You will thank me for having the song stuck in your head for the rest of the day

So going out and drinking with Captain Crab last night was a blast. Unfortunately, it left me a little brain-mushed today. Not hungover, just unable to think. It was most likely the second vodka martini. Or the second carafe of sake. Or the big beer. Or the Jack and Coke followed by the fruity drink, I don't even remember what it was now. Either way, there were some epic amounts of alcohol drank by a couple of piratin' fools. We even fit sushi in. It was delicious. The Crab told many stories, none of which I could do justice trying to tell myself. He needs to write more often over there at H's blog. Or create his own! I'd read it.

I had a great, great time last night, even if I went undrafted. I'm really happy for Adam Haluska, maybe I'll try to catch a Hornets/Spurs game when I'm in Texas. I'm definitely going to try to go to a Sonics/Spurs game, to see Kevin Durant. Although, that may be the hardest ticket to find, seeing as how Durant was a stud at Texas, I'm sure plenty of people would like to go see him play. I'll have to use my talents at getting into places.

The end of this post is sponsored by Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy, writer at espn.com, on Page 2. This week, his articles have been outta the park, seriously funny stuff. Starting off with a running diary of the NHL Draft, then a chat on Tuesday, and ending with last night's NBA Draft running diary. Anyways, I was reading the chat, and Simmons and the readers sending in questions had an ongoing thing where they tried to come up with the worst possible song to watch a stripper dance/get a lapdance to. Funny enough in itself, right? Some of the songs suggested were great. But my favorite part of the whole chat is as follows:

Mike (Chicago): I would like a lap dance to Rick Astley's "Never gonna give you up".

Bill Simmons: I'm glad you brought this up. When I was in college, we used to go to Papa Gino's for All You Can Eat Pasta night, which was fantastic. Anyway, right when we got there one night, I put $5 into the jukebox and just selected that same Rick Astley song over and over again so that it would play for the entire time we were there. The reactions from the diners were priceless. Every time the song ended, you could see people praying that it wouldn't start again, and then it would. I miss college.

That made me laugh out loud, really hard. Of course I had to look up the video. And so, to finish up, here is the wonderfully amazing video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. Enjoy.

I'm leaving this place, but there's nothing I'm planning to take

Cassadaga, the latest album from Bright Eyes, was released yesterday, and I'm getting through my first full listen of it now. It's good. Very good. And on this glorious, seemingly ironically excellent day, it's perfect. (For those of you not reading this from the Midwest, there has been some extremely unseasonably cold weather, complete with some huge, huge snowflakes falling in Iowa City today. Incredibly beautiful. I love this. It's like Iowa City knew that I was going to be leaving after the summer, and wanted to give me one last snow, just as a nice little going away thought. Everyone around is bitching about the weather, while I'm walking around with a big, dopey smile on my face.) This album is a nice mix of some country-tinged tunes, showing what I feel has been the natural growth of Conor Oberst. If one were to listen to Fevers and Mirrors and then immediately play this album, they'd probably find it hard to believe that both came from the same band/musician, but, listening through their catalogue as it's grown, the band becomes more of an organic being, maturing with each song. It may help that Oberst around the same age as me, so maybe I'm kind of growing the same way. That may be a stretch, but it's nice to think. I haven't decided on a favorite song yet, I'll have to listen a few times more.

For other things in my life right now, it would seem like today would be a Bad Day. I mean, to borrow an analogy from Bill Simmons, I had a no-hitter through 7, brimming with confidence. I had lost the perfect game with a walk and an error, but was still going strong, no one could touch me. Then, on my best pitch, I gave up a triple off the wall. Now the other team is threatening to score, while my bats have been silent for sometime now. And I'm pretty sure the pitches were being tipped somehow, and the signals between me and the bench had somehow gotten confused. Now, with confidence shaken, I gotta try to maintain composure and finish the inning. I know about 94% of the people reading this won't get the reference, and that may be a conservative estimate. But I find it hilarious, so the whole day was fun for me. Just humor me this. Thanks.

However, part of the bright side of losing the no-hitter is that I've made up my mind. I'm going to Austin. It'll be after the very first Iowa Hawkeye home football game, just because I want to see another game at Kinnick before I leave. So, most likely sometime after September 8th, I'm heading south. I know, I know, some people may be skeptical about moving to Texas, home of our president, but Austin's a college town, suposedly similar to a (much) larger Iowa City, and I think my ideals will fit in there quite nicely. Plus the music scene is exactly what I want. So there's not a lot that can change my mind at this point. Unless someone offers me a lot of money to move to Boise right now. Eventually I'll get there, but there are other things I'd like to do and check out right now. Plus, I don't know if an opportunity like this will present itself again, so I gotta take advantage. So, as Howard Dean once said, "Beeyah!!!"

Opening Day thoughts, etc.

