Winter Olympiad

In some exciting news, I've figured out how to use the hyperlink feature. By using this I believe I'll be able to make this blog even better, and, I'll be honest, I wasn't sure that was possible.

I think I better start off with my customary apology paragraph. It has been a little while since my last post and I am deeply, deeply sorry. I was pretty busy last week and between having to complete two take-home tests and being really lazy, I just couldn't find the time to blog.

In an attempt to make amends, this will be a dual-release blog, much like Tupac and his double disc CD albums. The second post will be the long awaited, highly anticipated "32 Songs for 32 Years," blog that I have been talking about for quite some time.

Now, for what I really want to talk about....

Every few years there is a sporting event so captivating that I just cannot take my eyes off it. The list is really short but let me get into it. The first event that so enthralled me early in my life was World Cup Soccer. Growing up in rural Ohio, we did not play soccer because there were no soccer leagues. I remember first watching the World Cup at about age 12, and I immediately noticed how well manicured the playing surface looked and I just loved watching the ball roll on the ground. Admittedly, I'm a bit strange, but watching the ball roll true on a perfect surface just about put me in a trance-like state, I can't explain it because I don't understand it myself. To this day, my favorite part of any baseball game is watching infield practice because of all the ground balls. You can really tell how coordinated someone is by watching them take a couple ground balls and turn a double play. Anyway, in this same world cup I remember setting my alarm clock for 3:00 am because that's when the US would play in EDT and I couldn't miss a match. As a partially educated, moderately diverse, extremely good-looking young adult, my new favorite part of World Cup Soccer is the passion. Of course, this passion, is exhibited by every teams countrymen but America, for the most part. Watching a World Cup Soccer event on a different continent, especially Europe, is intense and I urge all of you to tune in during the next World Cup.

Outside of the World Cup, soccer sucks.

The next event that ruins my social life every couple of years is the World Baseball Classic. This is a relatively new event and I basically only like it because I'm a huge baseball fan. It has that element of national pride, such as World Cup Soccer, which seems to always elevate the intensity and tension for fans. Last WBC I saw Adam Dunn sprint after a fly ball and dive to break up a double play, which is all it took to confirm my suspicion that he was only giving my beloved Cincinnati Reds about 40% effort daily.

The event that made me conceive this blog, or form the zygotic idea, if you will, was you guessed it, The Winter Olympics. I don't really enjoy The Summer Olympics all that much. I've just never been overly concerned with who can swim back and forth faster or who can run in one, two, four, eight or sixteen circles the quickest. In unrelated news, I was probably one of the slowest skinny kids in school and I'm envious of dogs' swimming capabilities. I just think the Winter events are much more interesting. A comparable event to the 400 meters in the summer is short track speed skating, which I find wildly entertaining.

I had a specific event in mind, however, if you're anything like me you've been addicted to it as well. I'm talking about curling, of course. We love the NFL, we marvel at everything professional football players can do. NBA players hit wide open, long range shots with a regularity that IBS sufferers would covet. Curling's appeal comes from the opposite end of the spectrum. It looks like you could get three smart buddy's together, practice for a month and give John "Genetic, Athletic Perfection" Shuster, a pretty good game. Especially if he's in his Olympic (bad) form. John Shuster has been so bad that Bill Simmons is set to write his autobiography, "Sorry, Guys." I suggested the tagline, "Get Your Rocks Off." Team USA's captain is an overweight, bartender. Basically, I'm already halfway to being an Olympic Captain, I just need to get my Bartender's License. The sport is so interesting because you can sit at home and question the strategy, and you can also tell all your buddies how easy the game looks and you can drunkenly say that you'll all get a team together. America was so terrible in this Olympics and I still couldn't stop watching Curling. Seriously though, I would describe the game as Finesse Checkers. There is strategy involved but once you figure out what you have to do, one must execute the play. I feel like the sport is just one hot chick and one very charismatic man away from beginning a revolution in the United States. I hear you can curl in Columbus!

Mark "The Shark" Titus update.

Mark is now up to 2.3 million hits. When I began my quest to surpass him in hits (I embarrass him when it comes to content) Mark had 2.2 million and I had 1500 hits. I'm shortly going to surpass 2000 hits, and if my math serves (it always does), we're making positive steps. I'm going to plan a party for Saturday, March 6th to celebrate my passing of Mark Titus, this will give me enough time to pick up a cute outfit.

hyperlink

32 for 32

I first created this list in April. After going back through and looking over all of my choices, I'm pretty satisfied with it. There were a couple of duds as well as a few songs that I wanted to add that I wouldn't have been thinking of in April.

I want to preface this list by saying I'd be the first to admit that I'm quite possibly the worst DJ the earth has ever produced. You could probably play the five most current, popular radio songs for me right now and I would never have heard of them. I'm not really interested in the music that is produced on sound boards today. Give me a band.

I'm not trying to be a crowd-pleaser here, just trying to put out an interesting list, which I promised about 10 months ago.

That being said... you won't find Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears or Lady Gaga on this list. You also won't see any of this horrifying crossover country. Don't get me started on that stuff, I have other stuff to do tonight. I was really trying to create a timeless list that you could discover in 30 years from now and still enjoy these songs. Another thing I didn't want to do is just write the 35 most famous songs of all time, I wanted to find a couple sleepers that you may have forgotten about. While I did include some pretty famous old songs, you won't see stuff like, Stairway to Heaven or Free bird apart from right here.

1. I Aint Mad at Cha. Tupac. The only rap song on the list. Kind of felt like I had to do that since I pretty much exclusively listened to Tupac from age 9-16. The creepy thing is that I remember watching this video... a week after Tupac died. This is the album version. The real (clean) video

was released under I aint mad at ya.

2. Santeria. Sublime. I think the bassline in this song is really innovative and I like guitar riff during the chorus.

3. Amber. 311. Speaking of Sublime... I've always thought that 311 sort of sounds like a poor-man's Sublime. 311 is probably less famous but I think they have similar sounds. They both rely heavily on their bassists to drive songs which is probably why I like them. Anywho, I like Amber because it is relaxing and it is in the background of 50 First Dates and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which are both set in Hawaii. I guess that doesn't really matter.

4. Renegade. Styx. If you've never heard this song in its entirety, try it, now. I like how the song sort of completely switches at about the 40 second mark. I think this song is fun.

5. Change the World. Eric Clapton. I think this song won a grammy for song of the year. Clearly, if you do not like this song you're stupid and we probably can't be friends. Wait until the second verse to judge, this is when the song picks up a bit.

6. In the Air Tonight. Phil Collins. I love the few guitar strums in the early part of the song but this song walks a fine line. The bridge to this song is incredible, with the entry of the unique drums and bass line. The song flirts with being pretty boring if it didn't have one of the best bridges of all time.

7. Warning. Incubus. I like Incubus this much: I---------------------------------------I. I wanted to get them on this list somewhere and I suppose, if I could only listen to one Incubus song for the rest of my life it would be Warning. Don't ever let life pass you by.

8. Always be my Baby. Mariah Carey. I guess this is where you question my sexuality. I like GOOD music and I can definitely say that Mariah is an amazing singer. I remember watching this music vid when I was little, two kids snuck out one night and went swimming in a pond. It was pretty romantic.

9. Wish you were here. Pink Floyd. I have always liked this song but I never knew it was by Floyd. This song really changed my perception of Pink Floyd and made me want to explore more of their music. I'm glad I did. Really, it doesn't matter what kind of music you like, this song spans many genres, I guarantee you will like it. Just give it a minute to start...

10. Brain Damage/Eclipse. Pink Floyd. Don't do drugs. Eclipse is after Brain Damage on the Dark Side of the Moon Album, which ran as 1 long song. Radio stations play Brain Damage and Eclipse together sort of like We Will Rock You and We are the Champions by Queen.

11. Prayer. Disturbed. Listening to this song now makes it hard to believe that I used to exclusively listen to this kind of music. I do still like this song, and think I always will but it mainly makes the list to commemorate my misguided youth. BTW, the real music video to this song was banned because of it's images of 9/11.

