I Am Blogimus Maximus

(and I will write my entry, in this life or the next)

Dodgeball was absolutely infuriating last night. We played a team that didn't rush for the balls, didn't try and throw, didn't try to entice action. They would get one of us out, then go to the back line and wait. The new, bigger court makes it nigh-impossible to get anyone out if they're on the back line, so they would merely wait for us to throw. If it was an easy throw, they caught it. Anything tough, they moved out of the way. Then, they either rolled or dropped the balls back on our side. With the very large court, catching always had a large advantage over throwing, so it would have behooved our team to not throw at all and merely wait for them to throw. But you know, our team didn't come to play an hour of roll-the-ball-back-and-forth.
I am personally steaming and have already filed a complaint with the head of the league.

On a better note, I am still healthy, and eating tons of food at meals, despite my rather large tonsils. This bodes well for tonight, as I am off to Olive Garden with Martin for a writing conference night. There is no better food to discuss a story over than Olive Garden breadsticks, spaghetti and meatballs, and unlimited Pepsi. I'm drooling just thinking about it...

I beat Grand Theft Auto III: San Andreas the other night. Chalk one up for the Gold Master of Burnout 3 and the ten-time completition of every single player Final Fantasy ever made. Soul Calibur III will eventually be coming out. I'm thinking that's next on my list. What better way to defend my Soul Calibur II skills?

Random thought day today. I'll have a more cohesive entry tomorrow.

Assuming the voices in my head let me.

Women Were Nice Before Men Were Like, 'Garrrr'

('I am the penis')

This quote from Martin (which sent me into tears) is just one of the many great things that happened over this weekend blog break.

I ate dinner with Martin at Eat N' Park Friday night and had one of the great conversations of my life. It was about the nature of faith, the existence of God, and the roles of religion. And I can honestly say, for 20 minutes, I was okay. Okay with life, with dying, with reality. Really, truly, okay.
It's something everyone should feel once in their life.

I also got to eat dinner with Martin and Luke at once late on Saturday, which turned into a Burnout 3 tournament in my apartment that ended at 5 AM. What total insanity. It was an absolute blast, however, and it was great getting the chance to see Luke again. We related to so many things - to Final Fantasy, to video games, to classes, and to Family Guy. Woo! What a blast.

Then on Sunday, I ate lunch with my cousin Claire and her boyfriend Josh, which was an incredible amount of fun again. As I've said many times, I have the greatest family in the world, nuclear and extended. Claire is one of those insanely cool people that really is just short of being too cool for their own good. She sings in a band, has a degree in teaching and music and isn't going to work in either, loves the Terminator trilogy to death and is as energetic and naturally happy as I am (granted, we're half the same blood). She answered her cell phone in the restaurant and I harrassed her about it mercilessly, which was also a blast. And to top it all off, it was the Olive Garden. Breadsticks. Mmmmmmmm.
And to continue the family vibe, Mike came over and we hung out for a few hours. I think it's a real blast to get to see him because he's growing up to be a really good guy. It even looks like his grades - he has nothing lower than a B - are coming up, which is great as he has all the ability in the world but tends to slack off a bit academically because of it. (Like I don't know what that is like.) If he keeps working hard in school, he's going to be well on his way to putting it all together. And we had a blast, playing FF9, going for a walk around the complex and stopping at McDonalds on the way back. It was a ton of fun. We're also close to beating FF9 - we're in Memoria - so he's excited to see the ending. So am I. It's a great game.

I continue to try and write to get chapters out to friends. I now owe Martin Ch.1 and Margaret Ch.2. A call from Julie, who's at a teacher conference for two days, really cut into my available time, something I was less than happy about. Ah well. I am encouraged to write profusely, something I'll be doing when I finally get out of work tonight.

Still, in general, a great weekend. My medication is really helping, the weather is better, and I'm healthy and active again for the first time in too long. Dodgeball doubleheader tomorrow. Life is good! At least for today... and since today is all you can control, I'll take it!
And I'll take tomorrow when it comes. :)

Full House

(I fear no flush)

I've been playing poker online - with fake money of course - and it's a blast. I've really improved my skills and will be ready for the next time the guys get together.
Playing games with the guys - like poker - is just a wonderful way to stay in touch. That's also one of the great benefits of playing fantasy football and fantasy baseball. Fantasy baseball isn't even due for six or seven weeks, and we're all ravenous to get there. It's going to be the best season yet.
Being one of the three crowned fantasy champions since we started this 5 seasons ago, I have a reputation to defend. :)

Julie is up here for Valentine's Day Weekend. Not that a lot of celebrating is going on. Popcorn may be the big event.

So romantic.

