Shyzer.com

So here we are, the final weekend before exams and the end of my junior year of college. I won’t go into how unbelievably lightning fast these past three years seem to have flown by and how I’m slightly depressed I only have one year left. Instead, I’m going to treat you to an inside, behind the scenes look at an event that is highly misunderstood and rarely occurs. This said event had been in the planning stages for about a month after Neal tossed the idea around one night and once the details were settled on, was highly anticipated. The week leading up to it seemed to crawl along slower then molasses flowing uphill and once the plans actually took fruition, seemed to fly by faster then Ichiro. I’m of course talking about Man Weekend.

We needed a weekend to just get away and relax with only just us guys and Neal’s mountain house appeared to be a God send. When Friday afternoon finally rolled around, I was all too eager to pile into Tucker’s truck with Chris and head for the mountains. We hit up the cigar store and then made our way up to Bat Cave, NC. I’m sure you’ve all seen the highway signs on the Internet that make some smartass comment about it like “Isn’t the Bat Cave supposed to be hidden? Maybe we should send this to the Joker” or some shit like that.

One exceptionally funny thing occured on the way there. We had gotten lost once or twice and the road to the house was about 10 times longer then we were anticipating, so it felt like we were going the wrong way the entire time. Plus, you know how those winding mountain roads are. One mile on those can feel like five. Anyways, we finally made it to the gravel road and made our turn onto it. We drove past the first and second homes and came to a small fork in the road. One way went left, looked like a dead end, and was named differently then the raod we were on. The right path looked like a real path, had the same name, and since Neal had said nothing about switching roads, we figured that was the way to go. We were the lead car of 3 and so we turned right and headed that way. Well, the road quickly became a dirt path so small that our truck was in danger of falling off the edge. The road looked as if it hadn’t been traveled on in quite some time and yet I was sitting there telling Tucker it had to get better soon. Of course, I started dieing laughing as it became aparant we were not only on the wrong road, but there was nothing we could do about it since Phil and Jay were right behind us. This wasn’t the type of road you go back in reverse on and so we kept pressing on. Until we reached the end. Literally. The road became a forest and we were stuck. We all got out laughing our asses off at our misfortunes and slowly devised a way to turn the cars around. I don’t know, you had to be there I guess. It was funny. Trust me. Funny enough for me to pull my camera out and take pictures.

After dinner and a hilarious trip to Wal Mart, we came back to the house for a night of cards, cigars, and crude jokes. We dined on 13 cent ramen noodles, boxes of goldfish, and more Pop Tarts then I have ever seen in my entire life. We were living large and throwing caution into the wind.

Saturday was a blur full of sleeping in, NFL draft watching, playing baseball, naps, and a Spades tournament that we never finished. It all started off with me waking up to a loud, ear piercing, shattering sound. I had fallen asleep in the chair out in the living room and it took me a few seconds to realize where I was and why my eyesight was all blurry (I’d left my contacts in). By then everybody was laughing and I had no idea why. Well, Mr. Leesill had apparently woken up in the next room and tried to quickly stand up. The only problem was that the light fixture didn’t agree with his head’s flight plan and so they collided. Lee won. That fixture never stood a chance. We soon got ready and went to the ball field nearby. Once we got on the field and started tossing the ball around, we quickly noticed there was a problem. The grass in the outfield had gone approximately 49 months without being trimmed, so groundballs literally died within 5 feet after entering the outfield. It made for a very interesting game of baseball. I’ve posted a picture of the field in the new pictures section, so be sure to go see what I am talking about.

