More stuff…
So I’m not going to take the job at Hustler, just yet. The job offer is permanent, so I’m told. I guess connections (wherever it might be from) have merit after-all. I will just stick with unemployment for now as I’m figuring this semester will be loaded with material.
I’m sure KKK and WP will be disappointed to hear that I won’t have any amusing porn store anecdotes for right now. Sorry, WP, can’t use my existence for your late night imagination.
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I became addicted to a new TV show over the weekend as I was already deep into school-work. Everwood. On the surface, I always thought the premise of this story was antiquated and hokey but in reality, the show was really good. I’ve only seen the first season for now (My mother had it in her collection) and learning they canceled the show after I discovered it really disappoints me. I looked around and apparently the other seasons haven’t been released yet but I’m already waiting.
It’s a pretty simple show with good characters, interesting plot and I liked how the lead female was a classic girl next door in terms looks. That’s not always the case with TV dramas depicting teenagers. Katie Holmes, Jeanie Garth, Jen Williams, Mischa Barton are hardly “normal” looking girls but this chick
is and not only that, she completely reminds me of my first “love”…so its quite surreal watching the show for the obvious reasons…
The problem with watching shows about the teenage years (the well written ones, that is) that it usually forces you to connect with your own years and you sorta get sad/nostalgic about those days. Every movie or TV show devoted towards the early 20’s is always so god-damn negative and cynical. Maybe I’m crazy, but life isn’t bad. I figure all those movies were the work of people who ignored life and living in high school and are bitter about missing out on life.
A lot of those types are here and they have such scorching hatred for high school and popular society and create a false impression that they were better then it by not being apart of that world, but it’s a lie. Bitterness and contempt for something they could have prevented is unhealthy.
If your life sucked growing up, if you weren’t popular, if you didn’t get the girl…so what? Put it behind you and make it work this time around.
You only get a handful of years to make life worth living…don’t waste it by being bitterly pissed.
This was a pretty fast week that I didn’t really realize had passed but it was fairly enjoyable in spite of getting into the groove of a easy yet enjoyable job and general happiness in life.
The big “deal” is TALL STACKS. If anyone isn’t familiar with this event, it’s a bi-annual ceremony of riverboats converging onto the riverbank for a ton of concerts (mostly country, folk and some indy rock acts), food and historic stuff along with big fucking boats. It’s a pretty big tourist attraction to say the least and usually I don’t care about it as I’ve only been once and that was a kid and didn’t care for it. However, my chick works the front desk for one of the higher up hotels in that area and they are under the gun, which was the fun part about visiting her at work for the first time. I love seeing girls all flustered by work, it’s cute.
Oh, KKK? The game’s a wrap. Won.
Things to ramble on…
Baseball
I was completely off about everything. Which I’m fine with because despite not having any classic games and only Tigers/Yankees game 2 being particularly memorable, I’ve enjoyed this post-season.
Congrats to the A’s for getting that monkey off their proverbial backs and I’ve really gotten to like some of those guys. Minnesota was too business-minded and in turn that hurt them, while Oakland’s free-wheeling nature finally helped them.
The NL West completely laid down and I don’t see either franchise making a 0-2 comeback. They might push it to 5 games but I said each team is done.
It’s fantastic to see Yankees on the ropes against Detroit but I’m not foolish enough to assume that it’s over. Yankees can turn the switch on like *that*.
Football
Quickie Picks
Buffalo @ Chicago
-Chicago’s really fucking good but Buffalo has the ability to keep games ugly and close. I don’t think it’ll be a blow-out along the lines off the ass-kicking they gave Seattle (which was STATEMENT game) but it’ll be decisive enough.
Buffalo 10
Chicago 20
Cleveland @ Carolina
-Cleveland plays ugly but they don’t play good. They can play close but Carolina looks to be clicking with STEVE SMITH out there.
Cleveland 16
Carolina 31
Detroit @ Minnesota
-I’m starting to think Detroit might be getting somewhere and Minnesota isn’t going anywhere. I’ll call for the upset win because I think Detroit will cover anyways.
Detroit 23
Minnesota 20
Miami @ New England
-NE owned Cincinnati last week in their own statement game. Miami is a complete fraud. Will Miami cover? It’s a division game and Miami has been good against NE in the past, it’s certainly probable.
Miami 9
New England 17
St. Louis @ Green Bay
-St. Louis is still a weird team that isn’t clear yet but GB is a bad team and there’s no denying that. I could buy GB pulling off a win here but I’ll be conservative with St. Louis again.
St. Louis 24
Green Bay 16
Tampa @ New Orleans
-NO took the predictable lost but looked good in doing so. TB is a disaster and that isn’t exclusive to the QB situation.
Tampa 13
New Orleans 28
Tennessee at Indianapolis (18.5)
-Indianapolis had a scare last week and I can’t imagine them getting in that position once more and especially not against Tennessee. The line worries me but I trust Peyton Manning (in the regular season, at least).
Tennessee 7
Indianapolis 31
Washington @ New York
-Who knows? Seriously, these are the games you can’t really honestly predict. It’ll be ugly or just all out. No middle ground.
Washington 21
New York 26
Kansas City @ Arizona
-Arizona is inching closer to being a step above ineptitude but as long as Warner is their starter, it’s a slow climb. KC does well against shitty teams and this should be no exception.
Kansas City 34
Arizona 20
New York @ Jacksonville
-New York looked really good last week and I’m not sure that line is fair. I’ll go with the Jets to cover but not for the win.
New York 13
Jacksonville 17
Oakland @ San Francisco
-Good God. SF is so miserable that they could only get 3.5 pts on the Raiders, but to be fair, that’s the same amount Cleveland went up by.
Oakland 10
San Francisco 14
Dallas @ Philadelphia
-You would think this was the Super Bowl, given the hype and talk regarding this match. What’s so intriguing about this match-up? Beyond the weak and over-rated catcalls from a degenerate fan base in Philadelphia and the first and ONLY hard shot T.O will get? TO will make his mark against Philadelphia because he thrives in these games. The pressure will eat at McNabb and he’ll wither up as usual.
Dallas 24
Philadelphia 16
Pittsburgh @ San Diego
-I think this is a crucial game for each QB. Ben needs to recover and get on track and Rivers will be severely tested as Pittsburgh can swallow up a running game, even one involving LT. It’ll be tight and pretty fun.
Pittsburgh 17
San Diego 21
Baltimore @ Denver
-Should be an old style smash mouth game. Plummer against the Ravens defense will be intriguing and let’s see just how magical McAir is against that defense.
Baltimore 17
Denver 10
On Saturday morning, driving back home after crashing at Allison’s apartment, I was fairly relaxed and took the scenic route as opposed to my regular routine (after all, I wasn’t in any particular rush to get home). Right now, is my most favorite time of the year. The weather is just right with the heat dying out, the crisp mornings and evening chills creeping in just before the icy freeze of winter’s gloom arrives and you get this build up within, a rush of events in the form of holidays, family gatherings, mass rushes of shopping euphoria and forced kindness in the spirit of the holiday season.
Football is in full bloom from high school (playoff football is a huge deal in SW Ohio), college (the madness of the BCS strikes again, and no matter what the “playoff!” enthusiasts will say, they know that the current format offers so much more intrigue) and pro (the contenders and pretenders separate and the race to the super bowl begins). Movies, the good movies that studios have complete faith in to be academy award candidates are rolling out alongside the family comedy blockbusters that drive the art house elite into frenzied coffee fueled rants about the decline of something that I ignore because they aren’t worth the time to pretend to give a shit.
I drove along with some innocuous music serving as theme music for the long drive and I happened to drive pass a Best Buy, which was oddly placed into a vacant mass of land occupied on its own as if it was mistakenly dropped there and no one bothered to move it to the proper location that was swiftly replaced with another Wal-Mart Super Center. There was a long line of people sitting around the side of the building apparently waiting for the release of yet another stupid game system.
After all the reports that came out about the PS3 release and the backlash that occurred, I couldn’t believe these people (likely the same ones that sat in the same spot a week ago) buy into the promotion that they MUST own these over-priced game systems as soon as humanly possible regardless of all the likely glitches and product dependability issues that always occur from these initial launches. If you can’t wait 3 months when the price will likely drop, the bad editions will be tossed aside and there’s no having to stand in a line with someone who hasn’t showered in a 2-3 days, then I’m can’t really feel sorry for those that wasted a tremendous chunk of money on this product. People are getting robbed and attacked not just by SONY/Nintendo but by regular assholes and I can’t help but to feel like they probably had it coming.
I kept driving along when I somehow ended up behind a dump truck full of dirt, rocks and assorted materials. It was an impassable one lane road, so I did the common sense thing of dropping back a decently measured distance to avoid those pinging rocks and clumps of dirt from colliding with my car. Generally, I won’t care about getting a little dirt on the car or even tiny scruffs from the falling rocks but I still plan on selling this car very soon and I wasn’t looking to lower the value of the car. My intention didn’t work out to my hopes as my impatience got the best of me and I moved in closer and decided I would simply just slingshot past the truck knowing the risk that would occur on a narrow one lane road. I signaled to the driver that I was passing and I began to proceed and about half-way pass the truck, he suddenly sped up as we went into a curve that gave me zero room to make that pass, forcing me to dropping back behind him and as you would imagine with his increased speed and my now close proximity, the rocks bounced off the shaking truck and pinged right onto the hood.
I dropped back again further and finally he disappeared. Once I finally got home, I surveyed the damage to the hood and while it wasn’t drastic, there were noticeable dents and marks. It won’t hurt the car and it can be fixed fairly easy but it’s kind of annoying to see the scruffs and some of the paint chipping away. It’s disconcerting because this was my first purchased car and even though I stopped driving it for awhile, I still had an attachment to it. It was a beautiful, shiny fresh car when I first brought it way back when and now it’s becoming old, used up and faded from its once beautiful state. I guess that’s the course of life for everything, isn’t it?
On Thursday, 11/16/06, my oft-mentioned friend from the past finally gave birth to a supposedly healthy boy (I say this because I never got how they determine health for a freaking infant that’s been alive for no more then 2 days, give it some time to catch a disease or something before labeling it “healthy”). Named the kid, Jason James. Apparently, no real significance. However, that just made me wonder about something.
In all of life, I have to imagine naming your child has to be one of the more stressful tasks possible. It sounds silly but what you name that kid will most likely determine his course in life. Also, will parents stop trying to be creative with names? Throwing extra letters, or changing a letter in a regular name to make it different. I’m stick of the different spellings for names like Sean/Shawn/Shaun. Can’t we have some international vote about what will be the official proper spelling of these names? It seems parents think they win something if they have the most creative name for their kid. Im talking regular folk, not the celebrity nutcases that name their kids, Apple or Suri. At least those kids can point at their parents and we understand. Regular kids with regular parents don’t have an excuse. I did bring this up with Allison though and I learned a lesson.
DON’T.
