Winter, You're a Jerk

Now that I've worked through a portion of the winter, I have no idea why the hell people live in places with a real winter, places where changes of season actually occur. I really don't like it. It's only February and I'm sick of warming my car up in the morning, shoveling all the f**kin' snow out of the driveway early so I can get to work, uncovering my car from beneath the snow, and all the other shit you have to do because of the weather. I miss the days of the summer when the weather was pleasant and warm. I don't like putting on seventeen layers of clothing just to go outside and still feel cold. I also hate getting sick. And I don't think it's a coincidence that I only get sick during the winter or the transition season, fall and spring, both of which share a border with winter, that sick bastard. Basically, I don't like the winter and I have no idea why people put up with it's shit.

The last four years of my life at college I didn't have to do shit when it snowed. The school had people that took care of that and I had heat blasting into my dorm room, especially senior year, damn did that heat get pumped. I would sleep with no shirt on every night during the winter and still need only one blanket. I think at some point I would very much like to get the hell out of here and go somewhere warmer, but I don't think that is very feasible at this point in time. Someday, though, someday. Watch, I'll probably live in this shit for the rest of my life. I remember when I was in high school and I was getting some really good results in track, my sister, who was out at college in Southern California, told her friends about what I was doing in indoor track, to which they asked her what indoor track was. That sounds like a great place to live. That's also how I came to realize how I was in the top 100 in the nation in the 55m hurdles in high school, because so much of the country doesn't even participate in indoor track.

Since I'm talking about track, I did finally make a return to the sport in December. I ran the 400m at a ridiculously good track in December and surprisingly was only .42 seconds off my best time. Running this race made me come to a realization about track. After the race I felt like absolute garbage and threw up shortly after crossing the finish line. Maybe about five or six minutes later. Good thing they have garbage cans on the infield. This is not the first time I've thrown up after a race and I've done it at practice on multiple of occasions. I think I can actually relate my desire to run track to an alcoholic. On multiple occasions I've heard people claim that they were never going to drink again when they felt like shit the next day. But everyone knows that in a few days they'll be back at it just as hard. I think that track is like this. I felt like shit once the race was done and there are thoughts running through my head like "I'm never doing this again." I could easily retire now, too, since I'm not part of a team or anything. But a few days later I get that urge to run and compete again. Every weekend during the track season is pretty much like that. After racing you wonder why the hell you do this, during training, too, but if you're dedicated to it, you just can't get away from it. Just like an alcoholic can't stay away from alcohol. I think it makes perfect sense, and this way more people can relate to the life a runner, or athlete in general since if you want to have success in any sport, you have to put in the time, effort, and a certain amount of puke.

But seriously, f**k winter. It's cold all the time, it gets dark at like 4, it's cold all the time, you have to wear a ton of clothes, it's cold all the time, I always get sick, it's cold all the time. That's like twelve thousand reasons why the winter sucks right there. Did I mention that it's always cold during the winter? A week or so ago, when I was at the post office for work, I was talking to one of the people who works there that I have come to know on a very superficial basis. I was telling him how I liked last winter because it was very mild and warm compared to most others. He was telling me something about how that kind of a winter is bad for the ecosystem. I hear that, but seriously, f**k that. I'm sure the ecosystem can adapt to warmer weather. I think there's something that a guy named Darwin spoke about called survival of the fittest or something. I think the ecosystem can adapt just fine to warmer weather. Maybe the reservoirs won't have as much melted snow in them, but I think that's because of a lack of precipitation, right? It doesn't matter if it's rain or snow filling the reservoirs, does it? If there's no rain then there wouldn't have been snow, right? Right? I think I want to do that one more time... right? I'm probably wrong because I'm not a scientist or something, but I think precipitation can take more than one form. That's not important, though, what I'm saying is that warm is better, no matter what the effects of the warm weather are. Doesn't the winter have some really bad effects on living things? I know it pisses me off.

Just in case you didn't notice, I don't like the winter. I've been belaboring that point for some time now, but I'll recap. I don't like the winter, it's cold, gets dark early, it's cold, I tend to get sick, it's cold, and it sucks. I'm right, right? I realize that some people like the winter because they like skiing or snowboarding or pelting snowballs at people, but I just see all these activities as cruel punishment to yourself. I don't want to do much of anything that involves staying out in the freezing cold for extended periods of time. Sounds like some type of Chinese punishment to me. Damn Chinese water torture. I apologize if that was uncalled for, maybe I should just say that it sounds like some kind of punishment to me. The most fun I had in the snow was probably that time during sophomore year of high school when two very good friends of mine and I built a snowman in the middle of the street outside my house. My dad told us we couldn't leave it there, so we proceeded to beat the snowman with a wooden baseball bat (that was more like a club) until it was no more. Now that was fun, mostly because we went inside where it was warm after.

I could probably sit here and think of more reasons why the winter sucks, such as the constant cold. I might have mentioned that before, though. Plain and simple, winter sucks.

10 Spot for the World Record

First and foremost, I would like to give a big up to Aries Merritt for breaking the world record in the 110 meter high hurdles this past Friday in Brussels! The guy ran a 12.80! Absolutely insane! Not to mention the fastest time in the event ever, in the history of anything. Merritt has garnered massive respek with me (unfortunately the word respek has been removed from the dictionary). A gold medal at the Olympics and a world record, what a way to end the 2012 outdoor season. I hope he continues to get better in the years to come, so exciting to think what he could do next! I want to see the indoor hurdle record fall!




I'm a big supporter of track, partly because of the lack of recognition the sport gets, but mainly because I'm a runner myself and the sport has done a wonderful amount for me in my life. Track has been one of those unexpected surprises in my life. I never thought that I would find success in the sport or that it would have such a large impact on my life. The lack of attention the sport gets is absolutely absurd though, and it bothers the piss out of me sometimes. As I mentioned in my post on Penultimate Round Pick (check out our sports blog here!), Sportscenter put Merritt's world record setting performance number 10 on its top ten plays. Those guy's kiddin'? The fact that they put Merritt's performance number 10 is going to bother me for some time, if not forever, it's just one of those things that pisses me off. I don't like to be a bitter asshole, but sometimes, actually all the time that I'm bitter is the direct result of other people's stupidity or things that I cannot control.

