My Earth Hour

View 1, from my window.



View 2, thinking about blogging.

Not pictured: bag of pita chips, tub of hummus.

*Sigh*

Being home alone 80% of the time is nice at first, but it gets too damn quiet around here. Ate Jen's always hard at work at her clinicals into late night hours, Mom's always working, and Dad's away still. I miss him a lot too, so I figured I post this:



I love this song. Here's to more family togetherness soon.

Opening Day.....Hurry Up!

The countdown to Opening Day is in 18 days and 19 hours, and I really can't wait for it to get here. I'm 100% certain my mood will pick up once baseball rolls around. Speaking of which, I just got out of a live draft for my fantasy baseball team (yes, I am a nerd). I'm pretty proud of my lineup, in particular my pitching staff. Here it is:

Catcher - Joe Mauer (Minnesota Twins)
1st Base - Kevin Youkillis (Boston Red Sox)
2nd Base - Chase Utley (Philadelphia Phillies)
3rd Base- Chipper Jones (Atlanta Braves)
Shortstop - J.J. Hardy (Milwaukee Brewers)
Outfield - Grady Sizemore (Cleveland Indians), Shane Victorino (Philadelphia Phillies), and Mark DeRosa (Cleveland Indians)
Utility - Ryan Theriot & Derrek Lee (Chicago Cubs)

Bench:
Nick Swisher (New York Yankees)
Mike Napoli (Los Angeles Angels)
Ryan Zimmerman (Washington Nationals)
Mike Fontenot (Chicago Cubs)
Andre Ethier (Los Angeles Dodgers)

I recently heard about Youkillis' injury, and I hope he heals soon; same goes for Mauer....

Pitching Staff
The Starters:
Tim Lincecum (San Francisco Giants)
Cole Hamels (Philadelphia Phillies)
Ted Lilly (Chicago Cubs)
Edinson Volquez (Cincinnati Reds)
John Danks (Chicago White Sox)

The 'Pen
Francisco Rodriguez (Los Angeles Angels)
Mariano Rivera (New York Yankees)
Huston Street (Colorado Rockies)

Let's hope these guys post up nice numbers. But we all know it's all about the Cubs :)

Have a good night guys.

Lazy Sunday Evenings...

....such as these rule. For the last few hours, I've been tearing my fingers to the bone, working on Three Mile Bikeride by Craig D'Andrea (almost have it!!!!). My fingertips have been peeling and whatnot. During my breaks, I've been passively watching Apocalypto (holy crapolas, what an awesome movie), That Thing You Do! (shut up), and Mythbusters. Anything BUT doing my homework; I could really care less about it right now, I mean, I completed my paper draft which is due tomorrow, and I worry about nothing in my other classes, seeing that I just took midterms for them 2 weeks ago. Speaking of which, my Spring Break is over already. A few reasons why that sucks:

-It's over, and it felt/was waaay too short
-My friends start coming home as early as this week
-I don't want to go to school yet

The next time I have a break is around Easter, so I shouldn't complain. But whatever, I'll do what I want!

After a somewhat horrendous day at the CBC, I got a haircut at my favorite Hair Cuttery by my workplace. Vanessa did a stand up job as always. But as my hair dried from my shower, I couldn't help but try and mess with it a bit. Unfortunately, I wound up looking several things: 1) Moe, of Three Stooges fame, 2) an Asian anchorman, and 3) a horrible Beatles impersonator. I see myself wearing a hat many times this week. I won't have too much to worry about though, my hair grows real quick.

Another thing that concerns me, but shouldn't: the Cubs' progress in Spring Training. Sure, we're down a few guys due to trades and the WBC. That, and there's about 60 people at camp, so everyone gets a chance to play; especially the dudes in our farm system. But I think we've lost 6 straight games up to this point. Like I said before, it shouldn't worry me (we finished 15-15 in the Cactus League last year, and wound up winning the NL Central Division), but I just can't help it. Bradley's hurt, Soriano's swatting at everything and can't seem to make key defensive stops, and D.Lee hasn't hit for extra bases this Spring (as far as I know). On the bright side, our starting pitchers seem to be doing well, and a few people have been showing they're ready (Theriot, in particular). I guess you could say I'm too excited for Opening Day.

I'm hoping for a relaxing week back to school, despite a small midterm on Friday. I KNOW I'm going to kick some ass on that one.

Well, back to guitarring.

Now, Where Was I?

Oh yeah. The last post was kind of a tease, not going to lie. But I'm going to try and get back into the swing of things here. I miss this!

