Catch up
For the past few weeks, I've been debating whether to do one long post to catch up on events since I last posted, or just dump a bunch of little posts over a few days. It would definitely be easier to write a few small posts to hit the salient points, but I've got so many excuses for why I haven't been posting. I want to beg forgiveness for not posting by dropping to my knees in front of Carrie Fisher like John Belushi in Blues Brothers:
"I got a flat tire...a rat ate through a wire on my car engine...I had class at DePaul...the White Sox won the friggin' WORLD SERIES...my wife and I went to Vegas...it was my wife's birthday...The Boondocks cartoon premiered...it was my birthday...the White Sox shook up their roster...someone came into town...there were the holidays (including Christmas, of course)...the Bears swept the Packers...I was sick for two days after Christmas (I didn't get out of bed)...it was my daughter's birthday...I had to help my brother set up TiVo...I replaced the rat-chewed wire in my car engine...my wife and I went to Nashville...I started another quarter at DePaul...the Bears had a home playoff game...it was Dr. King's birthday...IT'S NOT MY FAULLLTTTT!!!"
In actuality, it's completely my fault, of course. My bad, y'all, but everything I listed above did transpire since my last post. I took the week after Christmas off, and I've taken a couple of days off since the beginning of the year. I haven't worked a 5-day week since the week leading up to Christmas. I bought myself the Scrubs, second season DVDs and the Arrested Development, season one and season two DVDs. I've been vegging in with those DVDs for the past few weekends. I spent most of the King holiday watching Scrubs, season two trying to overcome my frustration with the Bears horrible performance in their playoff game. I spent all day yesterday just watching the first season of Arrested Development. Both of those shows have some really good satire in spots, and are usually pretty silly. I was in Scrubs withdrawal since there weren't any new episodes all fall.
One last thought on the White Sox 2005 season: They were a team. In a sport that is quick to glorify individuals, the White Sox were a team, which is why they defied explanation. They could only win as a team. Yeah, they had a bunch of people step up at different times, but there was really no one person who was "the man". None of the guys were .300 hitters for the season. They had a no-name-trade-deadline pickup (Geoff Blum) hit a World Series game-winning home run in his only at-bat during the Series, the only run scored in game 4 was by a guy who spent almost half of the season in AAA (Willie Harris). The last two runs of the World Series, both the margin of victory in their games, came from guys who were on the team for about half the season each, and both those guys won't be around next year. A friend sent me a link to a site that has done some analysis, and the White Sox probably shouldn't have been able to pull it out based solely on the numbers. It's exciting to see a team where the team is somehow better than the sum of its parts. The same sort of team-centric play was evident last year for the Bulls, the Bears, and Illinois Men's Basketball team. The Illini made it to their first NCAA championship in large part due to team play. They didn't have any superstars. It's the basic sports story behind Hoosiers, and it's the democratic ideal. The fact that the same theme of overachievers winning the big game is repeatedly told in many different forms highlights that it is a core theme for Americans. We love to believe that if we put the right parts together and they can complement each other, than we can do the unthinkable. Isn't that really the story of the United States? Who would bet on the colonists to take on a global power and win?
By the way, when in Vegas, I got to pick up $400 that I won when the White Sox won the World Series. I had visited Las Vegas for the first time in November of 2004, and the odds against the White Sox winning were 20-1, so I put down $20. What a great season. It was fun to watch.
About the rat-chewed wire, it must be one of the hazards of living on the West Side. It's the second time that it has happened since we moved in here 4 years ago. It was really cool, though, that I was able to fix it myself. The cables cost about $70, and I don't want to think what labor would have cost.
Anyway, I'm going to try to get back to posting on a more regular basis, but already that hasn't worked out too well. I started this post about a week ago, but didn't get it finished. Of course, I was sitting in class at the time, and I've already seen most of that material. Posting was just a way to keep me awake.
"I got a flat tire...a rat ate through a wire on my car engine...I had class at DePaul...the White Sox won the friggin' WORLD SERIES...my wife and I went to Vegas...it was my wife's birthday...The Boondocks cartoon premiered...it was my birthday...the White Sox shook up their roster...someone came into town...there were the holidays (including Christmas, of course)...the Bears swept the Packers...I was sick for two days after Christmas (I didn't get out of bed)...it was my daughter's birthday...I had to help my brother set up TiVo...I replaced the rat-chewed wire in my car engine...my wife and I went to Nashville...I started another quarter at DePaul...the Bears had a home playoff game...it was Dr. King's birthday...IT'S NOT MY FAULLLTTTT!!!"
In actuality, it's completely my fault, of course. My bad, y'all, but everything I listed above did transpire since my last post. I took the week after Christmas off, and I've taken a couple of days off since the beginning of the year. I haven't worked a 5-day week since the week leading up to Christmas. I bought myself the Scrubs, second season DVDs and the Arrested Development, season one and season two DVDs. I've been vegging in with those DVDs for the past few weekends. I spent most of the King holiday watching Scrubs, season two trying to overcome my frustration with the Bears horrible performance in their playoff game. I spent all day yesterday just watching the first season of Arrested Development. Both of those shows have some really good satire in spots, and are usually pretty silly. I was in Scrubs withdrawal since there weren't any new episodes all fall.
One last thought on the White Sox 2005 season: They were a team. In a sport that is quick to glorify individuals, the White Sox were a team, which is why they defied explanation. They could only win as a team. Yeah, they had a bunch of people step up at different times, but there was really no one person who was "the man". None of the guys were .300 hitters for the season. They had a no-name-trade-deadline pickup (Geoff Blum) hit a World Series game-winning home run in his only at-bat during the Series, the only run scored in game 4 was by a guy who spent almost half of the season in AAA (Willie Harris). The last two runs of the World Series, both the margin of victory in their games, came from guys who were on the team for about half the season each, and both those guys won't be around next year. A friend sent me a link to a site that has done some analysis, and the White Sox probably shouldn't have been able to pull it out based solely on the numbers. It's exciting to see a team where the team is somehow better than the sum of its parts. The same sort of team-centric play was evident last year for the Bulls, the Bears, and Illinois Men's Basketball team. The Illini made it to their first NCAA championship in large part due to team play. They didn't have any superstars. It's the basic sports story behind Hoosiers, and it's the democratic ideal. The fact that the same theme of overachievers winning the big game is repeatedly told in many different forms highlights that it is a core theme for Americans. We love to believe that if we put the right parts together and they can complement each other, than we can do the unthinkable. Isn't that really the story of the United States? Who would bet on the colonists to take on a global power and win?
By the way, when in Vegas, I got to pick up $400 that I won when the White Sox won the World Series. I had visited Las Vegas for the first time in November of 2004, and the odds against the White Sox winning were 20-1, so I put down $20. What a great season. It was fun to watch.
About the rat-chewed wire, it must be one of the hazards of living on the West Side. It's the second time that it has happened since we moved in here 4 years ago. It was really cool, though, that I was able to fix it myself. The cables cost about $70, and I don't want to think what labor would have cost.
Anyway, I'm going to try to get back to posting on a more regular basis, but already that hasn't worked out too well. I started this post about a week ago, but didn't get it finished. Of course, I was sitting in class at the time, and I've already seen most of that material. Posting was just a way to keep me awake.
posted by Michael M. Davis at 2:07 PM
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1 Comments:
Dude you have the BB gun use it!
RJ