Tucker did a very mean thing Saturday night. A few of us went outside to throw the baseball around before the sun went down. Tucker and I were throwing and the ball we were using was of course Circuit City. For those of you who don’t already know, Circuit City has grown to be a kind of special baseball of mine. It got it’s name from the fact that it’s a Circuit City baseball that had the CC logo on it before we wore it off from throwing it so much. I like Circuit City. He’s a good baseball and I’ve chased after him and climbed through poison Ivy one too many times. That’s how special he is. Which is why Tucker felt the need to try and screw with me. As we were walking in, he asked me how angry I’d be if he chucked Circuit City into the woods. I told him I wouldn’t speak to him for 3 months if he did. He looked at me, shrugged, smiled, and launched it. I heard a loud clunk as CC hit a tree deep in the woods and I was shocked. I had never seen Tucky do something so mean and you all know how unbelievable stubborn I can be, so here I stood, realizing that I now could not talk to Tucker until the end of the summer. I walked inside and wouldn’t answer him for the 10 of so minutes that he tried talking to me. As I was walking out of the kitchen looking down at my dinner trying to desperately balance it on the plate, I walked right into a hand holding Circuit City. That bastard had just thrown a rock and wanted to see if I really would go on ignoring him. He laughed, I cursed, and all was forgiven.

I’m still planning my revenge.

We all left fairly early on Sunday. Well, scratch that. We planned on leaving early Sunday. In fact, Tucker had set his alarm for 8:30 and was supposed to wake the rest of us up. So when I rolled over and looked at my watch which read 11:00, I knew we were a little behind schedule. But we eventually hit the road and my next destination was Charleston. The minute I walked into my apartment, I changed clothes and jumped in my truck for the 90 minute drive that ensued. You see, Caitlin and I were talking on IM the Thursday beforehand and she threw out the idea of coming down to South Carolina for the weekend since the TAs in Madison were on strike. Well, she decided to go through with her plan and therefore, I was on my way to Charleston to see her and Jess!

I pulled into Charleston around 4:30ish and hung out with Jess and Caitlin for the rest of the night. We just sat around, made fun of whatever was on the TV, and caught up on old times. It was great seeing Caitlin again. It had been a good year or so since we’d seen each other last and it was just nice being able to talk with her in a non-IM fashion. I hadn’t seen Chloe in a while either, so that was nice as well. It made me want to get a dog even more, which made me want to get a house for next year even more, which reminded me that I had yet to do that. I’ve missed Chloe over the past year…she’s a kick ass dog. And of course, it was nice getting to see Jess too. I think I’ve missed her just as much =) I wasn’t sure if I was leaving that night or early the next morning, but soon Jess got the idea to call Elton. He was busy for the rest of the night, but they made plans on us all getting together in the morning for breakfast at 8. My decision was made.

We woke up the next morning to Elton canceling on us since he had so much work to do. There was no way I was getting up that damn early just to drive back to Columbia, especially when I didn’t have to be back until the afternoon to tutor. There was, however, one slight problem. My truck didn’t want me leaving then either. Yeah, I had a little trouble with her, but I finally got her feeling better and made my way back to Columbia after a weekend well spent.

Sorry this post kind of fizzled out there at the end. I’m exhausted, but I promised I’d have this post up before I went to bed. I’ll be posting a list of quotes from Man Weekend and attempt to explain why they are funny, but don’t be surprised if you don’t get most of them. I’m heading back home tomorrow for the first Seven Moore concert in over a year. For anybody who will be home, they are playing at Spring Fling, so get your asses out there and join me in the front row with Chong, Lee, and Tucker. You all still have a day or two to get your three questions in before I answer and post them, so hurry up and do that.

I had an awesome weekend, but I don’t really have time to make a post about it now. Instead, I’m gonna steal something from Caitlin and Jess:

I want everyone who reads this to ask me three questions–no more, no less. Ask me anything you want. Then, I want you to go to your journal and copy and paste this, allowing your friends (including myself) to ask you anything.

I’m literally walking out the door right now to go away for the weekend, but I feel I must post this now, so forgive me if this seems a little rushed.

Today Pat Tillman was killed in action while serving in Afghanistan. For those of you who know little or nothing about Tillman, he was an NFL star for the Arizona Cardinals for 4 years until 9-11. He then went and married his longtime girlfriend, enjoyed his honeymoon, and joined the Army Rangers. He walked away from the fame and fortune of a multi-million dollar contract to serve his country. His brother, who was a pitching prospect for the Cleveland Indians, also joined him and after months of training, they both became Army Rangers. Both refused to give ANY interviews or comments to the media since they felt what they were doing was no different then the other men and women who gave up their normal lives to join the military.

