vivalaultra

Yeah, Evan Tanner hasn't fought since he beat what's-his-name at UFC 59. Last I heard a few days ago, he's trying to set up a MMA training team that would live with him and be comprised of delinquint youths and homeless men. I heard that he was talking to UFC about making a return, but nothing's come out of it and doesn't look to happen in the near future. However, he was on his myspace page as recently as yesterday...talking about auctioning a bunch of memorabilia in his basement and pimpin' his new website. www.evantanner.net

I remember when Sylvia wasn't boring. His first UFC fight with Cabbage was hella-awesome. It's only since 2006, since he beat Assuerio Silva by decision that he's been sloth-like.

I would not be posting in Zee Chocolate Socket, except videos of guys that look vaguely like Robert Townsend wearing sequined hot pants twirling flaming batons while maintaining the most ridiculously exuberant smile known to man must be shared. The Flaming Jackson Twirler

I've been going through a Faulkner period lately. I started off with Absalom, Absalom! and then read As I Lay Dying and then a few short stories and now, after finishing Beautiful Losers, which I got for Christmas and I found...interesting and only slightly pretentiously overly-wordy, I'm starting on Light in August.

I actually never saw the Barnett fight, and I haven't seen the Ricco/Couture fight since it first happened, but wasn't it a relatively close fight...at least till Randy got gassed?

I don't think Randy Couture's washed up. His last three losses have been because of a cut and Chuck Lidell. And I think Couture/Cro Cop would be a better fight than Sylvia/Cro Cop. Couture's a better wrestler than Sylvia, and I think if he gets him to the ground, he'll have a very good shot at finishing. However, if Tim keeps fighting like a slug and using his size as a way of not being aggresive and pushing the pace of the fight...meh.

There's a "pop vs. soda" debate? Pshaw, between who? Everybody knows that in the South (the correct speaking portion of country) it's "Soda", and that's what it is. What's this "Pop" stuff? But then if you're in South Louisiana, everything, regardless of what type of carbonated beverage, is called a Coke...or a "cold drink".

I'm excited. The Astros are on the verge of resigning my favorite Astro from the years 2000-2003, Richard "Doggie" Hidalgo to a minor-league contract with a ST invite. Hidalgo was ass awful the last 2 1/2 years in Houston, New York, and Arlington, but he, unlike the guy he'll hopefully replace (Jason Lane), has had at least 3 or 4 good to really good seasons. And, if signed, he'll instantly become the best defensive outfielder on the team. Oh, and they're also entertaining the idea of inviting Pedro Astacio and Paul Wilson to ST to compete for a spot in the rotation. And they're considering, supposedly, moving Chad Qualls into the rotation. Just shows how shallow (and expensive) good pitching is in the NL Central.

Breakfast: plain bagel toasted w/ cream cheese and a large coffee (2 sugars, no cream) from Einstein Brothers' Bagels Lunch: 2 KFC Chicken Kickers, one Honey BBQ, one buffalo and a Coke Dinner: ??? Dessert: sweet, sweet poontang

Checking out the rumored UFC 68 card on MMAWeekly, I see that Jason McDonald is rumored to be fighting Rich Franklin. Hot damn, Athelete!

April 7th is the "all but confirmed" rumor. It's on MMAWeekly. That was the PPV that was supposed to run in Canada, but for whatever reason isn't. Now, it's coming to Houston. The main event's rumored to be GSP vs. Serra. So, yeah...UFC 69, 4/7 in Houston. Here's the thing about it on MMAWeekly.

Reviving old threads, eh? Here's one, because I'm listening to it as a morning pick-me-up... Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, Outkast 1. Intro 2. Ghetto Musick 3. Unhappy 4. Bowtie 5. The Way You Move 6. The Rooster 7. Bust 8. War 9. Church 10. Knowing 11. Flip Flop Rock 12. Reset 13. Last Call 14. Hey Ya!* 15. Roses* *-non-album "bonus" track Yeah, I like Big Boi.

The Cardinals have signed Mark Mulder...for 2 yrs/13 million with an option for 2009. He probably won't be back until June or July which leads into... ...The Cardinals signed Ryan Franklin to a 1 yr/1 million dollar contract with another million dollar incentive should he make 29 starts (which he probably won't). This leads one to believe that Adam Wainwright will be back in the bullpen...and Braden Looper might not be a starter, which is good for the Cards, I guess. Scott Schoenweis signed with the Mets. After losing Ryan Franklin and Scott Schoenweis, the Reds bullpen is down to 18 pitchers. Dontrelle Willis, for whatever reason, is pleading not guilty to his DWI charges.

Because at 16 my friends and I weren't exactly the intellectual giants that we are now. I also say ape-ricot...and I also say the word "bayou" as by-yo, but that's neither here nor there.

Yeah, I probably wouldn't recommend Nickel Creek to someone unless that person had an affinity for bluegrass. Anyway, right now, I'm listening to 50 Number Ones. I'm not sure if there's another musician right now who's been as consistant as George Strait for turning out solid, good to really good singles over the last past 25 years.

I once knew this kid in 6th grade that everyday for lunch would bring Ramen noodles to school, and he wouldn't cook them, he'd eat them dry. Just...straight up dry. I tried that, but I didn't see what was so great about them. When we were 16, my friends and I had a serious debate about whether it 'Ramen' was pronounced Rahmen or Ramen. We decided to email the company and ask them, but ran into a problem phrasing the email thusly, "Hey, do you pronounce Ramen "Ramen" or "Ramen"? Please respond."

