Questionably 'The Best of Ann Arbor'

So I was thinking about what to write about, and I remembered that The Michigan Daily just came out with their annual 'Best of Ann Arbor' feature. The Daily staff did a nice job compiling their subjective opinions and writing up some quick, entertaining blurbs about each, so I decided to argue some of their selections. Naturally, I agreed with some of the runaway winners--Sadako for sushi--but others are down right questionable. (Note: I heard this Totoro place is really good for sushi, but I have never been.) So, onto some of my choices, and I take a lot of things into account as you will see.

Breakfast: I am tired of Angelo's winning this category. It is so overrated. Northside Grill is the best breakfast in Ann Arbor. Angelo's is where all the freshman go with their parents, and I went too and it's the only time I have been. We waited like 45 minutes and had a pretty good breakfast but the fact that everyone is obsessed with the place is a turn-off for me. Northside is off the beaten path a little bit which automatically scores it points and proves that you have to know a little bit about this city and are willing to explore lesser-know places. Lesser-know is interesting too because most students don't know about it, but Northside is always busy (not a positive but I have never waited longer than 15 minutes) mostly with AA locals who know where to eat breakfast. Their skillets filled with a mash-up of ingredients are a great range of flavors. I don't like pancakes but theirs are awesome. The huevos rancheros are super tasty and a great breakfast alternative, and they offer mouth-watering breakfast sandwiches. They even serve coffee outside to people waiting, and the service is great. One time I went, they had a fricking Elvis impersonator singing and dancing on the counter. Beat that, Angelo's.

Burger: Ok, so I don't mind Quickie Burger, and the super-nice dude who I think is the owner who is always at the cash register is really cool . They have a location to die for, and their burgers aren't bad. But, jeez, Blimpy Burger is so much better. At Blimpy, they don't hide anything. They cook three feet away from you, and if you look down the counter, you can see them individually scooping and forming each patty out of a container of freshly ground beef. Everyone knows about Blimpy's 'atmosphere' and 'experience' but aside from that, the customization of your meal at Blimpy is simply special. You literally tell them everything you want on your burger from the bun, to the number of patties, cheese, condiments, vegetables, add-ons, whatever. And the best part is yet to come when you finally get to unwrap your messy, dripping heart-attack on a bun sitting in those weird, '70s style swivel chairs and take a bite of beef heaven.

Pizza: At least Pizza House didn't win, right? Still, I don't think Cottage Inn has this city's best pizza. Granted, I have a bad taste in my mouth about Cottage Inn (the take-out version) from freshman year when I lived in West Quad and thought it was Dominos with a different name. But people have to start giving Silvio's some more credit. The place is the shit. Never in my life has pizza tasted so fresh as every time I eat at Silvio's. And I never even know what is on the pizza because most of the combinations are so awesome I have to ask the server what I'm salivating at. Luckily, our class got to enjoy Silvio's at one of our meetings at ISS. I think I ate half a pie and was kind of embarrassed to go after my fourth and fifth slices. Needless to say, it's also organic, so you can kind of convince yourself that it's healthier for you.

And I'm not even going to get into the Chipotle-won burrito category.

Getting Lucky in Kentucky

This past weekend, I traveled with 12 other guys to Slade, Kentucky for a weekend rock climbing trip, and I wanted to blog about it. I got back late last night, so I am just getting time to write it now.

So, Friday at about 2 pm, I took off for Kentucky with 3 other guys. One car had already gone down on Thursday night and camped out, and a third car was leaving late on Friday. Shooting the shit with my friends on the way down, the 6 hour ride was flying by until we hit some heavy Cincinnati rush-hour traffic. Other than that hiccup, we made it down in around six and a half hours, and it wasn't bad. We arrived at our cabin and were pleasantly surprised with what we found: two bathrooms, 8 beds, two couches, a small but functioning TV, a wrap around porch, hot tub, and usable kitchen. The stage was set for a great weekend.

As the third and final carload of climbers arrived, we began plotting the rest of our night and the next day. Despite setting a goal of leaving the cabin at 7 am on Saturday, the group still decided to stay up, hang out, and do the sorts of things you would do in the middle of Kentucky. Luckily, the hangovers weren't too bad at 6:30 the next morning and before I knew it, the 36 eggs I had scrambled were devoured and we were on the road to 'Roadside Crag' our first stop of the day.

