human trafficking

my friend adam saw me writing this and told me that he wasnt sure what i was writing about but that he 'was going to be a human sitting in traffic later today.' that isnt quite the topic of this blog. i have wanted to blog about this for awhile now. its an interesting and very heavy topic in my opinion. its one of those were i had never heard of it until last year and since hearing about it ive come across something related to the topic at least once or twice a month. which is strange since i never came across anything for the first 26 years of my life. i dont know if its coincidence or if its just now receiving more of the publicity and awareness that it deserves, or if it something where it has sparked and peaked my interest so i seek it out or notice it more.

anyways, i have really been wanting to write about this for a long time but i havnt since i dont really know what to say. and i still dont, so i figured i would just post some of the stuff i have read about it and leave it at that. basically, for anyone that doesnt know, human trafficking is pretty much modern day slavery. it comes in many forms. the most famous or common one would probably be when little children (usually girls) are sold as sex slaves. this can happen in many countries, but seems to mostly occur in southeast asian countries, notoriously in cambodia. but there are other forms, like forced labor. sometimes one may not think of it as slavery, at least i never did, but when you are sold and in some sort of debt bondage and the people dont think they have any escape from their employer and they are working for 18 hours a day and are being paid pennies for their labor, then i would consider it slavery. and it is.

here is the wikipedia explanation of it.

and here is what i guess might be considered the main website for it (?). i dont know. but its url is humantrafficking.org so im sure they have quite a bit of information about it.

so last year while working for the judge we only had internet access to cnn.com. which was a good thing. well, i thought it was because i figured that it would require me to spend less time being distracted on the internet and more time actually working. that is true, but you'd be amazed at how much one person can explore one internet site when its all they've got and the alternative is writing a bench memo. you find yourself reading through all of the articles in every tab on the page. not that its a bad thing to learn about many areas. but it is a bad thing when your purpose is to avoid work and not to become a renaissance man. anyways, this article wasnt one that was hidden in the dark corners of cnn.com, but it wasnt a feature either.

here is the original article i read on cnn last january. it blew me away. i felt like the most ignorant american ever. it was bad enough learning that this goes on in our country, which i would never have supposed. it was terrible reading about how rampant it is in other countries. in my opinion its evil in its purest form. i remember after reading that article i was talking to my friend chase and telling him that i dont really know what exactly i am doing with my life or right now, but nothing i am doing could possibly be more important than doing something to stop this. i should drop out of law school and do anything that would somehow stop this horrific industry. sadly, it is an actual industry, people make money off of it. also sadly, i didnt drop out of school and i still havnt really done anything about it besides this blog post more than a year later.

before moving on with the my story, here are some other links that i found on cnn when trying to find the original article i read. doing a search on cnn brought up a lot of articles, just like if you were to do a search of this topic on google or any news site. again, this isnt anything new.

here is an article i found from 2004 that is from the ny times magazine. it is also interesting. and because im an aspiring attorney and all about presenting both sides to every argument or discussion, here is a critique of the times magazine article. note that the author of the critique isnt really saying that human trafficking doesnt exist or the sex trade doesnt exist, but the times magazine might be off on some of its figures. thats fine and im sure the numbers could be off. but the bottom line is that it does happen. i hope the numbers are off. i hope that there are not 10,000 girls under the age of 14 being sold as sex slaves each year. but its more than 1, and that is too many. so regardless of whether or not the numbers are correct, there is no argument that the problem and the issue does exist.

also, about the same time as the article that i found on cnn, anderson cooper was also discussing it. here is a video.


anyways, that was my first exposure to it. it randomly popped up in other places but especially last semester in my international law class. we discussed many heavy topics. i was practically reminded daily that i was an ignorant american as we learned about many different genocides and human rights violations that occurred and are occurring. i had heard about all of these things or places: rwanda, sierra leone, darfur, cambodia etc. but knew zero details about what happened or how bad things really were. it was a great class, loaded with heavy topics. some days were practically unbearable. i never saw the movie 'hotel rwanda,' but we watched an intense documentary about what happened.

undoubtedly, the worst video we watched in my opinion was a 20 minute student film about the child sex trade called 'fields of mudan.' here is also a preview of the film on youtube. again, its a really heavy topic. just the preview is hard to watch. i think you can get quite a feel for how sad and how terrible this is by just reading about it, but if you arent motivated to do something about it by reading about it, you will be after just watching the preview.