Most of the things that bother and piss me off are the small things. Maybe I shouldn't sweat the small stuff, but I do. However, Merritt's snubbing is not a small matter, the guy broke a world record for Joe's sake! The small stuff I'm referring to for example are things like the backspace button on the our former keyboards at work. Holy shit were those backspace buttons way too small! Whenever I made an error and went to hit the backspace key to remove it from existence I would miss and hit the other keys near it and make an even bigger mistake! Now I would have to hold down the tiny backspace button for even longer to correct my latest, larger f**k up. Thank Joe we got new equipment including keyboards that have proper size backspace keys. Maybe they used to make the backspace key smaller to encourage people to make fewer mistakes. Or so that they could make people suffer for making mistakes, those bastards! They probably killed Kenny, too.

Flies are another thing that are extremely annoying. I'm almost 100% positive that two flies landed on my shoulder that were doing it. They were definitely getting busy, I've never seen a fly on top of another doing scandalous things that I will not mention here. I love all of nature's creatures, that's why I love to kill 'em, but I couldn't this time. I could only merely shew them away. I also wish I could come up with my own funny phrases instead of stealing other people's great work. I do thank you, Monty Python. Now you probably expect me to say that I came to kick ass and chew bubble gum, but in fact I have not, but I do believe that we sleep while they live. Merging is another little thing that bothers me. I have probably already mentioned this about 4 times, but so many people are terrible at merging onto the highway.  Some people unnecessarily (I finally spelled that word right on the first try!) slow down when no one is coming, and sometimes even come to a complete stop! Although, I have to admit that getting on the highway from a dead stop is extremely fun! There are many complaints about driving, and even stopping, like how people don't know how to park.

I've actually strayed quite far away from the point that I was going to make, but I'm not surprised, this is where my scattered thoughts have lead me. I did mention my point earlier though. By nature I take life in stride and I'm generally happy and believe it or not, I think that most people are actually this way. But damn are there some things that just piss people off, and usually rightfully so. I'm not going to go into specifics and I'll just end there.

A great thing that's right around the corner is Fifa 13! I don't really play video games much anymore, but I can find some time to play the latest installment or a legendary franchise. Ultimate team is also one of the greatest sports video game innovations ever, too, so I will definitely want to do some of that. The Fifa 13 demo was just released today and I have to say that I liked the tuning they have done from the game play. The game actually made me realize that there is a difference among players, some actually seemed better than others in terms of controlling the ball. I think this will make for more balanced game play and make it less about pure pace. The defensive control was also much better, I could actually steal the ball away from high and low profile opposition!

This is one of my all time favorites! And I have Apple products.

I'm also excited because I was contacted by a former teammate of mine who is still running track now asking how I am doing if I have any plans on continuing my track career. He mentioned joining the club that he belongs to as a potential opportunity. I have mentioned that I don't think I'm quite done yet. I would like to have the chance to compete competitively while I still can and as of right now, I feel great physically! Enough about me, let's speak about you. Oh yeah, no one reads this, so never mind, I'll just continue going on and on about things that maybe two other people will read, three if I'm lucky. I think I lost one of my readers from all my social network bashing, but I'm straying away from that and I'll let her know. I'm going to focus on my take on certain experiences, completely biased views on sports, the occasional rant, and my stupid thoughts. When am I going to finish that post about life and Mario Party? I think I started that on December 5, 2011 or something. I was banging that shit out, but then I had to "study" for finals.

I just asked myself a question in my own blog. I'm going to end there, but I will leave you with this:

Hey Man, Who Cares

This past Friday I went into Boston to see the Red Sox play against the Atlanta Braves. I haven't been to a Red Sox game in a few years, I think the last one I went to was in the summer of 2009 and Brad Penny was pitching for the Red Sox. Needless to say, the Red Sox lost that one. Seeing them play the Braves was great because that's a team that doesn't come to Fenway very often. I got to see Dan Uggla and his huge biceps in person! Going into the city is always a welcome idea to me, the atmosphere is great and there is actually stuff going on at night. After soccer, baseball is my second favorite sport to follow so I'm decently aware of what's going on in the MLB, and in my opinion, one thing that is greatly missing from the league right now is the absence of Manny Ramirez. Yes, he's getting old and will most likely retire for good soon, but I always enjoyed Manny and his antics. In fact, I think everyone can learn something from Manny. While Manny was a wiseguy and didn't always get things done in a conventional way, he did his job and I think he enjoyed it. When something doesn't go your way, I think everyone should take it like Manny, "hey man, who cares."

Unfortunately not everything goes the way I would ideally like, but you have to shake it off. The Manny line I'm referring to (hey man, who cares) was what Manny said to a reporter following a playoff loss while he was on the Red Sox. The Red Sox went on to win the World Series that year. I had a job interview last Friday before the game. The interview went well and I liked the people that I spoke with during the interrogation (it wasn't really an interrogation). However, later on in the afternoon, while I was watching Germany open up a can of something on Greece in the Euro Cup, I was notified that I didn't get the job. So, hey man, who cares. On to the next. The whole thing was kind of funny actually. When I got the call they were telling me that everything went well and they had nothing bad to say about me, but I could tell by the tone where this was going. They don't need to sugar coat it or anything, just tell me. This whole getting a job thing makes me laugh when I think about it because I have trouble finding a job because I lack experience, but I lack experience because I can't get a job.

That news didn't ruin my day by any stretch, it was merely another event in my life with no fruition, I've gotten quite used to that lately. I will say that the weather was on my side and delayed the Red Sox game for about an hour, which is almost precisely when I got to Fenway Park. For every year, with the exception of one, since sophomore year of high school I have competed in a summer sports event in the state which I live (at least for now), Massachusetts. Of course I compete in the track and field portion of it and the qualifier happened to be that same Friday as the game. As I mentioned before, I'm not quite done with track yet, so of course I was going. The qualifier started at 5:30, though, close to the scheduled time of the Red Sox game, and I live about an hour away from Boston. But the weather was on my side and delayed the Red Sox game while I competed in the hurdles for the first time in about a month.

