Doctors are wrong a lot

I was watching coverage of a BMX contest and the commentator said that it was amazing the rider was even competing since it was only 6 months ago that he had a benign tumor removed from his brain and doctors said he would never ride a bike again. This is a common storyline in sports, this athlete was injured so bad, or had cancer, etc, that they would never compete in (insert sport that they are participating in right now) again, and now here they are in the finals, Super Bowl, UFC main event, or whatever major event they are competing in. Its always the same story, doctors said he would never walk again and now here he is running a marathon, are doctors really THAT wrong that often?

Disneyland ain't got shit on this!

In a small town in Mexico they now have a border-crossing park. For the price of $20 American you can participate in a border crossing simulation. You will run through the dessert, climb through canyons, crawl through tunnels, hide from the border patrol, and go for a ride in the back of a coyote’s truck. You will get the entire border-crossing experience. How can the tea cups compare to this?

Wild pack of family dogs

While spending some time in a small, rural town recently, I saw something I had never seen in person before….a pack of wild dogs. I’m not talking about two or three dogs, it was a pack of eight to ten dogs, of different breeds, ranging from puppies to full grown dogs. When I asked if it was in fact a pack of wild dogs the answer I got was, “yeah, it’s pretty common around here”. I found it interesting that when left on the streets domesticated animals will so easily revert to their wild nature. So the next time you are playing with Fido remember after a few days on the streets he will become a killer again.

A wild pack of family dogs came runnin' through the yard
As my little sister played, the dogs took her away
And I guess she was eaten up ok, yeah she was eaten up ok

Is this LA or a landfill?

As I flew into LAX the other day I did something I don’t normally do, I watched out the window as we made our approach for landing. While doing this I noticed something odd, when I looked at the city below me, if I didn’t focus on the buildings and just looked at the mess as a whole, it looked oddly like a landfill. It was very disheartening to think that the place I call home looks like the dump from above. If you don’t believe me look at the two photos below and do the comparison yourself.

You’re so vain you probably think this vanity plate is about you

Why is anyone still getting vanity plates? I understand that in the 80’s it might have been cool, but a lot of things were cool in the 80’s that didn’t hold up to the test of time. In 2010 who is still getting these personalized plates? I saw a guy the other day driving a BMW Z3 roadster and the license plate said “BMW Z3”, you know what it said on the back of the car? BMW and Z3, I didn’t need you to personalize your plate to tell me that. The worst are those that you're pretty sure are vanity plates but you can’t figure them out, so you're sitting in traffic going nuts and feeling like an idiot because a) you can’t figure out a vanity plate and b) you’re upset....that you can’t figure out a vanity plate! The fact that they are called “Vanity Plates” should tell you something, so unless you ‘re going to give us some useful information like, “DUCHBAG”, “DTERAPE”, or “MOLESTR”, let the inmates that are stamping your plates assign the letters and numbers.

Fighters have become people to me

Matt’s hands were up, yet the punched slipped through, you could tell he felt it, up until now he was winning the fight, could this be the turning point? Matt Mitrione took some big shots from Joey Beltran in their prelim fight Saturday night. He looked really good in the fight and went on to win, but there were a few punches that got through and could have been the end of his night. When those punches landed I had a gut reaction, the same reaction you would have if one of your friends got punched in the face. The strange thing is, I‘ve never met Matt, and in all reality he is a stranger to me. As some of you may know I spend a lot of time following the sport of MMA and its fighters. By continually following the fighters online, watching interviews and videos of their training, you develop a fondness for them, almost as if you know them. Then you see the look of confusion on their face as they come to and look at the corner man and ask, “what happened”, after that big right hand, Thai knee, or head kick has ended their night. It is hard to see that look because you know about the weeks and weeks they spent preparing, the time they spent away from their families and kids while in training camp. You know how much was put into this moment and now they are looking up, as the lights come back into focus, and they don’t even know they have lost. I had this feeling when I watched Randy Couture being hammer-fisted by Brock Lesnar, Roxanne Modafferi being slammed into unconsciousness by Sarah Kaufman, and when Wanderlei KO’ed Keith Jardine, it was like watching a friend being beaten up. It is no longer just watching fights to me, it is watching people that I have followed and gotten to know, through my computer screen of course, but nonetheless, I get nervous for them. At it’s core, watching people fight is a surreal experience, and when you find yourself becoming invested in the fighters as people, not just entertainers, it might be time to take a step back.

I’m just getting started

I walked in the door and dropped my bag after another day of work and it hit me, I’m just getting started, I have another thirty-five years of this. Thirty-five years of getting up, sitting in traffic, putting in my hours, then sitting in traffic to get home. That is a harsh realization when the years of work you still have ahead of you is greater than the number of years you’ve been alive. I already don’t want to get up and go to the office, there are a million things I would rather do, what’s it going to be like five, ten, fifteen years from now? You always hear that you need to do what you love so it doesn’t feel like work; well the reality for most of us is that isn’t an option. Everyone can’t do what he or she loves for a living, so if you have to do something you don’t enjoy, is there a secret to getting through it without being miserable? Kanye was close when he said, “18 years, 18 years, got you for 18 years”, I think it should be more like, “65 years, 65 years, they got me for 65 years”, and that's if I’m lucky enough to retire at 65.