I learned that girls have pre-named all their future children before we (males) even started killing our prospective kids with scrambled Cine-Max. All I ask if that if I ever do produce a spawn boy, that he’d have my father’s first name for his middle name like the past 4 generations of first born sons in our family have. (I.E, my grandfather’s given first name is my middle name). However, I learned that David (my father’s first name) doesn’t fit with her pre-approved names for any male child. I made a compromise, I would get to name all the dogs. I think it’s a fair trade. Oh, yes. It’s only two months into this thing and we’re already having that “kids/marriage/future” talk. That’s further ahead then I ever really got with my previous ex’s. Scary.
On Wednesday night, while I was standing in the pouring rain looking into her eyes, with the shriek of thousands around me rushing to get away from the deluge…I answered my own question and confirmed my doubts.
She smiled and nodded her head and I took her in and gave her a kiss on the forehead. We didn’t speak to each other for a ½ hour. We just stood in the pouring rain looking out over the river and we finally turned around and headed back to our seats.
It was strange, to break up peacefully. We actually enjoyed the night more this way. A part of me hates that it wasn’t the relationship I dreamt of years ago. I can’t tell what the fault was but I suspect it was just the fact we went into this whole thing trying to fulfill a childhood dream and didn’t realize that it was just that a dream…
It never worked, right from the start. Our schedules alone kept us apart, the spark didn’t extend past that first night of passion (which was just years of tension exploding)…
It’s rare to honestly mean “we’re still friends” but in this instance it is.
The real awkward part is having to see her family again, they are probably more disappointed in the extinction of this relationship then we are.
It’s for the best, really. School is starting in 5 weeks anyways. Miami, home of yuppie hot white pussy. Cool.
School D. Work
That’s rightl; I finally came to the decision. I’m taking this really big risk and I’m giving up my cushy well paying office job to go to school full-time.
I could stay on this track and be a top guy before I’m 25 and be making ridiculous money…but it’s not what I want to do.
I said this last time, I can’t be my father.
So, I’m sticking with school. Im going to spend money to get a degree that I’ll probably never use.
Weddings.
This is the wedding season, for me at least. In the next 6 weeks, I’m attending 3 weddings. One for a co-worker, my cousin and my sister.
Obviously the first two are merely “show up” deals but the sister one? That’s big. I’m just an usher, which feels dumb.
I never got weddings, really. I’ve been to over a dozen (I lost count) and probably 2-4 of them are still active.
It’s just another excuse for getting drunk and that means nothing to me. However, watching my grandmother get trashed is worth at least an hour of amusement.
Reds.
So, the Reds are actually still in contention as we near the trade-deadling. On March 1st, I never would have imagined we’d be in this place. Playoffs or no playoffs, I’m exicted to know that for the first time in awhile, it appears we got an intelligent GM and owner that gives a fuck.
So, here it is. It's monday afternoon and I am currently in the cpu lab at school, waiting for my late-start class that I added (for easy credits), the class doesn't begin until 5:30 and it's over at 8:25. My last class ended at 11:50. That left me with quite a bit of time to waste.
The problem is? I'm a commuter regional branch campus, there's nothing to do here. We have a tiny little lounge area in the main building and this cpu lab. Not even a cafeteria or anything (that's because they are adding a giant wing to the main building and that closed the regular lounge and cafeteria for the time being). It's in Middletown, a town that KKK is well-versed with. He can testify that it's basically a dead town.
There's ample dining locales, but not much in the way of entertainment. The local mall is basically reduced to a JCPennys and some other department store. The local movie theater doesn't run in the afternoon during the week and it's a dump anyways. There's a bowling alley but who goes there on Monday afternoons?
I can't go home, because that's a 35 mile drive thats unneccesary because I would have to drive back here for that class anyways. Most of my friends, don't go to this school. When you attend a commuter school, you don't get much social exercise.
I have no work to do, I actually managed to accomplish that already. I already ate a quick lunch at a local chinese buffet (which I will regret in about an hour). I just sit here, listening to random music, surf random websites including this message board...
This past weekend, wasn't that great. Sure, basketball was interesting but it really doesn't mean anything.
I'm profoundly bored. My on again, off-again girlfriend/best friend is coming home 2moro morning for Spring Break, so hopefully that'll perk me up for the time being.
There was really no point to this whole thing.
I figured that If I'm going to randomly comment on people's blogs here, I might as well contribute some of my own chaotic or pointless observations/rants for others to mock.
I don't think anyone really cares about the particular details of who I am, because when it's at a internet message board, isn't everything really still anonymous? I am 20 years old, yet you couldn't convince me that being 20 is any different then being 17. I just have more things to pay for and the government has granted me the ability to die for this country for no true purpose (although, I wasn't even good enough to do that, according to the government. That's fine, I like being alive, despite it's flaws).
After I graduated from my conservative all white high school here. I took a year off from education because high school completely burnt me out. Besides, I knew where i was going to college and waiting a year wasn't going to alter my abilities to attend. I decided to be one of those "self-searching" fools, but in reality I was just escaping the fact I have to grow up and abandon childhood hopes and dreams. I continued to work and I sank into that role, I would idiotic hours. All my friends, the few I had from high school had already gone off to college and I started hearing from them less frequently. Around winter 2004, my phone stopped ringing and my AIM buddy list was nearly vacant.
I wasn't lonely or sad about the changes in my life, however. I was just discouraged by the lack of motivation. I was materialistic for awhile, i drowned myself in items like a new car, electronic upgrades and other pointless 'entertainment' novelties.
I had a jolt to my system, on January 11th. It was around 7:30, I had just finished a dinner that I cooked myself (god bless tv dinners) and I heard my cell phone ringing. At that point, hearing my cell ring was getting to be a rarity. I grabbed the phone and saw I had a txt message, but didn't know the number. I read the message and it was a simple message, someone asking where someone else was. I replied "you got the wrong number, sry"...
4 hours later, I was in love with the person who sent me the wrong txt message. In my life, prior to that moment, I had short and meaningless relationships (save for one special one, that had nearly crushed me to pieces). The girl, behind the messages was perfect. She was younger though, 16 to my 19 but that really didn't matter in my eyes.
We got to talking daily via txt, aim and the occasional talk and it was increasingly obvious this was the perfect girl, it seemed. I finally mustered the balls to arrange a meeting. She only lived 30 minutes from me. We met at her house, rain softly fell as our eyes collided for the first time. I lost myself in those green eyes of hers. She was physically indescribable. Tall, blond and athletic. The awkwardness, shuffled away as we talked. It was like we were already together for years, the chemistry was perfect.
the next seven months, it was the most intense and incredible piece of my life. I woke up with a voice-mail from her every day and I spend hours with her, My life was only for her. As this was going on, the two friends i really kept in touch with were equally going through difficult times. My best friend, her brother had just committed suicide(he was 23) and my other friend, had been involved in a car accident and broke her leg. She was confined to a wheelchair for a bit of time.
It was during this time, the realization of the fact I'm in this serious relationship, my friends are going through these rough times. Childhood? was thrown out the door.
My girlfriend and I, broke up. On our 8 month anniversary. She cheated. "I didn't mean to...It just happened". Did you regret it? I asked. "No". she whispered. So much for that happiness....
While this was going on, I finally went and enrolled into college. Miami University (Ohio). So, i was starting this monumential thing (college) on the heels of an ultimate emotional heartbreak. In my life, I always was the one to put a end to things, but this time I had my chips and I was all in...and I lost the hand.
The next six months, never really existed. I tried to move on, I dated others but I wasn't quite feeling like I ever really got her out of my system. Then, one night...it just went away. All thanks to one person and that was my best friend. Years of sexual tension and uncertain feelings finally reached a boiling point.
I still miss my ex, we still talk occasionally and she's happy with that same guy she left me for. I want to hate her guts for what she did to me, but I knew her and I know she did the right thing...
It's almost April 2006, and I'm so far away from childhood now. I have a cousin, who is 12. He is always asking me on advice on how to make his teenage years special.
I tell him "don't expect anything. your life will not be a fairy tale". As we all grow up, we expect the answers to reveal themselves, but they never really do. We learn them but never quite knew it and it brushes by us like a faint wind.
It's been awhile since I checked in here, so here's a quasi update on my world beyond TSM.
Classes end next wednesday. Actually, I only have one exam to take as the rest of my final scores depend on projects or portfolios.
This would conclude my first year of college and I can conclude that it was a disapointing expeirence. I did fairly well academically, which was never a concern despite my alarming laziness. I spent the first semester at the main campus @ Oxford living in a house with a couple other guys. I enjoyed that although it really wasn't the Animal House thrill I expected.
Unlike alot of the kids who go to Miami, I don't have my parents throwing me $ to attend this school. It was my decision, as I am paying for school on my own, that I would move back in my house and just commute to Miami's regional school in Middletown. This is a 20 minute commute and probably for the best because academically, everything is the same.
I will continue at Miami. I had considered transfering to Kent St where my ex/best friend goes but I decided that I couldn't just follow her. I have to make my own mark. So I'll stay at Miami. I'm attending all three branches, Oxford/Middletown/Hamilton.
I got a promotion at work
For the last two years, I have worked at a plant. We design and build customized conveyor systems for all sorts of companies like Kellog's, General Electric, Honeywell Security, 3M Corp and DHL.
My job was on the parts assembly crew, and on occasions I would do field jobs. Where I would go to the company's base and build the conveyor on-site or just repair them.
The security that is involved at places like General Electric, is fucking CRAZY. I probably had to go through 100 checkpoints, had my work-truck throughly scanned and they had posted guards to watch me while I worked. I had to get clearence just to take my drill out of my box. It would normally take 2 hours to do those jobs but GE made it take 10 hours. Just fucking nuts.
Anyways, after two years of doing that...I was promoted to foreman of the assembly crew. What this means is essentially nothing except a title and a 5% raise, which I like. The idea is that most of my crew that I worked with is being moved around...supposedly getting higher jobs.
Here is the bullshit of it. I am 20 years old, the youngest and least tenured person on that crew and I got the foreman job (the former foreman left the job for personal reasons). I know why I got the job and so does everyone else. The president of the plant, is my father's best friend. That's how I got the job to begin with. Luckily, I worked my ass off enough to convince those other guys that I earn my pay. Now, this advancement isn't going to help my image. Since my crew is being split apart, I have to assemble a new crew in the next 2 weeks.
Summer time, is our busy time. I'm supposed to handle big orders from fucking Kellog's and Honeywell all summer (which means dealing with them as well) and I also gotta train 4-5 new guys.
This weekend, could be AWESOME or really, really bad
This weekend, I have plans (gasp!). On friday night, I make the short trek to Dayton to attend the RING OF HONOR show. I'll cover my expecations for this show in a later blog. Saturday morning, after a short stint at work I will drive to Athens, OH. Which is where Ohio University is located.
Readers of this blog (all 2 of you) might remember my friend Natalie, the former egomanaical virgin turned mother to be. I decided to give her a visit, since she has been going nuts (understandably so) and I figure she needs an old friend to rest her mind. I'm taking her out of Athens for the day and we're going to drive to Cleveland, and attend that night's ROH show. It is after that show, we will head to Kent St to visit my ex (and she's willing to put up with Nat for the night, despite their mutual dislike). So that'll be fun or exciting at least. It's possible I regret this. Considering who i'm spending the majority of the weekend with. The ROH shows, will be good at least.
The car situation hasn’t really been figured out, yet. I’m still looking around and haven’t found anything that I want just yet. I’m borrowing a pick up that my father had, and usually just riding with Allison. I figure I’ll lock down on a new car before the fucking ball drops next week.
I’ve said many times around this place that I adore and fucking love the holiday/winter season. However, it hasn’t felt like winter. It’s regularly 65 degrees here and that’s just wrong. I need that chill down my spine as I feel the breeze creep into the house, or see my breath hang in the air as I walk to the shop, or feel the crunch of the powder white snow collapsing against the ice. I don’t want to be working outside in jeans and a t-shirt. I don’t want to see girls walking around in something that isn’t an adorable sweater or jacket with rosy cheeks. The holiday season hasn’t felt like the holidays, not remotely. There’s not a shred of “joy” or “cheer” throughout the land. Just a mass mess of consumerism walking around looking for some stupid ass Video Game System to make our children grow fatter, lazier and more incompentant at anything other then Left, Right, Down, Up, Left, B, Select, Right, Down, A, Right, Up.
Yesterday, I had my mother’s family to deal with. Ironically enough, as a child, I couldn’t find these people endearing. I got older and despite their increased obnoxiousness, I can handle them easier nowadays. Although, we hold these xmas gatherings at my cousin’s house and I get it, “Your Rich!”, seriously. They had a entertainment system that Marvin would have whipped his untouched dick out and jacked feverishly. TV’s don’t need to be 70 inches wide and 18 feet high. I received about $300 in gift cards from Best Buy, Target, Restaurants and Barnes and Noble. I don’t enjoy getting cards because of the lack of sentiment attached but given that I know none of these people aside from these family gatherings, I can excuse them for it. What I dislike is that given the size of the family, each person is given a list of 12 people to buy for (not including the boy/girl-friends, you have to be family or married/engaged into it) Everyone has a different list and somehow, everyone gets the same # of gifts, other then my grandmother whom usually gets about 30 pointless gifts. I just got her a gift card to Cracker Barrel since she likes that shit.
Allison skipped this one because we agreed to just do one side for each family and she had to work last night. That’s a shame, she fits in more with my mother’s side then she does with my father’s side and she’ll join me tonight for that one. My father’s side is incredibly boring. Nothing happens, it’s the same conversations, same jokes and this time it’ll consist of less random syllables spoken during the Bengals/Broncos game.
It’s a complete contrast. Mom’s side is rather pretentious and money obsessed but they are at least alive. Dad’s side feels like a funeral with the awkward head nodding, small talk and general feeling of “I gotta get outta here” floating over the tiny house that belonged to my grandmother before she died and was brought by my aunt. I know for a fact at least 10-12 people who usually attend this aren’t because they don’t want to.
Gifts used to be dispersed but given the lack of closeness (in spirit, we all live close) between my intermediate family and the rest of my dad’s distant family, that’s gone now too. My uncles, aunts and cousins don’t feel the need to exchange gifts with my family. They’ll do their real Christmas later tonight away from us. It’s a fucking farce. It’s Christmas without presents, family warmth or anything. It’s thanksgiving but with less food.
I’ll do Allison’s father’s side tomorrow night and that’s about the same as my mother’s side in that they’re pretentious snobs as well.
The real issue was the decision if she would have xmas in the morning with my inmediate family, since she doesn’t have that with hers. My sister waited 2 years with her husband while they were dating before he did that with us, I took that cue and felt maybe it’s too soon and she completely agreed. It feels weird. She’s moving with me, in this very house in a few months, here all the time and yet, Christmas morning is still to “sacred" to impede on, she felt.
I spent way too much this year. $7,849. To be exact. To be fair, most of that was on my father's gift. Otherwise, it was about my usual average.
In the next week, I'll be having two Year in Review entries. One for my personal life, which is about 80% of the content in these blogs and a wrestling based one over ROH, WWE and TNA including my BEST OF 2006 lists including the top 25 MOTY's. The #1 is probably obvious but the rest of the list might surprise some.
So this weekend didn't quite finish the way I expected, hell it never even got started.
I attended the ROH show in Dayton on Friday night, the show was alright but it lacked that special quality that it needed. At least Joe/Sydal Vs Gen Next and the CZW/ROH brawl were insane. I had prepared to go to OU to meet my friend, Natalie (KKK's favorite) and just visit with her and take her to Cleveland with me for part two of the ROH OHIO DOUBLESHOT weekend.
I was packing up my car about to leave for Athens, I gotten a phone-call from my ex. Her uncle had died a few days ago and hadn't gotten around to calling me to tell me the funeral was that day.
Her uncle was a good man, he treated me with alot of respect and taught me things I am still grateful for. He died of some cancer, he was barely into his 50's. It's a shame when good people like him die young and I see miserable pricks still alive who serve nothing to soceity other then giving us someone to not want to be.
I'm not a big funeral person. I have probably been to 5-6 funerals in my lifetime and all of them usually involved my family or family friends, which meant I usually had people I knew around me to avoid the awkwardness of it all.
I called Natalie to inform her that I couldn't come today which she launched a tirade and I just hung up on her. I went to the funeral and it was awkward as expected. I hadn't seen any of these people since me and my ex broke up last summer.
Me and Her, had seen each other a couple times since then, both cordial meetings. I couldn't resist noticing that she looked incredible, which is weird because why would you look so good for a funeral?
I mingled around and I was surprised most people remembered me. It was nice to see them again but especially nice to see her again.
It might seem funny but maybe this funeral will get us back together. The problem is...I'm still attached to my other ex/best friend who is @ Kent right now. She comes home next week.
I guess I need to make a decision...go with the EX who I love to death...even if she betrayed me a year ago...or the EX that loves me but I dont love her..even if she sacrificed everything for me a year ago.
I’ve mentioned before about my job and my recent promotion as head of the assembly crew. If you recall, I was once just a meager worker on that crew until the company did some shuffling and assigned me as the new head of that crew. Since the crew was shuffled around, it was basically just me left standing. I hired 4 “new” (as in former laid off employees) and a couple rookie punks that work for free (part of school credit).
What we do is simply this; we design, build, customize and assemble conveyors of all sorts to various major corporations. My specific job is to assemble the conveyors @ our home site and the company we build for gives it the approval and then we dismantle weeks of work to pack it up and then my crew goes to their HQ’s, warehouses, fields and whatnot and re-assemble it. Yeah, hardly what I expected to be doing @ 20 years old when I started HS. I make good money though, so hooray.
Anyways, here is the point of the back story explaining the purpose of my job (I’m a detail whore). This morning I had a “big” meeting with some rep’s from a big name corporation (let’s say it rhymes with Mineral Metric). This was new for me, I’ve done meetings on sites but never as a direct reprehensive of my company, and even the home field advantage wasn’t helping me.
It’s no big secret why I got the gig; the boss is my father’s best friend. He had seen me as his son for years. People think that shit is an advantage…It’s not. It just means I got to work double and bust my ass harder to prove I earn my wages. Now that I’m a suit, I can make more $ and do ¼ of that work.
So I’m sitting there, bored out of my mind listening to this moron fuck babble about design changes he wanted to implement and during his diatribe, his cell phone goes off. (Fucking piece of shit). He doesn’t rush to end the very important conversation with whoever the fuck it was (his tax attorney or mistress, im guessing. Maybe a little of both). Finally, after I masquerade through a bullshit grin and false “Oh, It’s okay” sincerity, we hammer down and I basically bullshitted him into agreeing to do what I had planned to do with the job in the first place but he talked forever and walked out feeling like god thinking he turned me. Whatever, douche bag.
So I take the original and new prints (same one, but don’t let him know that) and I gather my crew up and we go over it. Here is where I get pissed, my rookie trainees were completely into the prints, asking questions and throwing out suggestions. While a couple of the older “new” guys were basically tuning me out, I get that they know this shit pretty well and have heard it all before. I was in their shoes not so long ago. I’m sure it has to suck being middle age, with wife and kids and taking orders from a punk ass 20 year old college student. Tough shit, you want to pay your mortgage? Either pay attention to me, or grovel to get your previous piece of shit job you slaved for lesser pay back.
I’m a good boss, I think. I listen, pay proper credit to the ones deserving, I haven’t fucked anyone over (yet)…So I’m not sure if this is a reaction to working for me or they just couldn’t give a shit about this job. They should be appreciative, I didn’t have to hire them. I could have loaded up with a bunch of Mexicans and got the job done dirt cheap, but I wasn’t going to account for missing drive engines, steel beams and Flex-Link chains.
This was all before lunch, and we were going to dive into that job this afternoon and to motivate them, I treated them to lunch at Applebee’s and expensed it. I left the “vets” to do the jobs, while I took the trainees out to our housing facility and showed them the previous job we had done for that company, to show them how it operates and all that jazz. They were thoroughly involved, taking notes, questions. I appreciated that, they aren’t even getting paid and they cared more about this job then the overpriced fucks I left at the shop.
The moral? It is my belief that the less $ you make, (or none at all), the harder you work.
---
Other world stuff…
I was going to mention this in the thread about it in the LSD fourm, but I figured WP gayed it up enough.
after all that bullshit…the boyfriend was cheating on her for the last couple months. She was actually in a committed stance. Typical…BF accuses the gf of cheating, when it was really him all along.
I still would like to know the purpose of his tirade against me though. I wasn’t worried before, and I guess now it’s behind me for good now.
Before anyone makes the assumption that the ex will work her way back towards me. She isn’t going to. Besides, like I’ve said all along…I wouldn’t do it anyways. Especially now.
"You've got to accept that results take time. If you're not in it for the long
haul, you're going to be frustrated and give up.
"To open your heart to someone means exposing the scars of the past."
There's no sensation like having your heart warm up as you involuntarily start
singing a song.
The rest of the world falls away. It's just you, your best self, reveling in
how fucking great it is to be alive.
In this world with so many delights.In an era of loneliness, the musicians, the
players, they're there for each other. They might not be rich in dollars, but
in friendships, they're BILLIONAIRES!
Music is dope. Sell it that way. Get people hooked so they won't let go.
One hopes to make music that will last forever. Ironically, you can only do
this if you forget the future and do what feels right now.
If you're not testing the limits, life isn't worth living. Artistry is not
something that can be quantified. Nor is it something that can be learned.
Artists are born. And are developed outside the educational system.
Make music the hottest entertainment medium once again, not a national JOKE! It
was because of the SOUND! It soothed us, it opened doors in our mind, it
INSPIRED us. Then you hear a song and everything is right in the world.
Artistry. It's something innate, something that comes from within. It must be
NURTURED, not KILLED!
Test the limits, touch people's souls, then you're an artist. Music has been
around since the dawn of time, and will continue to exist, great records will be
made. It's just that today music is not where it's at.
Singing songs to stay alive. Nobody really leaves home anymore. Nobody takes a
risk. The concept of starting a new life on a whim, it doesn't even enter their
brain. But that's what the old rock stars did. In patched together automobiles
they made their way. Like a giant summer camp, musicians lived in different
houses and journeyed to their friends' cabins, to hang out, get high and sing.
There were no news crews. Not even any record companies at first. It was about
lifestyle, not fame. And with this genesis, with the sixties values as a
backdrop, the most enduring music of the rock era was created. Where's the music
scene today? Where's the community of like-minded musicians in it for the tunes
rather than the bucks? In an era where the buck is king. Everything's so sold
out/whored out that there's no belief involved. It's just endless product.
That is essentially meaningless. And without meaning, you've got no hooks,
nothing to stick to the audience. Connecting with other people.
That's the guts of MySpace too, People want to meet others, they want to flirt,
want to exchange information.
Where is the control in the music business? The music business is one way. We
concoct it, you buy it, FUCK YOU! It's like the entire business missed it, the
Internet revolution.
There's a community as strong as there was in Laurel Canyon, it's just virtual.
As for the acts exhibiting their wares on MySpace and other places on the Web,
they've been exposed to twenty five years of MTV, they're experts on
exploitation, but light on soul. The sale precedes the tune. Imaging is key.
Everybody's got a business plan, nobody is growing his talent.
'Completely let go of the past, depended on it,Be ready to reinvent yourself.
Live on absolutely nothing, knowing that all you've got is your experiences, and
that your physical assets don't really count'
Don't feel bad if you don't get today's music. It doesn't have what the old
tunes did. It doesn't have a sense of adventure, a sense of limit-testing, a
sense of JOY! Because it's coming from a different place. It's hard to create
a scene today. Because as soon as you've got a flame, the press fans it into a
conflagration, and then it burns out almost instantly. You'd think the record
companies would finally understand. Chasing the buck, they run acts up the
flagpole and overexpose them again and again and again. Nothing is allowed to
grow.
Acts are not allowed to percolate, growing their base a fan at a time.
And if you don't make the kind of music that's easily sold, if you're not
willing to play ball with the corporate behemoth, you don't get to play at all.
Unlike in the late sixties and the early seventies, the act is not king, but the
label. And the label likes this, feels entitled, for risk is anathema to these
corporate entities. And, as delineated above, risk is primary to great art.
We all want something to believe in, something to live for. I ask you, with
endless conventions, books about how to make it, institutionalized success
paths, who can get excited?
Not only not the talent, but the audience either. Isn't it funny that
everything kids get excited about is on the Web, built by their peers and
populated with content they've created? And isn't it fascinating that the
corporate behemoths have missed this every stop of the way, and can only get in
by buying sites that could die tomorrow? You'd think MTV would own music on the
Web, but with a corporate commercial viewpoint, the music video channel missed
it. It's clear that the old days, the old systems are done. The structures are
decaying, they're empty.
A new world is being built by young 'uns the same way young 'uns built the music
scene in the last century, stealing the whole business from old farts.
I can't tell you what's coming. But I can tell you what we've got now is dead.
Kaput."
Music Died. The thread in the music forum defined that in the lack of a movement other then niche cores and heartless corporate empires.
Now, that I have finally caught all the offerings of 2005 (although FIP is way behind) and I haven’t gotten through OVW yet. So It’s possible I could be making changes later this year.
*This is NA exclusive as I’m still behind on Puro*
2005
The Top Twenty
20. Austin Aries Vs CM Punk (ROH-Death before Dishonor III)
19. James Gibson Vs Austin Aries (ROH-The Final Showdown)
18. Alex Shelley Vs Claudio Castagnoli (ROH-This Means War)
17. AJ Styles Vs Christopher Daniels (TNA-Bound for Glory)
16. Bryan Danielson Vs Spanky (ROH-BOASJ)
15. CM Punk Vs Jimmy Rave (ROH-Nowhere to Run)
14. Kurt Angle Vs Shelton Benjamin (WWE-Raw)
13. Samoa Joe Vs AJ Styles (TNA-Sacrifice)
12. Samoa Joe Vs Necro Butcher (IWA-Something to Prove)
11 Shelton Benjamin Vs Shawn Michaels (WWE-Raw)
10. CM Punk Vs Roderick Strong (ROH-Escape from New York)
9. Bryan Danielson Vs CM Punk (FIP-Bring the Pain)
8. Rey Mysterio Vs Eddie Guerrero (WWE-Smackdown. 6.23)
7. Samoa Joe and Jay Lethal Vs Low Ki and Homicide (ROH-Nowhere to Run)
6. Kurt Angle Vs Shawn Michaels (WWE-WM21)
5. Samoa Joe Vs AJ Styles Vs Christopher Daniels (TNA-Unbreakable)
4. Low Ki Vs KENTA (ROH-Final Battle 2005)
3. Bryan Danielson Vs Roderick Strong (ROH-Vendetta)
2. Samoa Joe Vs Kenta Kobashi (ROH-Joe Vs Kobashi)
1. Bryan Danielson Vs James Gibson (ROH-Glory by Honor IV)
Here’s the Worker Tally (repeat names only)
Bryan Danielson: 4 (#1, #3, #9 and #16)
James Gibson: 2 (#1 and #19)
CM Punk: 4 (#9, #10, #15 and #20)
Roderick Strong: 2 (#3 and # 10)
Low Ki: 2 (#4 and #7)
AJ Styles: 3 (#5, #13 and #17)
Christopher Daniels: 2 (#5 and #17)
Kurt Angle: 2 (#6 and #14)
Shawn Michaels: 2 (#6 and #11)
Samoa Joe: 5 (#2, #5, #7, #12 and #13)
*This indicates a really strong year for Joe, Punk and Dragon(which is impressive, as he missed 4 months of 2005 in NA) and that Shawn Michaels, despite being one of the oldest active members of the WWE roster is still putting on the top performences for the WWE. It is in my opinion though, that 2005 was the year of CM PUNK.
Establishing 4 top twenty matches, in addition to a handful of honorable mentions, he also captured the ROH World Title in a memorable fashion and had a excellent heel turn in the process. The storyline of Punk holding the ROH Title hostage in the summer, was easily a top five storyline in all of wrestling and don't forget his emotional farewell in Chicago against Colt Cabana in a 2/3 falls match. That show ranks #2 all-time best seller for ROH (behind Joe/Kobashi, and ahead of Joe-Punk II). CM Punk moved onto OVW, where he was an instant star and has had great matches and storyline with Brent Albright.
My Top 15 workers of 2005
1. Samoa Joe
2. Bryan Danielson
3. Kurt Angle
4. James Gibson
5. CM Punk
6. Eddie Guerrero
7. Christopher Daniels
8. AJ Styles
9. Shawn Michaels
10. Rey Mysterio
11. Shelton Benjamin
12. Low Ki
13. Roderick Strong
14. Austin Aries
15. Brian Kendrick
The Path I Chose, I had to Follow
If there is no road, there is no tommorow
Hold On, Hold On for as you long as you can see
It doesn't matter, nothing matters for it's only make-believe now...
I can't even begin to explain how much I regret the decisions I made throughout my life and that's expected. You can't show me one person who did everything right from the start. I do, however feel like I am way behind where I should be. I'm 20 years old and I lost almost 1 and 1/2 years on my life by waiting until I went to college and once I got here, I haven't really gotten anywhere. I still feel stuck as the same 18 year old I was, the day I grabbed that diploma from Dr. Carter (my HS principal, who I hear is dying of cancer...which is a shame. He was one of the very few good ones).
I see my friends, already changing things. Some for the best and some for the worse, but change nontheless. I can't change, beyond my haircut. Fuck, I even have the same fucking wardrobe as I did 2 years ago.
Every time, I think I got the urge to get the fuck up...something always comes to me and brings it back down and I can't remember how things got to be this way.
It used to seem that there was always something to make you happy and get you through the days...I had a really, really good month in January. It's always been a running theme in my life...I start the years off in a incredible fashion and it derails sometime around labor day into a complete mess.
Then, somehow it fixes itself up and disappears and I get another brief glimpse at the concept of happiness...
Oh, the girl from the other day? She's giving us another creature into this world.
Lesson: Don't have drunk sex.
The Bachelor Party
So yesterday was the bachelor party and it wasn’t really all that bad, at least better then I had anticipated.
Originally, the plan was round of golf, Reds game, dinner, strip club. However, the head guy in charge was under the impression that the Reds had an afternoon game yesterday, that wasn’t the case. So plans were slightly altered but not significantly. Instead of meeting for golf early, we pushed our tee time back to 12:50. This allowed me to take my usual Thursday morning classes and since the campus is only 15 minutes away from the course, it wasn’t an inconvenience to me or anyone.
Involved in this event were myself, my sister’s fiancé (Josh), his father(a nice guy all in all but too much effort trying to be “one of the guys”, but he covered the entire thing), Josh’s two cousins, Mike and Ryan, his co-worker Jones(never got his first name) and Josh’s best man, Grant. The problem for me was aside from not knowing any of these guys aside from my brother in law (a term I still can’t verbally say) was that I was the youngest and only one not married. 5 married guys to one young punk kid.
First was golf, Grant’s father apparently was a top guy at this “upscale private club” but if you ask me, this course didn’t seem any different from the public course down the street from me. The only difference was the pungent aroma of arrogance and thievery. Let’s be clear that I hate Golf.
As a viewer, and especially as a player, this was only the second time that I played a round of golf that didn’t involve a magical castle and a windmill. I was shocked how I played, especially compared to these other supposed avid golfers. That being said, the old man killed us and deservedly so. The problem with Golf, in my mind is that it forces you to communicate because there is a lot of down time in the process. That’s the number one reason I hate this sport, it’s 90% walking, 5% analyzing and 5% action. So with four married guys busting on Josh about getting married, I was obviously uncertain how to act but eventually you figure it out. You gotta find an “in” and things become less awkward. By the 10th hole, things were going smoothly. We finished up and headed to the clubhouse where we had a few sandwiches and drinks. This lasted a couple hours and I hate to admit it, but I was enjoying it. Sure, they were obnoxious but that was a part of the clubhouse charm, I suppose.
We decided that we all had a vested interest in the Miami/Pittsburgh game, so since my place was the only open place that night…that’s where w headed to watch the game as we grilled steak and they all had some beers. This was good for me because I had an Art Concepts test this morning and I wanted to study. At the tail end of the game, we gathered up and headed to a strip club not too far from us. I’ve covered my feelings on strip clubs before but I’ll say it again…
I get it, but seriously, what is so damn appealing about a woman dancing nakedly in front of you? While these girls were all above average, there’s a deluge of higher quality girls at school who walk around just as teasingly in tight shorts and reveling tops that leave much more to the imagination.
That being said, I did enjoy watching the others continue to drink themselves stupid and loved watching them convert into human ATM’s, I’m proud to say that I kept my money in my wallet. I pay enough money on girls as it is, at least there the possibility of sex is 100% greater and desired.