At this type of meet you never know how many competitors are going to show up. I was glad to see two other names on the hurdle sheet by the time I signed up, I knew I was actually going to get to race some people. In the end it turned out to be just me and the two other people, but I could deal with that. So I was warming up and minding my own business when a younger hurdler came over to talk to me. He had just finished his freshman year in high school and was asking me about the hurdles and my times. He asked me what I ran for times as a freshman in high school and I felt kind of bad telling him because in all honesty, his times weren't very good. But he did seem to like the event and I encouraged him to stick with it. Then this other hurdler in the same age division as me came over and started talking to us about the hurdles. This guy clearly thought he was the man. I could tell by the way he was talking that he thought he had a lock on winning the race. I'm not that good at the hurdles, but I do know that I can beat a lot of the people in my area of the state. To say the least, I was ecstatic to race this guy because he had no idea who I was. I watched him take a few runs at the hurdles and he wasn't bad, but I've seen much better. But he definitely thought he was going to win. I knew this would be a fun race.

The hurdles were set up and I set the blocks the way I like them. There were only four of us in total, three of us in the open division and the high schooler I had spoken to in the scholastic division, so we all ran at the same time. The guy who was talking like he was the man was in the lane to my left, perfect. The gun went off, and despite not getting the best start, I beat this clown to the first hurdle, immediately putting him under pressure far too intense for him to overcome. He came in second place by ended up winning by about a second, which is a ton of time in a 110 meter long race. Basically, I accomplished what I wanted, but I can definitely go faster. I actually felt a bit slow, probably because I've done absolutely zero speed work since leaving school. My hamstrings are kind of sore today though! I felt like I was back at a dual meet senior year of high school: I showed up, I raced, I dusted my opponents, and had a great time. Maybe at some point I'll make a post about all the things I really enjoy about track along with the things I don't like about the sport. I also should make a post about my senior year in high school track, so many great memories. In outdoor track senior year, I didn't lose an individual race until All-States, oh the nostalgia. What happened!

Anyways, that's what I did right before making the trip into Boston. The Red Sox did not win the game, but it was still enjoyable. The only thing that disgusted me happened when I was walking back to the car after the game was over. Just outside Fenway, some guy walking on the sidewalk very close to me was speaking and I overheard a few lines. He said "I don't know why Apple doesn't put a better GPS in the iPhone. It doesn't even give you turn-by-turn directions." Apparently the GPS that tells you where you are and shows you how to get to other destinations is not good enough for this guy. Also, I highly doubt he moves fast enough to need turn-by-turn directions, but I guess looking at the line that leads from the current position to the destination is far too hard to interpret. I've personally used the iPhone's GPS to find a theater in Boston and it worked wonderfully. I followed the line and I think that guy could, too. But hey man, who cares what that guy does.




If you noticed earlier in the post I mentioned that I live in Massachusetts, but I wrote at least for now. When I think about the future I don't think I want to stay in the northeast because the weather up here sucks. I very well might stay here, but I've contemplated moving somewhere where the weather is almost always nice, like San Diego. My sister went to USC (the University of Southern California) which I applied to as well, but I was too stupid to get in. I still could have gone to college in California because I did get accepted to a school out there, but obviously I did not end up choosing it. I've never regretted not going to that school out west, but I think I should have applied to more schools out that way because I really like warm weather and my family has lived in California before. College, from my experience, is kind of a luck of the draw. No one really knows what school will be a good fit for them, that's why people transfer (who would have guessed!). I thought about transferring after my freshman year of college, but in the end I think I was actually too lazy to really look into it. However, had I the knowledge I have now, I might have chosen to attend a different school for a college education. Not because the one I went to is bad or anything, it's a good school, but I wasn't particularly satisfied there. Mainly freshman and senior year come to mind, I spent many long months those two years not very happy, but I think I'll elaborate on that in a different post because this one would be long as shit if  I started ranting here. Rather, in this post I would like to look toward the future. What's next?

The first step is getting a job, which I'm making progress on, but I still don't know exactly what I want to do. After getting a job I want to save up some money so I can live on my own. Ideally this would be with some friends, too. Then I will begin to seriously contemplate relocating, hopefully out to the San Diego area! Actually maybe to some place between San Diego and L.A., there's something for everyone in that area I think. At this point I have nothing holding me back from any of this, so I'm in good shape. Just like JQ, I have no baggage, maybe the two of us can work something out, at some point of course. For now, it's simple, get a job.

This has nothing to do with anything I've written about in this post, but I think I'm about due for a rant. I haven't let loose on a hell-bent rampage in way too long. You know what really was a horrible side-effect of the advancement of technology with smart phones? The ability for people to access social networking sites from smart phones. I think that will be my next rant, a rant that is way overdue. I don't know where to go from here, so I'll go off in another completely random direction. I've never actually played any Resident Evil video games, but I think the creepy merchant dude should exist behind every cash register. Imagine every time you were about to purchase anything you heard that creepy voice saying "what are you buying, stranger?"




I hope everyone is having a good day, we shall meet again... or maybe not, but hey man, who cares?

JQ

Honesty and respect are two of the most important aspects of people. Saying that, I think that sometimes people have trouble staying honest with themselves. I'm not going to lie, I haven't been too happy recently, but luckily I tend to write most passionately when something is bothering me. However, today (I'm speaking of Saturday since it's technically Sunday when I'm writing this) was an exceptional day. I would also like to thank Chase Robertson for watching a bunch of Euro Cup games with me over the past week, it's always good to see you, buddy. Today was so great because I got a familiar, but old taste of the what my life used to be like. Chase and two other friends of mine from home and I simply went to a baseball field and screwed around. When most people think of me athletically now they think track. But before I was a track runner I was a baseball player. I played shortstop for most of my organized baseball career, but I was always an outfielder at heart. Why? Well because I really enjoy running down fly balls. That's exactly what I did today with some great friends.

