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04.14.04
– “…I saw her, and I pleaded, ‘why did you
come so far?’ And she said, ‘trying to get to you…
how I tried to get to you…’” – The Pixies
Recent
Movies: The Crow, Mallrats, Tremors
Music: The Pixies, Skold, The Beatles
Literature: City of Masks by Daniel Hecht
(finished), Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Games: Viewtiful Joe (Gamecube)
Viewtiful
Joe might be the best non-Metroid or Castlevania game I’ve
played in awhile. I’ve had it since spring break, I think,
but I’ve only played it about four or five times since then.
It’s pretty, innovative, very fun, and really friggin’
hard, which I like (to a point). The learning curve was pretty steep,
and the other day I spent more than an hour trying to beat this
one boss. If you’ve ever talked to me about video games, you
know boss fights make the game for me a lot of the time—they
have to be knock-out, ball-busting, controller-smashing brouhahas
that aren’t over in five seconds and leave me on the brink
of death when the boss’ life meter is down to zero, only to
see the meter refill or be followed up by another, jerkier boss.
Uh… anyway, it’s a good game.
So softball
season starts on Friday, and I’m hoping I will get to retain
my position at second base and not have to play the *shudder* outfield.
I used to at least be sorta good in the outfield, but I just lost
it somewhere along the line… I lost the ability to catch fly
balls for some reason, and I can’t throw hard or accurately,
either. In the infield, I can gobble up a lot of stuff, but I’ve
got “shit for an arm,” so I’m pretty much limited
to second. I don’t know why I can’t throw hard; I’m
not a weakling, by any means. I guess I maybe just have the wrong
form or something, or I’m not using my body enough…
I dunno. I also expect to be a better hitter this season. I drew
a lot of walks last year, but that got me into a very bad habit
of striking out looking trying to draw walks. The strike zone tends
to get larger as the number of balls increase. Patience is good,
but too much patience is not. Lastly, I would very much like to
see some action as a pitcher this year, but I still need a lot of
work. They want me to be a pitcher because I’m the only left-handed
thrower on the team, and there are only maybe two other left-handed
pitchers in the whole league. However, my practices are to the point
now where they’re very hit-or-miss… either everything
I throw is a strike, or nothing I throw is a strike. On Sunday,
I couldn’t miss, but today, just about everything I threw
would have hit a batter or simply been a wild pitch. I guess it’s
just a practice thing… they say it takes 10,000 pitches to
master ball control… I can’t say I’ve thrown more
than 3,000 or so since I’ve been working on this.
Speaking of
softball and sports similar to softball, what is up with the Cardinals?
You can’t deny that the hitting is good (too many home runs
for my taste, though; I will die a Whiteyballer), and I’m
pleased to see guys stealing bases (a lost art in my mind), but
this pitching needs major work. Morris, Marquis, and to a lesser
extent Woody have shown signs of stability. Suppan and Carpenter
really aren’t bad, either, but this “revamped”
bullpen is killing the team now. Simontacchi has given up like three
or four home runs by himself, Tavarez has given up roughly eight
hits on six pitches, King has no control (even though I was told
control was not a problem for him when he was in Atlanta), Eldred
is very blah, and Isringhausen is shaky, at best. Kline is about
his normal self (lefty specialist, so we only get to see him for
one batter every two games, anyway), and Lincoln showed promise,
but has blown one save and given up a lot of runs lately. In conclusion,
the starters must complete every game from now on. And all pitchers
must stop giving up so many home runs… the team ERA must be
around 8 or 9 by now… no team should ever have to score more
than 5 or 6 runs to win a game, in my opinion.
Sorry, sports
overload… it happens sometimes.
School is a
subject I’d rather not get into, but I will, anyway. Honestly,
I don’t have a lot of stuff to do these last few weeks. However,
the stuff I do have to do includes two term papers that may or may
not destroy me both mentally and physically, as if the mentally-destructive
thought of someone sticking a shovel down my throat was immediately
followed up by the physically-destructive act of somebody actually
sticking a shovel down my throat… that’s what these
term papers are like. Other than that, school is lonely and by no
means stimulating, and should be filled with more conversations
like the one Tressa and I had today about some people she witnessed
falling down... there’s just nothing funnier than seeing people
fall down, and neither you nor your Kung Fu henchmen can deny it.
