July 31, 2007

a kc/'hattan juxtaposition?

so i'm currently updating this mug on my sister's macbook in kc. she's apparently moved into my old room (slash using it as storage for all her pre-leaving-for-college stuff). sometimes it feels strange coming home to kc; it hardly even feels like home anymore. my "room" is basically a closet now and my "bed" is a pull out couch. anything i own that is remotely important to me isn't here - it's in my room in manhattan. basically all this house provides me that i dont have in 'hattan is my family.
well. and copious amounts of food. jackpot.

one of my best friends gets back in town today and i'm about to burst with excitement. she has a macbook too. man i need one of these.

things are changing rapidly now. the first few years of college it was all subtle change - well, i guess i changed a lot as a person early in school - but my surroundings are changing so much faster now i feel like. friends are leaving/coming/disappearing from my life/becoming more important to me by the day.

i think maybe its that th friends i've made in college are nearly as meaningful as the ones i've had my whole life. i used to give them no stock and only consider my TRUE friends the ones i've had forever. kinda neat how things change and such. odd. but neat.

anyway. i'm going to go run some errands now. thats what i do in kc. just get crap done. in manhattan i have to work so hard to fill my free time - here i feel like my days never stop and i dont have any time to spare. (harry potter would NOT have been conquered as quick as it did had i been living in kc...so i guess 'hattan has its perks). weird that i'm favoring manhattan somewhat.

obviously if i had to pick a place to live i'd choose here (kc)...i used to own this city and i never see myself in a city any smaller than this for my life - but for now, while things are changing and people are coming and going so quickly (wizard of oz reference) it's nice to be in a place as stagnant and constant as 'hattan. i dunno. its comforting regardless what else changes.

okay. lunch with my dad and then running errands with anna and then karlie flies into the town.
see? busy busy busy. yes, they're all great things that i have no problem doing - but where on earth would i have time for hp here? i dunno. i love it here. but i'm starting to appreciate being able to sit around and do nothing/play my piano/read about minerva mcgonagall all day.

-ap.

edit: turns out her flight was delayed and life isnt odd or neat. it just sucks.

July 30, 2007

and now a few church signs.









chris brown on sesame steet.



apparently this is supposed to air on August 17.

i am becoming more and more impressed with chris brown every day. i used to just be a "gimme that" and "run it" fan. you know, the type of guy who knows the popular radio songs and has no idea of the true talent behind the studio editing and all. well, i'm not hating on those songs - big fan - but i didnt really realize the stud chris brown is until recently.

not only did he appear for about 4 episodes in one of my favorite tv shows ever (the oc), but i've also discovered that he's got one of the best voices ever. he's like usher and omarion combined...only better. plus he can dance like its no body's business. oh, and he's 18.

anyway. he's dropped his single on itunes already - which i was actually surprised he did after the recent trend in withholding tracks until actual cd releases. but anyway. the single is "wall to wall". if you liked run it and gimme that then you'll like this too, but i encourage you to dive deeper than the radio tracks - cb has style that i think everyone ought to be aware of.

-ap.

July 23, 2007

sexually questionable writing at its finest.

please allow yourself to float into a slightly immature state of mind for this post. thank you.

i came home from campus a few days ago and sat down at my computer screen. i had left my gmail window open and my friend dan had sent me a quote from an mlb.com article on billy butler and the royals. this is the quote:

BOSTON -- Royals manager Buddy Bell was leaning on the batting cage. The sun bathed the greenery of Fenway Park and a breeze stirred through the 70-degree afternoon. A delightful day at the tradition-rich ballpark.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Bell mused.

Bell liked what he was seeing inside the cage, too. Billy Butler, his muscular forearms bulging, was putting wood to maximum use...

that is all. laugh amongst yourselves.

-ap.

laundry.

laundry frustrates me.

the way i figure it - typically the right way - it takes about 2 hours to run a load of laundry through in its entirety: 2 minutes loading, 30-45 minutes washing, 2 minute wash/dryer transfer, 70-90 minutes drying, 5-10 minutes folding (usually the increase in time is directly proportional to the number of hanging items).

and if my totals are correct - which they are - there is a maximum of 14 minutes of the individual's actual involvement in the process (this is assuming they have a plethora of hanging articles also - i usually only have one or two hanging items, so my total is more like 9 minutes).

this means that of the entire laundry procedure = anywhere from 5.6% to 12.8%. my methods for arriving at these percentages is as follows:

P
min = Thands-on min/Ttotal max = 9/159 = 0.056

Pmax = Thands-on max/Ttotal min = 14/109 = 0.128

adam. seriously? who really cares? and i would answer that question but i'm not going to because i think it is both rhetorical and the answer to such a question is already rather obvious at this poing*.

the reason i care is that the other 94.4% of the time you are forced to continue to check your watch and frame your schedule around your dirty clothing. to clarify here: that is 150 minutes of potentially plaguing paranoia (yeah alliteration). laundry ruins my day; i hate having to do it. it wouldn't be so bad if i could just put it in the machine and it would be all done in 150 minutes - but no, i have to come check on it and wait for one cycle to be done so i can move it over into the dryer. i can't just put it in the wash and then go watch Transformers (144 minutes) - i have to sit around the house and worry about it. blah. obnoxious.

(another thing you could do is create multiple blogs throughout the evening to kill the time between cycles. that is what i have elected to do.)

-ap.

* - this is my most common typo. my fingers have been trained to always hit "g" after "in". the "t" totally throws everything off - silly reflexes.

July 20, 2007

HP and the DH: Pre-Game

my plan for harry potter and the deathly hallows:

work until 6:30.
sleep from 7 until 10.
go join the commotion at hasting's until midnight.
recieve my reserved copy of hp7.
read until i work at noon tomorrow.

it did not occur to me, however, that at 9:00 pm my heart would be threatening to burst through my 1980 Hillcrest softball jersey and my head running laps around the JK Rowling hints i read about on wikipedia 7 hours earlier. this is, as you will notice, a severe hindrance to my plan. i ought to be sleeping right now - it seems harry potter mania has consumed me. oh well. the plan will still continue the same henceforth.

love the word henceforth.

things i need to have happen in this book:

a harry versus draco cage match must occur. i dont care what the scenario is and i dont care what happens to malfoy in the end - just as long as harry takes care of that little puke. ron or hermoine could maybe throw a spell or two his way, but i desperately need draco to get what he has coming. and while we're at it - lucius needs to die. draco can end up in Azkaban, thats fine, but lucius cannot survive as far as i'm concerned.

snape HAS to be good. i dont care what he did in book 6 and i dont care what harry thinks of him - he is too big of a character and Rowling has put too much time and effort into his development for him to be bad. I think he is troubled and holds about 9 million grudges, but he is a good person. my theory is still that snape was acting under the imperius curse in book 6. if he is truly evil i'll be shocked - but then again, Rowling is capable of anything...and those of you that have read book 6 know EXACTLY what i'm talking about. talk about paralysis. i thought i'd misread something. GOSH.

ron and hermoine kiss. i dont even need a make out session or even the slightest bit of a relationship to evolve from it - this is both because i might start getting jealous of our red-haired champion AND because i don't really think ron will survive. thats right. i think ron will die. i dont WANT it to happen, of course, but the more i play the scenario over in my head...i think Rowling will have him die. Voldemort has nothing holding him back now, i'm expecting a lot of deaths. ANYWAY. regardless of Ron's finale, if he and Hermoine don't get together i'll hate this book. period. k not hate, but i'll be extremely disappointed.

a Hogwarts finale. Voldemort and the Death Eaters vs the DA and the Aurors. Harry can come too.

the following people cannot die in my eyes: hermoine, ginny, neville, snape.....tonks.

