I Am a Cactus Person.
The Boys in Blue…
Is it Actually All Written in the Stars?
Introduction
“Knowing who we are is hard. It’s hard. Eliminate who you are not, first, and you’re going to find yourself where you need to be… The race is never over, the journey has no port. The adventure never ends, because we are always on the way.” [1]
Regardless of how enlightened we think we are, we all struggle to better understand ourselves. And this struggle leads to a lot of personal discontent in our lives. Recently, I was given a copy of The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need by a good friend of mine who is way more in touch with the occult than I am.
Historically, my only interactions with the subject of astrology were usually in the form of modern day horoscope columns in mainstream magazines and newspapers. From these columns, I understood that I was a hardworking Virgo but I never really thought much more than that. In reality, astrology has way more to offer than a weekly horoscope from Cosmopolitan.
Astrology is defined as a pseudoscience that claims to divine information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the movements and relative positions of celestial objects (usually the planets and stars). When you break that down more simply, at its core, astrology offers you a different compass or lens into who you are. If you are willing to do the work to find and analyze your Birth Chart, astrology can help you find some deeper insights into who you are.
Looking to the Heavens from Earth
Because each entity in our solar system moves at a different speed and rate, and in a separate path or orbit, the combination of the placement of the planets are almost endless. At the moment of your birth, the Sun, Moon, and planets were in a particular arrangement in the heavens. This exact arrangement will not be repeated for 4.32 million years!
Astrology analyzes how the Sun, Moon, and planets in their specific arrangements interact with one another to shape the various aspects in your life, ultimately helping to answer questions about yourself. Since astrology takes an Earth-centric view of the cosmos, the 10 celestial bodies (planets) of astrology are the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. And each planet represents a different set of characteristics and qualities which rule over different parts of our lives. The following picture depicts the 10 celestial bodies of astrology and the characteristics each governs/rules over:
Every single person has the same 10 planets in their astrological birth chart, but each with varying power and influence. And each planet expresses themselves uniquely based on the zodiac sign they were located in at the time of your birth.
A Personal Look at My Birth Chart
Using Cafe Astrology.com, I created my Birth Chart. I then used Joanna Martine Woolfolk’s book on astrology to analyze my personality traits based on the position of each astrological body at the time of my birth:
As you can see from the above, I am so much more than a hard-working Virgo. There were definitely aspects of my personality that surprised me, and others that confirmed what I already knew about myself. But all in all, spending some time analyzing myself through the lens of astrology helped me understand a lot of factors that have interacted to shape my life, for good and for bad!
In Closing
Roughly 30% of Americans believe in the merits of astrology as a whole. I, like most people, doubted the validity of the practice given the rise of pop astrology and horoscopes in mainstream magazines and newspapers. But having spent some time reading The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need, and analyzing my Birth Chart, I can definitely say that there is way more to astrology than I realized before.
People might say that astrology suffers from the confirmation bias as we seek to confirm pre-existing theories or beliefs about self. Though they may be a hint of truth to that, it’s hard to deny the point that there are influences beyond our controls. Whichever higher power you place your faith in, the constant drive to understand self is a ceaseless human desire.
The ultimate reason astrology exists is to answer questions about the self. I have learned that there are so many more dimensions of my being. I hope that after reading this post you will open up to a new way of looking at yourself. Invest some time with astrology and see what you will learn about yourself.
The Extras
Brian Nwokedi’s Book Review on Goodreads
Direct Link to Book: The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need
About Me Infographic
The following is a graphic visual representation of the things that make me me. Hope you enjoy!
I Still Have One More Year of Eligibility Left…
Brian Nwokedi’s Sports Life Football Season in Review
The turn of the New Year brings the end of college football and the start of the NFL playoffs, and with that, I wanted to take a moment to give a season and mid-season review of all my Texans’ and my Longhorns’ performances thus far against my expectations:
Houston Texans:
My comfort level with this season: 9/10
Last year:
10-6 and 1st in AFC South
Won AFC Wild Card game against Cincinnati Bengals
Lost Divisional game against Baltimore Ravens
Custom 2025 Sports Life expectation:
13-3 and 1st in AFC South
Get to the AFC Conference Championship
Current Season result:
12-4 and 1st in AFC South
Won AFC Wild Card game against Cincinnati Bengals
This year I have been pretty quiet about my Houston Texans, primarily because I was uncertain if this year’s team was going to live up to my lofty expectations. After last season’s history making campaign, the Texans came into 2012 no longer a dark horse team in the AFC. Vegas had them as 12/1 odds to win the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season and many “experts” picked them to win the AFC.
