florida, here we come...again

Once again, we beat BC to be crowned ACC Champs! Two years in a row, baby. We're going back to the Orange Bowl, and this time we're gonna win it.

the good, the bad, and the ugly

Arsenal were finally looking like their old selves again today, at least for most of the game. I've heard all the criticism: so many opportunities and woeful finishing, trying to walk the ball into the back of the net, looking for the "perfect" goal, etc. etc., but I will take this Arsenal over the Arsenal of late any day. The last 15 minutes or so were really nervy, what with Eboue giving the ball away every time he touched it and our back line looking typically porous and panicky, but for a good chunk of the match we were dominating possession and passing like the good old days.

Of course, we're still not quite up to the level of...um, our reserve team--the babies beat Wigan 3-0 in the Carling Cup, all we could pull off today was 1-0--but we're getting there. Slowly but surely.

The good: Adebayor's 16th minute goal; Captain Cesc's third win in a row.

The bad: Palacios' tackle on Nasri, resulting in an Eboue substitution in the 32nd.

The ugly: Eboue's subsequent performance. Also, the boos he got when he was subbed. It really makes me sad when the fans boo their own players, no matter how poorly they may have played.

The announcers likened Fàbregas to an American football player during one play where he stood at the half line and launched the ball down the field to a wonderfully positioned van Persie, which I thought was funny because they used to call Guardiola the "quarterback" for the same reason. Well not the van Persie part, but you know what I mean. I bet Cesc would be happy about the comparison.

Speaking of American football, I've got to go. ACC Championship game on now. Virginia Tech against Boston College.

Let's go Hokies.

when will this ridiculousness end?

Sheesh, how many different ways is it possible to be frustrated by a baseball team?

Because it's off-season in baseball world, I haven't really been checking up on Cubbies news like I should, and so I missed this all-important piece of tragic info from a few weeks ago:

WE GOT RID OF KERRY WOOD.

*sobs*

The way that the club handled it was really strange, as well. They basically told him that he deserved a better deal than they could give him, and he should "do what's best for himself and his family". While of course you have Wood saying that he would certainly have taken a one or two year deal for less money than he could have gotten somewhere else, as long as he could stay a Chicago Cub.

WTF, Hendry?

I'm not taking anything away from Carlos Marmol, because I think he's a great pitcher and will be able to step into Wood's closing role well, but to me Kerry has sort of epitomized the Cubs for as long as he's been a part of the team. Yes, there were many injuries, some of them extremely strange (i.e. slipping while getting out of his hot tub), but both his attitude and work ethic have always been exemplary. Unlike Mark Prior, he was able to recover from his chronic injuries and transition (relatively) smoothly from a starter to a closer. And clearly, he loves the club and wanted to stay.

I hope he goes on to continue to do great things, even as his career starts to draw to a close, and I do hope that he at least can be part of a World Series-winning team, because the Cubbies sure aren't going to win it.

He's always been one of my favorite players, so this is just a very sad thing for me. Not going to stop me wearing my 34 Cubbies jersey though.

seriously, i love wintertime. in case you hadn't noticed.

Now that Thanksgiving’s over, we can fully throw ourselves into the winter holiday season! I’m not religious, but I am an avid fan of consumerism so naturally this means that I love Christmas. So I am going to suggest a few things to get everyone into the holiday mood:

First off, a hot drink. The Peppermint Mochas from Starbucks taste like Christmas. I get them whenever it snows. But I can't drink them if it's not snowing, because somehow it just doesn't feel right.

Next, a little music to set the mood:

SeeqPod - Playable Search

Nat King Cole's Christmas CD is a staple in my house in December.

Can't forget the Christmas cookies!
These aren't the gingerbread cookies we always have come holiday time, but I didn't have a picture of those so this will have to do. I don't make them; it's actually my sister's best friend's mom's special recipe. I think it's Finnish. But those are the only gingerbread cookies I can eat now. No others can measure up. But my sister and I make sugar cookies and snowball cookies and sometimes chocolate graham cracker bark. Again, I don't have pictures but I might take some over break.

And of course, no Christmas season is complete without a little Bing:

White Christmas is one of my favorite holiday movies. (And the other is Die Hard, so if you're looking for a more traditional holiday feel, you might wanna go for this one.)

