Luis and I attended the historic Biograph (where Dillinger's infamous assassination went down) last night in a last minute move to see "El Tigre de Santa Julia"--a Mexican film at the Latino Film Festival. Luis had free passes, so I went with him. The movie was pretty cool, though we had to sit in the front row, basically laying in our seats looking directly up at the screen. Suffice to say, my already-sore back was hurting more afterwards. I enjoyed the movie--but, as with all movies that have subtitles that I must read because I'm a stupid monolingual white person, I'll have to see it again to really appreciate it, because most of the time I'm busy reading rather than watching. But the comedic parts definitely were funny.

One of the more interesting events occurred as Luis and I were walking to the Biograph down Lincoln. I noticed a sign across the street that had the name of an apt. complex I was looking into, and commented as such...off in my own world. Meanwhile, Luis turns to me and says, "Hey, wasn't that just your cousin that walked past you?" I turned around and yelled, "Julie!" It was her. Somehow, neither of us saw each other passing by. If not for Luis being there and saying something, we would have completely passed each other by without even knowing it. Isn't that amazing? And with Julie and her brother, I'm pretty close, so it's almost like passing my own brother on the street and not noticing. It made me wonder how often things like that happen? I mean, we walked right past each other, no more than four feet between us. She was coming FROM the Biograph and heading home after seeing a movie--she was volunteering at the Film Festival too. So we briefly talked and then went into the theater because we thought we were running late.

Here's the problem with society today: Read this. In this article appears the following, said by the mother: "He has a drinking problem," said Erickson, who added that she would support a ban on alcohol at baseball games. "And we can't help him until he wants help.''

Total bullcrap. Passing the buck. YOU'RE HIS MOTHER! If you would have taken control of him a long time ago, you wouldn't have to rely on the Sox banning alcohol or give some cop-out answer like we can't help him until he wants help. No! Obviously, if you can't help him for that reason, you're not trying hard enough or you're running away from the problem. I'm sure this woman put her kids in front of the TV and let the tube take care of raising her kids. Part of the thing with alcoholism, the way I grew up with it, is that the "victim" doesn't necessarily think they're doing anything wrong or need help. Of course she'd support a ban on alcohol at baseball games--because then SHE wouldn't have to do anything to police her son--but she fails to realize that he's still gonna go to bars and drink himself silly and get into more trouble. Maybe she should stop being afraid of her son and try convincing him that he has a problem.

Oh, and on a lighter note, for those of you who think I'm the aforementioned guy who attacked the umpire at U.S. Cellular Field, here's another piece of info...not only does he have the same facial hair--as pointed out by my observative coworkers--and not only is he from Bolingbrook, but he also lives on Lily Cache Lane, my street. Now, that may not seem like a big deal, but Lily Cache is only a couple miles long. In fact, I bet I could point out to you the apartment complex the redneck piece of crap lives...I bet it's the same place there was a shooting a year or so ago. It's basically where the Romeoville hillbillies move up to in the world.

Again, I say, I hope I never run into this guy.

Wow...that wasn't so bad. Our double-header was far easier than anticipated, particularly the first game, which we finished tied 3-3. Our first nonloss of the season. I extended my scoring streak to four games with a sweet, sweet (my best shot of the year) one-timer from straight on near the "blue line" area that was passed to me from the other team. My eyes certainly lit up as big as saucers as the ball rolled toward me and I was able to send a slapshot top shelf over the goalie's right shoulder.

However, we paid for our awesome game by playing the best team in the league in the second game. They won 7-1 after jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first minute or so. They were just way too quick for us, especially after busting our asses in the first game. My goal-scoring streak ended that game, though I had some decent shots on goal. Oh well, I was tired of bragging about it anyway. :)

My back held up fine, but it's a bit sore now...I bet tomorrow, it will be in serious pain. But we'll see. I'm going to go to bed now in the hopes that a good night's sleep will help it. Also, I was quite pissed that it didn't rain today like they said it would, because I didn't really water the garden when I planted it (which you're supposed to do) since I figured it would be raining by morning. But I guess the rain is really on the way now. So we'll see.

