The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
What-WHAT?!
Jason Whitlock at Foxspots.com has me fired up again. (For the record – I don’t read him all the time and I don’t agree with everything he says). In his NFL Truths column today, Whitlock said this:
“The next time someone tells you that a playoff format would make college football perfect remind him/her of the Colts laying down against the Jets and the legitimate allegations the Patriots and Bengals will lay down this weekend to keep the defending champion Steelers out of the playoffs.”
I already get ..um….sorry, Mom, but there isn’t a word other than.. pissy…about teams sitting their starters before the playoffs.
You don’t have to tell me about the injuries. The Bears lost Peanut Tillman and Johnny Knox and I don’t want to know who else in Monday’s awesome-awesome game against the Vikings. We weren’t playing for anything other than respect. During the Bears 2006 season, they were playing for nothing in the last game and they sat the starters. Against the Packers. Brian Urlacher looked like a caged lion on the sidelines of that game. It hurt more to watch him – and the network made us watch him – than to watch the loss. Almost.
Anyway. Forget the Colts. The Colts were not my point. It was the next part. Follow this, please:
““Cincinnati is probably going to go into New York and lay down for the Jets and not play them hard just because they’re not going to want to see Pittsburgh in (the playoffs),” Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley told the media on Wednesday. “No one wants to see Pittsburgh in it. That’s just how it is. Everybody knows we’re a dangerous team once we get into the playoffs, no matter how we played the whole year.”
It’s true. Pittsburgh can’t qualify for the playoffs if the Pats and Bengals both lose.
If you were Cincinnati or New England and had an opportunity to eliminate two-time Super Bowl winner and fourth-quarter assassin Ben Roethlisberger by keeping the playoff hopes of New York’s Mark Sanchez and Houston’s Matt Schaub alive, wouldn’t you lay down?”
No. No, I would not lay down. You know why? Because that is bloody cowardly.
I remember in 1985 when the Bears were in the playoffs. During the AFC Championship game, I told my mother that I was rooting for the Patriots. We had already beaten the Patriots that season. The Dolphins, the other contender for the AFC Championship, had beaten the Bears in that famous Week 13 debacle. She said, “Wouldn’t you rather play the Dolphins, so the Bears can redeem themselves?” No. I wanted the Bears to play the Patriots and win, win, win.
Someone has translated the logic of my eleven year old self into a reason to throw a football game. That should be illegal. Illegal. Against the laws of God and Man. Anyone who does that should be sentenced to a lifetime nickname of “LoserDawg” and be forced to wear the girl-pink version of his jersey every game for the rest of his career.
Damn Whitlock. I could’ve gone the whole happy-football weekend without hearing that particular “legitimate allegation”. I’m going to start drinking now.
75 Cage Rattling Questions to Change the Way You Work, by Dick Whitney and Melissa Giovagnoli
I was sitting in my friend Kim’s cubicle in Fargo when I saw 75 Cage Rattling Questions to Change the Way You Work, by Dick Whitney and Melissa Giovagnoli. Kim said she received the book at some training session or another and hadn’t read it yet. And I could borrow it, but I’d better give it back. “If you worked in a big, glass fishbowl, what might you do differently?”
This book was well-done, but I was over it by about question 50. Although to be fair, it was probably meant more as a reference book than something to be read from page 1 through to the end in a sitting or two. Whatever. Sending this back to Kim now.
The Year in Review: 2009
2009 shall go down in history as the first time that I left the party before midnight because I was tired and had to drive myself home. Seriously, that could sum up the year for me.
At work, it will go down in history as the year that my boss, Dave, retired. I have spent most of my career with Dave. He was the best mentor a punk kid could have had and I am just beginning to understand what a difference his guidance made every day. This makes it sound like I accomplished nothing this year, which isn’t true. But if you ask me in 10 years what happened at work in 2009, it will be about Dave.
At school, it will be the year that I finished the coursework for my masters degree. I’m over it.
