offended

so i think we as a society get offended too easily. i think its a little out of control. people that aren't even offended just say they are because its the 'in' thing or they think they are supposed to be offended so they pretend they are. i know this isnt always the case, but people cant be offended nearly as often as they say they are, right?

so the other night the angels won their division and clinched a playoff birth. we were actually fortunate enough to go to the game. it was pretty awesome to see it. anyways, after the game, in typical pro-sports fashion, the angels celebrated by dumping champagne and beer on each other in the locker room. a little premature since they are going to lose to the red sox in a couple weeks anyways. but why not enjoy the moment right?

anyways, i think most people remember that earlier this season, one of the angel players, nick adenhart was killed by a drunk driver after a game. he was a promising young prospect and he had actually pitched a solid outing the night he died. really tragic. well, during the celebration, some of the angel players grabbed nick's jersey and held it as they celebrated. later on in the evening, the team even went out to the outfield wall to touch the memorial that was set up for him. but i guess the celebration has caused some heated discussion around these parts. some people think its wrong and are offended by the celebration because the players were dumping champagne and other alcoholic beverages on the jersey of the player that was killed by a drunk driver.

so i have some thoughts on people that are even offended by it. lame. go home.

second. i have to agree with jim rome on the subject of people being offended. he was talking about this story and mentioned that you cant tell someone that they arent offended or that something isnt offensive (even though i just did, but its justified later). and i do more or less agree with that statement. if you think something is offensive but i dont, doesnt mean that it isnt offensive or that you cant be offended by it. he used the example of the washington redskins. their mascot has been a topic of controversy and discussion for a long time. many people, most of them native americans, are offended by the mascot. other people say that its not offensive and that its just part of the history and part of the team. i have a problem with using the argument that its not offensive. it just doesnt work. you can say its part of the history, but you cant say its not offensive because it clearly is to some people.

so im fine with people being offended and i feel that you cant say to someone that something is or isnt offensive to them. but i also feel that people have to have 'standing' to be offended. in law, someone has to have standing to bring their case to court. basically, if someone wants to challenge a law, they have to prove that they are the ones being injured by the law and thus should be the ones to challenge it. no need to dive too much into legal stuff, but i sort of feel like it should be the same way with people being offended. you have to have some grounds to be offended. i realize this isnt always the case. if you are standing around with a bunch of white people and someone uses a derogatory word to describe an an african american, just because no one in the circle is african american doesnt mean they cant be offended by the language.

but take this incident with the angels celebration. who is offended and upset by this? is it nick adenhart's parents or family? if so, great. be offended. its your son and his tragic accident that they are supposedly mocking or treading lightly. i think you are completely misinterpreting the situation, but whatever, you CAN be offended. everyone else, quit being offended just because you think you should be. it doesnt concern or affect you, you just want to stir the pot and cause some controversy and discussion.

im probably taking this too far, but i do think that all of the speculation about being offended has just left us as a society in a bad situation. no one knows what to say or how to act sometimes and a lot of it is due to people that have no reason or standing to be offended, acting like they are offended by someone's words or actions. people that should be offended probably arent, but we assume they are because some loser assumed he should be offended and so he acted like it. thus, everyone is as confused as they are reading that last sentence and paragraph.

this is going on too long. not sure if anyone is even still reading. i just had to put in my two cents.

briefly, on the angel's playoff hopes: there are none. im as big a fan as most, but i see no reason why this year will be any different than any other year. we can win, but if we lose one of the first two games at home to the red sox we wont win the series. we are incapable of winning at fenway in the postseason. its a fact. red sox are banged up, but they do have better starting pitching than we do. however, our hitting is better than before. something that could decide the series: jason varitek. he's old and teams are stealing bases on him like crazy. he cant throw anyone out for the life of him. if we get on base, you know we are running all series long.

still though, i hate to be negative, but they have better starting pitching, which always wins in the postseason. they have the postseason experience. they dont have the mindset like we do. they have papelbon, we have fuentes. i hate papelbon more than any other player but id rather have him in the 9th over fuentes. in the last four times we have faced them in the post season we have won 1 game, they have won 12. i hope they win. i cant stand the sox. i hope they prove me wrong that this season isnt like all the others. seeing is believing.

