Dontpush's Blog

Call me Kaiser Wilhelm, 'cause I'm on a roll.

Tennessee was pretty cool. I ate tons of good food, my dad’s house was pretty cool, golfing was (as I mentioned earlier) great, and last but certainly not least, I enjoyed big boobs, bluegrass, and barbeque at Dollywood.

So, what am I up to now? Still caddying, and going to bartending school very soon (probably within the next two weeks, depending on the weather). I’ve also started studying for the LSATs (despite the test being something one supposedly can’t study for). I’ve been seeing somebody weekly for ADD stuff, which is going swimmingly now despite a slow start. I switched doctors and that’s been a revelation, but also for once I’m accepting things I’ve fucked up and dealing with them and/or moving on. In many ways I feel like I’ve been stuck in neutral for 4 years (maybe reverse is a better analogy), and it’s amazing what screwing up can undo, and how screwing up for that length of time actually changed my self-perception. Perceived complete incompetence is self-fulfilling. Staying in partial denial doesn’t fix it, either. But luckily, those mindsets aren’t permanent, and facing mistakes doesn’t mean I’m a failure, just that I’ve failed. Once I started hunkering down and doing things for myself, those perceptions began to change. For the first time since 7^th grade (for real) I’m actually taking my medicine every day, but even when my prescription runs out before I can get a refill, I don’t feel like I’m incompetent without it, like I used to, Blogs are actually a good barometer of how things are going in my life. When I feel like writing, either creatively about others or emo-style about myself, or even when I don’t, but still manage to churn something out, things are going well. I’m typically uncommunicative, about either successes or failures, and that can lead to a number of problems, especially when I’m depressed and not thinking with my head on straight. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but fuck all that.

I’ve become addicted to the show: “Good Eats” with Alton Brown. I’ve mentioned this to anyone willing to listen, and strongly encourage anyone who has even a remote interest in food to give it a good 2-3 episode shot. “Good Eats” is one part Bill Nye the Science Guy, one part MacGyver, and one part your friend with a dorky sense of humor who knows far too much about things (including pop culture). I bought a mandolin for cutting food, and have done a few interesting dishes. My gratin has come out the best so far, and I’m making baby back ribs on Wednesday.

My Mets are playing like champions, and though everybody counted them out at the beginning of the postseason because of their weak starting pitching, I was still hopeful because of their incredibly deep and stellar pen. They may not be able to match 7 innings of Chris Carpenter with another starter, but they can assure a lights out 3-4 innings from their pen every night, and that’s just as good. The Mets are 78-4 this season when leading in the 6^th inning, that should give you a good idea of how deep and talented their pen is. Still, the team I’m most scared of is the A’s, I think the A’s might be better, just because their pitching is THAT good. Even so, as Bill Simmons pointed out earlier this week in his postseason blog, Barry Zito thrives on getting batters to swing at pitches out of the strike zone, and this is why he pitched so masterfully against the Twins. If the Mets are fortunate enough to make it to the World Series, and face the A’s, they should have one approach against the A’s ace: Patience. The Yankees have used this tactic against Zito with wild success over the past two years. In Zito’s three starts against the Yanks in 2006, his line is: 8.16 ERA, 15 BB in 14.1 IP. In two starts in 2005, he fared little better: 7.59 ERA, 4 BB, 10.2 IP.

Keep it real, everyone, because gangs of wild adolescent male elephants are stampeding with abandon and even raping rhinos. You can’t even make that up.

posted by dontpush @ 3:31 PM