The idea to go to the field to hit and shag flies was brought up by JQ, my longest standing friend. Unfortunately I had not seen JQ since I returned from the west coast about two weeks ago I believe. Spending time with JQ always makes me feel great because of the history that we've built together. As a young child I lived in two different states and two different countries. I was born on the east coast of the United States, but my family soon relocated to California and eventually to Brazil. Our frequent moving made for an interesting childhood. I don't have any friends that I've known since kindergarten or anything like that because I attended kindergarten in California, but then went from first to third grade in Brazil. Moving does not make for easy friend retention. However, when we came back to the United States from Brazil we happened to move into the same neighborhood as my uncle. At the end of each summer my uncle has an end of the summer barbecue party. At the first end of the summer barbecue party I met JQ. Little did I know that JQ would turn into such an important person in my life. We've been friends since the fourth grade and we've had some great times. Here's a little look at how our friendship has developed over the past decade or so.

 I'll start at the beginning, when we were very young. One memory that stands out occurred on a nice day when JQ invited me to play some basketball at a nearby neighbor's basketball hoop. I went and we got into some type of verbal altercation. I have no memory of what this altercation was about, but we ended up leaving unhappy. I remember eating dinner after that when the phone rang. It was none other than JQ offering for me to come over to his house after dinner so we could make up for the incident. You have to remember that this was circa fourth or fifth grade. What a classy move for such a young age. I went over and everything was fine. I also know for a fact that we have never fought about anything since then. At the time I didn't really think much of the event, but that was such a nice thing to do.

The following years, the middle school days, JQ and I spent almost everyday together. I actually remember him telling me one time that we weren't going to hang out for a week because he wanted to show his sister that we did more than just hang out. I miss those days when JQ and I would hang out and play the first Halo. We actually beat that entire game on Legendary, the hardest difficulty. I can recall playing the same parts of the game what seemed like hundreds of times until we finally made it through one time. The part that really stands out was near the beginning of the third level when you first get on the space ship and there are invisible elites with swords. For those of you who don't play video games or are unfamiliar with Halo, the swords are a one hit kill. I think JQ and I played that part 1,000 times, getting killed by one of those invisible bastards 999 of those times.

In middle school we had two hand touch football games at the bus stop practically every single day. Our neighborhood had a decent amount of people my year in it and the year ahead of me in it. So we usually just played sixth graders vs. seventh graders (and seventh graders vs. eighth graders the following year). This was around the time when I began to realize that I had some speed, especially when I could outrun the older kids! Anyways, JQ was our quarterback and I was the go to receiver. We played with the rules that each team has four downs to score a touchdown. JQ and I had a set play for third down that we would just look at each other and say third down and we knew what was coming. The play was basically a post pattern. When JQ hiked the ball I would run straight at a decent pace, but after about four or five steps I would cut toward the middle of the field and burn in a diagonal toward the end zone. JQ would just throw the ball up in the air and I would go get it. We actually had a pretty damn good success rate on this play because I could get by anyone covering me and as long as JQ got the ball in the air somewhere where I could run it down we were good. I must add that JQ was quite good at it.

JQ and I entered high school as extremely good friends. This one time we were hanging out at his house after school, I believe it was sophomore year. For some reason we were sharing the nightmares we had in our youth. I'll never forget his reaction after I told him about one of the most common nightmares I used to have. When I was very young I used to have nightmares where I was in a building. The building was some type of warehouse that had wooden boxes everywhere. The building was not well lit, I must have been there at night. I know not why I was in this warehouse, but I do know that I was running away from giant rats. When I was in the process of telling JQ about this dream I didn't really think much of it. I was merely recounting a nightmare that I used to have. I've never seen someone laugh so hard and for so long as JQ did. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that he might have been laughing loudly and genuinely for about ten minutes. It was one of those moments where I began to laugh loudly, too simply because he was. He was just sitting there laughing hysterically, commenting "maybe that's why you're so fast!"

Sophomore year of high school was when I was beginning to notice that maybe I did have some sort of track talent. I came in second in both hurdle events at leagues outdoors that year and eventually qualified for states. I think those are decent accomplishments for someone in their third season of track. Obviously JQ was aware of the success I was having because we spoke all the time and he was also friends with other people on the track team, too, our high school wasn't that big. We still played sports outside of school, frisbee, wiffle ball, football, and occasionally basketball or something else. Starting sometime during sophomore year and stretching to senior year, every time we had a pickup game and I was involved in some type of physical contact JQ would always yell at the person who came into contact with me, saying "hey, he's valuable to LHS!" I got a kick out of it every time he would say it. I know neither he nor anyone we were playing with would intentionally try to hurt me or anyone else we were playing with, but he would let them know. It was almost like a joke within itself because I would always say that no one gave a shit about the track team anyway, which actually did have some truth to it.

Even when we both went off to college JQ and I have always been in touch. There have been some long lapses of communication, but that has not damaged our friendship at all. The summer after freshman year, which I think was the best summer of my life to this point, started out with a classic JQ memory. One day we were at the grocery store and there was a deal for ice cream, something like buy one and get one free. So JQ and I decided to each get a half gallon of ice cream and take advantage of the deal. We went back to JQ's house and we were playing some NBA 2K8 or 9 given the time frame. We were playing with the stacked legends (or something teams), don't think I don't remember dominating with Patrick Ewing, JQ! We were eating the ice cream while playing. I somehow was managing to dominate at the game with Patrick Ewing, but after a few games JQ looked into my carton of ice cream and realized that I had eaten almost all of it. "Oh my God!!! Do you have a stomach ache?!?!" Another classic reaction there. Luckily I did not have a stomach ache despite consuming an entire half gallon of ice cream in one sitting. That ice cream did not go to waste, not on my watch.

The ice cream, it's all gone!

