The Price is White

Slow Down Young Man, Slow Down

2011-08-09T21:24:00.004-04:00

I wish I could bottle up the smell I encounter every night on my routine post-work walks that take me and my faithful canine companion through the country roads of Hardscratch in Glens Fork, Ky., where I now reside.

It's that smell that can only be described as country. A mix of livestock, weeds, flowers, grain, water, the air breezing through tobacco plants and blacktop with many miles of wear and tear. I simply love it.

The sad thing is how rarely I take the time to slow down and appreciate it.

It's not just the smells I noticed as Maybin and I trudged along on our nightly adventure, it's the sights too. I'm getting home around 7:30 p.m. most nights this time of year so the sun is just starting to give way to the moon, leaving the sky a mix of colors every night. There are nice houses, run down houses, trailers, beautiful red barns and gardens lining the peaceful street.

It's not rare either, as it happened again tonight, for a neighbor swinging on their front porch to yell "Howdy new neighbor" as we walk by. Which startles you at first, espcially after living in Louisville, Ky., for five years and Providence, R.I. for another, but I have enough Kentucky still in me to appreciate the gesture and made sure I stayed for a minute or two of small talk.

None of these things really matter to anyone else, they are special to me right now, but still I may not remember this August night 10 years down the road.

The real message and reason to put it into writing to remember is that for once, during my hectic life, I remembered to slow down and actually take a look at the wonders God created for me.

Making it even more rare was the fact it was me doing the slowing down to begin with. A lot of times I comment on how busy I am and how I'm going a million miles an hour, and that is all true. But I think from outsiders they don't really understand me life, I work in college sports right? Just go to games, keep stats, take a photo or two?

In reality I'm spending at least eight hours a day in my office, editing video, writing press releases and designing full media guides for all 26 of our sports. This isn't in a complaining tone by the way, I've chosen this life and love doing the work for the kids.

However, the hectic life of keeping up with an athletic department and finding time to keep up my hobbies of reading, playing and collecting video games, my dog, writing, cooking, fishing and movies causes my brain to feel like it's going 1,000 MPH, which turns out, isn't completely healthy.

I suffer from Obsessive Compuslsive Disorder, but I guess suffer really isn't the right word. It's actually my greatest asset even if it sometimes becomes overwhelming.

My mind is going constantly. If I go on a walk, I'm thinking about everything, from how our teams can win national titles to how I can improve a medie guide design to where I should go the next day to check on some retro video games. It gets scary at times how much information I'm trying to digest.

And if I've just had an iced espresso, then you can forget about me being sane for about three hours. It's a mix of wanting to hit someone in the face, bench press 250 and talk to someone about how to better LWC athletics all at the same time.

Without this "disorder" if you want to call it that, I wouldn't be where I'm at professionally. And once again someone may wonder, you worked for the Big East Conference and helped at the University of Louisville, so why do you want to be at Lindsey Wilson in the NAIA?

Without going into too much detail, it really comes down to the kids. No matter the level, all the kids just want to be appreciated and be put into a situation to succeed. And at Lindsey Wilson, I'm able -- more so than at Louisville or the conference office -- to really connect on a personal level, getting to know the kids which in turn makes it even more rewarding for me to help.

I never got into coaching, which I regret from time to time, but I look at my job as public relations director over all the sports as my way to help them succeed. I want to go in every day and try to do something special for their lives and in turn all I ask is that they put all their heart into their sport and give us all something to feel good about.

To help them get there, I do offer the advice of finding some time each week to simply slow down and breathe in all that is around them.

Louisville vs. Kentucky, It's Not Even Close

2011-03-21T17:01:00.002-04:00

Between my work and video game playing, I’ve been working on this blog post off and on to put an end to the back-and-forth between fans of the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville athletic programs.

First off, I feel better situated to comment on this than ever before because I simply don’t have the same passion for the Cardinals that I used to. Every ounce of my energy is put towards Lindsey Wilson College.

Sure, Louisville is still my favorite NCAA Div. I team, but I just don’t have time to follow them anymore.

I didn’t see a second of the recent loss to Morehead State and in all honesty, haven’t seen a full game of this year’s NCAA Tournament, but I’ve watched 10 complete NAIA games. A person just becomes interested in where his work is done when employed in collegiate athletics.

This blog will also just focus on the past 10 years for both programs. I’m happy that UK won those basketball titles in the 1950’s and 70’s and its great that Louisville won it all twice in the 80’s, but the athletics landscape changes every few years, so going back 10 is almost pushing it, but it’ll be a good starting point for the argument.

Basically, let’s look at every major sport that both institutions participate in and list their best finish in that sport since 2001.

Baseball

Louisville - Advanced to the 2007 College World Series by beating Oklahoma State 20-2 in the super regional. Played in another Super Regional in 2009 against Cal-St. Fullerton. Spent numerous weeks ranked in the top 10 of various polls during that time span.

Kentucky - Qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2006 and 2008, being eliminated in regional play both years with a 2-2 finish in the postseason.

Advantage - Louisville by a ton.

Men’s Basketball

Louisville - Appeared in the 2005 Final Four where it lost to Illinois in the national semifinals. Advanced to the Elite 8 in 2008 and 2009, losing to Michigan State and North Carolina.

Kentucky - Advanced to the Elite 8 in 2005 and 2010.

Advantage - Louisville by half a ton.

Women’s Basketball

Louisville - Finished as the NCAA National Runner-Up, losing to UConn in the NCAA Championship game in 2009. Angel McCoughtry named an All-American and was selected No. 1 in the WNBA Draft.

Kentucky - Made it to the Elite 8 in 2010, becoming the first UK team to accomplish the feat since 1982.

Advantage - Louisville in a landslide.

Football

Louisville - Won the 2006 BIG EAST Championship to appear in the programs first-ever Bowl Championship Series game where it beat Wake Forest 24-13 in the FedEx Orange Bowl. Was a missed field goal away from playing in the 2006 National Championship game, finished the year ranked fifth in the country.

Kentucky - Finished 8-5 in 2007 and registered a win in the prestigious Gaylord Hotel Music City Bowl 35-28 against Florida State.

Advantage - Louisville by 10,000 miles.

Men’s Soccer

Louisville - Lost its only games of the season in the national championship game against Akron 1-0. Spent most of the season ranked No. 1 nationally and ended the year with a school record 20-1-3 overall record.

Kentucky - In 2003, finished 12-7-2 playing in the MAC Conference and advanced to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament.

Advantage - Louisville by 10,000 tons.

Women’s Soccer

Louisville - Finished 13-4-3 in 2006, advanced to the NCAA Tournament where it lost in the first round to Duke 6-5 on penalty kicks.

Kentucky - Finished 14-7-3 in 2006 and advanced to its first NCAA Tournament since 2002 where it lost in the first round to Denver 2-0.

Advantage - Even, both teams have struggled nationally.

Softball

Louisville - The Cardinals have had five 40-win seasons, including a 41-18 showing in 2010 when they advanced to the NCAA Regional final where they lost to Tennessee.

Kentucky - Finished 27-34 and 10-18 in the SEC in 2001. Has never qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

Advantage - Ummmm…….

Volleyball

Louisville - Finished 31-3 in 2005, advancing to the NCAA Regionals where it lost to No. 8 Florida. Captured five BIG EAST Championships since joining the league in 2005.

Kentucky - Finished 29-5 overall after losing in the NCAA Round of 16, its best finish in school history. Had multiple losing seasons in the early 2000’s.

Advantage - Louisville, while Kentucky has had a pair of strong seasons the last two years, the Cardinals have been consistent throughout the 2000’s with multiple trips to the NCAA Tournament.

Totals - Louisville 7, Kentucky 0, Ties 1

Track & field didn’t make the cut for this analysis, Louisville has had I think three national champions in the sport during the 2000’s, but it’s a hard sport to do research on. The program’s have been even in men’s and women’s tennis with neither school advancing far in the NCAA’s. Swimming and Diving has been better at U of L with multiple Olympians, but it didn’t make the cut either. Kentucky is a strong favorite in rifle and gymnastics.

Kentucky fans who read this will no doubt be a little shocked and wonder where things went wrong for their athletic department. While searching for an argument, all they really have is the strong men’s basketball history. But as I stated at the start, this is a what have you done for me lately analysis, which is all that really matters.

Schools now all play in the NCAA tournament in basketball, there is no choosing between it and the NIT, as the NIT was at one time the stronger field of teams.

With all of this said, it is a fact that Louisville is the more accomplished athletic program when compared to Kentucky, and it’s not even close over the past 10 years.

To Kentucky’s credit, it is still one of the most financially strong program’s in the country and does a tremendous job cramming 24,000 fans into Rupp Arena every time they tip off for men’s basketball.

I think their fans are delusional though. The entire athletic department has literally had zero NCAA postseason success through the last 10 seasons. Yet the majority of their fans still try to belittle Louisville and point and laugh when things such as the first-round loss to Morehead happened in basketball this season.

And why do they love to hate Rick Pitino so much? Rick Pitino completely saved college basketball in this state. Without him, Kentucky arguable may have never risen out of the ashes it was nearly in as we entered the 1990’s. The man has also saved Louisville basketball, reenergizing what Coach Crum had nearly killed by simply staying in the game too long. Sure, Rick Pitino made a critical personal mistake with his affair, but lets not cast stones at his personal issues, but focus on the work he’s done for this state’s favorite game.

UK fans will also argue that they don’t care about the men’s soccer and softball world. To the general fan, this is probably true. Football and men’s basketball puts food on the table for both schools and with that said, Louisville has been better in both sports from 2001-2010.

An intelligent sports fan will know that all of those Olympic sports do matter. An athletic departments grade isn’t solely given from putting a ball through a basket or having a 1,000 yard rusher.

Tom Jurich is simply getting it done at Louisville and Kentucky has miles to go before they can even touch what “Little Brother” has been able to do.

Top Five Songs I'm listening to Right Now

2011-03-10T16:13:00.002-05:00

Music has always been a large part of my life. Somewhere between sports and movies, but not quite above video games. Luckily, while I'm working I get the chance to find new music or rediscover old loves at my desk. Here are the top five jams for Dan right now:

1. Eisley - Better Love

Eisley has been my favorite band for about eight years, seen them in concert numerous times, bought all the cds. Just a great, melodic family band that can harmonize like none other. This song, better love, included on their cd that released a couple weeks ago has been on repeat for me. One of the rare blatantly Christian songs that doesn't come off too preachy.

2. M83 - We Own the Sky

I am not a big fan of hipsters. While I love this song, I just feel like all these kids in the video are just on their way to the coffee shop I used to work at to order Iced Turtle Lattes and sit around talking about being vegan. Good work on the song though.

3. Robert Randolph - Aint Nothing Wrong with That

Robert and his family band are my second favorite musical artist, just ahead of Michael Jackson. All of his songs just make you so happy. How can you listen to this song and not be postive and not want to go work out for like three hours. Hollywood or in the hood, it don't matter.

4. Cage the Elephant - Shake Me Down

Cage the Elephant is another outfit among these new age hipster bands that college students are sure to like. I just think the song rocks, the lyrics are decent, but it's just really well arranged. This group and Mumford and Sons, etc., just needs to take advantage of this time period where their style is winning Grammy's.

5. Keith Urban - Put You in a Song

Say what you want about Keith, sure he's really mainstream, sure, he married a movie star, but he and his team of writers and musicians did a great job putting this song together. Another great arrangement with the bridge and overall job on the lyrics.

"If I could press play, repear, how happy I'd be. Whereever I'd go, I'd have you there with me."

"And if I get it right everybody will be singing along. And when they see you on the street they'll say, hey, aren't you the girl in that song."

Top 10 Awesome Things from My Childhood

2010-10-22T11:10:00.018-04:00

10. Hee Haw

I'm not even sure that I really liked this show, but my Grandpa loved it, so I made it up in my mind that it was awesome. The problem was that Cowboy Red dude with the straw hat scared the shit out of me so it was like a double edged sword watching this masterpiece.

9. The O.J. Simpson Trial

I don't think I saw my mom for 135 days in 1995, she was locked in to this O.J. mess. At 10 years old, I too was just old enough to realize what was going on and got into the trial too and had my own opinions.

This thing was so legit to my youth that I remember my fifth grade class turning the tv on for the verdict. Before the announcement, the teacher had the class of 10 year olds put their heads down and hold a private vote where you raised your hand for innocent or guilty.

After the class vote she wrote the results on the board and it read 27 guilty and 1 not guilty. The not guilty was your boy, Dan White. Basically, I was far more street smart and intelligent than all those other idiots. A former Heisman winner and NFL star isn't getting found guilty. Mrs. Shearer's 5th grade class was basically amateur hour except for me.

Interesting enough at that time my favorite music artists were Boys II Men and Michael Jackson. I also voted for Obama and once wore one white glove to class with a white t shirt and black sweatpants to mimic MJ.

While all the racist kids in Anderson County in 1995 were sending OJ to the slammer with the blind vote, I was already bringing in a culture of change. Yes We Can!

8. LA Lights

No doubt I begged my parents for these. If you were the only kid in 3rd grade who wasn't rocking these with your sweatpants you were screwed.

7. Teddy Ruxpin

Teddy Ruxpin is half an awesome thing from my childhood and half the scariest thing ever. I think my sister technically had one of these abominations and I only got it as a hand me down after if was practically broken and its mouth didn't movie right with the tapes, adding to the horror of it.

As I remember, you bought the cassette tapes and stuck them in the back of this dude, then he read a book to you. Bunch of lazy parents bought this thing and stuck their kids in the bedroom with it and closed the door for story time. Teddy was probably coming alive like a Stephen King novel Chucky style and eating kids.

6. TMNT Van

Not a lot to say here besides that if you were born in the mid 80's, you fricken loved the Turtles. And when I got this official TMNT van, it was on for play time. Just staging my own scenes with donatello and the shredder, smashing Krang and chopping the foot clan up.

5. WWF Wrestling Ring

Possibly my favorite toy from childhood. I was obsessed with WWF. Remember the day dad and I picked this up from Toys R Us and he let me pick out four or five wrestlers to go with it. Get ready for this memory: Jake the Snake, Andre the Giant, Ultimate Warrior, and both Bushwackers. (Bushwackers haha). From there the collection grew and I would stage some epic matches in my room.

4. Beavis and Butthead

Mom and dad were pretty cool with everything growing up, but there were one or two things that bothered them. And for my mom, it was Beavis And Butthead. It was that whole, "If you watch it, you'll end up talking like them and mimicing them" and boy was she right. To this day I can still do a killer butthead. Scenes like washing the dog and the top of the mountains at the beauty salon made this show worth sneaking it on in your room when your mom wasn't there.

3. Chipmunk Adventure

I love movies, but there is no film I've watched more that Chipmunk Adventure. To this day I can give a scene-by-scene breakdown.

The part that sucked was all we had this on was a recorded VHS version with some other movies on it. So every time I wanted this on, the parents and I had to go on an awful rewind and play journey. And to make things worse Ann of Green Gables or something was the movie before, and my mom thought she loved it, so she'd always watch a few minutes of it before the chipmunks started.

But quick synopsis, the chipmunks play this video game where you fly a hot air balloon. Then some assholes decide to make a real life version contest, but its a scheme to put diamonds in these chipmunk dolls around the world that they have to collect. (I dont think that made sense).

2. Bozo Grand Prize Game

Sunday afternoons I always watched the Bozo Super Sunday Show on WGN and at the end some lucky kid from Chicago would get to play the Grand Prize Game for $100.

Then they started putting the game in Chuck E. Cheese's so when dad would take my sister and I there, I would dominate it. Kids would line up to watch me sink throw after throw.

1. Nintendo Powerpad

Obviously getting the NES in the first place deserves a spot on this list, but that's like putting that chinese buffet's are a good place to eat. So in its place, I say the PowerPad purchase was one of the better days in the White household.

Circa 1994, Dad and I in the Frankfort KMart. The Nintendo Powerpack that included an NES, the pad and the Track and Field game was on sale and they had one left that we bought. Went home and plugged this thing in and started sprinting, hurdling and long jumping my heart out.

Didn't take long to learn all the tricks to this thing. Using your fist to pound the mat was a perfect way to cheat. Then on long jump, you would jump off the pad, then get back on when you wanted to land. Take that Nintendo.

But then in the World Championships, you would eventually face the Cheetah, then you're life was over.

Extra Late NBA Draft Top-10 Recap

2010-06-30T17:11:00.009-04:00

I love the NBA Draft, so much that it has become my favorite day of the year. Something feels special about it. Most of the major sports seasons outside of the MLB have come to a close, so it sort of signals the renewal of another season of great sports action.

I think certain life events have cause my interest to grow as well. Giving me more insight into how the draft works and knowledge of the players includes my time working in major college athletics at Louisville, my time working at a major conference in the BIG EAST and living in a major pro sports market (Boston) for a year and learning how to become a better pro sports fan.

So now I give you my commentary on the first 10 picks from this year's draft with a few interesting stories from my life thrown in:

No. 1 Washington Wizards – John Wall - Kentucky

NBA Comparison: Derrick Rose

If electric play is what the Wizards desire, then Wall was the right pick, but with all that sizzle might be a smorgasbord of turnovers.

Wall can attack the rim and lead a break like Rose, but also has a Rondo-esque jumper which I fear could limit his chance of becoming an elite guard.

Will he make All-Star teams? Yes. A lead guard with his athleticism in the East is a lock to be a perennial All-Star.

John Wall will always be the best basketball player to wear a Kentucky jersey, but he was never a true Wildcat. It was a one stop shot in Lexington with the zen master of the draft Calipari. Wall has recently referred to his collegiate team as KU in some interviews, but why go into all that?

The kid can play and will translate his game well in the NBA.

First things first though, D.C.’s team must part ways with Gilbert Arenas. Despite being a bad influence for Wall, both guards require the ball in their hands and it will not work with them on the court at the same time.

Wall does not have the offensive ability to take the league by storm like Tyreke Evans did at Sacramento last season and won’t be able to rack up assists with his rag tag teammates, but the moments of spectacular he brings in the open court and a drive to win will keep him in the league a long time.

No. 2 Philadelphia 76ers – Evan Turner – Ohio State

NBA Comparison: Andre Igoudala (76ers….hmmmm?)

Redundancy is the story in Philly. Why take a less athletic clone of Andre Igoudala? The sixers let everyone know early on that Turner was their man, and it leaves me a little confused. The only other franchise changer in the draft besides Wall was Cousins, but they had their sights set on Turner from the get go.

Evan Turner, a collegiate phenomenon, but I tell you, will be a bust in the league. A 12 ppg, 4 rebound guy, never going to make an All-Star team, not going to bring Philly a title.

Surely Igoudala will be sent packing. They are going to ride Turner for all he’s worth.

Passing on Cousins for Turner is like turning down a date from Elisha Cuthbert and settling for Kristen Stewart.

Sure the one you picked is on top of Hollywood and grossing multi millions being bitten by vampires, but the one you passed on is much more attractive as an asset and could give you long term good feelings that you haven’t felt since Chris Webber.

So, sorry to burst your pride Philly, but this pick has disaster written all over it.

No. 3 New Jersey Nets – Derrick Favors – Georgia Tech

NBA Comparison: Tim Thomas/Al Horford

Another pick that makes perfect sense. Somehow Brook Lopez has turned into an effective NBA post after getting posterized by Earl Clark in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. So giving him a running mate that is a little more physical and will attack the glass makes sense. Add in quality guards Devin Harris, Terrence Williams and Chris Douglas-Roberts and you have a nucleus that could finish better than 2-80.

The real story for the Brooklyn Nets is picking up LeBron James. They have about as good as a shot as I do with Cuthbert, but they are still giving it their best effort.

Their new billionaire owner made a ballsy move that I loved by buying a sky-scraper sized billboard that will face the Knicks offices featuring his and minority owner Jay-Z with the words the face of success – or something like that. I like ballsy moves.

Nothing ballsy about Favors, however, but its still a safe pick that will give a good return in the future. All youre looking for is 12 and 10 and this guy can bring it.

No. 4 Minnesota Timberwolves – Wes Johnson – Syracuse

NBA Comparison: Shawn Marion

Freaky seven-foot wingspan, freaky athletics and freakishly missing during big games.

Remember that last game at Freedom Hall for Louisville when Kyle Kuric went berserk and dropped about 25 points on the Cuse and dunked all over Johnson about five times? It was awesome and tells the complete story about why this pick sucks for Minnesota.

While Cousins was the smart pick here, GM David Khan is notorious for hacking drafts and this was no different, stating that he didn’t want to add another big like Kevin Love or Al Jefferson. Newsflash Kahn, Jefferson sucks and Cousins would have given you your first All-Star since KG left.

This franchise is the biggest joke in the league. First they draft Syracuse point guard Johnny Flynn last year who cant guard anyone and now they add fellow Orangemen Wes Johnson who will be just as bad. At least Johnson can score and that is what the Twolves need most.

No. 5 Sacramento Kings – DeMarcus Cousins – Kentucky

NBA Comparison: Dwight Howard/Eddy Curry

Only time will tell with the Cousins pick on which way it goes, but it will be fun to watch. Im biased because I love the Kings, but I think this is the pick of the draft. Cousins has the intangibles to be Dwight Howard, but attitude to end up as Eddy Curry. Will the Kings get a 20 and 10 guy or 10 and 5 disaster?

I’m going with 20 and 10. There will be distractions so he wont be bottled up in the post. Operation number one for Kings’ opponents is slowing down Tyreke Evans. Then besides Cousins, they have Garcia on the perimeter and Samuel Dalembert down low.

This time a team actually went the Elisha Cuthbert route. They will be enjoying hanging out with this pick for years to come, while the previous three teams will be stuck going on boring dates with their picks and ultimately trading them away for a new player.

One word of advice for big Cuz is to calm down and grow up and be a man. So far on all the videos on the Kings site he is acting like a fool dancing around and can barely speak English. He also shouldn’t try the Jared Swopshire forearm to the face move in the league.

Try that crap on Ron Artest and he’ll literally open you up and eat your insides. His psychiatrist said so.

No. 6 Golden State Warriors – Epke Udoh – Baylor

NBA Comparison: Some awful 6’10 center

When I was around 10 or 11 years old I used to have a kid from the neighborhood spend the night and we would stay up all night playing Bulls vs. Blazers on Super Nintendo. We would pick the Warriors to play a whole Playoff series because we wanted to win the league with the worst team possible.

It seems the current brass in Golden State is playing by those same rules in real life.

Udoh was manhandled in the championship game this season against Duke by Zoubek. Sure he’s lanky and can block a few shots, but is this really what is available at No. 6 in this years draft?

Patrick Patterson from Kentucky is at least physical and can score the ball.

But does Golden State have any fans anyway?

They are kind of the forgotten stepchild of the NBA. Who wants to go watch Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis jack up contested threes and lose by 30? No one.

Good luck sucking for another 30 years after this pick Warriors.

No. 7 Detroit Pistons – Greg Monroe – Georgetown

NBA Comparison: Zach Randolph/Elton Brand

This was a great pick by the Pistons. Detroit fancied Cousins, but how they thought they were going to land him without trading up confuses me. But after spending last season with Chris Wilcox and Kwame Brown in the post, Monroe is certainly an upgrade.

I like how he can mix it up and play outside to inside and I also like his passing ability, an underrated skill with NBA big men. The problem may be finding someone to pass to. Prince is broken and there aren’t too many other pieces.

