Wednesday, April 25, 2007

SIU Ain't F*ckin' Around....And Other Thoughts

Well, this was an interesting day on the SIU campus. Woke up and went to class only to see everyone standing outside of the Lawson building. Why? Because of a suspicous package/bomb threat type thing.

According to early reports (from people I talked to standing around Lawson) someone went into a classroom, left a bag in the room, left the room and never came back and someone called the authorities.

Thankfully, the SIU authorities were on the ball and evacuated the building immediately and two hours later I was back in class (after spending an hour or so away from campus) safe and sound.

As for the package, it was a bag of Quick-Crete left by a student which was to be used for a later class. You can read more about it here.

Personally, I'm glad that all the precautions were taken and that SIU was quick to act and notify students and such through four seperate e-mails sent to SIU-Webmail. Communication is key in situations like this, especially after what happened at Va Tech.


OTHER THOUGHTS:
  • Wow, I can't believe school's almost over. This summer's got potential, I know I say it every year....and I say that I believe it, but it's not like I'm wrong b/c I have a lot to look forward to. Hopefully several jobs, an internship, my trip to Vegas for my 21st. The summer's looking bright but it doesn't start 'til May 12.
  • The Bulls won last night, going up 2-0 on the defending champion Miami Heat. I know that the Heat came back from 2-0 to beat the Mavs in the NBA Finals, but a younger, quicker, healthier, more athletic and hungrier Bulls team might be able to show the Heat an early exit.
  • The Cubs are sucking, even though they won today. News overshadowing the win against the Brewers is the season ending surgery for Mark Prior. Prior, who won't pitch 'til 2008, hasn't been right since October 2003. Beyond that he's had myriad injuries. I'm hoping the best for the man once known as "The Franchise."
  • Breaking News: I'm in love, again. Doesn't seem like breaking news, 'til ya find out who I'm in love with now. She's hot, yes....but she's not blonde nor is she southern. Her name is Alyssa Milano. I learned recently that the former Charmed star is an avid baseball fan. Stop your laughing, seriously, she loves the game. Yeah, she's a Dodger fan, but she knows what she's talking about. Check out her blog. Other than that whole being a Dodger fan thing, she's nearly perfect. Sure she might partake in the wave, and take in a tofu Dodger dog with a diet soda (yes she calls it soda) but she has many redeeming qualities such as Roberto Clemente being her favorite player. She doesn't leave games early. She starts chants. She realizes that Luis Gonzalez "throws like a girl." She was starstruck by Dodger GM Ned Coletti. You can read all about that here. All in all, I'm in love....and in the real world if I could find a girl like her I'd wife her instantly....no matter WHAT team she cheered for.
  • The SIU/SLU rivalry might get a bit more interesting if the Rick Majerus to SLU rumors are true. ESPN says Big Rick is still unsure about his decision, but if he went to SLU, he'd give them instant credibility and an opportunity to take some of SIU's recruiting thunder in the St. Louis area. But as a Saluki, I'm not worried. I doubt Majerus will finish his contract for one of the following reasons:
    • Health
    • Bigger, better offer from a bigger, better school
  • It's good to be a Saluki!
That's it for tonight. See ya Friday for the Off The Wall Blog!

Monday, April 23, 2007

Fun With Poetry

I realize it's been a while since I've posted some poetry. Here a few poems I've written for class. Right now, I'm also working on a set of poems tentatively called "The Georgia Series." More info to come as more poems are written.

The first set of poems are Haiku. Yes, the plural of "haiku" is "haiku." Haiku are poems about nature and such. Some of these may crossover into the "senryu" style poems. Senryu poems are in the same format as haiku but are about human nature instead of the natural world.

Rain drops heavily
standing alone soaking wet
got stood up again

-----------------------------------------

February ends
snow melts uncovering grass
warm weather will come

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Short days dominate
old children in snowball fights
winter vacation

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New day sun rises
blank paper and pen on desk
first poem this year

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Colored leaves will fall
don’t want to be in class now
only the first day


The second set of poems are cinquain poems. Cinquain poems go 2-4-6-8-2 syllables per line.


Writer’s Block

I can’t
figure out why
writer’s block got me down.
Still not sure what to write about.
I’m screwed.


I Hate Saying Sorry

I hate
saying sorry.
It wasn’t my damn fault.
He was the one who did you wrong.
Not me.


Girl On The Roof

She’s the
girl on a roof.
Staring up at the stars
wishing for her dreams to come true.
They won’t.


That's it for now, more to come sometime soon.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Losing Sucks! Losing To The Cardinals Is Borderline Depressing!

I absolutely HATE losing to the Cardinals. Losing to the Cardinals is the absolute worse feeling in the world for me. --Luis C. Medina, 4/20/07

Didn't we just go through this on Friday?

I thought so. I guess the Cubs didn't get the memo. I hate losing to the Cardinals more than anything in the world. Might I be exaggerating? Maybe. But it's not just losing to the Cards, it's the way that they lose. The Cubs have found so many different ways to lose ball games, I shouldn't be surprised---but whenever you think you've seen it all---the Cubs find another new way to lose.

So Friday they lost 2-1. That sucked because Ted Lilly pitched a hell of a ball game, and again received no run support. The runs came for Jason Marquis on Saturday in the 6-0 victory. And again, the runs came Sunday....and were wasted because of one Wade Miller.

After watching this game, the only thing I can take away from this game is that Wade Miller sucks at life and has sucked at life ever since he was an Astro and Larry Dierker burned him out. Why couldn't he burn out Oswalt?!?!? Or Lidge?!?!? Nooo....the one guy the Cubs end up landing sucks! Wait, that makes sense.

Anyway, Miller sucks and needs to be demoted somehow. His fastball peaks at 89 and unless you're Greg Maddux, it's not a good thing. It's time to bring up one of the youngsters. I know Jeff Samardizija isn't ready and probably won't be ready until July, but there are other options.
  • How about Angel Guzman? He was pitching well before being demoted for Felix Pie.
  • How about Sean Marshall? Marshall showed at times he could be a serviceable starter.
  • Wonder what happened to Springfield native and life long Cubs fan Ryan O'Malley? He's still pitching in the Cubs system?
  • What about Carlos Marmol? Or Juan Mateo?
You know what all of those guys have in common? They're all better options than trotting out Wade Friggin' Miller out there each time. Oh and Miller's ERA after 3 starts....10.54. Guess what Cubs fans? You're not gonna win a lot of games with a 10.54 ERA.

And that's the heartbreaking part of it all. Lilly comes out Friday and throws an absolute gem, and really has proven to the critics that (at this point) he's worth the $10 million per year that Jim Hendry gave him while on that EKG machine. And what does Lilly get for his effort? A big fat 'L.' Then Sunday, Miller comes out and lays a big fat egg. He would have gotten the 'L' had the Cubs offense not bailed him out (again.) It was the second time this week.

Long story short, I'm sick of Wade Miller's bullshit. That's why I said Thursday when I previewed this weekend, that the two most important games were Friday and Saturday. Those were the two must win games because I knew in my heart-of-hearts that Wade F. Miller was gonna blow it. He did, and again, the Cubs lose a pivotal home series against a division rival. THE DIVISION RIVAL! ARGH IT SICKENS ME!!!

You want a positive? I'll show you a positive. The Cubs scored 15 runs in the last two games.....and not one was driven in by Alfonso Soriano. That's a positive sign in my eyes.

That's it for now. I'm tired and have poetry to write. Go Cubs, the best is yet to come. I hope.