Blog Archives
Football Karma
Karma is an interesting concept. My intention is not to discuss the wide-ranging philosophical implications of karma and what it means to different people and blah blah blah. No, I’m merely interested in the applications of karma to professional football.
Mother-in-Law
My mother-in-law left yesterday after a relatively brief visit. In one sense, it was fine. There was no real melodrama, no real fighting, no anger issues to deal with. On the surface, everything seemed fine. In retrospect, however, the visit served to showcase exactly what’s wrong with her. The woman has problems, severe ones. Her worldview is…skewed, I guess is the best word for it. Reality that doesn’t fit her desired perception is changed to accomodate her and her desire to leave her head in the sand.
Five Things for Friday, October 2nd
1. Why is it that when you drive through a poor urban neighborhood, a busy downtown district, or a college campus, pedestrians have absolutely no problem with stepping out in front of your car at any time and fully expect you to stop? I have my own theory on the matter. The poor do it because they feel that they have very little power over the world at large, and so take advantage of what little power they can as often as they can, glaring down people in their cars like they own the street. Meanwhile, those brisk-walking tools with their briefcases are too important and busy to trouble with niceties like crosswalks and crossing signs. They don’t even look at the car that almost hits them. Finally, students do it because they truly believe that the world revolves around them, and so they just glance at the car if they notice it at all. The world could use a lot less of all of them.
Five Things for Monday, September 28th
1. Being right doesn’t make it better. Losing to the goddamn Lions is a disgrace, even if it is inevitable. Jim Zorn might have been an OK offensive coordinator, maybe, but he’s a bad head coach. I don’t fault him for going for it on 4th down at the one, but taking a penalty on what would have been 4th down is stupid in every way. People are saying their season is over, but it ended last week against the Rams. They alienated the fanbase, put doubts in their heads, and the head coach is losing the team. Mike Shanahan or Jon Gruden? Bill Cowher? Who will be the ‘Skins coach in 2010? I predict Mike Shanahan.
Where Do We Go From Here?
According to Wikipedia, the United States is the world’s largest producer of corn and soybeans. Although it doesn’t say, I am beginning to believe that we also lead the world in producing outrage. I don’t mean that we make more people in the world angry than anyone else, which may be possible, but that the average American produces more outrage than anyone else. Getting outraged is what we do. It’s the new national pastime, which is fine because baseball is so horribly dull anyway. What I wonder, though, is how much more polarized and outraged our society may become. Will it get better, or will it only get worse?
Random Thoughts
I didn’t have enough on my mind on any single subject to do anything in depth, but I did want to at least post something this week. Here are some random thoughts on subjects that had occured to me this week.
Celebrity Deaths. I was saddened to hear about Farrah Fawcet’s death. Part of me knew it was inevitable, due to her condition, and yet it was still incredibly disheartening when it happened. Michael Jackson’s death, however, was just the opposite – strange and out of nowhere. It got me thinking, though, about celebrities, and especially music artists, who die early. Many of them are venerated far above where they had been in life, like Kurt Cobain, as if their death gave them the ability to be less suseptible to criticisms like how overrated their bands and sound were. With Jackson, I had the feeling that, if he could have known in advance how and when he would die, he might have chosen to die younger, before the child molestation scandals, before the pure-drenched weirdness that his life became. It’s a shame really, to fly so high and yet fall so low. But like someone said about Icarus, “at least he flew.”
So That’s Why the Sun is Always Smiling at Me
An interesting article from Scientific American about the reason why God, ghosts, and conspiracy theories exist.
“The problem is that we did not evolve a baloney-detection device in our brains to discriminate between true and false patterns.”
And thus we are saddled with religion, making the sane world under the control of idiotic crackpots who actually seem to believe the bullshit they spew. The sane people of course realize that you can’t reason with the insane, but instead of drowning them in the tub, we allow them to run things in the vain hope that they will leave us alone.
Exuberant Imperfection and Transcendent Purpose
I learned about two new theories this week, both of which interested me. One theory I have already applied to my life. The other is highly unlikely to be anything more than a passing interest, something that I note, nod, and say “that’s interesting” about, like a man standing on the street with no pants.
Winter in Derenemyn 