It’s also worth mentioning that Samardo Samuels used to take it to this guy in college, which doesn’t bode well for him at all.

No. 8 Los Angeles Clippers – Al-Farouq Aminu – Wake Forest

NBA Comparison: Blake Griffin (Clippers……uhhhh?)

Another duplication pick, you already have Blake Griffin, why draft a clone. However, Aminu will not play this season after the Clipper curse sets in and he ruptures a tendon or blows out a knee cap, so I guess they can play the broken Griffin this season, then figure a way to play them together in 2012.

I usually steer clear of thinking too highly of guys with this kind of name. Players with weird names usually suck. Not a lot of Al-Farouqs in the Hall of Fame. This has Shareef Abdur Rahim written all over it. In 10 years this guy will be an asst. coach with the Kings.

However, the Clippers still think they are landing King James. I have to admit, about seven months ago I thought the same thing, then real life kicked in and now I know he’s going to Chicago.

No. 9 Utah Jazz – Gordon Hayward – Butler

NBA Comparison: Luke Jackson

Back in March I talked myself into the idea that Hayward would have a decent NBA career and I wouldn’t mind if the Kings landed him. Then the real life thing happened again and all I could see in his future was Luke Jackson.

A lot of bloggers out there didn’t touch the white guy/Jazz jokes, but screw that. This pick was too predictable. Utah may be the whitest pro sports team in the world, including hockey. Adolph Rupp would lead this team to 10 national titles if this was the 50’s.

One thing Hayward has going for him is a smoking girlfriend that just graduated from high school and is probably ready for marriage to sign on to the millions that Gordon will receive until he’s out of the league in three years.

The bad thing he has going for him is that without Butler’s magical run to the Final Four and CBS slobbering all over him, this guy is no better than Steve Novak. If Marquette had made a final four run a few years ago, Novak would have been top-10 too.

No. 10 Indiana Pacers – Paul George – Fresno State

NBA Comparison: Worse Danny Granger

If this atrocious pick doesn’t sum up why I hate the Pacers now, then I don’t know what will. Indiana used to be my team. Dad and I would make an annual trip to see a game and I’d follow any game on TV when I could see Reggie Miller.

I’ve cried nine times tops at sporting events, and Reggie’s last game with Indy was one of them. This guy was my idol growing up. I adopted the cross hand follow through like Reggie and even had monster games growing up like his massacre of New York in the 90’s.

Without Reggie’s influence, I may not have made it rain in the Anderson Co. Church League so much.

One great memory is a deep story.

I grew up in the church league playing for First Baptist Church with all of my best friends. Then the preacher left to start a new, more modern church just down the road that depleted the First Baptist congregation by at least 300 members.

When left with the decision to transfer. I stayed with 1st Baptist since the youth minister they hired on an interim basis was a friend of mine and I agreed to stay and help that church until they found a replacement. My friends tried to get me to switch my loyalties. Left me notes in my locker and bought cars for my parents and stuff, whatever they could do to win a title.

But I held strong and basically had to lead the First Baptist team into battle by myself. So the stage was set to face the new Hope Church in a rivalry game for the ages. With my best friends looking at me from the other side I went on to haunt their dreams forever and drop a league-record seven bombs on them and blow out the competition.

I had six with a minute left and needed one more for the record. Hope called a timeout to set up a gimmick defensive play that consisted of my good friend Caleb Wells spearing me at the top of the key. Nice plan, but it didn’t work. My shot banked in and the whole place went berserk. They cut down a piece of the backboard for me that I still have to this day.

The next year, after a failed season with the high school team, I was signed as a free agent by Hope just a week before the playoffs. I dropped 24 points in my first game, turning their 0-11 season into a 1-11 miracle. Three years later, during an All-Star season for me, I helped bring the team its first title on local cable access TV and the rest is history.

Simply put, without Reggie or my dad rebounding a ton of shots for me growing up, that game would have never happened.

So why does Larry Bird and the Pacer brass continue to haunt my dreams with awful draft picks? I held a huge party at my Frat house at U of L in 2005 in preparation for Indy to take Francisco Garcia, then they passed for Danny Granger. The most boring player in NBA history. Then they go with Tyler Hansborough last year and now, PAUL GEORGE.

Somebody stick a knife in them, cause they are done.

Conversations Overheard

2010-06-28T00:16:00.005-04:00

Seems like every time I go somewhere lately, employees are engaged in some amazing conversations that need to be recorded for my memory at least.

This first exchange took place at Lee's Famous Recipe in Columbia, Ky., while I was waiting for my three piece strip meal with baked beans and potato salad.

The employee doing all the talking seemed to be in his early 30's and was.......interesting.

"Man, I told everyone here last week that Sheamus would be the next WWE Champion, and guess what, last week he did it. IT WAS AWESOME MAN! Hey, I'm throwing a pretty big party this weekend, it's a Lee's Game Night for everyone here. It'll be awesome and I want YOU to be there. Oh hey, bring World of Warcraft because I want you to play it so I can watch. It's going to be intense man!"

The second exchange happened tonight at Wal-Mart. I was checking out while the cashier lady next to my line thought she had some funny smelling dollars.

Cashier 1: "You have to come smell this dollar, what do you think it smells like?"

Cashier 2: "It's not feet is it, I'll come smell it as long as it's not like feet."

Cashier 1: "No, I think it smells like its been near Marijuana."

Cashier 2: "Oh man, I gotta come take a whiff of that!"

Would You Like to Shut It?

2010-06-26T21:11:00.002-04:00

I know that when you live in New England going to Wal-Mart is like social suicide, but now that I'm back in Kentucky, screw that, we usually start and end our days here with a trip to Wally World. I mean, back to school shopping, new furniture, food, goldfish, a lawnmower, new TV, it's all done at Wal-Mart in the south.

I love the place, probably average 1.8 trips per day to the one that's a 100 yards from my new house. But the thing that's killing the glory of Wal-Mart trips is the non stop charity request outside the front doors.

Now, before I go on, I know a few of you are going to be thinking about how you always drop a dollar in these buckets and are proud of them for taking the time to do this. But, honestly, the joke is on you.

Do you ever stop and wonder why 96% of the people manning these money buckets look super shady and could really go for a swig of purple drank?
"
We used to have these same people from the same groups hang out around Java Brewing Company on 4th Street Live in Louisville. One lady was Helen and her game was the money bucket to help feed starving children in the city. If you have Helen a dollar, quarter, dime, whatever she would hand you a dum-dum sucker (no pun intended) and send you on your way feeling good about yourself.

But little did the people of Louisville know Helen was taking that money stash right to the bank, and by bank I mean right insdie Java where she would buy a couple chicken salad sandwhiches and a cinnamon roll and go to town. Helen had that block of 4th street to herself and if any other charity driven mama's tried to set up shop on her turf it was sure to get ugly.

Now back to my local Wal-Mart, the most consistent one recently has been the "would you like to cure a kid from cancer?" lady. Seriously, cure a kid from cancer. This has to be the most backwards idea in the history of Wal-Mart charities to allow this crap.

First of all, as soon as I respond with a "no thank you" I immediately start feeling guilty because I just killed a kid. "Would you like to cure a kid from cancer sir?" "No thank you." I mean, what the heck.

Then once inside the image of little Johnny dying without my 75 cents keeps replaying in my head and I immediately forget the 10 things I needed to buy and leave with just a gallon of milk or something.

Well done Wal-Mart, you just lost out on a big sale from me because I'm freaked out by the cancer lady, or the feed starving kids lady, or the donate to Haiti lady, it doesn't matter, they all have no place at my Wal-Mart.

This is usually the spot where I should write a disclaimer that I'm sure not all of these charity drives are scams, but screw that, that is not how real life charity works.

If one of my childhood friends had a life-threatening disease or had a child with one and they went out and seeked help from my hometown church or graduating class, I'd be there with all I could spare, prayer and any kind of other support they needed.

Same goes for donating to Haiti. If I really want to do something, I'd go there myself and hand those families clothing and food or just give them fellowship. Why would I drop a Hamilton in a bucket and never know what exactly I'm helping.

Maybe this makes me sound like a bad person, but Helen rubbed me the wrong way in the Ville and I've always been a supporter of go out and do good instead of random donations. Have I done a lot of charity work on my own? Not enough. But even the little I've done beats giving a dollar to the cure cancer lady.

Netflix

2010-06-25T17:26:00.003-04:00

Through day one of the return of the blog I've realized that I must seem like a lazy weirdo with my human oddity obsession and love of video games, so why now throw myself further under the short bus with my public love announcement for Netflix.

I tend to run a few years behind with technology (just got the Blu Ray and PS3 last month), but when I finally get it, I go all in. So, to better use my Blu Ray player, I signed up for Netflix. I get one movie at a time in the mail and unlimited instant streaming on my TV throught the PS3.

Life has been amazing with this blessing in my life. I've watched all five seasons of The Office and I'm on epsiode six of season one of Lost, a show I never watched on Fox, but am loving on the Flix.

Sent to the crib so far has been: No Country for Old Men, Avatar, Crazy Heart and I'm going to watch Precious tonight.

So far this summer I've gained 14 lbs. and had to have the waist let out on all of my pants, but seriously, who here has watched the entire first season of Fat Albert this month?

This guy.

My Friends and I in 15 Years

2010-06-25T17:16:00.002-04:00

This Podcast by ESPN's Bill Simmons on football video games is a little dated, but the material is still spot on with my life. This discussion with Bill and his childhood friend is verbatim what my high school buddies and I could talk about at our 20 year reunion.

The day Madden 2000 came out for the PS2 a group of us stayed up all night playing it in my basement until was passed out around 6:00 a.m., only to wake up a couple hours later to a knock at the door because we were supposed to be helping our youth group rake my neighbors leaves.

Like Simmons and his pal here, I'll be playing Madden and talking about it like a 12 year old until I'm 85, then maybe I'll stop.

Also, the sequence where they discuss the wife factor and how their wives have an amazing ability to walk into a video game session at the worst times possible was a very scary foreshadowing into my life. It's gonna be 4th and 7 with 0:25 on the clock in the playoffs and whoever Mrs. White's gonna be is gonna come in asking me which shoes match her dress better.

I'm not ready for that.

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/player?rd=1#/podcenter/?callsign=ESPNRADIO&id=2969059&autoplay=1

Top 5 Moments in the Life of Tsimfuckis (Explicit)

2010-06-25T16:39:00.005-04:00

As an avid TLC watcher, I've kind of become an expert on human oddities. As far as I can tell, my man Justin here was born with Progeria, a disease that causes someone to age faster than normal. That was a pretty bad description, but you get the idea.

On all other counts, besides physical appearance, people with this condition are fully functioning, normal people. But Justin, who also goes by Tsimfuckis, Tsimbidis and Chicken Little, takes it to another level with comedy. Basically everything that this kid says is amazing, but somehow I'm going to try to put together a top-five list of Tsimfuckis sayings or actions.

5. Maybe You'll see a mailman (0:12-0:15)

Many times it's unclear what Tsim is really trying to say. He's the king of the set up when it comes to lip singing his favorite tunes from his Ipod, but this time he's acting a little spacey. Starting at the 0:12 mark he mentions something about "getting a letter from a mailman", you know what I'm saying?

4. Haterz (The entire video)

Tsim is at his best when the video does all the talking itself. I guess the set up here is that a bunch of people have subscribed to his youtube account, then laced the comment sections with rude comments. Anyone that can make fun of this kid can meet me somewhere in Columbia and I'll have my dog terrorize you. I love Justin and if you have a problem with him, say something to my face.

Highlights: To all ya'll people whos subscribing to me.....Don't comment on my ****, aight?.....How bout you, huh? How bout that?.....Don't watch my videos, cause people think I'm funny.....Bunch a woozas.

3. You Know Who You Are (Entire video)

Can Tsim be sentimental or what? Just when you thought his whole act was cursing-laced diatribes and weird mailman comments, he breaks this heart felt theme interp out for his lady. No need to let the cat out of the bag, as Justin says, you know who you are. This video cracks the top five mainly for the amazing hand movements, really helps tell this love story.

2. Send a Comment on his Myspace (Entire Video)

I call this the shoutout video. Tsim lets loose a lot of hot material, like details on his upcoming weekly show. There's really nothing I can say to make this one funnier, but I'll share some of my highlights below:

Highlights: Thank you, for watching a couple of my videosh.....There's a lot more **** to come....I got some comedy comin on to there, I got my cousins.....Pretty soon there's gonna be a little show.....You can email me, ya know? Or, send me a comment on my Myspace, I'll give you that information a little lata....Know what I'm saying?

1. My Favorite YouTube Video of all Time

Here we have pure comedy genius. There is so much going on in this video it hurts my head. The emotional start, the playing of the wrong song at the start, the actual singing, Tsim saying the song by Blink 182 was his favorite band as a kid even though it was really by Lit, then the climax of the video when Justin goes into that impromptu rap at the end. There are some gems hidden in the rap, so watch it a few times to take it all in.

Highlights: Why you please tell me, you never tell me at all when I'm drinking alcohol.....Why don't you just tell me before I have to break these necks....Then I'll get my revenge, and I'll get bib a bi bi bay bay bob....ARAAAAABBBBB Money!

I'm Baaaaaaccckkkkkkk

2010-06-25T16:09:00.004-04:00

When you have a job that requires about 80 hours per week with most days lasting from 7:30 a.m. to Midnight, it's probably not the best idea to recommit yourself to a blog that dominates the world of comedy and brings joy to people young and old. But, alas, here I am willing to give the Price is White another shot.

This seemed easier when I was living in Rhode Island working for the BIG EAST. Maybe it was having no friends, girlfriend or life outside of the YMCA in Pawtucket or working in the office until 8 p.m. every night, or more likely it was the fact I was living in the foreign land of New England and found a lot of things humorous.

Because now that I'm back in Kentucky, as a sports information director for Lindsey Wilson College, I have hundreds of friends, girls at my call every night, access to a gym that makes the Pawtucket Y look like the bathroom in Saw One and a lot of work to do. But surely I can take a few minutes off from being awesome everyday and come up with something to write on here.

Like last time, you won't be finding anything serious on here or life changing, so if you're looking for something inspiring this probably won't be a recurring google search for you. But if you want to laugh your head off or pretend that you are so I feel better about myself then this is for you.

So here's to the return of Price Is White, to my seven loyal readers, this is for you.

The Price of Leaving Town

2009-06-12T20:55:00.000-04:00

My time working for the BIG EAST had come to an end, but getting home wasn’t supposed to be this hard.

I put in my last week of work and said my goodbye’s in Providence on Friday. The next morning, after loading everything left in my apartment into my Mustang, my dad, who had flew in to make the trip home with me, and I headed south for the nearly 1,000 mile journey.

Our path wasn’t the straightest as we made a two-day pit stop in Baltimore to watch a couple of baseball games between the Orioles and Tigers. My cousin’s cousin Josh Anderson is an outfielder with Detroit and was slated to start the Sunday contest. Camden Yards was a great ballpark, but Josh didn’t have the best day, going 0-for-4 at the plate, although the first-place Tigers still won.

After receiving directions towards the interstate to take us on towards Kentucky we headed through what had to be the roughest part of the city. In the middle of boarded up houses, run down convenient stores and a multitude of police sirens and ambulances, my car, which had never had any mechanical problems went completely dead.

The lifeless car had only enough energy to roll up to the nearest curb where there just happened to be an arrest taking place as two police offers had a large man down on his knees and handcuffed. They looked a little panicked to see my dad and I stop by, as if we were there to aid the assailant.

Once we relayed over that our car had broken down, the tension lessened and the smaller cop headed towards my car and immediately let us know that he had owned an ’82 Mustang and that it may be the solenoid. This meant nothing to us and I’m sure his partner holding down the criminal would rather he return to the scene, but our friendly cop stayed with us all the way through bringing in a tow truck.

I don’t remember the officers name but found out he had once stayed in Kentucky while he was in the military and found out about a program in Baltimore’s inner city to become a cop and enter a 20-year retirement plan. He said he was eight years into it, but I have my doubts about his making it 12 more working that particular beat.

The tow truck arrived and my dad and I climbed into the front seat with the driver and his wife. Let’s just say it was a tight fit. But luckily he was a nice enough guy and gave me a flat fee of $150 which seemed fair since he took us quite a ways to get near a hotel and a Pep Boys repair shop. The room for the night was necessary because it was Sunday night and the repair shop was just shutting down.

The next morning we were relieved to hear it was just the alternator that had gone out. So another 30 minutes and close to $400 later, we were finally getting out of Baltimore and heading home through West Virginia and Kentucky.

I’ve always said I’m not normal, so nothing about that story really surprises me. I think only my family could pull off making a routine trip like that into something out of a Saturday Night Live skit.

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Not sure how I had the energy, but the next morning I took off for a job interview in Columbia, Ky., which involved another 300 mile round trip and then promptly took off to Louisville that night to pick up my parent’s car from the airport, adding another 100 miles. Then the rest of the week I went to a birthday party for my uncles wife from the Philippines, went to Owensboro to cover the State Softball Tournament for Estill County and spent two days this week laying out a sports and business page for a newspaper in Irvine, Ky. Needless to say its been a busy couple of weeks. And I also was offered and accepted the job I had interviewed for on Tuesday.

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Notes Since Being Home

I’ve been taking my dog for a daily walk through the American Legion Park in Lawrenceburg and have to admit they’ve done a nice job refurbishing it since my childhood. The walking track is paved, there are numerous exercise stations and there is a disk golf course. But today, I saw a guy taking disk golf way too serious. It looks like a fun hobby and I may even give it a try, but if I’m ever spotted wearing a disk golf backpack and making notes about distances when trying to decide which disk to throw, be sure to tell me to take it easy and loosen up a little bit. This isn’t the U.S. Open.

My neighbor across the street has an odd ritual of taking a walk with his son and wife one time around the circle at the end of the street and then right back into the house. An estimated total distance of 0.1 miles All I know is that I find that funny, and my dog absolutely hates it. He goes off growling and barking at the mini walk from our front door. He can even sense it’s happening while he’s sleeping in another room by letting out a small growl. It’s as if he knows the kid probably wants to make a few more rounds and is letting out his canine anger at the parents.

I can still drop a three on my basketball court. You always like to have some home-court advantage in case any Lawrenceburg thugs come challenge you on your home turf so I went out today and proved I still had it in the backyard. I made myself hit 10 threes in a row before I came back in the house, and it only took about 10 minutes. I consider that a success.

While watching the NBA Finals I can’t help but notice how similar the games are of Rashard Lewis and former Louisville Cardinal Earl Clark. I’m praying that some way the draft plays out where Sac-Town acquires Clark in some kind of trade because I don’t think they’ll take him at No. 4 and I’m scared to death that they may take Ricky Rubio, which would be like saying, “Hey lets suck for the next five years,” because he not the answer at point. I’ve always liked Lewis’ game and he no doubt has a better outside stroke than Clark at this point, but I feel like Earl is still growing his game into his body and will breakout in the NBA in the next two to three years.

Am I correct that Louisville is getting very little attention in any of the very early preseason top-25’s. If so, I actually like that, because a lot of people are going to be surprised this season. Veteran backcourts win championships and I’d take E-Sosa and Jerry Smith as seniors along with Preston Knowles as a battle tested junior over just about any other trio in the country. Place sophomore studs Samardo Samuels and Terrence Jennings underneath and bring a high-energy freshman like Peyton Siva off the bench, and that’s a solid nucleus to me.

I hate banks. I tried to close my account in Rhode Island and was advised that leaving $5 in would take care of any pending transactions before it closed. Turns out two more transactions came through and without knowing my account had been charged nearly $200. It looks like when a customer closes an account and moves that they could send me a letter or call letting me know I need to cover some final charges instead of continuously charging me fees.

Oh well.

Rhode Island Living Coming to and End?

2009-04-22T19:46:00.006-04:00

Seems like yesterday I was just creating this blog, ready to bring the trials and tribulations of living in the Ocean State to anybody that cared. But now, it appears my time here is coming to an end, as I will be venturing back to Kentucky in a little over a month to figure out what lies ahead.

I'm getting used to finding new jobs, my next one will represent my 10th different emplyer in about five years. I actually like the process, finding jobs I like, getting interviews, meeting new people, so this search should be fine. There's a lot I'd like to do in my life right now, but at the same time, I feel ready to commit to a job and feel the security of having somewhere to return to each year.

My experience at the BIG EAST couldn't have been better. I was worked harder than I've ever been in my life, but I was also treated as well as anywhere I'd been before. Anytime I needed something or had a question, there was always a willing person around. This has been one job and experience overall that I'll never forget.

In an odd sequence of events, I'll be travelling to Louisville as the softball communications contact for the BIG EAST tournament May 5-10, then flying back to Providence before moving back to Kentucky at the end of the month. That's a lot of hovering around the planet in a short amount of days.

Until then, I'll continue to enjoy my work and wait to see what the future holds.

Sometimes You Just Want To Feel Wanted

Last year I wrote a few blogs about Josh Anderson, native of my parent's hometown of Pulaski County, Kentucky. Josh had been maneuvering in and out of different minor league baseball organizations for about five years, waiting for his big break in the majors.

Entering this season, Anderson seemed poised to take over center field duties for the Atlanta Braves, as they had not found a suitable player in the free agent or trade markets and worried it was too early to bring up some of their younger prospects. Then 21-year old Jordan Schaeffer happened. Schaeffer tore through spring training with a fury, blistering balls to every corner of the stadium and chasing down flies in the outfield with reckless abandon. Needless to say, it became very obvious, as Anderson had played well, but not great in the same period, that he would not be winning the position battle after all.

With no minor league options available to him, Anderson's fate would come down to either being released and made available to any interested team, or be shopped in a trade. The latter seemed unlikely as a few teams looked and balked on the transaction, until the Detroit Tigers may have pulled the best trade of the season so far.

By giving up only a subpar pitching prospect, the Tigers landed the perfect last piece to their puzzle with Anderson. With a lineup that includes plenty of All-Star worthy power already in place, the Tigers were looking for speed and defense and recieved a good dose of both with the majors' arguably fastest player in Anderson to scorch the basepaths.

The early returns have been good on Detroit's investment. Josh made an opening day MLB lineup for the first time in his career, and has produced both at the plate and in the field with a pair of ESPN Top-10 caliber plays.

It will be fun to keep up with Anderson this season, as the Tigers appear on the road to success after last season's last-place debacle. Many of their supporters have argued that Anderson is the one piece that team was missing to make a playoff push. We only have about six months until we find out.

Hello Sunshine

I just returned from Florida on Monday, after spending six days under the sun. We had our Tennis Championship on the campus of USF, and it was a joy to work. Tennis, as anyone who knew me in high school can attest, was one of my biggest sports passions, so being able to watch the game be played in those great conditions was the good kind of work to me.

I even got motivated myself to relaunch my tennis career. I met with a USTA representative about starting up my membership to the group and possibly get involved with some tournaments whereever I am living next. I'll be honest, I'll need a few months of training to pick up the sport again, as I've fallen out of practice since high school. I think I know a few people I can drag out to the court this summer, so I should be ready to compete soon.

There's really nothing out of the ordinary to report about the tennis tournament, and that's a good thing. My results, recaps and pictures all went out on the web and everyone involved agreed that the event was a success.

Trip to New York: Part One

2009-03-31T17:43:00.000-04:00

There’s a lasting image in my head from my trip to New York to work the men’s BIG EAST basketball championship. I’m in a cargo van, riding shotgun, with a bevy of trophies and awards shifting around in the back. The breathtaking skyline of the city is right in front of me and my driver is in a deep conversation about his collection of DVD’s. Our talk was going so well that he must have not seen the car in the other lane, the one that just about cut my trip and life short. But let’s backtrack a little bit.

It’s Saturday night, the day before I left for New York, and I’m in the BIG EAST offices with a collection of my colleagues, all working with a buzzing fervor to prepare everything and anything for the tournament in the Big Apple. Games, such as Louisville and West Virginia, were playing out on the 70 inch flat screen TV hanging above the last-supper looking meeting table that was doubling as my office for the night. And in between glances at the screen to check the score I was stuffing, sorting, labeling and whatever else you can think of about 800 media credentials to make sure the pick-up process in New York ran as smoothly as possible.

Saturday’s work started at about 4:30 p.m., I think I eventually left the office at 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning, five hours from when I would return to depart. But how can I complain? Getting to take this trip was a dream come true. Putting a basketball junky like me inside Madison Square Garden with 15 games to be played by the best conference in America is like putting Martha Stewart in a Bed Bath and Beyond going out of business sale. Does that make sense? Probably not.

So after I got home Sunday morning, I finished up some packing and got to sleep around 4:30 a.m., woke up at about 8:00 a.m. and rolled my suit case out the door. Once at the office we did a few last second checks of supplies and other items and then had to trust we had it all and headed to our various modes of transportation.

A group of four took a limo van to the city, another group of around six boarded the express train, but I, in my opinion, got the best ride of all. We’re talking about a brand spanking new Ford Cargo Van (bright white too). Why was this ride the coolest? How about the cargo load. Nestled next to my suitcase in the back were the Player of the Year trophy, regular season champion trophy and trophy for the eventual tournament champion. I’m not going to lie, it felt pretty awesome to be riding with hardware that would sit on some school’s shelf for many years down the road.

And now the story returns to the beginning, the story of the driver of the van and I. First off, it’s definitely awkward riding shotgun in a cargo van on a two-hour trip to New York with a man you’ve never met. Needless to say, there was a necessary few moments of figuring each other out, but with a little work I cracked his interest and we rambled on about a variety of subjects the whole way to town.

For one, he loved tennis, he was seriously pretty obsessed with it. Luckily I had seven years of varsity tennis experience and knowledge of many pro’s, so we were able to rally, if you will, a few debates back and forth about who was the best and whether the men’s or women’s game was more exciting. Pretty normal conversation, but you never know what could happen in the second hour.

In the second half of the trip, I found out this driver loved movies as well. Double bonus, I also love the motion picture from time to time and have a surprisingly vast knowledge of movies. But what I couldn’t agree on my companion with was his devotion to the animated Disney classic. Bambi, Beauty and the Beast, you name it, this guy loves it and owns it. It was an interesting topic as most of my favorite movies border on the insane comedy realm to very intense dramas, but nowhere in between is any love for Walt Disney.

Then the guy almost wiped us both out, we made the craziest merge over three lanes of traffic to pay a toll I’ve ever witnessed, problem was not all the lanes were clear. About three inches from my face was the grill of a sedan that luckily swerved out of our path at the last second. The toll was paid, and we safely rolled into New York. I was alive, and we were coming upon our destination, the Grand Hyatt.

I’m sure those Grand Hyatt bellmen were happy to see this kid from Kentucky hop out of the cargo van in the heart of New York City with a million boxes that needed to be ushered up to our conference room on the hotel’s second floor. I was happy to see that they were nice guys and luckily took note of my request not to break any of the trophies, if they had, the trophies might not have been the only thing being replaced.

Part one of my New York duties were done, and I was off to my room to relax for a few hours while I waited for my bosses to arrive for dinner. While I turned my hotel room into my apartment, it became obvious that I needed more hangers, so I picked up my phone and hit the operator button. “Mr. White, how may we help you?” came across the other line, and I let them know how they could help, just like they asked. About 30 minutes later, boom, there’s the hangers and life is good.

Life only got better than night as we strolled through the city to our dinner spot at a great little steak house that served a mighty meal. I ordered the filet mignon, which I think is French for ‘really good steak’ and tried to soak it all in as to what I was doing, and where I was doing it at. I’m not even a big New York fan, but at that moment there wasn’t anywhere else I’d rather be. New York grew on me over the week.

Monday morning, through the afternoon was treated as a regular workday. Softball and handing out credentials highlighted the day, but my trip to Madison Square Garden for some initial set up made the day. There’s nothing like walking into an empty MSG with the BIG EAST logos emblazoned on the floor. Standing at midcourt, just looking into the seats and checking out the goals, I knew this was a special moment. I had grown up playing out my fantasies on this very court in video games and my driveway outside, now it was reality.

Each day when the games actually started were both long, exhilarating and a lot of fun. The first morning a limo picked us up outside the hotel so we could fit all of our boxes in the car on one trip. The limo driver was an awesome little guy that had mad skills maneuvering that long vehicle. We got to roll up to the garden and enter through the players tunnel, we were pulling a total Patrick Ewing, security clearance checks and all. We winded all the way up the arena in a circle ramp and eventually parked the car right next to the arena floor, inside our workroom. We were told this is where the Knicks players park their cars on game days. What a life. I mean, I was probably in David Lee’s parking space.

Watching the games courtside at the Garden was nothing like I expected. The games just took a surreal twist. The sightline I had was incredible and it was something I’ll never forget. Especially the seemingly never-ending battle between UConn and Syracuse. We didn’t get home that night until 3 a.m., but who cares? It was fun running around like mad men in the final few overtimes collecting stats and records to announce at the post game press conference.

On the days we had a break in the mornings, I made myself a tourist and walked miles and miles through the city. I went to Rupert Gee’s Hello Deli from the David Letterman show, watched people go crazy for the Naked Cowboy, accidentally walked into a movie being filmed, went inside some knock-off electronics stores, drank some Jamba Juice, immersed myself in the crowd at Grand Central Station to get a New York pretzel and went to Magnolia Bakery to recreate SNL’s Lazy Sunday Video. How many cupcakes did I get? Four, Eight, 12? No. Baker’s Dozen!!!

We also had another staff dinner at Grand Central at an Oyster Bar type place. This was my favorite meal of the trip due to the company, southern flair and beautiful building. I had grilled shrimp with fried green tomatoes and sweet potato’s. The mix of sour and sweet vegetables with the plump shrimp made Price a happy man. The joke of the dinner was my order of Clams Casino for appetizer. I think I pulled off ordering it like I knew what it was well, but had to admit to my coworkers that I had no idea. Luckily my boss ordered it too, and knew what it was, so we both got a great start to our dinners. For those out of the loop like me, Clams Casino is a plate of clams on the half shell with a slab of bacon draped over each piece with some sort of sauce drizzled on the top, I don’t really remember all the details, just google it.

So that’s a pretty long account of most of the trip, here are some quick hitters to wrap it all up, there will be a part two later:

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Before Louisville was presented the regular season champions trophy, the Courier Journal was taking some pictures of the trophy as I polished a few smudges off to made the presentation perfect. The photographer ended up taking my info and posting the picture to the Courier’s site. It’s caption read that I was Dan from Lawrenceburg, Ky., I felt proud.

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Louisville also ended up winning the tournament, it was their first BIG EAST championship and first win in a conference tournament since 2005 in the old Conference USA.

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The trip also marked my first foray into text messaging, I finally surrendered to its calling. By the end of the week, I had 340 messages in my inbox and had sent 320. I think I’m hooked.

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Saw some celebs at the games: Regis, Morgan Spurlock, my old buddy from the gym at U of L Kerry Rhodes and that big dude from the movie 8 Mile, his name is Omar something.

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Riding in cabs in New York is really confusing. The drivers, who never speak English, are talking constantly…but not to you. I think they are all connected to some kind of secret cab driver communication device. Sometimes they’ll go a couple minutes without speaking, then go right back into a new conversation without pushing any buttons. One day I’ll find out how they are doing it.

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Jamba Juice was the bomb, they even asked me if I wanted a free scoop of wheat grass, just like David Letterman jokes about.

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Checking In From Storrs

2009-03-24T20:11:00.004-04:00

Thought I'd hop on the blog while I'm here in Storrs, Conn., working the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. My official role here is Blog Coordinator, which means I'm in charge of monitoring all the bloggers here to make sure they are following NCAA guidelines. Any type of real-time updates such as running stats or score reporting is not allowed. The bloggers are only allowed to provide those things periodically, such as halftime and postgame.

So, I would tell you how the Huskies are doing against Florida, but I don't want to commit a violation.

I will be putting together an entry about my trip to New York for the BIG EAST Tournament soon. There is so much to talk about with that whole trip, starting with my journey in a cargo van to get there with my driver who wanted to talk about pro tennis and movies the whole time.

2009-03-06T09:28:00.004-05:00

All of my regional picks for the Kentucky State Tournament are still alive. The list of my picks are a few posts down on this blog.

All signs point to an Anderson/Shelby final on Tuesday night, should be a good one.

And if the Bearcats were to advance to Rupp, I see their path to a championship being:

Elliott County
Shelby Valley
Scott County
PRP

That's no tough task, right?

Leaving For the BIG EAST Tournament

2009-03-05T21:26:00.002-05:00

Sunday I'm heading down to New York for the BIG EAST tournament at Madison Square Garden. I'll be working a lot, but if I get a break at night I'll try to update how things are going in the city.

I'll be there until the next Sunday, so surely a week in New York for a Kentucky transplant will provide something entertaining. Best of all, it's basketball. This is the tournament I couldn't stop watching for the last three years while I was a student at Louisville, now I'm going to be there working for the conference.

Life takes a lot of crazy twists and turns. Eight years ago I thought I'd become a rock star, six years ago a physical therapist, four years ago own a coffee/tea/health store, and now I'm in college athletics. Probably everyone around me knew this is where I belonged all along, but what a fun ride it was.

On a side note, I want to point out how old school I am, that for the first time in my life I bought a phone with text messaging. I always had a phone and could pay for a text if I wanted in work situations, but I just never liked the idea of it as opposed to just calling the person. But I am learning the ropes, so look out, I just might text you. TTYL.

Blog to end all blogs...

2009-03-01T18:23:00.005-05:00

When you go for as long as I have without updating the world...or the few people that check this...about your life, then you should have plenty to talk about.

I realized that after my great summer, work started, and since then I hadn't really ventured much out of my path from home to work. Sure, there were championships to travel to, where I got to see Pittsburgh for the first time in years and hang out in a park in the Bronx for Cross Country. But what about where I was living, what could be out there, right around the corner. So I ventured out for a routine trip to buy black socks the other night and decided to go in a direction from my apartment that I had never travelled, not knowing if there would even be a store.

The whole experience reminded me of my favorite though,

Never Underestimate the Ability to Surprise Yourself

Ok, I know that's a thought from the movie "American Beauty", but the essence of the quote comes back to my all-time favorite movie, "The Truman Show". As humans, so often we get trapped in what is comfortable or what we're used to. Why should I veer off in a direction I've never been in when I know there is a store just down the road from where I live? Easy, I needed to surprise myself.

This happened a lot in Louisville last year as I made my way though the city substitute teaching in whatever random community happened to call. Through the wonders of mapquest, I discovered areas of the city I had never been to. I've always been interested in the smallest things. I love businesses. And the fact I would bump into a new community in the Ville, full of new restaurants, Wal-Marts, whatever, thrilled me.

It's hard to explain, but take my word for it. The point of all this is that when I took the road less travelled, to sound corny, I did find my socks at a T.J. Maxx just 5 minutes from my front door, but also discovered a million other little areas that I would go back to.

AS A WARNING

This surprising yourself attitude can also get you in a lot of trouble. Once I had been subbing in Louisville for some time I got brave enough to try taking some back roads home into downtown while I was living in the best/scariest apartment I ever rented right next to 4th Street Live. Somehow I had gotten myself lost in a housing complex where there were more police cars patrolling than pedestrians. In those cases, do not try to surprise yourself.

Makes Me Thing of A Scary Moment In My Life

Just a little random blurb here in the middle of things. You know how you have those life experiences when you're pretty sure this could be the end? Maybe only I could get in these situations.

Anyway, I decided out of the blue to take a job working the graveyard shift at UPS last year to pay for my last semester of college. I went in around 11:30 and got off about 4 a.m. This isn't news to anyone from Louisville reading this, I feel like everybody who ever went to UofL tried this at least once.

I didn't mind the work or hours, but driving home was always an adventure. For the first two months I was living on a couch in my friend's living room. This was on the third floor of an older than dirt house in Old Louisville, right across from the fine local establishment The Tavern. Let's just say that around 4 a.m. was about the time the Tavern's patrons would be heading home. So the fast-paced walk from my car to the apartment door was always involved some shaking and baking to avoid face-to-face contact with anyone lingering outside.

Ok, back to the blog, but I'm just saying, if you live in Louisville and work at UPS, don't get an apartment in Old Louisville.

The Safer Things in Life, Like High School Basketball

It's that time of year when all I can think about is high school basketball in Kentucky. The problem is, this year, I have a lot more things to think about with my job, so the prep ballers have had to take a minor backseat role.

Still, this year should not lack any excitement. Wednesday night Anderson County will take on their biggest threat to the 8th Region title in North Oldham. Saturday night while I was hanging out, thinking about the brackets, I actually picked this match up as the one that would take the Bearcats to the state. They were going to face North somewhere down the road, so go ahead and send them packing this week.

I will, however, be a mess when Anderson makes it to Rupp and I realize I am 1,000 miles away. I've been waiting for my high school to return to the sweet sixteen for 13 years. Don't quote me here, but they haven't even been in the regional championship game in 13 years, so this is pretty hard on me.

I've been filling some of my co-workers in on the intricacies of Kentucky's basketball tournament, and they all think it's pretty neat. Kentucky and Delaware are the last two states that hold one tournament for all the state teams, without breaking them into classes. If this ever stops in Kentucky, riots will ensue.

Birthday In Indy

It was actually never my birthday while I was in Indianapolis for the Swimming and Diving Championships, but I went for the celebrations anyway. Family came and visited, my parents and I had a meal together at Bucca De Beppo and watched the Providence, Louisville game in my hotel room. Then my sister and her husband visited the next day, and we had lunch. Eating being the theme of both visits.

Some of them were able to come by the pool and see where I was making my office last week. By the way, who knew swimming and diving could be so fun? I had never been around competitive swimming, but those kids get pretty jacked for this stuff. Imagine the NBA finals with music blaring, cameras flashing and Kobe and Lebron about to tip it off, instead it was finely-tuned swimmers making their way to the pool. It was a good atmosphere, and I was proud to be a part of the event.

I also got to run into some old friends from the conference I had been to the month before. Theresa, or T-Pain if you will, came out to volunteer. Theresa is pretty awesome for the fact we have a similar sense of humor, and that my friends happens very rarely. We're both of the late-night TV humor breed, being able to go back and forth with SNL and Mad TV quotes (Note: Mad TV pre 2000's, when I actually laughed).

MCoyne of the NCAA also came out to volunteer. It was good to see her, mainly because of the running joke with both of our offices that we have an MCoyne as well. I'll stop there, because there is nothing less funny to talk about than internal office jokes. Awkward.

And of course, as this blog usually goes, I have to give the food a shout out. Bucca is one of my favorite places, so the pasta started the week right. Then we had a committee dinner at Harry and Izzies Steak House which had an out-of-control shrimp cocktail. Without knowing, I was told to load up some of the sauce on one of these, not knowing it was famous for it's spicyness, with Wasabi added. So I went for it, and almost lost it, coughing up a storm from the fire. Good joke though.

Facebook Birthday's

First let me preface this by saying thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday on facebook. But I have to point out how awesome it is that my page picks up with such a fervor every February. I get emotional reading some of the post, since every year, the people that send me a note are always people I either keep up with routinely, or others that I'm glad to hear from since I hadn't seen them in forever.

Miles for instance left me a passage that brought back memories of old, maybe I'll paste it to the end of this section. Ok, I will. But what I break down the facebook birthday miracle to is, people move on. I've moved 1,000 miles away, so really day-to-day, what do me and someone I was in a fraternity with three years ago have to talk about. But you can always find the motivation to let someone know you realize its their birthday.

It got me thinking I should keep up with these people more than just once a year. But, admittedly, I am pretty bad with these new-age social devices. So friends out there, just because I'm not always on your walls or inboxes, I'm thinking about you, just like Mr. Rogers (Was that one of his lines?).

Here are some highlights from Miles' facebook entry to me:

Miles Terry wrote at 3:44pm

Dan, on the eve of your birthday I would like to share some thoughts... I will number them in no particular order.

1. Pushing exchange students down hills of snow to their doom.
2. Nearly dying from tornado and floods in one evening.
4. Smoking hollowed out wood.
5. Boxing with brandon hall
6. Me hitting you with drumsticks every practice.
8. DEATH OF ME COLD DOWN DEEP
9. A whale of a sandwich
10. Never received cheese sticks from Seth
12. Taco Johns sauce
13. Fireworks in the yard
14. The 5 second game
15. Me stroking out at a regional basketball game
16. bucky the deer head
17. Ryan Hahn
18. DOG BARN
19. Tai Smile
20. Biscuits and Jelly and N/A Beer
21. Ice Storm with my Dad
23. Freddy Got Fingered.

That's enough for now.. but there are more. Happy birthday tomorrow

Miles' list brought back some good memories, it's a busy time at work, so reading that was a nice break of nostalgia.

A quick random explanation of a few numbers:

No. 23 was our bands favorite movie in high school. We probably watched it over 30 times after shows or practice, or just for a good laugh. 99% of people find it dispicable, we think it should have won an Oscar. I mean, really, do you see two LeBaron's Freddy?

No. 21 was when I found out how Miles' dad made it through college while I was stuck at their house in an ice storm with Jacob Cox. I wasn't sure what was going on at first, but luckily it was just poker.

No. 10 was a failed promise from the guitarist for our band who replaced No. 17, Ryan Hahn. Seth, who was a cook at the legendary local restaurant, Family Affair, promised us cheese sticks at every practice but never, ever came through. Ryan Hahn made the list because Miles had a penchant for just saying his name at the right time. Ryan Hahn is the man by the way, you should buy his shirts.

No. 18 was the Dog Barn down the road from Ryan's house in the country. We were equally amazed and scared of that barn in the sticks of Anderson County from the time we were 7th graders until today. I have a video we took at the site in high school that clearly shows some kind of bodily form moving in and out of the picture. Art Bell would cry on AM radio if he saw it.

No. 12 was a great moment in our bands history, where I think our dreams of fame came to an end when I spilled Taco John's sauce on Miles' computer chair and he kicked us out of his house.

No. 13 happened shortly before No. 12, when we used the money we made for playing at a youth revival to buy fireworks at a gas station. Miles and I had another fight I think for some random reason, and he threw the fireworks in my front yard, letting me know on my family's answering machine. Let it be noted that we also spent the $55 made from CD sales, after renting the recording equipment for $125, on four chicken and ribs dinners from Chilis.

No. 8 is a lyric from one of Blind Addictions, a rival local band from back in the day, songs that we used to sing all the time.

No. 20 is a real meal that we cooked at Miles' house after a band practice. It was a staple to pop open a can of biscuits to bake, but adding his dad's Non-Alcoholic beer into the mix for the beverage was a new deal. We were real rock stars.

No. 15 paints the picture of some of my favorite memories at our high school basketball games. Miles going off in the stands at every little play, especially an Erik McKee baseline dunk, made the games. He got so serious at the Regional semifinals against Grant County that I found him in the top rafters sitting with Jared Scott because he didn't think he could handle it by the court.

Oh the memories...

Baseball Season?

I can't believe I'm already keeping up with Braves baseball again. My cousin's cousin from Eubank, Ky., Josh Anderson, is playing well early in the spring. He hit a triple today and is batting .400, but those numbers are meaningless in the preseason. What matters is where he is at when opening day rolls around, and all things point to starting in center field.

How's Your News?

Sunday night are the new Saturday nights primarily for the awesomeness that is happening on MTV.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the South Park creators, have once again lent their hands to great television. Their newest project, "How's Your News" pits a news team with various mental and physical handicaps in a tour bus, and they are financing the whole thing. The bus rolls from city to city, and the various news team members conduct interviews with celebrity's, politicians and regular citizens.

Some might consider this cruel or a joke on handicaps at firsts, but there is nothing mean spirited about the whole gig. The news team members are really funny and have great sense of humors. The fun in the show comes from their willingness to ask anybody anything. Especially when those people have no interest in answering their questions.

Matt and Trey are geniuses and their effort to put this show into the mainstream is a great idea.

It for Now

I'm sure I'll have more to talk about soon, but that will do it for now. A foot of snow is coming, so I have to go get milk and break and head into my bunker.

Dan's Workout Plan and Video Games

2009-02-03T18:26:00.000-05:00

It’s Not All Embarrassment at the YMCA

Sure, as I explained in a previous post, I am not able to watch Louisville basketball games while working out at the Y because treadmills and excitement from an Earl Clark dunk never mix well. Luckily, my one embarrassing moment in the gym hasn’t taken away from the enjoyment I’ve been getting out of my new daily routine.

I used to play in a basketball league at a YMCA as a youngster but never got involved in one again until last year when my roommate and I decided to join the downtown Louisville branch while we were living in a sky rise apartment next to 4th Street Live.

We became pretty habitual of both getting off work, me subbing around the public school system and my roommate at my previous employer, Java Brewing Company, and heading right over to get into as many basketball games as we could.

After the fun I had doing that I got motivated to take up a membership here in Providence, or Pawtucket actually at the local Y.

This place is a total throwback, situated in a falling apart downtown in what I suppose some would call a “bad neighborhood”, although I’ve gotten quite used to similar surroundings through my adventures in Louisville the past two years.

The Y itself has been lucky, although surrounded by dive bars, a Chinese restaurant and laundry mats; it was given a five million dollar renovation last year and is actually really nice. Flat screen TV’s line the walls; there is a nice basketball court and a large rock wall for the adventurous folk.

The only issue is I work, a lot. I’ve been in the office till midnight the past week about everyday, and I enjoy the hard work. In order to not sacrifice my gym time, I’ve been waking up at about 5:30 each morning and getting to the Y at 6:00 a.m. The morning crew has gotten to know me as I first head to the basketball court and get in about 500 shots. Then I lift weights, the part I don’t entirely enjoy, but I guess is necessary and then end the morning with a few laps in the pool during what they call “Adult Lap Swim”. I guess I get a kick out of actually being an adult and doing things that I could have never seen myself doing 5 years ago.

I mean, 7:00 a.m. swimming laps at a YMCA in Pawtucket, R.I.?

Then there is the rush as I leave the gym around 7:45 to make it to work by 8:30 in what I am going to call the worst traffic in America. I still can’t pinpoint the exact reason that it takes me around 30 minutes to travel three miles, then the heavens open up and I seemingly don’t pass another car the next two miles before the office. I’m calling it the P-Town Mystery.

But I guess the reason I’m documenting this is so I can remember how good it feels to wake up each day with a purpose. My job is great, and there is plenty of purpose there to keep me busy, but giving my body a requirement to wake up, get in the car at 5:30 in the morning and bust it at the gym for a couple hours before work gives me a good feeling the rest of the work day.