12. My Immortal (Band Version). Evanescence. I first heard this song the day my cat died. This seems silly, even to me, that that would make this song significant but Buckeye (my cat) was a total badass. The song is amazing once the full band enters.

13. Don't Speak. No Doubt. Before Gwen Stefani went commercial, she was in a sweet band called No Doubt, which made pretty good music. I can't really put my finger on a specific thing which makes me like this song, it's just awesome all the way through. (this live video is awesome)

14. Glycerine. Bush. Before Gavin Rossdale went commercial and married Gwen Stefani, he was in a sweet band called Bush, which made awesome music. Glycerine is off their 6teen Stone album, which is the first CD I ever bought.

15. Hard to Concentrate. Red Hot Chili Peppers. I thought this song was terrible the first time I heard it. I have grown to find it very addicting. The lyrics are great, I love the bassline and the tambourine in the last chorus is what really makes the song for me.

16. Down in a Hole. Alice in Chains. This is an amazing song. My favorite part is the bridge where the lead singer is harmonizing with himself. Also, listen to how the cymbals are being used in the intro and 1st verse.

17. Behind Blue Eyes. The Who. Love the bridge in this song. "And if I swallow anything evil put your finger down my throat...And if I shiver give me a blanket, keep me warm, let me wear your coat."

18. Galapogos. Smashing Pumpkins. Smashing Pumpkins is one of those bands you form an opinion of because you hear a single like "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and you just write them off without hearing anything else by them. This song can really change your opinion of the Pumpkins, it did for me. I like a lot of their songs but some of their more mellow hits include: Today and Disarm.

19. Hotel California. The Eagles. To me, this is one of the best songs I've ever heard. I know I will always love this song. It's almost hypnotic.

20. Cecelia. Simon and Garfunkel. Speaking of good lyrics. The first verse of this song is pretty funny. I like all the percussion in this song. I always try to tap my hands and feet with the song but I can't.

21. California Dreamin'. The Mamas and the Papas. When you read this one you probably won't know what I'm talking about. When you hear it you'll be like, "Oh, that's this song? This song is awesome."

22. Baby, I Love your way. Peter Frampton. Pistol Pete is sweet and this song is no different. It's more of a bargain for your time over his live version of Do you Feel Like we do? Both songs are pretty gnarly.

23. Cats in the Cradle. Various. Ahh, before Cat Stevens was Muslim he sang this song. I recently had two cousins tell me this is a happy song. They are dumb and we're no longer on speaking terms. If you think it is a happy song, give me your email address and i'll send you the lyrics and call you a silly mongoose.

24. Sweet Emotion. Aerosmith. One hot summer I had the good fortune to drive every police car the Village of Minster owned. Sweet Emotion has been my personal theme song ever since.

25. Black. Pearl Jam. I don't think I can definitively say what my all time favorite song is. It's kinda hard to narrow the list down to 1. If someone were holding some sort of deadly weapon to my head and desperately needed to know what my favorite tune of all time was, I'd probably say Black by Pearl Jam. I fell in love with this song on 107.5 while driving around a Village of Minster Truck. This is when I was first was really exposed to Pearl Jam.

26. Ten. Pearl Jam. You haven't heard of this song because it's an album. Their debut album was incredible.

26. Yellow Ledbedder. Pearl Jam. The guitar riff in the intro is probably a close second to Can't You Hear Me Knocking's intro in my all-time favorites. It also has a sweet solo right after Eddie says, "Make me cry." I could pound a few brews to this song, I could.

27. Under the Bridge. Red Hot Chili Peppers. I previously stated that Black may be my all time favorite song. For some reason, I'm 100% positive that I've listened to Under the Bridge more times than any other song in my life

28. Fly Away. Lenny Kravitz. This song is probably at least a little corny but I really like it. I would like to see the stars, the milky way or even Mars. The chorus is pretty awesome, plus I thought I should include at least one Blewish (If you get that pun, I'm impressed) person on my list.

29. Say It Aint So. Weezer. It is really a pretty simple song. It's kinda slow but it kinda rocks. I love this song and I can't get over it.

