Another Week Gone By...

...and another week full of unfulfilled promises.

I know in my last blog 8 days ago I promised new poetry, things I learned this semester, thoughts on the movie Serendipity and surprises along the way. None of those have happened. I've been busy with work and things like that.

The poetry hasn't come along for several reasons. Am I inspired? Not really, I'm finding it a little difficult to write without due dates and deadlines. However, my lack of poetry isn't because of a lack of topics. I have so much on my mind and a lot of topics to touch on. I have snippets here and there scribbled on notepads, in notebooks and on random pieces of paper. Right now I am working on a poem "Before You" which talks about my "dream girl." Then there's an untitled piece where I offer my apologies for friendships gone wrong. There are some other pieces in the works, but nothing finalized at this point. The one that is closest to being done is "Before You." And yes, I'm still working on "The Georgia Series" but right now that's at a bit of a standstill, writer's block has the best of me when it comes to that set of poems.

As for the things I've learned this semester, I've got a Top 10 list and a list of things that you (my friend/reader) should have learned this semester from this blog. The Top 10 will likely be done before any poem will.

As for the movie Serendipity, my mother loves it. She thinks that I should love it too. "It's about destiny and fate and what's meant to be..." that's where I'd cut my mother off. Is it a good movie? Intriguing is the better word. It's a total chick flick that is supposed to fool you into believing that true love is attainable. Not only that, but I think that it's messed up that they put each other through some bogus tasks to figure out if they were meant for each other. If it wasn't a movie, they could have drastically f*cked up each others lives by fooling around with the love gods. They're lucky it's a movie.

Another movie review: The Sandlot 2 was absolutely terrible. Worst movie ever, it's worse than Alpha Dog, worse than Titanic, worse than Starship Troopers....it is the worse..movie..ever! Period, paragraph, end of story. They went away from waht made the original Sandlot the greatest movie of all time. It was about tying life lessons together with America's Past Time. In Sandlot 2, the plot was terrible. The punch lines were terrible. Everything was predictably bad and it's a shame that someone thought it was a good idea to make a sequel to a movie that didn't need a sequel. Shame on them.

Music review: R. Kelly's Double Up is my second favorite album of 2007. Timbaland's Shock Value is still number one as of now, but Double Up has some serious fire and makes a great argument to be my favorite album of this year. He's got awesome guest spots from Snoop Dogg (Double Up), Nelly (Tryin' To Get A Number), Chamillionaire (Get Dirty) among other guest spots. The lead single I'm A Flirt (Remix) featuring T.I. & T-Pain is another highlight of the album. But the best track is the duet between 'Kells' and Usher 'Same Girl.' That track will probably end up being one of the 10 best songs of 2007. R. Kelly's raunchy lyrics, along with the guest appearances make this a very worthwhile album.

Alright, that's it for now. Again coming soon:

• Poetry (maybe)
• Top 10 Things I Learned This Semester (definitely)
• Surprises along the way.
  

I Didn't Forget About You Mr. Blog!

I've been home a little more than a week, this is what I got:

• It feels good to be home. Starting with the "Ribfest," I've felt good about being home. The grades were really good too. 1 A, 3 Bs & 1 C. Not bad. I think what feels the best about the grades is that I truly feel as if I earned those grades. I worked hard and focused. And yes, a lot went wrong this semester. A lot went wrong this school year. Hell, a lot has gone wrong for the last 2+ years. But the idea that I can get on facet of my life on track makes me feel a little bit good about myself.
• Oh, and I'll be employed too. That's another thing that has me feeling good. I haven't worked a steady job since summer 2005 and I'm looking forward to making some ca$h money! Again, I'm happy because I feel like I am prioritizing correctly and that's something to feel good about.
• The Cubs can make me feel good, sometimes. When they play like they did on Friday and Saturday, I feel good. When they play like they did Sunday and for 3 out of the 4 games of the Mets series, then they make me want to curl up in a corner and cry. But I guess taking 2 of 3 in the Crosstown Classic will do for now. The schedule doesn't get any easier. 3 against San Diego with the first game pitting Cubs lefty Rich Hill against San Diego ace Jake Peavy.
• Another thing I like about the summer is the new music and movies that come out. I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to see movies like Shrek The Third, Ocean's Thirteen & The Simpsons Movie. That's just a small sample size. Music wise, there's always gonna be a few good albums coming out. I'm looking forward to albums from Fabolous, Chamillionaire, Linkin Park, etc. I know I'll be keeping my eye out for new tracks such as Kanye West's Can't Tell Me Nothing or First Time by Fabolous & Rihanna.
• And finally, the best thing that I have going for me is a new mindset. Last summer I wasn't focused, not by a long shot. My priorities were not in the right place, and at the end of the summer it hurt me mentally. I was all about "summer love" and blah...blah...blah. I say "who needs it?" I'll admit that the idea of "summer love" is a splendid thought. But so is world peace, ending hunger and the Cubs having a shortstop that has a career on-base percentage over .290. As long as I stay focused, I'll be happy (relatively speaking).

Coming Soon:

• New poetry (yay!)
• Things I learned this semester
• Thoughts about the movie Serendipity
• And surprises along the way!
  

