Every city is static, every planet a barstool.
A couple of weekends ago, my family took the time to toil on the soil of Lancaster and check out my digs of work, play, and miscellaneous. It was solid to see them and show them around as best I could. However, old habits, it seems, die hard. I met my parents in York for perhaps one last time as I had the chance to check out Courtney and Renee's recital and my family, always one for culture and the advancement of the arts, was kind enough to join me. It was great to see some friends to sprinkled in the audience, but mostly it was tremendous to hear Renee and Courtney perform in their own element. Admittedly, due to a mixture of apathy and WVYC commitments, with the exception of the "rugged" performance of "Elijah" I hadn't much heard either one of the lovely ladies sing tunes of the comfortable confines of the melopop provided by Rhapsody. It was a real pleasure to hear their performance for more refined audiences and they both really did a great job.
Following the show, I bolted pretty quickly to seize as much of the day as possible in Lancaster with the folks. I actually had a nice little day planned for us, but intermittant rain forced us to doctor our plans a bit. The weather did anything but cooperate, as it was rainy at best throughout the duration of the visit. Plans to visit the Central Market were ruined, and Marion Court was a shell of itself in the gloom of clouds and drizzles, but nonetheless I think I showed them I live a pretty modest, but active life here in Amish country.
The night of their arrival, I wound up spending the night in their hotel and it seems that life in the Lanc got a little too active. Apparently, while I was away, a now former-roommate with a questionable past fell in with some old friends and old habits and wound up making quite a mess for himself. When I arrived with family in tow the next morning, you could tell something was up, but my current housemates and even the guy who I later found out was in the process of being evicted kept everything really mellow, I guess, out of respect for me and my family. I really do appreciate that. The only reason I even knew something was up was because there was an uncommon amount of traffic upstairs where I live. That's usually a place that's pretty much visitor free, unless I'm the one letting them up. I wish the guy the best in getting back on his feet and I only bring this up to point out the extremes of good and...not evil...(at least not in this case) I guess, thoughtlessness? that people are capable of. A really strange moment in hindsight. A lot of layers to it.
One spot I did venture to show my family in the safety of the light of day was my weekday watering hole known as the House of Pizza, where we dared to nosh a bit while Baylor was getting its camouflaged teeth kicked in by America's favorite uni-brow and the rest of the Wildcats. No hiding from that I suppose.
Shortly after halftime of that game, which might as well have been the final buzzer, I said goodbye and after catching up on the subtle commotion of the early mid-morning and adjusting to life alone on the top floor once again, I headed back to the House to watch the second game. When I entered, Jeremiah, the kindly bartender, pulled me aside and said, "Man, you're lucky this place was dead when you brought your family in here." Truer words were never spoken and apparently I had dodged many a bullet that weekend.
In other news that I more or less broke sufficiently on Facebook so I'll provide the redux version here in the blog. As I was casually scrolling my rarely checked upon YCP email account, being paranoid enough to look in there about once a month to make sure something of importance hasn't slipped in like, you know, a complete revocation of my degree, I came across a hidden gem of an email that explained that my Western of a year ago had been selected to be performed in YCP's One Act Festival. I wasn't exactly doing back flips (I played it a little cooler), but I was and am definitely pumped to see Horseplay come to life with the help of talented actors and a director. I look forward to a special time with all of my friends in York as we see it together. I've learned that the three men who inspired three of the cowpoke in the piece will be setting aside their obligations to attend this Western Tour de Farce. A gesture that certainly means a lot to me. I look forward to all of my friends sharing this special moment with me and getting a glimpse into a more blue area of my sense of humor that rarely makes an appearance in my more typical social/comedic interactions. If you want to know more about the play, dig the Facebook event, or get in touch with me. I will leave you with this, the fundamental question of the piece is this: Did he fuck the horse, or not? Happy viewing.
In a turn of events that can only be categorized as surprising, I have missed the playoffs in both of my fantasy basketball leagues. In one league my top two picks were D. Rose and Al Horford, who, this season, make Greg Oden look like Cal Ripken. In my other league, the injury bug bit at a time I could ill afford and I wound up missing the playoffs by a game. I give myself credit for playing meaningful basketball late in the season considering I played the last 4 weeks without TV. Very important in fantasy and striking while the iron, and players, are hot. However, it's hard to view the season as anything but a disappointment considering I was the defending champ (when we played for free). All is not lost however, as I've had an uncommonly good run in the field of bracketology and stand to win the work pool with a Kentucky W tonight place in both leagues I have money vested in should Kansas eek one out. So, I'm taking the good with bad and essentially using my winnings to pay for my NBA blunders, with maybe money for a green tea or two when the dust settles.