I first heard of his story last summer when the two won the ESPN Arthur Ashe award. They played a 10 minute clip or so on him and it was so moving, I stayed up until 3 in the morning just to watch it again, even though I had to be at work at 5 AM. Nothing I say right now can give justice to how I feel about Tillman…he inspired me to change my life, to do a few things I never would have done before, and to realize that you can go through life doing things your own way. Reading some of the stories and comments that people sent in only shows that I wasn’t the only person Tillman touched. There is a tribute to him on ESPN Classic tonight at 9:00. If you can’t watch it, I’d suggest you set your VCR to record it like I have. You won’t be dissapointed in the least.

I’ve never once cheered for ASU or the Arizona Cardinals. I’d never heard the name Pat Tillman until a year ago and I’ve only read about him from what I’ve been able to find on the Internet.

And yet today I feel as though I’ve lost a mentor and friend.

We need more Pat Tillmans in the world today. He is the true epitome of everything I try to be.

Okay Stan, this is for you bitch. I didn’t write this! I got it from somewhere else and I thought about cleaning it up, but it just wasn’t as funny after I did. Yes, there is more “fucks” in here then I usually use, but that’s what makes it funny.
And now, just for you saying you’d never let me proof another paper of yours, I am telling Caitlin nasty, NASTY things about you and forbidding her from ever talking to you again!

“You know what’s ALWAYS bothered me? Cold cereal mascots. I mean, that is just some FUCKED UP SHIT. The Trix rabbit, for example. I remember a commercial where the fucking rabbit WENT INTO A FUCKING STORE AND BOUGHT A BOX OF TRIX WITH HIS OWN FUCKING MONEY. Fucking kids came outta NOWHERE and basically fucking mug the poor stupid bitch rabbit. “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids.” Fucking rabbit just sits there and looks depressed. That shit wouldn’t fly with me! I’d have pimp-slapped EVERY ONE OF those fucking bitches, made them go get me the REST of a “complete breakfast,” eaten the Trix right in front of them bitches, and THEN beat the shit out of them. And what the fuck is with the disguises? All the dumb rabbit does is hide his ears and all of a sudden he’s a fucking kid? I dunno about you, but if I saw a 6 foot fucking RABBIT with his ears tucked under a baseball cap, I wouldn’t immediately think, “Hey, there’s a cool looking human kid, let me go over and share some of my cereal with him.” NO! I’d be thinking, “there’s a 6 foot fucking RABBIT with his ears tucked under a baseball cap…what the FUCK was I just smoking?” And another thing…what the fuck is up with cereal being “A part of this complete breakfast?” Last time I checked, cereal WAS breakfast. They show a big ass bowl of frosted flakes next to a waffle, a pancake, toast, a banana, a fucking grapefruit… who the FUCK eats a breakfast that big? But back to stupid cereal mascots…Lucky Charms. FUCKING LUCKY CHARMS! Lucky can turn the fucking MOON into a marshmallow, but he can’t escape a bunch of fucking 6 year olds?!?!? C’mon now, Lucky, I KNOW your bitch ass has got to have a “Blow the fucking kids up” spell SOMEWHERE! Or make “kid marshmallows” and EAT those bitches. “They’re after me Lucky Charms!”….KILL THEM, BITCH! I dunno why I went off on this rant here; it’s just always bothered me.”

For those of you who are visual learners, check out this site. He would make a good addition to Stan’s Tooling Team.

I’m working on my subpages (namely the Mariners one). It’s in shambles right now with nothing but a lot of broken links, but it’s slowly coming along. I’m going away for the weekend, so I’ll try to post once more before I go or maybe type something up and post it while I’m away. We’ll see.

When I first heard about this, “far fetched” quickly came to mind. No way in hell this can be true. It sounds like some drunk kids with a little too much time on their hands concocted some funky story and it spread on the Internet. Right? Right?….

