wrigley.

highlight of my trip to chicago: wrigley field.

baseball in chicago is like an illness that you’re just bound to catch. i got to experience it in full force on thursday night: cubs vs rockies. it was a back-and-forth game, but ultimately errors ruined it for colorado as the cubs put up a few unearned runs to seal the victory, thus convoluting my baseball loyalty even more than had already been done.

you must know that i was raised a st. louis cardinals fan. my father’s father’s father was a fan and the fandom was passed on to me. due to the fact that I was a fetus when the royals beat the cardinals in the 1985 series, I have no understanding of the I-70 rivalry. cardinals fans dispute a bad call at first base and royals fans have nothing else to brag about and no one else to hate but the cards. i’m stuck naively in the midst of a tentative fued already.

so i’m an I-70 fan. when the kc/stl interleague series happens i’m not sure who i’m for. my heart pulls me toward kc, but my roots run deep with the cardinals.

cardinals fans,have bigger fish to fry than the guppies in kcmo. the cubs/cardinals rivalry is the only one in the majors that can even hold a candle to the yankees/red sox. and it isn’t one-sided like the cards dispute with the royals – this rivalry is decades old. these are two baseball cities. their fans are die hard and don’t go to the games for hot dog races or chunky DH replica jersey giveaways. they go for the baseball. there is no need for any special promotions or gimmicks to draw a crowd; both cities sell out their games regularly with nothing but the game. they love baseball, and i love that. kansas city doesn’t love baseball; they don’t understand and I don’t resonate with the kc baseball mindset. there is passion and energy and camaraderie in chi-town that kauffman stadium just doesn’t possess. it’s also very contagious.

so here i am rooting for the home team at wrigley field and just lapping up the excitement in the place. Everyone comes together all up and down Clark to celebrate cubs baseball. all of wrigleyville is blue and white flying huge “W” flags to celebrate a cubs win over a less than terrific rockies squad. i can’t imagine what things would be like against the cards. I’d be thoroughly shaken. the cubs have clever memorabilia, tradition, and Old Style draft. it is classic baseball at its finest. everyone is into the game – people STAND AND CHEER without the assistance of a flashy “NOISE” or bogus “FAN-O-METER” graphic. kansas city folk don’t understand baseball. they just don’t get it. it goes beyond the game. It’s the atmosphere.

am i a cubs fan after thursday’s game? not necessarily. but i respect their fans and wish i could be apart of their environment. kauffman stadium is weaksauce. royals games typically contain 5 highlights for me: the condiment race (1) and each time john buck comes to the plate (2 through 5). but those aren’t things i’m on board with 40.000 people with – heck the condiment race even creates disagreement amongst like-minded fans – and although jb-fever is sweeping the nation and explodes for 4 at bats each game, it doesn’t make the other 23 outs in the game any more exciting*.

my loyalties are so messed up nowadays, but I’m fine with that. Hate if you want, i’m just a fan of baseball and the atmosphere it creates. and if you share my excitement for the game then i’m a fan of yours too. so here’s to you north side chicago – you do it right and I hope I can be a bigger part of that atmosphere in the years to come.

-ap.

* - this is an incredibly subtle jab at the royals and jb. harsh really.

visuwords.

http://www.visuwords.com/

i could play with this all day. just type a word at the top and watch the site do its magic.
so awesome.

-ap.

kudos to marko.

talkin bout chi-town.

i'm currently on megabus on the way to chicago.

you might be asking yourself, "self, how is adam blogging on the bus?" oh, cause i'm writing this in my journal so i can transfer it to my blog at a later date. this way you'll get to keep up with my travels, and at the same time i can prove to you that i don't edit my posts when i blog - its straight out of my mind and on into the text box. however, in this case it is college-ruled journal paper.

the text box is significantly more legible too. this is somewhat due to the unsatisfactory quality of missouri's roads, but moreso because my handwriting just plain stinks.

anyway, i'm pretty excited to see what my trip has in store for me. i'm seeing a friend or two that i don't get to see very often. and i have tentative plans to go to a cubs game and check out north park. other than that my schedule is wide open. north park, millenium park, lincoln park, grant park, and/or any other park that exists that i'm not familiar with yet. the possibilities are endless (except its limited to the chicago area, obv.)

