It's Monday Night

I just want to check in on this delightful Monday night.  I was watching Hell's Kitchen earlier, and I got to thinking.  You know, this show doesn't take a whole lot of work to make, except some editing, yet it's popular, in the same way that all reality shows are popular.  Part of me wants to see real programming where someone gets paid to write a script while an actor gets paid to act out the scenes.  Networks love reality TV because they don't have to hire people like they do on scripted shows.  Well anyway, what I was thinking about was that even though these shoes are not helping the television industry, they're pretty entertaining, and I can't deny that I was really enjoying watching the show.  Made me want to cook food.  Too bad we don't have any around here.  We need to grocery shop, but we have to wait until Wednesday when Bethany gets paid.  Shit, man, I'm hungry.  I been living off eggs the past three days.

I know this makes us sound broke, which we're not, but we just need to go grocery shopping and we need to wait until Wednesday, okay?  Don't judge us.  And when I go shopping, I'm going to buy all the stuff to make a delicious meal for the two of us.  I don't know what I'll make, but it's gonna be rad, I promise.  I'll talk about the details when I know the details.

Until then, I must go to bed now.  I'm pretty tired.  Baby is winding down, and so are we.

Goodnight, everyone. 

Random Thoughts, Sort Of

You see, this is the problem with not posting filler material on the weekends for the weekday posts.  When it comes to Thursday, and there's nothing here all week, I decided to take advantage of a sleeping baby to write and I just don't have anything to say.

I have been watching last night's Braves games every day.  It's fun because I get to watch my team, even if it's like, 18 hours after the game has been completed.  I share an MLB.TV subscription with a few friends and I have the ability to stream the games through the PS3, so I do that.  The Braves are the local covered team, so they're blacked out so I can't watch the games live.  Totally sucks, but I'll just watch it a day later, especially if I don't know the outcome.  It's still the latest game that occurred.

Sometimes when I type on real computer, I do the double-tap on the space bar, which automatically puts a period on an iPhone, but it doesn't do that here.

When I don't work during the week, I have a hard time drinking enough water.  At work, I drink a lot of water, but at home, I just don't think about it.  Then I feel all dehydrated all day.  So I try to remember to drink water.

I dusted the tables around the living room today with Pledge.  Our wood is shiny.

We went to the pool yesterday with Evie for the second time.  She seemed to like it.  I think I'll be more willing to go in the pool now after that experience because it didn't seem like such a "to-do" this time.  After the pool, I wanted ice cream real bad, as it felt really good to be outside enjoying a nice summer day, so we went to this place called Bobbie's Dairy Dip.  They had burgers and shakes and stuff.  I had the Chubby Checker shake, which was like, chocolate, peanut butter, and whip cream all mixed together.  It tasted like a liquid no-bake cookie.  Very rich, and very sweet.  Lastly, it wasn't very cold, so it was just like drinking pure chocolate sauce.  It was alright, but a little too rich for me.  It's like, when you want an album to be all full of rockin' fast songs, and the ballad makes you angry.  Well when you get the album full of rockin' fast songs, you realize it's not that great because there was nothing to cut the thunder with.  This shake needed a ballad.  It was intense.

Okay, I'm going to go...do...something else.  This game is into the bottom of the 7th and baby will probably be waking up soon.  Piece out, hommie.

Pro Wrestling

As a young man, I was a very serious professional wrestling fan.  Very serious.  I would spend most of my time waiting for Monday night to watch Raw and Nitro, and Tuesday through Sunday, I would spend most of my time watching tapes of old pay-per-views.  My brother and I would collect them all, one way or another.  One of the main ways we had our collection was by renting the tapes from the video store and my brother would hook up our VCR's together and make a copy.  We had just about every pay-per-view either on a dubbed tape or the actual real copy.  I wouldn't say we watched them together all that often, but we both had seen them all, for sure.

One day, I took an interest in girls and started dating one, and she took my attention away from wrestling.  Also, I got a job that I worked evenings, and couldn't devote my Monday nights to the programming.  WWF bought WCW, their only competition, and it just sort of changed a lot for everyone.  It wasn't the same and I just wasn't that into it anymore, and it only got worse as I grew older.

Now, as I look at the WWE roster, I only recognize a few names, most of them being the holdovers from the days when I was a fan.  It's changed, where people don't have gimmicks anymore, it's more just dudes with a certain personality and catchphrases.  I really can't comment too much on the current state of affairs of the pro wrestling world, as I haven't watched any WWE programming in a while, and what I have watched in the past couple years has been short and usually low-quality illegal streams over the internet.