in our class we also had a professor at our school and she gave a lecture about human trafficking. she wrote an article about human trafficking which can be found here. if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can download and read the full document. its free to do so. she provides a good explanation of human trafficking and looks at it from a legal perspective. she discusses the t-visa which is designed to protect people that have been victims of a form of human trafficking but also points out the sad reality that hardly any of these visas are actually administered which means that many victims are exported back to their country and to poor conditions and circumstances after finally being freed of their terrible state. like many things, its not an easy process to get a t-visa, so many people, although unarguably victims of trafficking, dont qualify and dont receive it after all they have been through.

here is an article from the times about it that i just read today. its a different form of human trafficking or slavery. this one is very common and now that i think about it, im sure it happened quite a bit in spain when i was there. we would always meet eastern europeans, or south americans that were literally working like dogs and were hardly getting paid. you dont think of it as slavery, but we dont really know the details of their situation either. it could be an employer just working them hard. it also could be an employer making them work 16-20 hours a day for a few dollars an hour and threatening to harm or kill the people if they left. they could have also entered into contracts, or what they thought were contracts where their family would be paid in their home country if they came and worked. they come, their family isnt paid, they dont know that though, all they know is that if they leave, their family wont get any money, so they continue to work in their terrible conditions. i think this occurs more often than we think and even here in america. i know i many times think that things like this are problems that other countries have, but its not true. it exists here. it may not be as rampant as it is in other countries, but its here too.

anyways, its a very heavy topic that always depresses me but i cant turn my back on it either. you cant read about something like this and just never think anything of it again. even if you dont do anything, it will always remain somewhere in your mind. trust me, it lingers. how could it not? as i said earlier, it evil in its purest form. really it is. can you think of anything worse occurring in this world? im not sure if i can. i dont think its worth going into a debate either about bad acts occurring in the world and which one is the worst. its sufficient just to agree that this is a really terrible thing.

so i have mentioned over and over about how bad it is and that something should be done. i wish that this was now the part where i present solutions. the human trafficking website has a page where it lists organizations that are fighting this and how you can send money to them or even volunteer with one of those organizations. i think that is a great start and its better than nothing. the professor in her article also presents legislative solutions to solving the t-visa problem and protecting these people.

its a tough situation though with no easy answers. i mean, i lie here in my bed as a western (culture) american and i just cannot even fathom the idea of trafficking a little girl as a sex slave. but you have people and cultures that think radically different than how i do. you have families that are starving and struggling to stay alive. i would never sell my daughter. ever. but what if i had 4 other children that were all starving and we had no money and someone was offering to buy my child and it was the only way i could get money and ensure that my other children would live? it changes the way you look at the situation. makes me sick and sad just thinking about it. that isnt always the case, but sometimes it is and its illustrative of the point that sometimes these problems are just the bad fruits of a bad tree. you can try to pluck the fruits, but the tree will just grow more. you have to fix the tree. this probably wouldnt happen if you didnt have people so desperate for money because they are so poor. at least not nearly as much. and im not saying that america doesnt have bad trees or that this is only a problem for other countries. we have many problems, including some of the ones mentioned. but its like the problem of gang violence. you cant just throw all the gang members in jail and think that your city will be rid of gangs. you need to fix your community. keep kids in school. give every child a mother and a father. get rid of drugs in the community. etc. etc. you have to fix the source.

anyways, i dont bring all that up just to put a downer on the solution and make it seem like its worthless or an impossible task to fix the problem so its pointless to even try. not at all. if that is what i have done then i have failed in writing this post. i guess i just brought it up to mention that like many things, its not some sort of quick fix. but if anything that should just be more proof about how bad the situation is and all the more reason to do something to correct this terrible wrong. what exactly should you do? im not sure, hopefully it wont take you a year to figure it out and it will be more than writing a blog post which only a handful of people will even read.

weekend recap

alright, just one more march madness post (i think). just some random thoughts after a weekend full of basketball and a bracket that a two year old could have done.

1. no one really knows anything. i think i may have mentioned that in the previous post. before the tourney started i heard an expert say that he thought the big 10 conference was weak and that the teams were not any good. i, for whatever reason agreed with him. i have watched many big 10 games during the season, but he saying that they were no good made me doubt all of the teams as though i, a guy with less basketball skill than any guy on the court, am one to judge the quality of play of a whole conference. anyways, the only team that i didnt go against was indiana and they lost in the first round. i had wisconsin winning one game and the others (purdue and michigan state losing first round). mich. state and wisconsin are still in it and purdue won their first game.

2. the good teams do win. usually. in the south region, the remaining teams are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th seeded teams and in the east region the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th seeds still remain. its boring, but it usually happens in at least a couple of the regions, if not more. again, not the funnest way to fill out your bracket, but its a safe way to ensure that you have a few teams in the sweet sixteen and other later rounds.

2.a. with that said, in the other regions, both 12 seeds are still alive as well as a 10 seed and a 7 seed. but you knew that there would be upsets. which were so awesome. they completely destroyed my bracket but its totally fine because its worth it to see no-namers at schools like usd and siena bombing on powerhouses like uconn.

3. i went with duke and i shouldnt have. here's the thing. i watched duke play a few times and i think they, well, i thought they were legit. they beat unc at unc. but here is what i failed to realize or remember when filling out my bracket. when they beat unc, they hit like 15 3 pointers. in the game they lost over the weekend they were like 2 for 23 from 3 point range. so they live and die by the three. never a good thing.

4. coaching matters. i really think it does. and i think this is why i went with duke, because they always seem so calm no matter how dire the situation. and i think that is because their coaches keep them calm. they dont get rattled by the situation and they stick with their game plan and help their boys do the same. anyways, i just dont know basketball to be able to go into more depth with this one, but i just feel like teams with experienced coaches always do well. even this year. well, except with duke of course. so this observation is worthless.

5. be wary of the 'hot' teams. analysts are always big on 'teams that are hot.' clemson was one this year because they were mediocre, probably not going to make the tournament, then they made an improbable run and lost by 2 to unc in the acc tourney finals. so people were saying they were hot and they went from probably not getting into the tourney, to being a 5 seed. but here is the problem with a hot team like that. 1. they were hot like a week ago. i know that doesnt seem like that long ago. but in those conference tournaments teams play like 4 games in 4 days. they get hot and on a roll and just ride it and do well. but then they rest for a week before the tournament and they cool off. 2. with some of those teams, they are just happy to get in the tournament. if they have been 'hot' for the second half of the season that is one thing. but a team like clemson, they were just happy to be in the tournament.

6. byu broke my heart again. why cant they just win one freakin game?! just one. thats all i want to see. they actually didnt do all that bad for starting the game down 11-0. lame.

anyways, i realize as i write this that i have no idea what i am saying. im not a basketball guy at all. i just enjoy the tournament and i have been thinking about it, so i thought i would post my thoughts. but they are worthless. i dont know anything about filling out a bracket, nor about giving advice about this sport. im terribly unqualified. nellie is beating me btw. she has picked 31 winners out of 48 games, i have picked 27 correct. i know nothing. but its still great.

the most wonderful time of the year

so the other week on the jim rome radio show, he said that he thinks the ncaa men's basketball tournament is the greatest sporting event in sports. better than the nba playoffs, world series, superbowl. everything. and i have to agree. its even better than the world cup or champions league (two soccer events that i really enjoy). im more passionate about soccer than i am college basketball, but the world cup is once every four years and champions league is dragged out over the course of 8 months. plus, real madrid, my team, has lost in the early stages of the knockout rounds for the past four years. including this year. they blew it and lost to as roma. so stupid. they couldnt even win at home. how do you not protect home field? i think they have some midfield weakness. frankly, im not sold on sneijder. sorry. i digress.


so i really only started following college basketball 6 or so years ago. i had a roommate from kansas and he was and is a die-hard fan. byu had an alright team when i was there, but ive never seen them make it out of the first round of the tournament, so they arent really a team that gets you pumped up about following them all season long and into the tournament. even if they do make it into the tournament, they dont really have a legitimate shot of winning many, if any games. but you dont need to be a college hoops fan or have a favorite team to enjoy this tournament. its that good.

the final four tournament, or the big dance, or march madness, is a 64 team, single elimination tournament. there are 4 regions, each comprising of 16 teams. teams are ranked 1-16 by a committee and placed in one of the regions. its a big deal to win your region, if you do, you are one of the 'final four.' those teams square off with the winners of the two games each playing each other for the national title. the whole thing begins and is over in 3 weeks. the first weekend, this weekend is the best weekend. on thursday and friday you have the first round which is 32 games. 16 games on each day. then on saturday and sunday you have the second round: 16 games, 8 on each day. its....madness if you will. so in 4 days you go from 64 teams down to 16 (the sweet 16). then, the following weekend, there are two more rounds and so the teams drop from 16 to 8 (the elite 8), and then down to 4 (the final four). those are the 4 winners of the regions. then, then next weekend you have a national champion.

