Friday

Hmm.. My posts are starting to get further and further apart. I dont think its lack of interest in posting, more of just having more stuff to do now that school is going on. Well, Roger Federer destroyed Andy Roddick and will be facing Rafael Nadal is the Aussie Final. It should be a great match althought it took Nadal 5 long, hard sets and the longest match in Aussie open history to advance. Im hoping his match against Fernando Verdasco wore him out. Got to play Rock Band today with Rob (Sister's bf) which was a lot of fun. He got his Xbox back from being repaired. What else.. about finished with my online class and a new one starts monday. Went out to dinner with a friend tonight.. was good to see her haven't talked to her much lately. Tried to get her to see John Legend with me, which she initially agreed too but then realized she is going to be out of town. Not much going on otherwise, playing tennis tomorrow night after work, which im excited about. Have to finish up some homework that is due wednesday. Super Bowl is on sunday... I hope Arizona wins; Im not a huge Pittsburgh Steeler fan. I have been playing a lot of Halo lately too which has been fun. Hmm... I guess thats about it for now, take care everyone!

Yesterday was one of the greatest sports days to be me!

First, Uconn's Mens basketball team which is ranked #3 in the nation beat #19 Notre Dame at Notre Dame. They won by about ten points and this is huge because Notre Dame had the nation's longest home winning streak at 45 games. It was a great win and since the #1 team lost last week, Uconn should be ranked #2 just behind the hated Duke Blue Devils. Next, Uconn's Womens basketball team which is ranked #1 and has been all year rolled up poor Cincinatti by about 35 points. Things are looking good for Uconn basketball, especially the women who have not lost all year and beat the #2 ranked North Carolina by about 30. The men have only lost once, so things are looking good.

Then, I went and played Tennis with my friend John and FINALLY figured out how to spin the ball in on my serve. Its more a slider spin then the traditional top spin the pros use as there second serve. But, when I got it in John had some trouble returning it, so I played fairly well and Im getting better. I just dont get my backhand right now though, it consistantly floats out of the court. That is easily the worst part of my game right now and I need to figure out how to make it better. Also, I hit some flat serves with more velocity and some pretty good forehands. I even landed a drop shot on him, so things are improving there.

Finally, I get home to Watch Roger Federer (above) play Tomas Berdych in the fourth round of the Aussie Open. They have played 8 times, Roger has only lost once it was the very first time they played at the 2004 olympics. Berdych won the first two sets and Roger managed to come back and win the last 3 sets to win the match. Besides the Wimbledon final last year, it was one of the best matches I have seen. All in all it was a good day. Im just working on some football stuff right now (watching film) and im excited that ill be playing tennis again tonight at 5. See you later

Crazy Week

Lets see.. I played Tennis last Sunday night. I found out on Monday that John Legend is going to be performing in Indio on Valentine's Day. Im so pumped he is one of my favorite singers so I will definately be there. I just need to find someone to go with me haha. School was good this week, had a big presentation on Wednesday that my group nailed. Tuesday night, my uncle and his girlfriend took me out in palm desert and I met Anthony Kim. He is a famous golfer, he bought us shots, i got his autograph, picture with him and I even sang kareoke with him haha. I have never sang Kareoke before that night but I did it 3 times that night and it was fun. He was hella nice and down-to-earth and so were all the people he was with. I talked to his trainer for like 30 minutes and he was cool too. I got him # and gave him a ring last night but I doubt he will call me back. He is hella busy and probably has a million people bothering him. It was a good night though.

I went to Anaheim today and had lunch with Dennis, an old buddy with Winchester. He came to Disneyland with him family for one of his son's birthdays. Its always fun to chat with Dennis, he is funny as hell. Everything is good besides all that too, school is good, and my workout/cardio/nutrition deal for spring break is going well too. Anyways, talk to you soon.

Plans Plans Plans

Lets see: Im going to try like a laundry list type post to see how this goes instead of my traditional blog.

1. Just finished my online hw and reading for my master's classes while I was here at work.
2. I went to My first lakers game last night, a tennis buddy (Omar) brought me on his field trip with his class it was pretty awesome and a good game. Lakers lost (sorry for all you lakers fans)
3. Trying to get my dad to take some time off so I can fly him to Dublin for like 4 days for his 50th birthday. I want to do something big that he will never forget.
4. I have monday off of schools because of Martin Luther King day... Yay!
5. Im playing tennis tonight with my other tennis buddy John at 6pm which will be fun since I haven't played since last Sat. or Sun. I think.

