http://pourtoutpancakes.blogspot.com/2008/09/general-thoughts-on-thursday-night.html and 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

Yeah, she’s been mentioned one or twice. So I sent her a text and left a message on her voicemail to check on my friend. Turns out she hurt a body part really bad and had to get treatment. She’s fine but I felt so bad for her. I joked that I would make her soup and bring it to her to make her feel better. She just responded that her and her roommate were cooking dinner. I was cool with that.

While attending the game, I ran into Basher, Daniel and their lady friend Kristin. We were talking and Daniel mentioned if I’d spoken to Amber. I said that I did and Kristin asked who Amber was. I gave her the whole run down and told her about my interaction with Amber earlier. Kristin thought that it was so sweet how I think of Amber because it can come off lame in the “I do think about her and want to spend more time with her” way.

Kristin thought that it would be sweet for me to offer to do something for Amber even thought I did already earlier that evening.

However, I kept telling her that Amber has a boyfriend back in her hometown and I was not trying to date her at all. I was trying to be a friend and not overstep the boundaries that we’ve established.

So all Friday night, I couldn’t stop thinking about Amber because I kept talking about her to Kristin. I was even lying in bed thinking about her, something I never do with a girl.

Anyway, Saturday comes along and I’m cooking a big meal, cooking all of my meats for the week so that it doesn’t spoil and I had some extra vegetables, chicken and fruit. I decided to make some for Amber and text her that I had some food for her. I even baked cookies! She text me back, told me that was sweet of me to do, but she was working all night and couldn’t see me.

So today, Sunday, after I finished working my soccer match, I text her again to just ask how she’s been doing and I haven’t heard back from her, which I need to repeat is fine with me. Remember, I’m in “tap out” mode from pursuing women seriously right now so I’m not trying to date Amber. She knows this, I think.

I’ve told her numerous times that I respect her and is it hard, sure. I like her and I’m happy everytime I’m around her in a way not like many other women that I’ve met but she’s not available so I don’t dwell on it and her friendship is more important than me trying to date her, if that makes sense.

I’m just wondering aloud or in typing if I came off as pushy or insincere or trying to push up on her with my actions and words the last two days. It wasn’t meant to come out that way but actions are stronger than words.

What do you think? I would love to know your thoughts.

-The beard is working well and I like having it. It gives me a sense of maturity that I enjoy. Plus, it makes me look serious and if I don’t keep it trim, it can make me look crazy, looking forward to that.

-Saw the new version of Knight Rider on NBC and must say that it wasn’t awful. The women on the show are amazing and KIT is the truth as usual. Other than that, its touch and go.

-I’ve started increasing my video game rotation lately and its been a mixed bag. I have been playing NCAA Football everyday for the past few weeks but needed a change. I played some NCAA Baseball which was fun and will get into that some more. I had a good ATV racing game but can’t find it, which is a bummer.

-That’s all for Reflections today.

I was looking at an old post about Amber from June and I linked to some Genesis in that post as well. That’s crazy and wasn’t done intentionally.

Sunday Reflections

Hey everyone, hope your week was well. It’s time for some Reflections, Vanderbilt football-style:

-The highlight of the week was seeing my Vanderbilt Commodores become 5-0 on the season after beating Auburn on Saturday night. Well, first, I went to the ESPN Gameday show at Peabody or the Commons, on Saturday morning, which was an amazing time yet boring. It was surreal seeing Chris, Lee, Kirk and Desmond only a few yards away. The boring part is that the guys do their thing on TV and then during commercial breaks, you just stand there. So you stand there for a few minutes doing nothing and then when the cameras are on, you start making noise.

-Continuing on the GameDay show, I liked two signs. The first one was the now known one “Phil Fulmer ate my other sign.” It’s always a good time making fun of that guy. Keep barely beating Northern Illinois at home, I love it. The second one was “The geeks shall inherit the turf.” As an alum, this is true. Vandy people are dorks. We are. If you read this blog enough, you already knew that. The fact that the football team is doing so well is tremendous.

-Why was Kenny Chesney there? I don’t mind the guy’s music but not only is he from Knoxville or Redneck Central, USA, he’s an unabashed East Tennessee Hillbilly College fan. I was not happy seeing him on my school’s turf.

-My thoughts on Corso pulling the switch-a-roo with his predictions? First, his predictions are mostly wrong, so I wanted no part of his mojo. Second, when he throw Commie’s head to the side, I was pissed. Then, when he pulled out that hunting or community roadside cleanup orange jersey out, it was war. I don’t think he understands how much us Commodores dislike that orange. I was pissed for about ten minutes, but then the WWE fan in me actually dug it. I was talking with two friends in the press box at the game, Brandon and Thomas, about it and all of us like wrestling and agreed that the move was something that Shawn Michaels or Ric Flair would pull. So Corso, you’re not on my screw you list, but you’re pushing it.

-The game itself was a tale of quarters. The first quarter finished and I thought that Auburn was going to put a number on Vandy, it looked that bad. Then the rest of the game just unfolded Vandy’s way. I will say this, if you’re an Auburn fan, I would be pissed at that offense. That was bad to see in person.

