Terrell Owens and his media circus come to Buffalo ... and tear it apart?

T.O. In the B-lo. Really? 

That's all I have to say: really!?
 
Ok, maybe that's not *quite* all I have to say, or this post could have just been a tweet.
 
I actually have quite a lot to say on the T.O. "issue" if we can call it that. I say it like that because it's a non-issue, or at least it should be.
 
The Western New York media has been fawning all over T.O. since his arrival. Every little thing has been reported Entertainment Weekly style: "T.O. found a place to live now", "It's a place overlooking the lake", "It has 5 bathrooms and 2 jacuzzis", "Oh no, the deal fell through". I wouldn't be surprised to read a story about how T.O. farted and it smelled like broccoli with a vague hint of paprika. 
 
The great WGR 550 itself even has a section on their site devoted to "T.O.'s Tweets", and devotes a good deal of on-air time to the guy.
 
Granted, it's good entertainment. Granted, the T.O. drama train helps sell tickets (and apparently, according to the Buffalo News, that's going really well). And granted that it elevates Buffalo's stature nationally somewhat having a prime NFL star come here.
 
But this media circus is going to kill the Buffalo Bills as a team.
 
Hear me now and believe me later (but listen to me sometime soon), all the "me me me hey look at me hey I am the best" logorrhea coming from T.O.'s mouth has to have an effect on the other players.
 
Weren't we sold the whole "team-based" concept when Marv Levy came back? Levy installed Jauron, a firm yet underspoken coach that would build a team that had quiet confidence. The main precept of the philosophy being that the whole was greater that its parts. 
 
For several years now the Bills have been building that machine; a team comprised of players that have attitude, strength of character, a commitment to the team and last but not least, very little ego.
 
Now along comes a huge cog thrown into that machine in the form of a brash, me-first wide receiver. How long will it take before the some other players start losing their discipline and start taking plays off like T.O.? "Why should I put out 100% when the other guy isn't?", is what many players start thinking and that line of thinking has a snowball effect.
 
T.O. has been not only a disruption everywhere else he's been, but a downright menace. Yes, Philadelphia went to the Super Bowl with him, but it could be argued they were a better team without him. Let's look at Dallas this year and see if they do better without him.
 
The Bills are going to be dragged into the muck this year,  thanks to T.O. and the media circus that follows him like flies swarming around a pig.
 
Ah, but I always like to end my ranting on a happy note, so here it is: at least with T.O. in the fold, the upcoming Bills season will be entertaining.  (And perhaps that explains why the Bills got him in the first place.)  So hold onto your hats and, dare I say it ... get your popcorn ready ... but moreso for off-the-field antics.

 

Wed June 24, 2009

Random Update about Myth Books, Guitar Playing and Church Camp

Rather than pump-priming with this post, I'm "work-priming". I can't focus and have no chutzpah to be able to do anything. To me, those are the worst times: when you just sit there, wanting to be able to do stuff, but physically and mentally you're just shot, stuck in 1st gear and can't get out of it. 

I attempted to break out of the rut by posting tweets but found I couldn't pack what I wanted to say into 140 characters, so here we are in this blog post.

Last night was gorgeous out. The church camp next door has started filling up with visitors and the ambience emanating from it feels great. It's just nice to have people nearby, especially lots of kids running around playing. If not for the church camp people, the only other sounds are from the many frogs in our pond, or occasionally from our neighbor's rooster. I guess the air is also punctuated at times with kids shooting guns across the street as well, but I digest. 

So I sat outside with the dogs last night and played guitar for the first time in weeks. It's nice to feel like I finally am pretty good at it, but the acoustic I have is a little tough to play. Maybe all acoustics are like that, I don't know.

Earlier in the day I had gotten my car back, $500 in repairs later. It sounds and runs pretty good and will be the backup vehicle to head to Buffalo, in case Mom can't go and we don't take her car. Lynn will be scared to drive in it, but it'll be fine.

