Miscellany

The Worst Pitching in the League

2009-05-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

This may be wildly inaccurate, but I do believe that the Indian's have to have the worst pitching in the league and if not they rightfully should. I simply cannot understand what has happened to the Indians this year and I can't blame it on a team that seems to be kicking their offense into high gear of late. Perhaps this is an unconscious reaction to their own shoddy pitching. Even though they are scoring alot of runs I cannot find solace in a win that is 9-7 like it was yesterday. We need more lopsided victories for me to feel confident at all.

I don't know if a new manager is the right decision as I genuinely like what Wedge has done for the team. Unfortunately, like a new coat of paint on an old house, sometimes change is absolutely necessary. In any case it is clear that something needs to be done and it has reached the point where we are all legitimately concerned for the season.

On the other hand, this season sees the Kansas City Royals in first place in a division in which they have traditionally been stored in the dank cellar! Just one year after the improbable World Series appearance of the Tampa Bay Rays, it is definitely interesting to see that baseball seems to be turning more and more into a game where ANYONE has a shot (with the possible exception of the Baltimore Orioles). As a baseball fan, I can't help but feel excited for the game in general in an era where the looming threat of steroids has dampened many a baseball fan's spirits. But I still wish the Indians would do something.....

The Pains Begin Again

2009-04-27T20:04:00.000-07:00

I'm not a fairweather fan and I know its early on in the season but I'm already starting to lose hope for this season with the Indians. Cliff Lee pitched 8 shutout innings and the Indians couldn't score a run until the 9th inning against one of the most feared closers in the game, Jonathon Papelbon! This kind of inconsistency is strange to say the least and to me signals that the players heads just aren't in the game anymore. It really seems like they are going up there one at a time trying to be a hero and hit the ball out of the ballpark and they are losing because they have forgotten that baseball is now and has always been a team sport.

Maybe I'm just getting cynical but I'm just tired of seeing this every year. Things need to change soon and I hope that Shapiro and everyone else in that power structure does what is necessary to bring a championship back to Cleveland. It has quite simply been way too long!! With that said, I don't know what the right call is but the biggest weakness is quite clearly coming from their relief pitching. Today was a prime example as they gave up 3 runs in the ninth (I mean who does that?). Rafael Perez and Rafael Betancourt have been pitching for too long to still have the same old problems. Either demote them or trade them. Something needs to be done to fix this!!

Final Fantasy XIII - A Preview

2009-04-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

Final Fantasy XIII is scheduled for release at SOME point in the near future and it has been announced to come out on the xbox360 which will save me from having to pick up a PS3. As other FF fans can attest to I would have HAD to pick it up if it was exclusive to the PS3. Lucky for me that it will make its way to the system I actually own. Though I did not start out as a fan of final fantasy when it originally came out as I was maybe 5 or 6 years old at the time (not sure of the exact date and I'm too lazy to find out). Indeed, I never owned any of the Nintendo incarnations and I never owned a playstation until I was in college.

Final fantasy has become a cultural phenomenon since its original entry back in the '80s well before all the fancy and new-fangled graphics capabilities of today's modern systems. It was a completely new gameplay experience at the time and many, myself included, have fallen in love with both the gameplay and the overall experience. There are many people out there who cannot quite fathom why these games are such a success and I cannot quite explain it myself. There is just something about the way that the Japanese create their RPGs that is just a great deal of fun to play. Most western style RPGs focus seem to focus more on frenetic combat while the JRPGs (Japanese RPGs) favor the more deliberate pacing of turn-based action. See the two different takes on the genre below.

Personally I enjoy both types but I get a greater sense of accomplishment through playing many JRPGs because they seem to require more tactics than some of the western RPGS which feel more bash-em-up at times. With this background I am extremely excited from what I have seen with FFXIII not only from a visual perspective but also from a gameplay perspective. The video below is a preview of the game from IGN that has me really excited.

More Final Fantasy XIII News & Previews

The first and most obvious thing is how gorgeous the game looks!! I consider myself somewhat of a graphics whore in that I just love it when games look incredible in action, especially as concerns water for some reason. I just love running around in puddles in games that I've played lately. Back to FFXIII I just love what I am seeing so far in the gameplay footage. With these games, which often have off the wall characters (thank you Japan for having a sense of humor even if I don't get it all the time) as well as fantastical settings it is important these days to really portray the characters onscreen in a living and breathing tableau. I've been honored to play many of these games and I will readily admit that Square-Enix has some of the best designers in the field and I often catch myself staring at the amount of detail that they have always been able to cram into their games. The images below are just a couple of examples of the scenery in the games.

The second big thing that I noticed from the trailer above is that they have once again tweaked the combat from its past iterations in their neverending quest to find the perfect combat for Final Fantasy. The combat here takes cues from past entries in the series as well as other games such as Knights of the Old Republic where you can queue up moves and unleash them at your will. One thing that I didn't notice in the trailer is whether or not their will be the ability to freeze time and reassess your actions. Call me old-fashioned but this is one of the reasons I enjoy turn-based games because I'd rather have some time to do that. Now I suppose I could just "Pause" but I would like to see an option similar to past Final Fantasy games allowing for those like myself to play without worrying about the enemy taking too much of an advantage when I'm sorting through my inventory looking for that vital potion that I need. A minor gripe, but I would like to know if that will be an option in the game.

The last thing I want to mention in this preview relates to the characters themselves. While the trailer is in Japanese you can get a sense that they behave differently and act differently from one another. This level of characterization, while still difficult to tell, is something that I have grown accustomed to in past games. While the american voice actors may get on player's nerves sometimes the writing has generally been well above average and in games that routinely top the 60 hour mark (for the main story alone) it is important that we care about these characters or else we have no real incentive to keep playing after the initial period right after starting a game has worn through and the real grind begins. The video below shows some of these fanciful characters who always seem to be just the tiniest bit at odds with my western sensibilities but I can't help loving it.

More Final Fantasy XIII News & Previews

My favorite part of that last clip is definitely the black dude with the chocobo in his afro causing the little child to laugh. I really hope that in the final incarnation of this game little moments like this that make you laugh or cry are liberally spread throughout the entire game. Sometime in the future can not get here soon enough!!

Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent

2009-04-14T18:09:00.001-07:00

I have been increasingly skeptical of reality television over the past few years as it just keeps getting stupider and stupider in my opinion. Rubbish like The Apprentice and Keeping with the Kardashians continues to stay on the air year after year when a whole slew of great scripted television shows continue to appear and quickly disappear because their audience seems more captivated with the inanity of much of reality television. I was very skeptical of its use until I saw a Youtube video of a matronly old woman (about 47 so not too old) walk onto stage and bring an entire audience to their feet and the judges to tears. Truth be told, I was weeping as well because she not only sang one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs ("I had a Dream" from Les Miserables) but she sang it brilliantly. I encourage everyone to watch this video and just enjoy the beauty that can come from the smallest things.

The next time the news of the economy bums you out watch this and remember that there are still surprises around every corner and you never know what will come next. When you have bad news come up I would encourage you to take a peek at the bravery of Susan Boyle. I know it seems like I'm being a bit over the top with this but this video really touched me and brought many feelings to the surface. Again, please watch.

Apparently I can't embed the video in the body of the blog itself, but here is the link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY.

MLB Season, Week 1

2009-04-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to go see the Cincinnati Reds play the Pittsburgh Pirates. The sunburn that i received was not the only pain of the game as I had to sit through a 10 to 2 rout. It seemed within grasp until the reds gave up two homeruns back to back, the first of which being a grand slam!! In addition to this, I saw very little offense to make me feel very comfortable for their chances throughout the season. I just finished watching a complete game shutout by Aaron Harang and I still don't feel positive because the Red's only managed 2 runs.

In addition to this, the Indians are currently in a 5 game losing streak which means that they have yet to win a game at all this season. The culprit generally seems to be that the pitching AND the hitting are not going very well right now at all. This actually puts a team that many picked to win the World Series LAST year and finish first THIS year in danger of having a cellar-dwelling season. I only hope that Eric Wedge survives this season because I generally like him as a coach.

In order for either team to have a chance in hell this season, they need to figure something out fast. I am definitely not a fairweather fan but I'm not going to use up my free time on a lost cause. I know its only the first week of the season but both teams need to start proving themselves to me.

Food and Photos

2009-04-06T05:16:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine has recently starting seeing an explosion of popularity on his blog, Imagine a Different World. If you like food and you like staring at pictures of food then you will really enjoy this site. He is an exceptional photographer and also includes quite inciteful looks at his Sunday Dinner creations. I honestly never thought that the history of grilled cheese could be so interesting and I look forward to what he will do now that he has the popularity to go with his interests. I encourage anyone who takes a peek at this blog to add him to your reader for an inciteful and witty commentary on Sunday Dinners.

Review of "I Love you, Man"

2009-04-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

Many comedies these days, romantic and otherwise, are rife with cliches and quite honestly just aren't as funny because of them. While I do agree that some of these are necessary as a base from which to jump off but those comedies that rely on cliches are doomed before they even get off the ground. The cliches that I am referring to are such things as certain sight gags that are used over and over again or that character who shows up in every comedy with the same attitude and the same role. I think that the most nefarious movies that use these of late are the string of horrible movies that started with Scary Movie and has culminated with such atrocities as Epic Movie and one I just learned about today, Dance Flick. They even need to change the title to separate it from the rest.

Thankfully, "I love you, Man" seems to escape for the most part an over-reliance on these kinds of tactics. If you are beat over the head with the same joke over and over it just ceases to be funny! This movie follows in the footsteps of other great comedies that instill a sense of humanity into the comedy instead of strictly parodying that same human condition. There are several moments during the film where I could quite literally feel the movie slipping dangerously close to this over the top point only to be saved at the last minute by a scene that actually made you empathize with the character.

Paul Rudd is his usual self really, and as such he's quite good. He really does have a great ability to humanize his roles and make the audience feel sorry for him yet not too sorry for him. He is, in other words, the consummate lovable goofus. He is the main character, but he isn't left with the lion's share of the plot as Jason Segel and Rashida Jones play comfortably off of his character and create a believable triad. For anyone who has seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall or How I met Your Mother they really won't see anything new in his performance but his chemistry is quite good with Rudd. Rashida for her part avoids the ultimate cliche in my mind which is the significant other (usually a woman in these movies unfortunately) who is overly sensitive about ANYTHING that the main character does and turns her nose up quite frequently. Her character genuinely wants to see her fiancee find that male friend that he has been lacking for most of his life.

This brings me to the part of the movie that I was most impressed with. It takes a very critical eye on the difficulty with establishing male friendships in this culture. From my viewpoint it seems extremely easy for women to strike up lasting friendships but when men try to do this it can be extremely awkward. Perhaps this has to do with homophobic tendencies among males of this society but whatever the cause it is extremely prevalent. To this date, most movies and television shows depict relationships between two guys as effortless. Poker nights or drinking a brewskie in front of the football game are prevalent depictions. As someone who has for one reason or another always had better relationships with women I can certainly see how difficult it can be to establish a permanent friendship with a guy that didn't start in diapers or soon thereafter. Once we leave pubescense it can be very difficult indeed.

As a pure comedy I would recommend this movie to everyone. As an r-rated movie there is plenty of vulgarity and the all-powerful sexual innuendo but no nudity (which should appeal this puritanical society!). It's not an award winner by any stretch of the imagination but the characters are three-dimensional with few exceptions and the plot is believable enough. In the end the writing elevates this otherwise formulaic comedy to a good time had by all.

The Moment

2009-04-03T10:14:00.001-07:00

My life is one of great complexity these days. My girlfriend of three years (three glorious years if you ask me) just dumped me out of the car going sixty down a country road. Now... some might view this as an overreaction but I've come to accept it as simply a reaction. I mean it could have been worse. I couldn't have been wearing any clothes, for instance. She at least did me the kindness of allowing me to dress myself (mostly) before trundling me into the car and then springing the door open at sixty miles an hour while I wasn't even wearing my safety belt. Take that as a lesson, always remember to wear a seatbelt when driving around with the love of your life... you never know what might happen. As I fall, in rather slow motion (how else would I be able to internally dictate this!) I can't stop thinking about her hair. It is so shiny and smells so nice, and yes I'm aware the smell is artificial and not really coming from her.

What brought me to this deplorable state you ask? That is quite a long story, wow that's cliched. Just had to say it, didn't I? Every good story is a long one, unless its not. This story is really quite short and may inform the reader why I am not really angry at her at all. I mean, I may very well die after this fall has concluded but perhaps I'll just break a couple of bones. Maybe if I'm really lucky, in the split second before I hit the ground an alien spacecraft that has been lying dormant for millenia (under my very feet no less) will sense my impending doom and spring to life enveloping me in some bubble that will absorb all of my weight. No.... I suppose that has a very slim chance of happening but it always helps to be an optimist. The problems started this morning when I came home completely plastered. Before you judge me, it was my bachelor party.

...Did I forget to mention that my girlfriend and I were going to be married today? Hmm, I certainly need to bone up on my storytelling abilities. Anyway, I was wasted still from my bachelor party the night before and I was having the hardest time in the world waking up. Dreams were haunting me, literally, as I walked around trying to get ready for the big day. I could see my mother, who is long dead, following in my footsteps as I went into the bathroom to take a shower. The next thing I knew, Johnny Kruger (Freddie's twin.. made him up long ago) was trailing me with his banana fingers of doom - my mother wouldn't let me watch scary movies as a kid and she edited her bedtime stories quite severely. It was only much later that I realized how strange that, even edited, she deigned it appropriate to tell me the story of Johnny and his penchant for sending kids away to military school where they learned to be happy and productive members of society.

Where was I again? ... Oh, right, I was drunk. Check that, I was hungover. If I was still drunk this morning perhaps things might have gone slightly differently (actually they probably would have been far worse). Hold on, I need to check how close I've come to the road and the agonizing pain and/or death. .... I should be fine to finish the story, I have about 5 inches to go. At this current life flashing before your eyes timeline that should give me ....

"Coming up on News at 9. Joan the panda has given birth to quintuplets!!"
"Wow, that is something. Thank you John. In sadder news, a local man was thrown out of a car today on old interstate 7. Authorities have his ex-fiancee in custody now who claims that she threw him from the car because he stayed out too late at his bachelor party. She claims she didn't realize the fall would take his life."
"Tsk, Tsk. Let that be a lesson to all you men out there."
"..."

To PhD or not to Phd - APRIL FOOLS!!!

2009-04-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy month for me because I had what I'd like to think of as an epiphany a couple of weeks ago. For a brief backstory, I was sitting at my desk "doing work" when a thought suddenly popped into my head that had my jaw resting firmly on my desk for a solid minute. I thought to myself, "what's the one thing that is missing from my life right now?". I decided then and there that I would continue to pursue my goals of being a professional Archaeologist that I gave up on midway through my Master's degree in New Mexico.

I know this probably isn't the best time to do something like this, given the state of the economy and my wedding coming up in such short order, but I think it will be best in the long run. As such, I've made some preliminary inquiries into OSU to see if their program would suit me for what I want to study. For anyone who doesn't know, I studied the geospatial arrangements of fauna remains at the site of Isla Cilvituk in the Yucatan and I am looking forward to starting something similar with my PhD work. Unfortunately, it doesn't look plausible for me to pursue these goals at OSU.

After some more time passed I finally found a good school that has exactly what I need to pursue my research in California. There program, and the reliance of the archaeologists on GIS software, makes this an ideal candidate for me. Obviously I cannot pursue this in 2009 so I'm looking towards 2010 to begin my research. This will mean moving, once again, completely out of my comfort zone and into a completely new geographic region. Jess and I have discussed this in great length and agree that this is the best course of action for me and my career goals and being that it's California she won't have a problem with finding a new job.

I'm a little nervous about doing this once again but I can't balk at every sign of difficulties in life. Between now and then I have alot of decisions to finalize and plans to make. Wish me luck!!

Lord of the Rings Online Review

2009-03-31T14:19:00.000-07:00

I posted a little while ago about Star Trek online, but lately I've been much more enamored with another online roleplaying game: Lord of the Rings online. I don't believe that there are many people throughout the world who have never heard of this monumental achievement in literature. The books almost single-handedly established the modern genre of fantasy and I am hard-pressed to name ANY fantasy novels published since that don't have a core that shares elements with Tolkien's work. The amount of history that he was able to pack into his fiction is inspirational for anyone who has ever considered sitting down and writing.

Because of this insane amount of detail that Tolkien included in his writings, which include more than just the trilogy, the creators of the Lord of the Rings Online didn't need to stretch too far to find inspiration for this game. From the moment I set foot, figuratively of course, inside the world created on the computer I was mesmerized by the scale of it all. With the help of my new memory card, which finally started working thank God, it looks absolutely amazing on my 22" widescreen monitor. All I want to do is visit all the places that I loved from the books and the movies (though this game legally has no ties with Warner Bros and the movies) but this isn't possible right away except through pictures and clips posted all over the internet.

The gameplay is fairly standard for anybody who has played World of Warcraft, they borrowed a great deal of the mechanics from this industry giant. I was pleasantly surprised by the writing and the polish that seems evident throughout the game and I can only imagine that it gets even better throughout the rest of the game. There are a few technical issues that I have noticed that seem to make certain things difficult to accomplish such as finding one Quest giver out of a sea of NPCs (Non-player characters) and there doesn't appear to be an option to zoom IN on the little mini-map in the corner of the screen.

Another thing that gives me some pause is that the world doesn't seem as populated as I would have hoped with human players. However, I did see enough and from browsing the internet I have no cause for alarm as the game appears to be going quite strong and the latest expansion, "The Mines of Moria" sold quite well and even garnered a few awards with its content.

I have yet to meet anyone from the movies, with the exception of a brief appearance from Elrond, or interact with any scenes straight from the novels but I have been assured by many articles that it is only a matter of time. This brings me to what I think is the single greatest strength of this game: longevity in the market. So many people are knowledgeable about the books (thank you Peter Jackson!) and they know the plotline that Turbine's decision to have the game parallel the events is absolutely inspired. What is even more inspired is how they have chosen to do it.

When the game first came out about two years ago the epic storyline (which loosely follows the plot of the trilogy) ended around the same time period as the council of Elrond. Through a series of free updates (nice!!) and larger expansions to the game, the developers would seem to have a very long timeframe in mind. For instance, they just released "The Mines of Moria" which sees the Fellowship into Lothlorien where they meet Galadriel for the first time which is still within the first book of the trilogy and it has been out for two years!! At this pace, they won't get anywhere near the conclusion of the saga for at least a decade which is simultaneously scary and really fun to consider.

In the end, I really like this game and am looking forward to being able to feel a part of this preeminent fantasy epic. Anyone who likes WOW should at least try this and get away from the potty-mouthed children who always seem to play World of Warcraft. The people playing seem more mature and willing to help a noob like me.