The baseball game went well tonight, the Cardinals lost, the Mets won, all is good. My man Carlos Beltran went 1-4 with an RBI and a run scored, plus he threw out Eckstein at the plate by full step. What was 3rd base coach Jose Oquendo thinking, sending Eckstein? First off, Eckstein is not a speedy runner. Secondly, you don't test Beltran's arm on a week grounder to center. Thirdly, you don't send the slow-ish runner against a strong thrower with the best player in the league on deck!!!!!! I cannot emphasize that enough. Having Albert Pujols at bat with two men on and one out is a big difference than having him up to bat with one on and two out. And it worked perfectly for the Mets, Pujols walked, Rolen (I think he was up next, I can't exactly remember) was hit by a pitch, which loaded the bases for. . . Yadier Molina. Who promptly does what he did for most of last season, get out. Had Eckstein not been sent, assuming the inning played out similarly (which is a stretch, granted), they would have scored at least one run. If I were a Cardinals fan (luckily I'm not), I would be furious. As it is, I'm upset that a third base coach would take that chance with the physical specimen Albert Pujols on deck. There is no situation in which that is an OK thing. That's your World Champion, folks. (I feel dirty saying a team that won 83 games in the regular season was a World Series Champion. But they did, and now all season we'll hear the phrase "Defending Champion St. Louis Cardinals." To borrow a phrase from the Sports Guy, I will now light myself on fire.)

I'm very pumped for the Royals opener tomorrow, especially since the game will be televised here!!! It makes me happy to no end that espn is showing the opener for Kansas City. Sure, the Red Sox being the opposing team probably sells the game, but still. . . If you see me around town tomorrow (I'm not sure how many people in Iowa City read this, if any), I'll be decked out in my Royals shirt, hat, and maybe the wallet will make an appearance. Plus I'll have my KC keychain. Now if I only had a tie, then I could celebrate Opening Day all day long! I don't know if I should wear my royal blue underwear tomorrow; they've brought me bad luck in the past. (Yes, I am 26 years old and believe that the pair of underwear that I put on affects my day-to-day happenings. You don't want to get me started on things that I believe can affect things, especially when it comes to sports. Here's a quick one: If I'm not able to watch a game, I will not check the scores, and will purposely avoid looking at the score ticker across the bottom of the screen for fear of seeing the Royals' score. Because if I see the score, it will make them lose. That's one of the more rational habits.)

My weekend was uneventful outside of the show, but nice. I went home to Muscatine to watch our dog there on Friday night and most of Saturday. Spent some time in the hottub on Friday night, which was amazing. I need to get me one of those. Then Saturday was rather lazy, I loafed around watching TV during the morning, then KP came over and we grilled some brats and just talked for a few hours, which was nice. Then, a couple hours after that, there was a tornado warning for Muscatine County. A pretty interesting 18 hours there, from the midnight hottub, to grilling in the afternoon sun that occasionally peaked out, to sitting in the basement reading with our dog Niles while I waited for the twister to come. (It's almost been a year since the tornadoes hit Iowa City, so I was going to be cautious this time. There were some strong winds howling around, so it seemed like the smart option. For better or worse, Muscatine is still intact.) Then today I ran some errands and went to work. Now I'm blogging. woo. But all is right in the world, the baseball season is upon us, and I'm feelin fine.

The Sports Guy

Since espn.com has made all of Bill Simmons' archived articles available (alliteration!) without being an "Insider" subscriber, I've been reading them all day. Some of my favorites are about the brawls in baseball, the Unintentional Comedy Rating scale, the Vengeance Scale, the Ewing Theory, and the Levels of Losing. If you're a sports fan and/or a pop culture fan, you should find at least some of these articles entertaining. I've liked Simmons for a while, even though he's a huge homer for all Boston-area sports teams and doesn't like Big Ten basketball, I still read his articles and usually catch myself laughing at loud. If you get a chance, look up his mailbags, articles were he responds to the email that he gets from readers. Usually some high comedy. (I think I get some of the phrases I use from Simmons, like "high comedy" or "good times." Also my writing style may be influenced by him, if I had a writing style.)

Today is one of my favorite holidays. That's right, it's Opening Day! The Mets take on the Cardinals tonight, and then tomorrow almost all other teams start their seasons. The Red Sox are in Kansas City; unfortunately I am not. I'm going to have to try to find the game on the radio, but since it's the Red Sox, maybe the Royals will actually be on TV! I'll have to check that out. Tonight's game will be watched from work, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I'll be getting paid, and usually Sunday nights are not the busiest of nights. Of course, now that I've said that, we'll be swamped all night long. But I've seen the first pitch of the first game for who knows how long, even the games that started around 3 or 4 am CST, when they were played in Japan. I woke up, made some hot dogs, and watched some baseball. Good times! I don't think I'll be able to have a hot dog this time, maybe I could pack on in a lunch bag. . . I'm actually seriously considering that now. I'm so smart!

Anyways, I'm off to the showers. I'll try to have a more comprehensive review of last night's concert after work tonight, but we'll see how I'm feeling. I usually get a little emotional after the first game of the season, I just hope I can control the tears of joy after the first pitch tonight. And I wish I was joking.