The Remodel Updizzle

Tomorrow that warehouse theme we've got going on over here we'll be wiped away. It's actually going to look like a home with just a few minor details that need to be taken care of. I'm going to miss the bare concrete........oh, wait....no I wont. The walls are painted a very nice grayish deal. The new cabinets are installed. The ceiling is plastered and painted. I'm tired. We're all tired. Tired. Tired. Tired. Tired. Tired. t i r e d

I Could Never Mean A Thing To You

Sometimes I think I garner up feelings for somebody just so that I can analyze those feelings. Obviously that is not entirely true, but the fact still remains that if I do acquire feelings towards someone I will begin the over-analysis. Recently while looking at every angle of my feelings and picking them apart piece by piece I've come up with some thoughts, and as per usual I will attempt to type them into a cohesive bit of literature.

Unrequited desire for somebody is fantastic. Am I being ironic? I don't know. Alanis screwed me up. Actually it's true. Think about it. Harboring unrequited feelings has got to be up there with near death experiences as far as learning about yourself is concerned. Not to mention it's a great excuse to annoy your friends, to the point where they try to avoid you, by endlessly complaining about some girl who you can't get. There are basically two sides to this, one being that of the insecure and the other being of the confident. The insecure ask questions like, "What's so wrong with me that makes her not like me?" and make claims like, "I'm pathetic. It's all my fault." The confident ask, "What's wrong with her that she doesn't like me?" and make claims like, "Whatever, her loss." So who’s asking the right questions? The safe answer is both are wrong. It is nobody’s fault. I don’t entirely agree with this. In fact I sort of lean towards the insecure. Go ahead read that again. I know it’s shocking. The thing is if you dissect the situation and look at everything that could possibly be in your power to influence her desire you might come across some surprising findings. You might find an overwhelming amount of evidence pointing to your guilt in the whole damn mess. See the main problem here is instead of being active in getting what you want, you sit back sad that you don’t have it. That is your fault. Again if you really look at it you can find the thing you can do to take the blame off you. You can figure it out. You can change it. You can change yourself.

Did he just tell me to change myself? I don’t want to change myself!! Screw him!!!

Actually this is my big revelation of the month, and it’s a crazy one if you consider the person who is typing this. I mean I’m one of the most independent guys in the world. As a matter of fact, if you needed a good example of too independent I’d give you myself. I have always been a strong believer in not changing yourself for the benefit of someone else. You are your own person. But what I realized was contrary to all this. The thing is, what is so wrong with changing yourself for somebody you want so badly? There really is nothing wrong with that. For the millionth time really look at what is going on here. You want this girl more than you ever thought possible, and a huge part of that, which you probably didn’t pay attention to, is the kind of person she wants to end up with is the kind of person you want to be. I know this is a lot to get your mind around, but why would you want somebody who didn’t want what you desired to become. Essentially you are changing yourself into somebody you were already going to become, only this time it was sparked by someone else. Again this goes back to the reoccurring theme of mine that you should make every effort to go after what you want.

So that is what I’m doing. I’m changing to become the person she wants to be with and the person she should be with, because I know, I see so very clearly, that who she wants to be with is who I want to become, even if she doesn’t exactly know who that is, even if I don’t know exactly who she is. (That might be a lie)

ARRRRGGGGGGG

If you look up the word 'art' in the dictionary you'll probably find the word 'aesthetic' which definition will have the word 'beauty' or 'beautiful.' If you were to ask me to define art you'd probably hear something about creativity, and then of course it would all go back to that whole beauty deal. Of course beauty is very relative therefore art is as well. But it's not really what art is that I want to get into rather what art does. Art soothes. Art changes the world. Art devastates. Art kills. Art thrills. Art does just about anything it wants to do, but it does one thing that I believe is the most powerful. Art reminds us that there are beautiful (of course) things out there waiting for us to go get them. It inspires and gives us hope.

