Nice Article on Hughes

But I like this little tidbit at the end(at the time of posting, the article format was a bit screwy, its at the bottom):

With several big passes that led to game-winning plays and the first game-winning shot of his career in the last week, James' late-game performance is certainly on the uptick.

His progress in the clutch -- consistent in the second half of the season -- is, like many things, something the Elias Sports Bureau tracks.

According to Elias figures, eight times this season, James has scored to give his team the final lead in the fourth quarter or overtime, as he did in Sunday's victory in Houston. That ties him for second in the NBA with the Mavericks' Dirk Notwitzki and the Lakers' Kobe Bryant.

The Celtics' Paul Pierce leads the league with nine.

not clutch.. bah!

Day 8

One week down.

For the second day in a row, I didn't take any pain killers; I haven't really needed it. Which is weird, I thought this was gonna be real painful, and even the first few days, as long as I took the pills, the shoulder didn't hurt. My mother says that I'm "used to the pain".... I doubt that.

Today marked my second visit to physical therapy. It wasn't too bad; a lot of basic stuff, I'm not really on a rough regimen right now, its not too bad. I did get to play around with a muscle stimulator, which was pretty neat. They stuck some of those pads on my shoulder and bicep and let me fuck around with the level of electricity for 20 minutes or so.

That's about it right now; went to Applebees with my parents; my dad asked the waitress if she sings the shrimp song from the commercial. We watched Scrubs and Walk the Line tonight; Scrubs was good, I get frustrated with it sometimes, the episodes tonight seemed out of sync, the story line didn't flow (maybe one was a repeat and I didn't know, what do I know). The JD/Elliot storyline frustrates me, though TV romances always frustrate the hell out me.

I did enjoy Walk the Line; its a good, but not great, movie. Don't get me wrong, I liked it a lot, but there was just that little something missing from it to make it great... I dunno, I can't really put my finger on it right now, I just felt that I waiting to be 'wowed' and it never really happened.

Day 6

Not much to report today, I slept. I slept a lot. I woke up at 7, went back to bed, woke up at 1:30, was awake til 3, then I went back to bed until 7:45.

That was my day. In between the sleep I took off my bandages, the wounds aren't gnarly or anything. I now have bandages over the incisions.

That was my day. Whoo weeeeee!

Day 5

I woke up real late today and I haven't really done anything.

I did some of my exercises today, which were good. Just bending the elbow feels real nice. I also took a bath (I can't get the wound wet yet), so I'm feeling all nice and clean today.

So, pretty uneventful, I'm not in too much pain anymore, though I still need the pills every four hours. But I can tell it's not as bad. The therapy stuff is okay, my arm is weak as hell, now I know why this is going to take months.

Thats about it, until tomorrow, peace.

Day 4

Ok, I skipped day 3, but nothing really happened, Paul and I watched A History of Violence and I got a ton of HBO DVDs from the Hudson Library (Deadwood, Carnival and Six Feet Under 1 and 2). I've watched almost all of Six Feet Under season 1; it's pretty good.

Today was my first day of phyical therapy.

I really had no idea what to expect out of this, I was cut open only 4 days ago, so I couldn't really do that much. We worked a lot on my elbow, which has been imoblilized by my sling/cast thingy. The elbow has been stiff and it did feel good to get it moving. But it hurt. A lot. And not just my elbow; just moving that joint hurt my bicep and shoulder as well. I felt like I was pulling and stretching all these things that might 'pop' at any moment. We also stretched my wrist and worked on my shouler a little bit. Needless to say, my arm hurts like hell right now. AND I'm on the percocet.

Today was the first time I think I actually realized how hurt I actually am. How much work this is really going to take. It hurt like fuck to bend my elbow. It hurt for an hour later, and I was on some pretty heavy duty pain killers. It was kind of an eye opener.

Anyway, I have some more HBO to watch. And I might actually be hanging out with friends tonight. Jess and Megan might be around, as might Clare and Paul.

Until tomorrow

Colin Cowheard

I never really liked Colin Cowheard. But now I really don't.

