I got mine today. We were warming up for the game, and only my brother, Ben, Harvey, and I were there when the previous game ended. It was a long shot, but I might have had a chance at starting. My hopes faded as the other half of the team came through the entrance a few minutes later.

“Go in for Paul.” No problem captain! My first two minutes passed by quick. I ran up the court on offense, someone missed the shot, then I skied for the rebound and was called for an over the back foul. I roughed him up good to send a message to the rest of their team. Then a foul came on the other side of the court and I was replaced. The game was far from over.

With six minutes to go and a victory in sight, I came in for Jon. I ran around and tried to get in position for an easy lay-up. Harvey passed it and I was a bit off so I passed it back out. I got burned a little more on defense, stopped a fast break with my unprecedented quickness, then I found the ball in my hands again a little bit later.

I was near the baseline and the defender was closing in quick. My devastating pump fake made the Piranha look like Tilapia. While he was in the air, I jumped into him for the foul but still managed to jam it at the top of my jump. I slapped the backboard, received a technical, and was pulled out again. I actually did pump fake, but as real as it sounds, the dunking part didn’t happen. I missed a jumper from about 6 feet out.

“Thug Life Baby! Thug Life!” - Kevin Nash, aka Super Shredder.

Last night I watched half of Monday Night Wars. It’s a WWF documentary covering the time when professional wrestling quickly gained popularity. It has various people talking about the massive ratings war between WCW Monday Nitro and WWF Monday Night Raw. As interesting as the documentary is, it’s much more entertaining because of the clips from the shows. All the memories come right back.

A lot of storylines are left out. Sting is not mentioned in the first half. It doesn’t look like he’ll be mentioned in the second half either. Either way, go watch it. It sparked my interest in wrestling again.

I don’t feel like watching current wrestling shows, but I really want to find some old pay-per-views. Nobody has a VCR around here though. They should release DVD collections of the Monday night shows by each year. Each year would be a $500 40-disc set. I wouldn’t buy it, but it would be cool.

Last night my left calf cramped up hard. I was half dreaming at the same time. I was aware that my calf was really cramping up, but in my dream I was at a computer programming. As far as I remember, I was programming myself and I messed something up so I was trying to write an endCramp method as fast as I could. I love school.

Speaking of programming, I spent a good amount of time in the computer lab with my project partner. We were cranking out what we could before the 9pm deadline. The first part of our project is being graded out of three points. I overheard a girl from the pair next to us saying something along the lines of, “If we don’t get a three, I’m going to cry!” Seriously? If we got a three, we would cry–tears of joy.

(I wrote this over a few days so references to ‘last night’ or ‘today’ are on different days.) I’m about to hit the bed, so I’ll leave you with another awesome wrestling quote from when the Outsiders invasion began.

“This is ‘where the big boys play’ huh? Look at the adjective–play. We ain’t here to play.” - Kevin Nash, aka The Grammar Master from the thug-life ghetto where ‘play’ isn’t a verb.

Well, the first week of school is over. I’m spending my first Friday night up late partying. Meaning I did my laundry and read at the same time. Tomorrow looks like it will be just as exciting.

Exciting news came at 7am when I went for a morning pee and saw that our paper towel dispensers were back. Last quarter, some people on our floor opened them, stole the paper towels, and eventually just broke the dispensers. The janitor staff, or some other higher-up, took them away from us. It looked to be a permanent change.

Luckily, an anonymous hero in our hall traveled to a higher floor around midnight, stole their dispensers, and installed them in our bathroom. He has liberated us from the deathly insanitation we would have faced without paper towels.

My classes so far seem ok, but I know they’ll become a whole lot harder. Hopefully I can get that 3.5.

Linguistics

Our professor is awesome. He has a ‘Word of the Day’ in his PowerPoint presentations. The subject actually seems interesting, and it will probably be the easiest of my classes. Still, class is class and I don’t exactly look forward to lecture. Section comprises what is easily the most boring two hours of the week. At least it isn’t two hours of brain destroying work.