You Contemptible Soulless Whore

(if you can only win by the blood of innocent children, so be it)

The preceding was a quote from last night's Burnout 3 mania. Through a series of fortunate events, I suddenly found myself with Martin and Margaret having a blast playing Burnout 3 for hours on end. I've played Martin before, and we've had some great battles, but the addition of Margaret made it even better. This is possibly because she kicked Martin and my collective asses on the Double Impact challenge, where the goal is to cause the most damage to traffic you can. What this says about Margaret, I don't want to know. However, emotions ran high and some things - like the quote above - were said. Blatant cheating was also used in attempts to wrest wins away from rightful victors. 200 mph madness. The whole night was fun, really, from dinner to the short movie and back. This was the way to kick off the week!

Tonight Barbara comes in. Nate and TO are going down to do some karaoke, but I am being a good host and making sure Barb has a place to stop on her drive from St. Louis to Philadelphia. The trip is like 21+ hours. Yikes. That would be a nightmare. So she's going to stop over here to rest.

As a corollary, my apartment is as clean as it gets. Kind of scary, really. But good nonetheless.

Short entry today...

Time Out

(my Balrog wants some Gatorade)

And for all those who sent an IM and recognized the previous entry's reference - two points for you! Smock smock smock.

After a fun day before, last night was rough with Julie. She's been worrying about how to spend New Year's Eve, her options being Maria and I. Personally, I've never really seen New Year's Eve as a major romantic holiday, so I said not to ruin her years of tradition with Maria to spend it with me. She was very divided and on edge about it, and when she worries she can't think of anything else, which made for a very difficult dinner. It was not good. Sigh. So confusing. Perhaps I'll become a hermit-nun.

After looking like I had no free time for weeks in early January, plans are being moved around like so many Legos. People are coming late, coming early, not coming at all, coming without being invited, etc, etc. And everyone's from out of town, even my family, who is currently up at Chautauqua snowmobiling while I work away. I'm convinced there's only two people left who haven't left the city at some point.

Tonight my goal is to beat Sonic 2. I once beat it at Lawrence Purpura's house when I was about 11, and it was a stunning accomplishment because we had spent the better part of a year attempting to beat the game. It was tough. Now, a decade later, I'm remembering all the crazy zones and the music and everything. The background to the Casino Night Zone has been going through my head all morning. Let me tell you how helpful that is to writing code.

Overall, not much going on. A slow day and entry. Hopefully it's better tomorrow.

Don't Knock My Smock

(or I'll clean your clock)

If you get this reference - one of my favorites - you are to be commended.

Julie is here, and it was fun seeing her last night. Lately she's been very sweet. Which, may it be added, only confuses my life situation further. All that aside, it was a lot of fun. We watched a little of MNF, determined that 1) Philly wasn't going to really try and 2) Torry Holt probably would not put up a 21+ point performance in fantasy and our win was secure, so we said to hell with it and played Julie's Christmas present, a Gamecube. And what we played on it was the Sega Sonic Collection, including the orginial Sonic, Sonic II, Sonic and Knuckles, Sonic Spinball, Sonic Something Else, and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. Absolutely priceless. Just remembering the madness of the Labyrinth Zone from Sonic I was worth the price of admission. All old-school gamers in the house, hands up! Yeah, that's what I thought!
Legend of Zelda is tonight. :)

Work is very quiet - there are only 4 or 5 other people here - but I do have a lot to work on. It's the end of the year though, so I'm dragging a bit. I should be able to pick up more steam in the New Year.

I still have a lot of presents to give out to people. Unfortunately, some are currently out of reach (Vegas, California) and I am having problems figuring out how to mail them. Perhaps I should just take them to the Mt. Lebanon post office - the only one I know - and beg with them for help? Man, to think people ONLY talked through letters at one point. Scary.

I guess I'll leave with what, really, can be the only acceptable ending.

Smock smock smock smock smock smock smock smock!

The Mind Is Willing

(but the flesh is sleepy)

Last night was a quiet night at home. A couple calls from Julie, who is facing some interesting challenges down in Richmond with her preschool students. Really, teachers don't get paid nearly enough. There should be some nationwide initiave where all teachers salaries are instantly doubled. Any profession where certain groups are classified as 'biters' definitely are doing it for the love of the job.

But besides that, not much went on. I did get to beat Burnout 3 - completely. I got 100% game completion after completing the nightmare challenge of 40 takedowns in one road rage event.

I have heard this from many people, so I am merely quoting here, but I pick up games very fast. Astonishingly fast, in some cases. From first-person shooters to RPG's to racing, I can usually be at the top of the class in very little time. In college, I was the two-time (and only winner of) the Bond Championship, I was a feared competitor in Counterstrike online, and I have beaten every single player Final Fantasy ever created, from I to X-2. Why is this? I don't spend undue amounts of time playing video games - I'm usually hanging out with friends, playing sports, or writing. For one reason or another, though, video games just come easily to me. But despite this, Burnout 3 was a tough one. Its challenges were well thought out and required multiple different skills. In the end, I have felt a great deal of accomplishment beating the game, which is a nice thing to feel. I definitely got every penny out of my purchase and more. So quiet night, but good night.