A Look Ahead To The Cross-Town Classic

Thankfully, Finals Week is over and I am home sweet home for the summer and I have some things to look forward to.

First, I need a job. I want a job. I want money. Lots of money. I need ca$h money a.s.a.p. so I can pay for my expensive college life style. But another thing I need money for is baseball--Cubs baseball.

Cubs tix aren't cheap, not by a long shot....and it's very UN-likely that I can get some Cubs/Sox tix for this weekend because I don't have much money in my name.

So I'll take a look at a preview from a far.

The Cubs will have a few distinct advantages. As the home team, the White Sox will be without the designated hitter. I am not a fan of the designated hitter. The idea of someone hitting for the pitcher is like having someone on the bench coming in to shoot Shaq's free throws.

Not only will the Sox not have a designated hitter, the guy who is their designated hitter won't be off the DL until after the series. Jim Thome, even at this age and being injury prone this year, is still a dangerous left handed bat off the bench.

The Sox will have their advantages too. They're at home for this week---their road games will be eight miles north of U.S. Cellular Field. And of course they have the master motivator Ozzie Guillen, who loves to play the underdog card and Sox fans eat it up.

Oh, and the Cubs kinda have sucked at home, record wise.

The Cubs will be out in Flushing, N.Y. playing one of the best offenses in baseball when they play the NY Mets in a four game series in the midst of their 13 consecutive games.

With all that said, I'm still looking forward to Cubs/Sox this weekend at Wrigley, specifically these pitching match-ups.

FRIDAY: Mark Buehrle (CWS) vs. Ted Lilly (CHC)
SATURDAY: Javier Vazquez (CWS) vs. Jason Marquis (CHC)
SUNDAY: John Danks (CWS) vs. Carlos Zambrano (CHC)

Those should be fun games, though I wish that the Cubs could have lined up their pitching staff to where "Triple-A piece of sh*t" (as referred to as by Guillen) Rich Hill could have pitched this weekend with the majority support of Cubdom and the Friendly Confines.

Here's hoping the Cubs can split against the Mets, which would be a major success. Though I'd prefer that they picked up 3 of 4 and take 4 of 7 from the road trip. Then take 2 of 3 from the White Sox.

Seems like I"m asking a lot, but all three Sox starters are beatable. Yes, even Buerhle, he of the April no-hitter.

OTHER STORYLINES:

• The Cubs will face two lefties---meaning two games w/o Jacques Jones and Cliff Floyd---though Jones should start on Friday---he has a high career average against the White Sox.
• Hopefully Zambrano will be motivated to the point where he knows a possible future employer will be watching carefully in the visiting dug out with Guillen, a fellow Venezuelan.
• The Cubs will have their two big free agent acquisitions going back-to-back on Friday and Saturday. Lilly and Marquis have been impressive so far, but could really earn their keep in the eyes of Cubs fans with a pair of quality starts against the cross-town rivals.
• We could see which team won this off-season's cross-town trade. Neal Cotts has been the best lefty out of the pen and arguably the Cubs best reliever. David Aardsma is one of the league leaders in strikeouts, WHIP & ERA out of the bullpen. His 100 MPH fastball would be quite nice---looks like Don Cooper straightened out his mechanics and his control problems.
• Lou Piniella gets his first taste of the cross-town classic as a manager. Piniella vs. Guillen: need I say more?
  

This could/should be fun!

It's Al Come Down To This

Post #365---feels like there have been many more than this...well there is that other site---which I might quit with but who knows.

Anyway, it's all come down to this. Finals week at SIU. 5 days that define about 120 days of knowledge. Doesn't seem fair, but that's college life. You know what else isn't fair--bookstore buy back policies. The university and the bookstores around campus are making a KILLING in this industry---not to mention the parent companies that put these book packages together. It's so not fair to the students....or in my case my parents who pay for the books. $300 worth of books shouldn't give me a return of $32.50. That is wrong on SO MANY LEVELS!

Anyway, back on topic.

This roller coaster semester, heck, this roller coaster year will end sometime around 9:50 a.m. CDT when I get out of my MCMA 201 final. Not too long after that, I'll be on my way home for sweet home Chicago.

This semester has really been a learning experience. This school year has been an experience in itself. I dont have time to do a Semester Review right now because I have that final to go to at 7:50 a.m. but I will hopefully get to it sometime next week.

All I know is that as of right now I have an 'A' in my poetry class and a 'B' in my Psyc 102 class. I need a 40/60 to get a 'C' in my MCMA 201 class and my JRNL 310 and POLS 352-I classes are up in the air as of right now. Again, I'll learn my fate soon enough.

I'll close on this note. If all goes as planned (which I know it never does, but bear with me). If all goes as plan, I will have no grade lower than a C. Doesn't seem like much of an accomplishment, but for the last year and a half I've been in an absolute rut. Readers of the blog know why, so there's no need to get into that right now.

As of right now, this is the best I've felt about my educational progress in a loooong time. As for my personal life, it could be better of course---and I hope to improve it somehow, someway.

Again, I'll get into that in another blog.

I just needed a few minutes to vent before I go to bed in Carbondale for the last time 'til---well---I dunno.

Wish me luck!