The Pointlessness of Smack Talk

Football season is upon us and the smack is flowing. It's always entertaining to read the comments section after articles in the local news rags. They're bursting at the seams with smack from Broncos fans as well as the occasional Raider, Charger or Chief fan. Perhaps it's just me, but I find this very annoying. What's the point of smack talk between fans? Some of these guys act as if a win by their local team represents some grand personal accomplishment. If you're not out on the field contributing to the victory, keep your mouth shut. For the large majority of the fan base, the only relationship you have with the team is an accident of geography.

Now, I'm not against sticking up for your team by defending them against naysayers. But that's not the same as wearing blinders and completely ignoring their faults. Every teams has pros and cons (and some teams have more cons than others, if ya know what I mean.) Rationally discussing how each team's strengths match up against their opponents is enjoyable. Smack for smack's sake is pointless and boring as hell.

On Being Offended

I just ran across a quote that I think is absolutely true:

"You cannot be enlightened until you cannot be offended."

I've been reading a book called The Intimate Enemy. I'm simultaneously reading another book by the same author called The Essential Laws of Fearless Living. One of the golden nuggets of wisdom I'm getting from this author is that events in our lives are generally neutral. Any pain caused by those events is in our own minds. We control how we react to situations. The events themselves have no power over us except that which we give to them.

As new situations arise in our lives that are potential causes of stress, we should strive to take the perspective of the enlightened observer. Step back from ourselves and view it neutrally. Reach inside yourself to your true, unblemished and whole self, and see how it would react to that situation. The true you is perfectly strong, whole and healthy. If you allow it to be in control of your life you cannot be offended. You cannot be hurt by the actions or words of others. You realize that the way others think about you or treat you has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on you or your true identity. You can interact with those people neutrally. They lose the ability to "push your buttons" because you'll have no buttons to push.

Once you learn this, and I mean *really* learn it, freedom and enlightenment follow.

Stormtrooper at the World Series!

If you watched the World Series games in Denver, you may have noticed a guy in the stands wearing a Stormtrooper helmet. That was my boss. You probably didn't notice me next to him, mostly because you were probably busy thinking, "Whoa. A dude in a Stormtrooper helmet!"

I was lucky enough to go to both home games and I had a blast even though the Rockies lost both games. I had to watch Boston sweep the series and win on our turf. It was tough, but kudos to the Rockies for making it in the first place. They were on a historic run to the Series. I think the layoff really hurt them, though. Baseball is a game of momentum and timing. The Red Sox were regaining their momentum after coming back to beat the Indians. Meanwhile, the Rox were trying to find ways to keep the rust off. It didn't work, as you might have noticed as they got blown out 13-1 in Game One.

Also, I've got to mention this guy:



Rockies left fielder Matt Holliday caught a flyball to end an inning and he trotted over to our section to throw the ball to a kid who looked to be about seven years old. Everybody around started diving for the ball, knocking this poor kid to the ground in the process. The guy in the picture ended up with the ball and refused to give it to the kid even though about twenty of us were chanting, "Give the kid the ball!" He finally turned around and used some rather profane words to tell us what we could do with ourselves. Really classy guy.

You, sir, are an ass. I hope the lady you were with dumps you. But since she didn't stand up to you when you took the ball from the kid, I doubt she'll leave you even though you're now a proven ass. Some women like that, I guess.

Anyway, if you'd like to see the rest of my pictures, go here:

World Series Game Three

World Series Game Four

Cutest kids ever

I know, another boring post about someone's kids, right? Right. But they are freaking cute. Jack was picking up Kate, so Kate decided it would be fun to kiss him in an apparent attempt to get him to put her down.


Unfortunately for her, Jack thought it was pretty funny, too, so he kept picking her up! I know it will bore all of you who don't know me, but I'm definitely going to put up some more pictures later.

I'm going to the NLCS Game Three!

So, I bit the bullet and bought a ticket. It's a single-seat ticket, so I hope I have some cool people around me. I've been wanting to catch a game and I know that tickets are going to be insanely expensive if the Rockies make it to the World Series, so the NLCS is probably the best I could do. I found a single-seat, club-level ticket right behind home plate! It's going to be freaking awesome...as long as the Rocks are winning, anyway. If they get into the World Series, this very same seat is going to go for over $5,000. It's safe to say I won't be spending that much money on a baseball game.

Too early to put a fork in the Broncos?

I have to say that was one of the worst home games I've ever witnessed. I'm stunned that the Broncos were able to play so poorly at home. They should have won this game, but absolutely nothing went right for them. Combine all the bad bounces with their bad mistakes and you're in for a long day. A long, very embarrassing day. I know that USC lost this weekend, but I think even they could have beaten the Broncos today as poorly as they were playing.

At least we have the Rockies and the Avs. You know it's a bad week in Broncoland when you get outscored by a baseball team and a hockey team.

I know no one is actually reading this blog, but if anyone does happen to drop in, I'm taking suggestions for new hobbies. I may need something new to keep me busy on Sunday afternoons for the rest of the NFL season.

Is Mr. Tittle Following Me?

If you read my post about NFL 101 then you saw the picture of the women with their stuffed animal, Mr. Tittle. I've never seen Mr. Tittle before last night, but I just saw it again somewhere else. Very weird coincidence. For your viewing pleasure, here is another picture of Mr. Tittle: