Why It Hurts

In Kentucky basketball is more than just a game. It is a source of inspiration and hope. Today was just painful. In Kentucky's shortcoming, we see our own. A dream deferred, a tear for its passing.

What It Means

From Yahoo Sports (http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=dw-sweet16032110&prov=yhoo&type=lgns):

"At Kentucky, basketball is the school’s identity. No expense is spared for the finest in facilities, support, housing, travel and coaching salaries. It’s not just that losing isn’t tolerated, not winning enough isn’t either. UK has seven NCAA titles and is desperate to win its first since 1998. This is a program with blind ambition and its honesty in that pursuit is part of what makes the Cats so endearing."

Could I have said it better? Probably not.

How Sweet It Is!

Rock-Chalk-Championship? I think not. Why you ask? One word: Ali Farokhmanesh! I guess thats two words. Anyway you get the point. This season's tournament has been all about unpredictability. With Villanova, Kansas, Vanderbilt, and New Mexico, all falling against *significantly* lower seeds, no team is safe. Parity baby, its catching up! Now on to more important things. The Wildcats are coming on strong, and its Big Red against the gigantic, lovable, Big Blue. Go 'Cats!

Reading Recap:

- "Restaurant and the End of the Universe" by Douglass Adams

- "Glory Road" by Don Haskins

- "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" by E.A. Poe (Reread)

Dogs

A touching story (and a must-read for dog people):

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/02/12/war.dogs/index.html?iref=allsearch

Beauty

Just watch (thanks to Woodsy for the pointer):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT2sQ7KIQ-E

Mirth

Good weekend. Hike of epic proportions, making for a good story. Kentucky win (its Cat-City Baaaabeeee!). Catching up with *not just one* but TWO old friends! And now a poem that I wrote a while back for an previously mentioned friend (a small prize for whomever can guess who it is about):

Erro

I am a waif seeking my hearth,

In the middle of this blinding blizzard.

How do I find myself, withering in a tempest

That is beyond the bulwark of my lighthouse?

Where is the beacon amongst these furies?

I seek the lyre that marshaled the Agronauts.

But without a steersman, my rowing is in vain!

Amo te, mea cara, sed non amas me.

Tibi canto hoc carminem, mihi dices tamen nihil.

As lonely as a cloud: Erro,

Bound by the judgment of unrequited love.

Yet, I must forage ahead into the depths,

Into a mirthless madness, a tearful sadness.

Thinking

Wrote this for my friend. RIP buddy.

Blessed

Dearest friend, on this lonely night,

To you, I thought that I may write.

Marvelous fun had we, many a time,

Be it capricious jests, or silly rhymes.

After countless joys, only now a tear,

Sadly I am without you I fear.

But to have known you: for that I'm blessed!

Content, that in celestial arms you shall rest.

And now this final sentiment I share:

Tibi, amice, semper pulcher.