The Weekend...

Interesting weekend this...
Saturday night went to Timm's house and generally just hung out. FIFA Street is ridiculously intense when played properly. Several notes: South Korea is terrible, their goalie is like a freakin' matador. Timm and I connect on the aerial ball in ridiculous ways. Overall a good time. Also watched Dr. 90210 for a bit: the sheer callousness of the doctors is hilarious. Not that they don't care about the patient, but the running dry commentary as they are worming their hands around underneath people's skin is simply too much. Also, Hogan knows best is one of my new favorite diversions, simply because the whole idea of Hulk Hogan doing normal things strikes me as funny.
Played golf early Sunday...I'm becoming immensely frustrated with my golf game in its current state. I've regressed since the early summer, especially off the tee and with the putter. The putter will find its way back...I'm not really getting good reads more than anything else and that'll come back. It's the drives that are killing me. I'm not too far from playing reasonable golf. From 100 and in, I play very solid. But I don't have any length and it's very frustrating to play that way. Especially with the flubs and toes. I do need to control my temper a litlte bit though...i think that'll help.
Lifting, lunch, and the extended Lord of the Rings:RotK with Timm. Good times at the Mystery Science Theater. It's fun noting parallels between characters and your real-life associates. I was a fan of the Rakesh-Gimli comparison. Three key items if you watch:
1. Note that Gandalf tends to treat the hobbits as children.
2. Watch for Gimli and Legolas' bow before they attack the corsairs: a scene akin to Casey Jones and the garbage truck at the end of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
3. Consider if every role was played by Samuel L Jackson...our favorite was Samwise L Jackson.

Good series and road trip for the Tribe. 4 of 7 on a West Coast Swing is good every time. The blown save on Wednesday and the inadequate offense on Saturday hurt, costing two potential victories, but good bouncebacks on the following days. No moves at the deadline, which was about what I expected. They're too competitive to sell, unless they just get an outstanding offer, which wasn't going to happen. And the guys on the market just didn't make sense for them to pick up: no young studs or good rental players out there, and, quite frankly, the sellers were asking for way too much. The talk was that, in order to acquire an impact player, teams were asking for Sizemore, Peralta, and/or Lee. I don't understand why anyone would expect the team to trade three of its biggest parts for the future, let alone the present, for a short-term rental. Look at the market, it followed classic economics: there were lots of buyers and few sellers. The sellers were asking for big prices, and priced themselves out. No seller or buyer connected on any deals of significance to set a price, and thus the market failed, due to time constraints. How about that for a term paper?

Other thoughts: we're about two hours from the first of August, which means its getting to be about game time as far as school and the like, and that is becoming an intimidating presence. I really would like to do very well in school, especially in the first year, and that is going to require a lot of work, likely more effort than I ever really put forth in school. To be honest, I think I spent more time building and maintaining the fraternal political machine then I did on schoolwork in the last two years at old CMU. Looking forward, I can't do that again, especially if I want to write as a 2L. More importantly, Timm asked me today what I wanted to do with my law degree, and the answer is still that I don't know, really. I want to be important, more than anything else...and I want to make the world around me better, but I also am aware of a lot of my weaknesses, and I have doubts about my dynamism, to be the leader of a big organization like that. I think my character is built much better to be a number 2 or 3 guy: a Vice President of some sort. I'm good for ideas, I'm good at execution, but I need people to deflect on, especially for emotional security. I also think I need to start working on my relationships more, especially on getting a more special one. Reading on James Buchanan, the 15th President, the other day, one of the remarks was that Buchanan, a bachelor, was so reliant on his close 'business' associates, especially the cabinetm for personal and social support that he could not separate accordingly when he had to be demanding as President. I am also intrigued by the judicial/academic world. By and large, I think I might be happiest and best at writing, interpreting, and opining, and leaving others to execute. That's also my confidence talking, or lack thereof. It's an interesting cycle, my confidence...but, eh...