megabus rules. it's a double decker - i'm sitting top and front - and it is crazy cheap. i got tickets round trip for $43.50. what steal. there's even bathroom on the bus...there isn't any soap/sink though and i didn't bring my hand sanitizer like the bus driver told me to. in my defense though, he didn't tell me til after i got on the bus. i'll just hold it i guess. i wish he'd told me earlier too because, coincidentally, i received a bottle of sanitizer for my 2-months-after-birthday. buzzkill.

my driver's name is william. he looks more like a norman to me though.

the anticipation is building though. i'm traveling through the ngiht and i'm supposed to arrive in chi-town at 6:50 am. hopefully i can catch some shut eye for a handful of hours. 6+ would be nice, but that may be wishing a bit too hard. it's awfully difficult to sleep when i'm excited.

regardless - this trip is going to be so nice. i need some time away to digest some of the stuff in my life. 3 days ought to be perf.

-ap.

three new albums: roots, estelle, al green.

the roots - rising down
it is most unfortunate that i do not resonate entirely with the roots' sound. i love that they talk about issues and frustrations they have, and i find it (almost) admirable how passionate they are about things like drug laws and corrupt cops. i do resonate with ?uestlove's ridiculous snare abilities as well as their great use of synth and scratching, but Black Thought doesn't necessarily thrill me. Rising Down strikes me as 13 tracks of hate followed up by one track of slight redemption and optimism (track 14, Rising Up). There are some sick beats on this album - Get Busy is a favorite of mine - but not enough to hook me entirely. i will say though, if you dig vintage roots then you're likely to connect with this business as well.
2/5

estelle - shine
i don't really understand how artists like estelle come out of nowhere to make ridiculously good albums like this one. somehow she manages to pull kanye west, john legend and wyclef and will.i.am and cee-lo to assist in throwing down this (not surprisingly) great album. riddled with features, estelle really only hits the chorus vocals and a verse or two each track. this makes feel like this album isn't really hers...but that doesn't mean it isn't terrific anyway. the two singles, American Boy and Wait a Minute, are way catchy, albeit at the expense of some slightly inappropriate/borderline uncomfortable lyrics (see: 1:03 in American Boy). Solid beats throughout though, and the verses and background vocals from the multitude of featured artists puts this album in the category of "great".
3.5/5

al green - lay it down
i'm going to slap the next person that scoffs at me for waiting at midnight for this album. probably not, i'm a lover not a fighter - and so is the reverend al green on what is probably his greatest album since 1972 (i act like i was there - i came 14 years later). i don't need to be a savvy soul veteran to know how smooth and sexy this album is. al definitely sounds a bit older than he did 25 years ago (and he is), but in no way does that detract from this album's greatness. from start to finish this album is terrific. it's a different side of ?uestlove on snare - softer and snazzier - but al green is the same happy camper he's always been. smiles around.
4/5

-ap.

10k.

my blog has just cleared 10,000 hits.
probably sounds lame to some people.
but i'm proud.

-ap.

indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull.

...this movie was awful.

i wasn't expecting much, but it came no where near even my lowest of expectations. it started out alright with the potential for a decent indiana 4, but goodness gracious did they fall short.

before i get too far into my negativity i need to address something: harrison ford still rules and he did a great job with the script/plot/screenplay that was presented to him.

unfortunately, all three of those things sucked.

the plot was the worst. it moved about 9 million miles per hour from point to point. in past indy films they'd spend 30 minutes acquiring a certain artifact, but in this one they manage to make it to about 6 different locations within about 10 minutes of footage. it was really tough to keep up with what was even going on or why people were even fighting or why they were even interested in the plot at all. and when you can't figure out why the characters would be interested in the plot then its super difficult to want to stay involved in the movie yourself.

i'm not necessarily sure what george lucas was thinking when he agreed to do a 4th movie. cause not only was this one terrible, but it has slightly tainted the other three for me. i love the original indiana jones series, and i've already decided that i refuse to affiliate this one with the other three. it was unrealistically awful and at times i forgot i was even watching indiana jones. it was just weird.

shai labeouf was an interesting addition. not sure if i liked him or disliked him. i think his character was a good idea, but he's the same kid that played in Even Stevens and Transformers in my mind. i can never get past that. and Holes too. loved Holes.

