Dribbling Ink

Caption: Your optimistic dad cheering for the Razorbacks. No offense to baby Chase, but the magic is gone. Yep, it’s time for another classic Arkansas drought. As an avid sports fan, I understand that there will always be ups and downs no matter how good the team is you are rooting for. As much as my wife would hate to admit it, even the Kansas Jayhawks have lost a game this season—the funny thing about that loss is it’s the only Kansas game we made a point to watch all year. Luckily, Arkansas ’ losing streak is exactly what An Optimistic Razorback Fan wanted to talk about in this week’s installment of the Dribbling Ink Conversation Series. An Optimistic Razorback Fan: OK, since losing is a part of sports, I should be able to cope with the Razorbacks’ newest losing streak. Right? You win some, you lose some? Plus, we still have a chance of finishing .500 and going to the NIT. Jacob Cooper: Wrong. Let’s look at Kansas ’ loss to Tennessee earlier in the year. Since the Jayha...

Go ahead, ask: Where are these pictures from and why are they important? Easy. My parents' new house and...because they are of my parents' new house. OK, easy enough for me, but you're still wondering why they are important to you or, at least, why you should bother wasting your time looking at them. The only answer I have is because we are all products of environment, whether it's our house or our hometown. There are three things that have undoubtedly shaped me: family, Arkansas, and "home." The first is easy enough to understand. When I say Arkansas, I am specifically referring to Paragould, Arkansas, and more generally to the South. However, in this blog I'd like to talk about "home," in which case I am referring both to a physical dwelling and the environment I grew up in. The pictures featured below are taken from my parents' sixth new house, the first since I moved out a few years ago (of course, I only lived in the fifth house a few mo...

As promised I sat down (virtually) for my first chat with fellow writer and Arkansan Ashton Reely. We both grew up in Northeast Arkansas and graduated from the same high school. Ashton is one of those friends who makes Facebook statuses worth enduring the typical “takin a shower txt it at your bestie bff love hugs peace” messages. She also writes a blog and does freelance writing work in Searcy, Arkansas. Anyway, what follows is the complete and unedited version of our chat. Enjoy. Jacob Cooper: Honestly, I've never done anything like this before, unless you count the four years I worked as a sports reporter; however, this seems different than interviewing a coach or a player. I guess it's easier for me when I feel like I'm in complete control of the story or column. I've never really sat down (virtually, I guess) with another writer and tried to work through inspiration or the creative process. However, because I know that you've also worked as a journalist befo...

Photo by Wesley Hitt 7:18 : In case you didn’t know, I am old school: I listen to the Razorbacks’ games on the radio. Why? (Wait, be right back—my fried rice is burning)…Anyway, I don’t have cable or satellite. If you read Dribbling Ink the first time around, you know that I am too poor for cable, even though I am doing better economically than a few months ago. My wife says getting cable would make finishing homework impossible, which is probably true. I have enough trouble doing my homework with nothing else to do. 7:25 : The Arkansas-South Carolina game tips off in about forty minutes. I forgot to mention that tonight’s game is the point of this running diary. The Hogs can’t afford to drop tonight’s home game after losing to Alabama over the weekend. Not to say it’s a must-win, but the Hogs won’t win the SEC West if they lose this game. 7:28 : My research paper topic is due tomorrow in my American West class. I’m guessing that when my professor says he is open to almo...

I love to write, I really do; however, often I find myself unable to write a new blog entry or a short story. Don’t ask me about the creative process. I am the least qualified person (who attempts, as halfhearted as it may be, to write creatively) to answer that question. All I know is that it just happens—that was the first thought that popped into my head, but it isn’t necessarily true. Imagination may just happen (wait, does it?), but writing takes dedication and practice. You can imagine and write great pieces of literature in your head all day, which I do, but it’s useless unless you write it down. Right? I keep making all these statements only to question their validity. There is some worth to merely imagining things. For me, it’s the only way to stay sane and (cliché ahead) escape the real world. Of course, is that to assume what we imagine is somehow less real and important than the life we live? Anyway, the point is that I procrastinate. No, bad word choice. I am lazy. (I apol...

For awhile I thought I wasn't going to see a single snowflake the entire winter. Yes, I know it's been snowing practically everywhere -- except where I've been, that is. Over Christmas break we went home to Paragould and it snowed in Arkadelphia. After returning to a snow-free southern Arkansas, it snowed in Paragould. You get the idea -- the pattern kept up until this week. Our apartment looks better at night, highlighted by snow. Someone made a snowman for me on my truck. I'm guessing it was a Henderson student (we live right beside the dorms). At least my vehicle wasn't pelted by snowballs. My wife swears she was bombarded by snowballs during a two-minute drive through the OBU campus. Kasa making snow cream. We are so poor that we have to wait on snow to make something sweet to eat -- thus the happy face. Or maybe she was so happy because we watched Merlin after this (yes, we have odd taste in TV shows; of course, we don't even have cable, so we watch what w...

A baby-sized caption: The Razorbacks' lucky charm, Chase Gross. First, I have an admission to make. After eating supper, watching some Smallville (yes, I know I am the only person over thirteen that still watches this show), and saying goodbye to my wife (who left to dissect a cat or something), I had one thing on my mind: watching the Arkansas-LSU basketball game. However, after a stressful day at work, which consisted of sitting in an empty computer lab for over three hours, I was exhausted. Blah, blah, blah: I feel asleep in the recliner. I woke up around ten and checked my phone, which showed the usual pre-midnight text: “Wanna play some COD (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for PS3 for my non-gaming readers)?” I needed to do homework, intended to watch the game, and wanted to play COD; nevertheless, I crawled into bed and slept. And Wednesday ended. I am a terrible fan, I know. But it’s the first thing I thought about Thursday morning. I opened Firefox with anxiety. For a ...

Not to get sentimental, but I was recently reminded of the joys of writing a blog. So, I logged into Dribbling Ink to see my past failed attempt at a blog. A number of things immediately struck me. My last post was dated Monday, December 1, 2008 , which was just a short video of the immediate celebration after the Miracle on Markham II. Seriously? I went an entire year without writing a single blog entry. Naturally, I asked myself what happened. The answer is simple. Life happened. I started blogging because I didn’t have anything better to do. I had just gotten married and moved to Arkadelphia, where I failed to find a job for a few months. Tell me a better way to waste your time than to write blogs that nobody reads? After Christmas I started graduate school at Henderson State University . During the fall, I began working as a graduate assistant in the HSU Writing Center . (I also spent a few torturous months as a substitute teacher.) Essentially, I didn’t have a reason to w...