When I got home from work (around 6:00) it was over 90 degrees out - too hot for the dogs AND for me. I used to like the heat, but maybe I haven't gotten used to it yet this year. So I napped as I waited for it to cool down when I could run the dogs.

Woke up and Lynn was playing with her brand new iPod touch (she seems to really like it, natch).  About 8:30, it was cool enough to run. Despite it being my first jog (or "yog") in a while we went fast and far, which is a testament to cross-training with biking really helping out.

I then made some Kahlua Mudslide and sat down to play WoW for the first time in months. I made a new account, referred from Lynn's, so we could get the 3x XP bonus. I rolled a Troll Shaman to go with her Troll Mage. It's fun and ok so far and I've played an hour each of the past 2 nights.  The bonus XP rocks and we made it almost to level 10 in those 2 hours. Being able to summon each other is a nice bonus as well.  Not sure if I will continue playing or not - if it stays around an hour a day that'd be ok, but I can't allow it to get more than that.  Stupid Warcrack.

I realize this post is all out of whack timeline-wise, but we are jumping back to when I earlier said I played guitar. Then I settled in for some late-night reading. Myth Inc. Link was the book dujour and it just ROCKS.  Why should you read it? Because one chapter comes from the point of view of a pet dragon with a one-word vocabulary, and you learn that the dragon isn't the pet but instead a supremely wise being using these humans as an experiment.

That is it, your quickly-written, barely-edited blog post. It's been a while, but I suspect I'll be posting more often for a bit what with the Buffalo trip coming up tomorrow. Peace, my homies! 

 

Wed June 24, 2009

Buffalo Trip (Saturday) - REDO!

 Well crap --- I found an old blog post from weeks ago that I had since rewritten. I figured I might as well slap it up here for those couple of people that actually read this site!

 
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So, Saturday was great. Finally got a chance to stop out to sister Mary Kay's and see her and the whole family. We talked outside for a while until Catharine, Mary Kay's oldest (12) got back from her lacrosse match. They lost by one point to Orchard Park.
 
We went to Vito's for coffee and lunch - had a wonderful chicken finger sub (every bit as good as Bella's) and admired the renovations of the store. 
 
Then we came back to play a bit and the kids bounce all over the place, demanding my attention. It was chaotic ("Uncle John, look at this... Uncle John, can I do this?") but I loved and savored every second of it. I got LOTS of great pics of the kids (and Mary Kay and Billy of course). The younger two (Lauren and Mikey) were enthralled with my iPod touch - I was glad I had put lots of games on there. We also rocked out to Rockband and the kids were really good (apparently they've beaten the game). I was able to pick up the guitar real quick (it's the same as Guitar Hero, after all) and also tried doing the vocals which was weird (Mikey was cracking up as I actually tried to *sing* and was awkwardly doing some high notes.) He said something that I loved: "You're like an uncle but a cousin too" and had earlier said I was the best uncle... it just killed me. 
 
Then it was pizza from Vito's, white pizza and a cheese pep. Mmm...I've been spoiled by all this great Buffalo food. Then bowling in the village of Hamburg. Pretty neat to see all the updates to the main streets in Hamburg, with the traffic circles and whatnot. 
 
Then around 11:00, even though I knew I was getting tired, I knew I had to make it out to Scott's sister's house for a get-together. Scott, Heather and another great old friend, Steve would all be there, not to mention Lisa, who is awesome. I had already had a few drinks so I just milked one the whole night. I got a text from Mary Kay asking if I had gotten there yet, she was worried, and it felt good to know she cared about me. (I didn't notice the text until like 2:00 so hopefully she didn't worry *too* much.) 
 
I had some great conversations with both Heather and Scott, together and individually. Heather loved on me and said how much she missed her "Jonahanalicious" and I couldn't believe it. I always thought she was great but didn't realize how much of a friend she thought me. She, Scott and I talked about Life, the Universe and Everything and how we're going to fulfill our dreams.  I left around 3:00AM tired but so glad I could spend that time with them. 