In regards to the strippers themselves, the highlight was my brother in law dancing on stage with the “Lovely Mariella”; unfortunately I left my cell at the house. So no incriminating pictures exist. I left the table and headed to the back and struck up a cordial conversation with the club owner, who surprisingly was less sleazy then I had imagined. Here’s the clue in strip club “adventures”, girls will usually target the quiet ones. Why? They are more likely to be cautious and willing to hold onto their money for the bigger prize, instead of the guy’s right up against the stage. The real main event acts aren’t the ones on stage. Despite my persistence, a particular dancer by the name of Heather (tall, blonde and well enhanced) kept “seducing” me. It took her some time to get the hint but eventually she stopped with the hard sell.
It was there she dropped the act and just sat with me at the bar and we just had a casual conversation. Meanwhile, I kept a close eye on my comrades and I figured they had all they could take. Of course, I was the lone sober fool. Somehow, I roped them into the car and I took each one of them straight home.
Today is the rehearsal dinner extravaganza. That should be fine; I always enjoy a fine meal that isn’t on my bill. What’s weird is though is that I’m starting to feel awkward about the idea of my sister getting married. I’m happy for her but it’s strange to know that in just under 36 hours from now…her identity changes.
The wedding should be interesting though, as I’m flying solo (although I considered asking an ex but figured against that). I’ve said many times that weddings are the best places to meet someone and I’ve been informed that the quality will be nice but I’m not looking to fuck some random girl, at least for right now. If the timing is right and the mood is set, then yes, wedding sex is on.
Before the drinking started, Josh asked me about writing the vows and knowing that I am a pretty damn good writer with impeccable ability to say the right things, he confided in me about his fear of writing these vows, and typical male that he is, he had waited ‘til the night before. Love is the one thing that is easiest to write about…but hardest to express. All I could say is that “Love isn’t an empty truth…’. He truly loves my sister and I’m fairly confident that he’ll know the words when the time comes.
Now, that leaves me to be the last in the whole family to be unmarried. That’ll be the hot topic at the reception, me being next in line. You just gotta fake a smile and play along with the game.
Thanksgiving went smoothly on all accounts. Wednesday night was a intimate little dinner that allowed for better conversation along with the quality meal that my mother always cooks up. The only bump in the night was trying to hold down my girl’s stuffing. She claimed to have never cooked before in her life, other then baking cookies and I believed her after taking my first bite of that concoction. I learned quickly that if things progress further for us and once we live together in a few months, she’s going to require cooking lessons from my mother or the wallet is taking a pounding because I can only grill, but I’m good at it though.
Thursday afternoon, I had lunch with dad’s family and like I said, it’s always boringly predictable but since it’s drama-free and pleasant enough, I don’t mind it. The food isn’t that great since it’s cooked by my two aunts whom aren’t culinary experts. The only saving grace are the pies and I’m not much for pie, unless it’s Pumpkin Pie from Frisch’s. (I’m not sure if that’s a local thing or not). After boring repetitive mingling with the various family members, I snuck out a little early and headed home to change because of my punk ass little cousin still learning how to pour himself a glass of punch spilled all over my black and white track jacket that I just brought the day before. I’m learning that Orange punch isn’t easy to get out. So, I went to the girl’s family thanksgiving dinner and like always, I feel more welcomed into any of my girlfriend’s family then I think I should. I guess it’s my warm nature that endears me to them. With a larger crowd of virtual strangers, I had to be on my A game.
She has a cousin that she’s fairly close to and she had brought her bf along as well but he was a complete nervous wreck and got himself into one way dead end conversations and I felt sorry for him because one on one, he’s an alright enough guy, if not a boring personality though. I decided to help him out and loosen him up and it seems to do the trick as he finally warmed up and the rest of family seemed more responsive to him then they were initially.
Naturally, this scored me major points even if that wasn’t my intention. I was just trying to help a poor guy out in a situation that I could feel empathy for.
On Friday, a lot of idiots went out shopping in a mad rush for discount sale products. Usually, they aren’t worth the trouble unless you’re needy for a video game system that isn’t remotely worth the gaudy price tag. DVD’s aren’t ever really marked down enough for me to justify the madness. I can buy the EXACT same DVD’s for roughly the same price at most independent distribution centers around here. Fuck Best Buy, Fuck Circuit City. Charging me regularly $25 for something that I can get for $10 dollars across the street. Fuck, I could go to a flea market and buy TEN “new” DVD’s for that price.
I was asleep. Allison, wasn’t. As much as I protested, she insisted on going through that insanity with her girlfriends not because of any particular sale but rather because she enjoys the scene of Black Friday Chaos. I’m a sadistic person but even I can’t derive pleasure out of seeing soccer mom’s bury elbows into each other for a $50 TV. It’s a fight without honor and I’d lose.
Luckily, she survived without wounds but she did have a big verbal confrontation with some big fat black “cunt” (in her words) who demanded she (Allison) give up her parking spot right smack in front of the store because she drives “a tiny ass car” and that spot should be had by someone getting big objects and driving a pick up truck instead.
Just the kind of girl that I would go for, she turned back around and went to the car and sat on the hood with a girlfriend and opened up her phone and starting playing Tetris sending the other lady into a frenzy and storming out of the parking lot. I felt slightly guilty as she even brought me a few DVD’s just cause she knew I didn’t have those particular dvds, including the Roddy Piper DVD even though she hates wrestling.
Meanwhile, since I had the house to myself and my mother, we decided to set up the house for Christmas. It was sort of bittersweet setting the house up since in the back of your mind, I'm thinking that it’ll be the last Christmas in a house that I grew up in. Traditionally, we always had a live tree but with the rising cost of natural trees and the money tightening right now from them, they went and got a fake tree instead.
I can’t stand it. I’m a traditionalist and I can’t buy into a fake tree, even if it’s just a symbol. This is the first and only time we have done the fake tree routine and if I can manage, I’ll make sure my future kids will never know the horror of a fake Christmas tree.
While she did the interior work, I was doing the outside light display work, which I had fine tuned to perfection over the years. We used to be extravagant but we settled back and with classical and boring white lights.
However, If you have ever seen that Budweiser commercial with the house with the crazy light display? I live right by that particular house, so it’s not even worth the effort competitively as it used to be in having the best light display.
On Sunday, I’ll actually order the WWE Survivor Series PPV. I know buying anything from WWE unless it’s one of their DVD’s is always a crapshoot but I’m not hurting for $ and I was always a mark for the traditional 5 on 5 format anyways. The problem with buying a WWE ppv is that the price tag is ridiculous and you could buy 2-4 DVD’s from ROH/NOAH and be assured of a quality wrestling show but a part of the “fun” with a WWE show is not knowing which WWE will come out that night.
Is there a classic match on the card? Nothing really, except maybe the DX/RKO match that is loaded with some very good talent that should be done well in a long match and the First Blood match stands to be a good-decent brawl.
That being said, I alluded in previous threads about what was the 2006 MOTY and had insisted it was Danielson/McGuinness from Unified but I have to change it. Danielson/Kenta was beyond this world.
I’m still groggy. Not physically, but more mentally. Lethargic, is probably the most appropriate description. It comes and goes, always has for me. Usually there’s a trigger but in this instance, I’m happy in theory (new job, steady new relationship that is still fresh, doing great in school).
I even redesigned/arranged my room out of complete boredom. It made me wonder, while a good move financially to leave the campus and stay home. I think it had more psychological damage then I had anticipated. I got out and I just ended right back here.
It’s not like I’m 27 and still living at home, but I always felt you should be gone by 21 at the latest. That milestone is very close.
I have a solid relationship with my parents, although it can slip into standard family theatrics from time to time but that’s probably a given for all paternal situations until a 3rd generation comes along and you figure out exactly what they were doing.
Speaking of parents, Allison is pushing to do the “meet my parents” routine sometime soon, just to get it out of the way. I understand where she’s coming from, but she has a very tumultuous relationship with them, which always means as the new boyfriend, I’m basically fucked right out the gate or that I’ll really have to shine.
Oddly enough, I’m not rushing to have her meet my parents despite my good relationship with them and that I already know my parents adore her just by my descriptions and pictures.
To be fair, my mother “loved” all my girlfriends in the past. Except one, which was a doozy of a situation that I couldn’t even begin to cover in a simple blog.
My father’s take? “Get it while you can”. He is, if nothing, a man of simplicity.
I balanced my work schedule for Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon (noon-5). That’s not a lot of hours, but it’s a pretty fucking easy job.
Maybe not easy for MECCA, but for any general worker with focus. It’s a office role but without politics. It’s almost a perk to get paid for it.
So, fuck NFL picks. This weekend was a total catastrophe for me and the local team.
This week we’re going into a deluge of endless Evil TO Vs Sir Donovan F McNabb Of Philadelphia
I’d auto-block ESPN but it just so happens to be the start of the MLB Playoffs.
Quickie predictions
National League
San Diego Vs St. Louis
-St. Louis, completely fell ass backwards into the playoffs but to assume they will roll over and die is a mistake. Pujols will extend this to at least 4 games
San Diego in 4.
Los Angeles Vs New York
-Offensively, I love NY. LA has the pitching match up. This could be either a fantastic tight series or a collection of blow-outs.
New York in 5.
American League
Minnesota Vs Oakland
-I really like Minnesota but I think the bandwagon might topple over on the way to Oakland. That being said, Santana will go twice and get it done there.
Minnesota in 5.
Detroit Vs New York
-Detroit suffered a similar fate as St. Louis and actually squandered the division title on the last day of the season, which was ridiculous. Like it’s NL counterpart, the Yankees have a questionable pitching staff but it’ll rely on it’s offensive explosiveness to out-muscle the Tigers.
New York in 4.
NLCS
San Diego 4
New York 3
ALCS
Minnesota 4
New York 2
World Series
San Diego 1
Minnesota 4
Once again, I’d like to say you’re welcome for being the catalyst in the WP=Banned domino effect. I knew my rambling would do some greater good for this place sooner or later.
That being said, I’ll miss him slightly if only because this place is boring without someone like him. Someone needs to step up to the plate. We’ll always have Marvin, though he’s just a couple more sad tales away from a horrific catastrophe.
Random things
My sister and her husband, came home yesterday from their honeymoon in the Bahamas and we learned that it only took 4 days for him to pull off his first bonehead maneuver, as he lost his ring somewhere in the ocean. According to 90’s sitcoms, it usually took 20 years and a garbage disposal for husbands to pull off the “lost ring” incident, but it took him just four days. At this rate, I might not have to get him anything for Christmas.
Speaking of my sister (which by the way, after this entry, I’m probably done with the references), her friend re-invited me to her place for the Bengals game and since she was only a few miles away, I popped in for a few minutes. A couple other people were there but it sans boyfriend. That clued me in right away, exactly what was her intention with this invite.
After about a ½ hour of small chit-chat and casual observation of the game, I decided to keep her in suspense and left early. In all honesty, I do think she’s a great girl and her being friends with my sister really helps me out but until she officially does something with her bf and until I get confirmation that the girl at school isn’t going to get moving…I’m not going for the kill just yet.
