Thoughts on "Dawn of the Dead"

Thoughts on the 2004 remake of George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead":

1. If you watch the end credits, you'll see that they make it to the island but they all die. This makes me sad.

2. Watching the end credits also forced a Disturbed song into my head that now refuses to vacate. This also makes me sad.

3. The story was better in the remake than the original. This makes me happy.

So, to sum things up:

:) = 1
:( = 2
Overall: :(

I wish there was a baseball game tonight.

Reading Group?

I am going to start reading John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany this week and it would be kinda cool to read it with a couple of folks. It's a really good discussion book and we can all smile together when we recognize lines from Jimmy Eat World's "Goodbye Sky Harbor" in the book. Any takers?

Playoffs.

So, just to recap... in round one of the baseball playoffs, I picked the following:

Twins def. Yankees
Red Sox def. Angels
Cardinals def. Dodgers
Rockies def. Phillies

Reality, however, disagreed with my predictions and I got EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE PICKS WRONG.

In the second round, I picked the following:

Angels def. Yankees
Dodgers def. Phillies

And, of course, the Phillies beat the Dodgers last night to advance to the World Series. And, OF COURSE, the Angels are down 3-1 in their series with the Yankees and could lose the series tonight.

My quandry: I would really prefer to see the Phillies (or anyone) defeat the Yankees in the World Series, but I do believe the Yankees have the better team. Should I pick the Phillies and hope I'm due for a win? Or do I learn from my complete and utter postseason prognostifail thus far and pick the Yankees, knowing that simply by choosing them to win, the baseball gods will swing the fate of the entire series against me?

Life is full of important decisions. This is one of them.

Angioplasty

Mom's having another angioplasty this morning @ St. Joseph's... if you're the praying/thinking type, I'd really appreciate any prayers or thoughts you could send her way. Thanks.

Happy Tuesday.

Oh, and...

...I want to write a book.

Sweater Weather.

The first hint of post-summer weather has broken through this weekend, with temperatures falling into the upper-40s (!!!) and today's high in the 60s. I don't think there's going to be any snow, but I'll take what I can get. The downside: after my run, my throat felt as if I'd swallowed a mass of broken glass.

I just checked the weather app on my phone and we're scheduled to be back in the mid-to-upper 80s by Wednesday.

I'm preparing myself (and Rufus and El Gato) to move in a couple of weeks. I've been scouting some apartments around USF and have a pretty good idea of where I'm going to be. The place I'm targeting is a two bedroom duplex about two miles from campus, close enough to bike or walk, saving money on gas and parking. Even with two bedrooms, I'm not planning to have a roommate. Rufus can have his own room.

Things making me happy:
- Steve sent me a better version than what I had of an old Acceptance demo called "Not Afraid" that I've been playing over and over this morning.
- New MacBooks should be announced this week.
- New Dexter tonight... season four has been incredible (so far).
- The housewarming gift I got for Lindsay should be arriving at her new abode any day now.

I know those are all terribly shallow and superficial things, but it's the best I can do right now. It's been a long week.

It's Been Awhile.

I know it has been a while (months) since I've written anything in this space, but I've felt the pull to (theoretically) scribble my thoughts out for a couple of weeks and, gosh darnit, 140 characters just won't do sometimes.

Since the last time I posted, I've decided to move to California to pursue my career in the music industry, reneged on that decision, quickly moved out of my apartment and back up to Land O' Lakes, quit the music business altogether, and taken a job at the University of South Florida.

I can't say whether any of those decisions are for the better or worse, as I feel like I've existed as a ghost of myself for several months. I've seen myself go through all of these changes, but they haven't felt personal. It's as if I've been watching myself undergo a prolonged operation from the observation deck .

My separation from the music industry has been somewhat easier than I'd anticipated, but I have had a few "what the hell am I doing?" moments from time to time. Any time I listen to some of my more personal former clients, I get that itch to jump right back in. From an outside perspective, I'm sure it appeared I was doing well. I had a stable of artists that could hold their own and who sold a lot of records. I had artists who could legitimately headline from coast to coast. Most importantly, I had artists I truly loved, enjoyed, and believed in. The prevailing problem, however, was that I didn't believe in myself as an agent. At least not as an agent that could survive with the big boys. Hence my undecision re moving to Los Angeles.

I did find a job that I think I enjoy with one of USF's research groups and I'm going back to class (again) in January. A 26-year-old junior. Perpetual - or intermittent - student. I don't even know what I'm going to study when I get back in class. I've changed my mind so many times that I think I may have run out of options, even at a school as large (45k students) as USF.

As much as it pains me to say, I am still not over Whitney. More than a year after I broke HER heart, I still miss her. A lot. I have only been this affected once before - when things fell apart with Bonnie - and I don't really see it coming to an end anytime soon. I dated Rebecca after Whitney and I split up, but I never got nearly as deep, emotionally, with her as I did with Whitney. It seems silly to now look back on the reason we broke up at all - distance. If she called, texted, IM'd, emailed, tweeted, pinged, telegrammed, carrier pigeoned, or skywrote "move to Baltimore tonight",I would be on a plane in two hours. I'd have Ravens tickets for week 8 (they're on the road next week and off the following week) and be looking at ticket plans for my secretly-beloved Baltimore Orioles next spring. The Emerald City would become my home and I wouldn't give it a second thought. I'd even change my Facebook network.

I don't know if it's a common affliction, but it's something that happens to me constantly, and that is not truly appreciating what I have in a relationship until it's gone. I have maybe three real regrets from my sordid dating past and a piece of each still haunts me. A combination of having too much going on in my brain and an unhealthy amount of sentimentality, I guess. The difference with Whitney is that I haven't gotten to that point where I can honestly say to myself, "no, that really wouldn't have worked out." I can say that about Bonnie. I can say that about Christina. I can really say that about Christina.

I kinda felt like John Cusack in "High Fidelity" right there. Number One in the list of Top Five Worst Breakups...

/triumphant return.