At home, it was the year that Mold took over our lives. It cost a fortune. My previously finished basement is now unfinished. My African Grey is still on anti-fungal meds because she can’t quite kick the aspergillus out of her system. The only upside is that the two weeks I spent living in a hotel earned me elite status at the Holiday Inn.
Oooh. In Travel: I went back to New Orleans for my summer vacation, which was lovely. Didn’t stay out past midnight even once. I visited two “new” cities – Seattle, which kindly introduced me to crumpets and Nutella, and Franklin, Tennessee. I am not entirely sure that Franklin counts as a “city”. The “city” would be Nashville and I’d already been there. Whatever. Good road trip. I also learned how much better life can be on the airlines with Premier status. And I just learned that United re-upped me for 2010. Yay!
In Volunteering, it was the year Glenview broke ground on the new Library. From its July 2006 inception through mid-December 2009 the Used Book Store had raised over $57,000. That’s just the book store operation – it doesn’t even count the other fundraising that the Friends group does throughout the year. I don’t have statistics on successes at the Rescue but thank you, Internet, for motivating me to ask for some.
In reading, I started on a Civil War kick that is not over yet. Since I found one of Professor Blight’s tomes at Half Price Books last weekend. Which reminds me that I had better get back to my book. There is still half a prayer that I might make the 50 Book mark by tomorrow. Happy New Year.
Juggling Work and School
MSN Careers ran an article called Juggling Work and School that made me think I should take some time to sum up the experience. I’ll come up with something all Doogie Howser Thoughtful. Eventually. But first, the point of the article:
How the heck do people manage to go to work, go to school, take care of their families and have a life? One student was quoted as saying:
“School is teaching me a skill set that I need to advance in my career, and the balancing portion is helping me learn to prioritize, barrel through challenges and fulfill commitments. All of those are invaluable assets on the job.”
The consensus of opinion among my classmates is that we don’t. Have lives, I mean. My job didn’t really suffer. I made some accommodations in my travel schedule, and I asked to be reimbursed for Internet access when I was charged for it on the road. And sometimes it was my excuse for being cranky. Oh, and that week after my final I was logged on to the Student Link all day because I was worried about my grade.
My volunteering did suffer. Particularly during my travel-heavy times, I didn’t feel like I could give another night a week to volunteering when I was in the middle of papers and group projects and exam weeks.
My family time took a hit. I haven’t spent a real random Saturday with my nephew since the summer.
My time with friends took the biggest hit. I remember telling my friend Noah back in August that I’d see him New Years’ Eve. This turned out to be accurate. I think.
I really don’t know how people with spouses and children do it. Except that most people don’t have the luxury of choosing school instead of work. We need the employer to help with the tuition expenses.
There are five tips listed in this article on how to balance things and they all sound good. But as I am sitting here asking myself how I did it, Myself is only saying, “I dunno. I just did it.”
Spiderman Fleece
I didn’t realize my nephew, Alex, was into Spiderman until he chose it for his costume this past Halloween. When I saw this “No Sew Fleece Throw” kit at Michael’s, I decided that I could have it finished in time for his birthday. In February.
The End of the Vacation
I’ve been off for awhile between the road trip and the holiday. My laundry is done. The game starts in 20 minutes. I obviously got through some reading, although that was at the expense of my DVR episodes of Chuck. I am not sure I am going to catch up before it comes back. That thought kept me from buying the first season of True Blood on DVD – $17.00 at Target.
I think I am ready to go back now.
The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M. Cain
Book 48“An amoral young drifter. A beautiful, sullen woman, An inconvenient husband. And a problem that has only one, grisly solution – a solution which creates problems which can never be solved…”
This was a good read in that the tension builds and then subsides and then builds even bigger again. My problem, as usual, is that none of the characters are particularly sympathetic. I didn’t have anyone to root for. Cain did a great job is writing the “should I turn on her/did she turn on me” aspect. There is some interesting commentary on human nature. There is a difference between lust and love. A difference between love and trust. And if you are going to plan a murder with someone, you’d damn well better trust her.
OK, that last part was just me.
