v2, d409: Goals

Okay, here are the goals:

First draft of next script done: End of Sept.

First round of book revisions done: End of Oct.

New NaNoWriMo project done: End of Nov. (obviously)

These are ambitious goals, and there's a really good chance I'll fall short on at least one of them.  Especially if/when I find a part-time job in the evenings.  After all, it is Labor Day.  Stores will probably be hiring holiday help sometime next week.

Feel free to ask how I'm coming with these as the months roll by.  Not in an obnoxious, Hey-Are-You-Working-On-That sort of way.  But in a "Hey, how are you coming on your writing projects?  I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with!"  And maybe a high five. 

I may never "make it," but dangit, it won't be for lack of trying. 

v2, d408: RAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!!!!!

Okay, this post has nothing to do with rain, but still, WE GOT RAIN!  THANK YOU, LORD!!!!  It wasn't a ton, but it was far more than we've had, and too much rain would really ruin the place after the drought we've had. I ain't complainin'. 

Also, I don't think I've mentioned on here that my parents are in town for Labor Day Weekend.  Have I mentioned that?  Well, they are, and it's awesome.  You might be thinking, But wait, Will, didn't you just have a guest LAST weekend?  Yes, yes we did.  And Kim's parents are coming in next weekend as well.  Why is this?  Because of a strange little phenomenon known as "The Strange Phenomenon About Will And Kim's Visitation Schedule That Has No Actual Name," or The SPAWAK VS THNAN for short.  (My money is totally on Th'Nan in that battle)  According to SPAWAK VS THNAN, we usually go months at a time with no visitors, and then everybody comes at once.  Please note, I'm certainly not complaining at all, because we love out-of-town visitors whenever we can get them.  It's just odd that it always seems to work out this way consistently enough that I can officially (by FOMW standards) brand it a phenomenon. 

In case you hadn't guessed, this post is about college football.  This was the first weekend of the new college football season.  As you know (unless you've forgotten), I had previously decided that this was the year I was finally going to care about college football.  I kept going back and forth over which team I should claim allegiance to from this point forward. (My college actually didn't have football, in case you weren't aware) At first I was leaning toward Alabama because a good friend of mine down here is a huge Crimson Tide fan, and he's probably more passionate about college football than anyone else I know.  However, I have a friend on Twitter who's a big Arkansas fan, and I'm afraid she might block me if I started posting "Roll Tide!" and the like.  And of course, I can't take Arkansas because I'll never say "Woo Pig Souiee" while cheering my team on.  My heart really wants me to take one of the Big XII teams, but not only is that conference now in mortal danger, but I found myself so over-exposed to both obnoxious Texas and Oklahoma fans in college that I just can't line myself up with either program.  I can't go with Oklahoma State, either, though my friend Sarah is a fan, because that would put me in bad with Kim's grandfather.  And the two Kansas teams...well, I'll always be happy to see them doing well, but I grew up around them and they were never really "my" teams then, so it'd be tough to claim them now. 

Basically, I wanted a team that I could make a legitimate claim for that wouldn't ostracize me from any of my friends and family.  Finally, I decided I'd just go local and root, root, root for the home University of Houston Cougars.  I caught most of their game against UCLA on TV this afternoon, and it was really a fun game to watch.  Kim says she can get discounted tickets to one of their games, and since they're not a mega-franchise like UT, I may actually be able to afford a discounted ticket before the season is up. 

I think just about every team that I'm aware of one of my friends following got a win in week one, so that's kind of cool.  Nobody (that I know) has to be mad, which is great because it's such a bummer to spend an entire year looking forward to a new season only to be let down by your guys. 

So welcome to college football season, everyone. Boomer Sooner, Roll Tide, Hook 'Em Horns, Sic 'Em Bears, Rock Chalk Jayhawk, Woo Pig Sooie, and It's Either A Kind Of Prickly Nut-like Thing Or Else A Delicious Candy. 

I think that covers everyone's rally cry that I know. 

