Planet Xavier

Phil Todd: Thursday, January 01, 2009

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:58:10 +0000

You know, it's not even like nothing's going on. Lots of stuff is going on, xanga. Important stuff, in fact. Like, woah, life altering day by day, important. And I can't figure out why I just don't seem to give a damn. Like...C'mon. My mom stole all our money and ran off? Don't care. My dad's dying? I think visiting him is a chore and I don't feel like it. Trying to sell our 700g home? Not my responsibility, fuck it. Came into a good amount of money recently, remembering that I had actually saved money as a minor. Mom's gonna let me have my fuckin savings account. Probably pay a quarter of college off with it. Another fucking tasteless quarter of stuffing my face with wood pulp and garbage hoping beyond hope to scratch the surface of the majestic 2.0 GPA while maintaining a life other than cramming my misshapen Jewy nose into an empty notebook because I daydreamed during philosophy class, thinking that would be ironic. Which it was. Got to that exam late. Looked at the questions. Pulled out 5 pieces of looseleaf. Wrote a page in largely unintelligible scrawling pen lines then audibly said fuck it and walked out the door, with enough people looking at me to make me feel like a total, complete, utter waste. Another fairly priced credit hour scam gone terribly wrong. Oh, yay, and how could it be so!? For one such as me. Fuck it. Xanga, I think I screwed myself up somewhere along the line. I think too many bad things started happening in a row, and I kept teaching myself how to say, "I don't care, move on." that now that they're starting to be not as bad things, I still subconsciously say, "I don't care, move on." It doesn't matter if I succeed or not anymore, my goal in life right now is just to wake up the next mediocre day and open my mediocre eyes and put my mediocre feet on the mediocre floor, and say, "S'good to be mediocre." And you know the weirdest thing? It is. That's the part that drives me nuts, xanga...The part where suddenly, something in my brain said, "Dude, s'cool to not be awesome. Fock'em." I mean, I'm happy. Which is...I dunno how to explain happiness, really...But ask yourself about the last time every penny you had was going to support your laziness scholastically, your entire family was effectively gone from sight, you're going to be suspended in Spring quarter, your chances at love are stopped dead by your own unnecessarily high standards, you can't even listen to Pandora at home, and you're sitting at work right the fuck now, ticking away on the keyboard going, "Yeah. Pretty proud of who I turned out to be....Fock'em." I can't really tell if that's a good attitude to have or not. I can't really tell much of anything anymore, other than that I feel pretty good. And if I keep going like I am, I'll probably be more of a failure. And...still...feel pretty good. But I could always be less of a failure. And feel pretty good. Basically, whatever the fuck happens, is gonna happen. And I'm gonna feel good about it. Fuckin sound like a stoner. Wish I was sometimes...Nah, I don't, fuck that too. Meh. Got about 6 minutes left to be on the clock. Wishin this computer had speakers right about now. Wishin I had a Dew to handle too. Wishin I was hungry enough to finish that Beef n Cheddar that Tim bought for my lunch today. Not wishin any of it hard enough to get off my ass, apparently. That's...surprisingly, life in a nutshell right about now. Xanga...I think I'm turning into a tree. Probably a gold one. Baaah naaaah naaaaaaah. Fuck, wanna hear that song right about now. Good thing I have an iPod to listen to it on in 7 pieces in my kitchen garbage can. Kept the headphones though. Not bad quality. Probably. You know even then, I wasn't really emotional. Just crushed it in my hand, said, "Hunh. That's what happened." I could feel my adrenaline pumping and everything, but it still wasn't really...like...you know...emotional. Wasn't angry about it. Just kinda...didn't give a fuck. -shrug- When I told my sister, she said something was wrong with me. I don't feel that something's wrong. But isn't that always the first sign of...something wrong? I dunno. I'm pretty sure placidity isn't a condemning mental disability. Or a non-condemning one. It's 4:00. Closing time. Thanks for listening to me ramble for a while. Kinda felt good. Everything kinda feels good.

[Gotta cut on my hand today. Felt good. I think sap came out. Gold sap. Tell Pandora I said 'Hi', Xanga. Peace.]

