I’m 19 now. That’s such an awkward age. I don’t want to be lumped in with the likes of 13 and 14 year olds, but I’m not old enough to be considered in the 20s crowd. Boo.
So I looked at my tags and realized today was only going to be “Day Three Hundred Sixty Four” instead of “Day Three Hundred Sixty Six.” I wrote an entry everyday, so I probably wrote the same day twice. Oh well. This little project was crazy, but I did it. I know a lot of my posts weren’t very meaningful, but it still beats giving up on it. I’m not going to get corny about this year, but I will jot down key points for fun:
- Turning 18 and becoming a legal adult
- My first Laker game at Staples Center (107-100, Lakers)
- Being rejected from colleges
- Deciding to stay home and go to CSULB
- Volleyball
- Senior Night
- One year anniversary with Noreen
- Prom
- Last week of high school
- Graduating high school (CAMS, Class of 2012)
- Grad Night
- Debuts (participating and attending)
- SOAR
- Realizing how much basketball meant to me
- Checking ESPN/Twitter for basketball updates
- Lakers acquiring Steve Nash/Dwight Howard
- Playing basketball all summer
- Friends leaving for college
- Beginning my first semester of college at CSULB
- Meeting and making new friends
- Going clubbing for the first time
- Going to the rec center pretty much everyday
- Deciding that sports journalism will probably be my future career
- Surviving my first semester in college (4.0 GPA, holler)
- Holidays with the family
- Surviving the end of the world
- Learning more about myself
I guess the best way to sum up 2012 is that it was a year for a lot of lasts and firsts. It was fun, but now I’m looking forward to the new year. 2013, let’s go.
EDIT: Looked back at my posts and I did tag the same day twice a couple of times. It would be way too much work to fix it, so I just tagged this post as the last day.
Had a cousin’s day with my family today. So much fun. Hung out, ate, played some games, and overall just enjoyed each other’s company. Cards Against Humanity is the best game ever. I feel terrible about myself, but it was the hardest I’ve laughed in so long. Such a good way to end the year on. Tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve and I’m starting to remember some of the highs of this year. Oh well, time for bed. Good night.
Did absolutely nothing today. Woke up at 12:30, played video games all day, and then watched some shows online. Started to watch Dexter and it’s really good. I guess I have a thing for antiheroes. Yep, 2012’s starting to wind down and I’m just here chilling. It’s a good life, man.
Woke up and ate KBBQ with some homies today. I usually try to avoid eating it because it’s so unhealthy, but it was absolutely delicious today. We ate around three and I haven’t eaten since. I guess I had enough to keep me satisfied for the rest of the day. Also, the Lakers won today and it was a pretty easy game. Today was such a chill day and I hope the rest of winter break is like this.
Hung out with some more CAMS peeps. Really great to catch up with people. But I saw Django and it was fucking amazing. Like, incredibly amazing. I’m done.
And there goes the five-game winning streak. Some takeaways:
- Dwight didn’t look into it. I’ll go ahead and blame this one on fatigue and health. Dwight isn’t 100% yet, and playing heavy minutes on a back-to-back isn’t something he can quite do yet. But what I was disappointed with was the lack of effort. Just because you’re tired doesn’t mean you get to play lazily. You’ve still got to go out there and perform. I’ll let him off the hook this time, but I definitely want to see a more committed Dwight.
- Denver just out ran the Lakers. On every basket, make or miss, Denver pushed the ball up the floor in an attempt to score before the Laker defense got set. The Lakers, probably tired after the game yesterday against the Knicks, couldn’t keep up with the team. As a result, Denver got a lot of good looks early in the shot clock. Again, stamina was an issue, so the Lakers need to improve their conditioning if they wanna keep the transition opportunities for their opponents to a minimum.
- Rebounding the ball. The Lakers boast two seven-footers, yet got outrebounded by the Nuggest. Kenneth Faried simply outworked everyone, and the Lakers didn’t box out anyone on missed shots. Those extra opportunities absolutely killed the Lakers. The Lakers need to clean up the glass if they want to be successful.
Still, despite the loss I’m not too worried about this loss. It was their second game in two days, and they still managed to compete with a quick Denver team. Hopefully they settle things at home to end the year right. 29 down, 53 more to go.