Part of what made wrestling so intriguing to me was that I knew it was "fake" or staged, and the wrestlers were basically acting, like dancing.  I sought the truth behind how it worked.  I wanted to know the secrets of pro wrestling, what was involved to make a match.  How they did it, how they would work together to perform the moves.  I wanted to know what went on backstage.  I wanted to know wrestlers real names.  Once all that stuff was revealed one way or another, the mystery of the whole thing sort of faded away for me.   I found out how the wrestlers communicate in the ring to coordinate what moves were going to be done next.  I found out how they make themselves bleed.  I looked up everyone's real name on the internet.  The veil of mystery was lifted with movies like Beyond the Mat and books like Mick Foley's Have a Nice Day.  The quest for the truth was over. I lost interest because there was nothing new to learn.

I still appreciate a good wrestling match.  I know a good wrestler when I see one, and I know a good match when I see one.  And you would know that I know who's a good wrestler, as my favorite wrestler of all time is X-Pac.  I still think the Undertaker is boring as all hell.  I still think Randy Orton is probably the best in the business right now, although remember, I haven't seen a lot of these new guys do their thing.  But from as long back as I can remember, the late 80's, until the summer of 2001, my life was professional wrestling.  In high school my dream was going to wrestling school when I was an adult.  Hell, I still would like to do it, maybe if I was more in shape, I guess.  Sometimes I wish I was still in those simpler times, just me in my room watching wrestling, eating popcorn, drinking Faygo, getting fat and full of cavities.  It was a great time, a happy time.  

Live Blog: Veggie Corn Dogs with Dipping Sauces

I'm fixin' to eat these

So here I am, way overtired, and I am about to eat my "lunch."  What I have for lunch today is two Trader Joe's brand Meatless Corn Dogs.  I have always loved Corn Dogs.  And I will always love corn dogs.  That's a rewrite on I Will Always Love You, by the way.  So to make my corn dogs interesting, I have found four different dipping sauces in a bowl in the back here at work.  McDonald's Sweet and Sour sauce, Arby's Sauce, Wendy's Heartland Ranch, and Hunt's Ketchup.  The ketchup part is pretty normal, but the others are just crazy!  So here's my thoughts on each sauce as I eat them on a corn dog.

First, Sweet and Sour sauce.  Really sucks.  It's like, a total clash of flavor.

Next, it's Ranch. That's actually not that bad, but still pretty weird.  It takes a second for me to realize what I'm putting in my mouth.  Not that great. But Ranch is pretty good on anything, so I would say it's acceptable. Just weird.

Next, Arby sauce.  Meh, not too bad.  The initial taste was awful, but subsequent bites get better and better.  I don't normally like Arby sauce anyway, so I had low expectations going into it.  I would choose the Ranch over this.  Not the Sweet and Sour though.

There's something wrong with this microwaved corn dog. It's all hard and dried out.  I went back to the Ranch to finnish it out because I don't need to know what corn dogs and ketchup taste like.  I always eat my corn dogs with ketchup.  After it's all said and done, the ranch is pretty damn good on there.  And now I'm just eating Ranch Dressing off the stick of the corn dog. I can hear myself getting fatter.  This has gone all down hill yet exactly the way I thought it would.

Okay, now I'm still hungry.  Let me eat these mixed nuts.  I wonder what a cashew would taste like dipped in ranch?

Posts About Posting

I want to ask you, is it obvious when there is a bunch of posts out in a row that I wrote them all on the same day and had them post throughout the week?  I try really hard not to make it obvious, but when there's weeks without any posts then suddenly there is posts every day for a week, I think it's obvious.  I can't help myself.  Usually I get in the mood to write on a Saturday or Sunday and write a bunch of different posts and have them come out all week long.  I also hate when I don't feel like writing on the weekend, because then there will definitely won't be any posts that week.  This is my post saying that I'm going to try to write posts on the day they happen instead of writing a bunch in one day and posting them all week.  Sort of like this one.  Was this written today or was this written on this past Sunday?

It's your guess, and I won't say.  But I would say if it's longer, it was written on the weekend, and if it's shorter, it was written on the day it was posted.  When I write at home, I don't feel like typing all that much, and when I'm at work on the weekend, I could go on and on and on and on for hours.  I don't know, what the fuck.  Have a nice day.  

Thursday, Just Like Wednesday

Sometimes I feel guilty having my daughter take naps all day.  I mean, who want's to sleep the entire day away, anyway?  But she needs naps to function and be happy.  I just feel strange after she slept all night, then put her down for a nap like, 2-3 hours later.  Well, whatever makes her happy, I suppose.

