ESPN

A few days ago I was watching ESPN and of course the sports reporters were discussing Brett Favre and his return to the NFL. Now, I’ve always been a die hard Chicago Bears fan, I mean who isn’t? But I do not care what anybody says, Brett Favre is the man! He has broken every single quarterback record you can think of. People are saying how he’s too old and can’t move around like he used to. Well obviously he is older, but he has a straight rocket for an arm. Yeah he tore his bicep last year, but look at what he did before that happened. The Jets were in first place and he was still breaking records, he is pushing 40 and he threw six touchdowns in one game. Favre’s the man hands down. Another topic that came up was Michael Vick. Now I’ve already blogged about what I think of Vick but that was regarding his punishment for dog fighting. Hopefully he gets reinstated into the NFL, and if he does I hope someone picks him up and uses him as a slot receiver. It would be sick if he was returning kicks and doing crazy trick plays with him. Also he would be a terror running the wildcat offense. It wouldn’t kill me not to see him play quarterback again, even though he was so exciting to watch because you never knew what he was going to do. But let’s be honest no one wants to see Vick throw, he’s a boss on the ground

Adaptation

I recently watch the movie, “Adaptation” for my third and final cultural opportunity. The reason I chose Adaptation is because it was the only movie on the list I had heard of. Also I have always somewhat enjoyed Nicholas Cage’s work. I am really not too sure still what I thought of the movie. It definitely was a different type of movie that Nicholas Cage isn’t normally in. In the movie he was a twin, he was some kind of writer and was always looking for his homerun piece. His brother was kind of like the cooler one out of the two, or whatever you would call it, he definitely was a lot happier. The one thing I can say for sure about the movie and his character is that he was absolutely miserable. He had the worst people skills I have ever seen, as a middle aged man he was yet to build up enough courage to have a conversation with a girl. When he finally would, and eventually get a date or two, even if it was going good he would mess it up somehow. I couldn’t help but to feel sorry for the man. However, I really thought it was cool how you always heard what was going on inside his head; he was always talking to himself, going back and forth with ideas about his writings. Well eventually he and his brother followed this famous woman and her boyfriend, they caught him spying on her and the movie just went all downhill from there. The couple chased after him and his brother and eventually shot his brother. When they were making their escape they got into a head on collision and his brother flew through the windshield and died. It was definitely a bizarre movie but I guess it wasn’t too bad.

Poetry Slam

During class on Thursday we had our poetry slam! The place we were in I thought was very cool. There were all these weird sculptures of huge heads. And the inside of the building itself was very artsy looking. But pretty much the best part was all of the food on the table before we started. I was just making cheese quesadillas and housing um. But as far as the actual poetry slam, it went a lot better than expected. I am not a huge public speaker, especially when you have to read something you wrote and be loud and entertaining for others. Mine was short and sweet so it wasn’t too bad. I thought everyone else did a very good job, some were funny, some were serious, and others were based off of our activities we did in class on Tuesday. Personally I thought Roger’s was absolutely hilarious. I actually think it would be pretty fun going to something like that with professionals up on the stage. Not saying we’re all not professionals because obviously we are, but I think it would a good time listening to their work, especially the funny ones, but besides for the food, sleeping in an hour later was definitely legit.

once upon a mattress

On Thursday night I attended a play entitled “Once upon a Mattress”. I went into it not thinking I was going to like it. Surprisingly I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was a comedy/musical which is always good personally. It was a story about a prince who was ready to marry his princess but his mother would not allow it. She did not want him to get married because that meant that eventually his wife would take her place and she did not like the thought of that. The Queen always gave these potential wives a test to take to decide if they were good enough, and the questions were always impossible! Until finally a girl came along that was actually royalty and the price fell in love immediately. The story goes on and she passes the test and they live happily ever after. The part that I loved most about it was how funny all of the characters were. The price was this little tiny guy that was really shy and wore glasses and had a squeaky voice. The queen was a very controlling woman, the king had the funniest facial expressions, and he was always making faces behind the queens back to get the crowd going. Also another thing I noticed that was very obvious was everyone in the play had amazing voices. Overall I had a good time with the experience and I liked it a lot more than I expected.

Thursday's class

Tuesday during class after we read our poems we went to the computer lab to discuss our final project for the class. My group picked to do ours over the Harlem Renaissance. Today in class we went over a few more details and requirements for the project and then got to work. Starting off we had to come up with twenty pages of information over the Harlem Renaissance, which seemed pretty steep. I found some interesting stuff on the topic. There were many very interesting pieces of art work in the 1920’s, some still life, many photographs, some of the photographs were action shots and some were still shots. Another thing I came across was Jazz music. Jazz was huge and very popular in the 1920’s. There were a number of lyrical geniuses back in the day. Jazz eventually turned in to hip hop and rap, which many listen to in the present day. My favorite part about the Harlem Renaissance however is the way everyone dressed. All the pin striped suits the men wore were so cool; I wish that’s how people still dressed today. I’m actually looking forward to doing the project. And the best part of the Thursday’s class was that we got out an hour early, you can’t beat that!