so why is it so good? because its so unpredictable. theoretically, each of the number 1 seeds should win their region and go to the final four. but that has never happened. which is funny because all of the espn analysts know that, yet they always pick the number 1 team when giving their 'expert advice.' they know it never happens that way, but they always pick it that way. so boring. but here is why i think they do. because they watch college basketball all year long and they know that the number 1 seed is really the best of those 16 teams, so they SHOULD win that region. but they never do. well, many times they do, but all 4 never do. which is why the tournament is so great.

something else to note though while filling out your bracket. while all 4 number 1 seeds dont make it to the final four, its usually a high seeded team. like a number 2 or 3. so if you are going to pick the underdog, dont make them too much of an underdog. until about 2 years ago when george mason, a 10th seed, made the improbable run to the final four, no team seeded below 4 or maybe 5 had gone to the final four. some will make it to the elite 8 or sweet 16, but its extremely rare that an underdog will go to the final four.


but the underdog will win. yes they will. which makes that first weekend just awesome. every year, some random no name team, will knock off a school that has better and bigger players and 9 times out of 10 would cream that underdog. but for whatever reason, this is the 1 time out of 10 that they win, and its during the most important time of the year. the underdog's luck usually runs out in the next round or one after that. another team comes along that should beat them and actually does. but that is why its so fun. you know that is going to happen and you want to pick that underdog.

another thing to note about your bracket (as though anyone is actually reading this and taking this advice). while there will be upsets, there arent that many. if you pick tons of upsets, only a couple will happen and the rest of your bracket will be shot. its tempting to pick the upset, but if there are 32 first round games and only 3 upsets, its hard to pick those (side note: im considering an upset a team seeded 11 or higher beating a team 6 or lower. a 9 beating an 8 or even a 7 beating a 10 isnt an upset in my opinion. it is, but not that big enough where you deserve 'mad props' for picking it because it wasnt too hard a pick. you didnt make that much of a gamble in picking it). so while its boring to always pick the highest seeded team, in reality, if you do that, youll probably finish near the top of the points table. that isnt the most fun way to fill out your bracket, but usually, the better team wins. but its guaranteed that it wont always happen that way, but dont get too crazy with the cheese whiz (or picking the underdogs). also, no 1 seed has ever lost to a 16 seed in the first round. ever. so dont pick it. a 2 has beat a 15 in the first round maybe twice or 3 times. it happens. just rarely.

alright, enough of my non-expert advice. i dont know anything about filling out a bracket and ill prove it in a minute. but i did want to say that i really think that to make the march madness experience a really good time, you need to enter your bracket into a pool with other people. you can do it online so it will track the winner etc. but i honestly think you also need to include a nice friendly wager. doesnt have to be money. but i really think it makes a difference. with my roommates in college and even now, we put a steak dinner on the line. after the tournament we all go to dinner and winner gets a free steak dinner. even if you are just competing against one other person, you really care about who wins and you will check and follow your teams when you know something you want is riding on the line. money is boring, its easy if its a large group, but if you can come up with something, you can even get the females interested and following the games. suddenly louisville v. boise state isnt just another game, but its a big deal because its one of the few games where your picks are different so its now a decisive game. so i dont encourage gambling. but but i do encourage having fun with the bracket. its better. trust me.

here is one last reason why the tournament is so great. anyone can win. its so unpredictable that its impossible to really have an edge on someone. or maybe you can have an edge. i have followed college basketball all season. ive watched many games and i have been aware all year of the teams that are ranked highest in the nation etc. nellie, my girlfriend, just this year learned about this tournament. which blows my mind since she has had two other long term boyfriends. if i was ever intimidated by them before (which i wasnt), i no longer am now knowing that they are sports dorks. so she knows nothing about the tournament. below are all of the first round games and her picks and why she thinks they will win. my thoughts and picks are in parenthesis after her picks. we filled out an entire bracket, but im just giving you the first round. ill let you know when all of this is over who won between us. i follow. she doesnt. she will probably win.


east region:

1. unc v. 16(winner of the play in game, yet to be determined): unc. i have friends that live there. (unc, they are a number 1 seed and really good this year. its a lock for them to win this game).