Anyways, I feel pretty good about things for the immediate term and look forward to what the fall holds, which is unfortunately more than I can say for some of my associates, several of whom are going through some real rough times right now. Having dealt with some rough emotional territory myself, I feel for them and hope things get easier...

That's about it for the moment.

Peace

Just One of Them Things...

I think a lot of the time we really struggle with accepting ourselves. If a girl compliments another guy, or says that said guy is hot, etc., we tend to view that as a dispersion upon our own character or individuality. I know I struggle with that. The overwhelming desire in humanity is to be perfect, whether its to ourselves or to someone else. To hear someone else evaluated as a positive makes one feel less confident about oneself. Thus, it is very difficult to hear good things about other people, no matter how good a sport one is.

It's very difficult sometimes to have self-confidence and be a realist at the same time, especially when your strengths are the intangibles, rather than the obvious. The greatest failing that we can all have when dealing with relationships and the opposite sex is a crisis of confidence. Confidence, of course, is the most difficult thing to build up. Eh, what can we do?

That's about it today. Hung out with Tabitha for a lot today, also Justice. She leaves for North Carolina Monday. On a semi-inspired and related note, it really is starting to feel like we're getting old. Everyone is starting to go their separate ways. Steve and Graber to Akron. TK to Oxford. Jon's in LA. Neifer and Justice in Columbus. Dorr, Anup, and I to the Heights. I guess it's gettin to be about that time.

Closing with a little Rush for y'all:

He's a rebel and a runner
He's a signal turning green
He's a restless young romantic
Wants to run the big machine

He's got a problem with his poisons
But you know he'll find a cure
He's cleaning up his systems
To keep his nature pure

Learning to match the beat of the Old World Man
Learning to catch the heat of the Third World Man
He's got to make his own mistakes
And learn to mend the mess he makes
He's old enough to know what's right
But young enough not to choose it
He's noble enough to win the world
But weak enough to lose it
He's a New World Man...

He's a radio receiver
Tuned to factories and farms
He's a writer and arranger
And a young boy bearing arms

He's got a problem with his power
With weapons on patrol
He's got to walk a fine line
And keep his self-control

Trying to save the day for the Old World Man
Trying to pave the way for the Third World Man

He's not concerned with yesterday
He knows constant change is here today
He's noble enough to know what's right
But weak enough not to choose it
He's wise enough to win the world
But fool enough to lose it
He's a New World Man...


Peace Out

One of those days...

Just didn't feel much like writing today. Got some big thoughts on my mind that will probably get explored in this space eventually. Probably the near eventually.

Anyways, good win for the Tribe to bounce back from that breakdown yesterday. Overcame some mistakes, got some clutch hits, Fat Bob reasserted himself. Good Win. Got to get at least two more this weekend. On a related note, I'd like to see more ABs for Jose Hernandez. He's shown some ability to hit in the clutch as of late, and he can't really do any worse than the Blake/DuBois/Liefer debacle that we have going on at RF/DH with Hafner out. Came through with a big pinch-hit today. I'm not saying that he's an everyday player, but neither are those guys, the way they've played thus far. With the DH spot open (thanks Mark Buehrle), I'd like to see Hernandez get maybe 7 or 8 ABs this series, even though it will be against righties. Blake can play all the same positions as Hernandez, so you don't lose too much flexibility off the bench, and its not like anyone is swinging a hot bat. Mix it up a little bit...and pray Hafner has made a full recovery so he can step back into the lineup good to go on Tuesday.

Played golf with the big TK today; had a good time even though we both played horribly and had a whole lot of other stuff to discuss. Wet conditions are just terrible for my golf game. Went down to the apartment, moved some stuff in, started getting stuff put together. A productive day, if not the simplest one. More to come.