Oh, and finally, the coolest thing about my conversation with a player personnel guy today was the point at which he asked me what I thought of his team's moves (basically, what I thought about the job HE'S done in free agency). I have a pseudo-relationship going with this guy in that he's probably my only real "anonymous source" in the league, and we've talked a decent amount about football and Joel Buchsbaum, who he was pretty close to, in the past. So much so, I felt comfortable saying, "well, I really liked that you signed this guy, but I was really, really confused about signing this other guy, because it kind of flew in the face of what the head coach had said earlier in the offseason." I figured I was not going to sugar-coat something and say, "You've done great," when I didn't believe that about all their moves. Whether that means anything to him or not, I don't know...but better to be honest, which is my nature, than to bullshit him. I'm not a yes-man. There's a tiny bit of me that hopes maybe that impressed him and it leads to some sort of career move some day. Sometime, I'd like to maybe ask him about what it takes to be a player-personnel type--not necessarily the top guy, but a scout or other. Who knows? Maybe I'd like that.

I can't wait to see if I'm still walking tomorrow. Tonight is the night we have a floor hockey doubleheader, and we're somewhat shorthanded. To top it off, right now my lower back is reminding me of the millions of muscle cells back there, each one shouting, "Hey, you moron! You overutilized me last night, so try this!" Last night, I did something I've never done before--night gardening. It's supposed to rain the next few days, so I wanted to get as much of my veggie garden up and going before today. So, instead of watching "24" at 8 o'clock, Luis and I taped it and stayed outside setting up the garden. It's not totally finished, but it's in good shape for now...there's still some broccoli that needs to be planted. How did we garden at night? I just took my shoplight and hooked it to the fence to light up the garden area. And it worked.

By the way, the jackass that attacked the umpire in yesterday's Sox game lives in Bolingbrook somewhere. Heaven help me if I run into him at the store. I will beat the living crap out of him for being a dumb shit and ruining Sox fans' reputations further, for being a jackass and for the possible fences and other "security measures" that will likely cheapen watching the game at Comiskey AND drive up ticket prices. Bunch of dumb shits...

Today is one of those days, I can tell. It's just a big waiting game. I'm waiting and waiting and waiting and nothing's getting done. I'm waiting to hear from personnel people from my four teams, and of course, we need to do this right before the draft, when they are the busiest ever. That makes it damned hard for them to have time for us poor journalists. So, Jets general manager Terry Bradway's supposed to call me at 4 or 4:30 today, which means he'll probably call around 5:30, right when I'm going on the radio show I do in Des Moines. I already tried to change the day of the radio show, but that's not possible. So I can totally see this setting up as a potential disaster in the making. And if I don't get Bradway, I'll have to just sit here until I get fed up or hear from him. That would force me to miss softball practice, which, in the grand scheme right now, is pretty low on my list. But I'll leave around 7, which means he'll call right after I leave at 7:05...no doubt about it. God, I'm not cut out for this reporting crap sometimes--I'm too unlucky and/or nice.

All right...this fits under "Why can't they get shit to work right as is before creating things like photo-taking cellphones?!" For some reason, my blogger template reverted to a very, very old copy...so now I have to either (a) never update the info there on the left, or (b) redo the whole thing, which, by the way, includes redoing the comments AGAIN, because it wiped out the template that had my new comment system on it. I HATE TECHNOLOGY...give me a horse and buggy and I'll survive just fine. Bunch of assholes.

Oh, and don't tell me, "What do you expect for free?" because that's a bullshit copout comeback--don't offer the shit if it's no good, whether it's $2000 or free.

Damn. I was wrong about Roy Williams. Not that I expected to be right.

Played some Civilization III tonight with Pete and Troy, and then some on my own. I have to get to bed, though, because I have to get up to find all my softball equipment for practice tomorrow. I can't wait to swing that bat again...but given the probable rain the rest of the week, I'm almost hoping it's cancelled, so that I can come home, finish setting up my vegetable garden and watch "24" without taping it.