8 indiana v. 9 arkansas: arkansas. no real reason. (i like indiana. i know that they lost their coach due to ncaa violations, but i dont think the team has fallen apart as much as people thought they would. they have two guys that will go pro and i think they will at least win this first round).

5 notre dame v. 12 george mason: notre dame. irish. catholic and they are usually pretty good at sports. arent they? (im going with notre dame as well. note there is a notorious 12 upsetting a 5 seed every single year. always happens. i dont think this will be it though.)

4 washington state v. 12 winthrop: i like winthrop's name better. but going with washington state. (i am too. although, they are streaky and i dont think they will make it past the second or third round).

6 oklahoma v. 11 st. joes: st. joes. no real reason. 'i have no idea what im talking about.' (im going with st. joes as well. i dont like picking the same upset, but im not impressed with oklahoma. i think they could lose to anyone).

louisville v. boise state: im going with boise state because they have the same record and are the underdogs. (lousiville all the way. they have the same record because boise state has been playing wyoming tech and montana southern jr. college all year. i guess they also beat byu, but no one remembers that. louisville is in one of the hardest conferences in the nations. they should win. of course they also lost to byu so go figure).

butler v. south alabama: im going with butler because they have a better record and south alabama doesnt sound that fun or exciting. (true, no one wants to live there. im picking south alabama. butler is good though. not sure why i am).

tennessee v. american: tennessee. they look like the better team. (same)


midwest region:

kansas v. portland state: kansas. they have a better record and are number 1. and its kansas. its in the middle of nowhere, it would be great if they won. (right. rock chalk jayhawk. same as unc reason. plus, im picking them to win it all).

unlv v. kent st.: kent st. 'you know why.' (i do. because you want to pay homage to those students killed there during the vietnam protests. i dont like unlv because they beat the pants off byu every time they play. i also think kent st. is better).

clemson v. villanova: this one was hard because i like how both sound. but i like saying clemson better. (this one is hard because villanova can beat anyone, but they are also terrible. clemson i think is just on a hot streak, but they werent that good all season. but ill take the streak. clemson).

vanderbilt v. siena: vandy. i dont know where siena is. vanderbilt sounds like rich kids and old money. a lot of white basketballers. (who and what is siena? vandy).

usc v. kansas st: they are evenly matched. so lets do kansas st. for fun. (by evenly matched, that means the same record. this one is hard because k state has beasley. an all american. if he goes pro after the season, he will probably go in the top 3. if he plays well, he could dominate usc, and many other teams. he's really good. ill gamble on him for one round. but dont count out usc. they are putting things together at the right time. oj mayo is legit and so are some other players. they are really good. not sure why im picking k state now)

wisconsin v. cal state fullerton: wisconsin. i dont ever hear about cal state fullerton's basketball team. i know they have a good baseball team. (good point. wisconsin)

gonzaga v. davidson: gonzaga. ive been there. (im going with davidson. gonzaga is weak in my opinion. they have lost to a bunch of sorry teams this year. davidson can beat them).

georgetown v. umbc: georgetown, they have a better record. (same)



south region:

memphis v. tx arlington: memphis. way better. (same as number 1's above)

miss st. v. oregon: miss st. i think oregon got lucky. they dont have a good record. (im going with oregon. not sure why. 8 vs. 9 are hard matchups).

mich. state v. temple: mich. state. no reason. but i know what their school colors are. 'arent they navy blue and mustard yellow, like a goldenrod?' (michigan state are the spartans. their colors are green and white. nellie now isnt sure what school she is even thinking of. she just remembered or realized that those are the colors of the university of michigan. close and an honest mistake. unless you live in michigan. im going with temple. this is my 12 upsetting a 5 prediction. a HUGE gamble. mich state is coached by tom izzo. a long time coach with a lot of experience. im not sold on the big 10 conference this year and i think any of them could be beat and none will go far. so why not?)

pitt v. oral roberts. going with oral roberts because they have similar records and because they are so different. 'i mean, what is that? is that a guy?' (yes. but pitt will win because they come from a harder conference)

marquette v. kentucky. marquette. i like how it sounds better than kentucky. like marquee. (going with kentucky. they arent nearly as strong as other years. but i think they have a win in them)

stanford v. cornell: stanford. dad's alma mater and its a ca school. (its also a much better team. went to the pac 10 conference finals. lost to ucla. a solid team).

