So last night was Bears vs Packers. To say it had been on my mind for most of the previous seven days doesn't do it justice. All day yesterday it was nearly all I could think about. Not just the game itself, but everything leading up to it. Who would I ask over, what food would I make, do I have enough liquor in my kitchen, is my place even clean enough for guest, etc.
Then the Packers lost.
End of the game I texted one of my friends and said it's a good thing my friends were leaving because I was on the verge of murdering someone. Her reply was, "Relax. It's just a game".
Yea, but...but....
She was right. In the immediate aftermath of the game I was equal parts disgusted, disappointed, stun(ned), and upset. Then I read her text, thought about it for a moment, and I sort of had this calm come over me. In the greater scheme of things, what happened last night wasn't the end of the world. I didn't rush to the internet to read and share reactions. I didn't call anyone to bitch about the coaching or the bad calls or the fumble. I basically let it go and turned on a movie.
In retrospect, I'm not certain I like that.
I know that being so passionate about something like an NFL game, or sports in general, isn't a good look. I don't like talking with strangers in the bar about the Packers. I would rather not debate Ted Thompson or the Brewers when I'm at a party where people are within earshot. I don't consider it a badge of honor that I could tell you stats from years ago or tell you what some DB ran at the combine in '06.
But sports has always been one of my big interests, and since blogs, comment areas and message boards took over the internet it's become increasingly easy to debate and discuss not only sports, but whatever you wish. With all this discourse comes a sense that you've invested part of your life to the game itself. You've spent so much time reading and writing about it that when the game finally ends, you feel legit emotions one way or another.
I thought about it today. Looking back at last night I felt a range of emotions that I rarely get to experience at any other time. Anxiousness, nervousness, outrage, contentment, elation. It comes with being diehard fan. I still don't buy excessive amounts of team gear, I don't mix it up with other fans, and I'm not some asshole like fucking Fireman Ed. He's a loser.
But when I hear, "It's just a game" I can acknowledge that she's right. It is only a game. It's a game played by athletes being paid millions who have no idea who I am and probably don't even care about the game they play as much as I and others like me do.
But I keep coming back to the emotions a game like last night brings out. Isn't that a good thing? Don't you want to feel that way every once in a while? Doesn't that make life just a little bit better? Doesn't the low you go through after a tough loss make the high after a huge win all the more sweeter? If I were being honest, I would say I feel sorry for people who don't care for sports. I feel pity for those who don't feel that range of emotions on a regular basis. Or at least every weekend in the fall.
Last year, via the internets, I read about a crummy little indie flick called The Room. I was looking at a list of the worst movies of all time, and The Room made it. Comments made below the article backed it up, though not in a, "Avoid this film at all costs" kinda way. The overwhelming majority thought that it was maybe the one movie everyone should see before they die.
I'm hear to back that up.
The Room, as wikipedia describes it:
This independently produced film has been called "the Citizen Kane of bad movies" by some critics. Although the film's star, writer, producer and director Tommy Wiseau has claimed it to be a black comedy, other actors involved in the production believe it was supposed to be a melodramatic romance. Its bizarre lines, protracted sex scenes, nonsensical exterior shots, and infamous use of green-screen for "outdoor" rooftop scenes, are so laughable that it has gained a cult status, and regularly sells out midnight viewings at theaters in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.
It's one thing for a movie to be laughably bad. It's another to gain such a cult following that viewings turn into events. The midnight screenings started years ago in LA and have popped up all over the world. Thanks to blogs and Youtube, going to a midnight showing is like going to a party with dozens of strangers set on one common goal: ridiculing the holy shit out of this film. People yell insults, toss plastic cutlery at the screen during scenes in which an infamous piece of artwork appears, dress as the characters and even play football in the isles.
A friend and I went last Saturday in Uptown Minneapolis. It was, perhaps, the most fun I've ever had. From the moment the movie started until after the credits rolled, the whole movie was a blast. Tears rolled down my face from laughing so hard. I had absolutely no inhibitions about yelling every chance I got. The amazing thing? I was stone-sober. I can't imagine what this film will be like when I'm drunk.
I can't stress how much you absolutely need to check this film out. Get on Netflix or Amazon and watch it at home first, preferably with other friends. Mock the movie senseless. Revel in how absurdly bad it is. Then get on Google, find out when it's playing in a nearby major market and go with some people. I'm absolutely going again, likely as early as next month. I've spread the gospel of The Room to co-workers and friends and we've got a growing number who are set to make the trip to Uptown again in October. Interested? HOLLA.
What a day. What a weekend! This afternoon brought an example of how social media connects so many and ended with me in tears.
I left Marshfield this afternoon and headed home for Eau Claire. Once I got in range I checked my phone for messages, checked email, checked Twitter to see what was going on in the world. I was still heading down Highway 10 when Bill Simmons tweeted, a little after 3:00...
Hey @lewkay - did you see Dallas Braden is perfect-gaming Tampa for your League of Dorks team right now? No baserunners. Nothing. Zero.
I read it a couple times to make sure I had him right.
Dallas Braden, the pitcher who had been involved with a war of words against Alex Rodriguez, was perfect through seven innings.
I got to Neilsville and found a parking lot. AT&T is shit between Marshfield and EC and I didn't want to miss history being made.
I listened to the last two innings, the Oakland radio feed, on the MLB app for the iPhone. They talked about Braden's tough upbringing. They talked about Braden losing his mother to cancer when he was in high school. They talked about how his grandmother raised him ever since.
When Kouzmanoff went into the dugout to make a catch in the 8th I was screaming at the radio. When I heard the dread in the A's announcer as Navarro hit a rope to left my heart sank, and subsequently rose, when Patterson caught the liner. On the final out I was going bat-shit crazy when the perfect game was sealed.
The perfect game is one of those things that can happen to any pitcher but so very rarely does. Only 19 have happened in the history of major league baseball. If you look down the list of those that experienced one, you see some greats, but not a lot of legends. Young, Hunter, Koufax and Johnson did it. But so did a lot of guys without electric stuff. A lot of the all-timers, guys like Pedro, Maddux, Clemmons, Ryan and Gibson never had one.
To throw a perfect game is incredibly special. It's something every sports fan can get behind and cheer. During the Brewers game in Arizona today they showed the final out on the big screen in the stadium and the crowd cheered. It's just one of those things you root for.
When you consider the circumstances, how could you not?
It wasn't until tonight, when I saw the replay of what happened after the game, that the waterworks started.
