1996 Election Flashback video

I have a bunch of old videos that I need to edit and post. This is one of my favorites.

1996 Late Night with Conan O'Brien -
What does the professional wrestling community think of the election?

Thanks, Hill!

Damn, dude. That was a pretty great speech, given that I thought things would be so much more ... hostile and testy, I guess.


see Obama pictures

Fixing broken things

So my X-Box is dead in the water. For real, this time. I think.

Last week, I played it for a little while one morning and everything was fine. Walked the dogs, had some lunch, fired it up to work on some new Forge maps for Halo 3 and ...

RED RING OF DEATH!

I unplugged everything, let it rest for a while, and tried twenty minutes or so later. Still got the ring. An hour later, still got the ring.

Finally, I tried it once again for the night - just in case - and it worked.

The next morning, pretty much the same thing. It worked, then I turned it off, and then it didn't work anymore for a few hours. Then it did.

Anyway, it finally pretty much stopped working altogether, so I put in a work order via Microsoft.com, and now I have to pack it up and ship it off to an exotic locale (Mesquite, TX!) for them to work their magic.

Tomorrow I send the machine out, and then wait probably three weeks to get it back. I'm sending them a black 360 Elite unit, so I better get the same back in return ... Urgh. Wish me luck.

As a result, I'm already lonely and starting to miss two of my best friends here in New Jersey - Nico Bellic and Master Chief. It's gonna be a long three weeks.

On the plus side, this should, in theory, help focus my energies towards finding a new job and going to the gym (both of which I do actively, but admittedly not as enthusiastically as I ought to). One less distraction is a good thing.

(Though come to think of it, I haven't played God of War in a while on my PS2 ... hmmm.)

The other major reconstruction project about to begin is in my mouth. Nicole and I decided that we're ready to get braces to straighten our teeth. Nicole had them many, many years ago, but there's still a lingering issue she'd like to take care of.

I've never had braces, but anyone who's ever met me knows about my imperfections (of which there are many, but I refer specifically to my choppers this time around). One thing I've always been very self-conscious about is my smile. I think it's pretty horrible. My teeth are actually very healthy, and I take care of them well (though I could be more consistent with my flossing), but I have "overcrowding" on the bottom row around one of my center teeth. Up top, I have gaps between my front six teeth (the cuspids, and the central and lateral incisors). In addition, my upper central incisors are elongated compared to the rest of the teeth (resulting in a bit of an overbite), and they bend somewhat inward, to the inside of my mouth (which, according to my orthodontist, causes the crowding on the bottom).

Do a Google image search on "teeth crowding", and you'll see some VERY hardcore examples of what I'm talking about. Sort of. Happily, my personal situation is nowhere near as severe as the examples in the first page of those photos.

By the sounds of things, I'm going to get the regular, old-school type metal braces and not the clear, modern ones. For my situation, the orthodontist feels they're a better bet. I don't care one way or another, as long as they work. They can put in neon green wires as far as I'm concerned. Unlike an awkward teen in high school, I really don't care how they're going to look on me.

The two parts of the deal I'm not so fond of are the cost (of course) and the length of time this is going to take. I've been told to expect the braces to come off in 12 to 18 months. I get my dental molds and pre-installation work done on Wednesday, and assume I'll actually get the actual appliance in early September.

So, if all goes to plan, in September '09 or possibly as late as March '10, I'll be hit in the face with a baseball and end up having to wear dentures anyway. Go figure.

---

I still owe a post about a whole bunch of movies I've seen this summer, but here's a quick note about "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor". Nicole loved the first one (and saw the second one, and walked out of "The Scorpion King"), and I love the Mummy-themed rollercoaster at Universal Studios, so we figured we'd go check it out last weekend. There were other movies we'd have rather seen, but since it wasn't likely to remain in our local theater too much longer, it was now (then?) or never.

I should mention that I've seen the first one in bits and pieces (but not all in one sitting), and hadn't seen any of the other related films at all. But Nicole wanted to go, so we did ...

... and I hate to admit, despite remaining awake for very large portions of the film, I really couldn't tell you anything that happened. I just don't remember, one week later.

There were a bunch of chases, and some snow, but otherwise it was just a big blur of nothingness to me. Utterly forgettable in every way, shape and form. The acting was bland, I didn't care about any of the interpersonal relationships (such as they were), I didn't think it was funny despite repeated attempts to play scenes for comedy, and the plot was threadbare at best. Some of the effects looked nice, but that's not enough to get a movie by anymore.

The worst thing a movie can do, I think, is not to make you hate it. It's to make you not even care. The fact that I'm even writing this is a miracle, because it doesn't deserve to take even more time from my life than actually watching the film.

Don't bother with it, is what I'm trying to say.

Go play GTA IV instead - the story, the action, and the acting are all much better.

It's advice I wish I could take myself, but I can't ... not for another three weeks.

Grr.

On the Olympics, my two furry friends, and Facebook

As I write this, to my far left is Rocky. Joey is behind me. Both are peacefully resting, and I am enjoying every moment of it while it lasts.

My in-laws are on their way to Italy for a couple of weeks, and my brother-in-law, who lives in Brooklyn and usually looks after my in-laws' dog, is heading off on a cruise, too. So for the next two weeks at least, possibly more, we're looking after Rocky, Nicole's 14-year-old wuss of an orange-and-black dog. He's a handsome guy, and incredibly lovable. He hates confrontation and usually scoots away from other dogs.

Then there's Joey, our own adopted 7-year-old half-Husky/half-jackass, who isn't too great around other dogs sometimes.

What could possibly go wrong?

Actually, a little over two days in, it's so far so good. Rocky sleeps in the living room (there's no danger that he'll do anything destructive, no matter where he is), and Joey sleeps in our bedroom (where he sleeps anyway, because the half-jackass side of him is always a wildcard, even without other dogs around). Rocky gets two doggie treats for breakfast (one of which was promptly eaten yesterday by Joey upon his discovery that there was food on the ground) and one for lunch, and Joey gets pretty much whatever he wants whenever he wants it (within dog-food limits, but usually covered in a sprinkling of cheese), because I'm a big softy. Feeding them at night has been an issue, because naturally Joey feels like he needs to eat Rocky's food, despite having a perfectly good bowl of ... whatever that is ... in front of him.

The bigger difficulty is trying to take them out for walks - they're both wanderers, so having a leash in each hand makes them very difficult to control. Besides, Joey could get a little aggressive under the right circumstances. He's not a violent dog by nature - far from it - but given his insecurities around other dogs, it's best not to tempt fate. Anyway, Rocky is older and is used to being allowed out on his lawn without a leash to take care of business, but without fences here to keep him in, his unfamiliarity with the neighborhood, and the leash laws (which I fully support, given how many dogs are around this neighborhood), I have to accompany him. Since he's an older dog, he has to go more frequently, but for shorter walks. Joey, on the other hand, accompanies me for 30-45 minute walks three or four times daily. I'm not sure which one of us walks the other, to be honest. The thing is, when one sees that the other is going to go for a walk, he decides he wants to go too, and each starts to feed off the other's anxious energy. Next thing you know, I have two dogs engaged in a spiraling game of "Me! No, me! No, ME!" for my attention.

I don't care who goes first. I'm the one who has to walk around picking up poop all day, so I can't exactly find any motivation to play favorites. I'm the big loser, any way you slice it.

A side note: Joey loves (more specifically, goes absolutely crazy for) Duck and Sweet Potato treats, so we decided to try the banana chips from the same. Intrigued by their smell, I popped a small one into my mouth and ate one for the hell of it. Going down, it wasn't too bad, but the aftertaste made me run to the mouthwash. Yech. I've also tried Frosty Paws peanut butter doggie ice cream. I have no shame. The chips did not taste like bananas, nor did the ice cream taste like peanut butter. If I were to be marooned on a tropical island with an unlimited supply of the chips, I could probably survive. The ice cream, which one would think would be a fantastic supply to have to rely upon on a tropical island - not so much.

---

Count me in as what the right-wing talking heads would call an America-hating liberal, I guess, because I could not possibly care less about how many medals our Olympians win. The idea that one country's total medal count should somehow matter on a global scale is ridiculous and shallow as far as I'm concerned, but every two years there's an emphasis on who wins what. This year, 'can the host Chinese athletes show China's rise to prominence by taking home more medals' than the US seems at times to be a popular question on TV and in print.

And I just don't care.

