Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Tito Ortiz Is From The Streets Dog



Why is it that whenever I get approached by a homeless person, I instantly feel like they have the upper hand? I start stuttering and getting nervous like this guy knows EXACTLY how much money is in my wallet. Only a few occasions in my life have I been able to truthfully tell a homeless man that I am dead broke. As in "Sir, I'm serious, I've got ZERO dollars on me." If I'm in Boston, I usually have the wherewithal to bring whatever money I'll need. But if it's Sunday morning, and the previous night went well, I'm lucky to have money for a coffee.

Which brings me to the Tito Ortiz thing. What was the one thing Tito had in back pocket? Not money, but truth. (Ok, he's definitely got money, too.) But this man doesn't feel an iota of guilt telling a bum to GTFO. And that's because he can look him in the eye and say "I came from the streets. Laziness gets you no where."

I didn't come from Cohasset or Newton, but I certainly didn't come from the streets. So when bums ask for cash, I desperately want to tell them that I'm broke too, but I usually relent, and fork over (at least) a dollar. Only on those rare occasions where I TRUTHFULLY have no dollars on me, that I can tell them, "Sorry, man, I got nothing for ya."

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Chicago Gang Violence Leads to Death

Unbelievably shocking footage of a two rival Chicago gangs warring in the streets caught on amateur footage.


I'm kind of speechless on this one. The report makes it sound like the rival gangs made a conscious decision not to use guns or knives. Are boards noble? Am I missing something?

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Thoughts on the Halo Movie

This is the short video that Bungie Studios made along with then-director Neil Blomkamp. For Halo die-hards, this short film shows action from the plot-line hours before the start of events of Halo 3. Since I'm such a fan-boy to this particular project I can't honestly express I feel. By this I mean, I think this would be an incredible trailer as far as movie standards go. But in actuality, seeing spike grenades and rocket launches to spec of the Halo Universe is enough to leave me enthralled. Sadly, Blomkamp is no longer with the project. In fact, the whole project is dead. IMDB lists it as "in production," but that doesn't mean that people are actually doing things for the movie at all. Most recently Steven Spielberg has been rumored to be attached to the project, but with Microsoft releasing a statement that the project will be on hold until other Bungie projects are finished.
I saw District 9 a few weeks ago and couldn't help but think that the entire movie was made because the Halo movie fell through. The aliens were so similar to the Covenant Elite, and the live-action sequences in the movie were on par with the sequences in the video posted above. In all likelihood, this just means that Blomkamp has a distinct cinematic style which could follow him throughout his career. Like I said, I'm sad that the movie has a lot of obstacles to overcome, but after seeing District 9, although I liked it, I guess I can wait. Whoever decides to direct/produce Halo will be able to emulate what Blomkamp did right, and adjust things that he did wrong.

Plaxico Burress Will Likely Face "Man-to-Man" Coverage


Today, Deadspin outlined that Plaxico Burress' infamous self-inflicted gunshot wound was not accurately reported by the New York Post. A Dec. 1st article from the Post indicated that Burress attempted to conceal the weapon in his sweatpants. Recently, in an interview with Jeremy Schaap of ESPN, Burress stated that the sweatpants tale was false, and that he was wearing jeans on that fateful night. These "facts" do not make Jon Stewart any less funny. Because in all likelihood, Burress is simply trying to make a little bit less of an ass of himself as possible. I wish Plaxico the best of luck in prison. Reports are that he will spend more time alone due to his celebrity, in an attempt to "protect" the NFL star from unnecessary harassment from other inmates.


Prank your girlfriend/wife/mistress

I have a girlfriend right now who lives at school. I live at home about an hour away and we see each other about once a week. She's an absolute sweetheart and I couldn't be luckier to have her. With that said, it's videos like this that make me wish we could fast forward 2 years until she graduates so we can have a place together. This is what true love is all about. Behavior like this appeals to me just as much as procreating does.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Weekend Observations


This past weekend I went to Medford to hang out with a few friends from college. Saturday night, we went to Hurricane O'Reilly's. Nightclubs are not my forte but I wasn't really throwing out any better ideas. For most of the night, I enjoyed a bevy of fun activities. Often times I was standing in close proximity to the group I came with. The music was far too loud to talk, and none of us are any good at dancing with girls, so there wasn't much action going on. This is undoubtedly my main concern when forced to "club." The whole atmosphere should be prefaced with a "Non-Ballers need not apply" style advisory. Going to semi-formal and homecoming dances were far more fun than this solely because there was a place to go and sit down when standing up sucked. But I was there, and I was stuck there.

At no age will I be bored with personal games; private competitions and adventures I put myself through simply hoping that some form of entertainment (for me) ensues. Saturday night's game was of the simpler variety. There was no intended goal. I just chose the thickest and most dense portion of the people on the dance floor, and walked in between everyone. I bumped into just about everyone, made eye contact with others, and had many of those awkward passing moments where two people need to go in opposite directions, but continue to motion to the same path, and then nearly bump into each other about 3 or 4 times in a row, until finally, the alpha human involved, definitively marks a course for either him/herself, or adamantly urges the other person to pass. This happened to me a lot in the halls of school. When this happens to me, I have a witty comment at my disposal to ease the tension of the moment. I am not going to share it with you, but I came up with it about 10 years ago, and will probably be using it 10 years from now. The club was too loud for this, but I wasn't out there to tell jokes. I like to picture myself as Catherine Zeta Jones in the movie Entrapment when Sean Connery's character trains her to maneuver, nimbly through the infrared wires that were guarding a priceless Chinese mask. Only in my case, once I maneuvered to the other side of the dance floor, there was less of an ancient artifact, and more of a sudden realization that I'm very drunk and all by myself.