Once again, happy viewing.
Dare I say, some poetry in the works? Stay tuned.
Song of the Day: "Son Of Sam"-Elliott Smith
Jazz Song of the Day: "St. Thomas"-Sonny Rollins
Showing posts with label NBA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NBA. Show all posts
Monday, April 2, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
You Can Fill Almost Anything With Nuts
Firstly, a somber eulogy for my NBA writing of late. Quite honestly, work is partially to blame. Writing and staring at a computer screen for a literal 8 1/2 to 9 hours a day makes coming home to do more of it more of a chore than an escape. However, this is me we're talking about. We all know that I'd make time force the energy to crank some columns out. Simply put, I don't have cable and the last thing I want to do is base my own sports writing and opinions solely on the opinions of other sports writers. I read about the league avidly, and I get out to watch a game or two (or, pathetically enough, half, depending on how my 8 to 5:30 is treating me and whether I can stay awake) during the week, but I don't take it in nearly enough to have the kind of insight, and intellect to meet my own personal expectations for my NBA pieces. If I can't write the best material I'm capable of, I'm not going to force half-baked articles. I have too much respect for myself and the game.
With that said, I do have a Jeremy Lin article more or less complete, but by now it's outdated and likely won't see the light of Internet. Also, I think I'm still hip enough to the jive to analyze trade deadline moves, so I may well try whittle that out early next week. By mid-April, when I have some funds to wield, I'm hoping to invest in NBA League Pass online just in time for the playoff push. I definitely care too much about the game to let it slip away from me like it has the past few weeks.
Speaking of basketball, I've started going to a league on Monday nights. It's an indoor league, which came in handy while it was still cold, at this church about 20 minutes away. One of my co-workers was kind enough to put me on to the meeting and I've gone two of the three Mondays I was aware of it. The crowd is solid. It's a nice blend of skill levels and the cats there are competitive, but have a lot of fun with it. I'm really fortunate to have fallen into it. As I said, the games take place at a church and I think the league has kind of a tone of "God's community playing basketball" I don't know for sure if it's that kind of deal, but even if it is that's not really negative. I just notice that the in-game and post game chatter in not like some of the other pick up games I've hopped in on (not the "white boy can ball up in this bitch" that I got yesterday). There was also a point that I semi-shouted "shit" after throwing a bad pass and the place kind of got pretty quiet for a beat or two. It freaked me out a little bit considering the church, like a lot of things in PA, is in the middle of nowhere, you never know what can happen. With the exception of that minor linguistic hiccup, everyone has been really cool about getting to know me and vice versa and quite honestly, my game has been at a pretty high level of late (which surprises me, given my sedentary weekdays), which makes socializing on the court pretty easy.
One of the first things I set my mind to when I pulled in to the Lanc was to settle into a watering hole. On the evening I arrived, I asked my landlord where the Knicks were playing on TV. She answered, "The House of Pizza" and I haven't looked back since. Now, it's tough to paint a picture of this place. A very eccentric place where I'm usually the minority in about as many ways as you can think of, but the food is good and cheap, they play the games on TV, and I've had the pleasure of meeting some of the wildest characters. I've met some of my new friends there, too, don't get me wrong, but there are some nuts there, too. This one guy said "Boom, boom, boom" after every sip he took and sentence he spoke, I was hit on blatantly by two gay men (and no it's not that kind of bar) had a talk with this guy lamenting the fact that he just got convicted for his umpteenth DWI and was going to get jail time as he ordered his beer. I've also met a few new people I look forward to getting to know from a local college and traded life stories and philosophies with this train conductor, Tavis, which turned into one of the deepest conversations I've had in a long time. Simply put, for better or worse, there's no telling what you'll see or talk about when you head in there and I'm a fan of that element of surprise.
For a while, my Tuesday-Thursday evenings were looking pretty bleak, I admit. I even resorted to doing a full-fledged art project for the first time since I made Oscar the Grouch out of pipe cleaners last summer, but with the warm weather coming and me growing into my own socially around here at last, things are looking up. In addition, as I think I mentioned before, I'm going to start semi-frequenting a couple of weekly open mics to see if I can start performing poetry and music again. I miss that a great deal as well.