-Towards the end of the game, I got on the field to take care of my post-game duties and the sight of all of those fans in the stands was amazing. I’m not supposed to cheer and stay professional and be neutral. It was so hard to not cheer and hold my emotions in. I was actually getting emotional when Vandy was taking the knee to run out the clock. Corso walked right past me and a fan from the stands started heckling him in a playful way. Corso looked up at the fan and smiled at him. Gotta respect that. Then, I saw Desmond Howard cheering like Michigan just won the Rose Bowl. He was feeling the moment. I was just so happy for the team, the fans, everyone.

-I’ve held off on writing a post about the changing state of Vanderbilt football because it’s not over. I’m taking two mentalities. First, I’m waiting to see how the season really plays out and taking it one game at a time, just like the team is. Its my nature to be skeptical and not make grand proclamations like the program has turned a corner or something like that. Second, I’m just going to enjoy the moments and live through them and not over analyze.

-OK, done with the Vandy talk for now.

-The Cubs. Sorry Joan. I’m a Mets fan who grew up disliking the Cubs and they’re performance this playoffs was insulting to me. How do you get swept by the Dodgers? Well, at least they’re team made the playoffs, speaking of which…

-So I was talking to Joan this weekend and telling her how much I loved her…Just messing with ya’ll. She hasn’t gotten a mention in a long time.

-OK, back to the Presidential Debate which is taking place only a few blocks away from where I live. I’ll be watching on Tuesday and probably give you a report on Wednesday about it.

-Let’s see. The New York Giants are 4-0, the Tennessee Titans are 5-0, I’ve already spoken about Vandy, Georgia Tech is 4-1 and even my adopted team the Atlanta Falcons are a frisky 3-2 after winning at Green Bay today. I’m so not used to this football success, seriously. I know that not all of the teams are going to win championships or anything like that, but living in this moment has been a fun time to be a football fan.

-I’m listening to The Cure on Pandora Radio and its tight. The song on now is Want, look it up when you have a chance.

-Now I’m listening to some music from A Perfect Circle, from an acoustic set that they did. Love it and want to share it with you below:



-How is the retirement from trying to date women going Etienne or Marcel depending on who you are? Its going ok. The beard I think has shown my seriousness to myself and commitment to making myself happy instead of searching for it through someone else.

I was speaking with Watson this week and she asked me if I was trying to date anyone and for the first time I looked at someone in their eyes and said no and didn’t feel bad about it. She was funny in telling me that she’s going to help me find someone and that was sweet of her, but I’m not focused on that right now. Now, if I crossed paths with someone and we wanted to spend some time together, I wouldn’t object to letting her enter my life. However, if she can’t name at least three WAC teams, two teams from the MAC, MEAC and MAAC (yes, those are three different conferences) and tell me what the mascot of San Jose State, San Diego, New Mexico State or Utah State, she’s out.

-Just kidding. I told Watson this and she told me that I’m not going to find a girl who’s going to know this. I said that I was joking…or was I?

-Of course I’m joking. I’m going to meet a woman one day that digs art and wants me to break down a painting and I’m screwed. However, we’ll work it out. As long as she doesn’t believe that the Mets need to score more touchdowns or the Knicks need to hit more home runs and we’re set.

-OK, those were some long ramblings and I want to get some sleep. The good news is that I have some downtime this week, so I will be blogging long and hard, that’s what she said…doesn’t apply, understood. Here’s what I’m going to try to get to this week.

Monday: Final Review of my MLB predictions and how much of a sports fan am I now
Tuesday: NFL Week Review
Wednesday: How an episode of How I Met Your Mother made me think of relationships
Thursday: Freestyle or an epic Pot Roast recipe, undecided for now. Vote in my comments section.
Friday: MMA Review. Kimbo will get written about in a not so good way
Saturday: Something about someone
Sunday: Reflections

Good night, have a good week and here’s some more A Perfect Circle:

Sunday Reflections

Here are my reflections while wondering how the heck is ESPN College Gameday coming to Nashville, Tenn. this Saturday…

-Seriously, this love for Vanderbilt football needs to stop. Not only are the Dores ranked, they sit atop the SEC East alone, they will now be in the only matchup next week between two ranked teams not in Wisconsin. I had a feeling that Gameday would come to Vandy looking at the schedule but I would have bet the farm that they would have gone to Camp Randall in Madison to do the Wisconsin/Ohio State game, especially since it’s the late-night ABC game.

People try to figure out where College Gameday will be every week, but its easy to figure out. Look at the late night ABC or ESPN game and they will probably be in one of those locations. The only exceptions are three situations:

1) Florida/Georgia which is always the afternoon game on CBS.
2) Texas/Oklahoma which is always early afternoon at Noon eastern or 3:30 eastern on ABC.
3) If Notre Dame is decent and has a home game that is on NBC.

Since this Saturday has none of these scenerios, Lee, Kirk and Chirs and can’t forget Desmond are coming to Nashville. The game is on ESPN, so that helps.