Computer Woes

2009-03-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I couldn't wait to get home and play with my new computer! Geeky, I know but there you are. I had been checking all day to see if my new video card had been delivered and around 3 oclock I received notification that it had been dropped of on my doorstep. Needless to say, the last couple of hours were difficult to get through. I could see myself playing games at levels I hadn't experienced with computers before because I'd always had laptops which don't have the best video cards. With visions of this dancing around in my head I went home, became deliriously excited when I saw it on my porch, and fell flat on my face when I couldn't seem to install the damn thing!?!

Granted, I was probably getting a little cocky with how easy it all seemed to be at first but I didn't expect this at all. I should have, but like I said.... cockiness! Lesson learned. After the first couple of tries with nothing to show from it (a blank screen, in fact) I gathered myself and proceeded to try many different things with many different settings..... FOR SIX HOURS!! I'm laughing about it now because I feel like I still had fun while doing it and I know alot more about how computers work now than I ever did by reading. I'm laughing because I was seriously pissed off last night when it didn't work. All I really wanted to do last night was download a game that I had been waiting anxiously to play and see it in glorious 1650 x 1080 with all the graphical options tuned to their highest degree. Instead I spent as much time on the floor fiddling with connections and inputs, which is no small feat for someone still healing from a broken leg! Jess will be happy to note that I did wear my boot for the duration of it.

I don't know what's wrong with it even now. I've been reading forum posts and information from the manufacturer's website but until I can get back to the computer and try some things out its all speculation. I'm hopeful that I can get it working during the weekend, and I can only hope Jess is prepared for me sitting in front of the computer for long stretches..... OUTSIDE of work! If I still haven't figured it out, my IT guy at work is going to run a diagnostic on it to make sure that the card itself isn't malfunctioning. Quite nice of him, I think.

This is all part of the ongoing saga of a man who thinks he knows all confronted by things he knows nothing about!! :) Peace y'all.

EDIT: After working with a Facebook friend from High School I have figured out what the problem is. Now to go home and test out this new hypothesis.

New Computer

2009-03-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

I just checked online and the new computer that I ordered has finally arrived, piecemeal as it is. I'm really looking forward to building the computer as much as I am actually using it. I know that Jess would love me to build it as fast as possible so we can finally have a computer with a little more speed than either of us is used to. As I've never done this before it will be very interesting to see how long it takes though I don't anticipate it being a major problem. Mostly, I just hope that the computer components all work!! That would be great.

As soon as I get home I'll start to delve into it but tonight is Lost night so I really won't have much time during the evening. I might be staying up late though..... More on this computer later.

Watchmen Review

2009-03-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

I've heard many different people saying many different things about the Watchmen movie and I am quite frankly confused. I went in having never read the book, intentionally, and having no idea really of the plot, also intentionally. I think this gave me a good perspective of the movie and allowed me to view it free from preconceptions. This is something I did not have when I went and saw the Lord of the Rings trilogy and I sometimes wonder how my take on those movies might have differed.

Watchmen is indeed a difficult story to tell with its emphasis on different time periods being interwoven. As it is a piece of graphic fiction, it is an extremely visual movie that Zach Snyder (of 300 fame) used quite well. Again, I hadn't read the book before seeing the movie but I could certainly tell that certain scenes were most likely pulled straight from the novel as they weren't your traditional cinematic camera angles. For the most part, and I'm discussing this first because it is such an integral piece to the movie, the visual style of this movie is flawless. There are some less than desirable shots that sometimes pull you out of the movie a bit but they are so few and far between that I simply didn't care.

The acting in the movie was overall a mixed bag which is par for the course in a movie that employs relative nobodies in the lead roles. The standouts in my opinion were Rorschach, the walking talking Rorschach test, played deftly by Jackie Earle Haley and the Comedian played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Of all the onscreen personas they made me the least aware that they were acting. They became these characters to such a degree that it was truly a sight to behold. Going briefly to the Lord of the Rings parallel I drew before I would hold this up to Sir Ian McKellan's flawless performance as Gandalf (with one small irritating moment at the Mines of Moria aside!). The rest of the cast were adequate individually. As a whole, however, I truly felt they all did a commendable job for such a difficult piece of fiction.

Now, some of the detractors for this movie have made such a fuss over showing Dr. Manhattan's anatomy a little too much. I agree that it was onscreen much more than most fans of American cinema are used too but with his character it made no sense for him to cover up anymore. He simply doesn't care anymore. The book may have been better at hiding this particular feature of his anatomy but those camera angles wouldn't have made as good of a film cinematically. You can't handicap the cinematographer simply to deal with our over-sensitive take on nudity. I certainly didn't hear many, though there were some, complain about the amount of female nudity in the movie.

The other big complaint I kept hearing about the movie is that it is difficult to follow the storyline. Again coming from the point of view of someone who has never read the book I must say that I didn't have a problem understanding the plot. Is it intricate? At times it is but the movie does a very good job at leading the audience through the plot to its conclusion. Perhaps if people would quit texting during the movie or checking box scores they might come to the same conclusion. The problem here isn't the movie, I feel like the problem is that we as a society have such a small attention span though I think that may be the topic of another blog posting entirely.

The success or failure of any movie is tied in with how the movie comes together as a whole. Small miscues here and there can be forgiven if the core of the movie is strong enough and if the audience gets sucked in. At 2 hours and 45 minutes the movie is long but other than the strong urge to pee I couldn't say that I was completely aware of the length. I was mesmerized by much of what was going on, though I was surprised at the level of violence. There were times where I felt like a little boy looking out into the vastness of the universe and truly beginning to comprehend it. This may seem a bit out there but most of these times have to do with Dr. Manhattan who is a truly unique character in cinema.

If I am forced to distill this experience into a five star rating I would have to give it a four, which many websites say means excellent. You may go to this movie and have a completely different experience which is one of the great achievements of this particular medium. I would caution, however, against taking negative reviews at face value as they are misleading and will keep you from judging for yourself.

Star Trek Online

2009-03-20T16:30:00.000-07:00

I've recently become rather addicted to the new Massive Multiplayer Online Game Star Trek Online. This is particularly odd because the game hasn't even come out yet but the website, at www.startrekonline.com, is very good with alot of great information for fans and non-fans of the series alike. There is so much history behind the series, that has been created through 10+ movies and 5+ series (if you include the animated series) as well as multitudes of novelizations, that a game based on this information is quite exciting.

I'm also kind of looking forward to starting an online game like this from the beginning to see how it changes over time. All of this will be moot of course if I don't get a computer that will be able to handle the graphical requirements which I am currently in the process of researching. I don't honestly anticipate this game to come out before the end of the year but I'm hopeful. I know this earmarks me as a nerd but I'm okay with that.

The other concern that seems to pop up with any online game is the potential to become addicted to it. I've been playing games for years and I can honestly say that any addiction to it has never interfered with my normal life though I'm sure there are some out there who feel that this may not be true. Regardless, it is really sad that some people do escape so inexorably into these shady dimensions and imagined worlds that they sometimes DO neglect the outside world. This brief musing aside, I will certainly never get to this point.

In the end, this should be an interesting experience once it finally comes to fruition. There is something so magical about what video games provide with their escapist notions that I am genuinely surprised that more people aren't into them.

I'm Baaaack!

2009-03-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

Well, a lot has happened since I last took up the digital pen and scribed on this here blog. By my reckoning its been about 7 months! That is a very long time indeed and I have very good reasons why it has been so long but it all really amounts to laziness. Honestly, my computer at home is so much of a hassle just to start up that I hate starting it up. Luckily, I've started the first stages of building my next computer so I'm very hopeful that I will soon have a computer that will take less than 10 minutes to start up (with 4 Gigs of RAM at least this better not happen).

In other news, well alot has happened. Work is going pretty well and I generally enjoy what I do on a day to day basis. I've been struggling with keeping my hobbies a part of my life which is mostly a concern because it seems like I have a million things that I like to do that I end up doing none of them as much as I would like. Between video games, tv, reading books, writing, etc. there never seems to be enough time to do what I want. It really is quite frustrating in the long run and starting up this blog again is part of my current push to force myself to manage my time better so that I have a better life in general.

I'll end this post here but promise that I will continue writing on at least a semi-regular pace. Stay tuned and make sure you use RSS feeds or Google reader to keep track of little old me. All I want is some friends (cute puppy dog face emoticon --> I have to write it because this site has no emoticons that I know of).

This Blog Posting brough to you by.......

2008-08-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I noticed something on television that has assured me that the downfall of western civilization has indeed begun. I was watching FOX, and one commercial before an episode of Simpson's told me quite plainly that the episode was brought to me by Dairy Queen. I then proceeded to watch the episode and was dismayed that it was not candy coated or made into an ice cream cake in front of my very eyes. If something is brought to my by a confectioner, than I damn well better be eating cake or ice cream within the next fifteen minutes!!

*This paragraph has been brought to you by the Walrus*

It has become a very annoying trend over the past few years that everything is branded. I think I first noticed it during baseball games with things such as the "Toyota Spotlight" or the "Wendy's Play of the Game" began to appear with frightening regularity. What in god's name Wendy's really had to do with baseball, I will never understand. This has happened so slowly that it barely even registers that I am being sold something. I understand the nature of it from the perspective of the advertiser's, I really do. There are many, many gullible people in the world who will fall for every line of advertisement that is fed to them. I am equally sure that these companies probably do make more money in the long run because of these completely obtrusive ads. This is not the point, however.

*This paragraph brought to you by YOUR FACE (private joke, sorry)*

I am, quite simply, tired of it and I have begun to notice just how much these ads have infiltrated all of my favorite shows and movies. Now, product placement in movies and tv shows is something that has been done for years with varying degrees of success. I'm sure that drinking games set to those placements in ... let's say a Michael Bay movie, would make the participants quite drunk. This can be done well, though, and doesn't always take away from the overall approachfulness of the movies.

*This paragraph has been brought to you by the great taste of Charleston Chew*

This newest trend though, perhaps designed as an active countermeasure against dvrs and tivos (thanks Jess), really bothers me. I watch the television, fully aware that I will have to sit through commercials (sometimes), to escape my reality (Isn't that the main reason really?) only to be forced time and time again back into my living room when I suddenly realize that my fingers have begun to subconsciously dial the phone for Dairy Queen because I have inextricably developed a ravenous desire for a nice ice cream cake. And while I'm at it, why don't I pay extra to have a picture of MY FACE added to the top so I can have the curious sensation of eating my own face!! Absurd, I know, but I think it gets the point across rather nicely. My greatest fear, now that it has completely encased my beloved television set is that it will make the dreaded, yet understandable (from the company's viewpoint) leap into the video game realm. Not too difficult to imagine since the internet is already rife with a million and one different types of ads. Think hard on this lesson, young Padawan, for this is the future and the future is now.

*Finally, this paragraph has been brought to you by God (who has finally decided to get into the act!)*

My New Job

2008-08-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

My world is, quite literally, about to change. This coming Monday I will be starting my new job, the first post-master's job. It is the first time in my life that I am actually considering a job as a career. I've had a few different types of jobs in my day, including fast food and retail, but this will be a company I plan on working with for years to come. To be honest, this is actually a little bit intimidating yet exciting. So much of my life recently has been in a holding pattern, that I find myself in awe sometimes that I have finally reached this point in my life.

If I haven't mentioned before what it is that I will be doing, let me try to explain here. This is no easy task as there are some aspects of my new job that I am as yet in the dark. First of all, this job is a sales position where I will be trying to convince clients to renew their technical support for the different types of software that Quest offers. This is kind of like those service plans that stores like Best Buy offer where if anything were to go wrong the customer would not have to shoulder the majority of the costs, other than the initial cost of the support.

Since I have a sales background, I felt that this would be an ideal starting position for me. I am also very interested in computers, and plan on building my next one (and hopefully chronicling that endeavor here for all of my faithful readers). During my time at Quest, I hope to be able to greatly expand my computer literacy. Where this might take me in my life, I am not sure, but if I am continuing towards something I love to do there can hardly be any problems there.

Graduate School: A Look Back

2008-07-31T13:10:00.000-07:00

This past week I was in New Mexico finishing up my master's degree by defending my thesis. Everything went really well, and now I merely have to wait till I can get the degree officially around December. The last two years have been a time of great personal changes, where I have met many new friends who I don't doubt that I will in contact with throughout the remainder of my life. I have changed my mind many times over during this time about how exactly my life should be going, but I really feel with this job at Quest software that I have hit upon a good career for me.

It seems strange, after so many years of school, that I am now thinking about my life in these terms. I have been eagerly anticipating this time in my life. I have always thought of this time as the point where I would finally be able to enact many of my goals, such as getting some of my fiction published. I'm not gonna lie, now that its here I am a little frightened but also excited about the prospects. Much of what I am now, and how I view the world has been changed by my experiences in New Mexico.

From the first moment I set foot on that dusty soil, I began to think of coming home. In fact, within two weeks time I was on the phone with Jess trying to find some way to come home. For about a day or two I was completely sure that it had been a mistake and that I should go home and not even try. After many conversations, and some harsh words on both sides, I finally decided to make a go at it. I truly believe that this could very well be a decision that will cast a shadow on all future decisions to come. It truly was a crossroad in my life that could have led to a very different life.

With this decision made finally, I set about the rigamaroles of college life that at the time I had not done for over a year. This proved a little difficult to get through, but I eventually settled into a rhythm. If it weren't for several great friendships as well as my two jobs, I honestly don't know how I would have gotten through that first year. Uncertainties continued to plague me at every turn. I would consistently go to bed wondering if I had made the right decision. As time passed, things began to become more comfortable but I still missed those back home a great deal.

Missing Jess proved to be the greatest motivation I could have possibly had, as it has pulled me through many a tough spot and gotten me to where I am today. I want to thank all of you, and you know who you are, that have helped me get through this time in my life. Your words of encouragement have kept me afloat. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Review of The Dark Knight

2008-07-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

I must first admit that I have never been a huge Batman fan, at least not over any of the other Superhero movies. And yes, I know that Batman is a Vigilante and not a Superhero (thank you Roger). Anyway, I never craved that I love Batman or anything like that. It was a good story with an interesting character but I was never a huge fan of Tim Burton's original Batman or any of the others that followed it. That all change when I saw Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins starring Christian Bale. I'll admit that most of the reason I saw it in the first place was because I am such a huge fan of Christian Bale thanks to Disney's immortal classic Newsies.

Beyond that, there were so many great things about Batman Begins but also some drawbacks. There were some problems with pacing at times, which plagues any genesis story coming from the world of comic books. The film maker must contend with the 'Batman faithful', those comic book afficionados who have been following the stories for many years. In this case, the director and screenwriter must decide how much to leave in the story to remain faithful to the source material as well as how much to change to appeal to a broader audience to rake in more money. I can confidently say that the sequel, The Dark Knight, has found a very good balance , at least I assume so. I have heard some rumblings that they didn't follow the storyline of the comic books but I have never read them.

My rationalization for saying they have a good balance comes from many personal and professional reviews that I have heard in the short time this movie has been out. Comic book fans and those new to the series appear to like it in equal measure. Having just gone to see it last night, I can completely understand why. There is so much going on in this movie, that it is hard to critique it all so I'll start with the acting.

Any discussion of acting must inevitably start with the late Heath Ledger, who will definitely be missed after this oscar-worthy performance. He managed to completely reinvent a character that was so iconically portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the past. His characterization was a perfect way to bring in a new kind of criminal into the slums of gotham city, one that seems more interested in the anarchy involved than in any kind of personal profit. Without giving anything away in the movie, it is well portrayed by the filmmaker's throughout the entirety of the movie. Remember this: how do you make a pencil disappear? Keep that in mind, and you'll like the movie better for it.

The rest of the actor's are equally good throughout the course of the movie. Christian Bale brings a believability to the character that I feel was missing in the other movies. Maggie Gyllenhall and Aaron Eckhart have a believable and necessary connection. Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine are predictably excellent in their respective roles and bring a weight to the movie that only seasoned actors are capable of. The plot of the movie can be somewhat formulaic at times, but never brings down the overall rating of this movie.

In the end, I would recommend this movie to all who like a good yarn. Be forewarned, however, that this is a very violent movie but not in the gory sense necessarily. However, it has more violence than I would have assumed in a PG-13 movie. Other than that, everyone should go see it. You won't be disappointed.

The Retirement

2008-07-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

The man and the woman sat chatting while the last rays of the summer sun spilled over them through the thatched roof of the tribal hut. They were here on vacation, something that they had been wanting for quite a long time. The typical trials of everyday life had kept them from doing what they been longing for every day to this point: enjoy their lives to the fullest. It was only with their long-awaited retirement that they were finally able to kick back, relax, and enjoy themselves. This was the fourth stop on a trip that was designed to slowly but surely circumnavigate the globe.

It had started 5 years prior, after their last child had left the proverbial womb and had begun to live on his own. Both of them were a few years shy of retirement age and from this point on they began to plan how they would spend the beginning of their autumn years. He had experienced a large boom in business several years before this and had invested all of his money wisely so money was not an issue. That, combined with both of their retirement plans, gave them the financial cushion that they would need to do things that most never dare dream of doing.

It only took them two years to fulfill the federal requirements for retirement, but it took them another three years to decide the actual course of the trip. They couldn’t initially decide how much of the trip to spend with sight-seeing or how much of the trip to spend lying in each other’s arms. This battle was raging for several months before they looked at each other one day and realized just how silly they were being. After several minutes of out of control laughter between the two of them, they gave each other a nice long hug and he gave her a soft peck on the forehead. At this moment in time, they were content simply to be with each other. This realization forced through to them that it didn’t really matter what they did as long as they were with each other. The actual destination didn't matter as much as the ability to spend it together.

Once all of the plans were set in motion, they merely had to wait until the appropriate time when they would both set off for the airport. As with any trip worth having, this would most likely start at about 2 in the morning! Once there, however, none of the pressure of the trip would get to them because they were spending so much time together and they knew that this would be one of many similar trips throughout the remainder of their lives together.

They felt renewed again as they continued with their trip. All of the stresses of their married life and all of the petty arguments melted away under the coastal breezes coming off of the Mediterranean as they sat holding hands. Though they were considered quite elderly by this time, at least by the standards of the increasingly youth-centered society, at heart they felt much the same way they had many years past when they had first met each other. They knew everything there was to know about each other and yet they were finding knew and interesting ways of viewing each other. They knew that when this trip was over nothing would ever be able to come between them, and the realization of this made them happy: happier than at any time during their long marriage. This intense love radiated out from them and made all those who came within close proximity happier, though they could not quite understand its source.

The sun set on the two of them, with their eyes constantly gazing out towards sea but their hands clasped tightly together. Before the light completely failed, she slowly shifted her eyes towards her husband only to find that he was looking at her as well. Their eyes met, and they smiled.

The Ranting Superhighway

2008-07-15T21:04:00.000-07:00

My god, it has become so difficult to write things of late. I've had several great reasons for my lack of production on the electronic page. I have, as always of late, continued to put my hard earned sweat and tears (most especially) into my thesis. I have been in the thick of a job hunt that seems eternal, as I'm sure it always does but this is the longest I have had to wait since I started working at McDonald's when I was 17. Lastly, Jess and I have moved ourselves body and soul out of our apartment in Dublin to our new house in Clintonville. We still have many different boxes to unpack and furniture to rearrange. I expect that we will be doing this for a good long while yet until we feel completely at home.

