Proud Owner
Or at least owner. I decided to go ahead and pay-off my car today (there wasn’t too much principle left) since I had the money and my financial decisions lately consist of figuring out which particular debt to knock out. For now, it was the car. I guess it’s nice to not have to worry about the monthly payments anymore, but it’d be a lot nicer if I didn’t dislike my car so much. I’ll try and count my blessings, I guess.
Time for the sleeping.
CA or bust
I’m officially going to El Segundo, California for three days next week. It doesn’t sound like all that much, but since Dallas is the farthest west I’ve been since I was about 10, I figure it’s kind of a big deal. Best part of it is that it’s not even on my dime and I only have to work one full day while I’m there.
Florida wins again–four in a row
Well, after losing a tough one to Georgia on their court a few weeks ago, it was nice to hear that the Gators stepped it up at home and split the series. It seems like our guys have really started playin’ big since Christian Drejer shipped out and they couldn’t have picked a better time. We have to play at Kentucky on Saturday, then we get a little time off before the SEC Tourney. A couple weeks ago, I’d have said we wouldn’t have a chance against Kentucky on their floor, but now I’d say it’s anybody’s game. With the offensive fire-power we’ve been able to rustle up, along with our new ability to refrain from choking away close games and small, late leads, I’d say we’re one of the better teams in the SEC.
Billy Donovan said [paraphrase], “Christian Drejer is a great player, but our guys are playing better without him for some reason.” After all the hype that Christian brought with him to America a couple years ago, it’s hard to believe Billy would say that. But he’s right and I’m almost glad Christian left. He was our leading assist man, but he wasn’t contributing too much on defense and he wasn’t being aggressive enough on offense. In the SEC, the more aggressive team often gets the win because of the up-tempo, quick-defense style of basketball that we play. I think Christian just didn’t really fit into that style of basketball. I think that, after a little time as a pro in Europe, he might be able to find a home on an NBA team with a slower, half-court based game. I think he has a lot of work to do before that’s a possibility, but I think it is a possibility.
I’m not going to make any predictions about the game on Sunday, but I will say that I think it’s going to be close. I think the game will be decided by 7 points or less and there will be at least two lead changes under the 10-minute mark.
The Passion of The Christ
I’ve been excited about this movie since I first heard about last year. I finally got to see it tonight and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed in the least. Granted, I would like to see it again, so I can focus more on the artistic elements of the movie, rather than being overwhelmed by the initial spectacle, but I think it’ll be a while before I’m ready to see it again.
I think it’s a great film because it’s a somewhat tangible example of the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith: a man, born supernaturally, was tortured and murdered in spite of his own innocence so that the rest of mankind could be reconciled to its creator. I think that idea is articulated very well in this film. It’s also great to see a good piece of “high budget” art produced by a Christian and for an explicitly Christian purpose.
I also think it’s great that the movie is making so much money at the box office. Skeptics seem to think its success is reason for them to make claims that those involved–Mel Gibson, namely–will be making a lot of money. I suspect they’ll eventually be sorry for trying to use the film’s financial success as a means by which to criticize it (ie, claiming that Gibson was interested in the monetary benefits of making the film more than the moral implications), since I think it’s inevitable that Gibson will donate most or all of the profits to charity and the Church.
I could be wrong, but I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t. All in all, I’m glad he made the movie and stuck with it and I’m confident that it will serve a great purpose.
Through The Horse and His Boy
I finished up the third book of the Chronicles of Narnia this past Sunday and I’m working on Prince Caspian. I’m starting to get into new territory, meaning I haven’t read these books before, so it’s all fresh and new and I’m really enjoying it. Normally, I’m not a big “fantasy” or children’s lit. fan, but C.S. Lewis just does such a great job painting word pictures and articulating concepts through metaphor that it’s impossible for me not to enjoy his writing.
California: attempt 2
Well, I’m going to try to go to CA again next week. This time, I think it’ll happen and the timing seems pretty good. I’m going to e-mail my co-worker out there tomorrow so he can give me a list of places to go and things to do while I’m out there. I figure I’ll use it as sort of a field-trip to learn about L.A. and that general area. It’s been about, oh, 20 years since I was out there, so we have a lot to catch up on.
The Passion
Well, I’ve been itching to see it since I first heard Mel Gibson was working on it and I’ll finally get to catch it tomorrow night. I’m going with a friend who’s already seen it, but he says he’s excited to see it again. I’ve already heard lots of opinions on different aspects of the movie, but the great thing is that I already know what happens, so I can watch it simply to appreciate the gravity, intensity that the movie is said to create.