Weekend wise, I spend most time in York, I'm starting to have some people and places to see around here as well, which is exciting. Although, the weekend after my first week of work, when I decided to stay in Lancaster to see some people from work and Kevin, who was in the area, the already infamous Brickyard (your typical let's wear the tightest clothes we can and rub up against strangers on the dancefloor spot) claimed another victim as I lost my ID. Because of the way my wallet is laid out, (trust me on this one, I'm not as much of an idiot as it sounds like) I didn't even notice I'd lost it until a couple days later when I went to visit the equally infamous Jade in York and the.....sigh....infamous Murph's Study Hall. By the time I went retraced my steps over where I'd been that night, it was too late and I never found the ID and had to order a new one. To put it nicely, I felt like a horse's ass, especially because I was very sober on the night in question. During my time without an ID, I though of Jay not being able to take his SATs back in the day pretty often. The knowledge that someone out there has multiple forms of identification and is damn proud of it was the only humor and solace I found in an otherwise shite situation.
Ordinarily, other than naturally feeling like a moron for losing the thing on principle, I wouldn't care much that I didn't have the thing. I mean, it's not like I really drink that often and it would really just be a wasted 18 dollars to replace and a couple of weekends in less commercial hang out settings. However, I, in my infinite wisdom and good fortune lost my lone form of government issued photo ID during a time where I had to cash a check at bank that was not mine, the weekend of my birthday, and St. Patrick's day. Of course, the latter two are occasions where I kind of give myself the green light to dip into the sustination of inebriation, if you will.
Fortunately, after presenting a bank manager with pretty much everything but I signed note from my grandmother, including my social security card and old YCP card, I was able to cash my check and my birthday worked out well too.
I went down to York to see my good friend and former housemate, Rita's art show. She's a tremendous talent and it was awesome to see her work displayed all in one place. I admire her openness about some of her struggles and the positive attitude she maintains in spite of it. We all have our issues, but to present them so honestly while still in a way that people want to learn/hear/see more rather than separate themselves from it is intensely admirable and again, her work is great so it was a pleasure to see it and her, of course. The art show, as great as it was, wound up ending much earlier and with much less fanfare than I kind of expected, so I wound up driving over to the campus simply because it was too early too go back given the small but substantial trip I took to get there. When I got by the CPAC, I saw a sign that said "Dance Showcase" a figured what the heck? and walked in. Lo and behold, Rhapsody, decked out in some very fly new threads is performing on stage. You know I have to hang around now, so I take in the showcase and watch very talented people do dance moves that I would swear I'm capable of completing myself, but they never quite come out that way apparently. I catch up with the group after the show and wind up going to dinner with them (where I had the worst chili ever) and to a small party afterwards. Always great to see my good friends in Rhapsody and the was even a Poppyseed Sullivan sighting on the evening. As the clock struck midnight and my birthday began, they sang a little b-day ditty for me and we continued the carousing. Renee was kind enough to let me crash on her couch for the night and the next day I had the pleasure of seeing Nick Lynam's sax recital before meeting Sharnell and Brian for a wonderful birthday dinner. A very cultural weekend, if I do say so myself.
Times with Sharnell and Brian always feel worthy of a blog post in themselves. I can think of few other people I get around and laugh more constantly with. I thank them for spending the evening with me. A lone downside of the birthday had to be me accidentally making a small child cry. Apparently, he was staring at me pretty constantly ever since I walked in. I didn't know this and at one point made a very angry face out of jest and suddenly this poor kid to my left is wailing. Not since I knocked over that drink at the Tara Inn (almost reported in the Patch by Rich Arleo) did I feel so bad in the wake of being funny. Fortunately the kid relaxed and continued to watch me like a hawk. Needless to say, for the remainder of the night, I was extra cognisant of my surroundings.
This past weekend was St. Patrick's Day. Without an ID, hanging around here was out of the question and I didn't want to be the one guy in York who couldn't go to the bar. I didn't want to put my friends in the situation of having to stay with me, so I decided to make the trip to Eastern and visit my cousin. Eastern is a fine upstanding Christian school with about as much enthusiasm for St. Patrick's Day as Bosnia. Nonetheless, it was great to see Nick again and trade some stories and ideas the way we never really get the chance to when the family gets together. He seems like his head's on straight and he has good friends, which is all you can ask of a college experience. The institution itself seems a little tight and while I very much believe in God, I think they put a little too much emphasis in living God's way rather than finding your own. Personally, I don't see how you can invest yourself so fully in an idea without first knowing what it's like outside of it. Sean Gallagher put it best: If your religion doesn't leave you with as many questions as answers, your eyes are closed to something. "Eyes closed" is a bit of a vague analogy, but without its scapegoating powers, we're looking at a very different blog post. Just to be clear, I'm not painting my cousin with this broad brush, nor a lot of the people I met, just kind of the tone of the school as I gathered. We saw Project X together at the King of Prussia mall of speculative Phish lore (better movie than I thought, by the way) then we played some basketball with his friends the next day. A top notch visit in my opinion.