60 minutes

The other day I was watching a re-run of the 60 minutes with Bill Romanowski. He played linebacker in the NFL for quite awhile for a number of teams. Now I always knew he was a mean dude, but not only that but he is one of the craziest guys to ever play the game of football. One question the man interviewing him asked him was what was your goal on every play? His answer was the most intense thing ever. I was expecting something like make the play in the backfield, or force a turnover, he said, my goal was to make the person I was hitting, there last play they played in the NFL. You could tell he was serious too, they talked about his steroid abuse and all of the supplements he has taken, and it was like in the thousands after they counted up everything he has taken. He would do just nasty things after the play was over to people. For instance, when he would be at the bottom of the pile, he would just start grabbing people’s fingers and start breaking them, or start yanking on their ankles, he literally wanted to end people’s careers. One time he spit in Jerry Rice’s face and told him he was going to kill him after the game. The dude was straight up crazy, but I loved watching him play and he had a pretty legit career, also he was fun to watch in the new “Longest Yard”.

The Red Wheelbarrow

During Class on Tuesday we were covering poetry. I decided to pick the poem, “The Red Wheelbarrow”. It wasn’t necessarily good and was quite short, but it reminded me of my childhood. It was about 6-7 lines, obviously it talked about a red wheelbarrow. The connection from the wheelbarrow and my childhood is that when I was a little kid I always used to be over at my buddy Aaron’s house. His old man would always have little random jobs for us, looking back on it now the jobs were pretty pointless but it made us feel like we were doing something productive and helping his dad out. He would always give us each five dollars and we thought it was the coolest thing ever. Anyway every time we had a job to do we would always go grab this old rusty red wheelbarrow and two shovels, even if we did not need to shovels, it made us feel like we were working hard haha. Another part in the poem it talks about the white chickens. The relationship between the chickens and my childhood is that my buddy Aaron lived on a farm, he had tons of animals and chickens were definitely one of them. I remember many times picking up trash or putting dirt in the wheelbarrow and having chickens all around his yard running around like crazy.

Star Wars

I believe that the reason the original Star Wars did so well and was so popular when it was made was because what it was bringing to the movie industry. Although the special effects of Star Wars does not even compare to what we seen now days, back then it was the first time people had seen some of the effects they brought to the table. Such as the light savers, I am sure that audiences were amazed at the beams of light coming out of the hands the actors were holding, simply because they had never seen it before. And not only just the beams, but that they were fighting with them and it looked as if it were a sword fight with lights. Also I am sure no one had ever seen characters such as C3P0 and R2D2. People had to be amazed that these robot looking characters were doing some of the things they did in Star Wars. Or even with just the fact they C3P0 was walking around and actually looked robotic, and that R2D2’s head or whatever you would call it was spinning all around making robotic noises and hovering around. I think The reason Star Wars did so good was simply because of the special effects they brought to the movie industry.

Friday Night Lights

I started reading another book called “Friday Night Lights”. Now, I have already read it before, but since it is my favorite book, I could not stop myself from reading it again. Being from Metamora, and the way our town supports the football program, there are many similarities between the two towns. It is absolutely crazy how much pressure is put on these young men at the age of 17. During their practices, it was almost as if there was a game going on with how many people were in the stands watching, the coaches just straight up demanding that they win state. The one thing that shocked me about the pressure of the town when I was in school was when me and a few buddies were sitting in a diner in the square and some old guy none of us knew came up and asked us if we were ready to go to Champaign this year, which is where the State Championships are held. We kind of all just laughed because the only time you hear about that kind of stuff is in the movies, but it was actually happening to us. Right now I am at the part where there star running back, Booby Miles gets injured and is out for the season. It really puts a lot of emphasis on how the town is revolved around football because that is the only thing anybody anywhere is talking about in Odessa.

10 minute plays

Today in class we did our ten minute plays. I did not really know what to expect out of it. After reading my play, I was shocked about the fact that there was so much cussing in it. I found it hilarious actually, because usually anytime cursing and school cross paths, it does not go over to well, but I got to drop straight F-bombs all over the place and it was hilarious. All of the plays were actually very entertaining. My group was about a man who worked at a bank and hated his job and went crazy. He was always drinking on the job, and one day he brought in a gun and a bomb strapped to his chest and blew the entire bank up including his co-workers. He was a very insulting man towards everyone. Another play that was presented that I thought the group did a very good job was the one with the new husband and dad. It was funny how at first he thought everything was great and nothing could get better, and then once everyone started being needy he could not take it anymore. Also the punch line at the end was a good one when he said, “I need a new life”. Overall it all went a lot better than expected because I do no t really enjoy talking in front of a group of people, especially during school.

