Tuesday, July 10, 2007

A Real Conversation
Talking about setting up a club-based party to bring friends together.. to go clubbing. You know.. party at a club.

[start]
me: i want to do one in august
me: i dunno of places though
me: i'm so out of it
dawn: oh!!!
me: we should just pick a place
me: it's sad that this has to be planned weeks in advance
me: i should spend that whole week before sleeping early so i'll have enough energy to stay up.
[end]

oh. no.

Ulam cooked @ 4:40 PM

 1 of the headscratch variety

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Congratulations Art and Melinda!!!
My very good friends are now my very good married friends! Congrats!

Lots of fun. Great to be a part. Weddings are often redundant, but meaningful nonetheless. This was obvioulsy more special since one of my closest boys was part and that I've known Melinda for so long also.

But.. I think there should be a law that the mystic forces in the world never allow any person to blog after they've just returned from a wedding and are pensive.

I'll leave it at that.

Ulam cooked @ 12:42 AM

 0 of the headscratch variety

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Hodge Podging
There's been a lot of things going on in the local and global world and I've been lagging on commenting. I thought I would try to take a news piece each day that particularly piques my interest and subsequently comment... but.. this wouldn't be it. Let's just do a rundown of whatever I can still remember...

1) Chris Benoit: I found out about this on the Tuesday after the evening that all of the raw details were exposed, at least of the crime scene and the subsequent initial lab results of times and causes of deaths. That was a pretty busy day for me at work and I happened to have time to have my lunch at my place since it was most efficient - and it really hit me hard. It really made me sick - not so much in disgust, but really in shock. I felt like I got a stiff gutshot and all the air and life was knocked out of me.

This story obviously has gone apeshit in the media. There are loose correlations to steroid abuse to being both directly and indirectly the cause of the murders and suicide. There's been Fragile X syndrome. There have been WWE press releases apologizing for mistakes and trying to find ways to distance themselves as far from the Benoits to basically save their market value. There have been national media outlets covering the situation well and obviously many that have been terribly handled.

Most people who have heard this will use the deaths as another reason to wave their disapproving noses at the world of professional wrestling. Sports talk radio hosts and sports media guys who are utterly uninformed of the business and its stars have started to use their names and their deaths as an awareness campaign that really has no well intentioned outcome. Yes, many professional wrestlers are physically and emotionally self-abusing. But, reactions to Benoit's monstrously methodical rampage and including the others as a response asks for what really? Do they care for either the business or the wrestlers themselves? Highly doubtful. They are witchhunting like steroids are this country's most dangerous chemical addiction - when it's not. They seem to want to continue to take down Vince McMahon and the WWE and the sports entertainment itself.

This isn't at all a defense of pro wrestling, though. Yes I am a fan. But, not as big as before. Yes, i can watch it at times, but I definitely do not agree with a lot of what it represents. But in this Benoit situation, the general public didn't lose anything. It was the wrestling fan universe that was hurting. Benoit was a star and a lingering anti-postmodern hero in the ring. He was a technical wrestler (or performer). He was highly skilled at the physical aspect of the match, but was also intelligently skilled in the mental part of it. He was truly another gem that came from Canada via the Hart Dungeon. For many wrestling fans, this is why the happenings really really hurt.

For the most part, that was my reaction - shock upon shock and disappointment that one of "our boys" of the wrestling fraternity conducted such a heinous act. He was one of the boys. One of OUR boys. We lost another one and this time it was through a relentlessly sick way - in a way that most of us really wouldn't ever feel comfortable mourning him. We all get sick when we hear of these murder-suicides especially when children are involved - most of the time we're fortunate enough to be lightyears distanced from the victims. In this sense, millions of us were affected. The rest of you - were not.

And it's a shame that tragedy becomes a capitalists cash cow and the real victims, not wrestling haters or wrestling fans, but the families and friends of the Benoits, are merely backdrops in the story.

2. Barry Bonds: It's easy to not like the guy or respect what he's done. It's also easy to get caught up when you're at a Giants game when you want the Giants to win and to also realize the history you're witnessing when you're watching him. This happened two weeks ago. Down a few runs in the bottom of the ninth with the bottom of the order coming up, I knew we'd see Barry. He didn't get to hit since his pinch hitting appearance ended at the on deck circle, but there really was an aura and excitement just knowing there was a chance that we'd all leave with a Giants comeback victory carried on the back of a countdown walk-off homer by one of the greatest hitters ever in baseball. Check all those variables. Amazing.

3. Thank you JRich: The NBA Draft also happened recently with the W's moving and shaking like no one's business.. except for Jason Richardson's. He seems like a great guy, great teammate, and is a solid player, but the moves make more positives than negatives. All transactions are gambles. Let's hope this one turns out well. Thank you JRich for being our face, through good and desperate, and I hope to see you in the playoffs next year.

Ulam cooked @ 11:57 PM

 0 of the headscratch variety