neville and snape are both characters that i feel have gained too much attention as of late not to survive. if snape turns out to be the most evil character ever in literature - then he can die, no probs, but i do NOT think that is possible. gosh i hope he's good, i'm banking on it. i also think that neville HAS to survive. one of two scenarios for neville: he pulls out some wicked spell and destroys something great and saves the eve. not the day, thats still harry's. but the eve will do for neville. scenario number two = harry potter and the deathly hallows: the rise of neville longbottom. there's a baller in there somewhere. oh. and neville WILL kill bellatrix. period.

anyway, i'll include tonks in this category as well, albeit reluctantly, because while she's only been around since book 5, i feel like there is too much emotional development in her as of late for her not to survive. i wouldn't be surprised if she's the only living descendant of the black family tree around after this thing is said and done, the rest will end up dead or in azkaban. nyphadora survives. unless lupin dies too maybe. if lupin dies i can see her dying. but assuming the status quo - i think she lives too. just too much of her character has developed for these three to die. ESPECIALLY the first two; a tonks and lupin combo death is negotiable.

ginny would be too much for harry to lose. yes yes, i realize i've already mentioned that i think ron will die, but i think ginny can sub for ron and console harry enough that he can get through it. plus she's basically a baller. i dont think any of the death eaters stand a chance. ginny and harry could take over the world as long as they still have hermoine to talk to.

hermoine is too important. i'm not sure if i only think that cuase i'm in love with her or because i actually believe it in terms of the book. the potential she possess for the future of the wizarding world is too large. she's the next Minerva McGonagall - only WAY hotter.

the rest are questionable in my eyes - in retrospect i'd probably include tonks in the "questionable" category, but i've already written it so i'll leave it as is. i'm not confident about her finish. i guess snape is still slightly questionable, but i'm like 99% sure he's freaking gooooood. dangit. i'm gonna start crying again. not again. just the first time. embarassing.

harry's finish? man. i wish i knew. voldemort is toast. there's no way he's not. Rowling can NOT be that heartless, but Harry's end is questionable. i'm not going to speculate. i'm just going to read and find out.

predictions: ron dies valiantly. voldemort dies. bellatrix dies via neville. lucius malfoy dies while narcissa go to azkaban. draco goes to azakaban too, but only because harry isn't a killer - he's got him cornered but is merciful. hagrid dies unfairly - he would've died earlier had grawp not saved his rather large posterior. viktor krum is injured and would have died if ron hadn't been courageous and done something great to save his rear. hermoine lives - ron steps in front of an avada kedavra directed at her - however, this potentially sets up a lily potter/harry potter situation for ron/hermoine...love conquers all. holla back. peter pettigrew dies - grawp will smash him. fawkes is inherited by harry. moaning myrtle won't die. a couple weasleys die too, but not ginny. hermoine slaps krum at some point. and mcgonagall turns out to have some chops...definitely some chops indeed.

oh and a cameo appearance by either beyonce or chris brown.
linkin park will probably play the end credits song when the movie comes out in 2010 too.

if i'm right about any of those things - awesome. but if i'm wrong about everything - not surprising in the least. gosh. this thing turned out rather lengthy.

and hermoine - no matter what happens - i'm glad i opened the sorcerer's stone so this relationship could blossom.

-ap.

July 16, 2007

ESPYs - Arthur Ashe Award

so the ESPYs are something i find somewhat interesting and unfair at the same time. kind of like the Grammys - it jsut seems unfair to compare athletes of different sports to one another and say that one is better than the other. typically i watch it so that i can 1) find out what remarkable athletes i missed out on in the past year 2) discover new hilarious athletes that i can become a fan of and 3) check out serena williams's and fine fashion sense.

however. this year i watched for only one reason: lebron james was cohosting.

turns out - he's not very funny when his lines are rehearsed.
plus he's a horrible vocalist.
but wise lebron still knows whats up.

however, i was blown away with this years ESPYs thanks to probably the coolest story/challenge combo i've ever witnessed on tv...perhaps next to invisible children...but really incredible to hear just the same.

The Arthur Ashe Award for Courage was awarded this year to individuals who displayed courage in the name of sports. Trevor Ringland and Dave Cullen are from Northern Ireland. For years their community has been divided - literally - by a street in the middle of the city where riots occur much too frequently. They've grown up in a world of hate and turmoil between Protestants and Catholics both despising the other their beliefs. (i'm going to ignore the obvious religious issue i have with this situation and move on to what i'd actually like to address***).

These two studs have created an organization called "Peace Players". It is a program where kids from BOTH sides of the street can come and play together away from the segregation and hatred. This, they (along with me) believe, may have the potential of slowly but effectively bringing a sense of peace to Northern Ireland in the coming years. The men come from opposite sides of the street and have met with schools, parents, government officials and more time and time again in order to persuade them to allow this organization to stand. They have brought hundreds of kids together and taught them not only about basketball, but also life lessons about love and kindness and equality.

anyway. the 10 minute documentary it showed on it during the ESPYs nearly brought tears to my eyes - but it was not nearly as cool as the challenge issued by Trevor during his acceptance speech. He said thank you and then looked down at all the athletes in the auditorium - the best athletes there are - and told them essentially that they "were role models for all the kids in the world, and as such, they have a responsibility for their actions."

i've been waiting for someone to say that to the athletes of this country for years. granted this is not all athletes - heck, even Ron Artest surprised me this week with his efforts in kenya - but there was a man in the audience at the ESPYs named Terrell Owens who, if he saw and heard the same thing i did, might have felt some slight pangs of guilt. And i'm not only pointing fingers at TO - i'm pointing fingers at Tank Johnson, Dominic Jones, Michael Vick, even my man out of Iowa State Jamaal Tinsley.

and that is just in the last couple of weeks. these things happen on a near-daily basis. and frankly, it pisses me off.

how many kids ever played with a football outside as Jerry Rice and Joe Montana. or played baseball as Nolan Ryan or Ken Griffey Jr. or played basketball as MJ...and then the other kid had to be Pippen or Rodman. I want to be like Mike. it was a freaking advert! granted, no one really wanted to be like Rodman - which is why the dorky kid you were friends with always got stuck with him...unless there was a bully or a kid with a nose ring/pink hair. but even Mike isn't a great role model - but thats besides the point.

the poing is: kids are no different today. they're still kids. they have people they want to be like and the first place most of them turn when they realize their parents are boring is to sports. players have an obligation as role models to lead by example. i feel like many are failing and i'm thrilled that Dave and Trevor addressed it.

anyone can make a difference - even two religiously diverse middle-aged men from a terror-stricken Northern Ireland - and it's an absolute crime that such obvious difference makers can't do the same.

so to the Peace Players in Europe -

praise-alluia to ya.

-ap.

*** turns out - my brother doubledizz actually has addressed thoughts on this subject on his page - here are his (and many of my) thoughts.

a trio of facebook posts to jon jeffrey.

since facebook only allows you to post 1,000 characters at a time i had to split the following posts to Jon Jeffrey into three parts. it is regarding a number of things, primarily my usage of party shuffle in itunes. feel free to read. there are a few of you out there that might care....if you dont read any of it at all - read the very last bulleted section. i figured the whole thing was postworthy (i just decided that word should be a compound word - like "seaworthy" or "trustworthy" or "airworthy"). anyway. thank you. have a nice day.