Needless to say, we were all pretty excited and motivated to have a good day, and it powered us through the early wake up. Hanging out with the group's leader and two of his climbing friends the night before, I had watched numerous climbing highlight videos and seen many photos of them in action so I was super pumped. I had also noticed the climbing lingo they were using and admired it, so I came back with some new sayings as well. Before getting to the wall, there was one other thing. I am scared of heights. Not deathly scared but it's still pretty significant, so that was surely on my mind while approaching the first challenge.

Boy, did our early start really help. We were the first people to the wall that we wanted to start on and by the time we left there were probably 25 people there, clogging up the routes and creating waiting lines. We had a large group of 13 people too, so it was nice to be able to establish our territory. The first wall was fun; the three most experienced guys 'led' three routes and set up ropes so that everyone else could top-rope climb those same routes. I made it to the top of probably the second toughest route of these three, roughly 60-70 feet, (they were all relatively easy) and was the most uncomfortable that I felt all weekend. I didn't really look down at all because I was so focused on climbing, but my inexperience with something this challenging plus my fear of heights combined for a tense experience. When I got down though, the natural high I experienced was so awesome, and I felt really good.

The rest of the day, we traveled to at least three more crags, usually driving to another spot and then hiking from there. One of the coolest things I did all day was whats called a dynamic movement or a 'dyno' on one of the later routes. Basically, there was two low holds where I could stand on with my left foot and grip with my right hand, however, the next good hold was a solid few feet about my head. At first, I tried to jump and get it, but I couldn't and after a few tries, I found another way up and finished the climb. Feeling good after making it up, I got lowered to the ground and wanted to try again. After a bunch of close calls, I finally jumped high enough, got my left hand on the grip and was able to pull my right hand and the rest of my body up to the ledge. Nothing like the adrenaline after the initial climb that gave me the extra push, it was a great feeling.

The last stop on Saturday was one of the most interesting parts of the trip for me. While most of the group went back to cabin, the three experienced guys wanted to go to a harder route on another crag so one other guy and I tagged along. What we came across was basically a behemoth of a route that was rated a 5.11a, and by far the most difficult one of the day. Honestly, I made my backpack into a pillow and laid down to watch and take pictures; I didn't think any of them could make it. Well, one after another, all three of them made it pretty smoothly, including two who stopped for a rest in the human-sized cave that was 3/4 up to the top. Literally just watching and hearing them exert energy while climbing 'Bathtub Mary', my hands were sweating, and I was getting nervous. It was awesome to see the really good guys get challenged like the rest of us did.

Following a good Saturday night with a big bonfire, we slept in on Sunday but had time for one last climb that was fun but very hard for the group lacking experience, myself included. After that, we started the trek home. Overall, the trip was excellent, and I loved it. The leader said something on Saturday night that was really fitting: "The one thing about climbing is that everyone climbs hard. No matter your skill level, everyone goes hard. That's what I love about climbing," he said. And he's right. All 13 of us were thoroughly challenged at least once over the weekend and put everything we had into overcoming that challenge. It was really rewarding, I would definitely go again.

Hopefully, I can get some pictures up soon.

UHS Story

As our group project comes together, I have been having some thoughts about how it might/could look as an end product. On Wednesday, our group spoke with Dr. Robert Ernst, head medical doctor and an internist at UHS, for over an hour, and it would have gone on longer if we didn't have class and meetings to attend. By 'our group spoke', I really mean that Dr. Ernst spoke, and we listened. The interview had two parts, first, we asked him our predetermined questions for roughly 40 minutes and second, he presented a seemingly endless Powerpoint on patient satisfaction. In the interview, it literally seemed like Doc tried saying as many words as he could after each question, continuously going on tangents into left field and repeating himself as many times as he could, slightly changing the version every time but not the message. After the interview, the three of us were all a little lost. "I never zone out," said one of my partners. "But I have no idea what he said." And she was taking notes.

You know the type of office chairs that spin? Well there weren't any fixed-base chairs to seat him in unfortunately, but I could tell he was getting a little uneasy when he would lean back in his chair cross and uncross his legs, and most notably, spin in the chair. I think clips from the video that I recorded will be very telling. Understandably, he seemed much more comfortable when giving his canned Powerpoint which didn't "answer all of our questions" as he claimed it would from the start. Lucky, we insisted on doing the interview part before his presentation or we might not have gotten a word in at all.

Overall, I think we have the type of interview that can frame our story. That is, open as one of the first key sequences and end the entire piece, providing good organization.

Based on our interview with Dr. Ernst and testimonials from students, there is one aspect that needs to be included in our video: the people that have the bad experiences and the complaints to voice, don't. For whatever reason, it seems to me that they are not represented in the statistics that Dr. Ernst cited. In my opinion, and I can relate, I think these people are so upset over their misfortune with UHS that they basically want to be done with it forever. So when it comes time to complain or fill out a survey, there is no way they are going to waste another second on something like UHS that has provided such a terrible experience for them in the past. Regardless of how much their testimonies could help, I think their understandable bitterness toward UHS angers them to the point of not realizing the usefulness of their experience to help not only other students but also UHS. For this reason, one of the most important questions we need to ask every student is, "Did you complain or tell someone at UHS about your bad experience?" I would be shocked if most answers were no; this hopefully can be strung together to form another key sequence for our video.

Why 64 Is Enough.

In the midst of an incredible NCAA Tournament, there are still idiots out there who think the 64 (65) team tournament should be expanded to include as many as 128(!) teams. So I might be quite opinionated about this because I think the system is working pretty well as is. Have these guys been watching the tournament this year? It has been amazing and worth every second I have devoted to it over homework or any other trivial matter.

Two of expansions proponents, Jay Wright, head coach at Villanova and Jim Boeheim, head coach at Syracuse seem to think a bigger tournament is better. Maybe that's because they envision an easier path to glory than the current system? Both Villanova, a #2 seed, and Syracuse, a #1 and a favorite to win the whole dance, were knocked off by underdogs: #10 Saint Mary's beat 'Nova in second round after they struggled in a double-overtime victory over the #15 seed and 'Cuse lost in the Sweet Sixteen to #5 Butler.

There are many other reasons against expanding the field. For one, it would completely eliminate late season competitiveness down the stretch of schedules and into conference tournaments. In the current system, the teams on the bubble of making the tournament are the most exciting to watch; they scrap and battle at the end of the year trying to impress the selection committee enough to earn a bid. Take Michigan this year for example. We weren't even close to the bubble entering the Big-10 Conference Tournament. But, every conference tournament winner gets an automatic bid to the tournament; it was our last and only chance to make. So after dispatching Iowa in the first round we went against #7 nationally-ranked Ohio State and played inspired basketball giving them a run for there money and positioned ourselves to win until this happened. That hurt just linking that. Regardless of my pain, Michigan would never have played with the urgency that we did in that game if the tournament was 128 or even 96 teams because we would have already had a bid locked up. We would have had nothing to play for.

Additionally, who really wants to see the 128th or 96th best team in the nation, who are under-.500, play? Let alone get smacked by a far superior opponent. Giving high ranked teams byes into later rounds of a larger tournament is also stupid. The appeal of March Madness is watching even the best teams have to win night in and night out, which allows for the upsets and Cinderella runs to happen. Giving byes is like saying you don't like upsets because it directs delays the inevitable upsets until later. And if the NCAA even cares about athletes and their academics as they say they do, a larger tournament would keep student-athletes out of the classroom for even longer.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Individual News Story Brainstorming

I absolutely love food. I like talking about food, cooking, smelling, eating, whatever about it, I like it. With the amount I eat, I'm pretty lucky that I don't weigh 300 pounds. I thank my metabolism, parents, and active life for that. To give you an idea of what I eat, you need to understand my role in 'The Breakfast Club', a group of friends and I who visit various Ann Arbor breakfast establishments on the weekends typically around noon or 1 pm.

SO, after I clean my plate, usually before anyone else, I wait patiently at the table, drink my water, and eye the half-full plates of my colleagues. They all know what's coming. Sometimes I jump the gun and ask them if they are finished before they are, and I feel bad. But when they are finished, they shuffle their leftovers toward me, and I go to work (again). And usually again. I typically end with at least three empty plates stacked on top of one another by the end of breakfast. I acquired this skill from my dad who I now have to battle to call rights to my mom's plates at dinner. He calls it 'batting clean-up' or simply being the garbage disposal.