CSE 143

My 142 professor was genuinely funny. Most of the class really laughed at his jokes. We loved that man. He told us not to wait for Spring quarter to take 143 with him, and I’m not the only one thinking that I should have. It’s cool though, my current professor seems like a good teacher. He’s funny also, but nothing compares to good old professor Reges. The class format seems a bit harder, and I’m not looking forward to partner projects. I’ll definitely miss 142.

Physics 121

This will certainly bring death to me. Possibly in a swifter fashion than Math 308. So far I’ve kept my head above water, but I hear the difficulty ramps up pretty quick. I might pass as long as I keep up with reading and practicing problems.

Best of the year things usually drop the first half of the year from mind. This will be no different. There were certainly memorable events from the beginning of the year, but they’re just too far back to think about.

Best Good Time : Camping It really can’t be beat. If I try and think of fun times from this year, camping is the first thing that comes to mind.

Runners Up : Bumbershoot. I got hit by a toilet paper roll and still had the time of my life. Replace Public Enemy’s stage time with, well, someone else, and it might have won.

Worst Bad Time : Everyone Leaving College does that. We just have to leave it to fate sometimes.

Runner Up : Tackling Jonard. That equals karate chop to the neck.

Favorite Movie : Harold and Kumar go to White Castle It was sold out at the two Best Buy stores that my brother and I checked. That’s a good sign. Let’s go buy some Mountain Dew!

Runners Up : Garden State & Neighborhood Ninjas 2. Both make eyes water.

Unfavorite Movie : Darkness It would be great–if it were opposite day! Daps all around. Nothing beats hanging a hideously scary, century old picture in the hallway.

Runner Up : Cellular. Ri-diculous.

Yummiest Meal : Junior’s BBQ With Chef Jerry at the grill, there is little to worry about when it comes to food. Though it is not food related, this is the day that Paul ended my Ultimate Frisbee career in one fell swoop.

Runner Up : Beef Back Ribs at Claim Jumper.

Yuckiest Meal : Spaghetti Factory The description was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I ordered the Hearty upgrade with double noodles. I believe they forgot the flavor in the kitchen.

Runner Up : Fried Ice Cream by Chef Jerry and Chef Ces. It was our own recipe. Crunch Ice Cream bar covered in corn flakes and fried in oil used, only minute beforehand, for chicken wings.

Best Gadget Purchase : Canon 300D Photography is my hobby, so the choice was pretty clear on this one.

Runner Up : Dell Axim X30. Even though I only use it as an MP3 player right now.

Game of the Year : Starcraft: Brood War Whether playing or watching, nothing is more exciting than this. For a good two weeks I think I watched games twice as much as I played them.

Runner Up : Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. When the competition was over, things got heated. It wasn’t just good for reminiscing, it really was fun. E. Honda is gay.

Song - Ness & Writeous present ATLiens Ness’s second verse is bonkers. I don’t even really know what they’re talking about.

Runner Up : Nas & AZ : Serious. I wish I had a good version. And I wish it were longer.

Book : Angels and Demons The prequel to The Da Vinci Code is just like the Da Vinci Code. Anyone who has read both will tell you that. I liked Angels and Demons more. I didn’t read the Da Vinci Code this year so it doesn’t count. Both are worth reading.

Runner Up : A Hundred Years of Solitude. I had to read this for Comparative Literature, but I can honestly say that I enjoyed it. The character names are confusing, but once you get past that it is real interesting.

You didn’t have to be There

Paul, that better not be your bulge on my butt.

Sorry.

You didn’t have to be There: Number Two

Did you hear that Carmelo proposed to LaLa?

Who does Kabbalah?

That’s it. It was late and I’m sure I forgot a bunch of fun times and honorable mentions, like ice skating, but it’s done. Welcome, 2005.