This WWW has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween but Happy Halloween anyway.
An insecurity is a form of self-perception which places you in the role of observer. It is believing that when people look at you, they will see nothing but a single, glaring flaw. -JT
Trick or treat guys, have fun out there.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Sore Losers and Regular Old Fashioned Losers
So this week I want to talk about three separate topics. The first two are related because they're about football, but that's about it. All three are related in some way to my weekend, but other than that they're just random thoughts. Enough foreplay, here goes.
1) I don't know how many people caught this, but on Sunday Miami hosted the Giants in London. Nope, not a town called London, Florida, the original London across the ocean. Did your brain just fart? Yeah, an American NFL team hosted another American NFL team in England. Makes perfect sense right? Exactly. What the hell kind of alcoholic on a bender decided this was a good idea? Ostensibly, the reasoning behind this idiocy was to promote American football to the "regular football" loving Europeans. There are so many reasons this is stupid that I won't go into it for fear of running out of room, but I do have a couple of thoughts. First of all, if we wanted to engage a prospective audience, why did we provide them with a game that was certain to be about as entertaining as Dragon Wars? The awful Dolphins against the mediocre Giants? Perhaps they moved the game there because they knew nobody in the USA gave a shit. And if promoting football internationally was the concern, might I suggest EPSN 7: The Euro promoting the game through a well conceived strategy that introduces the uninitiated to the game and makes it appear exciting. I don't know, something other than carting USA teams across the Atlantic to play a decidedly American game in front of 90,000 drunk Englishman. It's just stupid. Did they even invite us or were we the kid who shows up at the party after everyone made sure not to tell him about it? The only thing worse might be them showing up over here to educate us on the beauty of cricket in Gillette Stadium.
2) I am a fan of the New England Patriots. This is in no small part because I live in New England, but also because they're f-ing amazing. So amazing in fact, that their games lately have turned into embarrassingly one sided massacres. These spankings are causing an outcry by opposing coaches and players, as well as ESPN talking faces that nobody cares about. They're saying that the Patriots are purposely scoring as many points per game as they can. GASP! No way! You mean a professional football team is trying its hardest to succeed at the main objective of the game they're playing? This controversy is pissing me off so much that I hope the Pats continue to decimate opponents all over the country. Various people are saying that the magnitude of the deficits between the Patriots and their opponents scores are unsportsmanlike and disrespectful. One of the players on the Redskins commented that their epic loss to the Patriots by 45 points was "disrespectful to the game". How is playing the game to the best of their ability disrespectful to the game? Wouldn't it be more disrespectful to play half-hearted, or to stop playing it entirely? How is it the Patriots fault that they are so much better than their competitors? Perhaps they should move up to...oh wait, that's right, they're already in the highest league for football on the planet. So perhaps these other professional football teams, who are in the league supposedly representing the highest level of play and competition in the world, could tell me where the Patriots can go to play to their full potential. Suck it up, they're better than you. If they are the best team in football and want to break records, they should be allowed to play as hard as they want for as long as they want to accomplish that and prove their dominance. Besides, you know damn well that the Dolphins or the Redskins or whoever else would be doing exactly the same thing if the roles were reversed.
3) So I was driving home the other day and I approached a red-light, only to glance in my rearview mirror and notice a woman talking on a cell phone, with her hands flying all over the car to emphasize what I can only imagine was a very valid point. This made me chuckle and ask myself a question: Why do people feel the need to speak with their hands while on the telephone? I see it all the time, hell my dad does it and always has. But...why? The person sure as hell doesn't know you're doing it, casual observers notice that you look like a moron trying to show emphasis with hand motions using a device that only allows sounds to be transmitted, and you're simply wasting energy. Now that I think of it, I can barely stand it when people do this in person. A few simple movements of the hand are one thing, but I'm talking about those people who throw their hands in the air and keep them moving around out their in front of them for no good reason at all for the entirety of a conversation. On a phone the stupidity just quadruples. So if you do this sometimes, don't anymore. It's kind of like giving the finger to a blind person: I guess it might make you feel better, but what's the point?
1) I don't know how many people caught this, but on Sunday Miami hosted the Giants in London. Nope, not a town called London, Florida, the original London across the ocean. Did your brain just fart? Yeah, an American NFL team hosted another American NFL team in England. Makes perfect sense right? Exactly. What the hell kind of alcoholic on a bender decided this was a good idea? Ostensibly, the reasoning behind this idiocy was to promote American football to the "regular football" loving Europeans. There are so many reasons this is stupid that I won't go into it for fear of running out of room, but I do have a couple of thoughts. First of all, if we wanted to engage a prospective audience, why did we provide them with a game that was certain to be about as entertaining as Dragon Wars? The awful Dolphins against the mediocre Giants? Perhaps they moved the game there because they knew nobody in the USA gave a shit. And if promoting football internationally was the concern, might I suggest EPSN 7: The Euro promoting the game through a well conceived strategy that introduces the uninitiated to the game and makes it appear exciting. I don't know, something other than carting USA teams across the Atlantic to play a decidedly American game in front of 90,000 drunk Englishman. It's just stupid. Did they even invite us or were we the kid who shows up at the party after everyone made sure not to tell him about it? The only thing worse might be them showing up over here to educate us on the beauty of cricket in Gillette Stadium.
2) I am a fan of the New England Patriots. This is in no small part because I live in New England, but also because they're f-ing amazing. So amazing in fact, that their games lately have turned into embarrassingly one sided massacres. These spankings are causing an outcry by opposing coaches and players, as well as ESPN talking faces that nobody cares about. They're saying that the Patriots are purposely scoring as many points per game as they can. GASP! No way! You mean a professional football team is trying its hardest to succeed at the main objective of the game they're playing? This controversy is pissing me off so much that I hope the Pats continue to decimate opponents all over the country. Various people are saying that the magnitude of the deficits between the Patriots and their opponents scores are unsportsmanlike and disrespectful. One of the players on the Redskins commented that their epic loss to the Patriots by 45 points was "disrespectful to the game". How is playing the game to the best of their ability disrespectful to the game? Wouldn't it be more disrespectful to play half-hearted, or to stop playing it entirely? How is it the Patriots fault that they are so much better than their competitors? Perhaps they should move up to...oh wait, that's right, they're already in the highest league for football on the planet. So perhaps these other professional football teams, who are in the league supposedly representing the highest level of play and competition in the world, could tell me where the Patriots can go to play to their full potential. Suck it up, they're better than you. If they are the best team in football and want to break records, they should be allowed to play as hard as they want for as long as they want to accomplish that and prove their dominance. Besides, you know damn well that the Dolphins or the Redskins or whoever else would be doing exactly the same thing if the roles were reversed.
