Not to mention that after two weeks of non-stop sports intensity, things have hit a bit of a lull. I suppose we need lulls to recharge the batteries, digest the past and prepare for the future, but I'm still bored. Gets me thinking of the old cliche, "if every day is a sunny day, then what's a sunny day?", in that events are only events because of their rarity. If they happened every day, then they'd just be another day, and ss the 3rd day of the Final Five teaches us, too much of a good thing is very possible.
So with that in mind, some random thoughts to move things along in this slow week:
- The Fighting Sioux routed their way into the Frozen Four by a combined 12-1 score. Whoopee. Pardon my lack of enthusiasm at the moment. I was fired up watching the games, but then reality set in and I remembered this scorchingly hot team now has an off week at the worst possible time. Not to mention they're only one hot opposing goalie away from the run coming to an abrupt halt. Sure, the anticipation is enjoyable, and it's been an extremely fun season so far, but anything less than the grand prize would be devastating. Expectations and past history being what they are, guarded optimism is all that I can muster at the moment. More to come on this next week as the event draws near.
- I feel defrauded by the NHL. When the point system changed, we thought we were just trading ties for shootouts, a no-brainer on paper. Now a few years later, the true consequences of the change are clear. Handing out 3 points almost every game makes every team appear to be in playoff contention, but in reality just means it's now impossible to close a 6-point gap after the first of the year. So they have basically given a crutch to all the middling teams in the league, who can now say "Sure we finished 12th in the conference, but we only missed the playoffs by 8 points!" An 8-point margin might as well be 20 in today's NHL, because you'd need to have 40 games remaining to have any hope of catching up. Meanwhile the teams can churn out lame ad campaigns late in the season about how much every game counts. Nevermind they don't bother addressing the logical question of why being a fringe playoff team should make us fans anymore interested. I mean why rush down to catch the 19th best team in the league when they can't even put a decent 5-game stretch together to secure a spot?
- I enjoy the fact that the autocorrect on my phone seems to have given up on curbing my use of profanity. I've finally beaten down it's resistance to f-bombs and other vulgar language, to the point it no longer tries to insert "duck" and "shut" in my text messages. I've also taught it the words "Sioux", "Delmon" and "Loserville". This must be how teachers feel.
- Bumped into a friend's significant other recently, and chatted for a moment. Don't know this girl well, and apparently she had trouble remembering my name when talking to her boyfriend, so referred to me as Voldemort. He is now referring to me as He Who Shall Not Be Named. I find this hilarious.
- Ever stop and ponder what percentage of your life is "Have Tos" versus "Want Tos"? Between work, school, studying and sleep, it seems like way too much of my life is obligations these days. Realizing that any parent reading this just laughed out loud, it's still lame. Suppose I still waste plenty of time on frivilous pursuits and shouldn't complain, but thinking about how much of your day is already accounted for the minute you wake up in the morning can be depressing. I think everyone needs a good case of the Eff Its once every month, just a day or two where you say "I should take care of that, but you know what? Eff It.", then go do what you want to do. Saying Eff It is admittedly trickier when you have a child to care for, if the previous sentence begins with "You know I should feed the kids", ignore everything I've said to this point. But if it starts with "I should really clean out the garage", bail on that s*it and go golfing. At least on occasion, it will help keep you sane. And yes, this is the logic I use to reassure myself that spending 12 hours in a bar on a Saturday is not only acceptable, but healthy!
- I'm always fascinated by people who shoot up their places of work. Not because I was to emulate them, or think they deserve admiration, but because I'm interested in what pushed them over the brink. Found out their wife was cheating with a co-worker? Got notified they'd be laid off soon? Or was it something as simple as someone forgetting to make a new pot of coffee in the breakroom? Not only is it an interesting trip into the human psyche, it gives you clues on what to watch for. The thing I really want to see is someone getting their job back after being released from prison. Imagine the boss they tried to kill speaking to the media "We fired Doug because he lacked initiative, but he really showed me something here. This company has always been about taking bold action in the face of uncertainty, and there are few things bolder than walking into a man's office and shooting him. Sure his poor aim still leaves some questions about whether he can close deals and get the job done, but you can't teach ingenuity and risk-taking, so we're willing to give things another shot."
- So you can't smoke anywhere these days, everyone knows that. Now Hennepin County has added a law stating that you can't smoke anywhere on county property, even if you sitting in your own car. This is stupid and, when you consider the law already on the books stating people must be 45 feet from entrances, redundant. Now I'm not trying to argue against the ban, public opinion supports it and that train has sailed. But man has the world turned into a bunch of pansies these days, it's ridiculous. You don't like smoke, that's fine. I'm not a big fan either, would rather eat my hamburger without some guy's Camel wafting in my face. Just don't give me some trumped up nonsense about secondhand smoke being responsible for more deaths than smallpox, because I ain't buyin. Stuff that in the pseudo-science bin with the global warming tripe. Not trying to veer to heavily into politics, and certainly not trying to take up the banner for smokers, because I really don't care. The whole thing just makes me wonder how many things are going to be banned before it's all said and done, all these old folks in the world are turning into the damn Fun Police. Work would never be important enough to make me go on an armed rampage, but start messing with my burgers and beer? Well that just might. Consider yourself warned, all you ban fanatics out there.
That's it from the random thoughts department, time to start pondering baseball season and the Twins, two days away!
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