Shina's Big Season-Ender

Last night was the 35 District highschool Boys basketball semir finals. It so happens that my brother, who plays for Holy Cross Highschool was playing my al ma mater, Holmes High school, so I had to go for both of those reasons.

Holmes and Holy Cross have long nurished a rivalry so that too spurred me to go and watch my brother play.

As of yesturday, my brother held the followong stats in Boys HS basketball in Northern Kentucky

25th highest scorer
5th in turnovers and
3rd in Assists


When I walked in at half-time, my brother's team (Holy Cross Indians) were down some 20 pts ot so. it did not look too good. The them seemed to be led by my brother, who is the point guard and he made a few incredible runs in the start of the 3rd quarter. Towards the end of the game, The Indians had almost come back to win, but could not hold off Holmes' Bulldogs.

The following is the link giving entire coverage of the game: http://news.nky.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20070228/SPT0302/702280386/-1/SPT

Obama's In The House

Here is a link to Obama's visit to the Queen City this morning.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070226/NEWS01/302260036/-1/back01

I see big things on the horizon!

79th Annual Academy Award/The Apprentice

I know...I know...

Mondays were supposed to be reserved for an update of my pal Surya on The Apprentice, but I did not anticipate so many award shows. I do not know what I was thinking, it happens every year. After a quick stop at The Apprentice website, i see that he is still on the show so I do not feel too bad.

I promise better updates in the future.

I have to say, when I heard that Jennifer Hudson was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, I was a bit confused. Though I loved her performance in the movie Dreamgirls, I did not think it warranted this nomination. It wasn't until her performance was pitted against the other nominees that I realized that it was she who deserved to walk away with the nod. I slept through have of her phenomenal performance, but through the magic of YouTube, I was able to see the entire thing. It looked like they all were having so much fun!

I also have to mention that Ellen was fab...of course

Just an update: There was not a Taft with a Twist event last week. It is scheduled for March 8. and I climbed all 45 stories of the Carew Tower in 11mins. I wanted to do better.

This is an easy one...

Question: Roots remains one of television's landmark programs. The twelve-hour mini-series aired on ABC from January 23-30 in 1977. For eight consecutive nights it riveted the country. Following several generations of a slave family, the show defied industry conventions about black-oriented programming. Television executives simply had not expected that a show with black heroes and white villains could attract such huge audiences. The mini-series Roots was based on the best-selling novel by what author? This author was the Black History Month speaker at Northern Kentucky University in 1982.

Answer: Alex Haley

A Look Ahead

Well, as you may be able to tell from the last few post, there has not been too much in my life to write about. So, in a total reversal from yesterday's post, let us take a look ahead to some downtown events that i am looking forward to participating in.

Taft With A Twist:
I am excited about this event. DJ's in the Taft Museum! I can't wait to go. I'll give you more details on Friday.

The Carew Tower Climb:
This event will be held on Sunday, Feb 25. It will raise money for the Ohio Lung Association. Lets see if I can make it to the top in less than 30 min. I let you know my time on Monday.

Wish me luck!

Just A Reflection....

In this world of hand held palm pilots, BlackBerry's, Internet enabled cell phones, and 24 hr hour a day news programing, we could get enamored by the amount of super silious information that we pay attention to.

For instance, i could use this forum to regale about the ramifications that Britney Spears shaving her head will bring to all of the 12 to 22 yr old girls who see this blond (or should I say formerly blond) bombshell as some sort of Hare Krishna.

Better yet, maybe I should dissect the homophobic over tones of Tim Hardaway's proclamations that he hate's gay people and praise the fact that Charles Barkley reiterated that if any professional athlete thinks that they have never been on the same team as a gay person, than they were sadly mistaken.

So I just thought I would reach my hand into the plethora of off-shot media news spots and talk about what ever I pull out.

Maestro...drum role please...

Beyonce Makes the cover of this Years Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

Though i may not be the one to most appreciate this, I am glad to see that see she is broadening her horizons. I wonder if Jay-Z had anything to do with this deal

I have to give props where props are due...

I love to see it when fellow Covingtonians make a name for themselves on an international level. A friend of mine that I graduated highschool with is a writer for the Associated Press. Here is a link to one of her more recent articles.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/01/30/repatriated.liberians.ap/

Quick Run Down

Wow...where has the time gone. It has been about a week since I updated you guys on the 'goings-on" here in the Queen City. I could regail about the several different reasons why that is but that would be un-eventful to say the least. I do want to tell you some of the things that have been going on since the last post:

A major purchase was on the horizon. I have upgraded my old cell phone to a new t629 by Samsung (Korean word for Three Star). I needed something where I could connect to the internet and check my email, but I did not want something very bulky like a SideKick or BlackBerry. I think it is working out pretty well.