I got my ID in the mail yesterday, now that the birthday and St. Patty's are behind us. Regarding the job, I continue to get to know good people and find ways to brighten the days of myself and others while still working hard and staying humble. Like I said, I think my work ethic and ability to learn is apparent and this past week I had the ultimate chance to showcase my personality in a professional setting by writing a March Madness themed blog that has been well-received by friends and colleagues alike. Doing my best to bring some levity to the restaurant business, if that's what the powers that be are looking for, dare I say my future in the industry is bright.
I feel like this post is the equivalent of the first 50 pages of a novel where nothing really happens and they just kind of set the stage for the real action to start. Thank you for bearing with that as I skim and skip some stories and great times simply to give you all some context for future posts that I hope will come more often now that this grunt work is done.
Song of the Day: Rock N' Roll-Phish
Jazz Song of the Day: Winter Wind-Gretchen Parlato
With that said, I do have a Jeremy Lin article more or less complete, but by now it's outdated and likely won't see the light of Internet. Also, I think I'm still hip enough to the jive to analyze trade deadline moves, so I may well try whittle that out early next week. By mid-April, when I have some funds to wield, I'm hoping to invest in NBA League Pass online just in time for the playoff push. I definitely care too much about the game to let it slip away from me like it has the past few weeks.
Speaking of basketball, I've started going to a league on Monday nights. It's an indoor league, which came in handy while it was still cold, at this church about 20 minutes away. One of my co-workers was kind enough to put me on to the meeting and I've gone two of the three Mondays I was aware of it. The crowd is solid. It's a nice blend of skill levels and the cats there are competitive, but have a lot of fun with it. I'm really fortunate to have fallen into it. As I said, the games take place at a church and I think the league has kind of a tone of "God's community playing basketball" I don't know for sure if it's that kind of deal, but even if it is that's not really negative. I just notice that the in-game and post game chatter in not like some of the other pick up games I've hopped in on (not the "white boy can ball up in this bitch" that I got yesterday). There was also a point that I semi-shouted "shit" after throwing a bad pass and the place kind of got pretty quiet for a beat or two. It freaked me out a little bit considering the church, like a lot of things in PA, is in the middle of nowhere, you never know what can happen. With the exception of that minor linguistic hiccup, everyone has been really cool about getting to know me and vice versa and quite honestly, my game has been at a pretty high level of late (which surprises me, given my sedentary weekdays), which makes socializing on the court pretty easy.
One of the first things I set my mind to when I pulled in to the Lanc was to settle into a watering hole. On the evening I arrived, I asked my landlord where the Knicks were playing on TV. She answered, "The House of Pizza" and I haven't looked back since. Now, it's tough to paint a picture of this place. A very eccentric place where I'm usually the minority in about as many ways as you can think of, but the food is good and cheap, they play the games on TV, and I've had the pleasure of meeting some of the wildest characters. I've met some of my new friends there, too, don't get me wrong, but there are some nuts there, too. This one guy said "Boom, boom, boom" after every sip he took and sentence he spoke, I was hit on blatantly by two gay men (and no it's not that kind of bar) had a talk with this guy lamenting the fact that he just got convicted for his umpteenth DWI and was going to get jail time as he ordered his beer. I've also met a few new people I look forward to getting to know from a local college and traded life stories and philosophies with this train conductor, Tavis, which turned into one of the deepest conversations I've had in a long time. Simply put, for better or worse, there's no telling what you'll see or talk about when you head in there and I'm a fan of that element of surprise.
For a while, my Tuesday-Thursday evenings were looking pretty bleak, I admit. I even resorted to doing a full-fledged art project for the first time since I made Oscar the Grouch out of pipe cleaners last summer, but with the warm weather coming and me growing into my own socially around here at last, things are looking up. In addition, as I think I mentioned before, I'm going to start semi-frequenting a couple of weekly open mics to see if I can start performing poetry and music again. I miss that a great deal as well.
Weekend wise, I spend most time in York, I'm starting to have some people and places to see around here as well, which is exciting. Although, the weekend after my first week of work, when I decided to stay in Lancaster to see some people from work and Kevin, who was in the area, the already infamous Brickyard (your typical let's wear the tightest clothes we can and rub up against strangers on the dancefloor spot) claimed another victim as I lost my ID. Because of the way my wallet is laid out, (trust me on this one, I'm not as much of an idiot as it sounds like) I didn't even notice I'd lost it until a couple days later when I went to visit the equally infamous Jade in York and the.....sigh....infamous Murph's Study Hall. By the time I went retraced my steps over where I'd been that night, it was too late and I never found the ID and had to order a new one. To put it nicely, I felt like a horse's ass, especially because I was very sober on the night in question. During my time without an ID, I though of Jay not being able to take his SATs back in the day pretty often. The knowledge that someone out there has multiple forms of identification and is damn proud of it was the only humor and solace I found in an otherwise shite situation.