Adventures in Trespassing

Good times at soccer today. Went to play at the high school and there was football practice, so we went up to the soccer complex. Turns out thats not allowed. After playing for like an hour, two guys drive up and ask us to leave the field. It's apparently too much wear and tear on the fields to allow us to play, because they're trying to keep kids off the mean streets of Strongsville. But don't worry, we had Counseler Justice with us, so we gave them a good little fifteen minute argument. My big thing is this. First, who decides that, upon seeing five guys playing soccer on a field, they should call the trustees and get them to come out here. Second, at 8:30, about half an hour before sunset around here, is it really worth the effort to come out here and make an issue out of this. Of course, these guys couldn't actually confront us and ask us to leave. Nope. They just beat around the bush for half a hour. Very nice. Look, I understand where you guys are coming from. I understand that you leased the property and have the right to decide who can play on it. But this is ridiculous. And it least be straight with us, instead of making all these moral arguments to justify a point that you just leave hanging in the air.

Indians blew the game today. Wickman is going to blow some games. He lets balls get into play and sometimes they get some luck strung together. It'll happen, and he, at least, let us have a chance to win the game. Too bad it didn't get done. The bigger problem is that the offense continued to blow chances all game long. You've got to score baserunners to be successful in this league. That's about all you can say about the game today.

Tommorow holds promise of being an interesting day. Golf in the AM, apartment in the PM.

Peace

10 Things I Think I Think

To steal from Peter King, who's Monday Morning Quarterback articles on SI.com are always worth the read, here are 10 things I think I think:

1. Voters and government have a perverse relationship that forces policymakers to favor short-term fixes over long-term planning. This is why government and policy seems to be based largely in cycles, where a visionary or leader takes control and makes big shifts followed by years of relative muddling. Too bad most visionaries get squelched because they are too bored by the game.

2. We spend way too much money on the old (medicare, pensions, etc.) and not nearly enough on the young, specifically education. A restructuring of this system would also encourage further savings and investment, which is better for the economy in the long run.

3. John Roberts will be a good Supreme Court Justice, regardless of where he turns out ideologically. He's smart, and smart people generally have sound reasoning behind their actions.

4. 95% of the people who argue for or against any issue "on the behalf of the public," are acting largely in their own self-interest. The most pressing example of this is free trade.

5. Speaking of which, free trade is, in my opinion, the best thing that would happen to the world. Think about it, people have been grouping together in ever larger groups over the history of time. Furthermore, one of the fundamental principles of economics is that states should focus on the tasks that give the best competitive advantage. This topic requires a longer dissertation and I'm not really the man to do it.

6. It's interesting today that the 'conservatives' are, in fact, the revolutionaries, and the 'liberals' are, in fact, in favor of the status quo on a lot of issues. And, on some issues, both sides are trying to be revolutionaries, look at religion, first and foremost. I think the status quo is probably better in most cases.

7. I think Steelers fans are in for a disappointing season. I think Browns fans will enjoy watching Romeo Crennell & Co. play ball, but they won't win any more games then they did last year. I wouldn't be surprised if Cincinnati won the division. I can't believe I just wrote that.

8. I think that the teacher's unions are the most obstructionist organization in the world today. I've never read one positive recommendation from them. Ever.

9. Few meals have been created that could not have been improved by a good ale.

10. We should probably stop arguing about and let gays marry. It's bound to happen eventually anyways and the world has much bigger problems to worry about then who's banging whom.

11. Things that I've read recently that you should consider too:
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century - Thomas L. Friedman
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Malcolm Gladwell
100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (And Al Franken Is #37) - Bernard Goldberg
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything - Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner

I know that's 11 things, but what the hell. Don't know what tommorow will hold.

Peace

Irksome

This is a beautiful baseball game I'm listening to right now. I think it's currently Oakland 13, Cleveland 3. It is always entertaining to hear the announcers try and come up with random stories and excitement to keep the game interesting. This is the last I will mention this game, as of right now, it never happened.