1. by the looks of things you got a job. congrats.
2. what exactly IS a bridal shower and what is andrew doing for his bach? i'm hoping he can incorporate skee-ball somehow.
3. i'm not sure whether grawpy was necessary or not at this point - i'll know by sunday what his role is - i'm betting he chews on crabb and goyle's heads for an elongated period of time. we'll see - she wouldn't've included him if he wasn't importante.
4. rarely do i play out of my entire "music" - i have a handful of playlists i select from depending on my mood...
4a. >10, >20, >30. i have all three of these smart playlists made... they are based on the play count of my entire library. i usually play the >10 and >20, but sometimes i'm looking for some classic apc hits that i know will make me smile...thats when >30 comes in.
..............
4b. Neglected Winners/Midmajors. This is the playlist i utilize when i'm growing tired of my typical favs. they're ones that have been in my itunes for more than 6 months and have a play count between 5 and 20. its a rather hodge podge selection, but i like it when i'm searching for something great that i've forgotten about recently.

4c. john mayer favs. this one is self explanitory.
4d. these kinds of songs. this was the first playlist i ever made and it is still one of my favorites...it is primarily like mid-90's alternative rock kinda stuff...but only sorta. it is its own type of songs that ought to have its own genre. songs like "all for you" by sister hazel, "breakfast at tiffany's" by deep blue something, "slide" by goo goo dolls, "only wanna be with you" by hootie, "beautiful oblivion" by eve 6, "every morning" by sugar ray....i seriously think it ought to have its own genre, but i have no clue what it is. anyway. i like that one a lot.
4e. "oh girl." - dance party sizzler.
....
5. and lastly, regarding the selection of the songs...the more specific the playlist the less i select. the >'s i typically choose through, as with the neglected ones...but lists c, d, and e are usually just whatever comes is whats played...eh. "oh girl." may have the occasional sift.

anyway. i should've just made that like a blog post or something...cause it was entirely too long.
oh well.
maybe i'll post this as a blog anyway. that'd be neat.

oh. and you guys are still coming to 'hattan si? this isn't just a "talk about it and act like it'll happen but it probs wont" thing. this is as serious as JM/BF/ALAND....and that is mega serious.

oh. last thing: start using the word "champion" as follows:
- dude, what a champion maneuver.
- that album is so freakin champion.
- whoa, how champion was that move?

try it on. i thought of it today.
alright. p out. late.

-ap.

July 13, 2007

brokenness.

Christ needs to be the foundation - the cornerstone.
A classic biblical metaphor that i believe to be solidly on track.

However, the thing that sucks about this metaphor: by the time you hear about it and ponder it and fully understand what it means for you and your life - you're not new to the world anymore. If that was the only nugget of life you were subjected to for the first x number of years (x = the amount of time between birth and an individual's understanding of the cornerstone analogy) then i feel like you could rather easily set this foundation and then build upon it. obviously this is not the case, which is why this metaphor poses a problem. despite how much we believe it and attempt to follow it, we've already begun building the walls, roof, doors, and windows of our lives (none of which are cotton - the fabric of our lives).

cue the story analogy.

i remember when i was in about 1st grade i got a tight Lego set for Christmas. It was a castle in the forest dude set (the ones that look like Robin Hood and his Merry Men and were covered with leaves and other greenery...they also had strapping yellow and red feathers you could put in their little green/brown caps.). anyway, my dad and i spent about an hour putting it together, and when we got down to the last piece...there was still one left. turns out we'd forgotten to put a piece down in like....step 3. and there was no hope in managing it into the structure now without breaking it. it was a small piece, and even though this one spot on the left side of the castle was a little unstable and looked kinda goofy - we didnt want to spend another hour breaking the thing down and rebuilding from step 3. too much work. so we put the piece back in the yellow box with the picture on it and admired our work without the little black 3 x 1 piece.

it looked good.

the point i'm getting at: i feel like in order to set a firm foundation you need to start anew. It's not possible for you to simply pull out the cornerstone and replace it with a new one - you have to start from scratch.

