MJ_Hooker's Xanga

yo

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:33:44 GMT

The bad news is I've had tonsillitis all week and had to write 2 papers. The good news is football today and I'm heading to Illinios tomorrow for the first time since last year. Look me up if you're around too, Roll Tide.

Yellow Submarine

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:04:52 GMT

Not to sound like your freshman history professor - but since that's what i kind of am - everyone should read "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass". It's an easy, quick read that does a great job of describing the centuries of American slavery.

Tomorrow, basketball season starts. Roll Tizzy!

Yo, Yo, Yeaux

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:25:15 GMT

Hey, greetings from the Dirty South. I see I haven't done this in awhile, but I have been keeping track of ya'll, for what it's worth. I've been quite busy the past few months ... went out to Boston in August, had a great time. Watched a game in Fenway Park, which was amazing, and looked at a lot of old historical things. I like history. I returned to Bama and have been busy learning things and teaching things and of course, footballing. We love our football down here. This season I've taken charge of the weekly tailgaiting activities, which means setting up a tent on my front yard every Sat., running cable and electric wires out my windows down to the ground, and setting up a couple of TVs and a grill. We love our football. I've done some sweet road trips as well - Nashville was good, but Jacksonville, Fl. and Oxford, Ms. this past weekend were just great. Oxford is about as Southtastic a town as you could hope for, and a great time was certainly had by all on the square last Friday eve. Even Ole Miss' band playing "Dixie" all day Saturday could not take away from the overall coolness of Oxford. And on our way to the game we passed the author of the book I have posted (which is the best football book you could ever read) driving to Oxford in his convertible. Ol' Warren gave me a thumbs up, because even though he writes for the NY Times and has lots of money and I'm a poor grad student, we're both Bama fans. And that's all that matters. This weekend, we play Tennessee, which is our #2 rival, so that'll be excellent. I hate Rocky Top.

But the greatest sporting event of the weekend will be the Bama Hockey game that I will go to tomorrow night. Yes, Alabama has a (club) hockey team, and my friends and I drive to B'ham to watch them whenever possible. They do this "Chuck-a-Puck" thing that most minor league hockey teams do during one intermission, where you buy a foam puck for some charity and hundreds of them get thrown on the ice, with the closest one to the center winning a prize. Well, of course the last game we went to we all chucked our pucks and wouldn't you know when the smoke cleared they said, "Number 24 ... 24 is our winner" which of course was the number of the puck that I chucked. I hooted and hollered and won like 50 bucks worth of crappy Bama hockey gear. The crowd loved me. It was great. So, this is what I do this weekend.

Oh ya, I also go to school. This semester I'm studying European history because it's one of my fields. Specifically, early modern British history and the Renaissance. Ya, I read hundreds of pages on that crap every week. Good times. But it's going OK and I'm faking Euro history quite well, thank you, and will be able to engage in conversation about European things that I have no idea about, but will be able to fake well now.

Well, that's about it, roll tide. I can walk again now too, and sometimes I jog. I have quite the scar and my right leg is still pretty small compared to the other, but these things happen. And I'm having a nephew soon. He's destined to a life of Bama jerseys and sweatshirts ... could be worse I'm sure. Also, I'm thinking of growing an Ocean's 13 Casey Affleck mustache for my birthday next month. It'll be my gift to myself. Well, I hope to be back up North finally some this December, so Roll Tizzle, I see ya'll around.

M to the J to the Hooker

They're back

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 04:02:26 GMT

The Darjeeling Limited

When did Kelly Rowland take over xanga?

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:45:38 GMT

This weekend I partook in an American tradition - a cheesy minor league baseball promotion. Specifically, the Birmingham Barons' (of Michael Jordan fame) "used car night". Unfortunately, the night became quickly disappointing as after the first inning they brought out a Jeep Cherokee, and announced the winner was "Michael . . . someotherlastnamebesidesmine". Everything after that was just a sad reminder of the Cherokee I did not win. And I even cheated - my Canadian friend registered as me as well because we don't give used cars to foreigners.

oh come on, don't be too down, I'll win it next year. Go Barons.