Now the question is, do I attend the show. The show is usually on way too early on a Saturday for me. It’s a two-hour show that starts at 9 a.m. central time. Furthermore, I’m working the game, which starts at 5 p.m. That would mean that I would have to head out to gameday while waking up early and then having to stay up to work the game which drains me. What to do?

I’ll see you at Vandy at 8 a.m., come on, its Gameday, I have to be there.

-I was supposed to go out with some friends on Friday night but that didn’t happen. Here’s what happened. I knew that people were planning to go out at some point. I worked a night soccer game and was drained. I was watching highlights of the Presidential Debate, which I’ll get to in a second, and laid down on my bed and just passed out. I was so tired and this was the first night that I didn’t have to go to class or do homework or think about anything for the next day. I just didn’t move and let McCain and Obama soothe me to sleep. I woke up later and texted my friend that it wasn’t happening that night. Wish I could have made it because I saw pictures from the festivities and it looked like a good time, but when the body is telling you no, you have to listen.

-Speaking of debates, my current school, oh what the heck, ya’ll know where I go, Belmont is hosting the next presidential debate next week. Since I work for the institute, it has caused many changes at the office, including my department being out of our offices for the next week or two. All of us have opinions on this topic and I’m not going there because I’m too smart for that. However, it will bring attention to the school.

The interesting thing about the debate is that I’ve been driving around Nashville and I’ve seen signs for both the McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden ticket. I think this election is going to be close because people are tired of the bullcrap that’s going on in our country.

No matter who you support, things have not been going well here. Even hard-core Republicans are mad at President Bush. The point is that I think that Democrats will vote for McCain because they don’t trust Obama, especially his experience and tax plan which is understandable and Republicans will vote for Obama because that party has been atrocious the past few years.

My vote is wide open right now, seriously. My theory of DTA (Don’t Trust Anybody) applies to all things in my life besides my Ma, because if you can’t trust your Ma, who can you trust? Besides that, my guard is up, even for this election. I have until November to decide so why rush my decision. I’m going to watch the debates, review their policies and make an informed decision.

-On to some college football.

1) When I was watching that travesty of a football game, aka Tennessee/Auburn, when they showed Peyton Manning on the sidelines, my first words outloud were, Fu*k Peyton Manning. I said this without a thought and felt good about it. For those of you who think that my distain for all things East Tennessee Community College is contrived or something made up, its real and internal.

As I said last week, you’re not better than Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Auburn and LSU. Your expectations are too high. The late 90’s was an abbiration. I’m about to say something that’s hurts me, but I don’t dislike Phil Fulmer as much as many other people and don’t understand how the guy can average eight wins a season, win a national title and people are still pissy at him. Help me out with this one.

2) USC, how do you lose that game? Conference play is so much different than anything else. We all look at USC as an incredible team but to a team like Oregon State, those dudes are just another opponent like UCLA or Washington State.

3) Oklahoma looks good and I guess that they are #1 in the country, but Alabama looked scary good against Georgia. I thought that Saban would have them competing for an SEC title next year, but that’s out the window. They can compete now. The worrisome part for opponents is that Saban isn’t going anywhere, he’s focused and all of his players are first and second year guys accept for the quarterback and some offensive linemen.

4) Crappy Midwestern football. Hate it. I watched some of the Notre Dame game against Purdue. Slow, predictable, not impressive. Pretty much the only Big Ten team that I’ve seen that I think can compete nationally is, and I can’t believe that I’m saying this because I make fun of their coach, the team, the uniform and their gimmicky promotions, but Penn State, you impressed me on Saturday.

The Nittney Lions, and btw, can we get a confirmation on what exactly that is, are doing work right now and should beat Ohio State and Wisconsin.

Besides them, I hate crappy Midwestern football.

-The Goddamn Mets did it again! When I do my final MLB predictions review (go Mariners, wait, what?) you will see that I called this finish from the beginning of the season.

-This is what I get for missing General Hospital episodes. So, I’m about to check out at Kroger and I catch the cover of Soap Opera Digest. If you watch General Hospital like I do, spoiler alert, I guess Kate dies and doesn’t marry Sonny because that’s on the frickin cover! I’m a week behind on shows and see what I miss. Not happy about this at all.

-My favorite band maybe ever, The Mars Volta, played in Atlanta on Wednesday and I missed it! I’ve spoken about my love for this group on this site so I won’t go into it further. I’ve been so busy in my life that I haven’t been on the band’s site to follow updates. So I happen to be on their site tonight for the first time in a few months and see the show.

Now, I probably wouldn’t have been able to make it because I had class that night and my schedule wouldn’t have allowed it, but those are my boys and I would have tried to make a way.

The thing about these dudes is that they play all over the world like its nothing. They were in Europe for a few months, then come to America for about a month, then go to Australia for a stint and then go to Europe for some more. They will also add a show or two without much notice.

They play in New Orleans in late October, I gotta try to make that one I guess.

-There’s probably a lot more I can get to, but I’ll end it here. Oh, I promised Watson that I would give her a shout out on the blog, so Watson, you’ve been mentioned. You would be part of my top-five, but it violates several of my rules. In May, maybe we can revisit the issue.

