Life, Complaining About Barcelona, and Some More Life

I have recently moved back into school in preparation for spring semester of senior year of college. I must say I found myself pleasantly surprised by how winter break ended. Multiple times I have discussed my frustration in attempts to hang out with friends. One of the not so great things about growing up is that practically everyone you know is busy most of the time with various activities such as school, work, homework, studying, lying, avoiding, hiding, jerking it, you know, the usual stuff. However, over the last week of this winter break I actually spent a decent amount of time with friends and had a good time. I went to a couple of my friends' apartment and hung out there/went to a billiards place not too far away and played billiards! Chase and I were also able to successfully orchestrate a friends dinner before most of us left for school. Including the two of us, we had nine people at dinner! I have a hard time planning things where three of my friends can actually attend so this felt unbelievable.

I have Sports Center on right now and I just saw the top 10 plays. To my surprise number 1 and two were given to the two goals that Inter Milan scored today in its Copa Italia match. Maicon, who scored a nice goal today, was awarded the number one spot and I found it funny that the anchor was not sure how to pronounce his name. I find the stereotypical American soccer ignorance funny, but it's about time soccer got some respect in the country. I am going to post a video from YouTube of Maicon's goal, but I have no idea how long it will last because there is a good chance that it could be removed from YouTube for copyright infringement or something. Also, if you don't know, Maicon is a defender. That little bit of knowledge should be taken into account when you see this ridiculous shot. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I am an Inter Milan fan. My support of Inter is 100% due to Ronaldo, my favorite athlete of all time. He was playing for Inter Milan when I started getting into soccer and the rest is easy to figure out.

How great is it that the next World Cup, in 2014, will be held in Brazil? What a great country to host the event simply because of the passion with which Brazilians follow and play the sport. I don't know if it will be possible, but it would be phenomenal to go back to Brazil during the World Cup. I have a few good memories of Brazil, which I have started posting (and by that I mean that there is one post so far), and I think it would be great to go back down there. And of course, there would be no better time than during the World Cup. I'll have to dedicate a post regarding the status of the country of Brazil during a World Cup. I had the privilege to experience that atmosphere during the 1998 World Cup and my dad told me some funny stories from work during this time. I'll hopefully get to those at some point.

Unfortunately my soccer enjoyment continues to be hindered by Barcelona and its group of self righteous pricks that currently makeup the team. Am I the only one who grows tired of different players from Barcelona hailing themselves as the greatest team or Messi as the greatest player practically each week? My favorite game of the past few years was definitely when Inter Milan beat Barcelona 3-1 in the first leg of their semi-final tie in the Champions League in 2010. It was so satisfying to read all the Barcelona fans' bitching about how Milito's goal in that game was offside, because it wasn't. Barcelona and all it's fans were just too but hurt to acknowledge what a great team that Inter side was.

As for Barcelona's "little genius," Messi. Barcelona doesn't need Messi, Messi needs Barcelona. I am quite confident that Barcelona could win without the services of its hobbit-looking "messiah." Messi, however, definitely could not produce the way he has with Barcelona with another club. We probably will never see this because there is no reason for Messi to leave Barcelona, and I do not fault him for that. I wouldn't leave them if I were him either. I just think it would be interesting to see Messi play against Barcelona just to see if the media shit all over him for "not showing up in big games" like CR7 when it is almost impossible to get any touches on the ball because the opponent just passes it back and forth 3,299,384 times and then proclaims what great passers Xavi and Iniesta are because they completed 98.476% of their passes, of which 2% had any chance of getting intercepted or denied by opposing players.

Maybe I'm just a bitter shithead, but I really cannot stand Barcelona FC right now. The Spanish League is going to shit because of Real Madrid and Barcelona, no other team has a chance to win La Liga. I hope that some team rises to the occasion and rapes in the Champions League, like Inter did in the 2009-2010 campaign. Oh yeah, I'm also going to call this right now, Barcelona will make a big deal out of it's inevitable Copa del Rey title later this year when they win it since they have practically already knocked out Real Madrid from this tournament already, its only competition. They'll make a big deal out of it and talk about how winning the title shows the club's superiority over every other team anywhere. Yet when they lost the Copa del Rey last season to Real Madrid it didn't matter because it was only the Copa del Rey and no one really cares, but they should care if Barcelona wins it. I'm calling that right now, so everyone can tell me I was right in a few months and give me a high five or something.

