Lazy Sunday

It was indeed a lazy Sunday for this guy.  Woke up early enough to splash water on my face and brush my teeth before going to golf.  Shot a 99 which is amazing considering the amount of strokes I wasted on the greens.  Pretty embarrassing. 

But not as embarrassing as Kata, a friend of mine since college, deciding about half-way through our round that it would be a good idea to husk and eat a coconut that had fallen from one of numerous trees that littered the course at Ewa Villages.  First of all, this guy didn't have any tools for husking or breaking the coconut, so he decided to bite it and tear small strips off the outer shell.  At one point, right around the 17th tee box, while waiting for the foursome in front of us to clear the fairway, Kata chose to sit down on the grass, and wedge the coconut up against his shoe spikes while tearing at the husk.  Needless to say, he made more headway here than he had the previous two hours.  It was unbelievable.  It was as if Polynesian Cultural Center was putting on a show just for us, but instead of a 6'5" Samoan, they'd sent us a 5'7" Japanese kid.  I didn't get to see him again until we were getting off the green at 17 and proceeding to the 18th tee where he was sipping on coconut juice through a hole he had somehow made through the shell, with the look of an eight year-old child, who just learned to ride a bike, worn proudly on his face .

After our round I came home with a stomach ache that was no doubt caused by whatever we drank the night before, and passed out.  When I woke up, the replay of the USA vs. Brazil soccer game had come on, and luckily I got to see all the good parts. (Basically from the start of overtime to the end of the penalty kicks)  AMAZING!!!  I guess soccer overtime does need to be at least a half hour long.  That was probably the most unlikely end to any World Cup game, men's or women's... ever.  Also, for those of you that watched, was the head referee of that game in Al Qaeda?  Cause she hated America.  Seriously... it was like all the referees conspired to try to screw over the United States.  Maybe they're just upset that the team that's gonna win this tournament will return to a country where soccer is MAYBE the 5th most popular sport.

Speaking of refereeing.   In my last post I mentioned we had a basketball game, well I didn't score 10 points as promised, but I did drop 8 on them... Them being a team that was 7 years older than us.  Oh well, a win is a win.  Anyway, there's a referee that works alumni league games every year.  He wears these ridiculously baggy black shorts so that he looks more like a Foot Locker employee than an official.  He takes his job way too seriously.  Some of our team had gotten there early and watch the game before ours.  He was one whistle short of throwing somebody out of the game, and almost got himself killed in the process.  Every single time he refs our games, I worry about fouling out... even though I don't play defense.  That guy just likes the sound of his whistle I guess.  I can't believe that he hasn't figured out that the whole league hates him.

"Achievements on the golf course are not what matters.  Decency and honesty are what matter." - Eldrick "Tiger" Woods

Saturday

We have a game tonight.  An 'Iolani Alumni League Basketball game to be precise.  I plan on dropping at least 10 on whoever we're playing.  I am inspired to do so after watching the Japanese Women's soccer team defeat the German team 1 - 0 this morning.  Okay.. "One - Nil" for you soccer purests out there.  I figure I'm ethnically half Japanese so I can bask in their reflected glory.  

I'll have more to play for since my motherland still lays in ruins after the biggest natural disaster to hit them since Godzilla fought Mecha-Godzilla in the streets of Tokyo.  In fact, I wonder if the "earthquake" is actually a giant cover-up to hide the fact that a giant fire-breathing lizard lives in the seas just off the coast of Japan... Very suspicious if you ask me.  The next thing you know, the Empire of the Rising Sun will shine once again riding the destruction of their iguana-like monster.

Sorry, I got a little off topic.  While watching this "match" between Japan and Germany, I found out that even though a soccer game is already 90+ minutes long, if the game is tied at the end of regulation, they play another 30 minutes.  Okay, I guess this is proof that the rest of the world has more patience than the U.S., but seriously?  Half an hour of overtime?  I mean, sure college football games that go into more than one overtime can last an extra half hour or more, but Soccer has a MANDATORY 30 minute overtime.  Actually the overtime is split into two fifteen minute halves.  That's ridiculous.  Go to a shootout.  Have a ten minute overtime, and for God's sake, run the clock DOWN so that we actually know when the game is over.  Seriously... do any other team sports have clocks that run from 0 to 90 minutes?  And oh by the way, we felt like you guys were dragging out the clock so we'll tack on another coupler of minutes... 