Until then, I’ll have to stick with President/General Manager Ashley Judd and the starters, Maria Menunos, Sarah Chalke, Gabrielle Union, Mila Kunis and Ciara. The sixth woman is Katherine McPhee.

Here’s some Massive Attack that I was listening to this weekend. Also, since I missed seeing them live this week, I’ll settle for some concert footage of the Volta.

Sunday Reflections

Ah, Sunday Reflections time and I got a few of them, let’s get started:

-Weekend was good overall. I attended a house party on Friday night and that was a good time. Here are some notes…

1) It was good seeing my friends and classmates in a loose atmosphere. It seems like when I see some of them, its either in work or class or at a game. We’re a relatively laid back group because we work in sports, it shouldn’t be taken seriously, but when you get some people outside of their element, it’s a good visual.

2) My buddy Basher saved my bacon at that party by introducing me to the “Arnold Palmer.” I thought that it would be some elaborate mix drink but it’s a combo of iced tea and lemonade. Tremendous! It tasted so good and let’s put it this way. I couldn’t keep up the pace with the adult beverages without some serious damage but the AP drinks saved me.

3) The ladies were looking good, especially Julie. She wanted to be mentioned on the blog and given a fake name. That’s right! The ladies are making requests to be mentioned on the blog! That was honestly the highlight of the whole party and maybe of my semester. So back to Julie, her name choice by the way, she was at the party and looked beautiful. Last semester, I would have long talks with her and that was cool. I also have the longest standing coffee date engagement with her ever. I asked her for coffee August of last year and she said yes. However, despite reminding her throughout the last 12 months about this, we have actually never had coffee together even though we’re literally across the street from a coffee shop. I actually find this funny. So Julie, if you read this, it was nice talking to you on Friday, you looked great, I’m trying to eat right like you tell me to and I will have coffee with you anytime you want.

4) Bonfires are awesome.

5) So it’s around midnight of the festivities, we’re hanging out and the po-po’s aka the whoppy woops aka 5-0 aka Blue aka the Police came over and tell us to turn the noise down due to neighbor complaints. Gotta love it!

-Why did they kill Q on One Tree Hill? That crap was depressing. Speaking of the show…

-One storyline that they have going is that Skillz is dating his best friend’s mom. This got me thinking about if that joins my banned list of people to date. Those of you who don’t know the list, its coworkers, neighbors, student-athletes for people like me in athletic departments, ex-boyfriend/girlfriend of a good friend or sibling or sibling of a good friend. Do I need to add mothers to this one? I would normally say yes, but if you see the mom Skillz is dating, you would change your mind. The whole MILF thing is kinda creepy especially if you think of someone dating your mom but everyone has to live their own life. I’ll have to come back to that one.

-This is a huge premiere week on TV. Tomorrow alone, I have How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men and Chuck all coming on. Granted, I won’t see them because of frickin night class, but I’ll be watching them at some point. Also, there’s CSI New York, Boston Legal, The Office and several others. Excited about it.

-Some other shows I follow that have already started in the past week or two have been solid. One Tree Hill has been good accept for killing Q, Gossip Girl has been a pleasant surprise and Entourage has been OK. Drama has lost his darn mind. Also, Weeds ended its last season on a major cliffhanger that will change the tone of the whole show and I liked that as well.

-One more TV point. There are so many shows that I wish I watched that people love. Here are some of them:

1) Lost
2) Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia
3) Mad Men
4) Dexter
5) 24

I’m sure there are some that I’m forgetting. I can only watch so many shows, even though I’m the same dude that’s watching reality TV crap on MTV or VH1. If you have any more suggestions, please list them in the comments section or tell me when you see me.

-How about those Vandy Commodores!! 4-0 overall, 2-0 in the SEC and ranked in both national polls! I will say two things. First, I don’t think Vandy is the 21st best team in the nation, but it’s a national ranking that gives exposure to the program, so I’ll take it. Second, rankings are nice, but I want seven wins and then we’ll talk about rankings. Its great to see that program progress.

-Please Tennessee, keep Phil Fulmer! I love that guy! That performance against Florida was awesome! Keep it up! BTW, all of you Vol hillbilly fans who want to get rid of Big Phil, remember this. Florida, Auburn, Alabama, LSU, and Georgia will always be better than you if those programs are run properly for many reasons. Just accept it, realize that the mid to late 1990’s were a fluke and enjoy another 8-4 season and a trip to Orlando in January.

-Yes, as a Vandy fan, I shouldn’t talk and will now move on.

-The gas situation in Nashville has been crazy. Thank goodness I can walk to work and to class. If not, I would have major problems.

-When I mentioned talking to that waitress at the restaurant establishment in a post from a few days ago, I forgot to mention that she may have been extra nice to me for a good tip. Some of you were very clear to tell me this including the People’s Champion. She did get a good tip, even though she forgot to get me tea one time. However, I tip nice all the time, like at least 40% nice. If you read my advise post from a few days ago, you know why.