3) So I was driving home the other day and I approached a red-light, only to glance in my rearview mirror and notice a woman talking on a cell phone, with her hands flying all over the car to emphasize what I can only imagine was a very valid point. This made me chuckle and ask myself a question: Why do people feel the need to speak with their hands while on the telephone? I see it all the time, hell my dad does it and always has. But...why? The person sure as hell doesn't know you're doing it, casual observers notice that you look like a moron trying to show emphasis with hand motions using a device that only allows sounds to be transmitted, and you're simply wasting energy. Now that I think of it, I can barely stand it when people do this in person. A few simple movements of the hand are one thing, but I'm talking about those people who throw their hands in the air and keep them moving around out their in front of them for no good reason at all for the entirety of a conversation. On a phone the stupidity just quadruples. So if you do this sometimes, don't anymore. It's kind of like giving the finger to a blind person: I guess it might make you feel better, but what's the point?
Friday, October 26, 2007
My BPD Love Letter
I'm posting on a Friday because I feel compelled to bitch. Dedicated readers will remember me complaining about a parking ticket I received about a month ago. They will also remember that the excessive fine amounting to $45 for simply parking on a residential street with plenty of spaces. About 10 minutes ago, just before I got online to check my email, I sorted through my mail. There on top was a notice from the Burlington Police Department. Curious, because I may or may not have completely forgotten about the ticket, I opened it up. That's when my mood went from TGIF to Fuck You. Contained in this wonderful little envelope of law enforcement love was a notice that my fine was being increased due to delinquency of payment. 12 extra bucks tacked onto an already overpriced fine; wonderful. But that honestly didn't bother me nearly as much as this next part. The third paragraph of the love letter went like this:
Effective August 01, 2005 - If you have accumulated a total of $50.00 or more in unpaid parking fines, ANY VEHICLE owned by you may be impounded and towed pursuant to Burlington City Ordinance Section 20-79
Makes you feel warm and tingly inside doesn't it? Well it did for me. Warm and tingly in the "I'm going to rip the arms off the first person I see so I can beat them to death with some manner of weapon" sort of way. Very warm and tingly.
I'm going to keep this short because I have neither the time, nor the inclination to spend more than 10 minutes on this stupid, worthless piece of paper. My total fine is now up to $57.00, that's the original cost of the ticket, plus the late fee. Now, $57 is approximately how much I pay every month to have a cell phone. I would enjoy not having to pay it, but it's ultimately a small chunk of change. The fact that the local police department in the largest municipality in the state has the legal ability to impound my $25,000 car for half a c-note is beyond ludicrous to me. Hell, the 50 is the new 20 anyway. Apparently in August of '05 the department was having some trouble amassing the appropriate funds for their annual donut fund and decided that unpaid parking tickets were a real threat to the commonwealth. Well fuck you very much, I disagree. Parking infractions run along the same lines as jaywalking and public urination in terms of seriousness. Everyone does them because they need to be done. Especially the urination. I have a friend who was once ticketed for parking his car in the wrong direction on a street where every other car was parked pointing a different way. WHAT?! If you're douche bag enough to park in a handicapped spot needlessly, I believe the officer should simply shoot out all 4 tires on your car. If you park directly in front of a fire hydrant in such a way that a burning building cannot be extinguished, the fire engine should be allowed to plow you out of the way. And if you park in any spot that isn't really a spot or somewhere that blocks an emergency lane, a road, or someones driveway, your car should be at the mercy of the Po-9. However, in virtually every other instance there really isn't a good reason to even enforce parking violations, let alone tow someones very expensive mode of transportation simply because they're taking their damn sweet time to pay one. Why didn't I pay it? Partly as a matter of principle, and partly because I honestly just forgot I even had it.
Bitter? Check. Pissed off? Check Check. And here's the real tragedy of all this: Picture yourself walking back to your car after meeting a friend who is back in town for only a day or two. Upon reaching your vehicle you notice that two of your windows have been smashed out and your iPod, stereo, watch, CD case and brand spanking new copy of Transformers on DVD are missing. But what's this, there's an orange envelope tossed on your front seat, resting on shards of broken glass. Looking up the street in despair you see the officer halfway up the block still citing vehicles for parking infractions. You run up to the officer just as he gets back into his cruiser and try to explain to him that your car was broken into and several items of yours were stolen. He replies, in an aggravated tone, that many people's vehicles were broken into tonight. There seems to be a group of people doing this at various locations throughout the city on weekends. Realizing only now that he must have seen the mess they left because the ticket he wrote was inside of your car, you ask him what the deal is. He tells you that you were parked illegally, son. Enraged, you ask the officer how he could ignore the obvious damage to your vehicle and ticket you for some minor technicality when there are serious crimes occurring. In response, he looks at you with a special blend of condescending mockery and contempt. Then he tells you that you both realize the odds of actually catching the person who did that to your car (and numerous other cars) are slim to none. He then explains that they (the police) focus on the lawbreakers they can actually catch. That means you, you dirty bastard who parked on a resident only street. Then, just as he's pulling away to leave, reaching for yet another powdered jelly in the passenger seat, he turns to you and says: "Be sure to pay that ticket, now."
Ridiculous anecdote or accurate portrait of the current state of law enforcement? Maybe it's both, who knows. I'll let you decide. Me, I've got to go out of my way to pay for this ticket which I received for hurting no one and parking my car for the weekend instead of driving it around drunk. I hope you'll excuse me for walking funny, but I think I may have just been fist-fucked by the long arm of the law.
Effective August 01, 2005 - If you have accumulated a total of $50.00 or more in unpaid parking fines, ANY VEHICLE owned by you may be impounded and towed pursuant to Burlington City Ordinance Section 20-79
Makes you feel warm and tingly inside doesn't it? Well it did for me. Warm and tingly in the "I'm going to rip the arms off the first person I see so I can beat them to death with some manner of weapon" sort of way. Very warm and tingly.
