My massive 2012 post

Well, here we are. It's 2012, and once again I am returning after posting just a couple times the previous year. I think it's just a trend for me; Blogger will just never become a "regular thing" as I already use too many other social media sites. Anyways, I'll just keep this area short as it seems like this year my first paragraph consists of me rambling about why I don't blog (fair warning: very long post). So...

Alright, well the last time I posted I was a junior in college. Obviously, I'm a senior now. Hopefully looking to graduate in the summer... if not, then we can thank my own stupidity for it. I still have no bloody idea what I'll be doing after I graduate, as I've decided that the food industry is not the way to go for me. The whole "healthy" craze that has taken over the food industry drives me insane. It's a very simple concept: if you want to eat healthy, DON'T EAT OUT!! Seriously, how difficult of a idea is this? You'll save money, you won't have to complain about the "horrible service," and you eat healthier!!! It's a win-win-win (as Michael Scott from The Office would say. More on this subject later). To get back on track though, right now I figure my best shot is to try to get a job at a corporation somewhere and work my way up. I don't have much interest in getting a job in the field of my major... sounds like a horrible way to spend time and money, but you know what, a lot of places just want the Bachelor's Degree these days (unless you are trying to go into a specialized field, such as medicine, engineering, etc). So, I'll be happy to oblige them. The best chances of me getting a job are probably back home, but if I could find a job in the town where I live now I wouldn't mind too much. I do love it over here... for one thing, it's nice to live somewhere that is growing rather than shrinking. Another is that the population is younger here since it's a college town. But we'll just have to see.

I have nothing really to say about the past NFL season. The Bears got the injury bug this year and it screwed them royally. The Super Bowl was a repeat of four years ago. Back then, I was rooting for the Patriots, and I rooted for them again this year. I hated seeing the Giants win again. I do not like the Giants. I do not like the Jets. I just do not like NY sports teams. I hate the Mets almost as much as I hate the Cubs, and that's saying something. I will occasionally root for the Knicks and Yankees (when the Red Sox annoy me enough), but not that often. It was somewhat eerie how the Giants-Patriots game played out almost exactly the same way it did as their first meeting. The best thing that came from the Super Bowl was that VW commercial with two of my favorite things: dogs and Star Wars!!

2012 is setting up to be a great year for movies. Let's see, off the top of my head, The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall, Wrath of the Titans, The Avengers, Men in Black 3, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Hobbit are just some of the films that are being released this year. Then the fact that The Phantom Menace was re-released in theaters in 3D is beyond awesome. I hate 3D movies with a passion, but this is Star Wars. I'm going to have the opportunity to see all six movies in theater, and I am very excited. Besides TPM, the three movies I'm the most interested in are The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall, and The Hobbit. I'm very curious to see how the Christopher Nolan era of the Batman films ends. After a movie like The Dark Knight, there are going to be (most likely) impossible expectations for the film. Skyfall is probably getting a lot less publicity because of all the other highly anticipated films being released this year, but that's alright. I seem to be in a minority, but I like Daniel Craig's portrayal of Bond. It's actually the closest portrayal to the original Bond in the book series. Sean Connery is still my favorite Bond (and probably always will be), but Craig is up there. And finally, there is The Hobbit. For years, we wondered if it would ever be made into a film. It's going to be a huge hit, especially since it's going to be released right before Christmas. I wouldn't be surprised if it grosses well over a billion dollars; Return of the King alone grossed 1.1 billion. At any rate, I'm probably going to be spending more money at the theater this year than I ever have before.

