#14 in your scorecard, #1 in your heart.

you may notice that i've included a john buck stat tracker on my sidebar to the right. that way we can all follow the greatness together.

my likely-to-be conservative preseason predictions:

Avg: .304
RBI: 94
HR: 27

two hits and a run scored on opening day. just another day at the office for mr. incredible.

-ap.

ps. i also have a goal of 20 royals games this summer. thats a quarter of the home games. let me know if you want to go. i always will.

an album post.*

common - finding forever. after listening to lots of kanye west and jay-z, common starts to sound like spoken word - its not wrong, just different - and he does it fairly well. and anything produced by kanye can't be half bad. but more than anything, i like the beats on this cd. there are some solid samples (including common himself), however, common's lyrics almost turn into another instrument laid over the top of the beats. his voice becomes a part of the beats. pretty tight. favorite songs so far: "southside" "black maybe" and "the people"...oh and "so far to go". solid album.


sara bareilles** - little voice. first of all it must be mentioned that "love song" rules. that piano is way too fun. i can't help but grin and bob around atop my giraffe-like neck. but this album has so much more than i thought it would. it has great break-it-downs and there is a ton of groove on this album. and this girl has some serious soul. the album gets gradually more melancholy as it goes goes along. i think i just love piano too, but her voice is phenom - my only complaint is that i can't quite hit the notes. but its fun to try. when no one else is around. fav songs besides love song so far: "come round soon" "bottle it up". and i'm a big sucker for the last track on albums...so "gravity" too - great strings. short term goal: master the chords of "love song" so i can spontaneously excite a whole room about life. how much would that rule?


gnarls barkley - the odd couple. oh gnarls. you've gone and done it again - captured my heart with an album so insane i can't even wrap my mind around it. i honestly didn't think cee-lo and danger mouse would manage. call me a hater. call me whatever you want. there is a part of me that is a little surprised they pulled it off. my reasoning: there is only one Crazy. no way it can be done again.
and they didn't do another Crazy, but they put together a solid album - something i'm not sure they did with St. Elsewhere. there were too many tracks on that album that i skipped over religiously (feng shui, necromancer, st. elsewhere). on The Odd Couple there is a little something in every song that makes me love each individually. maybe it's a background vocal, or a obscure instrument, or a sizzlin bridge (love break-it-downs), or a ridiculous beat (see track 6: open book).
or maybe the song sounds like an amusement park. possible.
sometimes cee-lo just screams and i giggle a bit.
the OC definitely lacks a track that will sweep the nation like Crazy did the summer of 06 - the closest thing is the single "Run" which boasts a seizure inducing music video featuring justin timberlake. check it.

so i clearly favor gnarls over the other two. but i've only owned common for a week now and i've had sara for about 3 hours now (although my itunes play count for "love song" is currently 5 going on 6). i may or may not have had gnarls in my back pocket well before its actual release. gulp.

-ap.

* - anal bum post. hahaha.
** - i before e. except after c. hm.

the magician's nephew.

my ever-so-generous grandparents sent me a gift card to target for my birthday, so i went searching for something great. at first i was going to purchase common's latest cd but decided against it. then i was going to purchase some new drawls but they didnt have what i wanted. then i started looking at the best selling books section but since i decided i didnt need a self-help book, a sudoku book, or 'skinny bitch in the kitch.'

but then i saw the chronicles of narnia complete set on the bottom shelf. so solid. i've never read any of them and i've been wanting to for so long. especially since prince caspian is coming out this summer i felt like now was the time. i debated whether to read them in order of publication or chronologically, so i got online to find out what c.s. lewis thought himself. i guess he never intended to write more than just one book, they just kept coming. so he supposes the chronologically makes the most sense now. so i went with that.

after reading The Magician's Nephew i've come to three conclusions about c.s. lewis:

1. he can describe made up feelings and events so well - like what it's like to warp to other places, or what it feels like on Charn, or how exactly animals grow out of the ground.
2. he very well could've written a book of the Bible - like Job or one of the narrative OT books.
3. he was probably so stinkin goofy.