 

Wed June 3, 2009

How to break through productivity walls

When you can't get work done, can't focus on things, what do you do? Well what I used to do was pound my head against a wall and FORCE myself to do it. That resulted in little production, poor quality and not being happy. 

 
Another option is simply do something else. Bonus points if that activity is something creative, like writing a blog post. It helps you spark other parts of your brain, gets the juices flowing, lets you look at life from another angle...and most of the time that's exactly what you need.
 
No job, however good a job it is, can be done repetitively with you liking to do it the whole time. Switching gears is a necessity. My job allows me to be creative and logical in different amounts at different times, which I love. 
 
But the fact that I'm still thinking about the same thing (the Internet, web sites) can lead to stagnation. Some people can do it, be single-minded and only talk about, say computer networking all day long.  I can't, and I bet most people can't.
 
Odds are, in most companies people are going to find ways to slack. You get bored of your job, so you need a diversion for your mind. Well rather than playing games online, chatting endlessly with co-workers about blaise topics, you could be doing something creative and constructive.
 
If more companies realized this, they could harness much more energy out of their employees. Allow people to do some side projects that might not appear to be related to their job but if it's their passion, something good is likely to come out of it. Google realized this and many of their hits came out of such side projects (take Gmail for example). 
 
Yes, structure and goals are a good thing and people need them, but most companies would get back more from their employees if they gave them some leeway. 
 
Me, I blog and twitter. ;-)
 
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As an aside, after writing this I was able to tackle some email that previously I was unable to approach.

 

Fri May 22, 2009

Buffalo Trip (Saturday)

 I made plans to spend time with my sister Mary Kay and her family. I hadn't talked to her in like a year and had felt horrible about it (I blame World of Warcraft and my own built-in shyness that I still fight to this day). I stopped at Walmart in Hamburg first for some fresh clothes (I had run out of undies and socks!), some throwaway cameras and an iPod touch case. 

 
I thought about this was where I grew up and maybe I'd see someone I knew. Then I decided to try something and I changed that thought into "I WILL see someone I know" but I didn't think about who. During check-out, I hear someone call to me, it was my nephew Jonathan!!! He and his friend Johnny were shopping for last minute stuff for mutual friend Wes's bachelor party (i.e. tubs for alcohol).
 
Driving to Mary Kay's, I saw another Ron Paul sign on the corner of her street. I shouldn't have worried about being disconnected from her and her family because the moment I got there I knew everything was all good. We started talking like no time had passed, catching up on everything: her job, the kids, our Mom, her Mom (yes, she has two), my life etc. The kids were great and the younger ones (Mike and Lauren) were enthralled by my iPod Touch. 
 
Anyway, we basically hung out all day, went to her hubby Billy's store and ate some chicken finger subs, played some Rock Band, had pizza, then went bowling. 
 
Around 11:00 PM, the kids went to bed and I was able to cruise to Lisa's house to hang with her, Scott and Heather. It was a cool scene there, my sort of partying - WNY people talking about the Sabres, polish vs. Irish vs. other nationalities, etc. Alcohol was flowing, but I don't really drink any more, so I milked one beer all night (I made it look good and no one asked any questions ;-) I did do a tasty shot of something or other as well. 
 
Had a deep conversation with Heather and it was great to really reconnect with her. She and Scott are madly in love: they dated in the 90s but then went their separate ways, both missing the other one all this time. She gave up a great job to come to Buffalo and be with Scott. It's heartwarming, it truly is. 
 
I stayed there pretty late (around 3:00) but drove home sober. 

 

Fri May 22, 2009

Buffalo Trip (Friday)

Well crap - I lost a whole blog post I wrote up last Sunday morning. But that's a blessing in disguise and perhaps I can give a better story after getting some perspective on my trip to Buffalo.  I left off the story on Thursday, the day Michelle and I went to see where brother Bob wrecked. 