Yes, the medals themselves do count, and anyone who wins them should be proud. That's not a question at all. But if a swimmer from another country beats an American swimmer by a fraction of a second, my first reaction is going to be "well, good for them" instead of "it's embarrassing that we lost." (If the "Redeem Team" loses in the basketball tournament, for instance, the story will once again be how the US team managed to lose, not how their opponents found a way to win, and I think that's more than a little unfair to the other team.)

I know it's not realistic to expect otherwise, because the US side of the story is what drives TV ratings and sales of magazines, but good people who worked very hard for years (just as any athlete from any other country in any other sport) deserve some credit, too.

What I care about, especially with the state of global relations as strained as they are today, is that the Olympics are governed fairly, and that the athletes respect each other. The two events that have been tarnished by controversy (that I know of) are the kinds of things that I hope are kept to a minimum (though the possibility that there are Chinese gymnasts who are actually younger than reported is another story altogether). I just don't want to hear that something like the 1972 basketball game controversy has struck again.

Before the games started, there was so much news about China's hosting abilities, the smog that was supposed to suffocate everyone, the crackdown on internet availability and freedoms, and the refusal of the government to allow visas for some former athletes to visit. While these are absolutely very relevant stories that should be reported on or investigated as needed, I'm glad they've taken a back seat to the actual results of the games themselves.

I watched Michael Phelps win those eight gold medals with awe (and felt bad for his teammates, who were completely overshadowed). I saw the craziest damn game of badminton and didn't care that the Chinese won the gold. I found out that there's such a thing as Olympic trampoline (!), and that it looks absolutely terrifying. I saw a women's water polo game go into double overtime, then into a shootout. I saw kayakers guide themselves through a man-made white water obstacle course. I listened in amazement, realizing that NBC sports actually found "experts" to provide commentary for each of these!

I realized that none of these sports will be on live network TV again until 2012.

The funny (funny strange, not funny ha-ha) and somewhat unfortunate aspect of the competition to me, in a way, is that these athletes train every day of their lives to race or throw something or who knows what, and that anyone who finishes fourth or lower is pretty much forgotten instantly. Why is this unfortunate? Why should we care?

Look at it this way: the difference between first place (13.16 seconds) and 30th place (13.84) in the second round of the Men's 110-Meter Hurdles (not the medal round, I realize, but the heats leading up to it) was less than .7 seconds. That's less time than it takes to take a breath.

To train all your life and finish 30th, and still be only .68 seconds behind first place ... well, that's pretty amazing, as far as I'm concerned. The commentators will sometimes throw in a "so-and-so has fallen well of the pace" or "so-and-so brings up the rear", as though the performance is somehow not impressive. Well, I'm impressed!

Put me in the water with Michael Phelps, and he'd lap me three or four times (at a minimum, likely more) before I got from one end of the pool to the other. That's falling well of the pace! That's an embarrassing performance!

So I say let's watch the games with wondrous eyes, enjoying the spectacle of seeing the world's greatest athletes pushing themselves because they excel at their sports, rather than worrying about which country wins what and how many. They'd kick my ass and yours if we tried to do what they do, so let's just sit back and enjoy, and not worry about China's odd decision to have a "cuter" little girl lip-synch a song sung by another (apparently "uglier"?) little girl at the opening ceremonies. It should be a non-issue.

(And let's hope that Janos Baranyai, the Hungarian Weightlifter, is OK after his horrific incident.)

Four quick thoughts:

1. Again, on Michael Phelps. The question is now apparently "Is Michael Phelps the greatest American athlete ever?" The most celebrated, perhaps - but even then, let's wait a few years and see if his light still shines as brightly as it does right now. The greatest? Ask a decathalete, or one of those crazies who does the Iron Man competitions. Phelps is impressive, absolutely, but hardly the "greatest", I think.

2. If your event is the shot put, you must really love shot put. Because nobody else cares. Sorry.

3. The foot races? The 100m, 200m, and so on? They should attach it to a runner on the inside of the track and make the runners chase it, like dogs at the track chase the rabbit lure. First one to snatch the gold medal wins it!

4. Remember when Bob Costas seemed better, somehow?

---

Finally: Facebook applications.

First of all, I'd been so reluctant to sign up for Facebook, because I did Friendster for a while, and once I got used to it, everyone switched to MySpace. I was happy there for a while, too, then some people started LinkedIn, and then everyone moved to Facebook. Too many social networking sites, I thought. But Facebook actually turned out to be pretty neat. (WordScraper, anyone?)

