Oh South Bend

I have lived in Northern Indiana for my entire life. The only real thing that it has to offer is Notre Dame, and its relative closeness to Chicago. I have taken advantage of Notre Dame just about as much as I possibly can, and have seen the general scariness and overcrowding chaos that Chicago has to offer. So, now, basically it becomes increasingly apparent to me that Northern Indiana is so yesterday. Which means, that my tomorrow is about to take place somewhere else. Unfortunately, I have no way of getting there. I am trying to find a way, and I will try and use every advantage that the people within my life can offer me, but I am afraid that I will always be stuck here in my already happened. I am thankful to Indiana for what it has given me and what has taken place here, but its time for a goodbye.

Caught off guard

There are times in ones life when you realize that you may have missed the boat on something. Or in other words, you were so completely unaware of something that when it revealed itself to you, it catches you off guard. I had such an experience recently while watching one of my new favorite shows.

The show is Parenthood, and it is about the only good thing that NBC is doing right now. It is not really a show for everyone, but it has a few of my favorite actors in it, and its familial theme is one that I have always enjoyed in my television shows. Now, the thing that caught me off guard involves an actress who recently made a cameo appearance on the show. I was not really sure who the actress was while I was watching it, but what I did know was that she was beautiful and very pleasing to the eye. I had meant to go online and find out who this woman was, but before I had the chance to do so, another one of my favorite shows opened my eyes to the truth. This show, Sportsnation on ESPN, mentioned that the actress' name is Minka Kelly. This is what caught me off guard. I had heard the name Minka Kelly before and I was aware that she was engaged to Derek Jeter, but I was unaware of what she looked like. I was caught completely off guard by the fact that this woman I had only heard of ended up being heart breakingly beautiful, and somehow I had managed to not recognize it before now. I had missed her in Friday Night Lights, and American Dreams, and whatever other shows or films she had been in. I am surprised by this, mostly because I like to think of myself as someone who knows a hell of a lot about popular culture and sports. Minka Kelly, a person who crosses into both worlds, passed by me without me having any clue of how truly amazing she is. Sorry Minka, my bad. (I admit that certainly some part of her attractiveness is her awesome name)

Lastly, I want to warn you all of the second thing that caught me off guard. This happens to pertain the the movie The Spirit. It is about a superhero and is made to look extremely similar to Sin City. Sin City was and is glorious, however, The Spirit is tremendously terrible. It caught me off guard how truly terrible this movie is compared to how absolutely marvelous Sin City is. Stay away from The Spirit, otherwise yu will lose more time than you will want to spare on such a piece of crap.

So, About Me

I think the hardest thing anyone has to do is take a good look at themselves and come to whatever realizations they need to in order to improve themselves. For some reason I have struggled with this in my life, and to be honest with you, I believe that my entire family has had difficulties with it. I have had to learn to admit that my self-esteem or view of myself is not as strong or positive as it could be. I do not like to make excuses or attempt to put the blame for my feelings on anyone else. Therefore, I have to once again look at myself and realize that there are several improvements needed. The first time that I decided to make changes was in high school. I did a lot of work to change who I was throughout college and over time the changes took hold and I improved a bit. However, ever since I finished college I have struggled to find my way in life and now I know that I must once again do quite a bit of work to change who I am and begin to improve myself. So, it is with this that I let you know that I am excited and scared about the road ahead, but I plan to finish the journey with a brand new outlook on life and a brand new life in general. Thanks for reading

Finding A New Way

Yes, it has been a while since I posted on here, but to be very honest with you I have a lot to figure out. I have been contemplating several things and trying to come up with a new direction. I have begun to realize that things need to start changing and that the spark for all of this change can only come from me. In the past I had always been a firm believer in having a phrase or ideology that I would repeat in my head over and over to keep me going. I always had that one thing to help me focus and keep me going, and over the past year, I have lost my grasp on that practice. I guess, basically, right now Im waiting for the next phrase to come along that I can latch on to and focus my life.

However, until that meditative state takes over, I have a few other things to mention. The first, is that I along with most of the people I know have been completely taken over by Old Spice's add campaign this year. They have provided us with tremendous commercials as of late and I would love to thank them. Secondly, I just got back from a trip to Cincinnati over the weekend, and it is a pretty sweet place. I can only speak for the Hyde Park/Mt. Lookout area, but it is a very young and active area that provides a lot for the people who live there. I would recommend checking it out if possible, and if you do beware of the crazy amount of small lizards who shoot around the ground.

