Blast from the past
I’m sure Laura will love me for putting up this video but I thought shots of us all as little kids would be a hilarious video. Sam’s head filled with brains! JC’s camera work at the end is pretty typical.
6
Dec, 2012
5
Dec, 2012
4 Letter W’s
W is a letter that is sort of forgotten about. It’s at the end of the alphabet, there are less W words and it’s just an ugly character. That doesn’t mean that its words are any less effective. Here are a few of my favorite 4 letter W words. Why 4 letters? Because that’s what makes this post the perfect length for the amount of words that I can think of. Word.
Weak – The opposite of strong. Strength is power and things that have power are looked highly upon. Therefore, the opposite of strong carries the same weight but just negatively. Kwame Brown’s game is weak. That beer bong you did was weak. The talent here is weak. With what you see on a daily basis, this word could be used continuously.
Wise – A totally underused word. Sadly this is because this planet is full of retards. You rarely get the chance to use this word nowadays. The bible even has a tale using this exact word to describe 3 magical men. Let’s not forget about the awesome shot consisting of Johnnie, Jack and Jim called the 3 wise men. Complementing someone and telling them that they are wise can rarely be sensed as sarcastic.
Well – The complete classic of a word to describe how you are doing. I’m not sure the exact proper grammar of when to use well and good but I’m pretty sure you just always say “I’m doing well”. You can fall down a wishing well. You can order food well done. You can know people well. You can be well off. Tons of expressions can use this word. Plus it makes you sounds way smarter than you are.
Wimp & Wuss – Great insults that no one wants to be called. When I hear wuss I just think of a really scrawny, pathetic, doofus. Like a guy who can do 1 pushup or who cries from getting a bee sting. The epitome of someone you don’t want on a team. A wimp is just a pure weakling. Glass Joe comes to mind or Mincus from Boy Meets World. Forgotten about insults. I feel like I heard them more growing up than I do now.
4
Dec, 2012
A well oiled machine
If you’ve read my blog you’d know that I have a very big picture outlook. Meaning I look at Earth as a tiny spec in the universe and myself as one of 6 billion. With that understanding, and those are facts, I view human beings as machines. Everyone is just a complex, robotic machine. We aren’t like robots because we can think, feel, communicate, and actively live our own lives however we want. We have an unbelievable freedom to choose how we want to live our lives. This brings me to the topic of this post, how you oil your machine.
Your body is obviously your means of transportation and functionality. It’s like a computer in the sense that if you spill liquid on your hard drive, you’ll fry it and it won’t act properly. Your body reacts to everything that you put into it and how you treat it. After 29 years on Earth, you start to develop some common sense about how to treat your body. Alcohol and drugs will slow you down. Lack of exercise will make you unhealthy. Not keeping your brain active will make you stupid. So now that we know that these are keys to keeping a well run machine, why do we want to?
This is one of the hardest questions to answers. On Friday night I was a bit buzzed and was having a conversation with a girl who got me tongue tied. I’m not a wizard at small talk so I just went straight into my spiel of her occupation and what’s important to her. She was some sort of nurse and helping people yada yada. I don’t just ask these questions for conversation but also to judge whether this girl and I would be compatible. So she’s digging the conversation and reverses the conversation on me which is a brilliant move that 9 out 10 girls are too self absorbed to pull and I was caught off guard. I responded with the job and all the other things I’ve recited 100 times in my life and then she asked me “what do you really want to do?” I was stumped and immediately gave her the “I’m getting a drink” and walked away.
What does that interaction have to do with anything? Your well oiled machined should be bringing you closer to the answer to that question that I couldn’t answer. Alcohol and drugs just make it harder for you. It just delays and prevents. Feeling good, thinking smart, being productive, and working out are all outputs of your well oiled machine. My feeling is that when you are 100% sober, eating healthy, and exercising, you’ll have your best chance at success. Now everyone’s measure of success differs but I believe that a clean mental state makes your path easier. It takes hard work to create luck is a quote by someone famous and should explain why needing to be at your best gives you your best shot.
I’m going to make this paragraph short and sweet. My well oiled machine is lubricated with alcohol. What I just wrote are words that a small percent of the population live by. I also find that what I wrote is also the most boring, plain way to go through life. That doesn’t mean it’s not fulfilling, it just means there is no spice. One of my other beliefs in life is to live it. YOLO if you will. We know we are a tiny peon and spending your time working for the man sucks because it’s just brick by boring brick (thank you Hayley) day after day. If you don’t ever incorporate this “fun” into your life you’re doing yourself a disservice. This post is just to open your mind and realize that your life isn’t the epicenter of the universe. Frankly no one gives a flying fuck about anything you do and your existence is small. Small is even too big of a word. The goal needs to be happiness and enjoying the ride by whatever means you deem correct. Be aware and control the pitfalls. Feel good living. Bypass my losers mentality posts and be a winner. Kick life’s ass because no one is going to kick it for you. The one thing I’ve learned is no one, and I seriously mean no one, is going to do it for you. There might be help along the way but for the most part you’re on your own. I write these posts to remind myself of these feelings because I my mental state isn’t always like this. This post comes from a clear headed, healthy TC.