Over the past few days, the weather has been paying us back for having such a mild December and January. For the past two days, I have not had to go into work. Needless to say I was able to get a lot of things accomplished with the extra time.

Thursday night, I ventured through the crappy weather and hit up the Bacchanalian Event. It is so much fun to see young professionals out, drinking wine and giving to a good cause. this event was held at the Contemporary Art Center. I used my new phone to snap some pics. It so handy! I still have not figured out how to place pics from my phone on here, but when I do...

Aint that a kick in the pants

The following is a sobering article about Barak Obama's chances at taking the office of presidency in a few years. It is an article written by Earl Ofari Hutchinson. A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to run into him at a bookstore in South Central, Los Angeles where a got him to sign a copy of one of his books for me. After you read this, you have to ask yourself, "Is this progress?"

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0129/p09s02-coop.html

Do You Know....

Question...What is the title of the Black National Anthem? And who wrote it?

Answer... "Lift Every Voice and Sing" was written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson and then set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson.

This past weekend's Doings/Apprentice Updates

This weekend had its ups and its downs. Friday night, I can chalk up to being a bust because I knew that I would be out on Friday night till the wee hours in the morning. So Friday night was a quiet night where I watched the movie The Illusionist and fell asleep to the 10 o'clock news.

Saturday was entirely different. It was the 30th B-day of a close friend of mine. With a party of about 11 people, we traveled across the river to the best Koarean restuarant in town, Riverside. After an icredible meal, we proceeded to a hole in the wall bar just around the corner, where we proceeded to have a few drinks, play billiards and open his presents.

Sunday was nothing more than a recouperation day from Saturday. Afrter a morning breakfast, I stayed in bed and watched a mariade of telivision programming to include the Super Bowl. (This is where it really gets boring)

Watching the Super Bowl laying in bed with just one eye opened, I seemed to have slept all the way through the half time show, which is one of the only things I wanted to see. And to beat it all, I missed this week's episode of The Apprentice.

African American History Month: Kick Off

Mary Church Terrell began the practice of honoring Frederick Douglass on his February 14th birthday in 1900, according to her autobiography, in Washington DC. Carter G. Woodson who moved to Washington in 1909 and witnessed the annual celebration begun by Terrell for 15 years prior to choosing the second week of February for Black History Week in 1926 because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the Black population, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Later on in 1976, as the nation reached its bicentennial, the week was expanded into an entire month. February has much more than Douglass and Lincoln to show for its significance in Black history.

History books had barely started covering black history when the tradition of Black History Month was started. At that point, most representation of blacks in history books was only in reference to the low social position they held, with the exception of George Washington Carver. Black History Month can also be referred to as African-American History Month, or African Heritage Month.

Black History Month sparks an annual debate about the continued usefulness of a designated month dedicated to the history of one skin colour. Critical op-ed pieces have appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer [2] and USA Today [3].

With the Presidential hopeful, Barack Obama and the multiple Academy Award nods for African Americans this year, some may say that the United States has come a long way, there are far more people who know that there is still a long way to go.

Can you guess what I want for my birthday?

I know that this may seem strange, but while I have written a good majority of the posts on this blog, I have been listening to "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" on my I-pod.

Like those who claim to be a closet Treky, I am one of those 20-something adults who is infatuated by this story of witchcraft and wizardry.

Funny enough, I was introduced to the "Boy who lived" by my younger brother. When he was a 6th grader several years ago, he told me he was reading a book. Over the years, my brother would have rather swam the River Nile with a llama on his back before he sat down and stuck his nose in a good book. I was so intrigued that a fiction book caught his attention so much that he would read it, that I picked it up as well, to see what the fuss was all about.

Unlike most, I started with the 3rd installation of the series, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" but once I was complete with that volume, I decided to start from the beginning and work my way up.

From the instant I was thrusted into this magical world of make-believe, seasoned with reality, I fell in love, with the story. I am an avid reader, but for the first time in my life, it took my just a few days to finish reading the last book published in the series"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince".

You could image my delight and utter glee when I found out that actual date of release of J.K.Rowling's 7th and final installment of the series on July 21st of this year. It is called "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

I can only imagine what it's going to be about. (Just a warning: The following may only be intelligible to those who are familiar with the series).

-I think that this book will be set in the area where Harry's parent's lived.
-Dumbledoor will be alive and we will find that his death at the other end of Snape's wand was all a silly ploy.
-We are going to find out that Harmony is really Harry's guardian angel

That's all my predictions so far. Stay tuned for more.