LeBron and the Cavs

Last nights win was both good and bad. First, LeBron showed both aspects of his end of game play. First he got the game tying assist at the end of regulation; throwing a cross court pass to Flip Murray, who hit a 3 with .4 seconds left. Then in overtime, LeBron hit a game winning jumper with .9 seconds left. So to all those LeBron haters out there he both A) made a game tying pass and B) a game winning shot. Boo ya.

However... at the same time this was all against the Bobcats. The Bobcats without Emeka Okefor, Gerald Wallace, Brevin Knight and Sean May. The Cavs should've won this game by 20 points. DoIi like the fact that they held their own? yes. Do I like that they executed down the stretch? Yes.

But what worries me is the fact that Raymond Felton scored on them at will. He got to the lane EVERY time. No one fouled hard. Gooden fouled him alright; a ticky tack bullshit foul. His ass should've been knocked to the floor. Hard.

So, it's cool that LeBron got the 'game winning shot' monkey off his back,; the problem is I wish he didn't have to.

Day 2

ok, day 2.

I couldn't get to sleep last night, as I slept during the day, so I fell asleep at like 4.

I'm supposed to be in a ton of pain today and tomorrow, but I've been taking the percocet every four hours, to hold it off. My arm is no longer completely numb, so I guess thats a good thing.

I watched a ton of tivo'd shows last night. Law and Orders, Scrubs and last nights season finale of the Shield. God damn that is a good show.

The shoulder has hurt more today than yesterday, but again, I've used percocet early and often. This has made me a bit loopy, but it works out.

I tried watching Network today, but I totally passed out. Besides that I haven't watched any movies, though Paul and I are going to watch the Weather Man.

I did bathe for the first time today. I took a bath and I had my arm covered with a garbage bag. Man, I needed that bath too, I reeked.

Okay, this kinda rambled a bit, but to recap: I'm not in excruciating pain like I was told I would be, I'm taking percocet early and often and I'm sleeping a lot. Also, the Shield kick ass.

Day 1

I hope to write every day; not a whole lot, just some updates and recaps. Also, forgive the poor writing, I only gots one hand.

I had my shoulder surgery this morning at 7. I had to be there at 5, so I woke up at 4ish.

I took forever to put my robe on... it was early, I only got two hours of sleep.
But they knocked on the door to see how I was doing.


For the entire day my arm has been numb, my entire left arm. What hurt the most after the procedure was my throat. They had a tube down it to keep me breathing, and it felt like I had strep.

Now my arm has feeling again andI've taken some painkillers. I'm told that I'll be in excrutiating pain soon. Needless to say, I'm exciteted.

So that's all I got for now, I lived through it. Until tomorrow.

I'm Back

Kinda.

So I graduate tomorrow, but it was kind of in doubt until the last second.

Let's recap.

So I was told to sign up for Music 693 this quarter, it is an independent study course. On the Music History sheet I have, which know one could ever really explain to me, as I was the only Music History major, it says Music 693, Thesis.

Now that is kinda freaky, a thesis? I have one quarter for a thesis? But one of the heads of the music department, when I met with him to discuss graduation and classes, kept saying "I don't think you need to do a thesis." So I had no idea what was going on.

I signed up for Dr. Boone's 693 course. I've had a couple classes with Boone and I really liked him. But he is also my advisor and I've met with him only once (I had other advisors before him). When we did meet, I could tell that he really didn't 'advise' much, at least not in the way I needed. I just needed to know which courses to take and when; I wanted to map our my last quarters. He went to the master schedule on the OSU webpage and just wrote down all the courses. I could've done that myself; it's not that he didn't try, its just that he shouldn't have been my advisor in the first place.

So now I'm trying to meet with Boone to discuss this indepent study/thesis. We schedule a meeting one day, I show up, and he's with another student and it's running over. I waited for 45 minutes and then left, because I had another class. We rescheduled for the next day. Well, that night I played in my only hockey game of the year. Needless to say, I was out the next day (and weekend) so we had to reschedule the meeting.

The next week or so whenever I was free, he wasn't. Again, not his fault, not really my fault, I have two jobs and classes full time. So we try to reschedule again (at this point we talked on the phone and briefly discussed a George Martin/Beatles idea).