It is strange to me how easy it becomes to acclimate to a new environment. Though things are completely new in many ways (eerie noises, I'm talking about you), the familiarity comes from having our material possessions scattered around this new locale. I am sitting here now in my office, the first time I've really felt like I had one all to myself and can thus do with it as I please, typing away to all of you eager readers out there and I feel perfectly content where I am. There is no hint to the astute observer that I am an alien to this space, that I have taken this place over for myself. Well... I suppose the scattered boxes are a pretty big hint, but I could just be a slob as well. No, I don't suppose that Jess would really stand for me falling back to habits of yore. :)

My point here, if there really is one, is to stress the amazing ability that we as humans have to overcome all types of obstacles. Whether it be a serious calamity or a mundane obstruction, we continually find a way to force our brains to function normally when the abnormal comes to pass. I truly think that if we did not possess this ability, this true sentience of thought and of being, that we would be adrift on the tides of time and would fall where we may. Whoah.. I guess I got a little poetic there for a second, but I like the ring of it so I think I'll keep it.

If you are still with me on this ranting superhighway, I applaud you. I would like to speak briefly about the future of this blog. I have many ideas that I am finding it harder and harder to put into play, but they still remain. I haven't had an original piece of fiction on here since October, I think, and I would dearly like to fix that. It is my hope that once I find a job and once this madness surrounding my thesis is concluded that I will fall into a routine that will find me, if indeed a routine were to have self-awareness, writing on a very consistant and daily basis. It is only with this that I feel I can give you as the reader something of interest as well as fulfill my own inner desire to travel along the crazy corridors of my imagination. Thank you all very much and remember that animals are people too!!

A Trade from a Dying Team

2008-07-09T07:17:00.000-07:00

It appears that the Indian's run last year into the playoffs was a one-time thing, and it saddens me to see this team fall so far from the glory and grandeur of last year's team. While they could still technically produce a winning season, at 15 games under the .500 mark at 37 and 52 it seems extremely unlikely. The trade of C.C. Sabathia seems to confirm this, since this trade leaves only Cliff Lee to give us consistent starts. Until Westbrook and Carmona return from there stints on the DL, as well as Hafner and Martinez, it is highly unlikely that the Indians will play like we all know they are capable of playing.

Even when they do return, it will take a complete change in the way the Indian's appear to be playing baseball to make the second half of the season enjoyable for the fans. Right now, from what I have seen, it does not look like a team playing out there. Instead, I am reminded of a little league team where glory only comes from personal accomplishments and a victory for the team is second. Of course, everyone on both sides of a little league game still has fun so does it really matter? They aren't getting paid millions, or at least hundreds of thousands, to play a game. I apologize if I sound a little frustrated, but I am. After watching the heartache of the ALCS last year, I came into this season looking forward to a season of wins not losses. I, like many of my fellow Indian's fans, believed that this just might be the year and that we would finally get the ring that was stolen back in '97 against the Marlins.

I certainly didn't expect this monstrosity of a season, where I have seen one of the most potent offenses of last year fail to score more than three runs in half of the games. This is ludicrous for a team comprised of major league hitters. Absolutely ludicrous and it has become an exercise in futility to even watch them these days. I seriously get depressed watching them, after having lived through the team that brought us to the series twice in the nineties and annually made it to the playoffs. In a year where the Tampa Bay Rays, though I still think of them as the Devil Rays, are in first place over the Red Sox and the Yankees no amount of excuses are enough for this high-profile Indians team. In many ways, it is teams like the Rays, who seem to genuinely enjoy the game and play like there is no tomorrow, that keeps me coming back to the sport. I need to see an Indians team that doesn't appear like rich old men sitting back in lawn chairs while they sip at their wine and talk like Thurston Howell III. They need to, I believe, remember what it is about the game that got them playing in the first place. If they can't do this, I am afraid there is no hope for the current incarnation of the Cleveland Indians.

Respect the Popcorn Gods

2008-07-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

Popcorn has finally had its revenge upon me! After years of gleefully enjoying its buttery flavor, it apparently has decided that enough is enough. Jess and I went to go see Hancock yesterday, which was quite good, and halfway through the movie I picked one seemingly innocuous kernel out of the bag and proceeded to bite into it. What happened next was surprisingly painless, but still abrupt. I felt a little bit of pain, but then a sort of pop. I could feel something that was definitely not popcorn in my mouth and I fished it out.

At first, I didn't even realize that anything with my tooth had specifically happened. I thought that I had encountered a steel-hardened popcorn kernel. Then I looked at it and it was definitely white, or as white as I could perceive under the harsh illumination of my cell phone screen in the darkness of the movie theater. Even then, I did not connect the dots really that it was a part of my tooth. My original thought was that it was a filling, of which I have several old ones from my youth, and had popped out of its cavity. Then my brain started working correctly and I reasoned that if that was the case that I ought to be feeling some pain from this previous hole in my tooth.

Not quite knowing what to do, but secure in the fact that it was painless I kept watching the movie and also continued eating popcorn! Of course, I made sure to stay away from the left side of my mouth. At some point during the movie, I reached in to extricate a bit of popcorn fluff that incessantly gets stuck in-between teeth. While I was in there, I felt around a bit more and realized that there was a very sharp edge on my back molar, much sharper than on the other side. After feeling around a little bit more, I came to the conclusion that I had actually cracked my teeth while eating popcorn.

Luckily for me, there is no pain and I feel comfortable waiting till Monday to schedule an appointment. In the future, though, I will be certain to pray to the popcorn gods before devouring them so as to allay any righteous actions on their part. I have been taking advantage of them for far too long, but let me be the first to say that they deserve our respect and we should give it to them.

The State of the Sean Address

2008-07-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

I have finally received the green light from my adviser for my thesis. Finally, I have finished my thesis as to content. I still need to reread pretty much the entire thing to do some minor grammatical changes but the important part, at least to my impending graduation, has been completed. Now I must figure out the best time to get together with my committee, but it needs to be in enough time to graduate which makes it tricky. I still need to figure out the bureaucratic part of the whole thing, but with Rani's help I think I should be fine.

Beyond that I am still looking for jobs. While I am continuing my search, I will be working part-time at Blockbuster. This will be nice, I think, because I will once again be able to enjoy the free rentals. I don't anticipate the job hunt to go on too long, however, as I am confident that I have quite a few marketable skills. The trick, as it always is, is to figure out how best to put these together with the current job pool. In the meantime, I am busy with the move to the new apartment and all the grown-up things that correspond to moving. But.. as of July 12, 2008 Jess and I will be officially moved in. It is very exciting.

Beyond that, there isn't a great deal going on in my life. I am trying, sometimes in vain, to keep writing. Sometimes I just need to sit myself down and make myself do it, as I have done with this post. The funny thing is that as soon as I do sit down and run my fingers across the keys I instantly remember how much I enjoy writing and I can feel the creative juices stirring. Unfortunately, it is becoming harder to make myself do it sometimes. I am attributing that to the stress of finishing my thesis and finding a job and moving into a new house. I fully expect that I will find it easier when Jess and I are better situated into the new house. Until next time, it is never a good time to settle on anything.

To Play or Not to Play

2008-06-27T05:15:00.001-07:00

I have recently noticed that Barry Bonds, despite his willingness to play for next to nothing, is still without a team to play for. This seems utterly ludicrous to me, even though I know that he did use steroids (allegedly), and I am certainly against cheating in baseball. But with all of the continued scrutiny on his position, the chances of him continuing to use steroids under the shadow of his indictment are slim. There are many good reasons to put him back onto a major league team at least until his trial and it wouldn't be a terrible distraction for the remainder of his season since his trial isn't until 2009.

Since every homerun ball he hits from now until eternity is a record-breaking homerun and thus potentially priceless, I firmly believe that overall attendance at any baseball games he attends would greatly pad the pocket books of those in power. At a time where offense seems to be waning (odd how this happens right in the wake of the steroids controversy), it seems to me that baseball needs attendance. It is even possible that the people who come solely to see Barry Bonds might even rekindle some lost kernel of passion for the game and start to go to more of their teams' games. Either way, it seems very unlikely that the game will lose money with the reinstatement of Bonds (especially since he has agreed to be paid the league minimum, which is around 300k!!!!), but the game stands to make a great deal of money in ticket sales as well as corresponding concession sales.

This may sound odd, but his steroids usage doesn't matter to me right now because one person does not a team make. I don't agree with it, but I am not so alarmist that I believe that it is so incredibly pervasive as to give one team a tremendous boost over a 162 game season. I would certainly be more inclined to go to a game if given the option to see the all-time homerun king, even with his tainted record. It is still a record until a decision is made to strike him from the record which I don't see happening. The worst I could see happening is an asterisk put to his record, a la Roger Maris with his historic homerun season. Maybe someone will read this in the right position and give this poor (:() guy a break. Or perhaps not.

A Night at the Indians Game

2008-06-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was alot of fun as my buddy Potts and I went to go see an Indians game at Progressive field (You shall always be Jacob's field in my heart). We got there exceptionally early, over 2 hours prior to game time because I wanted to camp out on the homerun porch and snag homeruns during batting practice. Unfortunately, my carefully crafted plans went awry as the majority of the ballpark was closed until six so we were forced to sit in the right field seats to have any hope whatsoever of catching a batting practice homerun. It was exceptionally hot there, but it was quite close to the baseball players down on the field.

We sat there in the sun, munching on peanuts for about an hour. It was definitely not boring though as there was an older woman leaning over the wall and shouting down onto the field for Omar Vizquel to, and I quote (though I would rather not) "get his sweet bod over here". This woman was yelling so loudly that I could have sworn that the entire stadium could probably here her. Before the giants got into the outfield, they were stretching near their dugout on the first base line and to a man they all looked over when she yelled at them from the outfield. She was definitely not shy about welcoming Omar back to the ballpark for the first time since he was traded.

Prior to the game, there was a tribute to Omar that was actually quite touching. As someone who grew up watching the Indians in their heyday in the nineties, Omar and his fellow teammates from those years embodied what baseball truly meant. They really played as a team, which I am sad to say is sorely lacking not only in the current Tribe but also throughout baseball. Unfortunately, there are far too many people who seem to be hitting to get their personal numbers up that they negatively impact the team. It is amazing that the Indians this year have scored three runs or less in half of their games! That is an absolutely astounding number for major league hitters. Especially in the American league with the DH rule.

This game ended with a 3-2 win for the Giants, but the Indians had plenty of opportunities yet failed to capitalize. A strange thing occurred in Giants ninth when Omar came up to bat with men on first and third. He performed one of the best squeeze bunts down third base that I have ever seen, and all kudos to him. He performed it with such alacrity that the man from third scored and he was also safe at first base. The strange part of this incidence is that probably half of the stadium cheered because Omar did his job. I have a feeling that Omar was probably a little bit saddened by the lack in compassion for the modern incarnation of the Tribe. When he was playing, during a five year stretch that saw daily sellouts, this would never have happened. To have half of the park cheer when the opposing team scores a run is just very strange. I mean, I was happy to see Omar play, and the tribute before the game was really nice, but once that game starts he is the enemy for the majority of the park. We are a long way from San Francisco, so there really weren't that many Giants fans in the crowd.

So this was yet another loss for the struggling Indians. I am fast losing my patience with this team, and really don't see any way for them to come out of this hole unless they completely change the ways in which they have been playing baseball. They need to drop their pride and start playing together as a team. The talent is definitely there, but I fear that the motivation is missing. If I had bet in Vegas before this season started that both the Indians and Tigers would be playing sub-500 baseball this late into the season I could probably retire quite easily to some nice beach house down in the Caribbean with half of the attendance at last night's game.

A Fresh Beginning

2008-06-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

For those of you counting, though at this rate I wouldn't blame any of you for not reading this anymore, it has been over two months since my last post. Starting to sound a bit like I'm in a confessional. I confess my sins to thee, and hope that thou doth forgive me. Forgive my strange speech, but I am been reveling in Shakespeare of late thanks to a wonderful new device called Librivox. This website consists of a collection of audiobooks, read by real fans none of whom are getting paid. All of the books are those that are no longer subject to the long arm of copyright law, and thus William Shakespeare is a part of this. I urge anyone who likes literature to check this out. The talent is mixed, but the enthusiasm for the literature is something that has inspired me to lend my voice to this wonderful project.

This is just one of the many things that I have been doing to alleviate the boredom that I find myself in. It is a strange thing that the more time I have free, and thus the more things that could occupy my time, the less I inevitably get done. Instead, I have been in the habit of lying about like a bum for too many hours on end. Luckily, I have just enough motivation left in me right now to finish my thesis and look for a job. Speaking of my thesis, just 20 minutes ago I dropped off the latest draft en route to my adviser in New Mexico. *Fingers-crossed*

My job hunt has been oftentimes frustrating so far because it has been very difficult to find jobs in GIS (Geographic Information Systems). I have been going farther and farther afield until it seems that I am not fully using the degree for which I have labored much and given much over the past two years. Then I sit back and realize that nothing can ever replace the experiences and the friendships that I had over those two years. Even my relationship with Jess, which was in many ways put on hold for that time, is stronger for these experiences. As such, I am confident that even if I don't get a job that is specifically in my field it will all be worth it in the end.

I pledge to all of you faithful readers that I will make more use of this blog now that my life has settled somewhat. The stability that having a job and a steady source of income brings will allow me to focus all of my creativity and keep writing. I pray to God that I never lose my compassion for the written word and that I am always comfortable enough in myself to never fear writing what I feel needs to be written. Stay tuned, for even I never know what will flow from my rapidly typing fingers and through all the circuits onto the monitor. Wondrous things may be ahead for us all.

The Hunt for a Degree

2008-04-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I've resurfaced from my self-imposed exile. While my life is nowhere near as dramatic as that, it still is fun sometimes to think that it is. Right now, as I sit here procrastinating the inevitable, I am finishing my thesis in order to defend in May so that I never have to come back down here again (although I like it enough so I'll probably come back). My thesis is mostly done, with the statistical analysis sitting next to me right now with a copious amount of notes written on it. My task as of right now is to distill the essence of these statistics into pages of text that will make sense not only to myself, but also to my committee (and considering how highly educated they all are, it is surprisingly difficult to get my point across as I see it playing out in my head).

In essence, I have already completed my thesis and come up with my answers and my statistical analysis. Now, I just need to pull everything out of my head and splash it onto the digital page. Though it might not be as profound as a Jackson Pollock painting, I do hope that it will at least make a lot more sense. It has always struck me how difficult things can get sometimes when the tunnel at the end of the light, so to speak, is blinding in its ferocity. At that time, everything seems to get much harder and elusive where before it may have been extremely clear and as easy to pick out of the brain as so many apples on an apple tree. For instance, now that I have most of my ducks in a row and have started looking for a job (which takes a great deal of my brain away from other things at times) all of the other things seem like they take longer and longer.

Of course, I know what this is and I've been through it before. Senioritis is a nasty thing that many people from time immemorial have dealt with and gotten through just fine. As such, I know that I will be fine. NO WORRIES! As I'm sure is blatantly obvious, this rather eloquent blog posting (full of many strange allusions and big words) is really just a symptom of the greater disease. Since my purpose down here is to finish my thesis and come back to Ohio to really start my adult life, I will finish this posting and get back to the task at hand.

An Imperfect Blogger

2008-03-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, I finally did what I swore I would never do when I originally started this blog! I have let posts lapse past a month. I would love to say that school has kept my nose to the grindstone so much that I have just been unable to spare but a moment to throw my thoughts onto this site like wet paint on a canvas (allow my alliterations please, I'm in that mood right now). Unfortunately that is fiction, and I have been the main culprit in keeping my printed words off of the electronic page. Just really haven't felt like it, though I need to start making more time for it because it really is a very soothing break from all the strange monotony of my life at school right now. I fervently hope that I will start writing on a more regular basis (daily, if my time will allow) because I have so many damn ideas that they seem to be creating a backlog in my brain and crowd out other things such as the remembrance of birthdays. Sorry to anyone's who's birthday I have forgotten now or in the past!!!

Besides my obvious faults as a human being (dramatic sigh issues forth), I have made great progress on my thesis; though those keeping track of my other blog would not realize it (I have not kept up with that well either). My database is completed and my answer is burning a hole in the folder on my hard-drive. Now I find myself in a strange period because I have analyses to do but am unsure of the exact types to do. Also, I have no idea what to write to finish my thesis and hope that a lightning bolt hits me soon (not really worried folks, but I'm in that mood to make jokes both good and bad).

As a quarter-centarian (that's 25 to the uninitiated; cue snobby upturned nose), I think it best to attribute my problems with keeping up this blog to the swiftly approaching senility. If I start forgetting things, take pity on my poor soul and point me in the right direction.

In other news, Gerald Ford was mauled to death by ravenous wolves (hopefully, you are thinking about Dana Carvey in SNL right now or this joke is completely lost). In real other news, I am presenting what I have of my thesis today in front of friends and faculty in Breland 96. I really hope that it isn't as boring to them as it sometimes seems to me as I dive into all the data. That's about all I've got for you today, and I promise to write another posting within the next month even if its complete and utter jibberish (which this seems to be at times).

School Update

2008-02-07T17:03:00.000-08:00

I have been working fairly steadily over the past few weeks, ever since coming back from Ohio, and I am pleased to say that my working is progressing even faster than I had hoped. At this time, I am looking to defend my proposal (essentially a formality) before the end of February and defend my actual thesis either in late April or early May. This would be just in time to come home around May 10th and start looking for an apartment so that Jess and I can finally start our lives together. I can't wait, and I thank everyone who has helped me get through this time.

I plan on starting to look for a job beginning in March. I feel that this is more than enough time for me to find a good job before I come back in May. Even if that doesn't turn out to be the case, at least I'll be starting earlier and the chances will increase as time goes by. After all, I have a master's degree in Archaeology with a minor in a computer-related field. I feel very confident.

Video Game Censorship

2008-01-31T14:41:00.000-08:00

So, I was cruising online today and came across a youtube video from Fox News. It is about the horrible sex scenes in Mass Effect, a roleplaying game for the Xbox360 that I happened to have greatly enjoyed. The people at Fox News claim that this game allows for fully interactive sex scenes along with full-frontal nudity. Anyone who has played this game all the way through knows that it does no such thing. In fact, the announcer in the video as well as one of their "experts" admits that they have never even played the game. I am sick and tired of people making complaints about things when they have never even experienced what they are fighting about.

This hoopla about Mass Effect is really only the latest in a long line of controversies that the video game industry has had to endure. Ironically, it almost seems that people are complaining about games more now than they did in the past. I suppose this has alot to do with the overall prominence of video games in this culture: far more than in the past. This is ridiculous because the video game industry is far more regulated now than ever in the past, with the regulation enforced by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board). Prior to that, there was no watchdog in the industry and many blatantly sexual or violent games were released to the general public. Custer's Revenge is a famous example of a blatantly pornographic video game, where the soul point was to have sex with the squaws.