We drove by a house that is for rent yesterday, because our lease is up at the end of October in our current apartment.  If we were going to move, now is the time to start looking.  We are not in position to buy the house of our dreams at this time, but if we could rent a house for cheaper than what we're currently paying in rent in this tiny apartment, than we should look around and see what's available.  Our time is a bit short, but we didn't want to look for apartments or houses way before our current lease was up. The thought of moving hadn't even crossed my mind, and the thought of it makes me feel all weird inside.  What if we lived in a completely different part of the city?  Would that totally change my perspective of this wonderful place?

Speaking of apartments, I tried something last night.  You see, when it's getting late, my lovely wife goes to bed and I stay awake and play hockey on the PS3.  Every night, she sets the thermostat to 73 when she goes to bed, and this makes the house very frigid.  I usually have to put on warm pants and a hooded sweatshirt while she sleeps so I don't freeze my balls off.  Last night, I turned down the thermostat, but I only put it to 74.  It still got very cold in here, but I couldn't tell the difference.  When we woke up this morning, my lovely wife asked "Did you turn the thermostat all the way down?  It's hot in here."  "Yes I did." I responded, amazed that she could tell the difference, which was one degree.  Can't put anything past this one.   

Posts About Babies: No More Posts About Babies

I'm gonna go ahead and probably just cancel the Posts About Babies titles...I'll probably keep them categorized in the blog labels but the titles are probably going to go the way of the Atari 2600.  Still cool and stuff, but outdated compared to the current landscape.  You see, there is nothing much more to my life than the baby.  So to say that I have to specialize posts into a category of a "Post about Babies" is sort of unnecessary.

That's not to say the content here won't be other stuff besides posts about babies, but I believe that this is where I will find the most amount of the interesting things to write about, no?  And you thought when you read the title of this post that there would be no more posts about babies, didn't you?  Haha, sucker!

I think I might try my hand at video recording and editing.  We have Windows 7, which has all kinds of video editing stuff included into it, and I've messed with it before to try it out with a video I took of Cody Franson taking a slapshot at a Predators practice that was open to the public back in April.  It seemed easy enough to use, so I'm going to try to remember to record stuff and edit it together to make a nice little thing on my life.  As boring as my life is, there is some interesting and funny things that happen from time to time.  I just hope I can channel my inner Big Brother producer and shine events in a light that make them seem more interesting than they probably really are.  So in order to make this happen, I'm going to have to have the camera on my person nearly at all times, to capture video and then edit it down to the interesting stuff.  And not just videos of baby, but cooking breakfast and driving to places. Things like that.  So throughout this week I'm going to start trying to remember to get some video!  Who knows, maybe I'll be really good at it?  

I Need A Lawyer and a Degree, Apparently

So baby and I are just chillin' at the house watching baseball, which I wish I would remember to do more often.  Usually I just leave it on our local Fox station, WZTV channel 17, where they play a number of low quality programming that I just can't seem to pull myself away from.  You see, when you have a baby, there really isn't a whole lot of adventure you can have, except getting puked on or crapped on.  So, we watch TV.  Well, I guess I watch TV, she doesn't usually care too much what's on TV just yet.  I don't want her to be a slave to the television like her daddy is, but it's probably inevitable.  I like to watch TV, because that's what I've always done.

Anyway, I turn on Jeopardy! at 11 a.m. and leave it on for the next four hours and it's a steady downhill of brainpower being broadcast.  I wish there was a bar graph to illustrate, but just imagine it starting out high, and progressively declining throughout the day.  But like I said, today is the exception to this, as I'm watching the Stupid Red Sox play the stupid Tampa Bay Rays.  I really don't care too much about either team, but it's the only game on right now...so here I am.  After Jeopardy! comes Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, which I initially didn't like, but when you watch the damn show every day for a few weeks, you learn to sort of tolerate the idiots that compete on the show.  I get excited when there is actually someone smart on there that can answer the questions and do it without guessing.  Usually I just yell at the TV at how stupid the contestants are.  Then there's an hour block of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, which is more of me shaking my head at idiots.  Then it's Family Feud, hosted by Steve Harvey, who really isn't very funny, but at least he's entertaining when he rips on the contestants dumb answers.

After the game shows are over it turns to talk shows.  Steve Wilkos, who was the main bouncer on Jerry Springer has his own talk show, which is a lot like Springer, only more serious, I'd say.  Then it's Springer himself, which always makes me laugh.  Sometimes I forget how retarded human beings can be, even if some of the things on Springer might not be legit.  Someone thought of that story line if it's not real, and that takes some talent.  I think, however, that some of that shit is so crazy, you couldn't make that up.  It has to have some level of truth to it.  And finally it's the paternity test and lie-detector test show, I mean Maury.  Maury is the best, I wish it was on earlier.

There are much better things I could be doing with my time than getting mad at bad TV, but I can't tear myself away from it.  It's like watching a train wreck, I just can't turn away.