1 - So my laptop bit the dust back in early April. I hate typing on my desktop at home and I was swamped at work last month. Hence, no blog writing.
But it's been way too long and this week has been slow so I'll make an attempt.
2 - Mark Cuban pens one of my favorite blogs. He's not in there writing something new every day but when he does, it's usually packed with information or thoughts or opinions I find fascinating.
If you don't want to read either, I'll sum up what he's talking about because it deals with something I've been engaged in for years.
Cuban is using statistical data to show that not only are people purchasing the biggest and the best TVs they can afford, they're purchasing a lot of them. His theory is this is evidence that internet video, while obviously popular, is a fad and nothing more than something tech geeks get into. After all, when you invest in a 60" 1080p set you're going to want to take full advantage of it. Why would you watch this week's episode of Lost on your 24" computer monitor when you can check it out on this brand new set of yours over DirectTV or cable? Or why would you stream a movie over Netflix and watch something at significantly less quality when you could rent a Blu Ray or grab something from Video On Demand and see it with the quality that the creators intended?
His second blog again a swipe at internet video, albeit in another (less obvious) way. He's obviously seeing talk of how internet streaming of digital content could be the future in American homes and he's trying to provide a practical criticism, this one dealing with the issue of bandwidth. His stance is if people demand their media over the net, the cost for bandwidth will be astronomical and your typical family won't be able to afford the rates. He believes that families will have to have their own network manager to say who in the family can use the net and when, and who is really going to do that? Why bother with downloading games and movies over the net when cable and satellite offer thousands of options on demand?
Cuban is a very brilliant individual but I come down opposite him in both instances.
The second blog posting is either very ridiculous or I (and every one of his readers if the comments are an indication) am misunderstanding his point. I won't even touch the idea of Net Neutrality, because his blog certainly doesn't.
The problem I have with Cuban is the trade-off. He's talking convenience and quality. I would argue the convenience is negligible at best, and the quality (while less) is still very good while the cost and selection via internet video far outweighs the benefits of hard copies and VOD.
2b - Here's why.
I'm pretty typical of most people my age. I've got a TV I wish was a little bigger. I have high speed internet in my place with a wireless router. I have a satellite package with a lot of channels I don't watch. I subscribe to Netflix. I have a gaming system with games I don't play anymore. I have a nice receiver and sweet surround sound.
I'm the kind of guy that Charter or Comcast or AT&T or Time Warner or DirectTV or Netflix wants. For the last two years I've forked over thousands of dollars for service that I didn't need and in some cases really want.
That changed this week.
I canceled my DirectTV.
I called Charter and told them that I could no longer justify the $60 a month I was paying for internet and that I was going to go with AT&T DSL for half the price. Not only did the guy on the phone tell me he would change my price from $63 to $29, he locked in my price for two years and bumped my download speed from five megabytes to sixteen.
My next step was Netflix. Cancelled.
After that it was a trip to the Apple Store. I'd been researching wireless routers and settled on the latest Dual Band Airport Extreme. It would replace my two-year old Wireless G Linksys.
Went home, set it up and it was time to test.
Using my PS3, my now blazing fast internet connection and bitchin' router I followed the steps here and selected an old episode of Veronica Mars. After five seconds of buffering, I was watching very near DVD quality content. BAM.
Now, to Mark's credit, this is exactly what he was talking about in his first post:
I'm not exactly using the path of least resistance. I have to use my PS3 as a web browser. Without a keyboard and mouse it takes a couple minutes to navigate to the TV show or movie I prefer. I'm sacrificing a little quality because I'm at the mercy of whomever ripped this file. I'd say that it's damn close to DVD quality, much better than standard definition, much worse than HD. I'm relying on multiple devices; the user he envisions only needs a cablebox or satellite receiver and a TV.
However, I weigh those negatives versus the positives:
1 - I'm not paying $90 a month for DirectTV and $10-50 a month for Netflix.
2 - I'm not worrying about returning a disk to a Red Box or BlockBuster.
3 - I don't have to worry about what I want to watch already being checked out.
4 - I don't have to wait six months for this week's episode of Supernatural to be out on DVD, I can get it thirty minutes after it airs.
5 - I don't have to get in a car to pick up my media.
6 - The online library is substantially larger than whatever you'll find at your local rental store or whatever is playing using OnDemand.
7 - New releases, and by that I mean those that are still in the theater, are often available online months before they become available on DVD or OnDemand. Last night I watched a DVD quality version of The Losers. That's been out, what, two weeks?
8 - I'm doing this without the use of file sharing apps like BitTorrent and I'm not responsible for any illegal activity. It's the same as running a search on Google Video and watching content there. It's the person who's hosting the file on their server that's liable.
9 - If I do want to download a copy for myself, it's as easy as changing a setting in my Divx online player and caching a version on my hard drive. From there I can watch it on my iMac before bed or stream it to my PS3 over my new high speed connection.
THE drawback in this setup is very simple: live sports, particularly those in your market. If I want to watch the Brewers or Bucks or Packers my options are either find a shitty delayed stream and watch on my computer, or go to a bar.
But come on. Honestly, is having an excuse to go to your favorite pub really the worst thing in the world?
3 - Work has been on my mind a lot lately. Stretches like this come and go. When I'm busy I feel indispensable. When I'm not I wake up worrying if I'm going to get laid off.
It's a shitty feeling. It's tough when you don't trust your management enough to understand that some weeks I'm going to be ahead of my work cue and have little to bill out. Other weeks I could be slammed and at work ten hours a day. There's just not that much consistency when we're talking about the nature of what I do.
Right now I'm in one of those lulls and it's made me consider what I'm doing here in Eau Claire and how long it can last.
Would I love to stay? Put down some roots and really feel like I'm starting the rest of my life? Hell yes. I like this town. In the summer the golfing is outstanding. The weather is great. My brother, and soon my sister, live here. I'm within a short drive to all the family and friends I love. The winters are sort of dog shit but there are options. I could take up ice fishing, I guess.
But I don't think that's likely to happen. Odds are I'm going to have to move to a more metropolitan area at some point, I just don't know when.
4 - If you could do whatever you want, if you were given a chance to do it all over and start a different career, would you?
That's another thought that's been floating around in my head.
When I was fifteen or so I remember vividly sitting in my dad's office back in Marshfield. I was talking to him about a project our high school made you complete, one in which you focused on a potential career and a plan to get there. I was talking to the old man about what he thought might work for me and his first words were,
"Don't be a teacher".