Enough of this gay banter, though. I only have to take four classes this semester to graduate! I hope I don't screw anything up because I can't afford to drop any classes! I did manage to get out of Corporate Taxation, though, and that, in the words of Martha Stewart, is a good thing. This could be the last semester of classes, but there's always grad school which is quickly becoming as mandatory as attending college if you don't want to work at McDonald's for a career. I don't know which would be better: getting a job or going to grad school. Both probably suck, so I'm just going to enjoy my time at school for this semester, throw my name in for some jobs and maybe get an interview or two, and surround myself with people I like, or try to at least. This semester has potential to be great, so hopefully you'll be seeing good posts here, along with my usual rants about random things, cough Barcelona. Stay tuned for more!

Larry the Lizard

The struggle for content, other than a more thought provoked piece that I am in the process of writing, has met an end, for now at least, as I have stumbled upon some old photographs that have had me thinking of the past. At one point in my life I lived in Brazil and I must say that the memories are favorable. Many people around my age study abroad for a semester, but my family and I lived abroad for three years. In these three years I developed a good feeling toward Brazil, a country filled with wild nature, an unimaginable amount of potential, and some very friendly people. Upon rediscovering these photographs, I shall recount some tales of this truly wonderful experience.

The second year of our expedition, second grade for me, my family and I were placed at a house in the small town of Jaguariuna. Jaguarinua, located in the state of Sao Paulo, resides in a country setting lacking the sky scrapers and pollution of the large metropolis that is the city of Sao Paulo. The house we lived in was positioned on a large piece of land granting us great privacy and lots of room to run around and soak up ultra violet rays from the sun (which is what I did the majority of every day). In the front of the house we had a quite large in-ground pool! My sister and I spent countless hours swimming and imagining that we were stranded on a raft in an endless ocean. My sister and I basically lived outside, I only went inside to watch soccer (big surprise there), play 3D Space Cadet Pinball, or go to bed. I also fell asleep a few times outside swinging in a hammock. The back of the house was a barbecue area, which is where this first story begins.

Front view of the house

 In the barbecue area there was a sink, and one day I found myself in need of washing my hands while outside. I went to the sink out back and while I had one hand placed under the faucet and the other reaching for the knob, a small gecko leaped onto my hand. Fascinated by this tiny lizard, I stopped and just stared at it. I had seen many similar looking geckos in the house, they had taken up residence and helped us out by eating annoying flies. Interestingly this little guy was not moving, he (I decided the gecko was a male, but who knows) just sat there rather comfortably. I hastily decided that this gecko was my friend and I declared him Larry. Larry was my new pet and I was determined to care for the little gecko. So I retrieved my critter box that I had previously used many times to intercept and remove unwanted spiders from the house. There was a large gap between the bottom of our front door and the ground which allowed these hairy arachnids entry. I put my new friend, Larry, into the critter box so I could monitor and protect him.

Larry! 

The picture above shows Larry chilling on my left index finger. As you can tell I only had on shorts and underwear. I spent most of my time like this, must be what Matthew McConaughey feels like. I just remember the intriguing thoughts about why the gecko stayed put, barely moving at all. After a little while, I decided that I should get Larry some food because he must be hungry. It was time for some hunting, second grade style. Judging from Larry's size, I thought he must need something small to eat. So I had the idea of bringing him back some ants. There are so many different species of ants, some nasty, inhabiting our yard, never mind the country. In my limited knowledge, I only recognized two different types of ants in our yard. There were the black ants with the large jaws that had bitten my feet plenty of times or my hand when I rescued them from certain death in the pool, the ungrateful bastards. I also recognized the leaf-cutter ants, they were the ones that cut leaves from the trees and bushes, what a great process I had to go through to figure that one out. I must say that it was quite remarkable to watch the leaf-cutter ants in action. These guys clearly have a plan and I had a blast watching them. Some of the leaf-cutter ants would go up into the trees and bushes and cut the leaves loose with their strong jaws. Meanwhile, a line that could be traced back to the ant nest moved the severed leaves creating two-lane traffic. One lane marched from the nest to the tree undergoing cutting, while the other lane marched back to the nest carrying leaves, quite fascinating.