Hey, do the Cougars have a rally cry?  *goes to look*  Okay, here's what I found at uhcougars.com:
"Traditionally, the stand cheer has gone: Eat 'Em Up! Eat 'Em Up! Rah! Rah! Rah! Not surprisingly, some fans erroneously chanted Raw! Raw! Raw! at the end of the cheer. However, in 2000, the cheer was changed to Eat 'Em Up! Eat 'Em Up! Go Coogs Go! At a minimum, this should be less confusing for everyone."

Heh...yeah, those idiots, changing "Rah" to "Raw."  Wait...how could they tell???

v2, d407: You've Changed

I'm talking to you, blogger. You changed on me.  You moved everything around, you put all the buttons in different places, you took all the fun and color out of my log-in screen and replaced it with...with...CHANGE!! 

Obviously, I don't like it, because people on the Internet always have to hate it when you change anything.  I always love it when Facebook changes something.  Everyone goes absolutely ballistic.  It's fantastic.  And then people create pages on Facebook about how they hate the changes to Facebook. And then everybody pretty much gets over it and goes back to making pages claiming they need a "Dislike" button.  I also remember when Twitter changed, and for what seemed like months it said you had a choice between using "New Twitter" or sticking with "Old Twitter" for a little while longer.  I can't actually remember what the difference was.

Now, I do remember being a bit hacked off when Youtube would only let you log on with a Google account.  In fact, Youtube and Blogger are both jerks for that. Especially since Blogger attached itself to my work email account rather than my personal one without asking.  About a week ago, that became a problem, because suddenly I can't be logged on to either Youtube or my email while logged into Blogger, because Blogger wants my work email log-in info.

Anyway, our Internet sites change on us all the time.  And the changes really aren't that big of a deal most of the time.  I'll figure out where you hid all your buttons and features, Blogger, and we'll get along just fine.

But if you ever start playing commercials with sound that randomly start up while I'm trying to blog, so help me I will end you.

v2, d406: Following up

Here.  This is the best thing I've read after the Wade Belak tragedy from yesterday. (Police confirmed today the he was found hanged in a hotel room. No suicide note, no suicidal tendencies whatsoever)  And I've read a lot about Belak's death and what this past summer means for hockey, for fighting, for fighters, etc. Adrian Dater knocks it out of the park here, relating how most NHL tough guys really never wanted to be NHL tough guys, but that's the price they pay to do what they love for a living.  Combine that with Greg Wyshyski's round-up of post-Belak sentiments from around the Mainstream Media and you get a pretty tragic picture that shows not only the way many of these athletes live their lives, but also potential emotional and psychological plane crash that comes when life suddenly kicks you to the curb.  Whether you're an athlete whose career is suddenly over, an actor whose fifteen minutes of fame are up, or even just the guy who loses his job of ten years and finds himself staring at his living room walls for hours on end, it can be a rough adjustment to try to make.  There are a lot of folks in this world who wake up one day to realize their dreams aren't all they thought they would be.  "I only wanted a family, so why don't my spouse and kids satisfy me?"  "I knew I'd be in movies, but I never thought I'd be stuck with the boom mic."  "I wanted to be a writer.  I did not want to spend the rest of my life writing copy for crappy Internet travel sites."  "I wanted to be successful, and I am.  I didn't realize I'd have to pay the price in meaningful relationships."  And so it goes. 

It's like trying to buy a car, but when you get home you realize what you drove back from the dealer is not the same vehicle the salesman sold you.  Sometimes, even your dreams aren't all they were cracked up to  be.  And it sucks when that happens.  And I'm not saying that so that we'll look at Belak and Rypien and say, "Yeah, it happens to everyone.  Deal with it."  I'm only saying that, when put into this kind of context, I understand a lot more of where these guys are coming from.  Which, obviously, doesn't mean I'd condone the act of suicide.  Not at all.  But it's probably time to realize that, whether we like hockey or not, whether we even care about sports at all, whether we have the potential to earn 1-2 million bucks per year for nine months of work, we're really not all that different from these guys.  In their hearts, they were really just chasing their dream, and in a way, it turned on them.  Turns out, there's something in these guys' stories that I can relate to after all. 

v2, d405: Another one

Today, an NHL player was found dead in Toronto.  Wait, does it seem like I already wrote one of these posts this summer?  Oh that's right, it's because I did.