This caught me off guard, for obvious reasons. I was sitting in the office of the Superintendent of Schools. He had been a teacher. His dad had been a teacher and principal of a high school. His brother was a principal. His sister was an elementary school teacher.
So when he said the family business shouldn't be on my mind, I crossed it off. I trusted his thought process. After all, it made sense. I was always the kid who knew everything about computers and technology. I was the kid in elementary school librarians took out of class when they couldn't get the printer to work or the Mac froze on them. The kid who jumped into the Senior High's network from home and played around with teacher files when he was 12 years old. The kid who spent years in the technology lab instead of the weight room.
I was a geek, and the Tech Boom was just starting. My dad thought the life of a teacher would be a waste and I'd be better off using my technical skills to conquer the industry. Run a network, build web sites, consult...something.
So I did, and to be honest I make a good living doing what I do. I enjoy it. But if I had it to do all over again I'd trade all of this to teach.
My brother and I live together. Every day I hear about the little shits he teaches in his 4th grade class. The athletes he coaches for varsity football. The anticipation in his voice when spring break or summer vacation comes up. Not gonna lie, I'm incredibly envious.
When you're fifteen years old you don't think about things like industry layoffs or tech trends or how the economy might be when you're 10 or 15 years older. You don't think about what occupations will be in demand or which occupations will always be needed.
If I were able to take a time machine back and give myself some advice I'd say look into two things:
1 - Teaching
2 - Cooking
I'd have loved to been a Tech or English teacher, and I'd have equally loved to own, operate and cook in my own restaurant.
Also, maybe a divorce lawyer too. Couples I know are dropping like flies. With the divorce rate the way it is, those bastards have to be making money hand over fist.
5 - One mistake I avoided was sports journalism.
I obviously like to write. I always have. I think I'm decent at it. When I was younger I used to dream I was like one of the scribes in Dan Jenkins novels, having a byline at a major newspaper or magazine.
I romanticized the notion of watching an event and working my ass off to fax home my recap or article (typed on an old Smith-Corona) on a deadline, a bottle of cheap scotch next to me.
"Outlined against a blue-gray October sky..." and all that shit. Yea, I wanted to be Grantland Rice.
Grantland Rice, however, would be in serious danger of losing his job in 2010. These days, in the age of blogs, message boards, twitter and instant box scores, it's not uncommon to have the average fan know more than the reporters that cover the team. Combine that with the massive problems facing the newspaper industries and some of the nation's best writers have been left out in the cold.
Take, for example, Hall of Fame reporter Hal McCoy. In 2009, after 47 years on the job, the Dayton Daily News decided they could no longer afford a beat writer to follow the Cincinnati Reds and McCoy was forced to retire.
These days, I know about something long before it ever gets to print or TV. My desktop twitter app sees to that.
Yesterday I got an Adam Schefter tweet that Lawrence Taylor had been arrested for rape. At that point there was no mention on ESPN.com. There was nothing on TV. But inside of 15 minutes the story was everywhere except the print media. By the time the story hit the shelves the next day it was old news.
This problem isn't unique to sports, obviously. It's the nature of the news industry.
6 - If you happen to find yourself in the Eau Claire area and you're the kind of person who likes to swing the golf club, you owe it to yourself to play Wild Ridge.
I can't even begin to describe how amazing the conditions are at that course right now. It's early May, and they're incredible.
I've played a lot of courses in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and right now I don't think I'd take another track.
If you're a golfer in Minneapolis or Marshfield or Wausau or wherever and you're looking for an awesome experience, check it out and look me up. It's not even pricey. Twilight rate is $20.
1a - This has been one hell of a weekend. I have to think it's rare to experience the range of emotion I went through in a span of 48 hours, the highs and lows, the inspiring and the debilitating, and come out of it all feeling like you got yourself a fucking win. I did.
This last week(s) has been dominated by thoughts of a pretty young lady I've recently been demolished by. There will probably be a blog about her at some point, I'm just not ready to write one up yet. Wounds are pretty fresh.
But whatever, forget the girl, this entry is about a moment I'll never forget for the rest of my life.
Anyone who golfs often has played out in their head the scenario that unfolded tonight. I've done it countless number of times. The situation is this:
You hit a beautiful drive on a par three or a par four. You know that you hit it well, and you know it was heading for the pin. Unfortunately you couldn't quite see the landing zone so you have about a minute or two in-between the drive and when you make it to the green where you can imagine what would happen if the ball actually made it into the pin. You approach the green, you look around, you don't see the ball and all of the sudden you stop and think,
"Check the cup".
You slowly move toward the pin, look down and there it is. That little dimpled ball that you know you'll have for the rest of your life.
Well, it happened tonight.
I had been driving the ball well. On number one I nearly drove the green on a par four despite missing most of the ball. On number three, a par five, I crushed the drive and had nothing but a seven iron to make it home in two.
Then came number four. What makes this situation special, besides the outcome, is that the shot was blind. I couldn't see the green because there's a bunker 50 yards in front, blocking the view. If you're a big hitter you can carry the bunker, or you can pull an iron and hit your shot to the left and chip on. It's not a long par four by any means, and there's times I'll pull the four iron and lay-up, leaving an easy pitch to the green. But I'd been hitting the ball well tonight so I grabbed the lumber and hit my drive.
Unlike my previous few drives, this one was more of a liner. Also unusual, I actually watched this drive through; when I hit a good drive I typically watch it for a second, turn and grab my clubs and start walking before the ball has even stopped. With this drive I watched it land, presumably on or just short of the green, take one bounce and disappear.
Now, here's where the above scenario in your head plays out. I actually started thinking how amazing it would be if the shot actually went in. Walking up the fairway I made note of what song was playing in my ear-buds (Motley Crew - Home Sweet Home), what time it was (6:21 pm) and thought to myself how I didn't see a second bounce. It was heading straight for the pin, bounced once and I didn't see the ball again. So for those 60 seconds or so I allowed myself the fantasy that I might have just hit my first hole in one (on a par four none the less!).
Still, I never really believed it went in. It's like any other fantasy; fun to think about, never actually anticipated.
When I got to the bunker and looked at the green, I didn't see the ball. This wasn't much of a big deal; I figured it bounced on the green and hopped somewhere off, maybe under a tree behind the green or in the rough.