Ordinarily, other than naturally feeling like a moron for losing the thing on principle, I wouldn't care much that I didn't have the thing. I mean, it's not like I really drink that often and it would really just be a wasted 18 dollars to replace and a couple of weekends in less commercial hang out settings. However, I, in my infinite wisdom and good fortune lost my lone form of government issued photo ID during a time where I had to cash a check at bank that was not mine, the weekend of my birthday, and St. Patrick's day. Of course, the latter two are occasions where I kind of give myself the green light to dip into the sustination of inebriation, if you will.
Fortunately, after presenting a bank manager with pretty much everything but I signed note from my grandmother, including my social security card and old YCP card, I was able to cash my check and my birthday worked out well too.
I went down to York to see my good friend and former housemate, Rita's art show. She's a tremendous talent and it was awesome to see her work displayed all in one place. I admire her openness about some of her struggles and the positive attitude she maintains in spite of it. We all have our issues, but to present them so honestly while still in a way that people want to learn/hear/see more rather than separate themselves from it is intensely admirable and again, her work is great so it was a pleasure to see it and her, of course. The art show, as great as it was, wound up ending much earlier and with much less fanfare than I kind of expected, so I wound up driving over to the campus simply because it was too early too go back given the small but substantial trip I took to get there. When I got by the CPAC, I saw a sign that said "Dance Showcase" a figured what the heck? and walked in. Lo and behold, Rhapsody, decked out in some very fly new threads is performing on stage. You know I have to hang around now, so I take in the showcase and watch very talented people do dance moves that I would swear I'm capable of completing myself, but they never quite come out that way apparently. I catch up with the group after the show and wind up going to dinner with them (where I had the worst chili ever) and to a small party afterwards. Always great to see my good friends in Rhapsody and the was even a Poppyseed Sullivan sighting on the evening. As the clock struck midnight and my birthday began, they sang a little b-day ditty for me and we continued the carousing. Renee was kind enough to let me crash on her couch for the night and the next day I had the pleasure of seeing Nick Lynam's sax recital before meeting Sharnell and Brian for a wonderful birthday dinner. A very cultural weekend, if I do say so myself.
Times with Sharnell and Brian always feel worthy of a blog post in themselves. I can think of few other people I get around and laugh more constantly with. I thank them for spending the evening with me. A lone downside of the birthday had to be me accidentally making a small child cry. Apparently, he was staring at me pretty constantly ever since I walked in. I didn't know this and at one point made a very angry face out of jest and suddenly this poor kid to my left is wailing. Not since I knocked over that drink at the Tara Inn (almost reported in the Patch by Rich Arleo) did I feel so bad in the wake of being funny. Fortunately the kid relaxed and continued to watch me like a hawk. Needless to say, for the remainder of the night, I was extra cognisant of my surroundings.
This past weekend was St. Patrick's Day. Without an ID, hanging around here was out of the question and I didn't want to be the one guy in York who couldn't go to the bar. I didn't want to put my friends in the situation of having to stay with me, so I decided to make the trip to Eastern and visit my cousin. Eastern is a fine upstanding Christian school with about as much enthusiasm for St. Patrick's Day as Bosnia. Nonetheless, it was great to see Nick again and trade some stories and ideas the way we never really get the chance to when the family gets together. He seems like his head's on straight and he has good friends, which is all you can ask of a college experience. The institution itself seems a little tight and while I very much believe in God, I think they put a little too much emphasis in living God's way rather than finding your own. Personally, I don't see how you can invest yourself so fully in an idea without first knowing what it's like outside of it. Sean Gallagher put it best: If your religion doesn't leave you with as many questions as answers, your eyes are closed to something. "Eyes closed" is a bit of a vague analogy, but without its scapegoating powers, we're looking at a very different blog post. Just to be clear, I'm not painting my cousin with this broad brush, nor a lot of the people I met, just kind of the tone of the school as I gathered. We saw Project X together at the King of Prussia mall of speculative Phish lore (better movie than I thought, by the way) then we played some basketball with his friends the next day. A top notch visit in my opinion.
I got my ID in the mail yesterday, now that the birthday and St. Patty's are behind us. Regarding the job, I continue to get to know good people and find ways to brighten the days of myself and others while still working hard and staying humble. Like I said, I think my work ethic and ability to learn is apparent and this past week I had the ultimate chance to showcase my personality in a professional setting by writing a March Madness themed blog that has been well-received by friends and colleagues alike. Doing my best to bring some levity to the restaurant business, if that's what the powers that be are looking for, dare I say my future in the industry is bright.