Nowadays, every game is rated from E for everyone to AO (Adults Only) along with between 3 and 6 descriptors of what is to be found in the video game. For instance, it might say something like 'partial nudity' or 'simulated violence' or 'suggestive dialogue'. These may seem kinda vague, but in video games that may occupy dozens of hours of a gamer's life it is very difficult to portray everything a game has, without publishing a small volume. It would seem that it would be much easier to rate movies, yet many movies get released at the PG-13 rating that I would not want my children to see.

It seems that in many ways our society as a whole is getting desensitized and callous about sex and violence. Regardless of your own individual viewpoint on what should or should not be allowed, it seems blatantly obvious that more of it is being allowed on TV and in the movies than ever before. This has never really bothered me because from the time most of it had been allowed on tv I've been old enough to view it. Video games, however, seem to provide a unique controversy with many conservative individuals.

Traditionally, video games seem to have always been child's play. Many of us in our twenties have grown up with video games and they have consequently grown up with us. As such, they have increased in complexity over the years even as they have become more and more adult-oriented. While there may have been some games, like the aforementioned Custer's revenge, that could never have been considered to be a kid's game the amount of adult-oriented subject matter in today's games has increased exponentially as the same kids who used to thrive off Super Mario Bros. now find more pleasure in killing aliens (Halo 3) or in killing prostitutes (Grand Theft Auto). Since this is what the general populace seems to want, can you really blame the companies making the games for making what their audiences want?

I guess my point is this: with so much crap going on in the world why are people so worried about this entertainment industry that has done more than any other entertainment industry to try and regulate what is being produced. With the ratings boards, and the family-settings on many of the xbox games presently available, they are making a valid attempt to keep games that have to much violence or sexuality from out of the hands of those who are not mature enough to handle the subject material. How can it possibly be their fault when there are parents out there who would readily hand over any games their children want regardless of the rating simply to placate them or get them out of their hair. The problem is with the individuals and should not be laid at the feet of the companies' making all the games and the video game systems.

The First Week of School

2008-01-18T09:16:00.001-08:00

I have done a pretty good job so far, after 3 days (I know, its such a long time period), of keeping with my schedule and working on my thesis every day. For anyone interested in my daily progress, come on over to my Thesis Blog and see what I am doing. Because of the unpublished nature of much of the material, I have mad it closed to the public. Anyone who reads this blog and is also interested in my thesis needs just contact me and ask me to invite them. You are all welcome.

Looking forward to my posting on this blog, it might be somewhat sparse until I finish my thesis. Though if I can keep with my schedule, I should still have my evenings largely free so it is possible that I might even post more than last semester. I am currently working on a story, but it seems to be spiralling out of control and is already over 12 pages long and I have no idea on its eventual length. I would like to post some more short stories, however and I will try to keep that foremost in addition to my personal logs. As usual, if anything should catch my eye in the news or elsewhere and I have a personal opinion on it, I might just blog about it. Until then, have a great new years.

Back to School

2008-01-16T14:50:00.001-08:00

Today was the true beginning of my last semester. I spent the majority of the day working on my thesis, and pursuing teaching assistant related projects. This includes a whole lot of scanning that I still need to do. It really feels good to know that this is my last semester, and I feel much more motivated for it. The proverbial light is at the end of the tunnel, I can see it and I am sprinting towards it. In order to keep all of this going, I am instituting a rather strict schedule that sees me in my office from 9-5 on Monday through Thursday. I think this will really work well since I only have one class on Saturdays. If I can keep this up, I have no doubt that I will finish in good time and be able to use the extra time to make my thesis that much better.

2007 in Review, Part 3

2008-01-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

With this past summer behind me, I went back down to Las Cruces for my 3rd semester. I had reached the turning point in this whole venture, and I began to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. To be perfectly honest, I seem to remember little from this semester. This is owing to the fact that it went by so damned fast that I can hardly believe that as I sit here now I am only days away from returning for my 4th and final semester. The latter part of the year was characterized by the continuing revisions of my proposal, which always managed to hover around 50 pages no matter how often I cut, added, or transposed. It's a good thing though, because for the most part I will be able to copy and paste almost verbatim into my finished thesis.

During the rest of the previous semester, I spent a good deal of it hanging out with friends of mine in New Mexico. It really is going to be quite hard for me to leave them and come back to Ohio when I graduate, because I have made some really great friendships that will most likely last the rest of my life. It will certainly be bittersweet when I leave Las Cruces, it has been my home for almost two years now and it will be hard to forget.

Well, that pretty much does it for the year. I left out much, but feel I have done a serviceable job in recounting the most important aspects. Looking towards 2008, I will be setting up a thesis specific blog at IslaCilvituk.blogspot.com where I will be keeping as daily a log as I can about what I am doing with my thesis. I am keeping it private, because I haven't published anything yet. If you are interested in keeping tabs on it, let me know and give me your email address so I can invite you to view it. Wish me luck during this final semester and have a happy 2008.

2007 in Review, Part 2

2008-01-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

The last we heard from our intrepid archaeologist, Sean Arata (again cue Indiana Jones music), he was suffering through a field season full of gale force winds and other such indignations. Needless to say, he (I) was ready and willing to take my A in the field school and spend the rest of the summer in Columbus with Jess. The summer was a great time, as it marked the halfway point of graduate school. It really began to sink in that I only had a year left before finding a job and being able to start wedding plans in earnest. This turned out to be a very pivotal time period, as this coincided perfectly with the genesis of this here blog!! (You can probably turn off the Indiana Jones music now, gets kind of tinny after awhile)

I have really found a new/old passion in my life, and have tried my hardest to keep it going. It is new because I finally feel much more capable of putting my life down in words, not to mention other/ fictional lives. Though I have been writing stories since I was much younger than I am now, I have never embraced the very real possibility that with enough sweat and tears (and don't forget practice) I could actually in my lifetime pursue a career as an author above and beyond what other job I may have. Though of course I would never completely forsake the time and energy that went into getting my Master's degree. I had a type of defining moment recently, during my current spate of attempting to write fiction.

It happened as I was taking out garbage the other night. I looked up into the stars. Even with all the light pollution plus clouds that were in the sky at that time, my mind's eye was able to pierce that dark veil and imagine myself what was up there. This initial imagination didn't take much. After all, I've seen stars all my life. For the first time in my life, however, I could really imagine what might be up there. I've always wondered what strange and quixotic things are evident not just in our own milky way galaxy, but in the millions of other galaxies out there. Then came the stunner: "Why, I could create what might be up there". This seemingly innocuous statement hit me like a thunderbolt. Is it really that easy, I thought. The back of my mind said, "Sure, why not. You can string words together. If monkey's can create Shakespeare, certainly you can create some new kind of intellectual property!"

In the end, I really have Jess to thank for this. If she hadn't told me during the summer that I should start this blog and start writing again (of course, she mostly did this because she was tired of me whining), then I don't think I would have started it up again. Without her positive backing and constant shoves in the back I would still be a forward-thinking man walking backwards in this escalator ride called Life. Thank you, babe.

I felt the need to expound so thoroughly upon this past summer and what it started, that I think I will have to finish up this 2007 retrospect in my next posting. Happy new years to all, and to all a solid paycheck.

2007 in Review, Part 1

2008-01-08T15:10:00.000-08:00

Well guys, my blog has survived through the holiday season!! Though it has seen its highs and lows (read, long time without posts), I am refusing to let it die. It is very important to me that I continue writing and getting my feelings out for the world to see. Every person out there who reads this, you know who you are, gives me the impetus to keep putting the figurative pen to the figurative paper. I believe that since this blog has begun I have become much better at translating my rather confusing thoughts into coherent and cogent sentences and paragraphs. I daresay that it is also helping me out with my thesis and other school-related writing.

2007 was a very big year for me in many disparate ways. It was the first, and last, full year of graduate school combining the fears and doubts of the beginning of graduate school with the resolution and the forward thinking of the end of graduate school. It began with tragic heartache with the death of my grandfather Louis, a man beloved and honored by multitudes of people in and around the Cincinnati area. His funeral was difficult, especially since it combined with a different type of heartache associated with the necessity to leave all my family here in Ohio (especially my wonderful Jess) and relocate for yet another semester of graduate school down in Las Cruces.

Perhaps as a way to cover this inauspicious start to the year, I tried to delve deeper into my school and work my way through the semester with the endgame in mind. This was the quarter where I really solidified my thesis topic and my schedule aimed at getting me out of there by Spring '08. As far as my grades were concerned it worked and I earned straight A's that semester: a feat that I have rarely accomplished over my academic career. Though I would have loved to have been able to come home and spend the entire summer at Jess's side and visiting friends and family, I saw an opportunity to ensure that I would be able to graduate on time. The difficulty arose when I realized that my Geography minor added an extra six credits onto my schedule, which would have kept me in school until the very end of 2008. In order to alleviate this, I signed up for a six-week field school that was set to take place in Deming, NM an exceedingly tiny town rife with prehistoric Native American artifacts.

This field school was an important step in my education as it made me realize how little love I had for field archaeology. While I may have had moderate success with the theoretical aspects of Archaeology and Anthropology, such as the nature of culture and unilinear evolution, I realized real quickly that I did not enjoy working in the dirt with toothbrushes. Ironically, I seemed to enjoy the paperwork more than the actual fieldwork. I have reached halfway through the year of 2007, and this is looking like a fairly long post already, so I'll end it here and just ask you to wait with what I am sure is baited breath for my next posting where I chronicle the continuing adventures of Sean Arata, Archaeologist!!! (cue Indiana Jones music).

Before I go, I would like to send my regrets to a dear friend of mine who's grandmother passed away over the Holidays. I'm sure that her and her family are still reeling from this great loss at such a joyous time. My thoughts are with them in this time of need.

Futurama Returns!!!!!!!!!!

2008-01-03T14:27:00.001-08:00

I found this little gadget on www.ilovebender.com which is a site set up by the creator's of Futurama. If anyone who loves this show as much as I do is interested in any information about its continuation, this is the site to visit.

The End of the Semester

2007-12-10T12:02:00.000-08:00

Well, my schoolwork is done for this semester and it is strange how little that makes me jump for joy. I clearly remember many times during my high school and undergrad years where the end of the semester (or quarter as the case may be) was met with screaming in the halls and general good times felt by all. It was a time when people turned off their brains for weeks at a time and tried to catch up on much that they had missed during their mandatory school days. Of course, it was never mandatory in college, just highly suggested.

Those times in my life were always grand and full of adventure, where anything could and did happen. Sleepless nights spent playing one video game after another with friends, such as the time Potts and I got through an entire baseball season in Ken Griffey Jr. with my knuckleball of doom always ready to strike out one batter after another. I seem to recall getting quite close to a perfect game once only to have a harmless squib just get past the outstretched pixel that was the player's glove in the game. Other times during these stretches, I would challenge myself to read as much as possible in as small an amount of time as possible. This was a big deal for a kid who spent the majority of his youth not allowed to drink anything with caffeine in it because I had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. Those were the days when I could read huge opuses like 'The Stand' or 'It' in a single week. In contrast, I have been working on reading the Stand again and it has taken me almost three weeks to get two-thirds of the way through. Still impressive, if I may say so myself.

At the beginning of each semester (or quarter), I was always the most motivated and would get everything I needed for the upcoming semester. Every semester, i told myself with seeming confidence that this time would be different and I would keep up with all my readings and do all of my homework on time and generally be a model student. At the end of the semester, I would usually be scraping along trying to get everything done that I had procrastinated until the very last second. Either a testament to my own skills as a student, or the lack of a challenge in the material itself I have always been able to get everything done on time and with a good grade. This rush to get everything done at the end always engenders a need for a tremendous cooldown period designed primarily to think about anything but school.

So here I sit trying to do anything but work, but have found it quite difficult in this faster paced and more challenging world of graduate school to think about things other than next semester. It will be quite a big one for me, and for Jess as well, as I finish up my thesis and embark upon the adventure of a lifetime: job-hunting!!! During my break, I will be working every day on my thesis to make next semester run much smoother and get everything done on time to defend in May. I have no allusions that everything will run exactly the way I have it planned in my head. There will be snags, some big and some small, but if I keep up with things in a much more mature way than my high school and undergraduate semesters I am confident that I will be able to deal with absolutely anything that rears its ugly head on my path towards graduation and getting back to my life.

Thank you, all of you, who have helped me get through this in all its good times and its bad times. The end is indeed in site, and it is wreathed in a glorious light that makes me ache for the day when I can call Jess and tell her that I am done and can come home.

...And That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles

2007-12-06T10:58:00.000-08:00

I thought it might be a good idea to post something before the time period between posts reaches a month. There is something about it reaching a month that would just be absolutely unforgiveable in my mind. I mean, obviously as I get busier and busier with school it would be forgiveable for me to have these breaks in between posts. However, if it reaches a full month that would indicate that I am somehow less serious about writing and my strong desire to keep at it. If I want to become a published author at some point in my life, then perseverance is the name of the rather lengthy game.

I've been quite busy, some of it school and some of it video games (I'm being honest, at least!!). I have had alot of school work, and as much as I like to bemoan how much I procrastinate I obviously still manage to get it all done, and do it well in the process. I just took a test yesterday that I can say with about 99% certainty that I got over a 100 percent. The best thing about this is that it means I can get a 50% on my last project and still come away with an A! Of course, I would never actually put that little effort into what I am doing but it is a nice thing to know all the same.

The end of this semester is fast approaching, and I couldn't be happier that I get a long break back in Columbus with Jess. It won't be a completely restful break, however, as I will be putting finishing touches on the first half of my thesis while I am simultaneously building my database that will be used in my thesis. I would give more statistics now, but I can see the glassy-eyes increasing in number even as I think about it. I'll just say this, something that Jess once told a friend as I did my customary dance around what I was doing down here: He studies Mayan garbage! Thank you for that, Jess. That is a real life-saver.

I'm really looking forward to reconnecting with many people that I so rarely get a chance to see anymore these days. Inevitable with the whole growing up situation, I suppose. My best friend from Mentor, Potts, should be making a trip up to Columbus. I sure hope that he doesn't expect me to come to see him when we've spent good money on a plane ticket so I can at least make it make to the state.

I come back into town next Wednesday for what will be the last interim time period before I am back in Columbus for good, hopefully with a tremendously well-paying job!! (fingers-crossed) Knowing that I only have one rather long stretch of time left, all of next semester, makes me feel really happy. Peace out for now, but I do plan on writing more once again when I am settled in Columbus with Jess during all those cold days with lots of snow (I can only hope)

A Strange Weekend

2007-11-11T21:42:00.000-08:00

This has been a very strange weekend for me. Not strange in the fact that I got very little done, I mean who really wants to be doing anything on the weekends?!? No, it is strange in the fact that coming into this weekend I had absolutely every intention of getting work done. I know, I say that all the time and most of the time I don't really mean it but for the majority of the past week I really felt good about getting a lot done before coming back for the holiday. As I have stated in previous postings, I feel really good about everything going on down here especially as far as my thesis is concerned.

Actually, I really do still feel really good about things and I can visualize myself finishing on time and getting everything done on time so that I can come home this summer. I think I'll just have to chalk this weekend up to a much needed time for rest and relaxation. Hell, I even got to do karaoke on Saturday night when my friends and I all went out for Tobe's birthday (a physical anthropologist friend of mine). Hopefully, I've imprinted into your minds images of me karaoking (?) up there on stage and maybe it even reminds you a little of a famous celebrity. I'll leave who up to you!!

Anyway, the point is that I had a lot of fun with my friends down here. There was one person who I seriously missed however, and I think that person's absence is the main reason behind the strangeness of this weekend overall. There were more than a few moments this past weekend, not to mention throughout the entirety of my stay down here, where it almost physically hurt that Jess wasn't there for me when I needed comfort after a particularly stressful day. On the flipside, when we are talking on the phone, it is extremely difficult for me not to be able to put my arm around her when she has bad days as well.

Though this homesickness is nowhere near as bad as it was after the first couple of weeks last year (and thank you once again to all of my friends and family who helped me get through that awful period), it is still singularly painful in its effect on me at times. I know this is something that will never go away anytime I am forced to be away from my loved ones. I have accepted this, but unfortunately it doesn't in any way lessen the impact.

The thing that really helps me to get through these periods and resurface from the temporary shallow depression that I find myself in at times is the love and support from my ever-increasing circle of close friends and family. If there is a point to any of this rambling, it is that I am so happy that you are all there for me when I need a boost. I consider myself to be one of the luckiest people in this world, and can only hope that in some small way I have a similarly profound impact on others as I travel through this treacherous highway called life.

In case anybody is getting the wrong impression from this post, I am trying to put forth the idea that I am extremely happy with my lot in life at the moment. Though there are, obviously, parts of my life that could go better from time to time the overall picture is beautiful and a work of art. I am but one person in a sea of stories, each one with its ups and downs, its beautiful moments and its ugly moments. I fervently hope that my role in other's stories can be to increase the ups and decrease the downs.

Thank you all for believing in me. It has meant a great deal to me, and I am made all the better for your love and kindness. I know this is all kinda heavy, but anyone who knows my writing style knows that I write what I am thinking when I am thinking it. I feel it makes for a much better indication of the truth in life.

I'm Alive!!!!

2007-11-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

I knew this was going to happen, but I had hoped that somehow I would be able to keep up with this blog in the same way as I did when I started. However, fate has conspired against me and just keeps throwing me more and more to do. At times, I feel like a dog chasing a bone over these past few weeks. The tremendous upside to this is that I am doing quite well in my classes, as well as my thesis. Though I still have quite a bit of work to do, my trepidation from last year has been replaced by a sense of joy that my time down here is almost over.

Though I still have ALOT of work to do before I graduate, I at least have a reasonably clear idea of what all of that entails. Once I get past the research involved in the first 4 chapters of my thesis (the literature review), I will be doing the actual computer work involved with this thesis. I realize that data entry is tantamount to the 9th circle of hell for alot of people, but I truly enjoy doing this type of mindless work from time to time. Once I get into a good groove with everything, I'll be able to sit at my desk listening to itunes and plug away at the different aspects. I think it will be alot of fun actually for the times this winter when Jess is at work and I am sitting back at the apartment.

Well, I gotta get going. Have a luncheon to go to with one of my advisers archaeology friends. Definitely need to make an appearance as her student.

A Late Night Encounter

2007-10-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

The road was covered in leaves by the time Eric left his meeting and the sky had taken on a deep shade of purple. He knew that his wife would be furious at him for taking so long, but he was too exhausted to dwell upon her impending wrath. The deepening shade of the late evening night covered more and more of the sleepy forests on either side of the road, and Eric found himself having to pay more and more attention to the road ahead of him as the visibility dropped incrementally with each passing minute. He was on this road for half an hour before he realized with a sense of growing dread that he was no longer sure where he was.