Well that worked pretty good, don't think I will be doing it permanently, but its a nice change up. Oh yeah watched "Memoirs of a Geisha" yesterday-today; LOVE that movie. In other big news.. well I guess that is it for now. Don't know if I mentioned it but getting ready for cancun im working out and doing cardio 3 days a week so 6 days im active and I take sundays off. Im also writing down my workouts and everything I eat in a journal. First week went well so far, after this 9 to go... See you soon.

Thursday..

Thursday is by far the best day of the week.. Why? because I don't have school or work! lol not that my work is very hard. Well the only two big things going on right now are 1. me getting ready for Cancun, and 2. I had my first week of classes. Im doing a cardio/work out/nutrition program for the ten weeks leading up to Cancun. I want to get my chest a little bigger and tone my abs a little bit. As far as school, I think this will be a really easy quarter; my longest paper is going to be 12 pages. Also, there is only a few assignments in each class so it should be good. Two of my professors seems a little boring, so I need to try and stay motivated... Other than that life is good.

Oh yeah! I got my Indian Wells tickets in the mail, so excited for that tournament. My Tuesday night class is out in Palm Desert too so I get to stay at my uncles every week now which will be fun to see him and Jennie. Thats all for now, take care!

BIG TIME!!!

For those of you who do not know what that picture is of, it is where I will be spending my spring break for 5 days and 6 nights, from March 26 (my birthday) to March 31.... CANCUN!!! I am so pumped for this!! It all started with me wanting to do something and go abroad for spring break. I have been checking airfare for a few weeks and trying to decide where I wanted to go. I finally had an idea that it might be fun to go somewhere tropical for spring break since I have never done that; in fact besides going to Maui for a week one summer I haven't been anywhere tropical period. So I called my buddy Matt and after talking about it, planning on a trip to Cabo San Lucas for 6 hours, realizing that wouldn't work, then spending another 6 hours planning a trip to Cancun and finally pulling the trigger on it. This all occurred yesterday too by the way. I am so excited for this trip for a couple of reasons:

1. Gives me motivation to run/lift weights to look good for my birthday and the trip.

2. Gives me something to look forward to after this next quarter of school.

There is so many cool things to do in Cancun.. obviously the nightlife, clubs, bars etc will be awesome. However, there is also snorkel, scuba, atv, horseback riding, beaches(some of the most beautiful white sand beaches and crystal blue water in the world), deep sea fishing, Mayan Ruins, golf, tennis, shopping... and the list goes on and on. My friend Matt doesn't have his passport yet so hes going to get that, which is good because I think everyone should have it. Also his airfare roundtrip out of Sacramento was 430$... pretty cheap and its only going to get more expensive as time goes on. Mine including the hotel booking was like 697$, the flight stand alone was like 320$ so 5 nights at the hotel was only 380$ about 75$ a night which is really cheap for cancun especially on spring break. The brilliant thing too is that we are staying right in the hotel zone which has the best beaches and nightlife.

One last thing about Cancun... our other friend Garrett might come which would be fun and good because the hotel would be cheaper and this is like a once in a lifetime experience.

Hmm, thats my big news for the last 5 days.. My teaching credential class is going and seems pretty good so far; real school starts monday night which will be nice to get back on the grind. Oh, I played tennis tonight and during the day on thursday. I really have improved quite a bit which is nice. My friend I play with is a 4.0 and I actually played a set with him tonight in which I broke him 3 times and held my serve once so I only lost the set 4-6; a big improvement for me! My serves actually are getting better and more consistent as are my groundstrokes.

Well I know this was a long post, but I guess it doesn't matter since no one reads my blog haha. Im just so excited about Cancun. I have a blog I run on my International trips and I might have to bust it out for this trip. Although, this time I don't know if I want some of my older family members reading it haha. Anyways, Im figuring out my workout/training regiment for the next 2.5 months and I AM SO EXCITED FOR CANCUN!!! Talk to you all soon!

$$$

Well I spent a ton of money yesterday and today. Yesterday I bought my tickets for the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament at the end of March. Its right next to my uncle's house in Palm Desert and I bought tickets for 3 days and it cost 140$. I really want to see Roger Federer live though so I don't mind. Today, I bought the rest of my books for school which ran me about 75$ not bad. Thank god for the internet, otherwise school books would be brutal. Then, I bought Rock Band 2 from some guy for 160$ which is about 40$ cheaper than in the stores. THEN, I bought a new phone for a few reasons. First, my contract ran out this month and secondly my old phone was at the point that if I talked on it for more than 20 minutes it would die. Slightly annoying. So I bought a Blackberry Curve which is sick. Ive heard they tend to break but I'll just have to be careful (I bought a holster so it should protect it.