The city of Houston was buying into the hype and I too was drinking the Texans’ Kool-Aid. From my perspective it was quite simple:
The Texans went to the 2ndround of the playoffs last year on the back of a great defense and a rookie quarterback in T.J. Yates. The defense, which finished the year ranked #2 behind the Pittsburgh Steelers[1], was only going to get better in year 2 of defensive coordinator Wade Phillips’ scheme. The Texans were also getting their starting QB back. If they stayed healthy, there was no reason for them to not contend for a Super Bowl.
So like many other Houstonians, I fully expected the Texans to have a great year. And after last night’s 19-13 Wild Card victory over the Cincinnati Bengals the Texans haven’t disappointed.
Sure prior to yesterday’s victory the Texans had lost 3 of the last 4 games and were trending the wrong direction going into the playoffs. During this putrid stretch, there was the 42-12 shellacking on Monday Night at the hands of Tom Brady, the 23-6 stink bomb of a game against the Vikings and the lost opportunity of clinching home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
At the same time, the Texans have lived to see another day and that’s more than I can say for the Dallas Cowboys (okay that was a cheap shot and I only slightly apologize to my Dallas friends). Defensively they have found a way to keep it together even after losing ILB Brian Cushing. Offensively, they have re-established their run identify. Although next weekend will be a tall order facing Tom Brady at home, it’s been fun watching these boys ball… Not bad for a team that was established in 2002.
Texas Longhorns
My comfort level with this season: 4/10
Last year:
8-5 overall; 4-5 in conference; 6th in the Big 12
55-17 loss to Oklahoma
27-25 victory over Texas A&M
Won Holiday Bowl against California Golden Bears
Custom 2025 Sports Life expectation:
10-3 overall; 3rd in Big 12
Beat OU
Current Season result:
9-4 overall; 5-4 in conference; 3rd in Big 12
63-21 loss to Oklahoma; loss to TCU
Won Alamo Bowl against Oregon State Beavers
Expectations… Expectations … Oh Expectations…
When you are the University of Texas Longhorns and you pull in top 5 recruiting classes year over year over year, the expectation from the fan base (and me included) is the BCS or bust. We can have a detailed conversation about whether or not this is fair, but this is the reality of big time college football especially when you pay your head coach $5.2 million annually, your nine-assistant coaches $3.6 million annually, and you’re the most valuable college football team in the land[2].
After last season’s 8-5 finish, I have to admit that I wasn’t as delusional as some of my Texas Longhorn brethren who believed in their heart of hearts that the Longhorns were one year away from competing for the Big 12 and of course the National Championship. And after this season’s performance, I can honestly say that the Longhorns are not going in the right direction and here is why:
The fact remains that in football defense wins championships. I don’t care how many points you put on the board… If you cannot stop the other team from scoring, you will get beat.
After 13 games this year, the Texas Longhorn defense gave up a total of 404 yards per game and ranked 66thout of 120. As a point of reference, Alabama and Notre Dame give up 246 and 287 yards per game respectively and are ranked 1st and 6th in total defense[3]. It is no surprise why these two teams are playing for the National Championship tomorrow night.
Even looking at last year, Alabama and LSU were ranked #1 and #2 respectively in total defense giving up 184 and 262 per game. Shocker … Those two teams slugged it out at the end of the year for the National Championship.
In year two of Manny Diaz’s defensive scheme, the Longhorns have regressed. In 2011 Texas finished the year ranked #11 in total defense at 306 per game[4]. In 2010, Will Muschamp’s last year, Texas finished the year ranked #6 in total defense at 300 yards per game.
If defense wins championships, the Longhorns are not playing championship style defense and their 66thranking shows this. So although they have performed decently from a win-loss perspective this year, I have to say that the Longhorns are far from getting this ship turned in the right direction.
For the last couple of seasons, the Longhorns have clearly underperformed (that’s the nice way of saying it). For those of you that follow this blog, you all know where I stand on Mack Brown and his future tenure with the ‘Horns (see below). Call me spoiled, but for a team that is supposed to be in the business of winning championships this isn’t good enough.
Brian Nwokedi’s Sports Bucket List … The Making of my Ultimate Sports Year.