What am I watching on TV these days? Well, there is the usual Pardon the Interruption, Frasier, Cheers, and The Office, but I've also added How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory to that list. Last season, we had to say goodbye to Steve Carell on The Office, but I think it was time. The Michael Scott storyline had run just about as far as it could go. This year hasn't been too bad. They've had a few bad episodes here and there, but they've had some good episodes as well. I think the show has enough in the tank to last one more season, but beyond that, I'm not sure. How I Met Your Mother is a show I got into around last Christmas, and I began to DVR it last spring (I believe there are over 50 episodes on the DVR right now). I like this show because of it's format... it's a little different than most traditional comedies, because the basis of the show is set on flashbacks (most evident in the title of the show). So, there are a lot of nods to past episodes and character issues in newer episodes, something I like, as a lot of shows forget their past and create continuity issues (something not even this show has been able to avoid, but they do a pretty good job). The other show that I've become a huge fan of is The Big Bang Theory. I love this show. It helps that I am somewhat of a nerd myself, but regardless, the show is smart and hilarious. According to my roommate and our unofficial "third" roommate, I am the Sheldon of our group. I tried to fight it for a long time, but I gave it up eventually because they were right. There are quite a few parallels between Sheldon and myself, but I am not nearly as socially awkward as he is (though I do share his love of not going out) and obviously not nearly as smart. I bought the first two seasons after I saw a couple episodes, and I need to get the next two. For now though, I've relegated myself to watching it on TBS since they air it all the time.

Now, I will turn my attention to what will be my most in-depth topic (this could've had a post by itself): the Cardinals!!! I have to admit, I do not follow the Cardinals nearly as much as I used to. But around the first of September, I started to pay attention as they began their run on the Wild Card. By the middle of the month, I was beginning to watch their games again (I couldn't ever find a station that carried the radio broadcasts until the World Series, and by then it was too late). And by the last week of the season, I was watching every game in its entirety. I hadn't kept this close of the Cardinals since 2004. When Carp clinched the Wild Card with his absolutely dominating performance over the lowly Astros on the last day of the season, I knew we had a chance to beat the Phillies, who I must admit I gained a lot of respect for by not coasting through the final couple weeks of the season (although by playing hard against the Braves they unwittingly shot themselves in the foot). Working while the Cardinals played became a difficult task, as I just wanted to watch the games rather than take care of the guests that came into Olive Garden. I was working behind the bar when Carp and Halladay were engrossed in the pitchers duel that made Game 5, so I got to watch most of that game. And then I got off work around the 7th inning but I stayed their and watched the rest of the game. A lot of my co-workers were also rooting for the Cardinals, so we were all huddled around the TV watching the end of the game. I don't really have many memories of the NCLS, but I enjoyed seeing the Brewers arrogance get taken down a notch.

By now, I was pretty confident that the Cardinals had a really good shot at winning everything, but I knew how the Cardinals had played prior to September so I knew anything was possible. I have three memories in particular from the World Series: Games 3, 6, and 7. Game 3 was (as it turned out) Albert Pujols summing up his 11 seasons with the Cardinals. Then we had two games where I did nothing but yell at the TV. That put us at Game 6, which is greatest baseball game I've ever seen. I generally hate people who update their status's on Facebook every ten minutes, but over the course of the playoffs I had become one of those people by posting about the Cardinals. I will never come close to equaling the number of status's I posted that night. Let's just skip to the 9th inning. When Freese hit that rocket to right field and it went over Cruz's head, I made enough racket in my apartment for everybody in the building to hear (it's three floors and my neighbors are loud). I screamed myself hoarse only to see Josh Hamilton crush all of our hopes in the 10th when he hit the two run shot off Motte. I thought, you know, if we have to get beat, I wouldn't mind losing it to Hamilton, who I have a ton of respect for. And then when the Cardinals got the first run across in the bottom of the inning, I thought, you know, we can still do this. And up steps Berkman... Scream my throat out, Take 2. Then the Cards finally shut down the Rangers, taking us to the bottom of the 11th. Up steps David Freese, fresh off his two-run triple in the 9th. And wouldn't you know, he drilled Lowe's pitch into the grass in Center Field. The Cardinals truly were the team that would not die. I have never seen that kind of fight in a team before. I didn't want to go bed that night.