Flat Basketball

The saddest part of this experience at the Y was the other morning as I was pumping my new Nike basketball which was running low on air. Like any body who is a basketball junkie like me has probably gone through, I had the needle fall through the needle hole.

This is the equivalent of a kid dropping an ice cream cone or popping a flat tire on a brand new bike. All you can do is just sit and stare at the wheezing piece of rubber you are holding lifeless in your hands. There is no bringing the needle back out, the best you can do is hit the needle all the way through, leaving you with a basketball that could double as a shaker toy for a baby.

I’ve gotten over this though and figured out the YMCA’s house basketball aren’t too bad.

“Oh Say Can You Get Pinned”

Just have to mention that Earl Clark’s pin off the backboard of Jeff Adrien’s dunk attempt last night was one sick bit of basketball. Adrien is no soft task, so having the strength to get a hand on that ball, without fouling, was the highlight of the night for Clark, who had an otherwise uneventful night.

Gotta Give A Shout Out To the UConn Media Food

I’ve been around lots of media food rooms in my life, but the spread before the UConn, Louisville women’s basketball game the other night took the cake, although there was no cake.

We’re talking grilled sausage, meatballs, grilled vegetables, salad, tons of cookies and even hot chocolate, pre-made in its own dispenser. It was as if I was on death row eating my last meal, I may have picked everything that I had before me.

Maybe I’m going a little overboard, but dang UConn, represent for the media folk!

Hitting a Lag

So, I’m not happy about it, but I turn 24 this month. If someone could tell me where 18-23 went, I’d be glad to hear about it. I’m sure you older readers would tell me, “What do you think 24 to 40’s like?”, but for not, just let me be depressed.

Mostly because I am admitting now that I have not played a video game for over two weeks. What the heck? Video games helped shape me into the person I am today (as well as family, friends and experiences…I know), but seriously, these games of my youth helped me career in sports more than anyone will ever believe. I even wrote one of my final research papers in college on the topic to rave reviews…I think.

So video games, I am apologizing here on the PriceIsWhite for neglecting you and promise that one day I will have a family and hopefully have kids that can pick up where I left off.

New logo...Blog to follow Tuesday

2009-02-02T17:39:00.000-05:00

2009 KHSAA Boys Sweet 16 Tournament

2009-01-30T17:56:00.002-05:00

So we don't even have to let the season play out, I have the picks for this year's Sweet 16 right here. I'll come back to this and see how I did in March.

.......................................

12th - McCreary Central
14th - Hazard

3rd - Muhlenburg North
5th - Adair County

6th - Pleasure Ridge Park
1st - Paducah Tilghman

7th - Jeffersontown (Moore is a close second)
13th - Corbin

11th - Scott County
4th - Warren Central

9th - Holmes
2nd - Christian County

10th - Mason County
15th - Shelby Valley

8th - Anderson County
16th - Elliott County

Weekend Update

2009-01-25T17:23:00.005-05:00

Wallet Found

First of all, many people were made aware of the ordeal of losing my wallet. It was quite a time to panic, as I had a plane trip to Indianapolis in less than a week, and had to have a duplicate liscense mailed overnight to save the day. Once I got back from that trip, and was heading up the stairs to my apartment, I was stopped by a neighbor who asked, "Are you Dan White?

Lucky for me, this man had found my wallet in a bank of snow in the parking lot. Even though I had already reordered all of the cards inside, it still contained my two dollars of cash and $90.00 check I earned working basketball games. I had a feeling it would turn up somewhere, just not quite from the insides of a hill of snow.

Indianapolis Trip

My fellow BIG EAST interns joined me in Indianapolis this weekend for an Emerging Leaders seminar that ended up being an awesome experience. Its been a while since I've gotten to feel like I'm in school and listen to lectures, but once it got underway, it was well worth the trip.

Many athletic directors and NCAA employees were able to give us valuable information on what it will take to further our careers after interning.

And besides all that important stuff, we also got to socialize with some peers that were our age, something you don't get a lot of chances to do working day to day in the office. Hearing their perspectives from their jobs and how it compared to our experience was really interesting.

Aside from getting to know each other, we also got to sing some songs at the Howl At the Moon dueling pianos bar downtown and show off our dance moves at the Have A Nice Day Cafe. I never realized how much fun of a city Indy can be, a lot like Louisville with some pro sports flair.

Speaking of that, we also went to a Pacers game where they took on Chuck Hayes and the Rockets. Poor Chuck is famous for his awkward free throw shot, and we got our chance to see one in full glory. As a basketball guy that prides himself of free throw shooting, I can't figure out how this pro athlete developed such a problem. Just search for Chuck Hayes free throw on youtube and take your pick.

I also went down and took a shot at Conseco Fieldhouse after the game and unfortunately missed it badly...really badly. I was a little in awe of the huge arena and couldn't get used to the perspective of seeing thousands of seats lined up behind the goal, nevermind the feeling if the place was packed. So maybe I can sympathize with Chuck.

Louisville Is Rolling

The Cardinals are on a tear and continued their fine play today against Syracuse. It was a combinaton of T-Will being a stud, Earl Clark taking over down the stretch and Terrence Jennings having a coming out party that doomed the Orange.

I don't see how a team will be able to take them out of a game in March. No defenses will work, T-Will and Sosa are blowing by the man-to-man and Earl Clark is finding every opening when they see a zone and delivering the ball to all the right places. It's fun to watch when every player on the team knows where to be on each side of the ball and they never take a play off on defense.

This is not the same team that dropped contests to WKU and UNLV.

Earl Clark Sent Me Into The Treadmill

2009-01-13T18:17:00.003-05:00

Decided to watch last night's Louisville basketball game at the YMCA, so I could run on the treadmill in true Pitino fashion while the guys ran their hearts out on the court.

This went well until Earl Clark dunked on Luke Harangody, causing me to reach out and give a fist bump toward the TV in delight. However, my gesture landed right on the emergency stop button, and when it says stop, it means it.

So although I was happy for the dunk and free throw, it wasn't so great going chest first into the hand rail. Luckily I gave a quick look around and no one seemed to be watching.

There was a quick bit of drama when a man asked for the TV to be switched to the Celtics game. The employee was happy to execute his request, and I made my move for the lobby TV which was still showing the Cards. No harm done, but it was a reminder that I'm not in Kentucky anymore. I thought everyone was a Cards fan?

Anderson County To Face Kentucky's No. 1

2009-01-08T18:24:00.008-05:00

In honor of Anderson County's game with Kentucky's No. 1 team according to the Courier-Journal's Litkenhous Ratings, Elliott County, I've researched some miscellaneous stats to take a look at the match up.

Elliott County vs. Anderson County: By The Numbers

Average Household Income: Elliott $29,507, Anderson $53,475

County Population: Elliott 6,500, Anderson 20,000

School Enrollment: Elliott 337, Anderson 1,200

08-09 Margin of Victory: Elliott 29.3, Anderson 12.0

2006-07 Record: Elliott 25-7, Anderson 21-7

2006-07 Postseason: Elliott (Sweet 16 Second Round), Anderson (8th Region Semifinals)

Litkenhous Rating: Elliott 103.5, Anderson 81.4

Litkenhous Average of Opponents: Elliott 59.2, Anderson 76.5

What's This, A New Entry?

2009-01-05T23:07:00.000-05:00

Getting back home to Kentucky over the holidays was great, but I really got behind on the blog. Hopefully this post will bring everything back up to speed.

Four Hours Away From A Dateline NBC Interview

Getting home from Providence was an adventure in itself. My flight pattern home went through Chicago and the Windy City was in no shape for travel of any kind. It had gotten so icy there that my initial flight out of Rhode Island was delayed an hour and a half. Once I landed in Chicago and entered the airport, it was all-out mayhem. Frustrated travelers made up line 50 feet long at every desk as not many flights were getting off the ground.

My flight to Louisville appeared as 2 hours late on the info board, but that was only the beginning. After lounging by my gate sleepily for that duration, I finally boarded the plane, but my trip wouldn’t begin for another 2 hours, spent basically motionless on the plane. After an hour of restless waiting my seatmate (another story) and I discussed how the people stuck on the plane last year for seven hours made national news and that we may very well be on our way to beating them.

Luckily my flight finally got permission to take off and I landed in Louisville around 1 a.m., roughly six hours beyond my ticketed arrival time of 7 p.m. After all that mess, it was still nice to walk through the airport hallways emblazoned with U of L logos and pictures of the athletes I had been working to cover in Providence the prior six months. And I got to see mom and dad as we ventured into the night for a late dinner at Steak and Shake.

About That Seatmate

Why was it that the young, blonde girl aspiring to be a psychiatrist with a HR job in Chicago had to sit in my row, in the seat right next to me, while the rest of the plane was basically empty? Don’t get me wrong, most any young (or old, I guess) guy would be OK with this; it was more that question of why that had me confused.

Adding to the confusion was her non-intent to start a conversation (another plus, not a big plane talker), if you’re going to pick that seat, I figured she had something to say. I polled some family members on why this occurred and my favorite idea and one I’m sticking too, is that she merely wanted to appear like she was with a guy, picking out the most suitable male for her faux-suitor.

Our only real conversation occurred as it appeared our plane was destined to crash into Louisville’s downtown. The girl threw down both hand rest and gripped with a grimace that could only be compared to a woman in labor. She looked at me and asked if what was happening was normal. Not wanting her to lose her peanuts in my lap, I figured a “sure, this happens all the time” was the proper line in that moment and gladly left her behind once the wheels touched runway in the Ville.

I Got Some Nice Gifts

I once heard it was nicer to give than to receive. I guess that guy wasn’t a poor recent college graduate who’s perfected the art of box of pasta + sauce = dinner.

All jokes aside, I’m looking forward to the day I can give with the best of them, but this past Christmas I received everything I wanted and more.
As an Esquire magazine subscriber and adherer to high fashion, I was happy to receive my three Express dress shirts and three new ties. I feel most comfortable in a dress shirt and appreciate a good fit, and Express and Banana Republic seem to fit me the best. Pairing these shirts with a good pair of slacks and my new Cole Hahn dress shoes could put together a rather dapper ensemble.

However, as a disclaimer, flipping through an issue of Esquire can leave you depressed. Aside from the great articles, they lay on some heavy advice topics that I sometimes cringe to read. Such as the most recent issue that expressed a professional male should never wear a polo shirt to work, and especially not orange (double burn for me), who knew such a rule existed? What if you work for an college athletics conference? It went on to explain that no logos or emblems should appear on any shirts at work as well, saying that no one needs to know what teams you support in the office (Once again, the athletics conference question).

Then came another bit of advice that scraped at the soul of this writer. In a section titled as “opening remarks that can kill a conversation when trying to impress a female”, one of the top statements on the list was, “let me tell you about my blog”.

I got some pretty sweet tech gear as well with a PSP (Which I’ve wanted for awhile to complete my video game nerd collection),Ipod Nano and Maria Sharapova camera. I can use all of those things on my trips with work, so I was very pleased.

I’ve never had an Ipod. I’ve had a nice mp3 player my dad got me last year for awhile and I use it all the time and think I like it better. I just feel like I’m on the verge of breaking the Ipod at all times, which keeps me coming back to my non-pod, as I like to call it.

It’s odd how I can be so tech savvy with video games, audio equipment and TV’s, but can’t seem to find the same affection for IPods and Cell Phones as other people my age. I first of all never wanted a cell phone, but once it became a necessity, made sure I never bought anything over the bulky free one that comes with the plan.

I’ve sent two text messages in my life, which literally freaked out a salesmen in Frankfort, Kentucky last year. I’m not a fan of talking on them either unless its family, a coworker or a close friend. This hatred might have been furthered along last year, as I dreaded the 6 a.m. call every morning from Louisville’s public schools assigning me to a sub job. I knew I needed to work, but that loud jolt of reality every morning was hard to handle.

Plus, I’m a weird morning person. I actually like the morning time, drinking coffee, eating my oatmeal and egg whites, watching Good Morning America. It’s the actual first movement out of the bed that I struggle with. I fight it for as long as I can, seeming as dead to the world as possible, but after a shower and putting on clean clothes, I’m good to go.

El Tigre For Tres In Front Of El Flaco

My boy E-Sosa (I still believed in him) came through in a big way against the Cayuts with a 30-foot dagger that killed many a Kentucky dream Sunday night. 74-71 the scoreboard read, but really, U of L was in control all game long. Making the night even more special was former great Cisco “El Flaco” Garcia was in the front row cheering on the Cards (making for some hilarious camera shots, as you saw the 6’7 Pro Baller at the bottom of the screen most of the game, basically on the court cheering).

As discussed in a prior blog, the clapper was once again controlling the lights during the game, and when Sosa’s shot dropped, lets just say he wasn’t the only person who was lights out.

What’s So Bad About Living in Louisville?

Seems like every morning I log on to the Courier Journals website, someone has either been shot, stabbed or robbed, and this is about 4 weeks running. I don’t understand how there’s so many upset people living in the greatest city in America. When I think of the city, I see mornings pouring coffee for business men and homeless people alike, peaceful walks on Bardstown road, inner city schools working towards state football championships, a great parks system and an infinite amount of dining options, but definitely never thoughts of murder or stealing.

Seems like nothing like that ever happens here in Providence, aside from one stabbing at a nightclub recently, and they have a lot more to be upset about here (You know: snow, ice, frigid weather, 8% tax rate, no White Castle’s, Coffee Milk, the Patriots).

What I’m Watching/Listening To

Can’t get enough of watching every season of Arrested Development lately, the best sitcom to ever grace the television. I highly recommend buying these if you know me and have the same sense of humor that I do.

I’m also listening to a lot of the duo named “She and Him” of which Zooey Deschanel is the singer and lead song writer. They may not be for everyone, but there combination of folk, bluegrass and rock music influences pleases my listening experience. Check out the tracks “Black Hole” and “Why Do you let me stay here” on youtube for two of my favorites.

Little People

Watched some LPBW tonight, which always makes for a good Monday. However, each time I see an LP (little person) I am reminded of my recurring nightmare as a child. My family and I are in Versailles, Ky., going to a clothing department store and there is an LP sitting on a sidewalk bench that we always have to pass by, and the LP would always come up to me and want to say things like “What a cute young boy” or something creepy like that, leaving my terrified of LP’s up into my teenage years.

Luckily the show LPBW emerged to save my life (sarcasm) and I have now grown rather fond of LP’s and how they live their lives just like any other person would.

I don’t think there’s another blog in the world where you could get to digest all the topics I just covered. I’ll take a break and let it all soak in and return, in a more timely fashion, for more material.

The Snow Came...

2008-12-20T14:32:00.008-05:00

The snow arrived as advertised, but I wasn't going to let it stop me from making it to the office to watch Louisville and Minnesota. I figured risking death is worth it to watch the alma mater, even though they are struggling with the Gophers early on.

I took some pictures to document my trip from my apartment to the office. I was out in the parking lot for about an hour this morning clearing some snow from my car and then stomping out a path behind my rear tire to get some initial traction. The snow hadn't been touched around my car, so there was a foot and a half build up to flatten if I had any chance.

Luckily my car has a pretty good traction control device installed that keeps me straight whenever I get a little slip on the road. I took a back way in to the city to avoid the highway that was fairly clear, I knew about this route from my occasional trips to Wal-Mart to rekindle some emotions from back home. Hopefully the Cards will get things going so I can have a happy trip back home.

Here's What's Facing my 4-Mile Trip to the Office in the Morning

2008-12-18T17:57:00.000-05:00

Issued by The National Weather Service
Boston, MA
3:07 pm EST, Thu., Dec. 18, 2008

... WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM FRIDAY TO 3 AM EST SATURDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM FRIDAY TO 3 AM EST SATURDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT. THE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR ALL OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND.

SNOW IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP FROM WEST TO EAST LATE FRIDAY MORNING AND EARLY AFTERNOON. LATEST INDICATIONS ARE FOR SNOW TO BEGIN IN THE GREATER HARTFORD SPRINGFIELD AREAS AND THE I91 CORRIDOR BETWEEN 10 AM AND NOON. SNOW WILL THEN OVERSPREAD THE REMAINDER OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND... INCLUDING EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS AND RHODE ISLAND BETWEEN NOON AND 2 PM.

THE SNOW WILL BECOME HEAVY NOT TOO LONG AFTER THE ONSET. THUS TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED DURING THE AFTERNOON THROUGHOUT SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. SNOWFALL RATES OF 1 TO 2 INCHES PER HOUR ARE LIKELY FROM MID FRIDAY AFTERNOON INTO THE EARLY EVENING. ROADS DURING THE FRIDAY LATE DAY/EVENING COMMUTE WILL BE SNOW COVERED AND TREACHEROUS. THE SNOW SHOULD TAPER TO SNOW SHOWERS ACROSS THE INTERIOR DURING THE EVENING HOURS... BUT THE STEADY SNOW WILL CONTINUE ALONG THE COAST WELL INTO THE NIGHT... .ESPECIALLY ACROSS SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS... INCLUDING CAPE COD AND NANTUCKET.

IN ADDITION... STRONG NORTHEAST WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS NEAR 45 MPH WILL DEVELOP FRIDAY EVENING AND NIGHT ACROSS EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS AND RHODE ISLAND. THIS WILL RESULT IN CONSIDERABLE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW... YIELDING VISIBILITY NEAR ZERO AT TIMES AND BITTERLY COLD WIND CHILLS. THE STRONGEST WINDS ARE EXPECTED ON THE CAPE AND ISLANDS.

AT THIS TIME... IT LOOKS AS THOUGH MOST OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND WILL RECEIVE 6 TO 12 INCHES OF SNOWFALL BY MIDNIGHT FRIDAY NIGHT... WITH THE HIGHEST AMOUNTS ACROSS RHODE ISLAND AND SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS. FOR MARTHAS VINEYARD... NANTUCKET... BLOCK ISLAND... AND PERHAPS EVEN CAPE COD... RAIN AND SLEET MAY MIX IN WITH THE SNOW FROM TIME TO TIME. THIS WOULD RESULT IN SLIGHTLY LOWER SNOW ACCUMULATIONS THERE.

THIS SNOWSTORM IS STILL ABOUT 24 HOURS AWAY... SO SOME OF THE DETAILS WILL LIKELY HAVE TO BE REFINED... SUCH AS THE ARRIVAL TIME OF THE SNOW AND THE RAIN SNOW LINE ACROSS CAPE COD AND THE ISLANDS. IF THE SYSTEM TRACKIS TIME... TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED ANYTIME FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING... AS WE EXPECT HEAVY SNOW TREACHEROUS ROAD CONDITIONS DURING THIS TIME.

A WINTER STORM WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN AN AVERAGE OF 6 OR MORE INCHES OF SNOW IS EXPECTED IN A 12 HOUR PERIOD... OR FOR 8 OR MORE INCHES IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD. TRAVEL WILL BE SLOW AT BEST ON WELL TREATED SURFACES... AND QUITE DIFFICULT ON ANY UNPLOWED OR UNTREATED SURFACES.

BIG EAST Christmas Party and Louisville Game

2008-12-13T14:35:00.006-05:00

I'm sitting in the basketball command center here in the office watching Louisville try to escape Freedom Hall with a win over Austin Peay. If Louisville gets the win, all credit has to go to reserve-guards Andre McGee and Preston Knowles. McGee has made great defensive plays and Preston is shooting great from outside.

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Yesterday, we all left the office around 1:00 P.M. for our Holiday Party at Federal Hill here in Providence. We had a really good meal, I ordered chicken penne pasta with a caesar salad and raspberry creme brule for dessert. I had made a vow to stop eating any desserts earlier in the month, but figured I had to make room for this one. I read and listen to a lot of experts on nutrtion, and one of my favorites, Dr. Mehmet Oz, recently talked about eating dessert as "biological suicide", so I've decided to stop.

Anyway, the highlight of the party was our Yankee gift swap after the meal. This consisted of all 24 guests bringing in a gift and all of us drawing a number. The yankee aspect is that the higher number you are, you can either keep your gift or take one of the gifts opened before you. This always leads to some drama with people not going home with what they wanted.

Luckily for me, one of the items was a Clapper Plus, the early 90's-era device that allows you to turn items such as lamps and christmas tree lights on or off with the clap of your hands. I was all over this one, trading away a bottle of vodka and mojito mix for the lazy-man's toy. I normally read part of a book each night as I'm going to bed, and the worst part is getting up to turn the light switch off, now I'll just clap twice and be ready to sleep.

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While I was writing this, the Cardinals started to play like they should have all game and have built a 78-65 lead. This has to be frustrating to the Governors, considering how well they played for 35 minutes.

You know you work in athletics when:

2008-12-10T16:17:00.000-05:00

Someone passed this list along to me, thought I’d share a few I adhere to:

1. You have used at least 3 derivatives of a curse word in a sentence without blushing, or trying to be funny.
2. You have watched all seven hours of ESPN's "Live" Sportscenter
3. You can tell who's on Sportscenter without looking at the TV
6. You learn the human body needs only 3 hours of sleep
7. You either hate the administration or the coaches
8. 20 Hour workdays don't seem all to bad, but going back in 4 hours is what you dread.
10. You know the difference between FBS FCs and Major and Mid Major
11. 3 Days off in 4 Month's no longer fazes you
12. You always try and get the equipment manager to "Hook you up"
13. You lose all clothes that are not the color of your team
15. You do the impossible for the ungrateful.
16. Your mood depends on your coaches moods
18. You forgot what holidays were long ago
20. You spend more time with coworkers than family
21. You divide the year into season and offseason
22. You plan all major life events around the season
23. You wonder why for all the hours spent at the office the administration hates you enough only to supply you with 1 ply toilet paper
30. You hate when fans complain about your teams performance

Big Win At The Dunk!

2008-12-06T18:12:00.002-05:00

Just got back from the Rhode Island/Providence men's basketball game at the Dunkin' Donut's Center, and it was a great game. This one is like the Louisville/Kentucky game (for you readers from the bluegrass) but just sclaled down a few notches and less death threats.

Rhode Isand has been one my favorite teams all season, they had Duke beat earlier in the year, and if it had been played anywhere other than Cameron, it was Rhody by 10. Their only other loss was to top-25 Villanova, so no slouches in the Dunk. The Friars had to rally back from seven down to pull off the win, making for an exciting finish that brought some of the loudest moments from PC fans I'd heard all season.

Although I didn't get to watch the Louisville game, I see that I didn't miss much. They doubled up Indiana State 83-43, guess there was no sign of Larry Legend walking through the Freedom Hall doors. The Marques Maybin Classic they are hosting over the next three days means a lot to me personally. Marques is the main reason I fell in love with Louisville to begin with. Without his joy for the game, I would never have attended UofL, never got to meet the great people in the athletic office, and probably never have gotten my current job.

It was tough and good at the same time to watch Marques answer questions at a press conference in his honor the other day. Even from a wheelchair, due to a motorcycle accident shortly after his UofL career that paralyzed him from the waist down, he was still smiling every second and had a positive outlook on his future.

This tournament is a great honor for him, it's always good to see the Cardinal family continuing to support one of it's finest players.

Thanksgiving Holiday Provided Laughter, Horror and Biceps

2008-12-01T17:59:00.002-05:00

Ask anybody in my family, I live life out of the loop in many regards. I always know my sport scores,keep up to date with national news, and enjoy my days at work, but knowing what and when things are happening outside of those areas has always been a concern.

