NFL Championship Weekend Picks (13)

As, I have been doing this entire NFL playoffs, here are my picks for this upcoming weekend’s NFC and AFC Championship’s games.

Sunday:

Packers: 31 – Bears: 17

Aaron Rodgers is the MVP of the playoffs thus far and he will continue to shine in the familiar territory of Chicago. The Bears will keep it close, but in the end, the Packers will close out a trip to the Superbowl.

Steelers:  24 – Jets: 20

The Jets fall just short against a third-straight Superbowl winning Quarterback. The Steelers play well at home and in the playoffs and put away the Jets. Expect this to be the closer of the two games.

Feel free to share your thoughts, opinions, and comments on these selections. I welcome it. 

Happy Birthday Edgar Allan Poe! (12)

Today, my friends we celebrate the birthday of one of the greatest writers in the history of time. He turns 202 today, ladies and gentleman. It is the one, the only, Edgar Allan Poe!

I have been familiar with his work since my high schools when I first read the Raven. It was immediately and remains today to be one of my favorite poems of all time. Other stories such as The Tell Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher also tickle my fancy.

What I enjoy most about Poe is his uncanny ability to paint a perfect picture in his reader’s mind that was so lifelike that it stuck with you even after the story ended. He has a unique ability to paint a picture both physically and mentally. He can give you the visual description of a scene, but also provides with a clear imagine of how the character is thinking. He is as much a descriptive writer as he is a mental observer. This ability to get you into the character’s head helps the reader get more into the story.

Any author can describe a scene of a house, but Poe gives his descriptions life. He does this for both people and things alike. That is what I enjoy so much about Poe and that is why he is one of the greatest writers ever.

For those of you that have read Poe before know what I am talking about. For those of you that do not know his work, I recommend you get yourself a story and read some of his works. My advices: start with “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Raven”, and then proceed onward.

In more contemporary happenings, there had been a “mysterious stranger” whom would bring three red roses to the Poe’s grave site paying tribute to the writer on the anniversary of his birth every year for about the last 60 years. Sadly, this person has ceased attending to these ceremonies during the last 2 years. It’s a shame, as I wanted to go down to Baltimore sometime to see this person. I guess I lost my chance.

So, Happy Birthday Edgar Allan Poe! You were a legend amongst writers and you will never be forgotten. 

Looking Back: Senior Year - Semester 1 (11)

With a little more time on my hands, I guess now is a good time to get this final look back over with.

The year began with the addition of two new roommates; Mr. Eric Larsen and Mr. Kurt Ravenfeld to bring the grand total of four to the rooming situation. Obviously, living with 3 roommates has been different compared to just having one other person, but that is in no way a bad experience. I am enjoying it thoroughly thus far this year.

As for the academics, my first semester consisted of nothing but classes that I needed for my major, with the exception of Horror Fiction, which I greatly enjoyed. The only downside was that it was an 8:45 class, but that took nothing away from the subject matter. The class did take a trip to Eastern State Penitentiary which was a truly great and educational experience. Outside of learning the crazy history of one of Philadelphia’s greatest landmarks, I also learned the spelling of “Penitentiary”. I don’t think I even know it well enough yet to spell it without the help of spell check, but I press on. It’s not an easy word to spell.

I ended up taking Logic and Knowledge as my final Philosophy credit that I needed and I have to admit that I think the class was going to be much harder than it actually was. I ended up enjoying the class and grabbed an A for the class. I recommend this class to anyone.

I am working, I mentioned the two new jobs in my last post as well as my Angel posting job, and those 3 are keeping me on my toes. I got promoted to being the Sports editor of the newspaper as well as the head editor of our school’s literary magazine.

Overall, first semester seemed much busier than it actually was, but it turned out to be my easiest semester overall. I earned the Dean’s list for the first time in my entire career, which I must admit thrilled my mother more than it did me, but I guess it’s worth mentioning on here.

So, I guess it comes down to the final semester. The first full week has begun and it already seems to be flying by. I guess we’ll see what happens. 

Looking Back: Junior Year (10)

So, I sit here preparing myself for my doctor’s appointment, I honestly wish that this thing  would just go away already, and I think it is time to have another college look back. I think we’re on Junior year, are we not?