another thing that annoyed me: it was very obvious that this movie had a HUGE budget, and i feel like they added in special effects just cause tehy could afford to. which is dumb because indiana jones does not thrive on special effects, it thrives on intense heroics and great one-liners. both of those can be accomplished with or without crazy usage of special effects and/or computers. it just seemed a bit out of place when thinking about the other movies.

don't waste your money. i went during the $5 cheapo time and it still wasn't worth it. the $6.50 popcorn was a much better deal than wasting 2 hours of my life watching that business. do yourself a favor and don't even rent it if you have ANY respect for the first three. it'll just bum you out and make you question george lucas. which isn't healthy in my mind.

its just sad that they waited 20 years to make it and it came out so disappointing. i just wish it hadn't been aliens. just anything but that. i give it a 1.5 out of 5. sigh.

at least they didnt spell crystal with a k.

-ap.

mentos and diet coke.

-ap.

geo metro.

my first car was a 91 geo prism. it was maroon and it got about 34 miles to the gallon. my new car is a 01 ford focus. it is silver and it gets about 26 miles to the gallon. (although it may sound like it, i am in no way attempting to make a parallel between color and gas consumption. )

aside from the obvious things (a few huge dents, a busted mirror, a busted door handle and a plethora of scratches) there is nothing that i didnt like more on my old car. i pretty much wish i had my prism back every single day. it used to hold simply sentimental value, but now it would also hold a great deal of monetary value as well.

sure the car itself isn't worth a lot, but when you can go another 8 miles to the gallon with these ridiculous gas prices?! thats incredible. so when i found this article on cnn.com this afternoon i got really excited. geos are making a comeback. thats terrific.

in a time and place where we're judged by the type of vehicle we own - wouldn't it be nice to brag about the fact that you were saving more money than your neighbor? you could take your neighbor out for a steak dinner and say "guess what? for the amount it costs to fill your tank, i can fill my tank AND pay for this steak dinner! pass the A1."

i could make this into a "why do we have to be impressive with our things?" or a "go buy a geo metro" blog. but i think i've decided the thing that makes the most sense to me is something along the lines of "why not just keep it practical?" i'm currently typing on a macbook. is that a status symbol? sure. but its also one of the easiest, most uncomplicated and portable devices i've ever used. it makes my life easier. however my car does not need to be shiny and flashy. its purpose is to get me from point A to point B, so why not want my car to make life easier on me by saving me some money at the same time? its not even science.

i really want to go out and get a metro. i think they're terrific and i'd really be much more comfortable driving one. plus seeing that i'm pursuing a career that isn't necessarily going to hook me up with dinero for life - it'd be nice to save a little for other things.

hopefully this article doesnt come entirely true though. the last thing i would want is for the world to catch on to my philosophy and start to understand that cars like the geo metro - that save you money and still possess the capability of getting you places - ought to cost more than those other flashy cars that get you about 150 miles on a full tank. i'd like the world to keep thinking that vehicle image is important so that i can reap the benefits when the best cars are unwanted and cheap. hopefully.

i give it four years and i'll have purchased a mid 90s gasoline-saver. cmon complete independence.

-ap.

staff retreat.

i have just returned to kansas city from beaver lake in arkansas. actually, i shouldn't use the term "returned" - that would imply that i was in kc for an extended period prior to my trip to The Natural State. in reality, i only spent about 8 hours here on saturday night, so i don't necessarily consider that an established place you can "return" to.

but thats neither here nor there.

i love my job and i love the people i work with. plain and simple. we spent 2 days in a lake house together learning about one another: our personality, how we communicate, our skills, etc. i'm really excited about this years' student ministry staff. i feel like i have it easy. i came into the summer knowing who everyone was except two of them, but i'm excited for those relationships to blossom over the next few years. heck we're already playing m.a.s.h. and interlocking fingers.

also. i rediscovered my love for monopoly. this game (especially when played with tim and tj and ben and me*) is not for the not-so-strong-willed. we were yelling and screaming and laughing and dropping phrases like "ahhh eff you boy." hilariously cocky and so great. i'm a huge proponent for the yellow spaces. specifically marvin gardens. it just sounds way more beautiful than the other locations. except it also kinda sounds like a nursing home. which makes it seem like a snoozer. i'll just dwell on the positive ones.

the last few days have gotten me extremely pumped about my role this summer and who i'll be spending most of my time with. i haven't even gotten to check out kc, but that will come too and make things even better.