Also, all the while these shows are playing there are two, and strictly two types of commercials that play.  Lawyers and Colleges.  I guess the only people who are home watching these shows either have a shitty job, no job, or are injured and can't work.  That's it.  I believe I fall into the "shitty job" category they are marketing, but I'm watching a baby, damn it. That's a great job.  I don't want a different job than that.  I just think it would do me a favor to see a commercial for Sunny D or a car company mixed in.  I'm about to call 615-4Lawyer just so find out what that feels like, because god knows it's been pounded into my skull enough.  Yeah, today I needed a break from that bullshit.  I'll watch the stupid Red Sox and the stupid Rays instead.  Better than seeing another one of those commercials.  

Posts About Babies: Routine

Alright, so we have officially established the ever-important routine!  Yes, things in our home life were put on shuffle a few weeks ago, and there was a bit of an adjusting period that needed to happen, for sure.  I only work on the weekends, and I'm off all week long so I can stay home with baby while Mama is at work, making the real money.  I took a cut in hours, but either way, someone had to watch the baby, and either I take the pay cut or we pay some stranger to watch our precious.  I'd rather be the one in charge. I'm her dad and I should be the one to do it.

The pay cut thing hasn't effected us yet because I haven't received a "new normal" check as of this writing, so I don't even know what to expect once that "new normal" check arrives.  I'll find out on Friday, I think.  I don't remember when I worked overtime and when the pay period started and ended and all that, so I don't know.  Like I said, I'll find out on Friday.

But as I started in the opening line, after all the changes, we have now established routine, which is very essential to keeping a happy baby.  Babies are pretty easy if you listen to experts.  Just make sure she eats, plays then naps.  Some naps are long and deep and awesome for dad.  Some are short, and I have to walk on eggshells (not literally, that's gross) to make sure she doesn't wake up.  But when she gets her good nap in, oh man talk about happy baby.  Nothing in the entire world beats a happy baby.  So anything I can do to make a happy baby happen, I will do it.  She likes to be held in front of the big mirror we have in her nursery, and we ask her different questions that she physically can't answer yet, because she is a baby.  But she smiles and giggles, and I don't care what anyone says, that's the best thing in the entire world.  I live for the baby giggle.

So Monday through Friday I am a stay at home dad and on the weekends I would categorize myself as "unavailable."  My weekends from about 6 p.m. on Friday until 2 p.m. on Sunday I am sleep/work/sleep/work/tired. Then it's put baby to sleep, wake up, feed her, bring mama to work, feed her some more.  Nap.  Feed.  Nap.  Oh and diaper changes in between all of it.  I can do this easy.   I'm just glad I can find time to write here, too.  That's why baby naps are so awesome.  Also, when she naps I get to play NHL 11.  This is important above most other things. 

Death Cab for Cutie

I don't want to so much "review" the Death Cab for Cutie concert I went to on Wednesday night, but more give a wrap-up on my observations and feelings before, during and after the show.  First off, it's pretty well documented that I'm not really a fan of Death Cab, especially going into the show, but afterwards, I'm a bit more of a fan.  My expectations going in were that it was going to be pretty laid-back because Death Cab's music comes across to me as being mellow and chill.  Death Cab is more of a lyric-based type music, I feel, and the instrumentation is not that important to the fans of the band.  This is where I have my problems with the band, because I don't listen to lyrics unless I specifically go look the lyrics up while listening to a song, generally.  If you don't listen to Death Cab for the lyrics, like me, the songs are kind of boring.  Sometimes that's not the case with some bands, and the lyrics do shine on top of the songs, but most of the time I'm just not listening to what the artist is saying. I listen to the vocal melody and the music and the rhythm and the drums and stuff like that.  Basically, I hum and mumble along with most songs.  I assumed that Ben Gibbard, (vocals, guitar, piano) was going to be very reserved and not have very much stage presence, and I was very wrong.  The dude is a rock star, and he knows how to work a crowd, for sure.  Before the show, I honestly wondered what pillow I should have taken to the show, to be more comfortable during my mid-set nap I was probably going to be taking, but to my surprise, the show was pretty energetic for a mellow, songwriting band.

Now, part of my problem with the show was that I don't know many songs by the band, as I'm not that big of a fan.  That didn't matter, though, as they sounded great, whether I knew the songs or not.

Let's talk about during the show.  The venue in which this concert took place is the Bridgestone Arena.  The place had a lot of people in it, most of them being on the floor area.  Every concert I've ever been too, I've been on the floor and this was my first experience sitting in the stands.  (kind of an oxymoron, no?  Sitting in the stands?)  So I was able to have a good view of the crowd down below me.  What surprised me was the lack of movement and general enthusiasm out of the people on the floor.  They just stood there, staring at the band(s).  What the hell?  Every show I've been to, like I said, I was standing on the floor and the people moved and gyrated and danced and sang and pointed and participated.  Not this crowd.  THEY JUST STOOD THERE.  It was very awkward.  The band had absolutely nothing to feed of off.

