Bill Russell is Positively Badass

I just watched my first episode of Iconoclasts, a show on Sundance that follows around two famous people discussing their life philosophies and insights. The first of the series was a golf game between Samuel L. Jackson and Bill Russell. Now, I always thought Russell was incredible, but this show gave me a truly valuable insight from the man with 11 NBA championships. I take his insights seriously because I really appreciate winning, and there is probably nobody in the history of sports better at winning than Bill Russell. It kind of makes you wonder if he is the greatest athlete of all-time, I mean as Herm Edwards says, “You play to win the game.”

But the insight that he offered was that during games he took the negative energy all-around him and controlled it, thus turning negative energy into positive energy. Now this alone isn’t a mind blowing revelation, but if you think about all of the theories on positive and negative energy these days, most of them say to avoid negative people, and block out the negativity in our lives. I don’t believe this is a realistic solution to anything. Unless you never have human contact it’s impossible to avoid negativity, so you must harness the negative energy, actually seek it out. Not provoke it, but rather cherry pick what people are already shoveling out. It’s not an easy thing to do. The reason I love stand-up comedians so much is that they take the things that often wear on us like race, war, love, money, religion, sexuality, whatever it may be and they make us laugh about it.

It’s hard to turn negativity into motivation and laughter, that’s why most people just proliferate it. Some of the most negative and depressing people I know consider themselves optimists or positive people. They dislike negativity so much they’re willing to create more of it to get rid of it, the irony is thick.

I’ll sign this one off, not with a cheers, but rather

Stay Up (Which is term that my friend stole from a jazz musician, or a Viagra commercial )

Masks

I was walking in downtown Puerto Vallarta about a month ago and thought to myself, “there is an abundance of creepy Nacho Libresque wrestling masks in these shops.”  I thought I might purchase one of the masks and rob a bank.  It was weird how quickly the thought progressed in my mind.  For a brief moment I imagined myself playing innocent gags at parties, and then I’d dance and people would think this disturbing mask was hilarious.  But the gags escalated quickly to knocking off 7-Elevens. From there I looked to the Hollywood Bank Robber for inspiration, but realized that for a guy who liked to wear wrestling masks and lived in a tree house it would be difficult to get laid.  I didn’t buy the mask.

Don’tRito

Don’tRito

Web Developer: Zach Blank

CW: Brock Kirby

CW/AD: Matt Nicholson

Newser Campaign

CW: Brock Kirby

AD: Andrea Schneider

Douchebag Dances to Soulja Boy

I’m starting to miss home a tad. The New York vanity is really starting to chap my ass. In Oregon it was funny to see guys in the gym constantly checking themselves out in the mirrors, but most of them do it subtly. Here the meat-heads don’t even try to hide it, they lift there shirts up above their heads and flex, completely blocking access to the dumbbells. But I suppose the weight room, where vanity reigns king, probably isn’t the best example. But, I wish I could film my walk every morning and evening to the subway stop on Lorimer and Metropolitan. This street is like a catwalk for hipsters, and even though they’re all dressed the same, they think they’re the most unique…I digress.  Hipsters are vain.  But, maybe the best place to catch a few people that are really into their own deal is the bar.  Last night’s example:

Surviving New York

It’s taken me awhile to adjust to New York.  But I can finally commute to work without fearing for my life.  I found that the secret to staying calm and composed in this rat race is to look for reactions from the long time New Yorkers and follow their lead.  They aren’t hard to spot.  They’re a conundrum of callus and culture.

When one man pulled a knife on another in the Subway, I followed their lead and quietly walked to the other side of the car without making eye-contact.  I also followed their lead when a crazed man came on our car and starting yelling about committing mass suicide.  I thought he was going to kill us all, but I looked around and saw that the New Yorkers weren’t even phased.  They just turned up the volume on their iPods and drowned out the apocalyptic soliloquy .

But the other day, a man came onto the train.  He looked scary, but far less scary than the guy with the knife.  He was wearing pink parachute pants, and a matching pink fishing cap.  It look liked the worst thing he could do was wash my whites.  I checked my litmus New Yorkers, and saw that an extra-grizzled man was making the sign of the cross and saying a few “Hail Marys.”  If this guy needed to pray, I needed to be shitting my pants.  But no one has killed me yet.

Failure is a belief

Failure is a belief. One that I don’t hold. Some would say that my first team handball practice was a failure. I looked pretty much like a jackass as I ran around and broke every rule on every possession. But, thankfully for me, I don’t believe in failure. Which is much different from having no shame. People with no shame believe in failure and they happily embrace it. I just don’t believe in it. Big difference.

I’ve never been so sore in my life. We practiced for three hours on Saturday night. I haven’t practiced an organized sport in 4 years, and it showed. After the first hour I was concerned my heart was going to explode, but my giant Serbian teammate who screamed “More Power,” a hundred times during practice made me not want to quit for fear of being torn limb from limb. I learned some of the basics, and am poised for the next practice. I really wish I would have learned the game when I was younger, because it’s an incredibly fast paced and fun game that combines basketball, soccer, baseball(turning a double play), with some football contact. I would imagine that option quarterbacks would be naturals at the game. I’ve attached a clip for all of you who think that handball is a game where you hit a ball against a wall.

Team Handball Starts Today

I can’t count how many times people have told me to “let competitive sports go,” that it’s time to “move on.”  At times I’ve considered their suggestions, thought that I was holding onto something fleeting.  But sports aren’t leaving this world, and their not going to leave my life.  I couldn’t let them go in college, that’s why I took intramural sports too seriously, and I can’t let them go now.  Which is exactly why I’m going to my first Team Handball practice today.  The gentlemen at the New York City Handball club have graciously let me come and try out a practice today and see if I even belong in the same neighborhood as them.  I might not, after all I’ve never played the sport in my life.  I guess we’ll see if my confidence pays off tonight as guys from all over the world hand me my lunch.

Cliche Awesomeness

I Stumbled upon this link. There are a couple great flash animations on it. Some might consider these things lame, or cliche, but they’re only cliche if they’ve lost their meaning.

http://www.eightprinciples.com/

The Baby Red-Eye

Don’t bring your child on a red-eye flight.  They should be in bed, and everyone on the plane should be asleep.  Why are you even traveling with an infant anyway.

Effective Cussing

I have always found effective cussing to be a beautiful art.  I’ve had coaches that used cussing so excellently that it made you get shivers in your spine.  But, I’ve also heard people use cussing as though it was some type of foreign language and they had no idea where to put the accents.  Please watch the following video, and take notes on how a true professional conveys messages gorgeously with a limited vocabulary.