MN turns into a version of the creation story kind of - well, that of Narnia at least. He lays down the mapwork for how the Witch gets there, how Narnia comes into existence, and how the humans work their way into the land. he establishes (beautifully i must say) everything that is to come. and oh man will it come.

his portrayal of Aslan is just perfect, and the whole time i'm just kicking myself that i haven't picked up these books earlier. how can anyone dislike what he's laid down here? its beautiful and so true.

anyway. i'm thrilled to get deeper into the series. the best is yet to come and i know it. but i gotta wrap this up cause i'm already on page 25 of The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.

-ap.

ps - favorite line: "pooh! grown-ups are always coming up with uninteresting explanations!"
- digory kirke.

what a TREASURE.

i poured myself a hearty bowl of fruit loops this morning and i found this incredible piece of merch. its a hot wheels watch. its my new favorite watch. my old favorite watch also came from a cereal bowl. it was a Hercules watch. i only had it for a week in chicago. i took it to wrigley field, up the sears tower and to lake michigan with me. hopefully HW will accompany on similar adventures. what a great way to start a day.

-ap.

Age of Aquarius (Let the Sunshine In) - The Fifth Element

don't act like you can listen to this song and not feel both victorious and at least four times more thrilled about life than you were 4 minutes and 47 seconds earlier.



-ap.

soc 211 email.

i'd just like to take this time to share the following email greeting with you all. this is from my intro to sociology professor.

All,
I'm emailing only half the class this message....

hm. that is all.

-ap.

madness: rounds 1 & 2.

i wish i'd had the opportunity to throw up a predictions post about this years tourney, but i guess a sweet 16 post is better than nothing.

my final four:
unc over ku
ucla over texas
champ: ucla over unc

picks i've blown so far:
duke in the elite 8.
gtown in the elite 8.
kstate in the sweet 16.
drake over uconn in the sweet 16.

picks i've nailed so far:
villinova in the sweet 16.
davidson over gonzaga.
kstate over usc.

first round catholic games i missed:
miami over st. mary's.
oklahoma over st. joe's.
notre dame over george mason.

teams i like more since the beginning of the tourney:
davidson.
clemenson.
unlv.
texas a&m.
teams i like less since the beginning of the tourney:
oklahoma.
wisconsin.

most depressing post game interview award:
coach k following games against both the belmont and the wvu. after beating the #15 bruins by 1 point at the last second, mike goes on and on about how that was the best his team could play. way to give your guys a positive lift into the next game against west virginia. shocking they couldn't pull it out.

best performer thus far: stephen curry of davidson. what a freak. the guy looks like he's about 10 but he puts up 40 against zag and 30 against georgetown. sizzle.

biggest refereeing blunder: a&m was fouled with 4 seconds left against ucla. no call. (left) ucla went on to win by 2 (not four, the last second dunk didnt count). two free throws would've sent it to overtime - yikes.

biggest seeding crime: #6 oklahoma. are we joking. 4th in the big 12 with wins at baylor and texas tech to brag about - they get a bye to the second round of the big xii tourney where they are faced with a TERRIFYING 12th-seeded colorado team. and then got absolutely tossed by texas. they belong in the tourney. but not a 6. they're in the company of marquette, usc, and purdue as other 6 seeds. not even in the same league as them. i give them a 10 seed. 8 tops.

the "how did you even make the tournament" award: #10 arizona. arizona state beat them twice during the regular season. supposedly the wildcats made the tourney cause of their strength of schedule. thats all well and good i suppose - except they didnt win any of them. (though they did beat umkc by 19 at home. watch out for the roos.)

best team in the tourney with a losing record: coppin st. 16-20 during the regular season and finished 7th in the MEAC. are we joking.

