- The big reason I'm calling this the "memento" edition is that, in preparation for the next step in this new beginning in my life, I've been sifting through a bunch of old mementos and memories to determine not only what got me to this point but what I want to take with me going forward. A lot of it has been dealing with much of the mental clutter and related stuff that has held me back from moving forward previously regardless of whether I let it or not. Something that has helped me tremendously in this regard is the discovery of old photos of myself at various points in my life. Before I go on here, I have to thank my Uncle James and Aunt Claudia a lot for finding, scanning, and sending me copies of many of these pics...it means so much to me especially in that I haven't seen many of these actual photos in over 20 years. Because of them and others, I now have photos from when I was growing up. I posted two of these photos online in my Facebook photo album, one of me as a baby and one with me and my cousins with our great-grandmother. I have to admit, I look in the mirror and I can see bits and pieces of me looking like what I did at those times, but I feel like I look so different now...maybe it's a mind's eye thing, I don't know. In any case, I look at many of these photos and get reminded of the good and bad of each of those times (with the exception of the baby one, of course) and see so many of the pieces that went into how I've been going about things and, more importantly, what I'll probably need to change in order for this to work out for me. BTW, if anybody has old photos with me in them, send them my way.
- Another thing that is helping and inspiring me in all this is a excerpt from a book called "The 50th Law," co-written by the rapper 50 Cent. It's a really powerful slice of philosophy coming from one of the most prolific and controversial artists of current times. It's given me a lot to think about and helped me make the decision to move forward with this new beginning. You can find the excerpt here: Keep Moving -- Flow. It's definitely worth the read.
- One more thing before I move on. I found a couple of articles online that take me back to the days of having a subscription to Popular Science where I would dream of seeing awesome fantastic innovations one day in the future. These two particular articles focus on one-person air vehicles that could very well fit into the cartoon worlds of The Centurions or M.A.S.K. (for those of you who remember those particular cartoons). Instead of going into details on both articles, you can check them out for yourself here: Electric Icarus and Easy Flyer.
- My church home: Crossroads World Christian Center ministered by Pastor Cory Pariseau.
- The big reason I waited several weeks before doing another set of Random Thoughts is that I wanted to wait until I went to Monday Night Raw which I did yesterday evening at Nationwide Arena in downtown Columbus. It's the first time I've spoiled myself on something in over five years. It did drag a bit near the end (due to the scripting and poorly-planned surprises), but I had a good time and it was definitely worth going. Outcomes of the event are online at a lot of places but I did take some notes from the event which I'm posting below in bold:
- I arrived around 6:15 PM, two hours before the event started, so I could get a decent parking spot; got lucky I didn't have to pay out the wazoo for that.
- There is already a decent crowd waiting outside to get into Nationwide Arena, probably around 400 to 500 people.
- The doors didn't open up until 7:00 (45 minutes in the cold) and once inside there was still a wait of about 15 minutes before we could enter the concourse.
- I got lucky with where I got to sit for the event: front row in the upper level where I could see all the action and the video screens pretty easily even when sitting down. Planning beforehand does pay off sometimes.
- The upper level behind the "hard camera" side was tarped off as well as behind the Titantron, which I would estimate to take up about a quarter of the upper level. WWE must be expecting a decent house tonight.
- Note to self: I need to get a digital camera so I can take pics of things like this event and others.
- This is my first time at Nationwide Arena for any event. It's the first major wrestling event I've been to since WCW Nitro about a decade ago at Schottenstein Arena at OSU. It's my first WWE event since I was a teenager, when it was the WWF and it was held at the now-defunct Richfield Colisseum just south of Cleveland.
- Random chants start up in the crowd around 7:45. Chants include "RKO" and "O-H-I-O" and also some general cheering.
- All visible seating is full around 8:00. It's a packed house.
- I don't know if I should be saying anything about this, but this one woman was WAY too big to fit into the seat next to me. She was actually sitting sideways and she STILL couldn't fit into the seat. I ended up leaning to the side for most of the night, enough to avoid the person on the other side but making for mild discomfort. I'm not a small person myself and these were pretty sizable seats, so this was...interesting for me to deal with, for lack of a better term. I felt bad that she had so much trouble and couldn't help it with her size and all, but when it comes to situations like the one I had to deal with here...I really don't know what to think. It's just a sad situation, I guess.
- The event finally got started around 8:15 with matches being taped for WWE Superstars on WGN Thursday. The matches are pretty good and Chris Masters is really over with the crowd ("over" meaning he was popular and cheered a lot). There was a talking segment taped for Superstars with Chris Jericho and R-Truth. Jericho got the most heat I'd ever seen at a wrestling event ("heat" meaning lots of booing), definitely the most for this night. BTW, by winning a triple threat match, Chris Masters is officially in the Royal Rumble.