I put my clubs down and walked over the green, trying to spy my ball. No dice. I gave a quick glance under a couple of pines, but they didn't line up to where I thought my shot landed. I checked the nearby rough and didn't see anything.
Then the thought hit me: "Check the cup".
Like I had envisioned so many times in the past, I slowly approached the hole, still not really letting the thought of a hole in one enter my head.
Then I saw it, that little white Top Flight 3, and the air left the building (course).
You know how when you watch Wimbledon and the winner yells and drops to their knees? It isn't a show. Their knees literally give out. I know this now. I let out a yell and was on my knees in less than a second.
I just stared at it for a couple moments. At first I was in shock. Then disbelief. I quickly questioned whether or not that could really be my ball. The notion was in and out of my head in a heartbeat.
That motherfucker was mine.
I didn't dare touch it. My pulse was going a mile a minute and I was excited like I'd won the lottery, but my first thought was to take a picture. I fumbled for the iPhone and snapped one.
Next thought was to call my dad. I dialed home and my sister picked up. I could barely breathe the words, "Get dad". She did, and I told him the story. He was excited and asked if anyone besides me saw it.
There's the rub, folks.
I already talked about how much I love golfing alone in the evenings. Music playing, alone with my thoughts, working out any frustrations I'd have. Unfortunately you don't consider the issue of hitting the best shot of your life, a shot so few experience in the entire world, and then not having anyone to witness it.
I didn't care. I already knew the answer to his question. There were only a half dozen other golfers at Mill Run this evening, at least as far as I could see. The sun was on its way down, it was a holiday, there was a little chill in the air. I did a quick survey of the land but it was pointless: no one saw this shot but me.
I told the old man I didn't give a shit, that I'd know and that's all I cared about. He laughed, agreed, told me congratulations and I hung up.
Next call was to my brother and I got a similar reaction. He was golfing with me earlier in the day at a different course and judging how I'd played those nine holes at Princeton I'm sure he was more shocked than I was.
When I hung up I finally reached in to grab the ball. I put it in a pocket in the bag where it wouldn't get mixed up with another and continued my round.
2 - The circumstances regarding this shot may not be of interest to most, but I had to consider them.
I'd already played two other rounds of golf this weekend, once in Neilsville yesterday and another time today, the aforementioned round with Ben at Princeton. Both times Ben and I were behind incredibly slow players that wouldn't let us play though.
Ben doesn't let that bother him; it pisses the motherfuck out of me.
I'm the guy who'll get road-rage and tailgate or flip off old people who suck at driving. I'll frustratingly drop four letter words in the middle of a meeting or in a silent Production area while people are working. I used to give up home runs and if I thought the batter was taking too much time jogging his ass around the bases I'd plunk the next batter in the back, on the rare occasion in the helmet.
When it comes to golf, I wear my emotions on my sleeve and nothing infuriates me more than when a group of fucksticks let their pride get in the way of golf etiquette. Both yesterday and today Ben and I were behind absolutely awful players. But while he'd play at a nice, easy pace and sit and wait while the people in front of us dribbled their way up the course, I stayed on their asses.
I'd meet up with their groups on the tee-box, stand fifteen feet from the box with my arms folded over my chest and stare. When these packs of fucking elephants hit their shots and drove away without offering to let us play through I'd sit on the front of the box, on the ground, and watch every one of their shots, knowing damn well it's making their group uncomfortable. When they got a good 350 yards out I'd hit my drive as far and as hard as I could and watch with a combination of rage, arrogance and glee as it rolled up to their group.
Shove it up their asses, Ben and I'd say.
Unfortunately, it also kills my round. I'm not good when I'm pissed off. This afternoon I was feeling dejected, wanted to go alone but Ben tagged along. I didn't even finish the round at Princeton. I was too pissed off and I waited while Ben completed his nine.
But golfing alone is different. I'm out there simply to be out there. Typically I'll run into groups that let me play through when needed, but whether my round takes one our or three I don't care. I like the idea of playing with a goal and some focus, but not for the sake of competing against anyone or anything. I just play to play and spend time out-doors.
3 - I almost didn't go tonight. Like I said, I'd already played nine with Ben this afternoon and stunk up the course.
But I'd come back to my place, watched some BSG and the choice became:
a: waste an evening in-doors
b: go back out and work out the emotional shit bugging me
and I chose b.
4 - Megan is back and working another summer at WR/ML.
Dope.
5 - When I finished the nine holes I stopped in the clubhouse and bought the bar a round. The patrons were almost as happy as I was.
6 - The ball is sitting on a shelf in my room, I'll figure out what to do with it later.
7 - It feels a little weird. Again, if you don't do a lot of golfing you might not give it a lot of thought. But courses here have been open for two weeks and I've already been out golfing a dozen times. It's my single favorite thing to do, and has been for as long as I can remember. Hitting a hole in one has always been my big goal. I didn't imagine it happening on a par four, but it did and now it's like a big check has been marked off on the bucket list or something.
• Student news paper publishes salaries and people lose their shit. I don't know why but reading the comments just brought a huge smile to my face. Faculty is pissed off that their salaries, most of which is paid for by the public, is now out in the open. Tax payers are pissed because educators are making so much. Makes for great reading.
• For my fellow RealGM'rs - Guy posts on rival message board, administrator gets the IP and tracks it to his company, original guy gets in deep shit, message board people everywhere shit themselves. Also, Buckeyes are douchebags.
• Deadspin and the Brewers - Will Leach previews (not really) the Brewers. Those who hate LaRussa will be amused.
• Texas being Texas - Can we just let Texas secede from the Union? It's a big state. I've been there three times. There's plenty of room for all the backwards-ass ignorant morons from states like Mississippi, West Virginia, etc. How about they just move to Texas and form their own country.
Lastly, I'm going to share with you the words of wisdom from Chad Ochocinco. Via Twitter:
- Yall ever seen a chick with a nice pair of heels but its like 3 inches of room left in the back because they aint her size, BORROWED
- Remember when you took the time to study for a test and was cocky as hell the next day cause you knew you was gone ace that shit?
- Remember when you put on that new outfit, new shoes with a lil cash in yo pocket and u had a car wash--couldn't nobody tell u shhh!
- Remember when you finally got the courage to holla at the chick you been liking in school n she agree to go out with you n yo SWAGG CHANGE
- Remember when you used to get loud on purpose just to get her attention in school but she never paid yo ass no mind? *handraised*
- Remember when you got a haircut and felt like you was GODS GIFT to women? Something bout a haircut just make you feel GREAT
- Remember when you saw the chick you liked and you walk by and pretend you don't see her knowing damn well you got a crush on her?