So I brought back some ants for Larry to chow on, or so I thought. What happened was interesting and could have been described as sadistic had I known what the results would be. After I released the ants into the critter box a battle that would end with death began. The ants swarmed Larry and began either biting or stinging, perhaps both, his innocent lizard flesh. Not knowing what to do, I watched in horror as the ants clearly dominated the fight. The food I had brought back for Larry killed him. At first Larry attempted to free himself from the merciless foe I had bestowed upon him, but alas he was no match for the ants. Larry's movements began to slow and soon after stopped. I stared at the lifeless body that now represented my ex-friend, Larry. While we were friends for mere hours, I had grown some sort of attachment to the little guy. With the help of my sister, we buried Larry's miniature corpse in front of our house. Not long after, I decided for some strange reason that I wanted to dig him back up, resurrect Larry. My sister helped me with this too, but despite leaving a marker, kind of like a tombstone, where we buried him, we never found his body.

Despite the tragic ending to the story, I still consider this a good memory. Brazil, what a place. I hope to go back again some day. I plan on releasing more Brazil stories/memories which can be portrayed with justice now that I have photographic evidence of what I am speaking of. And Larry, you will not be forgotten.

Look, I Made a Post

December of 2011 marked a low point with merely one post. I have been busy with finals, track, and holiday festivities as well as hanging out with my family. Now most of the festivities have come to an end and I've had enough relaxation time away from school work to have some blogging fun. For the most part I haven't done anything of much importance for the last few weeks, but I'll discuss this time frame regardless. I would also like to point out that my post about how life is like Mario Party/Fuzion Frenzy has been put on a huge delay, we can all thank finals for that. BUT, I will get back to that at some point, I just do not want to rush it. And I need to read everything that I previously wrote and pick up where I left off, such unfortunate timing really, I finally had a good, unique idea, and....... finals!

And now for something completely different: my return to the cinema to work. Yes, for the first time in my life I have worked during winter break. I don't mind, though, I will only work for a few short weeks and I actually don't mind most of the people that I work with. When I went in for duty on Saturday my manager had not told my fellow coworkers that I was back, so my arrival was a complete surprise which was actually very nice, better than if they had all known. I received lots of handshakes and hugs. Surprise reactions are always the best. After I said hello to the coworkers who were in the front lobby, I headed to the ushers' closet to put my coat somewhere (this is the first time I've every worn a coat to work). One of my other coworkers happened to be eating lunch in the back lobby, where I was headed. She didn't look my way as I walked over, so I said "hi." She responded with a disinterested "hey." That is until she looked up. Classic surprise reaction once she looked up. She bolted out of the chair to give me a hug when she realized it was me. These types of reactions from the people I work with are the reason I go back. I'm very different than my coworkers, but they are certainly not a bad group. I would have to say that my first day back on the job surprised my coworkers in about the same fashion that Chelsea fans and players get surprised when Fernando Torres scores a goal. Unlike Torres, mt surprise was worth the wait.

I know, I didn't score the goal

While on the subject of work, I would also like to point out that on Sunday I popped popcorn (not pupcorn) for about four and a half hours. This was the first time I have performed this task, so it really wasn't that bad, but I can see how it can get annoying very quickly. Besides work, which has only been two days, I've spent my time training, hanging out with family members, and playing video games. Training is always interesting at this time of year. The weather is frigid and facilities are lacking, so that means I do the vast majority of training for track outside in the cold. I want to perform well this year in track, but I really don't think my goals/ views meet what the new sprints coach has in mind for me. This brings about an interesting situation. As I mentioned before, actually in the previous post, I have been a hurdler throughout my track career and have achieved some level of success in the event. However, I honestly think that the new sprint coach would rather me drop everything and run the 800 (that's a half mile for people not track inclined). So I guess we'll just wait and see what happens, and I should probably stop blogging about this before it ends up as a controversy on Sports Center (because that could totally happen).

