April 30: 1-to-1

I’m looking forward to having 9-hour work days.

As of now that sounds like time off. Vacation. A break. Because on days like today my schedule is packed. Nine? More like 12. Better yet, 16. And I only got paid for two of those hours.

My day started at 8:30, when I woke up to do circulation for The Towerlight, something I am in my fourth semester of doing. After that was class. Back to my apartment for lunch and a shower. Then the 12-hour run (as described in today’s title) began.

1-3: Shooting and digitizing a stand-up for my sportscasting class.

3-6: Towerlight editorial board elections.

6-8: Dinner break.

8-1: Finishing the sportscasting feature on Towson Lacrosse player, Bobby Griebe.

Granted, it could have been a far more stressful day. And it’s hard to complain after a two-hour dinner break. But still. The look shown above on the face of Fernando Madrigal, a fellow WMJF-member, pretty much tells the story on days like these.

But hey. At least I got home in time to see the Nuggets drop to 3-1 against the Spurs tonight. Why wouldn’t I want to see J.R. Smith hoist an off-balance three-pointer with 30 seconds left, down 4, and with Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony on the court. Makes perfect sense. Do your thing J.R. You’re now 0-325 from beyond the arc in the playoffs. In case you haven’t heard, UNC has withdrawn their scholarship offer. Tough break.

This reminds me of something I was thinking about today (not that it should). As I was working on the Griebe feature, I kept thinking about how the thought process of a journalist and that of an athlete is so vastly different (like I said, not at all related to J.R. Smith thinking he belongs in the same stratosphere as Bubbachuck and Melo).

April 27: 1,000

Today I:

Filmed a TV show. Got my oil changed. Cleaned my apartment. Went to the grocery store. Caught up on wedding stuff with Jordan Conn, the first of my friends to get married (and who did in fact get my shoe size from April 19th’s post…#8). Took his recommendation and headed to Barnes & Noble to read a story on Allen Iverson in the latest GQ issue (read it, great idea, flawlessly executed). And watched Chicago go up 3-0 on Miami (literally seconds ago–for the record, Luol Deng has the most terrifying glare in the League. I saw him play at Blair Academy his senior year and I remember noticing it then. He was on a team with Charlie Villanueva at the time. And somehow they managed to lose.).

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.

While I was busy preoccupied with that stuff, this blog was eclipsing the 1,000 hit mark.

That’s not all that outstanding of an accomplishment in the scheme of things. But it’s been something I have been keeping track of.

As I’m typing the number currently stands at 1,018. Other interesting stats/info:

The most hits I have gotten in one day is 104. The post with the most reads has 71.

People have found my blog by searching the following terms:

Maurice Clarett (photos)

Vertigo feeling

Mel Kiper Jr.

B. Jackson running back nfl draft

Jeff Satterfield (Satterfield, you’re caught)

Tackling dummy

Man vs ma conflict

Towson University Bushrod

Tony Reali pictures

forty5days@wordpress (I would bet any amount of money that one is from my mom)

Stephen Colbert + greatest living American

The last one is by far my favorite. Anyways, thanks to everyone who has taken some time out of their day to read about mine.

*Rusty is also appreciative. I like the above picture because it reminds me of Chappelle’s Rick James sketch when Rick first enters the club and Charlie Murphy talks about his aura. Unfortunately my novice photo-editing program does not have turquoise eye removal.

April 24: Hot=Tired

There is a law at work in all bad aparments. It doesn’t have an official name, but the concept is pretty simple. If it is cold outside, it will be freezing in the apartment. If the sun is beating down on the pavement outside, you’re going to walk into an oven.

There’s no such thing as a comfortable temperature. Cold is perpetuated. Heat is elevated.

This law is constantly at work at my Colony apartment. I wouldn’t say it’s a crappy place, by any stretch. But it certainly isn’t some luxurious loft. In the winter the cold air penetrates the 35 or so glass sliding doors that line the front of the apartment. When temperatures rise, heat settles in the various rooms, while the clogged vents make a lot more noise than they do difference.

Right now, the latter is the case.

Beginning my day with a mile and a half run pretty much ensured that I would be dehydrated and exhausted until I got a solid night’s rest. The good news is I finished in 9:22 (good enough for second in the class, and the highest possible score). The bad news is that it was extremely humid, and left me gassed and with the headaches you get when you clearly are low on fluids. They’re the type that don’t go away regardless of what you eat or drink the rest of the day. Oh well.

When I hopped onto ESPN.com this morning I read about the death of long-time author and sportswriter David Halberstam. The Pulitzer Prize winner was in a car crash Monday night, and he passed away at the age of 73. I admittedly don’t do as much reading as I should. Aside from various articles on the internet and stories in magazines like ESPN, I am pretty oblivious to the literary world. And it’s not something I’m proud of. I just have a tough time staying consistent with a book when I’m wrapped up in school and other activities. It’s tough for me to set out the time in each day to knock out a chapter or two. But lately I’ve been making note of books I hear about here and there that I might want to check out at some point.