Why haven’t I? I know what it’s like to be the other guy. I know that her BF is probably completely unaware that his girl is talking to another guy and making her intentions blatantly obvious. Either way, whatever she does…I’m the bad guy in this situation. I need to know that she’d be doing this for the right reasons and not just to get my dick and leave it as that.
I can wait this situation out as long as it may need be.
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Looking through the NFL Week 2 thread, it appears the usual suspects are incapable of logical statements.
The big issue is the validity of proclaiming the Chicago Bears to be NFC Championship contenders. The argument is essentially that it’s “Only Week 2”. Which is utterly stupid because the meaning of contenders/favorites is that they are considered a legitimate candidate for that status and they clearly are. There isn’t a real argument against it, but a couple morons still go around saying “It’s too early to proclaim a team to be a contender”.
Chicago was a playoff team last year despite a shitty offense. Chicago, retained the quality defense and significantly improved its offense. All logic clearly indicates that Chicago is an obvious contender for the NFC Championship with it’s beefy defense and improved offense.
Chicago, is a legit contender. Argument over.
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I finally rented Madden 07 a couple days ago and I can safely conclude the magic of Madden is gone. It’s generic and formulaic now. I remember back in that 2001-2004 timeframe, where Madden was GOD. It was everything that mattered to a young punk ass kid. Now, I’m 20. I rarely play video games.
I don’t have anything against video game players, but it just seems as if by a certain age, video games don’t have any importance anymore. What is sad is that I know 45 year old losers who collect welfare and spend their days playing video games.
How could you even live that type of existence? Maybe, I’m silly for expecting myself to be better then that but If I appear to be heading down that path…I’ll buy the plane ticket for you to fly in and waste me.
Tonight is WWE’s presentation of Unforgiven. On the surface, it isn’t that bad in that they actually pushed this card and established that isn’t intended to be the standard “b” ppv even though that is what it is. Slapping on a pair of gimmick main events (TLC and HIAC) in a desperate attempt to boost buy rates is pathetic, as if those two matches and the hard-sell of Trish Stratus in her farewell match is supposed to justify such a ridiculous price.
WWE isn’t the only mainstream wrestling promotion to be floundering, TNA has yet to really get going since signing with Spike TV. People keep waiting for them to turn the table, but it’s ultimately just another wannabe WWE production.
It’s clear that the ONLY meaningful American wrestling promotion is, Ring Of Honor. Especially with the NOAH partnership.
ROH, has been incredibly strong for the past 2 years with only the rare occasion of dropping under expectations and consistently blowing everything away.
Now, excuse me while I go and put my hopes in KKK's pick-ems on the fucking Cowboys.
I find it ironic that KKK sloted me in as the rep for the team I hate most in the NFL, aside from Cleveland.
It’s been awhile since I said anything here, so I figured I would update.
The last time I wrote here I was feeling “down” but that’s gone away and I’m doing well right now.
Two weeks ago, I turned 21 which for many is a momentous event but the ideal of turning 21 never quite appealed to me in any way because what’s really the difference between 21 and 20? Nothing, except I can legally purchase alcohol and that’s not exactly something that I care about. The only other advantage it grants me is that I can go to the local casinos.
So that was my 21st birthday "extravaganza". My family, Allison and a couple of our friends went to a riverboat casino in Indiana. We had a seafood dinner which was quite good and after a couple hours of crab legs, we decided to board the boat. Unfortunately, Allison couldn’t come with us since she isn’t 21. She stayed at the room with my mother whom doesn’t care for gambling. It was my father, my brother in law with my sister, Allison’s room-mate Danielle, my cousin Chad whom is seeing Danielle and me.
It was pretty exciting with the long walk way towards the entrance of the boat. My father is a high roller, so he got me comped $500 which was great obviously since I wasn’t gambling my own money. The atmosphere was quite fascinating with a crowd of middle aged chain smokers sitting on stools tightly gripping and fixated by the bright lights of the slots roaring in non-stop unison. The rooms clouded in smoke and smelled of cheap cologne, beer and smashed nachos. Young girls with tightly wrapped hair in cocktail dressed carrying trays of soda, cigarettes and tiny bags of potato chips and peanuts. It was straight out of a 1950’s movie but the modern technology was all over the place.
The tables were full with a great variety. Mustachioed old men leered over at the middle aged mom dealing; the young married men sat impatient looking at the remains of their chips while feeling the sting of their wives in the background. Trashy women sat with fake tans with a cigarette dangling dangerously off the tip of their lips challenging gravity. Wheels spun around in harmony, calls randomly shouted out and gold chains bounced off hairy chests.
I took a seat at a slot machine, just the $0.50 machines and immediately felt relieved that I wasn’t interested in this. My father along with some other family members are chronic gamblers and I was hoping I wouldn’t be caught up in the excitement and addiction of gambling and I wasn't. I played a few spins but mostly took in watching the others win and lose, win again and fail once more. I stopped playing after a few minutes and cashed out with $442 intact. I didn’t win any money that night, well, actually I did since that money wasn’t mine to begin with. It was a good time with the people that actually matter and I didn’t need to drink myself stupid to achieve that.
School restarted and that’s been a welcome distraction but Allison is back at Oxford with her apartment there and I’m taking classes at Middletown again. Our schedules didn’t fuse which has led to more of a stress on phone/IM/Txt system of communication. It’s just a few months anyways, until we move in together. The house is getting smaller and smaller as my parents have already begun the process of moving out.
There has been one negative spot in my life the past couple of weeks and that was the shitty news of finding out my uncle from my mother’s side had lung cancer. I can’t say I’m surprised as I never seen anyone smoke as much as he did. He’s one of the better people involved in my familes , though. It always seems the ones you like get the hard luck while the people you don’t give a shit about catch the breaks. He’s young as well. Just another lesson to learn. I never got why people smoke to begin with. My whole family are smokers aside from myself, my sister and her husband and a couple aunts and cousins here and there but as whole it’s Marbolo country. I’m not against smokers, it’s your body. Do what you want with it, I consume ungodly amounts of caffeine and I’m sure that’s not much worse then smoking. It’s more of the psychological “why would you?” that gets me.
Tonight is the ROYAL RUMBLE. Quite frankly, pro wrestling is in shambles (at least the WWE/TNA) and while I’m content with getting my quality wrestling fix with NOAH and ROH, I’d like to see the mainstream promotions finally do something but that isn’t happening. Despite that, the Rumble is a must see event if only for the Rumble match itself. It’s the perfect people gathering show as the main focus of the show is built on short memory and gives a flood of betting games to play. The winners have been blatantly obvious since they inducted the “Winner goes to WM” clause. This year is hardly any exception with Undertaker, Orton, Michaels and Edge being the only shots. It’d be nice to see a surprise winner such as RVD or Punk win to set up the ECW title match since the winner of the rumble is only given a shot at the title, and not necessarily the “MAIN EVENT”. Marvin getting laid in 2007 is more likely then anyone from ECW winning this event.
We have a lot of holidays in this country. Most are ignored unless its one of those special ones that grants us the day off work or school. I am particularly fond of Christmas for a variety of reasons. Thanksgiving, however? Never have seen the purpose for it nor cared much.
In this day and age, the purpose of thanksgiving seems meaningless as we’re all self consumed with bloating ourselves to such ridiculous waist lines or dieting down to extreme lows. Which further reduces this holiday from being a celebration feast of togetherness that it was once supposedly according to ancient history books.
Basically, all it really is now is a forced gathering of family members often against their will in the efforts to keep up with the pretense of a outdated tradition. I know there’s some people out there who have no problem with the idea of seeing distant family members across the table and perhaps, even anticipate it. I happen to live fairly close to all my relatives, which I greatly appreciate because it prevents me from having to travel much distance for these forced family gatherings but of course, I dread this because it forces more opportunities to occur.
My thanksgiving schedule is fairly simple. Dinner on Wednesday night with my intermediate family that breaks down into a routine dinner and ends with whatever movie we randomly select. Thursday, I head down to my aunt’s not to far from here and have a brief lunch with my father’s family, which are full of bored, uninteresting and thusly, pleasant people. You know what you’re getting with them (food, same old conversation and boredom).
Usually, I would follow that up by heading literally down the street to my mother’s family but traditions have changed for me as I will be going to Allison’s family at her parent’s house. She’s coming on Wednesday night, so at least we’re both doing the whole family thing but she gets the intermediate family, that’s only 8 people. I’m getting over 30 people that I hardly know or ever met at all. I still think this is moving way to fast. We’re just leapfrogging levels that I never knew existed. Usually, I have to control a relationship, or the relationship is never balanced because one is too dependant but this one is completely different.
We’re equal in this, either needs the other. We each work a lot but don’t use that as an excuse. I’m still not quite sure how I made this work. I’m a fairly alright looking guy, I’ve probably done far greater with girls then I ever had the right to. I don’t believe in the idiotic concept of “levels” in regards to peoples standing with others. That being said, there is some merit to the fact that some people are just too good for someone else. In looks, social standing, money or whatever. In this case, probably all of it. She’s beautiful, I’m cute at best. She’s popular with loads of friends, while I’m a complete introvert who doesn’t trust people. She’s a trust fund baby, I’ve been working on my own for the past few years. That aside, we clicked instantly and for whatever differences we have, it works.
This Thursday is the debut of the NFL Network airing their first live telecast of a game. It’ll be between Kansas City and Denver. Earlier that day, Miami/Detroit and Dallas/Tampa. Yeah, the only remotely interesting game is the NFL network game. I wouldn’t mind watching that game. However, I won’t because TW refuses to broker a deal with the NFL Network.
Time Warner provides a good overall service for me with their package but they have annoying practices. They literally waited until the day before the launch of the new CW network to even cave in and stick them onto a triple digit channel for a couple months before complaints grew about morons not finding the channel, so they kicked one of the many public broadcasting stations to the side.
TW doesn’t appear to be budging at all and the local community is growing angry about this as this means we won’t get Bengals coverage (whom play on this network). Its bullshit from both sides of the table.
Oh, the big deal right now is the Kramer story. Why? He threw the N word. Can you really be surprised? He has to walk around for the rest of his life being called “Kramer”. Now, he can just be known as “that racist fucking Jew”.
Funny, how the one main character on that show that managed to have any post Seinfeld career was the least interesting one. Seinfeld has basically gone around doing the occasional tour with insane ticket prices but generally staying out of the limelight. He’s a genius. George had about 10 failed sitcom attempts since then. Kramer had one as well that I don’t think lasted beyond 2 episodes and now he’s forever known for that tirade.
It’s all a desperate ploy anyways and we all brought it. His ticket sales will skyrocket. Maybe it’s a new crowd demographic but money’s money baby.
Grace is doing pretty good and has adjusted to being home again and back to her usual routine despite the hindrance of the cone/funnel contraption to prevent her from tending to the wound that is still pretty deep and probably won’t fully heal for awhile.