For instance, I never knew when my little league basketball practices were, my mom always lamented how all the other kids knew, but not me. I just never saw the need to make mental notes of such things. For one, it made life more interesting, each week was full of surprises, like:

"Oh wow, I had no idea we had a math test today"

Or

"We have a game today? That's awesome!"

Or, more recently,

"We only work a half day on Wednesday, and are off the rest of the week? No way!"

Granted, I was out of the office the weekend prior to Thanksgiving, so maybe I was a little out of the loop (I didn't even know Thanksgiving was that week, but once again, what a cool surprise. Those that know me also know I couldn't stay out of the office that long, so I did come in to do some work, but there were a few more interesting happenings along the way.

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Orphaned Thanksgiving

For the first time in my life, I was away from Kentucky for a major Holiday. Things could have turned depressing in Rhode Island, I pictured myself sitting in a corner booth at Denny's ordering seconds of cranberry sauce, but luckily I was invited to my coworkers Thanksgiving at her aunt's house about 30 minutes north of Providence.

The food was good, the conversation good, lots of laughing. I figured out that all families are basically the same, they like to eat and like to share stories, and as long as no one burns the turkey, everything should be ok.

I did however find a common talking piece with my friend's aunt, who shares an interest with me in the TLC show Little People Big World. We talked for about 30 minutes about all things little people. After the discussion, I think I might have found someone more obsessed and knowledgeable than me about the Roloff Family (By the way, it's about to come on, so I better wrap this up).

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I ended up going to Wal-Mart to kill some time before my volleyball selection show Sunday evening, because that's what Kentuckians do, plus I was going to purchase some resistance bands to help my in-house workouts. I ended up with a set from Gold's Gym that comes with a 30-minute DVD, and it has been awesome.

I'm always suspicious of such things when I see them on TV, but this thing has been wearing me out. I've spent the past five years in nice gyms around Louisville lifting and playing ball everyday, but this new regimen has made me sorer and feels more productive than any before.

The only wierd part is following along with the lady on the DVD. She is pretty excited about these resistance bands and goes about 100 miles an hour. After 30 minutes I was sweating, breathing hard and hoping nobody saw me through the apartment window.

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Did the weekly grocery shopping Sunday as well. Decided I would buy enough Lean Cuisine frozen dinners for lunch over the next two weeks. They are the best tasting I've found and always leave me satisfied, but the problem is, buying frozen dinners.

It never fails, you just want to look around the selection, make your choices,but like clock work, a lady you can tell has given half her 401k to Jenny Craig comes bounding in, right in front of the freezer your browsing and takes over the frozen dinners for about 10 minutes. If I'm the only one with this problem, please let me know.

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Future U of L Star Will Find His Game Soon

I've seen very limited action from freshman center Terrence Jennings, but when this guy gets his act together, look out.

I liken it to having Amare Staudimire on your team, but he's just had a coma and forgot everything about basketball, but kept all of his jaw dropping athleticism. Once somebody awakens Jennings, he will blossom into the next star at Louisville.

I counted three times Sunday afternoon where Jennings was running down the court, arms raised in a questioning manner, asking a coach where he should be and what to do. Once he learns to not need to be told where to be and finds it on his own, we will start to see the transformation begin.

Turn back the clock two years ago and watch Earl Clark his freshman year, the similarities are frightening.

Check Back Tonight

2008-12-01T07:21:00.001-05:00

A lot of good material to post about soon:

1. Thanksgiving in R.I.
2. Louisville basketball
3. New Work Out Routine
4. Wal Mart in R.I.
5. Grocery Shopping
6. Frozen Dinner Dilemma

Check back soon...

Goodbye, Pittsburgh.

2008-11-23T22:44:00.002-05:00

Getting ready to flip the light switch (or take out my Westin Hotels Energy Conservation Card...Darn Technology) and head to bed. My flight leaves around seven in the morning, so I'm going to bed with good thoughts about Mayorga Coffee from the airport.

Wrapped up the Volleyball Championship today, Louisville won (conspiracy theory anyone? I show up at the BIG EAST, Louisville gets picked first in the preseason poll, then wins the conference tournament)and I had a really great time. Good learning experience, especially from the web side, having to upload, update, change, write, code about a million things before and after all seven matches. I also kept a live blog during the first six matches. I think you can head over to the BIG EAST website and find the transcripts from them, pretty fun stuff.

Between making sure everything went ok at the event (like providing the ESPN talent some very informative notes prior to their game) I ate a lot of sushi. All five days I ingested raw fish, I may have to schedule a doctors appointment to check my mercury levels. Tonight we had some japanese food off the hibachi grill where I continued the seafood frenzy with some scallops, and then, of course, had more sushi.

Right now, I'm thinking bed time. Maybe watch a little Jon and Kate Plus Eight on TLC and wake up for my two plane rides.

It's Almost Volleyball Time

2008-11-21T00:59:00.002-05:00

I'm heading to bed for an early wake up call at 6:00 a.m. so I can head over to Pitt's campus for some volleyball. I'm excited about watching some live action, we took a site visit to the gym today. Pitt has a great college campus for athletics, the Fitzgerald Field House's court has been transformed to just house volleyball, and it really feels like a big time setting for a volleyball championship when you walk in.

One of Pitt's staff members gave me a grand tour while I was there, which included a trip on the court of the Peterson Events Center where the Panthers play basketball. It was one of the nicest gyms I've ever been in, great sight lines, really looks like a great place to play or watch a game.

We haven't even left the hotel lobby for our meals yet, we're too interested in having sushi instead. I've had some of the best rolls I've ever tasted here in the hotel, and have been eating a lot more sashimi than I ever have. Sashime is sushi grade raw fish, without the sushi rice, I feel like I'm on that show Man vs Wild everytime I bite through the raw tuna and salmon.

It's snowing pretty hard here, making it a real neat scene around the city. It's finally starting to feel like basketball season.

One of Notre Dame's SID's is from Marion County, Ky., so we've been chatting up some high school sports. My high school beat his in football last year, but this season Marion got the better of Anderson. This was during our awards banquet tonight at the hotel. Everything went smoothly, and it was entertaining to hear the girls give their acceptance speeches, not to mention the food, which was very good. Lots of steak and fish with green beans, can't go wrong with that.

I am, however, meeting a lot of new people, so I'm once again explaining my accent, since they know I live in Providence. I guess they don't expect to be asked, "How are ya'll doing" from a guy with a Rhode Island address.

Switching It Up In Pittsburgh

2008-11-18T22:36:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow morning I'll be flying out to Pittsburgh for five days for the BIG EAST Volleyball Championship. While there, I'm sure some Price is White entries will be made, but I'll also be jumping ship to a BIG EAST Blog during each game for fans to follow the action before ESPN leads them through it on Sunday.

Just got back from the Dunk, watching the Friars take out Dartmouth, now it's home for laundry, writing, and packing.

2000 Calories a Day

2008-11-12T18:21:00.002-05:00

About two years ago I was doing quite a bit, maybe a little too much. I was working the opening shift at a coffee house at Fourth Street Live in Louisville at 6:00 a.m. about every morning, and riding my bike there and back to my apartment which was about a 15 mile round trip.

When I got home I would run to the gym right after class and work out for about an hour, then hit the basketball court for about two hours.

The result of all this was not being able to put on any weight and dropping from around 150 pounds to 125 pounds. My diet became a legendary topic around the coffee house and my friends. I was on around an 8,000 calorie a day plan that, if I was lucky, would add about a pound a week to my frame.

As my manager can attest, my mornings started with five scrambled eggs on toast, a bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar, raisins, and walnuts, 16 oz. of Carnation Instant Breakfast Drink mix, and usually a scone or muffin.

For lunch we would regularly order from either Bendoya Sushi down the street, where I would get about 3 rolls (one usually free because the girl there liked me for some reason), or Wendy's where I would order two double burgers, a chili and a large Frosty.

By the time I was home from work I was usually around 5000 calories in, so dinners weren't too overbearing. I would always cook in, something like Japanese style chicken or pasta, and follow it with a banana and peanut butter smoothie before bed.

Anyway, after about a year of that, I finally got to where I wanted to be, around 145-150 pounds, and have figured out that 2,000 calories a day at this point in my life is what it takes to stick around that weight.

Now telling your body to accept 6,000 less calories that it had been used to right away was tough to do. I would get so hungry between meals, but now I think I've gotten into a regular routine and life eating wise is pretty easy.

This is the first time I've been without a gym membership in about 6 years, so finding a way to stay active has been tough. My best situation was the last year, living downtown, next to the YMCA. My roommate and I would get there everyday to hop in some basketball games and lift weights. Now I'm relegated to a quick mile run down my busy street, and returning to the apartment for "sit ups till you throw up" as my friend Josh and I used to call them. I haven't come up with such a catchy name for the push ups.

Push ups have become something of a fear for me by the way. I do so many that I've been fearing for the past year that my joint at my elbow is going to explode. I've never felt comfortable with my elbows in the weight room, I think playing tennis day in and day out for my high school for six years took a toll on them. I used to worry about the same thing with my knee, after being impaled in it in high school during football season, but things have felt OK there for awhile.

Back to the current 2,000 calorie diet. It takes a lot more planning to pull this off than the 8,000 edition. I spend a lot of time at the grocery looking for a few essential qualities in my food, I usually know what I want to buy, but take time looking at each available brand or type for:

1. Lowest calorie content
2. Lowest Sodium content
3. Highest fiber content
4. Most vitamins and minerals included
5. Anything with Omega-3 fatty acid (Good stuff for blood and heart health)
6. Buy nothing with High Fructose Corn Syrup (Don't care about their new pro-HFCS ads)
7. Low Fat

What I want to be able to do is eat the highest volume of food possible with the least calories and lowest sodium.

A good example is tonight, when I go home from the office. For breakfast I put away 400 calories worth of oatmeal and a banana. Then lunch struck, and we had a lot to celebrate today, so pizza and cake was brought in, and I ate 1,500 calories worth. So when I get to my apartment, I will be at 1,900 calories.

You may wonder, what will you do for dinner Dan?

Here is the plan. I buy bags of fresh spinach like it's a President's Day sale at J.C. Penny's. This stuff is like a drug to the 2,000 calorie a day dieter. It's high in fiber, zero fat, and contains only 20 calories for a full cup. You can eat a whole bag and stay under 100 calories.

And, I've found a vinegar based salad dressing at the store that contains only 5 calories per tablespoon and taste really good. I've also bought mucho cans of lowest sodium tuna, I've bought the no sodium from Whole Foods, but I have to have a pinch of salt. The tuna is 60 calories.

So tonight, I can fill a bowl with a cup of spinach (and that's packed in, not lightly stack leaves), add about 3 tablespoons of dressing, and empty the can of tuna on top, and that will be around 95 calories, giving me 1,995 for the day.

The best thing is I'm not sacrificing taste with any of this. The pizza today was a treat, and I don't regret putting myself in this situation. At about 300 calories per slice, I was more than happy to take down four triangular pieces of italian goodness.

Add a piece of cake, and whoops, there goes 1,500 calories.

El Flaco on the Tube

2008-11-08T23:50:00.002-05:00

YouTube Sensation

2008-11-08T23:40:00.004-05:00

Those Hot New England Novembers

2008-11-08T22:23:00.004-05:00

It's a heatwave I tell you in Providence, R.I. this week. I was all ready when I moved up here to tackle the harsh winters I had heard about, but so far, about a week into November, the weather has been great.

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Today started pretty rough. First, I woke up around 6:00 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep, so I took a look around the apartment and decided to do some cleaning. Four hours later I had an empty sink, mopped floors, clean counters, and I felt pretty good about it.

There's something about having a freshly cleaned living space that gets you ready for the rest of the day, especially when you have a Providence basketball game to go that night and Louisville football and basketball on TV as well.

The Cards didn't come through. There's nothing that can make glistening floors and a spotless bathroom less thrilling than a 41-7 beatdown. But, to look on the bright side, Pittsburgh is having a good year and as long as they continue to win, it's good for the league.

But, Providence and Louisville came through on the Hardwood. Granted, Northern Kentucky and Slippery Rock aren't North Carolina and Gonzaga, but an exhibition win is an exhibition win.

Samardo Samuels is the man. I mean, Louisville's got some good men (E5, T-Will, E-Sos, PK), but Samuels has to be "the man", for this team to achieve its goals. I can't be quoted on this (come on Dan, you work in the conference office, read a fax) but I think his stat line was something like 29 pts and 8 boards. That gives him around 36, 21, and 29 points in the three "games", I use that lightly, that Louisville has put on with him. We'll see how this carries over to the regular season.

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I had a talk with my coworkers about how I've never had a team that I closely followed win a championship in any sport. The closest I can come is being a fan of the 1996 Kentucky basketball team that Rick Pitino built, but I went to bed as the second half was about to start. What I need is for Louisville basketball to go all the way, or the Reds or Braves to win a World Series, the Bills to get their Super Bowl ring in my lifetime or Cisco take the Kings all the way.

That being said, I think the feeling could be close to what I felt as the recent presidential election was being called for Obama and especially when he gave his speech at the end of the night, I was so proud for our country.

I've been arguing for eight years now that we were beind led in the wrong direction, and this breath of fresh air couldn't have come any sooner. I can't predict how great Obama's presidency will be, but atleast finally, the American people decided it was time for a change.

The most intriguing part of the whole election night was when after it was said and done, reporters shared thought's from McCain that he had always felt that Obama probably should win, that is was somehow meant to be. For once, I couldn't agree more with McCain.

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I for one, as a dog lover, I can't wait to see what type of dog the Obama's decide to bring to the White House.

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Thought I'd try something new with the blog and add some video's that are linked to certain words in each post. Go ahead and look through this one and give it a try.

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By the way, by my apartment the other night, I actually got to hear one of these.

Last Night Blog Drama

2008-11-07T10:55:00.002-05:00

Last night I worked for an hour on a post, tried to publish it and got an error message.

Tried to browse back and retrieve it, but it was all lost.

After a five-second moment of depression, I regained my composure and left the computer.

I will rewrite that post and add some more after work today.

It's Been Two Weeks, But Here's New York

2008-11-02T12:53:00.005-05:00

Two weeks ago our staff headed to New York City to host the annual BIG EAST Men's and Women's basketball media days. The men's was held inside Madison Square Garden and the women's on Times Square, at the ESPN Zone.

The two week's I've waited to post about this trip needed to happen mostly for my body to recover from the dinner we had the day before the men's event. The food was incredible to say the least and came in very large portions. When else could you not finish a near 20 ounce fillet Mignon, because you had been eating shrimp as appetizers nearly as big as the steak.

I also ate a Caesar salad, huge piece of cheesecake, lobster meat, lobster on a stick, clams, green beans and spinach. By the end of the night, I had probably consumed more calories than I had in the last 5 years. I'm positive that my body was in some state of shock and I feared a complete shut down as I was sight seeing through Times Square afterwards. But, as hard as it is to admit, it was well worth it.

The media day itself the next day was a great success. Everything ran smoothly, and I got the chance to be in a room with at least four Hall of Fame coaches in Boeheim, Calhoun, Huggins and Pitino. It's no secret that I am basketball obsessed, I wouldn't care if they played year round, so it's safe to say I was in my element.

We ended up venturing onto the court inside MSG. There I was, standing on some of the same spots my childhood heroes played big-time games at. I took a moment to stand at the three-point line, look around the arena, and think to myself that this is the view Allan Houston, a Louisville native, had for all of his big shots.

And a side note, the NBA three didn't seem as long as I'd thought it would. I think I could have knocked a few down if I'd had a ball, try to relive some of my college intramural glory days.

As the media day wrapped up, I took off under the arena to board a train headed to Providence. While the rest of the staff worked the women's version, there were plenty of clips to sort through at the office, as every beat writer and columnist around the country had something good to say about BIG EAST basketball.

With events like these in the past, it's now time to look to another season of basketball. Soon high schools will wrap up their football post seasons, collegiate teams will square off in a myriad of bowl games and the NFL will have their Super Bowl Party. Then, at that point, I can start my yearly ritual of devouring everything the hoops world has to offer.

Providence Basketball at the Dunk

2008-11-01T20:19:00.003-04:00

The second half just got under way at the Dunkin Donuts Center, the hometown Friars lead the University of Ottawa Gee Gee's 39-28 with 18:50 to play.

It's weird to be here at courtside for a college game in this arena. I've been a life long video game enthusiast and the Friars have been my team of choice in college basketball games for years. I used to dismantle my friends with a virtual assault from three-point land. So here I am in the Dunkin Donuts Center, making dreams come true.

Louisville football is currently down 14-7 to the Syracuse Orange. Syracuse went from 37 point underdog to story of the weekend in college football last year when they beat the Ville by three at Papa John's, so nothing will surprise me with tonight's results.

***Update***

Syracuse 28, Louisville 21 - Final

Checking In From New York

2008-10-30T20:30:00.003-04:00

I'm at the hotel lobby in New York, I'm back in the city for the second time in two weeks for the BIG EAST Cross Country Championships.

We get started at 7:00 a.m. and I am out-of-control full from my meal at the Cheesecake Factory (Always think of the Big Bang Theory when I eat there). I had some pork chops, fried calamari and Pumpkin Cheesecake, and I think I need a nap. I'm going to hit the hotel gym in a few to negate that cheesecake.

I'm excited to watch people run, and not participate myself in the morning. I'm more of a 1 mile guy at night after work through the mean streets of North Providence, so watching these young people run around 8 miles in less than 25 minutes will probably give me stomach cramps.

Mom Came to Little Rhody

2008-10-26T21:36:00.003-04:00

Not so sure on my Little Rhody spelling in the title, could it be Little Rhodie? Never wan't to tick off your new neighbors.

But regardless, my mom came up for a few days, and whenever family or friends come up for a visit, it's a good thing on a lot of levels.

For one, it gives me an excuse to go out and eat somewhere beyond Taco Bell or the local Sub shop. Mom and I started the visit with a trip to Narragansett where we put in about 2 miles of beach side walking, right up to where the water was breaking at our feet. Nothing like being able to do something like that in the middle of October in New England. There were even a few brave souls taking a swim.

While at the beach town we ate at a local pub that offered a shrimp pizza that was really good. No marinara sauce, just the dough, some shrimp and a garlic type of sauce. It was good enough to take with me to work the next day for one of my occassional 10:30 lunches.

I'm on a streak of having a Water Fire to attend with each of my visits from Kentucky natives. I guess I'd have to say they aren't blown away by the event, and to use the term blown away, I have never been either. I think the aspect of it that we have all agreed on, is that it's awesome for a city to host an event where that many people want to come out and enjoy the night. My mom noted that everyone seemed to have a smile on their face. Through three months living here, it's hard not to see and feel the friendliness of most the people I've met.

It also didn't hurt that the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer foundation was hosting that night's Water Fire. I rent my apartment from the Gemma's, and beyond giving them a large sum of money every month, I had promised them I'd make an appearance. I think my mom went down to the office one day to meet the Gemma ladies, she said they were thrilled we made it out.

We put in a few more touristy stops along the way, frequented the next door Dunkin Donuts a few (many) times, and even bought a coffee pot to brew more Dunkin at home when they were closed. Do we have an addiction?

Our last meal was at the Little Inn, or something like that. It's a fine North Providence establishment, the kind where they light a small candle for you and break bread at the table. I ordered the fish and chips and I think they ended up bringing me out the whole fish. I made it about 3/4 the way through it and once again had a nice lunch for the office.

Mom made it home on her flight to Louisville fine. She was lucky enough to have a pilot as her seatmate. I'm sure it calmed any fears she could have had before the flight when he told her, there's no need to get nervous, unless you see me getting nervous.

The Perfect Seats at Fenway

2008-10-26T13:03:00.002-04:00

A few months ago I wrote about going to Fenway Park and I just found this picture from the game in my inbox a few minutes ago.

They do a fan picture deal, akin to an amusement park, where you can later buy the photo online. A friend from UConn sent me this proof, so I thought I'd post it here to remind myself I'd actually been to Fenway Park. We sat in what they call the Budweiser Section, where servers come to individual tables, right above right field. If you watch a Sox game on TV, you can easily spot it.

GOAL....Dan is Calling Soccer

2008-10-25T21:04:00.002-04:00

Checking in from Gilette Stadium, no not for the Patriots, but the struggling New England Revolution, who are hosting Kansas City tonight in MLS action.

I'm helping out Sports Ticker once again, so check those MLS updates on ESPN.

Kansas City is up 2-0, I think NE is just frustrated they're out of the playoff's, they're committing a lot of fouls, two red cards so far, so they are playing with nine players the rest of the way.

Not a very exciting game, but how often do you get to take in Gillete from the press box in your life?

They had a nice dinner for us, some fish and shrimp jumbalaya, rice, butternut squash, ceasar salad and pear pie. No wonder its hard to stay in shape working in sports if your not a player.

On that note, look for a post tomorrow night about my stay in NYC last week. Food will play a large role in that one, with the emphasis on large.

My mom also came up for a few nights before I left for the city, I'll write about that as well.

Louisville football had a nice win today over the No. 14 USF Bulls.

Weekend Update (Extended Edition)

2008-10-19T13:17:00.002-04:00

So It Begins

Tuesday morning I'll arrive at work and soon thereafter board a van with my coworkers headed to New York City. I haven't been to the Big Apple in about seven years, days after the 9/11 attacks to meet up with some locals of Anderson County who were serving with clean up and support.

The trip Tuesday won't compare in historical significance, but will be nice to see the city again under better circumstances. Wednesday our office is hosting the annual men's basketball media day inside Madison Square Garden, which will be my first foray into the storied building. To say I'm excited would be an understatement. I enjoy the buidlings that host sports almost as much as the games themselves. Tiny high school arenas or mega NBA buidlings, it doesn't matter, just getting to expereince the aura of them first hand is one of my favorite sport experiences.

What will be the lasting memory the Garden gives me? Freedom Hall has the unmistakable aroma of the caramel popcorn available in the concourse. Anderson County's gym had the pull out wooden bleachers that basically put you on the playing floor on the front row before renovations hindered that home court advantage. I'll report on my initial reactions to MSG.

Courtside with LeBron...

2008-10-10T21:03:00.002-04:00

I'm sitting next to the Celtics bench, it's the third quarter and the starters have mostly put on the warm-ups and called it a night. It's neat to see Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce next to me rooting on the younger guys.

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LeBron scores at will, he's not a pretty ball player to watch at all, drives everytime he touches the ball, never passes, either gets fouled or makes the layup. But still, it's unstoppable.

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Rookie Bill Walker from K-State is playing a heck of a game for the Celtics. I saw him play in Frankfort, Ky a few years ago and he has really matured into a nice player. He was on a team with O.J. Mayo then and I thought he was better from than O.J. that night against South Laurel.

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Big Baby Glen Davis is a huge guy. I can see why he dominated at LSU in the SEC.

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Wally Szczerbiak never misses, in warm ups I watched the guy hit about 37 jumpers in a row. It is these guys jobs to be great and they are really proving it tonight.

Even in this preseason game, they and the coaches are taking this pretty seriously.

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Garnet is the most intense basketball player I've ever seen in person. I had heard the talk of his passion on TV, but to see it's for real is a good sight to see. He's a great role model for young players to see what it takes to be great every time out. He, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo seem to relly enjoy each other and have great chemistry.