One of Facebook's wonderful time-wasting lures are the "applications" you can choose to add to your profile. One of the applications I made the mistake of adding was the "Compare People" application. Very rarely will I actually respond to the question sets presented, because I don't want to offend or puzzle any of the people I consider (and want to RETAIN as) friends. So consider the ramifications of the questions "Who is hotter?" and "Who would I rather sleep with?" when presented with random photos of Friends A and B.

Yes, I realize you can vote anonymously, so that the person getting your vote won't know it's me who is voting. That's almost beside the point.

When one chooses, the friend who gets the vote is notified that someone has "awarded" a superlative of some sort to him or her. It's just ... weird. I don't know.

Add to this that I'm married ... well, you see what I mean.

It would make the application a lot more fun to fill out if you could add a line or two of text to clarify why you voted the way you did. For instance, if I know for a fact that Friend A snores like a buzzsaw, I could mention that little nugget in response to selecting Friend B as the person I'd rather sleep with, thereby completely removing any sexual aspect to the question (not to mention staying on Nicole's good side! :) ). Another example: in the photos that came up under the question "who is hotter?", one of my friends is photographed in ski gear with a lift in the background, and one has a big floppy hat to protect against the sun. Clearly, based on the presented evidence, Big Floppy Hat person is MUCH hotter than Ski Gear person. If only I could remark on the temperature aspect of the question ...

I've anonymously been voted on several times (fortunately for my ego, though, very few). One hundred percent (of the one person) who voted in the category said I'm the person he or she would "rather get stuck in hancuffs with". Very nice, thank you. One hundred percent (of the one person, again) who voted said they'd rather hang out with me for a day (perhaps because they couldn't stand two days? - see, bring the comedy, and this stuff's much easier to answer). Good, good. More powerful? Well, I do have the strength of ten men, so I'm one-for-one in that category, also.

"Nicer". Nicer?

First, a note about me: Women love me. Men want to be me. Children idolize me. The entire animal kingdom considers me to be a champion of their cause. I don't, as far as I know, have an arch-enemy.

However, only one person out of three voted me "nicer". Granted, I don't know the circumstances of the votes. Perhaps my "opponent" was a long(er)-time, closer friend that I had no chance of "beating" anyway. Maybe the people who voted were drunk, or thought it was opposite day, during which you had to flip your vote.

So, to the one person who voted me as the "nicer" person, thank you ... but I swear, if I ever find out who the two fucking assholes were who didn't think I was nicer, I'm going to get a baseball bat and start cracking skulls. Then, I'm going to set fire to their cars. I'll show THEM who's nice, goddammit!

Just kidding, of course. The only category I'm actively politicking for votes in is "best profile picture" - I put in some good time Photoshopping some of those, so if you'd consider me in front of the giant pile of donuts, the army of me, or me fronting Guns N' Roses when the choices comes up, I'd really appreciate it.

Another aside, from my days in High School: In every yearbook across the country every year you'll find the Senior Superlatives section, or something like it. Seniors vote who will be most likely to succeed, Class Clown, etc. Anyway, of the three of us nominated in my senior year, I won "Most School Spirit". Rules prevented one person from winning more than one Superlative, so the guy who actually got the most votes decided he'd rather win his other category, so the award when to the #2 vote-getter. In a tremendously wonderful ironic twist regarding school spirit, the #2 vote-getter didn't want the award because he wanted to be in the yearbook as little as possible. So I won, by default, simply because I was the "other guy". The sweet taste of victory!

---

A final note for the day, also Facebook related: someone, somewhere, anonymously wrote a very nice little blurb about me. I don't know who wrote it, or why, but thank you very much, whoever you are. It really made my day, and it was one of the nicest things anyone's said to me in a long, long time.

I figured anyone who'd take time to write such a thing probably reads this blog, and since I don't know where to send the thanks otherwise, this is as good a place as any to mention it.

So seriously, thanks a ton. :)

(You did mean to send it to me, right?)

1986 Red Sox TV Clip - Channel 38 lives!

Apparently it's all baseball all the time around here, huh?