I'm going to keep this short because I have neither the time, nor the inclination to spend more than 10 minutes on this stupid, worthless piece of paper. My total fine is now up to $57.00, that's the original cost of the ticket, plus the late fee. Now, $57 is approximately how much I pay every month to have a cell phone. I would enjoy not having to pay it, but it's ultimately a small chunk of change. The fact that the local police department in the largest municipality in the state has the legal ability to impound my $25,000 car for half a c-note is beyond ludicrous to me. Hell, the 50 is the new 20 anyway. Apparently in August of '05 the department was having some trouble amassing the appropriate funds for their annual donut fund and decided that unpaid parking tickets were a real threat to the commonwealth. Well fuck you very much, I disagree. Parking infractions run along the same lines as jaywalking and public urination in terms of seriousness. Everyone does them because they need to be done. Especially the urination. I have a friend who was once ticketed for parking his car in the wrong direction on a street where every other car was parked pointing a different way. WHAT?! If you're douche bag enough to park in a handicapped spot needlessly, I believe the officer should simply shoot out all 4 tires on your car. If you park directly in front of a fire hydrant in such a way that a burning building cannot be extinguished, the fire engine should be allowed to plow you out of the way. And if you park in any spot that isn't really a spot or somewhere that blocks an emergency lane, a road, or someones driveway, your car should be at the mercy of the Po-9. However, in virtually every other instance there really isn't a good reason to even enforce parking violations, let alone tow someones very expensive mode of transportation simply because they're taking their damn sweet time to pay one. Why didn't I pay it? Partly as a matter of principle, and partly because I honestly just forgot I even had it.
Bitter? Check. Pissed off? Check Check. And here's the real tragedy of all this: Picture yourself walking back to your car after meeting a friend who is back in town for only a day or two. Upon reaching your vehicle you notice that two of your windows have been smashed out and your iPod, stereo, watch, CD case and brand spanking new copy of Transformers on DVD are missing. But what's this, there's an orange envelope tossed on your front seat, resting on shards of broken glass. Looking up the street in despair you see the officer halfway up the block still citing vehicles for parking infractions. You run up to the officer just as he gets back into his cruiser and try to explain to him that your car was broken into and several items of yours were stolen. He replies, in an aggravated tone, that many people's vehicles were broken into tonight. There seems to be a group of people doing this at various locations throughout the city on weekends. Realizing only now that he must have seen the mess they left because the ticket he wrote was inside of your car, you ask him what the deal is. He tells you that you were parked illegally, son. Enraged, you ask the officer how he could ignore the obvious damage to your vehicle and ticket you for some minor technicality when there are serious crimes occurring. In response, he looks at you with a special blend of condescending mockery and contempt. Then he tells you that you both realize the odds of actually catching the person who did that to your car (and numerous other cars) are slim to none. He then explains that they (the police) focus on the lawbreakers they can actually catch. That means you, you dirty bastard who parked on a resident only street. Then, just as he's pulling away to leave, reaching for yet another powdered jelly in the passenger seat, he turns to you and says: "Be sure to pay that ticket, now."
Ridiculous anecdote or accurate portrait of the current state of law enforcement? Maybe it's both, who knows. I'll let you decide. Me, I've got to go out of my way to pay for this ticket which I received for hurting no one and parking my car for the weekend instead of driving it around drunk. I hope you'll excuse me for walking funny, but I think I may have just been fist-fucked by the long arm of the law.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
WWW #10
This is a quote ripped from a conversation with a friend a couple of years ago. I have no idea what we were talking about, all I saved was this couple of lines. I was inspired to post it here because tonight is game 1 of the World Series and it seemed vaguely relevant. Anyway, here it is:
That's what I believe in. I think we all have a purpose greater than simple survival. That doing something less than what you were meant to do is to sacrifice your gift, and that this sacrifice is a travesty. -JT
There you go, I'll see you next week. Let's Go Red Sox!!
That's what I believe in. I think we all have a purpose greater than simple survival. That doing something less than what you were meant to do is to sacrifice your gift, and that this sacrifice is a travesty. -JT
There you go, I'll see you next week. Let's Go Red Sox!!
Monday, October 22, 2007
On ESPN and Life
These past couple of days have been pretty good for New England sports fans. On Sunday the Patriots completely steamrolled the Dolphins to remain undefeated on the season. Later that same day the Red Sox, after coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the series to tie it at 3-3, absolutely spanked the Indians to move on to the World Series. Thank you Dustin Pedroia. Each victory begs its own question. For the seemingly untouchable Patriots, that question is whether or not the 1972 Dolphins are going to have company in the history books. In case you aren't aware, that is the only team in the history of the NFL to have a perfect, undefeated season. For the Red Sox the question is can they repeat what they did in 2004 to overcome the unstoppable (and improbable) champions of the NLCS, the Colorado Rockies?
For us fans, the only real answer is wait and see. Sports, just like life, are unpredictable. There is no telling when or where an injury could strike to cripple a key player. Nor is there any accounting for the mysterious, but undeniable, power of momentum. A couple of weeks ago, a girl I work with was bewildered by the fact that when everyone arrived in the morning, all the guys congregated to talk about sports. She asked me what it was about sports that men find so captivating. At the time, I was unsure of what to say. It was early in the morning and I thought this to be a stupid question, so my simple reply was: What's not to like? I suppose that isn't an altogether horrible answer, but it certainly didn't answer her question. After having a little time to think about it, I'd like to offer a more complete answer.
Famed Washington Post columnist George Will once said, "Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence." In a way, that sums up the entire topic. But in favor of not being lazy and, well, writing more than two paragraphs, I'll expound upon that idea. The truth is, life is rarely like movies make it out to be. The good guy doesn't always win, the better man doesn't always get the girl, and more often than not you lose the ones you care about before you've shared that perfect final moment. This is the reason that Hollywood, as well as television (not sure if that's got its own name or if its lumped in with Hollywood), are so successful. People like to be removed from their own mediocrity and shown amazing things. They like to see proof that antiquated notions like loyalty and honor still exist, if only in a screenwriter's imagination. For many of us, sports provide the same inspiration and satisfaction, but without the benefit of being preordained. Watching a miraculous comeback occur on a sports field often carries more weight than watching a hero do the same on a battlefield. That's because, even if it didn't happen to us, it really happened. It wasn't decided by a group of writers to be the better ending or the more logical outcome, it just was. Through suffering, pain and sheer will, the men on the field make miracles happen in real life. And the best part of being a fan is that you don't have to be there to experience it. Sports allow us to be on the team without ever leaving our homes. For our support we are rewarded with the chance to share in our team's glory and victory, or to suffer with them in defeat. And we know that either way we're celebrating or suffering along with all of the other members of the team. We're part of something simply because we believe. Even though we'll never meet most of the other members of our team, it is enough that we have this one common interest to unite us. People underestimate that, they really do.