To return to the point of this post, as much as I love food, I also love the institution and phenomenon behind drunk food, especially at Michigan. There are so many choices: pizza, Mexican, sandwiches, more pizza, hot dogs, more Mexican, etc. And I have enjoyed all of them, multiple times. For my individual story, I am interested in doing a story primarily around Panchero's Mexican Grill, one my favorites from this group. It's probably a good problem to have, but there are many aspects to this story that I could take. For now, I want to combine aspects of a few of them. Fortunately, many of my friends also share my love for Panchero's.

Here snippets of stuff they said, remember they are my friends and these were small, informal conversations:

• Chris: "The tortilla is the best, that's the main reason. The way they distribute the sour cream as well, although they do it differently now. The packaging (aluminum foil) also retains heat very well. Also the free burrito after 10 (burrito card)." Chris is obviously an engineer commenting on the heat retention; he also has received his fair number of free burritos.
• Tom: "They mix the burritos, bro. You don't get uneven bites of meat and then rice; it's all even."
• Adam: "I like Francisco. Good staff and their tortillas."
• Pat: "Nice people, and they are patient with drunk people."
• Jordan: he first mentioned proximity but after I pointed out that it's right next to BTB, Jimmy John's, and Backroom, Jordan said, "The queso sauce is amazing. Other places don't even offer it. The tortilla is also good."
• Nate: he and I had an interesting conversation about Panchero's while drunk versus sober. Most of the others liked it while sober too but Nate said, "I don't like it as much sober, but it's soo good drunk."

These small quotes illustrate some interesting points about the restaurant, and I like how some aspects were repeated multiple times but others liked specific, unique parts of the burritos or experience.

Again, other angles to the story are endless. For one, I want to interview the staff/manager and get his opinion about why Panchero's has this almost cult following and how they deal with competition. I'm also curious about how the staff deals with the odd hours and very late nights, especially Thursday-Saturday.

Relating back to my Panera and McDonald's post, Panchero's is not the healthiest food out there. Especially coupled with a night of drinking hundreds of empty calories of alcohol, a burrito makes for a night that could easily eclipse 2,000 calories. Panchero's website doesn't provide nutritional facts but there are various sites that do, and they aren't so pretty. According to the first site, a plain chicken burrito has almost 900 calories and 24 grams of fat. Remember, that's without fat-filled cheese, queso sauce, sour cream, guacamole, etc.

As you can probably guess, I am pretty excited about doing this story.

Weird Allergy

So, I have an interesting allergy that decided to rear its ugly head at one of worst possible times of my life. I am allergic to liquor. In college.

One of the interesting aspects of my allergy is that it just developed during second semester last year. I was enjoying a screwdriver out of a half-gallon of orange juice while driving home from a Detroit Pistons game when...well, my friend was driving, but I was still enjoying the screwdriver nonetheless. So, I was starting to feel all warm and happy inside and talking more when my face started to feel hot. I brushed it off because this happens often when I drink.

After getting back from the game, we all walked into my fraternity house and my friend, knowledgeable about the 'Asian Glow' because he's Chinese, asked me what was wrong with my face. I replied that I didn't know, so I immediately went to the bathroom to look at the mirror. In the place of my normally fair complexion was a sea of red splotches on my face, forehead, and neck. I was pretty alarmed to say the least. So I stopped drinking my screwdriver, replacing it with water, and took some generic allergy medicine which I do occasionally when this happens.

The warm feeling in my face, and subsequent throbbing, soon decreased to normal levels. The discoloration and redness in my face, however, took longer to disappear and was gone within an hour probably. Other than those symptoms and the resulting embarrassment, I was fine. I didn't experience any swelling, hives, or difficulty breathing, thankfully. Needless to say, the whole reaction caught me off guard, and I was pretty confused. I think it happened once more last spring, and then not again until last summer/early fall.

The first few times I experienced the reaction, I was drinking vodka. Naturally, I thought I had an allergy to vodka, which was weird in itself because the faithful screwdriver on the way home from the Pistons game was not the first time I drank vodka. But, as many are already aware, allergies can develop later in life. To make the situation even more strange, this year I started experiencing the reaction to other types of liquor like rum, whiskey, and most recently, tequila. Most times it happens when I'm drinking mixed drinks.