I have a box full of old VHS tapes, and I'm trying to sort through them to see what, if anything, is worth transferring to DVDs. One of the prizes I found is the complete game between the Sox and Blue Jays in 1986 - the game which clinched the AL East for the Red Sox.

I thought some lifelong Sox fans would get a nostalgic trip out of seeing this old clip, featuring the voice of Dana Hersey introducing the game, the spectacular video effects in the opening montage, and an awesome soundtrack guaranteeing that an exciting game is to follow.

In addition to the game, I have a lot of post-game coverage that I need to mine through.

Other discovered tapes include the Patriots' "Squish the Fish" game from the '85/'86 playoffs, and the complete broadcast of Superbowl XX (when the Bears destroyed them). I have a couple of 1986 Red Sox Playoff games, too ... so much good stuff.

I may start a separate page or a new video blog to highlight some of this stuff, assuming it transfers well digitally. Some of these tapes haven't been played in 20 years, so who knows if they're even still watchable (or if our old VCR will eat them first).

Regardless, enjoy Ned Martin and Bob Montgomery from the days before Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy - in fact, from the days before NESN even existed.

The Farting Preacher

This has been on the internet forever. It's childish, crude, and immature.

And it's absolutely hysterical.

Pour yourself a big glass of milk and get ready to snarf it as you watch "The Farting Preacher".

More on (moron?) Manny, and a mini-BU RA reunion

I'm a little disgusted with Firefox and Scribefire right now, for the record. I've been fiddling with the format of this entry for too long, and I can't get it right, and it's making me crazy. I keep losing my HTML changes and my inserted links. So if any of this looks awful to you, or if you see a spot where there should be a paragraph break but there isn't one, trust me - I know there SHOULD be one. But I'm just about ready to say the hell with it and walk away in disgust.

Also, I see my curtains gently blowing in the breeze, yet it's at least 15 degrees warmer in my apartment than it is outside my window (a mere two feet from my right arm). What the hell?

---

Anyway, when last I wrote, Manny Ramirez was still the starting left fielder for the Red Sox and was to be traded to the Marlins. Now he's in LA instead, but the sentiment remains: see ya, Manny. Thanks for the memories. No hard feelings. See you around someday. Thanks, but it's time to go. Clearly, you were half-assing it in your final weeks in Boston, and that will not be forgotten next time you visit. You crossed the line between shenanigans and bullshit. The punchline at the end of the whole ordeal is that you’ll be immortalized in Cooperstown wearing a Red Sox hat. Ha ha! Joke’s on … well, all of us, apparently.

I love Jason Bay playing left now, though (although Matt Holliday would look even better). I had Bay on my keeper-league Fantasy team for a couple of years, and the only reason I gave him up was because I didn't think his numbers would stay as consistent as they've been on a Pirates team that continues to go nowhere fast.

Theo once again made a very nice pickup, especially since Bay is under contract through 2009.Did the Sox give up too much? Yeah, probably. Granted, I think a change of pace for Craig Hansen will be beneficial to his career (he seemed to Schiraldi himself in Boston and had difficulties with the pressure of pitching in a big-time baseball city), and Brandon Moss was a fifth outfielder at best for this team (though given the way Coco Crisp has played this season ... but that's another story). Giving up either of those two guys is no big deal.

But trading three players and picking up the rest of Ramirez's contract for the season for one player? Holy cow - the Sox and Ramirez's ex-teammates really had to want that guy gone in a bad, bad way.

I think it might have made more sense for the Dodgers to give up three prospects for Ramirez, or for the Sox to give up Ramirez and one prospect or Ramirez and the contract payment, or for the Pirates to have given up a reliever or low-minor-league pitcher to the Red Sox also. Giving up three players, one of whom is among the elite hitters in the game (when he wants to be) and two months' worth of ridiculous salary is a helluva lot.

Whatever the case, everyone's happy (I'm assuming Pittsburgh is happy - who really knows how people feel about the Pirates anymore, especially with the Steelers back in pre-season training).

Happy for now, at least. Bay and the Sox are going to be happy, because I fully expect the Rays' magical season to come screeching to a halt anytime now. The Sox should, barring a magnificent collapse, head into the playoffs (I believe as AL East Champions). Manny and the Dodgers will lose the west to Arizona, because the D-Backs pitching will prove to be too strong. The Pirates ... um, yeah. Anyway.