miami v. st. mary's: i like st. mary's. sounds like a small, catholic school. (probably is. going with miami here).

texas v. austin peay: austin peay just doesnt sound like a winner. texas sounds strong and powerful. texas pride. 'doesnt it sound like texas people would be stronger? peay? pee-wee.' (nice one. texas should mop them up though. texas is good).


west region:

ucla v. miss. valley st: ucla cause miss valley has a bad record. and they sound like a jr. college. like utah valley state college. (alright. go wolverines. they are actually a 4 year school now, but who's noticing? ucla all the way. ucla is real good).

byu v. texas a&m: byu. do you even have to ask? (same. i have yet to see byu make it out of the first round, and texas a&m is really good and coming from the big 12, a strong conference. but you couldnt pay me to pick against byu in the first round. go cougs).

drake v. western kentucky: i like drake. i like that name. (dont know anything about either of these schools. ill go with the higher seed, drake. this could be the 5/12 upset though).

connecticut v. san diego: connecticut. they will win that one. (same)

purdue v. baylor: purdue. those are both smart schools arent they? (yes. not sure how that translates over into basketballs skills. going with baylor. again, im not sold on the big 10. ill probably get screwed though for picking against all of them).

xavier v. georgia: xavier. i like that name too. drake and xavier. i could name my kids that. (better than naming a boy skye. going with xavier as well).

west virginia v. arizona: w. vir. they have a better record. (ok, this is a game that everyone is talking about because arizona is usually seeded higher than a 10, so everyone is saying that they should beat w. vir and then even beat duke in the second round because, well, its arizona. true. and my bro-in-law went to med school there so i want to pick them, but they just arent that good this year. they have good players, but they look lost and poor out there. its strange. lots of talent, no idea what they are doing. its like they lost their coach or something. oh wait, they did lose their hall of fame coach. i also saw west vir play last week. they have a white boy that can ball it up. he drives and bombs 3s all day long. if he is on, west v. is going to cream arizona and give duke a run)

duke v. belmont: i like how duke sounds. and, my friend in jerusalem, her friend played for duke. (people hate duke, i think they are legit this year. others dont. they beat unc at unc. i think they can play with anyone).

final four: unc, wisconsin, memphis and xavier. (unc, kansas, pitt, ucla)

unc v. memphis in the final with memphis winning. (kansas v. ucla with kansas winning)

so, there you have it. march madness in only 10,000 words. now its time to go get humiliated by a girl. but at least ill have fun doing it.

birth control

so this past weekend i went to arizona. nellie's sister-in-law was taking her husband out of town and asked if nellie would watch her kids for the weekend. nellie asked me to go by giving me one of those, 'im going to go do this, i would like it if you came with me, you dont have to though...' which essentially means, 'come with me, if you dont, ill be upset and i guarantee this will come back to haunt you.' it was actually a fun weekend and i didnt mind going. there were a few highlights or thoughts:

1. we got there on friday afternoon and didnt have to pick up the kids until 9 pm because they were being babysat at another person's house. nellie wanted to see an imax movie so we found a theater, but the only imax movie playing that we could see was 'i am legend.' i had seen it, thought it was fine, nellie hadnt and i thought it was worth seeing again, plus i was in the mood to just relax in front of a movie. i am so glad we went. as it turns out, one of the previews for 'i am legend,' only on the imax screen, is the first 6 minutes of the new batman movie that comes out this summer. it....looks....AMAZING. i havnt been this excited for a movie in a long time. i was blown away. i told nellie, and i was completely honest, that i would have been satisfied paying $10 to just see those 6 minutes. i think they are doing a great job with the new batmans. well, they have only done one, but this one looks great as well. they arent so 'comicbookie.' everything is somewhat believable. of course not entirely, but the joker, heath ledger (rip), looks like a legitimately insane guy that could or does exist in our current society. anyways, i was trying to find a clip of the 6 minutes i saw, and post it here, but i couldnt find it. part of me didnt want to because i dont want to spoil it and i cant do it justice with some lame youtube video. anyways, be excited. it looks great.