I've been on Spring Break for the past week. Funny how I really haven't had much time to write in this either, given all my free time. Let's just say that this semester (or year, come to think of it) has been the busiest one for me yet. The whole month of February was kind of a whirlwind for me, especially at school. Projects (recycling for my Human Impact on the Environment class), papers, theory dictations (SATB arrangements! w00t!), and exams were all involved in the mix, plus dealing with the crazy commute home from my 7-9:30 PM night class downtown. Although, I do get to see some interesting characters on the El. Anyway, there really wasn't a lot of times where I wasn't studying or doing something school related. But hey, all the hard work is paying off!

A couple more things:

Dad's in the Philippines for business, again. But this time, he won't be back until mid-April. I have to be the man of the house and the head of "security detail." I'm getting used to it, but I miss my Pop, especially because my Mom has been working overtime lately, and my sister is busy with her last year of nursing classes, and getting ready for graduation (!!!). Our schedules are insane. Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen my sister in like...1 and a 1/2 days. Weird.

There's this girl at school that I've been getting to know better recently. Her name is Nadia, and she is pretty awesome. But more on her later...

Last Friday, I was lucky enough to see this man:


Andy McKee! That's a harp guitar he's using, and it sounds pretty sexy. If you haven't heard of him, go on YouTube, and look up his name, now. One of his videos ("Drifting") has over 19 million hits, and with good reason. I saw him at Schubas, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite venues in the city. It's small and intimate, and the acoustics are great. But yeah, I was lucky enough to meet him after the show, get an autograph (or two) and get my photo taken with him. The photo I speak of is currently the obligatory Facebook profile picture. But yeah, Andy is one of the coolest musicians out there; he's really humble and honest. He spoke with all his fans after the show, and even had a few drinks with them. And goddamn, he can really work his way with open tunings.

Speaking of open tunings, I've been listening to a lot of Craig D'Andrea as of late, and I'm working on learning Three Mile Bike Ride by ear. It's...beautifully haunting in a way. Check it out!




Oh! And let's not forget about one minor detail:


That's right folks, baseball is (almost) here! And the Cubs Spring Training? Let's just say that when I saw the Cubs and Sox square off on Wednesday night on TV, I felt re-energized, even more so when the pitchers and catchers reported to camp the day before Valentine's Day. Anyway, despite our 7-6 loss that night, I was just too happy/ecstatic that baseball was back on the air, and it reminded me that Opening Day is just around the corner. Speaking of the Cubs, I acquired tickets on Wednesday also. Life is a whole lot better when you have Cubs tickets. :D I got them for Nadia and I; we're going to a Padres night game, in hopes of seeing Jake Peavy and getting some cotton candy. Plus, it's been a few years since she's been to a game where she doesn't have to work at Wrigley/is a customer so I'm really looking forward to it! It's in May, but hey, now I have even more to look forward to!

Speaking of Nadia, we watched Coraline yesterday night. In glorious 3-D! The move pretty much confirms my beliefs that 1) Teri Hatcher IS evil, 2) Claymation isn't a dying art, as some people have said, and 3) music can really do a number on one's mood. Honestly, within the first minutes of the movie, I was hooked. The music was so....eerily whimsical; I felt like I was in a video game. Plus, They Might Be Giants does a song in the movie, and I was stoked about that! The animation was spectacular and Dakota Fanning did a nice job, partly because I didn't actually see her. lolz. A very good film, I definitely recommend it. The rest of the night consisted of eating dinner at Red Robin, where my ex-CBC manager is now working. I said hi to him, and he wound up taking care of our bill; it was quite a pleasant surprise! We also drove. A lot. I showed her my neighborhood and my old stomping grounds at Pats. Then I drove her home. It was a great and relaxing evening. We're not technically dating, but yesterday night definitely was one. In my book, anyway; she thinks so too. :D Come to think of it, I'm kinda slow to pull the trigger on asking a girl out, but maybe that'll change very soon.

So it is now Friday. The sun is out, the weather is beautiful, and I only have today to enjoy the rest of my break, because Saturday = weekend/work/write papers/read for school. It sucks too, because my friends are coming home the week I go back to class. Lame! Looks like I will probably go downtown to walk and enjoy the sounds of the city. Or, stay at home, make a pizza, and watch Ratatouille for the 14th time. Damn, I love that movie.

Oh, and one more thing. I got new glasses on Monday! I think they're pretty sharp.
I'll do my best to keep this up, now that baseball is coming around and I have even more to talk about. Wish me luck!