My allergy also doesn't take the form of traditional symptoms. Instead of a more even spread of redness like a flushing reaction, mine is much more blotchy or spotty like I explained earlier. Lastly, the thing that always throws me for a loop is the inconsistency of how often and when the reaction happens. For instance, it didn't happen on my 21st birthday this past fall, and I did not drink a single beer the whole night, strictly drinking liquor. It also doesn't happen on random nights when I have small quantities of many different types of liquor, which I think points to the fact that it typically occurs when I'm drinking high quantities of the same type and brand of liquor.

If you're shaking your head after reading that, you're probably just as confused as I am. Go figure.

My Code of Ethics

Don't hurt anyone:

So first and foremost, I don't want to hurt anyone through the posts on my blog. This is my first blog, and I'm only a handful of posts in; causing harm to anyone through any of my entries doesn't make sense to me, so I will do my best to avoid it at all costs. Additionally, this is a class requirement, it's not like this is my job, people getting hurt is just not worth it.

Tell the truth:

One of the best ways, in my opinion, to not hurt anyone through my work is to tell the truth to the best of my ability. That being said, I will fact check my information through multiple sources. If the truth could be potentially harmful, I will leave it up to my discretion whether or not to post the information, erring on the side of caution.

Speaking of sources:

If I get information from outside of my dome piece, and it's not general knowledge, I will do my best to either link to or give credit to the initial article/author. Giving credit where credit is due is fair, so all cliches aside, I won't feign other's information/opinions as my own.

Rumors:

If I encounter rumors about topics that I'm interested in or related to subjects/stories that I'm writing about, I will use my discretion about publishing them. I will find the same rumor reported by multiple sources and only publish it if there's beyond reasonable doubt that it's true. If I do eventually publish what is referred to as a rumor, I will make sure to publish and note it as such.

Correcting errors:

When it's necessary, I will edit posts for small mistakes or typos that I make or that are pointed out to me. This might be announced but are more than likely to not be announced. If I make large mistakes, such as publishing rumors that are not true, I will devote a new post to correcting my mistakes and revealing what I did wrong.

More on editing posts:

If I feel like something I wrote was stupid, incorrect, or poorly written, I will delete it on my own accord. This is for my good as well as yours.

Feedback from you:

I welcome any and all feedback from you. Let me know if I spelled something wrong, or call me out if I published a post chalk full of lies. This will not only benefit me by improving my blog but also help save you from reading terrible posts.

Bias(es):

I will do my best to remain unbiased in all of my writing. HOWEVER, here are some of my biases right off of the top: I am a Michigan sports homer through and through, I am a Philadelphia sports homer as well, I like many college sports (basketball, football primarily) a lot or slightly more than their professional equivalent, and that's all I can think of right now.

Interview About My Blog

In class today, Angela interviewed me about my blog and what I have been writing about. Here is the result:

Did Tiger Satisfy?

If you didn't hear or see, Tiger Woods broke his 3-month silence this morning with a fourteen minute long apology. The statement aired at 11 am and was not only carried on ESPN but also the three major news networks. I was sitting on my couch at ten and getting fed up with the constant Tiger coverage on ESPN that was taking over SportsCenter. At about 10:45, it reached a peak, and I got fed up enough that I told myself I wasn't going to watch, and I left the couch to take a nap. But before long, it was 11, and I was not asleep. So I went back downstairs.

Tiger came out a little after 11 and looked pretty distraught; not surprisingly, you could tell that the ordeal was really affected him. He spoke very slowly reading a prepared statement and seemed extremely genuine and honestly sorry for his actions. At times, he looked directly into the single camera in front of him when he was apologizing to or addressing his children and wife, Elin. They were not in attendance, and I think by looking into the camera, Tiger was doing his best attempt at directly addressing them without them being there, and I appreciated it.

My thoughts about his speech are pretty simple, and he mentioned many of the same ideas himself. He had to make a statement like the one he did today apologizing, but I think that what he said today will do little to nothing in determining his future and how he is remembered. It was little more than a necessary lip-service; he had to make sure to mention everyone possible that he hurt, and he seemed to do that. However, his legacy as a man, husband, and father will not be made by some speech but rather by how his behavior and actions improve or don't in the future.