We finally reschedule again, for a Friday at 1:30. I go to the Music History offices at 1:10, and hes not there. By 1:50 I'm still there, but I decide to meet with Dr. Ashby, my 20th Century music professor and discuss my paper. At 2:15, Boone still is not there and I leave.

I then email him saying that maybe I didn't make myself clear or something, and I came by at 1:30 and he wasn't there and seeing if we can reschedule again.

I get no response.

The next week I email him again, asking to meet to discuss this independent study course. No response.

Finally, I believe this was around week 8, I sent him an email stating that I need this course to graduate, it is only one credit, I can meet with him real quick and just write him a paper (I could crank out a 10 pager in a night if need be).

Again, no response.

At this point I have finals to study for and giant graduate level class project to finish up, and since I've gotten no repsonses, I've stopped emailing.

On Wednesday I had my final exam (20th Century Music) and I go down to Boone's office afterwards. I knock on his door, realize he's not there and write him a note bascially restating my last email.

Finally, I get a response back saying that graduation shouldn't be a problem and could we meet Thursday. Sweet! I email Boone saying I can meet Thursday morning, as I work at 12:30. Excellent he says, we schedule a meeting for 10:30.

10:30 is a bit early for my tastes, as I was going to be out late Wednesday night and had only gotten 2 hours of sleep Tuesday night. But ya know what? I needed this to graduate and I want to be done. I wake up at 9 on Thursday, shower, am about to leave and I decide to check my email for the hell of it. Boone sent me an email saying he had to take someone to the airport and he wouldn't be there at 10:30, could I meet on Friday.

At this point I'm pissed because I am A) still not done with this shit and B) I am awake. So I email Boone, saying Friday is fine, I'm free all day, but I'm not sure when grades have to be in, and my main concern at this point is Sunday's proceedings.

So finally I meet with Boone on Friday. At this point I have forgotten all the classes I had with him and am just pissed that I still don't know if I'm really going to graduate yet. We talked about my shoulder, how we've both been busy this quarter, how nothing really has gone as planned (I've had two trips to the ER, many trips to the doctors, went to two funerals, almost quit my job and am getting ready for surgey in less than a week) and then we started talking music.

and I was no longer pissed.

We discussed Martin's role in producing the band; everyone mentions him scoring their songs (Eleanor Rigby, I am the Walrus, Yesterday...) but I talk about how his open mind may have been what really let the band take off. Martin let them record their own music, didn't make one of them the leader (Paul McCartney and the Beatles!) and listened to their ideas. Martin worked with the band, no just their music; his open mind enabl;ed the band to grow. We discussed pop and rock music, how it isn't treated the same as other forms. We discussed listening to albums instead of just tracks. The iPod affect; how music is now a soundtrack for our lives. Do we want to hear sad music? Happy music? How music is now a background for us. I told him about the time I called my friend Paul in high school and asked him what he was doing. "Listening to music" was his reply. At that time it floored me. 'Just' listening to music?

We talked about how the Beatles changed the way pop music was looked at. And how everything since was a reaction to the Beatles. Try to copy and expand what they did, or go completely the other way.

So finally, Boone said that it looked like I knew my stuff and that he'd pass me for this one credit course so I could graduate. He also said to send him a little paper through email, it could be ten pages or two, it doesn't matter. That's not a problem, that is doable. Maiberger pointed out that after Sunday, would it even matter if I sent him a paper? Not really, I'd have my diploma, but I'm still gonna do it.

So thats my final Boone/Graduation story. I wasn't sure if I was going to graduate until 2 days before. Whew!

For those of you who don't parle Français

LeCharles is French for "The Charles"

Every time

Every time I call the surgeon to discuss my surgery or appointment, her assistant is unbelievably perky. Not just peppy, but actually saying Yay! Your surgery is all set! I mean, this is a bit uncomfortable for me, scheduling a time to cut me open...

Ya, I'm definitely not as excited as her.

Lack of Posting

Sorry about the lack of posts lately, I've been a bit busy. I graduate on March 18th and I'm having shoulder surgery on March 30th, so there has been a lot of doctor visits and a lot of the final college push. Plus, theres still the two jobs and classes to take care of.

Look for regular postings to begin anew in around a week or so.