- Fellas- you know that feeling when you got on that fresh outfit, haircut ,new shoes and 20 dollars for u and her mcdonalds, #BALLIN
- LADIES- you got your hair done, brand new dress, with yo accessories,shoes with the purse to match with no money<--dudes buy drinks
- #ilostmyvirginity a long time ago and I can't find the chick who took advantage of me!!
My first round of golf yesterday started the same way it ended five months ago. With a mammoth drive and some guy behind me saying, "Holy shit...".
I was playing alone so the twosome on the first tee-box let me start ahead of them. I hadn't taken a swing since October. When I stepped up to hit I had to give the obligatory warning that the the drive could be pretty brutal.
"Hey man, we're all in the same boat today," one of them said. "It just means we get to laugh at you first". Har-har-har...
After I hit a piss-rocket that sailed over the green on the 292 yard par four, they stood there, mouth agape, while I said, "Thanks fellas, have a good round". Moments like that are just one of the many reasons I love playing the game.
There aren't a lot of guys out there who can consistently hit the ball like I can. I've only played with two, my dad and my brother. Like most kids, I mimicked what my dad did when I was little. Well, my dad has one of the sweetest golf swings this side of the PGA. When he put clubs in my hand when I was three years old, his was the swing I copied and it's largely remained unchanged since then. Combine 25 years of repetition and muscle-memory and you get a golfer who can hit the ball further than almost anyone else who steps on the course.
It's such a mental game, maybe more so for me. I don't focus on my shots. I don't line up yardage or take wind into account. When I'm golfing I'm not focusing on golf. I'm thinking about everything peripheral. Like I described much earlier in the blog, I'm susceptible to some really shitty golf. If I'm in a crap mood or I'm stressed or I've been destroyed by my job it's going to manifest itself into some abysmal shots. Physically everything looks the same with my swing; the ball just doesn't obey. I don't know how else to explain it.
Yesterday could have gone either way. For one, it was the first round of the year and not a lot is going to go right after a five month layoff. The second thing was my recent romantic interest. It had been the very definition of an up and down weekend with her and while if ended great, you never know the effect a woman is going to have on your golf swing. She'd been on my mind for days and it's not like I can turn that off when I step up to hit a shot.
Hell, I wouldn't want to.
Golfing alone, iPod playing tunes in my earbuds, walking eighteen holes might be my favorite thing in the world to do. It's two and a half hours of just being alone with my thoughts, enjoying great weather outside, nothing else to worry about in the world. It works wonders if I want to blow off steam or get away from whatever's burdening my mind. Pissed off at my job? Golf 18. By the fourth hole my game will be so shitty I'm no longer thinking about asshole clients or frustrating code. Instead I'm dwelling on how I could have possibly hit two straight in the pond and missed an easy four footer.
But like I said, a woman on your mind can be a positive or a negative. No way to predict it until you take that first swing with an iron.
I stuck it. Par three, 160 yards, I pulled the nine and dropped one six yards from the pin. My game didn't let up the rest of the evening. I went par, par, birdie, par, par, birdie over the next six holes. I'm lucky to have a run like that in the middle of the summer on my 40th round of the year. What I did yesterday was Brandon Jennings going off for 55. When I got home in two on a long par five (with a six iron none the less) I giggled. Some of my shots yesterday were just stupid.
It's a nice feeling when your mind is 100 miles away and you're still able to roll a shitty course on your first round of the year.
A short-brimmed fedora is heroic and hip. And you might have noticed, they’re also back in style—whether in wool (for the winter) or straw (for the summer).
My lovely pal Danielle says it's ok if I take full credit for bringing this back.
4 - So I know in my last post I said that fictional television isn't going to enlighten you. I never said it couldn't inspire you, however.
Our Content department has been hit with massive turnover in the last six months. None of the people who worked as content specialists when I arrived at SP are here any longer. They all quit. Not only that, but the people that have been hired to replace them have quit.
It's a bitch of a job, and one that I want.
Two weeks ago I went to our CFO. I mentioned to her that I'd heard yet another Specialist turned in his two weeks. It left us with only one person in a department that really demands at least three. Being a former English major and more than capable of handling both Flash and Content duties, I suggested to her that I could help if I was needed. She gave me a, "Thanks. We'll think about that." response and I left her office knowing full well that, no it wouldn't be considered.
This is typical. A lot of companies will preach change and that they need ideas and they need their employees to do more. In the end, a lot of it never happens despite the best intentions of the workers. Months ago we had a company wide meeting where we came up with plans to change our processes for the better. I was encouraged. That happened in January and I'm still waiting on the follow-up. Very little, if anything, has changed. The meeting was mostly bullshit.
So when I had this talk with the CFO and told her how I could be useful, I didn't really expect anything to come of it.
Fast forward about a week. It was around 1:00 am and I was starting to fall asleep to an episode of House. In it, one of the doctors wanted to do clinical trials. He asked House if he could take on this added responsibility. House said no. At the end of the episode the doc tried again, only this time he didn't ask permission, he flat told House he would be doing the trials. House said sure, go ahead. Confused, the doc asked why it was now alright. House said that when he said no, it was because he was asked. This time around he just did it.
The light went on in my head.
The next morning I got to work and crafted an email. Not to my boss, but to the company president. I didn't ask for an expanded role, I more or less told him I'd be taking it. I elaborated as to why. "I've been doing this for almost a dozen years"... "I'm the best writer on your staff"... "I'm an expert in our admin with knowledge of..."
I didn't get a response. Not for three days, at least. When I did get one it was a mixture of appreciation and shock. Management didn't even know I had any writing ability. They didn't know what my program in college was. They didn't understand that in my previous jobs I was not only expected to do Flash work, but also handle email campaigns and do design and write copy and code web pages.
Well, they know now. And I'll be starting in Content in the coming weeks.
5 - My newish role here left me a little more encouraged. I'm also seeing a few of my coworkers follow suit for their own reasons. I'm noticing a shift. People are doing less talking, less discussing, more doing. If they see a need for a change in a process, they're just adjusting and working a solution in on the fly instead of taking it up the ladder and hoping for a response. I like it.
5b - I extended my lease. I want to see where this is heading. The Cities can wait a bit longer.
6 - Guys, I gotta share with you the easiest meal you'll ever make. This is for my pals who aren't cooks who rely on frozen pizza and takeout.