Saturday afternoon/evening, I went with Allison to a birthday party for one of her cousins. Generally, she doesn’t care about any of her family members and wouldn’t make the effort to even attend a cousin’s 25th birthday party. However, it just so happened that this cousin is the only family member that is close with enough to actually care about their birthday. Because of my apparent requirements in my role, I had to attend this party. The dinner took place at this vineyard steak house that actually wasn’t too far from me but this was one of those places that charged $35(single) for a lousy steak and bottle of home-grown and supposedly great quality wine.
What made it even more preposterous was that you grilled the steak yourself on an enclosed patio (which sounds nice in the summer, but not with 40 degree weather). The idea was that you prepare and cook the steak to your liking. Sorry, but I’m fine with trusting the allegedly trained chefs doing the hard-work.
While I didn’t care for the price of the meal all that much and of course, I covered her as well. (I’m 95% certain, that I only landed this because I actually saved my money unlike most 20 year old college kids in addition to being handy in most situations. I figure this is what most marriages are founded on, so I imagine I have no choice but to just embrace this) I enjoyed the meal and we received a complimentary reservation from some girl (whom I believe was a friend of the guest of honor) who has a “cozy” bed and breakfast upstate and I got confirmation from others at the party that this isn’t a dump and is a rather pleasant B&B. Maybe I’m showing signs of being frugal again but I’m not getting the concept of driving 3-4 hours to spend the night in a glorified hotel with a cutesy breakfast diner. I mean, yeah, it’s just an romantic way of fucking but I don’t get the point of the effort. (The bed and breakfast, I mean). Anyways, I’m sure I’ll be dragged to this soon enough. Just shut my mouth and do what Im told.
Here’s the problem with dating someone else when it’s still young, learning all these people’s names and bothering to care about their existence. According to my father, he dated my mother forever and even years into their marriage, he never bothered to really learn everyone in her family's name and I say kudos to him in this regard but everyone is so goddamn sensitive in her family that one wrong name will upset the balance of their lives. I had uncles that called me “Junior” or “Kid” for years because they never cared to learn my actual name and I’m cool with that.
When we first started, I figured she was exaggerating how pretentious her family was but if anything, she undersold them as I’m learning along the way. I don’t like these people. Not in that “they make me nervous because I know they know that I’m banging their grand-child/niece/daughter” sense but rather a genuine dislike of them. My family, well, my parents at least (since she hasn’t met the extended family) really like her and that’s great because she adores my mother and they get along great together. I should be happy about this but if anything, I’m cautious now.
After the dinner concluded and we all made our separate ways, I said goodbye to her as she headed to work, I went down to my office to pick up some stuff that I left there and I found one of the guys in the shop doing a side job. This wasn’t a big deal, side-jobs aren’t frowned upon as long as it doesn’t interfere with business hours. He was doing some custom work to this pick up and we started chatting around and such. The owner of the truck comes in and much to my surprise, it so happens to belong to the guy that knocked up my old best friend from high school (I’m fairly sure that I mentioned this awhile back).
I kept up with her over the past few months with the occasional AIM convo but this was the first time I met the father and I only recognized him from pictures she had shown me. I introduced myself to him and he figured out who I was rather quickly.
This was awkward to say the least. He was doing the right thing and was sticking with her and helping her with the pregnancy and will be an involved father although they have no intention of remaining together. However, the girl was my best friend for years and to be honest, I loved her more then anyone else for a very long time and I still care for her, which I supposed I always will. I wanted to hate this guy for what he did, even if I knew that she was as much to fault as anyone. I couldn’t, he was a good guy and I had some measure of respect for him to least be man enough to be there. I made the promise of going to see her soon before she has the kid but it seems the timing is never right but its something I need to do, especially since it’s due pretty soon.
I finally had a duel good week in both the football pick'ems and thats good because I strive for being mediocre as possible.
I thought about writing out some long rant against WM22 tonight, describing my apathy towards it...
Then I realized... I spent the last few weeks already displaying that sentiment. What else could I really add? I don't think it'll be a horrible show, I really don't. It won't be special though. It could have **** matches out the ass and It still wouldn't feel special because I haven't been given a reason to give a shit other then "It's fucking Mania".
I'll give quick predictions on each match
Triple H Vs John Cena
Winner: Triple H
Time: 24:45
Rating:**1/4
Rey Mysterio Vs Kurt Angle Vs Randy Orton
Winner: Rey Mysterio
Time: 17:30
Rating:***1/2
Hard-Core Match: Edge Vs Mick Foley
Winner: Edge
Time: 13:00
Rating:**3/4
Vince McMahon Vs HBK
Winner: HBK
Time: 20:30
Rating:***
Money in the Bank
Winner: Flair
Time: 18:00
Rating:***3/4
Trish Stratus Vs Mickie James
Winner: Mickie James
Time: 8:20
Rating:**1/4
Chris Benoit Vs JBL
Winner: JBL
Time: 13:50
Rating: ***3/4
TBS/Kane Vs Carlito/Masters
Winner: Carlito and Masters (DQ)
Time: 5:30
Rating: *1/4
Torrie Vs Candice
Winner: Candice
Time: Too long
Rating:DUD
Boogeyman Vs The T's
Winner: Boogeyman
Time: 3:45
Rating:*1/4
Undertaker Vs Mark Henry
Winner: Undertaker
Time: 10:25
Rating:*3/4
They probably throw Mexi-Cools Vs MnM on the pre-show.
I'll have complete response to the show, probably tommorow morning.
Notes
-I really don’t have anything in particular to “ramble” about.
My newfound relationship is going smoothly enough. Luckily, she has work tonight and most of tomorrow which means I can get some sleep as Im feeling really groggy or I can catch up on the recent ROH dvd’s I got the other day. On Sunday, we’re going to the art museum for a class project we’re doing together.
I started my new job at the auto-shop this afternoon, it’s Friday which means they actually don’t work much. I like that. I just set up my office, which is half the size of my previous office and it’s basically a desk, chair and a couple file cabinets. My old office had a TV, Fridge and plenty of pacing space. This office is right in the shop, so any hopes of closing the blinds and taking a, um “nap” is eliminated. I’ll get used to it. I also realized how disorganized the owner is.
The owner, took over for his brother who apparently has some health issues to take care of. The problem is, since he took over, he couldn’t keep track of the paperwork and when he did, he misplaced them. That’s my job. This allows him to just work in the shop. I already instituted a system that a monkey could follow, so my job shouldn’t be that hard.
My mother had her surgery this morning and is already home and despite being wiped out with painkillers, it went well and she’ll be fine. That’s good. This makes me the only member of my immediate family who hasn’t had some form of surgery in this calendar year. This, of course, means I just jinxed myself.
Since I did modestly well last week doing this, I’ll give more NFL Picks. This is spread-free. Which is why my picks will alter here from my picks in KKK’s deal.
Arizona @ Atlanta
-Atlanta is coming off a really embarrassing lost to New Orleans. Losing to a emotionally charged Saints isn’t embarrassing but their performance was. Arizona has the quarterback controversy they were expected to have already and it’s a guessing game to say who will actually start as they have already flip-flopped but it appears that Warner is still at the helm, for the time being. Doesn’t matter, Arizona has a lot of problems and Atlanta will be motivated here.
Arizona 14
Atlanta 27
Dallas @ Tennessee
-Tennessee has similar issues as Arizona regarding their veteran and rookie QB. The problem for Tennessee is that they have no real targets offensively.
As for Dallas? What issues do they have? Well, just a statute for a QB and a WR that can’t keep himself out of the news even when he wasn’t trying. That being said, whatever Owens status will be for the game, Dallas should manage the hapless Titans
Dallas 27
Tennessee 13
Indianapolis @ New York
-The Jets are making a good case for a 2nd place, 6-10/7-9 record season, which would be an upgrade from the preseason expectations but this is a game that should give Manning a chance to shake a bad performance last week.
Indianapolis 38
New York 20
Miami @ Houston
-Miami, really isn’t good. SI lied. Houston, is Houston. Pick your poison.
Miami 9
Houston 16
Minnesota @ Buffalo
-Minnesota hung tough against a very good Chicago team while Buffalo let a good opportunity slip through their hands last weekend. I like Minnesota here.
Minnesota 24
Buffalo 6
New Orleans @ Carolina
-New Orleans is coming off a seriously emotional win that they needed to provide the city with. Carolina has STEVE SMITH! STEVE SMITH! STEVE SMITH! Back and that is a crucial element. I think New Orleans is for real but I still think Carolina has this one. I think it’ll be a fantastic game here.
New Orleans 17
Carolina 21
San Diego @ Baltimore
-This could be a big litmus test for both teams as each team collides with a legitimate team for once. I think the combination of San Diego’s potent offense and very good defense can overcome Baltimore’s great defense and vastly over hyped offense.
San Diego 16
Baltimore 7
San Francisco @ Kansas City
-KC has looked bad but San Francisco is San Francisco.
Kansas City 42
San Francisco 13
Detroit @ St. Louis
-I’m almost tempted to take Detroit. However, I’ll be conservative and pick St. Louis.
Detroit 13
St. Louis 21
Cleveland @ Oakland
-A horrible game that should be completely ugly or insanely awesome in it’s suck.
Cleveland 10
Oakland 6
Jacksonville @ Washington
-A very smash mouth game here. It could swing either way.
Jacksonville 14
Washington 10
New England @ Cincinnati
-Cincinnati is clicking on all cylinders. New England looks lost out there and most teams are starting to figure them out. That being said, New England could be a trap game as they are coming off a headache with Thurman, looking forward to the bye week that’s followed by a MURDEROUS stretch of games and NE, apparently hasn’t lost consecutive games in over 55+ games, or something. I think Cincinnati still has it.
New England 13
Cincinnati 21
Seattle @ Chicago
-This is a very important game. Chicago struggled against a good team in Minnesota, now they got a more loaded team. The defense of Chicago should have no problem confusing Hasselback. I’ll take a close game here. Probably a FG game.
Seattle 13
Chicago 17
Green Bay @ Philadelphia
-I’d like to think Green Bay gained some momentum but I think Philly still holds a moderate edge on Green Bay but Favre usually shines on MNF. I think he’ll have a fantastic game but the special teams will hurt Green Bay
Green Bay 27
Philadelphia 35
Update time
-Tomorrow will mark my final full day of work at the place I’ve been employed for 2 ½ years. All throughout this week, I’ve felt like a ghost around that building. My office is empty minus the cpu, TV and mini-fridge that I’m not taking with me. I basically been giving my successor the run through in regards to the job but he seems to get it which renders me worthless. I’ll miss a couple of the guys down there but I’m thinking we’ll stay in touch by some means.
As you might recall, I am still bitter at my boss for his actions but I’ll have to put it aside because despite me leaving, I’ll be seeing plenty of him over the years including my parent’s anniversary party next week and my sister’s wedding as well. I can play nice but my respect for him vanished.