Speaking of things that piss me off, I think the number one thing on my list is celebrities who think that fame makes them educated, knowledgable social commentators. I know that when Jennifer Aniston calls Bush a fascist, well then, sweet Jesus, he must be a fascist. The problem, of course, is that some people actually believe this to be the case. I don't know who's dumber, the celebrities, or the people who believe them. And the media is worse. Whether left or right, the pundits like to speak as if they are the voice of God. I think Rush Limbaugh actually calls himself that. Whether liberal or conservative, communication has taken the position of two sides generally yelling at each other. There is less and less room for long, civilized discussion any more. And that's sad. While society has made so many advances over the years, I feel the simplification of communication has carried many costs as well. I guess I touched on this earlier.

Anyways, here's the point: Intelligent people know what they know. Wise people know what they don't know. You're probably OK if you have one or the other. Very few people ever manage to reach the point where they have both. Yet there seem to be far too many people who have neither.

Thats enough ranting for the day. Went to lift this morning, had a fairly blase shoulder day. Have to do better next time. Ran a few errands, had dinner with my family. That's about it, pretty boring day. Tommorow holds more apartment shopping and possibly a political commentary in this space...so hold your breath for that.

Peace

Continuing...

That was a pretty solid episode of Family Guy...not spectacular, but solid. The Brian-Stewie subplot really sealed the deal for me.

Anyways, the whole rant in the previous post has led to the following conclusions. There is a requirement that we have constraints (i.e. laws) placed upon us by society in order for civilization to function. This, however, limits our collection of possible choices. Thus, it should be the goal of the individual to try and make the impossible possible. And I'm not very good at doing that. Anti-climactic, I know, but that's how most of my rants end up.

On a lighter note, the Tribe won today, 6-3, in a game that I missed most of. The 6th Inning was nice though, runners on second and third with no outs and they scored both of them...with sac flies no less. I can't remember the last time they had two guys in a row come through like that. Let's hope they are starting to get back to the way they played baseball from mid-May through the 4th of July. The pitching seems solid. There's a lot of talk going around that they should trade Sabathia. Bad idea in my eyes. It's not that I wouldn't trade him, for the right price, but you need to be damned sure you're getting the right price. Sure, he's not what you hoped for yet, but he's a solid starter, and certainly better than a lot of 25 year old pitchers. It seems big lefties take a while to get things entirely figured out...so you've gotta hold onto him and take your chances. And more importantly, how many 25 year olds are ever asked to come in and be at the top of their profession...let's let the man grow up a little bit. He's had to learn a lot about pitching at the highest level of the game.

Good day today all around. Lifting with Timm and Steve then apartment shopping with Dorr and Anup. Always an entertaining time.

Thoughts on the Possible

A lot of the acrimony that exists in the world today as a whole, and even more so, within our own individual daily lives and thoughts is due largely to constraints put upon us by myriad factors as to what is and is not possible. Society, whether through law or custom, puts constraints upon our own existence, thus limiting the range of "possible." The information age, which has offered us a much greater realm of communication, has also put into place a system that makes understanding the possible more difficult. While people communicate over great distances, how well do they really understand what is going on in life through the communication of the written word. Furthermore, how does one trust exactly what is being said. I, for one, try to edit my statements to most accurately convey my thoughts, but, is that not, in fact camoflauging what lies truly within my thoughts? Does society and communication, in fact, not enable, but limit how we live our lives with the people around us?

I have generally led a very conservative way of life. That is, I recognize society's constraints and try to work to maximum flexibility within them. This is fairly easy to do as a child, and, while more difficult as a young adult, is still done without too much trouble. Going forward, however, into adulthood has caused me to wonder what exact obligations any individual has to the constraints of society and the law. As a future member of the legal profession, I certainly have some obligation to the law. But is there not higher moral or ethical laws that must be obeyed. For example, was it not right to smuggle Jews from Hitler's Germany or slaves from the American South, despite the direct contradiction to the existing law? If one accepts this argument, then where exactly does law derive its power from. That is, if some laws are countermanded by some higher moral, ethical, or societal law, then what power does the rule of law have. Therefore, the possible is constrained by the morals and ethics of society. But again, when society is wrong, as it has been in the past (the above counterarguments still apply), where then does one turn. It seems to me that there are only two potential answers to this dilemna.