Cavs aren't tough?

Personally, I kinda agree with Bill Livingston. The Cavs are wussies.

Livingston writes about it, as does Windhorst, how no Cavalier responded when Z got decked by Rasheed Wallace.

The passive response to Wallace is indicative of the Cavs’ non-threatening personality. In the game itself, a 12-point Detroit win, Ilgauskas made the only reprisal, knocking Wallace to the floor in the second quarter as Wallace shot a jumper.

It would have been unthinkable for a playoff-bound team’s second-leading scorer to be mugged in years past without retaliation. But so much has changed today. Players share agents, they play in the Olympics or in All-Star Games together, they are all getting rich. It’s like the PGA Tour, only without Tiger Woods on the scene.

The John Stockton/Karl Malone Jazz or the Michael Jordan/Scottie Pippen Bulls would never have allowed such an incident to go without reprisal. Same with the “Bad Boys” Pistons. They were rough, but they had each other’s back.

When I saw the incident atthe end of halftime, I decided not to write about it hurriedly, on deadline. The Cavs’ failure to support Ilgauskas was a bigger issue in the game. But in the days that have passed, I have become more convinced that it said bad things about the state of the game, the Cavs and their cornerstone player.

James is an excellent player, but he wants everybody to like him.

t would be interesting to see if Kobe Bryant, Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird or Charles Barkley felt that way. Bill Walton said he never hugged opponents before games. He would be so worked up that he could barely stand to look at the opposition.

The James-Wallace fraternization wasn’t a small thing. It ran counter to the values James so often exemplifies on the court.

A team sport is supposed to make you feel you are part of something bigger than yourself.

It is also supposed to develop loyalty. James has to set the tone on the floor and off, particularly when the game’s subtext is about not being bullied.

This is a problem with the entire team, not just James. Someone should have gotten Z's back, end of story. And someone should also be getting him the ball. Z is an all star caliber center. He can score on almost anybody. Every game starts out the same: the Cavs start out force feeding Z, to establish him. It works, the Cavs go up. I've seen a lot of games were Z will have 8-10 points in the first quarter and finish with 17 for the game. The Cavs lack focus.

Some will complain that Z doesn't pass the ball enough. I'd probably agree with that. However, I'd rather be seeing Z force a shot down low (which might send him to the line) than see Drew Gooden take a 15 foot fade-away, Damon Jones take another timid jumper or Snow take any shot at all.

It's a two way street, if you don't receive the ball alot, you tend to put it up whenever possible. But then you shoot all the time and you're teammates don't want to pass you the ball.

Z needs to be involved the entire game, and as weird as it sounds, so does LeBron. The Cavs can go a 5 minutes without those 2 guys taking a shot (watch the Cavs-Kings fourth quarter) and because neither is really all that vocal, they don't demand the ball.

I'm not kinda rambling, but lets sum this up: LeBron and Z should take most of the Cavs shots. They need to feed Z all game long, not just the first quarter.

More Booing LeBron

Terry Pluto gets it.

More News on Aaron Sorkin's New Show

Sorkin wrote A Few Good Men, Sports Night and The West Wing.

His new hourlong, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, will begin in autumn. There has been some more casting news: Bradley Whitford (Josh Lymon) and Tim Busfield (Danny the reporter) will be joining Matthew Perry, Nate Cordry and DL Hughley:

“West Wing” vets Bradley Whitford and Tim Busfield have been repurposed to
fill key roles in “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin’s backstage-at-faux-SNL
hourlong “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” which NBC premieres this autumn.

Booing LeBron

I'm getting sick of Cleveland fans being scared. Here and here. I watched that entire game. The Cavs sucked that night; they played like shit. I was yelling at the TV all night, the defense sucked, the offense sucked and they were missing free throws.

And, for the first time, LeBron sucked. He played like crap. I was yelling and moaning the entire game, it was awful. I'm not surprised the fans booed, I'm really not. The entire team stunk it up. Thats what annoyed fans do: they boo. And when LeBron missed something like 8 free throws in a row, they booed.

I understand it, they were frustrated, but watching the game, I didn't really see the booing as directed at LeBron, I saw it as a reaction to how the team played that entire night: sloppy and uninspired. In fact, thats how Terry Pluto saw it too:

Q: What about LeBron being booed?