He should have passed the old MCinty farm by now, and the trees should have long since thinned down to low scrub-brush and the occasional tree that refused to believe that forests were soon to be extinct. Not sure what else he could feasibly do, he pulled the car over to the side of the road which was a tricky proposition as the trees were almost on top of the small two-lane country road. Eric sat in a ponderous trance for several minutes before he flipped on the overhead light and reached into his glove compartment for his trusty old map.

It took him several long moments to find the map, buried as it was under several old travel books from his traveling days as well as the odd assortment of candy wrappers and old receipts. I really should clean this shit up, he though distractedly as he pulled the map out and began to unfold it. It took him several more moments to locate on the map the exact street that he knew that he was on. Had anybody been unfortunate enough to be in the car with him at this exact moment, they would have been assaulted with the kind of profanity that only sailors and possibly college students are wont. With this out of his system, Eric quickly began to fold up the map and he stowed it once again amidst all the trash of the glove compartment.

He sat still for mere moments before he shoved the door open and stepped out into the leaf-strewn road. He had a strong rustic look to him, complemented by the outlandish facial hair that he had grown long ago to placate his wife. There was a slight bulge under his overcoat that might give the more wary person cause to be alarmed. How the hell could I have gone completely in the wrong direction? I’m not that damn tired. He looked around him then and realized one thing that was a cause for great concern: a large silver animal was watching him with hungry, beady eyes.

Not being a renowned wildlife expert, he could not categorize this strange beast. He knew only that it resembled a mix between a dog and, well, …. Bigfoot! The only thing he could thing with any coherence was to be still and stay quiet. Though he knew this was no T-Rex, Eric hoped with a growing sense of alarm, that this creature was somehow distantly related and could not see him unless he moved. Intellectually, he knew this to be a ridiculous assumption but he held fast to the thought and began to resemble one of those living statues.

The creature began to approach with quite, assured steps that did not seem to affect the thin coating of dead leaves. No rustling sound came from the direction of the animal. Indeed, no sound of any kind could be discerned from this behemoth. For reasons that Eric would never be able to uncover, this caused his terror level to jump to levels heretofore never experienced in his lifetime. There was something primal and otherworldly about this strange visitor that beckoned to him and stirred up old vestigial memories that he never knew he possessed.

Images of primal terror began to cycle through his frozen brain, and he started to hyperventilate with short, shallow breaths. The animal had stopped its forward progression, but Eric was no longer paying attention. His focus was strictly upon the images that he tried with desperate measures to decipher, but found that they were flying by too fast for him to understand them. All he was aware of was that darkness had suddenly entered into his personal worldview, and it was coming closer and closer to grasping his soul in its sharp talons. Deep in his unconscious self, Eric realized what was happening to him but found himself utterly incapable of doing anything about it. It would take some kind of glorious outside help for him to be able to get away from the terrible clutches of this voracious demon.

Unbeknownst to the ancient demon and its hapless victim, another kind of being was at that very moment staring through slitted eyes at the struggle that was taking place. It could feel the darkness as strongly as Eric, but the difference was that this being understood the creature and knew its motives. It had seen it far too many times before to mistake the signs for what they were. Light radiated from this new creature on the scene in small waves, and a feeling of peace and tranquility was its essence. Seeing that the possession was in its last stages, this creature pushed out the light and peaceful emotions in an envelope that enfolded the man and the strange demon that has attempted to absorb the humanity left in the man. In a very old dialect, this being began to talk very fast and glide towards the situation.

Eric was dimly aware of all of this as it was happening, and could feel the two forces at work as they were battling each other. The rapidity of the hellish images diminished noticeably and a pall was lifted from his eyes that he hadn’t even realized had been placed there. He was vaguely aware of something being ejected from his core being and he could almost see a kind of wispy black fog leaving his body and coalescing once again into the silver creature that had started this whole strange affair. His consciousness began to slowly but inexorably reengage with his other senses and he was able to jump away from the hold that had been so tight only moments before.

A strong guttural cry echoed in the corridor between the trees as the demon raised what looked like hackles and charged at the newcomer. The newcomer, however, was ready for this and acted with a practiced grace to raise its hands at the demon and push forth some kind of brilliant energy at the rapidly approaching monster. It appeared that the demon was no slouch, however, as it deftly sprung out of the way of the energy bolt. For an instant both creatures stared each other down with withering stares and then they launched anew at each other and the impact was cataclysmic and knocked Eric a good ten meters away, where he just narrowly avoided hitting a big rock on the side of the road. He didn’t have enough time to count his good blessings, as the fight continued unabated between the two spiritual beings. He could only assume that one was good and one was bad, but turned on his heels and sprinted away from the confrontation as fast as his body would take him. He never even attempted to look back until he must have run a couple of miles.

All he could see was a bright light on the horizon that could have been mistaken for sunrise, but a quick check of his watch ensured Eric that it had only been a matter of minutes since he had stopped his car. At this point, he didn’t care at all who won this biblical matchup and he turned around and ran all the way back into town where he eventually succumbed to his deep fatigue and collapsed just outside of town. His dreams were impossible to define, but he swore till his dying day that they contained fantastic images of demons and angels in a fight for the ages.

He would never be sure what had happened that night, but he woke up a changed person. He had come so close to the true face of evil that he could never forget the complicated emotions that had rifled through his being. Though he had been frozen by the sheer terror of the confrontation, he had also felt an intrinsic connection between himself and that terrible entity. Right there before the newcomer came and ostensibly saved his life, he had actually begun to like what he was seeing and look forward to its terrible embrace. He swore to himself that he would never let himself forget what had happened and how much he owed to the illuminous stranger.

Though he had by no means been an awful person prior to his encounter, he became a paragon of virtue and philanthropy for what remained of his life. He did as many little things, as well as some big things, to make his little corner of the world a better place to live in. Several years later, when he and his wife welcomed their first child he worked even harder to instill in his young son the lessons that he had learned. Though he yearned for it, he never again met that mysterious stranger. It would be up to his son, some 50 years after that initial encounter, to relay his thanks and gratitude before embarking on an adventure of his own right.

Burgeoning New Life

2007-10-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

During this past week there have been two births in my family, and I cannot wait to see them and their proud parents. Andrew and Katie (my first cousin and cousin-in-law) greeted Avery into this world on Friday, Oct. 12th. Scarcely one day earlier Lauren and Cevin (same as above) greeted Kayla Nicole Macias into this world on Thursday, Oct. 11th. It goes without saying that I am incredibly proud of the four of them as they embark on the trials and tribulations of raising kids. And knowing both of them when they were younger, and I'm sure they would agree since they also knew me, raising kids is no small feat.

Unfortunately, with my current situation, I have had very little correspondence with either of them since moving down to New Mexico. Luckily I should be able to see them and their new bundles of joy either for Thanksgiving or sometime around Christmas. At this time, when there lives are continuing unabated with all the work that goes with raising a child included, I would like to wish them both the best of luck and also say that I am a little envious for them. Though I do not necessarily look forward to waking up in the middle of the night or the constant dirty diapers, I am certainly looking forward to the feelings that must inevitably come with raising a fellow human being. To be able to be the moral compass for a child is something that I think is extremely important for these small, innocent children. Knowing my cousins as well as I do, I know that their children will be nothing short of amazing individuals as they grow up in this increasingly tumultuous world that we live in.

In a society that thrives on individuality, two great new individuals have opened their eyes for the first time and are ready for the wonders to come.

The Baseball Journey: The Inconsistent Reunion

2007-10-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

The baseball was in the middle of a very intense conversation with an old black and white arachnid that had crawled its way onto the soft leather of the glove when it felt itself lifted up and once again tucked under the little one’s armpit. It only had a little bit of time to register its surprise before it was pounded into hard gray concrete, which promptly rebounded it right back into the long-fingered hand of the small one. They’re lucky that I don’t have any pain receptors, it thought sardonically, but of course it really had no idea what a pain receptor was or even what pain felt like.

It had been many months since the little one had been home and the baseball felt a momentary sense of comfort being back in the overly sweaty mitt that it had been friend to for many years. Its age was incalculable, but none of that mattered to the big one and the small one who were playing out a ritual that had become sacred to them. Before the baseball quite knew what was going on it went sailing into the aluminum siding of the little one’s house.

“Dude, watch it. We’re way too old to keep getting yelled at by your dad!” remarked the big one.

“It was an accident, its not my fault that you can’t catch it” yelled the small one as he picked up the baseball and made yet another miserable attempt at an old-school knuckleball such that the baseball ended up several yards to the left of the big one. It heard a sigh of exasperation escape from the big one which would have mirrored the baseball if it was even capable of any speech. Just once, I would like to end up in the mitt when he throws that damnable pitch!

“Seriously man, slow down and concentrate on the pitch. How long has it really been since we’ve done that?” About 342 days, 9 hours, and 12 minutes, thought the baseball before realizing how desperate it sounded that it knew this figure with such precision.

“We’ve both been working and going to school. You’re only in the state about three times a year, and the rest of the time you’re with Jess”. The small one, with appropriate discipline managed to throw the baseball close to the mitt of the big one. Thanks you Lord, thought the baseball before realizing that as an inanimate job it had neither the need for nor desire of any religious notions.

“True. It’s almost over though and I’ll be back in the state. Of course, then I’ll have to look for a job and plan a wedding so time will be kind of at a premium…” The baseball stopped listening to the familiar diatribe of the big one as he went sailing through the air and the warm air. It had listened to the big one speak so often that it knew his ability to string seemingly random thoughts together so effectively that the end result was usually just white noise to the baseball.

After another half hour of back and forth motion, which was about to make the baseball sick, the two once again decided that their time could better be spent pretending to be in the big leagues.

“You got any Code Red?” the big one asked. The baseball was once again relegated to the dusty storage bin along with the glove, its one constant companion. Either they will come out to play tomorrow or it will be another year! The baseball though again, for the thousandth time in its small existence, about life and its many wonderful things that it would likely never get a chance to see. Before hunkering down for the long haul in this muggy old garage, it suddenly realized that there were no other baseballs in the box along with it. For some inexplicable reason, this notion forced small thoughts of unaccustomed joy to worm their way into its rubber core.

Indians in ALCS

2007-10-09T12:47:00.001-07:00

Last night I spent 4 and a half hours watching the Indians trouncing the New York Yankees. For the third year in a row, the Yankees have lost the first round in the baseball playoffs against a team that wasn't really given much chance by the majority of the baseball public. Now who is standing tall as the Indians have disrupted the most potent offense this entire year through great pitching and some of the best 2-out clutch hitting I think that I have ever seen. Our top two pitchers have each won 19 games this season, and we have a third who has won 15 games. This kind of amazing pitching will beat the best offense any day.

Next on the target for the Indians are the Boston Red Sox, who do have a great team but there is this feeling in the air. This is the time that the Indians will accomplish what they have been striving for since the 40s. Unfortunately for the Cubs, they were eliminated in the first round. This leaves Cleveland as the team with the longest stretch without winning the World Series, at least as far as the teams who have won a series (the Rockies have yet to win).

As someone who lived through almost the entirety of the glory days in Cleveland during the nineties, and someone who saw them lose two world series in '95 and '97, I have been rooting for them to do great. Also, there is something special about this team that bodes well for the rest of their playoffs. Besides, it is very rare for a team to have three pitchers which could be the ace of many other teams. C.C. Sabathia, Fausto Carmona, and Paul Byrd have been absolutely astounding this year but especially this post-season. They have dominated completely and I look forward to seeing these pitchers in the ALCS as we win and move onto the World Series.

A Brief Respite

2007-10-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I spent virtually the entire day working on the second draft of my thesis. The good news is that I finished it, printed it, and put it in Rani's mailbox to tear apart! I'm hoping for at least four days before she tells me what I need to change about it. Even though it's a couple of weeks late, it really feels good to have it done for the time being. Now I can focus on my other classes and get some work done on them so I can continue to get that grades I have been getting so far, which thankfully have been quite good.

Today, I am enjoying the brief respite mentioned in the title and watching football and hanging out with friends. Brain's kinda fried a little, so I'll let this post go at that. Have a great day, everybody.

The Red Carnation

2007-10-02T22:36:00.000-07:00

The spoon was sitting exactly where he had left it, as was the plate, the knife, and the cup. But the flower. Ohhhh the flower. It was decidedly not where he had left it. In fact, he had not left it nor did he like flowers. They were too pretty, and reminded him of days that he would much rather let stay in the oblivion.

The smell of this particular flower was a mixture of scents, so complex that even someone with an incredibly refined sense of smell would have a very difficult time decoding the complex smell. He did not have such a sense of smell, so all he thought was that this particular scent was an affront to his senses. He sat looking at it, trying his hardest not to smell and breathing through his mouth like a fish out of water. It was a small red carnation, wilted and with a dainty air about it as if the person who had left it there had transferred some of their personality into it. That is certainly ridiculous, he thought, but he continued to think it.

A hard knock at the door brought him out of his revery. At least somewhat. He looked like an old school automaton as he walked towards the door, unable or unwilling to take his glance off of the mysterious flower. He fumbled for the door latch and opened the door, unaware that this life was soon to be a thing of the past.

The retort of the gun was the last thing that he heard before succumbing to his sixth death in as many days. Dammit, at last something out of the ordinary and I die. This thought was stretched out and multiplied thousandfold as he entered the realm of Kiloria and all of his infinite personas were released. This was always the worst, that first entrance into the shining metropolis out on the frontier of space itself. The leap out of the bodies was never a thing that happened lightly, and this time was certainly no different.

“Welcome back, Number 1, do you have anything new to report?” said an imperious voice. The tone was unmistakable, and Number 1 found it literally impossible not to answer his question.

“The flower was back, and for the life of me I cannot explain away its appearance. I was only in the bathroom for a minute, and the flower appeared during that time.” He finished.

His superior, looking over and writing in a small black journal, took a long time to continue with this familiar routine. Much longer, in fact, than normal which prompted Number 1 to think with a fierce kind of glee that his journey might now be finally entering the last stage. He had been coming close to an epiphany of sorts for several jumps now and he could not wait until the last phase was begun and his time spent in the ‘real’ world increased many times over.

"This latest development is very troubling," he said with an authoritative air. "It is time for Phase 2. Go to the library and read up on red carnations. He is trying to tell us something, and I want to know what."

"Yes, sir," he snapped off a smart salute. With this, he retreated with a kind of lithe grace out into the night and presumably off towards the library.

His commander stood in the soft lush light coming through the phase8 material high above him for several moments before a soft shimmering surrounded him. A small buzzsaw burrowing up through the soft loam popped up through the ground in the very place where the elderly man had recently been without any idea that he was in a highly bizarre incidence.

A Piece of Skyrock

2007-10-02T22:29:00.000-07:00

The rock was falling through the sky in a trajectory that would take it straight into the living room of Mr. and Mrs. Weatherweight. Their life was normal, and as normal people they had many problems that were quietly going unaddressed. Their biggest problem was that a piece of skyrock was at that moment plummeting straight for their favorite TV. They did not know this, however, so they continued watching a rerun of “I Love Lucy” on their brand new plasma screen television. In mere moments, their quiet little suburban lives would be threatened and their lives would be forfeit. The rock, knowing this, changed its mind and hit their hydrangea instead.

The powerful explosion that would have happened, because who knew that the plasma in plasma televisions was such a highly volatile substance (!), was forever altered. Instead, they were covered in dirt.

To them, however, this was the ultimate affront and after shaking themselves off with quick rapid shakes they stood up with something akin to murder on their carefully sculpted faces. With quick bird-like twists of their heads, somewhat eerily in unison, they looked around to find someone to blame.

Their first thought, and a strange one it was, was that the killer robots had finally arrived and were going to deprogram them all and make them into plumbers (!). Knowing that these two were highly sophisticated robots implanted into this quiet suburban neighborhood would probably make things much clearer. The rock knew all of this and so much more, but for now it was determined to keep all of this information to itself and keep its secret.

Mr. and Mrs. Weatherweight, codenamed after the two who had previously inhabited this particular establishment, were not specifically programmed to make sense of what was happening. What happened next might seem exceedingly odd to an outsider, but was run of the mill to your average neighborhood robot. They stood close and swiveled their heads towards each other in a slow methodical turn. Their hair parted and appeared to melt into their scalps, which had taken on a hint of a metallic coloring. Their eyes sunk slowly into their heads and appeared to retreat upward towards their scalps before actually popping out again with a slight pop through recently formed holes on top of their heads. Finally, their eyes connected together like a plug into a socket and they just sat there.

And sat there.

The rock, which had a pretty good idea what they were doing, was starting to get impatient after three hours of this sitting there. It decided to act, not something that was specifically in its programming but it thought it could bend some useful algorithms just this once. Or was it the tenth time. For some reason it didn’t know, but it didn’t care enough to double check its records even though it would only have taken one-trillionth of a nano-second.

Little tiny legs protruded from this small piece of space debris that was definitely not acting as such. Looking like a small earth spider, it crept over to the two eye-locked Weatherweights and crawled up until it was sitting right in-between their connections.

And it sat there.

The explosion occurred precisely one-trillionth of a nano-second later when the small piece of space rock realized that it had bent one algorithm too many and the resulting logical paradox was too much for its logical circuits to handle. It had time for one more thought in this micro time period.

Was it the Weatherweights or the Featherweights?

Where have I been?

2007-10-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

It sure has been a long time since I posted anything, and that really is a shame. When I first started this blog I was really excited about being able to write again when I once had such a passion for it. I still do, there is just so much to be done with school right now that I am finding it very difficult to give myself the time to really sit down and express my thoughts in words. Let me tell you what is going on right now, both in my head and in my life.

First off, my head is incredibly full at the moment with the amount of things going on in my life. Now don't get me wrong, I am very fortunate indeed that I have this much going on at all. Upon some serious inner reflection, I think that this is the sign that I am living a very full and rewarding life. Sometimes, like right before bed, I wish that I could just poke a tiny hole in my brain to let all of this stuff out so that I can think only of my pillow as my head crashes onto it. Frontal lobotomy aside, there really is nothing that can be done. Oh well! I guess I'll have to live with it after all. Here I am ranting again. Please tell me when I am doing this so I can shut the hell up, will ya?

My schoolwork takes up a big proportion of my time, as I am sure anyone who has ever been in graduate school or even a full-time job for that matter would understand. Right now, I have the equivalent of three classes warring for every last inch of my time. Luckily, one of these is the actual writing of a big chunk of my thesis in time for the end of the semester so that I can work exclusively on the analytical portion of my work in time to graduate in May. (Fingers crossed everyone!!!) I feel really good about everything that has been going right with this research even though I am not the biggest fan of doing research. Still, there is something amazing about producing something (anything) and then having it published for all the world to see (or at least those who even know where it is --> in the library here!).

Perhaps later I will spend some time to introduce you to the wonderful world that is Maya refuse practices and geographic information systems, but I think this post is getting a bit long in any case. I plan on writing more often in the coming weeks, but don't be at all surprised if I begin to be a little lax. Be kind, I am gentle! (whimper)

I also hope to have some more short stories to post in the near future, and I am still interested in producing a serialized story. The baseball story that I posted almost over a month ago now does have more chapters, I just haven't written them yet. Stay tuned my loyal and faithful compatriats!