And as I was struggling to go to bed that night I realized something... I had to travel down to St. Louis for Game 7. I would not get to watch the game like I would have at my apartment or at home, but it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities you just had to take. I got somebody to cover my shift at work, leaving me, my roommate, and his brother to drive down there. We didn't get there until around the 3rd inning (and it was probably the 5th before I found a parking spot), but we were there!! And there were people EVERYWHERE. Besides the 50,000 in the stadium, there were at least another 10-15,000 roaming the streets and inside restaurants. One of the problems of having that many people roaming around was that there was no place to use the bathroom. Most restaurants were too packed to even get inside and there were only a few portable bathrooms outside the stadium, so there was at least a 40 minute wait to use them (not fun...). Anyway, we walked around the stadium a couple times and eventually settled in across the street from Mike Shannon's restaurant. When the Cardinals finally finished off the Texans in the 9th inning, the place went bonkers. I took a few videos and posted them to YouTube. Afterwards, we walked around a bit and even got in the stadium, but eventually decided we should head home. As we walked back to my car, we got to see one of the coolest sites ever: people were in their cars honking their horns with the windows down and pedestrians were walking down the middle of the road and giving high fives to the people in the cars. Getting out of St. Louis took over an hour, but we eventually got home around 5AM. I slept until almost 2PM (worked at 3PM), but I felt totally out of it at work that night (and the next day as well). However, I didn't and don't regret going down there. I will forever cherish that memory of being in St. Louis when the Cardinals won the World Series.

Music update

Alright, so I managed to make two blog posts not only within a year, but a month! I decided to update my old music playlists last week by making a new one. And its been quite easy to see just how much my music taste has changed in the past 2-3 years. Well, not so much changed... expanded would be a better word. I listen to pop, alternative rock, new rock, old metal, classical, some country, and the occasional hip-hop song (the ones that get played on top 40 stations) as well as all the stuff I've always liked. A lot of it has to do with work... whatever's playing in the kitchen you just get to listen to for 4-5 hours 3-4 times a week. So it slowly grows on you.

More so than the other playlists I've posted, I've tried to keep the playlist diverse. So I couldn't get carried away with putting too many songs with one band or genre. But it should come as no surprise that The Beatles had more appearances on there than anybody else. Here's the breakdown:

The Beatles - 4
Metallica, Muse, Taylor Swift, Lady GaGa - 3
Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, Airborne, Elton John, the Beach Boys - 2
Everybody else - 1

Now, I didn't feel like going through it very thoroughly to double check but if that's correct I'd say that's a much more diverse playlist than my past. I don't even have a Guns N' Roses song on there (although I have Velvet Revolver) and only one AC/DC song (which is my 3rd favorite band).

As far as genre breakdown goes, this gets a little more tricky. One band can encompass several genres. For example, back in the 60s the Beatles were considered several things at one point or another... pop, rock, psychedelic, hard rock, etc. And today, Taylor Swift is considered both country and pop. So this is going to be a bit tricky. To keep it at its most basic, I'm just going to go with rock, pop, alternative, metal, country, etc.

Rock - 27
Pop - 13
Alternative - 10
Metal - 7
Country - 4
Everything else - 3

Rock still has the most, but I did a better job of not letting it get out of hand.

I seem to have fallen prey to the "post one blog a year and then fall off the face of the earth" game. I've completely forgotten about this blog... again. I wouldn't have even logged on if not for the fact that one of my writing assignments is dealing with blogs so I got on to research some of them. Anyways, the rough draft is due in preciously 9 hours, 49 minutes (at the time of me typing that). Supposedly it is to be roughly at its final length, which = 4-5 pages long. Currently I'm around 2 pages... yay this has all the beginnings of an all nighter. Anyways, I'm tired and thought I'd take a break for a few minutes to post some random thoughts that have been running through my head.

I saw a lot of car commercials during the Super Bowl. I'm starting to really become a big fan of Audi. They make some really nice cars. If I had to get a car that wasn't a Chevy (I finally bought a car by the way. It was a Chevy, of course) and could afford an something like that then I'd get an Audi.

I like the Black Eyed Peas alright, but their halftime show was the pits. At least they didn't lip-sync... but we all found out why they normally do. And Slash... oh Slash, you made it half-relevant with your presence but why would you associate yourself with that?

Hollywood is really on a craze to cash in all the money it can by making movies for seemingly every popular comic book superhero. This most recent set of Batman films restarted it. Then there was Iron Man. Then the Hulk. Now we've got Superman being rebooted, the Green Hornet movie is out, an Avengers film is being made, Captain Marvel is coming out, what's next?

Congrats to all my Packers friends. I honestly didn't care who won. The Steelers are my favorite AFC team and the Packers I will root for if they aren't competing with the Bears. So I came out pretty indifferent.

I'm sick of snow. If its not those freaking bugs plastered on the front of my car during the summer then its stupid snow sticking to the wheel wells during the winter. I have covered parking at my apartment, and even so the snow blew in and covered my car (which I had finally cleaned up because it had been had been long enough since the last snow that most of it was off the streets). I'm still cursing about that and that happened five days ago.

I got Gran Turismo 5 for Christmas. I got the 2nd game 11 years ago and I loved it despite the glitches it had. So when they finally got around to releasing the 5th edition this fall (which took about three years for that to happen... video games' version of Chinese Democracy) I asked for it for Christmas and got it. It is a pretty cool game in lots of aspects. But for the amount of time that it took to be released, it is so not worth it in anything I've found yet. But what do I know, I spend most of my time buying Corvette's and Camaro's... not really the concept of the game.

I feel old.

Having used a BlackBerry in the past and since I use an iPhone now, I can safely say what kind of phone I want next. An iBerry. Take what I like best from both phones and put them together, because both of them do/don't do things that I want them to. Either that, or the Motorola Droid becomes available for AT&T like the iPhone has for Verizon.

And now we come to my most lengthy thought. Or rather rant.

I hate college. College is, for the most part, an overrated experience (for me anyway). I could live with going through with it before I got a job. But my whole view of it has changed dramatically since then. I think we look too highly at degrees these days. Sure, that Bachelor's or Master's Degree looks nice hanging on the wall, but does it really make you more qualified than a person who never went to college? In some areas yes, it does matter. But in others, it doesn't. I see a lot of people who are fantastically book smart but couldn't be more dumb and unqualified for a job than somebody who has common sense. The sad part is that generally the person who has the degree gets chosen over the one who doesn't. Having worked in a restaurant for the better part of the last two years, I see it all the time. I've had really good managers who work tirelessly for the good of the restaurant get passed up by more unqualified people for promotions simply because they don't hold a Bachelor's Degree. It's not really a fair way of doing it, but that's just how it is.

Which brings this rant back to me. I earned my Associates Degree last spring. If A) I knew what I wanted to do in my life and B) I thought I could make the type of living that I want without a Bachelor's Degree, there is no way in hell I would have continued my education. I am so sick of school. Granted, in ten years I will probably miss it but for now I would love to be out of it. But I couldn't convince myself that I'd be fine without holding a Bachelor's Degree. I like working in a restaurant. If you pay attention you'll learn a lot about business and especially people. But I don't want to be serving people all my life. I see too many people making it their livelihood, and you know that's fine with me they can lead their own life how they please. But that's not me. I don't want my life to depend on how graciously or crappily people want to tip me every week. The only way I would willingly stay in the restaurant business is if I could climb the promotion ladder, which to the level I would want to go almost always requires a Bachelor's Degree (at least).

So, I'm stuck in the cycle of school for one (God willing) more year. If it lasts much longer than that I may shoot myself. And don't get me wrong, I like my life for the most part and I have nothing to really complain I like being at a big university with a proud tradition. I like having to walk through thousands of people during passing period every day. I think its pretty neat. And for the most part its nice living on my own, although there are downsides to it (I hate cleaning... I also hate cooking. Well not hate, but my own shortcomings at it and my general pickiness with food leads to lots of meals consisting of lunch meat, pasta, canned ravioli, Mac & Cheese, and ramon noodles. And that's if I don't get something out instead [or just not eat altogether]. Little Caesar's has good pizza and for only $5. I can make that last two or three meals, which brings the cost down further). But I'd gladly give it all up if I didn't have to go to school anymore.