less than 2 weeks away

only two more weeks until 'the invention of lying' hits the theaters. this is the latest ricky gervais project. if you read this blog then you probably know me and if you know me, then you know im a huge fan of ricky. his last movie, 'ghost town' was easily one of the best movies of last year. unfortunately few people saw it. but you would be hard pressed to find anyone that didnt like it. if someone didnt like it then there is no point in continuing to try and maintain a relationship with that person. i know that is harsh, but to not like that movie is the same as not enjoying comedy. why would you want to associate with someone that doesnt like comedy and is depressed all day? you wouldnt. so dont.

anyways, i dont want to hype up the movie too much and make people have too high of expectations, but at the same time, i would rather over-hype the movie and get people to go than not talk about it and have more people miss out on a fantastic movie, just like what happened with 'ghost town.' usually ive seen a movie before i pitch it so i am going out on a limb by selling this before i have 'screened it.' but im feeling pretty confident that this is a surefire bet. maybe not the greatest movie of all time, but worth the price of admission. seriously though, everything he does is brilliant. hopefully he comes through again with this movie.

anyways, for those perhaps unfamiliar with him and for those that love him and want to see some great stuff and get pumped for the movie: here are two clips from his appearances on the last two emmy award shows. they are just so funny. worth watching. after that is the 'invention of lying trailer.' after that, just for fun is his opening for his 'politics' stand up show. it does have some strong language, but its in british so for some reason it doesnt sound as bad or come across as strong as when someone says it in american. sort of like when someone swears in spanish. bad, but not as bad as swearing in english. enjoy. and go see the movie on oct. 2.

ignorance is bliss

with some things in life its just better when you are ignorant. i think that one of those things is a knowledge of germs. i think that little kids just have it better in this life because they dont have a concept of or really think about germs. granted, some basic knowledge is probably important, but i can see why they can and do make people go crazy. i wouldnt classify myself as a 'germ freak,' but i'm definitely aware. in a way though i cant really help it. i saw a tv 'primetime special' about germs in the bathroom. i guess i could have turned the channel but i stuck it out, and now im scarred. did you know that the dirtiest places, or most germ filled places in the bathroom are the floor and the faucet handle? the floor makes sense because its a floor. you wouldnt think the sink faucet handle until you realize that everyone touches the faucet before washing their hands and after taking care of business. so there. enjoy the knowledge that just does more damage than good. enjoy washing your hands and then looking at the dirty faucet handle and turning it off with your wrist for the rest of your life. the door handle, the notoriously 'dirty' place in the bathroom, is actually not so dirty. its one of the cleaner places since so many people use towels to grab the handle and in a way wipe off the door handle every time they open it.

so this past weekend, our whole family got together and my mom rented one of those big bounce tanks (it even had spiderman like the picture above) for all of the nieces and nephews to play in throughout the day. it was a huge hit. however, it did smell like hepatitis. im not exactly sure what hepatitis smells like, but just think of the ball rooms at chuck 'e cheese's. the one's where there is a two year old playing in them with his diaper half off. a nice combination of dirty kids and urine. anyways, i suggested that we wipe it down with some clorox. we did, and it smelled better, who knows if it actually mattered. but the 'problem' with cleaning it, is that none of the little kids cared. its a 'problem' because now that the weekend is over, i have a cold, but i dont think any of the kids do.

so i have a couple of (probably bogus) theories that i have adopted in life. i dont know that i live by them as much as i just use them as when convenient. for instance, one of my 'theories' is that its better to not use lip balm, or body lotion, or conditioner etc. because when you do, your body just creates a dependency on these items. you see, your skin naturally produces oils so that it doesn't dry out. by using things like lotion, your skin stops naturally taking care of itself since it relies on the lotion. its sort of like with drugs. your body creates a dependency on drugs and other areas of the body start shutting down and relying exclusively on the drugs or the outside substances. now i realize that this theory is completely baseless and false. im basically just lazy and dont want to use these items. i have no good reason for not wanting to use them, so i just make up theories that support my decisions. it is also a fun conversation piece.

person: 'do you have any chapstick?'

me: 'no. my body doesnt need those types of things. leave me alone lower lifeform.'

they are also fun theories to have when you are married to a woman whose father is a dermatologist and three of her brothers are also dermatologists. i think this may be the reason nellie just laughs and is speechless whenever i tell her i dont need to use any of these items. its either that or the logic and argument is so good that she's just stumped and doesnt have a reply.