-The Primetime Emmys are on and I have no interest.

-I’m going to address this in my NFL Review on Tuesday a little more but if Ryan Grant can get a few more rushing yards and Braylon Edwards can catch some balls, my fantasy football team would appreciate it a lot. That’s all.

-I also went to a cross country competition at Percy Warner Park and that was an interesting experience. I used to think that the runners would stretch, get a little jog in, run the actual race, stretch some more and go home. They run A LOT before the race, run hard during the race, and then RUN EVEN MORE AFTER THE RACE! Sometimes, the run after the race is longer than the actual race. That makes my knees hurt. I’ll never forget that after the Belmont men’s team won the A-Sun Championships last year on a Saturday, I was on Belmont Boulevard the next day and saw the team running down the street. I talked to Jacob, one of the runners and asked him why he was running after winning the conference title and draining himself the day before. He said its what they do. I’ll take a pass.

-Let’s see, what else, oh yeah one more thing in the latest installment of “why are women potentially showing interest in me when I’m not trying.” I’m in the laundry mat today when I move out of the way of a girl when I was trying to put wet clothes the dryer. I said excuse me and I complemented her on her t-shirt which had a dinosaur on it. She said thanks and I asked her what it represented. She said that it was from a music artist she likes who does singing/songwriting. I told her that’s like half of the people in Nashville and started putting clothes in the dryer. She then asked me what I did for my career and it was on. We started chatting it up friendly style, no flirting or anything like that, even though she is cute. She likes the sports and her favorite college football team lost a big game on national TV on Saturday, hint, hint. It wasn’t Tennessee because you know if she was a fan of that school, I would have ceased the conversation and left the building.

So, she wasn’t too happy about that loss. She’s doing an internship in Nashville, leaves to go back to finish her grad school studies in November and graduates in the spring. She was wearing sunglasses the whole time so I couldn’t see her eyes and I’m a big fan of eyes so I couldn’t get a full gage of her physically. Beautiful smile though. She was very friendly though and I went to the store while my clothes dried. So, she’s outside talking on her cell phone and I was about to head to my car when she tells me that it was nice to meet me. I head over to her to tell her the same thing and she asked about one of the Vandy football games and wanted to know if I could help her get tickets to the game. I told her I would try, we exchanged numbers and I went on my way. During the whole time, I wasn’t thinking about getting her number or asking her out. She suggested this stuff. I was just being friendly, listened to her talk a whole lot, nodded my head at the appropriate moments, didn’t stare down on her excellent upper body and understated lower body if you know what I’m saying and maybe made a friend. Why wasn’t I like this 10 years ago? I would have gotten so much more action from the ladies.

-That’s all for now. This week will be the usual stuff, but it’s a crazy week so the posts may not be as frequent as normal. This semester sucks for this blog, sorry. Until then, remember to respect the Jesus and he will respect you. Follow that and you should be OK. For now, here’s some music from A Perfect Circle to reflect on. Have a good week.

Sunday Reflections

What’s up people. It’s time for Sunday Reflections!

I’m relaxing here and reflecting on the past few days. I looked at my post on Saturday morning, yeah, positive times. I’ve told y’all in the past, I’m a mostly positive guy but sometimes I have bad moments and I write about it to deal with it. Saturday was an example of this.

However, it’s all good now and I’m ready for this week. Last week was just draining and hopefully this week will be better. Here are my thoughts:

-Looks like Vanderbilt football may be on the upswing. I used to be one that would get all freaked out if people would talk positive or negative about Vanderbilt football, but now I really don’t care. I hope that they do will and win every game, but if they don’t, its not the end of my happiness. That’s why when people come up to me excited about Vandy football and congratulating me, I don’t really acknowledge it. I didn’t make a tackle, make a throw and had no impact on the result of the game. That’s for the athletes and coaches. I’m just a fan. However, I’m happy that the team is 2-0.

-I got a new bed! This is a tremendous moment for me. I haven’t had a nice bed in a while and it’s good to have something nice to lie on.

-Some of my favorite shows premiered this week and it was solid overall. Gossip Girl was decent, One Tree Hill was good and I only caught the last 10 minutes of 90210. I haven’t made a verdict on that show yet.

-Sorry that I couldn’t get my Michelle Obama vs. Sarah Palin post in this week. Yeah, it’s exactly what you think. The post is coming this week.

-Average UFC event last night. Rashad Evans knocked the crap out of Chuck Liddell. Surprised to see that.

-So the Mets lost two out of three games at home to Philly. And you wonder why I don’t get too excited when New York wins a few games. You are what you are and the Mets aren’t making the playoffs.

-If Tom Brady is out for the season, problems…If Vince Young has to miss a few games for the Titans, not so much.

-‘Pancakes’ comes back this week! Very happy about that.

-Short Reflections this week. Here’s what’s coming up this week…

Monday: Palin vs. Obama, it’s on
Tuesday: Changing state of Vanderbilt football and NFL review
Wednesday: Cleaning out the Links
Thursday: Wildcard
Friday: MMA Review
Saturday: Improv
Sunday: Reflections

Have a good week and see you around. While I was shopping at Harris Teeter today, this song was on and I was feeling the Mac. I love Fleetwood Mac. Gotta do a post about them one day. Enjoy Gypsy.