I feel like this post is the equivalent of the first 50 pages of a novel where nothing really happens and they just kind of set the stage for the real action to start. Thank you for bearing with that as I skim and skip some stories and great times simply to give you all some context for future posts that I hope will come more often now that this grunt work is done.
Song of the Day: Rock N' Roll-Phish
Jazz Song of the Day: Winter Wind-Gretchen Parlato
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
More Amusing Than Mangoes, Oui?
College life and lack of anything more to say than "daily summaries" have prevented me from posting as often as I'd like.
With that said, it's good to be back at York, and with the exception of feeling like your personal preference of human waste this weekend, York being a pain in the ass about scheduling this year's Rhapsody concert, and charging a phantom 60 bucks to graduate (not including the fee for cap and gown), it's been a lot of fun to catch up with good friends and get back in the habits of singing with Rhapsody, DJing for "Fanfare" and "Corn" respectively, and being productive in the way of schoolwork. I've also picked up a weekly NBA column for the school's newspaper. My first article focused on some of the more underrated players in the NBA with a focus on the Clip-Show's Eric Gordon. I feel like it came out awesome.
Obviously, it's a subject matter I really enjoy, but what I think I really like about my articles is that I genuinely believe that no one in the world can present the information like I can. In short, I write sports articles in a manner that makes them at least semi-enjoyable and interesting to even those who don't follow the respective sport. It's this unique style of presentation that makes me believe that I may have a real future in this in some medium on some level.
Two things of note, but not worth a paragraph:
1. Going to see the Knicks play the Sixers on Friday with the Kernel and, hopefully, Gloves. Should be a great time. Both teams are much improved from last season, and the Sixers have really been hitting a stride of late. The Knicks have been a bit inconsistent, but are coming off a nice Mozgov-fueled trouncing of the Pistons.
2. Found some old Rhapsody shirts from about 2003. They're hideous. No wonder there were so many extras. I admit I got us shirts that might as well be sails for sea travel, or a light blanket to snuggle under with your significant other in the summertime, but at least they were fly looking. I think any Rhapsodian would at least grant me that.
Advice of Day: When extolling the virtues of humility, always consider your audience.
Thought of the Day: For my Senior Seminar class, I'm reading a book entitled, The War Against Grammar, by David Mulroy. This book, at least to this point, focuses primarily on why the American educational system has suffered since the adoption of the mindset that grammar is not only unimportant to writing, but impedes the writing process. This is not an argument a necessarily disagree with, but I do take issue with his thoughts regarding the study of Foreign Languages in college. I'll start with one thing he said which I agree with:
1. Efforts to maintain interest in foreign language courses have resulted in content centered more around culture than the fundamentals of that language, and quite honestly, the relatively global grammar rules. This does nothing but perpetuate the perpetuate the problem that actual language/grammar is not being taught and, consequently, learned. (Paraphrased, of course)
However, his reasoning for why enrollments in foreign language courses is as follows:
"My hypothesis is that the problem lies not in the way that languages were or are taught in college, but in the fact that fewer students are given the foundation in grammar in grade school that is necessary to succeed in the later study of a foreign language, however it is taught." (13)
To be frank, I think this hypothesis is totally bogus. Mulroy himself states that enrollments in Spanish courses have remained constant in terms of percentage of total college population enrolled while...
"In terms of absolute numbers, there were 189,032 fewer American college students taking French in 1198 than in 1968 even though the college population had increased by more than seven million. Similarly, there were 127,253 fewer taking German and 16, 905 fewer taking Russian. Between 1965 and 1998, there was a decline of 17,553 students studying classical languages, while the pool of college students increased by nine million." (12)
Mulroy's reasoning for Spanish study remaining constant? "Spanish has long enjoyed a reputation on American campuses as being the easiest of the foreign languages to learn as well as the most usable." (12) Mulroy, in my opinion, implies that Spanish is foreign language of the simpletons and seems to bypass what I consider to be the most important point of his sentence, and indeed, his entire argument. Spanish is the most usable.
As much as the idea that the study of these languages is falling by the wayside is unfortunate and borderline heartbreaking (says the former student of both French and Italian, but before you get too impressed, I'd like to note that was tres mal at French) let's view this conundrum in a practical light.