To say the very least, seeing JQ and hanging out with him today was a real treat. I plan on seeing much more of him in the very near future. That's one of the few things that I can control in the future. My mood has definitely been lifted after today. The end of my college career did not going very much as I would have liked it for a few reasons, which is why I haven't been too happy as of late. One of the things bothering me is track. Track has been such a large part of my life for the last eight years, but I don't think I'm ready to call it quits on the sport just yet. My collegiate track career ended with me feeling very frustrated. Why was I frustrated? Well I've been a hurdler since I began running freshman year of high school, but I've never actually had a coach who knows hurdles. My high school coach, despite claiming that he was a former hurdler, did not offer much insight. He even told me during practice for the indoor New England Championship meet (a practice that consisted of me and him since I was the only one on the team still competing) that I probably knew more than he did at that point. Then freshman year of college my coach told me that he had no expertise in the hurdles, that he was unfamiliar with the event. Our new coach this past year was no different.

What frustrated me was the fact that I rarely ever got to practice the high hurdles. My coach planned almost all of my practices around training for the 400 meter hurdles. I have no problem practicing for the event, but seriously, I need practice in the highs, too. At the end of the season I was actually doing no high hurdle work. At conferences I made the final in the high hurdles, but I was the last qualifier. I didn't qualify for the finals in the 400 hurdles, I only missed by .17 seconds I think, but the hard fact is that I didn't make it. So let's get this straight, I qualified in the event I spent almost no time training for. I did just get in though and when I was back over where our team was sitting my coach started talking to me about how my trail leg was slow. I looked at him in disbelief and said "I never practice it." Then I walked away thinking what the hell do you expect. He could tell I didn't like what he said to me and later on told me he didn't have me practicing the highs because I was getting faster in the event without practicing. Well that was true for a few weeks, but leading into conferences I ran one of my slowest times of the season.

Before the New England Championships, the week after conferences I did no high hurdle stuff again except for when I had a free day to do whatever I wanted. I was ready to go for that meet. I was right next to the fastest high hurdler in New England. I got out of the blocks very well and was with the number one seed at the first hurdle. He got over much quicker than me, but I was having a good race. At the seventh hurdle, I nailed the hurdle with my lead leg and stumbled which threw off my whole race. I decided to finish up the race anyways but I recorded my worst time in the event ever. That includes in high school, too, where the hurdles are 3 inches shorter. I am no satisfied with that. Luckily there are track meets quite often, you just have to look for them. I plan on competing again. I don't know how much more, but I just don't think I'm done with the sport yet. That ending has just been bothering me, I can't let it end like that. I did run my best time in the 400 hurdles later that same day, but it did little to relieve the disappointment I felt from the previous race. Here's why: I spent practically the entirety of my senior year training for the 400 meter hurdles. At the end of the year I had run my best time, but it was best time by .26 seconds. I barely trained for the high hurdles, but in the 110 high hurdles I improved by .39 seconds, which is a great deal in that race. To put it in perspective, I came in second at the New England Championships my senior year of high school and was beat by .40 seconds. You can see what that looks like for yourself in the video below. I'm in the blue shorts and white top in lane 5.

Watch more video of New England Interscholastic Spring Track and Field Championship Meet on flotrack.org

Another thing that has been bothering me is lacking a job. I've been bored out of my mind and am growing tired of searching for a job. However I finally have an interview on Monday. I really hope that turns into something, I'm staying positive about it. This was an exceptionally great day, though. I got to spend some time with three of my closest friends and run around like a lunatic for a bit. I plan on having many more days like this over the summer. I'm coming back to my normal self after a few uncomfortable nights. And remember, be champions.

Poor Start, Strong Finish

The last few days have not been anything special, but some strange things have happened. I'll start with Friday morning. Actually, I'll take a few steps back and look at Thursday night. Of course my roommates left for a very small portion of the night on Thursday because that's the thing to do. Thursday night was typical, they left and came back sometime between 1 and 2 a.m. and played shitty music loudly and brought back obnoxious girls. I've gotten very used to this and thought nothing of it, except that I'm more than ready to graduate and be done with it. I got up Friday morning and went downstairs to the kitchen to get some juice to eat with breakfast before class. When I got to the kitchen I thought I was suddenly in the movie Die Hard and I looked around to see if Bruce Willis was around. What I saw to trigger this reaction was shattered glass all over the floor.

Remember that part in Die Hard when Bruce Willis had to walk over broken glass barefoot? That was awesome.

I had no idea what had happened, I hadn't heard anything last night, but whatever had been broken wasn't just dropped, it was obliterated. Of course no one else I live with has any idea what happened either. I think they ended up blaming it on some tool they were hanging out with the night before. But for all I know it could have been the Boogeyman. We think the victim was a glass bowl that one of my roommates uses for popcorn, but who knows. As long as it wasn't one of my things, I guess I don't really care. You know what else is kind of funny, all the glass is still on the floor now, it's just not spread out all over the floor. Now the glass is in a nice neat pile in front of the sink. I think I might wait to see how long it sits there as some kind of a social experiment where I do absolutely nothing to help. I wanted to do the same thing with the dirty dishes in the sink, but I actually want to use those so I never actually did it. I'll take bets on how long the glass will sit in a pile on the floor. I'm also still waiting for someone to stab themselves.

In other news, we had a track meet yesterday where I had a first time experience. This experience revolved around the blocks. For people unfamiliar with track, the blocks are the supports used in sprinting races that allow runners to push off the angled supports to ensure a better start.

Starting blocks, a sprinter's best friend!

Blocks are anchored into the track surface by spikes similar to the ones used in sprinting spikes, or at least I think they look similar. Before the race I did two practice starts/runs at the first hurdle and everything was fine. Actually, I felt quite good, also due in part to the excellent weather. However, when the gun went off for the race to begin, the blocks slid back on me and I went nowhere. This could be partly my fault because I didn't have anyone stand on the back of the blocks for extra support, but I've done without that many times and it has not been an issue, until now that is. The blocks slid out from under me and I almost fell on my face. I looked up and saw everyone else racing their way toward the first hurdle and I decided, hell, I may as well run anyway. So I proceeded to run the race with one of the worst starts I could imagine. I basically made a handicap for myself and was faced with a task I hope I will never have again: running people down in the 110 meter hurdles. Check out these pictures to see how far behind I was at the beginning of the race. You should have no difficulty picking me out if you don't know what I look like.

Wait for me

I still want to race

I ended up running a shitty time by my expectations, but it could have been a lot worse actually. In fact, I've runner slower times in my career when nothing bad happened in the race except me sucking. I don't know what's worse, the fact that I still beat some of my previous times despite my blocks slipping out from under me, or that I managed to come in third in this race. Addressing the first statement, I guess that just shows my improvement over the years. I have been happy that I have run faster each year throughout college. In a strange way, I think that this experience might have been very good for me, at least there are some positives that came out of it.When this happened, I felt a sense of panic and exhilaration, I just had to get back into the race. My senior year in high school, which was the best by far in my high school track career, I always felt like I could turn it on in the 110 hurdles, to some extent that is. I would be in situations where I would think I need to put some distance between me and my competitors or that I just needed to try to keep up with someone. In the race yesterday, I felt like that panic and adrenaline rush led to the same type of situation, except I felt like I had to catch up. The guys that came in first and second are both very good, so I knew there was no chance catching them, but I was able to run down and beat the other guys in the race.

After the race, I was speaking with one of my coaches who had seen all the events of the race unfold. He told me that he thinks that the unfortunate beginning of the race could have hindered by my time by an entire second, which is a really long time in a race, especially one that is only 110 meters. If that's true, I probably actually ran the best race of my college career in the high hurdles yesterday, it just won't show up that way in the results. I'll use it as a great source of encouragement and I'm excited to get back out on the track and see what I can do!

Another side note about my college athletic career, I always have a good time looking at the articles on our school's website about the track team. Practically every single article, I can't remember one that hasn't, mentions "strong performances from so-and-so." You can tell that the people who write the articles have no idea about track and what good times for certain events are. Also, since the vast majority of this post has been dedicated to sports, I would like to welcome any readers to check out the new sports blog that a couple friends and I just started, Penultimate Round Pick. We hope to deliver a unique view on sports that has a marginal entertainment value.

We have much higher hopes for PRP than Retentive Gibberish since there is a defined focus for the articles. So check it out, there are already a few articles up and hopefully many more to come in the near and far out future! Also, while it is not my phrase, I want to remind everyone, be champions!

A Journey of Close Calls

As I near the end of my track career, at least competing for school, I have realized that I have an insanely outrageous knack for almost achieving. Take the last few competitions I attended this indoor season as a perfect example of what I am referring to. Two of our last three meets were championship meets, we had our conference meet in Maryland and then two weekends later the collegiate New England Championship meet at the wonderful indoor track facility that belongs to Boston University.  At our conference meet the top eight times from the hurdle preliminaries qualify for the final on the second day of competition. I made the finals last year, as a junior, and finished 6th overall. This year I ran faster and came in 9th, the first person not to make the final. Not only was I the cutoff line, but the person who qualified 8th ran .01 seconds faster than me... I also came in second in my preliminary heat, so it wasn't like I sucked ass or anything. Only a really tall black man that ended up finishing third beat me in the preliminary heat.

So that was heartbreaking to some extent, but I wasn't angry when I realized what happened because for me, it was a good race. I was more or less just unlucky. Two weekends later I was very happy to have qualified for the semifinals for the first time at the New England Indoor Championships. The top sixteen from the preliminary make it to the semis. I qualified in the 12th spot, so I knew that I had some work to do, but hey, I made it! I was all geared up for the race on Saturday, hoping that  I could pull off something great and qualify for the final. BU has nine lanes on the infield, which is where the hurdles and dash are contested. So they let nine people run in the finals of the hurdles and dash, which is nice, but the person that comes in 9th is the only one not to score any points, sad face. Anyway, I was ready to go, the adrenaline was flowing and I was feeling that nervousness that I really enjoy, the anticipation for a race! There's nothing like it! I got out of the blocks very well, for me at least, and reactions take over from there.

We were told that the top four from each heat plus the next fastest time would advance to the final. I was in the second heat, knowing that I couldn't come in anything less than 5th in my heat or else I would not make the final. The race went by in an instant, like it always does. 60 meters doesn't last a long time. After crossing the finish line I thought I ran a decent race, I just felt like I floated over the third hurdle which bit my asshole a little.

BU's great indoor track!

I stood on the infield, looking up at the big board, awaiting the results. The results flashed onto the screen, and I saw it. I came in 6th. I did it again, top nine make finals, I came in tenth, like an average employee, because bosses qualify for the finals. Again, I couldn't be too disappointed because I ran only .03 off my best time, but come on, again! I should be used to this now, though, this started way back in high school when I first began running track. By the end of freshman year in high school I was posting the best times on the team in the hurdles. However, I missed the finals at the indoor district meet by .03 seconds, and the next year at the same meet, I was bumped big time in the final, which really messed me up. I didn't run outdoor track until sophomore year because I played baseball my freshman year. Actually, that brings up another memory, I was hit in the face with a baseball bat during tryouts! I'll have to document that tale in another post.

Top 4 make the final

My first year of outdoor track was more of the same. At our league meet I came in second in the 110 meter high hurdles and the 300 meter intermediate hurdles to the same guy. I was almost a double winner at leagues, but not quite. It was still a very pleasant surprise though! Speaking of hurdling, the reason I started to hurdle is kind of interesting. At some point during middle school I realized that I could jump over the furniture in my house rather easily. Also, I distinctly remember one day jumping on top of my friend's stone wall back in eighth grade, to which his mom told me "the track team will be looking for you." That's interesting to think about in hindsight, I guess she was right. Anyway, I decided to run track freshman year and my dad, based on my furniture jumping delight, told me I should try doing the hurdles. I never thought that would be a decision that would impact my life for the next eight years.