But that probably will not happen, dag nabit. Ah well, so it goes.

I just have to say this...but maybe Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams, who is supposedly leaving Kansas for North Carolina's job, isn't leaving Kansas after all. ESPN says he's leaving because he was teary-eyed during a brief announcement of a press conference tonight, after he had met with his current players. They surmise that he was sad to be leaving those Kansas players he recruited and loves (another whole can of NCAA coaching worms).

But, what if he's crying because of all the media lies, lies, LIES!? Ever think of that?

I had posted a link here, but didn't realize there were so many popups associated with it. I got it last week. Go here if you want to see a hilarious take on the government's terrorist attack preparedness site and don't care that you'll get about five annoying popup windows.

And just as quickly as the previous post started, it's over. Back to sitting in here while it's 80 degrees and sunny outside. I think our lunch break is going to take forever today...

So a coworker of mine here lost MAJOR points today, when he came up to me with the following conversation:
Coworker: "Did you tell some guy I went to Illinois and that he should call and ask me about some Illinois player?"
Me: "I don't think so. That doesn't sound familiar. Why?"
C: Well, some jerk called me and said you gave him my name.
Me: "I mean, it's not impossible that I did, but I really don't think I did. What did he say, exactly?"
C: He said you told him to call asking for me because I went to Illinois and would know about this player.
Me: It's possible, though, that he got your name and the Illinois reference off your ESPN chat thing and just pick another name here, and it happened to be mine.
C: Yeah, but I haven't chatted since December, so I don't think that happened. It would have been too much work.
Me: I don't know...that wouldn't be too much work for someone who wanted to know something.
C: "Well, I don't know if you did or not, but I don't appreciate that kind of thing, so don't do it in the future."
Me: "Um, OK. Like I said, I don't think I did. It sounds like you're accusing me."
C: "Well, I'm not accusing you, just letting you know."
Me: "Well, I hope you come down hard on everyone else the same way too."

He then was quiet...I was going to say something about giving me, his coworker, the benefit of the doubt over some jackass caller, but I didn't get the chance. I may talk to him later about this...but chances are, I'm not going to speak to him at all about it. I'm kind of dumbfounded, because he basically called me out on something sooooo stupid and meaningless. Well, he just emailed me to apologize, and I responded as such: "Hey man, no sweat...
I was a little dumbfounded because of the fact that, hey, we all get those calls that waste a bazillion hours, and I was surprised that I wasn't getting the benefit of the doubt over some boneheaded caller. But I'm fine now...Don't worry about it. Like I said, it's not out of the realm of possibility that I said that, but it doesn't sound right, because I'm the type of guy that typically doesn't pass the buck when it comes to that kind of stuff, especially if it's just, "Oh, Mike's from Illinois, he'll know." Realistically, too, if I was going to pass him on to an Illini grad, it would have been Nolan, who's immersed in the draft on top of it. So anyway, don't worry about it. And, you don't have to forward him to me, necessarily, because he'll probably just hang up on me when I ask him who it is. But whatever..."

So, I guess all is good again. I thought I was going to have to be in a phony bad mood around this guy all day. Thank God. :)

Let me just say, for those of you who watch "24," this won't be news to you, but Kiefer Sutherland is officially "The Shit." I went and saw "Phone Booth" today, and Kiefer is excellent as the "bad guy" in the movie. Overall, it was a good movie, particularly for a dialog-driven movie--I mean, it's about a guy in a phone booth. But it's well-done and well worth your time and money.

After seeing "Phone Booth" early at a matinee, I decided to do some outdoor work. I didn't get a ton done in my garden up front (I wanted to plant the broccoli), but I did get the three bushes I wanted to move from the back garden to that front garden to provide a wind screen and give those bushes more of a fighting chance at survival. Where they were didn't get too much sun. Where they are now, they should get more, which is good for them. I'm hoping tomorrow I can go and get the edging stone and the fencing I need to actually lay out the garden, and then I'll be ready to plant. Gotta keep those rabbits out! Given that it looks like rain most of the next seven days, I have tomorrow evening to get as much done as possible.