A sidebar about the Rays:

I love Carl Crawford. My old boss in Portland knows that I considered myself the President of the Carl Crawford fan club. I just love watching the guy play. Huge loss for the Rays, with Crawford being out 6-8 weeks toward the end of the season. This is a very, very young team, and Crawford was the "veteran leadership". Yeah, guys like Cliff Floyd and Troy Percival have been in the league forever, but Crawford's been the guy who's anchored that team since day one, and who knows all too well what it's like to play on a team that - pardon my tackiness - completely sucked for so many years.

The Rays' other key loss, that of Evan Longoria, is even more significant.

Three notes about Longoria:

1. Not only is he the sure-thing AL Rookie of the Year, I honestly think he should be the AL MVP. I know Josh Hamilton is putting up incredible numbers on a less-than-incredible team, but take Longoria away from the Rays this season and they're a .500 team at best. I'm convinced of it.

2. He reminds me of another very young player from Florida who led his team into the playoffs at a very young age: Miguel Cabrera. He doesn't remind me of Cabrera in a physical way, obviously (Cabrera's chunky these days, to be polite), or in terms of how hard he hits the ball. He reminds me of Cabrera in that Cabrera, at age 20, put the Marlins on the map as a legit competitive team. Longoria now does that for the Rays. Longoria gives the Rays a certain degree of respect that I'm not sure they'd get without him. Put it this way, nobody ever feared Rocco Baldelli coming to the plate with one on and two out in the eight inning in a close game. Longoria? If first base is open, he's getting walked.

3. I drafted Longoria in both of my Fantasy leagues this season, and in each case was subjected to at least slight taunts about what's-her-face on Desperate Housewives. I am vindicated!

Don't get me wrong - what the Rays have done this season is incredible. They're young and only going to get better. But the Sox are battle-tested and understand what it takes to get the job done once crunch time rolls around with the end of the summer. The White Sox and Twins have been so remarkably consistent all season, and I don't think either has a big losing streak left in them. The Yankees ... well, anyway. So the Rays are down two key players, have a lot of road games left to play, and haven't been in this position before. Additionally, with the exception of their swoon right before the All-Star break, they haven't had a big losing streak - they're due to stumble and lose some confidence. The Sox will swoop in and take the lead for the rest of the season.

In fact, I think the Rays miss the playoffs this season altogether. I hate to say it, because I love to see new blood in the post-season (I love my Sox, but I realize that many fans are sick of seeing them, the Yankees, and the Angels in the post-season every October). But I honestly just don't think this is their year.

Could anyone have predicted at the end of the 2004 season that Nomar Garciaparra, Derek Lowe, and Manny Ramirez would all be playing for Joe Torre? In Los Angeles? The fun's only starting in LA, too. And I don't mean the playoff run. Manny's pulling the "I want to end my career here" stuff already (he only said that EVERY YEAR in Boston), and he won't cut his hair despite promising Torre he'd do so.

I had no intention of this post being so baseball-heavy, with all of the other thoughts I want to jot down before I forget. Yet I still won't get to my review of the Dark Knight (though it will be glowing, I assure you) or my thoughts on various Facebook applications that are designed, apparently, to make me feel inadequate. Ahem.

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Two weekends ago, Nicole and I headed into Manhattan to catch up with some of my old college friends, whom I hadn't seen in ages – in fact, I hadn’t seen them since Manny was a Cleveland Indian, if I remember correctly.

Dave was my roommate in Cambridge for a couple of years post-B.U., and he's in Japan now teaching English. His big announcement was that he's now engaged. We joked about it at the reunion, but since he's marrying a Japanese girl, his career choice is officially a success! :) His visit spurred the get-together. (His visit, and the fact that I’ve re-connected to so many of my old friends via Facebook.)

Cari is a firecracker, still. It's reassuring to know that the years haven't changed her. After graduation, I stuck around BU as a dorm director for a summer program and she was on my staff. I was completely apprehensive at the time, and in retrospect I realize I was probably in a little over my head, but having her on my staff made my life so much easier, because I knew I had people I could count on around me. I hadn’t seen her in I think 11 years or so. She’s now, I shit you not, an F.B.I. agent. How cool is that? My little Cari’s packing heat! Sadly, I think I'd forgotten just how much I missed her. I'm so glad we've reconnected.