Irish Girl

I was given the short story “Irish Girl” for our mini book club. At first I really did not care too much for it probably because I did not understand it completely. It was not until I had a couple groups for discussion that I grew to like it. It was a story about a family that progressively fell apart while the parents were in the middle of a divorce, the Father was moving in and out of different homes, and the 16 year old boy William was going through many changes as one major change was that he found out he was adopted. William got into a huge fight and moved in with his dad. Every weekend Charlie, the younger brother would stay with his dad and William. At one part of the story Charlie tells his dad that William had snuck out of the house when he was told not to, later that night Charlie was woken up in the middle of the night by his father beating William. It was kind of sad seeing the progression of a family falling apart. The end of the story was the farthest from a happy one, when William tries to beat the train tracks to go hangout with his friends but and does not quite make it. I found it quite odd that the story was named after William’s girlfriend who barely was in the story, just because she had long red hair and bright green eyes. Overall it was a good but sad short story and I enjoyed being in charge of the conversation for the mini book club.

Shaq and LeBron

The other night I came home turned on ESPN on saw some pretty legit news. Shaq got traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. I am a huge Lebron James fan and the only reason why they did not win the Championship this year is because he had absolutely no help around him. All year I was saying how if they had a good big guy they would be unstoppable. Now, clearly Shaq is not the player he was 8 years ago but he is not exactly a scrub, I believe that with Shaq on the team he will pull more players off of Lebron so he can get better looks instead of being double teamed every time down the court. Same goes for Shaq, When Lebron drives the lane and everyone closes down on him, he will actually have someone to dump the ball off to that can do something with it, and personally I think Shaq is a very dominant player and will be a great addition to the Cavaliers. I think that the reason Shaq wanted to be traded to the Cavs is because he knows that those two on the same team is a very scary duo. Also ever since Kobe and Shaq had there falling out in LA, Shaq has never played Kobe in the Finals, and even though Shaq says him and Kobe are fine now, you know he wants to meet up in the finals and take him and Phil Jackson down, and with the Reigning MVP on the same team, Lebron James, I think it will be close to impossible to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the post season next year.

Michael Vick got screwed over

Michael Vick to this day is the most exciting player to watch play the game of football. All through High School he was my favorite player and still is even though he has not played for two seasons, I even sported number seven just like him. I am going to just come out and say it, Michael Vick got completely screwed over with his punishment, are you serious? 23 months? Dudes in the league are shooting there guns off in strip clubs, shooting themselves on accident and not getting a single day in the joint. I was watching ESPN two days ago and a wide receiver in the NFL was driving drunk and ran over a person and did not even know it because he was so trashed, dragged him for 3 blocks, you want to know how many years he got? 30 days. He killed a man, a human being and got sentenced to 1/23rd of what Vick got, and the most ridiculous part is that he is going to play this up coming season. Vick never physically harmed anything, or anyone, he got nearly two years because the dog fighting was held on his property, the dogs were fighting each other, it wasn’t Vick fighting the dogs, just because he’s the man they decided to make an example out of him and blew it way out of proportion. Why don’t people go to jail when they hunt animals? That’s them personally killing an animal, and half the time they cut them up and eat them. But whatever, all I know is Mike Vick is going to be back in action this year and will dominate the league again!

A million little pieces

I am currently reading a novel titled “A million little pieces”. Usually I read books more along the line of sports and related topics. I have never read a book so disturbing. The book is about a twenty-three man who wakes up on an airplane, front four teeth are missing, a hole in his check, a bashed in nose, and a combination of spit, snot, and vomit all over him with no recollection of who he is where he is at or where he is going. After the plane landed his parents took him straight to a rehab clinic. The rest of the book is about the six weeks he spent in rehab with every last gruesome detail involving his terrible withdraws, suffering a double root canal with no anesthesia or pain medication, dreams that are so real its scary, and news he receives that includes if he leaves the clinic he will not make it to the age of twenty four. The guy in the story, James was a raging alcoholic and a drug addict, he was addicted to cocaine, crack, shrooms, PCP, acid, and occasionally meth. One of the saddest parts in the story for me personally is how every time his mom came in to the story, the way she could not look James in the eyes, the fact that she is crying in almost every scene she is in. To me there is nothing worse than making your own mom cry, you really know that you have done something really wrong if your mom is crying and if I was in James shoes I do not know if I could have made the fight to break his addiction, and that is why this is a story that has kept me in the pages since I cracked the book.

Introduction to Fiction

After reading pages 7-25 over the introduction of Fiction, I personally found it very informational. It was very straight forward with explaining what fiction is and the different types of fiction there can be. Personally I enjoyed reading the section titled “The Short Story Genre” the most. It was quite interesting when it talked about how the first half of the nineteenth century was when the growth of short stories really took off, not only in the United States but countries all over the world as well. Also I like how it brought Edgar Allan Poe into it speaking about how he was the first great theorist of the short story genre. Most of the time as the text states, short story are otherwise known as tales which are in most cases considered make believe. It was also interesting how they brought in the present day and how short stories have risen to its highest level of popularity. Besides for the short story genre section there was one key word that stood out which was foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is one of the coolest elements to come across either while reading a book, or watching a television show, or even a movie. Reason being why I like when it happens is because you do not find out the author is foreshadowing until later. Overall this section was quite informational and I thoroughly enjoyed it.