There was a baby in the stands just down the row from us.  Didn't expect that.

There were a few old people at the show, and I want to do a separate piece on old people in a bit, but we thought of a funny quandary about being old and staying hip.

Overall, I loved the show, and the songs they wrote are WAY better live than I expected.  It was a huge-sounding show.  Just over the top.  I loved it, I really did.  I am a bigger fan now than I was going in, because the band shattered so many expectations I had for them afterwards.  I think I just like music that the crowd actually reacts to physically.  That's all I'm saying.

Isn't Death Cab for Cutie the absolute worst band name of all time?  I have the facts, and I'm voting yes.  

A Lost Music Post Apparently From 11 Years Ago

Something I noticed this morning, I was wondering who had won all the Grammy awards for Best Hard Rock Performance and as I read the Wikipedia page on the award, I noticed it said something near the end of the description that caught my eye.  It says about the Grammy awards that awards "in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position."  I put this last part in bold to highlight this fact because it's total bullshit.

As I glanced down the list of winners, I noticed that they all seemed worthy of their wins, as most of those songs are pretty good.  Cult of Personality, Black Hole Sun, Give It Away, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Guerrilla Radio, All My Life, B.Y.O.B, songs like that that were very good hard rock songs.  Judging music, as you know, is a matter of taste, so giving an award to musicians who someone says it the best can be hard to do, I would think.  Some people like certain shit, some people don't.  But most of these songs were major radio hits.  Now, I also don't think ragging on the Grammy's is all that necessary.  Everyone who knows anything knows the Grammy's are total bullshit, and only exist to boost album sales.  But to go out and say you are going to honor artistic achievement and technical proficiency and overall excellence without regard to album sales or chart position and then nominate Kid Rock (in his rap/rock days) and Limp Bizkit for the award?  You cannot tell me that Limp Bizkit's Nookie was in the top SIX best songs of the year 2000, as far as technical proficiency goes.  There is no goddamn way.  The song was popular as hell, that's for sure.  But it's not good.  It's not well done in the grand scheme of creating excellent music.  It's bullshit!

Anyway, that's all I'm saying.  They got better, and started actually awarding shit to artists that probably deserve it in later years, like awarding Best Hard Rock Performance in 2009 The Mars Volta for their song Wax Simulacra, because that song is the shit, and it's very technically proficient!  Well done, Grammy's.

Anyway, I just thought I would share that thing I noticed.  The other nominees in the year 2000 were Korn - Freak on a Leash, Kid Rock - Bawitdaba,  Alice In Chains - Get Born Again, Buckcherry - Lit Up, and the winner was Metallica with their cover of Whiskey in the Jarro.

Also, they're reshuffling all the categories in 2012, so there will be no more award for this and a separate one for best metal performance.  Lump em together.  They should get super-specific with their categories, like, Best Alt-Country-with-Rootsy-Bluegrass-sort-of-stuff Performance or Best Post Hardcore Performance with Male and Female Singers Who Alternate Lead Vocal Duties.  That would make it interesting, for sure.

Best Band No One Has Ever Heard Of Award goes to.......The Dogcatchers?

My Opinions on Every Major League Baseball Team

Right off the top I want to let the reader know this post is about baseball.  This post is going to be long and opinionated.  This post is being completed out of request, but it's also something I would really, really like to write down.  So if you don't want to read about my opinions on baseball teams, then you have my permission to close this tab out right now.  If you want to skim it, that's fine, too.  But don't say I didn't warn you.

There are 30 different teams in baseball, some of which I like, some of which, not so much for one reason or another.  I do have an opinion on these teams and all the ones inbetween.  These are my feelings.

I would also just like to say that I am an Atlanta Braves fan living in Nashville, TN by way of Negaunee, MI.  This skews my perceptions of the other teams in the league dramatically.  Here is my opinions on the 30 Major League Baseball teams, in no particular order.

Atlanta Braves:  I have been a Braves fan since the 1991 world series, when as a 8 year old, I was enamored by the 50,000 people at Fulton County Stadium doing the Chop in unison.  I had never seen anything like it, and I was hooked.  Plus, it was the World Series, and a classic Series at that.  Unlike other sports, I have never strayed from my fandom of the Braves, 20 years running now.