People are frequently bitching about how much professional athletes are paid, and I'm right there with them. They make way too much money for playing a game. But the truth is, they aren't just playing a game and we aren't just watching one. We're experiencing it through their bodies. At its finest a sport transcends its rules to become a defining struggle. The men are warriors and the play is combat. They aren't simply fighting for a trophy, they're fighting to defy limitation and to touch greatness for the whole world to see. As fans their battle is also our own. Because if they succeed they have proven that you don't have to go see a movie to be inspired, to believe in something supernatural, because it exists here, right now. When that happens it can mitigate our own personal problems, if just for a moment, and release us to join in the elation and triumph of victory. On the surface, sure it was just a meaningless game resulting in a big piece of tin going to the winner. But for millions of people around the world, the significance is much deeper and the accomplishment means much more.
For us fans, the only real answer is wait and see. Sports, just like life, are unpredictable. There is no telling when or where an injury could strike to cripple a key player. Nor is there any accounting for the mysterious, but undeniable, power of momentum. A couple of weeks ago, a girl I work with was bewildered by the fact that when everyone arrived in the morning, all the guys congregated to talk about sports. She asked me what it was about sports that men find so captivating. At the time, I was unsure of what to say. It was early in the morning and I thought this to be a stupid question, so my simple reply was: What's not to like? I suppose that isn't an altogether horrible answer, but it certainly didn't answer her question. After having a little time to think about it, I'd like to offer a more complete answer.
Famed Washington Post columnist George Will once said, "Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence." In a way, that sums up the entire topic. But in favor of not being lazy and, well, writing more than two paragraphs, I'll expound upon that idea. The truth is, life is rarely like movies make it out to be. The good guy doesn't always win, the better man doesn't always get the girl, and more often than not you lose the ones you care about before you've shared that perfect final moment. This is the reason that Hollywood, as well as television (not sure if that's got its own name or if its lumped in with Hollywood), are so successful. People like to be removed from their own mediocrity and shown amazing things. They like to see proof that antiquated notions like loyalty and honor still exist, if only in a screenwriter's imagination. For many of us, sports provide the same inspiration and satisfaction, but without the benefit of being preordained. Watching a miraculous comeback occur on a sports field often carries more weight than watching a hero do the same on a battlefield. That's because, even if it didn't happen to us, it really happened. It wasn't decided by a group of writers to be the better ending or the more logical outcome, it just was. Through suffering, pain and sheer will, the men on the field make miracles happen in real life. And the best part of being a fan is that you don't have to be there to experience it. Sports allow us to be on the team without ever leaving our homes. For our support we are rewarded with the chance to share in our team's glory and victory, or to suffer with them in defeat. And we know that either way we're celebrating or suffering along with all of the other members of the team. We're part of something simply because we believe. Even though we'll never meet most of the other members of our team, it is enough that we have this one common interest to unite us. People underestimate that, they really do.
People are frequently bitching about how much professional athletes are paid, and I'm right there with them. They make way too much money for playing a game. But the truth is, they aren't just playing a game and we aren't just watching one. We're experiencing it through their bodies. At its finest a sport transcends its rules to become a defining struggle. The men are warriors and the play is combat. They aren't simply fighting for a trophy, they're fighting to defy limitation and to touch greatness for the whole world to see. As fans their battle is also our own. Because if they succeed they have proven that you don't have to go see a movie to be inspired, to believe in something supernatural, because it exists here, right now. When that happens it can mitigate our own personal problems, if just for a moment, and release us to join in the elation and triumph of victory. On the surface, sure it was just a meaningless game resulting in a big piece of tin going to the winner. But for millions of people around the world, the significance is much deeper and the accomplishment means much more.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Transforming Your Pants
I know, what am I doing posting on a Thursday right? Mind your own damn business and pay attention, I've got a couple of things to say. On Tuesday, my lunch started at 12:00pm. At 12:03pm I was standing in line at Best Buy holding perhaps the best way a human being can spend 15 of their hard earned dollars. I was buying the newly released Transformers movie. If you have seen the movie, you know why I was so excited.
For those who haven't seen it, this movie will rock your socks clean off your feet. It's damn good. Why? Because of 3 story tall robots that can kick ass like the Power Rangers dorky whatever-atron never even dreamed of, and then transform on a whim into cars, tanks, airplanes, and the like, that's why. Aside from a 2 hour movie containing nothing but epic scenes of hot, naked women, this is perhaps the most boyish idea on the planet. God bless it for that. However, if that isn't enough to get you to shell out some cash to see this movie (and why the hell wouldn't it be?), I'm going to provide you with some further incentive. That incentive, is named Megan Fox.
Even though I purchased the movie Tuesday, I was unable to watch it because I'm a Red Sox fan and I was obligated to suffer through the tragedy that has been this ALCS. So last night, I sat down and gathered several of the people I'm related to, often referred to as "family", and told them to convene at the designated viewing area. I felt it necessary to introduce them to the majesty of the Transfomers. No, I'm not being paid by Dreamworks, but if they read this and feel the need to send me a check I'd be happy to cash it. Anyway, after watching the movie and crapping my pants not once, but twice, at it's utter and total awesomeness, I was reminded of something. This movie features one of the hottest women on the planet. Before the hype surrounding the movie promoted her, I'd never actually heard of Megan Fox. That was my loss. However, if you still don't know who she is, you just might be gay. That goes for boys and girls, no excuses. There are a lot of reasons she's hot, but I think that one that does it for me is the dark hair/light eyes combo that I find completely irresistible. So I felt compelled to come on here and let people know how hot she is and that it's absolutely worth buying the movie just to see her in it. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking Prove It aren't you? Well just so there are no doubters, I'll show you a quick glimpse of her hotness right here. Thank me later, right now, look at the pics.
For those who haven't seen it, this movie will rock your socks clean off your feet. It's damn good. Why? Because of 3 story tall robots that can kick ass like the Power Rangers dorky whatever-atron never even dreamed of, and then transform on a whim into cars, tanks, airplanes, and the like, that's why. Aside from a 2 hour movie containing nothing but epic scenes of hot, naked women, this is perhaps the most boyish idea on the planet. God bless it for that. However, if that isn't enough to get you to shell out some cash to see this movie (and why the hell wouldn't it be?), I'm going to provide you with some further incentive. That incentive, is named Megan Fox.