My career of almosts continued for the rest of the outdoor season when I came in second at the state qualifier meet in the 110 meter hurdles, qualifying me for the all-state competition where I would place 10th, two spots out of making the finals as a sophomore. I wasn't really expecting to even place that high, so that was a pleasant surprise as well. Come junior year, I had much higher expectations given these very good previous experiences. Junior year was rife with almosts. I remember indoor districts very distinctly. I was in first place after the preliminary and semi-finals for the hurdles. I ended up coming in second in the final which I found very disappointing. Very soon after that I posted my best time ever to qualify for all-states for the first time in indoor track. At the all-state meet I wrote another chapter in my growing list of almosts. I was again the first person to miss the final coming in ninth place when top nine make the finals, this time by 0.02 seconds. I ran a 7.925 and the guy who qualified in front of me clocked in at 7.923. Not to mention that I slightly stumbled out of the blocks. I remember the sense of panic after that rough start. You can have a look at the race yourself in the video below!


I capped off the junior year campaign outdoors placing second at districts and leagues in the 110 meter high hurdles. I lost at leagues by .01 seconds in what was a fantastic race, my favorite one for a while until the many better races I had my senior year, which was absolutely as much fun as anything could possibly be. At the same league meet my coach did not enter me in the 300 meter intermediate hurdles. I was extremely pissed when I found this out. The person who won that event at leagues I had beat earlier in the season at a regular season meet. I still do not understand that decision to this day. But that doesn't take anything away from how great the high hurdle race was. Over the season I had developed a very friendly rivalry with the guy who ended up winning that thrilling race. I would have loved to take that victory over him and I ALMOST did. See the trend here. So junior year marked a year that I would finish second to the same guy in the 110 hurdles at leagues, districts, and state qualifiers. I did think it was quite satisfying that two of the best hurdlers in the area came from our league and that I was a part of it.

That same year I ran a very mediocre race at all-states and missed the final by .06 seconds. I remember seeing that and thinking to myself that I should have definitely made it. I felt like I always choked at the all-state meets since my first experience competing at those meets sophomore year. The failure to qualify for the final at all-states marked the end of track for junior year by the very slightest of margins. My senior year doesn't really fit into this post at all, and I am very happy about that! Senior year of track, as I mentioned before, was soooo much fun. I'll have to document that legendary year (to me) in another post because I think it deserves it. However, I did still have some almosts, but not to the same extent as the ones I have been mentioning.

Fast forward to college track. At the beginning of this post I mentioned the close encounters I had at our conference championship and the New England meet. At outdoor conferences the year before, junior year I fell in the 110 hurdles, which I came out of unscathed. Actually, I wouldn't really say that I fell. Unfortunately I was starting to get sick right before we left for the meet. I did not sleep very well the nights leading up to the meet. Saturday morning, the first day of conferences, I remember not feeling quite right physically. I didn't feel quite as strong. I actually got a decently good start in the high hurdles, but I couldn't get over and back down to the ground the way I usually do. That caught up to me very fast and I clipped one of the first few hurdles and it threw me off a bit. I kept on running and clipped another hurdle just as badly. My opponents had made up the ground from my good start and had already passed me at this point, and by the time I got to the next hurdle I knew I was either wrecking myself on it or going under. I chose the latter and slid onto my back underneath the hurdle. I sacrificed the race for my personal safety. After seeing the results, I could have made it to the finals comfortably if I had put together a typical race for me at that time.

I wanted to prevent this from happening

I ran the 400 meter intermediate hurdles later that day. I still didn't feel great, but I was feeling better as the day went on. I ended up running my best time in the event ever and missing the final by 0.61 seconds. The guy who claimed the last spot into the final was in my heat, too. So I was close again, but the funny thing is that I got demolished in my heat. I only beat one guy, while four others finished in front of me. Those four guys all ended up in the final. I was very happy with the time I ran, though. The 400 hurdles have always given me trouble since freshman year of college when I first started running them. Actually, I've always felt like a disappointment in the intermediate hurdles. My coaches always think that I should be nasty at them and then it doesn't happen. I remember in high school my coach thought I could be the state champion in the 300 meter hurdles, we still ran the 300 hurdles when I was in high school. I never ran the 300 hurdles at any major competitions, leagues was the biggest meet I ever competed in them at. However, I blame the MIAA (the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, I think) for this because they don't let people compete in more than one individual running event at the larger meets. This meant that I always had to choose which hurdle event I wanted to run. I always chose the high hurdles because for some reason I really enjoy that race. So I never really had a chance to run the intermediate hurdles at a very big meet in high school, and I'm going to stick to blaming the MIAA for that.

In college I got the same thing. I remember freshman year when I told my coach I was a hurdler, he thought I meant exclusively an intermediate hurdler. I always get that because of my height, four feet and eleven inches. Not really though, I'm five feet nine and some odd inches tall, which is rather short for a high hurdler, so I don't blame them. However, I still haven't really panned out as an intermediate hurdler and the race continues to frustrate me to no end. Thus the only close call I've had in the intermediate hurdles was at conferences junior year when I missed the final by 0.61 seconds. Otherwise I've always been shit on in that event. I'll end this discussion about my close encounters with almost achieving cool things with a race from this past indoor season of my senior year. My opponent and I posted the same time on the big board. I was second though, so he must have beaten me by thousandths of a second! He was the state champion in the 110 hurdles our junior year of high school, so I'll take it!

He'll see the big board!

Understand where I'm coming from here, I really enjoy track. Track has been a big part of my life for past eight years and I'm so glad that I got involved in the sport. I've met so many great people through track and I have had an absolutely wonderful time competing and embarking on the never ending quest to beat my best times. I just happened to noticed my knack for almost achieving a bunch of accolades. Trust me, it's all in good taste, thank you track for the memories.

Mission: Out with a Bang

This past weekend we had our first indoor track meet of the season, and after two plus months of nothing but training, I was very happy to compete. I'm only 5' 8'' or 5' 9'', maybe somewhere between, but I've competed in the high hurdles since I was a freshman in high school. However, each time I have a new coach, well the two sprint coaches I've had in college, they have thought I am exclusively an intermediate hurdler when I tell them I hurdle. My coach, at first, wasn't going to let me run the hurdles at this meet and I really wanted to, so I guess I harassed him enough to the point where he let me compete in the event. I ended up running my personal best in the 55m hurdles this past Saturday, 7.88 seconds, .03 seconds off the school record. One of my teammates, without my knowledge, captured the race on his iPad! I am very thankful and have probably watched the video over one hundred times by now, and you can, too!