Anyways, I'd like to close by saying I'll post more often but knowing what will probably happen I'll just say cya next year!

So I figured that since it is has been just about a year since I last blogged that perhaps maybe I should post something. I've never really gotten into blogging like I thought that I would when I first created this blog three years and some months ago (think it is three months). I suppose its just a sign of what is big and popular these days. So anyway, I've had some interesting things occur in the last year and thought I would share some of them.

First of all, I have a job now. I work at Olive Garden as a busser. My best friend tried for months to get me to apply there and finally succeeded in getting me to do so. I wasn't sure if I would like it but I have loved it for the most part. I have a lot of physical work that I have to do but it keeps me in pretty good shape. And it gives me something to do rather than sitting around the house doing nothing (since I'm such a good student that always studies or does homework...).

Second, I got to visit a lot of cool places this past year. My church had a group that went to Washington D.C. and New York City among other places during our one week trip. I got to tour the White House, Pentagon, and the US Capitol while in D.C. I'll tell you something about the White House that I didn't quite realize from looking at it on TV... it looks old. Seriously... especially when compared to the Capitol. That is one beautiful building. Out of all the tours I was most disappointed in that one because we weren't able to see the House or Senate floors, which ticked me off because they weren't even in session so it wasn't like we were going to disturb them from their "work." The Pentagon was the most interesting of the three tours. We got to walk where the plane crashed into it on 9/11 and look at names of the people who died. During our stay there, we also got to tour the National Cathedral, which was seriously messed up. It is such a beautiful building but totally weird at the same time. They have a sculpture of Darth Vader at the top of one of the towers. No joke. In addition, we saw almost all the Memorials, a couple Smithsonian museums, and got to walk through Arlington National Cemetery and see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

NYC was completely different from DC. It was cool, but wayyy too compact for my liking. The best thing about our stay there was the harbor cruise we took of the city and getting to go to Times Square at midnight. That was pretty sweet. On the way home we visited the Hershey's Chocolate Factory too. I did forget to mention that on the way out to DC we toured the Air Force Museum (which was 10X better than the Smithsonian's in DC) and a three hour tour of the battlefield of Gettysburg, which was very interesting.

Later in the summer I also was able to visit Chicago for the first time in years. I got to see a Blue Man Group concert which was awesome and then the next day went shopping in a big mall by the John Hancock building (believe its called the Water Tower). I wish I had been able to go to Six Flags while I was up there but I didn't have the time. I did get to go to the Six Flags in STL though in June and that was an absolute blast. Me, my aforementioned best friend, her brother, and one of her workmates went and it was absolutely dead that day. We once rode the Boss three times in a row (I think we rode it a grand total of six times that day).

The highlight of amusement parks came in early October though. I finally made it to the mecca of theme parks: Cedar Point. It was amazing. It was cold out that day but I think that helped keep the crowds lower than they might have been since it was Columbus Day weekend. Anyways, I got to ride some of the best roller coasters ever built. Millennium Force was a blast but Top Thrill Dragster... what a ride. 0-120 in 3 seconds and your heart is in your throat the entire time. I got to ride it twice... the second time at night, which was cool. Anyways, I was able to ride every coaster there at least once (most of them only once actually haha) and I bought a hoody to commemorate that I was there at least once.

I could comment about the political landscape that we have been watching for the last year now but that would make this post way too long. Plus it'll give me a reason to post again sometime in the near future.

I should be doing my history quiz

but I've found myself in a posting mood. And it'll only take me about five minutes to complete so I guess I'll make another post or two. I could probably find enough material to make ten posts about the new administration or things related to it but before I do another political post, I want to do something more lighthearted. I'm not a big fan of stand up comedy, but one of my favorite comedians would have to be Jonathan Winters. He has done some of the funniest stuff over the years and he might be my all time favorite comic. I don't really have much to say about him; I thought I'd let the videos do that.