Journalist Rick Reilly, who I used to respect a lot more, has launched a campaign of Tiger advice and seems to have become Tiger's self-proclaimed psychologist. I understand Reilly has a relationship with Tiger and has covered him and the sport of golf for years but Opera, really? I think that's a bad idea and would do more harm than good. Tiger gave his apology on his terms today, and regardless of his stipulations like no questions, he relied on himself and himself alone and did not do it through some third party like Opera.

My only thought about how Tiger handled this is that it should have come sooner. He should have pulled a David Letterman and talked within a week after it happened. Instead, he let the media and public speculate about every aspect of the story, and it simmered for far too long.

One thing is certain: when Tiger does return to the tour, either get out of his way or get run over.

Video and Film Projects

This video is the first group project that I was involved with last semester in my Screen Arts and Culture (SAC) 290 class. As you will see, I wrote the script (don't judge based on the language), provided the narration, had a cameo, and helped develop the initial idea. The storyline deals with time travel gone wrong. The video was shot with a Canon GL2, one of cameras we can use on our 439 projects. Warnings: it is very confusing, and the language is terrible: Time Trouble.

In the same class, our next project was a short black and white film. The director in my group wanted to produce a film that highlighted cool steps and staircases around Ann Arbor. Therefore, we split the idea into three one-minute sections and each of the three members had one minute to film their personal take on the 6 step locations. Then we each selected the music for our minute section. Mine is the second minute of the three. FYI, there was a malfunction with our film that explains the random flashes of light.

Quick Question..

The other day I used salsa instead of pasta sauce; is that weird?

It wasn't bad.

The Beatles and Others: Stuff I Just Never Realized

I would consider myself a Beatles fan, not a fanatic. I like them but I'm not that overly into them. Earlier today, my friend invited me to watch the first disk of the Beatles Anthology, and not even ten minutes into the film, it struck me the extent to which The Beatles changed music. The fact was chronicled in the first segment of the piece, but the presentation just blew me away because I had never noticed it.

This is my favorite all-time photo of The Beatles. In high school public speaking class we had to prepare a speech on a piece of art, and I choose the original album featuring this photo on the cover. I found the cardboard cover in my basement among my parent's vast collection of vinyl and there was just something about it.

Anyways, this is first song that The Beatles ever recorded: That'll Be The Day, an original Buddy Holly recording. Discussing my revelation with my friends while watching the film, the idea stretched to other musical artists. Bill Haley, credited with the first widely popular rock song of all time, became popular in the 1950s years before The Beatles blew up in 1963 on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Buddy Holly, who died at the tender age of 22 in a plane crash, is know as a pioneer of Rock N' Roll. But, the one guy who Paul McCartney was speaking talking about when he said, "That's what we were waiting for. It was like the messiah had arrived" was Elvis. Before Elvis, stage acts were boring compared to what he brought to the spotlight. His outfits, hair, and female appeal especially were irresistible:

The quote from McCartney says it all. In a way, I compare Elvis to The Beatles in that The Beatles were to group music what Elvis was to the solo movement; they each became the most well-known acts in their genre that literally the world had ever seen. The Beatles were essentially four Elvis' on stage. The four combined to form the kind of following that only Elvis had enjoyed previously.

Interesting facts that I learned:

• Paul McCartney is a natural lefty on the guitar, but when I think of the most famous lefty guitar players of all-time I first think of Jimi Hendrix.
• According to the anthology, Neil Aspinall, The Beatles first road manager, introduced the band to marijuana. Not Bob Dylan as the legend holds.

Too Much Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne is a pretty good rapper; there is no denying that. However, I get annoyed by the amount of songs, mixtapes, remixes, collaborations, albums, and whatever else he is doing these days that he is involved in or featured on.

Here is rapper and producer Funkmaster Flex talking about Lil Wayne. I think I can agree that Lil Wayne is under tremendous pressure from the rap community; he is arguably the industry's most prominent and recognizable figure and voice. But that's my problem with him: he's in too much stuff for him to be that good. It's like I have heard so much of him that I have become desensitized to his work. Imagine a song that gets overplayed on the radio. The same effect has happened to me with all of Lil Wayne's songs.