Kurt Percy: Change of pace

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:28:31 +0000

Ok, so I usually don't use my Xanga as a forum for anything but whining and aimless musings. But today I feel I must do something a bit different. Ok, a lot different. I want to talk about football. Just some thoughts that have been floating around my head recently that I had to get out. Here goes:

The Detroit Lions will win at least 7 games next season. Yea, I said it. The only 0-16 team in the history of the NFL will win at least 7 games. When talking about the worst teams in the league this season (the Bengals excluded, because I can't speak in an unbiased manner about my beloved Bengals) the Detroit Lions have a better situation than the Rams or Chiefs in my opinion. They put up 20 points or more in half their games this season. Calvin Johnson had 1300 yards and a dozen touchdowns. And that's with Dan Orlovsky slinging the ball for a good portion of the season. Dan. Orlovsky. Assuming Sam Bradford declares for the draft this year, the Lions will likely draft him, marking a significant improvement at the QB position. Sam Bradford is that rare NFL-ready QB from day 1, much like I said Matt Ryan would be this year. Kudos to me. I think the Lions have an underrated O-line and an average running game in Kevin Smith and Rudi Johnson. With the Lions other 1st round pick (from the Roy Williams trade) they would be wise to take a defender. Any defender. Hey, when you're dead last in almost every defensive category, it doesn't pay to be picky. Take the best defender on the board. That being said, the Lions have the 5th lowest salary in the league, which means they have the cap room to sign a big-time free agent like Albert Haynesworth, assuming the Titans let him go. Now I'm not normally one to advocate building a team through free agency, but Haynesworth is a can't miss guy, and was a legitimate MVP candidate this season (at defensive tackle!). With that kind of playmaker up front, Bradford at QB, and a solid corner or linebacker to improve that defense, the Lions will be the comeback darlings of 2009. That is assuming they dont hire an inanimate carbon rod as head coach.

Ahhh the Bengals. You are an enigma. Please, for the love of Jesus (and the fans) draft Andre Smith, Matt Oher, Eugene Monroe, or Jason Smith. This draft is CRAZY deep with good tackles, I trust the Bengals scouts and coaches to pick the best of the bunch. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but tagging Stacy Andrews looks like a huge bust. The Jets offered at least a 3rd round pick for him last offseason and the Bengals turned it down, but now with a shredded knee, who knows what Andrews' value is. I have nothing against Aaron Curry, but I think OT is a bigger need for the Bengals now than linebacker. Rey Mauluga would be a bad choice. The Bengals put a record 23 players on IR this season, it would be insanity to bring in an injury-prone backer like Mauluga, regardless of how good he is. I'm sold on Cedric Benson for next year, and James Johnson looked good in limited snaps as well. Now I'll ruffle some feathers: keep Chris Perry. Ok, so the guy holds on to footballs like Al Davis hangs on to coaches, but when healthy he plays fast and strong, and is a valuable 3rd down guy and reciever out of the backfield. Also a very underrated pass blocker. Anthony Collins looked like a man at left tackle the last half of the season, and could challenge Levi Jones for the starting spot next year. And how about Dennis Roland? Ok, so it was the Chiefs, but when have you seen a guy never take a snap for a team, come in in the season finale, and dominate at the point of attack like this kid? The Bengals ran it behind him and Bobbie Williams all day against KC, for good results. Doubt he's starting material, but he proved to be a valuable backup. Speaking of backups, if Ryan Fitzpatrick isn't resigned, the Bengals better have their eye on a late-round QB steal in the draft (I think there may be a few). The Bengals need a special teams game-breaker, a guy who can return punts like Jeremy Maclin (Mizzou) or Percy Harvin (Florida). Unfortunately, barring a miracle, both of those guys will be gone by the second round. But there are plenty of speed merchants available late, the Bengals have found them in the past (Bennie Brazelle and Tab Perry) but had bad luck with health.

A word to the Titans: Draft Jeremy Maclin or Percy Harvin! In either of these guys you get a multi-position player (WR or tailback) with great speed and burst. The Titans great 1-2 punch in Lendale White and Chris Johnson would be further opened up with a speedy guy like Maclin running reverses and stretching a defense. Also, when the more mobile Vince Young comes back (trust me, Kerry Collins is not the long term answer in Nashville) it will open up some change of pace option game and even (dare I say it?) the WILDCAT formation.