As a side note to this... I'd like to say that I've been wrong about womens sports.  I'd always said that softball players were uglier than women's soccer players...  Generally speaking of course.  However, after watching both the Women's College World Series and several of the Women's World Cup games, I'd like to retract that statement.  I should have known I was wrong since Jenn Brown and Bianca Cruz (See Below) played college softball. 



So come of University of Hawaii.  Let's start getting our recruiters out there.  I'm sure some of these ladies would love to play ball in Hawaii.  I think I may have just convinced myself to go back to school.

"Take your time, don't live to fast.  Troubles will come and they will pass." - Lynyrd Skynyrd  "Simple Man"

The Legend Begins

You know, if I had a quarter for every person who recommended that I start keeping a blog, well, I'd probably have enough money to enjoy a tall, cool, refreshing Arnold Palmer. (As I recently discovered, the greatest non-alcoholic drink known to mankind... but I digress)  While I'd like to thank these people for suggesting a blog as platform for my brain to unload its hot load of creativity on, it does make me worry.

"Worry?" you may be asking yourself.

That's right.  Worry.  The fact of the matter is that if I had simply come up with this idea on my own, there would be no pressure on me.  But the fact that people (most of them friends) gave me this idea basically means I have standards to keep.  Though judging by the group I spend most of my weekends with, the standards won't be too high. 

First issue.  What should the blog be about?  Well simply put, I'm going to write about anything I feel like writing about.  I'm guessing the topics that will most often frequent this blog will include the following:  Sports (Specifically anything related to my alma mater the University of Oregon), Entertainment Gossip (Yes, I watch the E! Entertainment Network & TMZ), Food, Music, Movies, and bascially whatever crosses my mind.

Second issue.  How often should I update this blog?  Well, at first I was thinking daily.  But let's be honest, my friends and family will all make fun of me for not having a life.  So then I thought I could do one every week, but that makes me seem lazy.  The conclusion I came to is that I'll update this blog based on the following schedule:  WHENEVER THE F*CK I WANT.  I mean... isn't that what separates bloggers from real journalsits?  I certainly don't want to be on a deadline when I'm not getting paid to write this.

With those issues out of the way, I'd like to welcome my readers.  I'm sure I know most of you because right now the counter on the right side of the screen, under the word, "Followers" is at zero.  I guess I know how those kids in 'Glee' feel.  Yes I watch 'Glee.'  Don't judge me.  I watch what I want. 

Anyway, I'd like to weigh in on the NFL Lockout that seems to be the top story of every sports news outlet.  I heard several so-called "expert" opinions on this, and basically it comes down to two things:  The players' love for the game, and the owners' love for the money.  Now hear me out, I'm not taking the players' side on this one.  At least, not completely.  "It takes two to tango," right?   So fault lies on both sides of this.  I understand that the players want more out of their contracts, but they have to realize that they are demanding more rights, benefits and money for playing a game that others would play at less than a quarter of what they make.  The owners have to understand that the players are the ones risking their lives (Yes, I don't think it's a stretch to say that and mean it literally) to make a million dollar industry a billion dollar indstry.  In the end I'm sure we'll still have a season.  There's just too much money to be lost.  I mean, by definition Sue Sylvester will always be at odds with Mr. Schuester, but if you kick one off the show, you end up with no show.  Eventually the players and owners will get together and everything will work out ala Rachel and Finn.

In the catergory of "things I care about more than Glee or the NFL," have you seen the new Episodes of 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians'?  Is it just me, or is it awesome the Kris Jenner has gone completely crazy?  I mean, in order to get your entire family or two families to be mad at you within two episodes of the season opening, you have to be a pretty terrible person... ahem...

Anyway, in a no-doubt fleeting attempt at coming off a smarter than someone who Cliff-Noted his way through most of his literature classes, I'll leave you with a quote which I may decide to do at the end of every update.  Since this past Monday was Independence day, I'll quote American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"Most of the shadows in our life are caused by our standing in our own sunlight."