Monday, June 04, 2007

I'm Moving!

Not out of the city. Not out of my apartment. Just to a new blog. It will be a lot like this one, but with some changes.
  • This will be the all-in-one blog. Sports views, poems, music reviews, movie reviews....everything will be posted here.
  • The blogs will be more focused. Clearer thoughts will lead to less nonsense and less randomness.
I'm turning 21 in less than one month and I figure it was time to move on from this blog and start fresh as I turn 21. Don't get me wrong, this blog isn't going anywhere. I'm keeping it around, mostly for referencing the past.

My new site is http://lifewithludo.blogspot.com.

Find me there and keep on reading!

An Open Letter To Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo

Dear Mr. Romo:

I am addressing this to you because of some recent headlines you have made.

So I hear you're breaking up with Carrie Underwood during the football season. Big mistake, buddy. Why? Why would someone do such a stupid thing? You must be retarded. You are retarded, right? Because no one in their right mind would break up with Carrie Underwood.

Maybe you were scared off by the Before He Cheats music video. I guess I can't blame you, I know the wrath of women myself (especially the hot blonde & Southern type) and I wouldn't want Carrie (or any one for that matter) swinging at my ride like they were Barry Bonds.

But it's obvious that you would rather sleep with NFL floozies, whores, roadies and groupies that probably have diseases that haven't been discovered/named yet instead of someone who actually has a future. Heck, maybe you'll end up hooking up with T.O.--bringing new meaning to his position "wide receiver." If that's your journey, enjoy yourself.

When you end up like Shawn Kemp with dozens of baby mommas, countless kids and more child support checks I don't wanna hear about it. When you end up on the Maury Show as one of the guys who is tested cuz someone doesn't know who their baby's daddy is, I'll be watching and laughing hysterically.

In the meanwhile, Carrie will be putting out hit-after-hit and will end up being the most successful of the American Idol winners.

I tell you what Mr. Romo, if you're really looking for someone to take Carrie off your hands I'm more than willing to offer my services. Show her a real man, and not end up having a country song written about how I cheated on the best thing that would ever walk into my life.

Heck, maybe she would be able to inspire me to write a happy poem.

Again, thank you for your time and for making Ms. Underwood single again. If somehow you end up on my Fantasy Football team in the fall, I hope you don't make these types of bone-head decisions on the field.

Sincerely,

Luis C. Medina

P.S. Laces out!!!! lol

Sunday, June 03, 2007

A Day At The Ballpark

To quote rapper Ice Cube, "Today was a good day."

I spent my day at beautiful Wrigley Field watching the Cubs beat the Braves 10-1. Amazingly, I believe that it was the first time the Cubs scored in double digits all year. Good for them, it's about damn time. After Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barrett slugged it out in the dugout with fists (instead of on the field with their bats) and Lou Piniella's classic tirade (that MLB is suspending him indefinitely for) the Cubs offense did what it is being paid to do---out-slug the competition.

LF Alfonso Soriano, 1B Derrek Lee and 2B Mark DeRosa homered. DeRosa's home run was a fist inning Grand Slam to left center field, Soriano's was a line drive to the left field basket and Lee's was a wind-blown shot into the first row of the right field bleachers.

Sean Marshall pitched 6 2/3 innings of solid baseball matching a career high with eight strikeouts in his first win this season. Marshall has been a tough luck pitcher in his previous starts this year with the big club, a victim of little-to-no run support.

On a personal note, it was great to be back at Wrigley Field. I love that place: win, lose or draw. I love it even more when they win. I had awesome seats. Field box, a few rows from the right field wall (think Bartman seats down the right field line) at mostly sunny Wrigley Field.

I even ran into an old classmate from grammar school, Keegan Daley and his father. Keegan and I went to LaSalle Language Academy together from 5th to 8th grade. It's something like that is why I love Chicago. I come home and I run into someone I haven't seen in a few years and we catch up. It's always good to run into people from the past and catch up.\

That's about it. The Cubs have a big series against the first place Milwaukee Brewers. If the Cubs can win two of three games, I give them a fighting chance in the worst division in baseball. Also, I'll be watching for the ruling on Sweet Lou's suspension.

I think MLB is irresponsible and wrong for suspending Piniella, who has done this act before. I don't think it's right because suspending Sweet Uncle Lou will likely lessen the chances of he (and other managers) from arguing with umpires. If managers can't voice their disagreements with umpires, then what's the point knowing umpires will have all of the power.

That's all for now. Goodnight. Changes are in the works.


NOTES: The Cubs are now 2-0 in games I am attending. It's like they see me come through the door and they say to themselves, "Damn, not this guy again. We better win before we lose our last die-hard fan."