Finally, I think its important that I touch on the missed opportunity that was Gordon Haywards life on Monday night. He is by far Butler's best men's basketball player, and it was thrust upon him to take the final shot in the national championship game to try and upset the almighty Duke. However, Hayward missed by a tremendously small margin and went from possibly being remembered forever for hitting the greatest shot ever, to now probably a mediocre NBA player who really never got to the status that he could have been. Now, thanks to your miss I easily cruised to a dominant victory with my brackets over certain friends who like to talk a lot of trash, so I am thankful to you for that. In the long run though, Im sure you would have rather had it the other way around. Sorry Gordon, better luck next year my friend. Thanks for reading

End of an Era

Well well well. The other day I warned you of the upcoming possibility of awesomeness that can be brought on by Wrestlemania. I did not take it upon myself to view this event due to the fact that for the past year or so, the WWE has really been lacking in its creativity and entertainment value for me. However, apparently, last nights event marked the end of an era. A great and tremendous era at that. Shawn Michaels lost to the Undertaker in a Win streak vs. Retirement match. It was the Undertaker's 17 year winning streak at Wrestlemania vs. Shawn Michael's retirement. Therefore, last night marked the end of Shawn Michael's wrestling career.

I know what many of you are thinking. It is just a story line and not for real. I am here to tell you that from what I have read and heard from several insiders in the company and wrestling business, Shawn is done wrestling. He may perform other duties within the WWE, but he will no longer wrestle. This is truly a sad day, especially in the eyes of a young boy who first saw The Heartbreak Kid wrestle at Wrestlemania 4 and just skyrocket to superstardom within the WWE. He is and will likely always be my most favorite wrestler. Although The Rock is a close second with Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam not far behind, Shawn Michaels was and is the original show stopper and greatest in ring performer I have ever seen. I remember the days of watching him enter the Royal Rumble at number 1 and end up winning the whole thing, defeating Bret Hart in the first ever Iron Man Match, being a founder of the original D-Generation X, and lets not forget his pioneering efforts in the great Ladder Matches that he was a part of. Yesterday was truly the end of an amazing era, and I can only hope that the WWE get its act together and find a new air apparent to his throne.

I would personally like to thank Shawn Higgenbothom for all his efforts. He amazed and inspired me in several ways. I am not ashamed to say that he definitely made it possible for me to dream. He is not the biggest or strongest, but he showed me that all you need is heart and effort and you can truly do anything. For all of you who know that wrestling is fake and all made up, I am aware of this, but it does not mean that I cannot be awed by what this man (or Character) accomplished. Thanks for reading

Wrestlemania!

Tomorrow night renews a great American heritage. Tomorrow night is once again Wrestlemania. Unfortunately, Wrestlemania has not lived up to its name for several years. In fact, professional wrestling itself has not lived up to its name for quite a long time. In my opinion Wrestlemania 14 marked an end of an era, and ever since, the great tradition has struggled to regain its glory days. Wrestlemania 14 featured Stone Cold Steve Austin defeating the legend Shawn Michaels for the WWF championship. While there have been a few stars to come along since, this event marked the end of the legendary era of the WWF.

Now, the WWE, tries to make too many wrestlers into stars and the storylines only last about three or four weeks before another pay per view event airs and brings the conflict to a far too quick end. In my opinion, the WWE should cut its talent roster in half, keep only the best of the best, and dramatically cut down on pay per views in order to build better and stronger story lines. They should keep the legendary pay per views like the Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, Summerslam, and King of the Ring. Other than those the other pay per views are just too much. No doubt tomorrow night will have its moments, but I will not be watching, or for that matter caring, who wins what match or overcomes whatever obstacle they need to.

Professional wrestling used to be a great American tradition, but when the money hungry Vince McMahon got his hands on it, he turned it into a quick economic juggernaut that could not keep its standards up and still turn out enough profit. I would love it if the WWE would heed my advice, and the advice of several others who write about professional wrestling, and take things back to the old ways and contract itself into a smaller and much stronger company. Its time to cut the fat Vince and bring back the bigger than life feeling that professional wrestling has lost over the past several years.

What Happened Disney?

Several years back as a young boy I found myself thoroughly enjoying The Mighty Ducks Movies. To be honest I am completely surprised that Disney stopped themselves after offering us only three such films. In the past Disney has completely exploited all of its successful enterprises, however, in this case it would seem to me that they dropped the ball, or should I say puck. Once Disney realized how popular High School Musical had become, thanks largely in part to the same people who loved the Mighty Ducks, they jumped all over it and have already matched the Ducks movies and I would assume that they will surpass the Ducks within the next couple of years. All I am trying to say is that I am surprised by the actions of Disney as I look back at it. I realize that it would have been difficult to keep the same people involved, but that has not stopped the great Disney machine in the past. There will no doubt be new kids in the next set of High School Musical movies and or shows. Therefore, I find it very interesting that Disney basically chose not to continue with the Ducks and over all it would seem as if they have chosen to try and forget them altogether. I know that there were Mighty Ducks cartoons, but those involved actual duck type aliens flying around fighting bad guys, and also Disney used the name on a professional hockey team, but neither of those were in the same spirit as the films. I am not bringing this up in the hopes that Disney bring back the Ducks, but I am asking that they provide us with a new group of kids overcoming obstacles to fall in love with. Bring on the next generation of superstar kids who are ready to rise up from the gutter to the great heights of winning the olympics, or whatever else Disney can think up.