The Day Baby Federline-Spears Was Born

*woosh*

*plop*

No that was not the sound of a good visit at the toilet. It was the sound of me hopping on the "Rescue Me" bandwagon. I've known about this show for a while but never really bothered to pay attention to it even though my roommate has been trying to get me hooked forever the same way I tried to hook everyone on "Scrubs." The thing is I still don't quite know how I feel about Dennis Leary, but it turns our this show might be the best thing he has ever been a part of. I've only seen two complete episodes but it's easy to see that "Rescue Me" is a great show.

Most obvious cameo: In one episode Leary's character is playing hockey. As soon as I saw the ice I thought, "Where's Cam Neely?" and BOOM there he is playing one of Leary's teammates.

Anyway, there are plenty of episodes recorded on the TiVo for me to catch up on so I'm sure more on this show will come soon.

Speaking of nothing that relates to the next thing I'm going to write about...

From the Sports Guy's mailbag:

Q: Please help settle a long-standing debate a friend and I have going. How far did Zack Morris get with Kelly Kapowski?-- Jonathan Chavez, Cambridge, Mass.

SG: I was thinking about bothering my new ESPN colleague Mario Lopez with this one (sorry, I just had to see how that looked in print) before deciding to take this one myself. I don't think Zack sealed the deal until the "College Years" ... and that show never happened. So I'm going with third base. And I mean "third base" in the context of when the show happened (the early-'90s), not what "third base" means now, which is probably something like "a threesome that isn't videotaped."

Bill Simmons is one of my favorite writers, and the above is a good example why. I dare you to name a person in this world who is trustworthy enough to answer such an important question. If you enjoy sports, pop-culture, and good writing you have to read Simmons daily. It's a rule. He has just written a book basically revolving around his lifetime of Red Sox torture all ended by last year's championship. I know, who the hell wants to read some New Englander praise the Red Sox like they are the anti-FEMA for an entire book? Well, if Simmons is the New Englander I definitely want to read it.

Simmons wrote at least twice this year of the importance of other writers' influences on you. He expressed that in order for you to find and become your own style you must read the works of other writers you respect. He said this in a sort of tribute to Hunter S. Thompson after hid death, and he's also expressed this in his daily "More Cowbell" where he's giving his readers weekly picks of his favorite sports books. So with that being said, if ever there is evidence of SG influence on the way I write here don't be surprised. I am just taking the man's advice.

By the way, http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/simmons/index

Good Guys Always Win...Eventually

You've heard the sayings, "Good guys finish last," and "Bad guys always win," or other variations. The basic theme is that being a nice stand-up guy doesn't necessarily get you what you want, and often finds you on the sidelines watching someone less deserving running away with the prize. So why do the bad guys seem to win more often than not? Why does the jerk who takes credit for everybody else's work get the promotion? Why does the possessive cheating asshole always get the girl? The number one reason is that these "bad guys" are aggressive. They know what they want, and the go right for it. Good guys too often sit back hoping or even expecting that they're passiveness will be seen as genuine patience. They want to be seen as people who don't put pressure on others and they want to be rewarded for it. They're mentality is, "if I do good, good will come to me."

There is some truth to that. Quick story: A lady was involved with two guys. One guy was an all around decent guy the other was a selfish rich alcoholic asshole prick. The good guy loved the lady with everything he had. The bad guy barely loved anything but himself. When the choice had to be made the lady ended up with the bad guy, because he was the one who forced the decision. The good guy couldn't do anything but what he knew. So he continued living the best way he could. Meanwhile the lady and her man shacked up, and as time went by it was obvious that there was no real love there. In fact it brought the lady to massive depression. The good guy kept being a good guy. Eventually the lady was pushed over the edge and only to find that her good guy was waiting and she was happy that he was. It took almost a full decade for the good guy to finally win. The two are now happily married.

There's a lesson here for the good guys of the world to take from the bad. Be aggressive. If you want to get what you want sooner rather than later you have to go after it. There's too much sitting around going on and that's exactly why the good guys finish last. Contrary to the beliefs of some, you do not have to be bad to be aggressive. In fact there may even be an argument that these so called good guys may just be lazy scared bad guys hiding behind good, the same way bad guys hide behind straightforward confidence. GO AFTER WHAT YOU WANT. Stop expecting that the good will come from yours. Part of deserving what you want is fighting for it.

