Most likely you are a culprit. This photo is better than 90% of the photos people post while they are at the Phillies game. When you are at the Phillies game, taking a picture with your phone and posting it on Facebook isn’t unique. Let’s just take one season for instance. 81 games x 30,000 people = 2.43 million. Out of this many people for 1!!!! season, probably 25 percent have done the same thing you just did and will continue to do. That’s several 500,000+ on a complete rough guess but times that by 5 seasons of Facebook and you have something that I’ve seen before.

I’ve seen it. Your at a Phillies game. Hooray. This picture is at least of a sky that looks somewhat different. People will take a picture of anything and warrant that it deserves posting just because. What is the purpose of posting it? If you have a really great shot, that’s one thing, but the back of a player is water trash. I defriended someone (who wasn’t even a friend) strictly because they constantly post Phillies pics.

It’s amazing what 2 weeks can do to you. I gave my best effort to get into my “racing” shape for the Broad St Run. At 28, racing shape is different than what it used to be. Considering I don’t really have any real reason to run other than my own personal goal, I would hardly consider my training to be a full fledged effort but it has various forms. Leading up to that race I was probably running 5 times a week and putting in around 40 miles. This week I’ve logged 0 so far and tallied about 20 beers. This is a complete 180 from what I was striving for at the beginning of May. Although I will add, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

I have noticed though that I don’t feel as physically fit as I did 2 weeks ago. I feel a little more skin around my belly and just a general sense of well being. I ate Taco Bell last night and just felt like poop with no exercise in my routine. I also noticed that I don’t feel as tired when it comes time to go to sleep. After runs I have a sense of physical exhaustion which leaves when you don’t work out. I do intend to start running again but I just don’t have anything coming up that requires hardcore training. I like to peak for races, not stay in 100% form all year long.

Bowling was done the right way last night. We bought 2 hours for 13 dollars and rolled a total of 6 games each. 3 people is the magic number for bowling as it was the right amount of break time between each roll. A will also add that there were some pretty impressive scores last night. I had a 193 in the 2nd game which was actually the low, high score of the night. The Shee rolled a 194 the game after and we were both trounced by Jaweems who had 2 200+ games out of the first 3 but did somehow manage a 97 in his 6th game. I even started bowling better towards the end with a few adjustments and closed out with a 170. I would even go so far to say that since the lanes were fairly open, we could make this a weekly endeavor for any of my blog readers who’d like to participate.

So I finally have a good post on a Tuesday night. I went to Fireside to play trivia on Tuesday. The team didn’t really do well for the first 3 rounds and on the 4th there was a strange capitalization round where you have to say if the letter is capitalized or not. An example would be is the O in AOL capitalized or not? Anyway, for our team name I wrote “the girls across from us are cheating.” This was spotted by one of us and we figured that we would have no chance of winning so at least the guy hosting would know these girls were cheating. After the first 2 questions we were 1 for 2 and I figured this was going to be fine. Sure enough we rattled off the next 8 in a row and we ended up winning the round. So the host calls out “I hope you weren’t copying them but ‘the girls across from us are cheating’ won this round”. So after a few seconds nobody wanted to get up and claim the t-shirt you get from winning because we’d look like dicks. So I just got up sheepishly and claimed the prize. Once the girls realized we were referring to them (the whole bar is laughing at our team name including them) the girls went nuts and started defending themselves which of course was awkward. I didn’t actually see them cheating so I’m just sitting there like a Avox. After a few minutes we left but will probably return next week to clear the air.

After that I went to Double Visions which is a strip club. First off, Double Visions is amazingly enhanced since the last time I went there 3 years ago. Rock and I walked in and walked out because it was embarrassingly disgusting. This time, I must say, the girls were pretty good looking and the interior was well suited for a good time. I ended up telling one girl that I would go for a lap dance (20 dollars) after she did her routine on the stage. My initial plan was to leave before then but as it played out I got a lap dance from her. Surprisingly, this didn’t really get a rise out me. I can’t really explain it but I think the friction just wasn’t happening and even though she was a pro of 9 years, she failed. Aside from that 20 being a complete waste of money, it was a pretty entertaining night for a Tuesday. .

I would like to share an experience with you about drinking and driving.

As you well know, I have been known to have had brushes with the authorities on my way home from the odd social session over the years. A couple of nights ago, I was out for a few drinks with some friends at the Marriott Hotel and had a few too many beers and some rather nice red wine. Knowing full well I may have been slightly over the limit, I did something I’ve never done before:

I took a bus home.

Sure enough I passed a police road block but as it was a bus, they waved it past.

I arrived home safely without incident which was a real surprise, as I have never driven a bus before and am not sure where I got it.

This post has no reference to the Rush song. I thought of something interesting (at least I find it interesting) yesterday. I hardly ever use status updates, likes, or participate in anything Facebook. An idea struck me that if I wanted to promote myself (and my blog), that this would be something that I should do. Start liking people’s retarded updates. Sharing every single thing I’m doing every minute of every day. Basically be a complete tool of social media. This would get my name out there more often than any other means at the lowest cost possible. So I asked myself, is that what I want?