this is what i think we do with this idea of Jesus as the cornerstone* though. we learn about this piece of our life that is necessary and important, and we strongly consider putting it in there - we even wish it was easier and that we could just slide it right in there - but instead of taking our life apart to put the Cornerstone in, we slip Him back in the package and observe our life sans Christ. Life might actually even look ok without him. we can still admire parts in our life - our successes and abilities and other things we've been given by God's grace - but there is a still a weakspot. we're still very capable of a collapse.

this brings me to what i've been thinking a little bit about lately: the importance of brokenness in life. what is the easiest route to building a new foundation? brokenness. we need to have no choice but to tear down what we had built and start anew with our Cornerstone. Brokenness is the easiest route to godliness. An interesting juxtaposition, really, but one i feel is not only super great, but also right on target. We need to be torn down and ripped apart - otherwise we will continue to observe our good-looking life from a distance without any understanding of the crucial aspect missing underneath. i think this is the saddest story possible. someone in dire straits without anywhere else to turn is sad - but they are in an incredible place at the same time - they have the perfect opportunity to find a new cornerstone. however, the CEO of a major corporation who has everything together and is built on a foundation of money and success - where is the opportunity for Him to establish this new cornerstone? the opportunity is much less possible. there is a beauty in brokenness. the comforts of life can blind us and leave us empty, but a total destruction of our life allows for an incredible transformation to take place. the Cornerstone can be laid and new walls can be built.

a life built on Christ has to start with Christ. you can't just slip Him in and move forward - it isn't possible - and just looking at the 3 x 1 piece while trying to build the castle around it - that's setting you up for some serious Jenga**. in the long run, the Jenga-action might prove to be alright...as long as it eventually topples. the faster your tower collapses the better. regardless the life - there is a need for brokenness before moving forward in Christ. i think so at least.

brokenness is what i long for/brokenness is what i need

-ap.


* - should cornerstone be capitalized? i feel like its a Jesus reference...so it probs should. just like Savior, Messiah, Lamb, etc...yeah. Cornerstone it is. i also love incorporating an asterisk. awesome.

** - yes. Jenga is a verb.

July 10, 2007

TRANSFORMERS

i've just realized that i really have a knack for starting these things off with confessions...and this post is no different.

confession: i have never seen an episode of Transformers in my life. the only connection i have to them is Track 9 on St. Elsewhere.

i did see the movie tonight, however, and i'm considering going online and finding a massive poster of Optimus Prime to put on my wall right now because that was the most incredible thing i've seen in recent history. This movie has action like you wouldn't believe. First off, this thing is like 2.5 hours long and i was never once bored. i mean not one moment. it was like someone was tugging at my heart every single moment and it was just itching to flee out of my body. i was twitching through parts of this thing cause i couldn't stand it.

okay. i need to tell something about the actual movie if i'm going to consider this a review - the excitement is taking over and manifesting itself in my text. i need to start slow probs...ready break.

The flick starts with this kid Sam (Shia LaBeouf) and he's giving this bozo family tree report about his great great great grandfather or something...basically his great^3 gpa discovers the quintessential evil robot, Megatron. he's a big dude who, apparently, crash landed and buried himself in a glacier...so Big Nasty's been buried up in the arctic circle for a century or something and this dude accidentally fell upon him. BN's after this cube dealio that makes all electronics turn into evil robot things...basically he wants to turn the Earth into a killing robot and take over the universe.

but not if the Autobots can help it.

there are like 6 or 7 of these dudes, one of which is the old yellow Camero that Sam's pop buys him for his first car...he immediately decides to woo a lady friend with it, and since the car is an Autobot and is basically the coolest piece of machinery ever...wooing this chica is not terribly difficult. (at this point in the movie i was really wishing i had a sweet ride like that so IIIIIII could hang out with the girl Shia LaBeouf picks up...MEGAN FOX* is her name and she is a hottie to the Nth power.) i forget what her name is in the movie...i was too busy mopping up the saliva on my shirt when she first introduced her character in the movie i think.