Even though I purchased the movie Tuesday, I was unable to watch it because I'm a Red Sox fan and I was obligated to suffer through the tragedy that has been this ALCS. So last night, I sat down and gathered several of the people I'm related to, often referred to as "family", and told them to convene at the designated viewing area. I felt it necessary to introduce them to the majesty of the Transfomers. No, I'm not being paid by Dreamworks, but if they read this and feel the need to send me a check I'd be happy to cash it. Anyway, after watching the movie and crapping my pants not once, but twice, at it's utter and total awesomeness, I was reminded of something. This movie features one of the hottest women on the planet. Before the hype surrounding the movie promoted her, I'd never actually heard of Megan Fox. That was my loss. However, if you still don't know who she is, you just might be gay. That goes for boys and girls, no excuses. There are a lot of reasons she's hot, but I think that one that does it for me is the dark hair/light eyes combo that I find completely irresistible. So I felt compelled to come on here and let people know how hot she is and that it's absolutely worth buying the movie just to see her in it. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking Prove It aren't you? Well just so there are no doubters, I'll show you a quick glimpse of her hotness right here. Thank me later, right now, look at the pics.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
WWW #9
Considering the topic of yesterday's post, I figured I might as well just keep it political. So here you go, this weeks Wednesday Words of Wisedumb:
A government should rule with its heart first, its head second, and its fist only when all else has failed. -JT
See ya.
A government should rule with its heart first, its head second, and its fist only when all else has failed. -JT
See ya.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Dirty Money In An Even Dirtier Game
So I was talking to my buddy the other day and he pointed out that although I have strong political views, my blog has yet to address this particular aspect of my views on life. I agreed that he made a valid point, and decided this week to make the blog a bit more political. Before I start however, I'd like to say a few things. First of all I am only 22 years old and I was born in a rural state, therefore my life experience is somewhat limited at this point. It should also be noted that I have only recently become interested in topics of a political nature and as a result I do not know everything there is to know about much of anything. My views are precisely that and because I have neither been exposed to every ideology, nor am I intelligent enough to have considered every possible position, I can only speak from my own limited experience. That is the only time I will say this. From here on out, expect me to present my views as though they are the only correct path and everyone else is retarded for not seeing things my way.
So the first thing most people want to know when you start discussing politics is whether you are speaking as a Democrat or a Republican. This speaks volumes about the partisan nature of politics in this country, but I'll wait for another day to get into that. The simple answer is that I do not consider myself a member of either party, and I will let my views speak for themselves in terms of my beliefs. I do not feel the need to categorize myself in this manner. If I were forced to choose one over the other I would probably say that my beliefs overall mesh better with the views of Republicans than Democrats, but it's hard to say. If you need a label I suppose I would consider myself a Classic Liberal. If you don't know what that means, look it up but do not confuse classic liberalism with modern or contemporary liberalism as they frequently have contrary views. I apologize for this long preamble, I'll get on with the post now.
So during this talk with my buddy the other day, I started talking about various problems with the government and politics in general. Unlike most people who do this, I was not referring to the war in Iraq in any capacity, but rather domestic issues. At one point I mentioned the problem with campaign financing as I saw it, and now I think maybe I'll talk about that here for a moment or two. Although in theory, and certainly as a matter of principle, I believe in a lassez-faire economy, I have recently become cynical of some aspects of direct free market capitalism. No, I'm not a fascist or a socialist in any sense, just hold on. What I hate are the unintended social consequences such as greed and corruption. This issue is, I believe, directly related to campaign finance in our current political climate. To quote what I said to my buddy, "Special interest campaign financing is a dirty finger in the asshole of our political system." Eloquent, don't you think? Here's the problem, and I know you've heard it before: large corporations with an agenda donate large quantities of money to political candidates and in return, they expect the candidate to vote agreeably to their own interests. For example, if a man running for president is financed largely by an insurance company, they might expect him to veto a bill currently in development that would place restrictions on the monopolistic and collusive nature of the insurance industry. This is commonly referred to as quid pro quo (literally translated: this for that) financing. The issue here is an obvious one, those with a lot of money and power use both to make the world a better place for them to live in while, in many cases, making it less pleasant for the rest of us. This issue is the center for most discourse on the topic, and deservedly so. The extent and frequency of this is debatable, but if it's happening at all it's a direct attack on liberty. But I'd like to talk about something else for a moment.
Do you know how much money was spent during the last presidential election? Somewhere in the ballpark of $5,000,000,000. Lot of zeroes, but just so we're clear that was 5 billion dollars. I'll get right to the point. Let's say I decide that I would like to make a difference and I talk to a few people and they say that they'd vote for me if I ran, so I toss my hat in the ring for presidential candidate. Cool, just a normal guy off the street running for the highest office in the country. Here's the problem though: I only make $60,000 a year. In addition, I know almost nobody in big business or political circles. How am I supposed to compete with those candidates who are raising hundreds of millions of dollars? I can't, end of story. I know that theoretically, if my message is strong and I'm a really good candidate, I should be able to snowball into a serious contender, but that just isn't realistic. People can't think your ideas are great if they never hear them, certainly not if they've never even heard of you at all. I fully believe that democracy is the best political ideology currently in existence. I believe that because it means the people are ruling themselves, from a selection of themselves. But politics, unfortunately, has come to rely strictly on politicians. It's not impossible for a regular, determined individual to run for office, but the barrier to entry is huge, and I see that as a contradiciton to the ideals of democracy. The high cost of running for office has created a quasi-aristocracy full of people from the same class and lifestyles, rather than a true cross-section of America.
That's the problem, but a decent solution has been elusive. In 2002 the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act attempted to fix these problems but it didn't go far enough. Those who oppose finance reform say that limited contributions also limit free speech. Because people should be able to voice their support monetarily for whoever they like. Those who say we need reform argue that the corruptions I have listed require us to take action. I don't plan on offering you a solution, I just wanted to shed light on the problem. There are, however, a couple of interesting ideas out there that blend public and private funding in a synergistic manner. We'll see where this goes in the near future.
For those who don't like the seriousness of this post, I promise that next week I'll lay off the politics. But I really feel that it's important for people to think about these things, if only once in a while. Especially young people such as myself. Find something that pisses you off and look into it. See what the opposing side says and strengthen your own argument. If you're really moved, do something to change it. Politics isn't just a boring, controversial subject, it's the way our world is being run and it affects each one of us. I love America but it's far from perfect. And if something about it isn't pissing you off at this very moment, you need to open your eyes.
So the first thing most people want to know when you start discussing politics is whether you are speaking as a Democrat or a Republican. This speaks volumes about the partisan nature of politics in this country, but I'll wait for another day to get into that. The simple answer is that I do not consider myself a member of either party, and I will let my views speak for themselves in terms of my beliefs. I do not feel the need to categorize myself in this manner. If I were forced to choose one over the other I would probably say that my beliefs overall mesh better with the views of Republicans than Democrats, but it's hard to say. If you need a label I suppose I would consider myself a Classic Liberal. If you don't know what that means, look it up but do not confuse classic liberalism with modern or contemporary liberalism as they frequently have contrary views. I apologize for this long preamble, I'll get on with the post now.