Cain packed an awful lot into a short novel. I’d read him again.
Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill
Book 47 – Warning – Slight Spoilers
I haven’t read Stephen King in years. I gave up on him around the time of … Needful Things… and… Gerald’s Game. The consensus of opinion in my family is that he peaked with It. And anyway, I thought I was about done with the horror genre. I read his wife, Tabitha’s books for years after that. I might be able to make an argument that she is the better writer. So Joe Hill is their kid and Heart-Shaped Box is his first full length novel.
The gist of the story is that someone lists a ghost for sale on an Internet auction site. The ghost is attached to a man’s suit. Send money, receive suit and custody of the ghost of the suit’s owner. Our hero, an aging rock star named Jude, makes the purchase and we have a ghost story. Cool.
I read the first few chapters all la-dee-dah-nice-ghost-story-idea. Then I came to the point, which was that someone deliberately baited our hero into making this purchase so that he would be haunted by this particular spirit that wants revenge on him.
Oh. Wait. That’s Scary.
The Scary builds with the idea that anyone who offers aid or comfort to our hero becomes a target. There is also a particular dread for me because our hero has two heroic dogs and I had an extremely bad feeling that something bad would happen to them.
My friend Liza reviewed this book on LibraryThing awhile back and noted that in most ghost stories, part of the scary is that no one else knows/understands/believes what is happening. In this case, the people that come in contact with Jude do believe and can’t help him. That was well done.
I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the climax of the story. It read very cinematically, but I was left thinking, “Wait. How the hell did that happen?” Maybe I read it too quickly. I also wish there had been a better explanation of how and why the dead are hanging around and how/when/why they cross over. What are the rules of that game? Although perhaps part of the point is that Jude never really learns it, either.
Overall, I think this was well done and I am looking forward to seeing what Hill does next.
Road Trip: Franklin, Tennessee
Franklin, Tennessee.
I mentioned that it sounded like a good road trip after I read the Robert Hicks book The Widow of the South this past summer. It is south of Nashville on I-65 – about an eight hour drive – and has a darling “historic downtown” area, in addition to the Confederate Cemetery as described in the novel. Also, I needed two more nights at a Marriott to maintain my Elite Status for 2010.
Anyway, Carnton was a field hospital for Confederate soldiers during the Battle of Franklin (November, 1864). Much is made of the bloodstains that can be seen on the hardwood floors. Apparently, the floors had been carpeted, so they were not washed properly until the carpets were torn up and by then the stains were already set. A few years later, the McGavock family, who lived there, donated two acres of their backyard to become the permanent resting place for some 4500 soldiers that died during the Battle. The not-for-profit that runs the place (Hicks is a member) has done a fine job of restoring it considering a (different) private family lived there as late as … I want to say 1977. 
One thing I found fascinating was that the old kitchen from the side of the house was destroyed by a tornado in the early 1900s. It was never rebuilt and you can still see the ruins. Just that part of the house. There is also a dead tree nearby that made me wonder if that was the path the tornado took. I thought I took a picture of that, because it was interesting to look at, but apparently not.
Then I went out to the cemetery. It looked like a cemetery. It was divided by state and had only numbers and initials listed on the stones. But I did pick up the history book in the gift shop that give more details on who the men were and where they came from. Autographed, of course. I am fascinated by these old, old grounds where there is always someone that keeps bringing flowers to another who died a century before. These weren’t fresh or anything, but hardly vintage 1870, either. I wonder if the staff leaves them just to get people to look up the names. I’d pull a stunt like that if I worked there. Although, I guess if I was local and had an ancestor buried there, I might bring something pretty every once in awhile just because I could. Anyway.
A New Hope: The Life of Luke Skywalker, by Ryder Windham
Book 46There was a scene of Obi Wan saving his butt around age 13 and some wondering of why Owen couldn’t stand Kenobi. And we see adult Luke go back to Tatooine and hearing the stories of his father as a 9 year old Podracer.
This wasn’t thrilling, but I’ve read worse Star Wars books.
The Next Dark Age 