The first answer is that there is a Higher Law, commonly referred to as God's Law. The second answer is that there is no Higher Law, that each individual, can and should make his choices in accordance with his own conscience. I find neither answer to be particularly satisfying. The second answer is too anarchic for me. The first answer is too subjective. To wit, is Higher Law to be judged by doctrinal Catholicism, evangelical Christianity, Islamic Law, liberal Protestantism (or many other possible variations)? Is Higher Law merely a reflection of society? These cannot be answered to my satisfaction. In the meantime, while personal choice seems to be promising, the collective of individuals would lead to anarchic system. Furthermore, it seems to be human nature that one's own pursuit of happiness supersedes all other mores in the long run, and this, ungoverned can only lead to trouble.

I'm going to explore this further, but Family Guy is on, so I'll be back in an hour maybe. We'll see...

Peace

Well...let's see how this goes

Well, as a relative newcomer to the world of blogs, I figured I might as well join the bandwagon. After all, I'm relatively intelligent, can be mildy interesting, and make the occasional insightful commentary. So I figured, what the hell, let's write and see how this goes. It is customary to write an about me post to introduce oneself to the world, so here goes.

I am 22. I am single. I am attending law school at Case in the fall. I received a BS in Economics last spring, from Carnegie Mellon University. I am struggling with a general focus for life. I can find a comment on almost anything. I like beer. I am a huge Cleveland fan, especially their pro sports teams. I tend to get deep and philosophical on random tangents, especially when I'm drunk. I think I come off as cold. I have a minor inferiority complex when it comes to interpersonal relations. I am a dealmaker, rather than a dealbreaker. I am a fraternity man. I was a fraternity President. I am overanalytical. I am realistic to the point of pessimism. I can be shy. I like to think of myself as an intellectual. I am not an ideologue. I like beer. I read The Economist weekly. I have little time for the realm of fiction. I like to golf, even though I suck at it. I want to do better.

Nothing like a little bit of writing to look into one's soul for a moment.

Now, on to the more important stuff. The Indians won today, 4-3. I caught the last half of the game or so. It was good not to be frustrated, like I am when they lose, which means winning posts will be somewhat duller, but what the hell? Fat Bob pitched today, and despite the trouble that he always finds, I am never particularly scared when he takes the hill, because the man is tough as nails. I also liked the move of Jhonny Peralta to the three hole. I think he might be the number three man in this lineup for quite some time, kind of like when Alomar batted third. He's a better fit at three, ahead of Hafner and Victor, then at 4,5, or 6, behind them. I think the top five of the lineup is about set for the next three or four years: Grady, Coco, Jhonny, Pronk, and Victor. That has the potential to be the best top half of the lineup as these guys get a little older, learn the leauge a little bit more, and get some of the early-career slumps out of the way. They'll be ok, especially when Grady finds his groove again and Pronk gets back from the concussion. On a side note, Mark Freakin' Buehrle knocked our best hitter out of the lineup for maybe two weeks. Next time he pitches against us, the first couple guys should lay a bunt right down the line and drill him. And Konerko or Thomas or somebody besides Jermaine Dye gets buzzed upstairs a couple times too.

But, to get back to the original point, it's the bottom half of the lineup that is just killing us day in and day out. Belliard's OK, he's a solid major league bat, but he really should be batting 8th or 9th instead of 6th. Broussard is a great guy and a Wedge favorite, but he really doesn't do much with the stick, and, at first base, you're gonna need more than he gives...he might develop into a nice John Olerud-type, but it's really not showing at the moment. Boone is showing some signs...its tough to come back from a year off of baseball and I don't think people really appreciated that. I'd be willing to see what happens next year. But, they need to make some moves, and probably can't until the offseason. So I guess, I'm stuck hoping they come around.


That's about all the writing I feel like doing for the immediate term. More random thoughts as they come in.

Peace