So during this talk with my buddy the other day, I started talking about various problems with the government and politics in general. Unlike most people who do this, I was not referring to the war in Iraq in any capacity, but rather domestic issues. At one point I mentioned the problem with campaign financing as I saw it, and now I think maybe I'll talk about that here for a moment or two. Although in theory, and certainly as a matter of principle, I believe in a lassez-faire economy, I have recently become cynical of some aspects of direct free market capitalism. No, I'm not a fascist or a socialist in any sense, just hold on. What I hate are the unintended social consequences such as greed and corruption. This issue is, I believe, directly related to campaign finance in our current political climate. To quote what I said to my buddy, "Special interest campaign financing is a dirty finger in the asshole of our political system." Eloquent, don't you think? Here's the problem, and I know you've heard it before: large corporations with an agenda donate large quantities of money to political candidates and in return, they expect the candidate to vote agreeably to their own interests. For example, if a man running for president is financed largely by an insurance company, they might expect him to veto a bill currently in development that would place restrictions on the monopolistic and collusive nature of the insurance industry. This is commonly referred to as quid pro quo (literally translated: this for that) financing. The issue here is an obvious one, those with a lot of money and power use both to make the world a better place for them to live in while, in many cases, making it less pleasant for the rest of us. This issue is the center for most discourse on the topic, and deservedly so. The extent and frequency of this is debatable, but if it's happening at all it's a direct attack on liberty. But I'd like to talk about something else for a moment.
Do you know how much money was spent during the last presidential election? Somewhere in the ballpark of $5,000,000,000. Lot of zeroes, but just so we're clear that was 5 billion dollars. I'll get right to the point. Let's say I decide that I would like to make a difference and I talk to a few people and they say that they'd vote for me if I ran, so I toss my hat in the ring for presidential candidate. Cool, just a normal guy off the street running for the highest office in the country. Here's the problem though: I only make $60,000 a year. In addition, I know almost nobody in big business or political circles. How am I supposed to compete with those candidates who are raising hundreds of millions of dollars? I can't, end of story. I know that theoretically, if my message is strong and I'm a really good candidate, I should be able to snowball into a serious contender, but that just isn't realistic. People can't think your ideas are great if they never hear them, certainly not if they've never even heard of you at all. I fully believe that democracy is the best political ideology currently in existence. I believe that because it means the people are ruling themselves, from a selection of themselves. But politics, unfortunately, has come to rely strictly on politicians. It's not impossible for a regular, determined individual to run for office, but the barrier to entry is huge, and I see that as a contradiciton to the ideals of democracy. The high cost of running for office has created a quasi-aristocracy full of people from the same class and lifestyles, rather than a true cross-section of America.
That's the problem, but a decent solution has been elusive. In 2002 the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act attempted to fix these problems but it didn't go far enough. Those who oppose finance reform say that limited contributions also limit free speech. Because people should be able to voice their support monetarily for whoever they like. Those who say we need reform argue that the corruptions I have listed require us to take action. I don't plan on offering you a solution, I just wanted to shed light on the problem. There are, however, a couple of interesting ideas out there that blend public and private funding in a synergistic manner. We'll see where this goes in the near future.
For those who don't like the seriousness of this post, I promise that next week I'll lay off the politics. But I really feel that it's important for people to think about these things, if only once in a while. Especially young people such as myself. Find something that pisses you off and look into it. See what the opposing side says and strengthen your own argument. If you're really moved, do something to change it. Politics isn't just a boring, controversial subject, it's the way our world is being run and it affects each one of us. I love America but it's far from perfect. And if something about it isn't pissing you off at this very moment, you need to open your eyes.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
WWW #8
Further encouragement to get out there and do something. Anything, just as long as it isn't the same thing you always do.
You’ll never find yourself if you don’t look outside of your routine. Your couch is a poor vehicle for the journey to self-realization. –JT
Conversely, it turns out couches are great for turning into fat, useless pieces of washed up potential. So, ya know, I guess it depends on what you want out of life. Until next time...
You’ll never find yourself if you don’t look outside of your routine. Your couch is a poor vehicle for the journey to self-realization. –JT
Conversely, it turns out couches are great for turning into fat, useless pieces of washed up potential. So, ya know, I guess it depends on what you want out of life. Until next time...
Monday, October 8, 2007
F*CK THE PO-LEECE!!
So this morning I was minding my own business, eating my Lucky Charms in front of the TV, when all of a sudden I see a cop beating the living crap out of a little girl. Then he takes out his gun, and at point blank range, shoots her in the face. Crazy right? Okay, the last part there with the shooting is a complete fabrication. Didn't happen. The first part, minus a slight embellishment, did though. This police officer, from where I didn't actually catch, was attempting to arrest and/or subdue a girl who I believe was 15 years old. I know, I didn't catch a lot of the details, but it was early and my brain requires a couple of hours to reboot every morning.
Anyway, this man is holding this girl with her hands behind her back, bent over the front of his cruiser and she's clearly not a big fan of the idea. She's struggling and wiggling and writhing to escape his grasp, or, at the very least, to avoid being handcuffed. At one point it seems that she decided it would be a good idea to bite the nice man's hand as they wrestled. He thought it wasn't. In a quick sequence he goes from pulling on her arms to straight up kidney punching her. Yeah. Approximately 1.5 seconds later, while she's still gasping from the punch, he rips out his pepper spray and blasts her in the face from about 2 inches away. Yeah again. I know what you're thinking: That must have been a huge 15 year old girl. I'm afraid not. I would estimate the weight of the girl in the video to be under 100 lbs by a small margin. Granted, I'm awful at guessing weight, but she was tiny. Oh yeah, and just to make things extra special, the little girl the big, bad white man was beating up, she was black. Yeah again...again.