Sunday Reflections

Hey everyone, hope your Labor Day weekend is going well. Mine has been solid. Had to take care of some work on Friday night, but was able to see my friend Stephanie perform some songs in a performance on campus, which was great.

Saturday was all about college football. It was good to see Virginia Tech lose to East Carolina, I love to see the underdog do well. Tech may have problems, but Jesus Christmas, Clemson, what an embarrassment. They looked like crap against Alabama.

The ACC is terrible. I can throw in Maryland barely beating Delaware and Virginia looking bad against USC, but that’s not too, too bad. N.C. State stunk against South Carolina and the rest of the conference beat 1-AA teams, including my favorite ACC team, Georgia Tech.

Wake Forest may win the ACC again after all, which I’m sure some of you readers will be happy about but not the rest of America.

Vandy got a win on Thursday, so I’m happy about that. Only five more wins to go!

Today was about doing more work, taking care of the laundry and just relaxing.

With that, here are Sunday Reflections:

-The reason that I didn’t do a MMA Review on Friday is that I really didn’t have a strong desire to write something that day on it. I write what I feel and there really wasn’t much to report. However, this Saturday, there is an UFC event, so I will have a preview of the event this Friday. Sorry if you were looking forward to a Review this past Friday.

-I’m really torn on who’s the hotter politician/spouse in the Presidential Battery. It’s between Mrs. Obama and Governor Palin.

If you haven’t figured it out from this blog, I find power a very attractive attribute for a woman. Both of these women seem to have this skill in their arsenal.

With Mrs. Obama, you have a beautiful, tall black woman who has her own opinions and isn’t afraid to express them. She also seems to have the ability to be serious and funny at the same time. She seems like the type of woman that you can have an hour-long conversation about economics with and then watch Dumb and Dumber with the next. However, she seems like the type that if you crossed her, she may be less forgiving then you would like.

Governor Palin definitely has the sexy librarian thing going for her. I love the dark hair, the hair being pinned up and of course the glasses! I was talking with Watson on Saturday and she said that she would make her gorgeous by letting the hair down and taking off the glasses and I strongly disagree. The glasses have to stay.

I also like that she’s a lifetime member of the NRA because guns are hot, digs hockey and actually was once a sports broadcaster. I don’t like her abortion stance and her hate for polar bears. Look it up. The accent is also different. It’s part Canadian, part-Wisconsin with a little Idaho thrown together. Different.

I guess if I had to choose one at this moment, I would choose…

You’ll have to wait till later this week for my choice

-Some shows that I’ve gotten into this summer are premiering the next few days.

I really got into One Tree Hill, Everybody Hates Chris, Gossip Girl and The Game over the past few months. The CW plays these shows on Sunday afternoons/evenings when I’m relaxing and I gave some of them a chance and started liking them.

One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl premieres tomorrow, looking forward to that. I have no idea who Luke is going to choose to marry. However, there is one premiere on the CW that I can’t co-sign on yet.

-I will watch the return/new premiere of 90210, but I will not co-sign on it until I get a view of it. They are screwing with me bigtime if they funk up this show. 90210 was the Truth back in the day. I loved that show and I don’t know why they’re bringing it back.

Not sure about this one.

-Laura is back on General Hospital! That is all…

-We are about to enter an amazing time in sports that happens only once every four years. Here’s what we have/will experience in the months of August/September/October

1) Olympics just finished
2) NFL starts on Thursday
3) NBA Training Camp
4) MLB playoffs (don’t screw it up Mets!)
5) Start of European domestic seasons (War Arsenal!)
6) College football
7) US Open for Tennis (very underrated TV viewing)
8) Ryder Cup (It’s gonna be rough on the Americans this time)
9) NHL Training Camp
10) Mixed Martial Arts events from UFC, WEC, Elite XC and even Strikeforce

There are probably one or two more things that I’m forgetting including NASCAR if that peaks your interest. This is an amazing time to be a sports fan.

-I continue to underestimate the power of this blog. I mention one girl that I meet in passing and everyone wants to wonder if I’m making a major play for her. It wasn’t like that with Maria, even though reading the post again may have made it seem like that. She’s a new friend that I’ve made and nothing more or less. I’m not going to post every interaction that I have with her or any other girl here because she and I deserve some privacy of some form.

I appreciate each of your interest in the personal life and I put stuff out there for you to consume, I just need to be a little more careful with what I put out there. I’m not blaming any one of you at all. If anything, I’m blaming myself.

I just need to make sure I keep some stuff private sometimes.

That doesn’t mean I’m not going to give my honest opinions on things anymore. I’ll just pick my spots more.

-Classes are going well. I’m happy to be back learning again.

-I think Alabama just rushed for another first down against Clemson.