Wrong. All I can say is:
Plus
Equals

You won’t believe me until you finally try it for yourself, which is why I was skeptic until I actually went out with Fitz and Tucker to watch it with a bunch of other people. See, there’s this rumor that’s floating out there these days that says this: If you watch the Wizard of Oz with the sound turned down while simultaneously playing Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, you’ll quickly see that they go together. And I’m not talking “yeah, it kind of sounds like it could go along with the movie as a sound track or something” together. I’m talking “Holy shit, did you just see and hear that?! There’s NO WAY that could be coincidence!” or “DUDE! Listen to the lyrics! WOAH!” together.

You really have to see it to believe it. Keying up the CD and movie together in sync is by far the most important part, but once you’ve got it, you can sit back, relax, and be amazed at just how similar the two are. I’m sure you’ve all heard the CD before (and if you haven’t, what the hell is wrong with you?) and you can remember just how strange and random it is. There’s bells, whistles, odd clinks and clanks throughout the tracks. And while the CD is pretty short (hovers around 45 minutes), there are hardly any words to most of the songs and even when there are words, they appear to be totally random.

Not when you listen to it while watching the movie. Every time Dorothy falls, a loud clang will happen RIGHT AS she falls. Door and windows opening during the movie go hand in hand with creaking and squeaking noises from the tracks. If you know a little background about the movie (such as, at the time of its release, it was by far the most expensive movie ever to be created) you’ll be treated to even more surprises. Take for instance the scene where Dorothy wakes up in Oz and the movie is suddenly in color. Right at that moment, the song “Money” starts playing, which is filled with sounds of cash registers opening and closing.

The fact that Pink Floyd won’t confirm or deny the accusations only helps fuel the fire. Some say that if you put the CD on repeat and let it run through the whole movie, it keeps playing in sync, but I found that one to be a bit of a stretch. However, I would agree to put the CD on a loop so that you go through the whole CD and then start back over with the first two songs again. After that, it tapers off and there really isn’t anything cool, but still. I’m telling you folks, if you ever get a chance to witness this feat firsthand, be sure to. You won’t regret it.

One thing you’ll quickly notice from hanging out with the guys is that they love the card game Spades. It’s quite addictive and the rules are pretty simple to learn, but you can go somewhere else to learn them. All you need to know is this. Most games you play to 500. First team there wins. You can go into the negatives and usually, the lowest you’ll ever get is around –200 or so. During a REALLY bad game you might hit –500, but that is so rare only a handful of people can actually attest to witnessing such an event. Oh yeah, the Ace of Spades trumps all. Nothing can beat it. That was something I should have kept in mind.

I’m going to share with you a recent game that took place where I made history. That’s right folks, me and Johnny scored what is possibly the lowest score ever in the history of Spades. We came, we saw, we sucked. I couldn’t stop laughing by the end of that game. To my credit, I could have SWORN that Ace of Spades was an Ace of Clubs. Johnny’s expression as I laid down that Ace was priceless.

”You meant to do that, right? That was uh, like, part of your plan, RIGHT?! This is some strategy I’ve never heard of, RIGHT?!?!?

Hell, I’m proud of that -1454. You’ll never see a score like that again. Good times =)

Tommy: Clay, how long have you had that shirt on? Since we got here?
Clay: Yeah
Me: Eh, that’s no big deal. I’ve had the same pair of underwear on for at least a week.
Clay: …Me too…
Tommy: ….Me too…
*laughter*

Well, last week was Spring Break for my brothers. The timing couldn’t have been any better for I desperately needed something to occupy my mind and some quality video gaming and fart jokes worked wonders. (Just a warning, there might be a joke or two in here that will only be funny to myself, Tommy, and Clay. Just skip over those and pretend you saw nothing.)