Wade Belak is actually the third current NHLer to pass away this summer.  The second, Winnipeg forward Rick Rypien, took his own life on August 15th following a 10-year bout with depression.  Boogaard (linked above) was eventually declared to have died from a fatal combination of alcohol and painkillers. 

I'll tell you what, this summer can't end soon enough for the hockey world. 

Here's Wyshynski's fantastic recap of the event and the immediate fallout.  This write up from Adrian Dater of the Denver Post is good, too, for a more personal angle.  Belak has always been what you might call a fringe NHL player, so much so that I had actually forgotten that he used to be an Av. 

Nothing said about a cause of death yet.  An early rumor said suicide, a later report said no, definitely not suicide, and a still later report on CBC said yes, suicide.  I don't know what to make of it.  After Boogaard's death, it was revealed that he'd had a history with substance abuse.  Even before Rypien died, it was pretty well-known that he was dealing with a lot of personal demons.  But Belak...from everything I've picked up over the course of the evening, he was happily married, a great friend, fun to hang around, well-adjusted, a proud papa, and fresh out of retirement/ready to take on a broadcast job with the Predators (his last team).  He was Tweeting about how excited he was to be on the upcoming season of Battle of the Blades (sort of Dancing with the Stars, but on ice)   Then today, dead. 

There are so many things about this that are just terrible.  He has two daughters, ages seven and five.  His wife reportedly found out about the death via the news.  'Cause when you've got a scoop, you can't sit on it for thirty damn minutes while the police find a way to contact the widow...

All three of these guys were enforcers.  Thugs/tough guys/policemen/fighters.  They all mean pretty much the same thing.  Which means there are folks who are already blaming fighting in hockey for all three deaths.  Look, I don't know weather playing the tough-guy role for fifteen years had something to do with this death or not.  It may have been one of those random fatal heart attacks that sometimes happen to healthy 35-year-old men.  But come on, folks.  Now is not the time for the argument. 

For now, the hockey world just wants to mourn for a little bit.  When the time's right, let the people in charge look at all the facts (which we still don't have yet) and figure out what, if anything, needs to be done to keep these things from happening.  (For the record, both the Rypien and Boogaard families went on record to talk about all the help, support, and resources the NHL provided to help Rick and Derek get through their respective issues) 

In the meantime, this whole thing is just sad. 

v2, d404: Haiku

Due to Internet
Error, Haiku Blog now on
Day Four-Oh-Four.  Ha.  

Sorry, library.
Not going to finish this
One on time. Renew.

Five good running backs.
Only three good receivers.
Unfortunate, that.

Dinosaurs fit well
Into haiku poetry.
Apatasaurus.

Went to a middle
School once where kids were kissing
In the halls. That's gross.

Ocean waves recede.
Sun sets o'er a peaceful shore.
Humboldt squid attack.

Playing cards with clowns.
Water skiing with angels.
Hot dogs before bed.

I need to go to
Toronto.  No, I mean it.
Hockey Hall of Fame.

Earthquakes are rumbling.
The earth's surface is shifting.
I'm watching TV.

Seven skinny cows
Ate the seven fat cows. I
Bet their tummies hurt.

See that last haiku?
It was straight up Biblical.
Jesus is real, y'all.

Andrew Lloyd Weber.
He wrote lots of musicals.
Andrew Lloyd Weber.

I'm ready to go
To bed. I miss sleeping.  I
Miss writing more, though.

Man I hope Isaac
Takes a few naps tomorrow.
Good nite, ev'ryone!

v2, d403: Hold

I just finished a Haiku post, and guess what?  Yup, either blogger or firefox got confused and half of it disappeared.  So rather than hastily try to throw the last few back together, I'm going to save it and finish it up tomorrow.  Because it's 2 a.m. and I'm tired enough to go to sleep. 

So, look forward to tomorrow's haiku post, I guess.  G'nite!