2. when i told nellie i would go to arizona with her, i asked if we could go out early on friday so that we could see an angel's spring training game. they were playing the cubs. nellie agreed. we left later than we wanted and didnt get to the game until the 6th inning. but it was still fantastic. i dont know why ive never been. i have friends that have gone to spring training in florida, but for some reason ive never been. its major league teams, in small ballparks for cheap tickets. we bought lawn seats that were $6. but we ended up sitting right behind the angel's dugout. nellie saw some open seats and we took them. the old men next to the seats said they were open and no one seemed to care. and that's why it was so great. because no one cared. there were no security guards checking tickets. people were standing in the aisles and no stadium employee came to tell them to find their seats. everyone was there to sit in warm weather, relax, escape their jobs and watch some meaningless baseball. the old man next to me said that he has been coming down for two months for the past 12 years. they are driving back to illinois after spring training is over. first they are stopping in vegas though. he told me its about 1800 miles back, but they break it up by stopping and staying at their friend's houses in missouri and alberquerque. im not sure who planned his trip, but i dont think he's taking the quickest route home. he didnt seem to care. no one did. the 20something year old guys behind us left in the 7th inning so they could make it to their 4 pm tee-time. just outstanding. i dont know why ive never been, but im sure ill be going back.

3. and finally (this post is longer than expected), babysitting is one of the best forms of birth control. really, the kids we babysat were great kids. 3 boys and 1 girl. the boys are ages 8, 5, and 3 (i think) or maybe 8, 6, and 4, and the girl is 2 years old. anyways, they were easy to babysit, but its just so tiring. going from 0-4 kids overnight was difficult. and i know its not like that (unless you have quadruplets like nellie's other sister), but suddenly having to tend kids makes you realize how tiring it really is. the two year old was sick so she woke up every half hour from 4 am on. the boys were full of energy so they wanted to play all day without stopping. anyways, i know that most of my friends have children and so they arent at all impressed or anything that i looked after 4 kids for all of 48 hours, but it did make me realize that its just not something that you should do unless you are completely ready. and these were great kids mind you. but its so much work. which i already knew, but i was just reminded of this weekend. too bad every un-wed sexually active teenager couldnt be put through a full week of having to tend a child or two, or four. maybe it would change things, maybe not, i dont know. i know it changed me. im adopting, and only if the child is 12 years or older.

the race to end all races

so this past weekend was the del sol ragnar relay race in arizona. on the drive there, my friend karl asked if this race had become my 'moby dick.' i thought it was an adequate comparison. planning for the race nearly killed me and i had really reached the point where i would rather have died trying to do the race, than not done the race at all. and im not even a runner. i dont even really like running.

so the ragnar relay race is a 12 person 182 mile race. each person runs approximately 15 miles but broken up into three different legs. so one person starts and runs their designated first leg, then passes the baton (or slap bracelet) to the number two runner who then runs their leg, then passes to the third person etc. this continues until all 12 people have run their first leg, then it repeats. three times. the relay doesnt stop either. we started at noon on friday and ran throughout the night and finished around 3 pm on saturday. its grueling. and i dont even like running.

so in december, my friend nellie, a runner, joined a relay team of a guy, rodney, that ran the race last year. in january, her friend decided to start her own team and took nellie off of the other team and put nellie on her team. at the time, she started her own team because rodney had a full team and many other people that expressed interest in running on a team. roughly 10 people beyond the 12 he needed. also in january nellie and i started dating. so when nellie told me they needed more people and asked if i wanted to join the team, i of course had to say yes because im her boyfriend. but i dont even like running.

so if captain america is the ideal or best captain ever, then nellie's friend would be considered captain afghanistan. she never actually registered or created a team, which we realized once the deadline had passed. she didnt really do anything, but insisted she would take care of it. the only thing she did do was drop off of the team. so i called up the race people and asked to be a late entry. not surprisingly they accepted my offer to give them $1000 even if it was later than they wanted. had i thought more about it, i would have thought that it might be hard to find 12 people willing to pay roughly $100 to run in a race. but it was an impulse buy. plus i had a list of interested people, and i had a running girlfriend who really wanted to run in this race and so i had to make it happen. i like the companionship and affection she gives me. still dont like running though.