They flew in on Tuesday night and I was sitting right there waiting for them. Actually, I had been there for a good 20 minutes watching one of the funniest things I had ever seen. You all know how airports have landing lights at night for the planes, right? Well apparently somebody screwed something up, because the lights were flashing and blinking in the most spastic way possible. Not a single light was in sync with another. Some were on, some were off, some were blinking exceptionally fast, some were in that slow, drawn out delay type blink, and the rest were just flashing at normal speed. And all awhile, there are men running around on the tarmac going from electrical box to electrical box trying to figure out what in the hell was going on. I thought maybe they were just testing the skills of the pilots that night. You know, teasing the rookies and making them do something way out of their range. Thankfully, the boys’ plane had already landed, so their pilot must have been a pro or something.

Now, before they came down, I had clearly given them a list of 3 things to bring with them. (1) My mom’s camera so that I could take some pictures while they were down here. (2) Some photo albums of old pictures of me so that I could put them on Shyzer, and (3) My birthday presents from two months ago. When I picked them up, I asked them if they had remembered everything and they both froze. Never a good sign. They had forgotten 1 and 2, but luckily they remembered 3. No worries, I told them, we’d just pick up a disposable camera at Wal Mart since we were headed there to grab some groceries. When they heard this, they both burst out laughing and refused to tell me what they were laughing at, promising instead to tell me about it when we got to the apartment.

We shopped around in Wal Mart for a while and as we were leaving, I remembered something that I had wanted to buy for a while. Easter Reece Cup Eggs. I love those things and you can only get them for like 2 months out of the year, so we swung over to the candy isle to pick some up. When we got there, we couldn’t find any and began to frantically search the few isles that held all the candy. Now, here is the key part that I’ll explain later. While we were searching for the candy, Tommy and Clay kept running up ahead of me and blocking out parts of the isle. I never noticed it until they told me about it later on, but they couldn’t stop laughing and kept making up bullshit excuses about why they were laughing that I just accepted.

During our search, Tommy felt the need to reach up on the top shelf and grab one of those giant Easter egg baskets they sell that comes with all the candy pre-packaged. After he was done playing with it, he attempted to stick the thing back up on the shelf, but every time he put it up there, it would start to fall back on him. So finally, he shoved it up there and turned towards Clay and me brushing off/clapping his hands in one of those motions you do when you finish up a task. As he stood there smiling over his conquering of the basket, we heard a sudden crash come from the next isle over. Apparently he shoved the damn thing a little too hard and it sent the baskets lining the other side crashing to the floor. It was right around this time that we gave up our search for the eggs and went to check out. Things were already looking good for the coming week =)

When we got back to my apartment, I put away the groceries while they unpacked and made fun of how dirty everything was. Hey, I vacuumed the floor for them. What more did they expect? Finally, I told them that I wanted to open my birthday present. They handed it to me and after I opened it, I was speechless. My mom had gotten me this. I was going crazy and they were laughing like hell. I finally understood why they were laughing in the car when I told them that I’d buy a disposable camera, but it didn’t explain the laughing in Wal Mart. Well they proceeded to tell me that the fucking disposable cameras were on the damn candy isles and I never saw them. They kept trying to block them from me so that I wouldn’t waste my money on one and I had to give it to them that they did an excellent job of keeping me off track.

I’ve played around with the camera so much. Every picture from the Shaved section in my galleries was taken with the new camera and I have plenty more pictures to upload once I get the time. To go with the camera, however, they got me a memory card that we found exceptionally funny. Here, let’s play a little game. Take a look at it and tell me if you can see anything funny with it. Look at it. Look at it. See anything? Yeah, that’s right, that small little memory card came with about 50 pounds of plastic, none of which encased it for it’s protection. We could not stop laughing at it once we noticed it. We also had a little more fun with my web cam.

We spent the majority of their time just hanging out and playing video games. There was some trouble at night as we had to decide who would sleep on the floor. See, at my apartment, we have what some people call a “problem.” A “roach” problem if you will. They like us. A lot. We seem to be like a popular roach vacation resort like Club Med or something, what with all the food my roommate Phil leaves out for them and whatnot. So the floor soon earned the nickname Roach Interstate 90 or RI90 for short. Tommy would freak out at the mere mention of a roach and my constant taunting about how they would crawl into his mouth at night didn’t seem to help maters =)

Fellner was ever so kind to take us out to eat on his Trillion Bonus Bucks that he has here for food on campus, so we quickly accepted each night and choose Pizza Hut as our destination of choice. Now, I’m all for fresh pizza. Hell, who likes lukewarm food when it could be made piping hot? But there are some times when I just want my damn food. This was one of those times. This was also one of those times that the 12 people working behind the counter decided to chill out and make one pizza at a time. They were, however, stocking up on case after case of buffalo wings. Now, not a single person had picked up a case of wings. The wings section was overflowing with cases into the pizza section and after about 20 minutes of this, it just became absolutely hilarious. Tommy asked if they would just put some pepperonis on the wings so that he could pretend it was a pizza, but they didn’t think it was quite as funny as I did.

I’m not sure what day it was, but one afternoon we got to wrestling like we always do. I can’t even remember who was trying to pin who, but in the middle of everything, I apparently destroyed Tommy’s groin area with my deadly left knee. He quickly doubled over in pain and was shouting barely audible curse words at me and so I was left to do the only thing I knew how to do - recite an appropriate quote from either The Simpsons, Major League I / II, or Seinfeld. I picked the middle option for the following quote: “I did get kicked in the balls once by a mule. Now, I thought that I would be hurting for the rest of my life, but you know what happened the very next week? *sniff* My momma died. Hell, after that, I didn?t care no more about my balls hurting. You see what I’m getting at??

It worked perfectly. The three of us could not stop laughing for at least 30 minutes and for the rest of their stay, we’d randomly say “My momma died” and DIE laughing. I’m telling you folks, there is a quote from any of those three that will solve any problem life throws at you.

One last source of amusement for us was this workout machine owned by my roommate. DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW IN THE HELL YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO USE THIS? The best we could come up with was sitting on top of it and riding it like a mechanical bull since the top part of it can swivel 360 degrees. I’m not kidding you people. We cannot for the life of us figure out how in the hell this piece of equipment should be used properly. Any help would be greatly appreciated, although if we ever do learn the true method of usage, it might take away from the humor we find in not knowing how to use it. That’s a sacrifice I?m willing to make.

There were plenty more jokes that I’ve decided not to elaborate on (everybody leaves the apartment???..Halo?! or dragging them with me while I tutored Anna or forcing Tommy to hold that cake or trying to order at Sonic). On Saturday, I drove them back to our hometown so that Clay could see my dad for a day before he had to fly back out. All in all, we had a damn good time and have already made plans to do it again in the fall. Thanks for the good time bros =)

Last summer, my mom handed me a small business card with that passage written on the back of it. I was going through a rough period in my life and she was just trying to help in any motherly way possible. I stuck it in my wallet, where it slowly faded into an illegible, crumpling piece of paper, but recently I’ve committed it to memory since I’ve needed something to help me move on.

We had plenty of similarities and common grounds, but we couldn’t have been more different. Our relationship was plagued by communication, or lack thereof. We never really discovered how to talk to each other. Even after 5 years of being around each other, we spoke in code. It was the only way we knew how to say what we wanted to say. We spoke at each other, not to each other. So it’s no surprise to see how we gradually fell apart, how she was unable to tell me why she wanted to go in another direction, and how I didn’t understand why she was going that way. It’s clear to me now, as I’m sure it is to her, why we broke up, but at this stage, it’s a moot point.

She’s now moved forward and found somebody else who makes her truly happy. Is it weird seeing her gush over another guy? I’d be lying if I only said “a little.” Does it make me remember what we used to have? In vivid detail. Was it hard seeing her block me out? Excruciating. But even after all of this, how do I feel?

Back in early November, I wrote about an Epiphany that I experienced. (okay, so I didn’t actually elaborate on it - but trust me, it was huge for me). Jess and I had finally agreed that we wanted each other to be happy, that we no longer really knew each other, and that we should move on. The following day, I experienced some things that were quite divine. Below is an excerpt from an IM conversation that I had trying to sum up what it felt like.

All of the hate, anger, uncertainty - all of it - it just vanished. Each and every ounce of it was replaced with this feeling of peace and calmness, the feeling that I’ve known all along is what I was going for, but never understood how to obtain it. It feels amazing. Everything that used to make me angry no longer does. Nothing stirs that rage inside of me anymore and I’ve sat here and tried.

I’ve yet to waiver in my belief that what I went though was supernatural, but as with everything else in life, the passage of time seemed to slowly erode the memories and feelings of that afternoon.

The past few weeks have been especially rough for me. March 31st was exceptionally odd, as were the few nights leading up to and after it. It would have been our 4-year anniversary and it just felt weird seeing the turn of events that had taken place instead. I had quite a few events and surprises planned for that week, but it quickly became obvious that they couldn’t happen and I was left trying to figure out what in the world had just occurred.

As I desperately tried to recreate what I’d been through in the past year or so to a friend, the first thing out of his mouth was “Why aren’t you angry? If I were you, I’d be pissed. I’d also go find me another girl to get my mind off her.” Which brings me to my inherent flaw - er, quality if you must. I’m not like most people. Yeah, yeah, everybody says that so much that the phrase carries with it no significance anymore. But it’s true. Ask anybody who knows me. I can’t run to another person to try and fill that void. I have to move on, be patient, and slowly over the years build back up what I had. So while the statement about getting another girl might not have applied to me, the one about anger most certainly did…or at least, it used to. Before, I would have collected all the emotions I had, converted them into anger, and struck back. It’s what I did whenever I got pissed with anybody. I did what I could to make them go through the hell I’d just gone through and when I felt we were even, I’d drop all the anger and move on.

So what was the point in reminding you about a post that I made last November? Well, like I said, I know that had the past few weeks happened before my said Epiphany, I would have done some things that I would have later regretted. I would have let my emotions take over and get the best of me while trying to justify my actions to myself. So in turn, I must be grateful for the trials of these past few weeks, because the glass is always half full, right? They have helped remind me of my evolution and strengthen my devotion to life. Before, I would have been angry for quite some time until I extracted my revenge and I would have been hurt for many months thereafter. Yet this time around, the anger lasted for maybe 1 minute. The hurt is ever so slowly subsiding.

But the final piece to this whole puzzle? I’m happy for her, an emotion that would have never run through my body before. I truly am happy to see her happy. Not angry, not vengeful, not spiteful. Maybe depressed that I don’t have something like what she has found, but an emotion which I can overcome and fade away. It’s strange sitting here and typing that I’m happy she is with another guy, but I can’t lie. I care so much for her that it truly does make me smile to see how joyful she is.

Every time I go through one of these periods in my life, I run back to music. It’s the one thing in my life that has never let me down and frankly, I find more solace in it then anything else in the world. David Gray, a true genius, sings my favorite song of all time, Please Forgive Me. Every time I listen to it, I am reminded of that feeling of love I once shared and how wonderful it felt. And yet Fate seems to find pleasure in Irony, so it is only natural that Gray also sings the song that I recently discovered. I have listened to repeatedly over the past few weeks and it could not sum up my feelings any better. “Shine” is the perfect song for me right now and I’m providing it to you free of charge, so why wouldn’t you download it?

I don’t believe in Coincidence, but instead in Fate and Providence. So despite how much I might miss her, I took and used the events from the past few weeks to finally close the 2nd chapter of my life. It’s something I’ve put off and told myself would never have to actually occur, but I’ve finally done it. Yet it’s hard figuring out how to start a new chapter. You sit down and start scribbling opening lines that always end up being furiously crossed out. Before you know it, your trashcan is overflowing with crumpled sheets of notebook paper while you are still left searching for that perfect string of words that will capture the essence and emotion you so desperately want to convey. Which is why I’m sticking with Reunion. Short, sweet, and to the point.