Red Robin, LeBron, and Coffee Milk

2008-10-10T09:47:00.004-04:00

Went to eat at the fine Red Robin establishment at Patriot Place in Massachusettes last night. Beyond the good burgers and all you can eat fries, their robin mascot somewhat resembled a Cardinal, so I had to get this picture.

Tonight I'm doing some work for Sports Ticker at the Celtics and Cavs game. Most importantly, I'm going to get to watch LeBron James from the court. I watched Jordan in person in Indianapolis, so once I see LeBron tonight, I'd say I'm doing pretty well on seeing NBA legends.

So if you're watching any sports tonight, and there is a ticker on the screen, you can look for my scores from this highly anticipated pre-season extravaganza.

That's right, Coffee Milk, and people in New England like to think we Kentuckians are backwards. I will admit, it's a little moral victory for Rhode Island to have this unique mixture as their state drink, and not bourbon.

But, milk and coffee are two things I enjoy on a daily basis, so I decided to give it a try. And the result is, it's pretty good. There's truth in statements Ive read by the locals that it's more heavy on the milk than the coffee. I'd describe it like drinking chocolate milk, but with coffee flavored syrup.

Houston, We Have a Problem...

2008-10-03T17:12:00.004-04:00

I kept up with Josh Anderson's surge in the minor leagues, but slacked in my MLB coverage in September. Josh got the call as Mark Kotsay headed to my neck of the woods in Boston, and took advantage of his opportunity with the struggling Braves.

In September, Anderson led the Braves in homeruns (3) and made his way up Atlanta's stolen base leaders for the season with 10, and he only had a month to do it.

In one of his last games of the season at Houston, he belted two home runs in two straight innings, getting back at the team that traded him away last season for a player that they ended up cutting.

Here is a link to the Atlanta Journal Constitutions story of the game: Anderson 2 Home Runs

Picures from Home

2008-10-02T17:10:00.009-04:00

My dad went around Louisville and took some pictures of some of my favorite places around Louisville for the blog.

Here is a sample of the results:

I visited these two a lot over 5 years in Louisville, they are part of the family that runs the Santa Fe Mexican Grill. The burritos and quesadillas are huge here and never over 3 dollars. But remember, cash only!

This is the house I lived in for two years. It would take me another two years to recount the numerous good and bad memories I collected living there with 12 other guys.

This is Ulmer Stadium, home of the Louisville softball team. I've spent some fun days and nights videotaping and calling games there for our online broadcasts. The games where I pulled double duty, taping and commentating were some classics.

This was the best place I lived while I was in Louisville. It's Kentucky Towers, the oldest hotel in the city, which was converted into apartments.

We had a rooftop pool and parking garage attached to the side. It was 10 feet from 4th street live and just a couple blocks to the YMCA. I'll never forget getting home from teaching at 3, going to the roof and jumping in the pool and heading to the Y to play ball at night. Those were some of my best days in the city.

But, this was also one freaky place to live. It was straight out of the Shining in the lobby.

This is 4th Street Live, around the corner from my apartment. I worked here in a coffee shop off and on for about three years. My best memories here were working during Christmas and staying open late during the parade to serve up gallons of hot chocolate to the onlookers.

Churchill Downs was a great place to relax and watch some racing on a weekday after class at U of L. Only a 10 minute walk from campus, you were sure to always run into a student you know mingling with the diverse crowd that the Downs attracts.

Pictures From the Weekend

2008-09-24T16:48:00.002-04:00

The Bush family summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

My dad and I across from Bush Senior's mansion.

Me across the ocean from the Bush's house.

Weekend Update (Sept. 19-21)

2008-09-24T08:58:00.000-04:00

Some Might Call it an Addiction

So its 10:22 on Tuesday night and the motivation hit me to write up last weekend’s weekend update, I’m aware that I’m half way to the next weekend, but you’re starting to see how this blog goes.

I entered my move to Providence with wide eyed energy when it came to the blogosphere, making promises (and keeping them for three weeks) to provide daily updates. And by now, you’ve realized daily has turned to weekly and I’m fully aware that I need to step up my blog game.

So a few minutes ago, before I sat down to write, I got the urge to follow up on my new found addiction to Dunkin Donuts coffee. Their non-stop advertising and affordable prices have lured me in, and I just can’t drink enough. I worked in what I would say the more gourmet coffee business for two and a half years, grinding out different roasts from all over the world, but I must say, the blend the Dunk uses trump them all in my opinion.

And I live within walking distance of two fine Dunkin establishments, literally feet apart on my busy road. So it’s after 10 and I know the inside of the store has been locked up, leaving the drive thru as my only portal to caffeinated bliss. So I get in my car and drive about 30 yards to the window to order one regular iced coffee. And it is good.

And, besides the fact that I just took the shortest drive to a drive-thru and back home in history, the check engine light on my car also went away. It wasn’t a major problem, it was the EPA nagging at my car for having a faulty gas cap. I guess some of my fumes were entering the atmosphere, bugging my fellow democrats. So in the end of this short-lived coffee journey, it turned into a lot of positives.

And I Am Positive Family and a Friend Visited This Past Weekend

My dad and a friend of the family that we’ll call Dwain, came up for a whirlwind visit of New England this past weekend.

They arrived on Thursday and made pilgrimages to Newport and Boston while I was doing the work thing. On Friday night around 6:30, I got off the clock and boarded the Providence train to Boston, where I would meet up with my guests and head toward a good BBQ dinner and night at the luxurious Lord Wakefield Hotel. That sentence right there was probably the most pub this place has ever received.

My dad is an avid Priceline mover and shaker when it comes to securing hotel rooms ever since Al Gore invented the internet. For the most part, he does a good job, putting us up in some nice digs for a nice price, but of course there are always some duds. The “Lord” would fall somewhere in between.

Our Lord Wakefield was positioned in what seemed like an assisted living community, and we figured the Emergicare Vans parked outside had to be the hotel shuttles to bingo night. A trip inside the happening hotel bar by Dwain and I proved even further that this was an old folks home, seeing that I could have been most of the guests great grandchild. But all jokes aside, the bed slept fine and water came out of the shower in the morning, so we’ll call it a success.

Could We Call His Son a Success?

From the Lord, we went on, further north than I’d ever been to the great state of Maine. Crossing the border was a lifetime goal of mine and it felt nice to finally cross Maine off the states visited list. Our main stop was in Kennebunkport, where George H.W. Bush makes his summer home. Ironically, Mr. Bush was in my old stomping grounds of Louisville watching some golf, I think some amateurs were in town, so there were no sightings of he and Barbara in their swimming attire.

Kennebunkport had a lot of wow factors, you just can’t see scenery like that back home, and they also had Dunkin Donuts, which Dwain had also found an affinity for. But our drive-thru stop for liquid energy wouldn’t be as easy as it sounds.

Simply put, we don’t sound like the people up here, not at all, making ordering at any restaurant an event. With Dwain by the window he leaned in and ordered a medium iced coffee for me and a small blueberry coffee for himself. The girl seemed perplexed, just what country are these guys from, she had to be thinking. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she tried to repeat the order by saying, “So, two medium coffees?”

Two medium coffees? Our order couldn’t have been further from that, wrong size, wrong temperature, even wrong flavor. I guess from the shock of southern accents she tried the most common order that came to her mind, providing us laughter for the next few miles.

We ate dinner in Portland, Maine on a floating restaurant, where we sampled some local seafood, which was really good and fresh. We checked out the city, saw a dead poets house and marveled at the views of ocean and sailboats. On the trip home we made another stop at the Bush’s to take some pictures in better light and made it back to Providence just in time for Waterfire.

I tell you, these Waterfires, there’s not much too them, but something about the soothing music and picturesque figures of the boats pushing by are very calming. I guess that’s why they ask you to speak softly, sit and relax, and try to leave a tip in the tip jars.

We made it back to my mansion for one final night before their plane departed and spend part of the evening at my local Dunkin, imagine that. The employees there liked our accents so much that they locked us in and surveyed us on just where we came from and why we were here.

Before my dad and Dwain left, my dad surprised me with the gift that keeps on giving on cable television. He had set up the deal without me knowing, ruining my aspirations to continue hippy living and watching KET by rabbit ears. I had forgotten how awesome having over 6 channels was (it’s been two years) and am pretty happy for the gift.

What the Disney

Ever since cable entered my life, I’ve been making notes on what to do when I have kids, if I ever do have kids. I’m probably going to pressure them to be half-way attractive, learn to act, kind of learn to sing, and enter the Disney machine. I’ve just watched a few shows and have figured out there is Hannah Montana of course, an Hispanic Hannah Montana and girls that are on Hannah Montana.

Not only do they act in the shows, but in between shows, they also have music videos and CD’s to sell. In five years, all of these kids will be lost in obscurity, but will be able to live off of the Disney money for the rest of their lives, so look out my future kids, we’re going Disney and earning dad some money.

VICTORious!!!!!!!

Louisville football sure isn’t what it was when I was still in school, but that may not be a bad thing. Gone are the days of Stefan Lefors and Brian Brohm passes flying through the air, we now have thunder and lightning in Brock Bolen and Victor Anderson.

I’m not sure what this means, but Victor just looks like a star when he plays. Louisville hasn’t had a running back with his playing style maybe ever, small and elusive, makes the secondary miss and has balance that would rival Shawn Johnson. He has a tendency to spin too much, even when it’s not needed, but he’ll get better with more carries. Dude didn’t even touch the ball in the first quarter of the Kansas State game and still rushed for over 170 yards.

Read Pat Forde

The latest Dash by Louisville native Pat Forde on ESPN.com is full of laughs and references of the Ville’s past and future. I recommend heading over to read it before it gets lost in the archives.

The faux dating advice from a myriad of college football coaches is worth the read alone.

An Internal Debate

I care about the upcoming election a lot and hope that Joebama makes it to the White House, so you could assume I’d be locked in to this Friday’s debate. Buuuutttt, Louisville hosts UConn this Friday in what should be a great battle of teams looking to make a national statement. I’m going to give the game priority and tune in to something more presidential during those 10 minute ESPN commercial breaks.

Not The Boston Mafia

Have I mentioned how much I like 3 6 Mafia. Back in the day, I gave rap music a bad rap (did that make sense?) but lately I’ve found a lot to like from the anti-rockers. My main group is 3 6 mafia, their energy and lyrics make any of their songs a joy, plus their southern, got to like that.

Curse of the Great Dandino

There was Dandemonium in Gillette Stadium Sunday afternoon as the Miami Dolphins shredded the Patriots and snapped their 21 game regular season winning streak. Why was it Dandemonium, well, I was there, and that’s one of my nicknames, and I curse pro sports teams.

At last check I am 1-27 all time at Cincinnati Reds games, 0-1 for Bengals games, 0-1 for Kings games and now 0-1 for Patriots contests. Besides having great seats, getting to go in the locker room area for the team dinner after the game, and getting a great free parking space, I felt bad that I let down an entire fan base. As far as attending another game, consider me banned.

Overload at work tonight, Weekend Update set for the Morning

2008-09-21T20:10:00.003-04:00

Prelude to the Weekend Update, which will be crammed with information due to a visit from family and friends, travel to Maine, a big Louisville football win (on Wednesday), trip to see the Patriots lose at home to the Dolphins, and waterfires.

The above picture was taken across the ocean from George H.W. Bush's family home in Kenebunkport, Maine.

Weekend Update (Sept. 12-14)

2008-09-14T14:28:00.002-04:00

Bradley's Cafe was a Memory Maker

In the two months I've been in Rhode Island, I've had the ability to see and experience things that were never a part of my life for 23 years. While most families in Kentucky plan for a year to take a vacation to the beach, just for a week, I've had miles of beaches at my disposal, making weekly trips to just relax, catch up on reading, and just soak it in.

The different personalities of people in New England have also been a blast, right up to the thick accents (to which they think mine is even thicker). Weekend trips to the resort town of Newport have been a highlight. Sail boats, fresh seafood and the ocean breeze have never been so in reach.

And after a trip last month to Fenway park, albeit a minor league game, showed me why the city of Boston, and all of New England find it so easy to root on the Red Sox.

This past weekend, I got to see this passion from a great perspective, even if it was only a few innings, at Bradley's Cafe. Don't get me wrong, those reading this might jot down the name as a "must see if visiting Providence", although I loved it, don't go making vacation plans. Bradley's is simply a small bar with plenty of seating, and two of the most well placed flat screen TV's for sports watching I've come across.

Seated on their stools were a group of eight or nine regulars, each with their own story to tell I'm sure, and some more animated than the rest. Although I could tell they were enjoying conversation, and a few bar-wide audible jokes, their main interest was in the Red Sox.

Everyone from the door man to the guy wiping down the tables could converse about any of the players and I even heard them talking back on a game that happened four days ago, they still remembered who made a big play in the top of the 4th. As you can probably tell, it doesn't take much to get me excited about an experience like this, and rarely do I show it on the outside (unless I'm yelling for the Cards), but Saturday night, taking in the Red Sox at Bradley's was a memory I was glad to make.

But every sweet story can't stay sweet for long it seems. Not too long after the last out of the game was recorded, the masses of Providence College students turned Bradley's into nothing it had resembled for the past hour. Young guys with sloppily tucked shirts and bad ties, doing their best to impress their female classmates. Watching that mess was almost as entertaining as sharing the game with the regulars.

Still, I hope those kids were having the time of their lives. College goes by fast and once it's over, they just might be the guy watching the Red Sox game with 49 year old's Bobby and Freddy, and going home to write about it on their blog.

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What If These Numbers Weren't Representing a Sport?

These past two months have been my first experience working an everyday 8-6 shift, and by all accounts so far, i've enjoyed it. Having order in my life for the first time as far as a job has gotten me on a more normal schedule. Those night and mornings of waiting for a sub job, not knowing what the next day would bring, or waiting each week to see what my shift at the cafe would be really took a toll on me physically.

Four hours of sleep was a good night and there was nothing worse than the mornings the sub job wouldn't come and I'd have to spend the morning with Judge Judy and Oprah.

I'd usually take to the Y on those days, shooting basketball for hours until the kids would get out of school and come join me. I always enjoyed it when one of the kids would be a student of mine and I would get to put it on them on the court. That's what talking all day gets you, I would tell them. Luckily none of my overgrown 6'5 8th graders never came to the gym.

But those experiences have made me appreciate where I am today. Now, each day I'm able to see a small glimpse into what my future in the workplace is going to hold. There are still the decisions, such as, continuing to work for a conference, or get back to work at a single school. No matter what I choose, the job is still going to be all about sports, and that excites me most of all.

I think sometimes how I would look at life differently if my mornings were greeted by some other part of life. Crunching numbers on Wall Street, or looking down kids throats as a pediatrician, or cracking backs in a chiropractor office. I suppose those people may feel about their jobs as I do about sports. If life worked how I saw it, and all those doctors or finance guru's should want to work in sports, I may not have a job.

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You Do This For Your Job?

Blogging on a routine basis isn't easy work, but I'm also not getting paid for it.

Blog nation, as its sometimes called, is taking over the world it seems and more and more employers are hiring on bloggers to exsclusively blog. I feel like I just typed Blog 100 times, but it's really that interesting.

ESPN now has an entire Blog Network, where you can go on for free and read the opinions on an array of subjects from guy and girls doing just what I'm doing now. I wonder what these people get paid. By reading a lot of their bios, they've almost all left a job as a daily contrinuter to a newspaper or magazine, where they were atleast making $30,000.

It's a crazy world out there right now, but I can't say I'm not enjoing the changes. I check ESPN Blog Nation every morning, it's interesting to be able to log on every few hours and always find something new to read. Long gone are the days of the newspaper, where what's printed on the paper is what you get. And if you ask me, I don't think we'll be seing those paper pages too many years down the road.

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Ever since I ran into David Archuleta at the mall, I decided to give his new single a listen. It's pretty feminine stuff, but I'm going to go ahead and say he is way better than David Cook. Cook's voice is a little too weak for me.

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"I put on for my City" by Young Jeezy is currently my favorite rap song. Something about it reminds me of the hours right after a big Louisville football win while I was in college.

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Thought I'd give a shout out to C.L. Brown at the Courier Journal for doing a great job stepping in for Brian Bennett as the U of L beat writer. I read the local daily every morning and what he's done so far has been entertaining. He's put his own style into his blog, by linking certain words that go to a you tube music clip, pretty good idea.

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The Hometown Representing Well

Most who know me know I'm a sucker for high school sports, and my alma mater, Anderson County has started off the football season 2-0, dominating the competition. Things are about to step up a level for them though as they prepare to travel to J-Town, who has put on quite a display so far as well.

Rick Bolus, who ranks the best high school basketball players in the state of Kentucky each year just released his latest rankings. Jacob Jenkins of Manual came in at No.1, while Anderson County's C.J. Penny got the No. 2 slot.

I may not have the historical memory of some Bearcat supporters, but to my knowledge, this will be Anderson's highest rated player in the history of the school. Ratings may not have been around for the other past stars, but no other player has gotten the ink C.J. has generated.

The pressure is on too, Anderson will have to make a statement in March with that type of player in a watered down 8th Region. Anderson will get plenty of tests on the way, making stops in the King of the Bluegrass, with potential matchups against Nationwide Top 25 teams and another chance against a sharp shooting team in Montgomery County against Elliott County and their twin guards, Ethan and Evan Faulkner.

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I rented the movie Baby Mama on Friday and though it was great. Some of the lines had me rolling.

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Eating Pizza From an Italian New Yorker

2008-09-13T14:17:00.002-04:00

I'm in the office today on this fine Saturday, catching up on some volleyball scores and stats and watching the football games in our Football Command Center. We have four flat screen TV's up on the wall, with four different games on, making it pretty difficult to catch every play. But eventually it was lunch time, so my co-worker Tom and I headed out to buy a pizza.

Not to long in to eating the pizza, Tom noticed my technique was way off, not near good enough for New York standards. What followed was a tutorial on the act of proper pizza eating.

First, you have to fold the pizza in the middle of the crust, which propels the front of the slice into a perfect shape and angle to not drip any of the toppings or oil on your shirt. Once you have eaten far enough up the slice, you go ahead and fold it completely, so you are biting into a double decker piece of crust.

You have to be careful near the end to watch for oil dripping out of the fold you made in the crust, it's acceptable at that point to soak up the excess oil with a napkin. Once you have your final bite left, it's also acceptable to soak up any remnants of sauce or oil into the crust, essentially cleaning your plate and enhancing the crust.

I never knew there was such an art to pizza eating, but from now on, I'm a veteran and will pass on my new found knowledge.

At work...

2008-09-09T08:40:00.001-04:00

The only two people at work that I'm not sure about are Ben and Sarah. They routinely make fun of the way I talk and blast everything that I write for the website.

Maybe one day I'll win them over.

Weekend Update (Sept. 5-7)

2008-09-07T15:05:00.002-04:00

Here is a recap of events, thoughts and other exciting details from this past weekend.

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Louisville football bounced back nicely from the week one setback. This was the first time I've ever been blacked out from seeing a game live, so that was a little unsettling, but I was happy with the result.

USF's OT victory was thrilling to watch last night. I've been a fan of the Bulls for a few years now and am proud to be somewhere where I can finely call them one of my own teams.

NFL kicks off today, which leaves me a little out of the loop conversation wise. Growing up in a college basketball obsessed state with no professional sport teams, outside of the minor leagues, I never got truly enthused by pro football. I follow the Bills, and would call them my favorite team if asked, but really, I'm just ready for some hoops.

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Put in some work at the office Sunday morning and had a few hours to kills before a meeting/dinner I had downtown at 5, so I decided to take advantage of a beautiful day weather wise and take a leisurely stroll around town.

Outside the Hilton downtown were three large tour buses and a gaggle of young girls yearning to catch a glimpse of who would be entering the busses. There were also some pretty interesting middle aged adults, sporting mickey mouse and Goofey shirts, you know the types, also waiting with cameras. A low-breed paparazzi if you will. So I asked a lady who she was waiting to see and let me know excitedly that the American Idols were about to exit the Hilton.

So, I wasn't overly thrilled. I can't stand that show and don't really understand the appeal, but regardless I was still aware of David Cook and David Archuleta from my family members being fans of the show. So I stood with the small gathering for a little bit, I figured why not, nobody knows me here and I was genuily enjoying watching these people gush over some people who were normal joes before Idol mania sucked them to the top of the C-List.

I heard one lady say "Saquesha (maybe that was the name) has already come out," and she was really excited about this. A second later a 4'1 girl, who seemed to be Puerto Rican maybe, came out, the crowd went nuts, I still had no idea. Then the two David's came out and people went more nuts.

Anyway, it was just really awkward and an interesting evaluation of human behavior. I guess I left a little disheartened because I realized there were no celebrity types that I could run into and come away with the same thrill that these people displayed.

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I've decided not to go into political tirades on this blog, but simply put, McCain and Palin scare me and I'm getting uneasy thinking the same America that gave George W. Bush eight years as President is going to put these two in the White House.

I'll say this though the RNC was very good TV. And although 99% of Palin's talking points either scared me or made me cringe as she tried to act super cool in attacking Obama, I am happy to see she could be a positive influence for families with learning or physically disabled children. I got the chance to work with both teaching in Jefferson County, Ky. and there is definately a need for better assistance.

But really what more could the GOP ask for in Palin? A son in Iraq, pregnant 17-year old daughter, and son with down syndrome. If they could just adopt an african-refugee off of Brad Pitt by the end of October, this thing would be in the bag.

It will be interesting to see if the democrats make any attacks on her family in the debates. I would say that all of her families issues are the type that can't be attacked in a way that helps them out, but that didn't keep John Edwards from calling out Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter.

Dubai

2008-09-05T09:40:00.002-04:00

Every morning when I get to work and log on to see my emails, it always gives me a little boost to learn I may have won the Dubai lottery.

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I posted a lot about Josh Anderson and the Braves last month, and am glad to report he has been starting the majority of September in CF for the MLB club.

So far he's hit a home run, stolen a few bases, and boasts a .296 BA, a nice start to hopefully an extended stay in the majors.

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Louisville announced their men's basketball schedule yesterday, and they couldn't have done it soon enough after the laugher in football to UK.

I still have faith in the football team, and won't be counting them out before a conference game has been played. I will say with 100% honesty that UK may be just that good, to completely shut down the Cards. Their defense may be top 10 in the country.

It was nice to see that U of L will play Minnesota in Arizona during basketball season. I like Tubby Smith and missed matching up against one of his teams last season.

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Just now recovering from a little beach volleyball action two weekends ago in Newport. A co-worker and I did our best Olympics impression and impressed the many female onlookers on the sand. It was the next day and week's soreness in my untested volleyball joints that made the experience less fun.

Note the Blog Plug

2008-09-03T10:03:00.001-04:00

Alumni Profile: Working for The Big East
By: Catherine LaRoche
Posted: 9/2/08Dan White went from grinding coffee beans to working for the Big East in just a few years.

White, a University of Louisville sports administration graduate, and now a communications assistant with the Big East, worked at Java Brewing Company, United Parcel Service and as a substitute teacher for Jefferson County Public Schools. When he wasn't working, he was either in class or interning with the U of L's Sports Information department, among other activities. His day typically started at 5:30 a.m. and lasted until late in the evening.