With the amount of money the average student spends on higher education, he or she is going to invest their time and energy into the study of something that can be useful or lucrative to them in the future (too often those two words come to be considered synonymous). I admit to being no expert, but that essentially means that unless you plan to teach the language or work in the area where that language is prevalent, the languages are rendered monetarily useless. This point of view is quite cynical I admit, but it's also not entirely false. In my opinion, enrollment in Spanish courses has remained constant due to the language quickly becoming more and more prominent as a fixture of American interaction. Becoming bilingual in English and Spanish has become not exactly essential to life in this country, but it is a heck of a feather in your cap in certain areas of the professional world (public relations, police work, and pretty much any other profession that starts with a "p" to name a couple) especially in the south and in metropolitan areas throughout the nation. There's no real use for those other languages in the workplace except for very specific circumstances.
Furthermore, judging by conversations had with business minded peers, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see the amount of American students learning to speak Mandarin increase dramatically over the coming years, as China continues its economic prosperity, and Mandarin continues to become the language of business. The desire/need to learn foreign language is indeed still present in America. However, students today are realistic enough to have a end-game or goal for their foreign language education. A goal that evidently cannot be fulfilled by German, and the romantic languages.
I feel as though Mulroy is overlooking some arguably more important cultural reasons for the decline in collegiate foreign language study.
Song of the Day: Two Step - Dave Matthews Band (The '95 version with the Boyd intro and rockin' Tim jam with more subtle percussive presence from Carter than more recent incarnations.) THAT'S A FRAGMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jazz Song of the Day: You Are Too Beautiful - Thelonious Monk
With that said, it's good to be back at York, and with the exception of feeling like your personal preference of human waste this weekend, York being a pain in the ass about scheduling this year's Rhapsody concert, and charging a phantom 60 bucks to graduate (not including the fee for cap and gown), it's been a lot of fun to catch up with good friends and get back in the habits of singing with Rhapsody, DJing for "Fanfare" and "Corn" respectively, and being productive in the way of schoolwork. I've also picked up a weekly NBA column for the school's newspaper. My first article focused on some of the more underrated players in the NBA with a focus on the Clip-Show's Eric Gordon. I feel like it came out awesome.
Obviously, it's a subject matter I really enjoy, but what I think I really like about my articles is that I genuinely believe that no one in the world can present the information like I can. In short, I write sports articles in a manner that makes them at least semi-enjoyable and interesting to even those who don't follow the respective sport. It's this unique style of presentation that makes me believe that I may have a real future in this in some medium on some level.
Two things of note, but not worth a paragraph:
1. Going to see the Knicks play the Sixers on Friday with the Kernel and, hopefully, Gloves. Should be a great time. Both teams are much improved from last season, and the Sixers have really been hitting a stride of late. The Knicks have been a bit inconsistent, but are coming off a nice Mozgov-fueled trouncing of the Pistons.
2. Found some old Rhapsody shirts from about 2003. They're hideous. No wonder there were so many extras. I admit I got us shirts that might as well be sails for sea travel, or a light blanket to snuggle under with your significant other in the summertime, but at least they were fly looking. I think any Rhapsodian would at least grant me that.
Advice of Day: When extolling the virtues of humility, always consider your audience.
Thought of the Day: For my Senior Seminar class, I'm reading a book entitled, The War Against Grammar, by David Mulroy. This book, at least to this point, focuses primarily on why the American educational system has suffered since the adoption of the mindset that grammar is not only unimportant to writing, but impedes the writing process. This is not an argument a necessarily disagree with, but I do take issue with his thoughts regarding the study of Foreign Languages in college. I'll start with one thing he said which I agree with:
1. Efforts to maintain interest in foreign language courses have resulted in content centered more around culture than the fundamentals of that language, and quite honestly, the relatively global grammar rules. This does nothing but perpetuate the perpetuate the problem that actual language/grammar is not being taught and, consequently, learned. (Paraphrased, of course)
However, his reasoning for why enrollments in foreign language courses is as follows:
"My hypothesis is that the problem lies not in the way that languages were or are taught in college, but in the fact that fewer students are given the foundation in grammar in grade school that is necessary to succeed in the later study of a foreign language, however it is taught." (13)
To be frank, I think this hypothesis is totally bogus. Mulroy himself states that enrollments in Spanish courses have remained constant in terms of percentage of total college population enrolled while...
"In terms of absolute numbers, there were 189,032 fewer American college students taking French in 1198 than in 1968 even though the college population had increased by more than seven million. Similarly, there were 127,253 fewer taking German and 16, 905 fewer taking Russian. Between 1965 and 1998, there was a decline of 17,553 students studying classical languages, while the pool of college students increased by nine million." (12)
Mulroy's reasoning for Spanish study remaining constant? "Spanish has long enjoyed a reputation on American campuses as being the easiest of the foreign languages to learn as well as the most usable." (12) Mulroy, in my opinion, implies that Spanish is foreign language of the simpletons and seems to bypass what I consider to be the most important point of his sentence, and indeed, his entire argument. Spanish is the most usable.
