Sports: keep hope alive

Saturday I was already prepared to write-off the Terps' season after there game with UNC, but Maryland put together a final drive in the 4th quarter to take the lead and win the game.

Next is Florida State who lost this weekend to Boston College in Tallahassee. I think the Terps can do this thing if they decide not to be their own worst enemy and phone it in, as they can sometimes do. Chris Turner our QB can be a spaz and looks like Napolean Dynamite, but he can be great at times. If you play good next week, Chris Turner, I'll catch you a delicious bass.

Got a new job

Just when I thought I had all this time on my hands after getting let go from my job, I have a new one. I gotta be honest: being home for a month was not that bad.

Now it's back to CAD. I working at a company that does commercial signs for businesses. I do the fabrication drawings for the shop workers who actually build them. It's completely different from the civil engineering and survey CAD work I was doing for the last 4 years, but it's a nice change of pace.

NFL: Joe Flacco is my homeboy. The Raven's are 6-3 and still in this thing. They've got the Giants this Sunday and even though New York should be able to win this one, I think Baltimore is in a good spot to get the upset this week.

NCAAF: Maryland went down to Virginia Tech and laid an egg and then the Hokies picked it up and smashed in the Terps' faces. North Carolina next. Florida State too... sigh.

NBA: The Mavs can't finish games. They're starting this season 4-2. Maybe Avery Johnson wasn't the problem in Dallas. Huh, Mark Cuban?

I just got a Nintendo Wii. I've been playing with my Wii a lot. My hands and arms are so sore from playing with my Wii. I've been working up a sweat I've been playing with my Wii so much. That's enough Wii jokes.

Wednesday, November 4th, 2008

Being unemployed is very weird. I never truly realized what a creature of habit I am until now. Not having a job to wake up for Monday through Friday has completely changed my sleep patterns or I should say I stay up until ungodly hours watching the most asinine programming. Whats funny about it is the fact that it's not a product of lament or sadness... just of unoccupation. Nothing about my mood has changed in my estimation, it's like being 13 and on summer vacation again only I'm not 13, I'm 27 and I don't know how to be on summer vacation anymore. If you could go back in time and tell the 13 year old me that he'd probably spontaneously explode from the mere pondering of the notion. I know I'm shocked by it now.

But as I sit here collecting unemployment for the first time in my relativley short life I take pleasure in the simplest of things.

My marriage is like granite rock. We've only been together less than 7 years but have already faced a lifetimes worth of adversity. Health. Death. Finance. Nothing has ever shaken our commitment to one another, if anything it's always seemed to bring us closer together when we've made it through to the other side. And at this point, having done it so many times already, I can tell that we both know we will be fine when these things arise again and we have to push through them again. I'm very grateful for that.

I have to also say I never knew what a sports fan I was until I had nothing to do but watch SportsCenter. I'm more interested in College Football, the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball than at any other time in my life. I actually watched every game of the World Series which I have to say probably wasn't worth the time invested.

Something I really didn't invest any time into lately was the Presidential Election since I was just waiting for it to end. Every day when I walk out to my mailbox I have to throw away countless "vote early" and "vote your values" cards. Then I have to erase three or four automated calls on my answering machine from the Governor urging me to vote on election day. No more. Thank God. And I didn't even vote! Thought about it... for a few seconds.

Either way I couldn't say that the historical significance wasn't lost one me last night when I was watching the NBC news and they unveiled an enormous graphic stating "President Obama". I was really surprised at the shock I still had when first seeing it. I had already come to the conclusion that Barack Obama was probably going to win days ago, but I guess believing it and actually seeing it are two different things. It was amazing and probably one of the most powerful moments in our country's history to occur during my lifetime. I thought about that for quite a while last night. I thought that was cool.

I really had no investment in either McCain or Obama and felt that one was as good as the other, and so I'm still just glad the entire thing is over.

As for other things on my mind, I'm sure I'll think of a way of organizing those thoughts at a later date in the future. Right now I've got to check out what's on ESPN.