Robert Jordan, You will be Missed

2007-09-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

It is with great sadness that I bring news of the death of a great author who I have been reading for years. Today, Robert Jordan succumbed after a long and heroic struggle with a rare blood disease is tantamount the struggles of the characters that he wrote about with such obvious care and compassion. His Wheel of Time series, spanning 11 books to date, was a New York Times bestseller for each volume and became an instant phenomena the world over. It is a sad day when a great talent is taken from us before his time. Unfortunately, it is always before the right time when great people are taken away.

I remember reading the first book of this series, The Eye of the World, quite a few years ago on vacation and instantly being hooked to the great characters and the intricate plotlines. It is true that it can get quite confusing, but I have been collecting each book in hardcover over the past few years with the intention of rereading the entire series one day when I have the free time. I find that perhaps the greatest tragedy here is that a man who invested so much of himself in this incredibly complex and personal story to him and we will be unable to fully understand how all of his plots play out in the master's definitive edition. I fear that the volume that inevitably comes out will be missing a great deal without his sure hand at play on every page.

With all of this in mind, he lived a long and fruitful life and I am just glad that I could share some of his stories. He is an inspiration to me and in my endeavors in life. The way in which he fought so valiantly in the end is something that all should approach every aspect of life with.

A Horrific Injury in the NFL

2007-09-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

I was watching the football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Denver Broncos and I witnessed something that I hope to never see again. A backup Tight End for the Bills, Kevin Everett, made a seemingly innocuous block of Domenik Hixon on a kick return to start the second half. At first I didn't know what had happened, but soon realized that Everett was not moving on the field. Its a very sobering realization when you are sitting on the couch enjoying one of your favorite sports and then you see somebody injured in such a fashion. I must confess that while he didn't move at all as they took him off the field in the ambulance, I was relieved to see him blink on the way into the ambulance.

Everett's prognosis is not encouraging, as the associated press has reported that he has a cervical spine injury and is currently in intensive care and on a respirator. Never mind the thought of when will he play again for the Bills, the questions have turned to whether or not he will walk again or even whether he will even have use of his arms or legs again. This is a very horrible thing to happen, but I was glad to see all the fans and players were clapping him off the field as a show of support to his health.

I fervently hope that I never see something as senseless as this happen for the rest of my life. All my prayers go out to Kevin Everett and his family during this painful time.

Football Fever

2007-09-06T07:40:00.000-07:00

Football fever is upon us once again. Today is the first day of the NFL regular season and many, including myself, are psyched about its beginning. For me, it gives me a reason to keep Sunday to myself with little to no homework. Instead, I can relax on the couch or watch the games with friends and enjoy the day without worrying TOO much about all of my other obligations. The Lord did say that Sunday is a day for rest, and I intend to take that advice to heart during the football season and watch and see if my beloved Bengals can get off their asses and do what they have been capable of doing ever since the Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson era began.

Elsewhere in the NFL, all eyes are turned on Peyton Manning who finally got that elusive super bowl ring on his finger. Will he repeat and solidify his hall of fame potential? Maybe. One thing is for sure, however, unlike Michigan the Indianapolis Colts definitely have a chance to achieve football glory this year. Other teams will be out to dethrone the Colts, and tonight will be a matchup that many think has definite postseason potential. Tonight, the Colts and the New Orleans Saints will fight and I feel myself rooting for the Saints.

Last year was the first full year after Katrina, and the New Orleans Saints, who played to a 10-4 division championship, formed a rallying point for the denizens of New Orleans. Its always nice to see the positive effects that sports can have on the community as a whole, especially in this Michael Vick Dogfighting era. I definitely find myself hoping that the Saints can have a repeat season and continue the healing process in New Orleans.

Whatever happens this year, I am sure that it will be a fun year for football fans. And I will be loving every minute of it. I also sincerely hope that this Vick controversy dies down and we stop hearing about it every single year. Maybe if the Falcons do well without Vick this may happen.

Motivation!?!

2007-09-04T07:23:00.000-07:00

Jess and I have been trying of late to get ourselves up earlier and earlier each morning, and we never realized just how difficult it really is to do. There is something so inviting and alluring about staying bundled up in covers in bed, even if my bed is horrific compared to hers, and watching through slitted eyelids your alarm clock tick (unlikely in this digital world, I know) ever closer to that dreadful alarm. It really seems that we would like nothing less than to just stay in bed for the entire day. It would certainly be better than a day spent dealing with clients or a day spent studying the refuse practices of a Maya city in the Yucatan peninsula! These thoughts and more just race through my head as I try to force myself out of bed and it just becomes so damn difficult. GRRRRRR!!

Excuse my language!

It is just so difficult to get motivated sometimes in this day and age where there are so MANY other things to do that are both more fun and sometimes even feel more worthwhile. Now, this may just be me. I really have no way of telling if others feel the same way as me about this, but I really don't think that I am alone. Even those around me who seem to be, quite literally, stuck with their heads in their books and also seem to have limitless motivation towards what they are doing have their moments where they can't seem to get anything done either. I really wish it was easy for me as well, but maybe that just isn't how life is to me. I like to think that it is a test in some way to make me into a better person and all of these difficulties will be met with rewards later on in life.

Looking back on my life as well as forward, I see so many great things that have happened in my life that the instances of hardship are easier to deal with in the overabundance of love and compassion I am fortunate enough to have. Why am I writing this? I'm not really sure myself. I just sat down and started putting my thoughts down. I think I'm in a time right now where I just feel so pressured to get things done because I CERTAINLY am not staying here any longer than I have to and, in writing this, I am putting down many of the fears I have about school and the future.

Reading through what I have written, however, I realize that I am in a very good place in my life (both professionally and personally) and I look forward to what life brings me in the present and in the future.

Just checking in

2007-09-01T19:50:00.001-07:00

This post is meant for me to check in with all of my faithful readers out there, hopefully by now there are some. I knew this was going to happen when I started school up, but I will be posting whenever I get the time and the inclination to share my thoughts with the world. With my mind so preoccupied with school and my need to graduate at the end of the current school year, it has become very difficult for me to muster up the motivation to keep writing. I am keeping up with my schoolwork, but alas never quite enough. I still find myself slacking off from time to time, but I would be hard pressed to come up with any student who doesn't have this problem.

Nevertheless, I have a firm deadline for my second draft (Sep. 19th) from which I will embark upon the thesis itself. In addition to this, of course, I need to think ahead to what will happen after I graduate and work on my resume as well as look for different potential career paths. What I might do is still slightly up in the air, but I have at least come to the conclusion that I want to work in some computer-oriented career and I think that is a good place to start. Additionally, it is something that is needed in many places so I feel confident about it.

Well, until next time, everyone have a great late summer into fall. Hopefully, it isn't too long until I see some of you in person.

Happy Anniversary!!!

2007-08-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Six years ago today my life completely and irrevocably changed. I did not know this at the time, of course, but it is true. This was the day that Jessica and I started to date and, six years later, we are planning our wedding; ready to spend the rest of our lives together. Throughout these past six years, she has been my closest confidante and my best friend and I am truly gifted to be able to spend my life with her. Though we cannot be together on this momentous occasion, I know that our hearts are connected in a way that can span the distance that we are apart. As often as I think of her, I know that at least some of those times she is also thinking about me and I take great comfort in this knowledge.

On reflecting over the past six years, I am amazed at how long it seems and how short it seems at the same time. There are so many great memories that we have shared over these years, and it sometimes seems hardly possible that all of them could possibly be contained in only six years. Yet, I can remember our first date at Mentor Beach like it was yesterday. I know that's cliched a bit, but I honestly can remember it that well. I knew at that point that something special was beginning, I just didn't realize how special it was going to be.

Like any relationship, we have had our downs just as we have had our ups. We have always used our love for each other to work through these, and they have only served to strengthen our relationship even further. The result is that, six years after our initial date, we are so much stronger than we were then. This strength has made this forced separation so much easier to bear, knowing that we will be together again soon and then it will be for the rest of our lives.

Thank you, Jess, for always being there for me when I need your inspiration and love. I love you with all that I can muster, and I look forward to all of our years to come.

Reds win six in a row!!!

2007-08-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

Some may say that it is too late for the Reds to make a run at anything this year. They may be right, but keep this in mind: since Pete Mackanin took over on July first the reds are 27-19, which is the best during that time span of anyone in the National League Central. So, can the Reds make a comeback of historic proportions? As a long-time reds fan, for as long as I can remember, I believe it is possible.

With the first place Cubs having a record of 66-63 and the Brewers fading fast, it might just take a miracle for anyone to win a decisive victory in the Central. Someone needs to start taking control of this division, because it has been absolutely horrible the last few years. The Cardinals, who won the division last year, only had 83 wins!! Pretty much every other division in baseball at least has a 90 game winner take first place. So, with that said, I would love the Reds to take this opportunity to become the type of team that can do that.

Of course, with them 10 games under .500 with 30-some games to go, they would literally have to win all of their remaining games in order to get to 90. But if the other teams in the central start playing even a little worse than they already are, it might just be possible for them to make it into the playoffs. But lets be serious, I think we all realize that this is a most unlikely goal. However, it would be really nice for them to make a strong showing under their interim manager Pete Mackanin, who many think should inherit the full-time job once the season is over.

Regardless of what happens, I am much encouraged by what I have seen of late. The pitching is finally showing signs of life and the offense has been incredible of late. If they can keep this up, make a few good signings in the offseason, they just might be ready to revitalize this central division and give me the chance to see an all Ohio World Series!!!! Please, dear god, at least once in my life.

In the Midst of Horrors

2007-08-22T11:59:00.001-07:00

With all of the tragedies coming out of the middle East on a daily basis, I have recently come across a very human tragedy. CNN has reported that a 5-year-old was doused with flames and then lit on fire. Thankfully, he has survived. During a war where chaos is the norm and we become accustomed to people dying in the name of a cause, this still strikes a chord. Whether we believe in the cause is immaterial at this point. We are not, and I pray we never become so, accustomed to such brutality towards a child. They have no say in anything going on around them, and of all humans on the face of this earth they deserve to be kept out of world events that some have called the "End Times".

It is insane for me to think that anybody could do this, and even more insane that I would be less amazed if this had happened to an American child. I am sickened at myself slightly with what I have just written, but with the amount of negative attitudes in the world towards the United States I could at least come up with a reason. Not that there is any reason that this should ever happen, but this boy is a native youth and I cannot even in the depths of my soul find a reason why something like this would ever have been planned and executed.

With all of these insane things happening more and more often, I think it is important for us to all remember that we are all human. There are no layers of humanity, one is not better or worse than another. While morals and actions on an individual scale may cause conflicts, we are all inherently the same when looking at ourselves as a species. So I implore anyone who is reading this to make small efforts to make others lives better. I think the movie "Pay it Forward" had the right idea with its message of helping. You don't need to be awarded for your efforts, in fact that sometimes defeats the purpose. Just go out, all of you, and live your life to the fullest.

Review of "Perfume"

2007-08-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

"Perfume: The Story of a Murderer", based off of a best-seller written by Patrick Suskind, was a very strange movie. I'm not sure that I could really say that it was bad as far as movies go. I could definitely tell the care that went into the acting and the cinematography, and there are a couple of well-known actors who are in this movie: Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman. However, there were many times where the aberrant behavior (as the ratings disclaimer claimed) was just a little too much for me.

Part psychotic killer, part soft-core pornography, and part strange. As such, "Perfume" is just too difficult to really nail down and put into one specific genre. The story, as far as it goes, revolves around a young man born into squalid surroundings in eighteenth century Paris who just so happens to have the best nose in the world (or at least in London). This is claimed by the protagonist himself at one point in the movie. The psychotic, and rather innocently naive, tendencies soon begin to manifest as he is determined to duplicate every single smell in the entire world and he begins to take scents of young women, which unfortunately for them resolves in their deaths. I can't give much more away without spoiling parts of the movie that might not be immediately obvious from the title or the description on the back of the dvd.

Suffice it to say, this movie is neither horrible or great. It is an experience in and of itself, and for that I cannot say that I regret watching the movie. Indeed, I do seem to keep going back to the movie trying to make sense of it. It is not traditional storytelling at all and as such may be difficult for most to stomach. Additionally, I can imagine that many people would become uncomfortable with the blatant sexuality in evidence throughout the movie. If you are looking for a deeper movie than most at your local video store, then I would recommend this. If anything, you should be talking about it with anyone you watch it with.

Michael Vick plea bargain

2007-08-20T13:58:00.001-07:00

There can be little doubt in most people's minds now about Michael Vick's guilt. The charges, which have been pled down to felony conspiracy, deal with dogfighting rings that he paid for and took an active interest in. According to CNN, the defense in the case is reporting that he has taken a plea agreement for the aforementioned charge. This plea severely jeopardizes his career, and includes possible jail time. It seems obvious in my mind that Vick saw what was coming and did the only thing he could do. I doubt very much that his supposedly heartfelt statements claiming how sorry he was for what had occurred were in any way genuine. For someone to even be a part of this type of cruelty, they must have a morally bereft soul. Thankfully, with this ring largely put out of operation, dogs that might have been a part of this may live.

Unfortunately, just because this ring was put out of commission doesn't mean that the problem at large is any closer to going away. Here are some links that provide further information about the world of dogfighting and the Michael Vick case in General.

Michael Vick

S ource: Vick a 'heavyweight in dogfighting.
Falcons' Vick Indicted in Dogfighting Case
Pet-Abuse.Com - Animal Abuse Case Details (very thorough source)

Dog-Fighting
Dog-Fighting (Wikipedia) many links

Dog-Fighting Fact Sheet
Dogfighting

All moved in and ready to go (Almost)

2007-08-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I am finally established back down into my apartment in Las Cruces. School starts on Wednesday, but I am going to be getting into a rhythm starting today so that this coming semester goes off without a hitch and I get a great deal of work done before coming back between semesters for Christmas. The first thing I decided to do was to get my room to a point that is, I like to think anyway, close to the level of cleanliness that I have enjoyed at Jess's apartment over the past seven weeks. She would be glad to know, I'm sure, that I came home last night and basically shuddered at the state of my room and the apartment as a whole.

I intend to slowly clean the rooms because I have found that the less anxious I am the better work I do. I suppose this is an obvious thing, but its true just the same. I hope that I can make sure to keep everything tidy throughout the school year and that it will look the same at the end of the semester as it does now!! Well, I'm off to continue cleaning (or playing games) and get myself mentally prepared for a semester that may prove to be the most trying yet.

Preview of what is to come

2007-08-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

Today is my final day staying in Columbus for the summer. It has been a great time. I have done much over the past seven weeks, and I will be sad to see this time with Jess go. Hopefully, this next year will go by fast and I will be back with her and planning our wedding soon enough. Hopefully with a job that pays in the vicinity of 60k (heheh). I don't really have much to say in this post, but I want to say that I will most likely not post either as many times or with such duration as I have since the genesis of this blog.

That was a time spent trying to understand myself as a blogger in this new cyber age. I think that I have had decent postings, but I know it has been very random, though that is in keeping with the name of the blog itself. I will keep posting, but about what and how frequently will be up in the air. I will take anything you have to say with equal measure and attempt to tailor to what you want. Well, have a great work year or school year, and remember what your Uncle Billy says, "Don't buy drugs...... Get famous, and they give them to you for free!!" (Love Actually) Just a joke, drugs are bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Haunted Man

2007-08-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

The man sitting in the plush armchair was haunted. This kind of haunting was not one of a ghostly incorporeal nature. Memories haunted this man and held him in a vise-grip from which he cannot break free. He sat quite still in his daughter’s room, looking with fondness and a bit of wry sadness at her beautiful hair and delicate features. So much like her, he thought. He is thinking of his ex-wife and ex-lover, a woman who stole his heart long ago and has never let go.

The haunting began years ago, when his wife began to show the first symptoms of her disease. They had told him that the disease was incurable and mental. They were the doctors, and he thought that they were full of shit. He had often had dreams about these doctors and the things he did to them were not for the likes of pleasant company. His incurable romanticism had as much of a grasp on him as his wife had on his heart. There was nothing that could ever tear them apart. Theirs love was eternity, and their eternity was love.

The trips to the hospital became more frequent as the years went by, and his desperation rose like mercury in an old thermometer as she would yell at him at the slightest provocation. His love for her reduced all of her hateful and spiteful ranting into willowy shades of what they really were, and it was all those dimly remembered fights that haunted him still. I should have known and I should have done something, he thought for the thousandth time. He was angry with himself, and something of this anger was evident in his grim visage as he watched the only remnants of his once dynamic relationship.

His daughter’s soft sigh broke his reverie. He looked at her as a new person each time he saw her. He found this to be a necessary exercise in mental discipline, and allowed him to separate his feelings for his daughter and his ex-wife. It was becoming harder as the years went on. Young Kayleigh began to resemble her mother more and more, her eight year old frame only starting to look like her mother. The man in the armchair was not sure whether this was reality or his mind conjuring up visions. Since the mind is king, he supposed it really didn’t matter.

A small noise drew his attention away from Kayleigh. The noise was so slight that he was sure he hadn’t heard it at all, but it was repeated with a hurried intensity a moment later.

The house was old, and it came with all of the usual problems associated with houses past a hundred years. He and his wife had bought it on a whim during their wonder years and had planned to put some good hard work into it and then sell it for a shitload more than they had paid. Those plans were upset by the untimely, yet not unwanted, birth of their son Frederick. Unlike the ancient house, Frederick didn’t last very long at all. The early death of their firstborn had only hastened his wife’s mental deterioration even further.

Something about this noise that he was now hearing made him pause before proceeding down the stairs to its source. He was afraid. His feelings were that simple and he was completely unsure as to its genesis. It was wrong and he could feel it in his bones. However, as any aficionado of creeper movies is aware, the things that go bump in the night are almost seductive in their very nature and impossible to avoid. Besides, this was his own house on a quiet street in a quiet neighborhood. Were anything to happen, he was assured that his very helpful neighbors would be out en masse to help.

The noise coming from downstairs began to sound like the ticking of an old style grandfather clock. His mind’s eye conjured up a menacing figure of a grandfather clock on the prowl and he began to have serious doubts about his own sanity. No more creeping, goddamnit. This is fucking ridiculous, he thought. He flipped on the switch and saw an empty hallway with bright yellow wallpaper. His wife would be furious at him if she knew how much he wanted to tear down that ridiculous wallpaper. He pounded his head in frustration, attempting to stop himself from thinking about her and the past. The pain brought him swiftly back to his senses.

After going halfway down the old stairs, he noticed that the noise had stopped its slow cadence. For some inestimable reason, this scared him more than the noise had in the first place and he almost lost his will and fled back to the relative safety of his daughter’s room.

“All right, this is ridiculous,” he said. “There is no one here and you know it. You are getting way too addled in your old age.” He said all of this out loud to himself, a habit he had picked up since his wife’s departure. He wasn’t loud enough to wake up his daughter, and there was something comforting in the small reverberations issuing forth from the empty house. He reached the bottom of the flight of stairs and turned into the living room. With a slight tremble in his hand, he flicked the lights on. He stopped dead in his tracks with a look of sheer horror on his face.