30. Just My Imagination. The Temptations. Felt I had to get these guys on here somehow, this is one of those timeless songs I was talking about.

31. Lights. Journey. Who doesn't love Journey. It really doesn't get much better than Journey for me, for you (Randy Jackson). Yes, the guy judge on American Idol who isn't Simon, was once the bassist for Journey. His tops are a lot whiter than his bottoms. Anyway, Lights is probably my favorite Journey song.

32. Mary Jane's Last Dance. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Love TP. I listen to this song all the time and never get tired of it. I also discovered my mad harmonica skills while listening to this song.

Honorable Mention: Linger, Lightning Crashes, Kiss From a Rose and She Looks to Me.

What's in a name?

I have been thinking about names a lot in the past 18 hours. I checked my blog this morning and realized I hadn't posted in a week, which, I'm sure, depresses many of you. I didn't think of a single sweet topic all week to write about, so this is going to be about names.

I was thinking about names last night when I was trying to go to sleep, which tends to be when I do most of my best thinking. I arrived at that point because an hour or so before I went to bed, I was given my world-record 534th nickname. Nick "Thunder" Testa gave me the nickname "hot wing" because, wait for it, he saw me eating a hot wing.

If you know me and my group of friends you've probably realized we mostly have nicknames. Not a lot of people from our neck of the woods named Timothy are referred to as Timothy. Instead, they are called Tim until about 2nd grade and then suddenly, get the nickname, "Honker," for example. Timothy ==>Tim ==>Honker, that's just sort of how it worked for us and especially me.

I'm not really a fan of first names, in general. Take me, for example. My parents gauge how appropriate or fitting or awesome something is by how much the people around them are doing the same thing. They use this barometer for nearly every circumstance. A few weeks ago I went to a wedding and decided to get a vest to match my suit. When my mom saw me she said, "People don't wear vests anymore," to which I retorted, "Who cares, I'm sure you can see how sexy I am in this, (while pointing to said vest) and that's most important."

Basically, through my parents' line of thought, I ended up with the most common first name in the world and my brothers' name is in a close 2nd. So, in my parents opinion, since commonality = good, we have the best and second best names, ever. While, in my opinion, if you give someone one of these "classic" names and it isn't an homage to an older relative, you might as well name the kid Treebark or Curtain. My brother and I both shared our names with 2 other people in our respective grade school classes, classes with only 30 boys apiece, so we really did hit the jackpot.

The reason I don't like common first names and why I love nicknames is because I think we should be called something unique to ourselves. This is extremely difficult to capture with a first name because it is usually decided before anyone ever sees you. I must admit, however, I do like uncommon first names. I admire a name like Mike, for example, but only if your name is Mike Smith IV, or anything that has been passed down. I have secretly always desired to be the III, but I'm not named after my Dad, who wasn't named after his Dad, so it didn't work out.

I love that my friends have nicknames which are derived from personal stories. One of the weirdest nickname story's has to be about my friend Greg. For some reason, which would be too wordy to explain here, I started calling my friend Greg, "Craig." After continuing this, another friend heard me calling Greg, Craig. This other friend started to then call me, "Craig." So I obliged and called him, "Craig." Long story short, some people now call me, "Craig," and I have four "Craig's" in my cellphone who aren't really named Craig. It's kind of confusing, I know.

So, I rarely call anybody by their first names. I don't mean any disrespect and I don't know if anybody takes it as disrespect but I choose nicknames as a way to differentiate people and make them singular in this huge world. I think it's a compliment. Actually, if I call you by your first name, it probably means that I either just met you, or you haven't done anything noteworthy since we've met, which probably means you're boring. Unless you're a girl, girls don't get nicknames for some reason. There was one occasion on Senior Trip, where I met a girl and refused to call her anything but Molly, which wasn't and still isn't her first name, I do suppose that was disrespectful. Sorry Denise, but who am I kidding, she doesn't read this.

I will now leave you with a list of nicknames I have been called throughout my life. This list is not all-inclusive, and I will try to go in chronological order. Here goes.