Go to your local butcher or meat show or a good grocery store. Look for about 2.5 lbs of sirloin tip roast. Find a leaner cut of meat, one without much fat.
Chop up the meat into 1 inch by 1 inch pieces and add it to the cooker.
Add four or five chopped celery sticks and four or five carrots sticks.
Chop up about a half a yellow onion and add it.
Peel, chop and add the potato.
You only need half of what's in the two bags, so add that and save the rest for another day.
Add one of the packages of seasoning and give all the ingredients a toss with some tongs. Repeat this with the second package.
Add about a cup and a half of water.
Cover with the lid, turn the cooker on to the Slow setting, and forget about it for the next six hours. When the time's up you get this:
So. Fucking. Good. And it's more or less the easiest thing in the world to make.
7 -
When it comes to music, I'm usually either really early on a band or artist or I'm really late.
I was pretty late on my latest musical obsession. I abhor the state of major label hip hop, but I absolutely love Lupe Fiasco. A few weeks ago I started listening to "The Cool".
It's awesome. Best hip-hop album I've heard since God Loves Ugly.
1 - There are a few days every year that I absolutely love, none of which include national holidays or birthdays. Nope, they are (in order):
• Day one of the NFL Draft
• NBA trade deadline
• The NBA Draft
That's it. Those are the three days. You can have your Christmas, New Years and birthdays. I'll take the chaos and coverage of the above.
Last Thursday happened to be one of those days, and it didn't disappoint. The NBA trade deadline came and went at 3:00 pm that afternoon, and the event wound up being a fascinating example of how social media and the internet have changed sports.
You had:
• Blogs being updated by the minute
• NBA boards getting so many views that servers were crashing
• Twitter absolutely blowing the fuck up
Apologies to my company, but this was my day
- a Firefox window with about four tabs open: Twitter, RealGM, ESPN, SI. Read one site, click to the next and hit refresh, read updates, move to the next tab. When there was a new Tweet (averaged about four new a minute) click back to read the updates. When there was a new rumor or information it was back to RealGM to read or post. Thousands or people took place today.
Quick example: That morning I created a new thread on RealGM regarding a rumor between the Bucks and Sixers. Inside of three minutes it had 55 views and a dozen responses. In nine minutes there was 260 views. As of 7:00 pm that night there were a staggering 403 responses and 5703 views.
This was a typical NBA deadline day. But what upped the ante this year was Twitter.
I went to lunch with friends that afternoon. I kept up with Twitter on my phone. At one point my entire home page were tweets made in the last two minutes. All were trade rumors and updates.
Every writer, especially those from ESPN, wants to get credit for breaking even the most benign news. So instead of insiders and writers getting a report and publishing the information in an article or a blog, you had them updating Twitter seconds after hearing the information.
For information junkies like myself and those on RealGM, this stuff is our crack. Get an update, share the info on the board, read reactions and comment. Wash, rinse, repeat all day. Around 11:05 that morning RealgM servers crashed. This happens every year on the draft and deadline days. But the fact that it's expected doesn't make it any less excruciating. Around the time that it went down today coincided with the rumor that the Bucks were sending our a draft pick in a trade. It was awful news and it had to be discussed, only our outlet was down. The next twenty minutes were absolutely horrendous. I felt like a junkie desperate for a fix I couldn't get. When the servers went back online, within a minute there were hundreds of new posts. Just like myself, you had people hitting refresh every thirty seconds hoping the servers were working again.
One of my first entries in this blog dealt with information addiction. Today was Exhibit A.
2 - Speaking of information addiction and social media, someone alert NBC that it's no longer 1990.
The Olympics have been bashed so much in the last two weeks I won't bother kicking this long-dead dog. Much.
The Olympics are about stories, not sports. Nobody cares about curling or ice dancing or snowboarding or skiing. In three weeks they could show Bode Miller in some competition in California and no one would turn in.
But in the Olympics, people will tune in for the story. If you know who he is, you know that four years ago he was shut-out from any medals and left Italy an embarrassment. The story this year was one of redemption. People wanted to see how he would bounce back. Key word there is "see".
Unfortunately, NBC didn't televise a single run of his live. Every one was tape-delayed into prime-time. Same with Lindsay Vonn, the sweetheart of this year's Olympics. Or Lindsey Jacobellis, the snowboarder also looking for redemption. I left work a half hour early last week because I figured that while they probably wouldn't show her run on NBC, surely they would have it live on CNBC or MSNBC. Nope. I got Curling and hockey.
NBC paid a lot of money for these games. They've lost cash by the boatload, even with huge ratings. If they feel like they have to put the marquee day events in prime-time, fine. Whatever. But at least give the public an avenue to watch live if they wish. Why can't they broadcast over the internet? They'll show cross country skiing on their website but not the Women's Super-G?
I'm on the internet all day. I read blogs, I'm on Twitter, on Facebook. So are millions. It's virtually impossible to shut yourself out of the coverage. When I know how Vonn and Miller and Jacobellis did hours before their events are televised, it removes any reason for me to tune in that night.
3 - Sunday night represented just another massive fuck-up by NBC. The USA vs Canada hockey match is one of, if not the major event of the games. It wound up being as exhilarating a sporting event as you'll find anywhere. The last five minutes my pulse was going a mile a minute and it wasn't like I was one of the few. Twitter and the boards were going bat-shit crazy too. It brought cynical "I've seen it all" sports writers to the point of using shitty punctuation – I'm guessing they were excited.
Where was it being broadcast? MSNBC, in standard definition for 80% of the viewing public. What was on NBC? Fucking ice dancing. The performances weren't even for a medal, either.
Nice work, NBC. The best US hockey moment since Miracle on Ice and you put it on Rachel Madow's network.
I clicked on Wisconsin, then 2000, then UW vs LSU. Two seconds later I'm looking at a commercial free stream of the Badgers vs Tigers 2000 NCAA tournament game. Mike Kelly, Andy Kowskie, Mark Vershaw.
Jaw on the ground I let out a mind-blown, "Ho-ly-shit...". think I had a tear in my eye. I'm not even kidding.
Hundreds of full NCAA games over the last ten years. Recaps, results, highlights. It's a college basketball fan's dream.
5 - Roger Goodell: Get bent.
NFL: Fuck you, you pricks.