The morale of the story? Even though She blocks you out of her new life, yours still moves forward. So this is my Good-Bye, my Farewell, my Retreat into the night. I wish you all the best of luck Jessica and I hope that you are truly Happy.

And now, I’ll be returning to the main reason why most of you are here - to read the random shit I come up with. I know I vowed long ago to not bitch and moan on here, but I thought you all might like a glimpse into my life every now and then.

“The jumpmasters pushed their men up the steps, each of them carrying at least 100 pounds, many 150. One 101st trooper spoke for all 13,400 men in the two airborne divisions when he got to the door of his C-47, turned east, and called, ‘Look out, Hitler! Here we come!’”

“Sitting in his plane, company commander Thomas Meehan scribbled a short note to his wife. ‘Dearest Anne: In a few hours I’m going to take the best company of men in the world into France. We’ll give the bastards hell. Strangely I’m not particularly scared but in my heart is a terrific longing to hold you in my arms.’
‘I love you Sweetheart – Forever. Your Tom.’”

“Meehan handed the not through the open door to a friend on the plane’s crew and told him to get it to Anne. At 0110, the planes passed over the coast and into a cloud bank. The lead plane in stick 66, flown by Lt. Harold Cappelluto, was hit with bullets going through it and out the top, throwing sparks. The plane maintained course and speed for a moment or two, then did a slow wingover to the right. Pilot Frank DeFlita, just behind, remembered that ‘Cappelluto’s landing lights came on, and it appeared they were going to make it, when the plane hit a hedgerow and exploded.’ It was the plance carrying Lieutenant Meehan and the rest of the company headquarters section. Easy Company had not put one man into combat yet, and it had already lost platoon leader Schmitz, company commander Meehan, and its first sergeant.”

For those of you who haven’t heard, The History Channel is showing Band of Brothers this week. Starting at 9:00 each night, they are airing about 75 minutes worth of the series until they finish it off early next week. It’s an amazing mini-series that follows the book quite well and is guaranteed to stir a few emotions deep inside of you. I highly suggest you tune in if at all possible.

The following won’t apply to any Braves or Cubs fans since you can watch your team play whenever you damn well please, but for the rest of us….

It isn’t every day that a deal comes along that is such an easy choice that you feel compelled to make the purchase just based on the ridiculous value you’re getting for the money. Today is one of those days, so as a service to my readers, here is something I discovered this morning while shopping through MLB.com’s subscription packages.

Since I reside in South Carolina, I was considering dropping the $80 to buy access to MLB.tv, which would allow me to see some live Mariner baseball this year. However, $80 is a bit steep for watching through questionable connections on my computer, so I was surfing for alternatives. I was hoping to find some package that would also give me the condensed games, so I could watch the west coast games (which begin as I’m heading to bed) the next morning. While going through the subscription options, I found this page. It presents three options:

1. Purchase MLB.tv, which allows you to watch a large majority of games live, but no condensed games or optional footage, for $15 per month or $80 for the season.

2. Purchase MLB All Access, which includes MLB.tv, plus gameday audio, condensed games, video highlights, and some other fluff that I probably won’t use. This is $20 per month, or $110 for the season.

3. Sign up for MSN Premium, which is a bundle of free programs that Microsoft is selling as a subscription model for $10/month. Newsflash, folks: Pop-up blockers, spam filters, and email accounts are free. Don’t pay for them. But wait, MSN Premium includes MLB All Access. Hey, thats promising. And its $10 per month, rather than the $20 per month if you buy directly from MLB.com? Already sounds like a good deal. Hey, why not just throw in the first 3 months for free, just for the heck of it? Wait, they do.

So, you can pay $80 for 6 months of MLB.tv, $110 for 6 months of MLB All Access, or $30 (3 months free, 3 months paid) for 6 months of MSN Premium, which includes MLB All Access. You don’t have to be a math major to figure this one out.

I’ve already watched two games this year and frankly, the video feed and picture / sound quality are 100 times better then what I had expected. Anybody with a half-way decent video card will be able to enjoy the game and seriously, $30 for what MLB All Access is offering is a steal. Go sign up now.