Baltimore Orioles:  Baltimore is probably my favorite lesser-known American League team.  Let me clear a few things up during my Baltimore section, I root for underdogs, I root for small market teams, I root for teams that have been around a long time and I generally have a National League bias.  Baltimore falls into three out of four of these categories   I don't care who is on the field, and I probably won't recognize 80% of the player they do have on the field, but Baltimore is like the forgotten AL east team.  If I'm choosing who to watch on MLB.TV, I will chose the Orioles.  Something about them is just "off the beaten path" of baseball teams.

Colorado Rockies:  The Rockies are a team I cared absolutely nothing about until they made a deep playoff run in 2007, and now I see them as a legit team that could make noise in the playoffs every year.  My preception of them has always been that they sold a lot of tickets, hit a lot of homeruns, and lost a lot of games.  They also gave a terrible contract to Mike Hampton, and that makes them look stupid.  But they made a World Series, so they're legit in my eyes.  Todd Helton.

Seattle Mariners:  Do-nothing, bad magagement team from Seattle, who used to play in a dome.  Ken Griffey Jr.  This team always sucks even when they won like, 110 games or whatever in 1998, or whatever.  My current opinion of them, MEH.  I'd watch them, but I just don't care about them one way or another.

Chicago White Sox: Let's see, the White Sox.  Never liked them.  Frank Thomas.  Play in US Cellular field, which I don't think there exists a more boring stadium to watch a game on TV from.  There or Turner Field.  Stadium asthetics matter to me, especially if I have no other reason to watch because there is no rooting interest.  I like them because they are old-timey, but that's about it.  They do have one of the best hats in the baseball, though.  Very iconic.

Pittsburgh Pirates:  Now this is a team that fits into all four of my catagories of teams I root for.  They've been around forever, have sucked for years, play in a great new stadium, are in the National League and are doing okay so far this year.  I think he Pittsburgh Pirates is cute, unlike their football team.

Toronto Blue Jays:  Fuck the Blue Jays.  I've never liked them.  They play in a stupid dome, they have astroturf, they have ugly uniforms.  They play in the American League, they won stuff, and usually hang around in the standings, so their never too terrible for me to feel sorry for them.  They are one of my least favorite teams by far.  If I see the Jays are playing the Mariners or the Rays or something, I'll turn MLB.TV off and watch Maury.

Tampa Bay Rays: Used to be a cute lovable loser team, then they got successful and I loved every minute of it.  I still think it's crazy that the Rays are any good, at all, ever.  They were so unbelieveably bad for so long it's hard to believe they made a World Series.  But they did and they are a perrenial contender now.  But warm fuzzy feeling of their championship run is long wore off, and now I just think they're boring.  MEH to the max.

Houston Astros: Never really liked them, but never hated them.  I like their weird stadium, sort of, but I sort of hate they put that mound in center field, just for the sake of putting a mound in center field.  I understand that they did it so I would include it in my blog post, and it has a sort of "hometown field" feeling to it, where the ground is imperfect and they just have to "make do with what we have to deal with."  Buy you purposefully installed a hill into a wall...for a gimmick.  Most old ballparks had odd deminsions because they were on a weird city block that had to account for fitting in somewhere, like the old Polo grounds in New York.  It was super long, for reasons that I'm sure weren't a gimmick, but because they had to do it that way. It was fucking 500 feet to straight away center, which no one every hit a homerun to.  No, the fucking Astros just built a mound out there to be assholes.  Also, it used to be called Enron feild, so that's funny.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim:   When I see the red box on the on-screen scoreboard in the top corner of the screen with the letters LAA in them, I want to slit my own throat.  Oh my fucking god am I sick of the Angels.  They're like the west coast Yankees, and they get the coverage they deserve because they have been very successful for a number of years now, including a World Series championship in 2002.  I was all about them then because they were the underdogs.  Rally Monkey!  Yes, now they are just a boring, bland, blah, fuck you baseball team.  I would say the Angels are the very last team I would choose to watch.  But it depends on who they're playing against.  Disney.

Kansas City Royals:  Now there's a team I can get behind.  They're like the Orioles, only shittier.  I like them because they haven't done shit for years.  I think that's something I could root for.  I think it's because I watched them a lot when I lived in Michigan watching them play the Tigers that I have a positive feeling towards them.  Go Royals.

Texas Rangers:  God I hate the Rangers.  You would think since they haven't done shit in the entire existence of their franchise that I would like them, but I just don't.  I hate their uniforms, and their logo, and Texas in general, arbitrarily I might add.  There is just absolutely nothing that excites me about the Rangers.

Oakland Athletics:  The Bash brothers of McGwire and Canseco were my heroes growing up.  I loved those guys even though I wasn't a fan of the team.  I hate the stadium they play in now, and even though they made a lot of noise with their moneyball techniques, I still feel sort of MEH on them.  They are by far my favorite team in the AL West, however.  But that doesn't take a whole lot.  I don't mind the A's at all except their stupid football stadium they play in.