-ap.

* - i've recently been taught a lesson or two about when to use i and me. boom.

cooper buck.

john buck did not travel with the team to miami to play the marlins this weekend because his wife gave birth to twins.

they named one of them COOPER.

hi-ohhhhh.

-ap.

all the girls standing in the line for the BLAH BLAH.

there is something that bugs me about recording artists, specifically rap artists. i've been able to look past it up until this point, but i need to say something.

why is it that incredible beats and off the chains synth and ridiculous samples MUST be voiced over with sex and drugs? i understand that artists have to stick to their roots, express their political views and frustrations through their lyrics and rapping abilities, but there are so many instances where sick beats are compromised because of morally questionable lyrics. the example that i would like to share with you all:

n*e*r*d - everyone nose
(thats the music video too. it adds to the annoyance.)

i've never experienced a song that i was able to love and hate so much simultaneously. i can't help but groove to it. the bass is great. the drums are way great. the brass** is great. and the mixing is great. yet overall? its average to me. which bums me out to be honest, cause i was ready for an n*e*r*d breakthrough in my life.

this song is about snorting coke. that is its only topic, and that pisses me off, frankly. cause it not only ruins the image of n*e*r*d in my mind, but it also wrecks the track completely. most of the time i can ignore/look past the explicit slash not-so-necessarily-moral lyrics. but this track is just too blatant about it. if an artist is going to go to all the work to create an incredible back beat just to repeat drug-related phrases over and over - why bother with the lyrics at all? it makes me sad that the all the work that went into the beat is nullified by ridiculously weak lyrics.

the video definitely doesnt help.

i understand how people can hate hip-hop and rap. there are way more inspiring lyrics out there, but it does somewhat surprise me when people can't appreciate sounds that make you wanna bounce. and i will admit, n*e*r*d excels here despite their bummer lyrics. so overall - i like the track, but the lyrics blow.

i wish more artists just did what daft punk does - add lyrics and vocals simply to enhance the sound of the back beat. they're just as simple as the lyrics in "everyone nose" but they're a) not crude and b) an asset to the established sound of the track.

turns out in searching for that picture of n*e*r*d (above), i stumbled upon the greatest example of this whole blog in one great track. the neptunes are n*e*r*d minus shay haley (also read the neptunes = pharrell and chad hugo). which means that 2/3 of n*e*r*d have redeemed themselves in my eyes. phew. maybe this can be my breakthrough instead.

so i will leave you with some goodness from the neptunes.
daft punk - harder, better, faster, stronger (neptunes remix)

...and life is good.

-ap.

** - had you asked me yesterday what this instrument was i would've responded "saxophone" without a moment of hesitation, but after the instruments section of my music final last night my confidence has been greatly shaken.

8/8 > 8/10 (?)

another day, another semester.

i've completed my eighth of ten semesters at kstate. part of me wishes the final i just conquered brought semester eight of eight to a close, but i've come to terms with another year of school and i'm excited to see what manhattan has in store in the fall and next spring (won't be athletics, i can assure you that.)

i'm heading back to kc on saturday after the class of 08 graduation and beginning my 3 month tenure as a hillcrest summer youth intern extraordinaire early sunday morning. what a fierce way to kick off the summer. i say bring it on.

-ap.

3rd floor hale library. great room. 3:30 pm.

welcome to the northeast corner of the great room/hogwarts in hale library.
thats a piece of Big Red in my mouth. not my tongue.
its helping me ween off of red bull. ok thats not true (red bull not pictured).

and i was under the impression that libraries contained books.
i was mistaken it appears.
reminds me of one of those cheesy shots they do at prep schools in front of a bookcase full of impressive looking volumes like don quixote, les miserables and the lorax.
i'm like a poor man's jimmy carter.

-ap.

fireworks at lake michigan.

tuesday night i booked a three day solo trip to chicago.

the purpose of this trip is five-fold:
1. check out north park university.
2. go to wrigley field and love baseball.
3. hang out around the city in hopes that i can inexplicably know that chicago is the right place for me this time next year.
4. get out of kansas and out on my own.
5. my life has been missing adventure for a while now.

may 28-31.
i might break out the camera for this one. maybe. i'm not big on picture-taking, but i could try my best. i probably will.

