Slowly But Surely

Team Bad Guy is right. We are bad. We used to be very bad, but now we are just bad. Last night, our softball team fell to 0-6 by losing 20-10. The score seems much worse than the actual outcome. In our last outing, we made it to the fourth inning before collapsing...a new record. Team Bad Guy one-up'd itself and took another step forward by collapsing in the top of the sixth inning. We almost played an entire game without having the mercy rule come into play. Entering the sixth, our outfield made the plays they needed to make, which changed the outlook of the entire game, thus we trailed by only four runs, 8-4. We recorded the first two outs in the field with relative ease and no extreme damage. But then the softball fairy came and took all of the ball skills that we showed the previous five innings. We couldn't catch a fly ball, field a ground ball, hit the cutoff man, or make the throws to the necessary bases. To top it all of, our opponents learned how to hit the ball, which didn't help the cause. In the end, the game ended up like the rest...with us on the losing end, hanging our heads in shame.

Oh the pain!

I am slack

So I've been a little slack as of late...and busy at times as well. But things have finally calmed down now that we are in the new building.

This is my first morning here and I can't even begin to explain how much better it is. First off, my drive is no longer fifty minutes to an hour every morning....with light traffic! I can now roll out of bed and be at work in 25 minutes....with light traffic. A nice change. I no longer work in the basement of a fifty year old building with no windows or fresh air. My cubicle is on the third floor of this gorgeous building where the air is not rancid, musty, and flat-out unhealthy and I have a nice view from my window, which allows for natural sunlight. It'll be pretty cool to know what the weather is like outside or know if the sun even comes up in a day. How novel! Even the cubes are great. Mine is 10 ft. by 8 ft. with sharp looking furniture, and once again, a decent view of I-85. The new foosball table rocks and is exactly the same, a Tornado table, on which I won the foosball tournament at the Fusebox Conference.

This place is just much cooler in general. They'll be more to come as I find out all the new and exciting details about my new workplace.

The First Lady of Wrestling

The first first lady of wrestling, Miss Elizabeth, died yesterday.

My new toy

I have finally done it! I bought the big screen TV that I've been talking about getting for years! Here's "our" story.

Over the past few days, I had been researching the Toshiba 50H82 on the internet. The set is a 50 inch widescreen TV with high definition compatibility at a reasonable price. It was everything I could ever desire in a TV. I had faith in Toshiba because both my uncle and cousin recently bought big screen televisions from Toshiba and had good experiences with them. It was my dream to some day have a great experience with a TV and maybe I would be lucky enough to have it with a TV the caliber of the Toshiba 50H82.

So I walked into Best Buy on Sunday to purchase a DVD and begin looking at the various big screen televisions they had on display. As I scanned the TV's, this one particular TV caught my eye. It was not too big, the picture was incredible, and it happened to be made by Toshiba. Coincidence? Or fate? I asked the salesperson how much it cost and he told me that it just went back up to $1799 after being at $1599 last week. Bad lack. Then he told me that he would sell me the television for last week's price of $1599. Oh no! Would I be able to pass on an opportunity like this? I re-examined the TV and saw that the model I was looking at was the same model that I had been researching. This was it! This was my chance to be united with "my love" for the experience of a lifetime! But I was ready to jump into this. What was I going to do?

I needed support from my family. My nerves were getting to me. I called my mom and uncle for advice and support and they told me that if I truly wanted this, then I should not let anything get in the way. I had to discuss this with my girlfriend as well, whom would have to live with the both of us. She told me to follow my heart, so I did. I decided to take the chance and make the purchase.

Now, when my girlfriend and I move into our new apartment, we will be joined by another: my 50 inch widescreen Toshiba television. I love the way my home theater is shaping up.

I've never found an article supporting my opinion of Ivy League schools. This one will do though.