* - i made sure i checked into her age before i started talking about how hot she was...even though i would never be one to be seriously in love with famous individuals who may or may not be within the comfortable "i'm in love with you" age range.....i.e. hermoine granger....but i didnt fall in love with her until Chamber of Secrets.......awkwarrrrrddddd.

anyway.

The movie develops and gets more and more intense as it progresses. Sam's ridonk vehicle transforms into a sweet robot and summons the rest of the Autobot Good Guy Clan (AGGC...but i just made that acronym up). Led by Optimus Prime...these guys are tight. OP (not overland park) comes from a blue and red semi and is....well, 'awesome' comes to mind.

There is fighting and lots of explosions and excessive metal clanking and clinking....and clinking and clanking. at times you can't really even tell whats going on because there are so many pieces of revolving metal and shrapnel clunking everywhere...but there is a point when the excessive motor movements move into slow-mo. i think thats when i sunk my teeth into my knees to control myself. every time these ridic machines would break into slo-mo was like watching Reggie Bush and Vince Young collide with an F-16. only everything is metal and it is in NYC instead of the Rose Bowl and i am in a movie theater in kansas instead of a sports bar in tennessee.

I went into this movie expecting nothing at all. I wanted a little bit of entertainment and thats about it. little did i know that this movie was going to destroy the universe i currently live in. I want to see it again and again. and then probably again.

plus Linkin Park did the end creds song. just when it couldn't get better...holler.

as i got into my now seemingly boring vehicle after the movie i decided this thing was like a Spiderman/Blade/Men in Black/Matrix combo feature...only Optimus Prime is way cooler than Peter Parker, Blade, Will Smith or Neo.
eh. maybe not Will Smith (turn it over and hit it).

-ap.

July 06, 2007

baby girl, how are you?

first of all: read this article.

i think this is absolutely hilarious. first of all, i feel like the dude at the cell phone place did it on purpose, cause if paris hilton shows up in my store i'm going to try and figure out some way to punk her, and i think this dude took a pretty legit route. too bad Barlow didnt send back any ridiculously fake text message responses. cause she had to have had an idea of what was going on when people kept calling her 'Paris' at 2 am. i mean how many bizonkers party animals can be named after foreign cities? let alone Paris? i think if i could choose a foreign city for a name i'd probably pick 'Istanbul' and go by 'Stan'....and maybe i could have a sister called 'Rio de Janeiro' and she could go by 'Jan'....anyway. i feel like she could've said a TON of completely stupid things in response..."sorry. can't talk right now...i'm eating a Colossal Dog*." something like that would have gone over terrific i think.

Paris Hilton would be a terrific person to have this happen to also. you'd get some seriosuly great insight into her life and, at the same time, you'd get to mess around with the life of a hot shot like her behind her back. i started thinking about what celebrity i'd want to be mistaken for...and i came up with teh following Top 3:

1) barry bonds. i could then throw down some seriously incriminating text messages. things like "yeah. i took 'roids. so what. they'll never find out." or "i dont mind if i have an astrisk...it'll just bring more attention to my name on all the leaderboards." or "i eat babies." but i have a feeling that none of these would get the guy chucked out of baseball...i'd be relying on someone on the other end being active and telling someone of some importance that barry had said something to him - unless it WAS someone important texting him. like Bud Selig. Goodbye career. yeah right. they'd find out it was me.

2) justin timberlake. no real reason...i think i'd just like to be mistaken for him in some way or form.

3) mandy moore. duh. cause then there would be the slim chance to meet her and laugh with her about what a terrific misunderstanding it was. plus then she's know my phone number cause it was her OLD number and i hint something like that she could call her old number whenever she wants....then eventually we'd probably have kids together or something.

-ap.