A: I was at that game and sensed the boos were from frustrated fans aimed at the entire team. I don't think it was that personal against LeBron, and I don't think LeBron took it that way.

But I saw Wilbon ripping on Cleveland fans for booing and I've seen articles pleading that Cavs fans shouldn't boo LeBron, cause he might leave.

Cleveland fans are so scared. We are. Don't anger LeBron, he might leave. I'm pretty sure LeBron isn't basing his decision on leaving Cleveland on a mid-February game in 2006, where A) the Cavs lost B) they lost bad and C) he only score 4 points in the second half and was something like 8-18 on free throws.

Would I have booed? I doubt it. But I do yell a lot when I'm at games (hell, even when I'm not). I would've been voicing my displeasure as well; pay 50 bucks for a ticket, pay for parking and drinks and then my favorite team comes out like they don't give a shit. And the MVP of the All-Star game misses more free throws than I do? I'd have been yelling stuff too.

(Side story, I went to a Cavs game the year before they got LeBron (tells ya what kind of fan I am huh?) and Ricky Davis got a 10 second half court violation, vs the Warriors. It was awful, that should never happen, ever. So it's all quiet, like Gund Arena used to be, and I yelled really loud "You Suck!" and I swear to God all these people turned and looked at me, like "why are you yelling at a basketball game"... ah the good old days. Then on the ride home Ron Harper was on the Cavs postgame show and they asked him to show his championship rings. He obliged and said he was bummed that he got traded and they didn't have a chance to make a run here... I wanted to puke)

I still think the Cavs are going to right the ship before the year is out and make the playoffs. People are just itching to pounce on last years collapse and the fact that they had the same record at the all-star break.

Hopefully the Cavs will have a fire under their ass tonight when they play the Kings.

Downloading Music

I purchase a lot of music. I buy a ton of CDs, I've used the MusicMatch, I've used iTunes and (I'm not gonna lie) I've used Kazaa and LimeWire on occasions.

Both MusicMatch and iTunes have their own encoded music files, meaning if I download a song from iTunes, it won't play on MusicMatch and visca versa. Both are pretty decent and you pay by the song (usually a dollar a song).

For awhile now I've been meaning to listen to some new(ish) bands, I buy a lot of classic rock (I view it as fleshing out and building my library) and 'catch' up on bands I wasn't around for. The last indie cd I really listened to was the New Pornographer's Twin Cinema. (I did buy the new Clap Your Hands a Say Yeah album, and I was underwhelmed).

Yesterday I read an article in the new Rolling Stone about a music service called eMusic. The article talked about how eMusic has a lot of indie bands on it and that a lot musicians use it. And unlike MusicMatch and iTunes, its a monthly subscription service, not a per song basis. You get 40 downloads a month for 10 bucks, not too shabby. Then I read the kicker:

Unlike any other major service, all music comes in an unprotected MP3 format, which means that tracks can be copied or burned to CDs as much as the owner likes and played on any MP3 player. And, distinct from subscription services like Napster and Yahoo!, the music doesn't disappear once you cancel the service.

MP3s!!!! I hate the DRM and encoded crap. I loved the fact that I could download music and it A) would work on my iPod and B) I could burn them to CDs and C) it would work on MusicMatch Jukebox (my desktop music player).

So I did the trial version and checked out what all they had. They have pretty nice selections of albums to get, not a whole lot of 'mainstream' stuff, but not a bad selection either. eMusic has a lot of old blues and jazz tracks, some old Ray Charles and Johnny Cash albums and they have a TON of comedy CDs; Dane Cook, Dave Attel, Patton Oswald, George f-in Carlin, Mike Birbiglia and Jim Gaffigan. Good stuff.

So anyways, I highly recomend checking eMusic out (I did the free trial, then I decided to actually join), and if you decide to sign up, let me know first, because if I recomend you, I get 50 free downloads and you get 50 free downloads. (Also, its not hard at all to cancel, I've had to cancel shit before (realplayer) and they'll give you the phone runaround. At eMusic, all you gotta do is go to you're account page and click on cancel.)