Admittedly, I have very little experience trying to arrest little girls. So perhaps this is the way these things usually go. However, I have to believe that if I needed to arrest a little girl, I could overpower her simply enough. That's me, and I'm a 22 year old guy with no training whatsoever in this area. This was a veteran police officer. I'd like to think that even if it were a difficult task I'd manage without kidney punching her or using pepper spray so close to her face that it could cause permanent damage to her eyes (not my words, the "expert" on the news claimed this). Then they showed another recent video of officers tazering the living shit out of a woman who was disorderly (probably with a good helping of drunk as an appetizer). But they didn't just tazer her, they did it repeatedly. She fell into a car head first at one point and seemed stunned but when she got up they did it again. Hell, once they got her in the cruiser she was kicking around so they kept zapping her. WHEN SHE WAS IN THE CAR. A few weeks ago was the guy who got tazered half to death because he was aggressively asking John Kerry a question that nobody really cared about anyway. And just yesterday, in a truly tragic incident, a police officer interrupted a homecoming party and killed 6 kids. I don't believe they have a motive for that one yet, aside from the knowledge that one of them was his ex-girlfriend. Suddenly, I'm apprehensive about approaching a cop in a dimly lit part of town at night.
It seems to me that one of these tapes come out every month or so, with some police officer somewhere using excessive force on some poor man/woman/child. Few things piss me off more than police brutality. These are the people who are in a position of power and trust, supposedly to Protect and Serve us. How dare they. I'm not a member of the ACLU, and I'm generally not as sympathetic to the plight of others as this post may lead you to believe. However, it's pretty messed up when those who are supposed to be maintaining order so that we can live our lives without fear betray us and give us a new reason to be afraid. I'm not sure if police brutality is actually escalating or if it's simply technology which now allows us to catch more of the abusers, but I don't think it matters either way. Don't get me wrong, I favor limited rights for serious criminals (it is my belief that those who would deprive another citizen of their rights by, say, killing them, forfeit their own rights in the process), but the cases I'm talking about are when the officers are unprovoked or dealing with non-dangerous law breakers. I don't think we can live freely in a society where the enforcers of the law are allowed to willingly break them to achieve their own ends. We're better than that, we can't allow them to hide behind a blue wall. Yes, I realize it's dangerous and scary to be a police officer in the modern world, but I'm afraid that's the profession they chose. I mean, if a guy spit in my face and I had a night-stick handy, I'd probably feel free to loosen up a couple of his teeth with it. But I've never sworn any oaths about protecting our citizens or put myself in a position where I have a great deal of power and trust to uphold for them. Because of the nature of their duty, police should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us, not a lower one. And those who betray are trust should pay a dear price. Might I suggest giving that little girl a night-stick and some pepper spray while the assaulting officer is tied to a chair? Just a thought.
Anyway, this man is holding this girl with her hands behind her back, bent over the front of his cruiser and she's clearly not a big fan of the idea. She's struggling and wiggling and writhing to escape his grasp, or, at the very least, to avoid being handcuffed. At one point it seems that she decided it would be a good idea to bite the nice man's hand as they wrestled. He thought it wasn't. In a quick sequence he goes from pulling on her arms to straight up kidney punching her. Yeah. Approximately 1.5 seconds later, while she's still gasping from the punch, he rips out his pepper spray and blasts her in the face from about 2 inches away. Yeah again. I know what you're thinking: That must have been a huge 15 year old girl. I'm afraid not. I would estimate the weight of the girl in the video to be under 100 lbs by a small margin. Granted, I'm awful at guessing weight, but she was tiny. Oh yeah, and just to make things extra special, the little girl the big, bad white man was beating up, she was black. Yeah again...again.
Admittedly, I have very little experience trying to arrest little girls. So perhaps this is the way these things usually go. However, I have to believe that if I needed to arrest a little girl, I could overpower her simply enough. That's me, and I'm a 22 year old guy with no training whatsoever in this area. This was a veteran police officer. I'd like to think that even if it were a difficult task I'd manage without kidney punching her or using pepper spray so close to her face that it could cause permanent damage to her eyes (not my words, the "expert" on the news claimed this). Then they showed another recent video of officers tazering the living shit out of a woman who was disorderly (probably with a good helping of drunk as an appetizer). But they didn't just tazer her, they did it repeatedly. She fell into a car head first at one point and seemed stunned but when she got up they did it again. Hell, once they got her in the cruiser she was kicking around so they kept zapping her. WHEN SHE WAS IN THE CAR. A few weeks ago was the guy who got tazered half to death because he was aggressively asking John Kerry a question that nobody really cared about anyway. And just yesterday, in a truly tragic incident, a police officer interrupted a homecoming party and killed 6 kids. I don't believe they have a motive for that one yet, aside from the knowledge that one of them was his ex-girlfriend. Suddenly, I'm apprehensive about approaching a cop in a dimly lit part of town at night.
It seems to me that one of these tapes come out every month or so, with some police officer somewhere using excessive force on some poor man/woman/child. Few things piss me off more than police brutality. These are the people who are in a position of power and trust, supposedly to Protect and Serve us. How dare they. I'm not a member of the ACLU, and I'm generally not as sympathetic to the plight of others as this post may lead you to believe. However, it's pretty messed up when those who are supposed to be maintaining order so that we can live our lives without fear betray us and give us a new reason to be afraid. I'm not sure if police brutality is actually escalating or if it's simply technology which now allows us to catch more of the abusers, but I don't think it matters either way. Don't get me wrong, I favor limited rights for serious criminals (it is my belief that those who would deprive another citizen of their rights by, say, killing them, forfeit their own rights in the process), but the cases I'm talking about are when the officers are unprovoked or dealing with non-dangerous law breakers. I don't think we can live freely in a society where the enforcers of the law are allowed to willingly break them to achieve their own ends. We're better than that, we can't allow them to hide behind a blue wall. Yes, I realize it's dangerous and scary to be a police officer in the modern world, but I'm afraid that's the profession they chose. I mean, if a guy spit in my face and I had a night-stick handy, I'd probably feel free to loosen up a couple of his teeth with it. But I've never sworn any oaths about protecting our citizens or put myself in a position where I have a great deal of power and trust to uphold for them. Because of the nature of their duty, police should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us, not a lower one. And those who betray are trust should pay a dear price. Might I suggest giving that little girl a night-stick and some pepper spray while the assaulting officer is tied to a chair? Just a thought.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
WWW #7
Here is this weeks Wednesday Words of Wisedumb:
The most unfortunate things happen to good people. This is in no small part because when bad things happen to people who deserve it, it really isn't so unfortunate. -JT
Until next week...
The most unfortunate things happen to good people. This is in no small part because when bad things happen to people who deserve it, it really isn't so unfortunate. -JT
Until next week...
Monday, October 1, 2007
Finding Something in Nothing
So, as with many weekends before it, this past weekend was spent living the life of a depraved college student. Friday night was spent hanging out with some friends at an apartment before venturing down to the world of expensive drinks and cheap women; aka, downtown Burlington. One of the friends I was with was freshly pumped up by the book I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max. If you've never heard of him, he's this giant prick of human being who does insane things involving alcohol and sex (one involves the other almost exclusively) and then writes about it to tell the world. The crazy thing is he may also be a genius, but that's for another post.