* - a Kaufmann Stadium fav.

piano and such.

my passion for playing piano has returned for the time being.
i dont think it will last long though...i'll probably learn a few songs and maybe be able to throw my own twists on them or whatev...change up the lyrics and put in some upbeats or something.

anyway. i heard 'hey there delilah' for the first time on wednesday in kc and i came home and immediately started trying to nail it down on the board...i was pretty proud of myself because it only took about 15 minutes and i had it pretty much figured out...there are a couple downbeats here and there that i'm not landing yet...and i dont have all the words down either, but i'm almost there.

haha. i also figured out crazy by gnarls. holler.

life has been a little busier lately - what with multiple trips to kc a week and an issue or two on the home front - plus class started monday for me (i'm taking intro to shakespeare and its actually pretty enjoyable...shocker) - but this weekend it might actually be nice to be 'stuck in manhattan' as i like to put it. i'll get some good reading done and catch up on the sleep i've been missing out on for a while now.

speaking of - i think i'll take a nap.

-ap.

ps. i just got a text from a buddy that relish won again tonight. what a baller. he's running away with it this year.

July 05, 2007

ID4.

my fourth of july was a little disappointing...like a fireworks show without a finale.

i don't really ever expect much from the fourth of july, cause to be honest, fireworks don't impress me too terribly much. until the finale happens, i tend to get rather bored with the monotony of it all - plus i really hate large crowds - and no matter where you go you are forced to overcome the hassle of 9 million other people parking in the same place, laying their blanket in the same place, watching the same thing and getting in each others way and on each others nerves like its their job.
so, my family goes to the royals game. i think we've done this every year but once for the last 5 years (granted, the royals dont have a home game every single fourth of july, but kauffman stadium runs the fireworks on tne closest day possible...and my family goes then.

ANYWAY. this year was a 4th of july home game for the royals so i headed out to the K to watch three things. i will discuss each now:

1) john buck. we all know my near obsession with john buck (however, i'd still consider it a passion, not quite an obsession), he went 1-4 with a single. average but boring performance (however, a first-pitch single up the middle brought a little glimmer of happiness to a rather boring baseball game otherwise. the mariners scored 4 runs in the 1st and then no one scored the rest of the game. Washburn was a baller on the mound for the M's and the royals only had 5 hits and only got a guy past 2nd base once. anyway. johnny did not provide the highlight tonight.
however, his song playing when he came to bat in the second inning was "big bad john". love it.

2) the hot dog race is something i am truly passionate about. there are three kinds of people in this world: there are those that root for ketchup, those that root for mustard, and those that root for relish. if you have not done so already, please distinguish what kind of person you are right now. if you picked ketchup, i think your'e boring. if you picked mustard, i think you're a sell out. if you picked relish - you and i can be friends. relish, my friends, is the classic under'dog'. and he is currently rockin ally and freaking the oop at the K. he won again last night (tallying up his 19th win of the season...2 more than mustard and 5 more than ketchup.) this was undeniably the highlight of the night for me.

3) the post-game fireworks. this is potentially one of the most disappointing things ever: the fireworks were damaged due to a pre-game shower and there was NO POST-GAME EXTRAVAGANZA. talk about a serious buzzkill. there were 29,000 fans all super anxious to see what i think are the greatest fireworks in kc, but alas, there were none. the only thing that might make everything okay was that they tried three times to get htem started and each time they played the same intro recording:

"alright royals fans, now lets cap off an already great fourth with a post-game fireworks extravaganza! ready? count it down with me...5...4...3...2...1..."

but then nothing happened. music came on and the fountains looked beautiful (in fact, i took a photo on my phone), but there were no fireworks. then about 5 minutes later..."alright royals fans..." and again, nothing. we sat for about 15 minutes waiting with everyone else in the stadium. eventually the guy informed us that they couldn't get them to fire. BUT. our ticket is good for one free royals game of our choosing the rest of this year. jackpot. even thought the K fireworks are incredible - i've seen them a bunch of times and i already expressed my thoughts on big showy fireworks in general (even though K fireworks are NOT monotonous). anyway. i get to go to another game whenever i want...too bad i have to pay 9 bucks for parking. (robbery.)

-ap.