So, what to say about my junior year of college... Well, it seemed to fly by. I mean, I guess I was looking so much ahead to Senior year that I wasn’t fully paying attention to Junior year.

I roomed with Nick again, as I mentioned in my last post, and I guess the biggest even that occurred was my official declaration of a second major.  Now, I had been an English major since my freshman year although I was already prepping for this addition. Most of my classes were either designated towards my English major or a Communications major. I waited for our Junior Credit Checks, which went superbly, and then declared my second major. It turns out that my particular planning worked out as I ended up just needing 6 total classes to complete both of my majors; 4 of which I completed my first semester of Senior Year and the final 2 that I am taking now.

I honestly do not know what else to say about my 3^rd year. I mean, there was nothing really exceptional occurring. Hopefully, I will have more to write about for my Senior Year: 1^st Semester Look Back, the next post which I plan to write. 

NFL Divisional Weekend Picks (9)

I made these picks officially on Thursday night and totally forgot about posting them on here. Better late than never, I guess.

As for last week, I came up with an even 2-2 record. Thankfully the Jets pulled out that victory or I would have been a sad 1-3. So, now comes games that are just a bit harder to pick. There are some tough divisional matchups this time around, and all four of these games are rematches from the regular season. Some teams will even be meeting for the 3^rd time this season.

It was a tough selection, but here are my picks for this weekend’s games:

Saturday:

Steelers: 14 – Ravens: 10

The extra week to prepare and the home field advantage gives the Steelers a slight edge in a hard-fought battle.

Falcons: 24 – Packers: 20

The Falcons seemed to be magical at home this season where they went 7-1. This will be a close game, but I see the home team holding out in the end.

Sunday:

Bears: 24 – Seahawks: 13

If the Bears play like the Bears that beat teams like the Eagles and Jets this season than they should easily handle Seattle. The Seahawks will need another perfect game from Hasselback to pull off this 

upset.

Patriots: 31 – Jets: 17

As much as I dislike New England, I have to be logical here. The Pats are arguably the best team in football this season. They haven’t lost at home all season, and that trend should continue against a very good Jets team.

Feel free to share your thoughts, opinions, and comments on these selections. I welcome it.

Looking Back: Sophomore Year (8)

So, it has finally arrived: the last and final semester of my college career. As I chill out here in my dorm, I realized that I still wanted to take a look back at the previous years of my time here at Immaculata as I promised you, my avid readers, to do at a later date.

So before I ramble on any further about this semester, I bring to you, my friends, a look back at my Sophomore year at Immaculata.

Sophomore year was the time when my close circle of friends here at IU really began to form. I started the year with a new roommate, the technological savvy Nick Volpe. The irony of that story is that we actually didn’t decide to start rooming together until housing selection at the end of the freshman year. Anyhoo, we began rooming together that second year on the bottom floor of Marian and are still rooming together until this day.

During that first semester, I also met two of the closest and greatest friends that I have ever had. Sadly, neither are still here with Immaculata, but off on their own successful ventures elsewhere. I think that first semester may have been the most enjoyable of my college time, courtesy of those two: Mr. Eddie Ratcliff and Ms. Stephanie Disbrow.

Throw in the thrill of seeing a Phillies’ World Series Victory (Yes, you know I couldn’t go without mentioning that) and It was a great first semester with terrific times spent with my newly formed friends. I actually met Eddie through another friend and Steph was a fellow biology classmate when our first introductions were made. Sadly she left after just that first semester and Eddie departed the school by the end of Sophomore year. However, by the time it was over, I knew I had formed friendships that had lasted a lifetime. I don’t see either one in person, but I know that they are always there for me if I need it and I hope that realize the same goes for me. I never really recall if I did get to thank them for really making my sophomore year so memorable, but I will do so right here.

 

So, thank you guys for everything that semester.

As for the academics of this year, I don’t remember much. I finally got more into classes for my major and began to rid myself of the required courses. This was truly a relief. It was also around this time that I began considering adding a second major, or at least, a minor somewhere in the communications field. It would take me a good year or so before I officially made that choice, but the seeds were being planted from a very early time.

