I'm looking particularly haggard this morning, and it's less an internal feeling of 'yuk' and more of the external, "you look terrible this morning Mr.Budd", variety. So being wise as I am, I decided to be proactive, you know, "shower the night before, so as to be not so rushed in the morning". All that really means, is I sleep-in an extra ten minutes in lieu of getting up to shower. So I still feeling the pangs of rushing around - only this time with sleep in my eyes and the hint of feeling "a little less clean", than usual. I also decided to shave my face last night, which is a rarity (to shave in general, that is) and now I know why, because I'm not particularly good at it. I did a half ass job last night, thinking another half ass job in the morning, would equal a whole ass job. In this instance, the only 'ass' in question, is me. It must have been the sleep in the eyes still, because I have a patchwork of whiskers resembling an unkempt Chia pet. Furthermore, looking in the mirror in one of the staff bathrooms, I remember why I don't like to shave and it's largely because my 'jaw line'. Because it's really not a 'jaw line' at all, it's actually my beard line and it has been replaced by Patches O'Hoollahan. An to make matters worse, no 'jaw line' means the dreaded double chin, which I fear only slightly less than my own mortality. I kid you not. This has been noted and expanded on in various forums of discourse. Mind you, I'm not feeling insecure or anything like that this morning, only 'weekend haggard', with a desire to go back to 12th grade and learn the finer points of facial landscaping. The moral here, shower every morning- even if you're not 'dirty' per say, it's worth it to feel fresh and not have crap all over your face. But you already knew that.
The weekend wrap: I like to start my weekend off with a fairly uneventful Friday evening of serving at your local "City Grill". Followed by a late night of YouTube clips and songs on the AppleTV. The highlight of the evening being Darren Madden's "Casper" impersonation. Saturday was slightly more entertaining, which is to be expected when you consider the veritable powder keg that is Ben Smith, Rob Taylor, Jared Steeves, Dev Bezenson, Jon Black and John Brushett. We fed at the Tide and Boar, a new Gastropub restaurant located in downtown Moncton, on Main St. I do plan on beginning a series of local restaurant reviews in here and my only regret is that I didn't take any notes on Saturday, which would have made for pretty good review fodder. I'd go from memory but... I really would have needed notes on this night, trust me. The rest of evening doesn't get a whole lot clearer, however I do recall cursing myself for my decision to, once again, go to the "Vie". Every weekend I go, I am reminded that there is not enough room to move around or buy a drink without feeling trampled upon or shoved aside. I compare my relationship with the Vie to that of a high school boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, despite the let downs it's all my Saturdays have known for so long that I catch my self sliding right back in there time after time, almost unknowingly at times. So i declare, no Vie for me! Not until Saturday, atleast!
On to the daily rift raft, I have an extended writing opportunity thanks to the fact that I've truly made it as professional teacher. No, I still have yet to land a contract but I did have an intern to work the day away for me aujourd'hui. I realize I just had a rant about it being Monday and rah rah rah, that was all true, but the cosmos have thrown me a bone here in this instance. The teacher I'm supplying for has a student teacher doing her internship, and this young teacher is so far along in her internship that she is actually teaching the classes at this point, and well, that leaves me to 'supervise' her, while she supervises the students. This time last year I was the student-teacher, working for free and teaching the classes, while my mentor teacher 'supervised' me. I've come full circle. However, the fact remains I just need a full time jay-oh-bee. This exciting new development has given me a little extra time to write for today. As you can see, I have tracked down a 'countdown widget' to track the days til summer. Now keep in mind the countdown listed here supposes that 'Summer' officially starts June 21st, I have heard conflicting dates, some saying that it starts June 20, and me being the impatient, glass half full guy that I am, I'd like to think of this countdown merely as a set of arbitrary numbers, that summer will already be in full swing by the 20th of June. My glass overflowth perhaps?!
In other countdown news, we are two weeks away from that time of year when rabbit's begin to lay eggs and Jesus died for your weekends, also known as Easter. See you soon, Palm Sunday.