Up, up and away!

It's the middle of the NFL season, my Baltimore Ravens are 4-3.

The Maryland Terrapins are 6-2 in the ACC.

The World Series has been bizzare to say the least and since the Orioles have been sad for quite some time I've been looking at Tampa Bay as my fall-back team this year in the playoffs. They're down 3 games to 1 to the Phillies, but as this thing has played out so far... anything is still possible.

And the NBA is getting under way and the Dallas Mavericks play on Thursday.

So... getting laid-off at the end of October has given me plenty of free time to watch SportsCenter and somehow get back into sports(I've even been watching soccer!).

I'm not really sure what I'm writing about, but I somehow feel like writing again. We'll see what happens.

Appetite for Destruction

Man, work was something this week or at least the second half of this week was. I had a lot of very large issues to deal with concerning more than one of our larger clients, and after jumping through all the hoops and putting in the long days it seems to have paid off for everyone. So I'm looking forward to weekend, it feels earned.

A few of the guys at work thought we should do a guys' night out this weekend. The plan is to go to Club La Vela out on the beach and see a Guns N Roses cover band tomorrow night. One of my co-workers has apparently seen these guys before and said they were worth going to see and since it's not much to get into La Vela, that's the plan for Saturday. All the guys spoke to their wives and it would seem that we've all got our signed permission slips from home to go on the trip.

Sweet.

Kodak moment

I need to start carrying my camera with me at all times again. I haven't taken a decent photograph in forever. Soon I will reduced to taking snapshots of myself solemnly brushing my hair. Lame.

Work has been pretty sweet lately. I went from having my own office in a shitty building to having my own cubicle in a brand new three-story complex, so that's a trade I can feel like I broke even on.

My book on Gunther Howell, the first person to die at Disney World, is in the rewriting phase and my editor, Jill, feels confident that we've got a winner on our hands.

Also, I've taken up a new hobby. Auctioneering.

Too damn hot

No, not me. This apartment. This damn sweatbox in the middle of July. The air conditioner decided to die last night.

Every door and window is open, every fan is turning. But the it's not enough, not in this heat. I'm melting like a snow man in Spring. The maintenance people were suppose to show up yesterday, but still haven't arrived.

Until they do I'm going to continue to sit here in front of my ocillating friend and drink my iced tea.

Fake Grape

I hate grape soda. I hate orange soda too. While I'm at it let me also add that I despise watermelon jolly ranchers and banana Runts. I have a genuine dislike and in some instances, an unabashed hatred for these faux flavors.

Grape soda in no way, shape or form, replicates the flavor of grapes - red, green, or I suppose in this case, purple.

Orange soda - who would want orange juice in a carbonated beverage to start with? No.

Watermelon. Watermelon tastes mostly like water anyway.

Banana flavored candy should just be called 'yellow flavored' because I imagine that's what yellow must taste like since bananas sure as Hell don't.

I'm done ranting.

Death and Hot Dogs

I posted this video on YouTube and a few of my friends thought I was gonna kill myself.

No, sorry to disappoint. It was only a joke.

USA! USA! USA!

On the fourth of July, 2007, competitive eater Joey Chestnut won the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest, upsetting six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi. In the process, Joey set a new world hot dog eating record with 66 weiners in a mere twelve minutes.

So, after six long years of darkness the mustard yellow belt has finally come back to the United States of America. No longer do we have to hang our heads in shame or listen to the sickening laughter of Europe and Asia in our plump red, white and blue ears.

Why? Because we did it! We did what no one thought could be done. They said we had reached our limit. That we had reached maximum density. We heard the naysayers and the critics and the dieticians and we said SCREW YOU, PAL! We never gave up, we never got on that treadmill of defeat. We never ordered that salad of surrender. We rolled up our sleeves, wiped the thickening gel-like sweat from our brows and reached for that next weiner. The weiner of victory!

Thank you, Joey Chestnut. For restoring our nation's pride in itself. For bringing back the mustard yellow belt. It almost makes me forget about 9/11.