Bloody fingers and Burning muscles

Well, my fingers weren't actually bleeding and my muscles weren't in flames, but I think you can get the idea. After not having played my guitar for way too long, doing so for two days in a row was a little hard on the fingertips. I really need to get those callouses back. It didn't help when I decided to use my Total Gym right afterward, which is something else that I hadn't done in way too long, and all that blood was rushing to my fingers. Ouch!

After picking my guitar up again, I was amazed at how quickly I was able to get back to playing the same stuff I was before. Our brains and muscle memory are pretty awesome that way. I'm also thinking that I need to write another song. It's been about a year since the last one. It's one I wrote as a Christmas present to my parents, but they still haven't heard it yet. In being critical of my own work, I decided that I needed to "fix" it somehow before I played it for them. I've changed my thoughts on that. It's how I wrote it for a reason and after a year delay, I'm ready for them to hear it.

As far as the work out thing goes, I wasn't that sore afterward which surprised me. I guess I didn't push myself hard enough. At the time though it felt like I was. I get some exercise from my job, but it's not enough. I was thinking of playing in the men's basketball league at my church this year, but I'm not positive about it. The open gym we had last week had me realizing that I haven't played any games with nine other full size guys in awhile. I'm thinking it may not be the best thing. As an alternative for finding a way to get some exercise and meet new people, I'm considering joining the YMCA. We'll see how that goes.

It's Over #2

I know, the title is pretty lame. I haven't posted in all this time and I'm using the same one as before. The title fits though, so I'm keeping it. This time around there are quite a few things that are over. I guess the most obvious is 2008. Yep, we are now in 2009 and it's almost time for me to celebrate another birthday. I ended up bringing in the new year with some good friends while spending the time playing some interesting games. All I can say is that I'm totally awesome at "Things".

Once again, a UC athletics team is making it into a post. This time around it's the football team. They had a great season. It was exciting seeing them win the Big East conference and the comeback against Hawaii. That game had me about ready to go crazy. I was expecting them to have a good game in the Orange Bowl, but it didn't happen. It was a really rough night for Pike and they weren't able to capitalize on the chances that they had. I'm still excited though about the progress that they've made and I look forward to where the program is heading. I also have the great college basketball season to pay attention to now, so here's to conference play and the all important March Madness.

There are also some new things going on. I just recently moved into a new place. It's a 3 bedroom townhouse that I'm sharing with a couple of friends. We have a nice sized living room area with 2 large televisions, all 3 of the latest game systems, and a bunch of movies. It's going to see it's first crowd in a couple of weeks when I have a party for my 35th birthday. The thing is that I definitely don't feel 35 at all. I just took some age quiz thingy that told me I'm really 26, so that's pretty awesome.

I'm now on Facebook. I delayed doing it for quite awhile, because I have a MySpace account that I very rarely use and didn't see a reason for signing up on another networking site. One of the students I know from church moved away and it turned out that Facebook was going to be the easiest way to communicate with him. I'm glad I started up a profile. I've actually been able to look up some friends that I haven't seen for a long time.

I've also recently started another season as a coach for a coed youth basketball league that my church participates in through the local YMCA. I'm coaching with the same guy that I've worked with the last couple of years and I'm in the 10-11 age group again. We've had a few practices already and I'm looking forward to our first game.

I had no idea when I made my second post that it would be so long till my third. Utilizing this blog though is something that I'm going to be working on. I really don't want to call it a New Year's resolution, because those things always seem to be things that people come up with but rarely actually do. I think it's kinda crazy how we can wait till Jan. 1 to make positive changes in our lives, that would benefit us whenever we decided to start working on them. However, I do know the importance of having plans for goals and setting a date is a good thing. So, the blog needs to come to life, I need to get back to playing my guitar regularly, and I need to start reading again. That's just a few things on the list. Hopefully, you can think of some things that you might want to work on yourself. Here's to you and I and the road ahead!

It's Over

You may be wondering what's over. Well, when I had first came up with the title, it was the UC Bearcats men's basketball season. They were asked to participate in the 1st ever CBI. They merely added one more game to their awful season ending losing streak. For those of you that don't know already, I'm a Bearcat fan. Both of my parents are UC alumni so it's a family thing. Even though the season ended ugly, it had some great moments. Two of the most notable were the wins at Louisville and West Virginia. It was great to see Cronin get wins over the coaches that he used to work for. Considering that one of those is Rick Pitino, that's no small feat (Huggs isn't a push over either, but they absolutely smoked WV). The only other guy to work under Pitino that's beaten him is Tubby Smith and Cronin did it on his first try. This season was rough, but a huge improvement over last year. Next year is looking even better with the recruitment of two of the top prospects in the country and a year's worth of experience for the underclassman who were such a big part of the team this year.

There's another thing that's over. The first day of the NCAA Men's Basketball tourney. For those of us that love men's college hoops, it's a great time of year. My friend Darin had this to say about it on his blog. So far I'm 14 for 16 in the online pool that he has set up. Not too bad. It wasn't a good day for the underdogs. Aside from Duke barely making it out of the first round, there weren't any surprises. Well, maybe Kansas State beating USC. Darn those PAC 10 loving media types. They convinced me that USC would win that game, even though I hate the PAC 10. They also convinced me to pick UCLA to get to the championship game. My bracket may be busted with that. As far as conferences I'm rooting for, it's all about the Big East and the Big Ten (been rooting for that conference ever since my brother went to Purdue, Go Boilers!). Unfortunately, the only team I really like that I think has a good shot at the Final Four is Louisville. They will most likely have to play UNC though in North Carolina, which is the reason I didn't pick them to get out of the round of 8. I'm looking forward to day 2. Gotta love the madness!

#1

Well, I finally did it. I went and started a blog. I had posted a couple of things before to the one through my MySpace page, but never did much with it. I haven't updated it in a long time. The only thing I use MySpace for anymore is to send and receive messages.

One of the final things that happened in me making the decision to start this blog, was a comment from one of the students in the small group of middle school guys I lead at my church. So, if things don't go well, you can blame him. (Note: that was sarcasm)

Oh well, I don't really have much to say right now. Most of what you will probably find in my future posts will be "random musings", but I think I have some pretty great musings from time to time. Here's to the road ahead!