Smitty, hammer, ham, hamhock, hambone, bone, bones, boner, hamboner, pimp, stud (pimp and stud are not jokes, they both occurred in about 4th grade), hamdizzle, Pickle, Puck (Puck is the shortened version of pickle, for some reason), thumper, hambino, little h, craig, dizzle, dizz and hot wing.

Mark "The Shark" Titus update:

A few entries ago I stated that this blog would undoubtedly surpass Mark Titus' blog in hits. I say, "in hits," because I know we already blow him away on content. When I first mentioned our eventual overtaking of Mark as the best blog in OSU history, Mark had about 2.2 million hits and I had 1500 hits. Currently, Mark still is in the 2.2 million arena while We have risen to over 1800 hits. So, as far as I can tell, we're catching up. Great job readers or as I have now officially named you, "Hambino Hounds."

Another update:

In April I created a list of timeless songs and a description on why I liked each song. I wanted to come up with 40 songs that I knew I would still enjoy in 40 years, I stopped at 32 that particular day and reread the list today. A couple of the songs were whiffs, but 95 percent I would keep on the list today, 10 months later, so I'm releasing the list soon. I know 1 Hambino Hound (Phil "Michael Jackson" Prenger) has long awaited this list. I'd like to apologize for this. Phil, You are a great 'Merican, and I vow to release this list.

NFL and me and Colin not doing meth.

1. 1990 Cincinnati Reds World Champs

2. Autographed Rick Nash Jersey

3. Autographed, custom made, Colin Cowherd "Don't Do Meth," shirt.

4. Beanie Wells OSU Jersey

Those are my four favorite sports shirts

If you're here then you already know. I like sports. I really don't have a lot to say, unless you wanna talk about sports, movies or music. I'm just a pretty boring guy. My dad loves hunting and fishing, which justifies my affinity for watching paint dry. I watch television for hours straight. I listen to songs on repeat and have Chinese food about three times a week.

I do like sports. This post is about sports... and it's a long one.

In the world of sports, we recently had national college signing day for football recruits. The most exciting thing to happen to me since "Murder She Wrote" reruns started airing. Ohio State ended the day with a lackluster class, which was a pretty depressing for me. I try to remind myself that we still have Terrelle Pryor and I'm convinced, he will be amazing.

All the signing day activities brought me to think of one of my favorite Buckeyes, Beanie Wells. I love him because he's a powerful running back who runs with brute force. He runs defenders over instead of stepping around would-be tacklers, the former has always been more exciting to me, probably because I've never been a fan of track. I also love Beanie because he was the Buckeyes running back when I was a Junior and Senior at tOSU, so when I think of college football Saturday, (the best 12 days of the year at tOSU) Beanie will be one the people who comes to mind.

While I was thinking about Beanie yesterday, my mind moved to him in the NFL. He's played 1 season after being drafted in the first round. I was contemplating Beanie in the NFL and it's was then that I began to come up with some of the most complex ideas possible for my meager brain. This is where we get into the meat of this post.

Medium please.

I can't decide if Beanie Wells has amazing timing or terrible timing. Beanie may have amazing timing because if he had stuck around OSU for his senior season, he would be entering the draft this year. After this season in the NFL, I think it would be more apparent that his style of play wouldn't transfer over to this new NFL. I think Beanie may have terrible timing because if he were around 20 years ago he would probably have a very productive NFL career.

I feel this way because of the way the NFL game is played today. Some rule changes have really altered the play in the NFL. Defenders aren't allowed to touch the wide receiver and as my close, personal friend Colin Cowherd says, "It's a penalty if you breathe on Tom Brady." These rule changes and the ever evolving schemes in the NFL has made it a pass-first league.

So, this is what I think when I try to evaluate Beanie Wells, "Power rusher with better-than-expected speed." Then I ask myself, "Can he pass-block?" "Can he catch out of the backfield?"