I intended to stay out of the work force for awhile because I wanted to focus on school and I was burnt out on working…but I got an intriguing offer from a pretty well known international corporation that is Head-quartered pretty close to me. (This should be obvious…I think). It doesn’t pay as much as the previous job but the benefits and potential future options are much greater.
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I said in a previous entry that I was going to be getting a new car in September and that is still my intention…
I’ve been driving my old Dodge Avenger that I had given to my sister for the past 2 weeks (I since sold the truck to the company) and I finally got off my ass and headed down to the Auto Mall.
THE AUTO MALL
-It just so happens that I live in close proximity to one of the largest Auto Malls in the Mid-West. It’s basically what the name implies, a giant assembly of dealerships from Chevy, Ford, Dodge, Toyota, Saturn, Hummer, Lexus, Honda etc, etc.
Price isn’t too big of an issue for me because I’ll talk the price down anyways. I just wanted a car with good gas mileage and fun to drive. I can fix my own car, so the issue of car maintenance that scares some people away isn’t a problem.
My father and I headed down to the mall and we went to the Ford dealership, which a good friend of his owns.
I could see the writing on the wall. I have nothing against Fords, I just drove one of their trucks for the last couple years (This was the same dealership I brought the truck at) but I didn’t want to get another truck and I’m not a fan of their cars. I knew that my father’s friend would likely give me another good deal and while I appreciate an “in” like that, I knew I would have to decline.
I think the real reason I did this was because a part of me wants to stop getting by on who my father knows. I spent the summer working in a position that I never earned because of that connection my father gives me.
My grandfather didn’t give my old man much, so he relied on himself since he was teen. He never wanted that for me, so in essence despite being 20 years of age, he still does favors for me. I value his actions but there comes a time when you just need to do it for yourself.
After dropping a good dosage on for my tuition and putting money away to prepare for no job for awhile, I decided I would just wait a couple months before really pursuing my new car. I’ll keep driving the Avenger for the time being since my sister is driving her fiancés old car. However, that car has nearly 175k miles on it and that car isn’t built to last that long. It wasn’t that great on the road during the winter when I drove it and I can only imagine it’ll be worst now.
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I doubt anyone remembers back around spring time but I mentioned my old high school female friend who spent years admonishing people for teenage sex only to get knocked up at a frat party…
We kept in slight touch via AIM over the months but she moved in with her grandparents (yes, her parents weren’t happy) about 70 miles south in Kentucky, so we haven’t seen each other until last week where she came up here for her brother’s birthday party.
We bumped into each other at a Kroger’s Grocery store and well…
Yeah. It’s always a slight jolt when you see a close friend for the first time in a obvious pregnant state. I’ve always known her as this skinny model girl and well…not anymore.
It didn’t last long as the small talk quickly wore off.
It just made me realize how I haven’t really been in touch with any of my close friends from just a couple years ago. I actually miss a couple of those fuckers.
-
I start classes on Tuesday. I still remain here with my jaw on the floor realizing how fucking expensive my tuition and my books are. Books shouldn't be this high priced but I give all these schools credit for milking every dime out of every student (and their parents).
Bravo.
It’s been awhile…
This was a busy weekend for me and it started Friday night as I attended the Ring of Honor show in Dayton. As far as ROH shows go, this was fairly solid but nothing out of this world (probably will be best known for Brent Albright’s debut with the company and another fantastic edition to the Delirious/Sydal series) I covered my reactions and thoughts in the thread so I won’t bother to go over here because anyone that really cared to begin with already seen it and I’d hate to bore my loyal and bored fan base with a detailed report of a independent wrestling promotion’s live show.
I woke up Sunday morning with a slight fever which was abnormal for me to feel in the fall, while most people are rocked with sickness during the season swirl, I tend to avoid it but instead of lying in bed and taking in the football action, I was getting into my car with my girlfriend Allison to Salem, Indiana. Salem, is basically the middle of fucking nowhere with a Wal-Mart, two gas stations and the main attraction, which was where we were heading, Salem Motor Speedway.
Her uncle (Brian), whom she wasn’t particularly close to, is a part-time race car driver and she thought since I’m fairly knowledgeable on automotive nature and a slight interest in auto racing that I would enjoy spending a warm afternoon with her uncle’s pit crew. I didn’t want to go but you don’t really have a choice in the matter when she tells (forces) you.
The race was scheduled to start at 1:00 and let me explain the concept of this particular race. If you follow auto racing or seen it on television, it’s nothing like that. 87 cars were entered into this race on a ½ mile track. Essentially, it was a guaranteed traffic jam at 90 mph. Her uncle, whom I had never met before had drawn the pole position (since it’d a nightmare to qualify nearly 100 cars on speed, they were slotted via random lottery drawing). Apparently, starting anywhere near the front wasn’t a good thing and especially so for her uncle as he had an admittedly piece of shit car. Her uncle had been out of the racing for nearly 3 years to this point but a couple weeks ago gotten a call from a former partner that he lost his driver and needed someone local to fill in.
He was once an accomplished driver with great success and a somewhat local celebrity and he obviously missed the action. We arrived to his pit box and by pit box, I mean section of gravel marked “88” (his #). This was an old track that had seen better days but it still packed a big crowd for this race. Most of the drivers were similar to her uncle, weekend warriors just looking for some fun but there were many serious local drivers with big money backing. This had a winner take all purse and that was part of the motivation but the main lure was the idea of tight racing for 200 laps against the high banked walls.
I was introduced to him and he was a tall, long blonde haired guy with leathery skin to match his laid back disposition. I found it bewildering how someone could be so relaxed knowing that in just a few minutes, he’s going to have 85+ cars breathing down his neck at high speed.
After I met the rest of his crew which were mostly his friends, I took a seat with Allison whom was already getting met with catcalls and distant flirtations from other pit crews nearby since she had worn tight shorts and a track jacket for the breezy warm afternoon. Despite that, it was still a pretty friendly environment as you would see teams sharing tools or covering strategy (for this race, it was basically, avoid the wrecks and survive).
Just moments before the race was to start, the uncle came right up and sized me up and said with an insistent tone
“Hey, you’re a good built kid. My gas man is a no-show and I need a guy to load me on the stops…” and I didn’t even stop to think but I accepted. I don’t know if I did it because I actually wanted to or if I was just trying to impress him by my willingness. I got a quick crash course from his crew chief on what to do. All I had to do was carry a 50lb gas can across the designated line and pour the entire can into the tank, all in 20 seconds time.
The race started and surprisingly, we maintained our front start despite such a piss-poor car. We were clearly slower then most of the field but he was an experienced driver and managed to hold people off. I was into the race, but what really got me excited was feeling Allison standing right beside me just mere inches and a thick wall between us and the roaring cars. She could’ve dropped back and sat in the comfort of the shade with the other girlfriends and wives but she stood by me knowing that I was somewhat nervous about my task.
It wasn’t a difficult job but as the laps passed, it became increasingly obvious that when he would make his mandatory pit stop, that it would be crucial. We were shooting to just finish the race but our unexpected performance changed our plans as he had a definite top 10 car with an outside shot at victory if the chips fell in place. We got the signal he was coming in and that’s when the nerves disappeared, I went over and grabbed the tank and stood behind the line as the pit officials made sure no one stepped over until the car had made a full stop. Rolling in at 45 mph, the car slammed into the box and we rushed over and pushed by pure adrenaline, I held the can up as I heard him barking out commands “Tighten the spoiler!, New breather!” and it was all foreign to me but I remained steady feeling the weight of the can drop dramatically and without warning, the car jerked away as I managed to pull the can out in time purely on instinct. After we celebrated a fantastic stop that kept the car alive in the top ten, I went over to her as she held the empty can and she smiled with a kiss, whispered “You’re gassy” and burst out in laughter but I was concerned after realizing I had spilt fuel onto myself that would be an issue but I was assured that it was common to have spillage and it was alright. At this point, any feelings of unease from my fever this morning had vanished in the warm air.
Things kept going well and I continued having a great time feeling the breeze sweep through me as the cars marched through. A feeling of pride snuck in despite having done nothing except pour gas into a tank. 25 laps were left in the race and we sustained our hold onto a top ten finish until after avoiding them all day (and there were a lot of them) a wreck occurred right in the front of the lead pack which included us and as the car dove down to avoid contact, the right rear tire blew and we had to make an emergency pit stop.
Once again, we stood by the line waiting for his arrival and I held the can once again, it was lighter as we only needed to top it off just a touch. Another successful stop followed but we fallen out of the top ten into the faint end of the lead lap cars in 31st. With 15 laps to go after the caution cleared, we worried because the car was good at holding place but not in advancing. The laps kept ticking down and we weren’t having much luck and only moved up a small amount. We needed another caution in hopes to use our good restart ability to pick up more spots but it never came. The white flag to signify the final lap dropped down as we were virtually locked in 23rd place. As a whole this was a complete moral victory to even finish the race (87 started, 39 finished) but to know that we had a guaranteed top 10 finish and lost it because of a lousy blown tire after missing loads of wrecks didn’t sit well with us.
All in all, it was an unexpectedly good experience for the both of us. I’m still surprised at how comfortable she felt as she is an admitted snob but after I got a big stamp of approval from her uncle, we said our farewells and headed home. The ride home was interesting, even if just temporarily gave us something to look back on with fondness. Besides, after three hours standing by thunderous engines, it didn’t take much to have an interesting drive.
Remember a month ago; when I said that my art professor had an art gallery and asked me to build her a metal canvas with a whacky design? Well, I did this and she liked it a lot but decided that she changed her concept and wouldn’t be use the thing after-all but she still paid me a fairly good scrap of change.
Also, after realizing with much deliberation how pointless and idiotic it was to take classes everyday, I scheduled myself for just 2 days a week next semester which will give me more time work. I will also leave my current job around Christmas time as the guy I replaced will be ready to work again. I’m not sure where I’ll go but I’m not that concerned.
Change the world, one by one
When I graduated high school, after collecting piles of envelopes stuffed with cash from uncles and aunts and the rest of the family circle, My mother handed me this box.
It was a leather box and inside it was this small card about the size of an index and it read that. The box had belonged to my grandfather, who died before I was born and she handed it down to me as I was the first male in her side of the family to graduate high school.
I know it's trendy to hate your parents and pretend like they don't matter but it's bullshit. They do mean something, for better or for worse. Maybe I was one of those lucky few in this world but I actually like my parents. Not because I have to but because they are genuinely good people with good hearts who care about the important things in life (love, family etc). I've been blessed to have a father who made a good living for me and my older sister and a devoted mother who I consider a friend more then a mother. My girlfriends have also felt like she was a friend more then a mother. She is the kind of person you can talk to for hours about anything. Its sad that alot of people are afraid of their parents, and for that I'll never understand it. Get to know where you came from.
Today is Hallmark's big day to celebrate mothers. Just another beautiful thing (motherhood) that Hallmark has raped.
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Apparently I'm over in Leena and Tekcop's world. That's good company. I'm just me, and unlike 95% of this place...I'm not a gimmick looking for attention and jockeying for a spot on the social status here. So I'm content as #3 on Leena's list.