Above I mentioned my favorite three days of the year. My #1 is easily the first day of the NFL draft. I don't know what it's like to be a woman anticipating her wedding, but I have to think how I feel about that late Saturday every April is roughly the same. Each year is roughly the same. Wake up, make a trip to the gas station for a frozen pizza and a sixer, grab the local paper and settle in for roughly seven hours of NFL coverage. Follow along online, on ESPN, on Sirius and the NFL Network. I absorb it all.
In the past day one of the draft started 11:00 am central and went three rounds. This was perfect.
Last season, Roger Goodell decided to tinker with it a bit.
*pause...breathe...*
They moved it back three hours and pushed round three back to the second day. This wasn't a good move. Nobody liked it. Roger Goodell, in his first NFL draft, was fucking with something holy to a shit-ton of NFL fans.
But we got over it.
However, what we won't get over is this fucking travesty that Goodell set up this year. This April, the draft will no longer be on a Saturday. Instead, the draft's first round is to be held in primetime on a Thursday. Rounds two and three will be on Friday night. The remaining four rounds will be held on Saturday. There won't be any Sunday coverage.
It pisses me off just thinking about it.
Think I'm overreacting, check out just one website when the news was released. 341 comments, the overwhelming negative.
"way to destroy something that was perfect the way it was."
"The weekend draft has been a tradition in my household. We spent the weekend cooking (making spaghetti sauce,etc) and watching. With it in the evening we will probably record it and flip through. Not interested in the new time."
"i liked waking up on saturday jacked and weatching the countdown waiting for the draft to begin it was alota fun that weekend, and now the best rounds are on thursday and friday nites, wow, the NFL is all about the ratings and money Goodell doesnt care about the fans"
"This is stupid. All year long I can't wait for the NFL draft. It has Been a weekend tradition."
"I have not heard a fan say a good thing about this. It's just a money grab by the NFL. The suits decided they don't care what the fans want."
Ugh.
6 - I originally wanted to get this post up in the middle of the last week. One reason why is Epic Beard Man.
If you're not a frequent crawler of blogs and Twitter, you can be forgiven for missing this last Tuesday or Wednesday. But you owe it to yourself to check out the following:
Epic Beard Man Beats up Kid
Absolutely remarkable. I mean, the old guy is built like a brick shit-house. He's wearing a shirt that says " I am a Motherfucker". And some kid is talking smack to him?
I loved the Mortal Kombat remix seen at the bottom of the second link. I crack up every time I hear, "Bring Amber Lamps".
6b - Speaking of Deadspin, they're now doing a Balls Deep Mailbag every Tuesday AND Thursday.
*single tear*
Last week I timed it. I started a mailbag around 4:00. By the time I was done reading it and the comments it was 5:00. There were a few moments spent checking another site and a few more minutes getting up to get a soda, but in the end that's one hour of my day spent reading letters to the editor like...
Q: Why don't they make Bailey's Irish Cream without alcohol, so I can enjoy it in the morning without having to go to work drunk? It's simply better than anything else you can put in coffee.
A: Why is the alcohol a problem? The real question you should be asking is why they don't make regular cream WITH alcohol.
I'm of the mind that, unless you like White Russians and Black Russians, no one over the age of 25 ever needs to drink Bailey's or Kahlua. That's the shit you drink when you're 14 and you're too much of a pussy to have acquired a taste for scotch.
or....
Q: I am a first time father and my son is 11 months old. His favorite show is Jacks Big Music show on Nick Jr. It is fucking brutal. God I hate children's television. Anyways, on one particular episode Lisa Loeb does a little music video. I found myself thinking that she looked pretty damned cute. I think it's something about the glasses. Am I a horrible person for wanting to fire off some knuckle children to a children's show? Will I now be on some sort of government list for even asking the question?
A; No, it's okay. You are an adult, and that means you are allowed to enjoy children's shows on an adult level, even if that includes picturing Lisa Loeb as a very sexy librarian who is about to throw back her hair and ride you like a carousel. YOU SAY…
Enjoy.
7 - I can't vouch for the following two sites unless you own a Mac and have AdBlock plus. They might be shady on a PC. I don't know.
But NinjaVideo.net and GotMovies.net are freaking fantastic. I've already mentioned NinjaVideo. Great for all the new movies and TV shows. They've got a good amount of old TV too.
That said, GotMovies blows them out of the water in terms of content. I've been using the site for a week and I've yet to not find a TV episode or movie I searched for.
In the last three days Ben and I have watched old school MacGyver episodes and these three obscure flicks from our youth that we just randomly wanted to check out.
OK, our choice in movies as kids were basically shit. We get that now.
But the point is that those are three flicks our local Blockbuster doesn't carry and we were able to get them in 20 minutes online. For free. In DVD quality.
I love technology.
8 - The only reason I found the above site is my obsession with all things Olivia Wilde reminded me of how awesome The OC was. I lost my DVDs years ago so I ran a search for episodes online and found GotMovies.
The OC was awesome. One of my friends left season one at my place when I was a senior in college. One weekend I started watching and didn't stop for three days. Eventually my other pals were hooked too. We never missed an episode.
One reason for this is obvious. The eye candy was ridiculous. Mischa Barton, Rachel Bilson, Olivia Wilde, Autumn Reeser...yea.
But that gets old. The reason the OC was so awesome was the writing. It was legitimately laugh out loud funny. It was trashy and sordid. It was the very definition of a guilty pleasure and usually you got it all in every scene.
Watch it. Start from episode one. You'll be hooked. Fictional TV isn't supposed to enlighten or make you a better person. In the end it's just entertainment and I guarantee you The OC will deliver that.
9 - Might be moving on from here relatively soon.
My original plan was to stick it out in EC through the spring, see how things were looking and make a decision around May. But Friday may have been a tipping point.
We have had a good number of awful clients, for a lot of different reasons. This client (I can't say who), however, is made up of purely awful individuals. We've bent over backwards for them time and time again. We acquiesce to their every demand. In the end, nothing is good enough. We build something one way and they hate it, despite it being exactly what they wanted. We design something and they sign off. A month later when it's ready to go they change their minds. We have meetings where things are specifically hammered out and a week later it's like they remember nothing.
Everyone has been hit by 'em. Our content specialist, designer, even our company owner. On Friday it was my turn.
I won't get into specifics, but I was destroyed. I actually left early that day. I took my beat-down over something that was their fault, and just went home. For almost that entire night I couldn't think of anything else. Just how these people, these fucking assholes, could be so terrible to others and irrational when it comes to working with an agency.