 
So Friday I met up with my great friends Scott and Heather. We went to see Star Trek with their cute kid Morgan (a demon disguised as a cute kid, so they tell me). It was a gloriously beautiful day and Scott had gotten off of work early. In all honesty, I was only going to see Star Trek because Scott wanted to see it - but holy crap it was about 5 times better than I could have expected. (Go see it.)
 
Then we got some pizza from Imperial Pizza and hung out over at Scott's sister's Lisa's place. Her kid and Heather's two kids were running around causing chaos as we ate, drank and shot the shit. It was so great to see them all. 
 
Lisa, to me, embodies a WNY woman: will say anything on her mind at any moment, cuss, what have you, not afraid to say or do anything, and I really like that. 
 
It seemed like I was always scurrying around WNY on this trip, maximizing the use of my time, and Friday was no exception: I wanted to hang there longer but had to get back to Ray's for dinner. My niece Michelle was coming over with her kids and I'd be able to get to know her older son Jared. (Also Sister Deb, Megan, Ray and Di  and a couple of little'uns were there.)
 
Di had gotten Beef on Weck (oh lordie, there goes the calorie tracker off the charts) which was great. I had an eye ache and felt like hiding in a corner, but fought it off and started talking with Jared. He's REALLY into wrestling so he ran thru all his heroes/favorites, many of which were mine growing up. We practiced a choke slam several times. ;-) He's a real good kid.
 
Meg and I dropped Ray's car off at the dealership for repairs and chatted about life on the way back. She's a real good person to talk to about stuff. 

 

Fri May 22, 2009

Some Closure For Everyone (Allegany Trip)

It started off as an ugly day in Buffalo, cool and rainy. I headed over to my niece Michelle's around 11:30 with plans on grabbing lunch. We caravanned in two cars with her b/f and his friend to Bella Pizza. Bella's was fitting because her kid is named Bella (or Isabella) and I used to work there (plus my cousin owns Bella's Italian Grille in Celina, Ohio). We both had a deep-seated longing for making sweet loving to a chicken finger sub. If you've never been to Buffalo for a CF sub, you simply MUST have one before you die. (get it shaken in barbecue sauce and with mayo or blue cheese on it.)

Her boyfriend Zenni treated us, which was very cool. I ordered a water, but then I saw they had Loganberry and just HAD to have some (if you've not had it, it's another reason to visit Buffalo, kind of like a non-carbonated black cherry sugared drink). So I went to pay for the loganberry and talked to Dave (the owner and my former boss), figuring he wouldn't remember me, but he did! The dude looked good, like he hadn't aged a bit and he ran down the list of people I knew that still worked there. I'll fast forward through the meal, but we did talk hockey a bit and it was great. 

So Michelle wanted to head down to Allegany to see where her Dad wrecked, for both closure and to see if there was any wrongdoing in his death. As we understand it, he sat on the side of the road for 2 hours until help came. On the way, we talked about her Dad and she filled me in on the last several years when we didn't talk. Apparently, he cleaned up shortly after Michelle's 1st kid, no pot, nothing and really became a great grandpa. He told Michelle about a few things to give me when/if he died. It seemed that he knew he was going to go soon. It really filled me with regret that I hadn't talked to him before he died - I had totally forgiven him and him me, but we hadn't talked since '98. 

(Note - by the start of our trip everything had cleared up and it was sunny and beautiful)

We went thru the absolutely stunning hilly countryside that Bob loved to hunt and fish in around Allegany. His girlfriend has 50+ acres and that must have been a wonderland for Bob. We stopped for ice cream but realized we were hungry again, so got some Texas Red Hots (is that another Buffalo food? I think so.) Then we got some Perry's Ice Cream (ANOTHER Western New York food that can't be beat).  I got my Dad's old favorite: Butter Pecan (and we say it like "butter pee-can", deal with it)

Then we went to the place Bob wrecked. It took us a bit to find it, but we pieced together the scene CSI-style and found where paint scraped off his bike. This was really tough and emotional, but good in the long run. Michelle asked neighbors for info and the once guy was a state trooper who was on the scene within 5 minutes. He also said it didn't look like Bob's injuries were life-threatening: Bob had tied off his broken leg and wasn't bleeding too badly. Not sure of the rest of the story, but if it's true he sat there on the road for two hours, there may be cause for legal proceedings. Michelle says some other questionable stuff happened while in the hospital, but I don't remember exactly what. At the very least she was able to talk to him before he passed. 