But if you're too stubborn, and you want to wait and see. There may still be hope for you, because good guys really do win. It'll just take a really long fucking time.

The Katrina Open

I was watching some of the tennis US Open today...

It's hard to not want Andy Roddick to lose. Not because he's a bad guy, on the contrary, he is one of the most gracious fun losers ever. Take his many loses at the hands of Roger Federer. At each post-match interview Roddick has a great way of getting the crowd laughing by way of self-deprecating humor and he also doesn't forget to sing the praises of today's best player, Federer. More recently, after his 1st round loss in the open the tennis media was going nuts claiming that the Roddick has lost his "mojo". Many speculated on the reactions his endorsements would take, the biggest being AMEX. What these companies have done was inherit that same proud and endearing attitude Andy has carried throughout his career. The most played commercial during the open, is an AMEX commercial with a guy giving a press conference. The name plate in front of him reads "Andy's Mojo". The ad insists that Andy's mojo is not lost and that it will be with him in the next morning's practice even if it means that he can't hit the snooze button. Another series of ads, from Lexus, features Andy himself, driving a Lexus with various people who are trying to give him pointers. The best of these ads, is one with an enamored female who lovingly pleads with Andy to "forget about New York." Of course, Andy being such a great loser is also a reason why you want the guy to win. Good news there is Andy is still very young, and has plenty of time to work out the kinks, mainly his weakness on the backhand. Roddick will most likely win at least one more major title in his career, but if he doesn't, at least we'll have some fun with it.

They're calling Katrina USA's most devastating natural disaster ever. Almost a week later, and they still can't even take guesses at the death toll. Of course, we over here on the west coast can't even be bothered. This is HUGE. Rescue teams from all over the country, including local SoCal forces, are over there in the gulf right now giving all they have to the recovery efforts. Thousands and thousands of people have been relocated hundreds of miles away from the only home they know. Gas prices are soaring all over the country. By the way, if you were paying any attention, gas was on a downward move and was supposed to get closer to tolerable prices before Katrina hit, but the hurricane and the damage it brought took gas right back to were we didn't want it to go and further. Besides the gas price surges, there is no real immediate effect of Katrina to the west coast, and so generally we are apathetic. Part of the reason is due to the fact that we have just become jaded to all these catastrophe's that happen everywhere else but here. 9/11 happened in NY. The war is all the way in Iraq. The tsunami was at the other side of the world. All we have are occasional earthquakes, landslides, and hundred home damaging non-fatal fires. Nothing to really lose your cool over. The thing is I don't really think we are letting this thing sit in properly, and I'm sure many of the higher ups are pretty happy about this. We should be angry or at the very least mad. It took way too long for the government to react meanwhile Red Cross, an organization we tend to forget is private, was there right away doing whatever they could, which is a lot but not enough. This disaster has shown a very weak spot in our government's domestic dealings. Of course we weren't ready for this. Why would we be? We are America the powerhouse of the world. Nothing is going to infiltrate us, not even mother nature. Meanwhile many nations around the world, while offering helping hands to the relief efforts (interesting that we are on the other side of those offers) are secretly, and not so secretly laughing at us. Many European nations are calling Katrina mother nature's way of biting our environmental policies right on the ass, a sort of payback for the almost complete disregard of the global warming problem. What is funny is the surprise that the media is poorly portraying blacks in the wake of the storm...ummmm duh. How is that surprising? The good thing is a lot more people are intelligent enough to realize that everything going on over there is beyond race issues. The sad thing is you know there are ignorant stupid asses out there who watch the coverage and think "fucking niggers"..........Anyway I'm spent. Back to not caring.

P.S. By the way, one of the nicest pieces of Katrina footage (if you can call it nice) was from Mississippi where a white lady suffering from dehydration was being given water by an older black gentlemen. "Fucking niggers" eh?