-ap.

back to school.

this is going to be a very weak blog week.
i've got papers and tests and not a lot of time to think about extracurricular things.
its my fault though. i've done next to nothing for quite some time.
so i need to take a week or so and catch up on everything.
next week are finals. then i'm starting my first month in kansas city in nearly two years.
thats sorta exciting i guess (slight understatement - the word sight is also an understatement.)

a gentleman pushing 60 years came into radina's yesterday morning with this on his tshirt:
-ap.

is this from God?

last night was focused on the idea of corporate prayer - what is it, what does it look like, how do we do it, etc. - and it really got me thinking. at the end of the talk and before the post-talk music we had a corporate prayer practice session. i'll run through my thought process during that time period now.

first i was terrified. we all were. i know this because the first thing said when we split into out group of five was when i said "corporate prayer always comes with a certain level of discomfort and a lack of excitement." and everyone nodded or said "yeah me too."

we went into silent prayer - just listening for what God was throwing at us in both word and image form. i was silent for about 30 seconds, but when nothing jumped to me immediately, i found myself trying incredibly hard to have an image to present to the rest of the group in hopes that it would spark an idea from others. in this time i had the following random objects in my brain: a door, a porcupine*, and an umbrella. in that order.

were these images from God? or was it all simply random junk that my conscious had quickly thrown to the forefront of my brain so that i would have something to bring up (both making myself feel more spiritual and killing the discomfort.)

i used to play a game with my roommates called "come up with a spiritual analogy for a random object on the spot." it was easy, but somewhat discouraging too. i could pull a spiritual analogy out of my rear on a whim - did this mean God was presenting me with these ideas? or was i just being a cynical Christian making light of spiritual ideas? to this day i'm not sure if i know. i think more the latter.
anyway. these silent minutes reminded me of that. i felt like i was putting forth my best effort to think up objects and put a spiritual aura to them.

after a few minutes we began discussing the ideas we had. one individual said they heard God say "reach out." i tried to match this with my three images. i could make them all three work with it if i wanted. door: some people are here in our midst but feel like they're outsiders waiting for us to open the door to them. porcupine: sometimes people aren't easy to reach out to. umbrella: sometimes we're stuck under a canopy of safety and we're scared to leave it. can you see why i can get cynical about these things?

i decided to go with the umbrella, and i was excited when another individual latched on to it and actually appeared to be very positively influenced by my spontaneous analogy. she heard it, related it to what she was thinking, and it become meaningful to her life as well as others in the group. does that mean it was definitely spiritual and from God? or did i just do a great job coming up with something spiritual-sounding that just happened to hit home with an individual? at this point, i would say that the umbrella image was from God based on how it furthered conversation and resonated with other ideas around the group.

anyway. i guess i'm mainly looking for feedback here more than anything. here's a handful of questions i still have:
to what extent do you think those images were from God?
what does corporate prayer look like to you?
what would be a better way to describe a "gift of analogies" than saying it like that?
are games like "come up with a spiritual analogy for a random object on the spot" fruitful or detrimental to faith?

this is where my heart has been today. just continuing to ponder both in my mind and in text form on here. hopefully i'll blog again with answers and greater truth sometime soon. let me know what you think.

-ap.

* - what do you get when you mix a tortoise and a porcupine? a slow poke.

howdy.

i live in a house with four other guys: paul, nick, chris, and matt. chris and i live on the main floor, the other three sleep downstairs.

every morning when i wake up to take a shower i have to walk through my kitchen, through the living room, past chris's room and into the bathroom. usually this isn't a painful process, however, there is the occasional morning when i'll come out of the bathroom and the front door will be wide open. or the off chance that a friend of the house's will be waiting in the living room when i get out. sometimes awkward. usually funny.

a few days back i was making the trek to the bathroom and just as i passed chris's room there was a flash of plaid that rushed by me. i have nothing against plaid, in fact, chris looked rather dapper in it (albeit in a slightly cowboy/i-might-secede-from-the-union way) . i felt compelled to make a comment about it. so i was quickly trying to find something simple like "love the plaid," or "yeah plaid!" or "sportin the plaid today eh?"...maybe something like "where's the belt buckle man?"

but before i could say anything, chris nonchalantly exclaimed, "howdy!"

playing the part. atta boy.

-ap.