I just returned from watching JHU win the NCAA Division I lacrosse championship game over Duke at M&T Bank Stadium. Hopkins played a great game, just handing it to Duke in the first half. Hopkins was up 10-4 at halftime and Duke was wandering around trying to figure out how it happened (hint: their goalie played like crap). Duke put on a pretty good run in the second half, eventually tying it at 11's before Hopkins scored in the last four minutes and then held off Duke for the rest of the game.
The last two minutes of defense from Hopkins was brilliant. They even had to play a full 1:00 of man-down defense, the goalie had some great saves, they just did not let Duke score by force of will alone. Really incredible, gutsy defense, the kind that wins championships. It was an exciting game and it was awesome to be present when your alma mater wins a national championship, I'm really glad I could be there.
On the other hand, it's a shame that the national sports media is acting so disappointed with the outcome. Just because the rape allegations against Duke players turned out to false doesn't mean that they are stand-up guys. But you read that AP article (the link above) and it's completely written from the standpoint of "look at this poor guys trying to have a come-back season after last year and mean ol' Johns Hopkins had the nerve to beat them." Come on, Hopkins was the underdog here. We were the #3 seed in the tournament, coaches polls at the end of the season had us as #5, Hopkins did a hell of a job getting to the championship game and upsetting Duke, the #1 seed. It could have been a story about the Hopkins team starting out at 4-4 and then ending the season at 13-4 with a national championship, but instead we had to hear about a bunch of guys who probably didn't sexually assault a stripper.
Why does every sporting event have to have some sort of drama behind it, why can't we just celebrate some guys playing some really good lacrosse?
PS - This is not to say that I think the JHU team is full of better guys than the Duke team. I mean, come on, half those guys probably went to high school together, they're essentially the same people. As much as I enjoy Hopkins dominating at lacrosse (hey, it's all we've got), I do admit that most lacrosse people strike me as annoying rich kids who think that they shouldn't have to follow the rules because they are a) rich and b) lacrosse players. I think it's the casual superiority that really gets to me. But whatever, at least it's fun to watch the game and my team is beyond good at it (Johns Hopkins has an all-time record of 871-272-15 in lacrosse (dating back to the 1890's), that's winning 75.8% of all games in the history of the program).
Monday, May 28, 2007
Saturday, May 26, 2007
A Drug Deal
So I just witnessed my first drug deal. You might think it's funny to have lived in Baltimore for nearly 7 years and have never seen a complete drug transaction, but that was me until tonight. It's like living in Hawaii but never seeing the beach...you're surrounded by it, how could you miss it?
You might ask why I'm still awake at nearly 3 AM. Well, I had a few drinks and was reminded of a website I had stumbled upon earlier - tuckermax.com. Being that I'm drunk and the guy has some interesting stories (which I'm willing to believe are at least 50% true, the world is a terrible place), I kept reading stories. They're like car crashes, you can't look away (especially if you're drunk).
Anyway, I was about to get some sleep when I heard some voices out my window (it's hot, I'm cheap, no air conditioning yet). Peering through my blinds I see three men across the street. A skinny white guy, a kind of balding white guy and a black guy with kind of an afro. Every time a car would pass (like every 15 seconds for a bit), they would stop talking and pretend to be doing anything but transacting business (seriously, like inspecting the gutter or admiring a tree). Eventually they transacted their bullshit and all parted ways. It seemed like the drugs must have been hidden under the parked car across the street (as the black guy disappeared behind the car for a few seconds after giving the skinny white guy something).
The thing that brings this all home is that my car is parked across the street too. For all I know those fuckers are hiding drugs under my fender as well.
I love this city a lot of times. I've had some really great times here, I've got some good friends, and it's a nice, relaxed kind of place compared to like DC or NYC. But I can't stand the crime.
Does it make me a horrible person to really hate the corner boys? I mean, not just in the "I wish that they weren't around my neighborhood" kind of way but in the "I would personally be pleased if harm were to befall them." I know that it's wrong to feel that way, but they're actively working to make the world a worse place. I suppose it's some sort of primeval instinct for a man to protect his home, because as I watched that drug deal, I just wanted to beat the shit out of all the participants. All the times I've been worried about walking alone at night, all the times I've had to walk my female friends home or to their cars, for every time I've had a friend get their car broken into, I could finally see an undeniably deserving target for my anger. If only I could take a baseball bat to those assholes for what they do to the neighborhood.
But I won't. Because I don't own a baseball bat or because there are three of them and one of me. Or really because I abide by laws. Because I want to believe that I'm different from them and the only way to do that is to not sink to their level of senseless violence.
Fuck them, they're all assholes, I'm going to sleep.
You might ask why I'm still awake at nearly 3 AM. Well, I had a few drinks and was reminded of a website I had stumbled upon earlier - tuckermax.com. Being that I'm drunk and the guy has some interesting stories (which I'm willing to believe are at least 50% true, the world is a terrible place), I kept reading stories. They're like car crashes, you can't look away (especially if you're drunk).
Anyway, I was about to get some sleep when I heard some voices out my window (it's hot, I'm cheap, no air conditioning yet). Peering through my blinds I see three men across the street. A skinny white guy, a kind of balding white guy and a black guy with kind of an afro. Every time a car would pass (like every 15 seconds for a bit), they would stop talking and pretend to be doing anything but transacting business (seriously, like inspecting the gutter or admiring a tree). Eventually they transacted their bullshit and all parted ways. It seemed like the drugs must have been hidden under the parked car across the street (as the black guy disappeared behind the car for a few seconds after giving the skinny white guy something).
The thing that brings this all home is that my car is parked across the street too. For all I know those fuckers are hiding drugs under my fender as well.
I love this city a lot of times. I've had some really great times here, I've got some good friends, and it's a nice, relaxed kind of place compared to like DC or NYC. But I can't stand the crime.
Does it make me a horrible person to really hate the corner boys? I mean, not just in the "I wish that they weren't around my neighborhood" kind of way but in the "I would personally be pleased if harm were to befall them." I know that it's wrong to feel that way, but they're actively working to make the world a worse place. I suppose it's some sort of primeval instinct for a man to protect his home, because as I watched that drug deal, I just wanted to beat the shit out of all the participants. All the times I've been worried about walking alone at night, all the times I've had to walk my female friends home or to their cars, for every time I've had a friend get their car broken into, I could finally see an undeniably deserving target for my anger. If only I could take a baseball bat to those assholes for what they do to the neighborhood.
But I won't. Because I don't own a baseball bat or because there are three of them and one of me. Or really because I abide by laws. Because I want to believe that I'm different from them and the only way to do that is to not sink to their level of senseless violence.
Fuck them, they're all assholes, I'm going to sleep.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Operation Kitten Calendar
Here's something you may have already heard of, seeing as how I'm pretty much never on the cutting edge of neat things on the internet, but it's fun nonetheless. Acceptable.tv posts a bunch of video clips each week and people vote on which ones are funny. At least, that's the theory. I've neither watched their TV show or voted on anything yet, but I have enjoyed freeloading and watching their videos.
So far their "hit series" of videos has been something called "Operation Kitten Calendar." I highly recommend it as a great way to waste some time on the internet. Just search their videos for that title, so far there are five ~3-minute episodes, so with Verizon DSL and my wireless router, that's like 45 minutes of fun!
So far their "hit series" of videos has been something called "Operation Kitten Calendar." I highly recommend it as a great way to waste some time on the internet. Just search their videos for that title, so far there are five ~3-minute episodes, so with Verizon DSL and my wireless router, that's like 45 minutes of fun!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