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

10 Things I Learned This Semester!

After first semester ended I came up with a list of the things I learned the previous semester while on my way back from SIU's basketball game at Indiana University. When I got home, I posted them here.

This time, I had a long trip from Carbondale but didn't think about the things I learned from this semester. But I've been thinking about the lessons I've learned this semester. Here are 10 of them:

  1. It's not the size of the Dawg, it's the size of the heart in the Dawg. Under sized and under talented according to experts SIU shocked many by making it to the Sweet 16 this year, losing to NCAA powerhouse Kansas University by three friggin' points. If you listened to "experts" SIU might as well have not shown up for the game, but they did and they made Saluki Nation a group of happy individuals.
  2. $300 million doesn't buy what it used to. Cubs fans, including myself, made a big deal about Tribune Company opening up the purse strings this off-season with a free-agent splurge. The most entertaining part of this season has been manager Lou Piniella, who has provided several intriguing sound bites.
  3. Even a blind squirrel can find a nut. It's one of my favorite sayings and I'm applying it to the St. Louis Cardinals who miraculously won the '06 World Series. Since that fluke-ish run, the Cards are currently sitting at the bottom of the NL Central thanks to a struggling offense, a depleted starting rotation and lots of controversy such as drunk driving incidents by manager Tony LaRussa and a fatal one by reliever Josh Hancock.
  4. If it weren't for poetry, I'd probably be insane. Last semester I said "when in doubt, write it out." It was true again this semester. Let's face it people, if it wasn't for poetry I'd probably be insane, lying in a puddle of alcohol, not attending SIU. Thank you poetry for saving me!
  5. Nobody's perfect, except the 17 pitchers that have thrown perfect games. Again, one of my favorite quotes, this one I take full credit for. I've been "flirting with perfection" as they say, or what I thought was perfection and I've learned that what I once thought was perfect really isn't. Hence, learning that nobody is perfect and my idea of "perfection" doesn't necessarily exist.
  6. Sex doesn't necessarily equal love. I guess that is why one night stands were invented. I always thought sex was a product of love, I was wrong. Mark this down, I admit that I was wrong. Once. Don't think it's gonna happen again!
  7. It's time to let go of the past. This was a very tough lesson to learn, but it had to be learned eventually. Unfortunately you can't change the past and that sucks. And as much as you'd like to leave your past behind you, it always catches up to you, so don't ignore it. Embrace it (cautiously) and learn from your mistakes. It's easy to nit-pick things and say "woulda...coulda...shoulda..." and that things would be different. Eventually I figured out that everything happens for a reason. It might not be reasonable, it may not make sense now and it probably won't make ya feel better right away; but eventually everything will fall into place (hopefully.)
  8. My "theories" are just that, theories. I once coined myself as "The Man Of Theories" because I have a lot of theories about a lot of things. Life, love, conspiracies, etc. Well, this semester I learned that not all of my theories are correct. Some of them, are---but not all of them. I guess that is what separates theories from fact....and that's why they make erasers, white out & the backspace button. Mistakes happen.
  9. Life STILL imitates art. I compared a lot of certain life experiences to one of my new favorite shows What About Brian? and the hits kept coming in the second semester. For example, Brian (a.k.a. the character loosely based on me) can't say no to cute blondes and is always too little too late when the right girl for him comes along. Unfortunately the season finale was also the series finale and the show ended on a cliffhanger. A damn shame in my eyes.
  10. I Make Too Many Mistakes For My Own Good. But somehow I survive these mistakes, not by much though. It's not like they are life altering mistakes, instead they are "minor" mistakes that just nag and aggravate me. My fear is that the small mistakes will build to something major that will be the end of me. My hope is that it doesn't happen.

THINGS YOU SHOULD HAVE LEARNED:
  1. Sports Mean A Lot To Me. I don't know what I would do with myself if not for sports. Sports make for a great escape from real life. There's just something about an event that you can't directly control that puts things into perspective. A special thanks to my favorite sports teams for giving me a few smiles.
  2. Happy poems aren't my expertise and are few and far between. I can't write happy poems. Well, I can, but they suck and come off as over-the-top attempts that are comparable to a fake smile. People have asked me to write happy poems. I've tried, and failed. People have asked how someone like myself writes the gut-wrenching poems I write. One word (or is it two?): heartbreak (heart break?)
  3. A Lot Of My Poems Are Based On One Topic. Read a poem and think. That's all you have to do to figure out what I'm writing about. I didn't think that one topic can be portrayed in so many different ways.