most disappointing loss: drake to western kentucky. my cousin goes to drake and i was pumped to see the bulldogs in the tourney. big time buzzkill.

teams i pretty much fail to acknowledge in the sweet 16: michigan state, washington state. what boring trips to the sweet 16 - and dont expect either to last into the elite 8.

best jeremiah johnson impression: steven hill of arkansas. (right)

most surprising upset: siena over vanderbilt. siena is a burnt crayon color. not a college.

least surprising shalacking: ucla over mississippi valley state. 70-29.

craziest "upset" picked by an espn analyst: bobby knight - #5 MSU over #4 pitt. what a nutter.

most disappointing thing about kstate's loss to wiscosin: i can't happily wear one of my favorite tshirts anymore. unless wisconsin goes on to beat ku for the final four. then i can wear my badgers tee with pride.

number of kstate players who showed up against usc: 4.

number of kstate players who showed up against wisc: 2.

number of ron andersons on the front of usa today this week: 1.

anyway. there's a handful of thoughts there. i'll wrap this up until the final four probably.
eh. probably not. crossies.

-ap.

somehow my spacing changed halfway through my post. haven't the slightest why.
it kinda bugs me. but i'm kinda lazy. so i'm kinda gonna leave it as is.

i am back. not dead.

i feel like i need to cover a lot.
mostly guatemala and march madness.
but that all sounds completely overwhelming right now.
there is much more to come. i promise.

happy easter.
HE IS RISEN.

-ap.

going to guatemala.

i'll be ditching for guat to do some english and bible teaching for elementary schoolers and some construction work starting friday.
meeting at kci airport at 3:45 am. happy birthday. haha.
see you guys next saturday. love you.

-ap.

upon further review it looks like i'm going to be teaching the construction work. i like it. i'll leave it.

hey lebron. mr mint called. he wants his sneakers back.

the longer i look at this picture the more amped i get about the east conference finals.
i hope it looks like this. i dont really like detroit much.
i also want lebron to school the world in the playoffs.
i'll keep my fingers crossed. i think boston is just unfairly good though.

-ap.

gudgell.

i found out last night at about 10:15 pm that my best friend has changed his life plan to one that involves he and i living in the same city. starting in may when i bounce back to kc for the summer, i will have the privilege of seeing dave on a day-to-day basis for the first time since summer 05. thats three years and beyond exciting.

how can this summer be anything but great?

-ap.

top 5 study albums.

it's ironic that i've decided to throw down this post just as my academic life is no longer stressful.
last week i had tests in 4 of my 5 courses. one was a final. but as i was studying i stickied a note to myself on my mac that i needed to blog about this when i have time. and i have time. so here we go.

1. d'angelo - voodoo- probably one of the sauciest and most provocative albums anyone will ever listen to - songs like "one mo' gin" and "feel like makin' love". kinda sounds like one of those situations when i find some hunny in one of my classes and ask if she wants to "study". put on this album, and one thing leads to another...you know. jay slash kay guys. but seriously - this album gets me in the mood to focus on the task at hand. its probably just ridiculously slow tempo of the majority of the tracks, it keeps my mind going at a reasonable rate and i manage to avoid distractions. exception: in the latter half of "greatdayindamornin'/booty" i can't help but lose track of what i'm doing and bob my head around a bit.

2. the good, the bad & the queen* - the self titled album. danger mouse mixes another winner album. this is essentially a chilled out and rapless Gorillaz album. damon from gorillaz and blur does vocals for them too - big fan right here. this cd is just jolly to me, its catchy enough that i can enjoy what i'm listening to and yet distant enough that i can still accomplish something. tracks like "the bunting song" and "behind the sun" especially help my mind stay on track without wandering. exception: the end of this cd is completely out of control and man i love it.

