Weekend Musings

I have no excuse beyond laziness. I haven't been posting much, which is obvious, but summer is my favorite time and I tend to find things to do.

... I'm on a good book pace (for me anyway), but once again I keep being taken away to do things during the best season of the year. I've read 21 so far, but Book is running away with the title this year. See, I told you an e-reader would speed things up!

... I am also currently not working on my short story because there's just too many options. Oh well. That's what cold months are made for.

... World Cup was amazing. I love the World Cup and root hard for the USA. But, the US is usually out fairly early and I eventually get 100% behind Germany. This led to one of the most gut-wrenching sports losses I've had in 2006. The US choked in 2006, and Germany was the host, so I was all in. I had not been roped into sports in a deep emotional way for a long time, but that 2006 German team roped me in. After a brief career in sports journalism, I had become detached from sports. I thought that would protect me and foolishly let my guard down.

That's when this happened:



My friends who were there with me when this happened will attest that this loss hit me like a ton of bricks. So much for being able to leave the emotion out. I think the circumstances made it the worst possible sports storm because I truly didn't see this stomach punch coming. (Although it is possible I have blocked out much of the 3 horrible Bronco Super Bowl losses for fear of heart failure were I to access those memories).

So, in 2010, I was all in for the US team and loved embarrassing the Brits with a tie, and lost my mind when this happened:



As great as a moment as that goal was, the Ghana game in the knockout round was crushing. Not a stomach punch because they really didn't play well, but a jolt nonetheless. I was bummed, but I don't think I knew exactly how bummed I was. I hated that the US lost like they did, but I was ready to let Germany fill the void.

I took a few hours from work and watched as Spain took Germany down and the combination of the two losses gave me thoughts of 2006 and the pain as that Italian goal went in in extra time. I now know it was the combination because I was not as sold that this 2010 Germany team was as good as the 2006 team. These last two world cups have been brutal to me, but I still love the event and can't wait until 2014!

... Once again into music. Thanks to my bro, I've been introduced to a bunch of new bands with potential. My complete lack of connection to whatever a person needs to connect to for band information renders me completely dependent on others. Between friends and family, I tend to find just enough to keep my I-pod full.

Current bands I'm listening to include Muse, Metric and the White Stripes. Just learned about a few new ones from Jon, too (like "She Wants Revenge"). I continue to go through a grunge phase, too, though. A couple of videos (both new school and old school) for your consideration: