Since We Last Spoke: A Late, Post-Hiatus Buckshot

I am happy to say that another semester is behind me and that my time away from blogging has ended. I will be posting again on a regular basis. Below is a list of things I learned in my nearly three weeks away from this space:

• I am badly out of shape. It is possible for me to be 5'11” and 140 lbs. and still be getting my Roker on. Justice O'Connor used to grill her engaged law clerks to make sure they were staying in shape for their significant others. I point this out only because I am starting to look like Justice Scalia. I have seven months. (Michael Scott says always leave them with an ultimatum.)
• After watching him in Spike Lee's Kobe Doin' Work, Kobe Bryant has convinced me that it is possible to possess enough talent to take all joy from its use. Tim Keown says it best.
  
• I'm pretty sure Damien Jurado is in my “Top Ten Artists of All Time” list. Watch the music video for “Caskets” from his new album. It feels a lot like There Will Be Blood, only happier.

• Somehow, the equation for a successful grad school semester has been discovered: me - free time - sleep + panic + prayer = straight A's. If I had figured that out sooner, I'd be a much better student. Still, this will come in handy when I start my thesis next semester.
• Star Trek is completely nerdy but still totally enthralling, in a generally awesome and still slightly embarrassing way.
• Aziz Ansari continues to be the funniest guy in the entertainment industry that looks like me. (Kal Penn is just too Indian, and Aladdin doesn't count, as he's a fictional cartoon character. I will accept, however, “that guy from Slumdog Millionaire” as a close second.)

• For the first time in a long time, I really felt like I worshiped while playing guitar on stage. Sometimes in life you have to use the E-Bow.
  
• The best Spurs blog on the internet is, like the organization it follows, highly accessible for its fans. I even got to write a post for it! This last season was great for Spurs fans, even considering the early playoff exit, and Graydon Gordian's blog had a lot to do with it.