Pay day approaching
I get paid again on Thursday afternoon. This way of life is so different from being a college student, I still can’t get used to it. In college, my bank account would spike once every four months or so, then it would slowly decline as I spent my scholarship and loan money. Then, as a new semester began, so the cycle would recycle. Now, I get a fresh influx of cash every two weeks and I have a lot of freedom regarding how I spend or invest it. Right now, I’m focusing on paying back my student loans and the other “debt” I incurred this past year at school. I say “debt” in quotes because although it is technically debt, I’m not paying any interest on any of it, so I don’t stress about it too much. If all goes as planned, I’ll be paying back all of this past year’s living expenses by October without having paid a penny of interest on that money. Then, I can start whittling away at the real debt.
Vulnerability
Since my move, I’ve thought a lot about my future. Specifically, I’ve thought about who I will (or won’t) be spending it with. I mean, I guess for most people, marriage is an inevitable part of the plan. For some, it’s a five-year plan, for some a ten-year plan, for some an ASAP-plan. I’ve been realizing that I’m probably on the 10-year-plus plan because I’m just not comfortable with my future–where I’ll be, what I’ll be, who I’ll be–and I don’t see any sense in adding another person into the already confused mix.
That said, I was workin’ out today (I don’t have much to do but think while I’m workin’ out) and I realized that, somewhere out there, there’s a girl who, with one look, could completely obliterate my 10-year-plus (not) plan. I mean, I don’t really have any grandiose picture of who I’ll be (although I’m leaving my options open and I’m always up for suggestions), but right now I’m very comfortable with the idea that I could be romantically alone for the next several years–I’m actually kind of looking forward to it–but I am also realizing that I could be put in a situation where I meet a girl and have no alternative but to think, “Yeah… I’m supposed to marry her.”
I guess I was just struck by how fragile something as big as a “future” can be. I might think I’ve got me some plans, ideas, hopes and all that, but it wouldn’t take much to force me to scrap it and start in a whole new direction. For now, I’m really happy with the vague direction I’m headed in, and no, I didn’t have anyone in mind when I wrote this.
The Academy Awards were on tonight…
And, as anticipated, The Lord of the Rings and company nabbed several awards. I wasn’t too surprised at that, but what did surprise me was when the announcer said that it had won 11 awards, tying Ben Hur and Titanic for the most awards given in a single night. I thought it sounded strange that Titanic had won that many awards. I mean, it was a pretty good movie, but 11? Maybe I should watch it again.
I was happy to see that Lost in Translation got Sofia Coppola an Award for Best Original Screenplay and, although I was sorta’ pullin’ for Bill Murray, I was glad to see Sean Penn finally get an Award (I thought he was robbed a couple years ago when Denzel won for Training Day). I haven’t seen Monster, but from the clips I’ve seen, Charlize Theron earned every ounce of her Oscar. I thought Billy Crystal did a great job hosting, but then he’s been doing it so long, I bet it’s old hat for him by now.
Overall, it was a good show, but I have to say I’m glad Lord of the Rings won’t be up for any Oscars next year. I mean, they were all good movies, but I’d like to see some other films get a chance at some awards. It’s gettin’ old seein’ the same people winning all the awards every year.
Aaaaaand my weekend is officially over.
Won one on the road
Looks like the Gators pulled out another win today. Although Arkansas was one of the worst teams in the SEC going into today’s game, it was entirely possible that Florida could find a way to lose. They tried to, but managed winning in spite of a late-game meltdown that brought the Hogs within 5 points as the clock expired.
We had trouble with turnovers, just as we’ve had the past few games. I think that’s the one area of the game where losing Drejer has really hurt us. He protected the ball, made smart passes and always finished with several assists. Other guys–Roberson, Walsh–are stepping up and getting assists, but they’re not protecting the ball like they should be. I think we had about 20 turnovers today and that’s just unacceptable. The reason turnovers hurt us so much is that we simply can’t get back and stop the other team from scoring after we turn the ball over; we’re just not fast enough. Our defense is slow anyway, and giving the team multiple opportunities to explicitly exploit our slow transition defense is not a good way to win close games.
I think we’re doing pretty well offensively, but if our perimeter game goes cold for a day, we’ll be struggling to win. That may or may not be a problem with so many great shooters–Roberson, Walsh, Abukar, Humphrey–that can tow the line. I’m looking forward to closing out our SEC schedule against Georgia and Kentucky. If we can with both those games, it’ll give us a huge boost of confidence as we move into the NCAA Tourney, regardless of how we perform in the SEC Tourney.
Another Noble Friday
Tonight was the second Friday that I spent at Barnes & Noble since I got here. Part of me thinks that makes me some sort of extravagant loser, while the rest of me thinks it was a good time and an excuse to drop 30 bucks on some magazines and a book. I got a 5-dollar copy of Cracking the Genome: Inside the Race to Unlock Human DNA by Kevin Davies. The magazines were on web design, digital photography and, yes, Nintendo Power. I couldn’t resist the Nintendo Power because I used to read it when I was a kid and I figured it was worth five bucks to see what sort of rubbish I used to enjoy. Turns out it’s the boring, short-on-actual-content sort of rubbish that I enjoyed so much when I was younger.