In other breaking news, I am apparently four classes (sometime referred to as courses) away from eligibility to partake in "professional" work. More like after sitting in a classroom for a certain amount of hours I will be deemed capable and well rounded. Educational institutes have an affinity with the phrase "well rounded." Educators are quite sure that beating knowledge into the nation's youth creates a well rounded person. So, come May of 2012, just a few months away now, my life is probably going to change significantly. I think there are four possible scenarios:

1. I don't graduate and have to continue taking undergrad classes (I really hope this doesn't happen)
2. I graduate and manage to find a job
3. I graduate and join unemployment
4. I graduate, but decide to go to graduate school

All of those scenarios sound quite thrilling. Actually, that brings me to something I've been thinking about for a little while. The way wealth works sucks. When you're young and have energy and the motivation to go do fun and exciting things you have barely any money. Most people don't have a decent amount of money to do fun and exciting things until they're old, out of shape, fat, and on six different drugs. All of which are symptoms of work. Screw that, I want to go do things now, when I am still physically capable of wiping my own ass without hurting my back. However, I lack the funds to do much of anything, what a wonderfully implemented system. Work, a fun suppressor, prevents many people from having a good time.

At least she can retire at the ripe age of 70!

At the end of this summer I had planned in my mind to write about how dumb and stupid field goals in football are once the National Football League (I did that just for the National Football League expert Jaworski) season started. I still haven't done that and the playoffs are starting this weekend. So I'm either putting that off for another year or doing it in the next couple of days/weeks. I also think that football practices score inflation. I determine football scores by taking the number of points a team has scored and dividing by six, that gives you the score with inflation calculated out of it. For example, if the scoreboard reads 27-17, the actual score of the game is 4.5-2.8333333333333.

Apparently I can't form a cohesive post anymore. According Blogger, I started this post on December 29, 2011 and I'm still working on it now in 2012. The post also has no clear thought process, so I'm not even going to bother to read what I have previously written and just start up again, right here, right now. I am currently in the latter part of winter break, it's almost time to for knowledge beating again. Once again, I can proudly say that I have done a whole lot of nothing. I just thought about ending the post with the previous sentence, but then I remembered that I don't have anything else to do right now, so I'll just keep typing away. I'll do a recap of winter break so far.

My winter break began when I ended a torturous final and drove home and ate dinner with my mom. My dad and sister arrived in that order in the next two days and I got to see them for the first time in a long time. That first week I was back I had the opportunity to see some of my friends and we went to the mall. That is also the last time I saw most of those people. I have gone back to work for a few short shifts, so I've probably made about ten dollars over break. I went to a mini-meet and ran the 400. And over the last week or so, I have unsuccessfully, at least for the most part, attempted to hang out with various friends. I'll probably give it one more shot before I decide it is no longer worth the time or effort. And now I'm here.

I watched this movie called 12 Monkeys last night. I enjoyed it, I recommend it to whoever reads this. Then I watched most of the BCS National Championship game for College football. Holy shit that game sucked in my estimation. From my point of view, the score to that game was 1-0 in favor of Alabama. Alabama only scored once, field goals are stupid and don't count. In other sporting news, Lionel Messi won the prestigious Ballon d'or award yesterday, crowning him the best soccer player this past year. In the days leading up to the event, I found all the people predicting him as the winner quite comical. No shit, anyone could have predicted that. That's like predicting the square root of nine.

Did I mention that there is a severe lack of anything to do? Over the past two years I've experienced rapidly increasing levels of apathy toward many things. I don't even expect positive responses to hanging out anymore, from most people that is. The whole situation creates what I like to call the "Fat Bastard" syndrome. I took an interpersonal communication class this past semester, a class that I really enjoyed because I like observing people and their behaviors. One of my favorite theories was the one that described why we maintain some relationships and let others dissolve. In the theory's simplest terms, the two main factors are cost and reward. We like to stay in relationships that offer more rewards than cost. I think that is true, and unfortunately I have many high bills.

It's not all lame, though, hats off to those of you that I have seen.............. STEVE HOLT!!