-I’m flipping through channels right now and noticing some things.

a) Extreme Home Makeover will make me cry in a minute.
b) Love Family Guy, don’t like American Dad
c) Wow, that crowd for the NASCA race looks light. If there is one sport that has been hit heard by the bad economics and high gas prices, it’s definitely NASCAR.
d) Hurricane Gustav scares me and brings back so many bad memories of Katrina. I pray for everyone out there.
e) The original Star Trek is some trippy stuff.
f) The Honeymooners is still worth a viewing whenever it’s on
g) Colorado/Colorado State is an underrated college football rivalry.
h) I have no interest in Sunday Night baseball on ESPN, even when the Mets are playing
i) So, BET is showing Scarface on a Sunday night, interesting, while this afternoon they were showing some interesting political programming on the Presidential Election when less people were probably watching then now.

I know that BET is pro-Obama, yeah, I know shocking, but at least it’s a step in the right direction to educate people on the issues. Why aren’t they showing that stuff now instead of Scarface which all of the viewers have probably seen already. Get it together BET!
j) Why does Puffy act all hard on Making the Band show on MTV when he’s so overrated. I’m tired of seeing you Puffy! You have no career if not for Biggie. Make some more poor saps walk across New York to get some cheesecake, idiot!
k) Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels show is a guilty pleasure for me at times.
l) I think that the Weather Channel secretly digs these hurricanes because more people watch the station, which means higher ratings, more money, etc. There’s also something weird about watching hurricane coverage and you’re no where near it.
m) The E! channel always brings the entertainment. Currently on is the 25 Most Memorable Swimsuit Moments and the entire show of Baywatch is in the top-five.
n) Oh, Baywatch. I miss that show.
o) M.A.S.H., never got the show. I guess I had to watch it when it was on TV and there were only three or four channels on TV to truly appreciate it.
p) Comedy Central is showing a Dane Cook special. He’s ok at times, but just like Jim Rome, I need to get him in small doses or he becomes annoying.
q) Iron Chef, fun times. I prefer the Japanese version better.
r) Pro Bull Riding, no thanks. I respect those guys getting on those bulls because I would want no part of that. I would rather race a car then get on one of those bulls, because I can control the car. That bull can just go off on me.

-That’s all. Here’s what’s coming up this week:

Monday: My MLB Review
Tuesday: My NFL Preview
Wednesday: The Mrs. Obama vs. Governor Palin debate will be settled
Thursday: Freestyle
Friday: MMA Review
Saturday: Wildcard
Sunday: Reflections

Have a good week and keep those affected by Gustav in your prayers tonight.

Sunday Reflections

Another Sunday, another time to reflect…

-Some amendments on my final thoughts on the Olympics.

1) I stayed up to watch the gold-medal game between the USA and Spain in men’s basketball. Props to the US for getting the win and bringing the gold home. Kobe, that was a man performance. He’s the best player on the planet and there’s no doubt about it.

Spain is legit and could have won that game. Missing Calderon was a major deal for them. However, the point guard Rubio is going to be a major player in the future, especially considering that he’s only 17. Furthermore, Rudy Fernandez is going to ball hard for Portland. One more thing, how is Navarro not on an NBA roster? He’s a solid guard.

I’m calling it right now, the top four for MVP this season will include Kobe, LeBron, Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade, in some order. Wade is going to have a monster, monster season for the Heat this year.

International basketball is back in the mainstream and that’s a good thing. I’m going to post on this more this week.

2) Congrats to the USA men’s volleyball team for their thrilling win over Brazil for the gold medal. Tremendous match and effort throughout the games considering the tragedy that took place with the family of the head coach.

3) My brother and I are making serious plans to go to the London Olympics in 2012. any one of you is down with the plan, just shoot me a holler. I’m looking at you Mr. McMahon, People’s Champion and icon of the masses, Sean Sawyer, Sager and Meggie. Let’s make it happen.

Just remember that we’re going to have to attend handball, table tennis, tons of judo, avoid diving and gymnastics and probably check out rhythmic gymnastics and women’s volleyball for my “research.”

-This weekend was solid overall. Saw some soccer action, washed the clothes and got some relaxing in.

-The undergraduates have returned to Belmont and I’m hyped. I love school and am looking so forward to going back to classes myself. I’ve missed learning, seeing my friends consistently and many other things. I’ll have a post on this topic tomorrow after orientation with the new sports administration graduate students.

-While washing my clothes, I went to Harris Teeter and flipped through some magazines. I came across a Cosmo I think with Blake Lively from Gossip Girl on the cover. I rarely look at this magazine but had some time to kill and checked it out. Wow, interesting stuff. There’s content on woman issues like breast cancer, but then the next article will be on sexual positions and how to spice up your love life. Just odd. Decent read though.

-This week, I’ve taken my nephew’s advise and ignored the ladies, which was kinda odd. I’m a social guy and I like to know what going on with people but I don’t want to be overbearing. To be honest with you, I really didn’t think about any of the women that I discuss and detail here this week at all. I’ve really just moved on and just living my life.