The respective answers are "no" and "not really." Sorry, you don't have much value for me in the new NFL. Another Buckeye who was over-drafted. It's not Beanie's fault either, it's just a different league. It's interesting to take a power back from years past and try to place him in today's NFL. I think Barry Sanders would translate to today, he actually may have been better suited for today's game. I take a guy like Eric Dickerson and can't help but think that he may have been a non-factor if he were going to play his first NFL season in 2010. The only reason I pick Dickerson is because I think he had a similar body to Beanie.

Then I started thinking about prospective Hall 0f Fame running backs. Are we even going to see anymore running backs make the Hall of Fame. It's going to be difficult for these players to amass hall of fame careers in 3 seasons. It's impressive if you can even last that long. Take today's running backs. Adrian Peterson, I could see him having a 7 or 8 season career and making the Hall of Fame but only if he cuts back on his fumbles. Think about that. Adrian Peterson is possibly the most talented running back I've ever seen (I'm 24) and I'm not sure he'll end up in the hall of fame. I think Chris Johnson needs 2 or 3 more productive season to make the hall. Then who else is there today? MJD? His career certainly, won't be long enough to make the Hall. I guess you'll have LT and maybe Shaun Alexander make the Hall but it's going to be tough to induct running backs in the future. I wonder if Fred Taylor could make it simply because he played for a decade. It's interesting, look at a guy like Eddie George. I always thought of him as slightly above average in the NFL and if you look at his stats, that seems accurate. It's going to be difficult for a running back to even match his stats. I guess we could substitute receiving statistics for rushing statistics for today's running backs, but then are they really running backs?

Then I started thinking about becoming an MVP in the NFL. Am I crazy, or does it seem like we may never have a running back be the MVP again? Does driving 5.5 hours to drop someone off in Chicago only to turn around and drive right back make you crazy. Does taking a leak off the top of your middle school make you crazy. Maybe, but I don't think it's outrageous to think it's going to be a rare occurrence for a running back to win the MVP award from here on. I think a receiver will win it again before a running back. I also think a cornerback SHOULD win it before a running back does.

Why is a mint-condition 1964 Ford Mustang so valuable? Because there are only about 4 left. This is exactly why I think Darrelle Revis needs to win the MVP next year. I take that back, provided Peyton Manning misses half of next year, Darrelle Revis needs to be the MVP next year. You may think your favorite team has a decent, lock-down corner, but they are miles behind Darrelle Revis. Take Andre Johnson, IMO currently the 3rd most TALENTED wide receiver in the league, (Larry Fitzgerald and Brandon Marshall) and there is only one team in the league you could say with 90% certainty will hold him below 100 yards. The Jets. That's the only team. The fact that Darrelle Revis is the only corner in the league to have this ability means his relative value is greater than an outstanding QB.

Think about QB's in The League. Throw Peyton Manning out because he's the greatest to ever play the position (this may not be fair because Darrelle Revis could end up being the best corner ever) and follow me. Drew Brees had an unbelievable year and I'd hate to take anything away from what Drew's done because he's a great quarterback and terrific leader. Take Sean Payton's scheme and plug in a different quarterback, how good would the Saints have been. I could think of about 7 QB's who still take the Saints to the Super Bowl. Phillip Rivers, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Schaub, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlishamberger, Tony Romo and Kurt Warner (8). In a couple years I'll have to subtract Brett and Kurt but I'll be able to add Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco and Probably Mark Sanchez. Hell, Matt Cassel (who hadn't played since High School, literally) filled in for Tom Brady and rode Randy Moss, Wes Welker and a good defense to 11 wins! 11! I think it should be difficult to give the QB an MVP (discounting Peyton) when there are about 8 who would be interchangeable. Which is why Darrelle Revis could be the MVP one day. When I think about Darrelle Revis I compare him to a Kobe or 'Bron 'Bron in the NBA. You could trade Kobe but what would you get? It would be extremely difficult to get equal value. Four average players do not equal one Kobe or LeBron. The fact that there is no substitute for Darrelle makes him soooo valuable.

Darrelle Revis for MVP in 2010!

Do you miss the Arena Football League? Boy, so do I. Just wait, it'll be back in 3-5 years. It will be called the NFL...

What am I even talking about...