I was worried it would ruin my weekend. But then Friday night happened and I had a new reason to be pissed off on Saturday.
9b - This weekend mostly sucked.
10 - Three hours on the road, feeling demolished both ways did leave me in a beaten down state of mind to the point where all I wanted to do was listen to some heavy, angry, soul crushing tunes. Thankfully I had no shortage of that.
I give you the best of what I heard this weekend.
Thrice - Under Par
Papa Roach - She Loves Me Not
DMX - How's it Goin Down
SocialBurn - Ride
Three Days Grace - Someone Who Cares
Glassjaw - When One Eight Becomes Two Zeroes
From Autumn to Ashes - Short Stories With Tragic Endings
Taproot - Poem
Puddle of Mudd - Away from me
The Ataris - The last song I will ever write about a girl
No Use for a Name - On the outside
Primer 55 - My Girl
Cold - Stupid Girl
Strung out - Razorblade
Sick Puppies - My World
Bullet for my Valentine - The End
Smile Empty Soul - Bottom of a Bottle
Apocalyptica - I Don't Care
The Offspring - Dirty Magic
Chevelle - Comfortable Liar
1 - So I finally got around to seeing the new We Are The World remake.
It's for Haiti. That's good, fine, admirable. Their hearts are in the right place, I guess.
But this thing is awful. Horrific, disastrous, soul-crushing. Take your pick of adjectives.
Some things just need to be left alone on the basis that they're basically classic. Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, Caddyshack, Animal House, Ghost Busters (basically anything with Bill Fuckin' Murray) in film. Music is a bit different. Artists put their own spin on songs and sometimes they're good (Jeff Buckley singing Hallelujah) and sometimes they're bad (Imogen Heap singing Hallelujah) but nobody is ever really surprised when you hear a cover.
We Are the World is different. It was timeless. With an almost entirely new cast of characters, what they did was remake the song to modernize it. They grabbed today's "hottest" artists, added some fucking hiphop and the result is the abortion above.
Ugh.
Couldn't they have just brought back the old one? Given it some airplay on the radio and MTV and Fuse? Advertised that the proceeds from downloading the song on iTunes would go to Haiti? How about the artists in the remake just dig into their enormous pool of wealth and simply donate? You're telling me someone in that room didn't for a moment think, "Hey, I'll pay to not have this song created. Who's comin' with me?"
Do your part, but download and delete it. Please. No one should have to be subjected to Lil' Wayne singing what Bob Dylan once did.
2 - Avatar was better than I envisioned it would be. I had heard so many people say that the story was average, but I was impressed. Was it over the top with the message? Yup. I didn't care.
The special effects were obviously amazing. There were moments that had me ducking in my seat.
I'm usually someone who'll fall asleep if I'm watching a long movie in the theater. Gladiator and the Matrix put me asleep. Avatar had me enthralled.
I come from a family of teachers and school administrators. I hear both sides of these kinds of arguments quite a bit. But I think there's two factors in this story that place me on the side of administration:
1 - The district is one of the worst in the state.
2 - The economy
Obviously change needed to happen. The six items they wanted the teachers to agree to didn't seem too outrageous given the students' performance has been so terrible. On the surface they might be cosmetic, however. So the school day is 25 minutes longer? Fine. But what's going into those 25 minutes.
But whatever. Like I said, if the school is that bad then making some changes had to happen.
But the second item, the economy, is what makes this a little more eye opening. All of those people are losing their job because they couldn't agree on concessions. In the past year a lot of people I know have been asked to do more without the carrot of higher salary dangling in front of them. They overlying theme is, "Do what you can to be useful to your company or you're going to get canned". It surprises me that the teachers union would look at the extraordinary circumstances and come to the realization that having a job wasn't worth an extra 25 minutes a day and two weeks of in-services over the summer.
I'm going to keep an eye on this one. I think a deal is reached now that the staff realizes that, yes, administration will can their asses.
4 - Twiitter is awesome if you're a sports fan like myself. But if you were also a fan of the olympics (I'm not), I can guess that you wouldn't be incredibly pleased at the tweets you're reading today.
NBC was televising cross country skiing earlier today while the Men's Downhill was going on. They were going to show the more popular event later. However, writers on twitter were giving up to the moment updates on how the US was doing in the downhill. Sports sites like ESPN and SI were showing results on their home page. So, if you're online today it's rather difficult to not know that Bode Miller captured the bronze.
5 - I'm seeing some potential in Google Buzz. A neat (or disturbing if you want to look at it in another way) feature that your blasts are plotted on a map. So if I'm using my iPhone and I'm at a bar and I say something like, "Great happy hour deals at The Livery", my blast is going to be visible to anyone in Eau Claire using Buzz.
Since Buzz has only been out less than a week and people are still kind of feeling it out, the blasts have been few. But like I said, I can see potential. It could prove to be especially useful in an area you're not familiar with. Your friend sends a blast from the bar or club or event he's at. It shows up on your map and you automatically get directions. Pretty cool.
6 - It's possible that Olivia Wilde has successfully gotten me into four different shows.
I remember watching the ill-fated Skin when I was junior at Stout. Only around for six episodes, it was worth it for Wilde alone. Oh, and also the absurd plot in which the daughter of a pornographer gets involved with the son of DA. Shakespearean drama FTW.
Then she signed on to do 13 episodes in the second season of The OC, right around the time I started to tune-in. I was hooked.
Don't hate.
Next up was a short run on the critically acclaimed but short lived Black Donnellys. Just another of NBC's fuck-ups.
And, finally, House M.D.. I watched House briefly in college but tuned out when it became apparent that every episode would be the same. Someone is hit with a mystery illness, House is a dick, makes a mistake with the first diagnosis, patient gets worse, House is a dick, House has a revelation in the final five minutes and the person lives. Wash, rinse, repeat.
So yea, I stopped watching somewhere in the middle of season one.
Fast forward five years. I find out our lass Olivia Wilde is a member of House's cast, something that the rest of the world has apparently known for some time. So I simply skipped to the episode where she joins the cast and, like that, I'm hooked again.
I've blown through an entire season of this goddamn show in the past three days. That's not easy to do. It requires a level of inactivity and laziness that borders on (flat out is) unhealthy.
Damn you, Olivia Wilde.
7 - One of my friends is in the hospital. Another quit her old job and is no longer online. It's some holiday today so most of my other friends are home, not working. I've had absolutely no one to email and chat with all day. Conversely, outside of this blog, I've been pretty damn productive.