An offer you can't refuse

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 03:36:25 GMT

Greetings and Salutations,

So last night, I had the coolest movie experience ever. Well, for me actually #2 behind the first time BAS and I saw The Royal Tenenbaums at the Edwardsville Kerasotes Theater, but still it was pretty sweet. There's this amazing, old theater in Birmingham, The Alabama Theatre, which was built in 1927 and is just super cool inside. Before movies they do the whole pipe organ coming up from underneath the stage, sing-along thing, and sell wine and whatnot for during the show. Anywho, it's a great place, and I went last night for the first time to see . . . The Godfather. Amazing. I've seen this movie like 20 times, but seeing it in that huge old theater last night was like seeing it for the first time. So good I almost went again today after church so I could watch it from the balcony. Great times indeed. We all went to an authentic Italian restaurant beforehand and of course I made cheesy "Dooooon't stop, believin'"/'I must sit where I can see the door' jokes (that's for you Sopranos fans). Anway, very cool. They do a different old classic movie each week, but it will be hard to top the Godfather. I think the next one I'll check out is Dr. Zhivago in a few weeks.

Anyway, beside seeing great old movies in a cool old theater, I've just been busy the past month rehabbing my leg still, engaging in a PS2 NCAA football dynasty challenge with my friends (I was the only one to make a Bowl game in season 1), and working on historical research. As of this week I'm done with physical therapy, so now I'm on my own. Somehow I manage to exercise 2 hours every day and not really get in more shape at all, but I can walk without limping now, so that's something. Anyway, I have this goal of trying to jog on the 4th of July, so we'll see how that goes. I'm hoping to head off to Washington D.C. and Boston at the end of July, and then it's back to the Confederacy for I have a rough draft for a large paper on miscegenation laws due on Aug. 6, and then the final copy on the 20th.

And now for my tip of the day: If you dress like a teenager, people will think you're still in your early/mid-twenties too. Works for me anyway. Roll Tide ya'll!

Music Man

Wed, 30 May 2007 14:23:58 GMT

I'm kind of old and dull and boring, but every ten years I like to get up and do a little Karaoke. OK, I don't like to, but it happens. In 1997, like any first-timer, I went Top Gun and dropped "You've lost that lovin' feeling" on our hotel lounge crowd. It got a little awkward after the first verse. I guess I know now why in the movie Maverick and Dr. Greene pass their microphones off to some other guys to finish the song. Last night, a couple friends and I went simple, yet awesome: YMCA. Let's just say that bowling alley was rocking. The singing was enough to win over any crowd I'm sure; but with our sweet dance moves added for free, I have a feeling it was a Karaoke / Cosmic Bowl night they'll never forget. What's my next Karaoke number going to be? Well, you'll have to make sure to be nice enough to me so that we're still friends in 2017 to find out.

Sandtastic

Wed, 16 May 2007 19:25:16 GMT

Hello, I'm at the beach. It's about to storm, so I'll take a second and say I'm at the beach. Beyond that, you'll have to wait till next week, vacation calls.

Walk like an egyptian

Tue, 01 May 2007 20:01:33 GMT

Today, for the first time in 8 weeks, I wore a shoe on my right foot. I'm pretty limpy, but enough is enough. In other news, according to my sister's site, I'll be at the beach in 11 days. I'm very jealous of me. Speaking of jealous, you should all be jealous of my students, because today I taught the 1980s solely through movies. Really, what else do you need to know about the end of the Cold War then from Rocky Balboa's epic bout with Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, as over the course of 15 rounds Rocky wins the Russians' love? And nothing says Yuppie like young Charlie Sheen in Wall Street. Throw in a "something, oo . . . economics . . . Voodoo economics" from Ferris Bueler's Day Off for a little Reaganomics lesson, and that my friends was what I did today.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:28:20 GMT

I had my first physical therapy yesterday, and one of the things I had to do was sit and pick up a ton of marbles lying on a towel with my toes and drop them in a bowl. Back and forth, back and forth. This was never ending, and all I could think was "when do they wash these marbles?"