Now, this is all contingent of the Browns coaching situation, and whether or not they choose to stick with the 3-4 defense. But if they do take that route, they would be crazy to pass on Brian Orakpu (Texas). A versatile DE-LB tweener, he can give Cleveland the pass rush help they need. That offense will be fine with a healthy Brady Quinn and company. Solid O-line, good recievers in Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow Jr. Unfortunately for the Browns, they need another running back in a year where the draft is thin on good ones. It's unlikely that Beanie Wells will declare, and if he does he likely won't be in a good spot on the board for the Browns to take him, but a second tier guy like Devin Moore (Wyoming) can provide a great change of pace to Jamal Lewis pounding it up the middle.

Ok, so where is the respect for Pat White? The guy wins football games, no one can deny that. Most mock drafts project him as a WR in the NFL. Did anyone actually watch this guy play? He was 26-32 with 3 passing TDs in the bowl game against North Carolina! In 4 bowl wins, he had 8 passinh TD's to only 1 INT (and 1 rushing TD). You get that kind of passing efficiency in the body of a wide reciever, what's not to like? Ok, so he takes most of his snaps out of the shotgun, but he takes more snaps from under center than Tim Tebow, and I don't see too many people griping about that. If a team chooses to give Pat White a chance at QB in the NFL he will be the steal of this draft, much like Steve Slaton was the steal of last years draft. (Don't even challenge that, former Heisman candidates are not supposed to go in the 3rd round of the NFL draft. The guy had over 4700 total yards and 57 TDs for his career!) Anyway, he had over 1500 total yards on the season, so the Texans look like geniuses.

As for the college game:

All I hear from the media this season is how terrible all of the bowl games are. To quote one Fox Sports writer: "Seriously? Cincinnati and Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl?" Now, I'm no fan of the BCS, but it's the system we have. And what's so bad about UC and VT? Frankly, I don't see the bad bowl games here, I'm even excited about Ohio State and Texas (which I think will be closer than people think). Did anyone watch the NC State-Rutgers bout this week? Great game! (Speaking of which, watch out for NC State QB Russel Wilson, nation. The guy can play some ball.) Boise St.-TCU? Another exciting game this bowl season. Alabama-Utah? Who doesn't want to see if Utah is for real against the msot talented team in the country? (Yup. I said it. Alabama is the biggest underachiever of the season. Not Georgia. Not Clemson. Not even USC.) And who (other than Texas fans) can complain about the National Championship? The Oklahoma offense is a souless scoring machine, and I expect both teams to come to play. Not the boring dissapointments of the past 2 years, (sorry, Buckeye fans) this game will be a shootout (or a turnover-fest).

Anywho, that's a few of my thoughts. Feel free to shoot me a message if you wanna talk football, I'm always up for it.

Frivolous Details: Review of Slumdog Millionaire

Antar — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 22:19:04 +0000

Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) and Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor) on the set of "Who Wants to be a Millonare(sic)"

Slumdog Millionaire is a movie I would recommend anyone to see, especially if you want to get a taste of “the real India”. Having been to India myself and being part of a family of them, a lot of references in this movie were culturally noticeable to me. All that aside, this movie is awe-inspiring to say the least.

A quick synopsis: Jamal Malik is a young man from India who grew up in the slums of the Indian villages, much like the ones of today. Eventually he finds himself on the Indian version of “Millionaire” at the 10.000.000 rupee level, one question away from 20.000.000 rupees (around $419,000 USD)– the top prize. However, directly after the show’s taping, he is arrested and tortured into confessing how he cheated– as there’s no way a slumdog could know all of the answers to the questions given to him on the show. However, as the viewer finds out, he legitimately knew almost every answer given to him up until the 10 and 20 million rupee levels. To not ruin the rest of the movie, I will stop here to continue the review.

The plot and synopsis were well executed, and the acting, even for a Bollywood-esque movie, was very well done, though in some instances it was either too overbearing or not as well executed. The action, antics, and shock factor of some parts of the movie were very well orchestrated, but at some points was very jumpy, and would often times jump back and forth from the Millionaire show to his life’s story, which was relatively awkward in my opinion.

When all is said and done, Slumdog Millionaire, in its class of movie, was a pleasurable experience. If you happen to like Bollywood movies– and there are people that do– I’d recommend this movie in a heartbeat. For everyone else, if you are at all interested in Indian culture or just in seeing a eye-opening movie with a bit less action than the Dark Knight, for instance, give this a go.

Final Score: 45/50