When I presented this idea to Steve and then asked him “would you still respect me as a human being,” his answer was “perhaps”. I find this to be a phenomenal answer. I would turn into a completely fake person. Not participating is me being real. Going out of my way to use Facebook for social means would be a different part of me (ala Katy Perry). On one hand, this is a great idea on self promotion and almost a necessity to expand my network. On the other, I’d become a huge sellout. However, what choice do you have if you want to find the limelight?

Howard Roark (another Fountainhead reference, sorry) relied on the fact that his work was his advertising. The quality of his work would be seen by other people and they would directly come to him to do other projects. What I’m suggesting goes against anything real and involves artificially creating your path towards success. This is how I view celebrities like Paris and LiLo. They actively do things to get their name in the paper. They want to be in the limelight. To put things in perspective, they are commenting on everything on Facebook so people know who they are. The problem with the limelight is that it is unhealthy. This false lifestyle eats away at you. It isn’t pure and sound. So why do people want it? Money helps. Recognition. Feeling important

I do think that there can be a better ways and the answer is my favorite, balance. You have to balance the self promotion. What good is your work if nobody reads it? Sure you have the feeling on the inside but that only takes you so far. There has to be some essence of putting yourself out there to take your work to the next level. Sharing with people to enrich them. This isn’t 1950 when Howard Roark roamed the streets. This is an information society where things happen in the wink of an eye. To reach the limelight you have to take part in the social craze. A rare few people can do it without this medium. Those are the people who can survive the limelight. For the others (my idea), a life of misery awaits.

This post is a culmination of The Fountainhead, an odd move in chess, and the realization of myself. The Fountainhead is a book by Ayn Rand which praises Howard Roark for his dedication to individualism. It’s really an eye opener the way Rand displays the admiration (and disgust) of other characters in this book towards Roark. It’s impossible to read the Fountainhead and not have some self evaluation.

I have been playing chess as a hobby for the past month or so. I’ve been studying the game and trying to improve as it’s a very thinking game. My ranking right now just surpassed a 1,000 (which I’m quite proud of). Grandmasters are 2000+ to give you an example of where I stand. Here is what happened that prompted this post and how this ties in with the previous paragraph. It was the end 3rd game I was playing in a best of 3 with an evenly matched opponent. With both of us having 2 rooks and a queen (I was one pawn ahead) he made a mistake and moved his queen into my queens path to capture with no recapture. I had just played with him for 2 games and knew he didn’t mean to make this move. I offered a draw. I’ve played over 200 games on this site and not one other person has ever offered me a draw for making a bad move. It isn’t what people do. You play to win, not reward people for making mistakes. I felt good about it.

This is one simple chess game in the grand scheme of things that means nothing to anyone in the world yet I’m writing an entire post about it. I didn’t offer a draw so I could write a post about it. I did it because I knew the guy didn’t mean to do it and I don’t want to win that way. If I made him make the mistake, that’s different, but he just didn’t see it. This is gamesmanship. I have it. Most people have never heard of it. This translates to everything I do whether people think so or not. I pride myself on being a fair human being and my honesty because that’s what I can control. I care about other people as well. I can’t adopt the attitude of Howard Roark and live life without the acute awareness of who else shares this planet with me.

Everyone is given a certain skill set to embark with through life. There is a key aspect to being successful in things you do. That answer is hard work. I play chess because I like it, but I study it because I want to get better. I always want to get better at things I do. I try to take advantage of my skill sets by understanding this answer noted above. I have been given tremendous opportunity in this life and it would be my biggest crime as an individual to not take advantage of it. This why I study chess, go to the driving range, or run 10 miles. I think it’s why I maintain a blog. I won’t waste what has been given to me. Even if you think this blog sucks and I’m an arrogant a-hole, know that I’ve given my time, my most valuable asset, to share with you how I view this life. So I don’t care if you don’t like my style, but if one person reads this and says, “yeah, that makes sense,” and does something to improve his life, then I’m fine with it.

I have come across two great no-so secrets that I’m willing to share with my blog audience. I just don’t see people using them as much as they should. I think the ideas apply when a skill level is involved to achieve success. Skill games like golf, chess, or poker are require practice. I will use these in my examples for clarification purposes.

1) Taking advice
2) Paying for advice

1) Taking advice is crucial because it shows two things 1) You want to improve. 2) You admit you are not the best
Many times I feel people just think that they can get better by themselves or they are as good as they can be. It takes people who are better than you do show you better ways to do things. Wanting to get better is the quickest way to improve and other people can help achieve this for you.
2) Paying for advice is something that most people don’t take advantage of. A lot of skill games are decided by the amount of practice involved. Almost all skill games have “professionals” who are willing to give lessons. They usually charge a reasonably amount to help you improve. Spending money to improve is smart because it cuts down on learning time and gives you expert advice. Chess is the perfect example of this. I spend 10 dollars a month to use a program called chess mentor. It teaches me how to play well. Now consider the edge I have against everyone else who doesn’t use this program all because I’m willing to spend a few dollars. People are cheap and don’t understand this value.