4
Dec, 2012
Spending My Time
I’ve read and watched some interesting things lately. One being Dennis Rodman’s interview in the Rolling Stone from 1996. I found that it gave an insightful look into Rodman who is a weird dude for lack of a better term. Some random tidbits, I didn’t know he had a relationship with Madonna or that he is a big fan of Pearl Jam and 80’s metal bands. He wrote that Madonna said that “she wants to keep every last drop of cum inside of her and have his baby.” I got the feeling that just you and him could be in a room together and he’d feel perfectly comfortable in silence. His dad also fathered 28 children and moved to Morocco (or something like that). Dennis said he should go for the record.
I also watched a documentary on the life of Peter Gatien called Limelight on Showtime. He was the owner of 4 of the most popular New York night clubs in the 70’s, 80’s and throughout the 90’s. This was during the days when ecstasy was at its infancy and rave parties were all the rage. He was busted for his night clubs being “drug supermarkets” but acquitted of all charges when the Government witnesses failed to give credible testimonies of Gatien ever being aware or involved in this illegal activity. They then went after him for tax evasion and basically made it impossible for his clubs to succeed. He was then deported back to Canada. This was the story of a guy who lost an eye as a young man, got a $13,000 dollar settlement, and basically grew a nightclub empire before being taken down by our US gov’t. The story they told made is seem completely unjust and unfair.
The final thing I watched was another documentary called “In Pot We Trust.” It detailed the lives of various individuals who had been cleared to use Marijuana medicinally. Some story lines were that of a lobbyist trying to get a medical marijuana bill passed amongst representatives of congress and a DEA agent going on raids. There were two stories I was shocked at. The one girl had cerebral palsy and stuttered like mofo but after smoking pot she was able to talk properly. It was unbelievable. The other story of the DEA agent showed me something I could never even think of. He said that if a normal person saw 4-5 shades of green, he would see 40-50. This would allow him to spot Marijuana plants from a helicopter easier than most. This just blew my mind because his physical attributes make him better at spotting plants than me just because he can see more colors. Where does this ever end? Maybe people can see 10 miles deep or hold their breath for an hour. Are there any limitations to what humans can become? And for those wondering my stance on the legality of pot? I don’t believe people are more functional on pot and I believe legalizing would be detrimental to society. That being said, I would still vote for it.
I’m also reading a biography on Springsteen.
3
Dec, 2012
180
The one nice thing about life is that things can change rather quickly. After the most recent betting loss which cost me my bovada account (I must add that I only lost 200 dollars in 13 weeks of betting), I put 100 dollars in FanDuel which allowed me to win back about 170 dollars assuming RG3 goes for less than 30 and if Eli goes for less than 11, I’ll win even more. The extreme plus side though was that my fantasy team put up a monster week in Evan’s league and will slide me into the playoffs for the 3rd consecutive year stamping my place on the league. Not to mention all of my players getting hot at the ideal time. I also mustered up a win in the yahoo pro league which has me right in the playoff hunt for the 4th spot with a sick team (Peyton, Percy, Demaryius, Dez, and a slew of backs in Murray, McFadden, Reece, Spiller). I have a chance of making the playoffs in 3 of 4 leagues which I would certainly take at the beginning of the season. So all that mumbo jumbo of losing can get wiped off pretty quickly and I’m not one who can be kept down. Especially now that all my physical sports are out of the way.
I’m sure people read this and shake their heads about the kind of money I write about winning and losing but you’re gonna have to trust me that I will never bet with money that I can’t afford to lose. I would say that I probably have a propensity towards betting but I wouldn’t say it’s a significant problem. I want to add though why I can make such a statement. After that last post and my recent downturn, I was asked to go to AC for the night. As I considered this I asked myself what I was getting myself into. AC surely is a 3am night with gambling involved that I would say losing occurs 75% of the time. This would have made me feel like shit on Sunday and continued my ill feelings towards everything. I declined this invite and had a Sunday Funday, ran 5 nice miles today, and generally feel good about things. As a human being it’s important to try to make proper decisions to put yourself in the right place. When I go to the Sugarhouse at 3am on Friday night, this is one of those bad decisions where you are asking for trouble. By somehow evading these spots, you can make improvements.
A good week of blogging should follow.
2
Dec, 2012
Even the losers
I’ve been in a whirlwind of losing and it’s starting to take its toll on me. This feeling basically makes you want to not do anything. It’s a paralyzing effect. I’m going to bring everyone into this world with a quick update on losing.
I’d say that this feeling started during the 5k Gobble Wobble and my 17:57 which was about 57 seconds slower than “my goal”. Perhaps this 17 minute mark was an unrealistic goal but I was going to the gym fairly regularly and was actually trying to get my time down. So being a minute off is pretty much not even close and that’s when this downward spiral started. I then lost 200 bucks playing poker a few days later by showing down the 2nd best hand with high frequency. A couple days later Jeff whooped me in ping pong 6 of 7 games. The next tragedy occurred when our basketball team lost to a bunch of scrubs and it hurts for me to even elaborate on this sporting event. I followed up the basketball loss with a 300 dollar drunk blackjack session loss on Friday night. Next came the defeat of our football team in a winnable game but cost us “the championship.” Finally, in a rash move I read a predictem article on why FSU would cover, so I put 200 bucks on a last ditch effort to try to right the wrong and obviously I probably wouldn’t be mentioning it if it didn’t fit the theme.
This brings me to today and fantasy football implications looming. I have high hopes but the way things have been going I’m certainly not brimming with full blown confidence. It’s hard to explain how I’ve somehow gotten so proficient at losing but it’s starting to feel like a cloud around me. I know that life throws ups and downs at you and it’s important to be emotionally stable during the downturns. It makes you want to stop everything and just sit still until the storm passes but I think staying positive and active might be a better approach. With that being said I’m going to keep my head up and work through this shit storm. This too shall pass.
30
Nov, 2012
Deadly Dentist Visit
While I was sitting in the waiting room at the dentist office, 1 elderly woman probably in her 70’s was sitting beside me and another woman who was no spring chicken entered the office. They knew each other and this was their conversation.
-Hello, Burnice.
-Hello, Ethel.
-I haven’t seen you in a while.
-Yeah, it’s been a long time.
-How are things?
-Same old, Same old.
-Just the way you like it.
-Yep.
-Ok. I’ll see you later.
-Goodbye.
It seemed to… casual. There is nothing guaranteed about life. To make it to that age you’ve done an absolutely superb job living. A humans #1 priority in life is to continue living. When you start getting up there in age it starts to get scary because a lot of questions with no answers begin arriving. With the most blunt way of putting it, what happens when you die? Do you float around as a spirit watching over people? Live another life in Heaven or Hell? Become re-incarnated as an animal depending on the quality of life you lead? You just don’t know. So when I see that these people are living their day to day just as casually as the next, I feel a sense of well being. They aren’t worried about death. How could you continue living if you were afraid to die? This is a very vicious cycle that falls into the category called the circle of life. It’s a truly mind boggling experience when you really start to think about it and how many little answers exist. You live. Then you die. Your 75 years of existence is 75/14 billion. Humans have been around for only a few millions years. We are a tiny spec in a humongous universe. I picture bigger, smarter, more intelligent beings that have been around for longer who look at us as a project or something. Like a petri dish. And there are billions of humans right now. I’m 1 of 6 billion humans on this planet. With Gourlay’s help we can reiterate this “I know one thing, that I know nothing”.
29
Nov, 2012
Postal Service vs Death Cab For Cutie
* I just have to edit this saying that I just listened to the album again through and I can’t give my first paragraph my 100% support. I wouldn’t be able to deal with misleading people.
Every time a song by the Postal Service plays on the radio on I remember how much I enjoyed their only CD Give Up. A pretty creative title considering the band disbanded in 2003. The band consisted of two members, vocalist Ben Gibbard and producer Jimmy Tamborello. The album has catchy electronica beats and Ben Gibbard provides a soothing sound and thoughtful lyrics. Every song on the album was worth listening to and made you want to listen again. I think I listened to strictly this album for a month straight. There are only 10 songs! Of the few oddball groups that I like, this one is near the top. There is one really specific thing though that doesn’t make sense to me. In perhaps the best song, Nothing Better, on this CD, the lyric “And I will block the door like a goalie tending the net In the third quarter of a tied-game rivalry” doesn’t make any sense. Other than that, I give everything about this group an A.
Now we come to Ben Gibbards “band” Death Cab for Cutie which started in 97′, 6 years earlier than the Postal Service started. They have created 7 albums of which I’ve only heard the singles off of. I don’t like their music. I find the songs catchy to start but start getting really annoying after multiple listens. Ben Gibbard is once again vocals but this mix of people just doesn’t create music like the Postal Service did. Here are some of their singles: I Will Follow You into the Dark is a slow, above average song, You Are A Tourist is a whiny, crack my head open if I have to hear it again type, Soul Meets Body is probably my favorite of the band, and I Will Possess Your Heart makes me want to switch the station as fast as I can. I would say I’d change Death Cab 95% of the time if it were playing on the radio. Conversely, I’d switch the Postal Service 5%.
So the question lies, because I’m sure I’m not the only person on the planet who thinks like this, why doesn’t Ben Gibbard ditch the losers and start making electonica madness with Dntel again? I want to add that Death Cab has music nominated for Grammy’s so they must not be half bad… I just wonder if they knew ahead of time that it was a one shot deal and that’s why they made titled the album “Give Up”.
28
Nov, 2012
Why Do You Watch the Sport You Watch?
Sam watches running. JC likes basketball. Laura enjoys baseball. Jeff just watched boxing. Nance likes to watch anything JC isn’t. Everyone has their sports they treasure. Why do we get high on certain sports and not others? I think it depends on a personal connection with the sport like you played it in the past or it just makes you feel happy watching. I’ve always seen it as something to partake in and relieve your mind from thinking about your busy day to day rather than rooting for my team. This post is going to give you an idea of some opinions I have on various sports.
I can’t stomach baseball games. I find them them boring and slow. I don’t actively feel the stress of the game in every pitch. Even full counts, bottoms of the 9th and grand slams don’t get me riled up. I have a feeling that baseball has just always seemed tainted to me and the competition level is always suspect. When I was 11 years old, baseball had a strike that JC would always say, “I can’t watch baseball again.” Here is the description of the strike of 94‘: “The cancellation of the 1994 World Series was the first since 1904; meanwhile, Major League Baseball became the first professional sport to lose its entire postseason due to a labor dispute. The strike has been considered one of the worst work stoppages in sports history and it left the fans and the sports world outraged.” Perhaps my father’s opinion had an impression on me was a young boy psychologically. I honestly don’t believe any of that type of thinking for what it’s worth.
I also think that my playing days have kind of worn me thin of a game I don’t care much for. We had some unreal baseball teams when I was 13 or so. I wasn’t the main contributor but I was on a team that went 38-0 over the course of two seasons (accuracy check Bud)? That team practiced more than any other team I’ve ever been on. We took it seriously and I think I learned many wonderful life lessons that I can take with me for the rest of my days. Hard work, discipline, teamwork, sportsmanship, and just being the reward of being the best (In that particular league and age group. Let’s not get this confused with the actual best). It was a strong phase in my life, but baseball was never my calling and it’s just another game for me.
I was a bigger basketball fan as a young kid but the game still interests me because I understand it. I can’t see running as a spectator sport even though I take joy in it. I find football fun to watch and I like the action but it’s the actual action that makes the game exhilarating. Golf is such a skillful game and it’s great to be outdoors when you play but the TV angle just doesn’t do it for me. I’ve hardly given a least scoring game on the planet, soccer, a chance so I won’t comment. I get a kick out of MMA but rarely find myself getting psyched for any fights. I’ve tried to check into hockey a few times but find myself over the boards. Everything else is secondary. I enjoy watching sports but they don’t have my heart. Opinions welcomed. Who doesn’t like sports?
28
Nov, 2012
Carlos Ruiz Juicing
I know this topic gets old but at least appreciate my Carlos Ruiz juice box in paint. Just to continue this though let’s look at numbers because they don’t lie. Ruiz came to Philly at the age of 27 but lets see how his avg fared in the minors from the beginning.
Age Avg Lev
21 .277 Rk
22 .261 A
23 .213 A+
24 .278 AA
25 .284 AA
26 .300 AAA
27 .307 AAA
Chooch steadily improved throughout the minors. At 28, rookie year with the Phillies in 2007, he batted .259 in 429 plate appearances and .219 the year after in 373 PA. At 30, he put up a .255 avg with 379 PA. Now the fun begins in 2010. At the mature age of 31, Chooch shot up to a .302 AVG in 433 PA and a still nice .283 the following year. Then an unbelievable .325 last year with still a pretty high sample of plate appearances (421). Where did these numbers come from? A guy who was painstakingly working his way through the minors in his 20’s, magically started improving in his 30’s. Not just improving but being one of the best hitters in the league. This doesn’t happen naturally! Could you argue that he is working harder now than he did in his 20’s? I just don’t buy it because I bet he worked his ass off to even get to the majors. Then he just starts improving and now he’s tested positive for some type of drug TWICE! Adderall isn’t the answer for why he has improved. There is some underlying enhancement that is being covered up. Most people don’t just excel when they hit their 30’s, it’s usually the other way around with a decline. Baseball is different than basketball and football in terms of the stress on the body, I’d agree, but I don’t agree that years of being a <.260 hitters all of a sudden becomes .325 hitter. Keep sipping that juice box Chooch. It's not longer Juicin, It' Choochin.