I did put my nephew’s ideals to the test when I saw Amber at the gym Saturday after not seeing her for about two weeks. Usually, when I see her, I stop and speak with her for a few minutes. However, when I entered the gym, I gave her a hello and walked right past her and did my workout. When I finished my lift, I was leaving and Amber said what’s up to me and we chatted some. I let her initiate the conversation and lead things.

We finished and I just said goodbye and left. I wanted to tell Amber later how it was great to see her, how great it was to see her smile and wanted to talk with her some more because I can spend everyday with her, but I haven’t spoken or called her or text messaged her since I saw her.

I’m not saying that this is the right approach or something that I would normally do, but it’s definitely different. I’ll give you an update if something happens.

-The two most poitntless things that go on during this time of year for me. Little League Baseball World Series and Preseason football. I’ve watched none of the first one and maybe 10 minutes of the second one.

-I’ve just joined a fantasy football league and I’m geeked about that.

-That’s all for Reflections. Here’s a tentative schedule of the posts schedule this week:

Monday: Why I’m hyped about returning to school
Tuesday: Why I still represent for the NYC contrary to popular beliefs
Wednesday: Why I’m feeling international basketball again and why its 40% possible that Kobe Bryant ends his career in Italy and Lebron James in Greece
Thursday: Wildcard
Friday: A proper MMA Review
Saturday: Whatever I damn well please
Sunday: Reflections

-I was bumping some Depeche Mode hard this weekend. Here’s some music.

Sunday Reflections

What’s going on everyone, its time for Sunday Reflections!

-This weekend has been interesting. I saw my friend Joel get his diploma from my graduate school on Friday night and that was a good experience. I’ll be in his position in May getting my degree and I’m looking forward to that opportunity.

It made me thinking about the fact that I’ll be done with school in less than a year. I’m happy with my progress and I’ve learned some things. However, there are things that I want to improve on and learn about that I haven’t done yet. This is the opportunity for me to take advantage of and I need to do that more.

Most importantly, the graduation food was outstanding! Feed me and I'm a happy boy.

-I opened up my blog for other writers to contribute and have gotten one or two responses. Hopefully some of those posts will start appearing on the blog. Joan is one of them. I’m looking forward to that. Speaking of Joan…

-Just kidding! There will hopefully be no more over-analytical posts about Joan like some of my past ones, which were interesting to say the least.

We interacted with each other this week and hopefully I helped her through some stuff she’s dealing with. She's been documented on this blog way more than I expected, the last post is here: http://pourtoutpancakes.blogspot.com/2008/07/sunday-reflections-sunday-reflections.html

It’s an odd feeling to really care about a woman as a friend and naturally want to take it to another level because that seems right but you know that there are reasons that it can’t go there yet you’re not mad because she needs you as a friend more than as a boyfriend.

Ok, I’ve been typing and retyping for 20 minutes how to discuss this without boring all of you. I’ll just say that at first I was into her for the physical reasons, because she is beautiful, especially this week when I saw her. I was speechless when she entered the room. It was the same when I first met her, which I still remember. God, that’s lame. Sorry about that.

Anyway, I’ve developed more then just mere feelings for her, I actually care about her very much on an emotional level after this week, which I wasn’t planning on. I thought I was completely over her romantically, but I guess not.

I’m not going to screw up our friendship by doing something stupid, because I care about that too much. I’m still interested in other women without a doubt because I’m not in a relationship with her and she's in a relationship. I’ll work it out.

-I’ve been all over the Olympics! I was up until 2 a.m. Friday night watching Judo online. I’ve also been watching team handball, field hockey (underrated by the way) fencing and weightlifting. I’ve been watching the swimming and rowing and liking it on NBC. Surprisingly, I love soccer but haven’t been checking it out that much.

Sports like basketball, tennis and other secular sports can be checked out later on. When am I going to check out team handball again?

Right now, I’m trying to watch gymnastics and I’m not feeling it.

If you read my preview, you notice that I don’t like any of the sports that consists of a judge, accept for maybe judo, which doesn’t consist of a judge but a referee to interpret some rules.

I just can’t accept someone judging another person and determining the score.

And I know some of you are reading this and saying, Etienne Marcel, you like mixed martial arts and there are judges in that. True, but that’s only if the fight makes the maximum rounds. There are plenty of chances for the fight to end in ways controlled by the fighters like knockouts and submissions. Divers and gymnasts don’t have this chance.

I respect the athletes, I just don’t dig the operation of their sports. It’s good seeing Bela Karoli on the TV though. I thought he still coached the women gymnasts. I want his mustache.

-Speaking of martial arts, I saw UFC 87 on Saturday and like what I saw. Georges St. Pierre is a beast. You will get more analysis on Friday in MMA Review.

-That’s all from me this week. I’m not going to have a big post schedule this week because I may have to head to Georgia to take care of some family stuff.

Tomorrow, I’ll have my baseball predictions review for August. Tuesday, I’ll clean out some links. After that, I don’t know. Have a good week everybody.

I’ll leave you with some tips on self-defense from my main man, MMA legend, El Guapo Bas Rutten. If you think he’s acting odd in the clip for theatrics, he isn’t. Guapo always acts like that. Funny stuff.

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!

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!