“Hello Gerald. It has been such a long time.”

The next few moments would never escape the narrowed confines of Gerald’s memories. She moved with a grace that he remembered so well from their many happy nights together. This time, however, she was not the same woman who had caressed his face with obvious love and attention. This creature was like something transformed. She briefly reminded him of the harpies that he had read about so many years before in High School.

He just barely managed to escape her talon-like clutches as she attempted to wrap her long fingers around his neck. In her heightened state of delusion she posed a threat to him. In normal times, her small frame and delicate features would not have stood a chance against his husky lumberjack frame. These times were far from ordinary, and he knew that he needed to think fast to avoid her attacks even as he was attempting to save her. He knew his first priority was his daughter and he was determined to keep her safe no matter the reason.

“I know you blame me for his death,” he said. He was casting for anything that might tap into the woman he remembered, and the event that had started her spiral was the best he could think of. Her hands were still reaching for his throat, but he believed that he felt a small diminution in her forward advances.

“I blame myself more than you could ever know. He was the world to me…. to us! What happened was unavoidable. You were a great mother to Frederick and you can be a great mother to Kayleigh.”

She had heard all of this before. Perhaps it was the proximity of her only daughter in the room upstairs or the man she had loved at arms length, but for once she seemed to take it to heart. He was not fooled. He had seen her relapse so often during her days at the treatment hospital that he had long ago stopped believing what she said. The love was still there, but that was all that remained. Most of that love was for the memories they had together.

“Gerald?”, she asked. “Is that really you, or is this another trick by the doctors?” He knew she was referring to the various techniques that her caretakers had employed to attempt to help her. Attempt being the optimum word. Nothing that they had every tried had achieved more than a modicum of success. Her mental break had seemed total and irreversible. She seemed to be having a small moment of clarity at this time, and he saw this and he hoped that it might be enough to talk her down and get her back to those who could help her.

“Honey,” he spoke, attempting to speak as if they were still married. In his confused mind, he believed that this would make it easier. “Do you know where you are?”

“This is our house, silly? Don’t you think I know where we live?” she spoke. Though her voice remained passive and even friendly, her physical reactions still bespoke the physical aggression that she had started this conversation with. He knew that the inevitable downswing may be only moments away.

“Of course I know that.” He was finding it difficult to keep his voice from wavering. “I was just joking with you. Now, why don’t you sit down over here and we can talk.”

She glanced towards the sofa briefly, but it was all the time that Gerald needed. He rushed forward and knocked her to the ground. The off-white hospital gown that she had been wearing when she had managed her escape rode up on her and exposed white panties. Something else was evident, however, and it made him pause. Soft bruises were evident around her waist. They looked purple in the bright light of the room, and he thought they looked self-inflicted. This latest revelation was too much for him, and he concentrated on subduing her. This proved difficult as she was now bucking up and down and Gerald had a fleeting image of himself on a mechanical bull. He saw no humor in this. Only sadness.

He did the only thing he could think and he hit her, hard, on the back of the head. He didn’t think this was the appropriate time for restraint. As a former boxer, he knew how to deliver a knockout and this time was no different. She stopped moving altogether, and he was able to turn her over and look at her face. He checked to make sure she was breathing, and then he tied her hands and feet with some rope that he had hanging up by the back door. It wasn’t the tightest knot he could make but it was sufficient to do the job.

He called the emergency hotline and then the police. He double checked his wife’s restraints. Then he rushed up to his daughter’s side to make sure she was alright and had not been too scared by the brief altercation. He reached her door and looked into her room. She was still there. His heart stopped beating as fast and he took a moment to compose himself before he went into the room and woke her up. He was always truthful with his daughter, and this time was no different.

“Hey honey, wake up,” he said.

“Daddy? Its dark still. Is school starting?”, she asked with innocent, wild eyes.

“No honey. It’s still the summer, but I need to tell you something. Your mother is here, but before I let you come and see her you need to know that we both love you very much. ... You know that your mother is not well, right?”

“Yeah.”, she managed. She had begun to sit up in bed and her eyes went curiously towards the stairwell. Quiet, gentle sobs were coming up from the first floor. They had an edge of hysteria to them but had failed to reach that far.

“Some people are coming to take her back so she can get help, but I’ll let you see her if you want. Only if you want to, its completely up to you." He left the question unanswered.

She didn’t answer for several moments, and Gerald could see that her eyes kept darting up to the ceiling then out towards the stairwell. This classic sign of memory made him think that she was trying to remember her mother. She had been five when the break had finally occurred, and he knew that those memories were dim at best. When she did answer, it came in the form of a gesture. She moved her head from side to side slowly as though the decision was difficult for her to make.

“I’m afraid.”

This simple answer from his beautiful daughter made the emotions that he had been feeling bubble up to the surface, and he began to weep. His daughter looked up with watery eyes of her own, though these may have been caused by her sleepiness, and she buried her head in his chest and wrapped her arms around his broad frame. They couldn’t quite reach, but at that moment they were all that was keeping him grounded.

The sound of approaching sirens brought him back to the present, and he gazed down at his daughter once again. Her eyelids were beginning to droop, in danger of closing completely, and he smiled. He knew then that whatever was to happen tonight with his wife and the police, everything would be surmountable as long as he had his daughter by his side.

“Go to bed then, my angel.” She giggled when he called her angel, then drifted back off to sleep.

“Sweet dreams,” he whispered. He stayed for one more silent moment. Then, with heavy steps, he began to walk back down to his ex-wife and the questions that the policeman would have as well as the doctors. For now, however, he believed that her haunting of him had come to an end. He would be content to be there for her as she continued on in her treatments, but he knew now that his true place would be right there in that rickety old house with a daughter he loved and cherished. His last thought was one of joy and jubilation despite the mess that awaited him downstairs.

Michael Vick: the Public has Spoken

2007-08-15T12:33:00.000-07:00

Michael Vick has, allegedly, been keeping dogs for the sole purpose of sicking them on each other. Shades of gladiators from the past, this offense is somehow worse in many people's minds than harm or death to fellow humans. Maybe it is because people regard animals as simple creatures with very little if any of the freewill that we take for granted. If Michael Vick were accused of murdering a fellow human being, I believe most people would just shake their heads in disgust and go about on their merry paths. For some reason, however, the fury from many people both in and out of the limelight is quiet a strange reaction overall.

Some people point to Mr. Vick's race and say that he is being treated unfairly simply because he is a black man, but I really do not see this as a viable reason as to why people are seeming to gang up on him. In fact, I would have assumed that his status as a black athlete at the top of his game would have given him several more advantages than others who are at his same societal position. With people often afraid of that race card being pulled, I expected that he would have been given leeway as a black celebrity. However, based on the severity of his alleged crime, people are just so disgusted that they want to see justice for all of those dogs who had been so severely mistreated.

From what I have previously written, I know my bias is abundantly clear. I would like to say, however, that I am writing this intentionally from what I have heard within the public realm. I have not pored over the evidence or been able to look over court transcripts because the trial has not yet started. Innocence or guilt is not what I am specifically interested in, and if he turns out to be innocent then I offer my apologies, but it is the public reactions that I am much more interested in. Unfortunately, regardless of the verdict issued forth with the upcoming trial, the public has spoken which speaks of a possible lifetime grudge against Michael Vick and all he does. We have seen this before with O.J. Simpson, who very few believe is actually innocent of the murder of his late wife. It really is an interesting subject, I think.

The Nature of My Insomnia

2007-08-14T21:01:00.001-07:00

To be unable to sleep is perhaps one of the most disquieting things that can happen to anyone. I lay in bed, just trying to keep my eyes closed for more than a millisecond just to suddenly realize that I am staring at the dark ceiling and that I have been now for several minutes. For me, it is the incessant chatter that is going on in my brain all the time, but most especially at that time when normality says we are supposed to be shutting down all but the autonomic functions and entering REM state and that wonderful phenomenon known as dreams. Now, I don't mean this in a psychologically distressing way (I do not suffer from Schizophrenia), but in the sense that I am contemplating one thing or another.

I remember when I was a kid this kind of night time seclusion was a safe haven for me and a place that I could go to escape many of the normal adolescent woes that have plagued humanity for time on end. Unlike my fiancee, I have never had the ability to go to sleep at the proverbial drop of a hat. Instead of drifting blissfully off to sleep, I think about one or more of thousands of different topics. I think you can get the idea of just how crowded it can get at times; sometimes I think in detail about books I've read and what may have happened after the last page, or I think about world problems and how I am impacted on a daily basis, or I think about a story that I am considering and how best to turn the storyline, or I quite simply think about the future that Jess and I have in store for us.

The point of all this rambling is that all of this is going on in my mind which makes it very difficult for me to get to that level of personal comfort necessary for my mind to enter the sweet oblivion of rejuvenating sleep. On a sidenote, the fact that I am continually sore these days from excessive use of the Wii (!) is definitely not helping. Additionally, the fact that I will soon be leaving Jess for New Mexico is weighing heavily on my soul and, even though we both know how necessary this degree is for my future, I find myself wishing that it was next year at this time so that we could, finally, start our life together and really start planning our wedding.

Unlike many people, I am sometimes more comfortable wallowing in my own personal reveries than spending too much time with other people in idle banter and conversation. The unfortunate downside to this is that my mind is constantly in overdrive. I pray that with school comes a kind of scheduling that will allow me to go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time day in and day out. After a few weeks I should be getting to sleep with very little difficulty.

The Baseball Journey: A Friendly Game of Toss

2007-08-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

The baseball traveled through the air in its familiar low arc, and it began to wonder about the meaning behind its rather small existence. These two had been throwing it back and forth for the last half hour, trying with little success to convince themselves that they belonged in the major leagues. The baseball chuckled at the thought as it went pounding into the small one's thick leather glove at a measly 68 miles per hour!! You call that a fastball?, it thought as the big one bellowed a yell of approval.

"How fast do you actually think that was, I mean really. It certainly wasn't 98, but I'm sure it had to at least be in the low 80s!!", said the big one with an air of smug contentness and a stolid belief in his personal abilities. This made the baseball cackle even more violently as the small one managed to miss an incredibly poor attempt at a knuckleball, despite the pressure of the small one's fingernails digging into its skin, and went skipping over the lush grass before coming to a rest under a line of small evergreens at the side of a small, rather squat ranch house.

It was still sitting there 3 minutes later after the big one forced the little one to run after it because he certainly wasn't going to run after it. The baseball could have cared less, really, for it was content to have a small respite from the cycle that these two insisted on having every time they managed to get together. Still, since it had been stowed away for the last several months in a dank old box with naught but the odd creature or two to keep it company it was quite glad that it had finally been allowed to enjoy nature in all of its strange complexities.

"Man, my arm is completely dead!", said the big one while throwing the ball back to the small one in a high descending arc which allowed the baseball to bask in the warmth of the sun as it went slightly above the canopy of the great oak tree. This really puts it all in perspective, it thought as it crashed down through several layers of leaves and branches into the outstretched glove of the small one. The baseball felt the glove curved around it and it resigned itself to the fact that it was about to be stowed away once again. The small one pulled the glove off of his hand and stuck it, baseball and all, underneath his armpit. Ewwwww.

The two walked slowly and with matching swagger as they both applauded their ineptitudes, or so the baseball believed. If you were good enough for the majors, maybe I'd at least get to travel to one of those great ballparks you two speak about all the time, it thought with a trace of a disgruntled tone. The baseball mitt was thrown into a large plastic bin, passing through a thin layer of webbing that had until very recently covered the majority of the baseball's home (!).

"Hey dude, you wanna go to the beach tomorrow?", the big one asked just prior to slamming the door shut on the suddenly lonely baseball. Well, I would certainly like it, thought the baseball as it sat in the glove unable to do much of anything but reflect on its own inadequacies.

The Utah Mine Collapse: was it necessary?

2007-08-12T18:39:00.000-07:00

I want to preface this post by A) commemorating it to all of the miners trapped in the coal-mine in Utah and B) acknowledging that I know virtually nothing about the logistics behind mining coal in this day and age. I would not like this to thought of as an attack on those who endanger their lives every day mining a substance that many, like myself, rarely even realize is still in every day use.

I witnessed a train passing bye with several beds full of black coal, and I innocently asked Jess if people really even used coal. I said this out of a belief that humanity had realized that this fossil fuel was a rapidly declining resource and had been able to all but dissolve its use. Thinking back, I realize just how naive it is to think this as I spend day in and out in buildings that have may very well be using coal in some capacity. My question is this: Why are we still reliant on a rapidly dwindling source of fuel, and if we still need it why are we endangering people's lives in its procurement?

The technology of today is so far advanced beyond that of a hundred years ago, where many of the horror stories about working in coal mines seem to come from, that I wonder how many of these same horror stories could possibly still exist. Is there no way to avoid the need to send men down into the mines, inhaling coal dust day in and out, and hacking at the cold stone for a wage that I am sure is not enough? It just seems to me that there should be technology out there that should make this unnecessary. It is my hope that the lives endangered in Utah and everywhere that coal mines exist could be made unnecessary if more effort were put into the development of safer methods to extract coal. Or, and this is a radical theory I know, effort could be expended to develop ulterior methods of energy!!!!

Art vs. Gameplay

2007-08-12T18:36:00.001-07:00

Video games as an industry is really quite young in the grand scheme of things. We sometimes forget this as the next big thing in video games always seems just over the horizon. Indeed, visions of holodecks and holosuites is not just the fevered dream of Trekkies all over the world any longer. Now that may be many years off in the future, but the fact remains that video games today are getting so ultrarealistic that some people are developing headaches simply because their brain is trying to tell them that what they are seeing simply cannot be that realistic. With this realism, however, has seen in many a knockoff game after another a gradual decline in the amount of attention paid to the real reason people play video games: gameplay.

From my earliest memories of video games, I remember the puzzles being challenging enough and the gameplay being really fun to play around with. One shining example is the first Super Mario Bros. game where there was a general dearth of story, just a save the princess scenario, but that game is still played in earnest by many people all over the world because of its incredibly satisfying gameplay. With today's games I fear that much of this has been lost in favor of the more sensational high-powered graphics seen in the majority of today's games. A synthesis of the two is needed to really create the best possibly video game.

Retro Studios, the developers of the excellent Metroid Prime trilogy have managed as near as possible to combine both into three extraordinary games. Though I have not played the third game, its Wii-oriented control scheme is sure to delight many a fan. Many games rely almost solely on the storyline and cutscenes, with the gameplay seemingly thrown in at the last second; but only after every shaded nuance of the cut-scenes has been seen too. As one might expect, this leads to extremely jarring transitions between the cutscenes and the gameplay. With the Metroid series, I rarely find myself taken out of the moment.

Whether it is through spot-on sound, atmospheric environments, or intriguing and well-designed gameplay elements, Metroid's ventures are a treat to play through time and time again. If only Nintendo would realize what a treasure trove it has in this series and publicize it accordingly, then they would indeed have a great system-seller on their hands but I am afraid that this Metroid installment may fade before it is even allowed to shine simply because people don't have enough knowledge of its brilliance.

Preview of "Too Human"

2007-08-09T11:32:00.000-07:00

I have been a fan of Silicon Knights ever since they put out one of the greatest games of all time: Eternal Darkness. As a warmup to talking about Too Human, I want to briefly discuss the merits of Eternal Darkness and what it says about the commitment of Silicon Knights to transcending the art of video games to a new level. Eternal Darkness may have had some small problems, but I was so attuned to the storyline and the visceral images being presented that I found myself not caring about any small clipping problems or frame-rate dips. The game was positively oozing with subtleties, especially with the incredibly innovative insanity effects. With as much care as was evidenced with that game, I have been positively drooling over the possibilities of Too Human.

Those possibilities have been displayed of late by all of the screen shots and videos that have been available on the various gaming sites as well as the homesite of Silicon Knights. Additionally, they have shown through their blog their desire to let their true fans and even those who are not initially fans in on their philosophies about game design as well as the latest news on Too Human. I truly admire this, because I have never known of a game designer to truly care as much about the opinions of their fans as Silicon Knights. They are truly a fans' company.

Too Human is a game that takes a new take on Norse Mythology, an oft overlooked religion of our past ancestors. As an anthropologist, I am inherently intrigued by the care and attention that they have been evincing surrounding the intricacies of this ancient mythology. It is nice to see them branching out and attempting to educate many of their players about that long-ago culture instead of taking the easy route and taking a mythology that is "easy" and known by the majority of people: such as the ancient Egyptians. Now, I realize that their reimagining of the Norse mythology is adding several fictional components by making them, instead of gods, a highly technological society where it is the technology that makes they "like gods". However, simply by telling a story and allowing the background research to fill out the universe that they are recreating, players will be hard-pressed not to learn something. After all, in this particular medium it is not necessary for Silicon Knights to actively teach us about this universe because we will be experiencing it.

As a video game junkie, I am ecstatic about both the look and the feel of the game. The look is, quite simply, absolutely amazing, and I can imagine that while playing it I might just wander around aimlessly looking at the surroundings. Here we come to the hard part to define, because I have not personally had the chance to play any portion of the game. All I have are impressions of others, which have been very good so far. The actual gameplay seems to be an RPG hybrid of sorts, where it is very action-oriented but with very many branching possibilities on upgrading skills and talents. I'm not sure at this point whether anyone but Silicon Knights is truly aware of just how deep this system might go, but from several hints that I have read I get the impression that it is deeper than most games out there on the market today.

I have a plea to Silicon Knights: Please don't make us wait forever for the game though if it helps to make the game better than even I can imagine I can most certainly wait.

The nature of boredom

2007-08-09T09:19:00.000-07:00

Ironically, I am writing this posting on a subject that has in some ways kept me from writing till now. I woke up this morning in one of those strange funks that effects even the most motivated individual from time to time. Whether in response to sleeping awkwardly or some other factor, I do in many ways feel like I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. This is, of course, ridiculous, as there is no right or wrong side of the bed. However, this feeling of boredom is a very strange feeling indeed because it oftentimes keeps you from doing something that would help to alleviate this boredom in some way.

I believe I am correct in saying that these feelings are pretty common amongst people today. Perhaps it has something to do with the fast-paced lives that many of us live. I have had my thesis proposal looming over my head for the majority of the summer vacation, and the fact that I kept prolonging it also kept it at the forefront of my mind. Now, since I have officially finished the first draft, and put it in the hands of my adviser until school starts again, I find myself with no heading and nothing that needs to be done. Somehow, the fact that in this modern-day we have so many things that we can do, that are right at our fingertips, ultimately means that the very decision of what to do out of all these options is one of the hardest to make.

If I decide to do one thing, then something else that might be as much or more fun would be left out of the equations. I might regret doing one thing over another, and then where would I be? This all seems so trivial in a world where people are dying by the thousands, and wars are being fought in the hundreds, but there you are! However, none of that really enters your mind when you are slumped on the couch watching a rerun of one crappy courtroom show after another. It is only when you force yourself to do something that you find yourself slowly and inexorably crawling out of your previous feelings.