It was rough, but I was glad I could be there for her.  She thanked me for joining her on the trip, but I got a lot out of it too. We reconnected in many ways, and I think she got a lot of closure. 

I had possible plans with my friend Scott to hang out but I was too tired after the day's events and had to head back "home". 

 

Thu May 14, 2009

On to the next adventure, brother Bob

 I was hit by bolt of information out of the blue yesterday: my brother Bob died due to a motorcycle accident. 

 
Even now I'm not sure what to say about it. Did I love him? Yes. But we were fairly estranged for a while. The last time I talked to him was in '98 as we'd a "difference of opinion" to put it mildly. But we patched things up via his daughter and I didn't have any hard feelings. I'd forgiving him for things he did and hopefully he did the same for me.
 
I keep stopping and starting my writing again, not knowing what to say. When that happens during writing I tell myself to circle back the to truth, back to the root reason for writing the story/book/blog post. I guess that'd have to be an acknowledgement of his life, that he'll be moving on to whatever you want to call the next big adventure, and that those remaining that were close to him need some support. 
 
Bob was an interesting guy to say the least. He could charm anyone when he wanted to, but also had a hair-trigger temper.  When we were out fishing once he caught a carp, which most fishermen despise as being useless. So Bob put an M-80 in it's mouth, tossed it overboard and we waited for it to go off. Thing is, the fish stayed on the surface rather than head underwater and the main body of the thing flew up in the air and landed in the boat: we were covered with fish guts and blood. This was the sort of thing that would happen any day you hung out with Bob. 
 
Many people are likely amazed that Robert got this far in life. He had way more than nine lives and had been in motorcycle accidents previously. Fistfights were a common occurrence and I remember at least a couple calls from jail in the middle of the night and he asked Dad to bail him out.
 
He would give you the shirt off his back or the last bit of weed left in his stash, but then he might turn on you in an instant. Who am I to say whether he was a good or bad guy? He just was. Unpredictable, yes, and conflicted to be sure, but my brother. We only had the same father, but still share a great many traits. 
 
We didn't grow up together either, which allowed for a different sort of relationship. Think more of an older brother who had left the house before you could remember but came back from time to time. He'd bring his druggie friends in from South Buffalo to our clean little suburban community. He seemed to always have hot items for sale (a TV, VCR, golf clubs, etc.), and once as a teenaged youth I purchased some weed from him in my parents basement. 
 
In any case, I do know that these physical bodies aren't all that we are. Robert will be able to see the Mother that died when he was so very young. He'll be able to reconnect with our Dad and everyone else that went before him.
 
It is those that remain here that were closest to him that have trouble and grief. But the grieving can take solace in the fact that we can still talk to them. They can watch over us and hear us and help us out from time to time. 
 
We are beings of energy and energy never dies. Souls carry on and live out their ultimate purpose: experiencing creation over and over again. This life is but one stop on the journey. 
 
The message for me in this is something I don't always do: live life to the fullest and do what you want to do. Don't get caught up in all the other bullshit. 
 
The message for Bob is godspeed on your journey! Don't stick around here, everyone here will be ok. You can check in on your loved ones and help them out from where you are.
 
The message for the grieving is don't worry. Grieving is fine and a natural process, but you never *truly* lose your loved one. You can always talk to them and they'll be helping you out. 
 
Love you Bobby!
 