Eh… I’ve
been talking a long time. I think I’ll wrap this up. 4.4 weeks
until the best days of my life… I hope. Here’s to those
drunks at Huddle House Saturday night… and Matt Sissom…
and the guy at the bowling alley that offered us prescription drugs…
and the kid who was asleep on the floor at the bowling alley…
here’s to you.
03.28.04
– “I’m gonna find me a reckless woman, razor blades
and dice in her eyes, just a touch of sadness in her fingers, thunder
and lightning in her thighs…” – The Highwaymen
Recent
Movies: Ghostbusters, Ferris Bueller’s
Day Off, Anger Management, A League of Their Own
Music: John Mellencamp, Arcadia, The Rolling Stones,
Faith No More
Literature: City of Masks by Daniel Hecht
Games: Negligible
Unfortunately,
I can only use Highwaymen lyrics so long before I run out.
So I was into
Duran Duran so much that I also started listening to their short-lived
splinter group, Arcadia. And I don’t know where Faith No More
suddenly came from, either. It’s all madness… I like
too much music.
Oh, and the
Daniel Hecht who wrote that book is NOT Coach Hecht from Jackson
High School, but the fact that the name was the same is largely
the reason why I bought it (needed a book from an independent publisher
for my copyediting class, and I didn’t care what).
The tournament
has been over for more than a week now, but it’s still
fresh in my mind. If you don’t already know (self-masturbatory
statements to follow), 7 Tickets to Paradise (Brett Price,
Matt Shayphr, Ricky Feiner, Josh, Lucas Walker, Jon Reno,
and myself) came away with the coveted Adam D. Morris Cup,
and Slim won the first-ever JUDL Invitational MVP trophy.
It was such a fantastic, euphoric, adrenalating night, full
of fun, excitement, and exhilaration. And what a crowd! It’s
a shame more didn’t stick around to watch the finals,
but that’s okay. Despite the fact we got a bye in the
first round, the matches were hard-fought all night and I
can’t say we had an advantage over our opponents who
didn’t get byes. Playing Vulgar Display of Power in
the finals was thoroughly intimidating at times… I know
we’re deserving of the championship if we beat those
guys.
My only regret
was not being able to watch more matches throughout the night. I
do feel the need to say this: Cole Jenkins, I don’t know if
you’ll ever see this or not, but you were a house of fire.
I’ve never seen anything like that from you before…
keep it up.
I got home last
night at around 3:30 and the mailbox was conspicuously missing from
its post. I stopped the car, found a flashlight in my glove box,
looked around, and found it in the ditch. I was stomping around
and cussing up a storm because I figured some asshole with a baseball
bat knocked it off. However, I walked up the road to the neighbors’
mailboxes and they were intact and, upon retrieving the mailbox
from the ditch, there was only a small dent, so Dad and I think
it was just some drunk who clipped it with their mirror or something.
Ah, north Cape County, full of misadventure and pseudo-excitement.
At least the folks in the new subdivision across the way haven’t
tried to burn everything up by starting a brush fire during 30 mph
winds for a couple of weeks now… morons.
Surprisingly
enough, I still feel good, which is some kinda record or something.
I’ve just had a lot of problems these last two semesters,
and I’m finally getting over them (many of which being well
overdue). One thing I’ve been noticing lately is that I’m
finally learning how to talk to people a little bit better. I can
carry on conversations, ask follow-up questions, start
conversations… it’s really weird. I’ve even been
answering questions during class without choking on my own spit.
I had a book report the other day and I threw in some jokes and
a little deadpan (which I haven’t done since high school)
and got some laughs, so that was pretty cool. I’ve either
just finally learned how to talk to people or the fact that I actually
have confidence in myself again (which I can’t say I’ve
had for a pretty long time) is doing wonders for me.
Time to go…
gotta do homework… bleh. See you next time!
03.18.04
–
The busiest spring break ever, a grueling dodgeball tournament in
less than 24 hours, and I figure I’m behind on homework. But
I feel fine.