Now that I am officially 28 and I am 3 days from rejoining the work force, I thought I’d end my “summer retirement” with a list of the top 10 sporting events I plan on attending before I die (or before I turn 40)! Note that this bucket list leaves off some worldly events like the FIFA World Cup, the Summer Olympics, and the UEFA European Football Championships, all of which I would clearly like to attend given the opportunity, but I hope you all enjoy it nonetheless! And if any of y’all want to accompany me on any of the sporting events or donate to the Custom 2025 Sports Bucket List fund I’m clearly down LOL …!
1. The Rose Bowl National Championship Game in the new Playoff Era
Sport: College Football
When: January 1st
Location: Pasadena, California
Also known as the Granddaddy of Them All, simply put there is no greater bowl game than the Rose Bowl. Played every year on January 1st since 1902, the Rose Bowl represents college football’s ultimate tradition. With the new era of the BCS changing to a 4-team playoff starting in 2014-15 season, I want to attend the first ever 4-team National Championship played at the Rose Bowl. Let’s hope my Texas Longhorns will be there!
2. The Super Bowl
Sport: Professional Football
When: End of January, Early February
Location: Rotates, but ideally Cowboy Stadium, Arlington, Texas
Simply put, there is no bigger show in all of American sports, and to be honest, there may not be a better sports day than Super Bowl Sunday! My ideal Super Bowl scenario would clearly be the Houston Texans vs. the Dallas Cowboys in Cowboy Stadium and with the way my Texans are finally trending, I better start saving my money!
Sport: Professional Soccer
When: annually in March or April
Location: Barcelona, Spain or Madrid, Spain
What more can you ask for: the two largest cities in Spain with two of the best teams in the world and two of the best players in Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. When Real Madrid and FC Barcelona get together, hundreds of millions of people watch and wait!
Sport: Professional Golf
When: First full week of April
Location: Augusta, Georgia
Otherwise known as “Amen Corner” the 11th, 12th, and 13thholes represent the most treacherous part of the August National Golf Course were Masters have been lost. I’m looking forward to seeing the presentation of the green jacket in person.
5. The Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs
Sport: Thoroughbred Racing
When: First Saturday in May
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Considered the ultimate mark in horse racing, I’m just looking forward to enjoying the pomp and circumstances, partying, and the hats, and the bourbon.
6. The Football League Championship play-offs
Sport: Professional Soccer
When: May
Location: United Kingdom
This is a series of playoff matches that are contested by the teams finishing 3rdthrough 6th in the Football League Championship table. At stake is the final promotion slot into the Barclays Premier League with the winner gaining an approximately £85 million
7. The FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium
Sport: Professional Soccer
When: May
Location: London, England
Where to begin … Well the Football Association (FA) Cup has been held since 1872 and is the oldest association football competition in the world. Secondly, there are no seeds, which allow clubs of all stripes to compete and afford lesser clubs to play the role of “Giant Killer” Lastly, the New Wembley is simply immaculate! It’s as if it’s been erected to the footballing gods! Now in the most ideal situation, it would be Chelsea vs. Manchester United but only time will tell. Plus, do I really need another reason to go back to London? Maybe I do (see #8)
8. The Championships, Wimbledon
Sport: Professional Tennis
When: Late June to early July
Location: Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton, United Kingdom
The oldest tennis tournament in the world Wimbledon is the mark of tradition. Played at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club since 1877, this grass court tournament is by far the most prestigious of all tennis Grand Slams. Give me some great tennis and some strawberries and cream!
9. The Open Championship
Sport: Professional Golf
When: The weekend of the third Friday in July
Location: Scotland or England
The oldest of the four major championships in professional golf, the Open takes place on a proper links course and has by far one of the best trophies in all of sport … the Claret Jug! If I can choose, I’d love to catch the Open at The Old Course at St. Andrews quite simply because this is one of the oldest golf courses in the entire world and the “home of golf.”
10. The Game
Sport: College Football
When: Last weekend in November
Location: Columbus, Ohio or Ann Arbor, Michigan
In 2006, Ohio State and Michigan entered their final regular season game unbeaten and ranked #1 and #2 respectively. This game was the first game of the 21stCentury to be dubbed the “Game of the Century” and it lived up to the hype with the Buckeyes beating the Wolverines 42-39. Last October, I had the opportunity to finally catch a UM game at the Big House, and let’s just say … I’m trying to do that again real soon and what better game to see than “The Game.”
On an aside, I still believe that Michigan would have won this game had Chad Henne not missed Mario Manningham on an out and up route in the second quarter … D. Bickel, you know what I’m talking about!