"One funny part was teaching in the elementary schools around Louisville," White said. "The kids always wanted to know all about me and I told them I worked for the Louisville Cardinals. I got my Jonas Brothers moment when all 30 of them would come running up to me with crayons and drawing paper for me to autograph. ?It was like Iwas David Padgett to them, being 5'10 to their 4'2."

Although White has been involved throughout his college career, what he considers to be one of the most important was his internship with U of L.

"I told them I'd do anything, even put out chairs for press conferences", White said. "And that's exactly what my first duty was: putting out chairs for Coach [Rick] Pitino's press conference."

White's internship was much harder than just putting out chairs. For almost three years, he did everything from videotaping press conferences and calling baseball and softball games to writing game reviews and features for the U of L athletics website and media guides.

"While I was working for U of L, no matter what the task was, it was just an awesome feeling to be a part of the athletic department," White said. "It was my version of a basketball scholarship."

White's hard work at U of L never went unnoticed.

"Dan is a hard worker who was always dependable and willing to work the long hours SIDs have to put in," Lori Korte, assistant sports information director, said. "You have to wear a lot of hats in our job and Dan was always willing to try to do whatever we asked of him; whether it was doing internet radio, stories for the program, post game stories or coaches quotes."

Currently, White is the primary contact for volleyball, cross-country, softball, tennis and swimming and diving for the Big East conference. ?He also assists with football and men's basketball. He is a liaison between the conference and its member schools to ensure the media, fans, and general public get accurate and timely information on happenings in each sport. He also designs, writes and edits the various media guides and season previews that his office produces for use by TV and print outlets.

"I'm very excited for Dan and I think this will be a great experience for him," Garett Wall, assistant sports information director, said. "The Big East Conference is one of the top conferences in the nation, so for him to earn a position with that league is a great compliment to him and the hard work he put in here in Louisville over the last couple of years."

White is enjoying his new position.

"The best thing about working for the Big East is the amount of people I've been able to meet in the business through working with all 16 schools," White said. "Success in any field comes down to building relationships while working hard at your craft, and here I'll get plenty of opportunities for both."

As for the future, White isn't sure where he'll end up. HIS ultimate goal is to return to Louisville to help future interns at the school and promote Cardinal athletics.

"First I wasn't sure if I'd be an intern at Louisville, then I found myself sitting courtside, taking game notes, at Freedom Hall," White said. "Then I was nervous I wouldn't find a job after graduation, and I found a handwritten note from Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese welcoming me to the staff in my mailbox in Lawrenceburg, Ky. It's all been like a dream, and to try to predict my future would be impossible."

To keep up with White's experiences in Rhode Island, check out his blog at priceiswhite.blogspot.com.

© Copyright 2008 Louisville Cardinal

Back to the daily grind....

2008-09-02T08:56:00.002-04:00

Of blogging.

Had to take a brief hiatus from daily writing here, and its not due to a lack of material, it's more the opposite.

I felt like I was getting a little washed out, not thrilling the reader quite as much over my last few posts, so I took a little "me" time and got things straightened out in my blogging life.

I'm ready to return with more insights from Rhode Island.

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One quick note, got a little Taco Bell last night to feel like a student again at U of L after the crushing defeat to UK, I had to rekindle some of those undergrad memories. The cashier looked at me all crazy eyed when I ordered and said, "What part of the south are you from?" I told her Kentucky and she said she had came here from Alabama.

So really no point in this, but it felt nice to have some southern hospitality in a New England Taco Bell.

Upon further review

2008-08-26T21:07:00.002-04:00

I was getting pretty cocky in my last entry about my memory, but started to think twice about something I wrote. I'm pretty sure the annual backyard football game was the mashed potato bowl.

Memories....

2008-08-21T21:35:00.002-04:00

I have one crazy memory, there's not much from my life that escapes me. Many times I'll catch myself thinking back on something I did many years ago. I decided to start keeping a log of these things in case I hit my head one day and lose all recollections. Here are a few:

-When I was in a band back in 2002 or so, we played a show in Breckinridge County. The church we played at paid us with sandwiches from a local grocery down the street, it was probably the best payment we ever received. We used to buy the most random things, like that day a huge case of cherry rolls, they were awful. We also got a huge assortment of fireworks and set them off when we got home.

-My friends and I used to have an annual football game called the "Spaghetti Bowl" which was a 3-on-3 brutally emotional contest. We had the game filmed and had playbook's nearly 30 pages thick. This was serious stuff back them, probably around 1998.

-When I was on my high school football team I opened up the season picking off a pass for a touchdown, my friends couldn't get over the feat, I wasn't supposed to score a touchdown. The play got me a starting position, but a week later, I had an 8-inch piece of wood lodged under my right knee and missed the rest of the season. I made a small appearance against Shelby County in the last game of the season with a butt pad heavily taped around me knee, I spend the majority of my playing time running away from contact.

-I grabbed my final tennis victory in high school at stadium court at UK during the State Tournament. That was a good memory, but the butt-kicking I took to the states top player in the 2nd round wasn't.

-After an unsuccessful season of high school basketball, my church asked to get eligibility for me to play in the local church league. Because of wording dealing with having to be a varsity player, they allowed it and after a mandatory 2-weeks of sitting out, I got to play in the tournament. We won in the first round, grabbing our church's first win in church league history. The worst thing was I didn't have a jersey, so I wore my Anderson County one, I still feel guilty about that sometimes.

-I set the church league record for Anderson County, hitting seven three's in one game. I think it might have been tied by now, but still, it was an emotional moment. Then in college, playing in the fraternity league, with former U of L star Tony Williams, as my coach, I did it again, hitting seven three's to tie the league record. It's a proud moment for me, from church league to the fraternity. Hitting three's was all I could ever do, my defense and rebounding were non-existent.

-My friend Will Osbourne tore his ACL on a kickoff in high school. He brought the tape over to my house and he, Cory Hanks, and I laughed so hard watching it over and over. (Sorry Will, the injury sucked, but the tape was classic). Then my mom came downstairs and watched it as well and laughed too, that moment as well was classic.

-Caleb Wells used to spend the night at my house some back in the day and we would sleep on my basketball court in the backyard, right on the concrete. When the sun would rise we would wake up and walk to Dairy Queen at 6 a.m. for the Breakfast Buffet. The key fight there would be to beat this lady when the country ham was brought out who would always empty the container on her plate. So one morning, when the county ham came out we took it all, even though we couldnt eat it all just to fight back at this lady.

-The first time I stayed up all night was in third grade when Stephen Hatchell, who went on to play quarterback at Murray State, spent the night at my house. We played Bulls vs. Blazers on Super Nintendo for probably 12 hours straight, not quitting until sun rise. I can remember how weird it was pulling the all nighter for the first time, then came college.

-When Tony Williams was our fraternity basketball coach we used to go to his restaurant, Twiams, after the games and eat Chicken and Waffles with a side of hot sauce. He would never tell us what he put in the waffle mix, but those things were legendary.

-We used to go to Denny's during college for late night breakfast a lot. We consisted of whoever was around at the dorm's. The menu item of choice was oatmeal and pancakes, a perfect combination. One night, for some reason, we took off to Kroger at 2 in the morning in an attempt to make our own variation of the combo. Frozen pancakes and instant oatmeal in hand, we succeeded.

-My roommate in college and I had a hobby of hiding our friend Michael Vansickel's bed when he was out of his room. Classic spots were the janitors closet and one legendary instance of threatening to chuck it out the window. It was all in fun and Michael is one of the good friends I've kept since college.

Books.....

2008-08-21T21:30:00.002-04:00

I've been reading a lot of books lately, and have started to almost resent them from it.

Don't get me wrong, I'll keep reading them, and my devotion to them probably answers my questions about them.

Why do people write novels and why do so many people enjoy them?

It just seems odd that novels become classics and become required reading at school's. They are made up stories with made up characters. I've even actually wanted to try writing one myself occasionally, but I have no idea why.

I should probably just get over this hitch in my brain at the moment.

People create and enjoy books for all the same reasons movies and music are created.

This, by all means, is the worst post in my blogging history. But I just needed to get this current thought out there. Hopefully no one will start questioning why people keep a blog.

Streak...

2008-08-21T17:50:00.002-04:00

Anderson: 26 games

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The Braves called up OF Brandon Jones today to take over Kotchman's roster spot while he stays with his mother who is ill. My thoughts go out to the Kotchman's, but why Jones? He's batting .260 this season with 8 homeruns and very few stolen bases. Josh Anderson is batting .316, has 3 homeruns and 40 stolen bases.

I won't deny Jones has more power, but he has not shown it well this season. Plus Anderson is a speed guy and Bobby Cox obviously doesn't see the need to advance runners. Either Cox needs to go or Josh needs to land on a team that appreciates athleticism.

Brownies....

2008-08-21T17:36:00.002-04:00

In office news, Rachel brought in some homemade brownies for the staff.

They were a combination of chocolate chips and M&M's. I could be wrong on that recipe, but at first glance and taste, that's how I saw them. Official word on if they were name-brand M&M's, or a store brand knockoff was not disclosed.

Upon further thought, not sure if they have the store brand M&M's that are so popular in Kentucky groceries here in Rhode Island, that would be unfortunate.

After tasting a few of the brownies, I thought they were good, and many co-workers concurred. We'll keep a look out for more baked goods.

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Co-worker Mike has made it clear that he wants to recieve royalties for any use of his name in the Price is White Blog.

Since Price is White is a non-profit venture and recieves no money from advertisers or subscribers, I will have to omit anything interesting Mike says or does until the royalty request has been dropped.

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So I like the Buffalo Bills, Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Braves, a hodepodge if you will of pro franchises. This is what life is like for a sports fan from a non-professional sports market.

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Gas is getting cheaper, I'm calling under $3.00 by November.

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Milk is getting cheaper, 2.99 next week at Shaw's stores.

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What is this, 2002?

Streaking...

2008-08-19T22:15:00.000-04:00

Anderson hitting streak: 25 games (2-5, double)

Link to story: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/sports/baseball.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-08-15-0087.html

Peanuts, Cracker Jacks and Grinders...

2008-08-19T17:40:00.000-04:00

I'm heading out the office door to attend a Pawtucket Red Sox game with my co-workers, the Pawsox are the Triple-A affiliate of the beloved (atleast up here) Boston Red Sox, so I'm sure their games generate a lot of interest. For me, I just enjoy a baseball game, especially at night, so it will be great.

A few minutes ago our web guy flew past me and asked what sandwich I wanted from some deli, not sure what that was all about, but I said Turkey. I'm thinking we are going to eat on the way to avoid the hot dogs and nachos at the game.

Come to think of it, this sandwich will be my first food from a restaraunt that I've had in 2 weeks, or whenever the futures game at Fenway was. I noticed I was running my five-mile daily a little slower than usual and decided to step up my home cooking. I've become obsessed with buying a bag of spinach, dumping half of it in a bowl, drop an entire can of tuna in it (just the fish), and drizzle on a little bit of italian dressing. I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty good.

I follow that with a selection from the Lean Cuisine family, usually the sesame or teryaki chicken.

Dessert is a glass of orange juice and cup of yogurt sans High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). I noticed than Dannon included HFCS last week and became offended, the store brand does not, go figure. I once read to not eat anything that is ever advertised on TV or Radio. The fact that they can afford to advertise means somethings not right, food shoudln't be a huge for-profit business. It also said to not eat anything your grandmother couldnt recognize as food, I'm pretty sure the neon-pink color of my Dannon Strawberry-Kiwi yogurt fit that description.

Needless to say, following these guidelines listed above, its been pretty hard not to have rock hard abs and unlimited stamina when running.

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Anderson hitting streak: 24 Games

Ladies stay sexy and fellas look fly....

2008-08-17T17:30:00.002-04:00

This was how a local radio advertisement for a night club announced their dress code request today.

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I went to a beach today to do some reading in a local park about 15 minutes outside of Providence. I think I may have found a small piece of Kentucky here in Rhode Island.

I don't mean any of this negatively either, I love Kentucky, and actually felt proud to see the following things.

Many of the houses were still sporting their icicle lights from Christmas, this is a key element of Kentucky living. Really, why spend an entire day every year rehanging these monsters? I say keep it up and go ahead and light those things at night all year long.

I passed two, I repeat two NASCAR gift shops.

Outdoor basketball courts, at least three. These are not common in the Ocean State, whereas there are courts a plenty in the Bluegrass State.

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I watched two movies this weekend at the home theatre...not so good.

I had heard good things about 27 Dresses, I'm a sucker for chick flicks, and Katherine Heigl was good in Knocked Up, so I rented it at an undisclosed Red Box to avoid anyone seeing this act. It was predictable and offered none of the dude moments that guys can relate to than all chick flicks should include. I made it through the entire movie and felt much dumber than before I had seen it.

My second choice was The Bucket List. I like Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, I hated this movie. Done well, this could have been a great film with many life lessons and great moments. But the direction took a Disney-esq approach and pretty much left you with two-hours to watch two dying men drive fast cars and bungee jump.

The odd thing is, is that I'm not a cynic when it comes to movies. I usually stand up for any thing I invest the time to watch. These two just kind of left me wanting more, not in a Britney Spears way, but just more.

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I really support what the Jonas Brother's are doing, I say make that money while you can, but I can't quit laughing when I hear their songs. Their runs on every word are hilarious, and the songs, I just don't know about it.

I mean, I think one of the Brother's is 20, I'm thinking when I was 20 I was not into dancing around and singing songs like that. I guess the jokes on me.

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I hate how it's freezing in the coffee shop, their electric bill has to be outrageous. Or, it could be that my body is in shock. I haven't had my AC on in two weeks to try to combat the evil energy companies.

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I think I posted a blog earlier about abortion and politics. Well, I heard on the news this morning that McCain is edging towards taking Lieberman on as his running mate, who is pro-choice when it comes to abortion. I'm thinking if this happens, the whole world could come to an end. Two candidates with pro-choicer's on their ballots. I'm betting that this doesn't happen, but it's interesting to think about the outcome.

I'd say it would push McCain into the White House, so I'm REALLY hoping Lieberman stays home. He already ruined one election for me, I'd hate to have him wreck another one.

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Triple

2008-08-17T17:22:00.002-04:00

Josh Anderson went 1 for 4 today on a triple, pushing his franchise-record hitting streak to 23 games. I'm starting to hope the Braves don't call him up just to see how long this thing can keep going. OK, maybe I don't, but this is pretty remarkable.

Joe Wilhoit holds the Minor League record at 69 games with a hit dating back to 1919. This was when pitchers threw 60 mph and batters used entire tree trunks as bats.

Working Weekend..

2008-08-16T16:16:00.003-04:00

Lots of projects are due by midweek at work , meaning less time to write here. I did get the chance to break away and take about a 10-mile walk, looking at some crazy residential areas in the hills of providence, I'll have to take pictures soon or find some on google images and pass them off as mine.

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I'm going to see the Pawtucket Red Sox play Tuesday night, so I'll bring a camera there as well.

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Had my first big release with Volleyball for the BIG EAST this past Friday, saw it was published in the Courier Journal. It was my second time in there though, no big deal.

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A lot of people seem to be loving the Olympics.

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The Red Sox fans up here are trying not to panic, stuck in second place in their division.

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Beating a suprisingly power hitting Dead Horse

2008-08-13T19:45:00.002-04:00

I'll go ahead and warn, for the next month and a half, Josh Anderson's fight to grab a permanent roster spot for the Braves will be a common discussion here.

Just checked in to the R-Braves current away game and Josh led off the first inning with a solo home run. That gives him 4 on the year and 3 in the past 3 weeks.

Not sure where this sudden power surge is coming from, but if he keeps it up, Georgia is waiting.

Invest in Sin Taxes, You Dark Knight You

2008-08-13T19:30:00.002-04:00

I don't have a lot of time for the Price is White tonight, but here is a little tidbit of information.

I was going through some financial websites, because I am an interested outsider, and saw a story promoting investments in the world of sin taxes, and I couldn't agree more, for now.

The world around us is changing. I could go on and on with examples, but it pretty obvious out there. We have musical aritsts totally changing their avenues for success. CD sales mean diddly squat now in the world of ring tones. Newspapers and magazines are now being offered in their entriety online, I predict hard copies will bo gone by 2018. Gas costs near 4 dollars a gallon, so does milk.

The reality to face is we are definately in a period of change, an elvolvement of our past ways which will eventually, three or four years down the road settle into a calm. Smart cars will replace Escalades and more importance will be placed on smart grocery shopping for families.

But when it comes to the thought of sins being safe investments, I think they're on to something.

In these hard times, I've noticed one thing go uninterupted and possibly stronger than ever, and that is alcohol sales. And less of a sin, depending on what movie your watching, are movies. I know it's simple logic, but obvious, people are still attending movies and having drinks, and I dont think that will ever change.

Is this a sad reality you may ask?

I'll leave that up to each individual to answer for themselves. I haven't laid out any statistics on sin tax purchases or offered anything beyong a beer and a movie, but you see where I'm going.

I attended church in Louisville before I left for Rhode Island and they had two lines for communion. One side fruit juice, the other wine; and the pastor told the congregation to choose whatever their conscious will allow. And when it comes to advice on investing in life's sins, I'll have to agree with the pastor.

Sweet Bourbon Steak

2008-08-12T14:37:00.003-04:00

The Healthy Choice Sweet Bourbon Steak microwave dinner is a quality option and veteran move for an office lunch.

Can You Smell That?

2008-08-11T19:01:00.003-04:00

That's the nearing of September you smell, which can only mean one thing, and that is the September Call-Ups in Major League Baseball.

Why is this a big deal you ask?

My cousin of a cousin Josh Anderson, is a 99% lock to finish out the season with the Atlanta Braves. He had a brief stint earlier in the year, batting .318 in the short period, but will now likely get a longer chance to prove his worth for next season.

The Braves are out of the playoff race in the N.L. and ready to look to next season, that means that when rosters expand to 40 on the first of September, their young guys will get plenty of action to prove themselves.

Josh flourished in this same role last season with the Houston Astros, batting well over .300 and having one well documented game by ESPN, in which he became only the second rookie in the 2000's to reach base six times in a game.

Josh is currently batting .310 for the AAA Richmond Braves, the fifth highest percentage in minor league baseball. His 35 stolen bases rank sixth in the minors and his 133 hits are way up the board at 2nd. Josh's inability to stick with the Atlanta Braves roster this year has been a mystery to everyone and hopefully he'll make them realize the mistake in September.

Atlanta has left Jeff Franceour in the outfield all season long despite his sub .230 batting average. When a reporter asked manager Bobby Cox about his struggling slugger he said, "He's just in a slump," and the reporter rightfully responded with, "All season long?". But this is simply a money issue. Franceour makes millions from Atlanta to produce on the field, and with a contract already signed, Atlanta is forced to withstand his awful play in hopes of a turnaround, but it's getting a little too late.

Enter Josh, who will likely split time at Center and Right Field. Anything above a .285 average at seasons end will have Braves fans asking why he was locked away in Triple-A.

There's an Epidemic Up in Here

2008-08-11T17:37:00.003-04:00

People in Rhode Island move way faster than people from Kentucky, especially in their cars.

There's many three lane roads here, meaning one for each way for main driving, and a middle lane for turning. It's a big deal for people here to get into that middle lane, no matter what and then turn in front of you from it no matter how close you may be.

People that know me, know I drive like your grandpa's grandpa, making my turned-in-front-of ratio even higher. I am like target number one for the act. Sooner than later a Rhode Islander is going to get too brave at the sight of my snail like pace and make his move too late, leaving me helpless to not careen into his side.

I'm going to go ahead and say it won't be my fault. I'm driving the speed limit, no faster, no slower, so even though the person will exit their car in a fury, questioning why I was going so slow, I'll simply point to my license plate, and slowly, very slowly, walk away.

Drama in Blog Land

2008-08-11T17:31:00.002-04:00

Look out Coffee Exchange, the Panera Bread down the street from my place has made a strong push for my online services.

I wanted to note this day for my blogging memory bank when I discovered Panera offers faster service, free refills, a cheaper price, and less hippies.

The reason this is a big deal is I need internet for work and this blog and the occasional video game review. I decided not to get internet at my apartment because I hate dealing with internet providers and I thought it would give me more of a reason to go out into a new city for wi-fi. I hop on a few times a week, pay two dollars for a coffee, and basically come out a wash price wise as far as a home plan, so all is good.

USA, USA!

2008-08-11T14:03:00.004-04:00

I've been hyped about the Olympics since the opening ceremonies. I think I was first intrigued by the event in 96 when I was 11. In college, I had an international sport class taught by a lady who works the games every four years, and she further developed by interest.

The qualification process just to make the olympic team for your country is amazing and highly organized, so you are truly seeing the worlds best athletes. Imagine how many girls there are in America working year round to be gymnasts, yet when the time comes every four years to put together Team USA, only 6 get the call.

On a gymnastics note, the Chinese team's girls are an hilarious attempt at passing for 16. I think their captain, name escapes me, is over 16, but the rest are not close in my opinion. Teaching at middle and high schools the past year gave me a good observation of what 16 looks like, and that is not it.

I think NBC has been doing a great job so far with their broadcast of the games. The bio pieces during events have had great production and made it easier to root for individuals, as well as the teams. My only problem is the commentary guys down near the competition. I hated it during gymnastics when every five seconds he would chime in with, "That was a huge mistake there Bob. She was supposed to right into a new combination there, but got caught too close to the low bar on that release." I mean, I'm glad this guy knows so much about every single routine, but I think we as viewers can see the mistakes and care more about what the athletes do well.

I'm a beleiver in Michael Phelps ability to set records in Gold Medals received, but this guy cannot give an interview. Every response he's given has included, "It's just great, I mean, getting backstage and seeing all the text messages, it's great." This guy loves text messages.

Apartment Tour

2008-08-10T18:25:00.010-04:00

Here is a quick tour of where I've set up residence in Rhode Island.

This would be the first view from the main and only entrance. It's this sight that greets me as I walk in the door after work each day and prepare to think back on the things I've learned.

This angle shows you glimpses of the three main areas of this huge apartment. To the left is the beginnings of my entertainment lounge where you may sit down in the video game rocker, have a cold beverage and hone your skills at Tiger Woods 2007. Straight ahead is the kitchen, decked out with stainless steel appliances from Sears, here you'll smell the sweet nectar of marinara sauce as I prepare one of my many pasta dishes. And to the right is a bit of my bed.

One of the highlights of Price is White manor, the complete entertainment lounge.

This picture kind of sucks, no new areas are shown, but it's a decent look at my U of L Trashcan

I call this the sitting area. My mom tells me that the basket under the table comes from Pottery Barn, and was featured in a similar way in many of last springs decorating magazines.

This is my bed, where I sleep. I went with a Red and Black combination in honor of the Ville.Kitchen.

A fresh beginning is on the Horizon

2008-08-08T11:16:00.002-04:00

Been away from the blog for a few days. I needed to take some time to focus solely on a book I'm creating for work, it's nearly done, and I'm ready to get back to this some more.

I've got new ideas on the horizon and a camera at my disposal.

Look for a post tonight after the working men hours.

If I have to hear

2008-08-05T09:54:00.000-04:00

that Natsha Bedingfield song one more time, "Pocket full of Sunshine", I'm going to lose it. It haunts my radio at all hours and wakes me up in the morning.

When she enters the chorus, I dont know all the lines, but starts screaming: "TAKE ME AWAY, TAKE ME AWAY, A BETTER PLACE (or something), TAKE ME AWAY", it is terrorizing my ears. How is this getting plays, do people like being screamed at?

