And the winner is...

Last night was the 81st Annual Academy Awards. I thought there were many surprises and many upsets that I. One thing that didn't surprise me was Heath Ledger getting the Best Supporting Actor award for his role as The Joker in the Dark Knight. I feel that he deserved that Oscar even if he was not dead because of his performance and for great deal of hard work put into the role. What surprised me was the 8 Oscars including Best Director and Picture for Slumdog Millionaire. The movie was a huge success at the box office and was a magnificent achievement for the cast members. One of the things I didn't want to happen was for the Curious Case of Benjamin Button didn't leave with as many Oscars as it was nominated for. It was nominated for 13 Oscars but got only 4. I thought that the Curious Case of Benjamin Button could have done much better at the Oscars but you can't win them all. The award for Best Actor went to Sean Penn in his work in Milk as a gay rights activist. The movie didn't win many Oscars but did do well enough to get a Best Actor Oscar for Sean Penn.

Breaking the Huddle

I just finished watching Breaking the Huddle a documentary about integrated football in the southern conferences of college football in the 60's during the civil rights movement. The documentary deals with teams such as Auburn, Alabama, Maryland, Ole Miss, and many other southern schools. Darrell Hill was the first player to play for a southern school in Maryland in 1963 after being recruited to play football for them. There were no black people in the stands which didn't make him too happy and he said that he would do something about it. His first game played was against Clemson a school that was non integrated school. His first game was a game for the record books he caught 10 balls for a ACC single pass catch record. This was amazing for civil rights movement because of his contribution to the Maryland football team. Another player that was great was Jerry LeVias who played for SMU in Dallas, Texas. He was the first black player in the southern western conference on a scholarship. His first practice was not one of his best ones and was spat on and he kicked in the ribs. He dealt with this adversity by starting his junior and catching a 65 yard pass during a game where he was a threatened by a sniper rifle but he didn't quit. That was until one game where he got tackled and the player rolled over him and spat on his face. He got to the sideline and told his coach that he could not take it anymore, and his coach asked him if he was going to let a guy like that beat him. So Levais went back on the field and told his coach before that he was going to run back a punt for a touchdown. He went back on the field and ran a 89 yard punt for a touchdown but he didn't do out of the love of the game but out of anger and hatred for the white man. He said it was the worst touchdown of his college career. There were other players but I thought these two stood out for there courageous efforts for the rights of the African American race.

NFL and Gun Control

Real Sport's with Bryant Gumbel is a show about all kinds of sport story's that deal with real world problems such as gun control. The last episode I saw a story of an Ex NFL player who now owns his own gun store. The reporter that talked to him asked him if he ever sell any guns to any of his friends in the NFL and he said yes. When the reporter asked him the ex NFL player said it as if it was a normal to sell guns to NFL players. Then the reporter ask why would any NFL player want or even need a gun. The player said that it was just instinct because of where people came from. another reason was because of what happened to Washington Redskins Sean Taylor last year. He was asleep in his home and someone broke in, then he had a machete and the other guy had a gun and he killed him. Even before that, there were two players killed from the Denver Broncos in drive by's. The Ex NFL player said those were mostly the reasons why a lot of players wanted to by guns for themselves. When I watched this I thought to myself and I said to my brother that I could see why they would get one but I still had a bad feeling that something like what happened to Plaxico Burress could happened to anyone. I also thought that something that what happened to Sean Taylor could happen to anyone. So I understand why players would get a gun instead of having a machete or nothing at all.

Making Conversation

In American Studies last week Mr. O'Connor asked use to try and see how people start conversations with other people and how topics came up. When he asked us to do this I thought to myself and I pictured me at my lunch table listening to other people's conversations and just looking like the creep in the corner trying to be in the conversation. But when I got to lunch I trying to think of different topics to talk about with my guy friends because the girls are always having there own little side conversations. I thought that i could talk about how me and my brother were play fighting with each other but then I said to myself who would want to here that. Then just when i thought of something cool to talk about my friend Nick started telling me how he's going on vacation. He just did that to rub it in my face but luckily I lost my train of thought. Then I just started thinking of something new. But when I was thinking of different ideas I noticed that all my friends were all different and I was to busy seeing what I could think of instead of listening to how others were starting there conversations. Which helped me see how people have great conversations

Mike Vick. Really?

NFL players these days think they can do anything. They think that nothing bad can happen to them and that they can get away with anything. Micheal Vick was sentenced to 23 months to jails for having illegal dog fights in his house. Really? Honestly did he really think that nothing was going to happen to him. Did he really think he could get a way with it? I don't about anyone else but I think that YOUNG NFL players are taking there fame a little tom lightly. I say young players because they are the only players that do stupid things such as having dog fights, shooting themselves in the leg( Plaxico Burress), and even getting DUI's on boats(Cedric Benson). These guys all thought that nothing could really happen to them. Look at them now one of them is in jail and another one might be jail. And I don't see how someone like who gets so much money makes bets while dogs kill each other. Then while Mike Vick was in jail he had a rookie take hiCreates place and who also took his team to the playoffs. That poses a little problem for him though. If the NFL even lets him play again, he will have to find a new team to go to and he'll need to get his groove back on the football field. I on the other hand think that he'll get back in the NFL but will be watched heavily and I think that he'll get picked up by a team that need backup quarterback. I don't think that he'll be a starter anywhere unless that team really needs a quarterback. Now my guess it'll be either the Cleavland Browns or hopefully the Chicago Bears. I think that the Bears should get him because he'll be a helpful hand to Kyle Orton and maybe even there starting quarterback. If not I know he'll be a asset to other teams if he doesn't get picked up by the Bears.

Race

When i was talking to my brother about this subject his idea of race was that you judge different races by the color of there skin. When i heard that i agrees with him. When we grew up thats how we could tell the difference between us and our friends. Even our friends would call us brown because we are Mexican. we called our African American friends black, and our white friends. My brother told me though that it makes him mad when people say that it's wrong for people to say the colors of there skin was terrible. They said to him that he was wrong for saying those things even though they didn't even know him. I believe that people can define race however they want because there is no right way. There are just different ways of defining it