another theory i have that relates to all of this is that being sick is all mental. usually referring to things like colds and flus. ill tell nellie that she isnt really sick and that its just mental. im such a caring husband. i dont think she had any idea how sympathetic of a guy she was marrying. so again, i know that this theory is also false and baseless, but sometimes i wonder if the thinking about germs and worry about them can actually cause us to get sick. if it supposedly can work where thinking you arent sick can help you get over your illness, then naturally worrying about germs or getting sick can also cause you to get sick more often. i realize that the theory isnt true, therefore there can be no logical opposite. however, my weekend does support my theory (not terribly surprising since i put a spin on most things when necessary to make them support the theory): the kids didnt care about germs. they laughed, and cried a lot in the bounce tank, and probably licked it or fell on it with their mouths open. they were so happy to play in the bounce tank that there was no time to think about meaningless things like germs and getting sick. so they didnt.

meanwhile, i, the fatherless uncle, worried about the well-being of my nieces and nephews playing in the hepatitis bounce tank and insisted that we clean it. i worried about them getting sick and it made me get sick. thus, ignorance is bliss because you dont get sick. non-ignorance, or knowledge is sadness since it results in sickness. yes, its a airtight theory. i should be a doctor. with this type of sound logic, im clearly a successful lawyer.

sports fever

so i said in another post that march is the best sports month of the year. and i think i stick by that statement/post. march madness is an incredibly exciting time and european soccer and the champions league soccer really gets exciting in march. but fall is such a magical sports time. the baseball season is coming to a close. its always exciting especially when the angels are in the playoffs. normally i would say that as long as we dont run into the red sox then we have a chance, but i dont think anyone could beat the yankees this year. they have better pitching and probably a better offense. the angels offense is better than previous years, but i still dont see how we can get past the yankees. regardless, playoff baseball is just fantastic. last year before we had cable, i would drag nellie out to restaurants with tv's each night so that we could watch the games. im sure we spent more money on food than what a cable bill would have cost. watching games on the couch isnt nearly as memorable as sitting on bar stools at lucille's in long beach though.

another great part about fall is the start of european futbol. matt and i are flirting with doing a soccer podcast. why? because its fun to 'play' radio dj and we have nothing better to do with our lives. we have actually recorded two podcasts, but we haven't put them up on itunes. part of that is due to the fact that we dont have a name for our podcast. last season we practically spoke each week on the phone about the happening in euro soccer. i also found myself having conversations with various friends each week about soccer, so we figured we should record the conversations and pretend that people care to listen to them.

im not sure who reads this blog, so i dont know if any futbol fans even read this. real madrid had a typical start. lots of offensive fire power, no defense. they won their opener 3-2. still vulnerable in the back. granted, they dont have pepe 'the back scratcher.' they also are missing sergio ramos who is out with injury. they are two key parts to the defense, but you cant win with just offense. hopefully xabi and lass solidify the midfield and keep things under control.

the epl is exciting. man u had a cheap win against arsenal. man u is vulnerable this year, not quite as much as liverpool, but i wouldnt bet on them over arsenal or chelsea right now. granted, its far too early to make too many predictions. im telling you, this futbol stuff is exciting.

but speaking of exciting, a little on the pigskin and the start of the football season. i guess i dont have too much to say but i was thinking about boise state v. oregon on thursday night to kick off the season and it got me excited. there is of course the cougs. last year the expectations were off the charts, which made us ripe for big disappointment, which is what happened. 'quest for perfection'? really? who thought of that. i understand the desire for an undefeated season, but to put that on all your t-shirts, you are just setting yourself up for a let down. anyways, i think that expectations are toned down this year. i dont know how they cant be when you open against oklahoma and the returning heisman trophy winner. no matter the result of that game, i think its a great game to start the season. there is a chance we could catch them by surprise and pull of an unbelievable upset, which i dont think we could do later in the season. if we do beat them, that would be a huge confident booster. but if we lose, i think it will help keep our expectations in check and remind us that we arent invincible. in years past we start off well and beat chumps like utah state or wyoming in september and early october, but then november rolls around and we fall apart. id rather take an early loss to oklahoma if it meant we then went on to win the rest of our games.

nellie is just as excited as i am. she cant wait for football on mondays and thursdays and saturdays, more futbol on saturdays (and sometimes late on sundays) and baseball on the days in between. as it is she is making cookies to celebrate sportscenter being on right now. she said its for mutual tomorrow night, but she jumped off the couch so quickly when sportscenter started that i know she was just bursting with excitement for the hour of sports coverage. its only september 1st and she can hardly contain herself. its gonna be a great fall.