 

I know the video appears in a strange format, but that's probably because it was taken on an iPad, but you can see the race, and that's all that matters. I had some success in high school competing in the high hurdles, so I'm hoping that I am finding my way back to that form. I'm cutting the gap down at least, my best time in the same event in high school (high school high hurdles are 3 inches lower than college high hurdles) was 7.70 seconds, so I'm only .18 off of that now. I haven't discussed track much, if at all on this blog. I think I have only occasionally mentioned that I run track. So let me reveal some track secrets! Except that they aren't really secrets. In general I run track because of the hurdle event. I have come to really enjoy hurdling over the years, and have now been doing it for almost eight years. I did not realize how long I've been doing this now.

In high school I got progressively better each year, building up to the thrilling climax of senior year. I reside in Massachusetts, which also happens to produce relatively good hurdlers comparatively to the rest of New England. In fact, my year, the 2008 graduates produced a good crop of hurdlers. That year I was lucky enough to be the fifth best hurdler in the state, only four people in Massachusetts posted faster times than me. I also placed second in the New England Championship meet that year. On the way to this exciting finish I set many school records, a Central Massachusetts high hurdle record (that still stands!), and two league meet records, in the two hurdle events. All of these records still stand, so I guess I did a decent job. I told myself and my teammates senior year that I just wanted to go out with a bang, and I think I accomplished that. I want to do the same thing this year, go out of collegiate track with a bang. So I'm doing my best to return to my best form!

Besides track, I had an interesting idea last Tuesday night that I am in the process of developing a post about. I think that this post will be marginally entertaining, and also unique. The idea I had is something about how society in the United States functions. That is all I am going to say on that subject for now, so if you want, get excited!

The school doesn't care about hurdles very much... sad face

I also forgot about the disrespect the hurdles are treated with. I guess I should apologize to facilities for leaving some hurdles on the track. Apparently they hit this hurdle, didn't notice, and proceeded to rip up part of the track by dragging it for some time. On a brighter note, one of my roommates and I finished an auditing project that had been looming over us for a few weeks before Thanksgiving break (turned in November 17). After we handed it in, I decided to not go to class on Tuesday, the last class before break, because honestly, I had had enough. I didn't feel like answering auditing questions one bit. The next Thursday, after break, I was in auditing class early and I discussed a case with my professor for a few minutes. After the brief discussion was over, the dialogue went like this:

Professor: "Did you have a good Thanksgiving break?"
Me:          "Yeah, I did, I had lots of great food"

Then I was about to start going into more detail when he dropped this on me:

Professor: "Did you take the whole week off, or did you just cut my class?"

I laughed at this question because I really did just cut his class. The class is at 9:30, but it wasn't like I slept in to skip it. I went to yoga that same morning at 7 a.m. And then I went to 11:00, so yes, I did just cut his class, but he doesn't need to know that.

This sums up how much we enjoyed the project

At some point I know I mentioned that barely anyone reads any of the crap I write about on this blog, but now I think the count is up to three people! I'm heading in the right direction. Also, I pointed out that the only reason the view count goes up, besides from the three people that actually read the blog, is because the blog shows up from keyword searches in search engines, particularly Google. From time to time, and when I say this, I really mean everyday, I check to see how people come to "find" the Sycophantic Laughter via keyword searches. I actually laughed one day when "dirty jew bags" came up as a keyword that led people to my blog. And I had multiple hits from "dirty jew bags." I don't really have anything else to say on this subject, but I found it hilarious. I don't hate on Jews or anything, I just mentioned in one post that I have a Jewish roommate and he ran away when it was time to pay at the grocery store once. I only have one explanation for this, and it's simple, he's Jewish. I attached a comical drawing of a Jew to this post and there you have it, "dirty jew bags."

Evidence

And now for something completely different, again. If you read Retentive Gibberish, the blog work of Chase, me, and friends, then you know that I enjoy video games and hate them simultaneously. Recently I got the new Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3. I've played it for a decent amount of time, the online multiplayer that is. Sometimes playing is fun, sometimes it sucks ass. I like to experiment in these games, try different game modes and a bunch of different weapons. I'm always running around like a jackass and get killed so many times from running out in the open. I don't throw out a tepee and camp by it racking up kills, in fact I can't, because I'm not patient enough nor do I have the skill to do camp. I never enrolled in boy scouts, so I lack the necessary skills. My preferred play style is, without a doubt, running and gunning. My kill:death ratio is also substantially lower than my G.P.A. All of these qualities about my playing of Call of Duty result in me not being very good at the game. I just want to have a good time.

I bring this up because the other day I was playing online, minding my own business, getting owned by most of the other people playing online. After a few games, I decided to switch to FIFA 12 since I have been neglecting it as of late. While playing FIFA I received a message from some random gamertag. Occasionally I get random messages from people about clan tryouts and stuff like that. Basically people are looking for people interested in proving themselves worthy of a clan. I never join the "party" because I don't care to play like that. I was entertained when I received this message, though:

 

I'm not completely sure, but I think this guy was offering me a spot in his clan. I can't imagine why he would want me, I'm not outstanding by any means and I don't remember doing anything particularly great. I didn't respond to this either, but I thought it was amusing. Sign me up! While on the subject of video games, I recently saw that a study conducted by a university showed that video games increased creativity. That's what I'm saying. If you don't like video games, that's fine, don't bother with them. But I don't think there's any reason to bash them. Playing video games is far more interactive than watching television and more stimulating than reading, two other highly sedentary activities. While I don't doubt that you can learn more from reading, video games are just fun. Although, I'm not surprised that Americans are concerned about how much time is spent playing video games. The lists grows longer all the time, possibly daily. Is the massive amount of time spent sitting at a desk detrimental to health, too? I guess it's not a risk if it makes someone money.

Well, I've blabbered on about a lot of nothing for long enough. I'm going to get back to analyzing Glengarry Glen Ross and Death of a Salesman. At least I now know that it takes brass balls to sell real estate, thank you Alec Baldwin. So, I run track to hurdle, I have a new piece in the making, and the semester is almost over!