- The action being shown on the big screens in the arena is generally the same as what's shown on TV with the exception of entrance videos. I'm watching from what would be considered an area behind the action, so I'm getting front and back action...so to speak. I don't think that came out right.
- Some off-camera notes from Monday Night Raw: whenever Cena is shown on the screen or about to enter, the kids go nuts...he is super-over with the kiddies and the women when his shirt comes off, but I think most of the guys are booing him; Hornswaggle came out during one of the commercial breaks to shoot some t-shirts out of a launcher to the crowd, even though Shawn Michaels announced on Raw that he sent Hornswaggle home (which I thought was under the ring, but I digress); there were some dead spots, mostly related to the timing of the commercials; nobody knew that one of the guest hosts, James Roday from Psych, wasn't going to be there until the segment with Cena and Dule Hill...people seemed baffled but I found out later it was really due to appendicitis, so obviously that couldn't be avoided; no dark match after Raw went off the air...Cena slapped hands with fans at ringside and that was it for the show.
- Lots of promotion for other WWE-related stuff during the commercial breaks, especially for Wrestlemania 26 and The Marine 2.
- I know that pro wrestling is scripted entertainment but it amazes me that there were people at the show who actually professed things that showed a lack of understanding of the nature of pro wrestling. They seemed ignorant of the fact that almost every single aspect of it is scripted and that events are timed to fit into a short window if it's on TV. It almost made me think they thought wrestling was more than scripted sports entertainment, or "real" for lack of a better term. They actually come across thinking the performers are really like that in real life. Weird phenomenon to witness live.
- This particular item is a compromise of sorts on a birthday wish. Joe Dawg Brother, I know you wanted an entire blog about you, but I hope you will settle for an entire blurb here instead. Joe is a rapper I've known for a dozen years, so go check out Joe Dawg Brother on Facebook, Myspace, and wherever he's performing at in Columbus and around Ohio.
- First Chris Henry of the Bengals, then Gaines Adams of the Chicago Bears...two active players passing away in the span of one month. I hope that is a trend that does not continue. RIP for both of these players.
- I'm ecstatic that I can finally use my normal name on Facebook instead of having to use my legal one. The legal one is good for legal-type stuff, but for everything else I want to use DJ because...well, that's who I am. I had to decapitalize the 'j" to make it work, but I'm happy I was able to get that done.
- I tried some of those throwback Pepsi's and they don't really taste any different from the ones they serve today, even with the proclamation of the throwbacks having "real sugar." I thought it would taste different, but I was fooled....I wonder if the other throwbacks taste different from their current product.
- I've been having this internal debate going back and forth whether to put this particular item in the blog. I'm not 100% behind this myself because it could stir up a hornet's nest (I've done that here before) and it could come back to bite me big time. I'll get to why I decided to put this here after I talk about it a bit. There is a website called DontDateHimGirl.com that includes a registry of men who women should watch out for and not date or be with. This particular list of men from across the country and the world includes the worst of the worst, including cheaters, abusers and men who abandon their kids, but it also includes the jerks that treat everybody around them like they don't matter, especially their dates. Fortunately and thankfully, I personally am not associated with any person on that registry. I'm putting this blurb here today for two reasons, both under the notion that I continually look out for the people I care about and will continue to do so. One is that there are women I know that probably need to add certain guys to that list (again, nobody I'm associated with, so it doesn't affect me that much). And two, even though I don't know anyone in that registry, I wanted to make sure to make my friends aware of this site and other public ones like it so that they can be vigilant in making sure they don't end up on them. It's up to you whether you want to check it out or not at the link above, but understand that I'm putting this here with the noblest of intentions and nothing less.
- Book of DJ: Beware the man with no moral compass for he may come at you from any direction.
- Before I wrap this up, Dave and I are planning on going out this Saturday night, since we haven't been out in a while. If anybody is interested in joining us, let me know.
- Song on repeat: "My Life" by Billy Joel. Given that it's been several weeks since my last blog, I had many candidates for this. However, I wanted something this time out that reflected some of the essence of what I wanted to get across regarding what I've been doing and might be doing with my life as of late, hence the one I picked. I'm not as stand-offish as the song comes across, but it does capture the essence of what I'm planning.
- SLP to the following: Kristy, Patrick, Raejean, Holly, Debbie, Joe Dawg Brother, Michelle, Aunt Susie, Jennifer N., Bob & Lynn, Adrian, Uncle James & Aunt Claudia, Dave, Marcia (happy b-day), Kim, Russ, Debbie, Aunt Sandy, Jenny K., Vanessa (happy b-day), Eugene, Xavier, & George, my niece Maddie, and my sister Katie.
That's it for this edition. I feel like it's been forever since I last wrote given how much I typed up this time out. I am praying for improved weather here in Ohio and hope it gets better soon. Until next time. Take care and God Bless.
DJ