I’m sorry that I cannot give you more than that, but you’re not reading this to hear about the academics are you? Honestly, I guess that the outside activities just overshadowed the classes, and that is what I remember most about this year.

Next up: Junior Year

Looking Back: Freshman Year at IU (7)

As promised in my last post, here is the first of my look backs over the last 4 years of my college experience. I will start with freshman year when the whole experience began....

When I think back to freshman year, I picture a completely different man than you see here before you. I was young, quiet, and downright worrisome of my unknown surroundings. It was a learning experience for me and I indeed learned a lot about myself.

I roomed with an old friend of mine, Mr. Dan Matthews, as having someone there that I knew greatly helped in the transition. I mingled at times with the various people on my hall, most of whom I don’t speak with anymore or have left Immaculata via graduation or transference. Sophomore  year is really when my close knit circle of friends began to develop.

This first year was a tricky one, due to the fact that I was lacking the one item that seemingly every other college student had obtained and that was a laptop computer. As many have seen this as a hindrance, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The lack of a personal computer restricted me to using the computers in the library to do my homework and my papers. Working within the confines of the hours of the library helped teach me organization and planning skills that I didn’t even know that I had. Knowing that I had until only 11pm, which is what time the library routinely closed, each night to get what I needed to get done for the day helped a long way in this development.

From this experience, I have  learned to never push off work until the last minute and, thankfully, never have needed to pull an all-nighter to get last second assignments done with.  Once I finally obtained a computer, which wasn’t until that summer, the time spent working without one had taught me a lot about how I was going to survive in college. I don’t think I have learned a more valuable lesson that what that first year taught me.

Class wise, Freshman year of college turned out to be just a basic rehashing of high school classes.  I had the core classes: Math, History, English, Theology, as well as my least favorite, French. There isn’t much else to tell really, except that it was almost boring at times how much that first year reminded me of high school.

I did join the newspaper my freshman year and have been with it ever since slowly climbing up the ranks. I participated in the yearly creative writing contest that the school holds each year in the spring and finished in 2^nd place which was pretty enthralling for me as I never pictured my writing good enough to win any sort of contest.

There isn’t much else to say about this year, it is almost a blur now in my mind. Looking ahead at my final semester doesn’t leave me time for looking back at the opening round of my college career that much anymore. It was my second year when things began to slowly form and come together and I began to change.

Spring 2011 - The Final Semester Begins (6)

They say time flies when you’re having fun. I guess this is true, at least for me, when it comes to the college experience.  It seems only yesterday that I began my freshman year delving into a strange and unfamiliar environment that turned out to be much more enriching than I had ever imagined.

I do want to do a look back post of all my previous college years, but I think I’m going to break it down per year since I don’t think I can fit everything I want to say about my entire college experience into a single post.

Before I go on with that though, I am looking ahead to the semester  and doing a little preview post, if you will call it that, and then I will take time to look back over the years at Immaculata. 

It’s like one of those “how they got there” segments that you see shown during playoffs of various sports showing what the team did to get where they are. Well, where I am is the end of this college rode and how I got there is an equally challenging as enriching experience.  

I have to admit that I am looking forward to this new semester even more than I have any previous semester. It’s not that I want to leave, but I just know that it’s time to move on to busier and bigger horizons.

It’s going to be a busy semester. I only technically have 3 “normal” classes as well as 3 weekenders, but throwing in a pair of jobs, two editor positions on IU’s publications and an internship help to greatly complicate the matter.  

I think the combination of the extra free time coupled with the knowledge of the impending end will help these next 100ish days or so just zoom by.  

Honestly, I don’t know where the time has gone, but it appears that it is going to be one heck of a finish.

NFL Wilcard Weekend Pics (5)

So it is that time of the year again; time for the NFL postseason. It is the time when 12 elite teams put their merits to the test and battle for the right to hoist the 2011 title of Superbowl Champions.  As with so many others, here are my picks for this opening weekend of football’s postseason. 

Saturday:

Saints: 34 -  Seahawks: 14

Jets: 21 – Colts: 17

Sunday:

Ravens: 24 – Chiefs: 13 

Eagles: 27 -  Packers: 24 

Feel free to share your thoughts, opinions, and comments on these selections. I welcome it.