I was wanting to go somewhere this week since its my last week off before school starts, but since I spend so much money I think I will just hang out at home. Im contemplating taking a trip somewhere on my spring break which is the last week of march/first week of april. We will see. I want to travel again. Hm, Europe would be cheapest, well domestic would be then carribbean and central america. I want to go across an ocean though. Oh I played Portal (game on the Orange Box for Xbox) and beat it in like 3 hours. Just a cool puzzle game made by Valve and I started Half-life 2 by the same company. Played Halo for a bit tonight with a buddy, so I haven't even opened up my Rock Band yet haha. Tomorrow though; I'll have to get Shannon and Rob on it so we can play together.

Well thats about it, not sure why im still awake. Just don't feel like sleeping yet. In one of those weird, pondering moods too. Not that its a bad thing, just thinking a lot thats all. :) have a wonderful night.

What a Fiasco

"Fiasco" by Thomas Ricks is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. It describes in depth the American operation in Iraq from before the invasion in 2003 to mid-2006. The amount of detail is insane and for someone who embarrassingly didn't know a ton about the war I learned so much. I really want to look more deeply at the war since mid-2006 too that way I really know what has transpired during the length of the conflict.

Work was nice and easy this weekend; just read and watched football. This next week is my last week off before I start back at school so Im trying to decide what Im going to do. I might go down to San Diego for a night or maybe somewhere else. Also, Im going to try to get up to the Bay Area the weekend of January 23-25 since my buddy from Athens is coming to visit.

I have a few more books I want to finish before break: No Country for Old Men and then the rest of my Euripedes (Ancient Greek Playwright) plays. I know I'll finish No Country, not too sure about the plays though. This is kind of off-subject but I have really been giving thought to pursuing my PhD. When I talked to Jason Stowers when I was up north he suggested if I can keep my grades up. I was considering adding a Political Science class because of this (Although I have already completed my Poli Sci requirement for my Masters degree, if I got a doctorate it would have to be in Poli Sci because History PhD's require competency in like 3 or 4 languages). However, I think that since im already taking 3 classes which is 13 quarter units, I'll wait until a later quarter. Thats all for now, hope everyone is well.

Home Again

Well I left Roseville at 1pm yesterday and made it home by 7:30pm. Pretty good time considering a stopped twice and I had to take I-5 straight to I-10 instead of using the 210 as a interchange. This was because the Rose parade and bowl were yesterday and I figured there would be a ton of traffic. Monday I saw Yes man which was pretty funny; actually that was tuesday night. Monday I don't think I did much since I can't remember. Tuesday morning I bought Fiasco, a really good book about the American War in Iraq that I have been meaning to read for about a year. Im halfway through so far and its really powerful. I also got my hair cut and bought new shoes. Oh yeah monday night, I went to the mall with some buddies and I bought a dress shirt.


Then, on wednesday my little sister had her daugher Maidelein and I'm officially an uncle. Its totally crazy, I can't imagine being a parent right now but I'm glad she has my mom and her boy friend out there to support her. Also on Tuesday I met with Jason Stowers for 3 hours and we talked football and school which was nice. I always enjoy spending time with him and I got to play with his 2 beautiful little daughters which was nice as well. Then wednesday night; me, matt, steve, and steve's gf lauren went to downtown Sac for New Years. It was okay nothing too special. It was just a little anti-climatic I guess haha I was expecting more stuff going on. Then, thursday or yesterday for those of you keeping score at home; I met up with my friend Briana who I had not seen in like a year and a half and we got coffee and chatted for like 2 hours. It was really cool, Briana is the only close friend I made at Sierra College, so it was cool to catch up.


Today, I went to work, read, and now Im just at home watching Utah stomp on Alabama. My dad went riding so he is gone for the weekend. Im probably going to play some video games for a little, shower and read later. Thats about it so I will talk to you later.