So yeah, that's my little post to get all of you Scrooges/Grinches more excited. It's Christmas! Be happy!

london calling to the faraway towns

Only a month away now!

For those of you not in the know, on this day next month I will be on a flight to Lahndan Town, and I will not return until they kick me out of the country. (Okay, that part's not true; I'm coming back in June.) See, I've been practising my accent (and spelling) too! I'm so ready to go. They won't even notice I'm a furriner.

/super excited

...

/understatement of the year

maybe i just shouldn't eavesdrop

It's strange how different opinions can sometimes be. Today I overheard two girls in my American Literature class bitching about my Romantic Literature professor, who they have for Creative Writing. They were going on and on about how horrible a teacher he was, and how unnecessarily harsh he was on their papers, and how what he wrote was all subjective anyways.

Funny thing is, he's my favorite professor this semester. I think he's a fantastic teacher, and yeah he's a tough grader, but he certainly knows what he's talking about. Maybe I'm biased because I've gotten several very good grades in his class so he likes me, or they're biased because they've gotten bad grades, but it's still strange to me. I also love the subject matter which could make a difference; maybe I wouldn't like him as much if I took his Creative Writing class.

I have my second paper for that class due Tuesday: a comparison/contrast between William Blake's A Little Boy Lost and Percy Shelley's The Mask of Anarchy. I haven't gotten very far on it. I haven't even fleshed out my thesis yet. But even if I get a horrible grade on my paper, I honestly don't think that would make me like Dr. Welch less because of it.

[Random side note: People always ask why I'm not an English major, and sometimes I have a hard time coming up with an answer. Is it weird that I'm actually looking forward to writing this paper? Blake is one of my favorite poets in general, and The Mask of Anarchy is probably my favorite poem at the moment. Maybe I'm just odd, and that's the reason I'm the only one that likes my teacher.]

my happy music: blog challenge seven

This blog challenge was really difficult for me--not because I don't have music that cheers me up, but rather because I have far too much of it. When trying to gain inspiration for this post, I went through my iTunes and made a playlist of all of the songs I could think of that fit the description. I ended up with 45 or so songs. This is because I am music obsessed, and my specific taste in music is largely based on how happy it makes me. Of course, many of my favorite bands aren't exactly the cheeriest (i.e. Radiohead) but they still make me happy because the music is so good, and listening to good music in general makes me happy.

But this isn't about my favorite bands, it's about the (many) songs that cheer me up. So here goes (and again, sorry for the length).

1. American Pie - Don McLean. Simply a classic.
2. Undone (The Sweater Song) - Weezer. This song is just really funny to me. Plus it reminds me of my awesome ninth grade PE class, because they used to play it in the weight room all the time.
3. Chihuahua - DJ Bobo. This one is more of an inside joke. It's a camp thing (as in summer camp, not the English slang word); we have a dance to go with it and everything.
4. Go Cubs Go - Steve Goodman. They play this song after every Cubs home win, so naturally it makes me smile.
5. We Can Work It Out - The Beatles. Possibly my favorite song of theirs.
6. Catch My Disease - Ben Lee
7. Let It Go - The Clarks
8. MK Ultra - Exit Clov
9. In The Morning - The Coral
10. A-Punk - Vampire Weekend. I'm not a massive Vampire Weekend fan, but I heard this in Au Bon Pain this morning when I was getting coffee, and it put a smile on my face.
11. Decent Days and Nights - The Futureheads
12. Digital - Joy Division
13. Don't Ask Me - OK Go
14. Lola - The Kinks
15. Apply Some Pressure - Maximo Park
16. Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
17. Do The Panic - Phantom Planet. Brings me back to sunny summer vacations out of high school.
18. This Charming Man - The Smiths
19. She Bangs The Drums - The Stone Roses
20. Chelsea Dagger - The Fratellis. Two years ago on New Years Eve in the Waterloo tube station in London, I saw a group of about 20 guys (clearly inebriated) dancing around and singing this song, and it made me laugh because it struck me as so quintessentially British. Well, the funniest part of the whole sitch was all the tourists on the other side of the station taking pictures of the drunk guys, but still. The song makes me happy.

So clearly I have a type when it comes to music. Yes, there's a whole lot of Britpoppy stuff, but that's not really surprising; I'm a big fan of British music because it's so upbeat and catchy, and it makes me dance around my room like a lunatic.