The People's Choice Awards Recap part 2 (4)

Outside of the Teen Scene Categories, there were many other awards given out last night. Here is a mini recap of those:

One of my favorite shows, House, won a quartet of awards winning best drama overall, Lisa Edelstein won best TV Drama actress, and Hugh Laurie, surprise-surprise, won best TV drama actor as well as favorite TV doctor. 

Iron Man 2 won best action movie and Toy Story 3 finished as the favorite Family Movie, although both lost out on Best Movie, which I’ll get to the reasoning behind later on. Other deserving winners included Johnny Depp as favorite Movie Actor and Neil Patrick Harris won for best TV Comedy Actor. I am surprised that Conan O’Brien beat out Ellen as Favorite Talk Show Host although both deserved the award.

Also on the docket: Adam Sandler and his movie, Grown Ups, won Favorite Comedy Movie Actor and Favorite Comedy respectively. Taylor Swift won Favorite Country Artist, again another shocker (or not).

Two new CBS shows Hawaii Five-0 and $#*! My Dad Says won best New TV Drama and TV Comedy respectively.

A show that won that surprised me a bit was that Lie to Me on Fox. It won best TV Crime Drama beating out powerhouses such as Criminal Minds, Law & Order SVU, Bones, and NCIS. Although, I cannot accurately judge since I have never seen an episode, the four shows it beat out are pretty damn good so Lie to Me must be an exceptional show.

Lie to Me’s front man, Tim Roth, also won best Favorite TV Crime Fighter which was just as shocking seeing as he beat out juggernauts Mark Harmon from NCIS, Simon Baker from The Mentalist, SVU’s Mariska Hargitay, and Emily Deschanel from Bones. My choice would have been a tie between Harmon and Baker with Hargitay finishing in a close 3^rd. Again, I guess I can’t fully judge since I haven’t seen the show. Roth has to be pretty darn good to beat out the infamous Gibbs and the clever Patrick Jane on CBS’ powerhouses.

Another Fox show, The Simpsons won best TV Family beating out fellow competitors, The Harpers from Two and a Half Men as well as another popular Fox show, the Griffins on Family Guy.

I think that's about it for now. 

Until we meet again fellow readers, have a wonderful day!

People's Choices Awards a.k.a Teeny Scene Awards (3)

I used to be all about awards shows. I’m not really sure what it was that made it so intriguing. I guess it was the whole voting system and the suspense right before the winners were announced coupled with the cheering on of your favorite shows, movies, and individuals. I especially liked the shows where the actual fans did the voting as I thought it was an appropriate judgment of what was popular in culture.

The People’s Choice Awards Show is one that stands out in particular. They had their 37^th annual awards show last night and I didn’t even know it was on until this morning. I used to watch that broadcast all the time and would often cast my votes for my selections. However, I have grown to really dislike it lately. The People’s Choice Awards is nothing more than an extension of the Teen Choice Awards, which I believe is still held on Nickelodeon (maybe?). I haven’t watched Nick in ages.

Don’t believe me? Just look at the results on last night.

I’m going to apologize in advance to all fans of the Twilight series out there. I am not one of you and the fact that it won so many awards is just bogus. I also would like to apologize to my readers as I am going to do a small amount of ranting on this post.

Twilight: Eclipse won Favorite Movie. Are you kidding me? You’re telling me that a movie about romancing vampires was better than Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, or even Inception? Give me a break. Movies like Inception and Toy Story 3 are getting Oscar nomination talk and Iron Man 2 out-grossed the campy vampire flick in theaters. Not only did Eclipse actually beat out Inception twice as it also surpassed it for Favorite Drama Movie as well. Talk about teeny voting at its finest. The demographic for Twilight couldn’t even understand the movie Inception if they watched it since they are too young to understand a quality, thought provoking film. 

Don’t forget in the category of Favorite on Screen Team where Eclipse beat out Inception and Iron Man 2 again.

Kristen Stewart from Eclipse beat out Angelina Jolie for Favorite Movie Actress. How that happened, I have no idea as everyone seems to love Jolie. Sadly, I would pass on both.