As much as the idea that the study of these languages is falling by the wayside is unfortunate and borderline heartbreaking (says the former student of both French and Italian, but before you get too impressed, I'd like to note that was tres mal at French) let's view this conundrum in a practical light.
With the amount of money the average student spends on higher education, he or she is going to invest their time and energy into the study of something that can be useful or lucrative to them in the future (too often those two words come to be considered synonymous). I admit to being no expert, but that essentially means that unless you plan to teach the language or work in the area where that language is prevalent, the languages are rendered monetarily useless. This point of view is quite cynical I admit, but it's also not entirely false. In my opinion, enrollment in Spanish courses has remained constant due to the language quickly becoming more and more prominent as a fixture of American interaction. Becoming bilingual in English and Spanish has become not exactly essential to life in this country, but it is a heck of a feather in your cap in certain areas of the professional world (public relations, police work, and pretty much any other profession that starts with a "p" to name a couple) especially in the south and in metropolitan areas throughout the nation. There's no real use for those other languages in the workplace except for very specific circumstances.
Furthermore, judging by conversations had with business minded peers, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see the amount of American students learning to speak Mandarin increase dramatically over the coming years, as China continues its economic prosperity, and Mandarin continues to become the language of business. The desire/need to learn foreign language is indeed still present in America. However, students today are realistic enough to have a end-game or goal for their foreign language education. A goal that evidently cannot be fulfilled by German, and the romantic languages.
I feel as though Mulroy is overlooking some arguably more important cultural reasons for the decline in collegiate foreign language study.
Song of the Day: Two Step - Dave Matthews Band (The '95 version with the Boyd intro and rockin' Tim jam with more subtle percussive presence from Carter than more recent incarnations.) THAT'S A FRAGMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jazz Song of the Day: You Are Too Beautiful - Thelonious Monk
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Light Reading
I've been taking a look at my Non- Designer's Web Book (which for the sake of not receiving carpal tunnel at an unfortunately early age, will henceforth be referred to as NDWB) and noticing what makes web design good and bad. I took look at the only website I really visit on a daily basis, nba.com to see how it related to the text.
Overall, I really enjoyed the layout of their homepage. There is a lot going on for sure, but it is spaced out pretty nicely. The homepage slams your senses with pictures concerning the top stories in the league. Currently, Andrew Bynum's 47 point night in Indy, where the defense is about as a Temprupedic mattress, (Guess who needs a nap) and the pending announcement of All-Star reserves. If you scroll down a bit video highlights are available, as well as a poll question, and various blogs from player and analysts that you can connect to. Apparently this blog thing is catching on....
At the top of the page there are various headings where you can look up teams, stats, standings, players, etc. As you navigate through the site, these links are always present in the same spot at the top of the page. Which is great so that you always know where you are and can get to different places on the site with ease. The sight is well aligned and layed out. The only issue I have is the lack of contrast in the game listings at the top of the homepage. The light and dark grey define whether a game is happening today or tomorrow. These colors are not the easiest to tell apart. Also as you scroll through the games, the respective lines stay on the screen, even when you are not looking at the games of that day. (This is hard to verbally explain) In short, I can see a person getting confused as to what day a specific game is occurring. With that said, I'm well used to it by now, and it only took a couple of minutes to get used too.
Go Mavs tonight.
Overall, I really enjoyed the layout of their homepage. There is a lot going on for sure, but it is spaced out pretty nicely. The homepage slams your senses with pictures concerning the top stories in the league. Currently, Andrew Bynum's 47 point night in Indy, where the defense is about as a Temprupedic mattress, (Guess who needs a nap) and the pending announcement of All-Star reserves. If you scroll down a bit video highlights are available, as well as a poll question, and various blogs from player and analysts that you can connect to. Apparently this blog thing is catching on....
At the top of the page there are various headings where you can look up teams, stats, standings, players, etc. As you navigate through the site, these links are always present in the same spot at the top of the page. Which is great so that you always know where you are and can get to different places on the site with ease. The sight is well aligned and layed out. The only issue I have is the lack of contrast in the game listings at the top of the homepage. The light and dark grey define whether a game is happening today or tomorrow. These colors are not the easiest to tell apart. Also as you scroll through the games, the respective lines stay on the screen, even when you are not looking at the games of that day. (This is hard to verbally explain) In short, I can see a person getting confused as to what day a specific game is occurring. With that said, I'm well used to it by now, and it only took a couple of minutes to get used too.
Go Mavs tonight.
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