She reminds me of the most annoying girl in your class in high school. The one who takes advanced chorus or something and thinks she is the worlds gift to singing because she has a powerful voice, but no real knowledge of how to use it.

Please make it stop.

Battery Charger Bought

2008-08-04T15:58:00.000-04:00

Bought is a funny word, is that even how you spell it?

Anyway, I finally got a battery charger for my digital camera after 3 years.

I'm going to start putting it to use this week, giving a glimpse of what life is like in Providence.

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Writing this blog has led to me being contacted by people from my past that I figured I'd never talk to again, good times.

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It's almost college football season

Beautiful Groove

2008-08-01T20:47:00.003-04:00

This is Eisley's "I could be there for you" performed with a new intro that I saw in Nashville. The complete song is great, but this intro is the best.

This is Robert Randolph, who I saw in Boston, going in the right direction.

Took a Window to the Face

2008-08-01T10:40:00.003-04:00

I sleep with my window open at night here in Providence to be surrounded by the ocean air. I like this, but I'm always in a rush in the morning and have to close it as I head for the door.

This has gone well, until today, when I figured out that my window also opens from the top. Unaware of this possibility, I didn't even see this happening until it came crashing down on my face.

So I grabbed some frozen vegetables from the freezer and headed to work.

Almost got a speeding ticket after not seeing a state trooper.

Almost got side swiped by a crazy lady in a mini-van.

Almost is always better than did.

But the window falling, it did.

Aaron Rodgers Took His Job

2008-07-31T13:33:00.002-04:00

Having a job and earning a paycheck are undoubtedly important parts of life that any respectful person would feel the need to accomplish.

The range of possibilities is endless. From a janitor at a local high school, an attorney at a law firm, all the way to a starting quarterback position in the NFL.

Newsmaker Brett Favre is just another in a long line of businessmen who realize life without work is no life at all. The shock of not waking up to thousands of emails, tasks, and office headaches is bad enough on a person in their 60’s, but for an NFL retiree, at an average age in their late 30’s, the shock has to be unbearable.

There are also not many avenues for these players to explore when it comes to life outside the hashes. Let’s forget about the money aspect, most players, especially those of Favre’s level, will likely never worry about the green stuff again, we’re talking mental stability.

The proposed jobs lobbied by friends and family fall into the clichéd sports star retirement destinations. How about real estate, even lowly walk-ons from tradition rich colleges can make it big here. Then not to far from there is the ownership of a car lot. Can’t go wrong with the name Favre Auto in Green Bay. And then there is the popular choice where more talking is involved than merely shouting out signals, the TV analyst.

The ESPN life works for many retired athletes. The best candidates being blessed with a combination of Hollywood looks, articulate speech and general knowledge of the game. Outside the latter of the three, you start to see why for guys like Brett Favre, launching footballs deep into their 40’s is not a bad option.

Favre’s return could go down as a great moment in sports history if he gets on a quality team and delves deep into the playoffs. Or it could take a Michael Jordan, of the Washington Wizards, turn and tarnish his overall legacy.

Either way, Brett, the retiree, Favre isn’t worried about the lasting image the results of a comeback will produce. He just wants to get out of the house.

El Polle de Preseasonal de BIG EAST Confierence muy Importante

2008-07-30T14:35:00.003-04:00

2008 BIG EAST FOOTBALLPRESEASON MEDIA POLL

Rank Team Pts.
1. West Virginia (22) 189
2. USF (1) 149
3. Pittsburgh (1) 128
4. Rutgers 110
5. Cincinnati 98
6. Connecticut 97
7. Louisville 69
8. Syracuse 24

First Place Votes in Parentheses

Crap, Almost forgot to update Top Ten Monday...

2008-07-29T20:58:00.011-04:00

Top Ten Monday

Top Ten Scariest Things during Childhood (With Pictures!)

10. Snuggles Bear

I'm Sure plenty of you will disagree and fall prey to his/her (?) cuteness, but don't be fooled, this lunatic is evil. Rolling around all over towels and beds and clothes.

9. Shotgun Red

Red's segments on Hee Haw are my only bad memory of staying at my grandparents house for the weekend.

8. Today's Special

This whole show was just messed up for a six year old to watch.

7. Whammy

I prayed that this thing wouldn't come up during the show.

6. Chairy

Used to freak out at the idea of sitting in a chair with a mouth and eyes.

5. Fred Penner

Watch the intro.

4. Louisville Science Center Cave Hole

We went here a lot as a child and I was always scared shitless of going in that tiny cave hole.

3. Sally Struthers

I lived in fear as a child that I would have to get one of those certificates from home in one of the many available career fields.

2. Louisville Science Center Mummy

Now that I think about it, that place sucked.

1. I know this is weird, but I couldn't come up with a great number one. How about somebody give me some of their ideas.

Newport Round Two

2008-07-29T19:33:00.011-04:00

The Hotel Viking, Newport, RI

I arrived in Newport, Rhode Island around 1 p.m. yesterday and was greeted by the beautiful Hotel Viking. The weather was great, and as you can sort of see, the hotel had a great front porch with comfrotable chairs that made for a great place to relax on a Monday afternoon.

The BIG EAST Conference has been holding their annual media day here in Newport for four years now, and I was foretold that it would be one of the best events of my life, and it was. Not only did I have a ton of fun, but I was able to meet a lot of athletic director's from every school in our conference, and they were all great, personable people.

The first night there was more of a social atmosphere that took us to an ocean side mansion for my first clam bake. A clam bake is a cooking method where a bonfire is made out of seaweed and crates of seafood are placed over the heat from the fire to steam for two hours. Our crew had placed hundreds of fresh lobsters and thousands of clams and mussels into the crates. Obove the seafood were red potatoes and local corn on the cob, it was quite a feast.

I sat at a table with Syracuse's head football coach, his wife and three of his players. It was fun to joke with his offensive lineman in attendance about the amount of food he devoured. At last count he had worked through seven lobsters and yearned for more. And as a common trend of the event, the Syracuse people were all class and great to talk to.

We returned to the hotel and settled into the lobby where I was able to get to know my co-workers better and meet even more high profile media members and athletic representatives. In our circle of conversationalist I spotted Doug Flutie, who once quarterbacked my beloved Buffalo Bills and Jesse Palmer, of NFL and The Bachelor fame (both now work for ESPN).

This Saratoga Spring Water will be my random addition to the blog today. It was the product available for us to drink at the event. Spring water in a blue glass bottle. Supposedly it is a pristine source of water and a big deal to drink. I'm sorry to report I didn't taste any greatness in the H2O, but the bottle was pretty cool.

Sleeping

2008-07-28T10:13:00.003-04:00

In college, my friends in the dorm and I always had big plans to wake up early and do various activities. Such as, go to Shoney's or go to McDonalds, or go to Denny's...just somewhere to start the day.

The kicker was, we, or mostly me, would always end up sleeping two hours or so past the departure time.

Now, here in RI, I'm still making these plans in my head at night. "Head to Dunkin Donuts around 7, have some coffee, then leave for work," my mind says. But then 8:20 rolls around, leave the apartment, no coffee, no donuts.

Make it Rain

2008-07-27T16:47:00.002-04:00

Coffee Exchange, Providence, RI

There is some fierce raining going on in the Ocean State right now. Why is RI called the Ocean State? I mean, there is an ocean bordering it, but I could think of a lot more interesting names. How about, The Coffee Milk State or The Smallest State, whateva.

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SNL running reruns throughout the summer has really gotten me down. I've seen all the skits before and they're not getting funnier the second time.

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I went in the mall to wait for the rain to suspend so I could walk dryly to my car. Malls are flippin crazy. Each store only has so many different shirts, and there are thousands of people shopping, so why don't you see more people wearing the same shirt as you when you go out?

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Been seeing a lot of political talk all over the social networking sites lately. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good political debate every now and then, but this is a little overboard. Please stop putting your obama/mccain bashing in your status line, it's annoying. Only things like shameless blurbs about me updating my blog should be allowed.

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It makes me sick that so many republicans can not be open minded in elections due to one issue. Right wing Christians in the south get so hung up on abortion that I'm not sure they hear anything else a democratic candidate has to say. I admit it, that single issue is probably why we have had to endure 8 years of George W.

When I say that I am ok with abortion, that in no way says that I am pro abortion. I am actually against the act about 99.9% of the time.

If I was the one who screwed up, at this point in my life, and had a kid, I would feel the need to man up and provide for that child, not end its life.

But on the other hand, I see a lot of wrong pregnancies for other reasons. Drug addicts, homeless single mothers, rape victims, the list could go on and on. These pregnancies, if decided within the first month of knowing, should have the option to be aborted.

I know I'm offering an unbalanced plan. How can I say the women outlined above could have an abortion, but not the child of a typical, working class citizen with the means to provide for the offspring. Lawyers and doctors wouldn't have the time to look at each individual case.

In a perfect world there would be no need. Each responsible couple would care for their kid, and for every baby born into a life of drugs or poverty, there would be a willing able couple to adopt them and provide a better life. But life is not that easy, and all I can do is try to keep living with an open mind when it comes to sensitive political issues.

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Reasons I'm hearing why we shouldn't elect Obama

Obama

1. He is a communist, may not be a bad turn of direction from where we are now.
2. He's black, although his mom is a white woman from Kansas.
3. He's unpatriotic beause he didn't wear a flag pin.
4. He wants to take soldiers out of Iraq in a hurry, may not be a bad turn of direc................
5. His middle name is Hussein, a sure fire sign he's a terrorist in disguise

I'm not sure if Obama is the right choice to lead this country, it seems there hasn't been a good candidate for quite some time, (Miss you Bill). I do know that I've been watching McCain lately on some late night talk shows, and that guy is old. I mean, not trying to be a jerk, the guy is just old.

Look at a picture of W. from 2000, then look at one now, pretty crazy isn't it?

Now just imagine what will happen to McCain in just 4 years. Solely due to the fact I think being president may be unhealthy for McCain, I'm going with Obama.

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I'm loving how late in his career, David Letterman is becoming the meanest old man ever. I've been laughing until it hurts lately with his treatment to some guests. If it is available anywhere online, I recommend interviews within the last year of Paris Hilton, Spencer Pratt, and the toy lady.

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That new guy, Craig Ferguson (sp?) is pretty good. I wasn't sold at first, but just keep watching one night and you'll see. His delivery is different than any other late night personality.

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I'm sorry Cincinnati

2008-07-26T19:47:00.005-04:00

After 23 years and 100 to 200 disappointments, I officially deactivated my fandom of the Cincinnati Reds.

Admittedly, I'm not a super baseball fan, but I did love the Reds. Every year they would show a glimpse of returning to glory, then leave me teamless during the postseason.

My postseason turmoil may not change this season with my new team, the Atlanta Braves, but the season has been more fun.

A cousin of a cousin is a member of their 40 man roster and has had brief stints as an active roster member. Most of his season has been spent with their Richmond affiliate, the R-Braves.

This cousin's cousin, Josh Anderson, currently boasts a .318 batting average to go with a couple of stolen bases, yet has been mistreated by the Braves from this corner's perspective.

I'm hoping he gets moved before the upcoming trade deadline. Meaning he may become an everyday starter in the big show, and that I'll have a new Red's replacement.

2008-07-26T19:13:00.003-04:00

Coffee Exchange, Providence, RI

Due to a considerable upswing of socialization over the past few days, I've been away from the blogging. I missed it, I like writing here more than those humans anyway. I promise to never do this again.

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Lets get this started right, here is yesterdays should have been posted Top Ten List.

Top 10 Cities

1. Louisville, Kentucky

"It's a place with no labels. "It's not the South, it's not Chicago , and you don't think of it as you think of New York or LA. It has some Southern romanticism to it, but also a Northern progressivism, this weird urban island in the middle of the state of Kentucky that has always provided a fertile, often dark, bed. For us, Louisville and the surrounding areas are the center of massive creativity and massive weirdness. The place has its flaws: You move away, but you're always going to come back."

2. Nashville, Tennessee

It's home to my #2 college team, Vanderbilt and has a healthy dose of indie coffee and music. I'll live there one day, for at least a year or two.

3. Las Vegas, Nevada

The lights, the sights, the energy, it's all great as long as you can keep your money.

4. Lawrenceburg, Kentucky

A nice central spot in Kentucky within a hour or two of anywhere you want to be in the state. I lived there for 18 years and will surely get in a few more sometime down the road. Go Bearcats!

5. Chicago, Illinois

This is a very beautiful city with a lot of character. A lot smaller than meets the eye and not so much of the hustle and bustle of NY and LA.

6. Somerset, Kentucky

Most of my family resides here in southern Kentucky and it has provided a lot of good memories in my life.

7. New York City, New York

Its inhabitants have been putting me to sleep from 11:30 to midnight Monday through Saturday for many years.

8. San Diego, California

The weather is perfect, the food is good, and the ladies are hot. Well, I don't really know about that last part, but it sounds good.

9. Providence, RI

Look for this to move up the list after a good showing over the next year. Its definitely nice to look at, in a Jennifer Connelly way, more than an Elisha Cuthbert way.

10. Boston, Massachusettes

Seeing Fenway Park alone is worth the trip. Paul Revere's grave site isn't bad either, plus you can stand on the Boston Massacre site if you're into that.

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Monday I head to Newport, RI for BIG EAST media day, I'll try to update the blog if I get wireless in the hotel. If not, double-post-Tuesday!

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Here's the sucky part of keeping a (semi) daily blog. Everyday I see or think of things to write about, but when I finally sit down to type, I can't remember them. Possibly a pocket journal would be a good assist.

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Here's a little weird thing that I like to see.

There's nothing more peaceful than an older couple (70+) sharing a meal bought outside the house. At the beach there was one such couple beach side having drinks, sandwhiches, and possible other items.

The reason I see peace is that they have obviously reached the age of having no real worries.

Their not worried about the money they spent, or how many calories are included. I'm not saying they have given up on life and look this way because they may not have many more years on Earth, they may be taking these meals for 20 or 30 more years. The fact is, thats how I see it on the outside.

It's more a lesson for me on how to look at life.

I realized in that moment of seeing them that I haven't ate anything in the past five years or so without wondering: A: How will this hurt my body or B: Should I spend the money.

I need to start acting like a 70 year old every now and again, and just enjoy life's simple pleasures.

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Batman...

2008-07-23T19:46:00.003-04:00

As I told you yesterday, I saw the new Batman movie last night. It was really good.

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The office is going to the Newport Beach area early next week for football media day. Every head coach, star players, athletic directors and big name media types will be on hand.

The first night is more of a social atmosphere with a clam bake at night. Supposedly these clam bakes are knock your socks off great. Lobsters and steak everywhere. I'm a pretty big eater for my size, so I hope I don't shock anybody at the event.

My fandom for eating too much really got started in Louisville at Ichiban, where they offer All-You-Can-Eat sushi for 21.95.

I came very close to beating the store record of 72 pieces of sushi by devouring 64 before having to bail out.

Lobsters are a little bigger than sushi, plus I have to fit into my suit the next morning, so I'll probably calm it down a little Monday night.

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I still can't beleive I saw Robert Randolph Saturday for free.

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There are a lot of shows coming up right next to my apartment basically that I may go see. They include: Pinback, Paramore, New Found Glory, Good Charlotte. Not exactly any of my favorite bands, but it's still live music, I like live music.

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Batman

2008-07-22T17:21:00.003-04:00

Going to see the new Batman movie after work tonight.

I like to wait a few days for the hype to lower and for budget Tuesday to come around.

This venture to the theatre will likely take up the rest of my night, so I'll have to come up with a more thorough blog tomorrow.

I'll probably not tell what I thought of the movie tomorrow, you can find reviews of Batman all over the net.

I will however type out a detailed review of the popcorn! Stay tuned!

Is That Robert Randolph?

2008-07-20T19:00:00.000-04:00

I’ve been to the beach today, and sitting here in the coffee shop I feel like it. My minds refreshed, body ready for the upcoming week and entire self feels covered with sand.

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Made my first trip to Boston yesterday via the local commuter rail, which was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Doing things like taking the rail and not carrying a fanny pack really make you feel like a non-tourist part of the area (although it seems fanny packs are making a bit of a comeback with the hip crowd).

Once I got off the train and made my way out of the station, I quickly realized I had no idea where I was and no idea which was to start walking, so I just picked a direction and made my own path. It didn’t take long to figure out that Boston is pretty small and I lucked in to encounters with many of the popular sight seeing destinations.

I stood by the graves of Paul Revere alongside the victims of the Boston Massacre, went inside the state house where our country’s forefathers debated how to start a country and walked upon the actual massacre site.

I walked along the outside wall of storied Fenway Park and saw firsthand what a real pro sports city looks and feels like (sorry Cincinnati).

I also came along the nations oldest park grounds and walked around to take it in. At the far north, a group named “Life is Good” was putting on a festival with free water and food, games for kids and sponsor booths. At the edge of the park they had a stage with various musical acts performing throughout the day. The current sound did’nt thrill me, so I went farther into Boston, making note to go back through this park to find the train station.

As I headed back through the park for my Boston exit, I did notice a familiar song coming from the stage.

While I was in college, I came upon Robert Randolph and The Family Band and immediately fell in love with their music, once even commenting to a friend that, “I would do anything to see them live.”

And yes, as fortunes would have it, when I made it to the stage, it was none other than Robert. He and his family band were more amazing than I could have imagined. It had been a long time since I had seen a performer play with so much joy and really give the crowd a show.

The unplanned moments in life like this one are ones I love. I knew I was going to a new city, full of history and unfamiliar sites, but seeing a musician that I’ve wanted hear for over 5 years was not in the plans.

That's the trademark Half-Smile...

2008-07-18T20:46:00.005-04:00

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Commissioner Michael Tranghese has announced the hiring of Farrah Segaloff and Dan White as communications assistants with the BIG EAST Conference.

"We are happy to add Farrah and Dan to our conference communications staff," said Tranghese. "They both possess outstanding communication skills and come to us from highly regarded universities.”

Segaloff comes to the BIG EAST from the University of Massachusetts, where she spent three years as a student assistant in the athletics media relations office. She served as a media contact for the Minutemen’s track and field and hockey programs. She also has worked as an intern with the New England Sports Network, assisting with the production of the Boston Red Sox pregame and postgame shows.

A Needham, Mass., resident, Segaloff is a 2008 graduate of UMass with a degree in sport management. She will serve as the primary contact for field hockey, baseball, track and field and golf with the BIG EAST. She also will assist with football and women’s basketball.

White joins the BIG EAST after serving as an intern and undergraduate assistant in the sports information office at the University of Louisville. He worked with the Cardinals’ men’s soccer program in 2007, accompanying the team throughout its run through the BIG EAST and NCAA tournaments and has worked extensively with Louisville’s online broadcasts in baseball, volleyball, softball and field hockey. He also has been a contributing writer and photographer for The Anderson News.

White, who hails from Lawrenceburg, Ky., is a 2007 graduate of Louisville with a degree in sport administration. He will be the primary contact for volleyball, softball, cross country, swimming and diving, tennis and rowing at the BIG EAST and will also assist with football and men’s basketball.

Clark and Michael

2008-07-18T20:21:00.002-04:00

I was talking with some people a few days ago about our favorite movies and Superbad came up as one we all thought was great and hilarious.

It's also includes a great actor, Michael Cera. This kid's delivery is unique and so funny.

I thought I'd pass along a hidden internet gem in http://www.clarkandmichael.com/ , it is an internet sitcom that Cera, and one of his friends, named Clark, wrote and acted in. I think it was CBS that funded the project and what they created is a masterpiece.

Watch every episode, they are really short, you can fit them all in within a week.

Look out for two of my favorite moments:

1. When the guys comment on how hot it is in their Apartment, boiling really.

2. When Michael Cera rips an American Pie alumn in an intro.

The theme and intro to the show are also classic. Enjoy.

How do you order a list

2008-07-18T19:37:00.002-04:00

Starting Top 10 Fridays...and Mondays made me wonder, should I start with #10 and build suspense to #1, or keep it how it is.

It doesn't really matter, because it's not like people are reading this. But for the sanity of my OCD mind, I wish I knew, I wish I knew.

Where I type and a new blog feature

2008-07-18T19:00:00.004-04:00

Coffee Exchange, Providence, RI

This is my first lame attempt at adding some photos to the blog. I didn't have much battery life and only had time for this quick shot of the inside of Coffee Exchange. It's not a bad choice for the only photo, since it's the place I'll be doing 90% of my blogging. So there it is, you're seeing what I'm seeing.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Boston early in the morning (9 am) on the local commuter rail. All I have to do is sit on the train for about 45 minutes and get off in the middle of a new adventure. Boston is completely foreign to me, so it should be fun.

The Yellow Light Dilemma

I made a vow today to run every yellow light I come into contact with for the rest of my life. With gas fetching a premium and my checking account a minimum, I have to make my petrol last. Stopping for 30 seconds all over the city at red lights is not an option. So bring it on yellow lights.

A New Edition

I'm proud to announce that last night, while I was sleeping, I came up with the idea to have Top Ten Fridays...and Mondays. Originally I thought one list a week would suffice, but lets face it, people love some lists. Many people I come across freak out at the idea of reading a few paragraph's, but put 50 times that text into list format, and look out.

So here it is, a vision into my brain, the first of many Top Ten Fridays...and Mondays.

Top Ten Movies - I know lame first list.

1.The Truman Show
The best example I've seen that most human beings are content with what they've been presented with. The lucky and few will blaze their own trails.

2. A Beautiful Mind
I know it's odd, but the score in this Ron Howard bio-pic is what sets it apart for me.

3. Team America: World Police
Never before or ever again will I laugh so uncontrollably for such a long period of time as I did in the theatre for this one. "I think he said, Kiss Me! Kiss Me!"

4. Freddy Got Fingered
Yep, no joke, this is my fourth favorite movie of all time, and yep, I've driven a LeBaron.

5. Garden State
See comment on movie #2, sans the odd part.

6. Big Fish
Tim Burton's finest, entertaining from the start with an ending to end all endings.

7. Finding Neverland
Nearly as emotional as Big Fish.

8. Pee Wee's Big Adventure
Tim Burton's first full-length feature, set the tone for a future of great movies. Paul Reubens is one of the best comedic minds of all time. If he hadn't been cut from the SNL cast in the late 70's, he might of avoided being forced into children's television and that whole movie theatre controversy.

9. Million Dollar Baby
A sports movie has to be really special for me to put emotion into it, this one made the cut and then some. The last 15 minutes of this movie are worth a watch.

10.Life is Beautiful
This one's hard to watch, but do it.

It's not just Darryl....

2008-07-17T20:22:00.002-04:00

First off, not sure if I've been spelling Darryl right. Second off, who cares.

Anyway.....

It happened again. As soon as I got off of work today, I decided to take in some Dr. Phil. First commercial break, there it was.

The exact advertisement style of the Melbourne Mills Law Firm we see and hear in Kentucky.

The trademark deep bell sound (Not a great description), an identical script.

These findings have really upset me in a way that I can't describe. I was one of few people I know that actually like the multitude of law firm ads on during day time TV. Their originality, bad acting, and laugh out loud promises filled my days when the great JCPS school district didn't call me to sub last year.

When I make it back home, I'll be sure to pay Mr. Isaacs and Melbourne a visit, I'm sure they'll care.