So my buddy and I get downtown, both full of beer and Jager. As it turns out, my buddy had apparently also been taking shots of bravado when I wasn't looking. He was in full on asshole/I'm-cool-enough-to-do-whatever-I-want mode. Friday night, for whatever reason, I was more amused by this than anything. I may have even egged him on, I don't know. The result was that we went from bar to line to bar to line pissing people off. Multiple fights were narrowly avoided and at the end of the night we were even kicked out of a cab. That last one was actually my fault. Just for a moment I'd like to focus on that little piece of factual recollection. Do you know how hard it is to get kicked out of a cab in a college town? Pretty darn, one would think. These people literally deal with drunken retards as a profession. Yet all it took for us was me informing - not even name calling because it was an undeniable fact - one of (I think only one) the girls sharing the taxi with us that she was a bitch. Seconds later we're on the sidewalk watching our taxi drive off. What led up to that is kind of a long story. Actually, it all occurred in about 1.5 city blocks, but it still seems like too much to write here. Anyway, big freaking deal, there happened to be another taxi 9 seconds away. Still, I'm a little impressed the driver cost himself some money by kicking us out over something so trivial.
Anyway, we did manage to get back home. When we did another argument which nearly led to a fight erupted due to drunkenness. That was resolved somewhat peacefully and we all went to bed shortly thereafter. The next morning, after the obligatory trip to Henry's Diner to make our lives right again, I played some Halo 3. That's an understatement. Me and my buddy actually played the damn game for approximately 6 or 7 hours straight. Then dinner interrupted, followed by some beers in front of the TV before doing whatever it was we were going to do. What we were going to do, it turns out, was sit in front of that TV all night and barely move. I did leave once to check out the worst keg party ever (guy to girl ratio? 17:1), but that was very brief. I mean very brief like under 10 minutes round trip. After a whole lot of TV and uh...just a little Halo 3, it was bedtime again. Then came the day of rest.
It was Sunday. It was fall. That means football. So we went to the store to by stuff to make nachos (and many, many cups of coffee) and sat in front of the TV to watch a couple of games that none of us cared about in any way at all. After doing that all day we rented a movie to prolong our couch time and watched it blissfully. An important thing to note here though: on the way to get the movie, we ended up behind what most be the only Ferrari F430 in Vermont. It was so awesome that even my ears got hard.
So now that I've recounted the basic step by step of my weekend, you might be wondering why I bothered. Well, because the truth is that sitting on the couch watching a game I didn't care about on Sunday, it occurred to me that maybe I was wasting my time. Maybe I should have been spending my time doing something productive. But then somewhere between our 4th trip to the grocery store and my 6th cup of coffee I was laughing my ass off with my buddies, having a great time and I realized that even though I didn't appear to do much on the surface, I had a great weekend. I mean it wasn't epic or unforgettable, it was pretty much a perfectly standard weekend in my life. But that realization lead me to another. My life isn't perfect or glamorous, but I still love it. I still aspire to be better than I am and I don't want to stay here doing the same thing indefinitely, but it's nice to realize that you're happy where you are right now, regardless of where you might be a year from now. Or two years, or 5, or 10. And if I can say that, I guess this weekend wasn't wasted at all.
So my buddy and I get downtown, both full of beer and Jager. As it turns out, my buddy had apparently also been taking shots of bravado when I wasn't looking. He was in full on asshole/I'm-cool-enough-to-do-whatever-I-want mode. Friday night, for whatever reason, I was more amused by this than anything. I may have even egged him on, I don't know. The result was that we went from bar to line to bar to line pissing people off. Multiple fights were narrowly avoided and at the end of the night we were even kicked out of a cab. That last one was actually my fault. Just for a moment I'd like to focus on that little piece of factual recollection. Do you know how hard it is to get kicked out of a cab in a college town? Pretty darn, one would think. These people literally deal with drunken retards as a profession. Yet all it took for us was me informing - not even name calling because it was an undeniable fact - one of (I think only one) the girls sharing the taxi with us that she was a bitch. Seconds later we're on the sidewalk watching our taxi drive off. What led up to that is kind of a long story. Actually, it all occurred in about 1.5 city blocks, but it still seems like too much to write here. Anyway, big freaking deal, there happened to be another taxi 9 seconds away. Still, I'm a little impressed the driver cost himself some money by kicking us out over something so trivial.
Anyway, we did manage to get back home. When we did another argument which nearly led to a fight erupted due to drunkenness. That was resolved somewhat peacefully and we all went to bed shortly thereafter. The next morning, after the obligatory trip to Henry's Diner to make our lives right again, I played some Halo 3. That's an understatement. Me and my buddy actually played the damn game for approximately 6 or 7 hours straight. Then dinner interrupted, followed by some beers in front of the TV before doing whatever it was we were going to do. What we were going to do, it turns out, was sit in front of that TV all night and barely move. I did leave once to check out the worst keg party ever (guy to girl ratio? 17:1), but that was very brief. I mean very brief like under 10 minutes round trip. After a whole lot of TV and uh...just a little Halo 3, it was bedtime again. Then came the day of rest.
It was Sunday. It was fall. That means football. So we went to the store to by stuff to make nachos (and many, many cups of coffee) and sat in front of the TV to watch a couple of games that none of us cared about in any way at all. After doing that all day we rented a movie to prolong our couch time and watched it blissfully. An important thing to note here though: on the way to get the movie, we ended up behind what most be the only Ferrari F430 in Vermont. It was so awesome that even my ears got hard.
So now that I've recounted the basic step by step of my weekend, you might be wondering why I bothered. Well, because the truth is that sitting on the couch watching a game I didn't care about on Sunday, it occurred to me that maybe I was wasting my time. Maybe I should have been spending my time doing something productive. But then somewhere between our 4th trip to the grocery store and my 6th cup of coffee I was laughing my ass off with my buddies, having a great time and I realized that even though I didn't appear to do much on the surface, I had a great weekend. I mean it wasn't epic or unforgettable, it was pretty much a perfectly standard weekend in my life. But that realization lead me to another. My life isn't perfect or glamorous, but I still love it. I still aspire to be better than I am and I don't want to stay here doing the same thing indefinitely, but it's nice to realize that you're happy where you are right now, regardless of where you might be a year from now. Or two years, or 5, or 10. And if I can say that, I guess this weekend wasn't wasted at all.
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