Florida game tomorrow
I think we play Arkansas tomorrow. I think they’re doing pretty poorly this year, so hopefully we’ll be able to grab a road win and build some confidence. I can’t make any sort of predictions because I don’t know much about their team. I think I read somewhere that they have a couple strong wingmen, so that could spell trouble for our perimeter defense, especially if we’re playing a zone again. I guess we’ll see…
Speaking of Basketball
I’m playing tomorrow morning at 9, so I’m gonna’ go ahead and get some sleep now.
The Gators win two in a row
I only heard the last 15 minutes of the South Carolina vs. Florida game, but the last 5 minutes was all I needed to hear. When I tuned in, the score was something like 32-28, South Carolina. For the next 10 minutes, the differential stayed about the same and the Gators seemed to have trouble getting anything going in their halfcourt offense. Also, we couldn’t get a rebound at either end of the floor. I think Roberson was our only player in double figures with Lee and Walsh knockin’ on the door. Then, with about 4 minutes left in the game, those three completely took over. Lee had some nice plays inside for easy 2-pointers, Walsh made some clutch shots including a contested 3-pointer on an assist from Lee and Roberson continued selecting good shots and even made a difficult runner in the paint. On the other end of the floor, Lee, Walsh and Roberson all pulled down some boards to limit South Carolina to one shot on offense. Roberson finished with about 24 points on something like 6-of-11 shooting from 3-point land. Walsh and Lee both came on late, hitting clutch free-throws (I think both of those guys are Top 10 in the SEC in free-throw percentage) and basically owning Carolina by scoring at will, rebounding effectively, knocking down free-throws and stealing the ball a few times.
Those are the highlights. From what I heard, we played with very little energy for most of the game. I think we finished with only 69 points, which is more than 10 points below our average, but this was a home game, so we should’ve been around 85 points. We didn’t seem to respond too well to Carolina’s pressure defense (they were running a full-court, three-quarter-court and half-court press, if I remember right) and, although we didn’t turn the ball over too many times, we certainly weren’t making anything happen on offense for most of the game. We couldn’t pull down many boards, which is unacceptable with Richard, Moss and Lee as our big guys and I don’t think we were playing with much energy throughout the game. The good news is that all things things can definitely be corrected by the Tourney (SEC or NCAA) as they’re mostly stemming from either inexperience or just a lackluster effort.
One thing that troubles me, as it has all season, is our half-court defense. Our zone is ineffective and we tend to give up points to slashers–guys who attack off the dribble either from the wings or the free-thrown line. I think this is a result of our low intensity in some of our games. The main problem is that our help is slow getting to the right spot and we seem to bail ourselves out with weak fouls that show that we’re allowing them to drive by us and then trying to slow them down by grabbing or hooking. Again, this can be partially corrected with more energy (gained by good coaching and maybe some rest and a little motivation before Tourney season), but I’m afraid the inexperience factor might be pretty severe. We have a lot of young guys and I think some of them just aren’t completely comfortable playing at the college level yet. It seems like there’s quite a bit of miscommunication–especially on the defensive end of the floor–and that’s going to hurt us against well-organized offensive teams. I hope that our older “veteran” players (although we only have one senior) can help the younger guys adapt to the game’s speed and intensity before the season’s over.
I think if we pick it up a little by scrapping for loose balls, playing more aggressive defense and crashing harder on the boards, we will have a reasonable shot at winning the SEC Tourney (I think the past few years have made it obvious that it’s anybody’s Tournament to win) and hopefully making it out of the first weekend for the NCAA Tourney. Only a few more regular-season games left and then the Madness begins.
Phone home
The highlight of my day was a 45-minute conversation I had with a friend from back home. This has been a common theme since I got here and it seems that nothing I do is ever more refreshing than talking with someone from home. Tonight’s conversation was all over the place, but the common thread throughout the conversation was the commonalities that we share. It’s nice to realize that I’m not alone and, although I’ve begun a new phase in my life, there are many other people experiencing things just like I am. It’s interesting how we can be in different places in life, but still be experiencing the same things.
Group blog
I don’t think that I mentioned the other blog I’m a part of now. A friend of mine decided it would be good to have a blog where many people post to discuss our perspectives on transitions. Specifically, we’re all in some phase of the college-to-real-world transition. I think it’s a good idea and I hope I can contribute something meaningful. I’m not a super writer and I often have trouble thinking of interesting, useful and creative things to say, but if I do think of something that has all those attributes, I’ll post it over there.
Still reading the Chronicles
I’m in the third book and still enjoying the series. Nothing to report except that I’m still reading them and I’m going to knock out another chapter right now.