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I'm not sure what to feel about what I wrote. Some may think I'm crazy, others sappy, but I had to "just write" and let it all hang out there. 
 

 

Sat May 9, 2009

Yellow Springs and Clifton Gorge Trip

Alright, I posted this on Facebook but figured I'd make it public too. Steve (@maninblack) and I headed down to YS and Clifton Gorge on 4/27/09 and this is the lil writeup I did.  Here are the photos we took.

 
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It was a pretty eventful day. I woke up at 6:00AM, thinking it was WAY too early. But hte dogs needed out, therefore I *had* to get up. I spent some time on the couch, debating if I should continue with my plans to meet up with Steve or... just sleep forever on that comfy couch. Dreams called me back to them, but I couldn't let Steve down and we had some SHIT planned.
 
Ok, nothing crazy, just a vague trip to head down to Yellow Springs, Ohio to check out the Tarot shops, books shops and other cool stuff. If the wind blew us that way, we'd continue down to Circleville, Ohio to check out the Serpent Mounds.
 
The trip down went quick, as time is wont to do when you're with friends and having good conversation. We "magically" found Yellow Springs as neither of us had been there nor did we have directions or a map. Call it luck or what have you but we wound up there.
 
It's a pretty cozy and crazy little college town, chock full of hippies. It'd been a while since I'd been in a place like that but I knew right off the bat this was a town I could stand to live in. 
 
We got there at like 10:00 and still most stuff wasn't open, so we had a coffee. At 11:00 we hit the used bookstore and I found some gems (a book on dreaming and some other random metaphysical stuff). Steve surprised me with a present of a Dan Brown book - Digital Fortress. We checked out a head shop, a tarot/crystal shop and some other random hippie stuff. All very cool. We grabbed some calzones before heading to Clifton Gorge.
 
I want to say Clifton Gorge is like Zoar Valley in NY, but maybe not as wide open. It's ... well ... a gorge, not a valley, duh. I'll let the pictures I uploaded talk more about this, but it was a cool experience. 
 
At around 4:00 we headed home. Steve came over to my place and then we headed to the quarry near my house. 
 
As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, we headed over to a party for people we didn't know: our friend Andrew knew them and we decided to be adventurous/social. It turned out pretty ok and good to see Andrew, his woman Missy and other friend Kelly. 
 
And it's 11:30PM as I write this.... yeah, good, eventful day. :)

 

Mon April 27, 2009

Movies that define me

 

I made a list of the top 5 movies and it was extremely difficult. I looked at the list I had eliminated and loved them all. I wanted to refine and add to it and have something to check back on when I needed a laugh or pick-me-up. If you want to know me, this might be a good insight.

Top 5 movies:

Road Warrior

Billy Madison

40 Year Old Virgin

Empire Strikes Back

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

 

Others (loosely categorized)

 

Falling Down

The Big Lebowski

Ghostbusters

Red Dawn

Die Hard

Sin City

V for Vendetta 

Back to the Future

The Fifth Element

Pulp Fiction

 

All Pixar Films these in particular:

Incredibles

Toy Story

Wall-e

Ratatouille

 

Kill Bill 

Fight Club

A Clockwork Orange

Pitch Black

The Terminator

The Matrix

Lord of The Rings Trilogy

War Games

Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan

Empire

Serenity

Tron

Raiders

Labyrinth

Krull

 

Austin Powers (Original)

Old School

School of Rock

Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny

Napoleon Dynamite

Tropic Thunder

 

Groundhog Day

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Goonies

Revenge of The Nerds

Big Trouble in Little China

Beetlejuice

 

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The Life of Brian

This is Spinal Tap

Police Academy

National Lampoon's Vacation

Wayne’s World

The Jerk

Blazing Saddles

 

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective

Clueless

Zoolander

Half Baked

Dumb and Dumber

Kingpin

Clerks 

Clerks II

Dogma

 

 

Sat April 18, 2009
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