Fox’s hit show Glee won a pair of awards. You could argue that Glee has the same fanbase as the Twlight Series, but Glee is actually a quality show. It won Favorite TV Comedy beating out emmensely popular shows such as The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother, and Modern Family. Modern Family is the only show that I have not seen amongst the group, but I have no doubt that any of the nominees could have taken home the prize. My pick probably would have been The Big Bang Theory, but it was a close call.

Glee’s Jane Lynch, one of my favorite actresses, won for TV Comedy Actress. I think she was very worthy indeed.

After witnessing the Teen Scene Takedown of The People’s Choice Awards, I just can’t help but wonder how much Nickelodeon gets from this as it is definitely a show run by the younger generations. That is the disappointing part. Not all the deserving nominees actually won thanks to this factor. I guess I am out of my Teen Girl stage and that crap just doesn’t appeal to me anymore, although as a guy, I don’t think that it ever did.

Look for my next post recapping the other winners of the evening. 

Electronic & Audio Books are The Way to Go (Post 2 / 300)

Good morning all!

So the New Year is now just 4 days old, yet it doesn’t seem to be much different from its predecessor. Christmas presents have been opened, Champaign has been popped, and now it is time for grade school and high school students to get back to their busy schedules. Workers are back to their 9-to-5 jobs in hopes of recovering from the vast holiday spendings. Although the holidays are technically over,  I do not go back for over another week. So, here I am, enjoying the peace that will end in a few hours entrance of my siblings from their school time duties.

It is quiet in the house, and I sit here typing to you while listening to a book off of my IPod. Yes, I have found a new love. I obtained an EBook reader for Christmas and instantly fell in love with it. I immediately downloaded a load of EBooks to read with my new toy.

On the suggestion of my brother, I checked out our libraries’ website and found EBooks and Audiobooks to download and borrow right from home only to find that I love audiobooks even more than the Ebooks themselves.

Outside from the accessibility of these audiobooks, it also allows the reader to just sit back with their eyes closed and imagine what is going on in the story. Obviously, you cannot get this freedom with a book. You also get the ability to listen to a story at night without a light that could wake your companions.

The only downside is the length of the book as some could take nearly a quarter of a day to listen to fully. Of course, you can save your spot and just come back to it later. Having all this quiet time really allows time for me to listen to a significant amount of text per day.

I would recommend these audiobooks to anybody with a love of reading coupled with a busy schedule. It is easy, accessible, and convenient.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to lay back and relax with my new book.

So far, it is one audiobook down and many more to go.

Have a wonderful day everyone. 

- Johnny S.

2011 Blogging Resolution

I would like to begin by wishing all my readers a Happy New Year. Im not sure how many of you fall into the old pattern of making resolutions, but this blogger is one whom always seems to make resolutions year after year. Whether or not I follow those resolutions is another story entirely. Often times, I end up making resolutions and then end up flopping once I attempt to follow them. Hopefully, this year will be different, but we shall see.

Before into these resolutions, I must let you all know that you are all witnesses to a historic event. Not only is this the first blog post of the new year, but it also marks the the first extended blog post that I am typing completely from my phone. So for those reading this, you guys are a part of history.

Anyhoo, back to the resolutions. I know there have been many times in the past where I promised to post more, but have failed to deliver. However, this year, I am turning over a new leaf and I am making a new blog resolution right here, right now.

Along with getting to the gym more and passing this final semester of college, my final resolution is to blog more.

As you know there are 365 days in the calendar year. My pledge to you and resolution to myself is to post 300 blogs in these next 12 months. I cant yet tell you the subject matter of these posts, but its my goal for 2011 to post, at least, 300 blog posts. I'm not sure if I can do it, but I am sure as hell going to give it my best shot.

This upcoming year looks as though it will be a busy one with my college career coming to an end followed by the uncertainty of what is to come afterwards. I look forward to sharing all these experiences with you my readers through this 300 Blog Challenge that I am engulfing in.

So now that I've reached the end of this blog post, it looks like its 1 down and 299 to go.

The best to you all and you families and I wish you a happy, safe, and healthy new year. I will be speaking to you shortly.

Until then, happy readings and goodnight!

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