New York Yankees:  I respect the Yankees for winning 27 world titles out of a possible 106, and have appeared in 40 of them.  The Yankees have appeared in 38% of all World Series' played.  That's insanely higher than any other team.  The Giants and Dodgers are tied for second most appearances, and those combined appearances don't even equal half of what the Yankees have accomplished.  The Yankees have been successful since the 1920's with an exception of the 1980's, I guess, but you get the idea. That's one missed decade out of nine, so far.  What I respect the most is that they will do whatever it takes to win, something I think that gets lost on other teams owners and General Managers.  Do what it takes to win.  Forget about the finances.  Just go win some championships.  That's the goddamn reason that Major League Baseball, or any sport for that matter, is played.  Just because they spend money and are successful does not make them evil.

Boston Red Sox:   I didn't want to put the Sawx right after the Yanks, but I have to get it out.  Fuck these clowns.  The whole Massachusetts "we're family, we're great, we do this we do that" bullshit needs to stop right now.  Like, everyone from Boston just has this "we're from Boston" attitude.  Just like people from New Jersey do.  When the Red Sox started making a run for a title in 2003-2004, everyone got enamored with the "Reverse the Curse" story, and the Curse of the Bambino.  Hell, even I was on my couch screaming at the TV, cheering on the underdog Sox!  What a great story, a ragtag group of highly paid losers take down the Yanks and go on the win the title, after 93 years of heartbreak.  Then the massive bandwagon showed up, and suddenly everyone one you know who casually watched a few baseball games was a huge Red Sox fan.  That bothered me more than anything.  Also, right around that time of them winning a title of two, their payroll was just as big as the Yankees was, but no one said they were evil because of it.  No, fuck that.  The Yankees have won 27 world titles while you assholes were off being shitty for 90+ years.  Go fuck yourselves and your bandwagon jumpers.

Chicago Cubs:  These are some Lovable Losers I can get behind.  I have a soft spot for the Cubs because the first MLB game I saw live was at Wrigley, which is an amazing place to see a game.  It's like walking into a time capsule, where time stands still.  Sure the Cubs suck, and someday they will win a championship, but not anytime soon.  Over 100 years of futility.  That goes against my Yankees arguement, but remember, before the Red Sox won some championships, I felt the same way about both teams. If the Cubs went on a run of championships and everyone jumped on their bandwagon, I'd probably hate them, too.  But they haven't, so I still like them.  Go Cubbies.

Detroit Tigers:  I was a Tigers fan before I was any other type of fan.  They will always be my second favorite team.  I love the Tigers.  I want them to do well.  I follow them.  I am a fan.  They are old-timey, too, so that helps.  All my friends are Tigers fans.

Cincinnati Reds:  The Reds fall into the exact same category as the Pirates.  Underdog team that hasn't done shit in years.  National League team.  Very rich history of success and failure.  I like their little ballpark too, and that it doesn't have a corporate sponsored name.  The Great American Ballpark, while a bit of pretentiousness because, you know, you just called yourself a Great American anything without really earning the title... But still, I get a feeling form the Reds of just some guys playing baseball on a Saturday afternoon.  I feel like the Reds are what baseball is all about.

San Fransisco Giants:  I've never liked them.  I think the fact that they have the Cheveron car mascots applied permanently to their outfield wall is fucking stupid.  Otherwise, I like their ballpark.  It's a place I'd like to visit.  The team has some good, exciting young talent to them, which I love.  Posey, Sandoval, and Lincecum, for examples.  Also, once they got rid of the image of "Barry Bonds and a bunch of other dudes," they became much more admirable in my eyes.  Old-Timey!

Arizona Diamondbacks:  Would this team just go away, already?  They wore purple when they entered the league, if I'm mistaken, and if you notice, they don't anymore.  They also went to wearing black, which every single team that enters a league as a new team does after they regret choosing purple or teal as their primary color.  Think about it.

New York Mets:  Fuck the Mets.  Always and forever.

Florida Marlins: I used to hate the Marlins when they were good, now I just hate them because of the divisional rivalry with my Braves.  They suck, though, so I don't worry about them.  We're TEAL!  Just kidding, we wear black now.  We play in an 80,000 seat football stadium that we will never, ever be able to fill.  They're getting a new stadium with a retractable roof, so we'll see if that helps my perception of the team and their empty fucking stadium 

Philadelphia Phillies:  Phuck the Phillies.  I can't stand them because they have become the big money spenders of the National League.  I know I said I respect the Yankees because they spend money to win, and winning is the point, but this is fucking with my favorite team.  The Phillies are really good, and they're in the same division as my Braves, so I don't like them.  It's a competitive thing.