When Flex says that he doesn't believe that we have given Lil Wayne enough credit, I think he couldn't be further from the truth. Wayne gets plenty of credit. I feel like this contributes to the overload of his songs on the radio. A lot of my opinion has to do with the college culture that literally forces you to listen to hours of Lil Wayne if you enjoy going out on the town. And if you don't like him like me, people look at you like you have four eyes. I just don't get it; how could you like someone that is as overplayed as he is? And, of course, as I said above, he's good but I would listen to a variety of good music over the same great artist any day.

More on this later.

Some Cool Photos

So I really like photography and although I don't take enough pictures, here are some examples of some stuff I have taken.

Here is the photo that I shot for class, taken at my fraternity house; I love the contrast of the looks on their faces and the fact that Chris does not know that Sam is behind him:

This picture was taken last spring, and I think it belongs in a magazine or something. All of their smiles are good, they all look good, there's good symmetry, and there's a nice wind blown look. Their positioning also creates great depth:

Here is a picture of two of my friends that just got engaged. I feel the shot really expresses their feelings for each other, right?:

I really like the lighting here, and the shadow of his hand that the flash created:

Here's Chris again at Spring Break '09 in Panama City, Florida:

The whole gang, our condo was right on the beach (Gulf Coast) so every sunset was amazing; this was a nightly occurrence:

I love the three people in this, each is doing drastically different things. And you can't beat her hair, and the way he's blurred by moving back:

My older brother, Dan, jumping waves on a 1991 Yamaha SuperJet Jetski at Walloon Lake, Michigan:

A friend of mine and my older dog, Hunter, on our dock at Walloon:

The Pointe, an exclusive vacation spot that we snuck out onto in Harbor Springs, Michigan:

One of my favorite photos, and still my computer background, off of our deck at Walloon:

Another Spring Break sunset from our Condo balcony overlooking the beach:

Isn't photography great? I will post more if you guys enjoyed them.

Showdown: McDonald's vs. Panera

Ever since "Super Size Me" came out in 2004 and really before that, food critics, parents, and friends (literally everyone) has stressed that McDonald's is the spawn of Satan. If you're hungry and away from home, avoid McDonald's and their golden arches at all costs. It's been drilled into our heads for a long time. However, that doesn't mean people listen. Last year, in a Reuters article, the author cited numbers presented by the National Center for Health Statistics that show that more Americans (34%) are obese than simply overweight (32.7%). As you know, fast food restaurants like McDonald's significantly contribute to these numbers.

So, comparing McDonald's and Panera Bread has to be stupid, right? Panera, labeled as a 'Fast Causal' restaurant, has got to be better for you with its health deli sandwiches, fresh salads, and soups, no? Even the critics agree: Health Magazine voted Panera #1 Healthiest for Eating on the Go; Zagat, one of the most trusted restaurant rated services, rated Panera #1 for Best Healthy Option.

Here's where it gets interesting. Panera is not better for you than McDonald's. OKAY, so maybe on the whole, Panera is a better option than McDonald's; however, there are certain Panera Menu items that blow even the Big Mac off of its 'Most Unhealthy' Perch. Before you write me off, listen. And let's forget about the Big Mac's 540 Calories and 29 grams of fat. That's minor league; we need to upgrade to the 790 calories and 39 grams of fat in the Angus Bacon and Cheese Burger (including 145 mg of cholesterol and 2070 mg of sodium). Have you thrown up a little in the back of your mouth yet? Well, I didn't until I read this: Panera's Italian Combo on Ciabatta has 1040 calories, 45 grams of fat, 165 mg of cholesterol, and 3020 mg of sodium.

That is absolutely absurd. And no, to answer your question, the Italian Combo is not an outlier on Panera's menu. There are at least four items (the Chipotle Chicken, the Sierra Turkey, the Salmon Club Croissant, and the large Mac & Cheese) with more than the Italian Combo's 45 grams of fat. The Mac & Cheese has 61 grams of fat and 26 grams of saturated fat. That's only three less grams of saturated fat than the Big Mac has grams of total fat.

When the Panera opened on the corner of North University and Thayer in Ann Arbor, I was excited at first because I used to love Panera. However, I soon realized that it could directly syphon business away from a favorite sandwich spot of mine, Amer's, which is right down the block on State Street. Luckily Amer's has survived and seems to be thriving with its new menu of frozen yogurts. So if you're looking for something healthier, new, and with less of a chain-restaurant feel to it and you haven't been already, you need to get to Amer's.