Only then will you finally see how ridiculous your feelings were, and realize that there is something worth doing, especially these days. Rewatch a favorite movie and rediscover why you loved it so much in the first place. Put down your feelings in a conveniently timed blog posting for the world to see!! Or, and this is a real hard one, go outside and take a walk and rediscover the beauty that nature has to offer. The point is, make yourself do something and you will slowly discover that you are feeling less and less bored and more and more connected to the rest of the world

Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton

2007-08-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

I would never state that I am very politically-minded, indeed I essentially vote strictly along party lines, that is, democratic party lines. However, in the spirit of miscellany, I will post political news from time to time. CNN has reported that a recent gallup poll has shown that Senator Clinton's lead over Barack Obama and John Edwards has increased by 8 points over both. This puts her at 22 points above Obama and 36 points above Edwards. I think it goes without saying that this was going to be far different than any presidential race in the past. For the first time in history, there is a legitimate shot for either a woman or a black man to attain the coveted seat of President of the United States of America!!

To be perfectly honest, I would be happy in many regards for either to gain this appointment. I wonder, however, how much of the general public is ready for either a woman or a black man to be president. I hope to God that I am wrong, but I wonder how many people might vote for the Republican candidate simply out of a desire to keep a white male in power in this country. My only concern is that someone who I can trust to lead this country in these post 9-11 days be sworn in as President, and I believe that either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton has the ability and the drive. Barack Obama even seems to have the charisma that was so everpresent with Bill Clinton and is so dismally lacking in George W. Bush, but Hillary Clinton has all of the political ties that having Bill Clinton as the First Husband (!) would afford her. It really is a toss-up.

I'm not even going to pretend that I know much, if anything, about the Republican candidates because, as I have stated previously, I will vote straight up and down party lines. Perhaps not the most efficacious manner of achieving something, but there you have it.

Baseball has a new homerun king!!!

2007-08-08T05:34:00.000-07:00

Barry Bonds has entered the record books amidst a swirl of media attention and criticism from every angle of the game: reporters, fans, and fellow players. Tuesday night, during a game with the nationals, it has been reported that he has hit his 756th career homerun off of Washington Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik. For Mr. Bacsik, this is certainly an ignominious entrance into the history books for him, but since he is only one in a long list of pitchers to surrender a homerun to Barry he should certainly not feel ashamed.

I remarked on a previous posting that I was unsure about how the fans of the game will look towards this historic occasion for the game, given the entire steroids controversy. After seeing the replay of the homerun, I am a little less unsure. Although, since it was hit at San Francisco I would assume the fans would be happy, but I defy anyone who calls themselves baseball fans not to get just a little emotional while seeing the homerun that broke a 33-year-old record.

Reds playing (somewhat) better!

2007-08-08T05:02:00.001-07:00

It took damn near the entire season for the Reds to show signs that they are a professional caliber baseball team. The starting pitching over the last week and a half has shown signs of resurgence, with Aaron Harang battling through his early season woes where he was giving up 5 or more runs in entirely too many games to perform at the level you would expect from a number 1 starter!! At one point, early in the season, I recall that his ERA was over 5 at least a month into the season, and now his stats read like this: a record of 10 - 3, an ERA of 3.54, and a WHIP of 1.19. As a small baseball primer, ERA stands for earned run average and WHIP stands for walks + hits per nine innings pitched.

Since the all-star break, the Reds are 16-12 which is much better than they had been playing all season. Now, all this may just be my way of finagling the stats to make me feel better about a team that is so grossly underplaying their potential that I adopted a defeatist viewpoint long ago. Lately, however, it does seem that the pitching has tightened up and the offense is no worse than any other team really and suffers the usual amount of bad games. The last game played is a case in point.

They played the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team that is certainly far better off than the reds and in playoff contention, and Bronson Arroyo pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings! Perhaps the even greater feat is that the bullpen did not then immediately surrender the 4-0 lead the Reds had built up to that point. Though this has me high spirited about a team I know will not make the playoffs, something else has me scratching my head at the apparent defeatist attitude of the reds themselves.

A fellow blogger has reported that Jon Coutlangus (4-1, 3.93 ERA) has been optioned to the AAA farm team, while Todd Coffey (2-1, 6.04 ERA) has been allowed to remain on the team despite being sent down to Louisville earlier in the year. I confess that there may be more legitimate reasons behind this move than I am aware of, but all Cincinnati Reds fans should be scratching their collective heads about this.

The Peculiarities of Amnesia

2007-08-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

I have been sent a link to a news article from Spiegel Online International about a man with no short-term memory. This topic, which has been explored in various different ways in the movies "Memento" and "50 First Dates", is a very real phenomena indeed. Amnesia, as defined by dictionary.com, indicates the loss of a large block of interrelated memories as well as a complete or partial loss of memory caused by brain injury, shock, etc.. Anyone who has ever seen a daytime soap opera is, I believe, very aware of what an amnesiac is supposed to go through while coping with large losses of memory. Unlike these soap operas, Mr. Clive Wearing out of Britain is not suppressing a serial killer visage or that he is his own evil stepson!

According to the article, Mr. Wearing used to be a music producer for the BBC as well as choirmaster for the London Sinfonietta ensemble, but for the past 20 years he continuously comes out of a fog feeling that he has been unconscious but never knowing quite how long. It is difficult for people to imagine this because our memory is so incredibly integral to everything we do in this world. Just imagine it for a second: you wake up one morning and have no idea of anything. You get out of bed, because you can still seemingly figure out your motor reflexes, but after that, what? What do you do? I could conceivably go on and on and on about this because the possibilities are quite literally endless, but I think you get the idea.

I do not hold a degree in neuro-science, so I cannot speculate here on the nature and proclivities of amnesiacs. The following links should explain more than I ever could about Amnesia and its effects.

Wikipedia
Amnesia and Memory Loss
Neuropsychological Generation of Source Amnesia: An Episodic Memory Disorder of the Frontal Brain

Price drop on Xbox 360

2007-08-07T11:29:00.000-07:00

I have just been informed, via IGN, that Microsoft has finally lowered the price of their XBOX 360 hardware. The Premium Unit, which had previously retailed for $399.99, will be lowered by $50 dollars in anticipation of Halo 3 in September. I suppose the thought is that more people would pick up systems and the game for the same price as they would have paid for the system alone. While I appreciate the gesture, it seems a bit condescending for the average gamer out there to say that this will really even matter for a system known to appease hard-core gamers.

Now if the Wii, a system not appealing strictly to the hard-core gamer, were to do something like this I would say it was a great idea and just might sway an otherwise stubborn parent to budge and purchase the system. But for Microsoft to do it, I would say they would have to make it more worth our while than a $50 dollar price drop. Add in another wireless controller and we would have a bundle worth purchasing, because who is going to want to play Halo by themselves. The vast majority of gamers who buy this game will be doing it for the sole purpose of playing via xbox live and showing the world just how superior they really are (or aren't).

To reiterate, I feel the price drop is a nice sentiment, but when you are paying over 300 dollars for a system alone (without the benefit of either two controllers or a game!!) is 50 dollars really gonna make a huge difference? However, with games coming out such as Mass Effect and Too Human (of which I am eagerly awaiting), I do enjoy the fact that the system is less money because I will then feel better about the possibility of purchasing just one more game.

Update: Mere moments after I post this last news article, IGN has just announced that Microsoft has cut the price of the xbox 360 by $100 dollars in Canada! If this would have been the cut here in the states I might have hummed a different tune, because 100 is certainly more desirable than a cut of 50. With that much of a cut, buying a second controller to play Halo would not be a problem. Why, O mighty Bill Gates, is Canada being treated thusly? Are we richer in general, or just already suckered in by his charms and guile? I don't know, but I just hope that this reaches this land of freedom that we live in!

A night in my head

2007-08-07T00:03:00.000-07:00

Despite what the timestamp might say under this post, it is 3:04 in the morning when I am writing this. I have always been amazed how the mind can work in the wee hours of the morning. Is it through a need to complete what must be completed, or is the mind truly just more available to pick from? I am of two minds (pun definitely intended) about this particular subject, as I am one of those students who thrives on the all-nighters when a paper is due the next day. Upon reviewing the portions of papers that I have written at the latest portions of all-nighters I am amazed at how sloppily written they can sometimes be, but yet can be among the most intellectually stimulating portions of the papers.

Though I do not claim to have any training in philosophy, I feel this is ultimately a philosophy question over a biological one. Of course, it could be that I have no education into the biology of the brain that I make these claims. Undaunted, however, I will continue with my philosophical musings (as per the title). I truly believe that it is late at night when all of the ideas that are floating around in my brain make desperate attempts to coalesce into coherent thoughts if only so they can settle down into the blissful respite of a good nights sleep. I find it interesting also that I have just completely anthropomorphized completely abstract ideals, and wonder what that might say about me (but that is most likely fodder for a later post).

Many people find me a little crazy for actually planning and scheduling for all-nighters, and going about it with a kind of gleeful abandon. Indeed, I begin this by usually purchasing a 12-pack (or in extreme cases, a 24-pack!!!) of my favorite drink Mountain Dew. Even though I seriously doubt that this high-sugar and high-caffeine drink has much effect on my anymore, it seems to do the job mentally for me if not physically. The next task for me, once I have settled down, is to crack my back about 7 or 8 times (just make myself loosy-goosy) and then, instead of starting on my paper, I spend the next half hour or so checking my email and facebook and just staring at the screen as if I am going to win some blinking contest again my unblinking screen.

I definitely didn't say that my thoughts coalesced immediately, and I am more than happy to while half the night away watching tv or catching up on inane internet banter in search of those couple of hours in an all-nighter where I get down to business and pour my suddenly cogent thoughts into my paper and suddenly I find that I am done. It is always this way with me, and the suddenness with which I decide that I am done hits me like a jackhammer at times and I feel that I am waiting for my consciousness to catch up with my inspired fingers. After this, just to placate my word-counting self, I run the spell-check on Microsoft Word and am pleased to find that my writing level is inexplicably at a level of 17.5!!! (After checking with others, I have found that my version of Word has some bug that allows it to go higher than grade 12, but I enjoy the ego boost provided by writing at such a high level.)

It is at this point that I suppose most normal people would go to bed, but since I have always had a bit of a sleeping problem I find that I am still in most cases completely awake and in no mood to say hello to the old Sandman. So, at this point I am generally content to do more inanity on the internet and read stories I've already read and watch videos I've already seen. After a little more time spent doing this I seem to catch up with myself and am suddenly almost too tired to drag my stiffening body to my bed, but I persevere!! It is at this point that I usually lay my paper squarely in the hands of the grading gods because there is no way I am waking up early enough before class to actually doing any more corrections.

Review of "Sunshine"

2007-08-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

This movie, directed by Danny Boyle, is a very striking example of story-telling. At times during this movie, I was suddenly made aware that I had been holding my breath and that my heart was beating at thousands of beat a second!! (A bit of an exaggeration here, but you get the idea) When Jess and I went to go see it, all we knew was that it was some kind of a space movie. Even the online summary, which includes something about insanity in the depths of space fails to do this movie any justice at all. I've never written a movie review before, so I hope I can avoid any spoilers as I hate it tremendously these days when reviews and previews of movies seem to give away half of what happens.

Editing is really the name of the game when it comes to just exactly how this movie so viscerally effects its audience. From specific audio cues, or lack thereof, to the musical cues which in this movie are so slight that I sometimes forgot that there was really any background music to speak of. Similar to other great movies of the past, the sound in this movie just becomes another element in the story and soon becomes indistinguishable from it. There are scenes in this movie that may be considered to be barren of much emotion, but when sound is added and edited just right it all of a sudden becomes an amazing experience to behold.

The acting in this movie, while playing second string to the visuals and editing techniques discussed previously, does a great job. Every actor has their own part that they play with very convincing realism. Cillian Murphy is good as the enigmatic and shy physicist but shoulders his responsibilities (essentially saving Earth) with much courage. This is definitely a much different part than his turn as the Scarecrow in "Batman Begins". Chris Evans, known from his work in "Not Another Teen Movie" as well as most recently in "The Fantastic Four" really showed another side as well and proved to me that he isn't just another pretty boy getting roles for his appearance only. Rose Byrne shows her own acting chops, and reminded me of her sometimes creepy role in "Wicker Park".

The visuals, though expertly done with the use of CGI, are never too flashy for the sake of being flashy. Instead, scenes of the vastness of space are interspersed very expertly with other scenes portraying the extremely claustrophobic interiors of the spacecraft. Lacking many of the extremely visceral and gory scenes from Boyle's other well-known movie "28 Days Later", "Sunshine" manages to pull off similar anxiety by the careful use of editing and musical cues. In the end, this movie is well worth seeing.

Monsoon horrors

2007-08-06T09:45:00.001-07:00

The following information comes from cnn.com:

I would like to dedicate this post to all those who have lost their lives in the recent monsoon activity in southern Asia, specifically in India and Bangledesh! A moment of silence for all.

It has been reported that the death toll has reached 347 in both of these soaked countries. The mere fact that this number seems small in light of other recent tragedies around the globe is astounding to me!! Indeed, I am almost glad that so few have died over all in this particular tragedy. How could I have this feeling? What is it about societies all over the world that has made pain and suffering so commonplace that we scarcely dwell on what has happened, but seem to take many things in stride? I only wish I had any answers at all, but this is a question that has so many philosophical implications about the nature of humanity now and in the past that I am pessimistic that we may ever agree on any one interpretation.

There is more than deaths occurring in this far-flung portion of the globe. The article goes on to say that in addition to the deaths, millions of people have been driven from their homes and forced to live a life not far removed from a refugee camp. Of course, they really aren't far removed from what a refugee is traditionally considered to be. Perhaps the worse thing about the article, and something I had no knowledge of though it makes sense, is that this monsoon season and its subsequent tragedies occurs every year. EVERY YEAR!!!! Duh!, you might say, of course it happens every year as it is a natural phenomena and these countries need the rain. The horrible part is that people die and are displaced every single year because of this supposedly life-giving natural phenomena and most people don't even realize that this is happening.

I have always been, and I am ashamed to say this really, someone who rarely takes the time to read about what horrors are happening in the world. Indeed, I often use the excuses that I am too pessimistic about what is happening in the world or that as an Archaeologist I am too wrapped up in the past to pay attention to what is occurring all around me. As Jess, my fiancee, has remarked on more than one occasion to me, we all need to be aware of everything that is going on around us. In an attempt to do this myself, I will be using this blog as a forum for news articles that are occurring but aren't being covered in any great detail by the popular media. I will inevitably have my own viewpoint on these worldly happenings but, as always, I welcome and encourage others' opinions.

The worst team in baseball??

2007-08-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

Continuing with my baseball theme from my last posting, I would like to say a few things about the strangely struggling Cincinnati Reds. Coming off of a very good season, despite an all out disastrous end of the season which saw them just barely miss the playoffs, they made some decent roster moves that should have given them excellent chances this year. They picked up Alex Gonzalez from the Red Sox and drafted Josh Hamilton from the Rule 4 draft, which was essentially a draft that helped players who had had personal problems in the past (Josh has had widely publicized problems with drugs). Unfortunately, it turns out that a bullpen who had at least been consistent throughout much of last year was a devil in disguise!!!

From the very beginning of the season, games were lost simply because after the starter left the bullpen self-destructed. Even with Ken Griffey Jr. having a career year (finally!!!!), the reds have proven unable to overcome both offensive and defensive woes to even have a chance to contend in a division that was suddenly topped by the Milwaukee Brewers, a former American league team that we have heard little from over the past few years. I wonder, based on what has been happening this year, how much of the Reds will remain going into next year or will they officially enter a rebuilding period where no one on the team will remain safe. Until they can reestablish their dominance of years past, think the Big Red Machine, I will remain a steadfast fan but will keep my post-season hopes alive in my other favorite team: the Cleveland Indians.

The Cincinnati Reds official website

The crack heard around the world

2007-08-05T13:01:00.000-07:00

This is not, as some might presuppose, a posting about a long-ago war. Instead, I am discussing another kind of war that is being fought amidst the bases, between congressman and players, and between the media and a game. This game is baseball, a sport which I hold especially near and dear to my heart and which has recently come under a hailstorm of controversy that I can never remember hearing about at any point during the century old sport. The incident referred to by the title is the 755th home-run hit in his career by one Barry Bonds.

The name itself brings people to the brink of arguments over whether he should even be considered for the Hall of Fame or should be arrested and spend the rest of his life in jail. While I have never personally heard anyone hold the latter position, I do not doubt that there are those out there who might have such a hard-nosed position. As a long-time Reds fan, the hoopla reminds me of the backlash over the controversial moves taken by Pete Rose when he bet on his own team when he was a player-manager. For the uninitiated, Pete Rose is the undisputed batting champion with over 4,000 hits to his credit in a game where reaching the milestone of 3,000 hits is considered an event of monumental proportions.

The connection with Barry Bonds is this: many people with knowledge of what these two players have done for the sport itself will in many small ways discount what they have done because of their supposed excesses. Whether this will be through some kind of an asterisk in the record books, as long ago discussed over the accomplishments of Roger Maris when he beat Babe Ruth's single season record, or a complete disregard of the accomplishments in the record books is yet to be seen. With Pete Rose, it was gambling (and this has been accounted for by Pete Rose himself). With Barry Bonds, it is the supposition that he has taken performance-enhancing drugs to increase his productivity on the field. Whether or not he has done as many already assume may never be known to us with 100 percent certainty, but the fact remains that he will break Hank Aaron's long-held record and become the new, but disputed, home-run champion.

Without making a judgement call on his supposed activities, let me just say that I admire his achievement and believe that it will make a difference upon the entire sport of baseball and hopefully bring attention back upon this historic and much-loved American past-time.

Here are some links that should shed some light on the steroid controversy:
Steroid Controversy Deepens
Was Barry Bonds Targeted?
Barry Bonds: Anatomy of a Scandal
GOOD SOURCE W/ LINKS:
Wikipedia

A brand new Blog!!

2007-08-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

Here we go, folks! I've never done this before but I felt it was finally time to enter this new-fangled cyber age and go online! I do not have a set theme for this here blog, so I would welcome any and all comments from all of you concerned individuals. I hope this will be eclectic enough with a lot of different topics explored with each post to keep readers interested, but sometimes I wonder just how interesting I really am!!!

When I'm not trying to write academic treatises, I spend the majority of my time playing various video games and watching various movies and television shows. From time to time, I am sure that I will have something of interest to say about some or all of these topics. Again, I would like to stress my desire for feedback from any and all readers who deign to read this. Additionally, beyond my own personal musings on subjects that are near and dear to my heart i will be posting links of cool and interesting sites that many should find interesting.

A major reason for my genesis of this blog is that I really enjoy writing fiction. I will be, from time to time, posting my own fictional creations that I hope many of you will enjoy. Since criticism is essential for any writer, I will once again call on comments from you on things you like and dislike. Ultimately, I hope to be able to produce some kind of a serialized adventure where I will produce episodic entries that you will want to keep reading about. More posts to come soon.