Cleveland Indians:  No problem with the Indians.  They're like the Royals and the Orioles.  Only difference is they've come close to reversing their misfortunes in the recent past with a few trips to the ALCS and even the World Series int eh 90's.  They have the second longest Championship drought after the Cubs, so I'd like to see them win one.  Cleveland sports suck in general, so you gotta feel for the fans of the city sometimes.  I don't like them like I like the O's or the Royals, but I do see them in a positive light.

San Diego Padres:  Take em or leave em.  I have a Padres hat.  They used to have Brian Giles and Jake Peavy.  They play in a pitchers park.  Tony Gwinn.  I don't know, I just don't care at all about San Diego.  I'd say right now they are the most irrelevant team in baseball.

St. Louis Cardinals:  This is a team I didn't like much the past few years because they were good, but boring.  I had no reason to root for the team, since they never really have been all that bad since I really started watching baseball as an adult.  Pujols is the fucking man, one of the all-time greats, and he's not even done with his career.  He's a true gem for baseball.  I'd say the Cardinals are that really good team that always  gets overlooked, sort of like the Spurs in the NBA.  Yeah, yeah, the Cardinals are good again.  No surprise there.  We take advantage of in knowing the Cards are always good.

Milwaukee Brewers:  I have seen the Brewers live more often than any other team, so there's that.  I like them a lot.  They're like, my third favorite team, just because I've spent so much time at Miller Park.  The ultimate small market team, you just have to pull for them.  There is no smaller small-market team in any sport, I'd say.  Football has rules for revenue sharing and salary caps to prevent the big guy against the little guy, and it's an even playing field.  In baseball, there is no such thing.  The Yankees are the top, the Brewers are the bottom, in my opinion.  Go Brewers.

Minnesota Twins:  I've never really liked the Twins.  I always hated the dome and the astroturf, but even now that they play outside, it hasn't changed my feelings towards them.  There's just something about them that I don't like.  The Twins should be an inspiration to all the other small market teams out there though, it proves you can be successful with a limited amount of resources.  I'm just sick of seeing them,

Washington Nationals:  I liked them better when they were the Expos.  But they are the Nationals now, and even though they're in the same division as my Braves, I don't hate them because they are not a threat.  I don't love them like I do most other small market teams, but I defiantly don't hate them like I do other division rivals.  I hope they do well, I really do.

Los Angeles Dodgers:  Lastly, we have the Los Angeles Dodgers.  What can I say?  I think it's a shame what their going through with the ownership thing and with the bankruptcy thing, but that's business.  I like their tradition of being good.  I think if the Dodgers are good, it's good for baseball.  I like their blue, I think it's pretty.  I love listening to Vin Scully call games while he still does, and I put Evie to sleep to his voice as often as I can.  It's one of the true old-school elements of the game that still legitimately exists and isn't a reprint or fabrication of past traditions. There's something decidedly sixties about Dodger stadium, which is slowly becoming the third stadium behind Wrigley and Fenway in being one of those legendary places of baseball.  I just don't like all the empty premium seats up front.  It looks so goddamn cheap.  No one sits there because no one wants to pay those ridiculous prices.  It makes you look greedy.  Let the damn kids sit in the front row, for gods sake.  Isn't that why we play all these regular season games?  So families can come out to the ballgame and have a good time?

So to summerize, I feel indifferent to mid-market teams with moderate success.  I hate teams that have bandwagon jumping fans or are in the National League East that aren't named the Braves (or Nationals, I guess.)  I love the small market teams that never win anything.  I like the Tigers and Braves the most.  If I have to choose five teams other than the Braves or Tigers to watch a game of, I will choose, again in no particular order:  Reds, Pirates, Orioles, Royals, Dodgers.  But if you know me, you know I'd absolutely love to watch a Padres Diamondbacks game or a Mariners Angels game if it's on.  I just love baseball, no matter who's on.

Where's my LiveJournal?!?!

The saddest thing just happened.  My friend said she logged into her LiveJournal account and was reading what she had written back in the day, and that made me was to revisit the site, myself.  It was sad because I can't remember my login password, and when I put in the email address I most likely used to sign up for the site back in 2005, that couldn't be found either.  Where did my old blog go?!?!

There are some great memories on there that I'd like to relive.  How can this be?  I must dig deeper, because I need to see that, like, right now.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that it makes me sad that my thoughts are gone, if they are indeed gone.  That's why I did the damn thing in the first place, so I could look back on it 5 years later and laugh at myself.  I have to stop writting this righ tnow because the typos are getting rediciousl and my fingernails are too long to typw.  c ya later, aI an nt correcting these fucking things.


***Editors Note: Found it.  Carry on, lol. Wanna read it?  I haven't even read it yet, so we could do it together.  It can be found here.