Why I hate the NBA

Maybe "Why I like College Basketball more than the NBA" would have been a more appropriate title, however, I bet you found my choice to be more intriguing. Regardless, it's a fact, at least in my mind.

To me, I will take the effort and intensity sprinkled with talent found in the NCAA over the half-assed, albeit more talented NBA any day. My opposition will most definitely cite just that--the talent difference--as their primary argument for the NBA's superiority. OK, congratulations, the NBA is more talented as it should be, these are paid professionals. But, since the NBA recently adopted a policy that basically mandated that players had to attend at least one year of college and prevented jumps from high school straight to the pros, the talent in the NCAA has spiked.

Take freshman John Wall from Kentucky for example. If you're bored, fast forward to the 54 second mark and watch for a minute. The kid is 19; even if you're not a basketball fan, you have to be impressed. He's my little brother's age, yet he could jump over him, is faster with the ball than without, defines the ability to hit lay-ups in traffic, and just look at that block at the 1:07 mark: nasty. He's a 6'4 point guard who catches and throws down alley-oops rather than dishing them out. Oh, right, and he's about to make millions as the number one pick in the NBA draft; let's hope it doesn't ruin him too.

One thing that the NBA has already ruined is the in-game experience for fans. At NBA games, where you're sitting, what your drinking/eating, and what celebrities are in attendance all trump the action on the court. Just think of Jay-Z at Knicks games or Jack Nicholson at Lakers (fast forward to 1:13) games. That's funny, especially the first one, but it doesn't deserve that kind of attention in a professional sports setting.

One last question: would you rather watch/play in a venue like this where the students shake the stadium or someplace like this (52 second mark) where the arena relies on terrible in-stadium announcers and piped-in rock music rather than a real band?

The start of it all: Why did I take Communications 439?

If I remember correctly, my connection with blogs started when Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr stepped down after the 2007 football season. Michigan football had a vacancy at the top of the top--the heading coaching position at one of the premier programs in the country was open for just the sixteenth time in the program's almost 130 year history. This was huge news, seeing that Michigan had only had three coaches since 1969, and all three had risen through the Michigan ranks and were consummate 'Michigan Men'. Meanwhile, I was a freshman living at West Quad coming off a season filled with disappointment, yet I was excited to see what the next coach could bring to the program.

The only question was, who would that coach be? I hunted for information on the Internet, watched ESPN, and frantically checked Michigan's official athletic department website for updates but didn't find enough to cure my insatiable appetite. Then, and I even forget how I came across it, I started reading mgoblog.com, a blog created by a Michigan graduate dedicated to Michigan sports, especially football with some basketball and hockey news as well. Needless to say, mgoblog became my go-to source of information about the ever-evolving and intriguing coaching search. With such in-depth information as tracking flight patterns into and out of local Michigan airports, the website was filled with the latest updates and developing rumors, and I was hooked.

From mgoblog, my interest expanded to other Michigan sports blogs such as the now defunct (after joining forces with mgoblog) varsityblue.com and umhoops.com, which focused on Michigan Basketball. I checked the blogs daily and looked forward to new posts and was let down if I was up to date on all of the updates.

Being for Philadelphia, I am definitely out of market to keep up with my hometown sports teams. While reading the Michigan blogs, I thought to myself why I wasn't reading a Philadelphia sports blog as well to make up for the lack of television coverage. After a quick Google search, I settled on the700level.com and have maintained better contact with Philly sports ever since.

Besides the blogs that I became attached to during college, I had previous interest and a personal connection to journalism that led me to taking Communications 439. Back home, although she does not still go into the office every day, my mom is a journalist and has a weekly business column for the local paper among other work. Ever since I was young, I have been exposed to journalism, and it had interested me from the start. However, my mom is very much an old-school journalist, for, as even she would admit, she is the opposite of technologically savvy. Take for example my first call to her on her new phone, the Motorola Droid:

"Ring, Ring"

(She picks up but is silent and then hangs up)

(My phone rings...)

"Hey, mom"

"Hi, Peter. I think you just tried to call me, but I have not learned how to answer my Droid yet."

Generally, I wanted to take this class to learn the basics behind the blogs I read. More importantly, I am coming to realize that the class also provides an excellent opportunity to immerse myself in the new age of journalism and contrast it with what I know from my experiences with my mom.