Hello and welcome to another round of Random Thoughts from me, myself, and I. I have a few things I can share, so I thought I would go ahead and do so today. Let's get to it, shall we? Enjoy.
- Before I start today, I wanted to share with you what's generally been going on with me. It hasn't been the greatest or easiest of times for me personally. I've been under the weather almost the entire time since the last blog. With the weather changing constantly over that period, my sinuses have been going haywire so I haven't been too active physically. My mood hasn't been all that great either, for various reasons. I've been just lying low, keeping to myself, and not going out or doing much socially until I feel better...or at least feel less cranky and less depressed. It's been really rough, to say the least. I'm hoping things will turn around soon, with more stable weather coming up over the next few days (namely, sun and warmth) and a couple of activities coming up over the next week or two (one confirmed) that I'm looking forward to. Prayers that things improve sooner than later are welcome.
- I'm calling this edition the "justice" edition because of something that I and many others have been following for some time now. Somebody I knew growing up in Tallmadge was murdered a couple of years ago during a traffic stop. His name was Josh Miktarian and he lived literally a few miles down the street where I grew up. I went to school with Josh (a couple of grades behind me) and his brother Paul (a grade ahead of me). During the summer months he would go swimming at Maca Pool along with a lot of us kids. I've even been to his house a couple of times. I hadn't seen him since I graduated high school, but I knew him to be one of the coolest guys I'd ever met. Basically, he was one of the good guys. He became a police officer serving the city of Twinsburg. If you've been keeping up with the news in Northeast Ohio, you probably already know what happened. For those who don't know, back in 2008 he was conducting a traffic stop when the guy he was dealing with pulled out a gun and shot him point blank in the head. After Josh collapsed to the ground, he was shot three more times. He was just doing his duty as an officer of the law and this guy killed him in cold blood. This guy's trial ended last week and he was convicted of aggravated murder with the jury recommending the death penalty as his sentence (it's not official just yet...the judge still has to rule on the jury's recommendation).
I have several thoughts on all of this. First of all, I'm not sure if I did this or not, but if not I want to pass on my condolences to Josh's wife Holly, his daughter Thea, and the rest of the Miktarian family for their loss. As many who knew him could tell you, Josh was a great guy, hands down. He had a big heart and he was one of the friendliest people out there. Josh did not deserve this fate. The guy who did this to him deserves the harshest punishment that could be handed down. With this in mind, I find myself conflicted. As a general rule, I am not a believer in the death penalty. I can't bring myself to believe that the taking of one life justifies the taking of another. I truly believe that "eye for an eye" ultimately does not work in the greater scheme of things. Don't get me wrong...what this guy did makes my blood boil and makes me real angry, as it has for many who knew Josh. Like I stated earlier, the guy deserves the harshest punishment possible for what he did. I can see why the jury...and many others...believe the death penalty should be carried out, and it even makes some sense in my head since it was a jury that determined this guy's fate. However, in my heart and as a Christian, I just can't bring myself to believe that killing anyone is justice. Even if the death penalty is confirmed, it's likely that this guy could still be in prison for another ten to twenty years as he awaits his execution. For the life of me I just cannot reconcile or justify killing someone as justice for any crime, even as one as horrific as this one, no matter how much I try. My ultimate hope and prayer here is that, regardless of my own personal views, the Miktarian family finds some peace and that we will all see Josh again one day. Rest in peace, Josh.
- Changing the tone from the last blurb, it looks like I will be back with the Westerville Browns Backers for Browns games this year. I wasn't sure if I was going to be moving away from the area, but it looks like I'll be staying here a while longer where I'm at. I'm looking forward to hanging out at Jimmy V's with my fellow Browns Backers. Preseason is just around the corner in August so if anybody is interested in joining up, give me a buzz.
- In sporting news, it looks like several colleges are changing conferences. Colorado and Utah are joining the Pac-10 conference and Nebraska has joined the Big Ten, making it a 12-team conference. Two of those three schools were once part of the Big 12, putting it on the brink of extinction. As of now, it looks like the Big 12 will stay intact with only 10 teams in the conference, leading me to believe that it's sole purpose now is to serve the University of Texas' whims and to get them to the mythical football national championship (BCS be damned, it's still mythical in my book without a playoff). It also looks like the Big Ten will have a football title game to determine it's official champion thanks to the realignment. 2011 looks to be an interesting year in college sports.
- I caught the TNA Slammiversary PPV this past Sunday. Slammiversary is the annual celebration of the founding of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. It was an okay yet solid PPV this year and Tommy Dreamer showed up (confirming he's now a part of TNA). It does continue a string of solid PPV shows for TNA, something I cannot say for WWE though I am digging this NXT angle that's been going on the past couple of weeks.
- If you haven't noticed already, I've made some changes to the look and feel of the blog. The layout is generally the same though the font sizes have changed to some degree. I've also placed a new title picture at the top which I created myself (and it looks real good if I do say so myself). My goal was to clean up the look of the blog to make it more aesthetically pleasing and I hope I accomplished that here.
- Song on repeat: "Can You Picture That" by Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. This is from the Muppet Movie, a flick I enjoyed, and it is my favorite song from it.
- SLP to the following: Ryan (happy birthday), Holly, Dave, Daryl, Ernest, Bob & Lynn, Griff, Julie (happy b-day), Heidi (happy b-day), Eldina (happy b-day), and Aunt Sandy.
That's it for this go-round. Next time I hope to have even more of my opinions and views to share with you. Until next time, folks. Take care and God Bless.
DJ