Lots more thought on women. I have been blessed, at different times in my life, with three women that I would call great friends, so you would think I'd be able to garner some information about the gender, but unfortunately everything I learned from one would not match up and sometimes openly contradict another's. I'm not sure if I can think of one piece of information that corraborates on any level. That's probably because each of these three women were (and are) very different - and I learned very different things from each. They were also special in different ways. So I suppose I'll have to look at each instance individually, garner what I can, and don't worry about the contradictions.
Besides, some of what I've learned I've already been applying in my life since. Guess I'll have to go on from there, and women will remain a great incalcuable, illogical mystery to men everywhere... probably as they intend.

I'm getting a small Christmas tree tonight. A real one, of course; I would sooner be caught dressing up as a Pretty Pony Princess then having a fake tree in my apartment. It might be two feet tall, but I'm going to have one. Besides, it will then give me even more of an excuse to put up the away message, "I am busy watering my plant."

As if I needed one...

Women

(were God's second mistake)

What an insane weekend! More than ever I am convinced that having two genders just creates problems.

On Saturday night I got a call completely out of the blue from one of Nate's internship friends, Bethany. I've only met her twice, once with all my guy friends from college on the dance floor, and once at her (and her roommate's) Halloween party. But she invited me to get some food with her that night after class, so ss soon as I was done, I got off the T at Station Square and walked to the South Side. We ended up going to Fat Heads (a restaurant) and staying there for about 2 and a half hours, just talking. I mean, about everything: work, life direction, politics, foreign cultures, the benefits of teaching, favorite books, eating habits, friends, painting, you name it, we talked about it. This is a girl that has read "Dave Barry Does Japan" AND The Wheel of Time series. That's cool no matter how you look at it. She's also pretty and entertaining. Oh, and brilliant; the people of Nate's internship are some of the brightest young minds in the country. She spent three and a half years in Japan and speaks French and Japanese fluently. I was pretty impressed. I had a great time.

She offered to drive me home afterwards. Insisted, really. After she called me to set this up. And the drive is not small; it's a 20-25 minute trip each way. I've got a T pass, and the T drops me off in front of my apartment, a fact that I mentioned some 18 times but she refused to listen. It makes me wonder.

Point of Confusion 1: This is a woman who, to my face, proclaimed her love for Nate. Granted, she was wildly drunk at the time. But damn girl, you can't pick any better than that. Nate needs to clone himself because every time a woman spends 5 minutes with the man she realizes that he is light-years better than whatever she has.
On the other hand, Sunday night, Nate came over to watch the Steelers game (11-1, oh yeah!) and said that she had been acting a lot more distant to him lately. And now she completely initiates this thing - when I've never called her on my own - and drives me back to my apartment. What gives?

Point of Confusion 2: I am coming to believe that being inexclusive is actually more problematic than being exclusive. Just because I want to talk to you doesn't mean I want to date you. I've had friends of the female persuasion for many years, and the one plus that being in a long-term relationship grants is that women don't automatically assume the reason you're talking to them is because you're trying to get them back to your apartment. On the other hand, I've also witnessed women completely lose interest in talking as soon as they found out I was in an exclusive relationship, so its a 2-way street. 'He's not on the market, he's not worth going after', it the thought, and you can almost see the change in expression right then. Of course, considering some of the utterly horrendous things I've witnessed my gender do/say along the same lines, I shouldn't be as angry. But at least for some women, the knowledge that my goal in talking to them wasn't sex-based - wow, what a surprise - was comforting. It meant I was genuinely interested.
But now that I'm inexclusive, it's all changed. I talk to women I've known for years or ones I'm just meeting, and the immediate suspicion is that I've got romantic/sexual/dating motives. I'd like to open all conversations with, "Hi! I'm Mat! I have absolutely no romantic, sexual, or dating-oriented plans towards you! I'd just like to get to know you!" Yet no matter what you say, it could all easily be a ploy for exactly that purpose. Thanks, the rest of my gender.
I should mention that I like having friends that are women. It's so tough to do but so rewarding if you can pull it off. Women friends - who think you're talking to them for them, not for yourself - can provide such an interesting and different perspective on things. I've been blessed with one or two of these in my day. Very very tough. Very rewarding.
The thing is, had I had dinner alone at a restaurant with a girl who then drove me back to my apartment when I was exclusive, I wouldn't have thought I did a thing wrong. Ironically, now that I'm inexclusive, a scenario under which I could have invited her inside and she could have spent the night at my apartment and have it been totally acceptable, I actually feel more guilty then if I had done it while I was exclusive!!

So my mind was whirling with all this most of the night. Women are the most confusing things on this planet.

So later that night, my friend Martin and I played Burnout 3 for 3+ hours. Fantastic. Total comfort, no confusion, no hidden motives, just two guys racing at 200+ mph and crashing rivals and themselves all over multiple continents. Elapsed thinking time: 14 seconds, when I was deciding whether or not to have another glass of Pepsi.

If only it was always that easy!