Oh yeah, I wasn't meaning that you said they were an emo band, I was just responding to Czech, The Baton Passer. I'm not sure how they got so extremely popular. I guess the stars just aligned or it was all Pitchforkmedia.com or...they came out when Napoleon Dynamite was really popular and the guitar player resembles him or they just make good music. I think they make good music. I think they have passion and this underlying 'fire' that make them engaging. I no longer think they're 'The Greatest Band Ever' like I did the first time that I heard their CD and after each of their concerts that I attended, especially the one at Austin City Limits 2005. I still do, however, think that they write catchy songs and put on a Hell of a live show, full of emotion and passion, however real or coreographed it may be. If I had my druthers, I'd go see TV on the Radio (which I will be doing for a record-setting 5th time April 6th in Houston. I hope Jaleel gives me the 'head-nod' thing again!) over the Arcade Fire in a heartbeat, but I'd go see Arcade Fire over alot of other bands.

I'd much rather see Couture vs. Cro Cop than Sylvia vs. Cro Cop. I don't think Couture can beat Cro Cop any more than Sylvia can, but I know that Couture would put up a better, more exciting fight.

If you like Baroque violin music, you probably will. I like Baroque violin music.

Dreams are a way of subconciously sorting out the day's events. Different theories say different things about the act and importance of dreaming. Joe Griffin formulated a hypothesis in which he says that dreams act as metaphysical translations of waking expectations, wherein sensory arousal emotions not acted upon during the day are sorted out in dreams (ie, "wet dreams", dreams about wanting to go shopping). He further states that the dreaming process evaporates the emotional arousal associated with the activities metaphorically expressed during dreams, allowing the brain to complete the arousal process and "begin anew" each day. Freud and Jung theorized about dreams in a psychodynamic sense, stating that images contained in dreams are representative of desires buried in the subconcious which are not "knowable" to the concious. In Freud's case, everything was sexual or violent. Similarly to Griffin's theory, Freud's theory states that dreams act as a 'fulfillment' of these repressed desires, which cannot be acted out in waking life. Eugen Tarnow reworked Freud's theory, replacing the Unconcious with long-term memory. The main difference is that in Tarnow's theory, dreams are expressions/manifestations of events drawn from past or repressed memories interpreted in sometimes strange and fanciful ways due to the processes of long-term memory. Rene Descartes stated that a person dreaming is not able to distinguish, at the time of the dream, whether events are real or imaginary. Therefore, the dreamer, at the time of the dream, cannot be sure if he is awake or asleep. He used this hypothesis to argue against scepticism, coming to the conclusion that the only way a person knows if he is actually in the "real world" (the "awake" world) at a given time is because of faith. Carl Jung expanded a bit on this paradox of the real/dream world in his use of Embodied Imagination in dream therapy. The central idea of embodied imagination is that the soul is a multiple entity, constantly living in any number of autonomous states. Therefore, dreaming springs from the soul (similar to Freud's unconcious) and dreamed events are actually "real" events that are entered by the soul which, when explored in a hypnagogic state, can be interpreted in order to gain new insight. Another interesting phenomenon is called Dreams of absent-minded transgression (DAMT). These are dreams where persons act out actions that they have been trying to stop or stifle in real life, such as having an affair, doing drugs, going on a murderous rampage, etc. Something else that's interesting is that a person can only dream of things that they have experienced. This concept has roots in Lockean principles, in that life is made up from experience. No matter how fantastic or fanciful a dream may seem, everything contained in that dream must be based on some real-life experience the dreamer has had, i.e., everything in the dream will have touchstones in the person's real life, whether the dream be rife with anachronims, malaproprisms, or other isms. That is why a person can dream about themselves being deceased, but not actually dying. A person can have a dream where they die, but the dream will always end before the person's death is actually complete. Because no living person has actually died in their own life, they cannot experience this sensation in a dream. A dream where a person is experiencing sensations such as flying or falling or some other superhuman activity is merely an approximation of that experience and activity based on things actually experienced by the person in their real life as opposed to the actual activity.

Damn, I guess even he's tired of seeing the Maine-iac wear the title belt every second of every hour of every day. It's too bad they're having it in March, as I'd really like to see a better title fight than GSP vs. "Screamin'" Matt Serra when UFC comes to Houston.

Hey now, we aren't running in the Prince Takamatsu Cup Nishinippon Round-Kyushu Ekiden, so don't be handing nothing over to me. I already got into an argument about the Arcade Fire on here once and it gave me a freakin' bleeding ulcer. I do agree that the Arcade Fire aren't an 'emo' band, dependent on a person's definition of the term.

I was doing some reading on the man, and he has an entire museum dedicated to him and Ramen noodles in his homeland. The whole gist of the museum is that you can make your own special blend of Ramen noodles and cook them yourself. The admission, needless to say, is free. I still would like to go to this museum, however.

I've not read Blood Wedding, but I have some experience with Garcia Lorca's poetry and know of basic ideas explored in his plays and other literature. Yeah, his poetry's really good, though. It would probably be better if I could read it in its original Spanish. That's always my great regret of reading literature in translation; that it loses alot in the translation.