Sadly enough, our best game

Sadly enough, Team Bad Guy had its best game last night in a losing effort 23-12. We started off strong putting up five runs in our half of the first inning, but decided that we didn't want the lead, so we dropped a few easy fly balls in the outfield and gave up five unearned runs making the score 5-5 after one. But for once, the bats were alive and Team Bad Guy recaptured the lead with three more runs. Our opponents were strong though and tied the game up at eight at the end of two. With a new found confidence at the plate (by actually being in a game), we regained the lead with three more runs 11-8. A couple errors in the bottom of the third allowed the other team to tie the game up at eleven. An excited Team Bad Guy put up only one run in the top of the fourth. And that's when things went wrong. Fly ball after fly ball was dropped by each and every outfielder allowing our opponents to take a substantial lead on a whole bunch of unearned runs. Final score: 25-12. That's pretty bad considering we were in the game until of the bottom of the fourth inning.

Positives from the game:

We hit the ball fairly well and consistently

We actually got to play five innings (nice change from 3)

We have the potential to beat every team we've played thus far

Negatives from the game (the short version):

We field like crap and cannot catch a fly ball

We field like crap and cannot catch a fly ball

We field like crap and cannot catch a fly ball

I almost had fun last night though. I was 3-4 at the plate and should have been 4-4 except for some poor base running from teammates (another negative from the game). Unfortunately, my good night doesn't translate to a win for us. I don't ask for much, but I would like to win one game. Only one. That's not too hard is it?

I swear I'll have fun one of these games.

Miss Personality

A few months ago, I wrote about a charity event called Kate's Club. Something very interesting has occurred since then with one of the girls I met there.

My friends and I were invited to attend by a girl whom we will call "Peek-A-Boo". We met up with her and her friends a few hours into the event. "Peek-A-Boo" walked up to us, said hello, and introduced us to the rest of her friends. The first friend that we were introduced to was named Hayley. I took one look at her, glanced at "Handsome Brian", and we both mouthed the word "Wow". This girl was absolutely gorgeous, and hot as anything. She sat down next to me and I got a chance to talk to her for the next couple of hours.

I liked this girl's personality right off the bat. I asked her what she did for a living and she told me that she was a conductor for the orchestra for the travelling musical, "The Lion King", which just happened to be in town. Of course, I thought that was a little weird, but cool nonetheless, because I've always enjoyed musicals. So I proceeded to ask her questions about her job and she kept giving these interesting responses until finally she said that she couldn't do it anymore. She was just playin' with all of us. The whole story was a lie that kept getting bigger and bigger with each question. What a crock! All of us laughed about it for a while and then I proceeded to tell her a lie of my own, which she believed. When I told her that my story was a lie as well, she felt like a fool, much like I did. We laughed it off and the night went on. So that was my introduction to Hayley. What a pisser!

I saw Hayley around the city a couple of times over the coming weeks, but we spoke for only a few minutes. So then, I see a commercial on TV for another cheesy reality show called "Mr. Personality". I almost blew it off, but noticed a striking resemblance between the woman on the show and Hayley. I also thought I heard the name Hayley mentioned in the commercial. After a moment of confusion, I just shrugged it off as mere coincidence...until this past weekend.

I was hanging out with my friends on Saturday night when someone mentioned that "Peek-A-Boo" was upset that Hayley was staying out in Los Angeles. I thought about it for a second and my curiosity was sparked. Could "Peek-A-Boo's" friend Hayley be the same Hayley on "Mr. Personality"? When I went home that night, I went to the website for the show and began looking at the pictures. It sure did look like Hayley. I went onto the message boards for more information and saw conversations about Hayley attending Florida State University and that she was in a sorority, both of which Hayley told me in our conversation the night we met. It was her! The girl I randomly met and spoke to for a few hours was the same one as on the show. In some weird sort of way, I felt famous myself.

Anyways, Hayley is a very cool person. She's very personable, funny, sarcastic, and of course very attractive. I would just like to wish her good luck with the show and all the opportunities that come from being on "Mr. Personality". She is very deserving of all the good fortune that comes to her. I would also like to wish the guys on the show good luck. From my brief conversations with Hayley, I know that she is a handful (in a good way). I think there's a good chance that they won't be able to handle her. But I don't really care about those guys. But Hayley, "You go girl!"