Dick's gets naming rights for Rapids stadium

Dick's gets naming rights for Rapids stadium - The Denver Business Journal:

Ok, ok, it's about time to break my silence again. Come on, can they be serious? Dick's Stadium!?!?!

Did anyone even think this through? Even the people at Dick's? Why do they want a stadium named after themselves, anyway? I know the whole business model/sense thing about advertizing and marketing, but there must have been a better idea there.

And what about Major League Soccer? Is this the way to establish legitimacy in the US sporting world? Yes Dick's is a big retail sporting goods chain, but really? Do we need a Dick's Stadium? Did they necessarily need to sell the naming rights to the highest bidder? Why not use a little discretion?

Imagine the ironic fun that could be had if all sporting entities followed the lack of discretion/sell to the highest bidder model: the Yankees could ingeniously outbid all others for the naming rights to the new Red Soxs' stadium in Boston- "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the new home of your Boston Red Soxs- Yankee Stadium!!!!!!!"

Video games arms-race?

Hands-on with Nintendo Wii : Tom Samiljan : Yahoo! Tech

With Nintendo's year-end new release along with Sony's PS3 and the relative new-comer Microsoft all in the fray to produce the newest and best gaming experience it makes me wonder- what's the ultimate end game for video games?

It strikes me as odd that game companies are doing their darndest to create real, life-like gaming experiences. Isn't this contra to the point of playing video games? I have played plenty in my day, but I always played for the same reason- I wanted an escape from reality.

So if games are becoming so real and life-like why do I want to play them? Why virtual-bowl when I can really bowl? Especially if I am going to throw my shoulder out in the process of doing either?

I don't know what the end will be. Perhaps as gaming systems get closer to replicating real life we will all just start tuning out of them much as we do with real life.

I just want to shut my brain off for a few minutes, hours, or days- is that asking too much?!?! Damn, I just want to go back to the good ol' days of Atari's "Combat". Not very realistic, but hours of enjoyment and all I ever got out of it was a blister on my thumb. I don't want to be playing the next generation combat simulator that has me ducking incoming rounds and being concussed by "realistic" explosions!

Maybe I'll just read a book.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Bush links Hezbollah and 'plot'

BBC NEWS | Americas | Bush links Hezbollah and 'plot'

Alright, I gotta say I'm about tired of all this "linking" going on...

First of, let me say I'm torn 'bout the whole Middle East problem going on now (the Israeli one, not the US one- that's a whole 'nother post)...I believe that Israel, as the oldest, and still, only real democracy in the Middle East, needs to defend itself...but Lebanon is trying, it's just those damn Iranian and Syrian backed groups mucking it all up...

Anyway, back to my point: this whole "linking" practice carried on by this government of ours is just getting annoying! This BBC article indicates that G.W. says the Hezbollah guys and the Queda suspects in UK "share a 'totalitarian ideology'!" Does he even know the defintion of totalitarian?

He also links these groups to insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan! As if to suggest that if you have dark skin and hair and are oppossed to the US you MUST all be in cahoots!

Come on! This is getting ridiculous!! Are Americans too stupid to understand the subtlties of the different groups and ideologies, or is it that all Muslims are extremists and are clearly appropriately grouped togther? I guess I'm just too stupid to understand...

But, then again, I never voted for a Bush...

Humanity...One Feces at a time!

So I work in the non-profit field of adults with developmental disabilities now...so what does that mean?

What it technically means is that I try to help adults that have developmental disabilities such as Down's Syndrome or autism live as normal and independent lives as possible. This also includes such individuals as those that have suffered brain injuries that affect cognitive abilitites.

In reality this means I spend a lot of time wiping noses and asses...

Today was a tough one...I worked with this guy that, due to a drunk driving episode 20 odd years ago, took a road guard rail through the forehead, and has had serious difficulties living since then. Actually, his injuries have led to impulse control difficulties that, unfortunately, led to him committing a sexual offense against another similarly cognitively impaired adult...

Anyway, today he and I were out walking his neighborhood when suddenly he realized he needed a bathroom...so we turned back for his home, but he knew he wasn't going to make it, so he turned off to ask a young woman if he could use her bathroom...but this was in clear violation of his probation (and he just got back out of jail this morning), so I order him to continue walking and not to say anything to the girl...result being when we were about a hundred yards from his house he suddenly stopped and liquid feces started pouring down his leg...

Anyway, he apologized for the situation to me!!! But it had been my decision that resulted in his embarassing situation and his physical, as well as social, discomfort!!

And I entered this field because I felt I had lost touch with the humanity I so cherished within me! So, I guess this afternoon I was exposed to a significant amount of humanity...and, actually, this was the second such episode this month (earlier it had involved lifting a semi-paralyzed ex-con off the floor of his bathroom that was covered in his own liquid feces).

So why do I continue doing it? Because it beats doing anythin else I can think of...at least for now. Maybe in a few more feces covering events I will think otherwise.

But I must say, my understanding, as well as tolerance, of what it means to be human has experienced a significant paradigm shift...and that's a good thing...I think.

Happiness is Better than Being Angry...

So speaketh the wisest man I know...

Actually, this was a quote to me from my autistic friend today...he was upset because another fella who also has developmental disabilities lit into him on the bus this morning because he was late for work by a few minutes...

Why do people have to be so mean sometimes, wondered my friend, why not just be nice...

I just didn't have an answer.

Imagine if the whole world operated on this simple principle...Israel wouldn't be driving into southern Lebanon (yet again!), the US wouldn't be in Iraq (or anywhere else for that matter), and the term "terrorism" would have no meaning...

Makes me wonder...why is it those of us born "normal" have such a hard time figuring this out, yet those that others might call "simple" speak with such wisdom and insight? Why is my friend, who can't make eye contact or carry on an in-depth conversation, more capable of understanding the most complex of human dichotomies than the rest of us?

Why am I mean when I should be nice? Hell, why am I mean at all?

I could be flippant and just say "Because it's fun!"

But, in reality, I'm not really sure what to say...I guess I'm mean because I'm human...but then again, so is my friend.

Internet Dating?!?!

I've been trying this internet dating thing lately...you know, one of those sites you post a profile and search through the other internet "daters" profiles hoping to find something that interests you.

Well...what to say? I feel like a bit of a voyeur, or perhaps rather, a Peeping Tom stealing glances into other's lives...it just seems a bit weird.

Here's the point, though: someone actually emailed me! Alright, alright, I also emailed someone different first, but once she quickly made it clear she wasn't interested it turned into this rather nice, and interesting, exchange of emails.

But this other woman that contacted me is just plain cool...she's a professor at the local university and grew up in Israel. She actually served in the Israeli Army, for Pete's sake! Man she seems cool (did I mention that already?)!

So, everything is going well: we are firing interesting emails back and forth, and then...Pow!...someone (I can't remember who) suggests we ACTUALLY MEET!!!

Now, I don't have a real problem meeting or conversing with women...I was married twice, dammit! But this is a bit strange...she's cool and I really am interested in meeting her, but...I feel like an adolescent all over again. Kind of like the first time I was afraid I might kiss a girl (and, yes, I did say afraid).

I guess I'll just suck it up and go for it...and hope she chickens out...

Or, maybe not...hell, I don't know. Damn its my terrible teens all over again!

She better be as cool as she seems...

Well, Crikey!!!!!

I almost gave up on this thing again! This time it seem due to technical problems with the site.

Since I started blogging again the site was not updating the home page...I would add new posts, but had to search around to find 'em...but it all seems to work now?

Anyway, blog away....

So, I've Been Thinking...

Recently, I've been thinking a bit about loss...

Particularly, what I have been thinking about is the old adage: It is better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all.

But how applicable is this philosophy when extended beyond the emotion of love?

I have been working with adults with developmental disabilities lately- you know, people with Down's Syndrome, autism, mental retardation, etc...but I also have been working with a guy that was a pretty smart, albeit a little wild, normal guy until he sustained a tramautic brain injury from an accident involving drunken driving...

So I have been contemplating: which is worse, or conversely, better? Would I have rather been born with a developmental disability, growing up without ever truly realizing or understanding the loss(?) of normal cognitive functioning (whatever that is), or to have lived a normal life until waking up one day in a hospital bed and struggling with the new, deminished mental functions?

I don't know which is worse. Actually, they would both have different negative aspects. My developmentally disabled guys (at least some of them) are cognitively functional enough to realize they are developmentally disadvantaged and have not developed fully functional cognitive abilities- this would seem to be a serious life-long hardship in that you would know that you are missing something, but not fully cognizant of what it is.

On the other hand, my brain-injury guy has the constant reminder of what he had and has lost, and I have seen the emotional effects it can have (he has been torturing himself about it for 19 years!).

So which is worse: knowing you are missing somehing and not sure what it is, or knowing that you are missing something and knowing exactly what it is?

Would I rather love and lose or never love at all?

I honestly don't know...