Heavy rotation in this week's speakerboxxx finds us still enjoying Arcade Fire's, "The Suburbs", still bumpin' last weeks review artist Big K.R.I.T. and his "Return of 4eva" album. Wiz's "Rolling Papers" album also got some serious play over the weekend. I would also like to digest just a bit of crow for my preemptively derogatory remarks about Jim Jones' "Capo" album, which I have listened to and found surprisingly, slightly enjoyable and worth a listen. Highlights being his collaboration with Wyclef Jean titled, "God Bless the Child" as well as another collabo with The Game, "Milk Carton". Real talk. Is anyone hotter than The Game right now? Besides maybe Hansel. Looking forward to his oft-delayed "Red" album, which still as no set release date, but prognosticators suggest it should be available sometime in June. For now, we'll just have to enjoy his seemingly endless stream of mixtapes. As for this weeks releases, one album I'm looking forward to hearing is critic darlings TV on the Radio and their new release "Nine Types of Light". If they can conjure up any of their past magic, a la "Return to Cookie Mountain", I look forward to playing their new album for weeks to come."Do you like scary movies, Sydney?" (Said in creepy, original "Scream" voice) This week features the latest instalment of the "Scream" series. Scream 4 debuts Friday across the nation and sees the return of some familiar faces from the original. In news that could make for a potentially big week for the blog, I got my hands on Blu ray copies of, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Girl Who Play with Fire", both of which are screen adaptations of Steig Larsen's Millennium series novels. Having read the novels already, I'm looking forward to seeing the director and screenplay writer's interpretations. It's always interesting to contrast your minds eye with the vision of someone else. So I'll be looking to write some type of response concerning that. I should note that I am patiently looking forward to David Fincher's 'American' adaptation of the novel, which is set to release in just in time for Christmas of 2011. Something to write about anyway.
As I alluded to with my No. 70 above, this past weekend was a great weekend for sports. The Masters featured a compelling finish in which Tiger, yeah that Tiger, nearly marched his way up the leader board to victory. Insert, needed a bird in the hole joke here. Rory McIlroy had a near epic meltdown that he will be forgiven for, given his age. He only gets another half dozen of those before we start to throw Greg Norman's name in his face. In the end, it was the brilliant finish by Charl Schwartzel that brought the green jacket home. Schwartzel birdied the final 4 holes to pull away from the crowded field, holding off the charges of numerous Aussies seeking the Continent's first Green jacket. Australia remains without a green jacket representative, despite a strong showing that saw 3 Aussie blokes finish among top 6 on Sunday. In other major sports news, the NHL and NBA regular seasons are just winding down and playoff pairings are lining up. Here's what the first round match ups look like.
NHL
The 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs will begin on Wednesday, and the first round match-ups are now set.
With re-seeding taking place before the second round it is not-possible to post a proper bracket however here are the first round series.
Eastern Conference
Washington Capitals (1) vs New York Rangers (8)
Philadelphia Flyers (2) vs Buffalo Sabres (7)
Boston Bruins (3) vs Montreal Canadiens (6)
Pittsburgh Penguins (4) vs Tampa Bay Lightning (5)
Western Conference
Vancouver Canucks (1) vs Chicago Blackhawks (8)
San Jose Sharks (2) vs Los Angeles Kings (7)
Detroit Red Wings (3) vs Phoenix Coyotes (6)
Anaheim Ducks (4) vs Nashville Predators (5)
With so many lower seeded Western Conference teams playing their best hockey of the year heading into the playoffs, this should make for an exciting first round. The first round also pits last years Stanley cup champions, the Chicago Blackhawks versus the class of 2011 to this point, the Vancouver Canucks. Can the 'Nucks finally get the playoff monkey off their backs? Time will tell.
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NBA The NBA Season still has 2 games remaining. Despite this fact all 16 play off teams have already cemented there place in the post season. The only remaining mystery is the final seedings for the lower half of the Western Conference bracket. So I'll put the current match-ups, though they are subject to change given the teams results between now and Wednesday
.
Eastern Conference
Chicago Bulls (1) vs Indiana Pacers (8)
Miami Heat (2) vs Philadelphia 76ers (7)
Boston Celtics (3) vs New York Knicks (6)
Orlando Magic (4) vs Atlanta Hawks (5)
Western Conference
San Antonio Spurs (1) vs Memphis Grizzilies (8)
Dallas Mavericks (3) vs Portland Trailerblazers(6)
L.A. Lakers (2) vs New Orleans Hornets(7) Oklahoma City Thunder (4) vs Denver Nuggets (5)
Now keep in mind that the positions 6-8 in the Western Conference can be juggled around as yet. Portland, New Orleans and Memphis are all separated by just 1 game with 2 games remaining.
More on both of these playoffs pictures as the week progresses.
That's it for today folks, thanks for following. Shout out to Royce, aka MC, who is keeping my blog international with viewership from Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand. I'm following you, while you follow me. Unless of course I am mistaken and I have other viewers out there in Southeast Asia, in which case I'd like to thank you for you viewership as well.
Stay tuned later this week for my hip hop's most wanted column, featuring the top 20 hip hop singles out there at the moment. (IMO and hopefully Struan will chime in as well. Something I'd like to make a weekly feature.
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