so this was about the time that i started becoming obsessed with the race. of the ten names we had that were interested, only one ended up actually running. i recruited my roommate and his girlfriend and two friends from l.a., karl and dave. and for about a month, they were really the core and the only people on our team. we asked everybody we knew and the excuses were ridiculous. its amazing how many people moved last weekend. roughly twenty of my friends were moving or involved in some family member's move. a lot of people didnt want to pay to run in arizona when they can run for free in california. so funny. the funniest part is that i know that most of them arent even taking advantage of this 'free running' that they so much enjoy from the great state of california. i know that it wasnt cheap. i understand that people dont have the money, but a lot of people couldnt see how it was going to be a fun experience. they acted like they had something better going on that weekend. i wanted to tell them that i knew they didnt have plans and that they were just going to go to another singles party at someone's house. the exact same party that they went to last week, with the exact same people. none of which they talked to because they dont know them, but they have 'seen them around.' but they couldnt do something different. they had to go to the party as though it was going to somehow get them to the altar, even though none of the previous 50 had. anyways, as of the monday before the race we only had 9 people. in the following 2 days we found 2 more. i cant express enough how hard it was to find these 11 people. seriously hard. everyone on our team was searching for people and no one could anyone. ironically, it was 2 days before the race and we needed one more girl for our team. remember captain afghanistan? shes female. it was also ironic that earlier in the week when we only had 9 people, rodney's team needed one more girl. remember how nellie used to be on that team? remember how i dont really like running?

so the day before the race 2 people dropped out. one guy couldnt get work off and one girl was sick with the flu. she was also my roommate zach's girlfriend. they decided that it would be a good idea to break up the wednesday before the race. she dropped out thursday. i also dropped a bowling ball on zach's groin thursday night in his sleep for letting that happen right before the race. so it was thursday night, we had spent all day calling everyone we knew when finally nellie found her cousin in arizona. then, miracle of miracles, at 10 pm that night our friend called and said that he had two buddies in arizona that were willing to run with us. and they were awesome. they were 'bug boys.' your typical early 20s, return missionary guys that sold alarm systems in arizona over the summer and then stayed there because one of them was opening his own sales company. they were training for the moab half marathon. ive never loved bug boys more. they were just upbeat and your typical 20 year old athletic guy. i dont even know if they knew much or anything about the race. we basically told them where to meet us and what time and when they got there we said, 'hi, go run 7 miles for us.' and they essentially responded: 'ok. great. ill do it real fast too.' and they did. so we had our 12. i still dont like running, but i did like the race.

so it was quite the ordeal to get there and it nearly killed me and i harnessed many bitter feelings towards people and probably wasnt too pleasant the whole time because it was such a hassle to make it happen, but im really glad that i did. its been less than a week and im sure i would do another one. i might even organize it. i had no idea what i was doing before, but now that i know, im pretty sure it would be smoother to put together. not that i like running.

but the experience is unique. i do encourage it. you have to be in good shape. not quite marathon shape, but good shape. you dont really sleep the whole time. maybe a couple hours, but not much. and if you arent in good shape, it really is difficult on your body to run in those conditions. its also more taxing than i anticipated to run then rest, then run again. it doenst really make it easier. i think i would have rather run 16 straight miles than have it broken up. but the breaking it up is what made it really neat. my first leg was after sundown on a secluded road in the hills above phoenix. the stars were out, there werent many cars on the road, and it was a awesome, peaceful run. the second run was unique because it was at about 4 in the morning. i was running off of 4 hours of sleep on thursday night and only about 2 thus far on friday night. tough, and just cool running at that hour and again in some random part of the desert. the last run was just terrible. it was 6 long miles along the same road. by this time we were out of the hills and my leg was along a major road in scottsdale. it was seriously a straight line for 6 miles. it was hot and my legs were shot. it was more of a mental battle to not walk more than anything. i didnt get my exact mile split, but it was probably around 25 minutes/mile. at that point i really didnt like running.

so i really dont hate running. i just prefer it in sports or at the nike run hit remix where washed up hip hop artists are singing as you run. but these relay races are also a good time. its a unique experience and a great bonding time and a fun way to spend your weekend. coming from a guy who doesnt really like running, its definitely worth doing.

(here is a team photo after we finished. top row l to r: eric manning (joined wednesday before the race), quinlan (added on thursday night), karl, nellie, leslie, ann marie (joined wed. before the race), dave, april (the only one of the original interested ten that actually joined and ran); bottom row: zach (arizona boy), zach (roommate that breaks up with girls at inappropriate times), me, derrick (or 'D' as his friend zach called him. also an arizona bug boy).