Recent
Movies: Back to the Future Trilogy, and a truckload
of others since last time
Music: John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, Duran Duran
Literature: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
by Frank Miller
Games: Sword of Mana (Gameboy Advance)
Anyone says
anything bad about Duran Duran, and I will cut you.
You may remember
from our last episode that I was ready to give up and sleep my troubles
away for a few years (not really, but you catch my drift). Well,
a couple of weeks and one day in particular can make a huge difference.
You may not know this, but I’m a huge worry wart. Apparently,
I’m pretty good at hiding it because even my own family doesn’t
know about it. I remember a year or two ago, my sister told me I
was one of the calmest, most laid back people she knows. It was
horribly ironic because at that very instant, I was dying inside
from worrying about something. Anyway, this semester has been busy
and lonely, with very little contact with anyone not via MSN, save
for the dodgeball regulars and the one or two folks I talk to on
a regular basis at SEMO. Well, when I don’t have a lot of
contact with my close friends, I get very irrational fears. Out
of nowhere, I start to think they don’t really care about
me, or that I made them mad, or that we’re “drifting
apart.” But why? More importantly, why do I always think this
stuff despite the fact that each and every one of those friends
ends up proving me wrong? They proved me wrong again on March 9.
If there was
one weekend this entire year that I wanted to be with my friends,
it was the weekend before my birthday. That didn’t happen;
not only was I mostly busy, but so was everyone else. And for most
of that weekend (everything except Friday night), I was possibly
the most miserable I’ve ever been. But then my real birthday
came on Tuesday, and so came the phone calls, the posts on the board,
some mail from Korea (Hi, Izzie), and all the other well-wishes.
Those kind words made me finally realize something: my friends haven’t
forgotten about me, and they’re always going to be here for
me, even if it seems like we’re always busy or far apart.
I also realized if I need a friend, I’ve gotta go to them.
They’re not mind readers, and walking around school with my
head hung low isn’t going to get anyone’s attention.
Hey, I can’t help it I’m so irrational.
So what was
looking like one of the worst birthdays ever quickly became one
of the best, and I’ve felt just great ever since. All I can
say is thanks. I love you guys, and don’t you ever forget
it.
I had a bad
scare last night. I got home from work/dodgeball practice, and Mom
told me Dad was cutting locust trees and got hit in the back of
the head by a fallen limb. Now, if you don’t know about locust
trees, they’re thorny pests that you can spend 60 percent
of your life cutting down and feel like you’ve not made any
progress. Well, according to Dad, a limb he cut got stuck in another
tree and fell when his back was turned. Mom can’t do blood,
so I took a look at his head. He had a 2-inch gash that was still
oozing. I cleaned it up as best as I could (and almost threw up
a few times in the process… I can do wounds, but not head
wounds) and Neosporined it as best as I could. I’m gonna make
him take me along the next time he does that. Dad almost never gets
hurt, so it’s really scary when he does.
Meanwhile, I
got my dodgeball team’s shirts done tonight. Unfortunately,
they’re a big surprise, so I can’t discuss them further.
I don’t think I’ll know what to think when it’s
over, since I’ve been doing so much in preparation for it.
Dad and I got the MVP trophy almost done, except for the headpiece,
which will be attached tomorrow. Last I checked, I’ve lost
11 pounds in preparation for this thing, as well, which is cool.
I’ve wanted to dump this weight for awhile. I could stand
to lose some more, though.
By the way,
you Jackson thespians put on two great shows Saturday night. I didn’t
know what to expect from them, but I had a good feeling I’d
like them, mostly because I always end up liking them and I am also
determined to always prove Katie J. (no, that’s too obvious…
K. Jenkins) wrong when she says “it’s not very good.”
I laughed a lot and definitely enjoyed myself. The fact that the
Cards of Fate theme song was stolen from Dance Dance Revolution
or whatever tickled me, as well. I don’t play DDR, but it
was a remix of a song from Gradius, so I dug it.
Okay, I think
we’re done here. JUDL Invitational, here I come. Goodnight.
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