3. jack johnson - on and on - probably the least popular jack johnson cd as far as the public is concerned, but my favorite by far. i wish he'd focus more on his mello sound. "brushfire fairytales" and "in between dreams" are way too poppy and giddy for me. not that i don't like them, but i feel like it's the side of jack that sorority girls listen to - but anyway. "on and on" is legit. its catchy and there is the definite up-beat tone, but it lacks somewhat distracting tracks like "bubble toes" and "banana pancakes" - not that those songs aren't great, but man they take away from my studying. this cd gives me jack yet he doesnt steal me from my work. its a nice compromise. exception: rodeo clowns. favorite jack johnson song. hands down. gotta pause for 2:40 so i can enjoy that business. NOTE: apparently jack johnson dropped another full album on feb 5th - "sleep through the static" - fill me in if anyone knows much about it.

4. guster - ganging up on the sun - man, this one is a stretch. i think this cd is on here solely because of track 1 "lightning rod". by far the most mellow guster song out there...that or "ruby falls"...but i think this song is why i can focus. it just sucks me in and spits me into my school work and i love that. the rest of the album is great too keep me focused off and on too: "empire state", "hang on" and the aforementioned "ruby falls". exceptions: tracks 2-6. not even close to study music - hence, why it is a stretch. however, the rest of the cd is too conducive to my academics to not include it in the top cinco.

5. the wallflowers - bringing down the horse - this was high school studying, if i ever did any. i think this cd introduced the idea of studying to me at all and it was likely accidental. i was a huge fan of this cd my senior year of high school. i think my buddy dave and i found it at "half price records and tapes" for like free ninety-nine**. but this album revolutionized my schooling. granted i'm still not good at school, but i at least know what studying is at this point in my life. thats leaps and bounds*** above where i was in middle and 3/4 of high school. i rarely listen to it anymore to study (i know the lyrics too well), but it changed my life academically so not mentioning it is a crime. no exceptions here. jacob dylan ya'll.

i think thats a dece list. yep.

-ap.

* - when you look this up on amazon their name comes up as "the bad & the queen the good"
** - college dropout ref. yeah kanye. 'ayyyy wassup guuuurl.'
*** - get pumped if you remember this place. lasted about 2 years and wasn't half as good as discovery zone or jungle jim's.

him that pisseth.

i'm always reluctant to copy and paste videos from other peoples' blogs* into my own.
i saw this 10 days ago and wanted to post it really bad and it has bugged me every day that i didnt share it. cause its maybe the most ridiculous and hilarious thing ever.

interesting yet hilarious theology.

-ap.

* cred to marko and crowder.

you dont know Jack.

this past weekend i took a trip down to nowata, oklahoma, to visit my mom's side of the fam. my cousin and his wife have a 10 week old baby that needed to be introduced to the cooper family, but this post isn't about that.

i had a borderline scary epiphany at lunch on saturday. you see, my grandpa jack - like most other grandfathers - tells a lot of stories. this is probably to do the fact that his 80th birthday is in 11 days and so he's got 58 more years worth of stories than i do. the man is extremely smart and impresses me often with his knowledge about pretty much everything.

but at lunch on saturday i got to thinking.

he was telling a story about some keen fella he used to know who had six toes. and for just a moment i departed from my nodding and realized that his story sounded a little bogus. this thought frightened me. i don't think i've ever doubted my grandpa before - i just assume he's telling the truth and full of wisdom about everything. for the first time in my life i'd started to listen to my grandpa critically.

i continued this for the rest of my trip, and i started to wonder how many times he had told me a completely fabricated story. he could've been lying his whole life and i would've just soaked it up like it was the perfect truth. honestly, i still believe he doesn't make anything up, but if he had decided to pull one over on me there is no way i would've caught it. i think thats hilarious and impresses me even more.

i'd be terrible playing mafia with him. glad we didnt play.

i dont think i'll ever spend a weekend doubting my grandpa again. its just too unsettling. it makes you wonder if anything you've ever known is true.

but i know my cuz besty and baby blake are adorable:


-ap.