Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like Happy Graham. Julie and I took Graham to Camden for the very first time last weekend. I didn’t know what to expect from him during the drive down and I have no experience caring for a child in my boyhood home. But the weekend could not have gone any better! Of course, we had a great time visiting with my parents but I was very proud of the way Graham behaved. He slept almost the entire time in the car, he slept all through the church service (so did Julie) and he was very happy and content during the rest of our visit. Look at this face and tell me he wasn’t happy!

This week, I love The NBA on TNT. Now that the college basketball season is concluding, we can focus on the NBA. The regular season will feature lots of battles for the few remaining playoff spots and the talent level in the league has never been this high across the board. What I’m really looking forward to is more installments of The NBA on TNT, a highlight show broadcasted live from the TNT studios in Atlanta. The host, Ernie Johnson, is accompanied by former players Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille Oneal. The chemistry on the set is unbeatable. Ernie does his best to do play-by-play analysis of game highlights while Chuck and company chip in their expert observations. But most of the time, it’s three guys talkin’ smack over Ernie, which is hilarious! There are a lot of fun segments in the show too. This is the best NBA entertainment television since the days of Ahmad Rashad and Inside Stuff.

This week, I don’t like the run-down conditions at Roland Cooper State Park’s golf course. I played this 9-hole golf course countless times in high school. And even though it has never come close to resembling Augusta National Golf Club, the grounds crew always did their best to manage the course. I played “The Coop” last weekend while in Camden and I was amazed at how run-down the course had become. But it’s not really a surprise, I guess. The State of Alabama funds the upkeep of the course and Wilcox County is responsible for the roads leading to the course (which are in horrible shape too). Here’s the funny thing though: there were a lot of people playing golf this weekend in Camden. Granted, these were the caliber of players that didn’t mind such poor conditions and many were sporting clothing and hats that signified their allegiance to a certain in-state college football team. So, I guess as long as the locals don’t mind and the State is out of money, “The Coop” will remain in this condition.

Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like Magic Johnson. When people think of Magic Johnson today, they think of him as a successful businessman, a studio personality for basketball coverage on TV and one of the all-time greats from the NBA. But to everyone twenty years ago, Magic Johnson was synonymous with the HIV virus. I was reminded of this when I watched The Announcement, an ESPN documentary that helped viewers relive that stunning moment when Magic told the world that he was prematurely retiring because of disease that we didn’t really know much about in 1991. You need to know that this historical event occurred during a time in which I was very into the NBA. I was thirteen and was destined to play in the NBA myself (or so I truly believed at the time). I liked Magic then because he was tall enough to be a center but was the best passing, best dribbling guard in the league. As I watched the documentary, I couldn’t help but be amazed how Magic has gone on to doing much bigger and better things since the day we all instantly assumed that he was going to die from his disease. I like Magic because he was Dr. Cliff Huxtable in a basketball uniform. He obviously didn’t behave off the court but he is showing everyone that he’s still a champion.

This week, I love juice fasting. After watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, I am seriously considering participating in a 10-day juice fast. I wasn’t very knowledgeable about juice fasting before watching this film but it has caused me to do some further research. From what I’ve read, juice fasting will help me quickly lose that last 25 pounds I need to lose – with emphasis on “quickly”. The heaviest I ever weighed was in December, when we were in the hospital with Graham. Since then, I’ve lost 8 pounds by reducing my intake. I don’t have the time or means to exercise but I need to lose another 25 lbs so that I won’t have so much flab around my waist area (which is linked to stroke and heart disease). In addition to weight loss, juice fasting is also a strong way to revamp your body with a big blast of nutrients. I’ve watched a documentary and read some web pages – I know what I’m talking about. I’m still researching juicers but if I decide to do this, it will begin on April 1st. I will keep you posted.

This week, I don’t like picking losers. I’ve filled out multiple NCAA Final Four brackets every year since I was in junior high school (those things were hard to come by back then!). But I won’t be doing that this year. Why? Because I am a terrible prognosticator. I finally admitted recently that I stink at predicting outcomes – especially sporting events. It’s almost as if the Universe gains awareness of my predictions and the cosmos changes to alter events so that I will ALWAYS be wrong. Superbowls, Final Fours, Match Play tournaments – heck, even the guy I voted for didn’t win the Alabama presidential republican primary the other day. To make matters worse, my good friend who doesn’t like to be mentioned by name ALWAYS beats me when it comes to picking winners. He was the only person in the entire southeast United States that picked UConn to win the national championship last year. He’s not nearly educated as me on the sports/games/contests on which we predict but somehow, he always makes the right picks. It’s all so frustrating that I’m giving it all up. I’ll continue to have a preference for particular teams or players but I’m not participating in any office pools ever again.