Jorge looks exactly the same, with a little off the top. He’s got me beat, though, because a decade-plus later, I’ve got a lot off the top. There aren’t many people in this life that I’m jealous of, but Jorge’s one of them. Of all the amazing people I’ve met over the years, few have had their shit better together than him. Now he works for a non-profit company that tries to curb smoking in foreign countries. A great cause, and one that I fully support. I hadn’t seen him in probably 11 years, either.

And Kelly … ahh, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly. If there was any potential for awkwardness, it was here. Those who’ve known us since those BU days understand why, but for the rest, a very quick note: Kelly was my first real girlfriend, and blah blah blah. The point being, we hadn’t seen each other in a long time, and now we’re both married, and I was seeing everyone again for the first time in ages, and I suppose it’s probably a little strange to have your wife meet your ex-girlfriend. Don’t know. Never happened to me before.

Long story short, it was, as the cliché goes, like riding a bike. It seems like a lifetime ago, yet it also seems like we were just hanging out not too long ago. I hope she feels the same way … it was, to me, not like seeing an ex. It was like seeing an old friend and catching up the way old friends do, minus any lingering baggage, which is exactly what I was hoping would happen. We’re both older, wiser, and, to an extent, different people than we were back then.

Looking back, in general – not just in terms of seeing these particular people again, but overall – I am a different person than I was ten years ago. And the person I was ten years ago was a very different person than the one I was five years before that. And, through it all, I’m still very much the same person – stubborn at times, subject to long bouts of procrastination, and alternatively overly-pragmatic and, per Dave, quixotic.

The current me has reconciled much of what the ten-years-ago-me would have probably dwelled upon. Despite all of those changes, and the non-changes, I still love all four of those people. It was such a treat, just kicking back and drinking a few beers with old friends. Instead of the Dugout, we were at a bar in Manhattan, looking decidedly tanner and healthier
than we ever did as undergrads.

It was easily one of the best feelings I’ve had since moving to New Jersey, and I can’t wait to do it again someday soon. As in, not 11 more years. And next time, maybe we can bring some more old friends along for the ride.

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Three sad deaths of note: Isaac Hayes, Bernie Mac, and John Edwards' political career.

I knew of Hayes' Shaft theme song long ago, but like so many others, his impact of note in my life came with his performance on South Park. Despite his falling out with Trey and Matt over his ridiculous religious views, I'll fondly remember him and that amazing voice. I'm interested to see if and how a show as wonderfully offensive as South Park will treat his passing.

I didn't know Bernie Mac's standup too well, but I was a fan of his TV show, which I thought was underrated and under-watched. When I found out about his death (via pneumonia, at age 50), I could only think about how horribly young he was. And who dies of pneumonia anymore? At that age, at least. Such a shame. Actually, my first thought was, "Bernie Mac? Really? Aww, man." It's one of those deaths that doesn't strike me on a personal level, because I was a fan in passing at best, but still ... it just hardly seems fair. He was a funny dude, and he seemed genuinely likable.

John Edwards. Gigantic douchebag of Gingrichian proportions. Unreal. I honestly thought, for a good long while, that he was going to be Barack Obama's VP choice. I liked that he was young and energetic (like Obama), and that he seemed to be determined to make the best of a bad situation (regarding his wife's ill-health).

And then he had to go and let me down like that ... very disappointing. Granted, my disappointment in him is a mere grain of sand in the desert compared to the disappointment his family must feel, but still. I just want to grab him by the collar, shake him around, and yell "what the hell was THAT?" over and over until he starts crying an authentic apology.Can he redeem himself? I hope so, but I'm not going to hold my breath on it.

More later!

My proudest Halo 3 moment (and yes, I'm a giant loser)

Before the game started, my three randomly selected teammates quit our Team Slayer match. Rather than conceding defeat, I figured I'd at least make an effort in what was likely to be a four-on-one bloodbath.

Below is a link to video of the entire game. If you're patient enough to let the whole thing load, more power to you. If not, skip to about the 11:40 mark.

If you're not patient enough (and I wouldn't blame you, believe me), you should be able to figure out what happened based on the title of this entry.

Also, please note the repeatedly poor attempts by my opponents to tea-bag my dead body. Kids, don't be douchebags.

Enjoy the nerd-dom!