Rays-Phillies?? Really…??

…somewhere a fox executive is cringing at the idea of this world series… phillies vs. DEVIL rays… who even cares?

-1st, why not pinch hit for Tek? – Tito, I love and respect you, but you’re getting too emotionally connected with your captain; someone like Theo would have been able to pull him without thinking twice – sometimes you need to approach decisions without emotion… oh yeah, and Lowrie — is that all we had???

-I was going to take a weekend away from work when I’m out East and go to Philly… I’m not sure I can do this while a Ray-Phillies series is going on… it just seems wrong.

-It was a great season and I enjoyed the ride, but what am I supposed to do until pitchers and catchers…? this void cannot be filled by work… please no… I suppose I could finally apply to law school :-/

It may take me a few months, but I will definitely get through this low and will likely return with great optimism in 2009. Until then, let’s make some moves Theo – I know you’re still looking at Teixeira, and that’s important with the Lowell situation up in the air, but…

-Don’t forget that the middle infield is the core of your defense… is Lowrie our future?

-We really need to solidify our rotation. Peavy is an option, but are the costs too high?? Though we do have two center fielders, which I know they are looking for…

Theo, I trust you more than anyone to make these decisions from a detached and informed perspective. I’ll be checking in again in 2009.

I will most likely be burying myself in work for a while, so feel free to try to contact me and console me…

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Incredible

yes Dustin, that was ******* sick…

I don’t know if it is because it was so incredible or because I am on only a couple hours of sleep, but I don’t even know what to say about last night. The game immediately entered my top three favourite sports moments. Last night is the reason I love baseball…

Soxx Win!!!

So… I haven’t posted in quite a while and have been getting abysmal hits in response to my lack of commitment…

Anyway, for those of you interested in my life, I have been disturbingly content (my recent complacency, as always, will inevitably lead to travel in the near future…). Work has recently shown the potential for a trip to TJ as well as an extended stay in New York. If neither of these come to fruition, expect a short holiday… maybe Austin or Florida…  In other news meaninglessness, I took the LSAT again last weekend and am now DONE with it; I am pretty sure I got the exact same score (150… not really, haha), but will wait a few weeks to find out. Also, the soxx are in the playoffs and they are through the first round!! They will be playing the Rays, which should be quite an interesting series considering the matchups this year and the inability of Boston to show Tampa that they are not the team they think they are =P.

As for music, I am still awaiting the Phoenix release, but have been going through my iTunes in the meantime to filter out the music that best suites me now. If you haven’t heard of Neimo, please take a listen:

Neimo – Lines

Cheers,

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How ’bout them Sox… :)

In case you didn’t notice, the Soxx are playing amazing right now. Lester pitched a gem last night and we are only a half a game back on the Rays. Tonight’s game could put us in first place of the AL East.

All is well when the Soxx are playing like this

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The Arrival of Summer

I know it sounds ridiculous to say summer is just starting, as it is almost August, but I am finally feeling my typical summer high spirits (often reffered to by friends as ‘Summer Brett’). For some reason they were stalled this summer – they commenced as usual this spring with red soxx spring training and opening day, but were beaten back by my thesis and my hustle towards graduation. Although being in China for a month following this was probably the best experience in my life – so far – it was not so good for my summer spirits. Returning to the States in June, I felt a bit of a counter culture-shock. Everything seemed so trivial; I hated the simplicity, the lack of challenge and discovery that was omnipresent in Shanghai and Beijing.

I think I now realize that what is best is to seek a balance between discovery and assurance. Still, if I am to lose this balance, I hope to always lean towards discovery. My biggest fear is complacency, to possess a level of comfort and guarantee that inevitably shields any individual from life’s experiences and from their personal potential. I realize I may not be following my personal philosophy by staying in Minneapolis during my gap year, but I am simply keeping in mind the near future of law school tuition and high costs of living. Besides, I still have a lot planned for gap year – regardless of where I am working – and hope to continue to challenge myself (Japanese lessons?!?!?).

I think this realization has been at the centre of my recent high spirits. I am also golfing more, which has a direct correlation to my attitude (sorry, I don’t have SPSS here, so bear with the excel-style chart):

I was also going to make one that had my golf score as the dependent variable, but I’m too busy lazy and it would simply be a straight line, with no statistically significant correlation between my performance on the golf course and my overall happiness

I am pretty much done with the work week already, which has improved happiness indicators. Tomorrow is our company golf outing, so I’ll be hitting up the links all day. Apparently it is my birthday tomorrow (I didn’t forget this year , so I am celebrating my youth – celebrating my birthday the night before, as is my tradition – with a twilight round of golf. But this year I am also celebrating my age (I usually mourn after my birthday…) by taking a little break from work. After the company golf outing I am going to make the drive across Wisconsin to Milwaukee (I might go out if anyone is around on Thursday night… let me know) for the night before heading to Chicago on Friday. I am hopefully going to check out Northwestern and U Chicago Law Schools, catch lunch with my cousin, and hit up Lollapalooza – I just printed my ticket!!! I am definitely looking forward to Bloc Party, who I’ve wanted to see for a long time… Also looking forward to the Go! Team and Mates of State – here is my schedule, let me know if you want to meet up at all.

I may have planned too much for one day though, as I need to get back to Milwaukee for a 7 AM flight to Boston the next morning… wish me luck!  I haven’t been to Boston for a couple of years so I am quite excited for this leg of the trip, even more so because I will be checking out perspective law schools while I am there. Then I have a flight back to Milwaukee where I’ll see my aunt and uncle and then back to Kiel, WI – the little city that does BIG things - for the annual Kiel picnic and some long-deserved Schwartz’s, my all-time favourite restaurant (possibly in a tie with Village Wok). I think I will need to get another round of golf in while in Wisconsin as well…

All of this driving in the next week or two might kind of suck (if you know me you know how much I hate driving/traffic/automobiles), but I do love to travel, so I can set aside my distaste. I am hoping to check out Austin City Limits in September and am considering driving, although flying would probably be a better idea.  If anyone else is interested, let me know – I am willing to do just a weekend trip, as most are still in school =P  Also hoping for Sydney and Spain within the next year (maybe Shanghai again…) – any suggestions for finding cheap flights???

I’m taking a camera along the journey, so expect more flavourful posts when I return

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AL Wins!

I want to write, but I can’t think of anything important to write about. Thus, I am writing about the All-Star game last night (even though I fell asleep and did not see the end of it). I knew the AL would win anyway (NL is terrible, btw), so I wasn’t too focused on the game.

I was disappointed to see the Yanks fans booing Pap. Once a year an opportunity exists to put aside our competitiveness and hatred for each other and you ruin it by misunderstanding Pap’s comments and sheepishly holding onto the NY media’s misconceptions. Your actions were simply immature,. Yet, they act to further re-enforce the stereotype of ignorant baseball fans followers. Pap actually praised Mariano – what are you so upset about? I guess it is just in Yanks fans’ nature to unquestionably follow the lead of a few media knuckleheads.

Anyways, I’m excited to head to Boston in two weeks. I think I should get a feel as to whether or not I would enjoy studying there for three years. Still, I’m also excited because it should be wicked fun. I am first driving to Chicago to check out Northwestern and U Chicago – and of course Lollapalooza I think I will also make a drive up to the annual Kiel Picnic when I get back from Boston. It should be a great summer week.

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